La Dolce Vita

Gallery: Out and about in Milan

enpowell — Fri, 2 May 2008 04:31:00 GMT

Cinque Terre

enpowell — Fri, 2 May 2008 04:29:00 GMT

After studying for midterms, seven of us decided to take a relaxing vacation in Cinque Terre. It was fun, but not as relaxing as we had hoped, as it involved a lot of waiting for trains and not a lot of sleep. I put pictures up from this trip, as well as from other trips I've taken in the last month or so-check them out!

We left Friday morning, which happened to be a public holiday in Italy. Because of this, the trains were packed-we were standing in the walkways squished in like sardines for the two hour ride to Genova. Luckily on the train from Genova to La Spezia we were able to get a seat. We took a train back to Monterosso and had lunch-delicious! We walked around a bit, took a train to a different town, walked around, got back on a train, etc….the trains were all super packed-I definitely had some claustrophobia issues. The towns were really cute though and the scenery was spectacular. We ended up hiking between two towns along Via dell’amore- it was so beautiful! It started to get dark, so we got on the train to La Spezia, and then took a bus to our hotel. The people that owned it were so nice- they made us a delicious pesto dinner which was accompanied by four bottles of wine. We had a few drinks and played poker after dinner before they kicked us out of the dining room. We went up to our room, tried to play some more cards, but we also had some tequila so we ended up just goofing around until about 4 am. We were supposed to leave at 10:30 the next morning to go to the beach- we didn’t end up leaving until about 3. We finally got to the beach in Forte dei Marmi at about 5 (more waiting for trains!) and waded in the water for awhile, drew in the sand with sticks, and then played soccer. So I’ve only played soccer like 3 times in my entire life, and we were playing with a bunch of Italian guys that have been playing since they could walk-not quite fair! We had a great time though. Then we got ready to go to the club in a beach shack and headed off to town for some dinner. Forte dei Marmi is gorgeous! The buildings were super cute, and if you look down the street one way you see mountains and the other way you see beach. We ended up at the club around midnight, danced and had fun, left at about 3:30 and were dropped off at the train station. We saw that our train was coming at 5:30 so we went to the pizza place/arcade across the street for a snack. We finally wandered back to the train station and realized that the 5:30 train was an arrival, our train didn’t leave until 7:30, so we still had a few hours to kill. We tried to sleep in the station, eventually went to the bar next door when it opened to get some hot chocolate to warm up. We got on the train, got back to our hotel at 9-we were supposed to check out at 10! They let us stay and sleep for awhile, so we ended up leaving at 11:30. We got to the train station and found out that all the trains were full- we eventually found one that left at 2:30. We had an hour or so to kill in Genova once we got there, so we walked down to the harbor. Our train back to Milan was delayed an hour- we ended up not getting back until after 9. Overall, a fabulous weekend-tons of fun!

Gallery: Party in Como

enpowell — Fri, 2 May 2008 04:23:00 GMT

Gallery: Genova/Torino/Milano

enpowell — Fri, 2 May 2008 04:12:00 GMT

Gallery: Amsterdam/Brussels

enpowell — Fri, 2 May 2008 03:59:00 GMT

Gallery: Cinque Terre

enpowell — Fri, 2 May 2008 03:26:00 GMT

quick update

enpowell — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:45:00 GMT

So, long time no update! Nothing super exciting has happened, plus no internet for awhile...sorry.

We are on midterm break right now. I had my finance exam last Tuesday, so the entire week before was spent studying non-stop. Still turned out to be one of the hardest exams I've ever taken...I find out how I did tomorrow, so we'll see...

Other than school, I've just been hanging out...the weather has been kind of iffy- either really nice or really cold and rainy :( I went to a party at a villa on Lake Como a few weeks ago- it was amazing. The villa was beautiful, we had tons of fun :)

Nothing else to say right now-its been a quiet past few weeks...

