visits from katie and mario :)

i haven’t updated this in a while, and I’ve done so much!

last friday was the villa party. they have a big party here once a semester, where the director and professors invite family members, friends, and other architects from the city. the guest list had over 100 people on it! it was a lot of work to set up for. our cook, christina, and her boyfriend were in the kitchen preparing food for two days straight. we had to clear out our studios and cover the tables and sofa to make it look nice. we hung our sketches on the windows, too as the decoration for the evening.

^ one of my sketches is center left!

we had to rotate jobs throughout the party. some of us had to be bouncers and check off the guest list and bartenders. this was the day that my friend from home, Katie jewell, flew in, too. she was spending her spring break in italy visiting me, and i went to meet her at the airport at five. we got back to the villa and everyone got ready. we took the famous group picture on the stairs with our professors and then the party began! sylvia, the director, had her son and his band come to play for a little bit, and then we had our own playlist to play. it was a lot of fun and we ate, drank, and danced all night! katie didn’t even go to sleep!

katie, nate, and i as bartenders

which was probably not the smartest idea, since katie, michael, and i had plans to take a six am train to florence saturday morning. katie really wanted to see other parts of italy while she was here, and this weekend was the only time we’d be able to do it. so michael and i had found a bike tour of tuscany that started at nine am. we made it there with time to spare, and we were the only three on the tour (that was probably a good thing). our tour guide was bill and was awesome. it was kind of overcast when we got there, so he said we’d just bike a loop and see what we could see, then he’d drive us to the villa where we would have the wine tour, tasting, and lunch. we were fine with that, since the three of us were still struggling that morning ;)

but the sun came out while we were riding, and bill and michael decided it was a nice enough day to ride all the way to the villa. this is what they usually do, but bill said they usually stop every few minutes to take pictures, for him to tell us the history of the land, and to basically take a break. not today. it was the first ‘nice day’, so bill just wanted to ride. that’s all he kept saying- i just wanna ride! we were dying! he would come up behind katie and i and give us a push up the hills. it was absolutely gorgeous! (he did let us stop on the way back for some pictures!)

and the wine tour at the villa was really cool. we saw all the huge machines that make chianti and learned what it takes to be able to call it chianti (no irrigated grapes, right katie?) then we had lunch and tasted two different chiantis and olive oils that are all made there. everything was delicious! we rode back. our favorite part of the day: bill was taking a picture of the three of us with our bikes with florence in the background. he was excited about how good the picture came out and before i could even say it, he said ‘put it on facebook!’ i started laughing and said, ‘you have facebook?!’ he replied, ‘hell yeah!’ and before i could even ask him, he said, ‘but DO NOT add me as a friend!’ we were hysterical. it makes sense though, he said if everyone friended him, he would have hundreds of people that think they’re friends with him who he’d have to read about on his facebook haha by the end though, he told us we could add him. oh bill.

while katie was here, we went to the genoa aquarium, the largest in italy, and second largest in europe. it’s right down at the port and was designed by the famous Renzo Piano and was really cool. there was so much to see. my favorite were the manatees, penguins, and sharks.

we also went to como on tuesday. it was the first time that it was actually nice out for one of our day trips. it felt so good to be outside…but we didn’t get to see george clooney :(

thursday morning, katie and i took a train to nervi, which is a small town about twenty five minutes away from genoa. i’d been there before with friends in the beginning of the year, and knew it would be a quick, really pretty place for katie to see. the weather was beautiful and we spent the day walking and taking pictures on the rocks in the sea.

katie had to leave friday morning, and saturday morning i took a train to meet cousin mario in rome. he’s spending his spring break in italy too, and landed saturday morning. it was a crazy weekend in rome. saturday there was a protest parade (we think for clean water? not really sure…) and the city was setting up for a big marathon that was happening on sunday. we walked around the whole city, saw the coliseum, trevi fountain, st. peter’s, the spanish steps, and climbed castel sant’ angelo where we could see the whole city. on sunday, the marathon was crazy. it started and ended at the coliseum and made a loop through all of rome. we kept running into it. i found out after i got back that my studio professor, bernhard, ran it. i thought i had heard he might, so i was looking for him, but i didn’t see him. all mario wanted to do was go to the vatican museum and see the sistine chapel. apparently, it’s closed every sunday. we had no idea. we walked over to it anyway to take pictures. as we were walking to the center of st. peter’s, we see a bunch of kids running really fast. i thought they were late for their bus or something but we keep walking and see that it is packed with people. it’s just about noon and we walk faster in time to see everyone point and clap as the pope came to the window to speak. it was so cool! mario said that definitely made up for the museum being closed!

i left mario sunday afternoon. he’s off to florence for a few days and then is going to visit me in genoa on wednesday. we have a big studio review coming up wednesday afternoon, and then we’ll be getting ready for our final nine day trip to basel, veneto, and venice…so get ready for another long post!

