Day Trip #1-Venice

Yesterday MK and I took a day trip to Venice.  We got up early and caught an 8:30 train, arriving around 10.  We caught the vaperetto and went to Realto, where we visited a paper shop described in my guidebook as "owned by the arguably nicest couple in Italy with products of such high quality that movie stars have been known to send their agents here to buy portfolios, but unchanging prices mean anyone can enjoy them."  They were indeed extremely beautiful and reasonably priced, but I always find myself buying journals and promising to write in them and then I never do, so, sadly I passed.  We then walked to St. Marks, enjoying the sights and the crowds, though it was nowhere near as crowded as new year's.  When we got to St. Mark's square, we found a little parade with people in costume playing music and dancing.  I have a little video on my camera, but I'm having a hard time uploading it onto my computer, but will hopefully post it sometime soon.  

We then went in and wandered around the church, sandwiched between two GIANT tour groups taking photos with flashes (no photos or video at all allowed), talking loudly on cell phones, and just being in general disrespectful.  But the church was more lit than where my parents and I were there before, so I got to see in a little clearer detail the beautiful mosaics on the ceiling.  We had lunch on the steps of a fountain in a small piazza (no eating allowed in St. Mark's square) before heading to the Doge's palace.  It was very cool and we got to see a bunch that I hadn't seen yet.  We walked over the bridge of sighs, saw the golden staircase and a bunch of famous frescoes as well as the armory and prisons, very cool.  We then caught the Vaperetto and went out to Murano, but only ended up waling through a few showrooms before sitting down to have a coffee and pastry (which of course doubled their price).  We caught a packed vaperetto back to the train station and got on a train at 6 which sat on the tracks for 40 min before departing, meaning we arrived in Ferrara just in time for the busses to stop running.  We caught the last bus that was even going in the right direction and which took us maybe 2/3 of the way home, a journey which we completed on foot in the rain.  But we made it safely and all is well.  We took a lazy morning and tomorrow it's off to San Marino for my very last trip before I start the long journey home on Monday to arrive home Tuesday afternoon,

Let there be internet

Yay!  I finally have internet again.  It's sad how attached I am to internet; not having it was like missing a limb.  But here I am will full e-mailing and blogging capabilities again and all is well.  I'm looking forward to MK's visit.  Despite the fact that she should be in the air right now, I have no idea how to get ahold of her or meet up with her.  Oh well, here's hoping she has my phone number and can figure out the pay phones here.  Now it's off to do laundry, hopefully for the last time here in Ferrara.  Only 7 days to go!

Internet malfunction

My internet went down yesterday, and today I was informed by Gabriella that the company is changing carriers or something and we won't have any internet until the 19th. Wow. Talk about inconvienent. I'm using a friend's computer and internet connection right now to let you all know what's happening so no one worries if I don't respond to e-mails or blog comments. Also, Middlebury seems to be doing some updating of their server and it won't let me send any outgoing mail, so Mom and Dad, I hope you check this blog and know that I'm okay because I literally have no other way to contact you right now. I'm going to bring my computer to the library on Monday and try to get on the school's internet there, but no promises. Gee, just what I needed when I was feeling cut off and isolated, loosing my only means of communication with the outside world. But I don't want anyone to worry, I'm making progress on my studying and I'm feeling okay enough to keep slogging on because I know I only have 16 more days until I'm on my way home!!!

Padova

Picking up with where I left off in recounting my parents' visit, we are now in Padova (Padua).

28-12-08:  This morning we finished the last-minute parts of the clean up and headed out to Padova.  We caught an 11 o'clock train and ate flatbread sandwiches with the last of the fabulous Christmas pork roast for lunch.  We arrived in Padova to find it even colder than Ferrara (oh joy) and a holiday, so we had to wait a while in the cold to get a bus, but once we did it was relatively strait-forward to get to the hotel, even if it was a bit of a schlep.  The hotel was called "Hotel al Fagiano" and had the weirdest decor I have ever seen.  There were all these mixed-media paintings that looked like some nightmarish child's craft room transformed into countless canvasses of naked women, abstract, but always with some toy or feather or other item attached to her crotch.  There was also a one eyed cat which I couldn't figure out if it was on purpose, o just because the artist couldn't find anything lying around to make the other eye with.  The room was decorated like a circus tent in oranges, blues, purples, but was warm and comfortable so I'm not so much complaining as registering my amusement and confusion.  We headed out to the church "Sant'Antonio" and wondered around overwhelmed and awestruck at the sheer quantity of art on every available surface.  Of course, as is the case with all the most beautiful places, no cameras were allowed, so here's a picture of the outside of the church. 

