Vino e Spaghetti

"There are some who live by every rule and cling tightly to their rectitude because they fear being..."

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:07:07 -0400

“There are some who live by every rule and cling tightly to their rectitude because they fear being swept away by a tempest of passion, and there are others who cling to the rules because they fear there is no passion there at all, and that if they go they would simply remain where they are, foolish and unmoved.”

- Philip Pullman

"Se tu segui tua stella, non puoi fallire a glorioso porto. - If you follow your star, you cannot..."

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:11:00 -0400

“Se tu segui tua stella, non puoi fallire a glorioso porto. - If you follow your star, you cannot fail to reach a glorious port.”

- Dante

Forthcoming Posts

Sun, 17 Oct 2010 13:39:56 -0400

Updates on Florence, Venice, Amsterdam, and Paris are forthcoming. I need to settle for a minute and get used to being back “home” and not racing around the European countryside.

I will say this: it was FABULOUS.

Midterms Week

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 05:31:43 -0400

All work and no play means no Tumblr update…for a little while.

Back after midterms, and fall break!

"The only way to make up for being occasionally overdressed is by being always absolutely..."

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 08:32:35 -0400

“The only way to make up for being occasionally overdressed is by being always absolutely overeducated.”

- Oscar Wilde

München--Oktoberfest

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:34:51 -0400

Before I left for Geneva a couple Fridays ago, my uncle took me and my roommate Kate out for an excellent Sardinian dinner. When we told him we were going to the following weekend for Oktoberfest, he told us:

“I went to Oktoberfest a few years ago, just because I was in Munich on business. And you know, I imagined it was going to be like, halls filled with long tables and buxom women serving overflowing mugs of beer to rowdy people in lederhosen, with a big polka band playing music and people singing…”

He sighed. I saw Kate’s face fall and I felt my heart drop, and I thought to myself, Well, at least there will be SOME beer.

My uncle smiled and continued, “…and it was exactly how I imagined it.”

Truer words were never spoken. Oktoberfest was one huge cliche, such a cliche that it became not a cliche but a fact. When I first saw people in lederhosen and dirndls (the women’s dress) I laughed, but they took themselves so seriously that I soon realized it wasn’t a joke. I’m honestly trying to think of something comparable in the states. I guess it would be like a Miss America pageant, how they all wear kind of weird nineties style bikinis with the sides of the swimsuit bottoms all high on the hips. Or how they all do the weird dance and everyone takes it so seriously. Yeah. Oktoberfest was like the Miss America pageant. Only with lederhosen and beer.

And schnitzelburgers and bratwurst.

We got into Munich by 12-hour-long bus on Friday. We headed for the beer halls around 11:30 or noon, and found our way into Hoffbrau House. Two steins of beer later, Kate and I went on carnival rides, and then headed home to our tent at Wies’N Camp. Eh, “headed home to our tent” is a phrase that implies that our tent was homey. It wasn’t. It was freezing. I’m an experienced camper (not by choice, Mother and Father), but even I was not happy with the tent experience.

Kate woke me up at 5:45 am, crying, and we got up to head to downtown Munich for warmth. After a delicious breakfast, we headed out to the suburbs of Munich to…see a movie. We found an English-speaking movie theater and saw “Eat Pray Love”. And then we went out for Thai food. I’m honestly not sorry, because it was exactly what we needed. It was a little dinner-and-a-movie date.

After our date, we made our way back to the ‘fest. We stopped for a glass of prosecco before entering Lowenbrau House. At first, we tried to actually enter the beer hall. After quickly realizing that this was not a possibility, we found some girls from our campsite at an outside table, and they kindly let us join their party. They were hanging out with about five young married Dutch men who were the absolute greatest people ever. These guys loved talking about their wives, and they made excellent drinking partners. We had such a great day-to-night with these guys. And with that, we had conquered Oktoberfest.

Or at least, Kate did.

The next day was spent in coffee shops waiting for our second 12-hour-long bus ride to commence. At the end of all that (and by “all that”, I mean all that hellish traveling in a bus full of hungover ‘young adults’), we were finally “home” again.

After all that excitement, I’m not sure how this weekend in Rome will compare. I guess we’ll have to make it comparable in some way…

"Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the..."

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:13:16 -0400

“Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground.”

