friends! i am so sorry; an update is long overdue! it's been on my mind to post on the blog for a few weeks already but i've been on the move nonstop, collecting awesome stories, acquaintances, and adventures to tell you guys about! i think last time i wrote i was in italy, about to embark on a little tour of the west coast. and tour i did! being a tourist always makes me a bit uneasy, but i met some great friends along the way and we had ourselves some good laughs and had a few interesting encounters.
the island of ischia was laidback and picturesque as hell. i mostly hung out with two sweet Swiss girls from Bern, although i did have a random escapade with an italian islander named Lorenzo. he whisked me off on his scooter, showed me the sights, invited me to eat a hearty post-easter meal with the whole famiglia (complete with homemade wine from their vineyards and buffalo mozzarela!), and took me to a secret hot spring hidden deep in the stone cliff, a few steps from the sea. divine. there were also a few drunken nights with a few crazy canadians and an american marijuana grower frim boulder. good times.
from there i moved on to rome, expecting the worst - tourist traps, loud traffic, all those city things i despise. but! i was pleasantly surprised by the eternal city: beautiful piazzas, calming fountains, street serenades, gelato (so much gelatooo), streets lined with laundry hanging to dry over your head, random roman ruins at every turn... Roma quickly stole my heart. and i made some new friends!- Sima, a sweet Iranian girl studying theater in brussels, and two Swedish engineers from Stockholm.
after rome, it was onward to cinque terre, a spattering of five tiny villages tucked away in these impossible oceanside cliffs, threatening to fall into the sea at any moment! i spent three days walking between the towns, hiking amongst acres of terraced vineyards and tanned farmers, and laying on rocks by the sea like a little lizard. the village i stayed in was manarola, and in my hostel i made friends with an 18 year old canadian guy who i wished so badly was five years older, a portlander (oregon! sorry destry) of russian origin, and TONS of aussies.
from manarola, i spent a night on the boat (my dad had sailed it back up to la spezia in the meantime) and then headed back up to france via a rideshare that i found online. i've been staying with my friends here in Grenoble for about two weeks now, enjoying the mountain air, sleep, and quality time with a family that is quickly feeling like my own. i spent last weekend in germany with friends i met in Ecuador. they took me to their weekend house in the bavarian alps, just on the border with austria, and made me try all sorts of crazy sausages and, of course, beer. can't complain (bout the beer). it was a beautiful weekend, and we even spent an evening in a casino! my first gambling experience, and unfortunately i didn't have any of that beginners luck. oh well, it was in a castle and they gave us free champagne.
now, laura (my french friend!) and i are getting ready for our own little getaway; tomorrow we leave for a week of hiking in Corsica! i am so very excited. corsica is a little island that has meant a lot to my family (my dad sent much of his youth and early twenties sailing there, and then running a sailing school) and yet i've never been. it sounds like a beautiful island, although the weather isn't sounding to great at the moment. we'll seeee.
meanwhile, i have been thinking about you all so much during these travels. you give me strength, no matter where i am in the world.
feeling lucky, with love-
carmella
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Friday, 2 April 2010
tales from the sea!
ciao bellas! i am in italia! we got here earlier this week after a short trip from toulon (france), about 3 days at sea. we had a shit ton of wind the first few days. 45 knots the first day/night - a bit stormy, so much so that i definitely couldn't keep down any of the food i had ingested that day.. gross. the second day was perffffect sailing, and the third day the wind died. we motored into naples on monday morning and were greeted with this wonderful view --
mt vesuvius at dawn.. . the sleeping giant! i think i'll climb the volcano tomorrow, and i'm definitely going to pay a visit to the ancient towns of pompeii and herculaneum soon! we've been working steadily to clean the boat all week - the owners fly in from the usa on saturday night so the place has got to be spic and span! but it hasn't been so bad. there's a studly italian boy working on the boat next door - half nude, of course. (no picture as of yet, but i'll try to be stealthy and snap one soon ! hahaha) mmm, how i do love the italian... scenery.
no but seriously, italy! wowza! on monday, i'm heading over to the magical island of Ischia to enjoy some post-Easter celebrations (scroll down to where it starts - "All what’s sacred on Sunday gets profane on Monday") and bask in some wondrous thermal hot springs! after that, perhaps rome for a few days, then cinque terra, and finally venice - that's the plan for now, but of course, it's subject to change. hahah. my dad is always making fun of me because my plans literally change by the minute. oh well, i'm just tryin to go with the flow!
thinking of you all! lots of love from the birthplace of pizza -
carmella
mt vesuvius at dawn.. . the sleeping giant! i think i'll climb the volcano tomorrow, and i'm definitely going to pay a visit to the ancient towns of pompeii and herculaneum soon! we've been working steadily to clean the boat all week - the owners fly in from the usa on saturday night so the place has got to be spic and span! but it hasn't been so bad. there's a studly italian boy working on the boat next door - half nude, of course. (no picture as of yet, but i'll try to be stealthy and snap one soon ! hahaha) mmm, how i do love the italian... scenery.