We saw the relic room which houses St. Anthony's jaw, tongue, and voice-box along with the casket in which he was buried and a handful of other things.  For those of you wondering why his jaw, tongue, and voice-box were separated from the rest of his body (I sure was), apparently he was a great orator and that's why they're special.  We then visited his tomb, which, unlike the one of St. Francis, sits in the middle of the church.  There were lots of people there and a long line to touch the marble sarcophagus in which he lies.  Many people had filled out little prayer cards asking him to help them find something they'd lost, as he is apparently the patron saint of lost items.  Deciding we'd had enough, we wondered around the surrounding area looking for a place to eat dinner, but since it was a sunday, a number of places were closed and we returned to the hotel with no prospects.  I asked at the hotel front desk if the guy had any recommendations, and we went up to the room to rest with two possible places to eat.  After a nice rest, I woke up famished and luckily it was late enough that places were starting to open  up (7:30pm) so we headed out.  We were seated by a welcoming and friendly hostess (a rarity in Italy) and waited on by a very happy and genial waiter, who I think may have also been the owner.  The food was really outstanding and the experience was wonderful.  We concluded the meal with a heavenly apple cake which was melt-in-your-mouth good with some bavarian creme on the side and which I judged worthy of at least 10k of running.  We went back to the hotel extremely satisfied and went to bed.

29-12-08: Dad and I woke up early this morning to run together.  The weather was reasonably good and the run was quite nice until I tripped and not-quite strained my ankle.  It was fine to walk on the rest of the trip, but a little sore.  We returned to the hotel and had a pretty good breakfast of coffee and pastries with juice and yogurt before heading out to see the famous Scrovegni chapel where some of the oldest and best preserved frescoes of the famous painter Giotto live.  Not having a reservation, we went to the ticket office and were told that luckily, since it wasn't a busy day, we could visit the chapel in two hours.  So we went to the multimedia room and learned all about the history of the chapel, the process of painting frescoes and the motivation behind the particular frescoes inside the church.  The small chapel is dedicated to the story of Christ.  It is divided in three rows horizontally and twelve panels vertically.  The top row shows the birth of Mary and her life, ending with a large representation of the announcement of the birth of Jesus on the wall above the entrance.  The next row is the story of the life of Jesus, starting with the nativity through his arrest.  The final row tells the story of the passion of Christ, ending with the crucifixion.  On the wall opposite the entrance, unfortunately the most damaged is the breathtaking rendering of the last judgement with Jesus and the angels waiting to welcome the saved and a horrific Lucifer and demons pulling protesting damned souls into the pit.  I wish cameras were allowed, but my description will have to do because no cameras of any kind are allowed.  In fact, nothing but your person is allowed in the chapel and you have to sit in a special climate controlled room for 15 minutes before entering.  Here is a picture of the outside and for those of you who would like to see the inside, ask me the next time you see me to show you the book we bought with all the pictures in it.

After that, it was getting late, so we figured we'd walk toward the hotel and stop for luch along the way.  Strange how we managed to walk back along the ONLY path that could have possibly been completely without open restaurants (or, open restaurants that had soup, which is what Mom wanted).  Probably close to a mile later and breathing down the neck of a total hypoglycemic meltdown for Mom, we finally stumbled into a restaurant where the staff looked less than pleased to see us, but seated us anyway.  Our orders were taken by a waitress watching the projected (and, in my opinion, totally inappropriate for a restaurant music videos) on the back wall and looking like she'd rather be in a dentist's chair getting her teeth drilled.  The food that came was passable enough to have for lunch, but by then I was really looking forward to trying a restaurant recommended by my guidebook for dinner.  

