Un Giorno all'Università Italiana

Ciao,

Yesterday was really interesting and fun, let me tell you about it.

I skipped classes on Wednesday... kind of, that is. Instead I woke up early and took the 7:35 vaporetto into Venice. My plan: meet my friend Elena and attend lessons at Ca' Foscari University during the first part of the day. Ca' Foscari is a really old university, the traditional arts and letters school in Venice. A lot of students commute from the mainland, for example, cities like Treviso, Mestre, or Montebelluna. I walked to the university, no trouble at all, and I got there at 8:30 and met Elena, who was coming from the train station. We got a coffee before her Canadian literature course.

Let me first describe the classroom. Yellow plaster walls, long, with maybe three desks in each row. The room was lined with columns that supported wooden beams for the ceiling. In the front of the room was a window that looked out on the grand canal -- you could see boats going by.

Elena introduced me to her classmates, and of course to her professor, who said I was most welcome. Her English was very good, and I could tell that she learned in Britain rather than the United States. Usually the class takes place in English, since the literature is English, but this time there was a guest speaker, a woman who explained the poetry of Ann Michaels, a Canadian poet and novelist. While the texts were in English, the lecture was in Italian, and I had no trouble understanding anything since she spoke very clearly and slowly enough so I could hear each word. When she asked one of the students to read a passage, Elena nudged me, saying I should read because my American accent would impress everyone. I didn't want to -- just because I felt I was standing out enough already. But I wasn't nervous at all, I felt quite comfortable actually just being around literature students, I think. It was kind of interesting when one of the students read this passage. It was a guy who Elena told me had studied at Georgia State University for a year. So when he read, I could tell that he had a southern accent in his English! Weird, huh? It was really a great class, and though it lasted an hour and 45 minutes, it went by quickly. After class we went to the library with one of Elena's friends to get a book off the shelves. The shelves were really high, and you have to climb up huge ladders to get books. Wooden shelves and tables, just a really old feel, ancient, even... and all with a magnificent view across the Canal Grande. Strangely Elena told me that the wireless internet causes people to have headaches.

Elena took me on a tour of the university buildings. First, Ca' Foscari doesn't have a campus, and I knew this already, but it's so cool to just walk through the streets when going to class and seeing students in the caffes and bars. We went down to Zattere, which has two university facilities. One of them had a few classrooms... it's always surprising to me how large these buildings are, even if the facades are so small. I saw a few of the offices and another library, larger this time. And there were students, working, studying, you know.

For lunch we met up with another of Elena's friends in front of the Palazzo Foscari (the central seat of the university) and we walked to one of the Mensas, like the caffetteria. It was pretty standard, there was a lunch line, different dishes offered, so I could see a lot of similarities with... McElroy, for example. But this was a lot smaller. We got there a little early, so there weren't many students, but it filled up. Anyway, we chatted about cultural differences, and it was a lot of fun.

Elena warned me it was really boring, but I decided to go to her Italian literature class anyway. And I have to say it was kind of boring... and since it was older Italian language I didn't really understand much of it, just pieces really. This time I was the only guy in the class, so that was... interesting, to say the least. Also the professor, this woman, just talked and talked, and I forgot to mention that there's no class discussion for literature classes in Italy. But the desks were long and had several seats behind them - banchi, they're called - and Elena told me before that I should bring a book to hide behind the banco to read during class. But anyway, notwithstanding how long the class seemed, I had a stomachache and so when 2:00 rolled around for the break, I slipped out and walked back through the rain to the fermata del vaporetto. The rain held off at the end, but it was seriously some really bad weather so I was glad I brought my umbrella after all.

I worked on my Shakespeare final paper in the afternoon. But at night we had the visit to the Basilica di San Marco. It was just the students of VIU, so there were about forty of us inside the basilica. It actually felt smaller inside without masses of people there. I caught up with my BC friends and the other international students too. The art was beautiful inside the church, so we actually got a special look at the crypt, for example, where there are weddings, oddly. But I can't stress how dramatic the inside of the basilica was... we entered into the dark church, and when we sat down, the staff turned on the lights and we could see the beautiful golden interior. There is so much gold all over the chapel, it's really incredible. It happened at a weird time though, 7:15 was when it started, so we were all kind of hungry at the end. But it was basically a really great trip.

I don't have any plans this weekend... that is, I'm not traveling anywhere. As I said before, I just like staying here in Venice. And tomorrow is the primo maggio, Italy's labor day, so most places will be closed, but I don't know. We'll see.

Andrew

I Giorni Successivi

Here's what's going on in the next few days.

Tomorrow, instead of my normal classes here at VIU, I'm instead going to Ca' Foscari University, the main letters university of Venice, and I'm meeting up with some friends from the VIU program who have lessons there. I'm going to Elena's Canadian Literature course, which should be kind of interesting because it takes place in English... then I'm going to check out the library and go with Elena on a few bureaucratic errands. There's an Italian lit class in the afternoon that I'm thinking about going to as well. Unfortunately, all this means I'll have to wake up super early at 7. Oh well.

Tomorrow evening, we have a night visit to the Basilica of San Marco which should be cool.

No plans for the other days. I've gotten all my work done for the week so I can chill for now... although I need to fix my Shakespeare essay idea, which needs textual references from both the Merchant of Venice AND Othello (who knew? My English professor at BC never told us to "cross the streams" as it were. Yes, that's a Ghostbusters reference).

Some of my friends are just frenetically working, especially the ones in the Globalization program. A lot of the students, especially the Italians, are 24 and 25, and the professor is only 27! So they have to use the more formal "lei" when speaking with him, even though some of the students have siblings or boyfriends/girlfriends older than him!

I had a fun conversation about animated movies with the Italian students... hearing what the names for Disney movies in Italian is was really cool. Il Re Leone = the Lion King, La Sirenetta = The Little Mermaid. The movie Monsters vs. Aliens, which came out recently, is called Mostri contro Alieni, but neither Francesca or Giorgia knew about it... they confused it with Alien vs. Predator, which I said was a little different... just a little.

It was raining earlier today but now the sun has come out. Actually, speaking of movies, I went into Venice with my BC bud John to go to the movies. There's a film called Disastro a Hollywood, with Robert DeNiro, it's an American film. Actually we were curious to see if DeNiro did his own dubbing (which i should add, the Italians prefer to subtitles, a lot). But anyway, yesterday was acqua alta, and somehow we missed the memo. We delayed before going to the cinema, and realized that the water was just rising and rising... so we decided to go home instead of going to see the movie. I was actually really scared we weren't going to be able to get back... because seriously, Piazza San Marco floods like crazy, and in fact, the water was over a foot high when we got to the Piazza. And the only way to get to San Zaccaria, where our station is, is going on the passarelle, wooden footbridges. And what annoying tourists taking useless nighttime photos on the passarelle, blocking our way when we need to hurry to the vaporetto! So yeah, it was crazy. This morning though, talking with the Italian students, we heard that the water reached a meter high. Unfortunately they were studying together until 2 AM, and then they had some problems trying to get back to their own apartments. It's a sign if even the Italians get stuck in the acqua alta ... that is, you can't control it.

Let's see... no travel plans this weekend, in fact, I'm not going anywhere until Sicilia. I'm just going to stay in Veneto, it's really nice. On Monday, I'm going to the Collezione Guggenheim, which is maybe the most famous art collection in Venice, collected by the kinda weird American lady Peggy Guggenheim. But there's a special thing next Monday... you pay 7 euro, which gives you a pass for 2 spritz (the typical drink of Veneto) and you can go in the museum. Cool huh? I can't wait.

So anyway, that's all for now. Sorry if this post turned out to be a little more random than anticipated. Oh well. And everyone in the states... take care with that Swine Flu thing.

Andrew

Festa a San Servolo! e la Spiaggia di Lido

Allora,

Now I get to tell you all a little about the party that happened at San Servolo, the island where I'm living. It started at seven, I think, but I didn't actually get there until close to 11:30. I think maybe I said I turned down a spritz in Campo Santa Margherita with the professor of the globalization program and the other students. So I ate at the mensa on San Servolo, which right now is really full with people because of a few conferences and groups that are here (among which is a 40-person high-school trip from Norwell, MA. Yeah, big coincidence I know, but I wasn't a big fan, especially when I'm eating dinner).

