I’ve been home since the 19th, just in time for Christmas!  Though not in time to send out my gifts… though I did get that done eventually.

It is so nice to be back in Southern California, where I can line-dry my clothes and lay out in the sun on January 1st.  Though I do hope that everyone with snow/rain/clouds outside their window right now is having a nice winter too!

This past semester was such an incredible experience for me, and I hope this blog did it justice.  I know I will read over it often, and remember just how much of an adventure I went on.  Hey, I’m only 20, there is plenty of time in the (near) future for me to return and do all of the things I didn’t have time to do.  Can you beleive that?  There is still so much more I can, and will, do! Ma quando? Come? Con chi? Dove? Chissà.

Take care, and thanks for following along with me!
Tricia

But here are the promised photos of Paris, and the day-trip we took to Venice the weekend before!

I’ll go stick my nose in a book now!

Paris:

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Venice:

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I’m not lying about the 600 pictures… I’ll have to sort carefully (during my designated procrastination time between papers and studying).

For anyone who has not been to Paris, I highly recommend it! Even if it costs you an arm and a leg (though I’ll loan you my student card to get into some museums for freeeeee) it is such an experience! I love Italy, the language, the people, the buildings, the food, the history, the art, the land, and everything else besides the pigeons, but if I hadn’t been here for a whole semester, I would not have felt like I saw enough. I don’t know if there is one place in Italy that has marveled me in every possible way, like Paris did. Milan, Rome, and Florence are all big cities, but none are as compacted with so much worth seeing and experiencing. We were there for just three days, but I feel like we were able see so many sights (granted, we did see the WHOLE city from the VERY top of the Eiffel tower) and do so many new things that it could have taken weeks to find equivalents in Italy.

I guess what I am trying to say is, if you have the time to stroll through Italy, and take your time stopping in Tuscan villages where you can still hand-pick olives and press your own oil, towns that still have the original medieval fortresses, and numerous cities that claim to be the birthplace, vacation spot, or at some-point residence of a pope or artist, by all means, it is completely worth it. But if you only have 3 days in Europe, head on over to Paris and be that tourist who takes a million pictures of the Mona Lisa. Did I mention that I actually stood next to a Vermeer painting? There are only 14 cities in the entire world where this is possible!

We did the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Champs d’Elysee, Pompidou, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, and so much more! Pictures are in the works!

I am going to go day dream about butter and sugar crepes now. Or write a paper.

Ciao!
Tricia

I’ll be back on Monday!

Au revoir!
Tricia

Love, Tricia

I was debating between titling this post “It’s all Greek to me!” or that.

Who can guess where my mind is?  Woah, sorry to make this all interactive.

Anyway, I finished my midterms… which means I get to go to Greece now!!  My hand feels like it wrote a novel.  Well, maybe just a couple chapters.  But they were good chapters!  I hope.  It’s been a while between my finishing of midterms and when I last updated this thing!

We went to the chocolate festival in Perugia!  I have since finished all the chocolate I bought for myself.  Twas amazing.  There were so many people there!!  We did go on the first day of the festival, so it was expected, and we still had a really good time.

Then I woke up one Sunday to more than the usual chatter of people walking around the Piazza del Mercato outside our apartment (it is basically a big covered area, where the city used to hold an outdoor market on a regular basis, but now it is just a big covered area where young kids hang out at night, and a little boy practices his contrada drumming some afternoons).  I looked outside the window, and already by 8am an antique market was already set up, complete with groups of men standing around smoking cigars, women with bags ready to fill with trinkets, children crowding around tables full of trading cards and disney figurines, and tourists being first baffled by why there were boxes of people’s old family photos for sale but then more confused as why they felt compelled to buy them all.  We eventually made our way down there, and were amazed every table, and the only thing stopping us from buying everything was some of the prices.  Apparently this takes place every third Sunday of the month, but we must have missed it last month when we were traveling.  I was able to find an adorable old copy of Alice nel paese delle meraviglie (Alice in Wonderland).  She is a big fan, and it was her birthday present!

Last week we went to Pienza, a nearby town, with our program for a field study.  It is the town that Pope Pius II was born in, and had completely renovated into, basically, a monument to himself and his family, the Piccolomini.  Long story short, it is a tiny tiny town, only a couple blocks, and the view is amazing!  I could get into the social and artistical significance of the city during the 1400s, but my brain still hurts a little bit.

Alright, I am off to Milan tomorrow evening by bus, and we fly out early early Saturday morning to Athens!  Then we’ll take a ferry to Paros, yay, where someone from the hotel will meet us, and take us to where we need to be

But now… I sleep.
I’ll be back in a week!! (From Greece… not sleeping)
Ciao ciao!
Tricia

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I took pictures!  (Of course…)

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By far, my favorite part of the trip was making our own pasta!  We made the dough, rolled it, cut it, and stuffed tortelloni, tortellini, tagliatli, and penne.  AMAAAAAZING!  Italy=Amazing food, and Bologna=the most amazing food in Italy… if that gives you an idea of the amazingness.

