Kate and Caty
Kate and Caty
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Ooh, burn!
Sitting on some rocks in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea reading a book: sounds pretty amazing, right? Well, it was.
Vanessa, Caitie, and I decided to venture out today and conquer something none of us have yet to do. The thought of using the train system in Florence without any sort of tour guide was frightening to me. Even a few setbacks, like almost getting on the wrong train, didn't stop us from achieving what we wanted. This is credited to the people of Italy. Let me explain.
We were able to purchase our tickets for only 9 Euros and validate them without any problems. Then, when the time came to board our train, we naturally went to the train that showcased "Livorno," which was our destination. We even checked the platform number on the corresponding screen. However, when we were boarding, an older Italian man who clearly did not work for the train system, asked to see our tickets. He was not begging for money, or trying to sell us things, and we were in a very public area, so we let him look at our tickets as he insisted. Speaking only Italian, he was conveying that we were on the wrong train and needed to go on the other one, which when he pointed to, had a different city name. We immediately assumed he was wrong but continued to give him the time of day because he was very persistent about us boarding the other train. After 5 minutes of communicating through gestures and picking apart random words that I recognized from the French language, we figured out he was right. He must've known that foreigners commonly make the mistake, and he was nice enough to guide us in the right way. Point 1 for friendly, helpful Italians!
Point 2 comes after we had arrived in Livorno an hour and a half later. We went through the station only to get outside on the wrong side, where there were empty parking lots and only a few people navigating about. Luckily, a younger Italian man saw our confusion. He immediately came over to us with a big smile and knew we could use his help. He knew a lot of English, so this communication was smoother for us. He directed us to go through the station to the complete other side and that we needed to purchased bus tickets for bus number 1 in order to get to the beach. How awesome and helpful once again!
We made it to the beach in time to lay out, read, swim, be silly, and take pictures for a full 2-3 hours. After gaining our "American sunburns" (don't worry Mom, mine isn't too bad :)), we then made our way to a gelato shop to sit down and relax some more. On our way, we came across a dog beach, and watching this hilarious show of dogs swimming in the water, barking at each other, and being playful made me miss my very own 2 yellow labs. There was one specific yellow lab that kept pestering/taunting a small, yappy dog in the water by acting like he was going to steal his ball. The smaller dog kept barking at the yellow lab every time it made the attempt. Caitie and I found this to be extremely hilarious, and Caitie even added her own soundtrack to what the dogs were saying, which made me roar into even more laughter. After a short while, we decided it was time to make our way back to the train station.
What a day it was, indeed, but I have to give the credit of this splendid day to the helpful, friendly Italians who truly made this trip possible. Without them, we would have run into some serious problems- like possibly ending up in the wrong city!
Gratzie, Italy for such a grand time today!
Fino a domani,
Steph
Vanessa, Caitie, and I decided to venture out today and conquer something none of us have yet to do. The thought of using the train system in Florence without any sort of tour guide was frightening to me. Even a few setbacks, like almost getting on the wrong train, didn't stop us from achieving what we wanted. This is credited to the people of Italy. Let me explain.
We were able to purchase our tickets for only 9 Euros and validate them without any problems. Then, when the time came to board our train, we naturally went to the train that showcased "Livorno," which was our destination. We even checked the platform number on the corresponding screen. However, when we were boarding, an older Italian man who clearly did not work for the train system, asked to see our tickets. He was not begging for money, or trying to sell us things, and we were in a very public area, so we let him look at our tickets as he insisted. Speaking only Italian, he was conveying that we were on the wrong train and needed to go on the other one, which when he pointed to, had a different city name. We immediately assumed he was wrong but continued to give him the time of day because he was very persistent about us boarding the other train. After 5 minutes of communicating through gestures and picking apart random words that I recognized from the French language, we figured out he was right. He must've known that foreigners commonly make the mistake, and he was nice enough to guide us in the right way. Point 1 for friendly, helpful Italians!
Point 2 comes after we had arrived in Livorno an hour and a half later. We went through the station only to get outside on the wrong side, where there were empty parking lots and only a few people navigating about. Luckily, a younger Italian man saw our confusion. He immediately came over to us with a big smile and knew we could use his help. He knew a lot of English, so this communication was smoother for us. He directed us to go through the station to the complete other side and that we needed to purchased bus tickets for bus number 1 in order to get to the beach. How awesome and helpful once again!
