Now, I am back in Arezzo and am starting to think about packing. I am done with academic work and performing for the last time tonight. I am so ready to be back to familiar territory and people. I just wish you could’ve been here with me through it all, but can’t wait to tell you all about it in person! Trust me, I took so many pictures, you will feel like you are there!

Until then….

But..Fall break was fabulous because I had no work to worry about and I met up with my mama! I took the train all day long to Zurich and finally made it there by 11:30 that night. She was in the lobby waiting anxiously for me to arrive. Zurich was great- and we lucked into finding a Seurat exhibit at the Kuntshaus museum. So I finally got to see some non-italian art, which was a relief for my eyes! I prefer the French style of art in general I have decided. We got to see several Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso, Warhol, and more Chagall! The Chagall stainglass windows in the Fraumunster are probably my favorite thing in Zurich! I could sit there and look at them for hours…and therefore we did look at them and found all of the little details for about an hour…happiness!

Then onto Lake Como where we relaxed by the Duomo and I had a fun experience with a native Italian. Ask me about it…and I will tell you the story. We took the boat on Lake Como to Lenno, Varenna, and Cernobbio. The reason I went to Lenno was so I could go to Villa Balbianello. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It is also where the wedding from star wars episode 1 was taped. Little did I know that it was a hike and a half over to the Villa when I began my journey with an hour til the boat I needed to catch to go on to Varenna. But thankfully my Arezzo training of climbing hills quickly has proven to be successful and I made my trip. I was so ready to be there once I finally arrived and I took about 300 pictures in 30 minutes, which may be a new record for me. It was just so beautiful and I wanted to capture every aspect I could so I could enjoy it later without a time restraint ticking in front of my face. In order to have some extra time, I opted to get a water taxi back…which was definitely worth it! It was fun to be on the lake in a little speed boat! We made it on to Varenna, Rick Steve’s pick for Lake Como and had lunch at a little pizzeria. It was a nice sleepy town that was reminiscent of Cinque terre. We then took the boat back towards Como to Cernobbio to visit Villa d’Este. It was beautiful as well and we had a lovely tea there!

Next was Milan! We went down to the Duomo- which is the 3rd largest church in Europe and the largest Gothic Cathedral in Italy. But with this reputation preceding it, I was expecting to be blown away by the size of it, but I guess I have just gotten spoiled by going to all these amazing places all the time because it didn’t seem enormous. Actually nothing in Milan seemed as enormous as I imagined it. It was all still beautiful though: the duomo, galleria, la scala..all amazing! I also got to go up on the roof of the duomo which was really cool to get that close to all the gothic architecture! Then, we began our La Scala experience by going to the museum. It was great and had so many little relics of opera composers and performers. I was so excited to see Maria Malibran in the museum because she is so overlooked and people dont usually know who she is! After perusing it all pretty thoroughly and seeing the costumes of Manon Lescaut, Carmen, and Aida, we went on to the gift shop where I got all my souvenirs for fall break! Then we went on to pick up a sandwich at the cafe next door and to anxiously awaiting the performance of Mozart’s Idomeneo. Once we got to our box in the 4th tier, I was soooo excited! It is absolutely gorgeous with all the rich reds and golds like most other opera houses. The performance was unforgettable; I haven’t heard so many beautiful voices in one sitting at a time before in my life. It was even more incredible than I had imagined it would be! I will go back to Milan just to go see another opera at La Scala someday! The next day we went to the Pinacoteca di Brera which was another great museum. The highlight there was Raphael’s newly restored “Marriage of the Virgin.” That night I think we had one of the best meals so far in italy at Solferino. Eggplant and mozzarella pasta, goat cheese, steak in vintage wine and honey, and chocolate and pear pie! It was a night of culinary bliss!

In Firenze, we went to the Accademia and saw Michelangelo’s David! He is just so tall that it is a miracle that Michelangelo could actually sculpt it. All of his uncompleted works leading up to David were also very interesting to be able to see his process. I also went to Dante’s house and got to see some of the original manuscripts of the Divine Comedy. The next day I did a little shopping and that night we went to see a small production of La Traviata. The following day we went to the Bargello, where Donatello’s bronze David is…so now I have seen all the main Davids of Italy. There are just so many things to see in Florence but now I feel like I have seen most of the main museums and sights!

On to Arezzo where we went to one of my favorite places to get a crostine. Then I took Mom to our favorite gelateria which she definitely approved of! I then went back to Charleston Enoteca to introduce mom to Paolo! We had a nice visit and then went back to see the church of San Francesco. The next day I showed mom around the accademia and then took a tour of arezzo including the duomo, piazza grande, and the corso. It was nice to be able to show her my world over here.

Then I went down to Rome for an evening on Tuesday night basically for dinner and a few good views of Rome. I really wish that I could’ve stayed instead of coming back to a crazy week of chapters upon chapters of music history and test tomorrow!

whew…thats a lot! hope you made it through it all!!