Jumping ahead to said dinner because I can't really remember what else we did, we found the restaurant easily and the menu looked good, so we sat down at a table.  It was all downhill from there.  To start the fiasco, we first ordered a calamari appetizer and told the waiter we'd tell him the rest when he brought the calamari, to which he replied, "I'll come back when you're ready to order everything."  He passed us off to a waitress, who was confused at why we would only be ordering one appetizer for three.  I made a big boo boo in translation that ended in Dad ordering veal liver for dinner and Mom and I both got "pasta e fragioli" which I had had, and loved, the night before at another restaurant.  The calamari arrived and I think would have been quite good except that they seemed to have been breaded in salt instead of bread-crumbs.  Mom was surprised that it was fired, so didn't eat any and Dad and I didn't do a great job of cleaning the plate.  The waitress came and tossed us an annoyed look before whisking it off the table to bring us our main course.  When it arrived, it was like watery refried beans with half a stick of melted butter floating on top and I knew that we were going to have to get something else.  Knowing how extremely offensive sending something back to the kitchen is in Italy, I tried to choke down a few bites and then gave up.  With a lump in my throat, I called or waitress over and asked if we could have the pasta instead.  She snapped "why, what's wrong with that?!"  and I, burning red in the face, replied that it wasn't what I thought it would be.  She whisked the two bowls off the table so fast, I thought they were going to spill and then said "I'll bring you the pasta as well," which I'm pretty sure was her way of saying "don't you dare think we're taking this off the bill."  Surprisingly, the pasta arrived rather quickly and was quite good, but having offended the waitress, it was impossible to get her attention again.  Mom slid her plate over to Dad so he could try the pasta, and of course the waitress chose that exact moment to show up, see no plate sitting in front of Mom and demand of me, "what, she doesn't like anything?!"  I stammered that she had eaten the pasta and the waitress gave a disbelieving little scoff as she cleared the table.  Then we sat, and sat, and sat, waiting for the bill.  We tried to ask for it (another cultural feau-pax), but she was clearly ignoring us.  About 45 minutes later, another waiter came with the bill; apparently we had offended our waitress too much for her to even look at us any more.  So we paid the bill and left, shaking our heads and generally keeping good humor about us.  Oh well, we said, last night was great and from now on, we'll take the hotel's recommendation over the guidebook's.

ps. for the parts of this post where I said there would be pictures and there arn't, sorry.  Blogger won't upload them, so they will be added at a slightly later date.

The holidays are officially over

I'm doing okay today, just okay, but better than bad.  I finally got the cold that I've been listening Maria fight with for over a month.  But I went to the pharmacy and got some cough medicine which actually works, so that makes it tolerable.  I even got out of the house to the gym and ran 5k, my longest run yet.  It was a struggle with lungs partially occupied by mucus, but the meds helped and the run cleared a lot of the "junk" out.  It's raining today and very cold, so I opted to take the bus when I went into town to return some overdue library books.  I went grocery shopping today and while I'm sure that is of very little interest to many of you, I just wanted to share that I bought some fresh berries, and I am so excited to eat them.  They will be my motivation to get up in the morning and I will do so happily.

I would like to say thank you to those people who have sent e-mails both recently and not-so-recently;  getting them really makes my day, so thank you.  It makes a huge difference even, and especially, to hear about the everyday things going on in other people's lives.  It helps me feel not so alone and reminds me that life goes on.  So if any of you who read this blog are ever sitting around thinking "boy, what can I do with this extra time I have?" (yeah right, I know), consider sending Leah an e-mail.

I'm plugging along through the study schedule I've made for myself and although it's a slog, I'm starting to see progress and feel less frightened about my exams.  So now if I can just keep from getting behind, I should have all the assigned reading done by the time I walk in to each of my two respective exams (two classes are already over, exams and all).  I would like to ask you all to send a few good vibes in Emmons' direction, as she's taking five exams this month and I don't know how she's still breathing, let alone off visiting Sicily.  I will update more about the last days of my parents' visit soon, but right now, there are leftovers calling me to the kitchen and I must obey.

