Amsterdam!

Today is April 8^th. Man, has the time flown quicker than a hummingbird’s wings beat. This is getting to be ridiculous how fast this year is going. And it’s been over a month since I’ve attempted to do this blog thing I started last year. To try and get back on a regular schedule, and a more frequent schedule, I’m going to divide March’s travels up over the course of several entries. That way there can be more pictures too!

Life at the moment is kind of crazy. I have 24 days until I go to Vienna for the European Geosciences Union General Assembly. I’ll be there for a week, presenting the work I’ve been doing with the geology department in Bologna over the course of this year. And right after that is exam time, so I’m starting to get worried about the amount of work I need to do that I haven’t done all year! Oppps.

The first major trip we did in March was to Amsterdam. We flew into Brussels, since that is where the cheap airline, Ryanair, flies. After a few trains and bad instructions from the bus driver, we finally made it to our hostel, around 2am. We crashed, and the next morning hit up a grocery store to make lunch before hitting the town. We walked a lot in the morning, with a nice, bitter cold, north wind chilling us to the bones. In the afternoon we decided to go into the Anne Frank house. The house that Anne Frank lived in was actually bigger than I thought. It wasn’t huge by any means, but when I was younger reading her diary, I just pictured a tiny, tiny apartment.

During the night, we walked the Red Light District. That was a shocking experience. Everyone tells you about the women in the windows, but seeing it for your self is something else. And see the guys who might actually be taking of the services were even more interesting. The following day we walked by it again, to see the difference in cliental and women. The difference in the women was very noticeable. At night, the women were thin, young (almost too young) and beautiful. During the day, the women were not quite as thin, older, and less beautiful. I guess the women that would get more business work the night shifts.

Other things that I enjoyed about the trip, was the food and the beer. Italian food is great, but after a while, I can get tired of pasta. I ate falafel twice, and had Belgium fries twice as well. It was nice to mix it up for a few days.

Well, that’s Amsterdam in a nutshell. Next up, Sicily!

Rembrandt house

Awesome bike garage

Forza Bologna!

I just got back from my first European football (soccer) match, and I figured it was time I update my blog. Today was one of the first completely sunny days of the year in Bologna, and I’m glad I got to spend most of it outside. I went to the Bologna verses Juventus match today, with Chris, Hanna, and Hanna’s Swedish friend Lukas. We stood in the end-zone with all the crazy football fans. I swear, I have never heard more curse words in the course of a two hour match. Ever. I think I even learned a few new ones (in Italian of course) today! And I did also hear a few curses to the other teams mothers, fathers, sisters, ect… But the cheers and songs were pretty easy to learn and follow. Bologna’s colors are red and blue, and that’s what half of the chants were: “Rosso blu… bologna ale…siamo sempre con te!” (Red blue, Bologna ale, we are always with you!) Unfortunately, Bologna didn’t win, but it was a fun match.

Classes finally have started back, but I’ve only started two so far. I’m taking Storia del Pensiaro di Islamico (History of Islamic Thinking) and Istituzioni di Storia del Cinema (History of Cinema). Those two classes should fulfill 4 of my general education requirements for UNC, which will be good. They also should be pretty interesting. I’m still trying to decide my geology class for this semester… hopefully it will be Volcanology. Those classes start this week, so we’ll see what ones work with my schedule. I’ve been somewhat busy with my research project, and I’m getting ready to start using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to analyze my samples. Being Italy, I’m not sure when I actually will be starting with the SEM. Hopefully by the end of the week I will at least have had a lesson to learn how to work the SEM of Bologna.


As for trips, haven’t been traveling as much as I did last semester. Part of that is because it’s cold and rainy (for the most part) in both Italy and the rest of Europe. But I did make a short weekend trip to Brugge, Belgium, which was quite lovely. Brugge is a small, medieval town that is full of character. There are canals that run through the city, giving it a similar feel to Venice, but yet different. We walked around the city a lot, saw the sites, and of course, drank lots of good Belgium beer and ate Belgium fries.

