ilovecharts:

This is pretty much what it’s like to be in your 20s

Things I’ve done today:

• class
• cooking a terrible crockpot meal
• art history major get together at the Tang
• going to the nice chop and dollar tree with greyslacks
• cleaned the kitchen
• hung up a mobile I made this summer.  So sparkly it looks like a pixie threw up on it

Things I need to do now:

• send an email
• reading and question answering for contemporary art history class

Thanks I want to do now:

• find 2 AAA batteries for my teeny purple pocket dollar tree radio
• go to the studio and paint
• research the hot air balloon festival planned this weekend
• dance to Skidmore WSPN epic 90’s music show on the radio

Hey Eliza, what did you eat for dinner?

Eliza: Jello, diet coke, and orange juice.

I need a meal plan.

Anonymous asked: you have a beautiful mind.

hey thanks!  but my mind is no comparison to my incredibly good looks…

So, where did I leave off?  Cefalu.  After Palermo and Cefalu, we went to this little beach hood called Giardini-Naxos.  Naxos…doesn’t that sound Greek?  You’re right!  Giardini-Naxos is the location of the first Greek colony in Scilia.  We saw the archeological dig site, but there was no one there (and we didn’t pack our lock-cutters) so we couldn’t get in and poke around.  Giardini-Naxos is also like a mini-Myrtle Beach because as soon as we turned off the interstate onto the exit, we saw nightclubs and tacky beachy-bars that led all the way to the coast.  They were all closed for the cold season still though.  Our hostel, Gianni House was super nice.  Best part: the view.  From the roof balcony (the whole roof, complete with a lounge chairs, a little barbeque area and a bar) loomed the majestic Mount Etna, Sciliy’s active volcano.  Everyday, we could site smoky ash emerging from its craggy peaks.  Near Gianni’s was an amazing pastry shop called Pasticceria di Casablanca Massimo where I singlehandedly decimated the cannoli population in Giardini-Naxos.  They sprinkled the top cream parts with a little crushed pistachio.  And the outside fried part was what was incredible.  The stuff it when you order it so that the crust stays dry and crisp.  And delicious.  Can I just share that I had never tried cannoli until last year when I ate one in NY?  They changed my life.  And my dress size.  I asked the girl at the counter in Italian if all cannoli had chocolate chips inside the cream and she said not always.  Then she gave me a cannoli with chocolate cream inside…not a good as the original, but good.

In other Giardini-Naxos food news, we ate at this place both nights called Ristorante Al Fagiano.  Wonderful.  Good food, good prices, good staff.  The waitress was actually really adorable and, without speaking much English at all, patiently tried to understand wild arm gestures and exaggerated intonation when my mom tried to tell her that she liked the fabric table clothes and napkins.  We had the bruschetta (highly recommended mostly on account of the wonderfully fresh and young (thus a touch spicy) olive oil and perfectly toasted bread.  But then the tomatoes were good too…aw, well really all of it was awesome).  Then spaghetti norma (pasta with tomato base with eggplant (and also sometimes black olives)) and several different pizzas.  We were big fans of Fagiano’s.

Also at a little produce store near our hostel, we went for another round of premium scilican oranges.  That is to say: they tasted like creamscicles and were the size of infants.  And I’ve come to hate those oranges now because when I walk into the Pig down the street and check out the citrus, I just can’t bring myself to buy anything: no orange will even come close to the transcendental orange experiences of Sicily.

Giardini Naxos is close to Taromina, a larger tourist destination than Giardini-Naxos.  The thing to see in Taromina is Greek (then Romanly remodeled) theatre dramatically set on a hill top from where you can look down and see the towns of Taromina and Giardini-Naxos nestled next to the ocean.  It was beautiful.  On our way out, we saw some Italian highschool girls attempting to take “sexy pictures” in the arches of the theatre: three girls pulled their shirts off their midrifts and pressed against the brick walls with pouty lips.  Bahaha it was so funny.  Taromina is also filled with cute touristy shops and cafes.  We got lunch at this AMAZING little place called Cristina’s foccace and pizza.  There we got an arancini with ragu inside and a little foccaca with sardines and green olives.  We shared a bench outside with a whole group of airline attendants wearing blue suits and scarfs.   Cheap, good, and local.  Mi piace.  From there, I wanted to see the old Norman fort on the very tippy top of Taromina.  Someone told us there was a bus and a bus stop near.  After asking about 5 people the way to the bus stop, we finally found it! On the way up, we were pretty busy praying the bus didn’t barrel off the extremely narrow roads.  The view from the top was amazing!  Although the fort wasn’t that impressive.  I mean, I know it’s old and all but there really wasn’t’ that much to see as far as ruins.  But it was worth it for the view.  From the top we got a good look at Isola Bella, which is this little peninsula jutting out from maninland Taromina, only connected by a little strip of rocky sand.  To get from Taromina town to the Isola, we hoped on this cable car lift for a couple euros and sailed down the hill.  On the way, we glided over kids playing soccer and an old lady gardening.