Purgatorio

I'm taking a break from reading Dante, which is quite interesting, but terribly time consuming.  It's kind of like reading Paradise Lost in your second language.   Exactly like that actually.  Anyway, the weather has gone back to terrible here.  It's cold and grey and icy and also a holiday, so I haven't, and most likely wont, make it out of the house today.  Keeping up with  my study schedule is hard, but so far (three days) I've managed it.  I'm a little worried about MK's upcoming visit because I have two exams while she's here, one on the last day of her visit, and I'm afraid I'll have to study a lot, even though I'm doing as much as I can now.  I'll also have to pack of course and figure a bunch of stuff out, like how to get my books home.  I'm pretty sure it would cost an arm and a leg to ship them, but probably less than I paid for them and I'd like to keep most of them.  Sigh, I can't decide if I'm happy to have so much to do or sad.  I'm having a little trouble remembering these next few days of my Parents' visit, or I can't remember in which order they happened, so here's a general description of what we did Friday (26/12) and Saturday (27/12):

One of these two days, I believe Friday, we got on the train (yay, there actually was one this time) and went to Ravenna.  When we arrived there wasn't much happening.  We wondered around for a little bit and went to one of the famous mosaic churches, "Sant'Apollinare Nuovo" and found our way to the entrance.  Inside, the ceiling and walls are mosaics of stunning beauty.  If I remember correctly, the top row of images were depicting the miracles of Christ while the bottom row was on one side a line of virgins bowing before Mary and baby Jesus and on the other side a line of Martyrs ending in the three kings presenting their gifts to Christ.  Here are the three kings.

We had lunch at a nice little pizzaria before continuing on the the other well-known church, whose name I can't remember because we tore that page out of my guide book to take with us.  The second church was incredibly beautiful as well and pictured here below is the mosaic which takes center stage.
By then, we were getting very cold and didn't quite know how we were going to spend then next two hours until the train back to Ferrara, so we decided to find a Bar and have a coffee.  Having no other indication, we decided to walk in the general direction of the train station, but as luck would have it, the few open bars we passed were packed with no room to sit, so we continued on, not knowing that there wouldn't be many other options.  Mom started to melt down, and luckily, we soon happened upon a bar and ducked inside.  Dad went to the train station to check if there was an earlier train while mom and I drank some coffee.  There was indeed an earlier train, so luckily, we got to go home an hour earlier.  I think it was on the train that Dad told me that they (mom and dad) wanted to leave Ferrara because they were uncomfortable in my apartment and wanted a few more creature comforts.  I tried hard not to be offended and tried not to worry about how I was going to exercise on the road and eat healthy things in restaurants, but packed up a suitcase and on Sunday morning, cleaned up the apartment and headed out for Padova.

Hanging on...just

I have some good news today: chances are looking pretty good that I will be able to go home five days early.  I called the student travel agency and there is a flight with no fare difference, so I would just have to pay the reservation change fee.  I'm working with my professor because it means I would have to take the exam a day early, but he says it's possible and he's willing to help me out.  So if that's the case, I only have 23 more days here!  I'm planning one more trip in Italy to Bolzano (aka. Bozen) to see Ozi the ice man and try some real German strudel.  Tuesday is "La Befana" where the old hag comes to bring gifts to the good children (though they also get gifts from santa clause on Christmas) and everything will once again be shut down.  Oh boy.  This time of year, it seems places just close up until the middle of January.  Oh well, continuing my story from when my parents were here:

24-12-08: It's Christmas eve day and we decided to go to Comacchio, but on our way to the bus stop, we stopped to get coffee and decided that going to a small fishing village on a holiday might not be a good idea as everything was likely to be closed and the trip back home was a little foggy in terms of the bus schedule.  So we decided to go to Bologna instead.  We got on a train, got to Bologna with no idea where we were going or what we were going to do, but we walked around for a while, found a restaurant and sat down to eat.  I had tortolloni, a bolognese specialty, which were quite good.  After lunch, we decided to head back to town to check on when mass would be.  I wasn't upset at not spending more time in Bologna to be honest, it just didn't appeal to me as a city.  So anyway, we got back to Ferrara, took the bus into town and went to the cathedral to check about mass.  It was only an hour away, so we went and bought some postcards for mom (finally!) and then went to my favorite bar and had coffee (I had hot chocolate with fresh whipped cream).  We sat for a while and enjoyed the complimentary cookies served with our drinks.  Then we went to mass, which was beautiful and blessedly short (presumably to get ready for the more substantial midnight mass).  We went home and started on the seafood stew, which Dad masterminded and the result was outstanding.  Mom was upset because the box she mailed with some christmas gifts had not arrived and she felt upset at not having more things under the tree, though neither Dad nor I were bothered.

