Day 74:

Friday - July 30, 2010

A quote to start out with that I thought fit our Friday in Ariccia:

Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful.

It is the symbol of his liberty- his excessive freedom.

He accepts his boredom, when it comes,

not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.

-Aldous Huxley

Today was maybe the laziest day we have had thus far this summer... basically we woke up, worked on our Capstone Papers, laid around the Chigi, got stir-crazy so we went on a run, laid around the Chigi some more... pretty boring, right?

Well, we did counteract this sluggish act by ALL going to a fun dinner in Ariccia.  Ya'll should see the faces of the waitresses at Aricciarola when we tell them table for 15 -- it's priceless. But they found us a table and we all had a really fun, Italian-style dinner!  We were all trying to not get  mushy-gushy when I gave the toast and we were all reflecting on the adventures of the summer.  During our conversation we all came to the conclusion that we are probably the best group ever -- seriously.  I love every single girl I have been with this summer and we all get along so great, it is a true blessing. So we had such a good dinner and then all headed back to the Chigi for a night of "Chigi Game Night".  Yes, we broke out the CatchPhrase and cards and made fun in the Palace. It was a good way to spend our Friday night in the Palace!

P.S. - I am 9 pages in on my paper... only 3 to go.  I think I can make it... maybe.

MOVING :)

Hello Faithful Followers!

So I've really grown to enjoy Blogging and Life in Limbo has really become a part of me, so I am moving on up in the Blogosphere.... Yep -- I'm moving my Blog to Wordpress.com! On to bigger and better things :) Wordpress will allow me more freedom with the design and creativity of the Blog, so hopefully you will enjoy reading my posts more!

All of my previously published Posts will still be on there, but it will just be at a new address:

sarakateharbarger.wordpress.com

So bookmark this address and I will see you at the new spot!!

Day 73: Road Block

I've hit a road block.

No, it's not like getting stuck behind two horses on a country road in Ireland.

No, it's not like hitting 5:00 traffic in Montgomery, Alabama on I -65.

No, it's not like having to take a 30 mile detour on the way home from vacation all because of a pot hole in the road.

No, it's a different type of Road Block. I'm experienecing a Road Block of the brain. Yes, I have hit a learning stand still. My creativeness is wearing thin. This 12 page paper is taking a toll on my writing abilities! How am I ever going to be able to go straight to classes a week after returning to the good ole U.S.of.A.?

We had class from 10:00-12:45 today and then had the best wine tasting after that. It was probably the best wine tasting because we didn't have a long lesson on the making of the wine or the bottling of the wine and then eat some appetizers. No, we didn't have a lesson at all! We just got to tour this tiny wine cellar and then enjoy the most delicious spread of food. And the best part? It was literally a 1 minute walk away from the Palace, down this little alley in Ariccia -- it was the coolest hidden secret! Also, the man who owned the little cellar was so kind to us! He kept refilling our glasses, bringing us more food and, at the end, he gave us each an old set of Italian Euros. How nice?!

{Can you believe this little gem of a wine cellar has been 1 minute away from us all summer and we didn't know about it until now?}

{Emily, Chelsea and Becca enjoying their tour of the cellar}

{Look at this spread of Ariccia food!! A feast fit for kings :) }

{Kasi, me, Caitlyn, Shellie and Anna Curl making our way through the little cellar -- it was a tight squeeze for all 20 of us to get in there}

{I'm not really sure what this is, but it is a really cool way to store wine glasses}

{Walking down the stone stairs -- bottles of wine were everywhereeeee}

{At the bottom of the stairs there were racks and racks of wine -- all of them full! There is no telling how long this man has been collecting/making/drinking this fabulous wine}

{Just to give you a point of reference, this wine rack was taller than I was...}

{Another shot of the stairs}

{Emily, me and Brittany down in the cellar}

{VINO VINO VINO!!}

{When we walked back up the stairs we spotted it -- the platter of sweet treats! There were Italian shortbread cookies, biscotti and other various delicious desserts. The biscotti was my favorite by far and it is something I really want to try and make on my own when I get home}

{How perfect was this afternoon? A tour of a local wine cellar, a feast of Italian food and a lunch alfresco in an alley of Ariccia? I had to pinch myself to make sure it was real!}

{Kasi and I trying to decide which flavor of biscotti was our favorite... I'm going to go with chocolate chip...}

{The sweet man kept bringing out food!!}

{This summer I think half of the group has gotten new "sneaks" or "kicks", as we like to call them, because they are so in style in Italy -- here is a picture of me, Becca, Anna Curl and Brittany's new "kicks". Me and Brittany are the ones sporting the matching Converse Slims!}

{Just when we thought the man couldn't get any nicer, he came out with a baggy full of old European collectible coins for us to take as souvenirs}

{We did our part and didn't let him down -- he left with an empty bag!}

{My souvenir coins!}

{This is what our short walk back to the Palace looked like -- the Italian alleys of Ariccia}

A glass of wine, a full plate of food and a cloudy day are the perfect ingredients for an afternoon nap. So we all came back to the Chigi, blacked out our rooms and fell into a deep mid-day coma. We all were literally having to be pushed out of the Palace to go to class at 3:30. The only thing getting us out the door was that we knew it was OUR LAST CLASS LECTURE OF THE SUMMER!! WOHOOO! We made it -- we did it. And how perfect is it that our last class was with Susanna? She has the most soothing voice and is the sweetest person, so we were all really excited that she was the professor giving us our last class!

After class we all decided we better get to cracking on our Capstone Papers, so we came back to the Palace and literally sat around all afternoon/night, trying to get words onto paper. I got 3 more pages done... that felt productive! So that justified me calling it an early night and jumping into my bed before 12:00. Hope everyone is having a good Friday and soaking in this summer weather :)

Day 72: Confined to the Chigi

Wednesday - July 28, 2010:

Today was random, almost surreal. It was just plain odd, but in a good way! Here, let me explain:

We woke up and had class as usual -- no changes there. After we were dismissed from class, it was lunch time. But I wasn't ready for lunch and neither was anyone else, so we got our creative juices flowing and began working on our 12 page paper that is due next Monday. The Palace doesn't offer the best study environments... really we are confined to either our room or the common room -- both of which echo noise pretty well. So each of us takes to our little cubicles in our room, put in our ear buds for music and get to typing.