School, etc...

enpowell — Wed, 2 Apr 2008 07:00:00 GMT

I know it sounds like all I do is travel around Europe…but I actually do go to class occasionally too! School here is a lot different than in the US. Classes are at very strange times, and last for an hour and a half instead of the 50 minutes that I’m used to at home. Sometimes we have class for three hours- its torture! There is no homework, we aren’t even expected to read the book unless we miss lecture. I’m only taking four classes: Corporate Finance, Management of Fashion and Design Companies, International Marketing Research, and Art and Culture. Corporate Finance sucks- its ridiculously hard, I have a lot of studying to do before my midterm in two weeks!! Fashion is really interesting, marketing not so much, though its not too bad. Art and culture has been my favorite class so far- we focus on photography, and the professor is really interesting and thought-provoking. Today we went to a gallery to see a Richard Avedon exhibit- I loved it. I have a few group projects to work on, a midterm in two weeks, but other than that, nothing homework-related until finals in June. It’s going to be hard to go back to Madison where I have tons of reading and midterms and papers to do all the time.

The lack of required homework leaves a lot of free time- time that we fill up by going out A LOT. Some weeks we go out 4 or 5 nights a week, not getting home until 4 or 5 am…its always tons of fun though! I’m taking a break for awhile to study and save some money (clubs in Milan are expensive!), but after exams I’ll probably be back to going out a lot- its too much fun!

I really love living here, I’m already getting sad thinking about coming home, and I still have 3 months! The people here are so nice, so much fun. Italians can’t say my name though-there is no Italian equivalent. I always get funny looks after introducing myself, I have had a few people mimic shooting up heroin (my name sounds kind of like the Italian word for herion!), but people that have studied in the US don’t seem to have a problem with pronouncing it. I’m getting much better at speaking Italian as well, hopefully I’ll continue to improve!

Getting lost in Amsterdam :)

enpowell — Wed, 2 Apr 2008 06:39:00 GMT

When we arrived in Amsterdam at 8 pm, it was freezing cold and raining. We met up with one of Ashley's friends that was also in Amsterdam and she helped us find a hostel-most were already booked. We ended up staying in the Bulldog in the redlight district- it was actually pretty nice. We walked around, got some dinner, took in the craziness that is the red light district of Amsterdam, and then went back to the hostel for some much needed sleep.

Saturday we got up early, met up with Ashley's friends, and went on a free 3 hour tour of the city. We saw a lot of the city and learned a lot of interesting history. After the tour and lunch, we went to the Van Gogh museum, which was amazing! My two favorites weren't there, but Van Gogh is my favorite artist, so it was still incredible to be able to see so much of his work. After the museum, we were exhausted, so we took a nap at the hostel and then got some dinner before going out for Ashley's friend's birthday. We started off at a bar near our hostel, and then went to a bar called Europub in Dam square-totally a surreal experience. There was a mix of really old people and really young people, crazy strobe lights, dancing bartenders, and a disco version of "yellow submarine". I felt like I was in a bad teenage spoof movie...

The next day we went to the Anne Frank house. It was interesting to see, and very sad. I've never read the diary, so I don’t know the entire story- I think the museum would have been a lot more interesting and emotional if I had read it, but it was still a good experience. After getting some lunch, we saw the flower market and then just wandered through the streets, looking at the amazing architecture, getting lost but not caring. All of the canals and houses are adorable! We also saw the coffee shop where part of Ocean’s Twelve was filmed. They had the scene from the movie running on repeat inside, it was awesome to see exactly where they were in the movie.

I loved the atmosphere in Amsterdam- very relaxed, lots of hippies! I have some pins on my purse (or my hippie bag as some call it!)- a yin yang, a “one love” pin, and a John Lennon “imagine peace” pin. I get a lot of strange looks for both the purse and the pins in Italy (no hippies here!), but I got tons of complements on them in Amsterdam. Overall, a fabulously relaxing weekend- I would love to go back!