The other trip I’ve made so far this year was to the Venice Carnival. We went on a Tuesday to Venice, getting a morning train, and packing a lunch. That packed lunch didn’t last long though, as we all ate ours before actually getting to Venice. As soon as we were off the train, we spotted face painters, and of course, had to get into the mood of Carnival with a face painting. After everyone (except Tammy and Hanna) got their faces painted, we started to walk. Along our way to San Marco, we found a mask shop that was reasonably priced, and the masks were very well crafted. So I bought my first Venetian mask, a beautiful green and silver creating with several large green feathers. It was handmade by the guy in the shop selling them, and was only 15 euro! What a steal!

Lots of walking was done that day, and we finally made it to Piazza di San Marco. There, we found all the people in costumes, just walking around and posing for photos. It was beautiful. Some people didn’t even bother wearing a mask, and just dressed up in period costume. I’m still curious as to whether all those people did it for fun, or if the city pays for the costumes. And I’m sure those costumes cost a fortune!

This semester has had a slow start, not only with traveling but with my blog updates. But I plan to keep a better journal of activities now that spring is coming and travels will begin in full swing again. I’ll be going to Amsterdam the first weekend of March, and then the following weekend will go down to Sicily, so there will be plenty to write about! And to appease Craig, he is awesome.

Welcome to 2010!

Happy New Year!

I realize that I’ve been very behind in my blog entries, sorry! I’m currently at home, (in North Carolina) looking out to the frozen lake that is behind our house sipping a cup of tea. I’ve been home for over two weeks, and only have a week left until I go back to Bologna. Christmas was quite nice at home, with lots of good food. I came home after a disastrous flight from Glasgow about 20 hours later than planned. Snow in London caused my 9am flight from Glasgow to London to be cancelled, and the next flight wasn’t until 12:30 or so. But my connecting flight to RDU was at 12:00. So I got on that flight with my fingers crossed that the next one would be significantly delayed. Nope. That flight was late as well, and by the time we arrived in London, any hopes of catching the direct flight to RDU were wisped away. I cued for 3 hours, watching possible flights to the US come and go, and finally got booked for the last flight to JFK. That flight was, of course, late as well. I didn’t get into JFK until 1:30am, but my suitcase never came. After reporting my lost luggage (around 2am) I asked for the hotel room that the British Airways representative in London said would be available for me, but they were all out of rooms for the night. Great. With nothing else to do, I slept on a bench in a phone booth in the lobby of JFK, since I couldn’t even go back thru security because I didn’t have the boarding tickets for my next flight. Around 5:30 or so I went to go check in, and find a place through security I could go back to sleep. Finally, by 11:00 or so, I made it home.

Luckily, I made it home with plenty of time to make cookies, nap, and go see the Phantom of the Opera in Durham. Which was a spectacular performance, Tim Martin Gleason did an excellent job as the Phantom.


To catch anyone who is reading this who hasn’t been filled in with the details of my past month in Italy, I’m going to give ya an abbreviated version, mainly filled with pictures.

For Thanksgiving, my sister Anne and my Mom came to Italy for 5 days. We spent two days in Bologna, seeing the sights and meeting my group of friends. And we had an excellent Thanksgiving dinner (Italian style) out with Ben. (Where there was also an American group of University students having a huge Thanksgiving feast, and so we had a bit of that too!) We then went to Venice for 2 full days, which was absolutely beautiful. We spent most of the time wandering the streets, but we did go in the Palace of the Doges, where we did a “secret passage” tour and saw the prison where Casanova was held.




The following weekend I went to Innsbruck, Austria with a large group of friends. We went for the Christmas Market, and got to see the first snow of the year. Anja (Austrian) meet us at the train station, since she went back to take an exam, and was our wonderful tour guide for the weekend. (And host!)









The last weekend before leaving to come home, I had a field trip for my speleologia class. We went to two different caves. Friday we spend several hours in a “touristic cave” called Grotte di Frasassi. We walked around in there for a bit, until we came to the point where we hopped the fence and went into the “non touristic” part. It was AWESOME! Second day’s cave was 10 minutes outside of Bologna, and that one was true caving, with army crawling in the mud. That was a lot of fun.


