Svizzera- feelings not neutral

Switzerland with Rosemary, it was my last trip before the end of the
semester, one I really didn't have time for, but that I am happy I
took. I left for the airport in a car bright and early book in hand
for my ten page paper due three days later. It was nice to catch up
with Jessica on the way to the airport and got me ready for my flight.
I read my book and got all ready to see Rosemary!

I found Rosenary outside of customs and we made our way to the hostel.
We for there really fast because of really good public transit (duh,
it's Switzerland) and settled in to our oddly clean and nice hostel.

We got down to the lakefront in Geneva, which our hostel was really
close to, and walked around. We happened upon the water taxi stop, and
decided to take it wherever it was going. Public transit is free to
all tourists. We were all about it. We found a boat tour of the whole
lake, and booked it. While we waited we headed to the tourist
information offices to book some trips to mont blanc and other places.
When we got there, the friendly lady told us that those tours were a
waste of money, as the weather would be horrible the following day,
and the views would be nonexistent. She gave us the name of some
places we could easily take the train to ourselves and tour alone.
Thank god she did.

After the boat tour all around the beautiful lake, we hiked up to
St. Pierre's Cathedral, and clomped to the top to see the amazon panoramic views
of the lake from above. We went out in search of dinner and failed to
find anything cheap, but managed to ind some decent Italian food for
not to punishing a price.

The next day we lazily woke up to get our hostel provided breakfast,
and regarded by all of the crazy age differences that were at the
hostel. There were people who seemed to be retirement age with huge
backpacks strapped to them, and kids with braces and younger. We
seemed the minority in what is typically seen as appropriate hostel
age. We went to the train station and bought out tickets for Gruyeres,
a town at the foot of the alps. I accidentally bought a ticket for a
child in first class instead of an adult in second class. It was a
stupid move on my part. It all got cleared up, as I paid some more
money to a conductor who scolded me. I survived.

We got there about two hours later and about a hundred pages into my
book. As we stepped off of the train we saw a mountain and village
above us and to the left and a cheese factory in front of us. It was a
good place to be. We went in to the factory and visited the gift shop,
buying important things like wine, white chocolate Toblerones, Swiss
branded lip balm, and macaroons.

We made our way up the hill and into the small town dating to the
1200's, through a castle, and below to a nice little secluded bench to
look up at the mountains which were like nothing I had seen before
while drinking some wine. After visiting a church and amazingly
organized cemetery we made it back to the town square and went in to a
local eatery with a hankering for some fondue. We failed at ordering
it, and ending up with some monstrous cheese blog with ham, it was
good, but holey cheese. As we walked back towards the train we stopped
again at our favorite cheese shop/convenient store and stocked up. We
almost got on the train going the wrong way (Towards Gstaad), but made
it to the right train to Geneva.

We went back to the hostel to drop our good and ended up passing out
for three hours. After regaining consciousness we headed out to
finally get the fondue we so desperately wanted. We officially made it
a treat yourself dinner and had some awesome Champagne fondue, Swiss
wine and ice cream. We then decided to stop at a bar we had seen on
our walk to dinner. We went in to typical lighting, dance music, and a
huge bar. We walked up and ordered two beers and it was 19 francs. So
like $21. Woops. We drank those and headed back to the hostel.

The next day I had to head out around 4pm so we didn't know what to
do. Our good friend YouTube brought us to the Titanic trailer which
was on the most viewed because of its re-release. There. It was
decided. We were to see Titanic. And so we did. We walked around
Geneva, got some Starbucks (my first time in months, it reminded me a
lot of home ) and headed to the theater. Clearly it was amazing, but
in true Swiss fashion cost 24 francs a person.

I headed immediately to the airport after the three hour movie, and
said goodbye to my dearest Rosemary all the way until July. I made it
through security, and through my favorite (the duty free,
Duh) and went back on to Rome. I had a very productive flight wait
time, as I typed in all of the quotes I found for my paper, and two
blog entries.

Only a week of classes, 3 finals, and 10 days of traveling left. What
the hell happened?

Poland

I flew in to krakow through Munich Thursday morning (missing classes,
shhhh). Whatever we're not supposed to let school get in the way of
our education. Am I right John Felice? I got in before dad by an hour
and went looking for where to meet him, and found I had to walk
outside to get to the domestic terminal since he connected in Warsaw.
Interesting I know. All of this while skyping with Nicole while she
was at work.

He finally got in, after he had been delayed, and we made our way to
our hotel. It was great and we got a great recommendation for dinner
and hit the town before dads jet la kicked in. I started my hundred
pierogi tour and had my first sip of the famous Zubrowka vodka.

Passed out tired dad and I were out to prep for our visit to Nawa Huta
the next morning. We got up and got ready and waited for our pick up
for our tour. We went with a guy who said he worked with the company
out voucher was for. A half our later we found out he was wrong and
got hurriedly brought back to our hotel to find our correct tour.

