Relaxing and Amazing - The Greek Island of Santorini (5.11.10 - 5.13.10)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Our Last Look at the Villa... (4.24.09)
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Amalfi Coast - Sorrento, Pompei, Capri, Positano! (4.2.10-4.3.10)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
More Pictures
Monday, April 5, 2010
Pictures from Switzerland!
Monday, March 29, 2010
The City of Water - Venice Part 2 (3.26.10 - 3.27.10).mp4
Murano Island of the Glass Makers - Venice Part 1 (3.26.10)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Top of Europe and Interlaken, Switzerland! (3.20.10)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Weekend on the French Mediterranean Island of Corsica (3.12.10 - 3.14.10)
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Weekend in Sardinia! (3.5.10 - 3.7.10)
Monday, March 8, 2010
Pictures!
Pictures from our trip to Sardinia are now up on the website! Click here to see them: http://picasaweb.google.com/KatieAndRyanGo2Italy.
Also, all of the pictures from our spring break in England and Dublin are now up. Videos from Sardinia should be coming soon.
-Katie
Also, all of the pictures from our spring break in England and Dublin are now up. Videos from Sardinia should be coming soon.
-Katie
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Stonehenge! ...and a little bit of Windsor Castle (2.27.10)
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Kilmainham Gaol and Dublin Castle (2.25.10)
At the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin! (2.24.10)
Monday, March 1, 2010
Whipsnade London Wild Animal Park (2.21.10)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
London, London, London! (2.20.10)
Back in Italy!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Medici in Florence! (2.18.10)
Beach and Snow in One Day! (2.12.10 - 2.13.10)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Internet Issues!
Just wanted to give a quick update. We are having an amazing time during Spring Break staying with our friend Lawrence and exploring London. Right now we are taking a quick side trip to Dublin. I have a bunch of videos that are ready to upload, but recently Youtube changed the way they upload videos, and with the slow internet connections I have had, I have been unable to upload anything since. I am working on a way to fix this, so stay tuned for video updates including Bologna, San Marino, Rimini, more Florence, London, and the zoo as soon as I (or Youtube) gets the problem fixed.
-Ryan
-Ryan
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Spring Break!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Midterms!
It's midterm exam time already here at the villa. Katie and I are studying hard and looking forward to Spring Break next week, where we will be going to England and Ireland! Video from last weekend, our trip to Bologna and San Marino, will be up soon, the internet is pretty bogged down with people trying to study. In the meantime, check out the picasaweb link on the right to see the pictures Katie took from the weekend.
-Ryan
-Ryan
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Florence vs. Rome Soccer Game (2.7.10)
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Vatican City - The Smallest Country in the World! (2.5.10)
When in Rome... (Part 2) (2.4.10)
When in Rome... (Part 1) (2.4.10)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
When in Rome...
Rome was amazing. I have to say, I was surprised at the amount that we were able to see in just three days. We left with the program on Thursday morning and got back to the villa around 9:00 Saturday night. I won't go into too much detail because the videos will be going up soon, but I wanted to give an overview of what we did and saw, and include some information on places I would definitely recommend stopping at when/if you visit Rome.
We did a guided walking tour of the city on Thursday; we saw the Roman Forum, the spot where Caesar's body was cremated, August Caesar's Basilica, Palatine Hill, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Bernini's fountain of the four rivers (which was right by our hotel! but unfortunately the water wasn't in it...they were doing some sort of restoration or cleaning). The weather was perfect! I underestimated how much warmer it would be in Rome. We finished around 7:00 and found a place to have dinner then went back to see the Colosseum at night.
On Friday we spent the morning at the Vatican...we were there from 8:30 until about 2:00. We saw the whole thing, but we had to go through fairly quickly--it was huge! One thing I would recommend though: we went straight to the Sistine Chapel when we got there and spent about 30 minutes there. It was great because there were maybe 30 people, so it was silent and there were a ton of seats open so we could see everything. We then went back through and saw the rest of the Vatican museum and when we left through the Sistine chapel at around 1:30 it was completely packed and everyone was talking. We could barely get through the crowd...I was definitely glad that we had gone to see it first. Also, there is an unmarked doorway at the far end of the Sistine chapel, and if you go through it and down the stairs you come out into St. Peter's Basilica. Otherwise you have to exit Vatican city and go all the way around to get back into St. Peter's.
