TravelStream™ news feed for member mattnic on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mattnic en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Wed, 31 Jan 2007 08:49:42 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/puerto_rico2007/1170146820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/puerto_rico2007/1170146820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/puerto_rico2007/1170146820/tpod.html Wed, 31 Jan 2007 08:49:42 -0500 Semester Exchange in Humacao, Puerto Rico...

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San Juan, Puerto Rico

Hello again!

I have had a very busy couple of weeks setting myself up, starting classes, and trying to understand what my professors are saying to me in Spanish! I am finally getting to write now, though, which is great because I visited two awesome places and want to share my experiences.

This past Saturday, I went to a beach in Yabucoa, a town about 25 minutes from where I live. It was absolutely gorgeous, and more residential than Palmas del Mar, which means it was less resort-ish but more natural. The water was so warm, and I (despite being a chicken who's convinced that there are sharks and jellyfish at every beach) even went swimming in the waves for a while! (I also got beaten up by a huge wave that I didn't see coming....because I was talking....and got thrown into a bunch of rocks, which hurt...). All in all, it was a great day!

Then, this Sunday I went with my friends to Old San Juan, which is the Spanish-colonial style small town within greater San Juan. We visited El Morro, the fort that was used to defend the area against invasion, and got to climb around on the fort and look at the water. It is a beautiful area with lots of boutiques, restaurants, open air cafes, art galleries, and arts and crafts shops. It is a great place to just wander around and see different museums and monuments. It made me nostalgic for Italy because it has a lot of Spanish architecture and elements, which reminded me of some of the small towns in Italy. We are planning to go back to Viejo San Juan as soon as possible, to go to more museums and galleries and shops. Check out the photos that I put up so far (more will be coming today or tomorrow).

As far as school news goes, I got a job as an English consultant and tutor at my school! I actually have to run to work now, so I'm off!

Miss you all,
Nicole
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/puerto_rico2007/1168973340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/puerto_rico2007/1168973340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/puerto_rico2007/1168973340/tpod.html Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:37:46 -0500 Semester Exchange in Humacao, Puerto Rico...

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Humacao, Puerto Rico

Hola!

Hello to everyone...I arrived in Humacao, Puerto Rico last Thursday, and have spent the last couple of days setting up my room, adjusting to island life, and exploring things around my town. I am living with an older woman in her house, and was happily surprised to find out the only two other American students going to the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao this semester live DIRECTLY across the street from me. We've been getting to know each other, exploring, and hanging out these past few days. It's been really nice to have people to eat with and hang out with, and both Brin and Jenny are really nice....I even got them hooked on Grey's Anatomy already - we've watched 10 episodes so far!

On Saturday, we finally got to the beach (in fact, the beach at the resort, Palmas del Mar, where my family will be staying when they come to visit me in March). It was beautiful! Be sure to check out my yahoo photos page (the same one we used for Italy, just click on the Puerto Rico album) for pictures of where I'm living, studying, and....suntanning!

I had my first class at 7:30 a.m. today (soooo early!), and my professor seems really nice...my second class today starts in about a half an hour, so I'll soon find out what that will be like.

Well, I have to get going. Miss you all!

Love,
Nicole
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1148865360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1148865360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1148865360/tpod.html Sun, 28 May 2006 14:21:33 -0400 Matthew and Nicole's Semester Abroad - Italy

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Florence, Italy

Well, we are getting ready to say goodbye to Florence, and we wanted to write one last entry before we go. We spent part of the day today walking around to our favorite spots in this city (that we've come to call home, tear), and we filmed a little mini video of all our favorite places. It was so weird to think that we were seeing Piazza San Marco, Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Il Duomo, Piazzale Michelangelo, and all those other spots for the last time (for a while, at least). We've gotten so used to walking to school and then heading to the Duomo or to some piazza to meet up. As crazy as it sounds, living in Italy has become NORMAL for us...haha...we have really gotten used to our surroundings, seeing certain people each day, and being in this amazing city. It's been absolutely incredible to be here, and an experience that is hard to understand, let alone explain. We have no regrets...we have gotten to travel and see so much of Italy (and Europe), and we feel so lucky and happy to have done it!

