Croatia

Destination Number Two of my Big Three (Liverpool, Croatia, and Ireland) is checked off at last.

I spent this weekend getting in touch with my cultural roots (or something like that) in Croatia this weekend with Kate on a Bus2Alps tour.

I've always dreamed of going to Croatia since I am part Croatian on my Dad's side. I've always thought it was kind of cool to be able to tell people that I am Croatian because that's not something you normally hear. I'm also German and Irish, but so are most other people, it seems, so the whole Croat thing adds some mystery and interest (at least, that's always been my notion... I know people aren't really interested).

The most mysterious part of this for me, has always been the fact that, until this weekend, I never really knew anything about Croatia. We learn all about Germany in school and I've seen enough photos and videos that I have a solid mental image (albeit possibly inaccurate image of Germany) of the place and the people. The same goes for Ireland. But not so much for Croatia... Honestly, I didn't even realize how close it is to Italy until I got to Italy, and I had no idea what it looked like (I always had some mental picture of a giant dark fairy tale woods, not unlike my idea of the Albanian and Black Forests in Harry Potter - which, on a completely unrelated side note, makes sense to me now that I've lived in Europe because all Europeans hate Albanians).

Luckily, real Croatia is a little different than imagined Croatia, but it's still very woodsy.

Kate and I began our voyage Thursday night. We took a twelve hour over night bus ride from Santa Maria Novella to Split, Croatia, stopping in Slovenia for a little while to have our passports stamped and get some food.

The bus ride was somewhat miserable and I didn't get much sleep, but it was better than my 26 hour ride to New Orleans in high school, so at least that was something.

We got to our hostel in Split just after 9 a.m., checked into our room (we shared it with four other girls... each of us had our own bunk inside the wall and the room was long and narrow... it felt like we were sleeping on a ship, but the beds were comfy), then ate a complimentary breakfast.

Kate coming out of the wash room.
Note the cubby bunks.

After breakfast, Kate and I went off to explore Split. We began at the fish market down the street from our hostel, where fishermen sold all kinds of freshly caught fish, eels, shrimp, and other sea creatures.

Fish for sale.

We then wandered down the boardwalk and climbed Marjan Hill.

Marjan Hill is a scenic overlook on the Adriatic Sea, with a beautiful nature trail to the top. Kate and I took our time on the way to the top, stopping at every lookout and in every tiny neighborhood on the way up the hill.

When we got to the top, we found the Marjan Zoo and were happy to discover that the ticket price was only 10 Kuna, or $1.77. Drawn by the call of peacocks and a telltale green and blue plume in one of the trees, Kate and I bought are tickets and got in line.

The only other zoo I really remember ever going to is the Pittsburgh Zoo, and the Marjan Zoo is very different. For one thing, it's a lot smaller: It might have five minutes to walk from one side to the other if we hadn't stopped to look at any animals. Another thing is how close you are to the animals. You were able to get right up to the fence and feed the animals in every pen except the tiger, wolf, and bear (one dad was walking around with a backpack full of carrots for his little girl to feed and pet the donkeys, monkeys, sheep, birds, boars, rabbits, horses, etc.).

Of course, my favorite part of the zoo was the six peacock couples that roamed freely from pen to pen and up and down the sidewalks. I was even able to pet one of the peahens when she came up to search me for food.

Since the zoo was so small, we walked through a few times, going back to our favorites before moving on. After the zoo, we went to a playground, then back to the hostel for lunch.

I ordered a chicken sandwich and Kate got a burger, which we ate on the patio of the hostel. We were in a very busy square, so we enjoyed people watching (Fact: All Croatians are models. All of the women were my height or taller and super skinny, and all of the men were the same way, but they all looked good).

After lunch, we walked to the nearest beach, where we ran around in the surf then laid out for a few hours. When we were finished with that, we walked back to town and tried to souvenir shop at the Split Bazaar. No luck. There weren't any souvenirs, but we did have a good time browsing and people watching/listening (Croatian is a really harsh language).

The last event of the day was supposed to be a pub crawl. Neither Kate nor I was very interested in that, but as we were sitting out on the hostel patio again that evening, our guide Buck came and sat with us for awhile and talked us into attempting the bar crawl.

So we set out with everyone else just after sunset, but realized as soon as we got to the loud, overcrowded pub that this crawl wasn't for us. Instead, we got some wine and sat out on the pier with our feet in the water for awhile, then wandered around town some before bed.

Saturday we got up early for breakfast, then headed to the pier to meet for our island hopping cruise. The cruise was a bonus package on our Bus2Alps tour and well worth it. We set sail on a little ship called the "Antonio Fish Picknick" and spent about 45 minutes cruising through the Adriatic to the island of Solta. We had two hours on Solta to do whatever we wanted. Kate and I walked around some of the shops, then hit the beach for the remainder of our stay.

Our next stop was the island Brac, about an hour from Solta. We ate grilled fish and coleslaw for lunch (the fish was overwhelming to look at since it had its head, eyes, scales, flippers, and all, but it tasted pretty good. Kate and I sat with a couple studying in Perugia, so we talked to them the whole way about study abroad and how Amanda Knox has affected their stay.

Brac is much less touristy than Solta, so Kate and I went straight to the beach. We played Frisbee with Buck and some guys from Long Island, then switched to bocce. After a few hours at Brac, it was time to head home.

We got back to Split around 7 p.m. and had just enough time to change for a group outing to Trogir, a city about an hour from Split.

By the time we got to Trogir, Kate and I were starving. We sat down at the first promising looking restaurant on the boardwalk and ordered a fish dinner for two. We got a potato and zucchini appetizer, a fish platter with two types of fish, prawns, and calamari, then strawberry ice cream for dessert.

And it was without question the BEST ice cream I have ever had. I don't know what made it so good, but it was pure heaven on a plate, topped with whipped cream and strawberry preserves. We both powered through the ice cream (not quite ice cream and not quite gelato; something completely it's own), then literally licked our plates clean.

When the waiter brought our check, Kate and I were ready to tell him how good the ice cream was, but he was already smirking at us.

"How was the ice cream?" he asked.

"Excellent. Delicious. So good."

"We make the world's best ice cream in our restaurant."

Point taken.

After that tantalizing little taste, we only wanted more ice cream. So we set off through the maze of alleys, shops, and apartments that is Trogir and picked an ice cream shop that looked promising. I ordered a mixed berry ice cream and Kate got strawberry - and they were every bit as good as at the restaurant, except missing the whipped cream and preserves.

We spent the rest of our time wandering around eating ice cream, before heading back to the bus and returning to Split.

Sunday morning we were up early again for breakfast, packing, and loading the bus for our three hour drive to Krka National Park.

If you have never heard of Krka National Park, don't worry. It's just the most beautiful place in the world.

It's acres of woods and waterfalls and I can't even begin to put into words how breathtaking and mind-numbingly perfect this park is. Kate and I wandered around for three hours with our mouths open, taking photo after photo and complaining that there is no possible way you could do justice to the splendor of this place. But here are a few of my best attempts.

Feast your eyes on all of this nature
 for just a little while.