Quick stop in Brussels

enpowell — Wed, 2 Apr 2008 05:08:00 GMT

Jess, Ashley and I took a trip to Amsterdam this past weekend, with a quick stop in Brussels. It was a hundred euro cheaper to fly into Brussels and then take the train to Amsterdam as opposed to flying right into Amsterdam, so we thought that would be a good idea. We were starving by the time we got to the city, so we set off in search of fries and waffles (Belgium is famous for these two foods, so we had to try them!). We eventually found a restaurant that served both, so we ate there-delicious! There was a chocolate shop across the street, so we went in and sampled some delicious Belgian chocolates. Then we got lost in the maze of confusing, unlabled streets until we finally found Grand-Place, the city's main square. The buildings around the square were beautiful, very ornate. They used to be guild houses, do we did a quick "lollipop guild" dance in the middle of the square and then headed back to the train station. We got there just after the train to Amsterdam left and had an hour to kill, so we had a quick beer in the bar and then got on our train. When we first got on, the train was pretty empty, so we didn't have trouble finding seats. They were nice and comfy, and the car was very spacious- we were very impressed! We ended up talking to some business men sitting across the aisle from us-the conversation somehow got to be about global warming and how the US is the cause of most of the pollution,etc...we basically ended up looking like stereotypical naive Americans because the guys we were talking to worked for NATO and were incredibly well informed. Things got worse when they came to check our tickets- we were informed that we had second class tickets but were sitting in first class and needed to move-further reinforcing our stupidity to everyone else in our car. We headed over to second class-it was full! People were standing in the aisles, doorways, etc. Luckily a bunch of people got off at the next stop and we were able to find seats for the remaining 2 hours of our journey to Amsterdam....

Bergamo/Genova

enpowell — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 09:23:00 GMT

After a few weekends of big trips, I decided to take it easy for the first part of spring break and just relax. Friday I went to a house party that one of my friends had-tons of fun! Saturday and Sunday I just chilled at the apartment to recover from said party (plus, everything was closed on Sunday because of Easter, so I didn’t have much choice!). My friend Tania came over and made us some delicious Russian soup on Sunday, so in return, I made her some mac and cheese that my mom had sent me. Her reaction was priceless- she thought it was the best thing ever and was already asking me to send some to her when she gets back to Russia!

On Monday, Tania, Jess and I took a trip to Bergamo, which is a little town about an hour outside of Milan. It was so cute! There is a newer part of the city at the base of a hill, and the old Venetian city (citta’ alta) is on the hill, with the old wall still going around it. We didn’t do much in Bergamo, just wandered through the cute old cobblestone streets, and enjoyed the views of the mountains and the city below.

On Wednesday, the three of us went to Genova for a few hours. The weather was beautiful, so we had lunch outside at a little restaurant on the harbor (delicious pesto and tiramisu!). Then we walked down the harbor a bit and went to the aquarium. It was definitely not the Shed Aquarium, but fun anyway. After the aquarium, we just walked around a bit more, sat by the water, and enjoyed the beautiful weather before heading back to the train station to make it home in time to go out J

Everyone's Irish on March 17th!

enpowell — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 08:42:00 GMT

So, I found out on St. Patty’s Day last year that I got accepted into the Milan study abroad program, and immediately started planning to spend the next St. Patty’s Day in Dublin-and I did just that! The celebration was on Monday, so Jess and I decided to spend Sunday through Tuesday in Ireland. Unfortunately, we made the incredibly stupid decision to go out on Saturday night, come home at 5:30 am, and leave for the airport at 7 am….no sleep before our trip! We were exhausted when we finally got to Dublin, but found a pub for lunch (huge lunch! Roast beef, mashed potatoes, etc-delicious!) where we were joined by an old Irish lady who had lived in Dublin her entire life, and told us where to go and what to see. We then ventured over to our “hotel” (it was a room in a guesthouse above a pub-we actually had to go into a crowded bar to check in!) and took a nap. We got up, wandered down to the Temple Bar area, which was crawling with tourists, got a shamrock shake at McDonald’s and headed back to the hotel to sleep and rest up for St. Patty’s Day.

