Romance of a Different Kind

I've never had an inkling of interest in Woody Allen or his movies that I can remember, but I was told by my roommate to watch the recent film Midnight in Paris before we went for our weekend trip to Paris from Milan. I wasn't sure what the movie was about but I decided that I'd indulge my curiosity and watch my first Woody Allen movie. Boy did I love it! If you haven't seen the film, it is a story about a writer on holiday in Paris with his fiancee and her parents. Gil, the main character, is a writer unsatisfied with the role he has as a Hollywood screen writer. He is enamored with the atmosphere of Paris and constantly revels in the loveliness of its former distinguished inhabitants, such as Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald (my personal favorite writer) and wife Zelda, Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Salvador Dali, and so many more. He spends his days thinking of how good the Parisian life was in the roaring 20's. I have to admit this is exactly what I spend a fair amount of days thinking about too but not only Paris but New York and other high society places. The movie refers to this nostalgia for a greater era as "Golden Age Thinking". The next part of the movie is a situation that I wish could literally come true in my life everyday though I know this thought borders on insane. As the clock strikes midnight, Gil happens to be in the right place at the extraordinarily right time and gets transported back to his ideal era in a very non-chalant way. He now gets to be in cohorts with the inner circles of the greats of literature, art and music. While yes the romance in the movie and the city are very apparent to me the imagination and creativity of the times portrayed are the true romance of the story. The longing to live in a time that is considered superior to the current era is the romantic notion that many people live with each day and yet no one admits. So while in Paris this past weekend I tried to take a hint from the movie and just soak up every morsel of this city. I didn't mind when it was gloomy and raining because that's how Paris can be and then when the sun came out a whole different view of Paris was shown. Night and day are such a different contrast. There i no choosing which I like better because I can't. So many different aspects come out when the sun goes down that to say that I prefer one over the other would be something akin to blasphemy. Everything about that city I adore and don't know how I had ever lived without seeing Paris. That's the wonder of Paris, you can go your whole life without knowing one word of French or knowing any event in French history and then in one weekend you fall in love. Not in love with a romantic french guy (though that would be awfully nice!) but in love with the culture, the atmosphere, the language, the food, and the romance of a city that pulls you in from the moment you arrive. Needless to say I am commencing my acquisition of the French language immediately and reading up on the history of what I would probably deem my new favorite city.

My new hang out place

Pont de l'Archeveche bridge with love locks

FRENCH ONION SOUP!! DELICIOUS! 

The Sparkling Eiffel Tower

At the Grand Trianon during a day trip to Versailles

The Naturale: with melted cheese

The Mexican: Chili with meat and beans topped with sour Cream
My roommate and I at these baked potatoes for lunch made by a
lovely man with a potato oven right outside the Grand Trianon

In front of the glass pyramid of the Louvre Museum

Basically my new diet was baguettes, crepes and onion soup...i don't hate it!

Why wouldn't you want to live here??
View from the towers of Notre Dame

Trekking the Most BEA-utiful Island in the World!

Two weekends ago I traveled to Sorrento, Pompeii and Capri. It was the most rigorous trip I have been on during my semester abroad in Italy. The first day there we arrived in Pompeii and immediately went to explore the ruins. The city was so much more intact that I thought it was going to be. It was amazing you could go inside what used to be churches and grand halls of a city that was on the brink of becoming the next Roman empire when Mt. Vesuvius destroyed it all. Mt Vesuvius is still an active volcano and is overdue for an eruption and yet people, including myself, still feel the need to hike to the top and look down into the crater (which might I add was literally smoking when I first set eyes upon it). This hike is a good 1600 meters above sea level and gets your heart going. It was a great day to be out in nature for a hike though it was harder than I first thought. That night we wondered around Sorrento for a bit and went to bed early to prepare for a another full day of exercise and activity.

So when you imagine the island of Capri, yes you see pretty blue water and lovely mediterranean cafes on hillsides but after my trip to Capri the word conjures up a whole new vision. The crystal clear, aquamarine colored water is still there but it is somewhat negated by the inordinate amount of hiking I did to get to the top of the island to get the best view. There is an old villa at the top of a cliffside on the island of Capri called Villa Jovis. It used to be a grand palace where the king Tiberius (who was kind of just a figure-head of sorts) used to live his lavish life and take in these beautiful views. On all accounts the effort it takes to get to this place is A LOT but the even more treacherous hike came later. You feel like you could walk for days and days and still not reach your destination on this island, despite that fact that it is only 4 miles long and 2 miles wide. The winding roads and curving off-road paths made for the most exercise I had done since arriving in Italy. After all this huffing and puffing we did come upon some of the most amazing views a human could possibly ask for. This trip was one filled with follies and falls but in the end we had a lovely mixture between The Little Mermaid, Joe vs the Volcano, and Animal Planet.

Resting on the top of Mt. Vesuvius

The end of the hike up the volcano

Signs like these lead us through the streets of Capri all the way up the cliffs

Beautiful aqua waters that lead to the famous
Capri grottos

One of the treacherous paths i took to the cliffside

                                   
             

After hiking for a while we found a cool look out point on the cliffs

                                

View from the top of the cliff

An Affair to Remember

I am in a relationship with Italy. We are in love and we don't care who knows it! The thing is, I went to Florence this weekend and ended up cheating on Italy with none other than, food! I fell madly deeply in love with every morsel or artichoke, potatoe, ravioli, and tiramisu that touched my tongue. This toxic affair not only still lingers on (my hips!) after it is over, but it consumed me as a whole. It was as if I was in some sort of mix between Utopia and the Twilight Zone. I couldn't escape the food but then again it was so good that I secretly had no desire to quit! I knew if I kept it up my love for Italy would soon turn to resentment and our relationship would crumble. Luckily the food of Florence and I only had a one night stand and we were soon only but a memory that I will forever cherish!