- Dante

Genève

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 09:08:25 -0400

Two Fridays ago was the holiest day in the Jewish year—Kol Nidre. I was lucky enough to stay in Geneva, Switzerland, with my uncle and his beautiful little family: his son Noah, age two and a half; his son Jonas, age one; Birgit, his Frau; and Grandma Sherry, the matriarch. I have to say, being with family was a true blessing on Yom Kippur. The temple in Geneva was beautiful, and the service was familiar (albeit in French-accented Hebrew).

On Saturday, Grandma and I went for a walk in downtown Geneva. We walked through the old part of the city as well, and I snapped a few photos.

Sunflowers in the windows made the gray day seem less gloomy.

We had an excellent lamb dinner to break the fast of Yom Kippur, and I went to bed with a full stomach and full heart.

Sunday was sunnier (how fitting), and we went for a long walk by Lake Geneva (or Lac Léman, as the Swiss call it). Since the day was so clear, the Jet d’Eau was easily visible.

From Wikipedia: The Jet d’Eau (Water-Jet) is a large fountain in Geneva, Switzerland, and is one of the city’s most famous landmarks, being featured on the city’s official tourism web site and on the official logo for Geneva’s hosting of the 2008 UEFA Championships. It is also one of the largest fountains in the world. Situated at the point where Lake Geneva empties into the Rhone River, it is visible throughout the city and from the air, even when flying over Geneva at an altitude of 10 km (33,000 ft).

Five hundred litres (132 gallons) of water per second are jetted to an altitude of 140 metres (459 feet) by two 500 kW pumps, operating at 2,400 V, consuming over one megawatt of electricity. The water leaves the nozzle at a speed of 200 km/h (124 mph). When it is in operation, at any given moment there are about 7,000 litres (1849 gallons) of water in the air. Unsuspecting visitors to the fountain—which can be reached via a stone jetty from the left bank of the lake—may be surprised to find themselves drenched after a slight change in wind direction.

So the Jet d’Eau is really nothing more than a simple, yet powerful, fountain. Would I say it gives the Trevi a run for its money? Yes. Yes I would.

My uncle has a great sense of humor (notice my spout).

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. It reminded me how great it was to be with family and decompress for a few days. Compared to the hustle and bustle of Rome (relative to Italy in general, bear this in mind), Geneva was a wonderful opportunity to de-stress and spend some quality family time. Many thanks and much love to families everywhere.

Switzerland and Munich Update...

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:32:01 -0400

…when I get the chance to post pictures. Coming soon!

"I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent..."

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:24:44 -0400

“I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.”

- Jack London

SWISS BOUND. Je diserais beaucoup du jet d’eau quand je...

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 05:54:47 -0400

SWISS BOUND.

Je diserais beaucoup du jet d’eau quand je retourne a Rome.

(I may have just butchered the French language.)

"Europeans, like some Americans, drive on the right side of the road, except in England, where they..."

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:49:16 -0400

“Europeans, like some Americans, drive on the right side of the road, except in England, where they drive on both sides of the road; Italy, where they drive on the sidewalk; and France, where if necessary they will follow you right into the hotel lobby.”

- Dave Barry (an astute observer)

LA VESPA

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:22:00 -0400

The Vespa is one of those internationally recognized symbols of Italian design longevity. Today in Italian Fashion & Design, we talked about how the Vespa continued to transcend time and become an icon and expression of the spirit of Italy. The advertising nerd in me recognized the lengths that Piaggio (the company that designed and produced the Vespa) went to keep the Vespa relevant. In 1946, the company’s first advertisement for the Vespa was produced, featuring a drawing of a woman atop the vehicle. The important note is that 1946 was the first year that women voted in Italy; the advertisement reflected the dramatic shift in Italian culture from the strictly traditional culture of old Italy, to the shiny modern culture of post-war industrialized Italy—a shift that was reflected also in the production and sale of such a contraption as the Vespa.

And that’s your Italian history lesson for the day. I’m embarrassed.

"Just never forget to be dexterous and deft, and never mix up your right foot with your left."

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:12:10 -0400

“Just never forget to be dexterous and deft, and never mix up your right foot with your left.”

- Dr. Seuss

Sorrento e Capri

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:25:20 -0400

This weekend, our plan was to hit Sorrento, Capri, Naples, and Pompeii. Weather and time restrictions held us back, and we ended up staying in Sorrento and doing a day trip to Capri.

