Assisi and Planning pour Paris!

Hello, internet. I missed you. Sorry for the lack of updates, however the internet at the Miller/Scipioni/?? household was out of commission these past couple of days for some unknown reason. Kane and I were itching to get our hands on the router, as 99% of problems with anyone's internet are solved simply by unplugging and plugging back in their modem. Alas... also I've just realized that I don’t know the surnames of any of the other people living in my apartment complex. Eh, I’ll live. Time for the good stuff!

 

This past weekend was one part enjoying friends in Perugia and 

one part vacationing to Assisi. Both were quite splendid. 

 The Rocca Maggiore, a huge fortress that acted as the city of Assisi's stronghold during times of attack. The exact date of Maggiore's erection is unknown, but the earliest record of activity here dates back to 1000AD. Pretty impressive. Kane really liked this picture due to the contrast in light from the left to right side of the castle. "Very foreboding..." Well, if you're wondering about those foreboding clouds - yes, it did start to pour about three minutes after our tour of Assisi was complete. 

On the way back down from Maggiore we happened upon this fence covered in bubble gum. 

I thought it was a nice hidden quirk of the castle's property.

The view from the top of Assisi.

I Know You All Are Hungry...

Hungry for some pics!

This picture makes me think of "Wildcat" by Ratatat.

Weekend in Rapallo

First and foremost - Happy Father's Day! I love you, Dad.

     This weekend I had the most amazing time visiting Kane’s wonderful aunt Angela in Rapallo, a small coast town near Genova. Angela and her boyfriend Andrea were so hospitable and kind, and of course, having lived in Rapallo for a number of years, they knew exactly where to go and what to see! Along with being an incredible host, Angela was also a top-notch cook. She also taught Kane and I how to brew our own coffee at home, and even solved my “I’m somehow allergic to the dairy here” problem by introducing us to local, delicious rice milk. Yum!

 

Angela picked us up at the train station on Friday afternoon and promptly showed us what we could see in downtown Rapallo. From what I gathered, Angela’s profession is somewhere along the lines of a hotel agent – the yellow inn by the beach is one that she used to represent. 

From the beach Angela took us back to her countryside home, which is about twenty minutes outside of Rapallo. I loved her house so much!! She designed the interior herself, and all of the artwork is original. I loved her stingray impressions!! Winston, my pet stingray who travels with me, was very busy appreciating the artwork too. There were a few farel cats living in her neighborhood, one of which Angela semi-adopted. That yellow house is the small guest house where we stayed. 

 

 The next day, Angela and Andrea took us on a walk from Santa Margherita to Portofino. Boy did I underestimate how far that was. Regardless, the walk revealed some beautiful sites…

 

That cliff side villa? Berlusconi’s preferred party house.

 

Lots of boats and pretty views along the way... 

     Oh, and if you’re into cars at all, just on our walk to Portofino we saw… A Ferrari F430, an old-school Triumph, an Audi R8, a Mazarrati, a Cararra 4 and a Cararra S, a BMW x6…. I could go on, but you get the picture! 

I know that my hair is in my face, but that house you see behind me? 

It may or may not belong to Giorgio Armani. No biggie...

  

     Andrea, or, more formally, Andrea de Carlo, is a fairly well known and excellent novelist/musician in Italy. We spent Saturday evening eating, drinking, and rocking out on Angela’s two guitars.  It was great to hear him play that night. The very next day  at lunch, someone asked for Andrea's autograph! Angela also shared her book that she wrote with me, called “Cats, Cats... and more Cats!” Naturally, I loved it.

    This morning we lounged around the house before heading down to a nearby beach. I was so happy that the weather was clear. The water here was incredible. We finished off our visit to Rapallo with a brief lunch by the seaside. What an incredible visit. Thank you Angela!

 

               Kane, Andrea and I at lunch.                 The Mediterranean - just gorgeous. 

By the way! I figured out what I am going to put my stipend money towards…

Ahh!!

Alright I must be off, I need to get busy planning our next big trip - to Rome!

 Any suggestions for our trip would be greatly appreciated.

Ciao!

Rebecca

Updates!

     Hello all! I have so much to talk about! I am currently working on my post about this past weekend in Rapallo, which was incredible, so I thought that I'd stimulate your blog-reading appetites with a few photos from last week's happenings. Seen below are some snapshots from the physics department soccer rally last Thursday and some personal jaunts about Perugia. More to come soon! Click to enlarge.

 

On Thursday my boss Helios Vocca (in the red shorts) took Kane and I out to a physics department soccer match. Helios boasted that these games were "just for fun" but they got pretty heated! I was happy to photograph and cheer from the sidelines.