We are really looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family in the coming weeks, and we have so much to share with all of you. As great as this has been (and we wouldn't change A THING), we are excited to come home and we definitely appreciate home a little more now! We don't want to miss out on anything else haha!

We cannot wait to see you all...Ciao!!

Nicole and Matthew
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1148672280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1148672280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1148672280/tpod.html Fri, 26 May 2006 08:58:35 -0400 Matthew and Nicole's Semester Abroad - Italy

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Athens, Greece

Well, this should be our second to last entry (*tear*) before we return home on Tuesday! We just came back from a five day trip to Greece, which was awesome but really really hot....the temperature was about 95 or 100 degrees the whole time we were there! I got sunburnt and closely resembled a lobster for the first few days of the trip....Anyway....
We started off our trip in Athens on Saturday and despite staying in a dirty/disgusting hostel (I slept on a beach towel because it was so gross), we were happy to be right in the Plaka, which is the central, really nice area of the city. There were tons of restaurants, caffes, shops, and markets right by where we were, so we got to see a lot of stuff.
We headed first for the Acropolis, which was incredible...we were able to see the Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike, The Odeon Theatre, and tons of other incredibly ancient (but still standing!) structures that really help you get a glimpse of classical Greek civilization...it was really awesome! We were able to climb to the top and get a great panoramic view of the city (check out pictures on the yahoo website), before heading also to see the Ancient Agora, which was the market place during the height of Greek civilization. We walked around the city a lot, did a bit of shopping, and then had some really good Greek food (I looooved everything I ate in Greece...I did not want to give the food up when we were leaving; Matthew, unfortunately, was not quite as thrilled....then again, eggplants and olives are the basics of all vegetable dishes there, so that explains why I was such a happy camper!)
On Sunday, we went straight to the National Archeological Museum, which of course has an incredible collection considering that it houses most of the ancient Greek artifacts found in the country. It's so funny, because there were ancient statues and relics in the museum that had been found in like 1994 and 1997...there were plaques by tons of pieces saying 'found by a fisherman in the year 1994' or 'workers hit this ancient tomb while building a house in 1985'. There is so much left over from the ancient times due to the incredible history in Greece that people are just constantly, randomly finding these precious artifacts...the next day, we took a ferry (practically a cruise!) to the island of Paros, and someone told us that a few years ago they started to build a new library there and found 15 huuuge ancient Greek columns under the city, which belonged to a structure bigger than the Parthenon...they now suspect there's a huge underground city below the island as it is today!

However, we did not see any ancient ruins in Paros...we headed directly for the beach! We got to stay in a great pension that is run by a Dutch woman who even served us fresh squeezed orange juice and Greek cookies while she told us all about the island...the best part about it, though, is that it was the cheapest place we've found yet!! The second day on the island, we even rented a motor bike for 24 hours...and paid 10 euro!! That's right, 10 euro! We were able to see the whole island and go beach hopping the entire day, it was great! The beaches were amazing! We just read and rested on the beaches the whole day...we're already thinking of our next Greek Island Tour....haha, just kidding (sort of). We went back to Athens for one day before flying back into Milan yesterday. Although Athens was great, we really loved the island, which was beautiful, relaxing, and fun. The entire town was practically all bright white structures with deep blue trim (Greek colors), and the landscape was just incredible. We also got to sit out at caffes and eat crepes or Greek desserts each night.

We loved Greece, but we can't wait to come home. We'll write one more entry before leaving our second home in a few days!

Nicole and Matthew
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1147287960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1147287960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1147287960/tpod.html Wed, 10 May 2006 08:28:55 -0400 Matthew and Nicole's Semester Abroad - Italy

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Paris, France

Bon Jour!!!

