Picture Day!

OK, so after a week of no pictures, I am finally posting some today.....

However, I have to let you know that I did not make it back to Cinque Terre this weekend as I woke up yesterday morning not feeling well and decided to stay home and work on my paper and study all day, which actually ended up being pretty productive. I was very sad that I had to miss the trip there, but also ok with it as I'm pretty sure I will be back someday. You can't always fit everything in to your trip that you want to.

I did make it to Pisa and Lucca this weekend though. Pisa was pretty cool, but I was seriously impressed with Lucca - what a cool and cute little town! Appparently, when Napoleon conquered Lucca, he liked it so much that he gave it to his sister as a gift. After he died, his wife and sister made the medieval walls of the city into a great promenade that you can walk and bike on. It was seriously cool.

With that said, here's a snapshot of my weekend, my trip to Siena last Thursday and a few pictures I had promised from Mercato Centrale:

SIENA:

The cathedral in Siena was incredible:

You can't really tell from this picture, but the ceiling was painted dark blue with golden stars to look like the night sky. I loved it.

Me and the enormous Piazza del Campo (I think that's the name) in Siena:


PISA:

The cathedral and the Baptistry were both very moving. The Baptistry was very sparsely decorated, but while we were in there and up in the gallery looking down, a man started singing creating some beautiful harmonies with the acoustics and echos and totally gave me goose bumps all over my body. It was a cool, unexpected experience and I was glad we had a chance to witness it. After he was done singing, he began preparing to baptise a little boy whose family was gathering to witness the event. Pretty cool.


LUCCA:

Part of the park on top of the walls around Lucca:

Piazza Napoleone in Lucca:


and some random shots around town:

Hopefully that will be enough photos for now as I have to run to class. Ciao!!!

Ode to Italian coffee

Oh, cappucino.... ti amo! How beautiful and frothy and deliciously creamy you are! How wonderfully happy you make me every morning as I stand at the caffé bar and revel in the most holy of Italian morning rituals, the time of day when I feel like a real local and so in touch with Italy and all its fantastic craziness! Oh, caffé! How beautifully sweet/bitter and dark the caffé espresso is after a three course Tuscan dinner - there is no better way to end such a glorious experience.

How sad I will be when I must part from you and go back to, gag, Starbucks!

All flowery silliness aside - Italian coffee is seriously the most amazing coffee I've ever had. I am so jealous of people who get to live here and have it all the time - these Italians got their pasta, wine and coffee down to an art. It's truly an amazing thing to experience, especially since those three things are pretty much my favorite things in the world. Anyone reading this, if you ever find yourself here, you HAVE to drink as much coffee as you can. The Italians sure do, and they definitely know what's up - I met a guy that has 3-4 espressos in the morning and then a cappuccino later on in the morning after he gets to work in the Mercato Centrale as a butcher. Then, he has another espresso (caffé, in Italy) after dinner. I tolod him he needed to slow down as it was bad for his heart - he told me that his heart didn't need to worry about the espresso, it needed to worry about how pretty I was. I love Italian men! :) I know they say the same things to all the girls, I don't take it to be very serious at all, but damn do they say it well!

I went to Siena yesterday afternoon with our law school people and explored the town and had dinner there - what a place! I loved Siena. The Duomo there is beautiful and that Piazza was HUGE! My friends and I had a couple appertivo and drinks at the squarebefore dinner, which was lovely. If you've ever seen the newest Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, the opening scenes are at the Piazza during the medieval horse races held there on July 6th and August 12th every year. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.

I will post pictures as soon as I can remember to load them onto my thumb drive (sorry).

Tomorrow I head to Pisa and Lucca with a couple friends. I am looking forward to it. Sunday is Cinque Terre.

Now, back to my paper on the WA State Income Tax proposal and the redistributive/social justice aspects of that...... uggggghhhhhh.