no but seriously, italy! wowza! on monday, i'm heading over to the magical island of Ischia to enjoy some post-Easter celebrations (scroll down to where it starts - "All what’s sacred on Sunday gets profane on Monday") and bask in some wondrous thermal hot springs! after that, perhaps rome for a few days, then cinque terra, and finally venice - that's the plan for now, but of course, it's subject to change. hahah. my dad is always making fun of me because my plans literally change by the minute. oh well, i'm just tryin to go with the flow!
thinking of you all! lots of love from the birthplace of pizza -
carmella
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
buongiorno di Italia!
Hola amicos, from the land of pasta and pizza! After a long and harrowing journey across the country (from San Diego to Boston to NYC, with an overnight stop in Boston that involved delicious food, great company, and some very dangerous mojitos!) and then across the ocean blue, I finally find myself safe and sound in La Spezia, Italy, aboard the Marianna, the barca a vela (sailboat!) that my dad works on. (For those of you who don't know, my dad is a sailboat captain and every once in a while I join him to help out on the boat and deliver it to a new place - in this case, Greece.)
Sorry for all of those parenthetical interjections, but my mind is a bit of a mess at the moment. I'm a bit overwhelmed to by the language barrier here; I've never really spent any time in a country where I couldn't easily communicate with the people. I can read most of the signs and string together a few simple words to get my point across, but the minute anyone speaks to me, it just goes way over my head! I feel completely dumbfounded and helpless, and the intense jet lag is certainly not helping...
My dad seems to have become a local, which means his Italian is fantastic and his driving is terrifying. So far, Italy has been mostly a blur from the passenger seat. I wish I could get out into these hills and take in the sights, smells and sounds of this incredible place, but no can do. We're on a tight schedule! I arrived on Sunday in Pisa, my dad picked me up, we saw the tower (it's leaning alright!) and then we drove to Florence to meet up with my sister and her friend. They're traveling around a bit before they start their summer jobs in France working at an English camp. Florence looked awesome (Megan, was that where you were during your time in Italy?) but we only had time for a quick walk around the town, then dinner and gelato - YUM. (My dad's favorite word in Italian? Assaggiere, which means "to taste", and he uses it quite often at all of the gelato stands.)
Anyway, we're aiming to leave tonight or early tomorrow morning and it should be about a week-long journey to get to Athens. It's been 3 years since my last sailing trip, so we'll see how long it takes me to get my sea legs back! Hopefully we'll get to see dolphins (my favorite part about sailing) and we'll be passing by several Greek islands so maybe I can convince my dad to stop for some swimming!
Below are some pictures of my life as of late. The first two are from San Diego. Rosie and I loving life at YOGURTLAND (not to be confused with yogurtWORLD) and the next one is of Windansea at sunset, a beautiful beachy cove just a few blocks from Rosie's apt! The last two are from my first sunset in Italy, at the Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence.
multo amore!! Carmella
Sorry for all of those parenthetical interjections, but my mind is a bit of a mess at the moment. I'm a bit overwhelmed to by the language barrier here; I've never really spent any time in a country where I couldn't easily communicate with the people. I can read most of the signs and string together a few simple words to get my point across, but the minute anyone speaks to me, it just goes way over my head! I feel completely dumbfounded and helpless, and the intense jet lag is certainly not helping...
My dad seems to have become a local, which means his Italian is fantastic and his driving is terrifying. So far, Italy has been mostly a blur from the passenger seat. I wish I could get out into these hills and take in the sights, smells and sounds of this incredible place, but no can do. We're on a tight schedule! I arrived on Sunday in Pisa, my dad picked me up, we saw the tower (it's leaning alright!) and then we drove to Florence to meet up with my sister and her friend. They're traveling around a bit before they start their summer jobs in France working at an English camp. Florence looked awesome (Megan, was that where you were during your time in Italy?) but we only had time for a quick walk around the town, then dinner and gelato - YUM. (My dad's favorite word in Italian? Assaggiere, which means "to taste", and he uses it quite often at all of the gelato stands.)
Anyway, we're aiming to leave tonight or early tomorrow morning and it should be about a week-long journey to get to Athens. It's been 3 years since my last sailing trip, so we'll see how long it takes me to get my sea legs back! Hopefully we'll get to see dolphins (my favorite part about sailing) and we'll be passing by several Greek islands so maybe I can convince my dad to stop for some swimming!
Below are some pictures of my life as of late. The first two are from San Diego. Rosie and I loving life at YOGURTLAND (not to be confused with yogurtWORLD) and the next one is of Windansea at sunset, a beautiful beachy cove just a few blocks from Rosie's apt! The last two are from my first sunset in Italy, at the Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence.
multo amore!! Carmella
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