I also took my oral first exam for Sedimentologia, and got a 27/30, pretty good in my books.


The day after I took my exam, I got on a plane with Tammy and flew to London, where Chris and his brother picked us up from the airport. Chris’s Mom made us soup for lunch, and once his sister came home, we all headed out to see London town. We saw a lot of the sights, and even popped in the National Gallery and saw some Degas and Van Gogh. The next day we spent the morning at the British Museum, and then walked in the snow to see St. Paul’s and the Globe. That night, we then flew up to Glasgow, and took a train to Edinburgh.



We stayed at Tammy’s home in Edinburgh, and were greeted to another snow filled day. We wandered around Edinburgh, with a trip to the Castle for the 1:00pm gun, and the birthplace of King James. Edinburgh was lovely, I really enjoyed the day there, and I’ve already decided I’m going back in the spring.

Man ist was man isst (you are what you eat)

View of Perugia from the Hostel's Porch

I really do wonder where time goes here. Already almost 3 months have passed, and I’m getting ready for Anne and Mom to visit for Thanksgiving. It’s that time of year already, time to start prepping for Christmas and for the cooking the bird. But alas, no bird for me this year, our Thanksgiving feast will probably be at an amazing Italian restaurant in Bologna. In America, we have Thanksgiving as the marker for starting Christmas decorations, but since there is no such holiday in Italy, as soon as Halloween comes and goes that lights slowly start to go up. Over the course of the last two weeks, lights and Christmas trees have been slowly popping up all over Bologna, and a tiny Christmas market just open either last week or the week before. In the beginning of November I thought it slightly ridiculous, but now, I’m really starting to like it.

The beginning of this month was very busy with travels. The first weekend of November, I embarked on a journey a bit south, into Umbria to the beautiful, medieval hill-toped town of Perugia. Six of us got up early Saturday morning, to get the cheap regional train, and for the first time in a while, I didn’t have to run to catch the train. Usually the train ride would take only 3 hours, but since we were taking the cheap train, it took about 4+ hours. At least it was a nice journey, running down the center of Italy with beautiful country side to look at.

Finally, the "moving stairs"

When we got to Perugia, we attempted to get from the station to the historic center, and instead of taking the short way, we somehow took the long way around. After a half an hour of walking, we finally found the “scale mobile” or moving stairs, to save some time and get up to the top quicker. The original plan for the weekend was one day in Perugia and Sunday at a lake that was an hour away. But after making it to the top, we all fell in love with the beauty of the town, and decided right then and there to stay Sunday in Perugia too. After checking into the hostel, we wandered for a bit, seeing the cathedral, the main square, and eventually wandering side streets. Knowing we would probably need a reservation for dinner, since there were six of us, the next goal was to find a restaurant. Perugia is known for Truffles, so our goal was to find a place where we could have truffles at a relatively low cost. We ended up eating at a cute little tattoria, where the owner was once an award winning boxer in the town. I got homemade pasta with a truffle sauce, and it was fantastic. The truffle sauce was just truffles and oil, so the flavor wasn’t lost.

Castle in Mannheim, now a univeristy

The next day, we explored the city more, starting with a pre-Christian church. It started to rain mid-morning, so we headed for the archeological museum, and spent the rest of the day there, until our stomachs were craving more food. After a pizza for lunch, we took the short way down the hill back to the station, to hopefully get a train home. I say hopefully because there was a train strike going on that day. We were very lucky that our train, at least half way to Florence, was the only one that wasn’t cancelled. We made it to Florence, but in Florence, our connecting train to Bologna was cancelled, so we had to wait 3 hours until the one at 10:30pm. So, unexpectantly, we got to tour a bit of Florence too. We planned it so we would be back at the station right before the train left, and that we did. But was the next train on time? Nope. Finally at 11:00pm we were able to get on a train back Bologna, and by that time everyone was just wishing for their warm beds.