After Vatican city a group of us wandered around until we were mostly out of the touristy area and found this little restaurant called Antica Taverna (http://www.anticatavernamangiabene.it/). The food was fantastic and very cheap. We spent a while there and then started making our way towards the Spanish Steps. On the way we stumbled upon the best gelato place I have ever been to (Gelateria Della Palma Via della Maddalena 20)...I think they had 20 variations of just chocolate. We then went to the Spanish Steps, took some pictures and finished the day with the Trevi Fountain.
Yesterday we spent the morning walking around Rome. We saw the small island in the middle of the Tiber river (the smallest inhabited island in the world!). It was, in fact, very tiny, but we found a little super-authentic cafe that I would definitely recommend. I don't remember what it was called but you really can't miss it. We went back to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon, and just explored the city before leaving at 2:00 with the group to go see the Villa Borghese. We had the same tour guide that had taken us around Rome on Thursday; she was really great! The villa was amazing--there were soo many fantastic works of art in the gallery. We spent 2 hours there and it felt like maybe 20 minutes. After that we took the bus back to Sesto and went to sleep. It was a long weekend, but definitely worth it.
Tonight we're going to see our first soccer game in Florence! AFC Fiorentina is playing Rome, so it should be a pretty cool experience.
-Katie
We did a guided walking tour of the city on Thursday; we saw the Roman Forum, the spot where Caesar's body was cremated, August Caesar's Basilica, Palatine Hill, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Bernini's fountain of the four rivers (which was right by our hotel! but unfortunately the water wasn't in it...they were doing some sort of restoration or cleaning). The weather was perfect! I underestimated how much warmer it would be in Rome. We finished around 7:00 and found a place to have dinner then went back to see the Colosseum at night.
On Friday we spent the morning at the Vatican...we were there from 8:30 until about 2:00. We saw the whole thing, but we had to go through fairly quickly--it was huge! One thing I would recommend though: we went straight to the Sistine Chapel when we got there and spent about 30 minutes there. It was great because there were maybe 30 people, so it was silent and there were a ton of seats open so we could see everything. We then went back through and saw the rest of the Vatican museum and when we left through the Sistine chapel at around 1:30 it was completely packed and everyone was talking. We could barely get through the crowd...I was definitely glad that we had gone to see it first. Also, there is an unmarked doorway at the far end of the Sistine chapel, and if you go through it and down the stairs you come out into St. Peter's Basilica. Otherwise you have to exit Vatican city and go all the way around to get back into St. Peter's.
After Vatican city a group of us wandered around until we were mostly out of the touristy area and found this little restaurant called Antica Taverna (http://www.anticatavernamangiabene.it/). The food was fantastic and very cheap. We spent a while there and then started making our way towards the Spanish Steps. On the way we stumbled upon the best gelato place I have ever been to (Gelateria Della Palma Via della Maddalena 20)...I think they had 20 variations of just chocolate. We then went to the Spanish Steps, took some pictures and finished the day with the Trevi Fountain.
Yesterday we spent the morning walking around Rome. We saw the small island in the middle of the Tiber river (the smallest inhabited island in the world!). It was, in fact, very tiny, but we found a little super-authentic cafe that I would definitely recommend. I don't remember what it was called but you really can't miss it. We went back to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon, and just explored the city before leaving at 2:00 with the group to go see the Villa Borghese. We had the same tour guide that had taken us around Rome on Thursday; she was really great! The villa was amazing--there were soo many fantastic works of art in the gallery. We spent 2 hours there and it felt like maybe 20 minutes. After that we took the bus back to Sesto and went to sleep. It was a long weekend, but definitely worth it.
Tonight we're going to see our first soccer game in Florence! AFC Fiorentina is playing Rome, so it should be a pretty cool experience.
