Weekend in Florence
This is the time of the week when I usually recount my weekend’s adventures from some corner of Europe, but this weekend I decided to stay at home (kinda) and enjoy Florence while taking a break and saving some money. There were about fifteen of us who stayed in Florence this weekend as we have midterms coming up before too long.
On Friday, Alex, Conner, and I got up and ate breakfast at Café Liberta, then borrowed bikes and headed South through Florence. We turned East after crossing the Arno and headed to the suburb of Florence, Bagni A Ripoli. From there, we turned South again, heading in the general direction of Greve, about twenty miles outside Florence on the way to Siena. We made it to San Donato, then headed to the next town on the way, Grassina. On the way to Grassina, Alex took a turn too fast and ended up bending the back wheel. His bike was still rideable, well kinda. The back wheel was wobbly and hard to ride, and constantly getting worse, so we decided to head back to Florence. We kinda got lost on the way back, so it took about twice as long as it should have. We left the Villa at 11am, and got back at like 5pm, after six hours of constantly riding. At our best estimate, we rode about 15 miles.
(A view of Florence from about 6 miles out, that's the Duomo was off in the distance)
(Me on my hot pink, girl's bike that I rode all weekend)
Our original plan was to camp out in Greve, and we still wanted to camp out, so we got a baguette, meat, and cheese for dinner and headed to Fiesole. We headed out to the hiking trails just outside the city. Off these trails, there are several caves, viewpoints, and a historical marker for Leonardo da Vinci because it was on this mountain where he tried out his flying machine. We hiked a ways, then found a viewpoint, ate our dinner, and then continued down the trail in search for a spot to camp. We found one a short ways away and made camp for the night. We got to bed fairly early, and all woke up around 1am, freezing. We weren’t really prepared to spend a cold night out with no other shelter but our sleeping bags, so we headed back into town and thankfully there was a bus that was headed back to Florence. We ended up sleeping in our nice warm beds in the villa.
(Me and Alex on the way back from Fiesole)
(Conner with his bike on our trip)
(Alex and his bike on the trip)
I got up fairly early on Saturday and headed to Café Liberta. From there, I came back home and spent a good two hours of so in the library working on Italian and Humanities. After that, I watched the rest of Enrico IV, my Italian film for the week. I went out for a kebab for lunch, came back to watch National Treasure, and then went with Alex to play soccer with Leonardo, our Humanities professor at the Parco Cascine. We rode bikes there, and looked over what we thought was the whole park and couldn’t find them so we headed back home content with the bike ride but slightly disappointed that we didn’t get to play soccer. For dinner on Saturday night, the Willis’ made up breakfast for supper. They made pancakes, french toast, bacon, and eggs for the fifteen or so of us around. We all ate our fill of American style breakfast foods that we were beginning to miss before watching part of A Mad, Mad, Mad World. Then me, Alex, Katie, Jess, and Daniel Willis (who was visiting for the weekend) went out. We ended up at a bar, and then at 1am we went to the pasticieria that we found several weeks before. Near Piazza Santa Croce, there is this bakery that makes pastries all through the night for bakeries across Florence to be delivered fresh in the morning. Well, turns out they sell some to the public themselves, and we happened to find it one night and have been back for warm, fresh pastries several times since. After that, we headed home and to bed.
Sunday was similar to Saturday. Café Liberta for breakfast fairly early, several hours in the library, a simple lunch, etc. The only real difference was that I went to the train station to get tickets to Paris, going the 9th to the 11th of November. Apart from that, Sunday was full of work, welcoming people back, then worship, and finally a long run which was greatly needed.
Today, it’s back to the weekly routine of classes, etc. This week is just a bit different cause we have midterms this week. Wednesday is my first- in Italian.
Sorry I don't have more pictures, but those were pretty much the only ones I took this weekend.
More Sicilia Pics.
