17.12.2010

 Today I have been in Italy exactly three months. Well, three months as in it is the 17^th December and I arrived on 17^th September, so actually 13 weeks. I can’t quite believe it. That’s the longest I’ve been away from home continuously in my life I think. And for it to be in a foreign country makes it feel like even more of an achievement. In the last week or so things here have got better, or rather I feel better about things. Seeing as it’s the last week now I’ve automatically started reflecting more on how everything has gone, and how much it has all been up and down, from brilliant to terrible in such short periods of time. It’s crazy how much things can change and how trying to get to know the Italian culture has both challenged and confirmed various stereotypes I had.

Being thrown into another society with completely new ways of doing things has meant that generalisations I made at the start have been ripped to shreds but now I make new generalisations about different things, some good and some not so good I think. One thing that I often wonder about is whether I would have felt any different if I had planned to move to Italy all along and it hadn’t been such a shockingly rushed thing but I’m glad of how things turned out; I’ve got to learn a language that I had no experience of at all, so being able to have a conversation is really good, with very little formal training.

Of course the other major advantage of being here is being able to spend time, get to know, and share things with Jenny and Lydia.

There are plenty of things I would often like to change about Italy, but I know that that will never happen and I wouldn’t really want to, I should learn to get used to things as they are more. Having quite a lot of time to sit and just be and think has been really great most of the time, and I’ve had great conversations about things that I wouldn’t have known or thought about if I hadn’t been here.

Having said all of that, I’m very much looking forward to going home tomorrow for three weeks. To Britain, to Whitby, to my house, to my family and friends, to complete familiarity, to the English language, to a lot of things! And hopefully by the end I’ll want to come back here. We’ll see.

Ciao, Parma

Some very nice violins

The other day I visited Cremona, and the Museo Stradivari, which houses the tools, templates and works of some of the greatest violin makers ever, Stradivarius, Amati and Guarneri, amongst others. It’s so amazing that they still have the actual things used by the masters three or four hundred years ago, and those are the tools that have made some of the best instruments in the world. Suffice to say, I wish I could try any single one of them, but that is more than likely never to happen in my life, but it was a very inspiring afternoon. Cremona is a small town but very pretty with a brilliant Duomo, anyone who finds themselves in Northern Italy should definitely pay it a visit. And obviously let me know if you happen to end up in Northern Italy!

More Christmas markets, lots of lights and our best attempts at bartering

Blagging; something it’s fairly easy to do in Italy, partly because of the lack of rules and regulations for some things and partly because we’re English. Luckily we didn’t have our tickets checked on the train to Florence after getting on the wrong train because it took less time and had no changes and having not validated our tickets seeing as the machines were broken in Parma station.

So, we arrived in Firenze feeling rather smug with ourselves for saving both time and money!

There are so many famous things to see in Florence and the great thing is that they’re mostly in quite a small area so it’s easy to get around and see lots. Another great thing was that Lydia had found us the ‘Queen’s Hostel’ just on a side street off from the Duomo, so basically smack bang in the centre of the city, for only 10 euros a night! It was so sweet, and just looked like a big house with extra beds in, a lovely little kitchen and definitely somewhere I’d recommend. The only drawback was a guy there who sadly didn’t have the greatest social skills especially with non-fluent Italian speakers and who invaded our personal space and time a little too much for our liking, slightly freaking us out a little!

We spent Saturday evening wandering round and seeing things like the Ponte Vecchio where many a couple has got engaged and/or bought a ring, Palazzo Vecchio – which was in the second Twilight film, and had a Damien Hirst exhibition on when we were there – the markets and the outside of the Duomo and the Baptistery. The stall holders at the markets are so used to English speakers, we heard so many American voices over the weekend, and come out with some hilariously bad chat up lines as you walk past. We were told ‘You’ve dropped something…my heart’ and ‘Smile again and I’ll give you a discount’ amongst countless calls of ‘Hi English’ and ‘Hey baby’. Pretty good for comedic value, I’ll give them that!

Ponte Vecchio

Strangely we found it really hard to find somewhere that had a varied menu with pasta, pizza and salads etc. and apparently in Florence if it’s not a Pizzeria it does no pizzas at all! After searching we came across a really nice place and sat in the cellar room, lovely and cosy with candles and red walls, and to our delight a family on the next table with the most adorable kids! Working our way through our litre of wine we chatted about many a thing, including lots of reminiscing about childhood toys and odd things like what lunchbox we had, and lots about our parents. The closer it gets to Christmas and going back to England the more we talk about home and how much we cannot wait to get back, even when we’re having fun!!