It was 8 or so when we finished dinner, and the party was already going. So after dinner my friends were relaxing on the balcony, waiting for the right moment to arrive fashionably late. But I was not. My computer decided to stop working, and it was my mom's birthday, so I had to find some way to call her actually. After many futile attempts Sara, one of the German girls, noticed I was struggling with my computer and so she let me use hers. Which was good -- I got a hold of my mom, but I first called Vittoria and used the built-in camera on Sara's computer so she could see me!

So anyway, I got to the party, and the other BC students (and two of the other Americans who we frequently hang out with, from Duke and UVA respectively) had been there for maybe an hour. The party was on the end of the Island closest to Venice, down on the main floor outside the bar. There was a stage inside and another outside, where hundreds of mostly Italian kids were drinking, chatting, smoking and enjoying themselves. It was really a huge crowd, the biggest I've seen since Carnivale, not counting the Disneyworldesque scene I have to fight through each time I get off the vaporetto in Venice.

So anyway, I greeted the Americans, and then ran into some of the Italian students from VIU as well. I went back to hang out with the BC crowd for a while, but the next thing I knew, they had all left and I couldn't find them anywhere. So the rest of the time I just spent with the Italians. I got to talk just a little with Alberto, one of the few guys in the program, who actually lives in Venice. He said that San Servolo parties are really popular with the young people in Venice, and each September during the film festival, there are three of them. The San Servolo party was a lot of fun... I was really glad I live on the island though, since it took forever for most everyone to take Vaporetti back to the city.

Ok, so on Saturday I woke up at 10:30 because my phone rang, and Jenn, one of the BC girls, had the great idea that we should all go to the beach on Lido. I hadn't been yet and I was really excited about it. So I got my stuff together and a little less than an hour later we took the vaporetto into Venice, got some lunch, and then reached Lido by 12:45.

Lido is so beautiful, and so different from Venice. I want to say that some parts of it are more like terraferma (mainland) Italy because there are cars and wide streets with a lot of trees on the side. Gelato is only 1 euro most places, and you hear mostly Italian or French, at least you did this weekend. There are also supermarkets and department stores, which you don't find too much of in Venice proper. We walked down Viale Santa Maria Elisabetta, which led directly to the free public beach of Lido.

I have been to the beach before in Italy, in Giardini-Naxos on the eastern side of Italy. That, I think, was a private beach, and it was quite thin and narrow, and not very long. It was pretty calm though. This beach was much more like the American beaches I've been too... meaning that there were a lot of people there, kids playing frisbee, cards and calcio (soccer), people lying in the sun even though they were already really tan, and a lot of dog-walkers too I think. So much people watching. It's really an Italian national sport.

So I lay in the sun a bit, read kind of a cheesy gossip magazine I picked up in the train station in Torino a while ago, and enjoyed the atmosphere. We were out there for a little more that three hours I think. But at some point I realized that it was the first time I had been to the beach in almost a year. I really don't go to the beach that much at all, and here I have one that's just about a half-hour away, travel wise (if we had our own boat, we could get there in less than 10 minutes). Unfortunately VIU doesn't supply us with a boat. Oh well.

Sunday is my catch-up day, so I've been doing a lot of reading and stuff for my classes. I'm probably just going to eat at the mensa tonight. Which means... it's going to be amazing! Also, I think... and let me count. I've spent only 5 euro this weekend. For food, I just use the vouchers that we have... the party didn't cost anything, and neither did the trip to Marghera and Vicenza or the time spent on Lido. So don't worry Mom -- I know you read this... I'm definitely eating well, in fact, I am really excited right now, it's like my favorite time of day, because I know that it's dinner time in less than an hour.

A piu' tardi,
Andrew

Vega, Dainese, e Parlare Italiano

Ciao a tutti,

Three big things happened in Venice this weekend for me. Seriously... staying in Venice is just getting better and better because I don't have to worry about traveling (meaning, not missing trains and checking in and out of hostels). Actually while I love visiting other cities, I've figured out that I hate being in transit. But when I stay here in Venice, I always learn new things about this city, as well as the people who live here. That's what is the most interesting thing for me. There are always new parts of Venice that I just have never even seen before. Just so you know what you'll be reading, I'll talk about the VIU trip on Friday to Porto Marghera and the Dainese center in Vicenza. Second, I'll say a few things about the party on San Servolo later that night. And I'll also talk about my relaxing day on the beach of Lido, the "barrier" island of Venice.

First, the trip. I woke up at the same time as Tim, my German roommate, because both of us wanted to go on the trip to Marghera and Vicenza. I really like these trips. I get some of the best practice for my Italian during the bus rides and lunch times with the Italian students, who compose about all of the Globalization program (these trips are mandatory for these students, and we, the other VIU students, can choose to go or not). The first trips, to Padova and Murano, had a lot of other students, but this time I was the only American, Tim was the only German, and this girl named Sachiko was the only Japanese student. Everyone else was Italian, and there were maybe 20 of them.

Now, I have to say that first off the trip was probably the most... ahh, I hate to use the word, but... boring so far. At Marghera we went to the Vega Scientific Park, which sounds impressive, and maybe it would have been if we could have seen more of the labs and less of the lecture hall where we were given four powerpoint presentations on how Vega works to help Venice and the rest of Europe and the World. Backtracking, I walked to Piazzale Roma in the morning with Tim, but also Giorgia and Francesca, the only two Italian students who live during the week on San Servolo. Tim and I have discussed this, and it seems that my Italian is about the same level as his English (that sounds confusing... Tim's German so we communicate in English. Sorry for the lack of clarity here. I just thought that was an interesting point). So Tim spoke in English with Giorgia and I spoke with Francesca in Italian on the way to the bus station.

I sat among the Italians during the lectures at the Vega, and it was really fun because we were all really kind of bored by the over-specificity of the material that was presented. We're talking super-micro chemical level stuff. And none of us had studied chemistry in at least 5 years... also, the Italian students are actually mostly 3 or 4 years older than me, working to get their second degrees, so they probably haven't seen the inside of a Chemistry book for more years. Anyway, one thing that I thought was really funny was how many audible expressions of boredom they were making during the lecture... like, they'd say, "Ma dai, dai," which is like, "Oh, come onnnnn..." And they were saying that the lecturer's English wasn't that good and it would be easier for everyone if he spoke in Italian... they asked me too, and I said I agreed. And of course one of the girls packed some snacks for a moment like this. Giorgia actually started on her panino that she made that morning for lunch.

The lab was a little more interesting. This is where they have all kinds of fancy equipment where they make polymers that can be used for really tightly-designed and environmental water bottles. They also have a kind of polymer that can be put on glass that makes it waterproof, kind of. I sat down for lunch with Stella and Elena, the two Italian students I've known the longest except for maybe Francesca. Tim sat with us too, so we spoke in half-English and half-Italian.

Our next stop was Vicenza, where there is Dainese, a company that makes protective gear and clothing for competitive motorcyclists and extreme sport athletes. For example, helmets, padded jackets and gloves. Sounds cool, I know. But we had to walk first to our private bus to take us there, and while walking, I spoke with Elena. This was one of the most interesting conversations I've had with a non-American here at VIU. Because I've realized, at least, on Friday I realized the first, that I've somehow gotten into the weird spot of not belonging "exclusively" to any one group. Elena told me that she wished she could get to know some of the Americans better, but they seem to her to be a tight group, and while that's good that they become friends and get to know each other, they miss out on the valuable experience of speaking another language. Every time I'm with the Italians I speak in Italian, and this practice is better than any class I could ever take. So I try to hang out with them frequently and spend time just chatting, learning new words, but I also learn a lot about what it's like to be a twenty-year-old in Italy.