We got lunch (turkey kabobs and French fries) in the park before getting back on the bus for our grueling trip home. We left Krka just after 2 p.m. and pulled into Firenze at 1:30 a.m. So it was rough (especially with an Italian final at 11 a.m. Monday), but well worth our amazing weekend.

I'm sad that this was my list trip this semester, but tallying it all up, I've stayed in five countries in four months, and many more cities than that. That's not a bad track record.

Now I'm going to go drink wine and cry for a while because I've got the travel bug and I never want to go home. Don't worry about me.

Walk For Autism

Today is the Fourth of July.

And because it is Italian Independence Day, we didn't have classes. Instead, the CCI family plus a few friends teamed up with Paddock Chevrolet in Buffalo for the International Walk for Autism.

For each of us who participated in the walk, Paddock Chevrolet donated $150 to autism research. Lauren's dad sent us all "International Team" t-shirts to wear for the walk and we met Lauren and her apartment at Cerchi at noon to pick up our shirts and organize. After Lauren filmed her introduction to the video she's sending to Buffalo News, we made our way through Piazza Signoria and down to the Arno River. The whole walk didn't take very long, but it was fun. Since everything is closed for the holiday, the streets were more crowded than I've ever seen them (mind you, I haven't been in town for a weekend since the weather started getting nice) and they twenty-something of us got a lot of weird looks in our matching shirts with Glenn following along filming the whole thing.

We crossed the Arno near Gusta Pizza and made our way down Altra'Arno, dodging pedestrians and mugging for the camera every time we passed Glenn. When we reached Ponte Vecchio, we crossed back to our side of the river and went back to school. 

Lauren isn't sure when our footage will be on the news, but I'll update this post when we're online. If you know anyone in the Buffalo, New York area, tell him or her to keep an eye out for CCI Florence on WKBW Eyewitness News. 

So that's that. It's a brief post because tomorrow is our final for Italian Art and I will literally be spending the rest of today cramming six hundred years worth of fresco dates and sculpture patrons (Meh-DEH-cheeeee) into my brain. Wish me luck! 

Venezia: Take Two

It's amazing how different Venice is in the spring when it's warm and sunny compared to Venice during Carnivale when it's far below freezing.

As much as I loved Carnivale, I was so excited to have the chance to return to Venice for a full weekend and actually explore the islands, rather than just going from store to bar to restaurant to store in a futile attempt to avoid hypothermia. Also, I was super excited to spend the weekend with our whole CCI group again. This was the first weekend since Rome in January (I'm not counting Milan because that was a day trip) where all fifteen of us (plus our three honorary CCI-mates) spent the weekend together. It was much better than Rome in that respect because we now know each other, rather than in Rome where we were still in that awkward "I just met you" phase.

Anyhow, we met Petra and her boyfriend at the train station at 8:00 Friday morning and arrived in Venice around 10:30. From there, we took a half hour ferry ride to the main island to check into our hostel, Don Orione Artigianelli. The hostel actually turned out to be a religious guest house and cultural center, which I thought was an odd place to put up fifty college students, but so it goes.

It was a nice place, and I stayed in a decently sized room with Bethany, Erika, and Yelena. We had just enough time here to put our things in storage (our room wasn't ready) grab sandwiches at a cafe down the street, then regroup with Petra for a tour of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, just a short walk from Don Orione.

The museum was very cool. We split into two groups here, and my group had a wonderful tour guide. She was a theatre major from Puerto Rico, and she was very enthusiastic, which made the tour all the more entertaining. We got to see all kinds of modern art, which was refreshing after looking at Renaissance art every week. Although I really don't understand modern art at all. I also didn't recognize the names of most of the artists, besides Jackson Pollack. We saw the Pollack collection and, even though our guide explained him to us, I still don't see why he's so famous... But other than that, I enjoyed the paintings we saw and liked the explanations our guide gave of them, even if I couldn't always see what she told us we were supposed to see. (For example, one painting is a series of blocks in various shades of gray pieced together like the game Railroad Rushhour... and it's supposed to show a couple swing-dancing.)

After the museum, we had a free afternoon to do whatever we wanted. Most of us went back to Don Orione to check into our rooms and nap. After nap time, my room set off with Lydia, Caitlin, Jess, and Kate to explore. Before long, we ran into a gondolier who talked most of our group into riding a gondola. Kate and I were the only two to opt out since it was €30 per person for a twenty minute ride. It would be €50 per for music and a "guided tour."

While the other girls went on the ride, Kate and I looked for ghosts. Venice is apparently one of the most haunted places in the world. Erika told us this when we went in February, since she hunts ghosts in her free time (she has all kinds of freaky audio and videos on her computer from nights she's spent camping out in old prisons and asylums... it's creepy stuff). Kate and I, of course didn't find any ghosts, maybe since it was late afternoon and we didn't have our Ghostbusters gear. Instead, we checked out some stores and just enjoyed the nice day.

We met everyone back at the guest house shortly before group dinner at Taverna San Trovaso. This dinner was organized by the school, so we had several courses of traditional Venetian food and it was all delicious. We got bread, raw salmon antipasto, a seafood plate (fish, squid, and prawns), and tiramisu. It was so filling and we were all so tired from getting up early and walking around all day that my room went back to the guest house after dinner ended around 11:00. However, it had rained while we were in the restaurant, and we went outside to find the streets flooded where the canal rose over its edge. It was a very wet walk home and my socks and shoes got soaked.

Saturday, we got to sleep in a little bit, and didn't meet Petra and Rocky until 10:30, after breakfast. Our first stop was at the Church of the Frari, where we learned about the architecture and talked about the artwork inside. We followed that with a tour of San Marco (the main square where they had the giant block party during Carnivale). Once again, the area outside the Basilica of San Marco was flooded, so we had to walk across a dock they put up between a dry area of the piazza and the front door. Once again, we talked about frescoes, sculptures, and architecture.

We ended the tour with a walk across the Rialto Bridge, a Venetian icon, and saw a mask shop where they made the mask and some costumes from the movie Eyes Wide Shut, saw the manhole Daniel Craig climbs out of as James Bond in Casino Royal, and saw one of Woody Allen's houses.

Rialto Bridge, the first bridge in Venice.

Following our tour, we had free time again. Lydia and I explored around San Marco for a little while and visited the Bridge of Sighs, where condemned prisoners used to cross from the prison to the main square where they were publicly executed. Rocky said that this was a huge event back in the day before it went out of practice, and that people would come to the harbor from all areas of Venice to watch the executions from their boats.

Eventually we met up with Bethany, Yelena, Caitlin, Danielle, and Kristy, and the group of us sat around in a nice park by the Grand Canal for a while, then stopped for traditional Venetian spritzers on the way back to Don Orione.

We had a late CCI family dinner at Ristorante San Trovaso, where I got delicious seafood pasta and Lydia and I split profiteroles for dessert. It was dark once we finished with dinner, so it was time to ghost hunt.

Sort of. We wandered around for a bit, but since we couldn't find any ghosts, Lydia decided we would make our own. This turned out to be so much fun that we spent several hours creating ghosts in the neighborhoods near our guest house and along the canal. We got a lot of strange looks from locals and passing tourists since we were dancing to Lauren's iPod in between shots. And this is an example of the end results.

