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Spring Break: Euro-style

10 days, 7 countries, 5 languages, 4 currencies…..all made for a very interesting and incredibly fun trip!!!

I’m first going to give an overview of my trip and then I’ll go into detail of each of the cities I visited….just fyi!

At approximately 6:04 a.m. on Friday morning, Hillary, Elyse, and I ventured off to catch a bus to the train station, to take a train to Rome, to catch a bus to the airport to fly to Geneva, Switzerland. If that wasn’t a mouthful enough, once we got to Geneva, we found my friend Laura, and then had to catch a bus, to a tram, and walk over the France/Switzerland border to get to our hotel. Oh, and yes, at this point, we were surviving on my high school French……that was interesting!

We stayed in Geneva until Sunday evening, when we took a plane to Budapest, Hungary. At this point, it was just Elyse, Hillary and I because Laura’s friend from home was coming to visit. We had to take a taxi to our hostel and somehow were successful in communicating (in English, not Hungarian) to the taxi driver where it was.

We left Budapest on Tuesday night and took an overnight train to Prague, Czech Republic. While we were there, we met up with Elyse’s friend Katie, who is studying there this semester. When we were pulling into the train station, it was snowing….definitely reminded me of back home! Prague was definitely my favorite city! (but more on that later….)

Then we left Prague to go to Vienna, Austria early Friday morning, by bus. Hillary parted from us, because her boyfriend came to Perugia, so now it was just me and Elyse- us two against the world….hahaha Anyways, we stayed there until Sunday morning, when we took a bus to Bratislava, Slovakia, a plane to Rome, and a train back to Perugia.

It was an insane trip: not just with seeing four amazing cities, but experiencing four very different cultures. It was really interesting to see all the different everyday lives and such of each city. I am disappointed that I was on almost every form of transportation besides a boat…. :/ hahaha

Assisi: Take 2

So some of my friends decided to go to Assisi for a Friday, and I thought, “Why not go again?” I probably wouldn’t normally have gone, but last time the castle was closed, and I wanted to get to see it. Just to my luck, it was closed again, but oh well!

It only takes about 20 minutes to get to Assisi, so Caitlin, Thomas, Zach, Ross, Ryan, Brian, and I all left at about lunch time. We went to an early dinner, at the most delicious pizza place in all of Umbria (as stated in many guidebooks). It was absolutely delicious!!!!

Then we went to San Francesco, again. We asked these two American women traveling through all of Italy to take pictures of all of us. They literally fell in love with the boys, and even asked Caitlin and I to step out of the picture and take one with them and the boys…..very interesting…..

Anyways, then we traveled up to the castle on top of the hill (even though it was closed, we could still see all the views from the hill. The sky was really clear, so I got some great pictures of everything, especially San Francesco. It was well-worth the trip!

Dan is in Siena....Siena is in Dan!

This is the song that my friend Caitlin made up…don’t know why, but it was really funny, so I titled this blog by the song…and sadly, Caitlin’s friend called her last minute to say she was visiting her, so Caitlin wasn’t even able to join us. So it was Elyse, her friend from school, Tina, and I who ventured off to Siena to visit their friend Dan.

So after arriving in Siena, we asked the bus driver if this one stop was our stop, and he said yes. So we get off, and can’t seem to find Dan, which meant that, no in fact, we had gotten off at the wrong point. We walked around for about 15 minutes, following signs to the center of town, and eventually Dan finds us. It was a little scary because it was about 8 o’clock at night and we were carrying a bunch of bags, but we finally made it to Dan’s apartment safely. By then we were also starving, so we went out to a wonderful dinner and then walked around town for a while, enjoying the beautiful weather.

The next morning, we decided to- you guessed it- visit more churches! (I mean, what else do you do in Europe, especially Italy?!?) We went to St. Catherine’s and then headed to San Domenico’s, where there was actually St. Catherine’s head and finger that had been preserved….very strange, but kinda cool at the same time. We walked around a ton- just looking at all different views of the city, including going up to the abandoned palace on the top outskirts of the city. Eventually we decided to head back to the main piazza, the del Campo, where literally EVERYONE congregates. Of course, we got some gelato and just people watched for a bit. It was really good weather, so it was great just sitting and eating…yummm!!!

In July and August, there are two horse races in Siena, called the Palio. They occur in the del Campo. See the city is split up into 17 contrade (districts) and each one gets one horse. The horse that wins gives the whole contrada pride and celebrations for the whole rest of the year. The horses race three times around the outside of the piazza three times. There’s tons of gambling and it’s just crazy! It’s really cool too, cuz this has been going on for hundreds of years.