We arrived in Sorrento at around 3AM on Friday, after leaving Rome at 9:30PM Thursday night. We planned to wake up at 8AM and buy ferry tickets to Capri, but when we woke up it was raining. We decided instead to explore Sorrento for the day and head to Capri on Saturday, as the weather was expected to be vastly improved. The gray day did give great light for photos, which I tried to take advantage of. My roommates and I went to lunch at a nearby restaurant and then walked to the city center where we explored the shops, and then came across the cliffed coast of Sorrento.

The day had been gray until this point, and in the sunset we could truly see the beauty of the Amalfi coast. At the lookout point we had found, there was a set of stairs leading down towards the water and various docks, cafes, and beaches. We walked about halfway down to take pictures.

After we had made our way back up, we stopped in a little church on our way back to the city center. It was deceptively simple.

Inside:

Little surprises like that are what made Sorrento, and Italy, so amazing. During the gray day we spent in the city, we never expected there to be such a colorful end. From the outside of the church, we never expected there to be such richness indoors.

We spent the night in Sorrento at a few local bars, then woke up for Capri at 8AM on Saturday. As expected, we woke up to a weather improvement:

So with the weather finally on our side, we headed to Capri. Since I’d taken so many pictures the day before in Sorrento, I had an incredibly unfortunately low battery life on my camera in Capri. I can say with total honesty that I believe it to be the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I wish my camera had been functional because I wanted to take a picture of everything I saw on the island. We bought tickets for a boat tour around Capri, which was informative and covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Then we made our way to the “centro” or downtown area of the city. “Downtown” is a bad way to describe the center of Capri because the center is actually a 20 minute walk up the hillside. The path is fairly narrow and walled, because people live in gated houses all along the path. Every so often along the walk up, there would be little shrines to various saints tucked into the wall. Things like that make me wish I had charged my camera battery, because they were so unexpected and quaint, just like the island itself.

We had lunch in the city center and then made our way down to the beach, where we got to play on the rocky beaches of Capri and the insanely clear water of the Mediterranean Sea. After a few hours there, we walked around to look at the stalls in the market right in the main port, where there were rows and rows of candies waiting to be bagged, as well as a stall with walls of brightly colored birds in beautiful cages. Then, we boarded the ferry back to Sorrento and spent the night there again.

Capri made me feel happy to the core of my body. I felt like every inch of me was smiling—my skin from the sun, my stomach from the food, my eyes from the vivid colors of the island. It was truly a great day.

We stayed in Sorrento until Sunday afternoon, when we took the bus back to Rome. Although the weekend was amazing, it certainly felt good to be “home”. It’s weird how places become your main checkpoint, your stomping grounds, your shelter, in less than three weeks. We want someplace, anyplace, to be “ours”. Sometimes it makes me feel bad that I’m letting myself have a home away from home, but I know where my real home is. And I know that, like Capri and Sorrento and Rome and all of Italy, it’s still there when I need it.

AMALFI BOUND

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:29:00 -0400

AMALFI BOUND

"If we look at the path, we do not see the sky."

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:36:39 -0400

“If we look at the path, we do not see the sky.”

- Native American saying

Things I Love About Italia

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:07:08 -0400

-free wine in restaurants

-how colors are more vibrant

-the sound of the Italian language

-Nutella

-espresso

-the siren noise their ambulances make

-the view outside our window

-how almost all Italian words end in a vowel

-the smell of real pizza

-cobblestone streets

Things I Miss About America Land

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:49:29 -0400

-free water at restaurants

-late night wings

-ice

-not having to say a formal “good evening” to shopkeepers

-STEAK

-water fountains

-William

-using the bathroom for free

A Quick Note

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:46:14 -0400

Our time here in Italy feels like it’s rapidly dwindling. Actually, it feels like it’s leaking out like the faucet of the sink in our room and running slowly but steadily down the drain. When we made a list of places we wanted to see, I (being confronted with a physical list and not just the mentality that “it will all work out in the end”) freaked out. Kate and I are sort of frantically trying to plan European trips but what are we supposed to do when other people have tickets to techno festivals in freaking Copenhagen?

The fact that that last sentence even exists proves how white-upper-middle-class-twenty-something I really am, and it shames me.