We saw it for sure, as the tickets said we were to be picked up by a
Trabant, a communist era car. We got in, this tiny little car, and
headed to the "perfect" communist town. The town was very interesting,
and so war our guide. He was 7 when communism fell in 1989.

He brought us around to a cafe that was popular at the time, and asked
us if we wanted anything to drink while he told us about the history.
Seeing as it was ten in the morning we asked for water and he looked
at us dumbfounded and asked if we were sure we didn't want some vodka
instead. We obliged.

We walked around the town and he told us about how it has changed
since the time of communism, and brought us to an apartment that had
been preserved as it had been in communist times. The apartment was
small, 3 rooms total, and he said as many as six people could live in
any apartment. He told us how nearly everyone had the exact same
furniture. Before ending our tour he offered us some more vodka, and
then we made our way to the center of old town.

Walking through central square and cloth hall we went through some
churches and took in the immense beauty which was amazingly left
untouched in the war. We walked back towards the hotel to meet out
afternoon tour of the salt mines.

We got to the salt mines and went down a few dozen meters and saw
where so many were employed for so long. 300 miners are still employed
to simply preserve the mine for visitors. I liked a wall (no judging)
and saw some of the art that the miners made. The grand hall with its
chandeliers made of salt that is sill used for weddings and concerts
today was really cool. As we left dad bought a cross made of salt,
and kept trying unsuccessfully to find an amber ring for himself, I
had no idea yet.

Pooped from a full day of touring we went back to gather ourselves at
the hotel for another huge polish meal as recommended by our favorite
hotel worker. As we sat there dad went into the bathroom and I social
mediaed my little heart out on the wifi that was much better than that
back at school. When he came out he put his LAJ ring into my hand. The
ring had been his fathers and his, and was now mine. He told me that
he hoped the ring would give me strength it had given him as I enter
adulthood. It was something I had always wanted, but didn't expect. It
meant and means a lot to me and I wear it with pleasure and pride to
be a Jorwic and a LAJ.

The next day we were up and at 'em again for our our of Auschwitz and Birkenau

. The tours were obviously enlightening, interesting, and
extremely sad. I am happy we had a knowledgeable tour guide and I
really took the chance to lose myself in the moment. The fact that
over a million people had been murdered on grounds I had walked that
day is still something I can't really wrap my head around.

That night we took it easy, had more peirogi as recommended by a local
away from the downtown core. They were my favorite of the trip, but
Dad is still inconclusive. We woke up and headed to the train on
Easter morning to head towards Częstochowa and eventually Warsaw. We
made it on to our first train, somehow, as the train station was
horribly marked and I experienced my first "HOLY HELL NO ONE SPEAKS
ANY ENGLISH AND ALL I KNOW IN POLISH IS JEN KUH YEH" moment. Three
hours later we were in Częstochowa and as it snowed we tried in vain to
find the church we wanted.

Our train was in only two hours so we gave up, found the only
restaurant in town, got some pork, and Headed back to the train to
Warsaw. We easily got into Warsaw, and found our hotel. Immediately i
was amazed with the differences between Warsaw and Krakow. There were
skyscrapers, new things, Starbucks- I was immediately in love, and was
taken aback by what I didn't expect at all.

That night we just passed out after seven hours on the train and
rested up for our one day of touring in Warsaw. The next morning we
found our tour after a little anxiety about finding the correct one,
and headed out. The history of Warsaw, and it's complete destruction
in the second world war was not new to me, but I was surprised at how
completely it had been restored. Some businesses ran by the same
families, in the same place, and everything built as if to look
original. All at the same time of remembering what had happened with
pieces or artillery built into buildings as to never forget the
destruction.

We headed out to dinner in one of those rebuilt restaurants and had
our lady big hurrah and talks in Poland. The next day we headed to the
airport as our flights were within five minutes of each other (good
planning mom). I am so happy we had the opportunity to travel to the
homeland together and spend time that I am truly thankful for with my
dad. Every moment was cherished and none wasted.

Steak with Truffle Sauce?- Just another Wednesday

I'm currently on the way back home to Rome from a nice little day trip to Oriveto. Having been to Orvieto one of the first weeks of the semester, I was excited to get a chance to go back and eat at MY FAVORITE RESTAURANT EVER. After walking around, saying hi to the Duomo and introducing Zach to my favorite small town of Italy we went back to the old twelfth century rope factory turned amazing Grotto restaurant and got our eat on.

We got some typical Umbrian white wine, and SO MANY TRUFFLES. Truffles on pizza, and then truffles on top of a steak. My latest foray into truffle hunting in Piemonte made me more than ready for the task at hand of eating some serious Tartufa. Our waiter did not speak a lick of english, a welcome change from Rome where I can't stretch my pretty impressive (food ordering) Italian abilities.

