hiking, carnevale, housing and vienna

Somehow midterms had dragged into week 8 and then all of a sudden it was march! Our last month in italy. Our next foray into Italian adventuring was the beloved cinque terre, the “five lands” of the western coast, north of the Italian Riviera. This time, tess and I had a third partner in crime, liz robinson. We knew that traveling with liz would bring a whole new set of challenges but also fun to our weekend. We set off on the standard 8 am train bound for riomaggiore, our home base for the weekend. Upon arrival we made our way to the apartment we had rented for the weekend. At 60 euros a night total, our 2 bedroom equipped with kitchen and living room flat enticed us to stay a second night. We bought our trail passes and decided to start at the furthest town, monterosso, eager to hike from town to town. We took a quick train ride and upon surveying the hike decided a little lunch and exploration was necessary before tackling the hardest hike of the four. After treating ourselves to delicious seafood, we felt ready for the hike that lay ahead. Little did we know that the next 2.5 hours would bring a rather grueling, mostly uphill hike that was made worth it by the breathtaking views of the sea and vernazza far in the distance. Needless to say, we made it to vernazza but knew that no more hiking would be done that afternoon. We shopped a little and celebrated our successful hike with champagne and the sunset. Coincidentally we met a fellow pi phi from Washington university who was also studying abroad and after a quick trip to the internet café for the necessary friendship request we hopped on train back to riomaggiore. That night we again reveled in the delicious seafood cuisine and went to bed early to rest up for another day hiking.

The next morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed, some more sore than others, and debated what the hiking program should be. Although I was gung ho about the vernazza-corniglia hike, the girls managed to lure me away by setting me shopping on vernazza. Possibly my favorite purchase was an Italian themed decoupage mirror done by a local artist. It will fit in nicely with the color scheme in the happy place that is my room. We took a train to corniglia and attempted to make our way to the nude beach and up to the town, but were sidelined by padlocks, 300 stairs and an adorable cat who just wanted to play with us. Instead we decided to head to manarola for lunch and then make the necessary hike back to riomaggiore on the “via del’amore”, the path of love. In manarola, I sampled the scrumptious pesto native to the region and our kind hosts even offered a free dessert of biscotti dipped in dessert liquor. Yum! We then let our inner child loose on a playground overlooking the ocean on manarola. Our walk along the via del’amore was made more spectacular by the rough seas that had characterized our weekend, sending huge sprays of foam soaring into the air and over breakwaters. Back on riomaggiore we ordered pizza and spent the night watching mtv with german subtitles. Liz kept trying to convince us that her pizza tasted fishy but tess and I insisted it was all in her head. Toward the end she made us taste it and we discovered that liz had been right all along, the things she thought were eggplant were actually anchovies! We laughed it off by attempting to read the german subtitles of pimp my ride, not knowing how relevant this would become in our future. The next morning we left our beautiful little seaside towns, liz headed back to Florence and tess and I to viareggio, undeterred by the rain.

Viareggio had the spectacle of the final carnevale parade drawing tess and I to its borders despite our exhaustion and the weather. Reassured that the weather would ameliorate, we wandered around viareggio looking for internet until the parade started. we were hoping to check our housing assignments for the spring when we returned to Stanford. We happened upon the balena 2000, what looked like a beach resort and conveniently had internet access. Our attempt proved unsuccessful but we came away with free drink vouchers, an invitation for the carnevale parade afterparty and the chance to wiggle our toes in sand and test the ocean water (it was too cold). When the start drew near, we were amazed by the number of people in costume. Toddlers, teenagers and too old to wear that folks took to the streets to celebrate the holiday most famously known in Venice. We settled on the curb near the middle of the beachside parade route. And then the craziness began: enormous floats overloaded with people began passing by, one poking fun at money controlling the world’s leaders (complete with a george bush puppet being maneuvered by a figure robed in dollars) , another at the parties in italy’s upcoming elections, all throwing confetti and silly string upon the masses gathered to watch. After the parade, tess and I made our way to the balena for aperitivi and fireworks reflected in the pools of the resort. We struggled back to Florence, totally drained after another successful weekend and anxious about tomorrow’s opportunity to check our housing assignments.