Gate to Heidleberg

The next day, Monday November 9th, I packed up a backpack and headed to Germany with my English friend Chris. We had spontansoly booked flights a few weeks before for 0.01 euro each way. 2 cent tickets, I still wonder how that is possible. We flew into Frankfurt-Hahn with Ryanair, the amazingly cheap airline, and took a shuttle to Mannheim, where we would be staying with Maarten in his dad’s flat. The shuttle was 18euro, so we basically figured that paying that price to get to and from the airport was really the cost of the airplane. Maarten met us at the bus stop, and then we walked across Mannheim to get to his dad’s flat. It was around 1am or so by the time we got in, and then his dad offered us cheese, meat and bread for a late night snack. The next morning we leisurely got up and toured a bit of Mannheim. Maarten’s dad took us out to lunch at this amazing traditional German restaurant. It was a cozy restaurant, with big tables that were shared among the customers. As soon as we sat down, the waiter brought us a bowl of the soup of the day, which was perfect to warm up. After ordering, an unexpected salad also made its way to our table, as well as the beer-lemonade drink. Not long after the meal we ordered came out. I got some kind of leg of pork the size of my face, sauerkraut and dumplings. I ate about 1/3 of it, it was so big. But man, was it good.

Huge Meal. Yum.

After rolling out of the restaurant, Maarten, Chris and I headed to Heidelberg, a beautiful medieval town settled between mountains and a river. We walked the streets for a bit before heading up the hill to the castle that overlooks the town. After touring what we could of the castle, we went back into town to get a warm drink at the Mensa, the dining hall/union for the student’s at the University of Heidelberg. That night, after dinner, we went to Maarten’s local hangout, and got to meet other German university students.

Simon and Me!

Wednesday we got up and did breakfast at a wonderful bakery in Mannheim, where I got a very nice coffee and strudel. We had to pack up, and take everything with us as we headed back to Heidelberg, because we would be getting the shuttle back to the airport from there. We took a bit longer than we would have liked to get back into Heidelberg, and were only able to walk a few side streets before meeting my friend Simon Bach for lunch. Simon did an high school exchange program 5 or so years ago at Green Hope and was THE first chair clarinet in the band for the entire year. (At least that’s how I remember it.) We ate in the Mensa, a good meal for dirt cheap, and then walked to the river. Unfortunately, we had to end our visit short since we needed to get a 3:30 bus to the airport. But it was good to see him again. Once at the airport, we had a bit of time to kill and empty stomachs, so we ate one last German meal.


One of the outcroppings we visited for my Sed/Strat class

The rest of this month has been spent in Bologna, the only exceptions being my two field trips for my Sedimentology and Stratigraphy class. The past two Fridays we have gone to the Apinnes, the mountain range that runs down the boot of Italy. Other than that, I’ve remained in the city, trying to study for my classes. Today, Mom and Anne arrived for a long weekend, and so I could have a bit of home for Thanksgiving. They are currently sleeping because the Jetlag has really gotten to them. So it’s off to Venice this weekend.