-Katie
Rome Videos Coming Soon!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Montepulciano, Where the TWILIGHT NEW MOON Volterra Scenes were Filmed! (1.29.10)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
San Gimignano - Medieval Towers and the Best White Wine in Tuscany! - Part 2 (1.23.09)
San Gimignano - Medieval Towers and the Best White Wine in Tuscany! - Part 1 (1.23.09)
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Spring Break... London?
Monday, January 18, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Siena and Wine Tasting!
Sorry it's been so long since the last blog...this week has been pretty busy! Tuesday through Thursday were pretty much occupied with classes and exploring Sesto, but the art history on-site visit to Florence Thursday morning was pretty cool. There are clips of it in the video, but our professor obtained private admission for class to the Baptistery. We spent the rest of the morning discussing various artworks and museums. Overall, it was a pretty interesting class.
On Friday we took a day trip to Siena with the program. It was beautiful; just what I had imagined Tuscany to look like. The bus ride there was amazing (what I saw of it...I unfortunately fell asleep for most of the ride). Picture rolling hills, green grass, and grazing animals, with historic villas nestled in between, and that's what it looked like. We spent the morning touring the baptistery, the Cripta, the cathedral, and the museum. The amount of history there is truly amazing. We finished the morning by climbing up a spiral stone staircase to to roof of the museum. The view of Siena was absolutely breathtaking.
We ate lunch on the steps of the Piazza del Campo. Despite being attacked by Pigeons (they literally would walk up and try to climb up our shoes), it was a very cool experience. We finished our tour with the city hall. The art in all of these buildings was really remarkable.
We then went to Fattoria Le Corti, a vineyard nearby (http://fattorialecorti.principecorsini.com/english/). We took a tour of the vineyard, learned how they make the wine and olive oil, and tasted three different wines. The views were gorgeous; they definitely rivaled the views from the roof in Siena. Overall it was just a fantastic day.
Pictures of everything have been added (link in the sidebar)!
-Katie
On Friday we took a day trip to Siena with the program. It was beautiful; just what I had imagined Tuscany to look like. The bus ride there was amazing (what I saw of it...I unfortunately fell asleep for most of the ride). Picture rolling hills, green grass, and grazing animals, with historic villas nestled in between, and that's what it looked like. We spent the morning touring the baptistery, the Cripta, the cathedral, and the museum. The amount of history there is truly amazing. We finished the morning by climbing up a spiral stone staircase to to roof of the museum. The view of Siena was absolutely breathtaking.
We ate lunch on the steps of the Piazza del Campo. Despite being attacked by Pigeons (they literally would walk up and try to climb up our shoes), it was a very cool experience. We finished our tour with the city hall. The art in all of these buildings was really remarkable.
We then went to Fattoria Le Corti, a vineyard nearby (http://fattorialecorti.principecorsini.com/english/). We took a tour of the vineyard, learned how they make the wine and olive oil, and tasted three different wines. The views were gorgeous; they definitely rivaled the views from the roof in Siena. Overall it was just a fantastic day.
Pictures of everything have been added (link in the sidebar)!
-Katie
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Classes Begin!
Just as we were all getting used to running around and exploring... classes begin! As of now, Katie and I are taking Italian 101, Italian Cinema, Renaissance Art History, and History of the Renaissance. So far all the classes and professors are really good, but it is just weird to have class when there is so much other interesting things we would rather be doing. Oh well. This is STUDY abroad after all... Sorry the video posts have slowed down, hopefully they will start to be interesting this weekend as we go to Siena and some other cool places including a vineyard. I am also waiting for a nice sunny day to do a full tour of the villa gardens which are some of the most spectacular in Tuscany and they are tended by the gardener Bruno who is 86 and has worked in the garden at the villa since age 16! This place is truly amazing, and it has been great getting to meet so many great people within such a short span of time. As the jet lag finally wears off and the classes begin, it will now be our goal to balance our class schedule with our travel schedule. Hopefully with all of you following, it will inspire us to get out and see as much as possible over the next few months. Thanks to everyone who is reading this.