Here are some more pictures from the week in Sicily
(Restoring the mosaic floors in Montreale)
(Me and Myles in the courtyard at Montreale)
(A view of Cefalu' from the highway)
(The group at Castelbuono)
(Me and Drew on the rocks in Cefalu')
(The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento)
(The Giant Statue at the Valley of the Temples)
(The group at Taromina)
(The Greek ruins at Taromina)
(Guys taking lava from the flow at Mt. Etna and making souvenirs with it)
(The point of eruption for the lava we saw)
(Alex, Me, West, and Keith jumping over Natalie on Mt. Etna, it looks like the moon)
(The summit/main crater of Mt. Etna)
More Road Trip pics.
Here are some more pics from the road trip. I've got tons more, but like always the internet is slow and they take a long time to load. Hope these are good enough for now.
(Portofino)
(Me and Brenden in the Ocean near Portofino)
(Me, Casi, and Brenden at breakfast in Anna's kitchen)
(The coastline approaching Portofino)
(The Mt. Blanc Tunnel)
(A view of the mountains surrounding Grindelwald)
(Me and Natalie with some Swiss chocolate)
(Our appel crepe)
(A view from the schloss at Spiez)
(Casi, Me, and Natalie at Spiez)
(The parking lot we slept in Thursday night in Grindelwald)
(A Swiss forest)
I'll be putting up more Sicily pics sometime soon.
Field Trip in Sicilia
At 4:30am last Tuesday, the group left on its academic field trip for the fall semester. We were heading to take a tour of the region of Sicily, the famous island at the tip of the Italian boot.
We all made it out the door by about 430 and were headed to the airport on the bus. We checked in, got on the plane, and crashed. Next thing I remember is landing and getting off the plane. We then retrieved our baggage and headed out to our bus which would become something like our home for the trip. We then headed into Montreale, a small town with a beautiful cathedral above the capital of Sicily, Palermo. We toured the cathedral, saw the many, many mosaics that literally cover every inch of the cathedral there.
(The courtyard of the church in Montreale)
(Katie and Me in the courtyard.)
From there, we head down into Palermo, where we visit the Palatine Chapel, a chapel built in a palace for the rulers of Sicily back in the day, and then the cathedral in the middle of the city. By lunch time we were exhausted and all churched out. We had an hour or so break for lunch, so Steven, West, Alex, and I headed in the direction of a street market where we looked around for something that looked good. Alex and I decided on some random café which turned out to be amazing. I couldn’t tell you exactly what I ate, but they were both things that locals ordered, both were pretty good, and both way cheap so I was content. We then headed to the meeting place, the opera house and headed off with the group to look at several famous fountains in Palermo, then another church! We made it through the fairly short afternoon portion of the tour and headed to our hotel, the Astoria Palace (the same one the group stayed in 3 years ago), and then Alex, West, Steven, and I went for a walk around the city in our free time before dinner. We got back and still had some time, so we watched a movie and then headed down to dinner. It was pretty good, but most importantly, it was a lot of food. We had a long meal, and then headed back upstairs to turn our hotel room into a casino. Us guys then played some poker and then went to bed.
(The group infront of a fountain in Palermo.)
Our next day started at 8am, when Alex, my roommate for the trip, and I went down to breakfast. We ate, packed, and then headed out with the group for Cefalu’, a small city on the coast about an hour trip from Palermo. We toured another church in Cefalu’, this one was much better than the ones the day before as we were all rested and able to pay attention a bit better. From there we walked around the city and say some other points of interest before our free time for lunch and the beach. I had a pizza with Drew, Brooke B, Jennifer, Molly, Brie, Lindsay, and Lauren H. From there we headed down to the beach where most of us went for a swim before taking a quick nap on the beach. We met up a short while later and headed to Castelbuono and another church! Both were pretty cool, but it was to the point where everyone was getting tired, so the afternoon seemed to drag on a bit. After touring the city, we were back in the bus for a good 2 hours, on the way to the Hotel Kaos in Agrigento, clear across the island. We had a sing-a-long on the bus which made the time pass, and finally, we made it to the hotel where dinner was waiting for us. We ate, and the then guys decided to take a quick swim in the cold, closed pool before turning in. The next morning, we ate breakfast and we off.
(Mike, Keith, Me, Alex, and Conner above Cefalu'.)