Lauren with ghosts.

Kate with ghosts.

Me as a ghost with Kate and Lauren.

Kate killing Glenn.

So yeah... That's that evening.

Yesterday was another early morning at the Scuola di San Rocco with Rocky, where we learned about flagellation and how it was outlawed in Venice during the Renaissance. We then went to the Gallerie dell'Accademia museum to see paintings by Tintoretto, Vasari, and Leonardo da Vinci (Vitruvian Man), among others. While we were looking at one exhibit, a man came up to Rocky and began asking him in Italian about a sign he noticed painted into one of the paintings in the exhibit. Of course, you could tell Rocky was loving the attention since he knows everything there is to know about everything involving art, and the man went away looking impressed, giving us all a thumbs up when he left. Good old Rocky, even schooling the Italians.

The one thing Rocky couldn't tell us when Erika asked him about it after the tour, was how to get to the island of Poveglia, rated the most haunted place in the world. We had asked several local Venetians about the island prior to this point, but they had all either ignored the question or told us not to ask about it. One woman even crossed herself when we asked her and walked away. The place is so haunted because, at the time of the Black Death in Europe, Venetians who caught the plague were exiled there to die in a plague colony alone on the island. Most of them starved to death or died of the elements before the plague had enough time to run its fatal course. Anyone even suspected of having the plague was sent there no questions asked. Eventually, the Venetians even began shipping prisoners there to die among the plague victims. Rumor has it you can hear the screams of the victims any time you get near the island, and the concierge at the guest house confirmed that he was familiar with this story. So Erika was all about Poveglia, of course, and we were all very curious as well, but alas, the only way to even get near the island is to take your own boat, or talk a local into giving you a ride.

When Erika asked, Rocky acknowledged that he knew a little bit about Poveglia's story, but didn't have any information to add to what we already knew. Sad day. At least we saw "ghosts" Saturday night.

...

The Accademia took up most of the morning. We had free time after that, but it was pouring, so we went back to the guest house to pack, then we sat outside in the courtyard under the awning and played Uno and charades for two hours until it was time to leave.

So it was a great weekend. Venice is by far one of the greatest places I've ever been, despite Rocky's complaints that it's nearly impossible to get around on foot (you're meant to see it from the water after all). It also amazes me that Venice even exists. There are no natural water or food sources and it's build entirely on mud (every tower in Venice leans - take that Pisa - as well as many of the buildings, and the floors of the oldest buildings are all warped due to constant flooding).

But it's so gorgeous and very cool... and thankfully this time around it wasn't nearly so cold.

My Magical Mystery Tour

Home again.

It was a long "weekend," but a very good one. 

Eva and I spent our Monday morning exploring "downtown" Liverpool. We did some souvenir shopping, looked for Lambananas, and just wandered around seeing the sights. I'm still in love. Liverpool is the perfect combination of quaint seaside town and big city. There is plenty to do, but people take life at a friendly, leisurely pace (emphasis on "friendly" ... Scousers are by far the nicest group of people I have ever encountered).

We slowly made our way through the city center and out to the famous Albert Dock on the shore of the Mersey River. 

The Dock is very different than how I imagined. It's a bustling tourist center, rather than the quiet, sailor-filled river-walk I have always envisioned. My mind's eye image of Albert Dock before this trip was a combination of the opening scene in Across the Universe where Jude sits out on a spit of land and is the only person for miles, and the scene in Nowhere Boy where John gets drunk on the pier by himself. 

My guess is this is about where Aaron
Johnson throws his glass in the Mersey.

Either way, I imagined little but seagulls for miles around. Instead, I was pleased to find museums and shops all around the Dock, which is kind of a massive plaza.

After exploring around the shops and museums and walking a way down the river, Eva and I stopped in the Merseyside Maritime Museum to see the Titanic exhibit. It didn't occur to me until right then that we had been in Liverpool on the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic sinking April 15. They hadn't done anything we noticed to mark the date, but I would imagine that's something Scousers don't like to bring up...

The exhibit was very cool. There was a small replica of the RMS Titanic, various silverware, jewelry, coins, and other small objects recovered from the ship, lots of photographs, old promotional posters for that fateful cruise, a "True and False" game to test your Titanic knowledge (True: There were no cats aboard the ship; False: Titanic could not be docked in Liverpool because it was too big), listening booths where you could hear accounts from survivors, witnesses, and others involved, and much more. 

After the Titanic exhibit, we explored the rest of the museum, but went more quickly there since we didn't recognize any ships beyond the Titanic and Lusitania. I did, however, enjoy a collection of "Loose lips sink ships" posters and other propaganda from World War II. 

"Careless talk costs lives!"

After the museum, Eva and I got a very late lunch at a restaurant called "Revolution" right on the dock. Since we were in Liverpool, we had to order fish and chips, and, despite a long wait, they were not only delicious, but also very filling. 

While waiting for our food, we watched ships come and go in the bay and a "Yellow Duckmarine" tour go past (it's exactly the same thing as the Just Ducky tours in Pittsburgh... have I mentioned how Liverpool is English Pittsburgh? To a tee. I felt like I was home, and not just because of the Beatles music playing everywhere we went). 

Tastes like home.

Following lunch, we walked back to the Cavern to meet Kev before his band practice. On our way, Eva recognized Kev's bandmate Josh playing guitar on the corner of Matthew Street. We stopped to chat and Eva introduced me to Josh. We stood and listened to him play a few more songs (Beatles and The Black Keys), then he walked us to the Cavern where we picked up Kev and went to the grimy little neighborhood where they practice.

(To give you an idea of this back alley, Kev asked me if I'm afraid of rats and if I have all my shots before we slipped under a fire escape and behind some trash bins to where the studio door was hidden.)

Their practice room is actually a closet littered with CD's, records, press clippings, notebook pages, cigarette butts, food wrappers, beverage cans and bottles, random clothes, drumsticks, guitar picks, guitar strings, and all manner of garbage. The walls are plastered in promotional posters for Kev's band "The Verdict" and the other bands that share the practice room, as well as personal photos and posters from movies like "GoodFellas" and "Scarface." 

Eva and I sat around talking with Kev and Josh about our morning and how we like Liverpool while we waited for their lead singer, Gaz (yes, his name is Gaz).

When Gaz arrived, they took their time tuning guitars and setting up, while Gaz asked me and Eva the same questions we'd just answered (Yes, we like Liverpool and we went to Albert Dock this morning; no, we don't smoke). 

Finally, they were all ready and Eva and I put in earplugs to protect ourselves from the fact that we were experiencing a live rock show in a closet. 

The guys played for about two hours, stopping regularly to change this lyric or add more bass here and ask us what we thought of this song and that cover. These guys are really talented, and I loved feeling "in the band" while they rocked out to The Black Keys' "Lonely Boy."

On a side note, the funniest thing about Liverpool was how excited people got when Eva and I told them we're from "Kent, Ohio near Akron, Ohio." 

