Cinque Terre e Il Fine del Mio Progamma alla Villa Corsi Salviati

Cinque Terre

View from the beginning of our hike in Monteresso

The beautiful terraces in the Cinque Terre hills

 

Well this will be my last blog post while living at Villa Corsi Salivati. I had my last final yesterday and will be leaving to villa tomorrow morning. I will be traveling for a little over two weeks though before heading back to Chicago. I will post one more blog when I get back from that trip. I will use this second to last study abroad blog to explain a couple of the exciting aspects from my last two weeks at the villa. Starting with my trip to Cinque Terre…

A couple weekends ago I took a trip to the beautiful Cinque Terre for a day trip with my program. Cinque Terre is an area on the coastline of Italy, which is made up of 5 little towns: Monterosso al mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. It is known to be one of the most beautiful spots in Italy, the hills of each town are considered a national park, and in recent years it has become a huge tourist attraction. Each town is made up of adorable colorful houses, with huge terraces cliffs that overlook the water. Our program took a boat to the last town in order to begin our hike from Monteresso to Vernazza. Unfortunately, the beginning part of the trail was closed due to landslides. But we were able to work around it by hiking on the highway for a bit and then cutting into the trail. Even the part of the hike we did on the highway was gorgeous. The views of Monteresso were almost unbelievable. It was one of the times during my study abroad experience where I had to remind myself how lucky I have been these past few months. The hike was strenuous at points, but I enjoyed every second of it. It was relaxing, and enjoyable to be hiking through such an incredible landscape with a group of people from my program. We hiked for about 4 hours. As soon as we were done we threw on our swimsuits and jumped into the water. The rest of our time in Vernazza was spent sitting out by the water and walking around the town.  We were all extremely exhausted by the time we got back to the villa that night, but it was absolutely worth it for the wonderful day in Cinque Terre.

Another aspect of our program that has been really great these past two weeks is our outside dinners. Once a week we have been moving all of the table from our dining hall out into the courtyard in order to barbeque and eat outside. They have been some of the most enjoyable dinners here at the Villa. Of course the food is great, but it was also wonderful because we set up the tables to be one long table. That way we were all able to sit together for dinner. It really made it feel like we were a big family, as corny as that sounds. The last outside dinner we had was this Tuesday. It was a sort of good-bye banquet since it’s our last week. They gave us a ton of food. They served us wine, three different appetizers, grilled chicken, and ice cream with strawberries for dessert. It was delicious. And afterwards the director and a few of the students said some parting words. It was the first time I got really sad about leaving the villa. These past four months have been incredible. I have met such wonderful people, seen so many amazing places, and just overall had an experience that I am never going to be able to forget. As I’m writing this blog I am looking out my window in my bedroom at the villa, and I am looking out at the beautiful hills of Sesto Fiorentino. When am I ever again going to be able to have a bedroom window overlooking Tuscan hills?! This villa and this program are amazing, and I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my study abroad.

 

My great experience at the villa is why I must sadly add that we have just found out that Michigan doesn’t have enough people enrolling into the program anymore and will be closing down the villa after next fall semester. (Here is an article from Michiagn on the recent news- http://www.ur.umich.edu/update/archives/110419/cgis.) It is devastating news to all of us here, all of the employees, and anyone who has ever done this program before. But there is something we could do to help. Since Madison has no problem enrolling students, and Duke is also involved with the fall semesters, we can e-mail those in charge at both those schools and convince them why to keep the program here at Villa Corsi Salviati alive. (Here is whom you should e-mail at Madison Gilles Bousquet, Dean of the Division of International Studies, UW Madison bousquet@intlstudies.wisc.edu and Julie Lindsey, IAP Managing Director, UW-Madison jzlindsey@bascom.wisc.edu). All the support for the villa we can get is helpful. To not allow other students to have an experience like mine and the other students on my program would be devastating.

 

Well on a happier note, I am super excited to start my two-week European travels. I will be traveling with Andi and Melissa, and also meeting a few other students from my program along the way. We leave tomorrow morning on a 10 am train for the first leg of our journey in the Amalfi Coast. Here is what our itinerary for the next two weeks looks like:

 

Amalfi Coast: April 23^rd- April 28^th

Prague: April 28^th-April 30^th

Berlin: April 30^th- May 3^rd

Amsterdam: May 3^rd- May 5^th

South of France: May 5^th - May 9^th

Then I fly from France to Florence on the May 9^th, and then back home out of Florence to Chicago on the May10^th.

 

I am so excited for these next two weeks. I am ready for a little more European traveling before heading home for the summer. I can’t believe how fast this semester flew by. This has truly been incredible. I will be available only through Facebook and e-mail the next couple weeks. So if you want to see how my travels are going feel free to contact me that way. My final blog will be posted when I return.

 

Tanti Baci da Italia!

-Laura 

Dinner in the courtyard

Some of my villa-mates and I after dinner

Arrivederci Firenze! I will miss you!