The only destination of the day was the valley of the temples in Agrigento. It only took us 15 minutes to make it to the valley and then we split into our groups for the tour of the amazing valley with so many Greek temples. It was exactly as I remember it from ‘03, and we were even supposed to have the same guide that got mad at Chesed, but he bailed. The tour was good, and Pippo, our guide was pretty funny, the only drawback was the fact that it started to rain and I was in shorts and a t-shirt. I survived, and made it back to the bus when the tour ended and we headed into Agrigento for lunch before taking another drive clear across the island to Taromina. After another long, long bus ride we made it into Taromina and the Hotel La Plage which was on the beach. We all had our own “huts” for rooms. We explored our beach, which included an island, then headed into the lower portion of town to look around before dinner. We ended up on another beach and in a market, looking for something to eat. We found some supplies and took them back to the hotel, went to dinner and then Alex and I had several people over and we played some random games and then all went to bed.
(Alex and Me at the valley of the temples.)
(Me and Alex's hut at Hotel La Plage.)
The next day was our tour of Taromina, which included the Greek ruins of an amphitheater, and amazing views. From there, we headed down to the gardens and looked there, and took full advantage of the amazing views a bit more before heading to the duomo of the city, which was our last stop before lunch. Alex and I ate a pizza for lunch and then headed down to the hotel to spend our free afternoon on the beach. Alex, West, Anna K, and I went for a swim and swam about 150meters straight out to a rock, climbed onto it, relaxed there for a bit and in the mean time, others came out too. From there, the four of us swam around the Isola Bella, the island right off the shore of our hotel, about a 3/4 mile swim in the ocean. We were swimming against the current which was kinda tough, but we managed to avoid all the rocks and make it around the island without too much difficulty. The only problems came when we tried to climb up the rocks in the ocean. We got cut up pretty good on our feet, legs, and arms on the fairly sharp rocks. After getting back to shore, West and I decided to head back out to that first rock, and after that short swim, we went into town for some gelato before dinner. We came back to the hotel, ate, showered and were then ready to go into central Taromina for the evening. We rode the funicular up to the town, and looked around there for quite a while before coming back down and spending some more time on the beach before getting to bed quite late.
(The island that came with the hotel, we swam around it. The rock on the far right was the one we swam out to twice.)
(The Greek Ruins in Taromina.)
The next day was our last in Sicily. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then were off to Mt. Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe, with the peak being some 2900m above sea level, and the mountain looks even taller than that as you can see sea level from the summit. After the 2 hour twisting and turning bus ride which was filled with more sing-a-long time, we were there and heading up the mountain in a funicular and off road vehicles. I had been to Mt. Etna before, but last time we went to a crater, this time, there had been an eruption recently, so we went to a small fissure on the side of the mountain to see the point of eruption and see the lava flow down the side of the mountain. I got within 5 feet of flowing lava. Being that close to the lava made the mountain that had some snow on it almost unbearably hot. We took a lot of pictures of the lava, something that most everyone had never seen before in their lives, then continued to walk around the mountain. The guys did long jump competitions around the mountain off little ledges and we had some fun doing random stuff like that before heading back down to the base of the mountain the same way we got to the top.
(Lava!)
(Alex, Lauren, Molly and Me on the mountain.)
(More lava!)
(West, Liz, and Me on the mountain.)
Drew, Alex, West, and I ate a panino at the base of the mountain before getting back on the bus and heading into Catania for an hour or so. It was pouring rain, but we walked around anyway, looking at shops and the duomo. From there we went to the airport, getting there at 6 for an 850 flight. We checked in as early as possible, ate dinner and then went to the gate, about an hour and a half before the original departure time. Shortly after getting to the gate, we saw that the plane was delayed an hour and fifteen minutes, so we had all the time in the world at the gate. I slept some, played cards and listened to music, and then finally boarded the plane. I fell asleep pretty quickly, and woke up when we landed, but it wasn’t in Florence like it should have been. There was apparently heavy fog in Florence so we were rerouted to Bologna. We then had to wait an hour and a half for our bus to come pick us up, and then take another hour and a half bus ride into Florence. We got in at about 330am, 5 hours later than expected. We were all tired and happy to be back, and in our own beds which we all went off to immediately.
