things ill miss. part one

Watching these birds from my kitchen window. 

Tuscan Bread.  Something I have truly come to love. 

Views like this. 

And this.  (Taken from my terrace)

Hugs from her. 

Everyday. 

Umbria.  (Mom!  This is like Tuscany- only prettier in my opinion.)

Although I am looking forward to going home.  I know I am really going to miss it here.  So I have started a series of things I'll miss-  not to be sad.  But to appreciate them for at least one more week :)

Ellen

arezzo, assisi, umbria, monterchi, and sansepolcro

My weekend in pictures.  (A few weekends ago) 

Italy is a beautiful place.  It reminds me of Texas in that there are so many different regions and landscapes.  Every time I go somewhere I am constantly surprised.  It's amazing.  

Sometimes I ride on the trains with my jaw literally dragging on the tracks.  God is so creative.  To think that this is only a glimpse of His splendor.  Wow. 

This was one of my favorite weekend trips.  I really bonded with my friends and we all had so much fun.    I feel so blessed to be able to have opportunities like this.   

3 weeks in pictures

Hello!  I realize it's been a long time since I've blogged.  And instead of trying to give you a recap of everything that's happened, I opted to just show you :)

Amanda and I in Sienna!

A view of San Gimignano from one of the towers.

Some good eats made by yours truly. 

Riding bike in Lucca with Sara Abad!

One word.  Midterms. 

My mom and I at Vatican City!

Trevi Fountian! 

Changing of the guards in Athens! 

My mom and I at the Acropolis with a view of Athens in the background.

A view of Florence from the Boboli Gardens. 

Mom and I in TUSCANY!

So basically I did a lot of traveling, studied for finals, cooked new things, had the most amazing trip with my mom, and saw 'cool stuff.'  It has been a great 3 weeks, and it's soon to be another great 3 weeks plus more! 

I would like to apologize to Paige and Anna for not being a good blogger.  And I am asking for forgiveness in the form of Kinder chocolate. What do you say?  Am I forgiven?

Have a great day y'all! 

Ellen

Saturday and Sunday!

 I am obviously going a little slow!  But here we go, Saturday morning started early where we met my art history class in Pisa for a day trip to Pisa and Lucca.  We of course started off our day with cappuccino number 7 and 8.  Where I saw my first sighting of latte art!!!!  I of course photographed it to share with y'all.

The closest thing I've seen to latte art! Pisa- Italy

In front of the leaning tower with Dad

We then went into every. single. museum.  Pisa had to offer.  In about 3 hours.  It was pretty intense, but cool at the same time.  I am really glad I got to see the Leaning Tower with my dad, it was the first time both of us had seen it, and really cool that we got to do it together.  After a quick lunch break we got on the train for Lucca! 

On the train headed for Lucca! 

 This was actually one of my favorite parts of the day.  It was so cool to jsut hop on the train with my dad and buzz over to another little town.  Once in Lucca we walked around for a bit before we met up with my class.  We then toured the beautiful, quaint city of Lucca.  Where I personally left a little piece of my heart,  it has definitely been one of my favorite places in Italy.  If not my favorite all together.  It just had a charm to it that is hard to find in a big city like Florence.

Lucca

During our afternoon trip we took advantage of the break to enjoy cappuccino 9 and 10 and scope out some good places for dinner.  Once we finished our tour we headed to a tasty fish place for dinner, and headed home.  Which actually ended up being pretty crazy because our train wasn't running so we had to take a bus to another train station.  It ended up working out even though I was little scared! 

Dad at the top of San Miniato- enjoying the view of Florence.

Sunday was a bit of a slower day, I mean what else do you expect after a full day with Helen? We started off the day with breakfast and cappuccino 11 and 12 then hiked up to San Miniato, a church up on a hill in Florence.  It has a great view of the city and I personally enjoy the hike.  

Festival de Gelato!  The oldest gelato place in Florence! 

After we relaxed a little and took in the gorgeous view we had a deeelightful brunch at the bottom of the hill.  This could possibly be one of my favorite meals I have had all of 2010.  It was sooo good, and of course it was a lot of fun!  I can't wait to go back!  After lunch we were pretty full and spent the afternoon walking around popping in and out of shops and just enjoying the city.

Cappuccino and swan cream puffs.  So good! 

We continued to enjoy cappuccino 13 and 14 spent time in Piazza Duomo, did some people watching. We even went back to the international festival to get round two of smurf gummies! Overall I had an excellent weekend with my dad and made so many memories that I will have forever.  Thanks for coming Dad, it really means a lot to me, I really enjoyed seeing the city with you.
Ellen

Thursday and Friday!

Starting with Thursday night.

My dad arrived Thursday night around 9:15, after walking to his hotel (yes, we walk EVERYWHERE- speaking of, I have only been in a car three times in the last four weeks, two of which happened this weekend) we went out for some good eats! Although I don’t have any pictures, this was my favorite meal of the whole weekend, and the best I have had in Florence!  We had a five-course pasta sampler followed by chicken curry for me, and fresh (raw) fish for my dad!  Then we of course finished the night with tiramisu! I mean what else would you expect in Italy?  This meal ended pretty late, so afterwards we headed home. 

Friday morning I met my dad at the hotel and had a delicious breakfast!  Muesli with yogurt and peaches, accompanied by a cappuccino (number 1 and 2).  Afterwards we put on our comfortable shoes and climbed to the top of the Duomo!  I forget the exact number but somewhere around 450 steps to the top.  Think about it this way- if it’s 25 steps to the second floor of a building we walked up 18 floors.  It was sooo worth it.  It was truly a great way to start out the day.

Inside of my favorite room in the Palazzo Vecchio. 

