Just wondering...

Why oh why, in the giant wonderful YOU ESS of AY, have we not found out about the DARK CHOCOLATE KIT KAT? It's heaven. I many come back with a whole suitcase full and petition the company.

FIR-EN-ZE! October 22, 2006

Today was the soccer game! Karen and I went to get paninis before the game at our excellent local shop, and the guy who works there asked if we were going to the game (we were decked out in our purple and scarves). Turns out, he’s from Calabria, where the rival team, Reggia, is from.

We met Val and took the bus to the stadium. Someone asked us how to get there, but we didn’t really know, so he asked the driver and we followed him. We had great seats, way up, but we could see everything. The view of the scenery around the stadio is really breathtaking, the hills of Tuscany all about. I think I got some decent shots, but as you all know by now, I’m not much of a photographer.

Allora. Just a few things to note: Italian stadiums don’t smell like stale beer like American stadiums, they smell like stale wine. People clap when their team gets an “almost”, and only yell when there is a goal. They shoot the devil horns at the other team’s fans (which are kept in a small and fenced off section of stadium) when they score, and they make a high pitched whistling sound when the opposing team does anything good. The man in front of us kissed his wife each time the Fiorentina scored. They all yell “vai vai vai!” which means “go go go!” and the other side of the stadium never stopped singing. I was hoping to learn one song, but it looks like I have to learn 50. There must be appropriate songs for certain occurrences, because the fans just all seemed to bust out with the same song at the same time. They wave giant flags and beat on big drums. We were not searched on our way in (although they stopped us to ask if we had lighters, but just believed us when we said no—which was true), no one was there to help us find seats, it was totally different than going to Yankee Stadium. It was all quite civilized, really. People were polite, we never felt out of place or threatened by craziness (although next time, I want to sit on the other side and see what it’s like over there). Oh yeah, and we won 3-1. Val said at one point, “This is our home team!” which I loved. Forze in Viola! Viola per sempre!

Joe is in Rome! He arrived today and will be leaving for Napoli tomorrow, then down to the heel of the boot. I’m quite looking forward to my week off with him. Calcio pictures soon, and perhaps a video too, if you’re good.

Tonight, we make chicken curry.

Finally, those movie shots!

It really looked like we'd somehow gone back in time. Our little piazza.

Oh, Italia!

So, Florence is the best ever, for realsies. Karen and I left today in the wonderful smelling rain, and headed to the San Lorenzo market to get our fan-scarves for the partita di calcio domani. That's right, we're heading to a soccer game. Apparently, the Fiorentina are in last place, but whatever. I have a scarf and a purple rain poncho (left here by the previous inhabitants of Via dei Serragli 41) so I'm all good.

We went to Mario for lunch. Uffa. Best food ever. Mom and Dad, I'll take you when you come at first, because it's where I'm thinking the best Thanksgiving ever (at least the best Friday after TG, since I have class on Thurs) will be. No offense, Mom, to the year you had Hy-Vee cater. LOL! I mean, all the other years. We can have roasted and fried potatoes, and roasted veal and roast beef and all the wine in Tuscany and 5 different kinds of pasta and white beans and delish spinach and many many other things for under one hundred euro for about 15 of us. That seems worth it to me. No reservations, so everyone meet there at like 10:30.

So we're trying to find somewhere that might play the world series here. I love baseball, and all my favorite people here are from Detroit (Rock City), and since the Tigers finally made it, it might be fun to see. Maybe Bar Nova, where Michelle and I had our b-days and where they love Americans is a good place to start.

Joe is on a plane, headed for Roma! Then down to Naples, then to the heel of the boot, then to Firenze! I have a paper due Tuesday, then 2 exams Wednesday (cake) and then 2 exams on Thursday (one cupcake and one harder). Then it's all Joe, all the time. We're going to spend two days in Cinqueterre, the five towns on the west coast, and that will be gorgeous as long as it's not raining. Forgive me if you get no updates during those ten days.

Viva Italia! Go Florentines!

