Sicily

Sicily was not at all what I expected. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect. We had learned a bit about southern Italy in my Italian class, but only that it was very rural and that there was a large cultural divide between the north and the south. So, when I arrived in Palermo, I was not expecting to see such a large and developed city. There is a lot of history in Sicily and many cultural influences from Africa, the Middle East, and its ancient Greek and Roman past.


Day 1:
I set off from Rome very early to catch our morning flight to Palermo with two friends. When we arrived, we took a train to Catania to try to find out Bed & Breakfast. The room was very nice and quiet. We had a lovely view of Castello Ursino( a Medieval Castle built for Fredrick II, King of Sicily)We did a bit of exploring around Catania, found the most amazing park all lit up beautifully in the evening, walked down their main street of shops and then went out for a very nice dinner. Catania was very close to the water, so the fresh seafood was amazing! We went back to the B&B to get a goodnights sleep, as we had to be up very early the next day to catch the 1 bus that left for Mt. Etna in the morning.

Castello Ursino

View from our B&B

Douomo

 Roman Ruins

Day 2:
We awoke very early so we could dedicate the entire day to exploring Mt. Etna. Mt. Etna is an active volcano. So, it is always  in a constant state of eruption. Seeing as it was a volcano and the weather in Catania was in the middle 60s, we all thought it was a good idea to pack shorts to go hiking in. The higher and higher the bus took us, the lower the thermometer measure went. When we finally arrived at our bus stop, we had a very cold shock, so we figured we would check out the prices in the gift shop for sweatshirts and pants. While we were there, I noticed a very strange red liquid with the title Fuoco("fire"). I asked the man in the shop what it was, who then excitedly poured me a small glass and told me to drink it( remember this is 10am). It was absolutely disgusting, but now I can say I have tried the "fire of Mt. Etna". After some crazy ( possibly illegal exploring of some of the craters), we got very hungry and had lunch overlooking the volcano. When we returned to Catania, we were all extremely exhausted! We read about a particular restaurant in our guide book, so we decided to check it  out. Sicily was much cheaper than Rome( which was a definite plus), so we decided to do a full meal Italian  progression. Everything was amazing, and I can also say I tried horse meat. Horse is a very popular meat in Sicily and the owner of the restaurant said it was the best thing on the menu. While, I probably wouldn't order it again, it was very good. 


Day 3
We explored the fabulous open air markets of Catania in the morning and then headed off to Taormina for the day. Taormina is a very small picturesque town atop of rocky cliff formations. We started by laying on the beach, and then met up with a friend from Rome to explore the Teatro Greco. This ancient theater was the highlight of my spring break. The view was unreal. We went in the afternoon, so the lighting was gorgeous on the soft red and white marble. 

Day 4
We awoke early again so we could catch our bus back to Palermo, where we would spend the remainder of our spring break adventure. The bus ride was about 2.5 hours, but the scenic country-side was so wonderful to see. Southern Italy was a very nice break from the crowded streets of Rome. It was nice to see some open land for a change. When we arrived in Palermo, we found our Hotel, set our things down, and went to explore the town. Palermo is a busy area, but it has different districts. We stayed in the Old Historic district, which had gorgeous gothic architecture and many of the cities main attractions. After a little while, we got hungry and as we were in Sicily I had to try one of their famous cannoli! Italy never disappoints when it comes to food! We then picked up some Italian scopa cards and taught ourselves how to play this Italian game. It is actually a lot of fun! 

Fish Market- Catania

Beaches of Taormina

Teatro Greco

Taormina

Day 5
This was our last day in Sicily so we decided to go to the famous Catacombs. This place was very creepy and extremely morbid. I have never seen so many dead bodies in my life! We weren't allowed to take pictures unfortunately, but trust me, it wasn't a very nice sight anyway. Legend has it, that the Sicilian people would pay exorbitant amounts to have their bodies preserved and displayed in this catacomb, the last body to be placed in the tomb was less than 100 years ago! The relatives of the dead would be responsible for paying an "upkeep" fee for their loved ones, if they did not pay the body was not maintained and would be placed arbitrarily on a shelf in the crypt. The crypt is divided into different sections, from priests' bodies, to professionals (people wearing suits), women, and then finally and most sadistically, children. All of the skeletons are hung up along the walls, forever displayed in their last choice of clothing. After the morbid beginning of the day, we headed to the beach, or Mondello. Mondello was so beautiful! The water was crystal clear ( very cold, but amazingly gorgeous) and the weather was perfect! After a long nap on the sand, we headed home for our last night in Palermo. We decided to try all of the famous Sicilian foods that night. We headed to a place recommended by the staff at the hotel. We ordered Arancini(fried rice balls filled with tomato, meat, peas, and cheese), Panelle( fried chickpea patties) and, crocchè( fried potato-like dumplings ). After that heart-attack of a meal we were extremely full and tired! We went back to the hotel for a bit of sleep before our 4 am bus trip back to Rome. 

some street food in Sicily

Cappuccino and cannoli

Teatro Maximus

Modello

Barcelona

Barcelona was an AMAZING city, which can probably be reflected by the lack of sleep that I got while there. The traveling to and from the airport were a bit of a mess, but while we are in the city, it was fantastic! 


