Portugal Part I- Real Life Fairytale

Once upon a time, there was a girl living in a big, grey city full of fashion, business and traffic. Upon the bequest of one of her dearest friends, she set off to the foreign land of Portugal in hopes of a break from the concrete jungle. What she found was a enchanted fairy land with enough charm and beauty to fuel a lifetime worth of dreams.

Lisboa- with Kate and Amanda- was a city that felt the backdrop of a love story. It was as though someone had dreamed up a city for the sole purpose of creating feelings of coziness and glee.

The buildings were either cheerfully shabby pastels, or beautifully tiled.

The churches were beautiful and glowey.

The monastery's ceiling looked as though it had been crafted by a sculpting spider.

The door ornaments were works of art.

The streets were interrupted by what looked like magic portals to other lands.

The sidewalks looked like stoney oriental carpets.

The graffiti enhanced the beauty rather than marred it.

The towers looked as if borrowed from Disney movies.

Sintra- the magic continued- but in a more rural, Grimms brothers, enchanted forest type of way.

With town-halls more akin to castles than upstanding institutions.

With manors poking out of the trees.

With castles perched on top of the hill that look as though they've been constructed straight out of the imaginations of children-

With grounds created as playgrounds for nymphs and forest creatures.

Truly, I felt as though I was in a place that was as near to perfection as man had ever come. Though 99 times out of 100 I prefer a nature scene to building, Portugal was somewhere that truly and effortlessly managed to bridge the gap between man and nature. It was a place allowed the achievements of man to seem natural and right. Sintra even had a cafe that made me feel as though I was back in the Northwest- a place to sit and stay, to relax and enjoy good quality fresh food. I truly was very sad to leave, but seeing as how our next stop was the beach, it wasn't that much of a tragedy...

Ciao for now, Part II is coming soon,

Katie

Culture and Cuisine- Cremona, Parma, Mantova, Castello D'Aquarto

Whoops! I forgot to post this from before spring break... This is from an IES field trip to experience the "Culture and Cuisine of the Lombardy region". Sound official? It was very informative, and mostly interesting- A very educationally rich beginning to Spring Break 2010. We started out by experiencing all sorts of cultural gems in Cremona, visiting their Duomo, the street market, and a traditional violin maker. Check out the awesome forced perspective in the dome in the Cremona cathedral! It looks like you're witnessing an awesome party in the heavens.

Contrary to my expectations, the violin maker's lecture was very interesting. We learned the history of the instrument, the technique and craft-manship that goes into each instrument, and that Cremona is the place to go for a top-notch instrument. After that we saw a beautiful theater (be assured, The Most Beautiful And Important Theater In Italy, this one's claim to fame is in having the longest back-stage).

As interesting as the theater was, by the time the tour drew to a close we were all absolutely dying of hunger and decided a picnic in the park to be the most important next order of business. Please note this was one of the first sunny days we experienced in Italy- for proof see that the color of my skin matches my shirt.

That night we were treated to an amazing dinner at a local trattoria- a dinner filled with all things Lombardian- including Parmisiano Reggiano cheese, a special sausage (which I naturally passed on), local wine, and delicious home-made tiramisu!

The next morning, we hit the road early to fill up on some more culture. This time I was genuinely excited because we went to Mantova/Mantua to see the Gonzaga Ducale Palace. And what exactly is so special about the Palace, you might ask?! It's only home to the Mantegna's Camera Degli' Sposi!!!!!!!! Oh, you haven't been in a Renaissance art class this semester and heard about this room nearly constantly since the start of the semester? Well, let me tell you. It is a Very Important Frescoed room that demonstrates many principles and themes throughout Renaissance art. Now you know. And they wouldn't let us take pictures, so you'll have to take my word that is was cool. Actually, to be honest, it was much smaller than I expected, though being that close to something I had been studying for so long was surreal. It's a whole different experience to be able to see and feel the art in person, especially when the art is in its intended location.

Nearly as exciting as fabulous art, we decided to indulge in some fabulous local cuisine, Sbrisolone. Sbrisolone is essentially a buttery crumbly shortbread, baked in a nice foil tin that can be easily transformed into a ball when later playing in a waterside park...

As you might have guessed, the Sbrisolone was followed by a walk in a lovely lakeside park where we once more delighted in the fact that Italy could in fact be sunny. We even found some fun ruins to climb around on and admire the view from. Well, to be honest, I climbed around on the rubble (I am going through serious rock withdrawal), and Gina mustered up enough courage to make it into a picture.