It was so great- but so exhausting! We had to leave on Thursday at 6:55 am to walk to the train station to make our 7:45 train and then we had a pleasant trip down to Rome. We arrived around 11 or so and checked into our “3-star” hotel…and then off for lunch and visiting Santa Maria Maggiore and Saint John Lateran. I was excited about going to S Maria Maggiore because it was the one I have researched all the musical history on. Palestrina got his start as a choirboy there and was later maestro di cappella which is pretty cool. Plus it is the oldest original church in rome with byzantine mosaics. And Bernini is buried there…anyway the list goes on and on….So we did our tours and I took lots of photography. Once we were done with my church we moved on to St. John Lateran which used to be the papal church back in the day so it is huge! Once I was done taking a lot more photography, we paraded down the way to see the Colosseum and all the ancient ruins. Haley, Emilee, and I decided not to go on an actual tour of the Colosseum and wandered down to circo massimo, where they used to race the chariots. Then we meandered through a bunch of little streets around the forum and palatino and wound up having the best view of the roman forum anyone could ask for. Thankfully, there was a wall that we could perch on and let it sink into us that we were actually there. Just sitting there with the wind in my hair, and overlooking a part of Rome that I didn’t really think would mean anything to me- meant so much to me. It was probably my favorite moment in rome because it was so relaxing. Once we decided to leave our beautiful find, we were on a hunt for gelato! But before we made it to the gelateria, we went through the capitoline hill and saw all the naked statues. Then we went down to the tiber river and across to the ghettoes to find an authentic, less expensive, not aimed towards tourist place and did just that! We had dinner at Carlo Menta. I had lasgna for the first time in italia and the best house vino so far! On our hike back to the termini where our hotel was, we passed more ruins. But there were so many cats in them- and thus, I deemed the square ‘foro di gatti’. Day due in Roma began with the tour of the Vatican. Our tour guide came to the hotel and drove us over- thankfully! He was such a great guide and has a musical background in piano and has worked for la scala etc…so it was appropriate and he knew a lot about the musical history too! I always imagined that the Vatican museums are huge…but really they are enormous! Hall after hall of statues, paintings, tapestries, but my favorite part: the ceilings! I think I looked up more in the 3 hours we were at the vatican than I ever have in my life. Its not as if the excessive decoration of the rooms is ornate enough but then, boom, another beautifully frescoed ceiling! Luckily, we got to go to the Raphael rooms despite some attitudes in our group- but they were some of my favorite rooms in the vatican. The sistine chapel was great…but way too crowded to actually be able to enjoy the art and the overall presence of the space. I can only imagine how terrible it is in the summer because I felt like I was playing a game as I was taking shot after shot of photography around alllll the tourists. St. Peter’s is too big in my opinion. I do not even feel like I saw much of it even though I walked all over it. There is just too much going on everywhere for your brain to actually make sense of any of it. A wedding was even taking place in one of the chapels- which is completely romantic- but I sure wouldn’t want thousands of uninvited guests at my wedding even if I could have it at St. Peters. After the tour, we went to lunch at a place that is known for their ‘sexy wine’ which is a dessert strawberry wine. The owner gave us a free bottle at the end of our meal and it was refreshing and so sweet that it didn’t even taste like wine. Mom, you would even like this one! Then off to the Pantheon and S Maria sopra Minerva- which were both great but slightly unimpressive after the Vatican. Then, a group of us headed to the Trevi Fountain and I tossed in my coin to guarantee my return trip to rome. Once we made our way through the crowd, we headed up the corso to Piazza di Popolo where a Mtv concert was taking place that evening- making it not seem like we were in italy anymore. After going in S Maria di Popolo, we headed on to the Spanish steps and the sun was just starting to set as we climbed the stairs- making rome look even more beautiful! After people watching, we went in Caffè Greco- the oldest cafe in rome, and I had an espresso and bought a cute tin of tea! It used to be Listz, Goethe, Keats, Shelley, and others hangout- so I thought that was pretty cool. We also happened to be on the 5th avenue of Rome, so there were many a designer window to peer in and hope that one day I can own something by Dior or Valentino. For dinner, we stumbled across a great place which turned out to be amazing! Great night!
 On Saturday, we went to the Borghese Galleries- which was one of my favorite things in Rome. So many Bernini statues that you can get so close to but sadly cannot take pictures of. I think I probably enjoyed myself more because I wasn’t taking pictures and carrying my ridiculously heavy purse around the galleries. My favorite is Daphne and Apollo because it is so intricate. What I thought was so cool too is the various hues in the marble that Bernini created in one piece of marble. The thin leaves of Daphne’s fingers and toes look like a creamy rich ivory instead of the stark white of the bodies. Then we strolled through the central park of Rome- Villa Borghese Park. Another great experience of the day was getting gelato at San Crispino- where the signature flavor is honey. I had plum and honey and it was luxurious! We also went to the Antique art gallery for free which was a nice touch to our afternoon before we headed back home to Arezzo. Overall, the weekend went by quickly but I got to see everything I wanted to in Rome. I like the metropolitan-ness of Rome and I kept talking about New York and comparing the two as I have done some when writing about it…sorry. I so desperately wish I were a New Yorker! (but i will be someday soon) I was glad I got to relax some in Rome even though we walked everywhere. Things are starting to feel better again but I am sure another wave will hit me soon enough.