On Saturday we visited the Ferrari Museum in Maranello!!  We were all pretty exicted about that :-)  Our guided tour of the museum ended witht the NEW California Ferrari, so I was happy!  I also folded it up so I could fit it in my purse and sneak out!  I got some nice shots there too… Grandpa Jerry, you’ll have to expand my knowledge further than “old Ferrari” and “new Ferrari.”  I listened to our guide, but I couldn’t remember everything!!

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Lauren and I bought our tickets to Greece, and we even found an Enlish travel guide to the Greek Isles while we were in Bologna (we searched every book store in Siena, with no such luck).  We are pretty set on Paros, where we plan to go horseback riding on the beach, visit a cave on a nearby island, and eat at a place called Happy Green Cows (a veggie resteraunt!!!).

I seemed to have forgotten to mention my trip to Paris!!!  (That’s right, Paros and Paris).  I’ll be spending our three day weekend at the end of November in Paris!!  A little group of us is going, it ought to be fun.

Alright, I’m off to make some dinner, and do some homework.

Love, Tricia

Somehow, I don’t think I actually took one of the famous “holding up the tower” pictures.  I thought I did…. maybe it ended up on someone else’s camera.  Pisa was nice, perfect for a little day trip.  Beyond that, there isn’t much to do.  The tower is also not as tall as I thought it would be.  So that was last Saturday.  On Sunday I woke up with a craving for pancakes, and since we had already planned to make pizza that evening, and I needed to buy stuff for that, I decided to buy some pancake fixins as well.

It took forever to find baking powder for the pancakes and yeast for the pizza, but I think we got pretty close in the end My roommates and I made pancakes, and it was amazing.  I also was able to find sugar free peanut butter, FINALLY, so I made a leftover pancake peanut butter and jelly sandwich later in the week.

Some friends of ours have an actual oven (not like the toaster oven we have) in their apartment, so we had a pizza party, like legitimately.  I think there were 7-8 of us, and I taught everyone to make pizza!  We ended up with 4 small pizzas like the one in the picture (make sure you go to page 2 of the photos).  They actually turned out really nice!

Okay, I have to get ready for class, but 2 more things:  I leave for a 3 day field trip to Bologna tomorrow, where we will get to make pasta by hand!!!! eek!  and lastly, and most importantly/amazingly, I am finally set on a trip to Greece for fall break.  We’ll leave Oct 31st and get back Nov 9th.  I’ll explain more later… but Paros, get ready for Tricia!!!

Ciao ciao!!!
Tricia

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Well, eventually.  I was on the train with Lauren (my Claremont friend in Siena) and Hallie (our mutual Claremont friend, studying in Florence, who we met up with at one of the train stations along the way while the rest of our group went ahead to check into the hostel).  So the main train station into Cinque Terre is called La Spezia Centrale, but there is also a La Spezia Migliarina.  All we saw was La Spezia on the sign, and the train stopped.  Now, usually the doors open when a train stops, but every once in a while they don’t, and you have to run to the next car to get off, or on.  Our doors don’t open, so we pull the handle or something.  This sets off an alarm.  Hallie jumps off, and then the train starts to move, so Lauren and I hop off too.  Of course, there were two very attractive Australian guys on the train who we informed that the stop was “La Spezia” and they saw up jump off the train.  We get off feeling kind of bad for them, because they didn’t get off.  Ten seconds later we realize we’re at the wrong La Spezia.  Oops.  We waited for the next train to La Spezia Centrale, and of course when we get there, we come up the stairs from the platforms and one of the Australian guys is there saying “Hey Joe, check it out!”  One of them comes up to us and says “You guys got off a little early didn’t you??”  We had some good laughs…

Enough about that!! Cinque Terre was so beautiful that I cannot put it into words.  I do have photos though! Just to lay the foundation: Le Cinque Terre (or the five towers) are five coastal/cliff side towns in northern Italy, connected by hiking trails and a train tunnel.

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We stayed in Riomaggiore, the most southern town, in a hostel that over looked the water!  Absolutely better than we could have asked for.  After arriving Friday evening and going out to an amazing (though slightly costly) dinner, we spent Saturday doing Cinque Terre right!  From north to south you have Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso.  We hiked from Riomaggiore to Corniglia, then took a train to Monterosso, because we wanted to make it in time for dinner and some (window) shopping!  The sights were absolutely breathtaking!

Alright, I have a quiz tomorrow morning, so goodnight!
Tricia

P.S. I posted pictures of Naples too!  Check out my Le Foto page!