We got up early on Monday and walked down to O’Connell St. to get a good place for the parade. After about 5 minutes of walking, we decided that we were not dressed obnoxiously enough, so we stopped to get some headbands (leprechaun hats and shamrocks) as well as feather boas, and then found a place right in front to watch the parade…2 hours early! It was freezing, but the parade was well worth the wait, and people watching in the huge crowd helped the time go by quickly. The parade was long- lots of marching bands!- but entertaining. There were groups from all over the country dressed up in crazy outfits doing crazy dances. After the parade, we found a little pub for lunch. I had a huge juicy burger, which was fabulous-they don’t have burgers in Italy! Jess and I each had a pint of Smithwick’s with lunch (yum!) intending that to be our only beer at this pub-we wanted to try some other pubs. However, we met some guys from New Zealand who bought us a round-which turned into 6 or 7 more!- so we ended up not leaving the pub until midnight. We had a great time though- the guys were hilarious, we had some good beer, listened to some good music- all around it was a good day!

Sunday we explored St. Stephen’s Green for awhile- it was beautiful! We stopped by Trinity College and Christ Church Cathedral on the way to the Guinness Storehouse. The Storehouse was amazing- we saw Guinness’s lease of the brewery (for 9000 years!) and then walked through an exhibit describing how Guinness is made, and another exhibit with all of the marketing that Guinness has done ( I was in heaven! Beer AND marketing!) The best part of the tour was in the Gravity bar on the 7^th floor of the storehouse- there was a 360 degree view of Dublin accompanied by a free pint of fresh Guinness that ended up being quite a delicious breakfast/lunch, and the perfect way to end St. Patty’s Day in Ireland!

Gallery: Dublin: Everyone's Irish on March 17th!

enpowell — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:26:00 GMT

Me encanta Barcelona!

enpowell — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 05:25:00 GMT

I love Barcelona!! I never had any intention of going to Spain, but I found some cheap tickets, so Jess and I decided to go…it was fantastic! We left early Saturday morning (and I mean EARLY- I woke up at 1:30 am-earlier than my normal bedtime!), flew out of Bergamo airport. While we were waiting to board our flight, we met a nice guy from Milan named Alex. We told him that we are headed to Dublin next week, and wouldn’t stop talking about all the things we should do there! We also met another guy named Maurizio on the plane, who lived in Barcelona for two years. Luckily he was able to help us find a bus to Barcelona (we flew into Girona) and helped us find the metro once we got into the city. The drive in (at least what I saw of it) was beautiful, as is the entire city.

Jess and I headed over to our hostel right away (Alberg Barcelona Parre Terres) which was really nice-new and clean and friendly staff. We then found a little restaurant down the street to have lunch-delicious! We then went downtown to wander around, starting on La Rambla, Barcelona’s main drag. There were tons of little shops and street performers. We stopped to watch some guys doing gymnastics/human pyramid stunts (which apparently Barcelona is famous for) –they were quite impressive. After awhile, they started trying to get money from the crowd, so we left and wandered down to the port. There is a huge statue of Christopher Columbus next to the beautiful yellow port house, right off of a palm tree-lined street. We continued on to a little bridge thing along the harbor, where there were a bunch of shops and restaurants. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, so we sat out on the bridge for awhile to people watch. We started to get a bit hungry, so we headed back to La Rambla to find a snack at El Mercado La Boqueria- so cool! It was like a huge farmer’s market-there were stalls with fruit, some with meat, some with fish, others with chocolate-all set up in a way that made them look like works of art, not food vendors. We saw every kind of meat, fish and fruit imaginable. In the end, we bought some fresh strawberries, a seven euro chocolate (so delicious-worth every penny!), and a cactus flower fruit (very pretty, but didn’t taste so good-mush with and aftertaste of green peppers). We took our food and ate it in a little plaza in the sun. We then decided to find the chocolate museum, stopping on the way to see the Arc de Trionf. The Arc was quite impressive, and there was a little plaza behind it surrounded by beautiful buildings and palm trees. After resting there for a bit, we continued on to the chocolate museum, which was actually quite disappointing. I thought there would be samples, but instead it was sculptures people had made out of chocolate. Some of them were quite intricate and kind of impressive, but it seemed like a waste to me to be using all that chocolate for something other than eating!