Well, time passes... and it passes... and pages are written... and before we know it, it's lunch time. So I break for lunch, see a few people in the kitchen, and then come back to my room to work. Everyone is just so zoned out and into their paper that no one is talking, so it's like a cave in here. And the weather outside was beautiful, but for some reason we felt like it was a really gloomy day... even though it wasn't.... it was just odd!

3:30 rolls around and that is the time we are supposed to have our afternoon classes, but right at that time we all get an e-mail from Cinzia saying that there is terrible traffic on the road and Maurizio and Rossella won't be able to make it in time for their lectures. Shuckss..... (psych!!) so this leaves us with two more hours of free time. How do we spend it? The same as before! In our cubicles, with our noses in our computers and our ear buds in our ears. It was like this all afternoon. I don't know what got us in the work-mode, but we all were so into it! And it paid off too, I got 5 of my 12 written... I know what you're thinking, "Only 5?! You worked for like 4 hours on this..." Well, yes that is true. But, I may or may not have gotten distracted on the Internet a few times....

{And this is pretty much where I was the entire afternoon -- this is my set up, my cubicle, 8x8 foot area that was making me stir-crazy!}

At 5:30 Rossella and Maurizio show up to the Palace and we find out it is because they are having to say good bye to us -- so sad!! Their family is leaving tomorrow for a vacation and so we won't be able to see them before we leave, except for now. So we say our good byes, do our best to convince them to come to Auburn for a football game (I think it might have worked) and then they leave for their house and we leave for our nightly activity -- a pizza making lesson!

There is a restaurant just across the bridge in Ariccia and we call it "Cheap Pizza". Want to take a stab at why? Because it's pizza and it's cheap -- tough to decode, right?! Seriously, we can order an entire meal of pizza, suppli and wine and it will be less than 5 Euros! I'm going to miss it so much. Luckily, we have been very good patrons this summer and they are rewarding us with a lesson on making a pizza. So we get there and go in 3 groups to see this cuisine creation.

For this lesson I thought we were going to be wearing aprons, tossing our pizza pies in the air and singing "Itsssss amoreeee!!" I guess I got a little carried away with my imagination... because all John Lucas (that's the one-man-pizza-making-machine) showed us was how he made the dough (they call it pasta) and how he made the dough into little dough-balls that would rise for 3 hours... it wasn't quite the lesson I thought it was going to be. I guess he didn't want us in his work-zone when we was trying to make our dinner! Nonetheless, it was still really sweet of him to let us into his kitchen and see him work.

Dinner was at 7:30 so some girls went back to the Palace and the rest of us stayed at the restaurant talking. Everyone showed back up on time and the sweet waitress came by taking our dinner orders. We all got a suppli (it's this heavenly creation that's a mixture of rice, tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese friend into a ball) and then we all got our pizzas. John Lucas is a master at pizza-making -- I think I heard Peek say she would pay for him to come back to Auburn with her and make her pizzas every night because he is THAT good.

{John Lucas going to town with the pizza dough}

{Just a sidenote -- we asked him where he learned and he said he taught himself. Pizza making is his passion, so he gave us the sage advice of this: "In life, you just have to find your passion and don't give up on it" -- so there is some daily inspiration for you! Find your passion :) }

{Pizza dough balls that would soon be a delicious pizza pie on our plates!}

{Becca, me and Katherine at Cheap Pizza with the whole group}

{Stacy, Anna Curl and Katie enjoying their dinner at Cheap Pizza}

{Table picture}

{I broke out of my norm and decided to order something different -- Amatricana Pizza with mozzarella, tomoato, parmesan and proscuitto -- delicious!!}

We had a very Italian-style dinner at Cheap Pizza -- meaning, we were at the table for practically 3 and a half hours! It was so much fun, we just talked and reminisced and enjoyed our night in Ariccia :)

Delicious pizza? Check! Good friends? Check! Carpe Diem? Check!

Ciao for now :)

Day 71: Beach Bums

I love unexpected surprises -- like when you're folding your jeans after washing them and discover a $20 bill in the back pocket or when you go to buy something and when it's rung up you discover the item is on sale -- surprises always make your day brighter and happier. Well, today our surprise made us tanner and more relaxed. Why? Because our scheduled field trip to Anzio, Italy took about 30 minutes and the rest of the day was ours to lay on the beach! Surprise!!

Another surprise we all loved was that the bus didn't leave until 10:00 a.m! The big blue Smile bus felt like a HoHo (hop on hop off) today because we brought Marco along for our trip and the entire bus ride he was giving us his commentary. He would tell us exactly the road the Allies marched on and where the battles were fought - the amount of information he knew was mind blowing. As I said before, Anzio is a town on the coast of the Lazio region of Italy and is most well known for it's military significance as the lading spot for the Allies in WW2. And Marco basically watched it all happen from his front porch, so he knew everything. When we were driving it was crazy to think we were on the same roads as these brave soldiers were. It's hard to wrap my mind around.

So we got to Anzio in about 30 minutes and Enrico drove us to our one and only school stop for the day -- The American War Cemetery. It is actual American soil so we were pretty pumped about that. We kept asking "Do they have ice here? Free water? Chik-fil-a?" -- if these reactions are any indication of how we are going to be when we get back to the U.S., we're going to go bizerk!

We toured the cemetery and it was one of the prettiest cemeteries I've ever seen. It's probably because they groom the lawn every day and it costs at least $2 million dollars a year to maintain. It better look good for that money! Marco left us after our walk through and then we loaded the bus to go to the beach.

{Some pictures from the cemetery}

I gave my Expert of the Day on the short bus ride (Peek wasn't there to listen, but I got a "very good" from Cinzia). The bus dropped us off and the group who didn't pack their lunch went to find somewhere to eat. We stumbled upon a Doner Kebab stand (Italian for a Greek gyro) and got us something to eat. Delicioussss! Even though we don't have very long left in Italy, we still appreciate a meal that is not pasta or pizza.