We ended the night in a bar called ‘Shot Spot’ unfortunately with a pretty rankly strong White Russian, then chatted to some Australians and a Brazilian travelling Europe for their summer back at the hostel.

My description of Sunday will be quite short because if I expand any more than saying ‘Christmas shopping’ all surprises will be ruined! Had a brilliant breakfast of sausage and egg bagel to start off the day and then we caught a bit of a service in the Duomo. Turned out not to be as grand inside as we had thought, and although it’s huuuge it’s quite plain with just small stained glass windows and one painted ceiling, definitely more exciting from the outside! Then the shopping commenced…the day included

-          hilarious haggling skills

-          a ‘genuine handmade, I should know, I’m a designer’ leather jacket breaking on Jen; the guy’s face trying to sell it was a picture

-          many hours spent deliberating over what to buy for who, who to give things to and finding excuses to buy for ourselves at the same time!

After a rather materialistic day we were treated to one of the little wonders of nature…stood outside the station we saw groups of small birds (not sure what kind) all fly around and split off in waves then join back up again, making different shapes in the sky and following each other, like a shoal of fish when they all suddenly turn the same way again and again. After a while they started to settle on some trees near to where we were stood then really suddenly all at once emerged back into the sky with a burst of noise of beating wings and squawking. None of us understood why they were doing it…if anyone can shed some light on that please do…but it was amazing to watch!

Feeling rather exhausted we went out for an aperitivo tea and a non-alcohol cocktail and then an early-ish night. Paranoid hysteria set in for a few minutes after we found out the aforementioned creepy guy in the hostel was getting the same train as us the next morning, before we calmed down and got to bed! 

A successful second weekend trip in a row and another planned for next, the last weekend left in Italy before Christmas holidays…Erasmus life is good!

Lakeside Ramblings

So instead of a weekend in Verona and Lake Garda, we ended up in the less touristy versions; Bergamo and Lake Iseo. A brilliant alternative it turned out. Although it was in some ways a weekend full of small failures - not being able to go to the originally planned destination, missing buses, therefore missing other buses, and getting on the wrong bus – it was still brilliant! Some things we did/liked/loved…

·      Got very excited on the train travelling northwards and seeing snowy topped mountains and frosty fields!

·      Got even more childishly excited at the Christmas lights all up the street outside the station in Bergamo and the Christmas market. To our great delight there was also a stall selling mulled wine, a perfect addition to the evening.

·      ‘Città alta’, the old city on top of a hill looking down to the rest of Bergamo. So nice to wander around the little streets, all decorated with lights, and look in the cute shops and restaurants, and eat scrumptious pizza.

·      Got up very early to get the bus to Sarnico at the Southern end of Lago d’Iseo. Unfortunately the timetable we had wasn’t actually when buses to the centre ran, so we missed the one we needed and therefore missed the one to Sarnico. However, managed to get one to Lòvere at the North of the lake instead. It was a lovely bus ride, through lots of little towns and villages and then alongside the lake for a while, so nice to see lots of water and some actual scenery! Typically, the tourist information office was shut for a holiday so after consulting a very basic map we set off walking…

·      At the next village up the lake, Costa Volpino, we started heading upwards and just carried on ascending for a couple of hours on roads, cobbled pathways, muddy trails and snow covered tracks. Amazing to get past the height where the snow had settled and stayed on everything, and the views over to the other side of the lake and downwards more then made up for the fact that we had cold wet feet! We met a really cute old woman in one of the churches on the hillside who chatted to us for a while about how it’s great to be young and what a great age 21 is, and how she had grandchildren our age and that we should make the most of everything. Wise words from a wise little lady.

·   Hot food and drink was needed when we had got back down to Lòvere and coffee and waffles fitted the bill.

·      Next transport error – no thanks to the complete lack of information at the bus stop we got on a bus that went past but didn’t stop in Bergamo and just went straight on to Milan. Nightmare. Thanks to a nice young man we managed to get off at the stop nearest to Bergamo and told us how to get back, very kind of him.

·      After expending more energy in a day than we have in a while we were perfectly happy to get a nice warm shower and read back at the hostel, then seeing as it was Sunday there were no buses to the city and no places to go out, so pizza order was on the cards. They weren’t brilliant but filled us, and I definitely took advantage of the coffee/tea/hot chocolate machine.

·      Met some cool people at the hostel, a Syrian medical student living and working here in Italy, and a classical guitarist from London who travels and busks all over the world. It was kind of nice to chat to a stranger with a ‘real’ English accent, and he picked up on ours as soon as we walked in! Delightful end to the evening when he started playing quietly in the common room type area where we were sat reading on sofas. Made for the best relaxing ending to a tiring but exciting trip.