I didn't think this would ring any Scouse bells, but Eva assured me it would and she was so right. The response was always, "Oh, Akron! Do you know Dan Auerbach (Black Keys' guitarist)? Do you know Patrick Carney (drummer)? We love The Black Keys! Akron must be the Greatest Place on Earth!" Really. They're crazy about Akron, Ohio. Liverpool, England loves Akron, Ohio. I never would have guessed it in a million years. 

Normally when people ask, the Ohioans in our group (Eva included) just say they're from Ohio (most Europeans don't know where that is, so we say it's near New York). In the rare event that a person is familiar with Ohio, my study abroad-mates say they're from Cleveland because to Europe, Cleveland is the only place in Ohio. I, on the other hand, just say I'm from Pittsburgh because I have yet to come across someone who hasn't heard of the good old 412. 

After practice, we said goodbye to Josh and Gaz and Eva, Kev, and I made our way back to the Cavern. We spent the rest of the night in the Cavern Club, Lennon's Bar (across the street), and bar-hopping in search of live music (not much luck), before calling it quits for the night and going home to watch the BBC before bed.

I'm so obsessed with this place.

We ended our Liverpool adventure just before lunchtime Tuesday. Eva and I woke up early for a tour of The Beatles Story, an interactive Beatles museum at Albert Dock. The tour was really awesome, and showed everything from the Beatles' history and the history of the Fab Four as individuals (plus everyone ever related or connected to the band). The tour is set up with a variety of rooms decorated to look like different key places in the lives of the Beatles. Eva and I both got a headset, where we could listen to an explanation of each location, as well as hear firsthand accounts from people like Brian Epstein, Pete Best, Cynthia Lennon, Neil Aspinall, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and more.

The tour took most of the morning, but we followed it up with another tour - this time at St. John's Gardens and St. George's Hall on Lime Street. On the way there, we passed the Liver Building and Drury Lane (we did not meet the Muffin Man). 

St. George's, today, is a concert hall and courthouse. In the 1700's and 1800's, however, the site was home to the Liverpool Infirmary lunatic asylum, and parts of the Hall are now dedicated to the history of the asylum. The Hall also showcases a small slave museum (Liverpool was a major slave port back in the day) and prison museum. The prison museum was neat because you could go in real jail cells where they played audio that made it sound like you were actually in prison awaiting trial. There were many plaques and bits of literature on what the courthouse was like in the days when English convicts were either executed at the courthouse or sentenced to exile in Australia. 

Once that tour was over, we had just enough time to run back to our hotel, collect our bags, check out, and say goodbye to Kev at the train station. 

It was a long trip home after that. Our flight was delayed again (two hours), meaning that, although we caught the train from Liverpool to Leeds at 1:00, we didn't get home to Florence until midnight. 

I still had some finishing touches to put on the final project I presented today, but I was luckily able to get that done between Italian and Genius, where I presented my project on The Dante Plaques. The plaques, carved into various walls around Firenze, feature quotes from The Divine Comedy. I feel like my presentation went well for being rushed together at the end. Everyone in our class got to create his or her topic entirely on his/her own, and they all turned out very good, so it was a fun and interesting class.

But now that that's out of the way, it's time to relax. I can't believe I only have one more day at home before our class trip to Venice this weekend. I'm looking forward to it though. I liked Venice in February when it was freezing cold and we had to keep hiding inside, so I can only imagine how much I'll love it now that the weather is going to be good. I also can't believe our weather in Liverpool: sunny every day but yesterday morning, when it rained and hailed. So much for England having the world's worst weather. It was nicer there than in Firenze or Pittsburgh. 

Anyhow, that's Liverpool. Someday I need to go back there. I'm thrilled with how much I got to see this time around, but I know there's still so much more to explore. 

And I promised John I would be back.
I can't let him down.

Liddypool

Liverpool.

I can't believe I finally get to say this, but I am in Liverpool at last.

Eva and I left Firenze on a train to Pisa early Saturday afternoon, and it proved to be a bumpy trip.

First, Eva was late to the train station because her backpack tore on the way there and all her belongings spilled out on her street. Then, when we got to Pisa, our flight was delayed (damn Ryan Air) nearly an hour and a half.

Because if the flight, we missed our £8 train from Leeds to Liverpool and had to catch the last train (£25) out.

On that train, we were seated next to four drunk men from Holland who kept trying to talk to us and making fun of the facts that we can't speak Italian after three months in Italy and that we were eating Burger King (thus proving our American citizenship, of course). They stopped off in Manchester, however, and we had a peaceful train ride after that.

Well, almost peaceful. Our one set plan for the weekend was to see the band The Verdict perform at 9:30 Saturday night. Eva's friend Kev is the band's drummer, so the plan was to catch his show then go out for drinks with the band. But thanks to Ryan Air, we arrived in Liverpool five minutes before the show ended.

Kev, however, was nonplussed by our missing the show and seemed just genuinely happy that we made it to Liverpool safely. He and his friend Tom met us at our hotel as soon as the show was over and took us out for drinks before Eva and I called it quits after the long day and went to bed.

So I didn't actually get to see Liverpool until yesterday, but I'm madly in love with it. It's everything I've always imagined it would be and then some.

After a complimentary breakfast at the hotel, Eva (who was here during spring break), took me on a walking tour of the city center. We did some souvenir shopping and sightseeing before going to the famous Matthew Street, where I took about a hundred photos and nearly fainted from excitement.

Of course our first stop on Matthew (after getting our pics taken with Eleanor Rigby) was at The Cavern Club.

Me and Eleanor. Eva didn't notice
that my eyes were closed...

It looks just like all the photos and movies I've seen of it (except expanded, far less crowded, and with an added souvenir shop). My heart was pounding the whole time we were down there and I was literally shaking over the fact that I finally achieved a great life goal by going to THE CAVERN CLUB.

In front of the Cavern main stage.

Honestly, had we stayed in The Cavern all day just admiring all of the momentos and signatures of bands who have played there (The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Elton John, Queen, and Adele, just to name a few), I would have been thoroughly happy with my trip to Liverpool. But there was still much more to see.

Eva and I stopped for lunch (peanut butter sandwiches... success) then met Kev and Tom for a Beatles tour.

The cheapest tour we could find was £50 per person, but thankfully Kev and Tom talked us out of that one. Instead, we bought £3 bus passes for the day and made our own tour, since all four of us have Beatles history down pat and Kev and Tom know their way around Liverpool.

Our first stop was at 251 Menlove Avenue in Woolton, South Liverpool. Better known as "Mendips," this was of course the childhood home of John Lennon.

Mendips was the only house where I kind of knew what to expect going there. I've seen it and parts of the neighborhood in photos, and I've seen it recreated in movies like Nowhere Boy (which I learned is surprisingly accurate), so it didn't surprise me.

What did surprise me is how beautiful Woolton is. It could possibly be the cutest neighborhood I have ever seen and I would love to live there. It certainly doesn't look like the setting of all the early stories I've heard of the Beatles (which probably explains why Mendips isn't the setting of most stories), but that kind of made me love it even more. I got chills again leaning on Mendips' front gate, gazing into the small front room where John and Paul used to practice when they were just beginning as bandmates. The house has been remodeled to look exactly as it did when John left for Hamburg in 1960, and it looked so much like the way I imagined that I swear I could almost hear Aunt Mimi yelling at John and Paul to turn down that racket.

