Monaco

This morning I checked out of my apartment and took my exam for wine tasting (fun).

Took the train to Monaco via Cinque Terre and Genova (beautiful city)-- the train ride was great as the track followed the ocean and cliffs the entire way.

Monaco is ritzy-- I paid 300 dollars for my hotel tonight.... The restaurants and everything are fancy. The yachts out in the harbor are crazy nice, and all of the cars are awesome as well.

Had a great dinner here in Monte Carlo. Then went to the casino (felt like James Bond) to play 20 euros and ended up winning over 100 euros, so it was a good night.

From Monaco

From Monaco

From Monaco

From Monaco

From Monaco

From Monaco

View from the Top

Yesterday evening, we climbed to the top of the dome of the cathedral, which is the defining feature of Florence. The dome is over 350 feet tall and offers one of the best views of the city. To reach the top, you must go up a ton of steep stairs and it's exhausting, but well worth it.

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

From Florence

Venice

Yesterday after class Eleonore and I took the train to Venice. We took the fast train, so the trip didn't take very long, but we only stayed a few hours.

The city was beautiful-- there were canals everywhere and the buildings and churches and monuments were also nice. We took a gondola ride, and the gondalier wore the striped shirt and sang and everything. The water was surprisingly blue. We were having such a good time that we came within seconds of missing the last train back to Florence.

We got back into Florence at about 8 and had a very good dinner (haven't had a bad meal yet).

From 2010-01-25 001

From 2010-01-25 001

From 2010-01-25 001

From 2010-01-25 001

From 2010-01-25 001

From 2010-01-25 001

Assisi

This morning I woke up early and took a 2 hour train ride to Assisi. Assisi is in Umbria, which is a mountainous state next to Tuscany (where I am). The most famous resident of Assisi was of course St. Francis of Assisi.

After arriving at the train station, I had to take a bus up to the top of the mountain that Assisi is located on. The pictures really don't do the place justice, as it's much higher than it appears. The streets are still narrow, steep, and cobblestone-- just like they were when St. Francis lived about 800 years ago.

From Assisi

From Assisi

The most important building in town is the Basilica of St. Francis (San Francessco d'Assisi in Italian). I couldn't take pictures inside, but the artwork, as in all of the churches so far, was really neat-- you could spend almost a week in just one large church and still not see everything. St. Francis' tomb is located in a cave beneath the Basilica, and I was able to go down there and see it. Also, many monks still live on-site, and you can see one of their residences in my pictures. There were St. Francis impersonators on the street too (also in my pictures).

From Assisi

From Assisi

From Assisi

From Assisi

The trek home took longer than it was supposed to-- something happened to the train tracks, so in Perugia, the train stopped and everyone had to get on buses that took us to the next train station, where we got onto a different train.

Siena

The weather was really nice this afternoon so I decided to take a short trip to Siena. Siena is a medieval city located about an hour's drive from Florence. Florence and Siena used to be rivals, and they would constantly go to war with one another.

Siena was a cool city-- it's built upon a hill, and the streets are windy, narrow, steep, and cobblestone, as they haven't changed since the middle ages. It was kind of disorienting getting around. They have a huge piazza there that kind of reminded me of Brussels' Grand Place. Siena also has their own Duomo, which is one of the nicest cathedral's in the world. I also went to St. Catherine of Siena's house (it's now a church).

From Sienna

From Sienna

From Sienna

From Sienna

From Sienna

Catherine of Siena's House:

From Sienna

From Sienna

Castello Volognano

This morning, our teacher Livia (she's only 24 years old) drove us to a winery outside of Florence. The winery is in the hills and is located in an 11th century castle. The countryside was pretty neat, and we walked around the vineyard and through the cellar and fermentation stuff.

The winery is called Castello Volognano-- the castle is on top of the hill and is really pretty. Sophia Loren stayed and was in a movie here in the 1960s. The physicist Enrico Fermi and a lot of famous authors, musicians, and celebrities have stayed here. One of Livia's friends, Camille, owns the winery with her family. She's only 25 and is a really cool person (and also names all of the wines they produce).

The castle was awesome inside-- it's really modern and looks like something off of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Camille sat us at a table and brought out a ton of food (cheeses, breads, and meats) and also the wine. They are famous for producing 3 types of wine:

Donna Patrizia (a white wine, which Camille named after her mother)

Chianti Colli Fiorentini (a Chianti)

and Baccante (a red wine with Merlot)

They also make their own olive oil and vinaigrette.

Also, yesterday morning we went to the Antinori (probably the most famous Italian wine producers) family palace here in Florence.

From Castelle Volognono

From Castelle Volognono

From Castelle Volognono

From Castelle Volognono

From Castelle Volognono

From Castelle Volognono

From Castelle Volognono

http://picasaweb.google.com/TigerColby

Cinque Terre

Today was an Italian holiday, so we woke up this morning and took a train to the Liguria region of Italy,
which is halfway between Florence and the French border. We took the train into La Spezia, and then from there
took a short train to Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terre is 5 villages that hang from cliffs onto the sea. The whole thing seemed like a dream-- I don't think I've
ever seen anything so cool in my life-- it was like a movie. The villages are separated by about a mile hike, or
you can take a train between them. We hiked between the first three villages.

The hike is kind of crazy because in many places there are no rails and it's a long drop down the cliffs to the sea.
We were thirty minutes between the villages when a storm came over the mountain and being so far from people, we
had to take shelter underneath a cliff hanging over the ocean. It was awesome watching the storm come through and
lightening strike the cliffs and the water.

After the storm, the sun came out and we hung out on one of the beaches. This may have been the best day so far.

From Cinque Terre

From Cinque Terre

From Cinque Terre

From Cinque Terre

From Cinque Terre

From Cinque Terre

From Cinque Terre

From Cinque Terre