{Stacy and I enjoying our Panina (as it is called) at a little restaurant in Anzio}

After or gyro we walked to the beach, marked our spot with our towels and started our surprise afternoon of basking in the sun. Now, you must know I'm a beach bum. I could lay out on the beach for hours and not get bored, one of my favorite sensory memories of summer is the smell of Coppertone sunscreen and there isn't any hair product in the world that can do what the sea spray of the ocean does to your hair. I love it all (even the sand)! So my afternoon consisted of rotating between reading my book, listening to this new CD I got in Milan and sleeping. It was absolute heaven! The Italian sun was very strong so I did have to venture down to the sea for a cool off dip a time or two. Each time I stepped in the water I was taken aback -- it was freezing! At home in the month of July I am used to the lake and the ocean feeling like bath water -- not this cold temperature! But I did the "1, 2, 3 go!" and ducked under to cool off. It felt so good! It made me cool enough to go back to my towel and lay out for another hour or so.

We were there from 12:30-3:30, and when 3:30 rolled around I wasn't ready to leave. So unless I wanted to be stranded in Anzio all day, I had to reluctantly pack up my beach bag and head back to the bus.

{Here are some scenic shots of the beach at Anzio}

You know how the sun drains you and a day on the beach makes for the perfect afternoon cat nap? Ok well my cat nap happened on the bus, which is a miracle considering how Enrico drives like he is Dale Earnhardt! My nap made for a quick bus ride, so we were back to the palace in no time. With free time starting at 4:15, we had a lot of time on our hands again! Most of us started our Capstone Project that is due next Monday -- a 12-15 page paper. Joy joy. Let me tell you how far I got... I wrote Introduction. That's all. I had a writer's block before I had even started writing! So I waved the white flag, gave up and went to procrastinating the rest of the night :)

Updated!

Hey Everyone!

I just put pictures up for Day 63: Vinegar & Verona and Day 64: Dear Juliet

Enjoy :)

More to come later!

Day 70: Monday, Monday...

Monday - July 26, 2010:

Welcome back to Monday's in the Chigi Palace!

It was a typical class day with morning classes, a cooking lesson and then an afternoon class. The morning classes consisted of lectures from Francesco and Marco. Francesco spoke on "Il Bello" -- the concept of beauty and how artists interpret beauty. It was interesting but I kind of feel like it is the millionth time we have heard this subject... Although we did have a funny moment when we presented Francesco with his birthday present -- a cowboy hat! It's because we sing the Indiana Jones theme song every time he walks into class! He lovedddd it! When the theme song died out and his time-slot for teaching was over, Marco took over. Marco lectured on the town of Anzio, which we are visiting tomorrow, and it was all such cool information. I won't go into too much depth here because I will do a whole post on it tomorrow after our field trip.

We had a break so we grabbed our bags and headed up to the Supermercado. We got a little weepy when we realized this might be the last time we would go to the store... and I'm just now getting the hang of it! So sad.....

At 12:30 we had a cooking lesson with Mary Lou! On the menu for today? A smoked salmon sauce on pasta and a cake with Nutella icing for dessert! Mary Lou likes going out with a bang. It was a fun cooking lesson, but I don't know if I would do the sauce again.. I'm just not a big fan of smoked salmon -- but it was still better than your average pasta! The cake, on the other hand, was delicious. And it was Semi-Homemade (Mary Lou channeled her inner Sandra Lee) -- she got a store-bought cake, Nutella and cream. Mixed the Nutella and cream for icing. Sounds simple right? It was so easy and tasty! Why haven't we been doing this the whole summer?

Our afternoon class was with Jessica and she went over Conversational Italian... I feel a tad bit bad because I have mentally checked out. My chances of learning Italian are slim to none at this point in the summer. Mi despiace Jessica ( I'm sorry Jessica -- I did learn that).

Class was over and we had basically the whole afternoon -- what to do with ourselves?? Some slept, some Skyped, some did a new P90X video, some worked on papers we have due... it was just a random assortment of activities in the Palace this afternoon!

I wish I had a really fun story, but this is it for Monday! Hope everyone has a fabulous week and enjoys these final weeks of summer :) Ciao!

Day 69: Take Me "Home"

Sunday - July 25, 2010:

Sundays might be my favorite days of traveling because when you wake up you have that good feeling of knowing you'll be sleeping in your own bed tonight and not living out of a suitcase. That was my instinct thought when I woke up this morning! We all packed up and were downstairs waiting for the taxi at 10:20. The cab company we had called yesterday picked us up and took us to the airport. We had over-prepared and were at the check-in counter a little early. So we passed time by making a lunch stop at Subway in one of the terminals.

Prague only has one airport so this one was much nicer than some of the other ones we have flown out of this summer. It is also much more strict with their carry-on bag sizes. Luckily I packed like a champ this trip (I'll show you a picture of my bag later) so I didn't have any issues. The other girls got all their bag situations worked out too because we've gotten really good at this carry-on bag thing this summer!

We made it through security, stopped in a few duty free stores and then made it to our gate where we all waited for maybe 30 minutes until we boarded. Wiz Air is so much better about flying on time, so when they say boarding starts at 1:15, it starts at 1:15 -- I like this! We board the plane (after a mad dash to the airplane to try and claim decent seats) and are amazingly in the air on time. It might have been one of the scariest flights I've been on -- turbulance the whole way! When the wheels hit the ground, I have never been so thankful to be on land.

Enrico, our bus driver, was there waiting on us when we got through the terminal. All 19 of us loaded the bus and went back to Ariccia. The Chigi looks better and better every time we come back after vacation! I was so glad to be back!

