Buona Pasqua!

The land of the Olive Trees!

So the week of our “Easter Holiday”, we had a few interesting activities before the eventful weekend that was ahead of us.  We took a field trip for cooking class to a local oil mill.  On Wednesday; when got to the Oil mill, we toured the land, saw many olive oil trees, a dead animal stuck in a plow (wish i didn't), learned the process about how olive oil was made-which was actually interested and FINALLY tasted all of their oils with bread that Giordano brought from his bakery.  While only eating bread and the different oils, I definitely felt like a peasant.  But and after telling him our favorite oil (sample # 2) he told us we must know what good oil is- because we liked the most expensive and popular one, and then surprised us with our own half liter to bring home- precious!

Free olive oil! Love it!!

After our peasent meal, we all decided go to a local café in town to have wine and appertivo.  While sitting in an outside café on the cobblestone roads near Piazza Duomo with the noise of a fountain in the background and music in my ear, drinking Prosecco and eating bruschetta paid for by my cooking teacher and Stephano (the oil mill manager), I realized how much I am going to miss not only Tuscania, but Italy in general, for its tranquil freedom it offers to those who accept it.  Where in Mt. Greenwood, and for that matter Chicago, wher am I going to be able to enjoy a glass of wine with my friends in an outside café, on a cobblestone road next to a lovely fountain and not be either arrested for drinking, or pretty much on drugs imagining it all?  Only in Italy will I be able to experience these lovely happenings.

The Precession.

On Friday night for the first time, Tuscania put on a re-enactment of the Passion of the Christ.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen for Easter!  The ENTIRE town and even people from neighboring towns crowded the small streets of Tuscania for the re-enactment and then for their famous “Precession” which had been a tradition in Tuscania for many years.  The reenactment was interesting, the best part of the night actually, there were horses, torches (well candles that looked like torches) and even a cross that someone was “nailed” to.  There were lights, sound effects and costumes, it was interesting, and I hope they make that a tradition for years to come!  The precession on the other hand was odd, actors from church volunteered to drag on their one ankle with three or four other men in white cloaks heavy metal ploughs (it looked as if a horse would drag this through a field to turn the soil).  Some would carry tall wooden crosses, there were singers who were supposed to be the widows who followed Christ (all dressed in black), and even a huge statue depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus was carried through the uphill, downhill and curvy cobblestone roads of Tuscania.  We were with Ivas family and the guys (Feliche and Giuseppe) were cracking small jokes (because the precession was a bit obsurd) saying at every “station” of the precession you acquire something- first a halo, then wings, then you become a saint! It was sadly funny at the time.
 

Anyways, we didn’t stay for the entire precession because it really was repetitive (and as feliche said- stupid lol), we went for GELATO! The Nicolai family took us to Nonnis (famous in the Lazio region) and of course I not only spilled gelato all over my leg, but IN my shoe as well! Successful night to say the least!

Buona Paqua!

Then Sunday, we went over to the Nicolai house for Pasqua Colazione (Easter Breakfast) which consisted of ALL CARBS (different types of breads- Pizza di Pasqua (which tasted like Hawaiian bread) and others- my favorite one tasted similar to lemon pound cake) and giant eggs made of chocolate.  After breakfast, church of course, it was a nice….then after mass a HUGE EASTER LUNCH.

When I am at their house, I probably eat half my weight in food, it’s terrible but Manuella makes THEE ABSOLUTE BEST lasagna I have ever had and of course we don’t have a one course meal, it’s a 4 course meal.  Always appertivo, pasta, meats and desert!  Ahh! the Nicolai's are SO nice, Manuella bought us all a Kinder Easter Egg made of chocolate (bigger than the size of my hand!) AND they had a prize in it- <3

As for Monday, our day off of school, NBD, I only went horseback riding in the country side in Italy….my horse was named Donut (in Italian I don’t remember) but he was an former race horse who would not stop eating while on our hour trek through the beautiful path near Castello di S. Cristina!  Easter in Italy was not half bad!

Donut and I <3 <3 <3

Another day Another Adventure for now

Ciao Ciao

Buona Pasqua!

Why hello there Terme dai Papi!

So just to update a bit, the last month is going by extremely quick and so far so good!  We had a film festival at our school which was pretty neat because we were able to watch Italian independent films (2 each night) for 3 nights and rate them.  This whole ordeal was started a while ago by the president of LDM because he is into cinematography and movies and was in the business before he came to LDM.  I only watched 4 out 6, one didn’t even have English subtitles, AND I actually understood what was going on (not really- no but what was being said I didn’t follow but the whole story because the filming was excellent.

