Sailing in Elba

Spent the last few days sailing around Elba, an island off the coast of Tuscany. We went with three friends from EUI (including Aaron and Renee from our trip to Nice) and were hosted by Will, a former EUI student who is now finishing his PhD in law. His boat was very similar to that of Mimz + Greg, and was a very nice break from the city. We had great weather both days, and all jumped into the water - still warm even in October! Too bad we didn't have snorkels, because the water was full of pretty fish. Day two was a bit rougher, and yours truly did some heaving off of the side of the boat. But it was still a great way to spend the weekend.

Also ate some squid ink risotto - see below!

A couple of pics:

Perugia, the Chocolate Festival

Doug and I took in Perugia's Chocolate Festival recently, a short trip from Florence.

We liked the idea of the ChocoKebab, but were a little scared to try it!

The Bon-bons, Tobleron, Milka, Lindt, and various homemade chocolates were another story entirely. We tried LOTS of those!

And the city of Perugia was nice, too!

In Florence

Some of the most wonderful art to see in Italy is right here in Florence! Last Friday morning, since Doug had the day off and NY was still asleep, we went to see some of it.

Best known pieces: Michaelangelo's "Holy Family," Botticelli's "Spring" and "Birth of Venus," (it is a bit bigger than the print in Gma's upstairs bathroom) as well as a beautiful Caravaggio exhibit.

Unfortunately, no pics inside.

We also made it to the beautiful Palazzo Vecchio last week.

It was the home of the Medici, and is still used today for some government offices.

The ceilings are incredible, as is the town hall - still functional!. There are marvelous statues of Ulysses' trials all around the hall.

Venice

We went to the watery world of Venice this weekend! And since it was raining, we got doubly wet.

The city is lovely, if smaller/more expensive/more touristy than Florence. It is always startling to look out and see a door that opens right into the river. It is rather eerie, actually. Like a big flood came in and then stayed.

We enjoyed the train ride up and back, which lent itself to great views of the green fall hillsides. The olives and grapes are all in harvest mode still, which means there is a sense of busyness in the fields. Frequently, you can see or smell fires as areas are harvested and cleared.

In Venice, we managed to accidentally catch the Mass at St. Mark's - we were in line and were wondering what all the fuss was about, then were ushered into chairs and heard the choir start up! It was very surprising, but a beautiful service. The inside of the church is gold mosaics - similar to the Baptistery in Florence. Quite full of locals and visitors.

We wandered around St. Mark's, toured several Museums and the Duke's Palace. Our favorite was probably the Leonardo daVinci exhibit set up in an empty church. There are replicas of many of his designs, and copies of his sketch book.

We also found a nice tea room to escape the rain in (delicious biscotti here, much better than most of Italy) and went to Harry's Bar - originator of the terrific Bellini.

All in all, a great weekend away.

Time to Read

We are headed to Venice for the weekend on a train (yay, I love trains) so I went to the English bookstore today to search out some new reads.

Sadly, no new Michael Cunningham or Great House by Nicole Strauss - but I managed to come away with a lovely little collection.

Purchased:

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

I couldn't resist, even though I don't like his other books.

Engleby by Sebastian Faulks

I was looking for Birdsong, but they didn't have a copy.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

I adore everything by David Sedaris. It is just laugh out loud catharsis.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Because I am working through the Times 100 best books list.

Last time I purchased:

Carmelo by Sandra Cisneros

If you like delightful, narrative crazy family romps this book is a treat.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

A beautiful and well loved story of an English butler post- WWII.

The Witch of Portabello by Paulo Coelho

Not my favorite Coelho, but his writing will make you remember why you love to read.

I am trying to avoid:

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Which my lovely friend Renee lent me, but for solidarity purposes I am trying to keep shelved.

Recommendations are welcome, reader friends!

Monaco + Nice

Went to the French Riviera this weekend! Which really means Monaco and Nice... but that other name sounds fancier. So we left on Friday night and drove up with two new friends, Renee (who also goes to NYU Law) and Aaron (who is a TFA '05 and is at U Wisconsin Law).

Highlights included:

Hiking up to a waterfall / overlook of Nice.

Visiting an open air market and buying yummy snacks.

Visiting the fancy Monte Carlo casino in Monaco.

Eating delicious seafood + French pastries.

And, best of all, listening to the Nice community orchestra in the square in front of the church. They played a Les Miserable medley, as well as a lovely French traditional tunes. All of the little old ladies around (in their sweet scarves) hummed and sang along. So nice in Nice!

Churches of Florence

This morning I had some time on my hands before work started -

so I decided to visit Santa Crocce (which is the church right next to our apartment) and the Baptistry at the Duomo.

The outside of the Duomo - so lovely and HUGE! The inside is free to to

ur, but usually full of big groups.

The outside of Santa Croce - there is still an active convent here,

and it is very pretty and Tuscan looking.

The three pics above are the in and outside of Santa Croce. The tombs of Galileo, Machiavelli and Dante are all inside. Quite an impressive list! The panels and frescos are gorgeous. But not quite as amazing as....

The inside of the Baptistry! It is beautiful and gold :)

Oktoberfest

A bit backed up with the blogging here, so first I am going to add some pics from our Munich trip!

We actually went the very first weekend I was here, and met up with some of Doug's friends from A&M. Angie and Andrew are living in Germany right now, since he is stationed there with the Army. It was so fun to travel with them around the town.

Germany food = delicious. And Oktoberfest (I had my doubts - perhaps too crazy for me?) was delightful. Every Germany person there was in legit outfits! And the songs, bands and camaraderie is quite unprecedented.

Munich is also lovely, and we got to tour all about. We hiked up the church tower, visited a palace on the outskirts of town and, after many failed attempts, watched the Glockenspiel go off at noon.

Cinque Terre

And we went to Cinque Terre this weekend, on the excellent advice of several Italian-traveled friends. It is such a pretty place! We hiked through the five towns, took pics, ate yummy seafood and drank the local wine. We found a little apartment through the usual Doug and Kara method - which means we Googled & TripAdvisored it up on the train over Saturday morning. Then got lucky and found a big apartment that our new friend, Marchela, rents out by the week. We only wanted it for the weekend, and it happened to be free! Our lucky day.

A lovely part of the trip was talking the train to the farthest town, buying a bottle of wine and drinking it from plastic cups on the beach. We are classy, we know. It helped that some nice Asian foot massage ladies were walking around, and for 10 euro they gave each of us long, baby oil foot massages. Delightful! Really the best thing to do on the beach, I've now decided.

All in all, it was a terrific trip and we would go back in a second. Especially if it was warm, because we missed out on the sea swimming! We are

hoping Capri will be sunny. And perhaps Dougbee will get a tiny swimsuit, to boot!