We returned yesterday from our three day excursion to Paris!!! Although we expected it to be a really nice place, we were even more amazed and loved almost everywhere we visited....it is a city filled with monuments, churches, beautiful architecture, ancient and modern art, museums, and huge, open parks. And, it is easy to understand why it's called "the city of lights"....one of the evenings, we just walked around (starting at the Eiffel Tower, of course, and making our way to Notre Dame Cathedral) and were able to see everything lit up and glowing in the dark.

So we began our trip on Saturday morning, and headed straight for the Eiffel Tower when we got off the night train. We were able to climb it right away with not too bad of a wait, and although it was a little foggy, the view was still great...we've now climbed The Duomo (twice), St. Peter's Basilica, The Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Eiffel Tower, and the Arc du Triomphe!!! Somehow, though, only Matthew is skinny as a twig.....hmmm....Anyway, the Eiffel Tower was the biggest climb and we were quite winded! It was great though, and really amazing to look at it from both up close and far away on the ground. That day, we also got to see Notre Dame Cathedral, and took a free tour of it in the afternoon....the church is stunning.

Our hostel was in the Latin Quarter, which is the bohemian artsy student part of the city, so we got to walk around there for a bit, checked into the (dirty) hostel, and then ate some great....Japanese Food! Haha, we couldn't resist a little bit of sushi and stuff, since there's not too much of it in Florence...we made up for that by eating completely French on Sunday and Monday....we had two awesome meals really cheap with all sorts of stuff....We weren't really sure of what we were eating, but there were some really good dishes...and of course Matthew got his creme brulee....on Monday, I ordered chocolate mousse, and instead of bringing me a serving....they brought me the ENTIRE bowl of mousse from the kitchen. Matthew and I were very confused, so I just served myself a few scoops - I guess it's some French restaurant custom that we weren't aware of!!.....(or, now that I'm thinking of it, maybe the waiter was trying to tell me something...??)

Saturday night, we went back to the Eiffel Tower, but it was pouring....so we went back in good weather the next night (when we walked the length of the Seine river). On Sunday, we got to the Louvre a half hour before it opened, and were let in for free because it was the first Sunday of the month. We ran to see the Mona Lisa and the other Da Vinci's (which was very impressive even though everyone says it seems small....we thought it was all we expected). Matthew got in trouble for filming the other Da Vinci pieces, which he didn't know could not be photographed. We got to look at Renaissance art, Italian, Spanish, and French pieces, then saw artifacts and art from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, and Greece...which was incredible. Then we walked through the Tulleries gardens before going to another museum, the Musee D'Orsaay....also beautiful, but we were a little exhausted of museums by the end, so we went to check out the Parc Andre Citreon. It's a futuristic park with huge buildings, but also open spaces, water, and gardens with lilacs. We loved it!!! There were tons of families and little kids hanging out there, and some teenagers doing Capoeira, which was really cool to watch. We can't wait to go back to that park...it had tons of trails and places to lay out and take in the Parisian sun!!

Monday, we thought we were in trouble when we woke up to rain, but it cleared up. We climbed up to Montmare, and then saw the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, which was very beautiful. I also finally got to do a little bit of shopping (although Matthew gave me time limits...), and then we hung out at another piazza for a while to relax after lunch. Before our train, we checked out another huge park that had the America Centre by Frank Ghery (Matthew was, of course, very excited), and saw this huge new sports complex in the growing district of Bercy Village. Matthew climbed the walls of the complex, which are covered in grass.

Let's see....somewhere in there we also saw the Defense Arc and the Arc du Triomphe. Paris was fabulous!!! We have toooons of pictures, so check it out!

See you all (very) soon!!

