A Weekend in Firenze

Buongiorno!

Good news: This past weekend I visited the wonderful city of Florence and had a fantastic time. 

Bad news: I contracted Pink Eye yesterday and have a sore throat. Thankfully the nurse on campus (who only speaks Italian) is a saint and has given me medicine that works wonderfully. I think these first few weeks have really run down my immune system. 

I'm not one to dwell on bad news, so here is a play-by-play of my wonderful weekend (before I got sick). Florence is only a three hour bus (a little longer the ride there due to traffic) ride away from Paderno del Grappa and approximately 100 CIMBA students made their way to Florence along with me. With the mountains, narrow roads, and roundabouts, I began to feel sick, but soon we arrived to our destination... I think three hours is all I could take. In Florence I stayed with the same group of four girls I had booked a hostel with, but it was nice to occasionally run into other groups and see familiar faces on the streets. 

Let me start off in saying, there is a TON to do in Florence. We began Friday evening, after finding out hostel, exploring. I was our group navigator as I had taken a free map from the hostel. We started walking and eventually found ourselves at the Duomo. It is much taller than any picture I had seen, it was also so intricate. I was taken aback and began to look forward to seeing it with more light in the daytime. We grabbed some late night gelato then made it back to our hostel to sleep for a big day ahead of us. We woke the next morning and immediately headed to the Accademia to see David. 

We were a tad worried that we hadn't reserved tickets in advance for the Accademia, but we figured since it is the off season we wouldn't need to. Thankfully we were right. We walked straight in (well after paying for a 6,50€ ticket)! We explored the museum. It was filled with many paintings pulled from church panals of a Madonna holding the baby Jesus, or sometimes if we were lucky of Jesus dying on a cross. I found the artwork to be extremely repetitive. It was gorgeous but at some point everything started to melt together until I walked into the musical instrument exhibit! Instruments from hundreds of years ago were on display. It is amazing to know that music so familiar to me has been a part of human culture for so long. Unfortunately there were not any trumpets on display (as the trumpet we know today evolved later on). I did see french horns, a remedial trombone, clarinets, flutes, some percussion instruments, all stringed instruments and my personal favorite a few harpsichords and pianos (including the oldest upright harpsichord!). After leaving the exhibit in awe I walked to the other wing of the museum. Giant sculptures by Michaelangelo greeted me, after viewing the first two I turned my head down the hall and there he was, David. There are no pictures allowed so I don't have one of my own to show you, but he was amazing. Taller, smoother, more lifelike than I had imagined. You could stare at him for hours. I am happy they do not allow pictures because I feel like 30 tourists with their cameras would have ruined the viewing experience. I would highly recommend going to see him, it was a highlight of my trip. 

We then made our way to the Duomo. The Duomo is absolutely fabulous. There there is extreme detail and care put into every facet of the building. Walking through I imagined myself being a part of the congregation and attending an actual service there, it was so surreal. After spending some time reflecting on the beauty of the architecture and artworks inside we decided to visit the famous leather market! Florence is known for its leather and the leather market was absolutely fantastic. In the open market there was a wide variety of things leather and not. I got carried away with all of the deals and haggling, I walked away with two scarves for me, and some leather gifts (which I again won't elaborate on due to my audience). I was tempted to buy a leather jacket but I abstained. My wallet thanks me. I have noticed that the exchange rate to the dollar can be deceptive at times. My brain sees something for 10€ as 10$ even though it is really 13.50$. 

After a successful shopping trip we returned to the Duomo and purchased tickets to climb to the top. It was a painful 463 claustrophobic stairs to the top, but 100% worth it. The views of Florence were fantastic. Later on in the day we climbed the Bell Tower adjacent to the Duomo which was only 410 stairs... Needless to say we were exhausted at the end of the day! I'll include some pictures atop both structures at the end of this blog. We also visited two other museums that were included in our ticket for the Duomo and the Bell Tower. The other two museums were not too exciting except one of them housed an unfinished sculpture from Michaelangelo which was interesting. Apparently he stopped mid- carving because there was an inperfection in the marble. I can't imagine how many hours he wasted to find the imperfection as the sculpture was almost complete!