We unpacked, got our lives back together and had a pretty relaxing night (minus the fireworks that went off at midnight--we thought we were being bombed!). I can't believe we only have two more weeks left in Italy... Craziness! This is crunch time when we take in every bit of Italy that we can :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 68: Touring Prague

Saturday - July 24, 2010:

I am loving this "no stress, no stress" itinerary in Prague. We decided to be ready around 10 and just go from there, so I lazily got ready around 9:20 and headed downstairs early... just because. Downstairs I ran into Emily, Becca, Brittany and Chelsea, and they were all ready to go explore so I decided to go on with them. We took the Tram (the correct one) into town and walked to our new favorite coffee place -- Coffee Heaven. We all ordered us a cup of joe and sat inside for a good 45 minutes, just enjoying the morning. Also, let me tell you that when we woke up we discovered that Mother Nature has brought us another day of gray clouds, chilling wind and light rain. But, again, I'm fine with that because we all remembered our rain jackets.

So we drink our coffee and then walk through the city, going towards the Prague Castle. The Prague Castle was home to many rulers, including Empress Maria Theresa, and dates back to the 9th Century. During the 20th Century, the imposing structure was used both as a presidential palace and as the home of the Nazi governor during World War II. It is huge and extremely beautiful, another pro to justify the hike we have to make to see it? The view! It offers this spectacular view of the city. So we trek it on up, hoping to meet up with the rest of the group and also to see the Changing of the Guards.

We found everyone else -- we looked for the big, colorful group of rain jackets! We snap a few pictures and then head back to the front of the building for the show.

We couldn't really get a good seat to see the Changing, because the crowd was massive! But we did get to see the new Guards marching into the castle!

Once we all gave up on seeing the rest of the Changing, a few of us broke off and went to go wander around for the afternoon. Before we could properly stroll the city, we had to take a coffee break because some of the girls hadn't had any yet and we were also pretty chilly (not complaining though--this is some of my favorite weather!).

Our coffee break gave us the energy (espresso) that we needed for the rest of the afternoon, so we left there and walked back across Saint Charles Bridge and towards the Old Jewish Cemetery.

We successfully navigated our way to the cemetery, only to find that it was closed. Buzz kill! Turns out, today, was a Jewish holiday... So we couldn't go inside and see the headstones upon headstones. After this we wandered our way back through the city with the ultimate destination of a lunch spot in mind. We have passed this thai restaurant multiple times this trip and everytime we're like "yum, that looks delicious", so today we decided to test that assumption.

We were correct--it was so good! I've discovered this summer that I really like thai food. This place had us scraping our bowls -- it satisfied us all enough to keep us full until dinner.

After thai we just walked around and shopped a bit in Wenclas Square. Then we went back to the hotel to make a quick outfit change before we all had to leave for our dinner boat cruise!

My mom is very good at planning vacations -- I think she could have been a Travel Agent if she needed another career path. So when she told me that she read if a European city has water (like Prague), it's usually best to tour the city by boat, I took to heart this advice. I combined this information with something I read in my European Travel book and came to the conclusion that we need to go on a dinner cruise this trip! So we did some research, found the best one and booked a reservation for 19 on Saturday night. It was at 7:00, and after a very confusing public transportation situation, we barely made it to the pier on time! We walked on and were led to our tables on the lower level of the boat. It made my night when we spotted a table of college-age American girls--this must be the right, touristy thing to do! And then when we asked where they were from, it got even better because they said they went to school at Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama! Small world, right?

The servers open the buffet bar and we take that as our que to go check it out. Y'all -- it was the absolute strangest display of food. So odd. There were slices of white bread, a tray of fruit, slices of cheese in various flavors... We felt like we were packing for our first grade lunch. Luckily this was only the "appetizer" portion... If you could even call it that. So we eat our ambiguous appertizers and wait for the rest of the meal.

When the ladies uncover the rest of the food, we discover that this portion of the meal is equally odd. There is a mix of roasted chicken, fish, steamed vegetables, rice, French fries, meatballs... Very strange! We get a plate of food and decide that it's all about the experience, not the meal!

When we are done eating, we head to the top of the boat for the scenic part of the evening. We hang out at the top of the boat for the rest of the cruise and it was so much fun! Including the other SEC girls, we were by far the youngest people on the boat -- we brought their demograpics way down, but that was ok because we just goofed around the whole night.

Once our 3 hour cruise was over, a few of us headed back into town to walk around. I may actually prefer Prague at night -- the buildings were so pretty! After a while we were really chilly so we popped into a Starbucks and stayed there for a while before heading back to the hotel!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 67: Prague

Friday - July 23, 2010:

Our group this summer is going in the history books. No, it's not for being the group with the highest G.P.A. or the group with the highest consumption of Nutella... We're setting a record for the largest attendance of a non-program-sponsored weekend trip. Yes, all 19 of us girls are traveling to Prague this weekend together. Be impressed Joseph S. Bruno!

As we all know by now, these European airline companies like to make it difficult for their travelers. So a 8:10 a.m. flight means a 3:45 a.m. wake up call. Why? Because we have to walk to the Milan Central bus station and take a bus to the airport, which is an hour away. Then we arrive at the airport (it's still dark) and we have to stand in line and defend our spot in line until the check-in counter ladies come.

We're flying Wizz Air this time, which pumps me up because their colors are pink and purple. What is more trustworthy than a bright pink and purple plane? So after passing through the usual tests European security puts us through (we found it funny that Noelle got her shaving cream taken up but I got through with my razor... It's odd, really odd), we all made it onto the plane without much trouble. Shocking for a group our size!

I slept on the plane and was so groggy when we got into Prague, but we had to snap into work mode trying to get a taxi cab. Some of us tackled the taxi, some of us tried to tackle the exchange rate and the rest tackled Coffee Heaven. Speaking of exchange rate, we quickly found out that like 1,000 checks is roughly equivalent to 50 USD -- we fill like millionares over here with these high-roller bills!

The taxi girls did their thing and before we knew it we had two vans waiting on us and taking us to our hotel. Where were staying is a little out of the central part of the city, but it has a tram right outside it for easy transportation. We can't check in until 2:00, so we store our luggage, regroup, get our bearings on a map and then head out.