Nicole and Matthew
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1146169560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1146169560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1146169560/tpod.html Thu, 04 May 2006 07:23:50 -0400 Matthew and Nicole's Semester Abroad - Italy

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Calabria, Italy

Hello Again Everyone!!

It has been quite a while, but we've been so busy that we haven't gotten a chance to write for almost a month. We wanted to update you on our trip to Calabria, when we traveled (12 hours!) south to visit Matthew's family for Easter. We spent three days with them and had a great time getting to know his nonna's sister, nonno's brothers, and their families.

The trip started with a looong train ride south, where we met some very talkative Italians in our train compartment and ended up speaking and debating in Italian for the whole time...it was great practice for meeting up with the relatives, since they didn't speak English. Paola, who's our age, understands English really well but didn't speak much so we finally had a full immersion in Italian that weekend. Matthew's family came to pick us up that night at the train station, and we spent the night eating (lots of) pasta and looking at old photographs of his family. The house is very beautiful, with balconies to look out onto Cassano below. We spent part of the next day with Paola and her boyfriend, and got to walk around town, seeing Matthew's nonno's old shop and the house his grandfather was born in. We also ate a big lunch on Saturday with Giuseppe and his family, since he had to work on Easter. The two little kids, Sara and Silvio, were so adorable!! They were playing with their Easter toys and were just so cute! It was so funny to hear Silvio speaking in Italian...we're so used to little kids speaking English! We also went to visit the Cathedral and the Sanctuary in the area, which was great. We had an awesome time, and it was so nice for Matthew to really get to know everyone better and be with family for the weekend.

That night, we went out with Paola and her boyfriend again, and visited his town, Castrovillari, which is not too far away. We walked around before getting gelato and sitting at a cafe...we had a good time so we did the same thing the next night too....it was really nice to hang out with the two of them, and we invited them both to come stay with us in America at least ten times!! The second night, we met an Italian who wanted so badly to come to the "Big Apple" that I think he really considered stowing away in our suitcases...it was cool to meet all those Italians :)!!

On Easter, Matthew and I also went to meet his nonno's other younger brother, who lives pretty close by. We got to see some of his paintings, which Matthew really enjoyed...they were really beautiful. After that, we went back to the house, ate some more, and were told to eat even more....as I expected, the whole vegetarianism thing was hard to understand for the sausage and rabbit eating Calabrians!!! It was so funny!
Matthew couldn't keep up with the food that he was being offered, and Rosetta was getting worried that her sister would think she wasn't feeding Matthew enough, since he just keeps getting skinnier and skinnier even though he's eating all this Italian food!!!

Unfortunately, we had to leave Calabria early Monday morning to get back for class on Tuesday. We had a really nice surprise though because at the last minute we called Antonio, Matthew's Uncle Sal's brother, and he was nice enough to come meet us at the train station for the hour stop over that we had! It was so nice to meet him, and Matthew had only seen him once before, so he was eager to get to know him better. Matthew got to show him some of his drawings in his sketchbook, and we had a great time just talking with him...it was so nice of him to come meet us, and the stop over definitely went by too fast, because we wanted to keep talking. We'll be back in Calabria though!!

It was a reallllly looong train ride back, because we took a "special train" that gave precedence to all the other trains and let them pass. It was okay though, because we got to know the other people in our compartment again and we just joked around about all the "special stops" we were making...in the end, it took us an extra three and a half hours to get back, and we were exhausted.

Anyway, we had an awesome time in Calabria and thought it was definitely one of the most beautiful places we've seen. We also got to see Sibari and the beach, and it is just a beautiful area. The landscape is incredible, with hills and countryside and coastline. We decided that when we buy a house in Italy, it will definitely be in Calabria!!

Well, we're off to Switzerland tomorrow, so we'll be writing soon to tell you all about our adventures in Zurich, Luzern, and Bern.

Write to us...we miss you all!!

Matthew and Nicole
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1146765420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1146765420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1146765420/tpod.html Thu, 04 May 2006 07:19:59 -0400 Matthew and Nicole's Semester Abroad - Italy

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Bern, Switzerland

Hello Again!