We did some more shopping, ate gelato, then headed back to the hostel to take a 45 minute breather before dinner. We had a delicious dinner! My travel buddy Megan picked the place out from her Rick Steve's travel guide. It was a flat rate dinner of only 13€ that included the traditional three Italian courses. You had approximately 10 different options per course to choose from, it also included a bottle of water and a quarter liter of wine! For my first course (the pasta course) I had Gnocchi with Gorganzola and Walnuts, my second course (the meat course) was Salmon and Arugula, my third course (the vegetable course) was green beans. I was full and happy at the end of the meal. We then headed out to check a couple bars in the area and went home. 

The next morning we went to the Uffizi museum, but only after running into a parade of people dressed historically with flags and trumpets. I had no idea what it was, but it looked cool! The Uffizi museum may have been a little bit of overkill for us that Sunday. I loved seeing certain pieces, but again my eyes kind of glazed over the hundred pictures of a Madonna with the Christ Child. My favorite was either The Birth of Venus, or a room with all of these statues from the story if Niobe. We shopped some more, viewed the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, ate more gelato and we were back on our way home!

Here are some pictures from my weekend:

The Duomo at night the first time I saw it.

Outside the Accademia 

Megan and I at the Duomo

The leather market

The winding staircase to the top of the Duomo

Atop the Duomo!

The Bell Tower

Me and the bell in the Bell Tower

The Duomo from the Bell Tower

Gnocchi!!

At the bar!

Weird parade thing

View of Ponte Vecchio

View from Ponte Vecchio

Florence is a beautiful city andi would love to go back someday. There was so much that I still wanted to do!

I'm not sure what I will be doing this weekend (perhaps stay in Paderno del Grappa and recover!), but I will keep you posted! Next weekend is a four day weekend I plan on spending in Paris!

Ciao,

Carolyn

Asolo & Venice

Buongiorno!

I've had a very busy week! I went to a neighboring town called Asolo for an evening, visited Venice for a day, explored  Paderno del Grappa more, and completed my LIFE class (the leadership workshop). 

Last Friday, a group of CIMBA students took taxis to Asolo for the evening. Asolo is a small town neighboring Paderno del Grappa. We ate dinner at a Pizzeria and explored the town ending up at an adorable bar. Asolo is a very old town on a hill that was home to the Queen of Cyprus in the Middle Ages. There is still a lot of old stone architecture from that time. The pizzeria was my first experience with Italian pizza. The Italian pizzas are served as personal pizzas and have a very thin crust. I ordered a Romana pizza which is topped with mozerella, anchovies and oregano. They had a oil infused with red peppers as well as straight red peppers which I also added to my pizza. I think I'll be eating a lot of carbs this trip... 

I also experienced the wine of the region called Prosecco. It is a sparkling white wine. Prosecco is also a main component in the main drink of the region, Spritz. A Spritz is made with Prosecco, and either Aperol or Campari. The Campari one is bitter and tastes like grapefruit. The Aperol one is sweeter and the favorite of all my American friends. I like both. When we visited Venice there was a t-shirt in a shop that said "Spritz?" and I almost felt the need to buy it!

Ahhhh, Venice. I absolutely love Venice. We had class on Saturday last weekend because of all the workshops and orientations during the first week, so a group of 30 CIMBA students decided to spend a day and a half in Venice. On Saturday evening we took a bus to the train station, then a train to the island. I know this seems obvious, but there are no cars in Venice, only boats. They have a boat bus system called the Vaporetto. The hostel we stayed at was on the island of Giudecca, which can only be reached by boat. We ventured by Vaporetto to our hostel, only no one had really researched which stop we should get off at. After some educated guesses and a little debate we finally made it to our hostel. It is strange to navigate a foreign city without my iPhone, normally I would just open up google maps. 

Finally we all arrived at our hostel, Generator Hostel. It was extremely trendy and the rooms were nice and clean. My group was extremely exhausted so we just stayed at the bar and restaurant in the hostel. There were a lot of young people from all over the world. I met some other Americans and an Austrailian. We slept the night and were off on the Vaporetto by 9am the next morning. My main travel buddy was my friend from back home, Megan. We were with other people from time to time but we always stuck together. Our first order of business, after being struck with awe from all the gorgeous buildings and narrow canals, was to find a cafe for breakfast. We easily found a place and got our coffee and pastry easily. Then we were off to the Rialto Bridge! The bridge is one of the most famous in Venice that crosses the main canal. The best part of the bridge was the shops surrounding it. We found the cheapest and best selection here of all the places we explored. I bought myself a mask, then bought two gifts for people (both made of glass from Venice, but I won't say what they are in case those people are reading this). We then ventured to the Doge's Palace and the St Mark's Basilica. 

