Day 24 - Lungomare Live Sessions

One thing I had to do whilst in Calabria was grab my laptop and IPad and head down to the beach to do a live recording at sunset. You can't help being inspired by your surroundings

Day 23 - Visiting relatives

It's obligatory whenever I come to Calabria that I have to visit the relatives, but there are too many to visit, but you try and fit in what you can. One advantage is that you are always invited for lunch or dinner, which equals heaps of fantastic food. Unfortunately no photos :-(

Day 22 - Beach time

Can any words match this photo?

Day 25 - Time to head back...

... To Siena of course. I could post up more beach photos and stunning scenery, but instead here is the car I drove around for 4 days. It may be a base model Fiat 500, but it was still fun to drive :-)

Day 21 - Scappare

Translation: to escape. Which is exactly what I did from Siena, got on a plane to go back to Calabria for a couple of days, and by looking at the picture below you can see why I came back

Day 20 - Race day

Finally the day has arrived where the whole town is awaiting a horse race that only lasts about 1 minute and 14 seconds. If you have to summarise what is the Palio, my professor told me this quote, "The Palio is not important because it's old, it's old because it's important"

Day 19 - Buon Ferragosto

The 15th August is a public holiday here in Italy, and it's a day where most Italians will go to the beach as it's summer, but not the Senesi (people from Siena). There is the trial race in the morning and evening, where I missed out on getting into the piazza in the morning, but had a great spot for the evening race just after the first corner, and this race is just as busy as the real thing. Unfortunately I was taking photos from my cameras and not my phone, so nothing to upload, but I did sneak in this photo of a big contrada dinner

Day 18 - Taking it all in

Today was the last day of class before having a 5 day weekend for Ferragosto, so that meant I couldn't go to the prova (trial race) in the morning, but I made sure I went to every other event for the Festa del Palio that I knew, which was the mass inside the Duomo, which is probably the only time you'll have a noise level above 100dB in a church from the 10 drummers. Also there was a concert in the piazza at night, but most importantly, the evening prova where I managed to get tickets to watch it from a terrace. I don't want to think how much it costed, but it's worth the experience

Day 17 - Start of the Palio

It's Monday morning, I should be in class, instead it's the first day of the festa del Palio

Day 16 - Time for sun

Again, let the picture do the talking

Day 15 - Weekend drive through Chianti

I think this picture speaks for itself

Day 14 - Room with a view

At first I didn't notice this, but this is the view from the 2 windows in my class

Day 13 - Gastronomical Journey

One great thing about Siena is the cuisine. Even though this isn't my first time, not only am I going back to the places that I love and miss, I'm also finding new places to go and things to try. I'm not going to think about how much weight I'm putting on, just enjoy the moment, and the amazing food

Day 12 - Becoming a local

After living in a town, you start to see things about a town that take time compared to just being a tourist. For example, the last time I was here at first there was only one restaurant that I knew which I went to so regularly and always took other people with me to the point that I even got one meal for free, but when I went there moments ago, they said they were full even though I could see empty tables, so I went to another restaurant nearby that I knew and they recognised me straight away, so you can guess where I'm going back to :-)

Day 11 - Just an ordinary afternoon

So this is the view I have from where I'm sitting to do my homework. Where else in the world will you have this?

Day 10 - Back to reality

So how do you follow up from a day trip to Ferrari? You go back to uni, where you are trying to understand everything that the professor says, which is not that easy when it's in a language you are trying to learn. Anyway, the good news, it's confirmed the change to morning class, which means no, more late nights, but allows better utilisation of the afternoons

Day 9 - For the car lovers

The last time I was in Italy quite a few of my friends went to Maranello to visit the Ferrari museum, but I never went because when they went I had other plans, which I kind of regret not going. But a couple of months ago I read an article about a new Enzo Ferrari museum that opened in Modena in March this year, so now there are 2 museums to visit, so I have to see this.

So what can I say about the 2 museums? If you even remotely like cars, you will love this place, but the most amazing thing to do is rent a Ferrari to drive, and the 2 cars I drove were the Scuderia and the F355, 2 completely different cars, but still an amazing experience

Day 8 - Beach time

So after a very late night, this resulted in a very late start to the day, which can easily result in a day lost due to Siena not exactly being well connected by public transport, so a quick decision was made on the criteria of being near the sea, and somewhere I've never seen before, so I chose Viareggio.

