Whatever stuffs your cannolle!

Whoa so a lot has happened since last time I wrote- mea culpa! I’m going to use the pictures I’m loading up to remember it all . . .

So after Sicily my Mom visited Florence on her skymiles tickets for a week! She rented a beautiful apartment from a very kind Italian man, and we had a few dinner parties with my friends and played on the grand piano- my first time on the ivories in a while. That weekend she and I traveled to Venice and Verona, restrained from dropping the 80 euro for a gondola ride but definitely splurged on everything else, including two to-die-for meals (the tiramisu in Venice is pictured), Venetian masks, and some stylin Italian fashion pieces (Yes, I now have a pair of Florentine leather boots!). We also hit the sites- the balcony that inspired Shakespeare’s famous Romeo and Juliette monologue, and Saint Mark’s, where Mom fondly recalled her last visit to the piazza with Cioci Donna . . .

After a few all-nighters and midterms, I finally got to test all the planning I’d been doing online for my break! 10 days, (which I managed to stretch into 12), in England and Spain. Four girlfriends and I left right from our architecture midterm for the Pisa aeroporto, where we met half of the kids from our program waiting for their flights (all Ryanair, of course) to Stockholm, Vienna, Prague, Paris, you name it. The five of us spread out over London to visit with family, boyfriends, friends, etc. Many many thanks to Alan, Shari, Greg, and the other Londonites who helped Laura and I have such a delightfully British time! I saw the Rosetta Stone, Parliament, and the inside of many an empty Guinness glass. Fantastic! Then to Madrid where I met the beautiful miss Fiona (Noho!) and Harry (Vassar!) for some Halloween festivities. Again, unbelievable art, local food and drink, and great company. Our train into Barcelona stopped about an hour outside of the city because of a strike, but luckily Harry and I picked the right bus to bring us the rest of the way. There are a few pictures from the unfinished but incredible Sagrada Familia by Gaudi, and a few from one of my favorite spaces of all time, the Barcelona Pavillion by Mies van der Rohe. Sam, Tyler, Harry, myself and a few others at Vassar spent an entire semester analyzing and drawing this building as part of a studio class, so to finally walk around inside it was absolutely unreal. Especially when we discovered the potential of the light box! (Our sillouette’s looked SO cool). When we left the pavilion we noticed oh, 300 people had gathered to, look at the sunset? No, turns out there is something called the ‘magic fountain’ which performs a psychadelic water dance to classical concertos. Good find! Again, Vassar colonies in both Madrid and Barcelona- you rule I had SO MUCH FUN! Whoever thought of the falafel and/or Picasso’s absinthe bar, genius. After figuring out some housing details, we went to the Picasso museum, Gaudi’s park, and the last night before coming back to Florence, Sam, Tyler and I walked down the beach saw the ‘Ghery fish’- a large, seemingly non-functional but still very cool-looking metal-frame abstraction of a fish by Frank Ghery.

The day after we got back Greg came to Florence! And man did he make a great Fiorentina soccer player. He wow-ed me (like whoa) with his navigations skills- I think he found more nooks and crannies in the city while I was in class than I will this whole semester! Friday I left for a five-city two-day mega-architecture tour (no, it never stops) to Todi, Orvieto, Assisi, Perugia, and Gubbio, where you’ll see my friend Peter dodging into all of my pictures, and the most incredible beams of light shining down on the Italian countryside.

OK if you want to go take a pee break at this point I understand- I’m personally going to go make some caprese salad with our cute little basil tree leaves and some fresh mozzorella.

Alright the NEXT weekend, phew only LAST weekend! Us Pre-architecture students finally got to travel with the Syracuse architecture students (most in their fourth of a five year program) to Lake Como and Milan wohoo!! Our dinky 15-person bus tagged along their big-ole coach bus, and we had some lunch/saw lots of architecture together. Anyone who has the chance, get to the top of the Milano Duomo pronto! It was one of the most amazing structures I’ve ever seen.

This past week my family came all the way from Florence, Masssachusetts to set up shop in Florence, Italy, and cooked my roommates and I a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner, complete with smuggled cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, and yams from the states. Thanks Mom! And damn, you should see the turkey that is STILL only ¾ finished in our fridge. Last week I had to reserve a turkey from my local grocery store (intero e crudo) and Wednesday morning by friend Alfanzo walks out of the meat department with a 6.7 kilo tacchino!!! That’s almost 14 pounds of turkey, complete with some feathers still left on the ends of the legs. Those pics are coming, as well as some from the leaning tower of Pisa and of course this weekend, the ultimate, the ROME. Wish me luck not peeing my pants when I get to St. Peter’s!

Those of you at home, only 3 ½ more weeks! Swimmers, 5, and my Vassar sweethearts, 8!! I can’t wait to see your beautiful faces, my family, some hearty New England snow, and, actually, my advisor! Nick, if you’re reading this, YOU STEERED US IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION! Sam, Tyler and I sit around the kitchen table in our apartment in Firenze, sketching and analyzing the most beautiful architecture in the world for ‘homework’ and thanking you for getting us interested in Italian architecture! Don’t take credit if you don’t want to, but we think you’re the best, and we’re going to get those pics of Santo Spirito next weekend no matter how many priests we have to take down!

Ciao out everyone, I can’t wait to see you, be prepared for more stories and pictures than you can handle, and for these three Italianized buddies to be back in our favorite arboritum flying Firenze colors.