CET Student Correspondent News: Fall Break Adventures

Claire Constantino,

CET Student Correspondent

I don’t know much in this crazy, mixed up world of ours, but I do know that the new goal of my life is to spend more time on a cruiser bike. Law school, finding a true love, and hiking the Appalachian trail all just took a back seat on my list of life goals. Denny, my Italian roommate, made me ride home one night on the top tube of his bike, which was mostly terrifying and a little fun. In a safer and more practical turn, I rented a bike today while I was in Lucca and it was just so darn wonderful that I can’t believe people ever invented cars.

This week, or really since last Thursday, I’ve been on fall break. Thursday and Friday I was an unapologetic bum (had to catch up on Grey’s Anatomy at some point). Saturday – Monday I traveled around Tuscany and Umbria, hitting Arezzo, Orvieto’s train station, Lake Trasimeno, Perugia, and Lucca. Arezzo is just about the most perfect place ever made; Orvieto was a train mistake, but I would like to see it intentionally and during daylight hours sometime ... Lake Trasimeno… well, it’s the 4th largest lake in Italy; and Lucca was a delight. Lots happened on this jaunt, so I’ll just list the highlights:

Arezzo is so perfect! Tour books always say “Tuscany is at it’s most breathtaking and impressive in its small towns,” which sounds sappy but is totally true. Florence is wonderful, but there’s just something about those windy streets and little cafes. You know that time in the late afternoon where things are sleepy from morning busy-ness, but pregnant with excitement for the night? That’s how it feels all day long here, but it was an especially strong feeling in Arezzo. “Life is Beautiful” was filmed there, and we saw a wedding where they recreated a scene from the movie! Cute! And then practically the whole town toasted them in the main piazza! Cuter! And everyone was so happy and stylish! Cute overload!

Eurochocolate 2009 would have been more aptly named Lose Your Faith in Humanity and Get Diabetes 2009. I think Italians are great people, but this event brought out the worst in them. They just don’t believe in lines, so moving through the crowd was really, really unpleasant. It was like a war zone around the sites stands giving out free samples, none of which were even that special. The event was disappointingly corporate, too – we only saw stands from the biggest European candy brands. We had envisioned a tranquil festival of artisan chocolates and happiness where we could linger all day, but we had to flee after about 20 minutes. On the plus side, we saw a lot more of Perugia’s sites than we’d thought we’d have time for!

Lucca was so cute and full of medieval stuff in the same time capsule way Florence is about the Renaissance. I climbed a medieval tower and rode around the perfectly intact (and scenic) city walls. Did you know they used to have trees on top of medieval towers? Weird! It’s a bold claim to make in Italy, but I also had the most delicious pizza ever in Lucca at Pizzeria di Felice. Take that, Naples!

I have a few days in Florence before my next trip, and I plan to see some of the sites I’ve missed and test out some Tuscan recipes. Wish me luck on my ribollita!

Claire Costantino,

CET Florence, Fall 2009

CET Correspondent News: An Unexpected Halloween Surprise

By Drew Silverstein,
CET Student Correspondent

Most Halloweens are spent trick-or-treating, dressing up, partying, and having a good time with friends. The beginning of mine was been no such thing.

Denny (my Italian Roommate) and I were the only ones home in Florence for the holiday, and we were planning on going out to celebrate when he returned from him job as a waiter (around midnight). In the meantime, I ordered pizza delivery.

When the deliveryman buzzed up, the button that opens the main building door wasn't working,  so I ran back to my room and yelled out my window that I would come down and get the pizza.

To open the main door to the building, one needs a key or the code for the electronic keypad. I entered the code and went inside, but when I arrived at my door, I realized something horrible… my apartment door had closed automatically, and I had left my keys inside.  My phone was in the apartment, and everyone I knew who had keys to the door was out of the country (with the exception of Denny). I was screwed. At least I had my pizza, though.

