conejan!

On Thursday afternoon, MJ accompanied me for a weekend back in Veneto, specifically a lovely town called Conegliano.



We stayed with nonna Gina ("mangia mangia") and my grandfather, and MJ fitted in very well with the whole family and many friends she met over the next four days.

The long weekend involved the following:



- Mercato: impossible to have any other engagements for Friday mornings if you live with my grandma.
- Castello Roganzuolo: in the afternoon we rode to see my old house a bit out of town, catching up with my old (and freakyishly tall) neighbour Gianluca and reminiscing good times in the large country-side garden which was once my playground.
- Dinner with the (other) grandparents, and some family friends.
- Aperitivo & Mamilldra: drinks with some old schoolfriends.



- Ca' del Poggio: fine lunching with lovely fish and Prosecco with the (other) grandparents and family friends.
- Fritoe: coming home after a three-hour lunch to find a huge bunch of frittelle (Carnevale sweets) made by my grandma.
- Rainy run to the Castle! ... burning off some guilt before some study.



- Anniversario degli Scout al Castello: met up with most of my parents' good friends, and their kids, as the town celebrated 85 years of the local Scouts with a cerimony and games.
- This was followed with lunch at the Tonon's - the family of my Godmother, and generally lovely people. Margherita, who is 17 this year, will go stay with my parents for about a month this June.
- More biking: Mj was very tempted to reach the mountains... we were satisfied with the nearby hills.
- da Franco & Gelato: dinner and dessert with my auntie and cousin, also got to see my uncle which was nice.



Aaand to conclude our stay in Conegliano we went for a run on Monday morning on the river Monticano. I am blessed to have such a good roommate actually, she has done so many things for me (probably without noticing it) and motivate me to run with her is another great bonus. Everyone who met her was genuinly please and she always made a good impression.



But after a slow-paced weekend amongst farms, hills, countryside and rivers, with a background of the Alps (still a little snow left!) I am back in the "big smoke". Glad of this, surely, but also glad of the fact that people still recognise my Venetian accent =]

sometimes you just need a good pasta / red wine / croissant

So I'm eating tagliatelle.
And I'm happy to say, mother, that the tomato sauce of my production compares rather with dignity to yours!

It's been another busy week, but this time characterised by a lot of uni work :( I have a considerable number of books to study for my courses, and one in particular is annoying me - a sociology book on Marx, Durheim, Weber and Simmel, which makes the reading experience (or rather deciphering) kind of like going through a maze and trying to find the exit (or meaning).

That being said, on Tuesday I had probably my funnest night out yet.

Last Saturday MJ and I went to Torino for the day! It was lovely, except the we didn't escape the bad weather Northern Italy's been experiencing this past week. In the home of the lovely Lavazza coffee we tried the typical bicerin, a coffee with chocolate and cream. Only we tried it in this place - so we nearly had to pay E7.50 for it!



We then went to Egypt! That is, the biggest Egyptian museum after Cairo and London.



I was always fascinated with ancient Egypt as a kid, so seeing mummies and hieroglyphics and sarcophagi was great.

We toured a bit more of Torino entering the magnificent Royal Palace, the Palazzo Madama, a few piazzas and (unfortunately) the lovely central shopping district.



I've introduced "Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo" to MJ! Very very funny to watch them again!

Another thing. I live just near a dog park... and the dogs here are even more beautiful than back home. Be it because the Milanese use them as accessories, or because things here generally just have to "look good", they really are beautiful. And I walk past this park at least 4 times a day... which doesn't help the fact that I miss my puppy girl Skip!



Anyway, I'm happy to be going back to Conegliano today with MJ, who's also excited to meet my grandparents. Both sets of them, as the ones who live in Australia have just arrived in Italy, aren't I lucky. Today is national holiday, so we're taking a long weekend and will be back in the big city on Monday night.

Off for now! 14:30 and I still haven't really done anything. Saluti!


ps. Duomo picture!

monuments

Today I visited the Cimitero Monumentale, suggested to me by dad.



I'm glad I did, for it was very worth the good hour I spent walking around!
Each tomb was nothing less than a monument, varying in size and decorations. A little capolavoro of art and architecture.



The website offers a long list (http://www.monumentale.net/personaggi.aspx?codice=0000000016&id=0000000005) of renowned deceased present, but unfortunately I am rather too young and uncultured to be familiar with them. Anyway their success explains some over-the-top tomb monuments. The more modest ones:





And many fancy ones like these:



Walking back I couldn't help but notice an odd-looking guy who was attracting a fair bit of attention:



I could have sworn he was Australian but in fact he spoke perfect Italian. Very very unusual! =]

weekend

On Saturday our "suburb", Sant'Agostino, has very large markets. The type selling cheeses, fresh fish, fruit and vegetables as well as a lot of clothing, shoes, beauty and kitchen accessories.
It turns out that the markets couldg et even MORE exciting! The lovely Thomas Nuspl surprised me by flying in from Vienna for 4 days to visit me and be there for my birthday. He arranged a few things and found me with the help of my sneaky roommate!
His plan turned out quite perfectly in my opinion as I had no plans for the weekend and we were able to hang out pretty much the whole time. So after the markets and a quick tour of my uni, us three had lunch at CioccolatItaliani. I took this picture for you, dad (although I'm sure some others might appreciate it):



Il piatto "degustazione" della Gelateria- 5 gusti di gelati diversi, a base di cioccolato e/o nocciole. Una vera delizia che potresti pubblicizzare anche tu con quelle coppette a 4 gusti...?