The final day was mostly devoted to Cuisine, which is definitely a dominate part of the Culture of Italy, so I guess its all cyclical. Seriously though, especially in this region, it is often hard to tell where one ends and the other starts. Regardless, we ventured deep into the heart of Parma farmlands to see a Parmesan cheese factory. I can't remember the last time my nose was so besieged by so many unwelcome smells in such a short amount of time.

I could tell you in extreme detail the process of creating one of these big bad boys (meaning the wheels of cheese, to clarify). But unless you specifically ask me, I'll keep it short and sweet. The production of official Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is amazingly basic and natural. The only ingrediants in a wheel of P.R. is the cow milk (a combo of day-old skimmed milk and fresh whole milk), whey, and salt from the curing process. The cheese wheels undergo rigorous testing (or thumping rather) before they are graced with the P.R. Brand as depicted above. If the cheese doesn't pass inspection it is still sold off, but not as official P.R., rather as mere cheese. Once passing inspection, the cheese is aged for at least 9 months (like a baby- ha) and sold off to delighted consumers looking for some lactose free, low fat, delicious cheese. Now you know.

We then headed to a cute entirely medieval town called Castello D'Aquarto. The town was everything you would think a hilltop charming historic town to be, but my camera died, so you don't get to see it.

Sorry. Aside from the fact that is was a great example of Romaneque architecture and very cute, it's not really much to talk about, so I'll end it here.

Our brains filled with all sort of Culture, our bellies filled with Cuisine, we headed back to Milan, and I headed off to Portugal!

Ok, regazzi, Ciao for now!

When In Rome...

The last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind for me. I had midterms, then my family came to visit, then I had spring break. All that considered, the blog has been neglected and is now due for some major updating. So, back to the beginning of the craziness (well, after midterms, those aren't worth mentioning), the Hamachek Family Visit!

As soon as my wonderful family arrived in Milano, we grabbed some gelato, a quick picnic lunch, and dashed off to Rome! Within their first few hours in Italy, my family had eaten the best of the food, conquered the metro and taken advantage of the fabulous train system. Talk about immersion!

We arrived at our beautiful B&B (oh the joys of traveling with Parents- you get to upgrade from hostels), ate dinner and set out to explore the city a little. Our B&B was located mere minutes away from the Spanish Steps.

And was similarly close to the Trevi Fountain! Everything was so beautiful and light up and relatively less crowded. It was an incredible introduction to Rome, to be able to first see some of the major sites in a more intimate way. Though they had put up a commendable effort, the family was a little travel-weary (and I had mid-terms burnout), so we headed in early and got a full night sleep.
The next day we hit the ground running (literally, running toward meeting points as we somehow always found ourselves on the verge of being late for the tours...). We started off with an incredible tour of ancient Rome, seeing the forum, Palatine hill and the colosseum. Though I've become a fairly self-sufficient traveler, having our fabulous tour-guide, Mandy, really made the city come alive. We saw and learned about more history, monuments, etc than we ever could have seen or appreciated on our own. As I'm sure anyone who has read most of this blog already knows, I'm a huge fan of knowing the history and context behind places that I travel, so having someone there to tell us all the background information and details on everything we saw was such a wonderful treat for me!

Here's a panorama my sister Tori took of the forum,

We learned all about the ancient Roman culture, learning the back-stories on ordinary looking piles of rubble. One of the more interesting details was the palace of the Vestal Virgins. These women were selected at a young age from amongst the elite families of Rome, and given the honor of protecting and guarding their chastity and the sacred flame of Rome. Failure to uphold either resulted in live burial. Now, if you're anything like me, you probably are thinking these women were given the bad end of a deal. But before casting judgement, there are some more facts to consider. As it turns out, these women weren't just some glorified, objectified figureheads of a bygone era. The VV's were the most powerful, revered women in ancient Rome, bestowed with privileges and power given to no other women. For example, their power of pardoning ANY prisoner allowed them to save the live of Julius Caesar. Paradoxically, through submitting to objectification, these women gained tremendous agency. Here's a picture of the temple that housed the sacred flame the Virgins had to protect.

Here's a picture of the whole family in the colosseum.

