Northern Trip I
Okay... so it's about time I get this thing updated. About two weeks ago now (how scary is that?!) on a Tuesday morning at 6 AM, we departed for our tour of northern Italy. My roommates and I went to bed at around 2:30, and woke up at 5 to make sure we had everything ready in time. Okay, so it wasn't the best night of sleep... but there wasn't a whole lot we could do about it. I was happy to be up, though, because Tim called on Skype, which was exciting! Skype kept cutting out, though, which was amusing at first but swiftly grew more and more frustrating. After getting entirely disconnected three times, I realized that there was no way we'd be able to say goodbye, which was sad... so I reluctantly trudged down to the buses at 5:50 with a rather crabby disposition. It passed after a time though, because you can't help but feel uplifted by a sunrise in the Tuscan hillsides. It was like a repeat of the sunrise we saw on the way up to Siena, and once again I found myself wishing that there was some way I could stealthily leap off of the bus and run off into the hills to watch it in peace! It's just not the same trying to see it through tinted, dirty bus windows... but oh well. Lovely, nonetheless. The entire view changed dramatically once we got past Florence, though. Much to my surprise, I found myself staring out into the Appennine mountains, which are beautiful. I haven't seen many mountains in my lifetime. Actually, I've grown up viewing the beautiful hills along the Mississippi on the western border of Wisconsin (LaCrosse area) as mountains! The roads were very curvy, and we kept going over tall bridges and through long tunnels... it was kind of fun.Once we got through the mountains, though, we found ourselves driving down a highway on the flattest land I've ever seen, with the exception of western Indiana. I couldn't get over how far the countryside seemed to stretch, but remained engrossed by the odd kinds of trees and orchards we drove through. Our director, Dr. Prebys, was on board with us, and began announcing information about Ferrara as we drove up. We came into the city from behind, and much to the chagrin of my classmates and myself, saw only large factories and stores during our first twenty minutes driving around Ferrara. I honestly felt like I was in an industrial hick town somewhere south of South Bend, and it confused me. This was certainly not the beautiful Italy I knew and loved! Fortunately, we were just on the outskirts of the city, and soon drove into the downtown area, where our hotel was located. (We were stationed there in Ferrara, so we returned every night after day trips to other cities in northeast Italy.) The downtown section of Ferrara is beautiful, and the d'Este Castel and Duomo were within a five minute walk from our Hotel. There was some minor confusion right after we got off the bus, because in our excitement for the trip, we'd forgotten that we would have to choose new rooms... A wave of panic swept over the fifty girls, and everyone started pushing to the front of the line in a mini-stampede, trying to grab passports theirfriends and yelling things back and forth to one another. Remember that scene from the Lion King, when Simba's just sitting there minding his own business when he looks up and sees hundreds of antelopes barreling towards him? As one of the first ones off the bus, that's how I felt as I stood there in the lobby.
Good gracious.
Somehow, we managed to figure out room situations, and I ended up with my friends Theresa and Lisa in a triple. We opened the door to complete darkness, and my first thought was, "Wow, there's a staircase!" We turned on one light, strode into the room and up a little set of stairs. There was a big bed, a desk, and a TV, which was exciting. But as I turned to look around, eyes still adjusting, my next thought was, "Wait... there's another staircase!!" Sure enough, there was another little staircase leading up to a room with two more beds and little cabinets! I stood in amazement, soaking it all in. The ground level had a little refrigerator, a big wardrobe, and a very nice bathroom. Theresa slept on the middle level, and Lisa and I took the top. It was probably the most beautiful hotel I've ever stayed in! Here are some pictures.
Doesn't Lisa look small in this one? The rooms were really deep... they were enormous!
Coolest staircase thing ever. We all had rooms like this! Kristy is probably going to post a comment of jealousy on this in order to lament about their hotels in Naples for the southern trip in the fall... I heard they were pretty bad. We got lucky though!