But back to the main point. Since I'm dividing my time this way, I find myself going back and forth between the Americans and the Italians sometimes. It's easiest to be with the other BC students because we all live here on San Servolo, and I really like that. We're all sharing this experience. But again, I can't stress enough the value of my time practicing Italian with the Venetians. I really appreciate the time they give me, the fact that they sometimes have to slow down and explain things for me, etc. And they're genuinely interested in American life, which I'm always more than happy to share... for example, they asked about the different kinds of accents that exist in America, so I did my best rendition of a Southern Accent as well as a Boston Accent. When I did the "I park the car in Harvard Yard," they couldn't understand at all, it was really funny. Actually they say that my English is very easy to understand compared to some of the other Americans, since I don't speak too quickly or have any kind of real accent. Whatever, that may be. I do wonder, however, if I maybe seem different... that is, if I seem to have a different kind of personality when I speak Italian than when I speak English. It can't be too different, but it's something I think about.

So anyway, another funny thing is that I somehow started talking about the high school tradition of the Prom with Elena (mostly because my sister's going to her first one this year) and Elena exclaimed, "Ah, I really wish that I could've gone to the prom... but we don't have it in Italy!" Of course, she knew what it was, though... America exports so much entertainment that people know SO much about our way of life. Really weird.

Anyway, at Dainese, we went on a tour of the warehouse, where the gear is shipped in and stored before orders come in. There had to be two groups, so one was made in Italian and the other was in English. So after all the Italian I'd been speaking and listening to during the day, I decided I'd be fine going with the Italian group. The guy who gave the tour had a noticeable accent and it made it difficult to understand mostly because he believed he was speaking to an Italian crowd. Which was mostly true. So while I drifted in and out occasionally, I really understood a decent amount of what he said, and always Francesca and Laura were there to explain to me something if I had a question. After the warehouse we saw the showroom, where they had a lot of kinds of Dainese gear on display. That was really cool. The guy who led us through gave a decent-sized presentation on Dainese's history and showed us crash-videos where the gear would be "in action." It was pretty incredible, some of the jackets have built-in airbags.

The tour went pretty long, but we ended up getting back to Venice around 6:00. Lorenzo Gui, the professor of the Globalization program, offered us a spritz in Campo Santa Margherita, but I had to run back to the vaporetto station to get to the island before the party began, unfortunately. On the way back, though, here's something interesting: I saw some kind of tower, and I said, "Look, it's a nuclear power plant." "But nooo," said Laura, and she explained to me that the people of Italy voted in a referendum to deny the creation of nuclear power plants in Italy. So there are none, even if there are hundreds (?) in France. They may be good, said Laura, but they won't be realized until the bureaucracy works out, and that could be forever. Weird, huh?

Anyway, that's all I can write now, so I'll tell about the party on San Servolo and Lido in the next post.
Ciao,
Andrew

Le Avventure di Emily e Andrew (Fine)

Ok everyone,

So I’ll talk briefly about Roma and then I’ll move on to recent news, like this past weekend in Venice (I couldn’t go to Bologna after all) and what I’m up to this week.

When Emily and I got to Tiber Camping, we found our rooms to be made out of that corrugated tin stuff. Which was fine, except between the roof and the ceiling were a lot of pigeons, and this was during mating season so let’s just say it was a little noisy as we were trying to sleep, unfortunately. Oh well. This was our main complaint about the hostel, which again was less like a hostel and more like a campground.

Our main day in Rome, which was Thursday, was really crazy. We took the above-ground train into the city, which always has a young guy playing the accordion for pocket change. Nice, but hearing the same songs every day on your commute could get old, we figured. Anyway, we took the metro to il Vaticano, first to go into the Basilica San Pietro. It was my third time inside the largest church in the world, but no number of times in there could make me tired of seeing it. It gave me just another time to appreciate the incredible art inside.

We walked a couple blocks from the basilica and found a great place to eat that accepted my meal vouchers – something that Emily got quite good at looking for (it’s a sign in the window of the restaurant). We spent a little over an hour there – I ordered the full meal from them, which included huge dishes of pasta, a salad and veal. But we left before too long because this was really Emily’s day – she was really excited to be in Rome and had a “checklist” of things to see. It worked out well that I had so much experience in Rome so I could play the tour guide sometimes. We’ll talk about that later.

So after lunch we saw the Pantheon, the round temple converted into a Catholic church to honor martyrs. It also is renowned because it holds the tombs of Vittorio Emmanuele II, the first king of united Italy, and Umberto I, the second king. Raffaele is also buried there. And the architecture is fascinating; the dome is so imposing, especially with the hole in the roof.

We tried to go into the Chiesa del Gesu’, where Saint Ignatius is buried, but it was a no-go because it was locked. I was kind of annoyed because I missed this the last time I was in Roma and I really wanted to see it. Oh well. Instead I took Emily to the Chiesa Sant’Ignazio, where the BC Chorale performed while I was there the last time. The artistic design of the frescoes and gold leaf decoration is unforgettable.

Walking past the Monumento a Vittorio Emmanuele II, the one that looks like the wedding cake (but has also been called the typewriter and the teeth), we approached the Colosseo. Actually first I have to say that Emily took my photo in front of the Monumento, which meant a lot to me since we have a photo in our family of my grandfather in front of this monument.

We looked into the Foro Romano, the Roman Forum, and checked out the ruins from all different centuries. As we got to the Colosseo, we saw a guy changing into his gladiator suit to take photos with tourists, that was kind of funny. I mean, he was like putting on this tunic and helmet thing. The Colosseo was actually kind of expensive… it cost like 12 euro, and that was only for the entry, so there were other charges if we wanted information while we were inside. Instead, we just looked through the windows and strolled around the outside while I gave some of the information I know about the Colosseo (a combination of things I’d read, things I remember from when I went inside the Colosseo, and things from 6th grade history). I was actually surprised at how much I could remember. By this time it had started to rain and we didn’t have umbrellas, but it wasn’t really that bad.

Emily really wanted to see the Domus Aurea, the house where Nero lived. I told her that I’d been there five years ago, and I really found it to be interesting. However, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to remember any information about it. After walking through the park next to the Colosseo (which was kind of sketchy) and asking directions from a few people, we found it. Turns out we’d actually been standing on it (it’s underground now since the ground level was lower back then). But actually the Domus Aurea was closed for repairs. So we didn’t get a good look.

The rain let off but we rode the jam-packed metro back to the Fontana di Trevi, where we began searching for a place to eat. We got as far as the Pantheon when Emily spotted again with her eagle eyes a place that accepted my vouchers. So we had a nice meal and then headed back to the Piazza del Popolo to catch the above-ground train to North Rome, where our hostel was.

The following morning, after breakfast and checking emails (that was one thing that was good about this place, that there were free computers) we headed back to Rome one last time with about 50 French kids. Emily and I didn’t really do anything “interesting” on Friday morning… we actually just went to the Spanish Steps again, did some people watching (guessing who’s the dad, who’s the older brother, who’s the mom is really fun). We took some photos for some visitors to the city also, that was kind of fun also. But the fun couldn’t last too long unfortunately, because we had to head back to the train station, Roma Termini, since my train left at 12:50. I wanted to help Emily get all her things in order for her flight from L’aeroporto Fiumicino but I was kind of crunched for time so I couldn’t really.

You know, I realize I’m subtly getting attached in a lot of ways to the Veneto region of Italy. It’s little things, like traveling in vaporetto, or the people I know there, like the nice waiters or the woman who gives us extra gelato. I also really missed being able to find Il Gazzettino, the local newspaper of Veneto and specifically Venice. All they have in Roma is La Repubblica, which was ok, but I missed my paper. Another distinct thing is the spritz, the typical drink of Veneto, which can’t be found in any other region.

So I got on the train with a copy of the Roman newspaper. We stopped in Firenze, and two older women got on. They didn’t speak any English that I knew of, but it wasn’t a problem, again. So I spoke to them a little, but I had a lot of trouble understanding their particular accent for some reason. I asked them to speak a little slower, that I’ve been studying Italian for only two years and that I’m American. It’s a little weird when I have to explain “Oh, I’m not Italian” but I like it, at least it makes me feel like my language is getting better. But this particular case was odd because I couldn’t understand perfectly everything they were saying, and it was a little obvious. And then I picked up the newspaper, and this woman asked, “What, you ask me to speak slowly but you read the newspaper?” I said, and actually believe, that it’s easier to read than to converse. But it was just a weird experience.