At Mendips' front gate.

Speaking of Aunt Mimi, I also appreciated one particular comment from Kev as we were leaving Menlove. I stopped to take a picture of the street sign and Kev turned to me and said something along the lines of, "Make sure you snap a pic down the street. You know, this is the street where John Lennon's mum was run over."

Thanks for that reminder, Kev. I had been so caught up in how exciting it was to stand in front of Mendips that I almost completely forgot I was standing just yards from where Julia Lennon was hit and killed by a car on her way home when John was a teenager (too much info... I know, I know).

So aaaanyway... After Mendips, we went down the street to Strawberry Field. No big deal. We just walked right up to STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER.

And once again, I cried a little because my emotions had been in a complete wreck ever since I saw the first sign for Matthew Street.

Strawberry Field is, of course, not much of a field. There's a little patch of unkempt lawn right behind the iconic gate, but Strawberry Field (a building, not a field) itself is now a church. When John Lennon knew it, it was a Salvation Army children's home and site of the annual Woolton Fete garden party where John and his friends Pete Shotton and Ivan Vaughan went every summer, and where their skiffle group The Quarrymen performed in the late 50's.

This didn't stop us from getting plenty of photos in front of it and all four of us signed the gate.

My name on the Strawberry Field gate!

We spent a few hours after that wandering around Woolton. We went through a huge, lovely park and walked down to Calderstones School, previously known as Quarry Bank High School, John's alma mater.

Just down the street from Calderstones, we found a riding school, where a stablehand called us in to look at the horses. After that, we stopped to watch show-dogs practicing an obstacle course in the adjoining K-9 school.

From Woolton, we took another bus to 20 Forthlin Road, childhood home of Paul McCartney. Since all the magic of the Beatles' earliest years happened at Mendips, I didn't know what to expect of Paul's house. It turns out it is a very plain, unassuming house on a plain, unassuming street. But I got my photo there as well before we got back on the bus and rode to Penny Lane.

Me in front of Paul McCartney's old house.

If you picture Penny Lane to be something magical, you're sadly mistaken. It's literally an alleyway with a corner store and four houses on it in a less pleasant area of town. But the "shelter in the middle of the roundabout" is still there (though now rebuilt and renamed "Sgt. Pepper Bistro") and I got my photos.

After Penny Lane, we road to Madryn Street, which was a very sad sight indeed. Every house on the block, including Ringo's childhood home is condemned and signs warned that they may soon be torn down entirely. Ringo lived in a very bad area of Liverpool growing up, and it looked like it's only gotten worse in the past fifty years.

Unlike at the other homes, there wasn't even a sign designating the house as Ringo's. We only knew it because of the graffiti asking for the house to be saved and the tour group standing on the doorstep taking photos (normally a dead giveaway, I guess). We got our photos and got out of there.

We ended the day with a tour of Liverpool Cathedral and the surrounding park. We didn't go to George Harrison's house because it's not in Liverpool proper and we couldn't easily get to it by bus. Better luck another day. After the Cathedral, we stopped in a pub to watch the Liverpool soccer match.  Liverpool won, bringing the team one step closer to the upcoming finals.

Today Eva and I are going to explore Albert Dock before meeting up with Kev again. She should be ready to go soon, then it's off to the Mersey for us.

Saturday Morning Shout Out

Ciao, amici!

I just wanted to say a quick hello as I'm currently busy making brunch and finishing a presentation for my Genius of Florence class Wednesday.

There hasn't been much to report on this week. April is certainly living up to it's name - it rained maybe two days in my first three months in Italy, but ever since April 1, it's been rain every single day.

The nice thing about a rainy day in Italy is that, like in Pa. and Ohio, the day rarely seems to fully commit to its weather. It's pouring one minute and sunny the next. But the general mood of April has been gray, gray, gray.

Because of this, we've kept inside most of the week, venturing out only for classes.

We did have one exciting bit of news Wednesday. Erika and I walked home together from Genius while Bethany went with Kevin to pick up some things she left at his apartment.

About twenty minutes after Erika and I got home, our front door opened and Bethany shouted, "Look who I brought home with me!"

When I heard her come in, I assumed she was with Kevin, but since he's often at our apartment, I realized that couldn't be it.

Turns out Bethany's parents flew in to surprise her. They had been planning to go on a cruise this summer for their anniversary and decided to come visit Bethany instead.

It was a shock for all of us except Kevin who has known for weeks that they were coming. He probably should have told me and Erika though, since he gave Bethany's parents our street name but not our apartment number. So her parents walked up and down our street for two hours while we were in class, looking for Bethany and asking every girl they saw who looked like an American college student if she knew Bethany. They also rang doorbells at all the apartments (although they either didn't ring our's or they rang while we were in class).

Anyhow, they're here now and they're staying until Monday. Bethany was booked to go to the Amalfi Coast this weekend, but she cancelled so that she could spend time with her parents and take them to Rome.

I haven't seen much of Bethany or her parents since they got here because they've been out sightseeing, so Erika and I have had the apartment to ourselves the past few days.

We watched "The Hunger Games" on Erika's laptop Thursday night (it was really good, but I would have appreciated it more in a theater... students in Italy can't be choosers). We've also been spending a lot of time dancing around the apartment, listening to "All American," which just dropped Tuesday, so I'm back on a Hoodie Allen kick. I've successfully gotten half our CCI family converted to the Hoodie Mob and it feels pretty good.

Last night we did spend some time with Bethany's parents. They were nice enough to take us to John Lennon's for dessert and pay for both Erika and me. Her parents are both very shy and quiet, so this was the first time I've actually talked to them besides a "Hey, how are you?"

Aside from that and classes, I've been catching up on all the homework I haven't done yet this semester. I did six journal entries for Fabrizio, eight for Fabio, a paper for Francesca, an article for Flo'N The Go magazine, a packet for Gloria, and a Prezi presentation for Fabrizio. The last one was fun to gather material for. I'm doing a presentation on the Dante Plaques, plaques placed around Firenze bearing quotes from Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy." Since I love Dante, this was a really enjoyable project as I wandered around Firenze all day yesterday taking photos of the plaques and of the many other buildings, sculptures, inscriptions, street names, store names, restaurants, and other artifacts paying tribute to the poet they exiled 700 years ago.

BUT *drumroll*

Moving on from Italy, I am currently three hours away from meeting Eva at the train station for our trip to the Pisa Airport from which we will be taking a plane to LIVERPOOL.

That's right, I will be spending the next three days in Liverpool, hometown of my beloved Beatles (and also of the Titanic, but we'll hit that iceberg when we get to it). I'm so excited!!!! My level of emotion right now is so high that I've basically flatlined on the excitement front. I'm numb. I don't know what to do right now. I've just been flitting around the apartment listening to "Please Please Me" (the album, not just the song) and trying to accomplish random things. Like packing, eating, and finishing this Prezi show.

We'll be arriving around 8 p.m., then heading straight to a club where Eva's friend Kev's band is playing. So I'll be spending my first night in Liverpool, in a club, listening to live music by a Scouse band. I can't even.

