Friday, August 12, 2011

Pics of the Dolomites!!!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.610819970250.2089006.52900396&l=9c3679778c&type=1

Dolomite Pics!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Roma - Colosseum and other really old ruins.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.609979235090.2088708.52900396&l=c42b92b268&type=1

Check out some pics from Rome!

What pics should we post next? More Rome, Dolomites, or Florence?

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Cinque Terre Pics

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.609419411980.2088480.52900396&l=bacf012562&type=1
We have posted pics from the Cinque Terre on Facebook. Anyone can check them out by going to this link.

Hope you enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.609419411980.2088480.52900396&l=bacf012562&type=1
We have posted pics from the Cinque Terre on Facebook. Anyone can check them out by going to this link.

Hope you enjoy!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Florentine Art

Hi all, we have been in Florence for a few days now. I've been enjoying my conference while Danielle has been getting some studying done. We were able to visit the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia before the conference started on Thursday. Here is Danielle with a description of the art that we saw:

At the Uffizi we saw art dating back to the gothic era. The gothic style focus more on the story of the art and less on the artwork and realism of the art itself, the art was actually meant to tell stories to the illiterate people. Therefore, it was two dimensional with figures commonly floating in space. As the Renessiant era came the art work began to focus more on the painting, style and realism of the work and less on the story. Three dimension paintings became the big thing, here we see Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Botticelli. I actually saw a painting by Botticelli that I once tried to replicate when I was in college. The original is obviously much better than anything I can do, but I was neat to see the original of something I have attempted to recreate.

At the Accademia the obviously notable thing is the David, which is a huge statue done by Michelangelo of David before he meets with Goliath. It really is awesome to see and does not disappoint even after all the hype.

Ciao,

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Quick Update

Hi all, I am just writing quickly to let you know what we have been up to. Monday was mostly spent traveling from Monterosso to Ortesei. It took a long time. We had a short time to sit on the beach in Monterosso before traveling and then a little time to see the Alpine city of Ortesei once we arrive. Tuesday we did some excellent hiking and that took most of the day. Today (Wed), we hiked a little more, then took a bus down to Bolzano and spent a few hours. We then took a train to Firenze (Florence) that was scheduled for 2.5 hours, but took 5 due to inclement weather in the mountains. We had wonderful pizza tonight and must wake early tomorrow to see a couple museums (my conference starts in the afternoon). I will elaborate on the Dolomites in a later post. Auf Wiedersehen (I was able to use some of my Deutsch from high school in the Dolomites)! Now for some Italian - Bueno Noche!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Blistered feet and calloused calves

Today we went on the walking/hiking path that goes between the five town along the coast where we are staying. Its actually quite a hike, Eric sweat like mad! But it was fun and very pretty. I also found an allergic reaction on my arm today, not that uncommon for me. But I bought a cheap watch for this trip without thinking about the fact that I am allergic to cheap metal. On top of which i walking with my cheap purse facing the wrong way so that the metal caused an even worse reaction....not good decisions.

-Danielle

To elaborate, we hiked for around 4 hours today on very scenic hiking paths. If we have time we will post some pictures of our hiking. The hike gave us the chance to see each of the five towns in person, see each town from the hills, and walk through the vineyards of locals. We enjoyed the hike very much, although it was challenging and I probably lost an eighth of my body weight in sweat. For lunch we stopped in Corniglia during our hike and had some seafood pasta, it was yummy. After the hike we had Gellato in Riomaggiore and decided that chocolate with a fruit flavor makes the best combo!

For dinner we had simple pizza. I tried to convince Danielle to have the Arugula pizza rather than just Margharita, but she refused. She made the right decision. A table next to us had the arugula and their pizza was covered, head to toe with uncooked leafs! No good.

Fun Facts:
1. Ristorante and Tractoria both mean restaurant in Italian. If anything, the tractoria is usually an older establishment.

2. While stones may be uncomfortable at the beach, they wipe off without water much better than sand.

3. Blondes stand out in Italy! This one may be obvious, but out of all the beautiful women at the beach, a group of Italian teenagers decided to hit on Danielle while she was swimming.

4. The train tracks in Riomaggiore had the trains on opposite tracks than you would expect. Plus, you have to go underground to cross. Plus, they only come once an hour at 5 on a Sunday. In short, we missed our first train in Italy. Let's hope it's the last!

5. Italian babies are cute.

6. So is Danielle (just found that out by glancing at her).

-Eric

p.s. We will be sunbathing early tomorrow morning than taking a train to Bolzano with a final destination in the Dolomites!