Overall, the trip was amazing. Despite the delays to end the trip, it was pretty cool. Taromina was amazing, and seeing the lava on Mt. Etna was a once in a life time experience. I was kinda bummed that we didn’t get to go to Naples and Sorrento like we did in ‘03, but in the end, I think I liked this trip better than the ‘03 trip.
Road Trip!
This weekend started at about noon on Thursday when we picked up our Silver Fiat Punto from Europecar here in Florence. I was really beginning to miss driving, and when we decided to go to Switzerland and discovered that all the trains were full, we looked at other options and decided on the car.
Driving in Europe is definitely different than driving in the states. You pretty much have to be aggressive and trust the other drivers a bit more than in the states. There is not as much order but everything is more fluid. I loved it! It pretty much catered to how I like to drive. The kind of driving that makes my mom say “babe that’s too fast.”
We made it back to the villa without any trouble at all, and arrived at lunch time. When Brenden and I walked in the door with our car keys, it was like being the first kids in high school to get a car. Brenden and I took Natalie and Casi out for a quick drive around Florence as they were the ones who were going to be with us this weekend. After that, we just had to survive our Humanities test and big brother- big sister with the Italian kids. The test was fine, I did it without any trouble. After that it was the afternoon and then big brother- big sister with a bunch of Italian kids, so we spent a few hours teaching them line dances and other games while practicing Italian with them and them practicing English with us. After that, it was time to go.
(Me, Natalie, Casi, and Brenden infront of our Silver Fiat Punto)
We left the villa at about 9:45pm and headed North on the Autostrade in the direction of Milan. We passed through Bologna and the rest of Emeglia Romangna and reached Milan at about midnight. After a quick stop there we passed through the rest of Lombardia up to the Swiss border. From the border, we continued North to Interlaken. After that, it was a short drive on a very windy lakeside drive to Grindlewald. We got there at about 4am and slept for about 4 hours in the car in the parking lot in front of the train station before getting up in search of breakfast. We ate and then went to the train station, intending to take a ride up to the top of Jungfariot to see the amazing view from the top of a 4000+ meter mountain and look at the ice caves up there, but the tickets were like 100euro so we passed and took a scenic route back to Interlaken, looked around there, and then consulted the map, planning the most scenic route possible to Lausanne.
(Jungfariot from Grindelwald)
We stopped in Spiez, Thun, Montreux, and Vevey before reaching Lausanne. At most of those places, we stopped to enjoy the views of mountains, lakes and scenery in general. In Thun, we ate lunch on the side of a mountain. Our lunch was bread, cheese, meat and chocolate, and Dr. Pepper! I found it in Switzerland and stocked up as it is still not possible to find in Italy. After lunch, we continued on our way to Lausanne, getting there in the late afternoon. We looked for the Hotel Rex, which is where the Pepperdine program will be this Spring, but couldn’t find it. So we booked a place to stay just on the other side of the French border and headed there after dinner. We drove through Geneva, seeing the UN building and other places and went to the hotel. We went to bed early and slept kinda late before getting up for a French Crepe breakfast.
(Brenden, Casi, and me somewhere in Switzerland, I forget exactly where.)
We then headed back into Geneva, stopping to walk around the city center and lake front neighborhoods before heading back into France and touring the South East portion of the country. We stopped in Annecy and walked around the lake there and drove around the city center, wanting to walk around it but not being about to find a place to park, so we headed to Chambery where we had another lunch of cheese, bread, meat and Dr. Pepper.
(Me doing a Harry Potter pic on the Griffin in Geneva with Natalie and Casi in the foreground.)
(Me, Casi, Brenden, and Natalie in Geneva.)
We toured that small town and then headed on some amazingly fun roads through the mountains in the direction of Mt. Blanc. We found a canyon that was closed, but we got onto it anyway and drove for a bit. As there was no one on the road, I got to have some fun driving and slide around a few turns and then do a 180 slide in the car on a nice wide open space. It was pretty cool because it was the first time I’ve actually been able to try some things driving that I’ve always wanted to do. And, for all of y’all who just said that was reckless, well, yes it may have been a bit, but it was a straight road for about 200m, closed and 4 lanes, so safe enough to try some stuff out, and ask anyone, I’m a safe driver and a good one who just likes to have a bit of fun.