Yesterday, also, I walked around in the rain by myself in the late afternoon. It was lovely and it often smelled like coffee and fireplaces. Also, I saw some Christmas stuff out, and it made me feel really romantic and nostalgic. Rain, fireplace smells and Christmas decorations in Florence? It could melt the coldest of hearts.

Something fun has been happening lately: people are asking me for directions. Not only that, but often I can help them! It started when we were just hanging out waiting with our scooters. We must have looked like real Italians. But now it happens all the time, even when I'm on foot! I like it very much, it really makes me feel like a resident. I still can't give you directions anywhere in DC.

All That Jazz

Last night, we found a Jazz club in the rain! It was on a tiny side street, and was filled with Italians, which was nice. We were seven girls and they sat us at a big table that had the musicians instruments all over it while they were on break. Upon arrival, we had to become members, but now that I have my card, I think I'll be there pretty often! Joe, you'll like it. We saw the house band, and they are about 16 people, not including the singer and conductor. So there we were in the little basement club, feeling all Harlem, and totally forgetting that we were in Italy. We got there late and so only saw one set, so next time we'll know to get there when they say they're starting instead of assuming they will be late. :)

The walk home in the downpour was a little intense, but we stopped for a drink and a quick game of darts, and by then it was raining even harder. Everyone made it home safely, although I bet I'll hear more sniffles on Monday.

Today, I'm in the British Institute (not) working on a paper. For me, midterms are Wednesday and Thursday, and then I have my vacation week. The British Institue is our library, but it's only open on weekdays from 10-6 and today it is closing at 4 for some unknown reason. The school is also only open weekdays from 8:30-6, and you are not allowed to check out books from the school. Something's gotta give if they want us to be able to do any research...but I guess research is not the point of study abroad.

Choco-freaks, Unite!

I can't believe it's Wednesday again, the week is practically over! Next week we have midterms, and after that Joe comes, followed directly by my parents and Todd and Jenny, and when they leave it's only 2 more weeks until we return to the US. I really can't believe how fast the time is going.

Allora. Sunday we went to Perugia for the chocolate festival. I was expecting a US style trade show, frankly, but it was nothing like that at all. We arrived by train and tracked the people going up the hill, there were jillions of them. The streets were all lined with booths filled with Italian chocolate companies and it was shoulder to shoulder all through town. I'd estimate everyone in Italy was in Perugia on Sunday. There were sculptors creating things out of huge blocks of dark Perugina chocolate, and they had assistants collecting the pieces being cut off in little bags and handing them out to the crowd. It was like Jimi Hendrix was handing out guitar picks, Karen and I got our ribs crushed in the 30 minutes we waited for a bag of free chocolate (thank goodness she has a really long reach). We walked to the end of the festival and back and that was enough. We got some Mayan style hot chocolate and I got 4 bars, 2 pistachio, one cinnamon and one with red pepper. Yum.

As usual, I'll try to post up pictures later on. This weekend is the Chestnut festival, but I'm sure that's not nearly as popular.

Uh, sursly.

Okay, so at the beginning of this trip, my roommate Liz told me how much she loves dancing movies, and as most of you know, so do I...BUT, I found out she never saw Flashdance (Melissa never even heard of it, how old am I again?) so she had her mom mail it. It arrived today, with popcorn and sour patch kids. We're totally watching it on Thursday (our weekend). But she also had some other things mailed, and I have never laughed so hard in my life when I looked in the box and saw Progresso Italian Style Breadcrumbs.

As Promised, Scootin' Live!

I know you'll like this link. Go on. Turn the sound up too.

New friends!

My new friend Rachel came over for dinner last night with her friend Ellen (who is a little strange, but she's a theater major and I have some experience with them). Mom, Rachel is the one who I mentioned, the Iowa State fashion design major who can cut and help you sew. She's very enthusiastic to help, her only requirement is that you let her do laundry sometimes (hers, not yours). Anyway, we ate a lovely chicken dish and drank wine and laughed all night. Then Rachel and Ellen did ALL the dishes in about 6 minutes, I've never seen anything like it! I'd bring her home and cook for her all the time if she did the dishes!

