Mutiny on the Cinque Terre

Well, here we are, the week after our trip with 14 tenth-graders to one of the most beautiful places we've experienced, the Cinque Terre, in Italy. It is definitely a place that we will be going back to, though definitely not with quite as much company next time! Rain + cold + hiking + 14 sixteen-year-olds = Bad Idea. These are kids whose idea of a good time is not seeing beautiful, old buildings and landscapes, but shopping and eating. With that all said, I'll tell you about the trip that David and I had... First of all, if you don't know about the Cinque Terre, they are 5 lands (or towns) on the coast of Italy, fairly recently discovered and now hugely popular. The area has been made into a national park to preserve the unique history, culture and landscape. The towns are all built on cliffs over the ocean, and are connected by hiking paths. The only way to reach the towns is by boat, hiking, or now by train. One of the towns dates back to the 11th century, and most have castles and old churches to explore. Here are two that we went to separately (more on that later...), Vernazza and Corniglia. We took the train from here in Lugano to Milano, another train to Genova, and one more to Moneglia, a town along the coast between Genova and the Cinque Terre where our hotel was located. The day we arrived, it was chilly but not raining, so we walked to the beach - our first time touching the Mediterranean!

Then we took a hike through Moneglia and the surrounding area - the whole area is built on the mountains and valleys that make up the coastline. We saw beautiful 13th and 14th century churches along the way - one characteristic that we loved were the colored-pebble mosaics on the ground outside most of these small town churches.

From the summit of this mountain, which was only about 435 meters, we were able to look back and see the whole town of Moneglia on the seaside.

The walk through the area was like going back in time - we walked through terraced vineyards and orchards, by olive mills and "muretti" - the stone walls that they built into the hills to hold up the land, and on walkways that were used when produce was carried by hand into the town, whith little stone benches for them to rest along the way. We loved seeing olive and lemon trees, and the old, abandoned stone houses that nature has taken over. Our guide introduced us to a new fruit that we were able to taste since we walked through a field of the trees - I never had her write down the name, but it translates very loosely to "strawberry tree". The fruit really doesn't look like a strawberry other than being red and around the same size, but they do grow on a tree and are sooo sweet. A perfect reward after summiting a little mountain!

The next day, it rained, but I went with the students to the first two towns of the Cinque Terre, Monterosso and Vernazza. There were some beautiful views, but of course it would have been better in different weather, and also if David and I had both been able to go! One of our students was sick back in the hotel in Moneglia. This is a picture I took from the ruins of a castle tower of Vernazza. You can really see the terraced landscape that makes growing all of the olives and grapes possible!

We went back to the hotel early that day because of the rain and the next day, David got to have his turn with the kids while I stayed behind in Moneglia with another student who was sick. Oh, well! He got to see the rest of the towns, Corneglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. He even got to walk on the Via dell'Amore without me! Here it is, along with one of the lemon trees he saw with a spectacular background.

That evening was definitely one of the highlights for us. We took a walk on our own through Moneglia after I had explored earlier that day when everyone was out. I had found the ruins of a castle - there are actually two in Moneglia - again, with the amount of overgrowth, it was all very secret-garden. These are pictures from the top of the castle and looking up to it from the beach as well. Also that night, we went to an Osteria, which in our guide's words, is "more truth than form" that a Ristorante, meaning that it was real, hearty, traditional food rather than simply showy. Since it was in Moneglia, a town that makes much of it's income through fishing, it was some of the freshest seafood we've ever had, and that's saying a lot! There were so many courses, we lost count - a cold appetizer plate with a seafood and potato salad, the first pasta course of home-made pasta with pesto, which, by the way, originated in this area! The second pasta course of home-made nero di sepia pasta (that's the black squid-ink pasta) with whole mussels, clams, and squid. The meat course, the seafood course of stuffed squid, then finally the dessert course. I didn't think I'd ever be able to eat again! We made sure to purchase some locally-made items before we left Moneglia - wine and limoncino from Cinque Terre, olives and olive oil from Moneglia, and cheese from a neighboring town. On the final day, we took an early train back to Genova, and went to a seafaring museum - lots of history and nautical information of the area, where Christopher Columbus is from. After the museum, we were able to walk around the city with our guide and ate foccocia - also from this area - and saw many churches, some that had parts built in the 9th or 11th centuries. This was the largest and most elaborate - San Lorenzo. It is made of different types of marble; the strips are the gothic style of the area - most of the churches we saw in the area were striped like this, but some were painted with stripes - it was amazing to see the stripes made of actual marble. This one had beautiful detail, too, also of marble. You can see a little on the second picture, but one thing we found interesting were all the chimaira carvings - our guide explained that these pagan symbols were placed all over the outside of churches to keep the "evil" on the outside. So as you can see, even though the circumstances may not have been the best, we still enjoyed our time in the area - we were able to do so much! And having a guide was wonderful - we felt like we were really able to have a true experience. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Teatro alla Scala - Milan, Trip 2