We got in at 8 a.m. (after sleeping with four other people in a tiny space on a night train) Tuesday morning from our trip to Switzerland!

Backtracking to the trip there, which was a train ride from the late afternoon into the night, an interesting thing happened...Matthew and I (or, rather, I) had packed for Switzerland the day before. Thinking of the famous skiing in Switzerland, I asked Matthew if he thought it was cold there, but he went "nah, it should be fine" and we foolishly packed for Florence weather (which is getting warmer!!! it was even 70 degrees yesterday and NO rain!!) Well, I looked out the window at one point on the train there, before we'd even gotten far enough North...and noticed that the grass in Switzerland was white....That's right folks, there was snow on the ground, and we'd brought along with us tanktops, t shirts, and no winter jackets to wear!!! We froze a little bit, but still had an awesome weekend...

We really loved Switzerland...we started in Zurich on Saturday, and even though it was raining we had a great time. It was a relatively small city, but really clean, very EFFICIENT (haha which we have not seen in quite some time.....), and beautiful. We were able to walk around the city by the first half of the day, went along the huuuge shopping street, stopped for a weird drink (that only I had) at a vegetarian caffe, and then went to the Kuntshaus Museum....which was amazing! The Museum had an awesome collection of really important pieces, from modern art to the classics...we saw pieces by Picasso, Monet, Mondrian (of course, Matthew freaked out over that...JB loves Mondrian....so that explains it!!). We also met up with Steph, Nick, and Stu for the day, and just took in the sights.

That night, we took a quick train to Luzern (and found a good Indian restaurant in Switzerland). The city was amazingly beautiful, with all these old covered bridges with frescoes painted on them to cross the river. The churches and monuments are really pretty too. Even though we were staying in hostel type places we had a balcony that looked out onto Lake Luzern which was beautiful. Matthew got to do some paintings from the balcony and they we headed towards.....THE SWISS TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM!!!! I don't know if I've ever seen Matthew so happy...he was pretty excited about all the exhibits....I was too, although five hours later my enthusiasm for old trains, cars, boats, and space simulators was dwindling a little bit...jk...it was fun and he was really happy because it was all about technology. (and I made him promise to go dancing with me in exchange for the six hour transportation field trip...haha). We also got to see an IMAX show on Vikings which was actually really cool and interesting. There was a planetarium too...

After the museum we walked along the city for a while, but everything was closed since it was Sunday....took a free boat tour of the Lake (it was free because of our eurailpass), had some fondue, and then went to Bern!

We thought the capital might be very "big city" chaotic, and were a little freaked out when we had to find our hostel at 10:30 at night with NO ONE around anywhere. It turned out, though, that it was also a very clean and safe city. We got to see Albert Einstein's house, where he developed the theory of general relativity, and also went to a special, temporary exhibit on Einstein at the Museum of Natural History. Matthew tried to explain general relativity to me....which did not work AT ALL....We also just walked around the city, checked out the shops, and visited the Towers and Cathedral of Bern. We saw the famous bear pits (after which Bern gets its name), but we felt really bad for the two bears shoved into a tiny space :-(. There was a also a rose garden, so we sat out at a caffe and I tried a Swiss beer while Matthew drew again.

Later, we had some time to kill before our night train so we sat out in a park and read a bit. Speaking of reading, I finished my very first italian novel yesterday!!....I have to go out and buy the sequel right after this haha.

So all in all Switzerland was awesome, we can't wait to go back (of course, right?), and we even learned a little bit of German!!!

Well, tomorrow we head to Paris!!! We'll post pictures soon so keep checking back...and PLEEEEAASE write to us people!! We miss the comments lol!!!