The next morning I was up early to check my assignment at an internet café before heading to the dark room for photo. My idealistic world came to a crash when I read: “toyon”. I do not mean to belittle this house that I am sure is nothing but a pleasure to live in. but somehow in my silly little head, I had convinced myself that as a junior returning from abroad my worst case scenario would be “not a two room double”. The possibility of throwing a party in the eating clubs was not enough of a comfort for me as I contemplated the two room triples frequented by the sophomores of Stanford university. Tess kindly offered her rollaway bed as we celebrated her assignment to Casa Italiana ensuring a prime location and the possibility of the illustrious two room double. I lulled myself into hope for reassignment at the end of the month and contemplated the next night’s celebration of tess’s 21st birthday.

Clearly, the most logical way to celebrate your roommate’s 21st birthday in Florence is by calling an oc themed night and heading to an irish pub dressed as the characters of everyone’s favorite show. We took over The Dublin and chaos ensued as a photo shoot occurred and a random group of irish adopted the birthday girl as that evening’s cause. Hours and many guiness later, the crew hopped over to the brazillian dance club across the street. There we showed the over 40 italian crowd how to get down on a Tuesday night. We made it home with no major losses and too many photos to recount the night’s activities.

We barely had time to settle in before we left for our final bing trip of the quarter: Vienna. Arrival involved one train, two planes and one bus. By the time we stumbled into our hotel on Thursday night we barely appreciated its prime location. We did however become quickly alert to the fact that we were staying in suites. Full on, multi-roomed, robe and slippers provided suites. we fell into our beds and didn’t move until our wake up calls aroused us from quite possibly the best sleep we had had while abroad. Although I would have been content to lounge around clad in my robe all day I dragged myself down to breakfast. And I was treated yet again, this time to a real buffet breakfast, the likes I haven’t seen since my days in lag dining. The morning was spent in a walking tour with unfortunately the worst tour guide ever and then luckily starbucks. In the afternoon we saw the winter palace of the Hapsburgs and then hurried back to the hotel to prepare for the evening’s reception at none other than the American ambassador to vienna’s residence. The evening began a little on edge as we realized that a few of our fellow students had chosen that inopportune occasion to get drunk, but we settled into our element discussing our majors and aspirations with former alumni and the embassy staff. After meeting marcus rogan, stanford’s very own medal winning Olympic swimmer, I ended up at a table with the embassy’s counselor for public affairs and a Stanford alum who was working in the atomic energy agency of the united nations in Vienna. The former promoted the value of a career in foreign service and left me with a business card and a promise to introduce me to a colleague who could serve as a mentor. The latter chatted with tess and I about our abroad experience and then freakonomics and the question of nature versus nurture. Dinner was a learning experience all in itself. Later that night we celebrated our successful schmoozing with a good old fashioned hotel party.

Saturday in Vienna called for a trip to hunderwasser (please forgive my atrocious spelling) the public housing created by the architect that doesn’t believe in straight lines and then the hapsburg’s summer palace. That afternoon I invested in a pair of obnoxiously large sunglasses and then we went back to our hotel to prepare for the opera. After another quick trip to starbucks we watched verdi’s don carlo. I think this may possibly have been my favorite opera. The cast was incredibly talented, the music a pleasure and the story for once not totally incomprehensible. Afterwards, the usual suspects went to a local brewery for dinner and pitchers and then a much needed viewing of anchorman.

The next day our tour guide once again bored us to death by describing the breugul paintings to us in detail as we blank stared. As one of the program staff so eloquently put it, “how can one person talk so much and say so little?”. The rest of the day was devoted to touristy shopping and then heading to the airport for our return flights. After the remote possibility that we could be stranded in Munich as our delayed plane almost missed its connection, we were on our way back to Florence. Our weekend in Vienna made us grateful for the Italian we spoke: one of the most frustrating experiences of my time abroad was not being able to communicate in Austria. I was limited to “thank you”- my ignorance making everything from ordering a coffee to asking where the wc was, an overwhelming task.