Yesterday we took a second trip to Milano to see a ballet at La Scala - my first professional ballet, and our first trip to La Scala - a check off the list of things to do in his lifetime for David. We saw Le Parc, which is a fairly new ballet that premiered in Paris about a year ago and won several awards. It was beautiful and passionate, modern dance but elegant and traditional at the same time. We loved it. Not to mention that since we went with a large group from the school, we were able to get a ridiculous discount and we sat in the third row on the side of "la platea" - the floor. And since David was a chaperone, his ticket was free! We went into the city early so we could do some sight-seeing. We had already seen the Duomo, but when we were there before, the stairs to the roof were closed for the day. There are quite a few stairs to the top, but once you get there, you can see amazing views of the city and the skyline, not to mention the Alps in the distance if it's clear enough, and it just barely was yesterday! And you can get closer to many of the statues - it's so beautiful to look at the city beyond the spires of the Duomo.

This is a picture of the entrance to La Galleria, an sort of indoor street of shops and ristorante. You can see the sculpture of the facade of the Duomo in the shot.

Here we are on the roof - thanks to the self-timer setting on our camera!

A view of the skyline from the main roof. In this shot you can see the scaffolding on the Duomo where they are still working on restorations. This view is to the south. The Duomo is actually in the shape of a cross, with the bottom of the cross as the front. We are looking to the right from the main roof out to the right arm of the cross.

Outside of Teatro alla Scala. Notice the huge smile on David's face.

David didn't want me to take pictures inside before the show, even though everyone else was! So this is a shot basically from inside my purse - you can see his nose along with the various seats of la galleria. You can see why it's called "La Scala" - the stairs. Our next post will probably be after our In-Program trip with 14 students to Cinque Terre on the coast of Italy, close to Genoa. Wish us luck with the 10th graders, and a friend back here with our dogs for those 4 days!!!

A weekend in Zurich

This weekend we took our first train-trip through Europe, of what we hope will be many. This time, we only made it to Zurich, but we’re still working on getting the paperwork for the dogs to travel outside Switzerland, and we definitely wanted to take them along. They did so well on the train ride – it was such a smooth trip! And we’re so glad we decided to visit Zurich. We absolutely loved this city. It has so many beautiful sights to see and it’s small enough that we didn’t feel overwhelmed there. It is in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, so David got to practice a bit of his German. But everyone spoke English, “of course,” as they all said when we asked “sprechen Sie English?” Our hotel was fantastic, and it had an amazing Swiss restaurant where we ate seasonal-mushroom salads and traditional fondue our first evening there. You can see the front of the hotel and restaurant in one of the pictures - it's the salmon-colored building with green shutters and all of the chairs out front. Zurich is a perfect place to just wander around and see the sights – so that is exactly what we did. The old part of town is along the river, with newer parts along the lake further south. There are two churches across the river from each other, the Fraumunster, which has a set of Marc Chagall stained-glass windows, and the Grossmunster. You can go up one of the Grossmunster towers, by stairs, and see some beautiful views of the city. One thing I loved the most about this city was that the tallest buildings were the churches – from the top of the Grossmunster, you could see so many of them. There were fountains all over the city, with low spouts for the dogs. All this combined with the old Swiss buildings and cobblestone alleyways, it was just a wonderful place to be. We also went to the art museum, the Kunsthaus, on the recommendation of a few Zurich locals we met on the train. We didn’t know how many pieces were there that we were already familiar with – so many by Picasso, Matisse, Rodin, Van Gogh – including one of my favorites, Wheatfield with Cypresses. We also saw pieces by a Swiss painter, Ferdinand Hodler. Look him up if you get a chance – his work is all typical Swiss landscapes. Beautiful. Logan and Lucy loved the trip as well, especially all of the roasted chestnuts dropped on the ground! Lucy also enjoyed all the pigeons on the streets and the swans in the river and lake. The only place they weren’t allowed were the chocolate shops – an absolute must when you’re in Zurich. All in all, it was a great weekend – Zurich is definitely one of our new favorites that we will certainly be re-visiting in the future.

Festa d'Autunno Lugano

This weekend was the Autumn Festival in Lugano, celebrating the harvest and all the local traditions and foods of the area. Area ristorante and grotti had stands all through the pedestrian areas of the city, with fall dishes and homemade foods. David and I went down into the city Saturday with a friend and Sunday with the dogs to taste all the local specialties... polenta e gorgonzola - a cornmeal dish that we ordered with gorgonzola cheese... roasted castagnole (chestnuts) - they smelled so wonderful throughout the streets!... raclette - this was ridiculous - they basically take a heating element and melt cheese off a big wheel, then scrape it onto a piece of bread and put pickles on top - so amazingly good... cream of pumpkin soup... crepes with Nutella... grilled lamb... pastries... and of course, wine! We also got to see alpenhorn players (those big, long horns that you think of when you think of Switzerland), and bought local alpine flower and chestnut honeys. This is all after going to see a symphony in Locarno Friday evening, held at a concert hall which is a former church. What a weekend!