We took the tram into the central part and got off to walk from there. Along this one road are two of the major sights to see -- Weschlan Square and Old Town Square. We briefly wander around these two squares before ending up at our lunch destination -- Hard Rock Cafe. We had to do it, nothing else was going to satisfy our appetites. So we get three big booths, two nice waiters and a fabulous meal! We were thankful to get sit down and relax. That's what we've decided to do on this trip -- relax, go with the flow and don't pressure ourselves to have a strict intinerary :)

Once we are all officially full, we start our wandering tour of Prague. First on our list of "must sees" is the hourly chiming of the Anatomical Clock in Old Town Square. Conveniently we get there at 2:45, so after some pictures in the square, the clock chimes. Now let me tell you that there was a big crowd, lots of cameras and tour groups.. so this thing got built up in our heads. Because when it started, all it was was these small doors opening up on the clocktower and little figures rotating around inside the tower. What?! We were all so confused as to how this was a main tourist attraction. Don't get me wrong, we laughed about it and had a good time with it, but it's not your typical koo-koo-clock production that we were expecting!

Next we wandered down the streets (which had nice, designer shopping) and towards the river. Another sight, probably the main sight, is St. Charles Bridge. So we made it to the water and saw it. This structure lived up to it's expectations. It was massive and gorgeous! Not to mention the city on the other side of the bridge, also where the huge Prague Castle is, was beautiful. It made for the prettiest pictures! So we took some snapshots and then walked along the bridge. While I'm on the subject of describing the town, let me give you my first impression--It's adorable! Like a movie set with all of it's quaint buildings... Definitely not what I was expecting--its better! We nailed the description on the head when we said we felt like we were at Disney World! I really like Prague and can see why it's quickly become a main tourist destination in Europe.

Back to our day -- after the Bridge we were all pretty delirious, so we made an executive decision to head back to the hotel for a quick nap and to check in before dinner.

I don't remember my head hitting the pillow I was so tired! We only napped for like an hour, then we started moving around and talking about night plans. Well, it was pouring rain (which is ok because we've been so incredibly lucky with our weather thus far this summer) so that killed our mojo a bit. But we mustered up the courage, got our rain gear and went to wait on the Tram.

Ok, the reception lady at our hotel clearly said "take Tram 9, go 9 stops and you'll be at the National Museum." Verbatim. That's what we did earlier in the day, both ways, and it worked. So why wouldn't we take number 9 again to go to the exact same place tonight? That was our thoughts. So we hop on Tram 9, but instead of taking an immediate left into the city, it takes a right going away from the city. Oops. What's the difference?It's the same Tram! So we all try and not freak out, go with the flow... Until we get into the sketchy part of Prague (if we're even still in Prague). Oh, also, we don't have tickets. We don't know how to get Tram tickets and no one ever checks them, everyone just hops on, so we're hoping we don't get caught. You know us honest American girls. So, were riding for about 15 minutes, figuring it must loop around and go back to the hotel, until it comes to a complete stop in the middle of no where. Eek! And the conductor starts walking back, I break into a cold sweat, and we all immediately pull the "help us, we're lost" card! It works, he doesn't check for tickets, and directs us across the tracks to the Tram stop. We have no idea where this new Tram will take us, but we get on Tram 19 like he said and cross our fingers that it takes us back towards the hotel. After many stops, we finally recognize our hotel and we hop off as quick as we can. Hallelujiah! Dang you public transportation -- I can't wait to have my car back!

So now the dilemma--do we forge onward and go into the squares, or do we stay close to home? We're all wet, cold and tired so we decide to go to this pub near our hotel. It was impulse, but it was a really good call on our part! I had the best lentil soup (going out on a limb with this order) and Greek salad! And to top it off, an Irish coffee... Because "When in Prague!" Sone of the other girls came too, so it ended up being a really good, relaxing meal.

I am very impresses by this city so far and am looking forward to tomorrow! Once again, my motto of "set low expectations and be pleasantly surprised" shines through and leads us to a fun, final travel weekend!

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Day 66: Milan Verdict

Thursday - July 22, 2010:

I have my final verdict on Milan. But I've decided to make you wait until the end of the post to find out.

I want this to be the Most. Dramatic. Verdict. Ever. (Copyright Chris Harrison)

So, to start things off light I will tell you what we did today on our last day in Milan. This morning at 10 the group split into two, one group of fashion students and one group of interior design students (and the girls that were neither could chose which group to go with). The design group spent the day with Massimo seeing design stores and artsy stuff, while the fashion group was toured around my Massimo's assistant, Valentina.

Our group of eight (the design group got all the other girls except for two... we didn't get offended) took the Metro to meet Valentina. First impression -- she's precious, let me be her! Not to mention she set us up with some pretty cool tours, so she's good at what she does.

Our first tour was a bit of fashion and a bit of design combined -- we visited the Moschino Hotel in Milan. When we walked through the glass doors, I knew we were in for a show. The entire room was decorated so immaculately and so chic! There were dress forms as floor lamps and fancy oragami hanging from the ceiling. I only got a few pictures before I was promptly told that they weren't allowed!

(picturreeess)

Valentina greeted a tall Italian man, and this ended up being our guide for the hotel. He told us that the hotel has only been open since March and that each of it's rooms have a special theme to them. This made us curious, so we headed up the stairs to see what he was talking about. Only pictures can do them justice, and since we couldn't take pictures, Valentina is emailing us photos. So I'll add them as soon as I get them -- you'll be in awe!

Behind the first door was the "Bee Room". It had one giant Bee formed from metal "z" letters and the rest was all pristine white.

Then there was the "Red Dress Room". The headboard of the bed was a red velvet dress and this theme flowed onto the bedspread (kind of hard to explain).

And there was the "cloud room", which was all white with white accent furniture.

And there was the "gold room" -- my favorite! I wanted to take everything and bring it back home with me.

I promise, it is 100x cooler than it sounds -- I'm watering it down!

After the hotel, Valentina led us to this store called 10 Corso Como, and it is where you go in Milan if you want to see what's in style. They have major designer's clothing, like Balenciaga and Prada, and couture footwear -- it was all the type of merchandise that I dream of and never think I'd be in the presence of. They also carried accessories and books... It was amazing! And it also had a major design element to it because it was in a renovated garage and it had all of this fabulous decor decorating the store. The design girls would have flipped!