The movies were open to the students (duh) and the public as well, the second day I went it was only me, my advisors (because AT LEAST one of them has to be there) and 3 old ladies from Tuscania, it was interesting because it was really graphic when it came to the relationship between the gay characters (you know what I mean ;] ) but I am glad I got to participate!  The “filmspray” it was called ended Thursday, and the next day (Friday!) we went on another field trip!  This time to the Terme dei Papi- a natural hot springs spa in Viterbo- this place was also SO COOL!!

Terme dei Papi is a hotel /spa that uses the earths natural hot water for its services.  The name "dei Papi" - of the Popes - derives from the intervention of a third pope, Nicholas V, who was so impressed by the curative effects of the local waters that, in 1450, he had a splendid palace built here, in order to have somewhere to stay whenever he required treatment.  Even Michelangelo, passing through Viterbo during one of his journeys to Rome (sometime between 1496 and 1536), was greatly impressed by the beauty of the baths and was inspired to do two pen drawings of them which today can admired at the Vicar de Lille Museum in France.

Although Terme has many services to offer including massages, mud baths, skin treatment, etc, the school only paid for us to enter the grand thermal pool.  And although the pool smelled like rotting eggs,  I had a blast!  The hyper thermal waters which can be from 40° - 58° C is rich in sulphurous salts and calcium bicarbonate, magnesium, which combined surprisingly, has always been appreciated for its therapeutic properties.  These characteristics of the hot springs are used for therapeutic applications, in particular, in the cure and prevention of chronic disturbances of the whole breathing apparatus, in bone and joint pathologies, skin complaints, genital complaints (hmm) and dysmetabolic diseases. 

After two hours, ate lunch and headed home.  After, I iced my foot because it has a huge bruise on it from running, just my luck.  I hope it gets better soon because the weather is too nice to not walk and run on the beautiful countryside of Italy!

Franka and I outside the National Museum of Modern Art

On Sunday of this weekend, I went to ROME with Franka and Massimo, my advisor and his wife.  I told Massimo I wanted to go to Rome this weekend, but after I found out no one wanted to go (God only knows why) he kindly offered for me to go to Rome with him and his wife!  I had a blast, Massimo reminds me of my grandpa always making jokes and playing tricks and Franka is SO EXTREMELY NICE, which made this day so fun! We first went to the Galleria Nazionale D’Arte Moderna (in Northern Rome) because it was free entrance to public museums in all Italy (because it was national art week)- 70% of the all the worlds famous art is in Italy, and 30% specifically in Italy.  The museum was beautiful, I learned so much and saw so many paintings!  After the gallery we saw an Italian famous acress and the OWNER of Ferrari walking his dog…nbd, check out the pic on FB lol.

After the Museum, they so kindly took it upon themselves to show me around Rome while eating gelato!  Being the history buff that they are, I learned so much more about Rome then I would have visited by myself.  I saw the Trevi Fountain, The Vatican, The Pantheon, The Spanish Steps, Piazza Venezia and so much more that I cannot even recall- not the Colleseo or much of Ancient Rome because I am going to visit Rome at least 2 more times with my classes!

After the whole day in Rome, I fell asleep on the way home- before I fell asleep; Franka was so excited to hear that I have pancake syrup and peanut butter!  She and I decided we are going to meet up again before I leave because we got along so well- and of course have pancakes and apples and peanut butter!

She EVEN invited me and my family and Andrew to come back to Italy and stay with them when I do!  I was so happy to be with such a kind people, I prefer to surround myself with kind people, and when I am with Franka, Massimo, Arianna, Mei, Manuella and Felice, I am so happy! Because they remind me of my family at home J.

Trevi Fountain, someone or something made me laugh!

The following day, we had our make up class for cooking- PASTRY LESSON! OH MY GOSH I made a very easy AMAZING alternative to a cinnamon crunch bagel…pizza con zucchero e canela! (HOMEMADE pizza with cinnamon and sugar- TO DIE FOR!!!!)