Walking back through and checking out all of the old architecture made get all sad that I leave this place in, ummm I don't want to talk about it 34 days. That is why I cancelled all of my plans to see "central europe" who needs Amsterdam, Dublin, Vienna. Prague, and Munich. Instead I am going to soak up some small towns of Italy like it is my J-O-B. 8 days of seeing so much of the country that has been my home and treated me so well these last few months.

A nice short day of Lunching. paper writing, and reflecting-- a special study abroad day that I cannot say I won't be sad to leave.

Study Trip Olympics- Torino 2012

Bright and early 5:00am wake up call after three hours of sleep for a study trip. I have been excited for this trip for a really long time,to Torino to get to see some of the North of Italy with the one and only Cristina, the Torino native herself.

We made it to Tornio on time by 9, and got in our bus and headed immediately to Palazzo Madama to tour the huge 4 floor museum. Our tour guide was really great and we saw a lot of Torinos history so we actually knew where we were and what made it matter.

On the way to lunch we all started to realize what made Torino different from what we knew of the rest of Italy. First it was on the grid system, which all of us Americans appreciated, plus it was clean and the architecture was all very beautiful and detailed, but simple at the same time. One of my favorite things was how most of the streets were covered with Porticos to shield people from the elements.

We made our way to the Fiat and Maserati factories for a guided tour of the factory that produces Maseratis. They have just recently started offering tours and it was really impressive. One of the heads of quality control lead the tour and we got a really inside look at how the cars were made. As we were leaving the tour guide actually found a small scratch on the shell of a body that none of us could even see that had to be corrected. It was really amazing to see the quality and craftsmanship that went in to the cars.

Next we shuffled along to the Mole Abtonelliana, which was originally designed to be one of the largest synagogues in Italy but eventually ran out of money and was bought by the government to be made into the largest film museam in Italy. It was really cool to see the influence Italy has had on film, and the museum was really well put together with cool exhibits and it was in an awesome space in the nearly completed synagogue. We had dinner at a really famous Jazz club in downtown Torino before heading back to the hotel. It was really interesting to see jazz in another country. When we got to the hotel we discovered that we had a 5 person hotel room, so Will, Zach, Mitch, Frank and I settled in for a good night. We found a local pub around the corner but didn't last long since we were so exhausted. We stopped and had a cigar before going to sleep, it was Wills first, another Torinese experience not to forget.

Saturday we wet up early in order to drive up to Piemonte for a wine tasting. We met up with Robert ad Leslie, an expat couple who now lead wine tours in the North of Italy. We were treated to some of the best views I have seen it Italy of the wine country, and of corse there was the wine. We tasted more than 10 wines and learned a bunch of fun facts along the way. I can't wait for some dinner parties to throw those out at. Watch out America. We had lunch with typical Piemontese food and wine and then departed for our Truffle hunting adventure.

Nearby we met up with a novice truffle hunter and went hiking through the forest as the dogs searched for truffles. The forest reminded me a lot of Wisconsin, but presently surprised when I turned around from my hike to see the beautiful patchwork of vineyards behind me. The dogs found some truffles and we went back to learn about truffles and of course have a tasting with some red wine. During our informational session the hilarious and borderline creepy guide made a bunch of jokes about Truffles being an aphrodisiac to Jim, the professor that had accompanied us on the trip.

We went back into Torino and spent some time exploring Piazza Vittoria before we, um, ate more at dinner. At dinner Cristina invited her godmother out to eat and we had the chance to meet her (totally separate blog entry for that dinner, that I'm going to submit to Ciao Roma, look out for that).

We went out with Jim to the local pub and had a nice time before again going to sleep early after a full day of visiting Piemonte and Torino. Sunday we woke up and took the bus to Orto San Giulio. Without really knowing much of what we were going to see, aside from a boat tour I was more than amazed when we got there. The lake was breathtaking and the town surrounding it looked as if it was in a movie. We had time to walk around and shop and do all of those fun things, but Zach, Mitch, and I mainly sat and stared into the lake. It made me miss living on the water a lot, one thing I definitely look forward to when I get back to my own little slice of Chicago.

We took a boat tour around the lake, and around the island in the center of the lake. I easily took 160 photos in that 20 minutes. We got to lunch, that was on the aforementioned Island and ate on the terrace overlooking the amazing lake. We got back and didn't want to walk to the buses. Begrudgingly we got on the buses and headed back to Torino to head to the airport. We had longer than we had anticipated to wait for our flight, and hung out had a few Spritz and went made our way back to good old Roma.

We did so much in essentially two and half days, but never felt rushed. We had time to really sit and think, I truly took advantage of it. It was a feast for all of the senses and formed some memories I won't ever forget. It also gave me some awesome ideas of places in the North of Italy to visit after the semester ends. Hats off to Cristina for putting this trip together. It was amazing, a study trip my semester abroad really wouldn't be the same without.