These two stops took up our alotted time with Valentina, so we had to get back on the Metro to go to the hotel after Corso Como. We all didn't have anything for the afternoon planned except for a 4:45 viewing of the Last Suppper. So a group of us went to lunch at this random restaurant we walked in -- lucky choice! Lucky because the people were so nice and so accomodating to us and because they had one of my favorite meals I've discovered since Gaudi's Pizzeria -- a calzone with mozzarella, ham and ricotta cheese. Yum! Of course I order it, and it's fabulous again! Just like I remembered.

After lunch Anna, Kasi and I went back to a store we'd visited yesterday, and then met the rest of the group at 4:20. The Program didn't schedule us a visit to see the Leonardo's Last Supper painting, so we took it upon ourselves to buy tickets and go see it while in Milan. We all met up and waited together until it was our turn to see the painting.

When the doors opened and we entered this big, white walled room, the only thing of focus was the Last Supper painting -- I liked that. It got all the attention. And it took up one whole side of the wall. There was another painting of the Crucifixion on the opposite end that had been done by Leonardo's student, but it didn't even compare to the Last Supper. I sat there in awe of this art work. It was so surreal to me -- it was like I had seen and heard about this painting all of my life and then bam! Here I am sitting withing 20 feet of it... It was crazy. It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad we did this! We've gotten pretty good at culturing ourselves.

After this we all split up and me and a few others went to this store that the design girls had visited earlier in the day on their tour with Massimo. It was called Thr Design Superstore and it was probably the coolest place ever. There were so many little knick-knacks that I wanted for my house but I didn't want to have to lug them back with me -- thank goodness for the Internet these days and I can order online!

When we got back to the hotel we were absolutely beat. We were having a tough time deciding dinner plans, so when another group of girls mentioned going back to the appertivo place we went on Tuesday, we jumped on that offer. So we headed back to this same place, got more fabulous, fruity drinks and got all the appertizers that we could fit on our little plates. I think we Americans abuse the appertivo...

The end of the night was the best and probably my favorite part of the trip. We have all been having problems with the Internet at the hotel so the girls that were trying to download The Bachelorette weren't successful. Well we decided it was a necessity to our sanity to watch this, and to make our time in Milan enjoyable, so we worked and worked and worked and it finally downloaded completely! So after appertivo we all changed into our pajamas, piled into one room and had one big showing of Ali's latest journey finding love. It was hysterical having all of us in that one room together -- I wish I could have recorded all of the comments that were made throughout the show! So the night ended on a good note with the reality TV showing.

I told you I was going to have a final verdict and here it is:

Milan verdict -- I can live happily without revisiting. It's a nay in SK's book. Sorry for the brutal honesty, but I just wasn't a big fan. But please don't let this skew anyone else's personal view of Milan, this is just my own opinion based on my short 3 days in this Italian city!

So, been there and done that -- onto Prague!!

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Day 65: Massimo Shows Us Milan

Wednesday - July 21, 2010:

This summer I've really embraced my hair's natural wave (or sometimes nappy wave) because I'm usually to hot in Italy to blow it dry. But since were in Milan and meeting our guide, Massimo, I go the extra mile and shower early this morning and blow dry my hair. How kind of me, right? It actually really wakes me up and that, combined with my full 8 hours of sleep, gives me energy to conquer the day. So I head down to breakfast early, read while drinking my cappucino and then everyone else slowly starts to come down.

First part of the day was a class with Massimo about Milan's influence in Modern Design and Architecture. It was interesting, but it surprised me by how the whole lecture was mainly architecture. I guess I didn't know Milan was so interior design as it is, but it was fun to learn about this stuff. My favorite is that I discovered Kartel -- a furniture brand. They make this clear, plastic chair that I've decided screams "Sara Kate buy me" and it's already on my Wish List!

After our lecture we break for coffee on the way to our next exhibit. In Italy we like the mutual agreement between teachers and students that coffee is a necessity!

Next on our agenda was a visit to the Villa Necchi Campiglio of Piero Portaluppi. The blue Smile bus magically appeared in the street so we hopped on and it took us to this place. I must have missed an intro lecture or an email or something because my head was in the clouds the whole time we were here -- I have no idea what the point of this visit was... I didn't know where I was. So needless to say, I'm not much help on explaining this leg of our Milan journey. All I know is that we toured some house that had 1930s era architecture and interior design... But all I could think about while we were walking through was how much it reminded me of a fancier Graceland!

Part of the reason we were all antsy to be done with the ambiguous house tour was becaue it was 2:00 and we hadn't eaten for 5 hours... So our next stop was lunch! Today the program was treating us to lunch at this Japenese restaurant, Myako. When we walked in and saw the low tables we all thought we were going to have to sit Indian style on the floor in our dresses, so we were like "oh fabulous, real lady like''. But when we sat down we discovered there was an open space underneath the table where our legs were supposed to go -- so weird and unexpected! Cinzia had phoned in our meal orders earlier, so almost immediately after the waitors brought us our drinks our food was on the table! Love that. We had a choice between sushi, soup, chicken terriyake and salmon terriyake -- you never know what to expect with these types of restaurants, so I stuck with the chicken terriyake. It was pretty good -- a nice international flair when we're usually eating pasta and pizza.

I told you today was a busy day, so after lunch we still had two more exhibitions to go see. Luckily the bus drove us to these visits -- Milan is a HUGE city!

Our first post-lunch stop was at the Hangar Bicocca Center of Arts. It's a contemporary arts exhibit thing and it might have been the strangest place/experience in my life. Ever. Ever ever. Seriously, I don't know what this place was. I don't even know how to begin describing it... I apparently don't understand contemporary art or don't have that level of understanding in me because it was way over my head.

The first thing we saw were three projector screens with a film of an old man smoking a pipe. It had no noise to it -- an upclose and personal free-hand camera shot of him. And the seats to view this masterpiece movie? Foam blocks. It was so funny.. We all sat down, bounced around and were equally perplexed by this movie.