We arrived late Thursday night to our hostel, which was quite a bit farther from the city center than we expected and since it was after midnight, we had to take a night bus, I'm surprised we figured it out as quickly as we did. Anyway we made it to our hostel around 2am and went straight to bed. 


Friday morning we woke up lazily around 11 and headed off to Barcelonetta, which was a man made beach made for the 1992 Olympics. The beach was beautiful, nice and sunny! We learned quite quickly that Barcelona doesn't have public nudity laws on beaches, so we had some very tanned, very naked neighbors while sun-bathing! We learned later from a free-walking tour we did the next day that it is legal to be completely naked around the beach area, they just ask you to wear  shoes when walking on the roads and side-walks. After the beach we walked around Barcelonetta and ate at a Tapas bar. We shared patatas bravas( fried potatoes with special sauces), Bombas( fried potato ball with ham and a spicy sauce on top), and tortillas( which are actually similar to omelets, not like mexican style tortillas). We headed home for our siesta ( I've really been enjoying my siestas in Italy and Spain, it will definitely be something that will continue to do until I have to get a real job!) That night we went down to Las Ramblas, which is a very busy street for some dinner and a bar crawl. I shared a paella with one of my roommates, which was delicious, the seafood is so fresh in Barcelona! We then went on a bar crawl that our hostel recommended, personally I thought it was a bit of a waste of money, but it did help us figure out where the good bars were in the area. We ended at a club, which was a lot of fun, not like anything at home that I have ever been to. Something different that we learned about Spain was that they do everything much later, they don't eat dinner until 9:30ish and the clubs are empty until about 3am. We made it to just about 5am, before we were completely exhausted and had to return to the hostel for some much needed sleep!

 Cammie and I by the beach

my first paella!

Saturday was by far my favorite day! We took the metro to Las Ramblas, which is a completely different place in the day time, and went exploring. We saw a free walking tour advertised at our hostel( 2 of us had been on the one in Budapest, which was great, so we wanted to check it out) It was so worth it, we learned all about the city, visited the gothic district, the jewish quarter, the Roman ruins (not quite like the ones in Rome, but still very cool to see), learned about the spanish inquisition,and we saw some artwork by Picasso, Gaudi, and Dali. Aparently Dali liked to sleep in huge Papier-mâché eggs and in the morning, burst out of them, we saw some of these designs outside the Dali museum.We ended at the beach and found the most amazing sandwich shop! It was called Bo de B's ( If you go to Barcelona, it is a MUST!) After the tour, and with very full tummy's we walked to La Rambia, which was a really neat street with all sorts of crafts and homemade goods, foods, bags, etc. As the sun went down, it started to get a little chilly, so we headed back to the hostel for our nap and to get ready for the nights festivities! It seems like everywhere in the world celebrates St. Patrick's Day, at least for the drinking! We did our own pub crawl, which was a lot more fun ( and a lot cheaper). We met some very interesting characters, it was very entertaining to say the least! After the pub crawl we wanted to go down to some of the clubs by the beach, so we headed down there, but then we realized that we had forgotten our ID's! We didn't even think about it because in  Rome no one ever checks. So it was a bit of a let down for the evening, but we got home safely and had a good nights sleep.

some of the beautiful gothic-style architecture

cathedral in barcelona

 amazing fruit market!

Brazilian street fighter/dancers

if you look closely, there is an inscription to remember the communist past. It seems like most countries in Europe were touched or affected with a connection to communism.

Dali sculpture

the pathway to the Roman ruins

Christopher Columbus, who is supposedly pointing west, but is actually pointing to Libya!

As it was our last day, and the weather was extremely warm, we wanted to go to the beach again, So we spent most of the day lying around on the beach relaxing. After that we headed over to Sagrada Familia, which is Gaudi's famous unfinished cathedral. On our walking tour we learned that it is estimated to take another 30-80 years to finish. Another interesting Gaudi fact was that he was killed by one of the train systems that he designed. The story goes that as he was walking he got hit by a train, and lay by the tracks with no one to help him. Apparently he had a very long beard and wore "unique" clothing, so the people mistakenly thought he was a homeless man, how sad!  Anyway, La Sagrada Familia is fantastic, it is immense and so interesting, you could spend hours looking at all of the detail! I hope it is finished in my lifetime, so I can go back to see it when it is completed! 
One of my roommates and I had a very early flight in the morning, and because we had to catch public transport, we thought we would go to a bar until it closed and then head to the airport to check in to our flight. We found an Irish pub that was open until 2, so we got a drink and talked with the bar tender who told us about a very local place that is open until 5 am and that we should definitely check it out before we leave. So we headed down to the little bar/restaurant, where we met the sweetest old men working in the shop! They didn't speak a word of English, and my Spanish is horrific, so understanding was a bit difficult. We ordered what we thought was going to be a small plate of cheese and salami, but ended up being large platters of breads, olives, cheeses, salamis,and potato chips( keep in mind this is 3 in the morning) We were obviously not THAT hungry, so we ate a bit of it and the old men laughed at us and didn't charge us the full amount! As we were about to leave one of them grabbed our hands and motioned for us to come back into the bar, he poured us a very strange liquor, I have no idea what he said it was, I don't even know what it tasted like, it was a yellowish/green viscous liquid, So if anyone could identify this for me or had any guesses of what it was,that would be greatly appreciated! After that experience, we headed to the airport for our flight back to Rome. 
We're home safe and sound, but very very tired. Off to Sicily tomorrow bright and early! 

our 3 am Spanish feast!