An Inter-European Love Manor reunion

Three weeks ago, thanks to Easyjet and good Italian trains, I got to go and visit Heather in France! The first excitement was the flight, and although it was under an hour (yes, I feel bad about my carbon emissions for such a short journey) it had some of the nicest views I’ve ever seen from a plane. Flying over the alps at sunset, not much can beat it! Having managed to use my limited French skills to get a ticket and find my way out of the airport to the tram link I arrived in Lyon Part-Dieu station, the location for the joyous reunion of two Love Manorettes, ie. Heather and I. We had a walk around the city centre and ended up near Bellecourt for tea, on the area between the two rivers that run through the city, the Rhône and the Saône. After missing the train we had intended to get to Villefranche where Heather lives, we decided to be sensible and look at a map to plan a route to the other train station in time for the next departure. Intentions were good but unfortunately we mistook a tram line for a metro line and consequently our plans were ruined, and we missed another train! Third time was lucky though, and eventually we got back to Villefranche. The high street looked really pretty with lots of lights along it, and a beautiful church in the middle.

Friday night was almost a night out but by the time we had gone out to look for a bar they had all closed, so it turned into to just a night in.

A breakfast of eggs on toast was served by the lovely Heather on Saturday morning followed by a great cappuccino in town. We’d planned to get the train into Lyon around three, but thanks to our brilliant luck, the only hour without a train to go at ten past was 3pm. Thankfully there was a bus setting off just after we got to the station so not all hope was lost! We spent a few hours visiting the old favourite, H&M, and some other shops in Lyon centre then ate at a really cool and quirky internet café/comic book shop/café.

There was more promise of partying on Saturday night, and after a few glasses of Calimocho (a Spanish drink made by mixing Coca-Cola and red wine…surprisingly tasty!) and a bit of coffee to try and re-energise slightly, we headed to the club, La Storia. The French clubbing experience is almost as strange as the Italian I’ve had…funny rules about leaving your bag in the cloakroom and having to take in money and phone in pockets or hands, very odd! Drinks were also hideously expensive, just like here, but the music was pretty good and it was great to have a good night out with Heather, like the old times in Newcastle!

Having learnt our lessons, we checked the train times before setting off on Sunday, and headed straight to Vieux Lyon. Like many old towns, there are lots of little streets with cute cafes, creperies, and places with rows upon rows of tiny little cakes and pastries in the windows, all very enticing and so pretty! Lyon Cathedral lies in the old town and has amazing stained glass windows with such bright colours in so many patterns. I could spend hours wandering round the old town, drinking tea and coffee here and there and taking so many photos…so I may well be inviting myself back Heather! 

Spontaneity, Sunrise and Swimming

On Wednesday night we went on a mini bar crawl, after constantly feeling a bit of nostalgia for Newcastle times and reminiscing a lot. So much fun, and lots of strong cocktails were consumed, leading to hilarity all round, apart from the loss of Lydia’s phone and camera, to someone who now has lots of lovely pictures of Bologna from the beginning of the week. Lucky them, not so lucky Lydia L

Thursday morning brought headaches and pains as expected and deserved, but also an impulse trip away! After getting a phonecall from Jenny at 11.30am, we were on the 1.30pm train to La Spezia, swimming costumes packed. That morning, Lyds had found a great little hostel in Portovenere, a small village on the end of the peninsula south of La Spezia. We wondered whether reality would live up to expectations and website photographs, but as the bus turned the bend we got a full view of the nearest thing to heaven I could have wanted at the time!

At the very end of the rocky spit there is a church and the ruins of ‘Grotta Byron’, where Lord Byron spent lots of his time apparently. It’s got some great little doorways that just look straight out over the sea. After scaring ourselves with stone carvings of people in the shadows we sat down in a little pub for some wine and cake and Jen suggested we get up to watch the sunrise. Sounded like a lovely idea but I wasn’t sure whether we’d be able to drag ourselves out of bed after the night before…but, lo and behold, there we were at 6.30am, sat on the rocks looking out over the bay to the mountains beyond La Spezia. It was spectacular how the light changed and was so clear and vivid, making aeroplane trails look fluorescent pink and trees on the side of the island in front of us just silhouettes. By 8.30am the village was bathed in warm sunlight and it was time for breakfast.