Pizza con canela e zucchero Ingredients
1 Kilo Flour
2 g salt
40 g yeast (usually use a little more but since the weather is warmer, use less yeast)
500 g water (usually use olive oil/pork fat but since we are using potatoes, we use water)
600 g boiled potatoes (around 6 potatoes- use potatoes because we are making sweet pizza)
200 g sugar
200 g cinnamon

**Usually 1 kilo of pizza for 500 g potatoes

DIRECTIONS FOR PIZZA CON CANELLA E ZUCCHERO:

1.       Oven set to 230°C

2.       Combine all ingredients together except cinnamon and sugar

3.       Mix with hand mixer

4.       Play “piano” on the dough in the pizza pan/large cookie sheet until dough covers edges

5.       Leave dough for 5 minutes- Play “piano”-Leave dough again for 5 minutes-Play “piano again”

6.       Leave for 5 minutes- use the Pastry Dough Docker on the dough

7.       Mix with hand cinnamon and sugar in bowl

8.       Add on top of pizza evenly

9.       Generously Pour olive oil on top (not sure if extra virgin or not)

10.   Bake for about 20 minutes checking often- then cool and enjoy!

If you have any questions, you can just email me or comment and I would be more than happy to help! 

Well I have another day, Another adventure ahead of me (adventure meaning papers for finals!)

Ciao ciao

Friday Friday, Gotta get down on Friday!!!!

What a view!

As you know, our school offers field trips every Friday for us students to attend.  The first one I am going to talk about is Civita Bagnoregio.

Saw this along our hike...along with an abandon bath!

Civita Bagnoregio was founded by Etruscans over twenty-five hundred years ago (as with every other city we visit), but has seen its population dwindle to just FIFTEEN residents over the course of the 20th century!  The city is falling off the edge of the cliff, literally!  This “island” eroding is now only accessible by a long narrow bridge by foot and mopeds- no cars!  It has recently become a tourist site because its freaking awesome!  This city sits atop a plateau, which is why its population varies from 12 to 100 people, so crazy!  I’m not surprised that it’s on the Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites, because its erosion and unregulated tourism!

To begin, we got there bright and early and started our journey up the long narrow bridge to explore the town, after our short time in the city center, we followed our advisor, Massimo, on a off path hike through hills, creeks, caves, bushes and muddy ponds of Civita Bagnoregio.  After about 1.5 hours, we finally were able to relax on of the edge of a random steep cliff, then headed back from the exhausting journey!

Before I was feeling the burn....literally.

The following morning, took the bus to Tarquinia beach (with black/grey sand!) resulting in a very painful weekend for me, I was stupid and didn’t use sunscreen- I mean how strong could the sun in April be...I got the absolute worst sun burn of my entire life and am still paying for it.  Never has my skin ever gotten that bad, I even missed school because I couldn’t walk and had to get medicated burn cream- MISERABLE!!!!!

Hand Painted....NBD

A week later, my legs still red as can be , I went to another FRIDAY FIELD TRIP (whoo hoo!!) This one wasn’t as cool, but I’ll just talk about it anyways!  We went to the town of Caprarola to Palace Farnese, three words- Alice in Wonderland.  This palace had magnificent paintings and a garden- OMG this garden was super neat , one could tell royalty lived there.  There were mazes, fountains, statues, rose bushes, and it was such a beautiful day out too which added to it all!

RIGHT after Massimo tricked us

But, our trickster advisor Massimo told us to stand in a little gazebo, wondering why we are standing there- water SHOT up from the ground on us!  Massimo is laughing his head off as we see our tour guide turning the water off! So funny- Iva was confused thinking she lost control of her bladder and started peeing- I thought it was refreshing- supposedly the cardinal played this trick on many friends- and of course Massimo played it on us!

Feather Hats!

After that, I had a very relaxing weekend filled with running, cooking, shopping and studying!

S/N This year has been 150 years of official Independence for Italy, and a famous marching band has been traveling around the Lazio region (where I reside) and came to Tuscania, I saw them perform, and their outfits looked like those in the Harry Potter Movie the Goblet of Fire when Hogwarts plays host to a legendary event: the Triwizard Tournamet…anyways the guys who were in the band were wearing hats with feathers on it!

They were ALL STARING at me, it was kind of creep

S/N 2- I have started running again since my sunburn and allergies or sickness has gotten somewhat better, and the other day I was running and distracted the cute dogs herding the sheep, gotta love living in Italy!

S/N3- I noticed all Italians fold their side view mirrors inwards, and it just occurred to me why.  I'm not sure if you are all informed, but Italians are seriously CRAZY-INSANE drives, and the mirrors would be knocked right off the car if they didn't fold them in.  Their parking is those of only wack jobs and their speeding and passing cars is something of another kind- Just pointing out the fact that if they drove they do here but in America- fights, brawls and crashes would occur!

BTW only 4.5 weeks left! I am beginning to realize home is where the heart and love is, and true friends and family!