We also had an amazing slice of chocolate cake and some chocolate mousse. Mary and I proceeded with "dessert" - a modest gelato cup ;)

On Saturday afternoon we went for a touristy walk around the centre, from the Castle and Parco Sempione, leading up to the Galleria and Duomo.



MJ and I were, of course, a team of fantastic navigators: she found out where on Earth we were, I carried the map.



In the evening, we carried a famished Austrian to Slice, a fantastic place for aperitivo in zona Navigli, where the ~30 min wait was more than worth the dinner. We then had very cheap coffee & Baileys, and a free Sambuca shot thanks to a foolish bar tender. A glass of wine, and then we went clubbing.

On Sunday we went along Corso Buenos Aires for some (window) shopping and in the evening had an extremely relaxing dinner at home with chilled music, followed by chocolate and a movie.

Monday was also a special day, and it was nice to hear from lots of family and friends. Tom and I visited the Duomo. On our way to Abercrombie & Fitch (~200m away), we counted a few dozen people holding bags of this brand; getting to the place, the line to get in the place was longer than what you'd see outside a Northbridge club on a Saturday night. So, Abercrombie trip postponed.
We went instead to the Cimitero Monumentale, a cemetry where numerous famous personalities are buried, but managed to pick the only day it was closed :(
For lunch we tried the famous Milanese panzerotti - a sort of fried calzone with sweet pastry.
In the evening I went to a nice pizzeria near our apartment with a few friends, and then to do some Latin dancing.

On Tuesday I had to let Tom return home, but the nutella crepe we enjoyed after lunch made our "hasta la vista" a bit sweeter.

First week

So, the first week of uni has been rather confusing.
Specifically because I'm not taking any of the courses I planned on, because the work load was excessive and/or there were too many clashes. So I spent a large part of this week looking up any other courses available, reading course programs, talking to professors, going to classes which had been moved without my awareness, drawing up rough timetables only to edit them a hundred times... and rushing between classes because of this silly thing called "quarto d'ora universitario". Oh how I miss the English organisation =]
Things would be too simple if all classes here started at the same time every hour. But no. If a class is supposed to start at 9:30, it really means it goes from 9:45 to 10:30, because students will always be late. However, professors can also choose to start another class at 10:30 if they wish! So here I am rushing from one class (my French units are in a language campus 10 min away from the main campus) to the other, because I'm not sure if they'll start on time or 15 minutes late!

However, by Friday I thought I was getting the hang of things - except I showed up for a class at 8:45 and the professor decided that a 9:00 start would be more suitable for a Friday morning. Of course! As a payback, I ruled out his course after 2 minutes he was in the room and I saw his first slide. The unit was called "Right of Political and Social Communication" - a Law unit... what made me consider this back in Australia, I don't know.

I've nearly finalised my course list, which has to add up to 30 ECTS. Doing 2-3 French units, 1-2 of sociology, and an interesting one about teaching Italian as a second language, which my roomie Mary is joining me in :)

The professors are fairly nice, I made sure to introduce myself to all of them, but I promise not to be so annoying and suck up the rest of the semester ;)

Apart from this I've gone out a little this week, got to know an Ambercrombie model, eaten a lovely gelato (babbo- ho trovato un Signor Pistacchio molto buono! Da GelatItaliani), had a few meals at home and suffered the cold weather a little.

Actually I've just written all this at uni, I'm in a French class in a computer lab (oh! computers! in an Italian university! shock), and it's curious to see what the other students are doing instead of listening... a girl in front of me is clearly planning an English holiday, and numerous addicts have clearly found a way to unblock Faceboook on these computers. Thank God for my touch-typing skills, which allow me to look up at the professor blabbing away and smile stupidly whilst blogging ;)

This weekend I hope to finally explore the huge markets near our area which happen on Tuesday and Saturday mornings, and wake up in time for mass in the Duomo on Sunday (12:30).

And that is all for now, ciao ciao!

Cara bella Venezia...

It was a lovely day in Venice, on the opening day of the Carnevale. We took two double-decker buses of international students and split up during the day. Mary and I went exploring the non-so-touristy areas of the city... like the residential parts... which is an exciting way to suggest that we may have taken a few too many weird turns.



In the more crowded streets we saw lots of peole dressed up in fancy costumes - which, we were told by a costume maker, can cost around E3.500!



It was lovely to hear the Venetian accent, and funny to watch Mary's puzzled look as she understood none of it ;)



We came across a Vivaldi / musical instrument exposition, which was really cool as there were some of his original pieces and old, unique instruments.



Also visited the beautiful Basilica di San Marco..



And we faced a ridiculous crowd of people when we were about to leave at 17:00... it took me about ten minutes to cross a ~20m bridge because it was literally packed with people. This was the view...



But we finally made it home around 10pm, quickly got changed for a party and some clubbing :)