The Doge's Palace was my favorite thing we did. We ventured to the front gate to buy tickets. The student tickets were 10€   but they included entry to the Palace as well as another museum so we purchased them. It was my fault for not researching, but I had no idea about the Doge or much of Venice's history. I was shocked. The palace was literally a mini city within the city of Venice. After taking pictures in the square in the middle of the palace we ventured inside. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace. The imperial rooms were being restored so we weren't allowed to go there, but we still saw a ton of the palace. We saw political room after political room. Each more grand than the next. We learned there was a fire in the palace in the 1500s which destroyed a lot of the things inside which needed to be restored. The paintings are huge and grand and pestered all over the walls and ceilings. We spent quite some time just looking up in every room. After viewing all of the state rooms we were directed down to the prison. We went through narrow passageways and steep staircases to see the prison. It was creepy to think that in these narrow, wet, dark halls there were criminals. It was a complete change from the rooms we had viewed just before. We then made it through the maze of the prison cells and out into the open air. It was quite an experience I truly recommend it. 

We then wandered around the city, ate gelato (my first gelato experience and it is as good as people say), and headed to the St Mark's Basilica. I did not realize this, but I probably should have been more aware that during high tide the entire St Mark's Square floods at least a foot. It was crazy to see the water so high. It makes me wonder how a city has survived so many years being so close to water (I figure a lot of stone instead of wood buildings). Megan has the Rick Steve's travel book and he describes Venice as a city of elegant decay (very true). We then visited the basilica, it was fantastic. I was shocked at how detailed and elaborate the mosaic work was. Another must see in Venice. We were not allowed to have our backpacks in the Basilica, but they provide a FREE bag check! Yay! 

After some more wandering and exploring we had some time before our train left. We chose to check out the museum that we also bought admission to with the Doge's Palace. It was called Museum Correr. We only had 40 minutes to spare, but once we went inside we realized there was so much to see 40 minutes wouldn't be enough! We had to rush through, but it seemed like a fantastic museum. There was also a cafe in the museum that overlooks the basilica with reasonably cheap prices, I plan on going there the next Venice trip! 

Our day now coming to a close, we boarded the Vaporetto once again. This time we were taking a route through the Grand Canal (the large canal that runs though Venice). It was really pretty to see everything Venice had to offer. We then got off at the train station, had some pizza and went home. 

I'll be back to Venice at least two more times before I head back to the States. I am excited to explore more of the gorgeous city. 

Here are some pictures from Asolo:

My table at the Asolo pizzeria! 

The medieval fortress where we found a great bar with a view inside! 

Megan and I with our first Spritz in the bar in Asolo!

Pictures from Venice:

The Rialto Bridge!

A picture of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge. 

Inside the Doge's Palace

The Basilica

St Marks Square!

Megan and I with lions outside the Basilica!

Obligatory gondola picture! They are much too expensive for me to ride (80-100€), but they are so beautiful and add so much to the scene and novelty of Venice. 

That's all for now! 

The plan is to visit Florence this weekend, so stay tuned!

Ciao,

Carolyn

Living in Paderno del Grappa

Hello everyone!

I made it to Italy! Today is the beginning of day 3 in Paderno del Grappa! The flights went smoothly on our travel day on Monday. We only had a 15 minute delay in Paris which was really not too bad. Once we arrived in the Venice airport we had to wait two hours for a shuttle to campus. It was fun to get to know my classmates who were also waiting for the shuttle. It was at the airport I attempted to speak Italian for the first time. Let me tell you, this task was definitely more of a struggle than I had anticipated. There was a little café that me and a friend decided we would get a little snack from to tide us over until dinner that evening. We carefully viewed all of the options through a glass window and then practiced saying the item we had chosen. It was then my turn at the register and I said what I had memorized from the sign. The woman behind the counter looked confused then began charging me 10€ for a 2,5€ item. I then had to resort to using the trusty pointing system (something I think I will do a lot here). She then understood and everything was resolved. Tomorrow CIMBA is providing a Survival Italian course for all students, so hopefully that will help me learn the basics in pronunciation.  Then I think I will have to do some studying on my own using the phrase books people have so generously given me, or through podcasts or YouTube. 