Another Day another Adventure!!
Ciao Ciao!!

p.S I love my mom and dad very much for sending me a GRANDE package filled with peanut butter, pancake syrup, flying saucers, Swedish fish, watermelon, chewy bars and MUCH MUCH MORE!!! :) :)

Love you Frank and Moe :)

Also THANK YOU SOO MUCH Jean for sending me a package with socks and Laffy Taffys' and a sweet wonderful card!!

Now I don't have to re-wear the 8 pairs of sock I have 2-3 times each! (dont judge- Im in college, and in Italy! :p)

I am SOOO blessed and thankful to have such caring people in my life!

4..1.11

4.11.11

 Miss and Love you all! <3

Mum, Dad Im in Ireland!!!

Howth, Ireland- B-E-A-utiful!

So after or adventure in London, we made our way to our next destination, Dublin, Ireland!  Our first mission was to find our hostel, The Four Courts.  We took a bus from the Dublin Airport that lets us off on some random busy street in Dublin and first thing we saw we ate- of course it was McDonalds!  After, using the directions I had on my Ipod, we made it to our awesome hostel- which was coincidently directly across from the “High Court” which is the equivalence to the Supreme Court in the U.S- this little landmark fact made it easy when walking back late at night because we were always able to locate where to go just by looking at the HUGE court house lit up with pretty lights directly across the river from our hostel!

We checked in to our room- had 6 bunk beds and met some awesome people- 2 Australians and a few guys just traveling around from New York.  Everyone was very cool and welcoming because we were all there for the same reason, traveling and living it up!

After we got situated, we went to grab some food, not expecting places to be closed around 8:00- we found ourselves eating at an extremely over priced TGI Fridays!  Then, we wandered around following the sound of the music and ended up in a cute small pub listening to a live singer!

The Famous Temple Bar

Next morning, we went on a free walking tour of Dublin and learned a lot about the city.  The tour lasted 3 hours and saw many main attractions, including Trinity College and the famous Temple Bar.

Got lunch at a cool fast food crepe place- I think the U.S should pick up the fast food for Crepes and Waffles, because they are everywhere in Europe, and quite honestly DELISH!!

After waking up with a sore throat because the window was left open in our hostel- conveniently blowing on me the entire night, I couldn’t bear the idea of going on a pub crawl taking a shot at every bar and drinking a pint of Guinness- so the “friends” I was traveling with left me in the hostel by myself for the night while they went on the pub crawl…

Me at the SAME Bridge where Hilary Swank met Gerard Butler for the first time in the movie P.S I LOVE YOU...NBD!!!!

The third day we went on a day long bus tour of Irelands countryside- specifically Wicklow and Glendaloug- it was a beautiful adventure with tons of friendly people!

We stopped at a Guinness lake, saw where scenes of the films P.S I Love You and Braveheart were filmed in Wicklow and stopped at an ancient old town in Glendalough that had a breathtaking trail to walk on.  While on this trip, I even saw tons of sheep just chilling on the side of the road- typical Ireland!

Lake in Glendalough

Didn’t get back till around 6 and then after went to a free BBQ at a local pub with our hostel.  The Hostel we were staying at was really fun- it reminded me of a dorm and the people that were working there were really chill RA’s who always had fun events for us students to do!

After our free BBQ with the Aussies who we were staying with, we managed to find ourselves at another pub called O’neils- there had live music and drinks- what could get better?

Our 4^th and final day in Ireland was spent in a little town called Howth, a 40 minute train ride outside of Dublin- now I can say truthfully; this was one of the most amazing, beautiful places I have even seen in my ENTIRE life, first we were greeted by live/wild seals at the Harbor swimming around looking for food and then began a 3 hour hike/exploration on this huge cliff (don’t worry- it was on a set path) and ended up at a restaurant called the bloody stream.  Next morning, packed up, headed to airport and was the happiest person to be back in Italy in my own bed.  The thing I learned from that flight was to NEVER fly with a sinus infection- my nasal passages were blocked, therefore unable to equalize the pressure changes that occurred while flying, my head was literally being squeezed – temporarily lost my hearing for a day or so and then was sick for the entire week after spring break- love my life!

Glendalough

Anyways, my final thoughts about this Spring Break 2011 is this: All though it wasn’t spent on a beach in Cancun, I definitely wont forget it and am so happy I was able to experience other cultures from all over the world!

Well, another day another adventure lies ahead of me!

Ciao Ciao!

On the beautiful sea side cliff of Howth in the middle of our 3 hour hike!


P.S HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST BOYFRIEND EVER!!! ANDREW STEVEN KATS I LOVE HIM SOOOO MUCH!!  And i hope he has a wonderful day,sorry I cant be there with you  babe!

 Cant wait till the summer!!! XXXXOOOO!