Next was a coffee followed by a small hike up the side of the castello walls. Hideous amount of steps but the best views at the top! After that we went on the ‘Tre Isole’ boat trip, around Isola Palmaria, Isola Tino and Isola Tinetto, and then back on shore decided that if we couldn’t hire kayaks to go exploring we wanted to get in the water somehow, so swimming was on the agenda! We were so lucky with the weather; having the sun beating down and temperatures above 20 makes jumping into cold water a bit more bearable! The whole thing was so invigorating and refreshing and drying off in the sun made it feel like a mini summer holiday even though it’s October!

The whole trip has definitely made me want to travel more now, and we’re planning all sorts of little trips which hopefully will happen in the near future! 

Bolognese, but no spaghetti

The great thing about the trains in Italy is that they are on time (unlike most other things), quite comfortable, and ticket prices don’t change whether you buy them months or minutes in advance. So for about 12 euros return, Jen, Lydia and I decided a spontaneous day trip to Bologna was a good plan. Despite the cold and dull skies we had a lovely day wandering round the city centre, which was a lot bigger than I think all three of us imagined. It’s kind of similar to Parma but all the streets have arches over the paths on either side of the road and lots of it feels bigger and grander. There are some amazing churches and cathedrals and a huge one in the main square which had a really interesting exhibition of the life and work or Mother Teresa.

Being that we were in the home of bolognese, a good spaghetti based lunch was on the cards, and we found a really cool little restaurant but strangely ‘spaghetti bolognese’ wasn’t on the menu! We had to make do with lasagne bolognese and spaghetti carbonara, and of course a glass of red wine…if you can’t drink wine at lunch in Italy, where can you?!

We’d heard of a place in Bologna that sells hand made silver rings, but didn’t do enough research/couldn’t find anything about it on the internet before we went, but if anyone knows of anyone with more information please tell me! 

It’s strange to think I’ve been living in Italy for just over a month now. I feel like I know Parma quite well geographically but still don’t know where everything is, which is good as it’s nice to stumble upon hidden treasures when you don’t expect it. I'm definitely still not used to the laid back nature of beginning things like lectures and actually want to be given some work now, it must be bad! Self motivation is in order. 

Les Maîtres Chocolatiers

A ten minute train ride, a ten minute bus ride, and a short walk takes you from Parma to Fidenza Village, a shopping outlet. Basically not all it was cracked up to be; full of designer shops which even with the outlet discounts are still out of my price range. All but one…the Lindt shop. Right at the end of the street, and selling tons and tons of some of the most ruch, luscious chocolatey goodness in the world, including chocolate spoons for eating hot chocolate with (not quite sure how that would work without melting), tubes that look like lip gloss filled with chocolate, and huuuuge lindt balls, filled with, yes you guess it, chocolate!

Heavenly.

Mangia, Prega, Ama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8csr68LjUM

Eat, Pray, Love. 

Sounds pretty good to me.

Julia Roberts finds herself running away from New York to ‘find herself’ and do some self counselling after a divorce and inspired by a visit to a healer in Bali on a previous trip. So she works her way around the world, to Italy, India, and back to Bali where she eats, prays, and tries to learn to love again. It was pretty cheesy in parts, and I’m sure massive generalisations of whole countries’ cultures but it’s definitely a feel-good type of film. Kind of a chick-who-travels-flick. As a fan of feel good films and anything a little bit cheesy with some lovely scenery, gorgeous sunsets and gorgeous people, it was just what I needed after a stressful few days, and the soundtrack is beyooootiful! In the part set in Italy, they describe one of the most important elements of the Italian lifestyle; ‘il dolce far niente’ literally, ‘the sweetness of doing nothing’. Quite cute and lovely but at the same time doesn’t make for great ease in finding out things like an academic timetable.

If I was Julia Roberts, swanning off around the world just soaking up cultures and using them to ‘find my inner balance’ as it goes in Bali, I’m quite sure I’d be perfectly happy with ‘il dolce far niente’, but as it is, I’m not always it’s biggest fan. And like some of the other Erasmus students, it would be nice to get some things sorted out once in a while!

It’s taken me three weeks to find out when three of my six classes are…one of my other teachers is unknown as yet, and another is apparently uncontactable, no-one has any details for her. Great. A little escapism may be in order this weekend…

Chocolat...

The other night, Anissa, one of the French girls here on Erasmus, hosted a little dinner party. Pasta featured heavily on the menu, but she also made an amazing quiche lorraine, and croque monsieur, followed by an equally amazing dessert including her famous chocolate fondante cake…actually tasted like heaven! 

Steph, Gus and I thought it would be nice to take something with us so we bought a cake too…wasn’t as good as Anissa’s! 

before...

...and after

Ciao tutti!