And of course we booked a Beatles tour of Liverpool and we'll be spending plenty of time at the Cavern Club. And we're staying in a hotel in Merseyside, so Eva and I will literally be walking the very streets and hanging out in the same places the Beatles did when they were our age. I don't know what to do. There is so much emotion right now. I'll probably just cry like I did in Cinque Terre, but worse since I'll be sitting in Strawberry Field eating four of fish after visiting Mendips.

Okay, I'm going to go freak out some more. I'll catch you all Wednesday when I have a tan from standing in the English rain.

Egli è risorto!

He is risen!

As I mentioned in my regular post from yesterday, I attended my first Easter Sunday Catholic mass yesterday. It was quite an experience, but I'm so glad I went.

Since it was raining and we were all tired from Saturday night, I ended up going to mass by myself. After my apartment bailed on me, I realized I would really regret not going to Easter mass in the Duomo (I mean, when will I ever get that chance again?), so I picked up my umbrella again and struck it out alone.

When I got to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, I had a slight panic moment when I couldn't get into the cathedral. I thought maybe I had the wrong time and had missed the last service. I tried all three front doors and all three were locked, with no explanation.

The only people in sight were tourists, so I wandered around to the back door of the Duomo and found a crowd in their Easter best flooding into the cathedral.

I had to go through "security," which was basically two guards questioning everyone who didn't look Italian on why they were there and informing us that the Duomo was closed to anyone not attending mass.

I followed an Asian couple in front of me (since we got questioned at the door together) and sat as close to the front of the sanctuary as I could (about halfway up... it was already packed and I got there about twenty minutes early).

Since I had some time before the service began, I people watched for a little bit, then just admired how mind-numbingly gorgeous the Basilica is. Of all the crazy extravagant churches I've seen in Italy, the Duomo is still one of the most impressive by far.

The organ was playing some familiar hymns as I waited and this - more than anything else this semester - made me feel very homesick. I didn't wish I was home, but it did make me miss Easter at St. Paul's.

Once the service began, it went much like other masses I've attended. It was entirely in Italian, but I was still able to get the gist of things. I could recognize the cadence of the Lord's Prayer enough to recite it in English while listening to the words were recited around me in Italian.

When the priest told the story of the Resurrection, I focused on his words while Pastor Ron's telling of the Easter story played in the back of my mind.

When we stood up for the Passing of the Peace, I shook hands with those around me, answering the congregation's "La pace sia con voi" with my own "And also with you."

All in all, it was a very interesting experience, and I'm so glad I went. There was no way I was going to miss Easter mass in Italia.

I expected this experience to be very different than what I'm used to at St. Paul's and h2o, and it was. It was great though. The only things I really missed (other than being with my families), was the music (there wasn't any at this service, except for the organ before mass) and the congregation. My Catholic roommates laughed when I came home shocked by this, but everyone ran out after the service. I thought maybe it was because there could have been a lot of tourists at this mass, but Bethany and Erika laughed that idea off when I got home. The second mass ended, everyone sprinted for the door. I'm used to the "good-bye tour" lasting at least as long as the service, but I guess that's not the case here.

I did, however, end up talking for a little bit with the couple I sat next to during the service. They had been speaking a foreign language to each other during the service, so I assumed they wouldn't be speaking to me at any point. I was pleasantly surprised though when the wife turned around and said, "So you're American, right?"

I was taken aback and laughed, but we started talking and she and her husband are from San Diego and touring Europe for vacation. I told them about study abroad and we talked a little bit while we waited in line to get out the door.

Crowd departing after mass.

By the time I got home, Bethany and Erika were just about ready to head to dinner. The plan was to meet Kevin and his family, Glenn, and the six-girl apartment for dinner at Gato. However, when we got there, we found that they had ordered without us and not saved us seats. Somewhere along the line, there was a miscommunication and they had thought we were not coming to dinner.

There was no room to sit at their table, so the three of us ended up sitting in another room. We had a good dinner anyhow (I had chicken parm and we all shared a bottle of the house wine) and headed home after.

Today, we didn't have class because of the national holiday. Instead, the three of us and Yelena visited Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens on the other side of the Arno. Bethany and I went to Pitti in the winter before the gardens were open, but this was the first time any of us saw the gardens. The gardens are eleven acres of statues, gardens, fountains, pools, paths, stairways, and more gardens. They are breathtakingly beautiful, overlooking the Duomo, but there is almost too much to see in one day. We spent the whole afternoon there, then got gelato at the Duomo.

Erika, Bethany, Yelena, and me in the Gardens.

Now I have homework to do... We're back to class tomorrow so I need to get back into the school mindset. But at least I had a great weekend and still have a few hours to hang out before I have to talk about communication again tomorrow. And really, I'll still be in Italia, so what is there to complain about?

Final Countdown

Three months down (January, February, March); one month to go. Check it.

• Go to Croatia.   *Booked.
• Go to Germany.   *In the undetermined, post-study abroad future.
• Go to Ireland.   *Someday.
• Go to any other country I can go to.   *Greece, Spain
• Get a touristy photo of me holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• Eat authentic Italian pasta.
• Drink authentic Italian wine.
• Take a Beatles tour of Liverpool.   *Booked.
• Get a photo of me crossing Abbey Road.   *Too expensive. We had to cut this from the England itinerary.
• Take a Harry Potter tour of England.   *Someday.
• Get a photo of me at Platform 9 3/4.   *Someday.
• Strike up a conversation with a local.
• Try to read an Italian newspaper.
• Spend a day just people watching.
• Follow a road just to see where it goes.
• Visit all of the major Italian cities.   *Not happening. There are more than I thought. But Florence, Rome, Assisi, Venice, Milan, Sienna, and Orvieto are checked off.
• Visit Dante Alighieri's house.   
• Swim in the ocean.   *I failed at this in Greece because the water was so cold. But Croatia is in three weeks, so I still have hope.
• Actually see an ocean.   
• Stay in a hostel.   *Several.
• Attend an Italian youth group with Jess and Katy.
• Go to an Easter service in a church older than the United States.   Crossed off as of TODAY!
• Appreciate the fact that I can be in anything older than the United States.
• Get lost without panicking.
• Do something 100% spur-of-the-moment.
• Grocery shop in an open-air market.
• Make one purely selfish and frivolous purchase.   
• Hang my laundry out to dry over the street.   *Not legal in my neighborhood.
• Watch the local news.
• Learn about international communications (duh).   
• Learn at least enough Italian to get by.   
• Learn about art.   
• Live out of a backpack for a weekend.   *Or for a lot of weekends. 
• Go to a pub.   *Oh boy.
• Take more photos than I know what to do with.   *I took so many I broke my camera and had to get a new one. How's that for crossing that puppy off the list?
• Blog every (?) day.   *Like I said last month, I have failed at this. But at least I keep up with this blog.
• Remember to keep my feet off the frescoes.   *I almost want to do this at this point.