The campus here is gorgeous. The campus we are on is called Instituti Filipini, CIMBA shares the campus with Italian kids from kindergarten to high school. We are surrounded by mountains to the North and East and the entire town is very cute. I haven't explored everything  in the town yet, but I have been to the local "Sports Bar" as well as the two Tabaccis. I only call the bar a sports bar because that is what the people here call it, but it is a far cry from the American sports bar. There is one tv in the bar and very random non-sports decorations. We visited the "Sports Bar" a few nights ago. It was quite fun because the vino was cheap (only 1€ for a cup) and nearly everyone from our program was there celebrating! I visited the Tabaccis today. The word Tabacci in Italian means tobacco, but in English a Tabacci would be a convenience store. One of the Italian professors told us on a tour that the convenience stores are called Tabaccis because they are places to buy cigarettes. There is a lot more than cigarettes in the Tabacci. They sell food, snacks, notebooks, deli meat and cheese, soap, etc.. However, Italians do like to smoke as I have observed in my first few days here. 

The first two weeks of the program are interesting at CIMBA because there are a few orientations and leadership/decision making workshops. I have met all of my professors and they seem very open and friendly. My largest class here is 45 people and my smallest is 8. Going to a larger school like Iowa, it is rare I experience class sizes this small. I am excited to be in such an intimate environment for learning.

Now a little bit about the food. CIMBA serves us Unfortunately, I am already beginning to become sick of pasta... They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. The breakfast consists of croissants or donuts, cereal selections, fruit, yogurt, and coffee. The coffee machine in the cafeteria is all in Italian and every day I have tried pressing a new button. Today I pressed a button that gave me hot chocolate! I have also tried the cappuccino, espresso, and tea. The lunches and dinners have three courses each. They consist of a pasta (or pizza) as one course, the next course is a meat and a vegetable, the third course is a salad. Sometimes they will cook us desserts which are delicious, I had an sort of almond cake two days ago. 

This weekend we are planning a trip to Venice! Stay tuned next week to hear about that! Also here are some pictures of the things I talked about!

Here I am with two of my friends Megan and Taylor enjoying some wine at the "Sports Bar." Technically this was my first legal drink, as I am only 20 years old!

These three pictures are of campus. The second picture is of our dorm, which is also the same building we have class and meals in. The third is of the North view from the building. The third picture also shows the front gate to the school. 

Ciao,

Carolyn

Pre-Departure Jitters

Hello Everyone! Today is the day I leave the United States for a semester in Italy. It is way too late and I should be sleeping, but here I am writing my first blog post.

Normally the day before a trip I would be up packing late into this hour due to my tendency to procrastinate, but not this time. My wonderful friend, Maggie helped motivate and coach me through the packing process (Thanks again!). That being said, my suitcase is packed (and under 50lbs!) and I am ready to go, I only have to wait approximately 12 hours. Currently I am a bundle of emotions ranging from excitement to nervousness to, I'll admit, a little bit of homesickness. I am more than ready to explore new cultures, meet new people, and experience new things, but there is one part of me that is paranoid something will go wrong during my travels and another part that misses my family and friends.

The program that I will be participating in is called CIMBA. CIMBA is located in Paderno del Grappa, a small town in the Italian Veneto region. Paderno sits at the base of Mount Grappa and is about 45 miles north of Venice. CIMBA stands for the Consortium Institute of Management and Business Administration. This program is great for me because it allows me to keep on track with my major credits and also explore a new place at the same time.  There are 35 other American Universities besides The University of Iowa that participate in CIMBA. I am excited to meet the other students and my professors.

In talking with others about studying abroad, I am usually asked what classes I am planning on taking. I dislike this question because I don't have a very interesting answer. I am participating in CIMBA to continue taking my business classes in order to stay on track for graduation, but in case you were wondering here is a list of the classes I will be taking.

• Valuation of Financial Claims
• Accounting for Management Analysis & Control
• Introduction to Management
• Introductory Financial Management
• Operations Management
• LIFE (a leadership workshop)

Well, there isn't much else to report now. I'm going to try and get some sleep. I'll post again when I am in Paderno del Grappa!