-Ryan
-Ryan
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Orientation/First trip to Florence
It's hard to believe we've only been here two days; it feels like so much longer! Yesterday morning was orientation...we met the villa staff and the faculty, got to hear descriptions of our classes, went over all of the rules and class policies, and filled out some paperwork. Then, after lunch, we took a walking tour of Sesto with the house fellow, Amanda (essentially the RA for the villa). Although seeing the city and getting an idea of where everything is located was really cool, it was raining the entire time so we were pretty cold by the end.
After dinner a group of us decided to go out in Sesto for Savannah's birthday. There's a little cafe/wine bar that is supposedly pretty popular with the locals, and we were thinking about going there, but they ended up closing early so we decided to save it for another time. We ended up finding a really small irish pub a little further down. It had a great atmosphere; there were board games and puzzles set up and they were showing a movie on the television. All of the posters and decorations were in English but all of the customers and waitresses were Italian (and only spoke Italian), so it gave us a chance to work on our language skills a little bit. It was pretty fun but I think we're all excited to start the language class and learn some basic phrases for getting around.
Today was a very busy day as well. It was our first trip into Florence! We took a chartered bus there in the morning, and then took about a 2.5-3 hour walking tour of the city. Professor Mariotti gave the tour, and she explained the historical significance of quite a bit of the city on the way. It was pretty incredible to see the wall that was built in the 12th century still standing. After the tour we were able to spend the afternoon in Florence on our own. We definitely wanted to see more of the city, but at that point we were all so cold that we decided to save the museums and churches for another time. A group of 6 of us went to lunch together at a place called Trattoria Da Garibardi. We ordered pizzas and a bottle of wine to share, and spent about 2 hours there. It was really nice to just relax and not feel rushed. The pizza here isn't all that different from that in the united states, it just seems to have a thin crust and fresher ingredients. Plus, they had a pizza without cheese on the menu! So we all really enjoyed the afternoon. After that we took a city bus back to the villa and just relaxed for the rest of the night. I think everyone is pretty tired at this point; all of the walking and exploring, combined with Jet lag, is starting to take its toll.
Classes start tomorrow, hopefully all goes well!
Also, we have too many pictures to post on the blog, so they will be posted here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/KatieAndRyanGo2Italy/SestoFiorentinoAndFirstDayInFlorence?feat=directlink
-Katie
After dinner a group of us decided to go out in Sesto for Savannah's birthday. There's a little cafe/wine bar that is supposedly pretty popular with the locals, and we were thinking about going there, but they ended up closing early so we decided to save it for another time. We ended up finding a really small irish pub a little further down. It had a great atmosphere; there were board games and puzzles set up and they were showing a movie on the television. All of the posters and decorations were in English but all of the customers and waitresses were Italian (and only spoke Italian), so it gave us a chance to work on our language skills a little bit. It was pretty fun but I think we're all excited to start the language class and learn some basic phrases for getting around.
Today was a very busy day as well. It was our first trip into Florence! We took a chartered bus there in the morning, and then took about a 2.5-3 hour walking tour of the city. Professor Mariotti gave the tour, and she explained the historical significance of quite a bit of the city on the way. It was pretty incredible to see the wall that was built in the 12th century still standing. After the tour we were able to spend the afternoon in Florence on our own. We definitely wanted to see more of the city, but at that point we were all so cold that we decided to save the museums and churches for another time. A group of 6 of us went to lunch together at a place called Trattoria Da Garibardi. We ordered pizzas and a bottle of wine to share, and spent about 2 hours there. It was really nice to just relax and not feel rushed. The pizza here isn't all that different from that in the united states, it just seems to have a thin crust and fresher ingredients. Plus, they had a pizza without cheese on the menu! So we all really enjoyed the afternoon. After that we took a city bus back to the villa and just relaxed for the rest of the night. I think everyone is pretty tired at this point; all of the walking and exploring, combined with Jet lag, is starting to take its toll.
Classes start tomorrow, hopefully all goes well!
Also, we have too many pictures to post on the blog, so they will be posted here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/KatieAndRyanGo2Italy/SestoFiorentinoAndFirstDayInFlorence?feat=directlink
-Katie
Saturday, January 9, 2010
We made it!