This the town center (basically what comes up when you look up "Perugia" on Google). We hang out here pretty much every night that we go out. It is frequently packed with students in the evenings.

Last week Kane and I decided to take one of the walking tours through Perugia to see what we 

could of our home town. This church, which you would expect to be situated on 

a main street in the US, was crammed into an abandoned alleyway.

Ope! One more thing...

This is a photodiode! I have to build one of these. Good luck to me!

Doesn't Anybody Stay in One Place Anymore

We ended up just spending the weekend in Perugia, which was nice because we realized that every person we had met so far knew every other person that we met. Perugia is really a small town, except for everyone is from a different country. On Friday we sampled some delicious food while enjoying the view and finished up our night on Friday with some delightful Perugian chocolate. 
Click to enlarge,

This is the view from the top of Perugia, close to the town's center.

 

More of the town center.

We went to a chocolate shop in the center of town called Sandri Perugia. 

I don't even know what to say.

My friend Michael appropriately shared this song with me a few days ago. I can't get enough.

Mi piaci molto, Italiaaa

On Thursday Flavio took us to the big Co-op on Thursday so we could stock up on cheap food. This guy was the "keeper of the sausage" - apparently this sausage is the second largest sausage ever made? Naturally I had to pose with him. 

Today we are going to watch US vs. Britain in the World Cup with some friends. Woo! Tomorrow we plan to take a day trip up to Lago Trasimeno, a nearby lake, which is supposed to be very beautiful.

 This week in the lab consisted of lots and lots of reading. I think I probably read about 20 or so hefty scientific articles - one of which was 66 pages long (eughhhh) but I feel like I have a much better grasp on thermal noise and my project now. By the way, if any of you are interested in what I'm actually doing in Italy this summer, I thought I should provide a little run down!

Todi and L'infiorata

Ciao! This weekend my Aunt Ann and Uncle John united with us in Perugia and treated us to a weekend with them in their rented condo in Todi (about an hour south of Perugia). We then travelled to Spello to observe L'infiorata! Click each photo to enlarge. 

There was some procession in Perugia's town center going on just before Ann and John arrived - I had no idea what was happening or what anybody was saying, but it looked cool so I snapped some shots. 

 

John and Ann driving us from perugia to Todi

Ann and John's Condo/Villa. This was GREAT - way out in the country side surrounded by orchards and a lot of very beautiful sky. I couldn't get enough of walking around at night soaking in the atmosphere. The villa also had a great courtyard which Kane promptly creeped in (above).

 

Todi was a quiet town. They had some tango festival going on there but we knew we needed to get up early so we went back to the villa around eleven. Beautiful orchards and a lot of open space surround the city. Too bad it was kind of hazy when these shots were taken...

The next day, Sunday, was L'infiorata (literally translated: the adornments); a religious festival held all throughout Italy but that is celebrated in a peculiar way in the otherwise quaint town of Spello; artists (from ages 10 and up) gather flower petals from the countryside and their gardens of every different color and arrange them in spectacular mosaics on the sidewalk. Composing these street-sized arrangements takes hours and a team of five or more will work through the night. The town is divided into teams, or  "houses", that represent the ancient families that founded Spello, and in this way the designs are a friendly competition between the members of each house. When they are complete, the designs are judged - but then right afterwards are walked all over by a precession from the town's main church (pictures below). People come from all over the world to observe these amazing designs.

  

This was my favorite design - I love how detailed the boy's face is.

 

These women really wanted their picture taken by someone else but started laughing when multiple other people started to photograph them - naturally I had to join in.  The streets were lined with flowers that I'm sure were mortified by the day's festivities.

 

They were selling baby ducks in the street! Sooo cuteeeee. 

 This was the most beautiful church! This is where the precession started.

 The view from Spello - most views from these hill towns kind of look like this.

Ann and John enjoying the view.

Another very, very impressive design. Probably one of the biggest we saw today.

 

This is the most interesting flower I have ever seen! What is it??

Detail on the petal work - I love how defined every line is even though they are just petals. 

        Overall hanging out with Ann and John was great - they were so kind and we all had a slew of very interesting conversations. I'm also glad that Kane really liked them - now only if he'd let me tag along with him to Milan to go see his aunt. We'll see about that. Ann made us a great dinner on Saturday night with chicken sauteed in red wine with truffle sauce - DELICIOUS. Mom please learn how to make this if you are reading. Also they have more pictures which I'm sure they'll send after they get back to the states. 

That's all for now! Arrivederci.

Becca

p.s. - For those of you who couldn't quite get it (Mom) to make a comment, click on "comments" and then you can write something in that box anonymously and just sign your name.