So what can I saw about Viareggio? I was actually quite surprised as it is a nice seaside town and I had a great lunch with a beautiful view, what more can you ask for?

Day 7 - Some good news

So there are some advantages to having classes in the afternoon, it's called sleeping in. But when I arrived at class and saw the professor that I'll have for this month, who I've had previously so after the initial abuse of still being here studying, he told me that from next Tuesday the class will be moved to the morning, which means no late nights, but allows you to travel in the afternoons to see nearby towns which you couldn't do if you have afternoon class, so it's a doubled edged sword, but I prefer mornings. Anyway, it's Friday night in Siena, time to have some fun, and the photo shows the best way to start that

Day 6 - Another favourite location

Piazza Salimbeni is probably my favourite is up there as one of my favourite piazza's, and I have taken a heap of photos of it, but never one at this time with this much light, which is 10 minutes before sunset. Enjoy

Day 6 - Welcome to Italy

It's funny how certain events give you a reality check to remind you where you are. First off yesterday afternoon I was on the train coming back from Firenze that was running 45 minutes, which meant I was going to be late for meeting up with a friend for dinner, and when I gave her the news she said "Welcome to Italy", exactly what I was thinking. Then this morning at 4am the fire alarm decided to go off for 20 minutes for only a false alarm. Then to top it off, when I got to uni this morning I found my class has been moved to the afternoon and it can't be moved, Welcome to Italy indeed. Anyway, not going to worry about it, time is to precious to be annoyed

Day 5 - Free afternoon

Since I had a free afternoon because I finished at uni earlier than expected, I figured why not go Firenze to do some shopping, as you do, with some good results from my favourite shirt shop in Italy

Day 5 - back to where it all started

First day of uni, which means I have to do the written & oral entrance exam, and even though I was in level A2 & B1 last time, somehow I managed to get into level B2. Lets see how I go at the first class tomorrow morning

Day 4 - Relaxing day before uni

Finally got to catch up on sleep and get the important things done like unpacking my bags, haircut and some shopping, but most importantly, a good lunch and dinner

Day 3 - Familiar location

It's been a while since I've seen this, but it hasn't changed one bit. For those that don't know, this is Piazza del Campo at night

Day 3 cont. - Proudly brought to you by...

I know I set myself an alcohol budget, but I had to purchase my 2 favourite white wines in the world on the right, and on the left is where I broke my budget as a reminder of the great lunch I had at this place

Day 3 - Good Morning

While most people are heading to work on a Monday morning, I get to wake up to this view from the bathroom window of my friends apartment where you can just, see the top of the duomo. I think I'm going to like this Monday

One night in Rome

Sounds like the name of a concert, but it's not that glamorous. After traveling for 30 hours, I should be ready to crash when I get to my hotel, but it's not every day that you are in Rome on a Saturday night, so I better make the most of it.

First up is a good meal. Unfortunately my favourite was closed by the time I arrived, but there was another place that I knew nearby that was still open. Even at close to midnight, this place was packed, and for good reason, that pizza e birra was one of the best I've had in Roma

Day 2 - still traveling

After next to no sleep in Rome, thanks to the church bells at 7am, I had to choose how to get to Siena, Bus or Train? Train it is, but it's one fast train and another very slow train, but as long as I get there and leave my bags and not have to transport them until the end of my trip then I'll be happy.

After finally arriving at my accommodation for the month, all I had time to do was get ready and go to Firenze for the night to meet with friends.

First time in China

What to do on a 8 hour stop over in Beijing? Unfortunately it's not that much time to get out and see the city, plus you need a visa which costs $100 so it wasn't really worth it, but luckily there is free wifi in the terminal, but somehow facebook isn't working. Anyway, time to find somewhere good to eat

Coming Home - 1 hour until departure

Finally, this moment has arrived. I purchased this plane ticket close to 3 months ago and it felt like an eternity, but I'm now sitting at the gate ready to board. I'm not sure when I'll have the next chance to post, but next up is a 12 hour flight to Beijing for an 8 hour stop over and then another 11 hours to Rome. Time to board my flight :-)

Old Blog - New Journey

As some of you may know, in 23 hours I'll be stepping on a plane again going back to Italy for the next 5 weeks, so I figured that I would reuse this blog to post details of my journey. I know what most people are thinking, a couple of posts in the beginning and then nothing, but this time I'm going to make the extra effort, plus it helps when you have technology to make your life easier. Anyway, still haven't packed, so I better hop to it