That’s the end of my spring break trip, really.
I’ve been in Venice for almost a week now, and I just finished the classes for this week. Just really quickly, I’ll number off some cool things I’ve done. I may be able to elaborate later but we’ll see.
1.) Last weekend on Saturday I went to one of our most frequented restaurants… this one’s near the train station. It was delicious, my first meal in Venice since my trip. Not counting the mensa, which should count since it’s so good.
2.) I went into Venice with John and Jen to meet with Rita Piccolo, our BC Program manager. It was really cool, she asked us a lot of questions and we had pretty good answers I think. It was more fun talking to her in an informal setting in Italy than it was dealing with all those visa documents in her office last fall.
3.) Oh… this happened Friday, the day I returned from Roma. I went to the Cinema Giorgione in Venice, which only has two theater rooms, but is an amazing little movie theater. I just went by myself, but I enjoyed the experience all the same. Even though the theater was deserted. I saw Questione di Cuore (Question of the Heart) which is about two guys who have heart attacks, meet in the hospital, and become best friends… until drama happens. I liked it in general. It was in Italian but I understood it, no problem.
4.) There was a movie screening last night here at VIU… this was Waltz with Bashir, an Israeli movie that’s actually animated. It captures (with brutal reality and detail nonetheless) the war in Lebanon during the 80s I believe, and it was cool for one reason because one of VIU’s professors is a character in the film. It seems like a bunch of interviews, dreams and vague recollections. I really liked it and recommend it.
5.) Unfortunately because I went to the screening (which is what most of my friends did) I missed going to a silent rave at the train station. Everyone downloaded this iTunes file, and then would listen to it on their iPods, all synchronized. And yet…silence. I heard about it from the Italian students at VIU. I’m actually getting my best practice in Italian not from Italian class or TV/Newspaper stuff, but from just chatting with the Italians, which I try to do every day.

That’s all! Tomorrow though, two big things. I’m going on the VIU trip to the Porto (port) of Venice to find out how the citizens live in harmony with the surrounding environment, ie water. Then there’s a trip to Vicenza, a city maybe a couple hours away. Not really sure what’s there, but what’s for sure is that I can get a lot of practice for my Italian while I’m there, since a lot of the Italian students go on these trips. Finally, tomorrow night there will be a big party… on our island of San Servolo! Two big stages with a lot of musical artists. I’m looking forward to it.

Ciao,
Andrew

Le Avventure di Emily and Andrew (Parte Terza)

Ok, I'm continuing my story of my Easter vacation with Pisa.

Everyone knows Pisa for one thing, the famous tower that leans to the southeast. I've had friends (Rob) who have told me that that's the only remarkable thing to see in Pisa. Whether or not that is true I can't tell because we spent only a day there and visited only the Piazza dei Miracoli, where the tower is. But it didn't really matter because the tower itself is such an incredible feat of architecture. Not because it's leaning, just the construction of it. Emily and I got to the piazza and we took a few cheesy photos of us holding up or standing next to the tower. I actually kind of feel bad because I feel like the pictures I took of Emily weren't that good, or at least up to her standards. But oh well.

The tower was incredible. I think there are like seven levels, and it was kind of weird that the first two were built and then they stopped for some unknown reason. There are only 33 remaining original columns on the tower. Unfortunately, the tower is "worse" in terms of artistic value, at least according to Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Why do you ask? Well, engineers and scientists have worked together to repair the tower over time, constantly preserving the tilt of it. Which proves that tourism has always been a priority in this little town. Therefore, the tower is underneath all its beautiful white stone a metal post stuck deep into the ground. Whatever, though ... it is so incredible to look at that it doesn't matter that much to me.

There are two other main buildings in the piazza, the duomo in the center and the battistero (baptistery) on the western side. These three buildings are made out of the whitest stone and stand out almost like teeth from the pristine green grass. It literally is the best-kept lawn I have seen in Italy. And so many people just sit out on the lawn, chatting, lying down, admiring the architecture. And there are some that play calcio on the yard but they aren't really allowed. I sat down with Emily and we just caught up on some news in the shadow of the tower as the sun was setting. This was really our relax day after the busy days in Torino and Genova.

Our hostel was... bad. Actually it was close to the Piazza dei Miracoli, but unfortunately we had to walk through an underpass that was coated several times over in graffiti and flanked by roaring traffic. Our hostel was actually like a kind of campground, and my room was a tight two-bed deal with a bath, which would have been nice, except for two things. First, I didn't get to choose my roommate, not that I usually do, but it would have been better if I could share a room with Emily instead of the Australian dude. He was maybe 37, said that he taught English in Japan and now was just on vacation because he didn't know what else to do. He said he started in Russia, and he was working up the Italian coast the opposite direction from us. Sounds interesting, yeah, but I just thought it was weird being in this tight space with a guy I didn't know at all. Emily on the other hand had a roommate from Massachusetts, which is practically BC kind of. Whatever, I don't really care. But I was also dissatisfied by the quality of my blankets which had huge moth holes in them. Only minor discomfort though. But this was during the peak of my cold so I wasn't a big fan of the whole arrangement. One good thing was that I figured out how to use my international calling card, so I called Mom and Vittoria that night.


Before I forget! We walked down the street from the Piazza dei Miracoli to a restaurant with fairly decent prices (we both ate for 22 euro) and I ordered the tagliatelle, and Emily got the fixed price menu which included a dish of pasta and a cotoletta alla milanese with potatoes (the potatoes, however, were fries, so Emily was not too excited about that). But it was good all the same, as usual.

We woke up in the morning and spent a little time at this cafe where we ordered a brioche and caffe. There were two police officers flirting with the waitress, so we enjoyed watching that scene. When we finished, we sat for an hour or two at the Piazza dei Miracoli again to get one last look at the tower before our train to Livorno. Livorno (brutally butchered into the English "Leghorn") is the capoluogho, or capital of the Toscana region. It's on the coast and has a few interesting parts of the city including canals and a "Little Venice" area. There is also a statue of "I Quattro Mori," the four moors, which is the symbol of the city. We walked a little around Livorno looking for a place to eat, but kept close to the train station because of the weight of our luggage and also because we didn't want to miss the train to Roma.

We didn't find anywhere to eat so we just stayed at the train station, where we ate lunch and got a box of Bacetti Perugina, one of my favorite kinds of chocolates from Italy. So we just chatted after eating, stamped our tickets and then people watched for a little before boarding our train, which was actually 15 minutes late. That's acceptable though. This part was the slowest of our trip in terms of waiting, etc, but it was still nice just hanging out with Emily. I wish I had been feeling better though because I definitely was exuding an aura of displeasure.

In the train station, I told Emily, "Every time I get on a train, I hope to get a few opportunities to speak Italian, however no one ever speaks to me." I justified the seemingly standoffish behavior of the other passengers with the idea that in airplanes in the US, I would be annoyed by a foreign kid who just wanted to practice his English if he kept bothering me. But a slight knowledge of English would probably impress me and may even be helpful. But I actually got a chance to practice my Italian a bit on this train. We were in a four-person group of seats on this train, and I sat next to this young guy from Rome. He was reading "La Repubblica," which is the Roman newspaper, it is kind of like the New York Times of Italy in some ways. But we didn't talk until the fourth passenger of our seat group came, this woman who was looking for a place to put her bag. Her seat was next to Emily's, so I helped to facilitate communications and moved the luggage around to make space. A long time went by. I'll also add that this train had really depressing bathrooms, meaning they were bad. Then, as we were getting into Rome, this guy asked me a few questions. He knew right off that we were Americans, which impressed me... oddly, sidenote, some Tunisian guy in Genova thought we were French. But anyway this guy on the train was impressed with my Italian, but more importantly to me I wasn't really intimidated to speak with him so it was easy to communicate. Younger people are easier to talk to for that reason, I find.