25-12-08: Christmas morning, oh boy!  Dad and I went for a run this morning before returning home to make some french toast out of a traditional Italian holiday bread called Panetone, which has candied fruit in it.  It was outstanding, pretty close to the best I've ever had if I do say so myself.  It was fun to cook for breakfast; I don't do that for myself.  Plus, breakfast is pretty non-existent here, my roommates think it's weird that I have oatmeal and fruit for breakfast.  Anyway, after breakfast we adjourned for a few minutes and met back up in my room to open a few gifts.  Mom loved the cat pin and salt and pepper shakers I got her, and Dad was very happy with the miniature Ferrari I brought him from the factory.  It even has little mirrors in the side view mirrors and impossibly small numbers painted on the gauges.  I got a new video camera that's unbelievably small and happily very simple.  I will try to make a video in the coming days and post it on the blog.  After enjoying a few cups of coffee, we went on a nice walk for about an hour, where we walked through my neighborhood and down the old city wall.  It was a strange feeling as there was no one else out and no cars on the street.  It was a lovely walk and when we got back, I started the preparations for dinner, which I had planned to be a big, multi-course Italian dinner.  We had Cappellacci al ragù for our first course, with the cappellacci from the local fresh pasta place, which was hands down the best I've had since I've been here, and believe you me, I've tried a lot of them.  Then we had that beautiful pork tenderloin roast marinated in balsamic vinegar and garlic and then roasted with a balsamic vinegar and shallot glaze.  It was really outstanding and gave us several days of great sandwiches afterward.  We then had blanched green beens marinated in olive oil and lemon juice, which was a nice little pick-me-up and palate cleanser to prepare us for the desert of the traditional ferrarese cake we bought at the market.  We finished off the evening with a little limoncello from Sorento and a game of Uno.  Altogether a quite satisfying day.

A tiny ray of sunshine

I'm feeling just a little better today.  I managed to drag myself out of the house to the gym for an overdue workout.  The sun came out for a bit and helped melt a little of the ice off the sidewalks so one is no longer taking one's life into one's hands to walk to the bus stop.  I made a study plan today and assuming I can keep up with it, I should be ready for both of my coming exams.  My literature professor is working with me to try to make it so I can take the exam a day early so that I can change my airplane ticket and go home five days earlier than expected.  It's not for sure yet, but I'm really hoping because a few extra days at home would be such a welcome gift.  I got a card from Alison and the Nagel family christmas card from Nana today which made my day.  Thank you guys.  I thought I'd continue with the story of my parents' visit to have something to write about.

22-12-08: Today we all went into town together.  After a slow start, we caught the bus and got off by the castle.  We walked through the christmas market and tried different kinds of peccorino cheese (sheep cheese), ogled the sweets and soaked up the festivity.  We bought a traditional Ferrese cake for Christmas eve that was a dense chocolate cake with nuts and candied fruit and a dark chocolate coating.  We looked for a scarf for Mom, but couldn't find any made in Italy and she insisted that she would not come all the way to Italy to buy something made in India or South America.  We had lunch at a local place, "il ciclone" (the cyclone), that I've been wanting to try for ages.  I ordered the arugula pizza and ate far too much, but it was fantastic.  Mom had a seafood soup that looked fantastic with all kinds of shellfish and Dad had a grilled vegetable pizza.  After lunch, I took them to the building where I have most of my classes.  Of course, all the classrooms were locked and a security person came to ask me what I was doing.  Then we went to the other building where I have some classes and we saw the pretty, but administrative parts and the ugly classroom parts (again the rooms were locked).  I was getting cold and tired, so I suggested we go home, but Mom was upset that we hadn't gotten any postcards, so I said I would go home and they could meet me, but she ended up coming with us anyway.  We planned to go to Ravenna the next day and looked up the train schedule, then had a fantastic lentil soup for dinner which Mom declared was in here "top 2" favorite soups.