We made it to the beach in time to lay out, read, swim, be silly, and take pictures for a full 2-3 hours. After gaining our "American sunburns" (don't worry Mom, mine isn't too bad :)), we then made our way to a gelato shop to sit down and relax some more. On our way, we came across a dog beach, and watching this hilarious show of dogs swimming in the water, barking at each other, and being playful made me miss my very own 2 yellow labs. There was one specific yellow lab that kept pestering/taunting a small, yappy dog in the water by acting like he was going to steal his ball. The smaller dog kept barking at the yellow lab every time it made the attempt. Caitie and I found this to be extremely hilarious, and Caitie even added her own soundtrack to what the dogs were saying, which made me roar into even more laughter. After a short while, we decided it was time to make our way back to the train station.
What a day it was, indeed, but I have to give the credit of this splendid day to the helpful, friendly Italians who truly made this trip possible. Without them, we would have run into some serious problems- like possibly ending up in the wrong city!
Gratzie, Italy for such a grand time today!
Fino a domani,
Steph
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Where are we? Do you hear that?
I completely realize that this title sounds like the set up for some kind of horror movie, but everyone can relax because I can promise you that it is the exact opposite! While you travel you learn things about yourself and what is comforting to you. I have had experience of both of these while being in Italy.
The main thing I've learned about myself is that I have a good memory when it comes to getting around a city. For the first week, we relied heavily on maps to find where to go, but now that we have walked around quite a bit I can remember where things are or where we have been before. Now you might be thinking that this isn't all that special, but when you're in a brand new city and especially in Florence things can tend to blend together. The thing is that I couldn't tell you the street name or even the direction that we are headed in, but I can tell you that the Arno is over there so if we are going to the Duomo then we have to go that way. On top of that, it seems to be easy for me to recognize streets. Not street names, those are a lost cause for me, but the streets themselves. I'm not sure if it's the shops or buildings, but I can tell you if we have been down a certain street or not.
I feel that this has really helped me on this trip because it can be really easy to get turned around (which has happened to me a couple of times) so when other girls are a little confused I can help get us back on track. It also gives me a certain self-confidence that I didn't have at the beginning of this trip. The downside is I have to walk in front a lot which makes talking kind of difficult (another thing I'm really good at)!
A thing that everyone gets warned about before coming abroad is culture shock and how to deal with it. While I've been in Italy, I've found my comfort for my culture shock: music. The Italians play quite a bit of American music and of course there are pros and cons to that, but for me it helps a ton! The fact that I can walk into a cafe and hear Justin Timberlake's Mirrors is so refreshing. They play top 40 (some pop, some rap) but they also play quite a bit of classic rock (nothing like a little Don't Stop Believin' to get you through) While your abroad you are inundated with so much culture and some of it is similar to your own, but a majority of it will at least feel different. So, when you are in this world of different and you hear a familiar tune it's bound to make you feel a little more at home.
Now we are well in to our second week and it has been so much fun. Yet, I can't lie I am really starting to miss home and can't wait to see everyone!
Ciao!
Caitie
The main thing I've learned about myself is that I have a good memory when it comes to getting around a city. For the first week, we relied heavily on maps to find where to go, but now that we have walked around quite a bit I can remember where things are or where we have been before. Now you might be thinking that this isn't all that special, but when you're in a brand new city and especially in Florence things can tend to blend together. The thing is that I couldn't tell you the street name or even the direction that we are headed in, but I can tell you that the Arno is over there so if we are going to the Duomo then we have to go that way. On top of that, it seems to be easy for me to recognize streets. Not street names, those are a lost cause for me, but the streets themselves. I'm not sure if it's the shops or buildings, but I can tell you if we have been down a certain street or not.
I feel that this has really helped me on this trip because it can be really easy to get turned around (which has happened to me a couple of times) so when other girls are a little confused I can help get us back on track. It also gives me a certain self-confidence that I didn't have at the beginning of this trip. The downside is I have to walk in front a lot which makes talking kind of difficult (another thing I'm really good at)!
A thing that everyone gets warned about before coming abroad is culture shock and how to deal with it. While I've been in Italy, I've found my comfort for my culture shock: music. The Italians play quite a bit of American music and of course there are pros and cons to that, but for me it helps a ton! The fact that I can walk into a cafe and hear Justin Timberlake's Mirrors is so refreshing. They play top 40 (some pop, some rap) but they also play quite a bit of classic rock (nothing like a little Don't Stop Believin' to get you through) While your abroad you are inundated with so much culture and some of it is similar to your own, but a majority of it will at least feel different. So, when you are in this world of different and you hear a familiar tune it's bound to make you feel a little more at home.
Now we are well in to our second week and it has been so much fun. Yet, I can't lie I am really starting to miss home and can't wait to see everyone!
Ciao!
Caitie
"Hey I'm walking here!"