We checked our bags into the Roma Termini station, to keep them for a while before the infernal process of finding our hostel which hung over our heads like the lofty metaphors I tend to use in my blog. We got three-day metro passes and went straight to the Trinita dei Monti, known more commonly as the Spanish Steps. It was just about sunset, and it was more fun to share the view and the people watching with someone else. We walked from there to Piazza Navona, home of the famous Bernini fountain, and we ate dinner, which ended up costing more than we thought since we both ordered dessert and my gelato was literally the size of my head. We walked through the springtime streets of Rome, this is the old town, so backstreets really, past the pantheon and famous churches like the Sant'Ignazio. Rome is so beautiful at night.

Except when you need to get to your hostel and you can't get there. It was sooo annoying because our nice long dinner made us miss the last train up to Prima Porta (way way way north of the city, like almost an hour) and so we ended up having to take a metro to Piazza del Popolo, then the tram. Oh the tram. There were six or seven French a cappella singers there at the station, and they began to sing a rendition of some Alleluia chorus I'd heard before except substituting "The Tram" and later "Burger King" which was just across the street. So anyway, we got off the tram and walked to the bus station, and rode on the bus for about a half hour, autostrada and all, before getting off at the wrong station by following the French kids, after which we got back on and arrived at last at Prima Porta, which should be called Ultima Porta because it felt like the last place on earth. By now it was like 12:30 am and we were really tired and annoyed, but the guy from the hostel (called Tiber Camping) picked us up and we checked in.

I'll finish next time. It's currently raining now in Venice, kind of a shame. I went out to lunch today with my American friends Jenn, Theresa, John and Lauren, and Francesca, one of the Italian girls, came with us. We ate at a good restaurant and got gelato at our favorite place. Now, I'm just hanging out in the VIU computer lab. Tonight, Rita Piccolo comes to Venice, and she may take us out to dinner so that could be exciting. But if she doesn't I figure I'll just eat at the mensa and I'll go to the film showing of Othello (Fishburne version) that I have to watch for my Shakespeare class.

Ciao per ora,
Andrew

Le Avventure di Emily e Andrew (Parte Seconda)

Ciao,

I'm continuing the story in our second stop, Genova (As with Padova, I'm going to use the Italian spelling rather than the English "Genoa"). Genova is a seaside town on the Italian Riviera, and so it's really different from the fine city lines of Torino. On the other hand, it can be kind of earthy and rough around the edges in places. It just looks older and more elemental. There are palm trees and buildings with chipped plaster coated in communist graffiti. There are more elegant parts of the city, and this eastern neighborhood slopes down to the water. There, you can find the aquarium and the port designed by Renzo Piano. There's a crane thing that lifts you up for a great view of the city and a greenhouse nature center inside a glass bubble. On the western end of the port there is a lighthouse which has become one of the symbols of Genova.

We arrived around 11 in the morning, and brought our bags with us to avoid a bag deposit fee in the train station. We ended up walking around for a bit (down Via Balbi and along the eastern port, which is actually a little sketchy in places) before stopping for lunch in a nice cafe. Emily ordered the focaccia panino, a specialty of Liguria. After eating we were ready to walk for a bit before checking into our hostel, which we couldn't do until after 2:30. So we started down the Via Garibaldi (most cities have one, haha) and arrived at the three palazzi, Bianco, Rosso and Tursi (White, Red and Tursi). A nice woman inside told us we could keep our bags locked up there while we toured the museums, which had many collections of art as well as a cafe where we could get something good to eat. We'd already eaten, I said, but she said, but what if you get hungry again? Good point I guess.

We stored our bags in a crate with a lock on it, and went to the bookstore to get our tickets. I spoke in Italian to the young woman at the desk, asking for the student reduced price. That's only for Genova students, she said, but I'll let you both have it because I'm a student too and I know what it's like to be one. And she was a literature student! Although Italian, not English lit. But I used the "tu" form because she was young enough and was being nice to us... deciding when to use "tu" and the more formal "lei" will always be an issue. But anyway, we got the discounted tickets.

Before I talk about the Palazzi Bianco, Rosso and Tursi, I should say that we always spoke English together (I mean, seriously, why would I only speak Italian to her since she has never studied it?) and in some important cases, like hostel check-ins and information points. It's just easier that way. But if the person didn't speak English I was forced to translate, which was never a problem. And if I had questions in a museum (Palazzo Rosso, for example) I would always ask in Italian first, and then I'd tell some interesting info to Emily. I hope my use of the Italian language turned out as a benefit to Emily and not as a nuisance, that is, I'm trying to get as much as I can out of my time in Italy and my friend keeps thinking he's in Italian class.

So anyway, these three palazzi were incredible. All distinct, and built for the most wealthy and influential families of Genova during the Renaissance. The Palazzo Rosso is so called for its red facade, the Palazzo Bianco because... well, it's actually yellow, but it's lighter in color and the inside has white and black stones making up the floors. The Rosso also has incredible frescoes in the piano nobile, that is, the noble floor. And we met a really nice man who worked for the museum who took us up to the roof of the Palazzo Rosso for an incredible view of the city. I'm leaving out descriptions of the Renaissance art that could stand alone as an incredible thing in itself.

The Palazzo Bianco, right across the street, was just magical to me because of its garden, off the right side. My favorite residential garden in Italy, I know it. A round little foutain of a faun in the middle, herbs and bushes cropped into neat little shapes, just what you'd expect, with white stone pebble walkways. The docent told me that there are frequently evening events there sponsored by local companies or organizations. Wow that would be amazing to be all dressed up and enjoying a night of music and company in that garden!

The Palazzo Tursi had a beautiful interior courtyard. The art inside was also quite notable, most of all for a sculpture by the famous Antonio Canova, "Maddalena Penitente." There is also a violin known as the "Cannone" which belonged to the virtuoso violinist Paganini. It took a few hours to get through these three museums, each distinct from the other. I have favorite parts of each: the view from the Rosso, the garden of the Bianco, the masterpieces of the Tursi.

After seeing the museums, Emily and I walked into the heart of modern Genova, Piazza de Ferrari. There's a circular fountain there, and there is also the operahouse. The architecture here is more modern, more characteristic of what you may find in Torino, or Rome. We walked down toward the waterfront, passing the Cattedrale San Lorenzo, but not going in, and then we came upon the Aquario and some of the other more touristy things at the piers. There is a huge waterfront center, like something from San Francisco or maybe Boston, but you actually can't see too much water because so many piers have been built up. That's something I didn't like as much. But the weather! I was just wearing short sleeves the whole day. It was so warm, 25 degrees celsius I believe.

Our hostel was located at the very top of a hill overlooking the Mare Ligure. It was so beautiful from up there (only 30 mins by city bus) - you could see a few of the more prominent landmarks such as the lighthouse (la lanterna). My room, which had maybe 20 beds in it, was on the corner and had a great view of the city. It was also really cool to ride up there to see how Genovans live, stacked up on the hills like that with really steep stairs in between. We had to kind of zigzag up the hills like the reverse of that little kid's game where the ball goes back and forth down to the bottom. The service at the hostel was nice enough, not as personal as at Torino, but I liked the place in general.

Emily and I ate dinner at a place really close to the cathedral. The food was really good -- I ordered the pasta al pesto, which is a traditional dish of Genova. We sat outside, and just chatted about Italy and our friends and life, you know, stuff like that. And lots of rose vendors came up, trying to sell Emily a rose, but she didn't want one, even if that is her middle name. After a nice stroll (which would have been better if we could have found some gelato) we went back to our hostel, where I now had a beautiful night-sky view of the city, the lighthouse flashing.

In the morning, we visited two main things. First was la Casa di Cristoforo Columbo (Christopher Columbus' house), near Piazza de Ferrari on a plot of land that was many times threatened by modern building. It was a really small place, tight corners, hallways and ceilings. Inside there was a kind of mishmash of all the Christopher Columbus stuff they could find, I guess, and these included examples of the clothing Italians wore back then, famous documents that tell us information about Columbus' life, and a painting by an artist who was really fond of Columbus. Oh, and an Italian flag dedicated to the house by the City of Genova. Interestingly, the restoration of the house was funded in part by an organization from the United States.