            Isola bella was cute.  Mom looked for blue sea glass (there is usually more green than blue) and fended off these little Asian women who  kept bothering her asking to give a foot massage by trying to sell her glass pieces haha.  When I become a millionaire, I will find a place like Isola Bella to build my beach island retreat.  If you’re nice, maybe I’ll let you stay with me…

Next stop: Siracusa, Enna, Trapani, Erice

After much delay, I will finally write up on the rest of my tour Italia.  I’ve taken this initiative because yesterday, I paid a little visit to my frand Charlie in da ATL.  And then much last-semester-in-Florence reminiscing ensued.  I hate to just list things that happened.  So if you read something that INSPIRES YOUR SOUL (I mean, probably all of my effortless prose will inspire you…), you should ask me in real life and I’ll tell you about it.

Okay, after Palermo was Cefalu, a little beach town about 40 minutes east of Palermo.  How did we get out of Palermo?  Well, we rented a car.  Driving a car in/near Palermo is flirting with death.  A) driving rules are ignored by everyone  B) speed limits are loose guidelines  C) there are SO many cars in Palermo thus enormous amounts of traffic all the time.  I knew that it was supposed to be tricky driving in Palermo (all the guide books say so) but I didn’t think it would be like this.  All I’m saying is that I’m really glad you have to be 25 or something to rent a car and my mom had to drive.  Luckily, our trusty Fiat Panda (a fierce piece of machinery despite its name) came equipped with a GPS so directions were usually easy.

Once we were out of Palermo, the driving became tremendously easier.  And we drove along the coast for a long ways so it was scenic.  Then we arrived in Cefalu.  We didn’t really understand the layout of the city, so we parked a long way from the center of town.  First we checked out the shore.  We didn’t linger long.  Just long enough to strip our shoes and attempt to take a self-photo on the beach with minimal forearm in the composition.  Afterwards we wandered the quaint medieval streets lined with stone building with balconies and awnings jutting out until we came to this little area called il lavatoio.  The history of it is cool but laziness is seizing my body so I’ll just cite www.cefalu.it, my trusted Cefalu source: The inhabitants called this celebrated washing place “‘u ciumi” (river), but scholars have expressed many doubts about its medieval origin. This charming place was used by women who wanted to wash until a few decades ago because of its cool running water. It is mentioned by Boccaccio and is referred to as “Cefaloide”, which gives strength to the thesis that connects the etymology of the name of the place to water. At the entrance, on the right side, at the foot of the stairs, there is a poem by Vincenzo Auria: “Here flows Cefalino, more salubrious than any other river, purer than silver, colder than snow”. You go down a picturesque flight of stairs made of lava stones to a room covered by a low ceiling, which makes the washing place look like a cave. Out of numerous mouths in three walls there comes an imposing quantity of water.

Mom liked it.  Next was the cathdral built by Norman king Roger II.  The story is that Roger got caught and lost in a storm and pledged that if he weathered the tempest, he would erect a beautiful church at the first place his ship landed.  And Cefalu was the place!  It was started around 1130 and has Norman and Arab architectural influences but the coolest is the giant Christ pantocrater in the apse with gold tesserae.

And that’s about it for ye olde Cefalu.  Mom says it was her favorite place.  It was awful cute.

HI!

I haven’t updated in awhile but I have a lot to say now!  Write now, I am headed home- I’m in the Newark airport.  I left Italy yesterday morning at 5:30 and said goodbye to dark, sleeping Florence from the window of a cab.  The two weeks before previous to going home were spent in Sicilia with my mom!  We started off in Palermo, a fascinating place.  There are three things in Palermo that should be noted:  Baroque buildings, trash, and groups of men hanging out.  Everywhere you look in Palermo you can find a Baroque building, and more than likely, that building will probably be a church because there are like a bizillion churches there.  So the whole city is made up of beautiful, over-decorated, undulating facade buildings, complete with those curly volutes on the sides.  But the best part about these buildings is their condition: I saw many a crumbling and grimy façade with scaffolding and broken windows.  They looked like Ms. Havisham’s beautiful wedding cake that had been sitting out for years and years on her elegantly set table waiting for her wedding day that never was.  Usually, next to every awesome building, you could find huge piles of trash.  At first, we thought the garbage guys were on strike because there was no way this would fly in a major tourist destination in America.  Well, after a couple days, we decided that Palermo just didn’t mind the trash.  Then we went to see some other cities in Sicilia and came back to Palermo for one day, the trash was still there.  Nearby the piles of trash, you can find groups of guys just hanging out.  Like a lot of guys.  And they all stop and watch you go by.  Pretty sketchy.  The best was a group of elderly gents in Piazza Independencia playing poker on a makeshift table of buckets and cardboard.  Do these guys work?  Do they have families?  And the best was when one member of a hanging-out group would whistle or say something like “Hello, what is your name?” then my mom would walk up, wag her finger at them, and reply, “No, no.  Mi bambini.”  Bahaha

In Palermo, we didn’t get to see the Archeological Museum.  We found it on the map, walked to it, looked around for it, but couldn’t find it, asked a man in a bar if he could tell us where it was- the man walked out of his bar and pointed across the street to a big building covered with scaffolding and restoration drapes.  It was closed.  So- BLOGGER NATION, a message for you:  Palermo Archeological Museum is currently closed.