I had an idea a few years ago to do a photo collection of "Heather in the background of your photos" but it seems like not many people would be interested in scanning all their vacation photos for a tiny speck of a girl they don't know. So now I want to do one like this: If you have pics of you "holding up" the leaning tower of Pisa, or standing in front of the Statue of Liberty with your arm in the air, etc etc, email them to xxx@greatideaheather.com or mail them to my giant PO box. I could publish one for every major tourist destination. Imagine, 1000s of photos of people in the same poses for decades.

Scooter video is almost ready for viewing! You'll see it soon, I promise.

Scootin' in pics

Sorry that there aren't any real action shots, that would be dangerous. I'm still trying to get enough internet time to upload the videos we made, but that might take until I get back...just be patient, please.

Messicano! October 10, 2006

Karen and I finally found the real Mexican place last night! We had giant margaritas, chips (out of a bag, who remembers the original "tostidos?" The ones that were "nacho cheese flavor" and always a little too yellow and burned tasting? Those.) and salsa (cooked and pureed like spicy tomato soup, but tasty!) and tacos and Karen had a burrito and I had a chili relleno! The menu had Spanish names and Italian descriptions, which was funny. It certainly took care of the craving for Mexican. I'm not trying to be sacrelige by being sick of Italian, but I really take for granted the variety of options we have at every meal in the states. What do you want for dinner? Burgers? Chinese? Sushi? Thai? Pizza? Mexican? Here it's like, what do you want for dinner? Pizza or pasta? Just a leeeetle tiring after a month. But hooray for the gooooood produce!

Speaking of good produce, my brother Devon and his family are moving to California this week! He was interviewing while I was on my way here and started a new job in Silicon Valley on the first. Oy, how quickly things can happen! I'll be very excited to go out there and visit! Congratulations Dev!

Scootin' October 7, 2006

Congratulations, Erin and Charles! The lovely couple was married on Saturday, and I could not be happier for you both! Joe told me the wedding was excellent and that Erin looked beautiful. I can’t wait to see pictures, please email some to me! I’m sad that I couldn’t be there to wish you well in person, but I was there in spirit (and spirits) for sure.

Guess what yesterday was? Scooter day! We went in the morning and rented scooters, Karen, Dionisia and I. Dionisia is a very very cool young chick from San Francisco who plays a giant ukulele (really) and studies architecture. Anyway, they weren’t Vespas, they were little crappy Hondas, and I almost crashed trying to turn left the first time (the accelerator is on the handle, and it was hard at first to remember not to push down on it while the handlebars turned). I almost crashed again trying to turn right. Finally, I got the hang of it (finally being about 10 minutes later) and we promptly got completely lost in the suburbs of Firenze. What’s funny about driving in Europe is figuring out what the signs mean. “Do not enter” is represented by a red circle with a white horizontal line. “No parking” is a blue sign with a red X. They took a couple of hours to distinguish, but we used the rule of thumb that if there were no signs facing us, we shouldn’t be going that direction. What else that is funny about driving in this town is that it doesn’t matter which streets are one way when you’re walking, but it makes it very hard to get around on a scooter.

When we got tired of being lost, we took our map into a little shop and asked “Dove siamo?” which means “Where are we?” We got directions to where we wanted to go, and then completely ignored them. We found the only “modern” church in the whole country, I think, and it was modern in that horrible late 60’s concrete style. I’d have taken a picture if I had mastered stopping by that point. Really beastly.

We finally found our way over to the Ponte Vecchio, where we wanted to explore the hillside behind. That’s exactly when my little gas light came on (our speedometers didn’t work and neither did the gas level things). We ate a ridiculously priced tourist lunch as we recounted the beginning of our adventure with giggles and E4.50 cokes, and then we headed out to find gas. Did I mention it was raining the whole day? It started right as we handed over our money. We scooted past our apartment, and honked and waved to no one, and found gas about 2 miles later. Getting gas was quite an adventure. You have to pay before and put in at least E5, and you can’t get change back. Luckily E10 filled us all up, but we had to look very carefully inside the tank to see how full it was. Karen spilled gas on Dio, but it was all good (because it was raining, and it was just on the toe of her shoe). I’ll just mention here again how considerate this country is: they provide plastic gloves at the gas station.