Miss you all,
Nicole and Matthew
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1144336020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1144336020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1144336020/tpod.html Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:27:53 -0400 Matthew and Nicole's Semester Abroad - Italy

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Florence, Italy

It's been quite a while since we've been able to write! We had an awesome but crazy weekend when my parents came to visit us here in Florence! Two Sundays ago, we went to pick them up in Pisa airport...it was such a great reunion...Matthew and I were so excited to show them Italy for the first time and take them to all the best places we knew. We spent the first day in Pisa, and unexpectedly got to climb the Leaning Tower together. We also looked at some of the churches in the area, then had dinner before boarding the train for Florence.

The next day, we showed my family around the city before taking them to climb the Duomo of Firenze. The weather was incredibly beautiful, and it turned out that for the rest of the week nearly every day was sunny and warm, a very unusual thing for Florence right now!! The view from the top was clear and we sat up there for a while before heading to our wine tasting...It was the same place that Andy and Jessica took us too, so of course the food, wine, and service was great...We ate sooo much, and of course drank soooo much....three different red wines, some grappa, a dessert wine, etc....and of course Fanta for Danielle. It was such a great experience...afterwards, we went into the Church of Santa Croce and walked around doing some shopping for a bit. The next day we went to the Uffizi Gallery and then walked around the Piazza Signoria before heading to a great pizza place for lunch. Later that day, we took a Secret Routes tour of the Palazzo Vecchio before heading to the Ponte Vecchio so that Danielle could do some ring shopping!

On Wednesday, we left for Rome at 6 am and then started our day by hearing the Pope speak (which we also didn't expect!), then toured the Vatican Museums and went into St. Peter's Basilica.
(Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that we all got lost in the Vatican Museums after the Sistine Chapel...we got separated, I went out one exit, my mom and Danielle went out the other...they claimed they were going to the gardens, which wasn't possible from that part of the museum we later learned, and Matthew and my dad were searching for us for over half an hour....I thought I'd lost my camera in the Sistine Chapel, got a guard to lend me his cell phone...and didn't remember Matthew's number. We eventually all found each other, and it was a very funny reunion!!!....Only the Vidiri's would get lost like that in Rome right??) Matthew got that all on tape, by the way, so you'll all get to see the confusion when we get home!

Anyway, we also saw the Fontana di Trevi and the Spanish steps, and had a great dinner before heading to bed because we were all exhausted. The next day, we spent half a day in Rome, seeing San Pietro in Vincoli, The Colisseum, and The Roman Forum. Then we headed towards Napoli! We had an....interesting...experience there....there was a whole confusion with the buses and it took us about two hours to reach the hotel. We got some great Napolitana pizza and then headed to Capri on the boat in the morning.
In Capri, we met Nello....the taxi driver/commedian who took us around for the day to all the sites...We went in a boat through the Blue Grotto (the water really does look an electric teal color), took a chairlift on Anacapri to one of the highest points on the island, and were up there for a while on one of the most beautiful days we've seen so far in Italy. After Capri, we headed back to Florence.

We relaxed a little during the weekend (walked to the beautiful Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato sul Monte and Boboli Gardens), sat out in the sun, and then on Sunday surprised my dad and Danielle with soccer tickets to see the Rome v. Florence calcio game!! They were so excited, and we had a great time at the game, although it was a tie. It was really hard when everyone left on Monday, especially because Matthew accompanied them to the airport and I was left by myself in the apartment since I had to go to class later on :/. We love it here, but we definitely miss everyone A LOT and will be happy to come home in May so we can see you all again.

All in all, we had a wonderful week with the Vidiri's, and we think they've caught the Italy bug too now!! Miss you all....write to us!!

Nicole and Matthew
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1143291660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1143291660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1143291660/tpod.html Sat, 25 Mar 2006 13:07:45 -0500 Matthew and Nicole's Semester Abroad - Italy

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Florence, Italy

So, we went to see Eros Ramazzati last weekend in concert at one of the arenas here in Florence....he's a really famous pop star here, and he put on a really great show! Matthew got some great pictures of the concert with his camera, which you'll all have to check out. It is so cool going to see plays and concerts and games in Italian...we can't get enough!!