Two months and still ticking

Canal leading to Lake Garda in Peschiera del Garda

Another month has flown by, and I’m sorry for not keeping my blog posts frequent. I’ve been in Italy for 2 months now, but it’s felt like more. Time really does get away from you, and I’m not really sure where to begin for this next blog entry. I’ve done so much in the last month, with classes starting, and several trips. Classes started in end of September/ beginning of October. I started out taking Archeology of the Landscape, Speleology, and Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. The first week of classes I only went to the archeology class, because the geology department didn’t start until the following week. But I’ve since dropped that class, for several reasons. One, it met at the same time as speleology on Friday, which I really wanted to take. Two, the professor rarely used PowerPoint, and mainly just talked (in Italian), so it was very hard to follow the lecture. Three, the exam would be an oral exam in Italian based off of articles that were impossible to find. So, I’ve since picked up a General Linguistics class, which is very neat, and the professor is much more entertaining and his Italian is much easier to follow. My sed/strat class consists of about 30 people, but I’ve only chatted with a few of the other students. (They all are Italian, so I’ve been a little nervous to approach them and chat in Italian.) The professor is great. He lectures in Italian, but due to the nature of the science, many of the words used to describe geological structures are in English, so I am able to follow very easily. Also, many of the charts and diagrams used in lecture are in English. Lecture is two hours, and to keep us on our toes, he gives the class a 10 minute “pausa” after the first hour has passes. During that time, he typically will come up to me as ask “tutto bene?” basically to make sure I’m following everything he is saying. Or if I don’t understand something that he mentioned during the lecture, I can ask him, and he will explain it in English. Sometimes, he will even throw out the English translation of something he is lecturing about to make sure I’m caught up with the class. My other class is speleology, which is taught by your stereotypical older Italian professor. Speleology is the science behind caves, which basically dips into all forms of science. The class is small, with me and two other students, which works to my benefit because it is almost like having a private tutor and I can ask questions if I don’t understand something during the lecture. This professor also lectures in Italian, but is able to speak English. Both of my exams for my geology classes will be orals, but in English. Yes.

View from hostel in Trento


A river runs through it, Trento

I’ve also been on a few trips during October; the first was to the Alto-Alpines, which is the western end of the Dolomites. There were eight of us that went to Trento, a lovely town in this area of the Dolomites. But only six of us stayed the night. We were: Maria (German), Emily (English), Kasia (Scottish), Carlos (Spanish), Maarten(German), Chris (English), Declan (Scottish) and myself the American. We got there just around lunch time, but instead of eating right away, we found the hostel and checked in. The six of us that stayed the night (all minus Kasia and Declan) shared a huge room and only had to pay 16euro each. The hostel was very nice; it was clean, had a bathroom in the bedroom, a nice view, and breakfast the next morning. After we checked in, we ventured our way to the town’s castle, and grabbed lunch along the way. We spent the better part of the day in this castle, and once we were done we headed to the river with individual bottle of Prosecco and fruit. A little after the time came for Declan and Kasia to leave, we decided to pack up too. It was a good decision, because just as we were going up the steps away from the river it started to pour! We ran back to the hostel and all napped until it was time to grab dinner.

The gang with castle in background, Trento

The next day, we left Trento and went to Pescheira del Garda on Lake Garda, which is south on the way back to Bologna. On our way into town from the train station we found a little shop that was selling rotisserie chickens, so we bought two to make a picnic lunch. Further in town we got bread, cheese, tomatoes, and we had fruit left over from the night before, and set up camp on the end of a dock on the lake. While eating our amazing lunch, we got the idea to rent a motor boat, if it didn’t cost too much. And it didn’t! We rented a boat for an hour and drove around a very small section of the lake for 9 euro each. Not bad. After, we did a bit of the town, and headed back to Bologna.

Sometime during the end of September/ beginning of October I befriended a group of German guys that are all doing internships at Lamborghini. Yes, you read that correctly, Lamborghini, as is very nice, expensive, fast cars. I spent most of the past weekends with my friends and the Lamborghini guys out and about, and I even went to see an Opera with one of them. I went to see La Boheme for 10 euro, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Verona's Roman Coliseum

I also went to Verona with a group of 12, which was a lot of fun. We again, took an early train and got there just in time for lunch. Well, actually before lunch, but we had to wait for Chris and Carlos, who missed the first train, and took the one the following hour. Verona was beautiful. It’s known for being the setting of Romeo and Juliette, and it still has the famous “Juliette’s Balcony”, which I personally think is a bunch of hokus-pokus because Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliette. Yes, the two family really did exist, but I’m pretty sure not in the sense of the way Shakespeare made it out to be. There is also an intact Roman theater, which is still used to this day for Operas and Concerts in the summer.


Chestnut's roasting on an open fire, Verona's Saturday Open-air Market

I feel like I’ve done a lot more during this past month, and I’m sure I have, but I just can’t seem to remember it at this moment. But now, onto a new month, with new adventures, and hopefully more frequent blog posts!!