Well after about 24 hours of transit we finally made it! The villa is beautiful and everyone here is incredibly friendly!
So our flight was supposed to leave from Detroit at 7:00 (Eastern Time) and arrive in Frankfurt at 9:00 the next morning. We got to the airport around 3:00, and gradually people from our program kept showing up. We ended up with 12 out of the 15 people from Michigan on the same flight! Everything seemed to be going smoothly...we boarded the plane on time, had no trouble with our seats, and were just waiting to take off.
However, at about 7:15, the pilot announced that there was a technical problem with the plane, so we would have to take a different plane. The turnaround time ended up being about 3 hours, but the airline gave us all $15 food vouchers for the airport. We finally boarded the new plane at around 10:00. We then had to wait for them to de-ice the plane, so we didn't end up leaving until about 11:30.
The flight itself went fairly smoothly, but with the 4.5 hour delay, we all missed our connecting flights in Frankfurt. The man at the service desk in Frankfurt told us to go to gate B12 and they would give us new boarding passes for the 4:30 flight there. We had to go through security and take a tram, but we didn't mind...we figured there was no rush as it was only about 1:30. THEN the woman at the desk at gate B12 said that the man had no business telling us to go to the gate; that he should have told us to go to the transport desk, which was outside of security. Of course after everything we weren't looking forward to going all the way back but, luckily, she had some extra time and offered to call some people and try to get our new tickets. She managed to get a ticket for everyone, and we all made it on the flight to Florence. Needless to say, by this time we all knew each other pretty well. Despite the hassle of all the delays, our adventure turned into a pretty good bonding experience.
From the Florence airport we all manged to get taxis to the villa (mostly using Anthony's Italian...the majority of the rest of us didn't know how to speak it at all). The taxi was a pleasant surprise at only 12 euros each!
After we got to the villa we had dinner (fantastic chef here by the way...homemade pasta!), got our room assignments, and just spent the rest of the time getting to know people and walking around Sesto; it's really a beautiful place.
Orientation is tomorrow so we'll find out more about life at the Villa then.
Ciao!
-Katie
So our flight was supposed to leave from Detroit at 7:00 (Eastern Time) and arrive in Frankfurt at 9:00 the next morning. We got to the airport around 3:00, and gradually people from our program kept showing up. We ended up with 12 out of the 15 people from Michigan on the same flight! Everything seemed to be going smoothly...we boarded the plane on time, had no trouble with our seats, and were just waiting to take off.
However, at about 7:15, the pilot announced that there was a technical problem with the plane, so we would have to take a different plane. The turnaround time ended up being about 3 hours, but the airline gave us all $15 food vouchers for the airport. We finally boarded the new plane at around 10:00. We then had to wait for them to de-ice the plane, so we didn't end up leaving until about 11:30.
The flight itself went fairly smoothly, but with the 4.5 hour delay, we all missed our connecting flights in Frankfurt. The man at the service desk in Frankfurt told us to go to gate B12 and they would give us new boarding passes for the 4:30 flight there. We had to go through security and take a tram, but we didn't mind...we figured there was no rush as it was only about 1:30. THEN the woman at the desk at gate B12 said that the man had no business telling us to go to the gate; that he should have told us to go to the transport desk, which was outside of security. Of course after everything we weren't looking forward to going all the way back but, luckily, she had some extra time and offered to call some people and try to get our new tickets. She managed to get a ticket for everyone, and we all made it on the flight to Florence. Needless to say, by this time we all knew each other pretty well. Despite the hassle of all the delays, our adventure turned into a pretty good bonding experience.
From the Florence airport we all manged to get taxis to the villa (mostly using Anthony's Italian...the majority of the rest of us didn't know how to speak it at all). The taxi was a pleasant surprise at only 12 euros each!
After we got to the villa we had dinner (fantastic chef here by the way...homemade pasta!), got our room assignments, and just spent the rest of the time getting to know people and walking around Sesto; it's really a beautiful place.
Orientation is tomorrow so we'll find out more about life at the Villa then.
Ciao!
-Katie
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
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