If you have ever been to a big city in America you know how crazy drivers can get, but they have nothing on the Florentines. Now that we have been here in Florence for a while we had seen and experienced our share of Italian driving and I have to say it was a bit scary. Now this is not to say that Italian drivers are crazy or scary, just that they way Florence is set up makes it a challenging job. Not only for the drivers, but for pedestrians too!
Let me set the scene: the roads are just big enough for a bus to get through and mainly go only one way, the sidewalks are a tiny strips of concrete, and the amount of pedestrians generally outnumber how many should be on these tiny strips of sidewalk. If you can image this, you can picture Florence.
Now if you are picturing these tiny streets you can only imaging what it is like to navigate through them. Well let me explain it to you. With the sidewalks being narrow pieces of land and with the amount of people on the sidewalks making it hard for everyone to fit, this means that people are walking on the streets. Now this is a dangerous situation in any city, but especially in Florence. With the one way streets, barely big enough for the buses, walking in the street leads to a high probability of getting honked (hence my clever, movie quoted title). Now as a pedestrian I think that we obviously own the road and naturally everyone should yield to us walkers; however, after riding in a cab through these lovely streets I think that all the pedestrians should be moving themselves off the streets, they clearly belong to the drivers. Now as you can tell neither one of these thoughts can be correct since they so obviously contradict themselves, so how does one navigate the streets of Florence?
What a loaded question that is, not one I can easily answer either. Since being here I have notice that the Italians seem to be very patience people, which is great because as someone from another country I am generally too busy looking at the beautiful city of Florence to realize that I am in the street. I tend to get told from our fellow bloggers here, that there is a car coming. This means that I am that annoying person in the street that the drivers have to wait on to move--the person I hate when I am the one riding in a car; however, out of all the times I have been caught in the street I have yet to be honked at, proving the amazing patience of the Florentines. So it seems that the drivers know that at times pedestrians have to be on the streets and the pedestrians have to realize that they need to do the best they can to stay out of the way of cars. Like most situations a compromise yields the best results.
So what does this all mean? Well it really just means that I am not accustom to pedestrians and cars being so close to one and other and to me this is crazy and a little scary at times. However, like all the other cultural barriers this is just one more thing that we have learned from and adapted to. Living in cultures outside your own will always be different and it is the adaptability of a person that can make or break the experience.
Let me set the scene: the roads are just big enough for a bus to get through and mainly go only one way, the sidewalks are a tiny strips of concrete, and the amount of pedestrians generally outnumber how many should be on these tiny strips of sidewalk. If you can image this, you can picture Florence.
Now if you are picturing these tiny streets you can only imaging what it is like to navigate through them. Well let me explain it to you. With the sidewalks being narrow pieces of land and with the amount of people on the sidewalks making it hard for everyone to fit, this means that people are walking on the streets. Now this is a dangerous situation in any city, but especially in Florence. With the one way streets, barely big enough for the buses, walking in the street leads to a high probability of getting honked (hence my clever, movie quoted title). Now as a pedestrian I think that we obviously own the road and naturally everyone should yield to us walkers; however, after riding in a cab through these lovely streets I think that all the pedestrians should be moving themselves off the streets, they clearly belong to the drivers. Now as you can tell neither one of these thoughts can be correct since they so obviously contradict themselves, so how does one navigate the streets of Florence?
What a loaded question that is, not one I can easily answer either. Since being here I have notice that the Italians seem to be very patience people, which is great because as someone from another country I am generally too busy looking at the beautiful city of Florence to realize that I am in the street. I tend to get told from our fellow bloggers here, that there is a car coming. This means that I am that annoying person in the street that the drivers have to wait on to move--the person I hate when I am the one riding in a car; however, out of all the times I have been caught in the street I have yet to be honked at, proving the amazing patience of the Florentines. So it seems that the drivers know that at times pedestrians have to be on the streets and the pedestrians have to realize that they need to do the best they can to stay out of the way of cars. Like most situations a compromise yields the best results.
So what does this all mean? Well it really just means that I am not accustom to pedestrians and cars being so close to one and other and to me this is crazy and a little scary at times. However, like all the other cultural barriers this is just one more thing that we have learned from and adapted to. Living in cultures outside your own will always be different and it is the adaptability of a person that can make or break the experience.
Monday, June 3, 2013
A Sunday at Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens
View of the Palazzo Pitti from Boboli Gardens
Kate, Caitie, Steph, Vanessa
Walking through Boboli Gardens
View of Florence from Boboli Gardens
Peonies in Boboli Gardens
Catt
Sunday, June 2, 2013
A Saturday in Fiesole
View from a park in Fiesole
View from a park in Fiesole
Caitie, Vanessa, Caty
Vanessa
Rachel
Caitie
On a monastery in Fiesole
Buying jewelry from a man who has been selling in this spot for many, many years.