So after our delicious gelato, we went to the duomo, which was actually really cool. The floor is all engraved marble, and they only let certain parts of it be shown at a time. It was really similar coloring and build to that of the duomo in Florence. By then, however, it was about time to catch our bus home. Siena was great- especially the weather when we were there- but I did miss Perugia!

vino, vino vino!

The Saturday following my trip to Assisi, I went to a wine-tasting at a local winery, Chiorri. It was about 20 minutes by bus outside of Perugia. This vineyard is self-sufficient, and they only used the grapes- they don’t add yeast or anything artificial. There are seven different types of wines, and we were able to taste 3 of them.

Our tour-guide was the son-in-law of the owner, and he was absolutely hysterical! He walked us through the whole process of wine-making: the grape smusher, as I call it; all of the different giant metal containers; the barrels; and such. Then he showed us the whole bottling process, which is really cool- I felt like I was back watching Mr. Roger’s or something, though- kinda strange, I know, because Mr. Roger’s would be able to have alcohol on the show…..

^This is the machine used to package the wine into the bottles, including corking and labeling....really cool!

Anyways, then we went into this cute, Italian-decorated room, where we were to have the actual tasting. They served us fresh bruschetta, torte al testo (a type of sandwich that is unique to Perugia), meat, cheese, and this delicious chocolatey-vanilla cakey dessert. In between the different courses, our tour-guide explained each wine, how that specifically was made, and the best way to drink it (cold or room temperature, fresh or let it age, etc.) It was really interesting! He also explained which wines are better from which locations in Italy. We tasted a red, a white, and a rossa (which is a pink wine). It was really fun and interesting to learn all about wine!

Assisi

On Friday, my friends Elyse, Caitlin, Kate (Caitlin’s friend that is studying in Vienna), and I decided to take a day-trip to Assisi. It is a mere 25 minute train ride away, and then a taxi ride up to the actual city. The city is also on a hill (I know, very surprising in Italy) and very, very quiet. We didn’t see many people out in the streets, or even in the churches, though it was a Friday, so maybe people just work outside of Assisi? Anyways, the town is just beautiful- very clean and it definitely carried a religious feel. Almost every store sold rosaries, prayer cards, pictures/post cards of the church, etc.

Our first stop was the Basilica di San Francesco (Basilica of Saint Francis- pictured above). We decided to get the audio tour guide, which was really, really informative, and gave a lot of interesting stories behind the frescos (paintings) and history of Saint Francis. The sad thing is that in most churches here, you are not allowed to take pictures inside, so I sadly can’t share much with you. I did, however, miss the signs at first, and took a picture of this one…and then got yelled at in Italian to turn off my camera. Here’s your inside look:

Inside the Basilica, there is the tomb of Saint Francis, along with numerous relics of his. There were shoes, chalices, and lots of his clothes, such as this one:

Following our long stay at the Basilica (and some gelato, or course), we stopped in the church of Santa Maria (Saint Mary’s). As we were walking to the other main church in Assisi, Elyse suggests us to stop in this smaller church on the way. It just so happens that this was the church that was built on top of San Francesco’s house! Inside the church is the actual front door of his house, the cell he was imprisoned in, and his father’s shop…..here are some pictures:

<- This is the inside of the chapel.

This is the prison cell San Francesco was kept in. ->

Then we venture on to Chiesa di Santa Chiara (Church of Saint Clare). Again, we couldn’t take pictures inside :/. This church actually has the cross that San Francesco was praying to when God came to him…very interesting! There was also Santa Chiara’s tomb, and lots of beautiful statues and frescos.

As the sun set, we realized we had to leave (wow…I’m sounding like I’m writing a novel), so we headed back to the train station. Assisi was BEAUTIFUL, and we all commented on how underrated it is. I plan to go back because the top fortress was closed, and supposedly there are gorgeous views from it. Check out my picture website for more photos! <>

Super Bowl: Italian-style

Yes, we did celebrate the Super Bowl, even though we are an ocean away. We had to get to one of the two bars playing the game by about 11 (at night) to scope out tables. The game then didn’t start until 12:30…which means we didn’t get home then until 4:45. (Yes, I did have class at 9 a.m. and I DID go!) It was a very good defensive game, and with everything that happened in the last few minutes, I am sooo glad that I didn’t go home at half!

This is a picture of Elyse, Hillary, me, and Caitlin with the bar owner after the Giants won! We were all veeerrrryyy excited!