And fortunately for my family, and me of course, the weather was fairly nice and there was even some evidence that spring was finally arriving in Italy!

After that tour we grabbed a disastrously quick lunch (suffice to say jet-lagged brains didn't understand my explanations of the lack of a "quick bite" in Italy), and we raced to our next tour at the Vatican with more or less empty stomachs. The Vatican tour was incredible! I saw so many pieces of art that I've been studying all semester long in my Renaissance Art History Class, the experience was literally mind blowing. I do have to admit though, being packed into such crowded quarters took away some of the magic of seeing artwork in person. None the less, we admired the School of Athens by Raffaello, la Cappella di Sistina, and even saw a courtyard by good old Bramante (a favorite of the Milanese).

This is the pine-cone courtyard by Bramante, so named for the prominent Pagan pine-cone statue at the front. Interestingly, the Vatican has installed some modern art smack dab in the middle of this historic place. I haven't entirely made up my mind, but I have to say there was something pleasing about the paradoxical contrasting coherence. Anyone else want to weigh in on this relationship of new plus old?

After having our brains wonderfully packed full of all sorts of history and art and culture (when I, self admitted nerd, am becoming weary of that, you know everyone else must be bored stiff), we headed off to get a treat and take a break. After recharging, so to speak we headed off to a recommended restaurant for dinner. What we ended up with was a full on traditional Italian meal experience, complete with antipasti, primo piati, second piati, and dessert. The waiter took immense pleasure in both playing practical jokes on the entire table, and in trying to confuse me with my limited Italian. I have since concluded he must have been largely speaking in the Roman dialect as I truly didn't understand most of what he said!

Day 2 of tours was much more relaxed and history-light. We once again had the privilege of being led around by Mandy who mangaged to show us all the rest of the must-see sights in Rome as well as take us to her favorite gelato shop!

We saw temples turned into city buildings,

Beautiful courtyards,

and of course the Trevi fountain, actually a monument to celebrate the faithful aquaduct that survived time, neglect and war and still brings water and prosperity to the city of Rome. Here's Tori and I throwing our coins into the fountain, wishing to return to Rome!

And that, more or less, was Rome packed into 2 days! It is an incredible city that I'm so glad to have seen. The sheer quantity and extreme proximity of so many generations upon generations of history was amazing to experience. And from there, we headed back into Milano to let the family get a taste of my typical daily life in the city!

Ciao for now,

Katie

Don't Eat That.

While I usually give my best efforts to act as a fairly well-behaved, polite international traveler and not an obnoxious, imposing American, sometimes thing end up entirely out of anyone's control... For example, while in Genova we went to the aforementioned wonderful seafood restaurant. We arrived early to escape the pervasive dampness and chill, immediately identifying ourselves as tourists. The waiter sat us at our table and brought us our menu and drinks. He came back to see if we had decided, and then the madness began. Though by now we are fairly familiar with general food terms, none of us had any knowledge of sea food terms and proceeded to ask the waiter what nearly every item on the menu was. As you can imagine, there were quite a few items that simply were lost in translation, and we were all giggling and confused by the end of the clarification. He apparently decided that explanations were worthless as he opted to bring out a plate with a raw piece of each of the pastas on it to show us our choices. With much negotiating and confusion (on our part) and certain despair (on his as Rachel combined pesto with seafood), we finally ordered. After polishing off the provided basket of bread (decisively UN-Italian as they typically wait to eat their bread with their entrée), we then nibbled on the raw pastas and looked down to see we had eaten it all. When the waiter came back to bring our entrées, he glanced down at the empty pasta plate and asked snidely "may I take this now?" causing much laughter amongst our party. We sat there laughing at ourselves, joking that he probably though we would eat anything...
Dinner and dessert were finished without too many glitches, and he brought out our bill. He sat down the bill and a small plate with 4 white mints sitting on it, or so we though. The four of us made a move toward the "mints" and our waiter cried out (again in dismay), "Don't eat that!" Without a word of explanation, he proceeded to pour a little pitcher of steaming water over the "mints" and we watched in wonderment as they sprang up and grew into little columns of wet hand towels. He archly glanced at us and informed us they were orange blossom scented. In case you were wondering, yes, in fact we were still laughing. By this point we were laughing so hard we could hardly talk, except to point out that he must really think we would eat literally anything. So, if you ever wind up in a small seafood place in Genova, please note, the white tablets at the end are in fact to cleanse your hands, not your palate. And please remember, no matter how seasoned and refined a traveler you are, sometimes things are much more fun when they go a slight bit awry.