"Beware the Ides of March"

As it's March 15th, I am hopefully escaping a fate like that of Julius Caesar, and heading off to Barcelona and Sicily for my spring break!!
I've had mid-terms all week, so it will be a very nice and much needed break from both school and Rome.
Speaking of Julius Caesar, I recently found out that the place of his death, Teatro di Pompey, has been turned into a cat sanctuary. This is extremely odd to me, and I haven't been informed on the reason of why this particular historical site was chosen, but all I can say is the ferrel cat population of Rome is disgustingly increasing... So, if you ever visit Rome, make sure to go by it and see. The ruins are located just as you get off the Argentina tram stop in central Rome.
On a more positive note, I will be writing again soon upon my return from Barcelona and Sicily with some pictures, and hopefully a good story or two :)

70 degrees in early March? I'll take it!

The weather in Rome has been fantastic! No more rain and snow! To my friends in Boise, sorry (wishing you some warm weather from the other side of the world)! Well, in true California girl style, as soon as it was warm enough, I went to the beach! The beach near Rome is called Ostia. It is about a 30 minute train ride from central Rome, all for the amazing price of 1 euro! A large group of us packed some lunches, grabbed some reading material, and headed off for a day of sun Roman style. The beach was pretty clean, not too crowded, but to be honest I took a nap for the whole day, so I definitely enjoyed it, but wasn't really coherent for the day! We stayed to watch the sunset, which was gorgeous. There were boats gliding across the water in the distance. It reminded me of my days sailing on Callisto (my parents boat).

Some new friends at the beach!(look at those swimsuits)

Ostia Sunset

Women's Day

Women are really loved in Italy! So to celebrate, all of the museums had free admission for women! There was an exhibit that I have wanted to check out for a while, so it was the perfect opportunity to make my way to central Rome. My roommate and I made our way to the Musei Capitolini ( The Capitol Museum) and went exploring. The exhibit was called L'archivo Segreto Vaticano Riva, which translates into the secret archives of the Vatican revealed! As you can infer, if the Vatican is going to put items on display for the public, they weren't THAT secret, but they were extremely interesting. My favorite item was the dictation of the trial of Galileo Galilei. All of the documents were hand-written in the most beautiful calligraphy. My handwriting is absolutely atrocious compared to some of those papers! Of course, no trip to central Rome would be complete without gelato, so of course I had to walk to the Pantheon to my favorite gelateria! 

Rome is full of deals and campaigns to try to get people into museums and going to events. It is still amazing to me to stand on a roof-terrace and gaze upon the city. It never stops being beautiful.

Food

Everything that you do in Italy takes time, there isn't a rush to eat, to go to work, to get around, etc. In the case of food however, this is a very good thing. A meal is not a time to be rushed, it is time to be surrounded with good people, good food, and good conversations. Lunches and dinners often last around 2-3 hours, which is so nice to experience in contrast to scarfing down a meal so one has time do be on to their next daily task. Eating a meal is not a burden or a mundane activity for sustenance in Italy, it is appreciated and cherished. Both cooking and eating have always been activities that I enjoy, so Italy has given me many opportunities to try and taste new and old dishes and then allowed for me to try and re-create those meals as home using the same fresh ingredients from the amazingly fresh and abundant open-air markets( not only is the quality better, but it is much cheaper to buy from the markets than the grocery store). Before I get into cooking, it is important to note that Italians do not do grocery shopping for the week or month like Americans do, but they shop daily for fresh ingredients for that days food, which you or myself 2 months ago may have thought was a waste of time, but part of the cooking experience comes from going to the market, seeing what is fresh that day, and deciding on the meal.
I have been very lucky and have taken some cooking classes while I have been in Italy. What surprised me most about cooking Italian food was how simple it is. Most people associate cooking with many steps, loads of ingredients, and complicated procedures, however in Italy it couldn't be more of the contrary. Every dish uses very simple ingredients, and is often cooked in a "rustic manner", you wont find a pizza in Italy with 10 different toppings like in the US, it just isn't done! The goal is to be able to identify and taste the freshness of each ingredient, if there are too many, it spoils the dish.
Not to make you all jealous, but I thought I would include some pictures of some of the dishes I have been eating in Italy :)

I've been collecting a recipe book, so if any one is interested, I will gladly forward the information :) I can't wait to come home and cook for my friends and family, and enjoy the tastes of Italy back in the US!