Now that my next checklist post will be the final tally, I can say that I feel good about this list. Sure there are a few things that I've discovered just aren't feasible, but I've done so much that wasn't on this list, that my mind is blown by how insane these past three months have been. And I have almost another full month of it. I feel like I might be the luckiest person in the world right now.

Celebrating Easter today made me realize that there's one thing I never would have put on this list that has made all of the places I've been and experiences I've had so much more amazing than I could have hoped. And it's the simple fact that I really do have an honest-to-goodness family here.

I don't know how many of you in my study abroad family read this blog since you're living it with me, and I don't mean to get all Maria here, but I truly believe experiences are shaped almost entirely by who you share them with. It is a testament to how much I love these guys that I'm having as much fun, seeing as much, learning as much, trying as much, and doing as much as I am in Europe.

On this Resurrection Day, the first real holiday I've ever spent away from my family, it's nice to know that I'm still celebrating with loved ones.

... And that's my cheesy message for this blog. Enough of that. Goodnight, everyone. God bless, and blessed Pasqua to you and whomever you choose to share this day with.

Easter Weekend

Buona Pasqua, Regazzi!

Easter wishes to all of my wonderful friends and family! I hope you're all having a blessed day and enjoying quality time with whichever loved ones you have near.

Today is bittersweet since it's my first major holiday away from my family, but also because I'm celebrating Easter in a country that knows how to go all out for the day of our Lord and Savior, surrounded by my new friends and family here in Italia.

So I can't really say I'm missing out, but it's definitely light years away from ham and hairy broccoli at home with the fam.

This has been another relaxing weekend in Firenze (unfortunately also my last weekend here since I'll be travelling all the rest of my weekends). Friday we did some souvenir shopping (I'm still trying to find a leather jacket that I really like, but still no luck so far... I did find a pink one that looked great, but I can't decide yet how I feel about a pink leather jacket... I had my mind set on a more leathery color), ate lunch on the sidewalk seating of a little restaurant near the Duomo (Bethany and I shared penne al salmone and Tuscan bread and tomato soup), did some more shopping, then went home to change before dinner.

Bethany, Erika, Yelena, Kelsey, and I got dinner at Tijuana, one of only two local Mexican restaurants. We've heard rave reviews of Tijuana almost since we arrived in Firenze, but this was our first time testing it out. And it was SO GOOD. Maybe I wouldn't have been so impressed if this wasn't one of the first times in three months that I ate something that wasn't smothered in tomato sauce or olive oil, but the food was excellent. We all started the meal with margaritas (strawberry for me), then I had tostadas for the main course. They were delicious little corn shells filled with rice, beans, lettuce, spicy cheese, guacamole, and shredded pork. I can't remember the last time I was so full, but I know few times have topped the way I felt after those tostadas. We all ate way too much and waddled to the six-girl apartment to recoup before going to a jazz club Erika read about.

The jazz club was a perfect way to relax after our Mexican food babies. We sat on a comfy black couch right beside the stage and were able to just chill and enjoy the calming atmosphere and cool music for a few hours while our food digested. It was a super mellow evening - very different from most of our nights out - and I really enjoyed the change of pace.

Yesterday morning, Bethany and I crossed the Arno in search of an art exhibit called "Cake Thinking," which I'm supposed to review for Flo'n The Go magazine. Unfortunately, when I checked the website to be sure the exhibit was open Easter weekend, the site gave me the green light. But when we got there, it was a different story; the whole gallery was closed.

Instead, we went to La Cita Libreria Cafe, a cozy bookstore/coffee shop that was right up my alley. It had the feel of being in a friend's apartment, with shelves of books, comfy seating, coffee tables decorated with photos and vases, paintings on the walls, and potted plants strewn about. I'd call it Firenze's equivalent of Coffee Buddha, but larger and less secluded. We sipped an Americano (me) and tea (Bethany) while we people-watched (and there were a lot of people to watch).

Eventually, the cafe began getting really crowded, so we left in search of a bakery Bethany found near the Duomo earlier this week. On the way, we stopped in a bookstore and a few other specialty and clothing stores.

The bakery was filled with all kinds of tempting desserts. Bethany and I both ended up getting adorable (and gigantic) Easter Bunny cupcakes to eat in the bakery and peanut butter brownies to take home (PEANUT BUTTER. My first taste of PB since January 7, although I haven't actually eaten it yet; I'm saving it for the opportune moment).

Then last night, we went out. On the way to the six-girl apartment, we ran into an Easter Eve mass ending on the front steps of the Duomo. A giant bonfire burned at the base of the stairs and clergy stood around it reading prayers (or scripture...? Hard to say since it was all Italian.) We watched this for about ten or fifteen minutes before we realized everyone was waiting for us.

From the apartment, we went to Colle Bereto as a CCI group to dance, then from there to YAB (another nightclub) for more dancing. It was a long night, but tons of fun. Oh, and we finally rode the Piazza della Repubblica carousel, which is a very huge deal.

Just look at Lauren's face.

This morning we woke up to a downpour. We weren't sure if this would affect Easter celebrations at the Duomo, so we put up our umbrellas and braved the rain to make certain we wouldn't miss anything. And it's a good thing we went out because, if we hadn't, we probably would have been the only people in Firenze who stayed in. The Duomo was hopping and the crowd was enormous.

We could hear the fireworks blocks away, but couldn't even see the Duomo when we came around the corner because of all the smoke (we arrived a few minutes late). It took awhile to shove our way through the crowd to a decent vantage point because so many people were packed into the piazza.

By the time we got to the Duomo, we had missed the annual parade to the square, but we did catch the firework display and, with all of the people and the excitement, it was a great time. It was too crowded during the show for Erika, Bethany, and I to attempt to find the rest of the group, but we all met up to wish each other Buona Pasqua and do some serious people watching for a little bit after the crowd thinned out a bit.

Now we're split up for the afternoon and I'm home, but the tentative game plan for this evening is mass at the Duomo, then CCI family dinner at Gatto. Hopefully, it will stop raining before then.

Easter crowd at the Duomo. 

And here's a dog wearing a rain suit.

Food Coma

This week has been a great week for food.

It began Tuesday with my first trip to Mama's Bakery. Mama's is our newer newest group obsession, closely following our discovery of the secret bakeries (which I still need to find; it will happen this weekend). We're all homesick for American food. All we've talked about since spring break is chocolate croissants (not technically American, but it's a good pastry, which is all we want right now) and cupcakes, which Italians don't do.

I'm not sure who of our group first discovered Mama's on the far side of the Arno, but it has been a turning point in our study abroad experience.

After hearing tales of cupcakes that taste like the very soil of America (not really), Yelena and I decided that we needed to find these glorious sweets from heaven asap. So after Francesca's class Tuesday, Yelena and I set off with Lindsay and Kristy (adopted members of the CCI family) in search of this baked goodness.

It was a far greater challenge than anticipated. We followed Francesca's directions to cross the bridge to the left of Ponte Vecchio and hang a right, but we didn't come across any bakeries in that whole neighborhood. We stopped every Italian we could find and asked directions, but not a soul had ever even heard of Mama's Bakery.