(Casi and Natalie giving me a dirty look after my driving performance through the canyon.)
After that we headed up the mountain on the open roads and went to Mt. Blanc, and the longest tunnel ever there that leads into Italy. It took us a good 25 minutes to get through it, and on the other side we were in Italy. We ate dinner at an amazing trattoria in Aosta called Sale Pepe. We ate a full Italian meal and then headed to Genova and onto Portofino to our apartment that we would be staying at. We were really late getting into Portofino, and it took a little time to find our hotel, and once we did, things didn’t look good. We had to wake the woman up who owned the place, and she said that our room had been taken as she thought we wouldn’t show. But, she did have an apartment for us, so we followed her for bout 5 miles in our car and she showed us to a small house in a vineyard that we ended up having all to ourselves for the night. I wish we could have been there longer and taken advantage of the kitchen and all the other fun stuff around there, like the patio and bikes there, but as we got in at about 2am and wanted to be out by 10ish, we decided to sleep.
(Mt. Blanc from Chamonix, I think...)
We had to find our way back to the main hotel on Sunday morning which was no easy task. Sure, the area around Portofino isn’t all that big or heavily populated, but it’s still tough to find your way to an unknown destination anywhere in Italy. After a half-hour five mile drive with no traffic, we were at the hotel, got breakfast made for us by Anna, the owner who grew her own herbs that she used in the scrambled eggs she made for us, and made her own jelly, which we each got a bottle of before leaving. We left the hotel and headed to the beach where Brenden and I swam for a bit before driving into the main part of Portofino as we hadn’t seen it properly yet. We drove around and took some pictures before heading back in the general direction of Florence, through Cinque Terre, Viareggio, and then finally Lucca before coming back into the city.
(Me, Anna, Casi, Brenden, and Natalie in Anna's kitchen after breakfast.)
We got back to Florence at about 5pm, ate dinner shortly thereafter, and instead of doing the large amounts of homework that had been completely neglected over the weekend, Brenden, Natalie, Liz, and I decided to go to Fiesole while we still had full use of the car. Casi decided to stay behind and not neglect that homework. We drove up there, looked around and saw the views before heading back down to Florence in search of a gas station open at 9pm on a Sunday night. We finally found one near the Campo di Marte, so we filled up. After that, Natalie and Liz wanted to try driving a stick, so we went to the big parking lots at the Campo di Marte, and I taught Natalie how to drive a manual and let Liz, who already knew the basics practice a bit. Dad, I have to say that I am a much better teacher when it comes to driving stick than you were in that parking lot in Waco. Natalie got the car going the first time after my explanation and coaching. We then drove back and started the homework before going to bed and getting up early this morning for Italian.
So, basically here’s a recap of the trip in slightly statistical form. 4 of us went to 3 different countries. We saw the tallest mountain in Europe, Mt. Blanc (4808m), went through the longest tunnel in the world (11.6km), and reached a top speed of 165km/hr in our Fiat Punto. We ate pastries in Switzerland one morning, Crepes in France the next, and had scrambled eggs in Italy the next. In short, each night we spent in a different country. We drove places no other Pepperdine students have every been (anyone every heard of ...). We spent many hours in the car asking all kinds of questions, we spent 30 frantic minutes in Lausanne one evening looking for a place to stay. I drove 1873 kilometers, which is 1162 miles. We saw the Swiss, French, and Italian Alps, Swiss and French lakes, and Italian beaches. We went from an elevation of about 3000m to touching the bottom of the ocean 50 meters off the coast, so about -15feet. 4 of us had an amazing weekend, and did all this in just 66 hours. Basta cosi!
(A view of Florence from about 6 miles out, that's the Duomo was off in the distance)
(Me on my hot pink, girl's bike that I rode all weekend)
(Me and Alex on the way back from Fiesole)
(Conner with his bike on our trip)
(Alex and his bike on the trip)
