Blogs from Italy, Europe - page 1610

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Europe » Italy » Piedmont » Turin July 3rd 2003

Quick blog: for those of you who don't know i am obsessed with choclate breakfast foods. Leaving Lyon i got a fresh, straight from the oven Pan Chocolat (chocolate croissant)... AMAZING that was after an fantastic splurgy meal the night before at Le Nord... had the best choclate ganache bomb ever. more about that someother time. Turin has 2 train stations. We only know that because we arrived at the wrong one and had to walk all the way to the other one. No one here speaks English, or French. (Tania speaks french and we are not far from france). We got to the hostel anyway, which is also on a steep hill, just to find that it was closed. Poor Tania learned how cranky a hungry, hot, frustrated and tired Caren is. Once we got ... read more

Europe » Italy » Piedmont » Turin July 3rd 2003

yeah.... got to turin in the wrong train station but we didn't know it. So we wondered around for a very long time trying to find someone who spoke English and wondering why we couldn't find ourselves on the map. We finally found the right train station and started looking for information. Yeah.... it was in the entirely wrong direction from where the sign said it was. Turin does not have many engish speaking people. This hostel is amazing. It is also at the top of a very very steep hill. Boy am I happy we had reservations. It has clean bathrooms, lockers, and clean, secure rooms. After our start it was encouraging to see. In the afternoon we went to the Egyptian museum which was really cool cause they have tons of artifacts that had ... read more

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Vicenza June 28th 2003

I’ve always been interested in UNESCO sites all around the world after visiting the Borobudur Temple in Indonesia several years back. I was thrilled to learn that one of the UNESCO sites protected in Italy, apart from Roman Forum and others, is the town of Vicenza. Vicenza is the home of Palladian architecture, which defines the classic Italian Reneissance architecture in late fourteenth century. Paladio’s nest Andrea Paladio (1508-1580) contributed most of the cultures we experienced in town of Vicenza, including the world famous Paladio’s Villa Rotunda (c. 1571) in outskirt of Vicenza, which was perfectly shaped and symmetrical from all angles. From the inside, the villa felt more aesthetic than functional to my modern standard, but I could imagine aristocrat people back in the fourteenth century lived in the villa. Everything was perfectly designed with ... read more
Getting comfortable
Da villuh
Inside Villa Rotunda

Europe » Italy » Veneto June 27th 2003

It was quite a change from Tuscany to Veneto region, even though still within a same country. Veneto region is located in the northeast of Italy, and the most prominent city in the region is Venice. There must be something with this region, as many of the places name started with V: Veneto, Venezia, Vicenza, and Verona. The eternal love Verona is a cool city. I cannot describe what exactly the architectural style of the city, but it feels like Gothic and fortification from the outside. A brick bridge with spike ornamentations spans across a wild, strong current river, and it frames views of Verona. Streets are lined up with covered loggia, and in the middle of the city was the only ancient Roman intact amphitheater, still being used for many performances and attractions. In fact, ... read more
Inside the Arena di Verona
Before the opera
A Verona bridge

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence June 26th 2003

Florence. The city of light, the city of art. The city where the famous dome arches high above cobble streets, and David stands proudly in his piazza. At least his fake, because they removed the original David to a museum where you have to pay a fortune to see him. Ponte Vecchio, Santa Maria della Novela, and tons of Renaissance arts and architectures. But instead of experiencing it all, our day started in Villa Medici (c. 1671) in Fiesole. We were so antsy about having done with school work for the day and exploring Florence that was within our sights. From the Villa, we could see the terra cotta color Duomo in a distance, and like Jason described it, we felt like cats with a little fish waving in front of us. "Duomo ... duomo ... ... read more
Firenze
Ferrari
Il Pontevecchio

Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Siena June 25th 2003

As we started our five day trip to Northern Italy as a class today, a lot of things were happening this morning, even before we got out of Rome. Rome Arrived in the Piramide Metro around 8:10 am, we were joining our classmates across the pyramid, waiting on our tour bus that would pick us up at 8:30. Romans were doing their daily routines; streets started to get busy with cars and mopeds zooming around, people in work dress were walking all around us, and vendors were setting up tables and tents for their items. Apparently twenty plus foreigners waiting in a piazza in the middle of these activities were an eye-sore for locals, as many started to give us a puzzled look. It started to get uneasy, but nothing we could do but waiting for ... read more
Pienza church
Tuscan landscape
Duomo di Siena

Europe » Italy » Lazio » Rome June 24th 2003

Rome has been a major city for more than 2,000 years. Although it is quite illustrated on what we've seen so far, but going to one location and experience it all helped us to understand how the process works. San Clemente is the only church in Rome that literally shows how 'modern' Romans (we're talking about the 12th century Romans) built their city on top of the ancient city of Roman Republic (c. 100 BC) or early Christianity. The present San Clemente structure is a 12th century church that is dedicated to the fourth pope of the Catholic popedome. From the outside, the structure is not inviting to be checked out; just a regular church among more than 3,000 churches and chapels in Rome. Walking around the first level of the church, we saw several arches ... read more
Details on a saint's robe
San Clemente
Let's enter the church!

Europe » Italy » Lombardy » Milan June 9th 2003

Eurorail 2003 - Photos from: Milan and Venice... A 3 week escapade on Eurorail through Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Starting in Milan in Italy through to Venice then an epic night train adventure with all night partying from Venice, through Croatia to Budapest in Hungary. Then another nighttrain up to Prague in the Czech Republic.... read more
View from Rialto, Venice
Leaving Milan Train Station
St Marks Square, Venice

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice June 8th 2003

God is in the details - Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), architect Finally, we are in Venice, Italy! Jason, Ryan and I left Tiburtina in Rome last night at 10.52pm, for a six hour train ride to Venice. We met a Mexican guy who was extremely excited to see other people from North America. So he shared a train compartment with us to Venice, while Ryan was practicing his Spanish with our new buddy. We arrived in Santa Lucia train station in Venice at 5.55 am, which to our dismay, was way too early, so we decided to take a morning stroll along the canals, trying to get to Piazza San Marco. Venice is very different from Rome, and all you see are major streets and roads made out of greenish water of canals, and Smart ... read more
Gondola
Cement Truck
Street direction signs

Europe » Italy » Lazio » Rome June 3rd 2003

As much as I like to explore Rome as a tourist, living in Rome as a ‘temporary’ citizen of Rome as our instructor Katherine referred to, is interesting. By day eight, everything becomes so ordinary for us - a group of ignorant tourists everywhere blocking the narrow streets of Rome talking in different languages, doing groceries, loud dump truck that regularly comes at one in the morning in front of our apartment to pick up overloading garbage, locals that always reply in English even though I started the conversation in Italian, two line Metro and bus number 70 or 30 to go to the studio, and schoolwork. The progress of my studio work in Testaccio turns out to become somewhat personal experience. I chose a small unattractive plaza of the Parco della Resistenza dell'Otto Settembre, located ... read more
Villa d'Este
Villa Giulia
Mercato di Testaccio




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