Once the screen faded out and the movie was over, Massimo led us to the next area of the museum. He lead us into this huge warehouse with seven ginormous structures. These looked like stacked dumpsters to me -- I told you I didn't think I had this contemporary art eye in me. So we looked at this, Massimo asked us how this made us feel and looked some more. Once we all had a face of confusion on us, we went to the last sight of the exhibit... The weirdest thing. So we're still in this huge warehouse and there's a walkway created by a border of chain-link fences. We wall through it, I'm confused and a bit scared because this is so strange, and then this noise starts to play as we walk down it. It sounds like a heartbeat. It's heavy and intense. I felt like I was in the Magic School Bus episode where it goes through the cardiovascular system. We make it to the end of the walkway and what do we see? A huge, HUGE mound of clothes with a crane over it. And the crane was moving -- picking up and dropping clothes. What?! What's the meaning to this? I am so lost. All I can think about is how many clothes are infront of my eyes and what good those clothes could go to besides laying in a pile in this warehouse. I think this sight perplexed everyone -- even the contemporary art people.

Needless to say, I was ready to be out of that exhibit so I was thankful when Massimo asked his last questions and we were headed back to the bus.

A visit to the exhibition “Private Lives: Erwin Olaf photography" was next. Erwin Olaf was known for his black and white pictures and they were mostly of celebrities like James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, to name a few. I really enjoyed these pictures, but then we stepped into the next room and it was more contemporary art... Fabulous. I won't even go into detail about what I saw with these pictures becase I mentally checked out. It confuses me to even think about it!

So after the photography viewing, Massimo left us, but he invited us to appertivo later that night. We all head back to the hotel, change and meet back downstairs at 7. We're all starving, so we are excited to eat all of the buffet we can. Only problem? No buffet at this particular spot that Massimo picked out. It was supposed to be Appertivo, but it ended up being just a wine bar. So we were polite and ordered a bottle for a few of us to share before 5 of us left and went to dinner. Amongst all the real appertivo restaurants lining the street, we managed to find an actual restaurant. We sat down outside and ate dinner. On the menu tonight? Pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage. It was AMAZING. Possibly the best pasta meal I've had -- it was just so different and so tasty! I can't wait to try and recreate this back at home.

We got done with our dinner, sad that it is over, and head back to the hotel. This is when something we've tried our hardest to prevent all summer, happens. It was awful so I'll try and be quick and not bring back these memories to the surface. So, we're riding the subway and being really careful about watching our purses. Laughing, having a good time. So we get off at our final stop and take our usual route out of the underground. Were walking up the stairs and this little Albanian girl pick-pockets Kate. Right after it happens, Kasi is suspicious and asks Kate to check her purse. It's gone and a frenzy starts. About 20 seconds have passed so the girl couldn't have gone far -- we run down the stairs and, by some miracle, we pick the right exit to run up because when we get to the top we see this girl. On a side note, the funny thing is we were talking at dinner about how we would react in a pickpocket situation, so the topic had been on our mind. Ironic, right? So we see the girl and Kasi and Caitlyn go after her. They talk to her and get inside her purse to find Kate's wallet. They find it, but with everything except her cash, credit and debit card and license. Dang dishonest pickpocketers. We're frantic and don't know what to do because she obviously stole Kate's stuff, so we get these nice Milan lawyers to help us and after the girl runs away, they go after her. They corner her and check in her pockets and Kate's stuff isn't there, so she obviously had already passed the stuff off before we'd gotten to her. So the nice men call the police, the police come, we file a report and then leave defeated. Did this really happen? We have been so careful this whole trip and then here at the end, it happens. Oh well...

Needless to say, we're all a little shaken up afterwards. So we gather in one room for a while, rehashing the event, before heading back to my room. I clear my head by reading Breaking Dawn for a good hour or so, and then fell into a hard sleep.

I assume it goes without saying that this really dampers my opinion of Milan... The verdict is not looking to good thus far--lets see how tomorrow goes!

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Day 64: Dear Juliet...

Tuesday - July 20, 2010:

The only thing blog-worthy about this morning was one thing and one thing only... JULIET!! Yes, as I mentioned earlier, Verona's main tourist attraction is Juliet's Balcony. So in our brief tour of the city with Cinzia, this is what we were all looking forward to. Seeing the movie Letters to Juliet had prepped me for this infamous sight and gotten me really excited. I though, maybe if I channel my inner Amanda Seyfreid and write a letter, I'll have a fabulous whirl-wind Italy adventure waiting for me... a girl can dream, right? So eveyone jumped on this fairytale (que the Taylor Swift) bandwagon and wrote a deep, profound, hysterical letter to Juliet! It was the highlight of my day -- everyone and their letters were cracking me up! Here are a few I was able to document:

{Shellie writing her heart-felt letter to Juliet}

{And it reads: "Yo J-dawg, work your magic. Peace out, S-homie" -- I can't wait to see Juliet's response}

{Some random place in Verona that really has no significance -- it's just pretty!}

{The writing session. Everyone brainstorm!}

{Kate and Katie with their letters. I love Katie's -- "Juliet, I need a HERO"}

{Me with my finished product -- Juliet is in for a real treat with this letter}

{Juliet may be a little busy after we visit her wall...}

{Quite possibly my favorite picture of the day. 1) Because I love Katherine 2) Because of what her letter says -- "Dear Juliet, I love you. Please bring me my own Romeo. Someone I can kick it in the mountains with. Please and thank you." -- Pure writing genius}

When we turned down this alley and saw the biggest crowd so far in Verona, we figured we must have made it to the wall. So turns out there really is a huge wall where people write love letters -- some hopeful wishes and some happy praises. I was in awe that this many people came here to contribute to this visual appreciation of love -- there were letters and grafitti everwhere! We all added ours to the wall and took some funny pictures. We saw the balcony (Romeo, Romeo.. Where for art thou?!) and then were free the rest of the afternoon!