After that we walked through the famous leather market, and then of course the central market!  One of my favorite parts of Florence!  I then went on to take my dad to see my schools campus, and to News Cafe to have cappuccino number 3 and 4.  Once we refilled on caffiene we walked through the Palazzo Vecchio, it was so beautiful!  I found it really interesting because in most of the rooms the walls were bare and white washed, but the ceilings were magnificent!  We then made our way across the Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge that is full of jewelry!

The famous Ponte Vecchio!

We then had lunch at Mama Gina where we enjoyed some delicious ribollita!  A tuscan specialty! Of course followed by espresso number 5 and 6.  After lunch we walked around, did a little shopping, and just hung around the city.  We had dinner at a place called yellow, went out for some gelato and called it a night!  Overall we had a great day in Florence.

And for today I am making chicken noodle soup for dinner.  (Mom I didn't even use a recipe, and it's completely homemade, plus it's my first time to make it!)  All of my roommates are sitting in the kitchen drooling over the lovely aroma filling the air.  I just might have to share! 

Have a great day friends and family! 

I miss y'all! 

Ellen

Bologna- or lack there of.

This past Saturday my friends Amanda Kayla and I decided to make a little day trip to a neighboring town Bologna (pronounced bo-loan-yuh).  And what an adventure we had!

We of course started out our day with breakfast at News Cafe! Much to my surprise, the guy working there knew what I wanted! I am now officially a News Cafe Regular.  In case that isn't very significant to you- you can just think of it as Ellen making Italian friends!

After we finished our cappuccinos we made our way over to the train station and bought round trip tickets to Bologna without a single hitch.  Only to find that the tickets we bought were not for the train we thought! So we ended up waiting in line for about twenty minutes, only to find out that the next train we could take with the tickets we had purchased wasn't taking off for about another hour and a half!  We decided to use our time wisely, and went shopping!!! Which really wasn't that great, except I did pick up a much needed wool sweater.  Once we had stopped into enough stores, it was time to get on the train.  Which you might be surprised to hear- we did successfully! We got on the right train, but we missed our stop!

Stuck in Pistoia.  Whaat?

Hahah it was so funny, so we got off at the next stop, then got on another train (which we didn't have a ticket for) and rode back to the staion we were suposed to get off at!  THEN we were finally on the right train and only an hour and ten minutes to Bologna!

A building in Bologna? 

We finally arrived in Bologna 10 minutes to 3! And by this time we were starving. So our first mission was, to eat lunch/dinner.  Mission accomplished.  Unfortunately we didn't have a map, and as strange as this may sound we couldn't find one anywhere! Fearing we wouldn't be able to find the train station again, and worn out and flustered form our earlier train experience.  We decided it would be best if we avoided wandering to much.  After an hour or so of walking around we were basically worn out.  It was sooo busy there and the weather wasn't the best.  So we decided to head back to the train station.

Kayla and Amanda in front of....(clueless without a map)

  Much to our delight the next train to Florence was leaving in merely 9 minutes.  We stamped our tickets and waited on the train to arrive.  Only to discover we were on the wrong platform, we found the right one and ran there.  Luckily the train was still there, but yet again it was the wrong platfrom! The station had 3 platfroms, East Central and West.  We were at the East Platfrom when we found out we needed to be at the West platfrom! Thinking we might be able to make it on time we started running the opposite direction.  Even though it sounds miserable, it was actually a lot of fun!  But we missed the train!

Not a big deal, the next one was leaving in 30 minutes.  We sat on the platform and waited, got on succesfully and made it home around 9:15.  

The Bologna Train Station! Something I DO know. 

Which basically means that we spent around 6 hours in transit, and 3 hours at the actually destination. Overall it was fun a fun day, and we really did learn a lot.  Would I do it again? Yes definitely. 

eye candy

I don't have time to do a full post today (class in an hour).  But I thought I would share some pretty pictures with you.  Allison- these are for you :)

A few bikes locked up- literally a block away from me.

I'm not sure what they call these but they are all over the city.  If I am correct you are supposed to add a
lock with the person you love and it it supposed to "lock your love in"

Open air market in Ravenna

A green gate in Ravenna

Bikes.  I loved the red/white polka-dots they have on their bell and light. 

Art History!

So like I said in my previous post, we have already been on three field trips! And that is what this post is dedicated to!  First we went to the Duomo Baptistery! Wow! That was the first baptistrey I have ever been into (as far as I can remember)! It was absolutely stunning, I was honestly in shock!

Amanda and I waiting in the rain outside of the Duomo before going into the Baptistrey.

Inside of the Baptistery.  Gold. Everywhere. 

Then we walked up to San Miniato- which has the most beautiful view of the city. Get ready to climb some stairs Dad! 

Inside, yet another gorgeous church. 

This time Amanda and I are outside of San Miniato!
 You can get an idea of how pretty it was up there from
the background, but I don't to spoil it for you Dad! 

Then of course Ravenna! I have soo many pictures from this trip, so I tried to pick out a few favorites! 

Inside of one of the 10 cathedrals we went into.  I especially liked this one
 for the pastel colors and beautiful gold adornments.  Of course the
 walls (not shown) were covered in gold mosaics- what else do
you expect from an Early Christian church? 

This is basically a bathtub that a man named Theodoric was buried in.  But unfortunately only for 14 years before
he was broken out. (Look mom and dad, Im learning something!)

Recovered mosaics from the walls of this church- now on display gallery style.  I would easily go bak here just to
 stare at them.  I loved the childlike way they portrayed everything.  I could definitely do a whole post on just these. 

That's it for now! I hope things are swell back in the States! Let me know! Missing everyone. 

Ellen

P.S. Thanks for the sweet emails Paige and Anna! I am missing you guys like crazy! Do you want to come sleep under my bed Anna? And Paige, we have a big pantry, plenty of room for you! Lot's of love.