After being outside all day-and having gotten up at 1:30 am!- Jess and I were quite exhausted by this point, so we headed back to the hostel for a nap-it was quite possibly the best nap I have ever taken! We got up around 9 and set off-yet again- in search of some food. We tried to find a place that one of my friends had recommended, but instead wandered around lost in the beautiful, but confusing, maze of streets that is La Ribera area. Eventually, our hunger won out, and we stopped at a random tapas restaurant-it ended up being the best meal we had in Barcelona! We had 5 cold tapas and 5 hot tapas-all delicious. The cold ones were boquerones in vinegar (white anchovies-I was nervous to try them, but loved them!), tuna in a tomato, potatoes in some sort of delicious vinegary sauce, ham, and a summer salad. The hot ones were a Spanish omelet, two kinds of delicious Catalan sausage, a meat/veggie kebab, and something fried with cheese (best one by far, but we don’t know what it was! Jess calls it the mystery nug!). At about 12:30 we finished eating and wandered through the little cobblestone streets back to our hostel for some much needed sleep.

When we were getting breakfast the next morning, I ran into my friend Sarah! I knew she was going to be in Barcelona, but I had no idea she was at the same hostel! We talked for awhile, and then split up to go explore the city. Jess and I started our day by going to La Sagrada Familia, a huge cathedral designed by Gaudí that was started in the late 1800’s, is still under construction, and not scheduled to be finished until 2026. It was ridiculously impressive-it reminded me of a sandcastle. The façade that Gaudí worked on (the nativity scene) was so intricate and ornate, I just had to sit and stare at it for awhile. After admiring the cathedral, we decided to see some more Gaudí work and headed over to see La Casa Mila, which is an apartment building inspired by the sea. All of the walls are wavy and the balconies look like seaweed. We continued on to La Manzana, which is a street that has three clashing architectural styles right next to each other. One of the buildings is a Gaudí building, with lots of curves and colors and mosaics. The one next to it is Moorish, but was under construction, so we couldn’t see it. I don’t actually remember what the third one looked like….must not have been too impressive!

We then took a funicular up the side of a hill on the outskirts of the city, and then got in a cable car which took up to Castell de Montjuic on the top of the hill. The castle itself wasn’t took impressive, but the views were spectacular! We could see the Mediterranean and all of Barcelona (which is much bigger than I thought!) The castle was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. We sat on the wall of the castle for awhile and just looked out over the city, and then rode the cable car back down. We then sat in Parc de la Ciutadella for awhile, where there were a lot of cool trees and flowers and buildings-and lots of interesting people to watch! Then we went to the Picasso museum, where they have a lot of Picasso’s early works. It was interesting to see his planning process and how he evolved from an incredibly talented realist painter into the surrealist painter that he is famous for being. The special exhibit at the museum was Picasso’s private art collection, which included works by Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, and many other famous artists, and many of the works were personally addressed to Picasso. We had a quick bite to eat (delicious veal and pear stew for me!) and then headed back to see La Sagrada Familia at night. When we got back to the hostel, Sarah and her friends were there, so we sat and talked to them for awhile (we always have trouble getting together at home, but we got to hang out in Barcelona!) and then went to sleep so we could catch our 6 am Monday morning flight to be back in Milan in time for classes.

Sorry this has been so long, but I absolutely loved Barcelona-and the pictures I put up just don’t do it justice! The city had a different vibe than Milan- there was color, and funky art, and more relaxed people. We had some trouble communicating-the official language is Catalan, which seems to be a mix of Spanish and French, but most people also speak Spanish. Unfortunately, my eight years of Spanish seem to have been a waste, as I could not remember how to say a single thing-Italian kept popping into my head! I wasn’t too upset by this though, because it means that I am finally really learning Italian!!

Gallery: Barcelona!

enpowell — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:19:00 GMT

Gallery: Firenze

enpowell — Wed, 5 Mar 2008 07:23:00 GMT

Firenze!

enpowell — Sun, 2 Mar 2008 18:17:00 GMT

Classes started last week, so I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t had time for an update lately! I’ll write more about that later-but first Florence!

