Ciao friends and family! I finally started a blog so you are now able to view, not just hear, about my journey! Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. Enjoy! Casey [View Full Entry]

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(Alternate titles: Como-ver it, and Our time went Shitaly). Note: Any complaints about the infrequency of blog entries should be filed directly to the members of state representing the European Union and the affiliates of the European Economic Area. 10 euro an hour for internet is such an injustice that there exists no word to describe it, so i must make them up. Internet in Europe is absolutely blaspotent. That said, keyboard al gratis has found its way under my fingers so the chronicle can continue. Last report had us bouncing through Europe with a variety of at home contacts to [View Full Entry]

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What a long week! After Provence it was fairly quiet. On my day off on Wednesday I did a museum visit with a tour guide at the Rodin Museum in central Paris. I really enjoyed it and think I liked his work mainly because his ideas were very innovative for a sculptor and especially those who commission art don't always favor that. Thursday was quiet and I had coffee with one of the CUA girls who's in Paris with me, and chatted for a while and discussing our weekends. I was able to find a special through the french national train [View Full Entry]

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E così il giorno della partenza arrivò. Lascio una città (e un Paese) in pieno inverno, con temperature che spaventerebbero un Eschimese, per il dolce sole dei Caraibi. Conto di star via sei mesi, forse più, e rientrare in Italia da Oriente, dall'Asia, un vecchio sogno. Ero anni che aspettavo, sognavo questo viaggio. Lo sapete tutti. Cercherò di tenervi aggiornati settimanalmente su nuovi spostamenti e avventure. Per ora, auguratemi solo "in .... alla balena". A presto. [View Full Entry]

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This weekend of the 26-29th of October I went to go visit my friend Danielle who is studying over in Turin Italy. It was a bit of a train ride to get over there, took about 8 hours when it should have only taken 5 due to the lovely construction, but when I got there it was all worth it. Our first night I meet her roommates and some of her friends. We made tacos which were pretty amazing and watched footloose!! Hehe. The next day we went to the HUGE open market downtown, and of course I found yet another [View Full Entry]

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Today Cantor, Mauro, Lillo (the little Weiner dog) hopped into the silver Fiat Punto, which, statisitically, 99% of Italians own an exact copy of (except that one guy, the one who drives the Ferrari). We drove the hour and a half trip up to Torino (in inglese: Turin), site of the '06 Winter Olympics, and because of that fact, all of the parks and public places were newly renovated, with a few extra sculptures and such to boot. We spent the morning touring the Museo di Cinema, a museum that documents the history and evolution of film. The museum is, strangely [View Full Entry]

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"Torino is never any shortage of opportunities for diversion, culture and amusment..." This visit to Italy wasn't planned until a month before we left... which is quite wrong as we usually try our best to book holidays a long time before going for obvious reasons - it's cheap! We did plan Marocco in March or April and that's what we were looking forward to most of the time, but one day in July Piotrus said we should have done something more... and because we fell in love with Italy visiting it last year (Rome) there was no hesitation when choosing the [View Full Entry]

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Tuesdays in Torino. If I continued at Cascina Piola I imagine I’d spend all my Tuesdays in Torino. Eventually breaking out and discovering expensive artisan cheese and bread shops off the beaten path. Tattoo parlors, grocery stores, cheap goods, and seedy people- all I these I can see from the bus but none encountered first hand. My Tuesdays in Torino have been filled with markets, side streets not too far off the large main arteries. I circle around the familiar landmarks and am content to know that while my map may have a limited kilometer radius it is what I know. [View Full Entry]

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Day by day accounts here at Cascina Piola melt like sugar over a warm flame. One day is filled with tomatoes and sun, the next with a thunderous electric summer storm and weeding, the mosquitos and fresh cold spouting spring, the coming and going of guests, and blooming of new flowers every day. Raffaella and Piero comically juxtapose eachother's work methods with warm love and affection. Their house is dark lacking the light from outside but it keeps the coolness of the bricks and stucco ceilings, a welcome relief during breaks in the afternoons. Their house is cluttered with colorful posters [View Full Entry]

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I attempted to spend a few days in the Cinque Terre and on the beaches of the Italian Riviera. It would take a couple train changes to get there and I was careful about writing them down when I bought the tickets. The morning I left I checked the time table on the Italy's train website and wrote them down again, just in case I lost one copy. So I boarded my train from Florence to Pisa no problem. In Pisa i was to switch to a train to Spezia. I am especially careful about boarding trains in Italy because [View Full Entry]

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