Weekend Trip- Genova/Genoa

After leaving the enchanting, charming, romantic town of Verona, we hopped back on a train and headed literally across the width of Italy over to the historic port city of Genova- home of Christopher Columbus (to clarify, called Genoa in any English guide book). Due to random stops in the middle of nowhere, we arrived in Milano in time to see our connection zipping out of the station. We bummed around the duldrums of Milano and caught the next train, therefore arriving in Genova much later than anticipated and just a tad too early for dinner. Once again though, the need for heat beat out our desire to be fashionably late for dinner and we happened upon a promising, hidden spot. Since of course, being "early", the restaurant was empty, our poor waiter had all the time in the world to figure out our bizarre questions and requests despite our very poor Italian. I ended up with the Genovese specialty- Pesto pasta- and the other girls got a chance to order the fresh seafood. Rachel even combined the two- despite the waiter confirming that "yes, yes that is a very weird request". Ha! Good thing we're so polite and cute and friendly, otherwise I think we wouldn't get away with nearly as much nonsense as we do!

Anyway, after a very satisfying dinner and dessert, we decided to start the trek up to the hostel. The man we purchased our map from had informed us that it was a 40 minute walk uphill, but due to youthful cockiness, we assumed we could easily make it in half the time up the "hill". As it turns out, he wasn't actually kidding or even slightly wrong, if anything he was downplaying it. Genova is built on a hill/cliff, and the youth hostel is at the very, very top. We ran into a woman and her daughter after about the first 10 minutes of straight stairs and verified that we were going the right way. She confirmed that yes, the hostel is up this staircase, but suggested we take the bus. We said we were walking and she chuckled and disappeared into her courtyard... Somehow we still didn't get it, though the chuckle should have been a clear sign. Almost another half hour later we took our last weary steps up to the hostel, only to notice there was in fact a bus stop not even 100 feet from the entrance. Good thing we are such happy campers and were able to appreciate the opportunity to work off at least some of dinner and dessert!

And what goes up, must come down. Unfortunately by that point, my legs were more than a little sore as we had by that point climbed every stair in Northern Italy (don't forget the colosseum, Roman ruins, and tower-of death in Verona), so I kind of hobbled downward as my muscles warmed back into submission.The very helpful lady at the hostel and circled the historic tour of the town on our map for us and pointed out all the must-see sights. So we meandered and admired the very ornate, prosperous old-town of Genova. As well as being a current and historically prosperous port-town, back in the day Genova was known an "the bank of Italy", and at some point or another, most of the big families built their own palaces or developed their own streets/piazzas, etc. Check out my "I'm going to live here when I grow up face".

This palace looks out over the port- which back in the day before the modern factory-esque buildings- must have been a lovely view of the water.
The sense/mix of prosperity and propriety and history strongly reminded me of the historic port-towns of the east coast of the United States (Mystic, Connecticut in particular). Very grand and impressive on the whole, which I think was the point.
Bonus- wedding party!
More grandness- this time banks. In Italy, the grandest building, especially when clustered in one piazza, are typically banks.
And Christopher Columbus's humble little residence, which we did not pay to go inside.
Right behind Chris' house was one of the three medieval city gates. These three gates make a triangle around the historic core of the city- allowing Genova to claim the largest ancient city center in Italy. Pretty cool, the layers and layers of prosperity and centuries.
We stumbled across a fabulous flea-market in one of the piazzas where I picked up a few antique postcards and the other girls got jewelry. By this point we were all chilled to the point where we couldn't care less about any magnanimous building and simply wanted a warm place to sit and eat lunch.
Naturally it was at this point we came across the Duomo, and it is an unspoken rule that you must at least momentarily stop and admire every city's Duomo, even though the best one is clearly in Milano... Though prejudiced, I still have to admit this Duomo was pretty unique and whimsical. If you look closely, the columns on either side of the main door are spiraled!
Our fabulous luck with restaruants continued and we found a great trattoria that met everyone's needs/desires. I ended up with this creativly patriotic pizza- Genovese pesto- Lombardian cheese- and classic tomato sauce.
All in all, it was an amazing weekend that met and exceeded all my expectations.

Ciao for now!