The river of Verona

‘ave ya been pinched on yer bum yet?

September is getting ready to come to an end and classes still haven’t started. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. (I started to write this post two weeks ago, and since then, the months have changed and classes have started!) Even the dullest day flies by here, and I don’t think there really has been a dull day. Things that happened last week feel like they happened yesterday, and my first week here feels like ages ago. It feels like all I’m doing is eating, drinking, walking, going out at night, and sleeping. Eating and drinking seem to be the most popular activates around here, which most always include walking to get from one place to another. I’m really starting to get my bearings in the city, and I feel like I know just about all the routes to take to a place. I’ve mastered the bus, which picks up right in front of my flat, and can get just about anywhere in town.

Two weekends ago my Mom came to visit, which was absolutely fantastic. She arrived Friday morning, and I went to the airport to meet her. The first day was a bit of an easy day, since she was jetlagged and had spent such a long time traveling. We did a bit of a walking tour of the city, and then met up with some friends. That’s when I heard about a bike auction going on in the afternoon. So while Mom took a nap, I headed back to Piazza Maggiore and stood among the masses in hopes to win a bike. There were probably about 20 of us (all exchange students) standing together, among a crowd of about 200 or so. We all were screaming, waving, and jumping for two solid hours, trying to catch the attention of the bike auctioneer. But did any of us get a bike? Nope. And they were all going for 20 euro or so. Uffa! I skipped my language class to not win a bike. Lovely. Oh well, there will be another one in a few weeks, and I can try again.



The next day Mom and I got up early, grabbed a cappuccino and a croissant each at the café right below my flat (for 3.8 euro total!) and headed to the train station. We took a train to Florence, and spent the day wandering the city. The first thing we did was head straight to the market. There, we bargained our way through the stalls, getting silk and cashmere scarves and leather bags. I was very proud with myself for bargaining a vendor down from 30 euro for a purse to 20 euro. Then we hit the indoor produce market, and got a wonderful sandwich with prosciutto, mozzarella and eggplant. Once satisfied, we trekked across town, to the other side of the Arno, to the Giardino di Boboli. In the gardens we got a fantastic view of the city, and enjoyed being away from the throngs of tourists. One the way back into the city, we passed by a watercolor artist, one whom we briefly stopped at before entering the gardens. She recognized us, and after I said that we didn’t find what we were looking for in a painting (in Italian), she proceeded to give both my Mom and I a free, small painting of poppies.



After wandering back to the heart of the city, we found a piazza with some kind of basketball tourney going on. We sat down for a while, and I tried to listen to see what was going on with all of these kids playing basketball. The announcer kept on saying something about “they will be coming soon”, who they were, I had no idea. Then my Mom looks down a side street, and sees a group of very tall men, obvious basketball players. Just as we came to the conclusion that this team was heading to this tourney, the announcer says “AND THEY ARE HERE!” Next thing we know, about 200 kids go running from the center of the piazza to meet the basketball team. Being the Carolina basketball fanatic that I am, I had to go see where all of these guys were from. So I got chatting with a guy who worked the event, and he told me that the guys were from Siena, which has one of the best basketball teams in Italy and Europe. Cool.

I headed back over to Mom, to tell her what I found out, and she was chatting with a couple from Australia. I joined the conversation, and that was when this older man asked, “Have you had your bum pinched yet?” Slightly taken aback, I said no, which resulted with him jokingly saying, “Well do you want to?” Again, I passed on the offer. For dinner that night we had a great Tuscan meal, with faro soup (smelt is the American name for the grain), a pasta dish, and Osco poco, a veal dish with the meat falling off the bone. It was quite good.



Sunday we explored Florence a little more, and went to mass in the Duomo. After a leisurely lunch in a square, we headed back to the hotel and grabbed our bags to head back into Bologna. Sunday night we met up with a group of my friends for dinner, and planned to go to Faenza on Tuesday with Chris. Monday was a nice day in Bologna, and we explored the seven churches of San Stefano. Tuesday we took a day trip to Faenza, a tiny town known for its pottery. The town was lovely, with ceramics all over the place. In our quest to find a good pottery shop, we stumbled across an artist that sold Raku style pottery. Chatting in Italian with the locals seems to be a good thing, because I managed to get another piece of free art. It was just a tile, but still, it was free.