So we finally made our way back over to the Ponte Vecchio, and by the bridge by our apartment (Ponte Carraia) Karen wiped OUT. It wasn’t just a little spill, she was heading toward the curb, the front wheel hit, the bike came up, she flew off, but was still hanging on to the accelerator, so the bike was still going. I was sure it and she were going over the bridge. Finally, she fell down and the bike fell on top of her. In my panic, I tried to get to her quickly, so I hopped off and tried to walk my bike over to her, but I had MY hand on my accelerator too. I did manage to stop without crashing, and ran over to turn off her bike before a big John Woo explosion. She was fine, just one little scrape on her leg and a bruised knee, but the alignment on her scooter was waaaaay off. We thought the day was lost, but Dio just stood in front of it, held the wheel with her knees, grabbed the handlebars and tweaked it right back. Voila!

Anyway, we finally managed to find a gorgeous road leading up and up and up. We stopped to make some videos and hopefully I’ll figure out how to upload them so you can see how cool I am. We kept climbing and climbing in the rain, and finally reached what has to be the most gorgeous view of Florence. We could see the whole whole whole city, but it was much closer than the view from Settignano, so we could really make out details. Mom and Dad, take a day and the number 13 bus, you’ll be blown away.

Coming down was a little scary, since it was steep, and now really really pouring. We went slowly (not to worry, dear readers, we were very careful), and then we headed over a bridge and dropped Dio off at her place. I didn’t mention that a day’s rental is 24 hours. Karen and I went home, feeling very cool with our helmets in hand and changed into dry clothes. Is there a better feeling in the world? My jacket is still wet, and that makes me feel badass.

At about 10pm, we decided to try to find the Mexican restaurant that we’d heard about (is it so bad to be sick of Italian food after a month?). We scooted over to Piazza della Republica and couldn’t figure out how to get anywhere in the city center on scooters, so we parked and walked the rest of the way. Well, we never did find the restaurant but we DID find another “Mexican” place. The drink menu was 12 pages, and the food menu consisted of nachos (tortilla chips with mozzarella), quesadillas (only plain) and burritos, hooray! We ordered chile con carne burritos, which sounded so perfect. The woman said, “would you like some Greek salad with that?” and I said sure. Okay, you know you’re in Italy when…the chile con carne tastes just like tomato sauce and has giant chunks of zucchini in it, and they put the Greek salad inside the “burrito.” Karen hates olives and I had a good laugh watching her pick olives and cucumbers out of her “burrito” which was much more like a wrap sandwich, but on flatbread. We decided today to open a cart outside our school, in the shadow of the Medici palace and call it “Karen and Heather’s Burritos.” We’ll make a killing.

Anyway, we were going to get up this morning early and scoot some more, but Dio’s scooting clothes were all still wet (she’s badass too) and Karen and I didn’t sleep well after the “burrito” debacle. We scooted over to the rental shop today and said goodbye. Oh, and paid our parking tickets for parking wrong near the piazza. Whoops. Live and learn!

Has everyone heard the new Beck album? He’s done it again, that genius. Oh, and PS, it’s getting harder, not easier, to live with two teenagers. Thank God for Karen, she’s so cool and old like me. Scooter queens.

Guess what? They’re making a movie in our piazza, Piazza Santo Spirito! It’s a period piece, and I want to find out what it’s all about so I can ask my Cinema professor about it on Wednesday. It’s funny that in New York, I would walk past any movie any day and not look twice, but here it’s really interesting and exciting. Must be that cinema class. If I can post up photos later, I will. UPDATE: I asked a Carabinieri (like police) and she told me it’s for Rai, which basically means channel, but is the big TV company here. It still looks cool for a TV movie.

I’m on antibiotics for a sinus infection, hooray. In order to celebrate, I got some gelato (frutta di bosco with yogurt) and when that was done, I got a little more (cookies). We found out today that the really good place down the street is one of 4 places listed in the Florence yellow pages, so it must be as good as we know it is. Now I want to try the other three, just to make sure. I’ll let you know.