After settling in, we took a little tour of Ferrara. There were beautiful shops and higher end stores all over, and I could just sense a growing thrum of excitement in the girls around me. No matter what amazing monuments or historical areas we find ourselves in the midst of, nothing seems to create as much interest as cute shopping districts. It's like the temptation is just too much for the girls to take, and they become much more antsy during the tours, eager to get out to the stores before they close. I've never really had much fondness for shopping, so I don't tend to have this problem. I get more excited by the little fruit shops and book stores than anything! But the clothes? Meh. Clothes are clothes. I have to be in just the right mood to actually want to go shopping, with the exception of nice dresses, which I could shop for just about amy time. I'm an odd girl, I know... I guess Kristy got the shopping gene, though. But anyway, Ferrara is a great place. It's much smaller than Rome, of course, and felt much less intimidating. The people were very friendly, and most of them ride bikes everywhere. It was nice not to have to worry about getting hit by motobikes for once! Just real bikes. I enjoyed the slower pace of life, and felt it was a refreshing change. I really liked the d'Este Castel, which is shown above. I was also fascinated by the cobblestone, which was unlike the dark grayish cobblestone I've seen in most other Italian cities. It was actually quite pretty, and much more painful to walk on! The stones were multicolored, and you could feel every single one of them through your shoes, no matter how carefully you plotted out a course. The picture below is the best shot I have of the cobblestone. Unfortunately, Sarah's walking in just the right spot to make it appear that the cannon is aimed at her... I found this rather amusing.
The Duomo was really pretty too, though, so I included a picture of it below. (If you look to the right of the tower, you can actually see the moon!) As we wandered, a few of my classmates gave presentation (like my art history presentation in Siena) and we patiently listened. As soon as we were finished, a few of us went straight to a grocery store and bought some food. I, for one, bought a little loaf of bread, strawberry jam, some cheese, and some fruit. These essential food items served me well over the next five days, and I doubt I would have survived without my jam sandwiches. Unlike Rome, where we get Hotel meals provided on the weekdays and have stipend money for Pascucci's, we were expected to find our own food on the northern trip. This meant minor fasting for those of us who can't afford to eat out every night. But we survived!
We were all pretty exhausted, so that night we went to bed relatively early. The three of us got up early to wander around the city, and we woke up to a clear, beautiful day. We started walking, and gradually began to notice fog settling over the city. Apparently this is quite common up near Ferrara, and happens nearly every day in the winter. I'd never actually witnessed the development of fog though, and found the whole thing quite intriguing. Within a half an hour, the fog grew so thick that we could scarcely see down the streets! Right now Blogger is being stupid, but I'll put up a little photo progression right after I finish this post in order to show you how cool it looked. Grrr, Blogger makes me sad. 
After our tour, they gave us a few hours to wander around Mantua. It's known for its pumpkin ravioli, which sounds awful (Mom certainly had a negative reaction to it!) but is quite good. They don't serve it with tomato sauce, as you probably first envisioned! They stuff the ravioli with a mixture of squash/pumpkin, almond cookies, and cinnamon, then serve it with a light, buttery sauce and cheese. It was completely amazing! So here, for Uncle Mike, is a picture of my exquisite lunch.
On a completely random note... Lisa and Idecided to splurge and try some of the local wine. We were thirsty, and started to drink it as soon as we got it. Not too quickly, but faster than we should have, especially considering the fact that we'd been touring all morning with no food or water in us at all. This proved to be one of my first lessons on the dangers of drinking without anything in your stomach! Neither of us drank before coming here, minus a little wine at a wedding here or there, so we're both lightweights... but the point is, we could definitely feel the wine! It was odd, and the other (more experienced) girls were amused. I most certainly won't do that again though!
The Duomo was really pretty too, though, so I included a picture of it below. (If you look to the right of the tower, you can actually see the moon!) As we wandered, a few of my classmates gave presentation (like my art history presentation in Siena) and we patiently listened. As soon as we were finished, a few of us went straight to a grocery store and bought some food. I, for one, bought a little loaf of bread, strawberry jam, some cheese, and some fruit. These essential food items served me well over the next five days, and I doubt I would have survived without my jam sandwiches. Unlike Rome, where we get Hotel meals provided on the weekdays and have stipend money for Pascucci's, we were expected to find our own food on the northern trip. This meant minor fasting for those of us who can't afford to eat out every night. But we survived!