Lunch
View from the Fiesole Museum (filled with Etruscan artifacts)
Falling for Firenze
The people are what make Florence what it is. Yes, we are surrounded by some of the world's most beautiful art, but the people give it energy. The last several days I have found it easy to let the works of Michelangelo envelope me - which is exactly what I wanted even before we landed in Italy. I have been seeing works of art that I have studied in class and seen in books that I have wanted to see for years. The last two nights something almost more beautiful than the art clicked for me. Last night we were walking through one of Piazzas. It was dark and the city was alive. Street vendors were throwing these light up toys in the air, creating this show of colorful dancing light. People were dressed up ready to enjoy what the evening had to offer. People on bicycles flew by as though they were riding quickly on wings of an eagle. Everything was fast and seemed effortless in its swiftness.
This evening as we were walking back from south of the Arno we explored the area around the Ponte Vecchio we couldn't help but feel the energy emanating from everyone just soaking in the evening. Today has been our first sunny and warm day since we have been here. The bridge was swarming with tourists, with very few people speaking the same tongue. As we moved through crowd I made a couple interesting observations. All of the tourists understand how wonderful a place Italy is, offering to take pictures for each other. Couples in love, families vacationing together, and friends enjoying the evening all crowd to enjoy the river as a local musician plays in the setting sun. Everything seems to picturesque. The artists of the city have emptied from the seams in hopes that a willing tourist will purchase some of their work. And right beside the many talented men and women creating quasi-orginal work are the street vendors lining up their poster prints of the famous artwork that reside inside the city walls. New and old collide everywhere you go. Originals and reproductions find a way to live side by side.
Today we toured the museum in the Palazzo Pitti where art seemed to be overlapping and layered on top of other art. The palace is beautiful and there isn't a single square foot of wall that isn't covered by an important work of art. I couldn't help but notice as I walked through its hallways that the artwork was hanging on walls that had been placed in front of the original walls of the palace. The walls beneath are obviously ornate, but has been transformed into a museum for the masses to explore. This represents Florence and Italy in a peculiar way. You have this city that is full of antiquity and beauty, yet it is unlikely that you will go down a street without finding graffiti. We have talked in class about why this is. Native Italians live amongst all of this perceivable beauty, growing up almost blind to it. So it makes sense that graffiti is on some of the oldest walls, and painting cover up paintings. There is so much art, but what is even more beautiful are the people that fill the cities. The people who congregate to see some of the greatest creations brought about by the hands of a human being. One of the first nights in Italy we "talked" with a group of women in a small hill town. We didn't understand a word they said, but their presence welcomed us more than I am sure they realized. Humanity speaks louder than art, it just takes a moment (or a week) to really breathe it in.
This evening as we were walking back from south of the Arno we explored the area around the Ponte Vecchio we couldn't help but feel the energy emanating from everyone just soaking in the evening. Today has been our first sunny and warm day since we have been here. The bridge was swarming with tourists, with very few people speaking the same tongue. As we moved through crowd I made a couple interesting observations. All of the tourists understand how wonderful a place Italy is, offering to take pictures for each other. Couples in love, families vacationing together, and friends enjoying the evening all crowd to enjoy the river as a local musician plays in the setting sun. Everything seems to picturesque. The artists of the city have emptied from the seams in hopes that a willing tourist will purchase some of their work. And right beside the many talented men and women creating quasi-orginal work are the street vendors lining up their poster prints of the famous artwork that reside inside the city walls. New and old collide everywhere you go. Originals and reproductions find a way to live side by side.
Today we toured the museum in the Palazzo Pitti where art seemed to be overlapping and layered on top of other art. The palace is beautiful and there isn't a single square foot of wall that isn't covered by an important work of art. I couldn't help but notice as I walked through its hallways that the artwork was hanging on walls that had been placed in front of the original walls of the palace. The walls beneath are obviously ornate, but has been transformed into a museum for the masses to explore. This represents Florence and Italy in a peculiar way. You have this city that is full of antiquity and beauty, yet it is unlikely that you will go down a street without finding graffiti. We have talked in class about why this is. Native Italians live amongst all of this perceivable beauty, growing up almost blind to it. So it makes sense that graffiti is on some of the oldest walls, and painting cover up paintings. There is so much art, but what is even more beautiful are the people that fill the cities. The people who congregate to see some of the greatest creations brought about by the hands of a human being. One of the first nights in Italy we "talked" with a group of women in a small hill town. We didn't understand a word they said, but their presence welcomed us more than I am sure they realized. Humanity speaks louder than art, it just takes a moment (or a week) to really breathe it in.
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