I had toyed with the idea of blogging for weeks before my year abroad commenced, but didn’t get round to it, until now…

So after a very teary goodbye at the airport I arrived in the heat and humidity of September in Northern Italy, with my life in two suitcases and a violin on my back! Quite a different place to the Scandinavian year I had planned since February, but that’s a story for another time. Thanks to the angels otherwise known as Jenny and Lydia, I had an apartment to stay in for free as soon as I got to Parma, which was so amazingly helpful! I spent the first night with their housemate, Romy, and some of her friends also from Israel. It was a bit daunting at first being surrounded by Italians or people who spoke Italian but that was always going to be the case, after having almost no time to prepare myself.

The first week was full of excitement, panic, chaos, and feelings from complete happiness to sadness and everything in between! Until I found a room in an apartment, everything felt very ‘in limbo’, but as soon as I put down a deposit for this room, everything immediately became more settled and especially after the trip to IKEA on the free bus for things to decorate it with, I finally had a place to call home! And having met lots of other Erasmus students, mostly English but a few French, Spanish, German and Portuguese, we were all doing more socialising and spending time in the city, getting to know where the good coffee shops and bars were!

The second week in Italy saw our first night out at a club, NeroBlanco, which turned out to be one of the strangest nights out I’ve ever had! There’s a very odd system of here where entry is ‘free’, and you are given a drinks card with prices and boxes to be stamped. When you get a drink at the bar, the staff stamp the price of your drink, but you pay on the way out, before you leave. And so the first drink is always 8 euros! So expensive! We convinced ourselves this was ok as it covered the drink and the entry, (or exit?!) price, but agreed that it was a weird way of doing things! Very confusing! Apart from this we have all been taking full advantage of the ‘aperitivo’ culture, where food is provided at bars and you can help yourself when you buy a drink, how lovely!

One Sunday, Lydia and I had a fairly casual wander round the shops, on the eternal search for the perfect jacket, and as it started to rain, we stumbled into Chiesa della Steccata, a church just off the main square, Piazza Garibaldi. Turned out to be one of the most beautiful, awesome churches I’ve ever seen, with paintings all over the walls and all of the ceilings, and huge columns and pillars, and two huge organs at the back! When we entered it was deadly silent, but after about five minutes an organist started playing and it was just brilliant. We indeed up wandering round to where he was sat, at a new organ connected to both the old ones, and he just played bits of all sorts to us for about half an hour! For two music students it was so inspiring and such a lucky find!

It’s true what people say, Italians take a long time to do things! Usually this doesn’t matter, and gives a much more relaxed vibe to most things, but when it comes to filling in learning agreements and signing forms it’s so frustrating! It took us a whole week to pin down the right person in a meeting to finalise modules, after going into the Conservatorio three days in a row for various other meetings, only be to referred to a different person. Slightly stressing to say the least, and by the end of the week I was beginning to crack, but the Tetley’s teabags turned out to be a genius addition to my suitcase and saved me!

The end of this week has been the official Erasmus Welcome Weekend, and although most people have made their own friends and we aren’t all wandering around on our own like little lost sheep (exactly what I was like at first!) it was kind of nice to have nights out organised just for us

·      There was a presentation on Thursday evening about all the trips and activities that the Erasmus society runs, then a huge trek out to ‘XXL Pub’, another place miles away from town!

·      ‘Positiva’ club was Friday’s destination, again, miles away, and I’m not even sure that the trip on the infamous ‘Discobus’ was enough to make up for the strangeness of the club…the fact that it’s on an industrial estate and that there were children running around inside when first got there..?! But it turned out to be a good night, and all we could do was laugh at the situation, especially when one of the English girls, Gus, literally ran onto a dual carriageway roundabout at 2.30am, arms flailing, to get the departing Discobus to stop and let us on!

·      La ‘BARatona’ was the title of Saturday night’s activity, a ‘maratona’ of bars, in other words, bar crawl! Parma is full of little bars on tiny side streets that you’d normally just walk past without looking down, so it was great to be shown a couple of these that we’d missed, and one that does 20% discount for Erasmus students. Great, apart from the fact that the cocktails are nearly pure alcohol and almost undrinkable, although in true Newcastle girls fashion Jen and I managed to ‘see off’ the most horrifically strong mojito ever!

·      Sunday afternoon was basically a walk in the park, and around the city, on a guided tour. I couldn’t actually hear the speakers and so didn’t really learn anything new but there were blue skies, sunshine and a lovely autumn crispness in the air. Lots of photo opportunities around the city, Lyds and I got a little snap happy!