Before seeking any help, I sat down outside my door and savored the taste of the first half of my Italian delivery pizza. (One should also note that in Italy the hallway lights do not stay on automatically-- every 60 seconds, I stood up, walked to the elevator, and renewed my light source). After I finished eating, I went downstairs and knocked on the door of the apartment underneath mine.

Our porter lives below us. She is a bit cranky. I've tried to initiate conversations with her over the past few months with little success. I was not too optimistic about the possibilities that lay ahead. She opened the door and I told her my situation. The porter, son, girlfriend and I started talking, and they gave me some wine and some of their freshly roasted chestnuts. Delicious.

We talked about me living with 5 girls and how 2 bathrooms are not sufficient for them, the extreme cost of American universities, and, of course, how I run without a shirt. One must realize that I am not well dressed right now. As I rushed outside only to grab my pizza, the only thing I was wearing was a pair of athletic shorts. No shoes, shirt, or anything else. I go running relatively frequently here and, like I do at home, I run only with shorts, shoes, and my iPod. This isn't normal for Italians, so I get stares.

Whenever I leave to run, I always pass by the porter. We talked about how she thinks I am very strange for running without a shirt. She laughed at me for a good 6.5 minutes, bringing in her son and his girlfriend, also. Then she stopped laughing for 30 seconds, remembered what she was laughing about, and started laughing again. Meanwhile, I was trying to laugh with them in the "I don't know what's so funny but I'll laugh with you anyways" sense.

I'm finally back in my apartment, down 1 pizza and several hours, but up 3 new friends.

Drew Silverstein,

CET in Florence Fall 2009

Weekly Newsletter

Announcements / CET Events
Oct. 24-Nov.1 Fall Break. Buone vacanze a tutti!!



Oct. 25 Florence Piazza del Duomo becomes vehicle-free! See new bus ruotes at http://www.muoversiafirenze.it/export/sites/muoversi/materiali/depliant_duomo_a3.pdf (also on bulletin board)



Wednesday, Nov. 4 Film and Pizza night. 6 pm. Viale Belfiore.



Sunday, Nov. 8 CET Brunch at the Florence Diner. After 3 months of cucina italiana, it’s time to show your Italian roommates how to eat breakfast, American-style!!

Nov. 13-15: Traveling Seminar-Venezia!

This week in Florence

Sunday, Nov. 1 Aperitivo/Buffet/DJ set
Casa della Creativita’. 7 pm. Vicolo Santa Maria Maggiore, 1.


Nov. 1-7 Film Festival “dei Popoli”
Full schedule available in English at www.festivaldeipopoli.org/en/festival/calendario/2009

On-Going Thursday-Saturday Karaoke Night 10:30 pm

Michael Collins Pub, Piazza della Signoria. www.michaelcollinspub.com

On-Going Nov-December: “50 Days of International Film”

Cinema Odeon. See program at www.mediatecatoscana.it (and posted on bulletin board in CET Center).

Feature Locale of the Week:

The Florence Jazz Club: http://www.jazzclubfirenze.com/en/index.php

You must become a member to enter (it costs 8 euros and lasts all year. Download the

application at: http://www.jazzclubfirenze.com/en/membership.php)

Who knew GREEN could taste so GOOD?!

International Day of Climate Action 10.24.2009

CET Students took some time off from studying to prepare a 100% organic,

local dinner in honor of Oct. 24th's Internataional Day of Climate Action.

On the menu: polpette fatte in casa (homemade meatballs)
and pasta with ragu' ...


The Grass CAN be Greener
on the Florentine side of the fence!

Resources for Sustainable Living in Florence

The Green Passport program is a way for you to action towards sustainability abroad (and you thought only foreigners wanted a Green Card!). Find out to take part and check out these other links as well:
www.greenpassport.us/page/partipating-in-the-green 
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/

http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/studyabroadmagazine/2006Fall/sustainable_travel_and_study_abroad.shtml

Be-Have Urban Atelier
Via Ghibellina 86/r. www.be-have.it All pieces in the store are are vintage, second-hand, or handmade.