We were all pretty exhausted, so that night we went to bed relatively early. The three of us got up early to wander around the city, and we woke up to a clear, beautiful day. We started walking, and gradually began to notice fog settling over the city. Apparently this is quite common up near Ferrara, and happens nearly every day in the winter. I'd never actually witnessed the development of fog though, and found the whole thing quite intriguing. Within a half an hour, the fog grew so thick that we could scarcely see down the streets! Right now Blogger is being stupid, but I'll put up a little photo progression right after I finish this post in order to show you how cool it looked. Grrr, Blogger makes me sad.Moving on! We took a little busride to Mantua, where we toured the Palazzo di Te and the Palazzo Ducale. Both were beautiful, though it was a little bit chilly when we visited Palazzo di Te in the morning. We had to walk through a bizarre carnivale/circus type of place to get there (which was very surreal... nothing was on, of course, but there were rides and games and floats all over, some which had Disney characters painted on and big pictures from movies... very odd.) The Palazzo wasn't as big as I expected it to be, but the rooms had beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings. My favorite room was one that was covered by paintings of a huge battle among the gods, but that's not what I liked about it. The paintings were cool, yes, but even more fascinating were the things carved onto the walls. Everywhere you go, you see little hearts with initials carved onto trees, graffiti spraypainted on walls, phone numbers etched into bathroom stalls... and we're so used to seeing these things that we just kind of write them off, or else we shake our heads at someone feeling the need to scratch random phrases into public property. I've never really thought about the origin of these scribblings, though, nor about how long these habits have existed. I suppose the cavemen should have been a clue for me, but I was surprised to see names and dates carved into the walls of this particular room! The dates were generally in the 1700's, and Iwandered around the room staring at the numerous names carved into the walls, imagining what it must have been like to have been in that same place 300 hundred years earlier... I tried to envision what they'd been wearing, why they were there, and the conversations that led up to the decision to carve their names in the wall. Were they bored with the party? Or was it more customary at the time than it is today? I really don't know.
Eventually we wandered out of the courtyard to a pretty moat in the front, and everyone took pictures or watched the goldfish swimming around. We hopped back on the bus to go to the Palazzo Ducale, another castle about ten minutes away. That one was completely enormous! It had over 500 rooms in it, and I wish I could have stayed in there longer to explore on my own! Apparently, though, people can get lost in there for days on end. They force you to go in groups to only specific destinations, because they've had people get lost before. I understand why, but still wish I could have explored! There were endless passages and winding staircases, and huge rooms with statues and paintings and old family trees... I loved it. One of the large ballrooms stood out in my mind, because the paintings were breathtaking. I literally stopped walking and fell behind from my group a little as I stood there, gazing in admiration. My mind soared back to days of old, when they held real balls, with elegant dresses and classical waltzes! I could just envision the heroiness of old novels bowing to their dance partners and skipping graciously around the room... How I longed to step back in time, if only for a moment, to experience one of those elaborate affairs and revel in the charms of such a life. But, alas! The tour group was moving swiftly forward, and I couldn't afford to wait. We weren't supposed to take pictures either, but I snuck one in another of my favorite rooms. ;-)
After our tour, they gave us a few hours to wander around Mantua. It's known for its pumpkin ravioli, which sounds awful (Mom certainly had a negative reaction to it!) but is quite good. They don't serve it with tomato sauce, as you probably first envisioned! They stuff the ravioli with a mixture of squash/pumpkin, almond cookies, and cinnamon, then serve it with a light, buttery sauce and cheese. It was completely amazing! So here, for Uncle Mike, is a picture of my exquisite lunch.
On a completely random note... Lisa and Idecided to splurge and try some of the local wine. We were thirsty, and started to drink it as soon as we got it. Not too quickly, but faster than we should have, especially considering the fact that we'd been touring all morning with no food or water in us at all. This proved to be one of my first lessons on the dangers of drinking without anything in your stomach! Neither of us drank before coming here, minus a little wine at a wedding here or there, so we're both lightweights... but the point is, we could definitely feel the wine! It was odd, and the other (more experienced) girls were amused. I most certainly won't do that again though! We walked around the city for a while....
Then hung out along the banks of the Po River.
We went back to Ferrara only to discover that just about everything closes at 8 PM, with the exception of some restaurants and the Theater. We managed to make it to a cute little fruit and veggie store just before it closed, though, and for some reason, I had an incredible urge to eat a carrot. The other girls followed suit, and we marched out of there eating our carrots like the proud American tourists that we were.
All in all, the first two days were quite fabulous. More to come!
Then hung out along the banks of the Po River.
We went back to Ferrara only to discover that just about everything closes at 8 PM, with the exception of some restaurants and the Theater. We managed to make it to a cute little fruit and veggie store just before it closed, though, and for some reason, I had an incredible urge to eat a carrot. The other girls followed suit, and we marched out of there eating our carrots like the proud American tourists that we were.
All in all, the first two days were quite fabulous. More to come!
posted by Sarah @ 11:24 AM
1 Comments:
Your description of the pumpkin ravioli makes it sound delicious! I would even try it if I was there....which I'm not....which unhappies me.
Someday!!!
Love you,
Mom
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