{Juliet's House has it's own street sign (with it's own authentic Italian graffiti)}

{Look at the wall of this small tunnel -- covered floor to ceiling with letters}

{Some of the group in front of the wall -- letters posted and ready for love}

{I loved this}

{Posting my letter. My adhesive of choice? A Band-Aid. I knew keeping those suckers in my purse would come in handy at some point during my trip!}

{Andddd my letter. I'll let you know when she responds! (Oh and Connally, I didn't forget about your request--I gave you a shout out in the P.S.S.)}

{Of course I had to take a picture of Katherine's letter going up on the wall}

{Juliet's Balcony}

{Check out that crowd coming to see this little balcony!}

{L.O.V.E.}

I know I said that was the only thing blog-worthy, but I can't keep these other Verona pictures from y'all. So here are a few other pictures from the morning:

{All of the group on the balcony -- ready for our shining moment in the Verona Theatre!}

{Inside the Verona Theatre}

{One of the squares in Verona}

{More of the pretty square...}

{Still more of the square... I guess I ahd to get it from all angles}

{The tower inside the square -- I like the striped marble on the outside of the building}

Everyone met back up at the hotel and we grabbed our luggage and headed out in the scorching sun to the bus. Now we're headed straight to Milan. I am sad to report that we are skipping the Lake Come visit because the Silk Factory we were going to tour is closed! I guess George Clooney (he has a house there) will have to wait to see me until next time I'm in the Lake Como area. Hope he'll survive this separation!

{So sad to be leaving Europa Hotel...}

A two hour bus ride and short walk got us to our hotel in Milan. Now, it's not your Hotel Europa, but Hotel Ibis is still a solid choice. It has A/C and free breakfast, but lacking in the WiFi area (and a canned Coke Zero from their vending machine is 2,00 Euro... Who do they think I am? A soft-drink rookie? I'm not falling for that...).

We all checked in and met back downstairs, where we all departed for our short tour of Milan (Milano in Italian... Makes you think of Peppridge Farm Milano Cookies doesn't it?). We took the Metro to the town's Duomo. I thought we were done with churches and Duomos, but apparently not. And apparently they saved the best for last because this Duomo was humungous! It is Gothic Architecture, so it reminded me a lot of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona with all of the intricate facade details and spirals. No wonder it's so amazing--it took four centuries to build! And you want to know the funny thing? They don't know who the original architect was, so some man came up with this beautiful building design that is still being appreciated today and he isn't even getting credit for it! Isn't that so sad?

{The side of the Duomo in Milan -- check out all of that Gothic Architecture (See, I have learned something in class over here this summer)}

{The Facade of this building was amazing}

After we took in what we hoped would be our last Duomo (they all start to run together... kind of like all the geysers in Jackson Hole...), we went a few steps into our next stop -- Milan's first shopping mall. This was very interesting to me because it was like an indoor/outdoor deal. It was all these shops that were covered by this huge dome roof.. Yet it was still outside.. It was very odd! Fun fact? There was a McDonalds across from the Prada flagship store... Those don't fit together. Another fun fact? There's a legend that if you spin with your left heel three times on the picture of the bull's man part in the marbled tile, it'll bring you good luck (odd, I know). So of course we all gave it a whirl (literally)! We figured we've been extra lucky today with our letters to Juliet and spinning superstition.... I can't wait to see what the future holds!!

{The first mall in Milan -- it's indoor/outdoor and really interesting}

{Spinning on the bull for good luck}

{Go Katherine Go}

{The lucky spot is pretty worn down...}

{Yes, every person in the group participated in this event}

{The Duomo again}

Our short tour ended at 7:00 and we had to be ready for appertivo at 7:30, so we all hopped on the Metro and headed back to the hotel.

Appertivo is Italy's version of Happy Hour and it started in Milan, so it's a pretty big deal here. Auburn knows this, so I guess that's why tonight we have a program-paid Appertivo dinner! Culturing ourselves -- I love it. So we hurriedly got dressed and left the hotel at 7:30 on the dot. At Appertivos, you buy a drink and get as many tapas/appertizers at the buffet as you want. And usually people stay a while because they're technically just paying for drinks! So we got our cramped table of 20 and ordered up! After confusing our nice waitress with all the "I'll have what she's having...scratch that for this... And make that two", we darted for the buffet. The selection was good, but do you know what was my favorite? This dish that had roasted potatoes, greenbeans and slices of hot dog...! Doesn't that sound like Italy's version of Beanie Weenies? It was so tasty! So we sipped our drinks and ate our appertizers, enjoying the night. We reminisced on memories from the summer and of all the reunions we want to have when we get back... It was a well enjoyed night!

{Kasi and I at Appertivo}

{My plate at Appertivo -- I know it doesn't look appetizing, but I had to show you so you would get the gist of how random the assortment of food was, and also so you can see how Americans do Appertivo in Italy}

{Becca and Meg with their delicious fruity drinks}

{Caitlyn's Mojito -- the bartender was an artist}

{Shellie, Becca, Meg and Lindsey enjoying their Appertivo}

{And some more of us at the restaurant...}

{We passed a Vespa store on the way home -- it made me think of my mom on her new Vespa! The Harbarger's go Italian...}

For dessert? An episode of The Bachelorette! Yes, Katie had brought her computer specifically so she could download this episode for us all to view Tuesday night. So we got back to the hotel, full of high hopes and episode predictions, when we discover that the 10,00 Euro Internet we all chipped in for DIDN'T WORK. Yes, you should have seen the disappointment on our faces. Technically 28 minutes of the downloading worked, but that's because she did it in Verona. The Vodafone service here (that we paid for) didn't.. So here's the dilemma: do we give ourselves a little taste and watch the 28 minutes, or do we wait to watch it all when it can fully download? Of course we go for the preview! So we start, 12 of us piled into one tiny hotel room, watching on Katie's computer. We are knee deep in the drama when BAM! It stops. Aaahhhh! We all screech (probably going to get a noise complaint) and are so upset -- we knew this would happen but were still so depressed! We try all methods of watching the episode and nothing works... So we throw in the towel until a future time when WiFi is on our side! (So don't give me any spoilers...)

Again, it's night time and I'm in my bed asking myself "Is day 2 really over?" This is tragic -- it's flying by so fast. Tomorrow is a busy day, but hopefully we'll find some time to slow down!

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