                                                 BEST pizza I have had in Italy so far!

                                       Antipasto alla carte: Artichokes, green beans, potatoes,
                                            carrots, sundried tomatoes, and more artichokes!

                           Spinach and ricotta ravioli drizzled with garlic butter sauce and basil

                                                            Tiramisu with raspberry sauce

Oh and did I mention I got to pay for all of this with our meal plan tickets that we like to refer to as Monopoly money!

College Girls Adventures to the Top of Milan and Back

upon request from a friend here are some pictures of our adventures to the top of Milan's Duomo and our efforts to refuel after our galvanting!

                                                      Cool spires of the Duomo behind me

                                                            Italy's original hotpocket!

                                          Sun shining on Milano Cathedral right before sunset

                                  The ONLY things we needed...Red Wine and Playing Cards!

The steps of becoming a Foodie!

Step 1:
  Travel around the world (I myself am preferential to Italy but you can go anywhere and everywhere!)

Step 2:
  Learn the local language so you know exactly what you are ordering

Step 3:
  Try every type of dish at least twice...its worth it!

Step 4:
  Savor every bite and morsel on your plate and don't forget to cleanse your palate with a lovely wine or delectable dessert (or a combination of both!)

Step 5:
  Proceed to have a relationship with food for as long as you like!

Those are the five simple steps I have found that made me obsessed with trying all different types of food and the language, culture and ambiance that go with them!!

Busy Italian Traveler

Been too busy traveling for the past month or so to post anything new but now here are some interesting pictures of the Campo dei Fiori markets on a lovely Roman morning.

The Sidestreet Light

This little old man was walking to what I assume to be work on one of the side streets in Lake Como, Italy. I don't know what it is about all the little old men and women in Italy but they just make me want to pinch their cheeks they are so adorable. If it weren't weird I would snap a picture of every elderly person in Italy, whether its two women having a chat on the subway, or a woman walking her friend tot he bus stop to see her off or walking to work alone in a suit with a satchel over their shoulder. They are just too precious for words...

The Trusted One

The first little trip I took in Italy was to a place called Lago di Como. This lakeside town in the mountains was so beatiful with the water and the hilltops and the houses built into the mountain side. We were walking around town and I saw this little blue row boat amongst the small motor boats and other fishing boats. It was so run down but looked like it had so much character and so many years under it belt that it struck me as the best boat there was. It was called Lancillotto which is Italian for Lancelot it seems to be a very fitting name for this boat because though it sat there unused that particular day i knew it was the most trusted of those little fishing boats just as Lancelot was King Arthurs most trusted Knight of the Round Table.

The Wonders of Verona

This is a picture I snapped of a little Italian girl on the bridge overlooking Verona Ponte del Castello Vecchio.

The Nonsense of Nothing.

I'll start off by saying that I am a person that does not believe that I am good at many things, one of which is writing. People my age write blogs and journals all the time and I know people who even write with the fire and the passion that was seen in great writers such as John Steinbeck, Charles Dickens, Tennessee Williams and Nathaniel Hawthorne. But I am just not as useful with words as my friends are. On the other hand I believe that I have always had an eye for finding beauty in a space or an angle or a subject that others may not. I bend and I move and I contort myself in all different ways just to be able to capture these things that I see or imagine. I love photography and though I may not be a prodigy or even excellent at it yet...I will be. This is because I am determined to have things that I love to do that don't necessarily fit into another aspect of my life. Photography, for me, wouldn't be a realistic career choice. I feel like saying I want to travel around the world and be a professional photographer would be like a little kid saying I want to grow up to be the President of the United States. In all reality there is a very slim chance of that happening. Also photography can't really be applied (as somewhat of a subset) of what I actually want to do in life. I have realistic plans of being an animal trainer, maybe dolphins, maybe elephants, or maybe even becoming the head trainer for a police K-9 unit. Who knows just yet? But in all honesty photography doesn't fit into that category. I just started an Art History class during my semester abroad in Milan Italy and my teacher said something that was really enlightening. She said that in these days and times people choose a path and are set on learning that subject and the subjects that are related to it but Leonardo Da Vinci is the one who got it right! He was a thinker. He would jump from thought to thought in his mind with no barriers or categories to stop him. He dabbled in a little bit of everything. This is what I want to start doing in my life. My teacher also told her own life story and how she thought she was on one path (pre-med at Yale) and then ended up in a totally different place (teaching Art History in Milan, Italy; where she and her family live) than where she thought she was going to be at her age. So I've decided to let life take me where it wants and as of right now it wants to me to do as much traveling as possible and take as many pictures as I can while I am in Europe. So even though I am a Psychology major studying to train animals, or become a psychiatrist, or become a cop/criminologist or whatever I plan to be, right now right here in this moment in my life I am going to be a photographer and that will be the record for my trip. A photo-journal.

Photos of the places I go, the people I'm with, the food I eat and especially the visions and angles that I see as artistic. It is a hectic time in my life and the pictures I take will capture those moments that are specifically beautiful or special to me. It'll be a bunch of nonsense sometime but it definitely isn't just nothing to me.