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
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
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 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
Thursday, August 16, 2012
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
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
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
Monday, August 13, 2012
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
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
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
Thursday, August 9, 2012
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
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
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 :-)
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
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
Sunday, August 5, 2012
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
Saturday, August 4, 2012
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?
Friday, August 3, 2012
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
Thursday, August 2, 2012
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
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
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