Karen, my roommate, had a good blog idea. Post in the comments section or email me things that you would like to hear about, and I will write for you. I’m really not sure what the interesting parts of this are to you, my excellent readers, so why not inject a little reality style into it? Requests will be taken for almost anything.

Who among you remembers signing off in the 80s (particularly in notes passed between junior high classes) Ciao for now! But I’m pretty sure we mostly spelled it Chow.

Just keeping you updated...

I like to keep my readers abreast on the state of Smart cars and other tiny vehicles in Italy, so here is the latest, the love child of a Smart and a scooter. It's like a Smart dune buggy! It doesn't really seem too practical for much, which is why I never saw it move from it's parking place in Rome in 2 days, I'm sure.

There's No Place Like Rome September 30- October 1, 2006

Ah, another week, another entry. Michelle left on Friday morning, I think she had a great time. It was a whirlwind, and I didn’t get to spend as much time with her as I would have liked, but as I predicted, she made some new friends while she was here.

The schoolweek was uneventful. Our trip to the Ferragamo museum was cancelled, due to renovations (stand by for an upcoming “Scaffolding” photo essay. It seems somedays that Christo has come to the country just to wrap all the buildings and facades and towers). We watched “Umberto D.” in Cinema class, the third in a neorealist series by De Sica. We’ve finally moved from Dante’s Inferno to Purgatory, next week, Paradise. I’ve been learning about the futurist movement in the early part of the 20^th Century, quite fascinating, although the poetry sucks (no verbs, no adjectives, just a string of nouns, basically).

This weekend was the school trip to Roma (that’s Rome to you folks in the US). Have you ever been to a city, and then returned several years later only to find that the city is nothing at all how you remember it? Well, I felt like I’d never been to Rome before. Here's me returning to Trevi fountain to throw *another* coin in to ensure my return *again.* It was very strange, although I’ve had this sensation before. I didn’t get that here in Florence. Anyway, I chose not to go on any of the group tours, as I have been to all the sites they were seeing already, and plan to go again when my parents come in November. I had my handy Fodor’s and took one of the walks they suggested through old Rome. I saw Il Gesu, a very plain looking church that inside is a Baroque explosion. I dropped a coin in the “offerta” slot and it sounded like the gong they bang at the Mongolian Barbeque place when you tip the grill guys. I wanted to see three Caravaggios at a couple of churches that were closed, maybe next time. I had lunch at a little outdoor café and really enjoyed my alone time in a city. I noticed that when I’m alone, I don’t get harassed or spoken to in English, I take this as a high compliment.

PS, I have never seen so many nuns or priests in my life. Ever. I see hundreds every day!

I walked around a little more, saw Via Giulia, home to Rome’s aristocrats which ends in the French Embassy, a masterpiece no one can see without an appointment made weeks in advance. Michelangelo had a hand in the design and the interior was painted by Carracci. Another interesting fact according to Fodor’s is that the French only pay 1 lira every 99 years for rent.

Hey Joe, remember how the last time we were here St. Sebastian followed us around? This time I’m being haunted by St. Catherine of Siena. She’s everywhere I want to be.

Rome is amazing because just walking down the street, you will run into some fantastically old ruins or still-standing structures designed, lived in or ruined by some of the most well known artists and emperors in all of European history. It’s really something to be heading out for a coffee and see the dome of the Vatican in the distance, with St. Angelo’s castle there guarding it. I walked around for about 4 hours alone, then headed to the Vatican to meet Marie and Val, new friends. We walked from the Vatican to the Spanish Steps before almost collapsing, then took the subway back to our hotel. They were impressed with my subway know-how, and I was impressed with their sense of adventure.

Side by side with the ancient is the very modern. On Saturday night, a few girls and I headed out for the “Ice Bar.” It is literally made out of ice. Well, the structure isn’t, but the inside is: all the chairs, tables, walls, decorations, the bar and all the glasses are all out of ice. They give you a giant silver poncho to wear and some gloves, and it’s very small, and only about 20 degrees Farenheit. Most of the girls were wearing flip flops and left after about 20 minutes, silly things. It made me really want to go to one of the ice hotels I’ve read about. Today, I have a cold.