After Columbus’ house we walked to the nearby Cattedrale di San Lorenzo. This cathedral is really old – I can’t remember which century but it has elements of Romanesque and pre-gothic styles. Interestingly it has two main colors of stones, black and white, which make it appear really distinct. It was destroyed in part a few times, like just about every church in Italy, but one of the most interesting facts about it is that the Pope placed special importance on San Lorenzo during wars against the Lungobards. It was kind of a home base, I guess. I read out to Emily some of the placards inside so we could learn a little about the cathedral’s art. For example, on the back of the church’s wall there’s a representation of the Last Judgment, which often appeared here to warn people to avoid sin as they exit the cathedral. The main fresco on the ceiling of the cathedral was of San Lorenzo’s martyrdom – I forget where or when, but he’s depicted being burned on an iron apparatus. Whoaa.

We got lunch at this cute little restaurant and ordered the cima, a specialty of Genova. At this point I was starting to suffer from the effects of the cold that I’d just caught… whether I got it from Emily or not is an open question, but I’m hesitant to put the blame on just her. But I felt pretty weak and was sniffling up and down. And yet we had to go two and a half hours by train to Pisa. The train ride was actually amazing, though – we had beautiful weather again and we got to see the coast (Cinqueterre, for example) out the window with rolling hills on the other (eastern) side. So beautiful.

I’ll get more to you guys on Pisa and Roma the next time.

Andrew

Le Avventure di Emily e Andrew (Parte Prima)

Ok everyone, I'm back safely from my huge Easter vacation with Emily Igo, one of my good friends from BC who's studying in London. It was an adventure down the west coast of Italy, starting in Torino and ending in Rome.

Emily flew in on Friday night and I went to Piazzale Roma to meet her after her bus got to Venice. I was actually just in the city because that day I went on a VIU trip out to the Veneto countryside to see a villa designed by Andrea Palladio as well as the rolling mountains of Valdobbiadene, right at the foot of the Dolomiti (Dolomite Mountains), a region really important for the production of prosecco, the Italian version of Champagne.

So, Emily and I walked from the Piazzale to the vaporetto station at San Zaccaria. We stopped briefly at Campo Santa Margherita and I introduced her to a few of my VIU friends -- these were all BC people actually. We came to San Servolo at about 12:45 AM. After arranging some things in my backpack and setting up our travel plans for the morning, we went to sleep -- I gave Emily my bed for the night because she was getting over a cold -- and I crashed on one of the other beds in the room since all of my roommates were traveling.

In the morning we took the train to Torino, located in western Italy in the region known as Piemonte. Our train was very crowded since everyone was going to visit their family for Easter. Emily and I didn't sit together because our seats were separate. I don't know how that happened, but I just read the paper and did some course reading. We arrived in Torino in the early afternoon. We got some lunch at the train station (which was amazing! Remember, this is where they had the olympics only three years ago, so of course everything is going to be in good shape). We walked to our hostel, which was in Southwest Torino. The man there was explaining everything to Emily because she booked the hostel, and then I asked a little question in Italian and he responded with something like, "You speak Italian!? Why didn't you say so in the first place? My English is barely enough, but there is a much easier way!" He explained a lot of interesting things about Torino for us. First, he told us Torino is where chocolate was invented. I was a little skeptical at first because I heard that in Bologna from my friends, and I believe them... however I will explain my reaction after trying the Torinese chocolate later. It left me speechless.

Emily and I explored the center of Torino, known for its central Piazza Castello, where the Palazzo Reale is (that's the royal palace). Also I should point out that Torino's architecture seemed very French to me, and I noticed that as soon as I got there -- wide streets, little iron balconies, that kind of thing. It makes sense, too, because Torino is so close to France. Anyway, a really famous road leads east from Piazza Castello, that's the Via Po, leading toward the Po River. On this road, the hostel manager explained, are a lot of caffes and small restaurants that specialize in aperitivi and buffets (which is perhaps the most tipical Torinese way to eat dinner).

Before strolling down the Via Po, Emily and I went to the Museo Egizio, the Egyptian Museum of Torino. Seems random, but it's actually the most important museum of Egyptian Artifacts after the one in Cairo. Yes, that's right British Museum, I said it. Anyway, why Torino? You'll remember that Napoleon dominated Italy for a while, right? And this Frenchified Italian city must have seemed a good place for some of the artifacts that Emperor Bonaparte ahem, stole from Egypt. The gallery also contains a lot of other artifacts from the collections of Italians who just really love Egyptian stuff. Inside the museum, which was arranged in some places chronologically and in some places thematically, there were all the things you'd expect -- statues of gods and rulers (dramatically displayed in a dark room with mirrors on the sides), papyrus documents like the Book of the Dead, artifacts buried with the dead, and of course, mummies. There was also a significant amount of artifacts that showed the interaction between the Roman Empire and Egypt. The British Museum collection was definitely comparable, but this was a whole museum on Egypt, whereas the British Museum focuses on other things, has a broader focus. I really wanted to go to this museum although Emily had seen the Egyptian collection in London a few times. But this was one of the compromises we made -- actually, it turned out that I planned Torino and Genova and Emily planned Pisa and Roma.

So after the Museo Egizio, we walked around, down the Via Po, etc. I have to mention that it was raining, which was a little sad, but it was still really exciting to be there. We declined the buffets on Via Po in favor of restaurants in the old town, and we actually found a really good one that accepted my meal vouchers. This was my favorite meal of the whole trip. That's not to say the others weren't as good, but I just really loved the feel of the place and the food, and of course the company! I ordered the asparagus risotto with a side of eggplant. Since it's getting warm outside, I'm starting to make the change to white wine (which usually makes me cold when I drink it during the winter). Emily ordered one of the special pizze of the house.

The next day was Easter! So what better way (and both of us agreed on this) to celebrate than to go to mass in the Duomo of Torino? San Giovanni Battista, or St. John the Baptist, was the name of the church. After getting a caffe' on Via Po, we walked to the Duomo and took a look around inside before the service began. It wasn't in plain sight, but the Shroud of Torino is traditionally kept in this church. It was held in a special box in its own chapel during the Holy Week, I believe, to keep people from taking pictures of it during random hours or the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross). The mass started at 11. I was actually really surprised at how much I could understand during the mass, which was just about everything. The music was incredible. However, and it may have been because there were bomb attacks on the church, it was sparse and plain inside. This didn't stop us from enjoying it -- and I had fun explaining the whole communion thing to Emily, that is, there isn't such thing as a line in Italy.

After church we went to a restaurant on the Via Po for the Easter buffet, something I haven't done in years but used to do quite frequently, and I think Emily did the same. The food was delicious and plentiful, perfect for Easter brunch. An hour or so later we walked down Via Giuseppe Verdi to the Mole Antonelliana, which is the huge tower in Torino that was actually appropriated artistically to create the symbol of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. It was first built as a Jewish synagogue, but that project ran out of money. The building was bought and finished by the state as office space, only later to be bought by a private organization headed by a cinema-loving woman who created in 2000 the Museo del Cinema Nazionale, that is, the National Film Museum.

Inside the film museum, you find all kinds of props and costumes from movies, and not just Italian ones. Around the main level, there is a square corridor that takes you through many different genres of film. For example, Silent Italian Epics like Cabiria, movies about love, comedies, science-fiction, westerns, movies with mirrors. These rooms were designed with the genre in mind, for example, the western room looked like a bar room during a brawl, and there was a famous statue of a god in the Cabiria room.

In the center of the main room was a vertical elevator shaft to the top, that was something that was different and cost a little more but offered an aerial view of Torino. But the Torino Museo del Cinema was incredible! The pathway wound upstairs through an exhibit of Rudolph Valentino, silent actor extroardinaire. There were also rooms displaying props and costumes, as well as pages of storyboards and scripts of famous films. There was the costume worn by Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, and a little tag next to it that said, "I loved wearing it; it was so comfortable, so breatheable! I was actually thinking that I may have been turning into a transvestite."