23-12-08:  Today, we went to the train station to go to Ravenna at 10:10, only to find that there was no 10:10 train and the next one was at 12:30.  We talked it over, but Mom thought 12:30 was too late to depart, so I suggested we go to Comacchio instead.  Comacchio is a little fishing village on the Po delta that I've been wanting to visit, so we bought some bus tickets and checked the schedule.  The bus left at 12 and I thought I had better go to the butcher to get the meat for Christmas dinner since I had just found out that many places close on Christmas eve day.  I told my parents to wait for me at a coffee shop on Via Garibaldi and I would find them after I got the meat.  I stopped on the way to the shop at a homemade pasta shop to get some cappellacci, a Ferrese specialty which consists of pumpkin stuffed into little pasta hats.  They looked very good and I was pleased at having found the shop rather by accident, though I knew there was one in the area.  When I got to the butcher shop, there was a line out the door, but I decided to wait out of fear of not having a nice roast for Christmas dinner.  An hour later I was still in line, talking to a Greek student and swapping nasty comments about the woman at the counter who had been monopolizing the butcher's time with special orders for the past hour and who bought over 200 euros worth of meat.  At an average price of 5 euros a kilo, that's 40 KILOS of meat!! Two hours later, I finally had my pork tenderloin and I headed for Via Garibaldi, where I looked for my parents for the next 40 minutes before giving up and returning to my apartment to eat lunch.  They returned a bit later, having eaten at Il Ciclone again and having found a nativity set for Mom.  Needless to say, we did not make it to Comacchio, but we did have all the necessities for a lovely Christmas dinner.  Dad and I went to the store (again!) to pick up some wine and some nice fish for a traditional Christmas Eve dinner of a fish stew.  We bought cod, shrimp, and calamari rings.  When we got home, we talked about tomorrow (24-12) and decided to try out Comacchio then.  And the story of that day will have to wait for another time.

Cry for help

Well, my parents left yesterday and I'm having a really hard time emotionally.  I feel totally cut off from everyone and it seems so unfair that they got to go home and I had to come back here.  When I arrived here, the city was closed up and no busses or trains were running, so I had to walk over an hour back from the train station.  Then my heat in the apartment didn't work and I couldn't get a hold of anyone for support and had a panic attack which was only resolved when I managed to crawl out of my apartment (locking myself out in the process) and ring my neighbor's doorbell.  She helped me by calling the landlord to come let me in and he helped me with the heat, which is now working.  I'm still struggling though with the prospect of a month alone in this place where the weather is oppressively grey and icy.  At my dad's suggestion, I'm going to try to update this blog daily as a kind of outlet for my feelings and a cry for some support.  Rather than spend this entire post moaning, though, I thought I'd start recounting my parent's visit just to have something to write about, so here goes:

20-12-2008: Today my parents arrived in Ferrara.  I walked to the train station to meet them and just barely made it in time as I underestimated the time it would take.  We got back to my apartment and I showed them the room in which they were staying and we sat around the kitchen for a while.  I introduced them to Maria, who seemed a but surprised that they didn't speak any Italian.  She went out to go shopping, and I called for pizza.  I thought I was ordering an arugula pizza, but there was a small miscommunication and we ended up with anchovies.  Ick, oh well, the other pizza with artichokes and mushrooms was good.  

21-12-2008: Today we went grocery shopping and filled up the fridge with good and yummy things.  I'm so excited to cook for someone else instead of just myself.  Around lunchtime, my parents headed out on their own to ride a bus around the city and I stayed home to write an essay for my linguistics class due before christmas.  I got a good chunk of it done and went for a run, arriving to find my parents had just returned (4.5 hours later) and had had a wonderful time.  

That's all I feel like posting for now.  I'll continue the story in coming days to have something not depressing to write about.