La Raccolta

Via Leopardi 2. Organic restaurant/grocery store  90 % vegan menu

Insoliti Tessuti
clothes made from organically produced fabrics. (next door to La Raccolta)

Full directory of environmentally friendly hotspots in Florence: www.firenzetica.it

CET Student Correspondent News: Costantino is all over Rome

By Claire Costantino, Student Correspondent

Vanderbilt-in-Florence relocated to Roma for a few days this week, and it was soooo cool! Italians talk about Rome the way people in Small Town, USA talk about New York city: this magical place where everything is cool and stylish and perfect. They weren’t far off. We went with a school trip, so we just about toured ourselves to death, but we were still able to rally and have a good time. Funny fact: the hip cool neighborhood in Rome, Trastevere, reminded me a lot of Florence. So basically I get to spend my semester in an entire city that’s like the best Rome has to offer! I won’t bother telling you how cool the Colosseum was, how much I wish I could spend all my time in Villa Borghese, or that the Sistine Chapel blew my mind — that's obvious.

5 unexpected things that made Rome awesome:

1. Although their wine wasn’t as good as Tuscany’s Chianti, the food was SO GOOD. The further south you go, the more you wish you could just eat all the time and be Jabba the Hut-style fat. Roman specialties include spaghetti alla carbonara, spaghetti all’amatriciana, and fried goodness. I knew about the pasta, but the Roman habit of breading and frying just about anything they can think of was a delicious surprise that made an otherwise chic and cool city seem eerily like the Texas State Fair.

fried fiori di zucca. the 8th wonder of the Roman world...

2. Green space! Florentines seem to think grass is lethal, so they just cobblestone over any earth they find. Romans, however, embrace greenery. Villa Borghese is basically what Le Cascine wishes it could be, and most streets have trees and ivy instead of just graffitti.

3. Tourists dumber than me! This is probably more because I’ve been here for a while now and I’m getting my bearings and less because Rome attracts more idiots than Florence, but I felt so smart there! I could muddle through some Italian-only interactions and I knew facts about the places we visited! Some of these video camera-toting tourists were so hopeless that I almost felt bad for them, especially the man that walked by the “School of Athens” in the Vatican and then shouted “WE ARE NOW ENTERING THE SISTINE CHAPEL” into his video camera. An embarrassing mistake made worse by the fact that he will always hear a tour guide’s judgmental cackle on that video.

4. Fountains!

Everywhere you look there’s a cool fountain! One to commemorate a sunken ship by the Spanish steps, the Trevi, and my favorite: one by Bernini in Piazza Navona where the figures all look disgusted and shield their eyes because they don’t want to look at the “ugly” building in front of them because Bernini was mad he wasn’t commissioned to do the building as well.

5. My favorite thing about Rome: I’m everywhere! Costantino is all over that city! I’ve got a triumphal arch, a salon, like 2 columns in the phone book (yes, I looked), and some cute restaurants.

Claire and the Arco di Costantino

Claire Costantino,
CET Florence Fall 2009 Student Correspondent

Roman Holiday: Traveling Seminar Oct. 7-10

We spent four days in Rome on a Traveling Seminar for capstone courses "Imagery and Public Space" and "Italian Cultural History". Our trip included site visits to the Colosseum, Forum, Capitoline Hill, Pantheon, Borghese Gallery, Vatican, St. Peter's, and walking tours to several Baroque churches (Santa Maria della Vittoria, San Luigi dei Francesi, San Carlino alle quattro fontane), piazzas , fountains and political monuments and buildings.

At the Colosseum

Taking in the sites at the Forum

We spent all of Friday at the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica.

After four full days of Roman food, art, architecture and history...

it's time to head back to Florence!

here:

Tuscany Bike Tour

Taking a break on our 26 km bike ride

to admire the Colli Fiorentini ...

http://www.tuscany-biketours.com/

Lauren, Pip, Drew and Alex

at the top of the Poppiano Castle.

Kelsey, Claire and Lydia

Emily sorride sotto il sole toscano.