After the Museo del Cinema, we followed the advice of the man at the tourism information desk, and walked west through the northern corner of the Giardini Reali to a little square where a little caffe' is. This place, we were told, is famous for its Bicerin, which is a famous drink in Torino that has coffee, chocolate and a little bit of liquor. So Emily and I enjoyed our Bicerin and then took the bus south to check out the Parco Olimpico, the Olympic Park. There were a lot of fathers and sons playing soccer on the lawn, but the actual sports complex was fairly abandoned. The stadium is used for professional soccer in Italy, and the hockey rink, which is right next door, is used for Torino's hockey team (which I wish was still playing, but oh well).

We got our last dinner in Torino, but not before trying some of the famous cioccolato torinese. It was sooo good! We each got one milk chocolate and one dark chocolate egg. My favorite was the dark, of course. Something interesting happened at dinner (and this is kind of a long story but I want to explain it). First, I should note that since it was Easter night, there were not many restaurants open, and while the place we went normally would accept my vouchers, they didn't this time. Anyway, when the waitress came up when we were finished eating, she asked if we wanted dessert. I said, "Crediamo di no," which I thought meant "We don't believe so," but she didn't understand what I said. I got across later that no, we didn't want anything. However, when I talked to the nice man at our hostel, he told us that you would only say "Credo di si" or "Credo di no" if it's something you think but are not sure about. In our context, I really told the waitress "We're guessing no." See how it seems an inadequate response?

Lastly, I met the guy I was sharing a room with in the hostel in Torino. His name was Tsing, he was from Hong Kong originally but is studying architecture in London. We woke up at the same time exactly on Monday morning. Where are you going, I asked, and he responded, "Genova." The same destination as me and Emily!

I'll continue this story in installments.
Andrew

Quasi Vacanza... e una storia di cene preferite

It's almost vacation time! We can feel it in the air -- like I said in the last post, the weather has really turned around and now the flowers are in full bloom and the birds are singing! San Servolo is a paradise - so much, in fact, that I'm not really inclined to go into Venice, which is now overflowing with visitors thanks to the warm weather.

The last couple of days have therefore been really relaxing. Class has been ok -- I realize I don't talk about it that much in my blog, I noticed taht yesterday actually, but whatever, there are more important things than that. Here are some updates on my school life, however. First, this is the last week before our Easter break, which extends a week beyond Easter. So we've been kinda busy classwise. We didn't have any visits into Venice to see architectural examples for Architecture, just a normal classroom week. In One World, One Language I actually gave a presentation on the use of formal and informal language in Ian McEwan's novel Saturday (which I should note is my favorite novel by him). Tomorrow I give a short report before the class on... well, southern accents actually, which I was supposed to give a while ago but was postponed somehow. In Islam, things are ok. I just found out when my final exam is and when my last paper is due, so we're moving along at a decent pace, even though the reading is a little heavier in that class than it normally is. I love my Italian class -- so much that I probably should be studying a little for my exam tomorrow, it's our midterm, but I practice outside of class all the time when I speak to the Italians that I should have no problem, I think. Lastly is the Shakespeare class, which is moving along a little slowly for my taste. We actually have a two-week break from that class because my professor has some appointment the week after Easter Break. Either that or he's secretly an astronaut or a spy or something.

Anyway, I'll take this opportunity to share some of the finer details of life on San Servolo. Just because I'm free right now and I'm also in need of some heavy procrastination. So... I did my laundry today, wow, I know, great stuff. But I should let you all know that the laundry machines are probably only half the size of the ones in the US, Boston College included, which is a limiting factor. And it costs 2 euro per load, which is an extreme rip-off if you think about it. But it cleans my clothes, which don't get too dirty but get worn several times before I make the decision to retire them. As for drying, we have a dryer, but no one uses it. People just don't use them in Italy - instead, you have to hang them on the "clothes horse" -- I forget the word in Italian, but it's not "cavallo di vestiti." There was a brief moment at the beginning of the year when people got in trouble for keeping the clothes horses in their room. It's not really an issue anymore though. Let's see, what else?

Of course. The mensa. Today, I ate there for both lunch and dinner -- I don't really do that too often, believe it or not, but it works. Dinner was better, in my opinion. Pesto penne for the first course, with some amazing bread, and then there were pallonicini di riso (rice balls, delish) and there were also potatoes and broccoli, which were pretty good as well. OH! I remember something I wanted to do, so let me do it on my blog. I wanted to make a list of my favorite meals in Italy since I've been here. These are in no order except how they come to me.

1) Trattoria alla Colonna, Verona, with Tim Sharkey. Penne della casa all'arrabbiata with vitello (veal) and fresh grilled vegetables - finocchi (fennel), piselli (peas) and patate (potatoes). Also best vino rosso della casa (red house wine) I've maybe ever had.

2.) Lunch in Bologna with Mom and Margaret, but also our friends Signora Lobietti and her students Edoardo, Federica and Carolina. Different kinds of meats on wooden boards, such as the famous mortadella as well as salami and prosciutto, plus many different kinds of cheeses and the most amazing bread. Also good house wine. And I had time to speak to Antonella (that's Sgna. Lobietti) in Italian -- I got some really good practice.

3.) Taverna San Trovaso, Venice, celebrating the birthday of our friend Kim. Tagliatelle al salmone - a long kind of pasta, like a wider linguine, with bits of salmon and spinach. Also with some vegetables that we shared at the table.

4.) Dinner at the Hotel Presidente Roma with BC Chorale Friends. I came back to the Chorale's hotel and they graciously invited me to dinner -- I mostly mean Meg, as we had been planning this for a while. We had the pasta, which was al pesto, with veal I believe and vegetables, although I can't remember which -- I don't know, the meal was incredible, I just had that satisfied feeling afterward, and moreover, I was with Meg, other friends Rob and his sister Amanda, and Meg's roommate Sarah, and Kaz was right there at another table. It was just incredible -- we were there for literally hours.

5.) Lunch in Rome right before I left with Meg, Kaz and Steph of the Chorale. At a little trattoria one side street away from the Vatican, where we just saw the Pope and received his Angelus blessing (OMG! literally.) Anyway, we got the best price ever for an amazing meal -- we argued our student status with the cameriere and he let us eat there for 9 euro a person, including a main dish (pasta with prosciutto and sausage in the most amazing sauce ever for me) a glass of wine (rosso della casa for everyone but Meg, who got the bianco) and Tiramisu, of course. This was among the best meals value-wise.

6.) Torricella, Umbria, at the restuarant "Il Giardino." I was with my friends Clare (England), Vanessa (Georgia State) and Emily (BC but not Igo). We were near the end of our short stay in Umbria which included a visit to Perugia and Assisi, and I ordered the most amazing risotto I have ever eaten, seriously. Sausage, mushroom, and the best kinds of spices. Oh wow it was just incredible. And we finished it off with an amazing gelato at this place right next to our hostel, the best hostel I have ever seen. Wow.

7.) Probably right when my Dad came to Venice -- we went to this restaurant that didn't really have a name, it just had a sign above that said "Osteria." Pretty typical cibo Veneziano. I ordered the raviolis which were amazing, of course. I feel like my vocabulary is running thin. But this was also a good dinner because I got to really explain verbally what things were like here in Venice for the first time to anyone. However, they were playing a U2 greatest hits CD over and over, which isn't normally a problem but it is when it's a mix CD with only 5 songs on it. Like I can still tell you which. But whatever, I like U2 so it wasn't a problem, and I probably wouldn't have noticed if I didn't know all the words.

8.) Frauke, Mom and Margaret at the Ca' Dolfin restaurant somewhere between the Rialto and the Strada Nova in Venice. A little out of the way, still kind of a touristy place. It wasn't really the food this time so much as the atmosphere, and we just spent a long time catching up and enjoying being with each other. Of course, I've had a lot of meals like this too, mensa included. You'll notice I didn't include any mensa meals -- hopefully that doesn't mean I'm becoming mensa-jaded, especially since I ate there twice today. Ahh. As we say in Venice, "Boh."