 

 

Venezia e Sicilia

Rialto Bridge in Venice

Gold mosaics of the Basilica di San Marco

My Dad and I in Murano

Camellia and I on a lovely gondola ride

             

              As the end of my time at the Villa creeps closer and closer I am trying to make the most of every day I have left. And the past two weekends I think I have definitely taken advantage of my time here by traveling to two of the places I’ve always wanted to see in Italy, Venice and Sicily.  The Venice trip was two days and one night with my whole program. My dad was also visiting for that weekend, so he came along! It was really nice to have him with us, and to have him experience a little bit of what my life in Italy has been like for the past 3 months.

We left early on a Friday morning and headed on the 3-½ hour bus ride to Venice. When we got there we immediately hopped on a boat to go to the beautiful island of Murano. Murano is where the famous Venetian glass blowing is done, and we even go to watch the making of it. It was amazing to see them transform glass into almost any object. After Murano we headed to see some of Venice’s main tourist attractions. Even just walking down the streets was exciting because all of the bridges and canals. We eventually made it to the Piazza San Marco. The Piazza is filled with tourists, pigeons, museums, restaurants, and the Basilica di San Marco. The rest of the afternoon I just explored the streets of Venice with my Dad. We had a nice sit down dinner before heading back to Piazza San Marco for a private night tour of the Basilica. The church was filled with beautiful, gold mosaics from ceilings to floor. It was amazing to have our own private tour in such a popular tourist spot.

            We began the following morning with a tour of the Accademia di Venezia. The rest of the day included more tourist activities like a visit to the famous Rialto Bridge and a gondola ride. I loved the gondola ride! It is something that is so unique to Venice I couldn’t imagine leaving without going on one. It was a bit of the expensive side, but with a large group it was totally worth it.  We ended our Venice activities in the Jewish Quarter. It took us forever to find it, (Venice being of the easiest cities to get lost in), but we made it. It was cool to see such an active Jewish community in Italy.

            Overall, the trip was very enjoyable. Even though Venice is such a touristy spot, the lack of cars and abundance of canals gives it a very unique feel. I also really like being able to see the differences between all the major Italian cities.

            This past weekend I definitely got to see a different side to Italy too, when I headed south to Sicily.  I went with three other girls on my program: Andi, Breanna, and Hillary. We left on Thursday, and I got off to a bit of a rough start when I stupidly forgot my passport at the Villa. Luckily, there was another group from our program going to Sicily who just happened to be catching a later train the airport. They grabbed the passport for me, but their train was delayed.  I was sitting in the Pisa Airport by myself waiting for the other group to arrive, while our plane was boarding. Five minutes after the plane started to board they arrived. We rushed through security and thankfully made it to the plane just in time. It was hectic beginning, but I would soon find out all the chaos was absolutely worth it.

           

We flew into Palermo, got a delicious dinner (I got pizza with shrimp, arugula, and parmesan cheese), and soon after went to bed. We got up early the next morning in order to head to our next destination, Cefalù. We got on a train, and arrived in a little over an hour. As soon as we arrived we were in awe. The beach, the town, the palm trees; uh it all looked amazing. We continued to get more and more excited as we headed up to our resort. Hillary found this awesome place with bungalows in the hills overlooking the water.  The resort workers were so friendly, and helped us to our bungalow. It was adorable, and had an awesome view of the water. We spent the rest of the afternoon lying out by the pool, drinking wine. That night we headed into the center of Cefalu’. We ran into so many friendly people, and one helped us to find a lovely restaurant for dinner. He told us it had an intimate atmosphere and great food, and he was correct. The food was delicious and the staff, like everyone else we kept running into, was extremely nice. I ordered pizza once again and we had cannolis and fruit for dessert. It was one of my favorite days in Italy thus far.

            The next morning we were supposed to check out by 11, but the staff let us stay in our Bungalow until 1 instead. So we decided to lay our once again. We had great weather both days, 70 and sunny. I was so sad when 1 pm came along. None of us wanted to leave Cefalù.  I definitely want to go back someday. So after our sad farewell to Cefalù we headed back to Palermo because we had to fly out of there the following morning. We checked back into our previous hotel, and then just walked around a bit. That night we had another nice dinner. I had a salmon risotto, and we all got free dessert because our waiter Massimo seemed to be somewhat fond of us. It was a funny, and delicious end to our weekend. I loved Sicily. It was wonderful to see a different part of Italy. It really feels like an entirely different country there.

            I’m glad I was able to travel to two more must-see spots in Italy. I can’t believe I only have two weeks left of my program. I plan to truly appreciate all the time I have left here in Italy. Plus I still have a lot more traveling to do after that.

Tanti Baci da Italia!

-Laura

My shrimp pizza in Palermo

Our resort in Cefalu'

Our relaxing afternoon in Cefalu'

Hillary, Breanna, Andi, and I out for dinner

One last picture stop on our way out of Cefalu'