What we DID see in Palermo was the Capuchin Crypt.  Pretty spooky.  I read about it one time in some magazine and you have probably seen pictures of it somewhere.  Basically, you pay two euros to see the remains of dead people in the basement of a church.  It was chilling.  And mom kept saying, “Well, death really does even out the old playing field, doesn’t it?”, which made it creeper.  It was “cryptic,” to say the least!  Baha there was this little girl they called, “La Bambina” who was in a little side chapel sort of place.  She died around 1900 when she was about 3 or so.  Her little body was in a glass box (think snow-white’s glass casket) and she was PERFECTLY preserved.  Her skin was a little sallow and her silk dress a bit crumpled, but a little curl ran across her forehead and eyes were closed like she was sleeping.  So sad- she was so young.  Most of the bodies we saw were regular lay people, but there were also Capuchin monks.  Many of the dead are hung vertically in niches on the wall while the rest lay horizontally on boards attached to the wall.  It looked like the earliest were about 1820’s or 30’s.  Some of the women were wearing the most beautiful dress with lace cuffs and collars.  I’m gonna put some pictures on here so you can see them.  Now that I’m writing about it, it does seem funny-strange that we paid money to look at dead people in a basement, but it’s what we did.  I guess death is just interesting.

In Palermo, we got to do some market-looking.  The market we went to was called la vucciria-it’s the biggest in Palermo.  The vucciria turns into a fish/food/produce market, where we marveled at the whole swordfish being vended in seafood stands.  We got some of those little wild strawberries that I’ve been seeing around markets since I came to Italy but have never tried.  Turns out, they weren’t that good haha.  Ours were sort of sour…maybe they are supposed to be like that?  I dunno.  But when the lady who sold them to us wrapped them up in this little newspaper cone- as in, she took and old newspaper (little the shinier variety that ads are printed on) and quick wrapped it into a cone, dumped the berries in, and pushed in the top to seal it.  Mi piace.

Food of Palermo.  We ate at this little apertivo place near a cool Baroque city gate very near the harbor.  So, in case you’re unfamiliar with apertivo, you pay for a drink (mom got a gin and tonic and I got a Bellini (grapefruit juice with champagne)) and then you can feast on all these goodies that they put out on the bar.  At this little place in Palermo, we at these strange fried potato things. They are like thick, squishy potato chips.  Very heavy.  Like raw fries but thicker and coated in a batter.  Then there is camponata: a mix of eggplant, other little veggies, a sweet and tart sauce.  So good.  We ate it on crackers.  My favorite was this other fried potato thing with MINT inside.  Such an interesting combination: fried, potato, and mint.  Like a Southern-American with Irish heritage on a Caribbean vacation drinking a mojito.

So that was Palermo.  Next is Cefalu, Giardini Naxos, Taromina, Enna, Syracuse, and Monreale. 

and I am so sad all this is ending so soon. addio, Firenze.

Right now, my mom is in the kitchen talking to Marco and Cristina. I love it. I know that being about to communicate in a common language makes things hard, and sometimes trying, but I’m just so glad that Marco and Cristina are patient and my mom is trying so hard. I guess I should maybe be out there, doing my best to help translate, but I am not very good at that anyways.

Gah, I love this right now. I am so lucky.

Things are winding down here in Florence for me.  Namely, all my friends are evacuating the country- everyone is going home.  The program ends day after tomorrow.  It’s awesome that I don’t have to leave as soon, but it’s like I have to leave twice because all we talk about it leaving and saying goodbye to this place we’ve called home for three months.  And then when I actually have to leave, then I have to rethink all over again about leaving.

Today we went to a Artigianale feira- or an arts and crafts fair.  It was in the Fortezza near Santa Maria Novella and it was AWESOME.  Except I am not a very good craft-buyer/ go to craft-shows with person because I’ll see things and think “I can totally make that” and then baulk at the price.  So craft fairs are like challenges to me- I see things and then think about how to make them/make them even better.  But there WERE these really cute little fabric flowers made out of subtly shiny organza fabric.  And it was a soft dusty pink color.  It was just a simple flower with little green fabric on the back and a pin.  But the girl at the stall looked so edgey AND european (definately a win-win sitc) and it would have looked good on my outfit that I am wearing today.  On the otherhand, it was 18 euros- which is almost 24 dollars.  Non mi piace.

Then I got a porchetta panino for lunch.  And revelation that I don’t think I mentioned yet- I like frizzante water now!  Like alot too.  I always thought is was sort of yucky- like it tasted different than regular water but it’s totally great.  And it’s good for when it’s really hot.  and I think I drink it more slowly than I do regular water.  So I enjoy the act of drinking more.  I dunno.  All I know is I will miss it back teh states.

And, prepare yourself dear Reader, one of the next entries will be the “what I love and will miss about Italy” entry.

Tomorrow la mia mama arriva qui.  E poi andiamo in Sicila!

Ciao per ora.