Then, on Thursday, we went to go see a Flamenco Dance Company from Spain at the Teatro Verde...the dancing was incredible and the music was awesome too. It was a really great show...we got tickets at the last minute so we were really excited to be able to see it.

Other than that, this week was crazy because we had midterms and had tons of stuff to take care of. Now, that's all done and our Spring Break has officially started!! We spent all day today getting ready for my parents and sister...Matthew cleaned the whole house!!

Oh yeah, and I have an eye infection......!!! No, I'm not kidding...this is the third time this year and of course it happens to me the morning before my family is arriving. We went to the doctor though and I have medicine...what luck though!!! Matthew kept me from freaking out, as I very nearly flipped my lid :) !! I'm sure it'll be fine though....we CANNOT wait to see my family and show them all around Italy....we are going to have a blast!!

off to eat at the delicious vegetarian restaurant right around the corner from us!!

ciao!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1142781480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1142781480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mattnic/florence_2006/1142781480/tpod.html Sun, 19 Mar 2006 10:38:38 -0500 Matthew and Nicole's Semester Abroad - Italy

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Arezzo, Italy

We took the train to Arezzo early yesterday morning and walked around the town for a few hours, which was a really small "city" with some beautiful churches, nice caffes, and a really huge park called Parco il Prato. We had some trouble finding the park (Matthew: NICOLE had trouble finding the park....not me...I found it just fine once I stopped following Nicole), but once we got there it was beautiful, and we got lucky because yesterday was one of the first clear, sunny days in a while in the area. After some time walking around, we went into the Chiesa di San Francesco, where we were able to see a famous cycle of frescoes done by Piero della Francesca.
After taking the bus to Anghiari, where Stephanie greeted us and took us to this wonderful restaurant...we sat outside eating for HOURS on a terrace overlooking Tuscan and Umbrian landscape and fields. It was magnificent! The restaurant, called Locanda al Castello di Sorci, had a fixed menu which meant we didn't even have to order...they just supplied us with (endless...) wine and kept bringing food to the table for about three hours! We were served fresh polenta with sauce, homemade tagliatelli pasta with sauce, meat platters, cheese platters, bruschetta, pate toast, bread, salad, and a dessert wine with biscuits to top it all off! Needless to say, we were all completely stuffed and didn't even need to eat anything for the rest of the day!
After the marathon lunch, Stephani started to drive us around the small towns of the area, which were beautiful and quaint. She showed us her really nice apartment, which was loaded up with tons of books (I LOVED that...), and when we went driving around she took us to see a very rare painting, also done by Piero della Francesca, of the Madonna right before giving birth...it is a rarity in that Mary is depicted during her pregnancy, and Stephanie was explaining that it is interesting that such a tiny town has this artistic treasure. Afterwards, she took us to see her Umbrian Villa!!! She has been renovating the house for five years, and it is absolutely breathtaking, with magnificent views. She's still in the process of putting the finishing touches on, but expects to move in this summer. It's a beautiful house and we can't wait to see what it looks like when it's all finished!
After driving and touring around a little bit more, we spent some time in her apartment listening to music and reading through some of the travel books she had. She was nice enough to offer for us to stay overnight, but we had to get back because of midterms (and because we're going to an Eros Ramazzati concert tonight). We're hoping to go visit her again soon, and she wants to take us to a restaurant with even better food....!!!! We can't wait; we had such an awesome time hanging out with her and are definitely hoping to go back to Anghiari.

Well, we're off to see Eros...Next weekend, the Vidiris will be coming and we can't wait to show them around Florence. We're also going to take trips to Rome, Naples, Sorrento, and Capri...it'll be awesome!

Love and miss you all!!

Nicole and Matthew
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