So that's it for the food. Snapping back to the main idea, vacation, I just actually called Signora Lobietti, and we chatted for a little bit, and I explained how I've been and what I've been up to. I told her about my spring break plans, and she told again how she's going with her husband to India that week -- cool, huh? Anyway, they get back on the 16th, and I'm done on the 17th with my grande viaggio with Emily, as she's continuing on to Greece. Sooo I've decided to go to Bologna for a long weekend! I leave Saturday morning after returning from Rome at 5pm the day before, and then I come back on Monday night around 9, I think. I am really excited to experience Bologna again, and definitely to practice Italian with people I know. Signora Lobietti was so incredibly kind to my family for the short time we were in Bologna a few weeks back, and I can't wait to see them again... I may even have the chance to see Matteo, their son who studies architecture in Lugano, Switzerland (Italian Switzerland, however). So that's my big news.

Ciao, voglio bene a tutti!
Andrew

Terremoto

So maybe some of you heard that there was an earthquake in L'Aquila, in the region of Abruzzo. The magnitude was almost 6 and there have been 130 recorded deaths - it's really bad, the first thing I heard when I turned on the TV this morning. But don't any of you worry - Venice is nowhere near that part of Italy - even Rome felt just tremors. So everything's great. It was seriously like 80 degrees (F) today, so I played some "minicalcio" (that's a little game of soccer) with my friends Anthony and Janina, and Luca Pes, one of the amazingly famous professors here at VIU, basically he runs the place. Oh man, Luca Pes is quite a character actually. Anyway, so we played volleyball also, and then during the afternoon, after classes, I burned a few hours chatting out in the sun, and I also lay down on the grass, stared up at the blue sky, and listened to music. Great day. Short post, I know.
Andrew

Primavera e' Arrivata!

Spring is here, that is. After a few absolutely miserable days, the sun really shone and we've been having fantastic weather in Venice ever since! I decided to stay in Venice this weekend to enjoy the weather with my friends. I was thinking about maybe going down to Parma or Siena but I decided against it because I knew that I'd be making my epic tour of western Italy with Emily next week. If I haven't written where we're going yet, it's Torino - Genova - Livorno and Pisa - Roma. Starting on Saturday, ending on Thursday (she's going on to Greece, and I'm taking the train back to Venice).

So a lot of interesting and amazingly exciting things have happened within the last few days! And a lot of them don't have much to do with Italy at all, actually (although most of them do, of course). First, as you all know, my friends and I received the third overall pick in the Boston College housing lottery - this secured our chance of getting a Mod, one of the coveted, run-down 1970s style modular units at the bottom of the campus. They are really lame looking, have one desk per three students and no laundry machines, but they buzz with tradition everyweekend - most famously before (and after) football games. I really had first-hand experience sophomore year - from an outsider's perspective that is - because my window in a nearby dorm faced the Mods. So yeah, that's the last time I'll ever win anything called the "lottery" again.

Also, I had to select classes for my course registration. Can you believe it? They (I don't really know who I'm talking about here - some extracorporeal bureaucratic force, it would seem) scheduled the housing lottery and course registration for the same week, even the same day - for some, it was "Black Wednesday." I didn't register until Thursday, which I couldn't even do myself - fortunately Vittoria (my girlfriend to new readers or people who just don't know) had my back and used her connections in the Lynch School of Education to process my courses - a political move for which I am eternally grateful, of course. Aaand I got everything I wanted! Filmmaking (with Dan), Adolescent Literature (with Meg and Jenn Fell, a girl studying here at VIU), Philosophy (I've put this off far too long), Art History and Public Relations.

So apart from all that BC stuff, what's new in the Veneto? Well, once again, spring is here, so on Friday I went into Venice with some friends, got an AMAZING lunch at this place called Zorzi that we've been trying to go to for forever, went to the grocery store (where I oddly ran into one of my professors), got some gelato and watched the boats out in the Giudecca Canal, and returned to San Servolo to lie down on the observation deck. It was kind of a semi-nap - beautiful, and it was so warm I wore a t-shirt and shorts. After that we decided to go out to Ae Oche, one of the restaurants in Venice that accepts our vouchers (it's actually the Italian version of Applebee's, we've decided) and then we spent some time in Campo Santa Margherita afterward. Tim (UVA), Tim (Munich), Jenn, Sally, Lauren, John and Anthony and I met up with Giulia and Erica, two Italian students who live in apartments in the city of Venice during the school year. So obvi, it was a good chance for us (and by us I really mean me, John and Anthony this time) to practice our Italian. Again, I may have mentioned this, but most of the students at Ca' Foscari have been studying Chinese for a long time and went to China a couple of years ago.

So, on Saturday, Tim from UVA and I decided to go to Verona - there was a famous wine festival there called "VinItaly" and we thought it sounded cool. And it was cool, right up until it would have cost 40 euro to enter. So we didn't. But we chose to go, just the two of us, on Saturday - all the others wanted to hang out on the beach on Saturday and go to VinItaly on Sunday. But Tim's parents came into Venice today so he wanted to go Saturday, so I went with him. We went into Venice and BARELY were able to eat lunch and make our train after getting lost in Castello (yes, it still happens, getting lost in Venice. Booo).

The train ride to Verona (it's where Romeo and Juliet takes place, if the name sounds familiar - sorry to my high-brow friends, I'm shooting for the lowest common denominator) took about 2 and a half hours. I brought a newspaper with me so I wasn't too bored. After discovering the price of the wine festival, we did an about-face and went into the old town of Verona. Era bellissima! The main piazza, Piazza Bra, is an incredible open space joined by the old Roman Arena (gladiators fought there, theatrical spectacles have taken place there ever since. It's really well known for opera these days. And I found out that the Killers are playing there soon... not soon enough, apparently, June 6, a week after I leave. Again, boooo). So we also walked along the riverbank, through the streets, of course stopping for a gelato. It was such a beautiful city!

One of the most fun things we did was right around the Piazza Erbe - there's a huge tower called the Torre dei Lamberti - it cost 4.50 to climb, so we did - it offered a spectacular view from the top of Verona. Like Bologna, the colors of the buildings were mostly reds, oranges, and yellows - very warm and inviting. And I might mention that the graffiti in Verona is sooo intense - not pervasive, but in terms of content. Messages like "I miss you Maria - let's get to know each other again. I love you." Of course, they sound soooo much better in Italian. "Mi manchi Maria - ci riconosciamo. Ti amo." Messages like this were all the way from the train station to the top of the bell tower.

We got down from the tower around 7:30, which is maybe my favorite time of day because the sun is just setting, so the city was cast in a beautiful shower of light - AND it was time for dinner. So we asked the guy at the desk of the tower store where we could find a good restaurant, and he recommended to us a place "next to Romeo's house." But there were so many people there we couldn't get in without a reservation! So we went down the street to another restaurant, Trattoria alla Colonna - I really don't feel like we missed out on the other restaurant at all. The house pasta was incredible, and the veal was heavenly. I should add (for better or worse) that Tim ordered the horse meat. On top of all, the wine was the best I've had so far in Italy. And that's what we really came to Verona for in the first place, right? But we got so much more.

Today, I went into Venice to go to the Palm Sunday mass (Messa della Domenica delle Palme) at the Basilica San Marco. It was really incredible - the palms are different then they are in the US - they're entire branches and they also have olive branches too. I also find that every time I go to an Italian mass, I understand more, and I'm able to even respond in the Italian in some parts. For the rest of the day, I stayed on San Servolo doing homework - reading about slaves and eunuchs in Islamic Northern Africa isn't my idea of a great time, but "beh," as they say here. Dinner at the mensa was good. Oh! Before I forget - I talked online with my cousin Kate, who gave me the courage to send an email to my family in Sicily, the Cuvas. So I wrote an email to Carmelo Cuva (same name as my Great-Great-Grandfather) who lives in Motta D'Affermo - maybe I'll be able to see my family in Sicily when I go there next month.
That's all for the next few days. It's time to get some rest.

Vi scrivo piu tardi, ciao!
Andrew

Causa per celebrare

Short post this time. Ladies and Gentlemen, I (and five of my best buds at BC) are living in the Mods, the most famous (though not necessarily nicest) housing at BC. And we won the third overall pick in the housing lottery. Unbelievable.
Andrew