we were really exhausted (and sore) by now. it was a six hour tour and over fifteen miles! we went back into florence to check into our hostel and napped until dinner time. we went to dinner at a place our teacher had brought us on our trip to florence before called za-za, and went to the red garter for drinks afterwards for karaoke night. the next day, michael headed home early, and katie and i went to academia to see david, to the cathedral, and since the duomo was closed, spent our day shopping.

independent travel

spring break : cologne + prague + newcastle + edinburgh

we arrived safely back to genoa last night. here are the highlights!


day one / sat 27 feb 2010 =


for the first half of the trip, it was catherine, jamie, kelsey, judith, and myself. judith and kelsey flew from milan to frankfurt late friday night, and the rest of us spent friday night in milan to catch an early flight saturday morning. once at the frankfurt airport, we took a bus to cologne. we walked from the train station to our hostel, the station backpacker’s hostel, which was the smelliest building we were ever in! thank goodness we were only there one night!

that day we went to the cologne cathedral and walked around the city a little bit. we visited the chocolate museum where we learned the history of cocoa, saw chocolate being made, tried free samples of fresh chocolate, and ate chocolate desserts at the café. it was amazing. we walked all over the city and tried to see some of the things our professor, bernhard, had suggested we check out.

we went to dinner at an awesome german pub called papa joe’s. they had two life size puppets playing accordions and you could put money in the machine and request a song. for dinner, i had white sausages which came in boiling water with delicious mustard on the side, a big twisted pretzel, and beer that cologne is famous for. funny story- judith had ordered pork and sauerkraut, and we couldn’t finish the sauerkraut. our table was right next to the bar and this guy came over to our table and started talking in german to judith pointing at her plate and at the menu. we all were trying to tell him we didn’t speak german, and without even looking up from the menu he said, ‘no problem…’ and started talking in perfect english. he told judith that the kitchen was just going to throw away the leftovers and that she should give it to him instead. he offered to buy her a beer for it, and she said she didn’t want another beer but would take a glass of wine. haha she picked the most expensive glass of wine and he got it for her! what a trade!

not wanting to go back to our smelly hostel, we walked around a little bit more. we found a really cool shopping street and eventually found a square that had a lot of bars and clubs. catherine and my favorite part of the evening: a tiny little bar called juicy dreams which specialized in ‘cocktails to go’…something we think every city should have ;) we eventually ended up at a cute little bar that was projecting the olympics. that was the first time all year we could see any of it!

day two / sun 28 feb 2010 =


we had most of the day before our afternoon shuttle back to frankfurt airport, so we left our luggage at the hostel and went to see a couple other places bernhard had recommended. we went to peter zumthor’s ‘kolumba’ which is a museum preserving part of a cathedral. it’s pretty well known because of the way he creatively uses light throughout the building. a couple of us also went to ‘museum ludwig’ which had really cool pop and modern art.

from frankfurt we flew to prague, capital of the czech republic. our hostel was amazing! it was not in the center of town, but it was run by two clemson graduates. (see, i can just run hostels in europe after i graduate!) we had booked the two floor apartment so we had a cute little kitchen with table, two separate bedrooms, our own bathroom, and access to the roof deck (although it was a little too cold to enjoy that).


day three / mon 1 mar 2010 =


we were well rested and had all taken wonderful showers in our nice, clean, not smelly hostel. we took the bus to the town center and traded in our euro for prague’s money called crowns. one euro is equal to about twenty five crowns. we went to the prague castle where we could see amazing views of the city.

for lunch we went to this cute little restaurant. i had pork and dumplings which were delicious. we explored the city a little more and headed back to the hostel to snack and get ready for the night. it was really the only night we would be able to go out all together, so we had to do it right. we went to this five story club where they played a different type of music on each floor.

there, we met a group of people from england who were actually staying at our hostel. they were about our age and we talked and danced with them all night. our new friend adam wanted to try to name all fifty states. we would give him hints until he could remember the names of them, and he had a stereotype for each state… florida was old people and oranges, alabama was known for incest, and when he got to new jersey and my friends told him i was from new jersey he looked at me and just laughed and said he felt bad for me. nj is always getting a bad rap!

by the time we left the club, the buses had stopped running so we had to walk all the way back to the hostel. we passed the time by singing disney songs…

day four / tues 2 mar 2010 =


today we saw the dancing house by frank gehry. i love this building! even though most locals hate it and call it ugly. it’s said to resemble two people dancing, which is how it got its name. it has a restaurant on the top floor and the rest is private i think, so we couldn’t go inside, but it was really cool to see. we also went to see the john lennon wall which has been covered in layers of paint and graffiti since the eighties. we had dinner at a place close to our hostel and stayed in because judith and kelsey had an early train the next morning.

day five / wed 3 mar 2010 =


jamie, catherine, and i had a flight to birmingham this afternoon and then took a train to newcastle. it was a lot of traveling and we ended up getting to our hostel pretty late. we had an eight girl dorm, but only two other girls were staying there that night. their names were lucy and hannah jane and they were two friends our age from a few hours away meeting in newcastle for a couple days. they gave us some ideas of things to do and see and left early the next morning.

