The Land of Volterra

Persimmon trees line the winding roads to Volterra. Naked of leaves, yet decorated with heavy, bright orange ornaments of their fruit.


Volterra reminds me of Siena, it sits on a hill surrounded by walls. In the Fall the fog creeps in from the valley, so that standing on the outskirts of Volterra all you see is the incoming mist, which covers the lush Tuscan landscape with an opaqueness that still allows you to see the outlines of the countryside that's below.

The town is small--smaller than Siena, and because of the rain most of the shops are closed. We stay at a four-star hotel, that offers less than half rate for their rooms, now that it's the off-season. For dinner they insist that we make reservations, but as we sit through a lengthy two hour meal, we find that throughout our entire dinner, we're the only two guests.

The rain interrupts our walk at night, so we explore the grounds of the hotel instead. The two swimming pools that look straight into the mist, and the indoor pools that are too cool to be warm, and too warm to be cold. The rain falls all night, so we stay inside, reading-because it's a luxury that we rarely have time for anymore.

In the morning we are sad to go. Sad to leave a place where there is nothing really to do, because it's been a few months since we've had nothing to do. Before our bus arrives, we explore the town by foot, which takes under an hour--yet we still discover ancient ruins that neither of us expected.

On the way home it's too dark to see the Persimmon trees, so instead we sleep, dreaming of their glowing orange ornaments which stood out so vividly in the fog.
 

Update

Back in Siena, and officially done and graduated from Italian Level 5, off to 6! It's so crazy that I'm already done with my entire second year of language, whereas people that I took Italian with in Irvine still have two more entire quarters. This last quarter went by so fast, and it was really difficult. We've officially learned all of the tenses in Italian, so this next quarter (starting on Monday) is going to be all review and going more in depth.

I know I've been getting a lot better at Italian, and that I'm definitely way better than I ever was before, but I still don't feel as fluent as I wanted to be. I can speak for survival, but when I hear people in conversation, it's so hard to pick up what they're saying. I guess I have a month left to absorb as much as I can!

Last weekend we stayed in Siena and helped Jess celebrate her 24th birthday. Katelyn and I made her breakfast, cake, and took her out to dinner. It was really nice and relaxing since we had just gotten back from a 11 day trip of non-stop traveling. Our last stop during our trip was London, and it was absolutely amazing. It reminded me a lot of Amsterdam actually, and there definitely wasn't enough time to see everything that we wanted to while we were there.

I absolutely loved it there, the first thing I remember when I stepped off the train was the smell. No, not the smells necessarily, because they weren't bad....the fragrances. Everyone smells like soap, perfume, and cologne. The air smells like flowers. The cafes smell like soup and coffee. There is no cigarette smoke clouding your senses so you can detect each individual scent that passes you by.

We managed to pack a lot into the few days we were there, we saw the changing of the guards, did a bus tour, went to Notting Hill (Portabello Market), as well as the Camden Lock Market. We took a night boat cruise and saw all of the major sights, but we still felt like you could have dedicated an entire day to just the parks in London, then another to just the markets, etc.

I definitely want to go back, and as of now I'm still trying to make that happen.

Tomorrow Katelyn and I are going to Volterra and spending a night. It's supposed to rain, so we're looking forward to a nice quiet and relaxing trip, but we're still excited to get out of Siena and to see another part of Italy.

Next week I'm off to the French Riviera to visit Kelly and Jeff, who so graciously offered to help me pay my way there since I'm flat broke! (scratch that, super in debt). I'm looking for a way to earn some money while I'm here since I'm so low on finances, which is why I'm not really traveling that much anymore unless it's an uber cheap one night trip like Volterra (any donations are welcomed with open arms, email me and I'll send you my address.......haha.......kinda kidding, kinda super serious).

Thpain and Dublin

This trip so far has been a whirlwind. Jess and I started off in Spain, where we met up in Madrid with our other friend Kathryn, and my old roommate Elaine and her two friends. Elaine's friend taught English in Madrid, so she knew all the places to go and took us to a world famous tapas bar where we stuffed out faces with chicken wings, bread with salami and jamon, fried potatoes, tortilla, and croquettes (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaamazing). Then she took us to Madrid's beerfest, which was held in a bullfighting ring. The beerfest was unlike anything I have ever seen before. It was filled to the brim with the happiest Spainards...scratch that, happiest PEOPLE I have ever observed. Everyone was singing and dancing and making conga lines around all the tables.The only downfall was the fact that in Spain you're allowed to smoke inside, the air was dense and opaque, and after a while my eyes felt like they were about to fall out and I was going to cough out a lung.


The next morning we left for Barcelona. After spending three days in Barcelona, I can honestly say that I didn't care for it that much. It was very tourist-y and VERY expensive. Since we were just walking around Barcelona and taking the Metro, it was hard to see the ENTIRE city, so on the last day we decided to buy a ticket for the bus tours. My favorite part was the Gaudi park. It was amazing. If there had been less people, I definitely would have loved to stay longer.

Halloween itself in Barcelona was kind of a bust, no one really dressed up or did anything, and we were so tired that all we ended up doing was going to a bar that had live music, and we got drinks and tapas. Maybe not as crazy of a halloween as others, but I was perfectly content to just relax. On a different night, we also went to a bar in a wax museum (like a grown up Disneyland), an Irish pub, The London Bar (which was a famous hang out spot for Picasso and Hemmingway), and a Cuban club. That night was a late night, where I lost my phone and we ended up going on a wild goose chase around Barcelona looking for it, and finally returning to our hostel around 7:30 am. Maybe that explains why we were tired on halloween...



In Ireland it was raining and cold. It was nice though, since I've been lugging around two jackets all trip that I barely got to use in Spain. Dublin was beautiful, and I can only imagine what it looks like with the sun shining on it. Our hostel in Dublin was HUGE, and we were in a 6 bed mixed dorm. Unfortunately, one of our roommates was the biggest creeper in the world, but when we found out he was from Italy, it all made sense. We did a lot of sight seeing in Dublin (another bus tour, complementary of our hostel), but since it was so cold and rainy we rarely got off the bus.Our main activities in Dublin were pub crawls, and fish and chips. I loooove me some fish and chips. We also did a North Coast and castle tour, so we got to see a real castel and explore it, and also see the coast of Ireland (which is exctly like the way you would picture it). It was beautiful with all the little cottages and different painted doors (every house has a door painted a different color). Of course, we also did the Guiness tour, and I learned how to pour a perfect pint! (Dad, I'll teach you when I get back).