Without any written directions by which to go, Yelena made the executive decision to call Kevin, who I'm pretty certain has gone to Mama's almost every day since it's discovery. And he pointed us in the wrong direction. It may have had something to do with the fact that Yelena woke him up to ask, or that we can't follow directions, or maybe Kevin just doesn't know his way around that well, but we still couldn't find that mystical bakery.

After about an hour of searching, Lindsay decided to find somewhere we could get wi-fi on her phone and we Google Mapped the bakery.

What should have been a fifteen minute walk from school, turned into over an hour-long adventure, but we made it, and it was worth it.

Since we arrived shortly before closing time, Mama's selection was somewhat pitiful. I had my heart set on red velvet cupcakes, but all that were left were vanilla, chocolate, and one carrot cupcake that Yelena had her hearts set on. Instead of a cupcake, I got chocolate pie with homemade whipped cream, and I didn't regret a bite of it. We were all in cupcake heaven.

I've decided that, not only does Mama's really have the best pastries in Firenze, but it also has one of the best atmospheres. In other shops in Firenze, you stand at the counter to drink your coffee or eat your snack, or you pay, then get out. But Mama's has comfy seating areas with artwork and bookshelves and a lovely back garden. It's like Coffee Buddha in Firenze. I love everything about it.

Then there was Wednesday. No, I did not go back to Mama's, but I did seriously consider it.

Instead, Bethany, Erika, and I went to Lydia's parents' apartment (they're visiting for the week and staying in a crazy luxurious apartment owned by friends) to make cake balls.

I know cake balls are popular, but this was my first time making them. We used red velvet cake brought from America by Lydia's parents (so I got it after all!) to make the little desserts for Lydia and Bethany's Italian class (their professor had never heard of red velvet).

All you do to make cake balls is bake a cake, let it cool, smash it into teeny tiny pieces, mix it in a bowl with frosting, then roll the now sticky cake/icing mixture into little balls, which you chill, dip in melted chocolate, chill again, then eat.

We had a lot of fun making these (it made me homesick for Brownie Nights with my church friends at Kent) and even more fun licking the bowl and eating all the crumbs and "reject" cake balls. I didn't get to eat any of the finished project (damn Italian 2 kids), but from the few tastes I had and the reviews from the lucky ducks who did get to eat all of our hard work, I know they turned out really well.

Then last night, we (my apartment, Kate, and Kristy) returned to Lydia's temporary apartment (it sleeps eight, has a real kitchen and a rooftop terrace) to make dinner for her parents.

We used the same recipes we learned in January when we took a cooking class at In Tavola. Eggplant towers, salad, tomato pasta, and tiramisu, cushioned in lots and lots of wine, olive oil, and bread.

The whole process took about three hours and was a huge production, but we had so much fun. It was also thrilling to be in a kitchen owned and stocked by wealthy Americans. We had a stove! A microwave! Lids for the pots! Knives that cut things! There was an actual strainer for the pasta, a real whisk, mixing bowls, salad tongs, cutting boards, and a number of other cooking aids which none of us had seen of used since leaving America. There was actually a moment when we stood in awed silence of a drawer full of Tupperware and Ziplock bags. How American.

Once everything came together, we set the table and called Lydia's parents to come eat with us. Dinner was delicious and I think Lydia's parents were very impressed by our cooking abilities. After the main course was complete, we cleared the table, then took our tiramisu to the terrace where we sat on the wall and enjoyed a warm April evening high above Firenze. It was a perfect meal and a perfect evening.

Dessert was followed by the arrival of Kelsey and Yelena, who brought face masks to try out while we watched The Godfather. We didn't get far in that though since we were all so full and tired. Halfway through, we called it quits and everyone went home. Better luck another night.

La Viola!

I won't keep you in suspense any longer: we lost.

It was a fun game though. Yelena, Jess, Kate, Kelsey, Megan, Kristy, Bethany, Erika, and I walked to the stadium around 1:00 this afternoon in order to have time to buy our tickets (it's an hour walk from Cerchi to the Fiorentina stadium).

Once at the stadium, it took us awhile to figure out where to go. Every time we tried a new entrance, we found out we had the wrong tickets and were sent elsewhere. We made it almost the entire way around the stadium before someone finally let us in.

Our prize for getting through the very tight security was that each of us received a chocolate Easter egg wrapped in Fiorentina foil. Inside each of our chocolate shells, was a purple plastic Easter egg, and inside that egg was a toy duck. Each of our ducks wore Fiorentina team colors (it's actually Fiorentina Club, by the way; they don't have teams, they have clubs) and was in a different soccer pose (mine is holding the ball over his head).

The game began without much introduction. The team was announced (not individually, but "Here's your Fiorentina team! Ecco il tuo club Fiorentina!"), then the rival team, Chievo, took the field without any fanfare, and the match began.

This was my first time seeing professional soccer, and I'm pretty sure the only other thing I've seen live that might be more intense than this game, is its fans. The Fiorentina fans were nuts. They were on their feet the whole game, no matter what was happening on the field, shouting and gesturing in a way only Italians can. I was surprised by the level of anger toward their own team; the fans would boo and hiss Fiorentina for every wrong move they made and every good move Chievo made. When Chievo scored the first goal of the game, the Fiorentina fans went wild with rage, yelling and even throwing things at the team.

We were down 0-1 going into halftime, and Fiorentina was booed off the field, running into the locker room with their faces covered - less from shame, I think, than as a means of protection from the furious "supporters."

Halftime at this game was much less a spectacle than it would be in America. I'm used to watching pierogi races during the seventh inning stretch at Pirates games and having mascots shoot t-shirts and hotdogs out of cannons at every sporting event I attend (although if you know me, you know I don't attend many). At Fiorentina, there was no entertainment and we all just sat waiting for the second half or went to get drinks and popcorn at the refreshment stands.

When the team took the field again at the start of the second half, Fiorentina was booed again. But they brought it back quickly, tying up the game within a few minutes of returning to the field. The Fiorentina fans went wild again, but this time in a good way, waving flags, clapping, cheering on their team, and singing La Viola!, the Fiorentina fight song.

I enjoyed the match a lot more in the second half, now that we were in the game and the fans weren't so enraged and threatening. Also, Fiorentina was shooting toward the fans (we sat in the Fiorentina fan section), so they spent a lot more time on our side of the field. We came close a few times to scoring a second goal and Artur Boruc, Fiorentina's goalie, managed to make a few great saves.

The next goal came with two minutes left in the game... but it was scored on us. The Fiorentina fans were so outraged that, instead of booing and throwing things like they did the first time Chievo scored, the simply got up and left. A sea of purple supporters simply stood up without a word and moved to the exits, leaving our CCI group setting completely alone on the bleachers in our Stevan Jovetic jerseys, while the real #8 attempted to rally his defeated team on the field.

Jovetic did manage one last near-goal, but Fiorentina failed to bring it back. The players ran off the field after their defeat, covering their heads once again and being shepherded into a quickly constructed tunnel  form the field to the lockers in order to protect the team from any remaining fans.

It was upsetting that our team lost, but it was a good game and a great experience. I definitely had fun, even if none of the Fiorentines did.

Go team! CCI love at the Fiorentina match...
plus some creeper. We can't avoid them.