day six / thurs 4 mar 2010 =

our first stop was starbucks, delish! then we walked to see this bridge that i had learned about sophomore year. it’s called the gateshead millennium bridge. it has two lanes for bicycles and pedestrians and its curve is supported by cables. at least once a day, everyone is cleared off the bridge for the bottom curve to lift so boats can pass through. it has been compared to an eyelid because of its shape and the way both parts move closer together. we planned our whole day around this, and went in museums and exhibits while we waited for the magic 2:00 bridge opening. i loved it!

there was also this crazy looking arts center and concert hall next to the bridge. it was such a cool looking building and totally free and public so anyone can walk through it. it reminded us of some works we had seen by other famous architects this semester, but it was actually created by local architects which is kind of cool.


then we took a bus to the edge of town to see ‘the angel of north’. it was unbelievable. said to have the wing span of a jet, it was hard to even fit the whole thing in the camera’s view!

that night catherine and i went to see the lady gaga concert. it was ridiculous! she changed her outfit for every song! it was such a good concert and we had so much fun!

day seven / fri 5 mar 2010 =


today we took a train from newcastle to edinburgh. it was an afternoon train, and we had to check out of our hotel by ten, so we spent a few hours at the starbucks across the street from the train station with all of our luggage. we finally got on the train and arrived in edinburgh a few hours later.


we took a cab to our hostel, where our friends michael and zac (from the villa, fourth year landscape architect majors) were waiting for us. they had gotten in the day before and had already been to st. andrews. for dinner we went to hard rock café (our favorite!) and had nachos, burgers, pulled pork, chicken, and pasta. we went to a small bar near our hostel afterwards and told each other all about our spring breaks so far.


day eight / sat 6 mar 2010 =


zac had to leave in the morning to meet his girlfriend in milan (she’s staying in the villa all this week) and michael told us girls how to get to the edinburgh castle, since they had done it the day before. the castle was really cool and we could see a lot more of the city from up there. catherine’s family is scottish so she absolutely loved it. parts of the castle were redone with lifesize scenes acting out the history. in the jail they had hammocks hung with speakers hidden in them so it sounded like people were really laying in them. it was a total disney experience, except you had to walk through it and there were no catchy jingles.

afterwards, we met michael at the scotch whiskey museum (it was only eleven am!) we got to ride in a barrel while we learned how to make whiskey (another disney experience). after the ride we sat down while a girl told us about the different types of whiskey made in scotland. we got to smell each one and then decide which one we wanted to taste. we walked into another room to have a real toast. we were looking at the largest whiskey collection in the world. all of the unopened bottles belonged to this guy claive vidiz and he sold them when he was getting old and didn’t want his family to have them. it was crazy!

we spent the day shopping (they had an urban outfitters!) although no one bought anything because by now you can imagine all of this traveling left all of us very poor. we ended up going to see alice in wonderland (in english because we were in an english speaking country yay!!) and we all loved it. we went back to our hostel for a little while before dinner. we went to pizza hut and had garlic bread, wings, and two pizzas…it was amazing!

afterwards we went on our own little pub crawl and stopped by three or four places. a lot of them had live bands playing and listening to the scottish music was really cool. at our last stop we met this woman named angela who was ridiculous. she was out with a bunch of people and started talking to us because she saw us laughing at her husband who was dancing hilariously. she asked who we had voted for in the election (and named scottish people) and i told her we were from america. her friend said, ‘america, well then i bet you voted for simon cowell!’ we all started laughing and angela said, ‘no i know who they voted for- the osbornes! sharon osborne!’ we couldn’t even explain how wrong they were. we asked where she was from and she asked if we had ever heard of newcastle. of course we had, we just came from there! she then went on to tell us she was from this little beach town but it was always freezing. any sentence she said, it ended with, ‘BUT IT’S FREEZING!’ we were dying! eventually one of her friends dropped a drink on the ground and they all rushed out. she was the highlight of our night!

day nine / sun 7 mar 2010 =


we packed up and had to check out of our hostel by ten. we took a bus to the airport and waited for our flight which was in the afternoon. we weren’t bored…i had stupidly misplaced my passport and the four of us had to go through my bags to find it so i could fly home. it was really scary and eventually michael found it in a bag that had all of my edinburgh pamphlets in it (weird i hadn’t used it since the flight to newcastle, but oh well) i was so relieved, and we couldn’t stop laughing about it all day.


fortunately we had today (monday) off from classes so everyone could catch up on sleep, do laundry, and relax from all of this traveling. all of us are glad to be back to home cooked (and free!) meals and clean showers and bathrooms. off for a day trip to torino tomorrow, and then a little less than three weeks until our final nine day trip to basel, veneto, and venice!

oh one more thing! we have a blog that’s part of our grade this semester, where everyone from the villa contributes. mine won’t be up for a couple days, but if you want to check it out it’s: www.tigersinitalia.blogspot.com   there are some good group pictures on the left side, and more will be added soon!