Wednesday morning Mom left, and it was just as hard to say goodbye then as it was in the RDU airport. But she’ll be back in November with my sister. The rest of the week had flown by, it was good to be busy after Mom leaving. Friday, I had a group of friends over for dinner and drinks, which was great. I provided the olives, cheese, and one bruscetta, and others brought pasta, gnocchi, more bruscetta, wine and beer. After, we all headed to the center, and eventually split up and went to our separate clubs. Tammy, Maria, Tammy’s friend Maura, and I ended up at a disco called Kinky’s , and spent the night with some of our Italian friends. The next morning, exhausted as we all were, we managed to wake up to make a 10AM train to Ravenna.


Ravenna was gorgeous. I had been to Ravenna before, but not the city part, just the beach part (first weekend in Italy.) We arrived and managed to wander our way into the city center. The gang this time consisted of Chris, Maarten, Tammy, Maura, Maria, Katrina, and me. Ravenna is known for mosaics, so that was our first goal. Find mosaics. We headed to a church that was supposed to have loads of mosaics, but the entrance fee for it was a bit more than we wanted to pay, so we did the free museum instead. But as soon as we entered the museum, the woman who took the tickets said to come back at 4 for a free tour. That sounded fine for us, so we left in search of Dante’s Tomb. Before making it to Dante’s Tomb, we found another church that had old roman mosaics in its foundation. Since the fee was reasonable, we went in. The mosaics were amazing, absolutely amazing. I think it is fascinating that these works of art go unnoticed for so many years, and get built over and buried, until someone accidentally stumbles upon them again.


Dante’s tomb was pretty neat as well. Well, the two of the three tombs for him that we saw. The first was a dirt mound, covered in ivy, which was his resting place during WWII because the Italians were afraid his real tomb might be subject to attack. Right next to the mound was the real tomb, a beautiful building decorated in stones and words from his masterpieces. But we didn’t see the 3rd tomb, where his body actually is, which is now in a museum. Can things get any more complicated??
We made it back to the museum for the 4 o’clock tour, which was all in very fast spoken Italian. Everyone was too tired to focus on translating what the tour guide was saying, so we slyly escaped the tour and did the museum by ourselves. This was another one of those museums that we thought were going to be very small, with not much stuff, but nope. It was huge. I think there were 4 floors of artifacts, from Roman to Medieval times, through never-ending halls.



Sunday was just as lovely, with a trip to the town of Ferrara for a hot air balloon festival. Tammy, Maura, Chris and I got another 10AM train, and met up with a few other exchange students. When we got there we found the ESN group (exchange student network group that organizes trips and events) and decided to follow them for a while. But after half an hour of walking, waiting, and standing around, we decided to leave the group. In the process, we managed to extend our group of 4 to a group of 15. With Tammy, Maura and I leading the crowd, we made it to the park where the festival was taking place, and while I was trying to get a map and information about the festival, we managed to loose the rest of the group. Tammy, Maura and I were fine with that though, and we found a nice patch of grass next to the lake, spread out a blanket and rested for the day under the hot Italian sun. Around 4:30 we managed to convince ourselves that we came for the festival, not a lazy afternoon sleeping and reading, and wandered the park until we ran into Chris and the others again. By that time, the balloons were getting ready for the evening flight. I watched with the others as about 20 balloons inflate and take off.


I must say I over all was quite impressed with the balloon festival. I just wish I would have gone up in one. But that would have put me 150 euro in the hole. Watching the huge, peaceful balloons take off into the blue Italian afternoon sky was quite an experience, one I will never forget. And one more thing checked off my list of things to see and do in my year abroad.


Up next: the start of classes (finally!), more meals and a possible trip to the Alps.