We left last Saturday morning to go to Florence-we were tired from going out the night before, but we had four hours to sleep on the train. We checked in to our hostel right away (Hostel Archi Rossi) and wandered through the cobblestone streets to find some lunch. After a delicious meal of spinach ravioli in creamy walnut sauce, we continued wandering the streets, occasionally stopping at stalls in the market and stores, until we reached the Duomo. It was beautiful, inside and out. We decided to climb up to the top of the dome-the 463 stairs didn’t seem so bad at the bottom. They were narrow and windy though-it was hard for me to not freak out from being claustrophobic. We walked inside around the dome and looked at the surprisingly scary paintings-lots of people getting killed and devoured by creepy alien looking creatures. We continued on up toward the top, with the walls becoming slanted as the dome curved more. When we made it to the top, the view was breathtaking, and the long climb was definitely worth it. We then climbed back down and continued to wander around the city. After awhile, we decided to take a nap, and after doing so, we had dinner at a cute little restaurant, decorated in bright colors. That night, we went to a club called Space Electronica (definitely not as good as the clubs in Milan!) but we had fun anyway. On Sunday, we hiked up to Piazzale Michaelangelo and took in the spectacular views of the city. We stayed up there almost all day, enjoying the warmth and sun before heading back to Milan. Overall, it was a fantastic weekend! I’ll have pictures up soon!

The only thing missing: George Clooney

enpowell — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:32:00 GMT

Saturday we traveled north to Lake Como, which was just a short half hour train ride from Milan. Jess and I were pretty optimistic that we might see George Clooney, as he has a house on the lake, so we decided to hop on a bus going to Bellagio (where George supposedly lives!). The bus ride was over an hour long, but definitley not a waste of time! We drove along winding roads that hugged the curves in the mountain, and we were able to see down to the houses on the shore, up to the houses closer to the top of the mountain, as well as across the lake to the little towns there. Everything was beautiful-the scenery, the lake, the houses. Our bus driver was the friendliest man I've ever met-he knew everyone in all the little towns along the way, and was constantly slowing down to smile and wave at someone he knew, sometimes leaning out the window to finish the conversation as we drove away.

We got off the bus in Bellagio, which is quite possibly the most beautiful town I've ever seen. We walked around in some gardens near the shore of the lake, went down to the shore to touch the water (FREEZING!) and then set off to find some lunch. We wandered throught the tiny, uphill, cobblestone streets until we found a little place called Art in Flower Cafe. We ordered some delicious paninis (mine consisted of artichokes, bacon, and tartar sauce-not a combination I ever thought I would eat, but I thouroughly enjoyed it!) and chatted with our waiter. He kept asking us questions about the states, and did not hesitate to voice his opinions about American politics (the Italians like Obama because he is charming and nice and they don't want any more war, they don't like Hillary because she is mean, though they do like Mr.Clinton because he is nice and likes sex like the Italians do!). After a bit more chatting and eating, we continued to wander around the town, occasionally stopping along the shore to take in the breathtaking scenery (I put some pictures up, but they really don't do it justice). We finally started to get a little cold, so we bussed back down to Como, wandered around there for a bit, and then came back home. It was a fantastic day-the only thing missing was George Clooney, though I might not have appreciated the scenery so much had he been around ;)

Gallery: Lago di Como

enpowell — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:12:00 GMT

Our beautiful day at the lake lacked only one thing-a George Clooney sighting!

Partyin' it up in Milano

enpowell — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:57:00 GMT

So Tuesday and Wednesday night I discovered why Milan is famous for its nightlife...Two student groups were having welcome/get to know you parties at clubs. We went to Lollapaloosa on Tuesday night, met some Americans from other universities, met some cute Italian boys, and danced for awhile. It was a pretty chill club, smaller and cute, but at 11 things got a little crazy. The bartenders started ringing bells and swinging the lights around and pulling people up to dance on the bar. I didn't, but Ashley and Laura did. Wednesday we went to Old Fashion Cafe, which was not as cute, but much larger. We met a ton of people from Bocconi and danced the night away to a mix of Spanish music and old school American dance songs. Overall, a good night, pretty crazy at times though :) Thursday we celebrated Valentine's day by shopping and watching chick flicks to recover from the previous two nights....I was completely exhausted, I don't know how people here go out every night of the week, but somehow they manage...