Travels throughout Italy
Dear readers,
For my last travels in Italy, after Spring Break, I went to Cinque Terre, Cagliari Sardegna, Catania Sicily, and several smaller towns in Tuscany.
Cinque Terre was breathtaking. It is a series of five small, colorful towns on the coast of Liguria on the northwest coast of Italy. Cinque Terre is not something you really go to simply “see.” You “do” Cinque Terre. And by that I mean you go to Cinque Terre to hike along the coastline through all five of the towns.
When we went, the weather was not perfect; it was maybe 60°F, cloudy, and incredibly humid. The cool air and lack of sun turned out to be a boon when the normal trail was closed and we were required to hike inland and straight up a mountain to get to the next town. The view was still spectacular. The trails were unlike those in national parks in the US, where you would have to make a serious effort to put yourself at risk of falling. Rather, the trail was, for the most part, only wide enough for one person, cut into the side of a veritable cliff with either terraced vineyards or a rocky Mediterranean shoreline below you.
Cagliari, Sardegna also disappointed us with cold, rainy, and windy weather for the most part, although “it NEVER rains in Cagliari!” The beach was fantastic nevertheless, and we got to explore several unique and exotic stores in the city, like MANGO and Nike.
Catania, Sicily was stunning. Mt. Etna loomed in the distance, and even when you couldn’t see it, you had only to look around at the buildings made out of grey lava stone to remember its eternal presence in the city.
I then went to Castiglione di Pescaia on the Tuscan coast for a day, which might have been the most perfect day of beaching I have ever experienced. It was just hot enough for you to bake nicely, but there was still a nice breeze. Enough to cool you off, but not enough to blow sand into your face and iPod. The water was clear, calm, and refreshingly cool. We were about a hundred steps from a strip of restaurants, and a short walk to the bus stop. There was some serious relaxation going on that day.
Going to Monteriggioni with two Italian friends was another day of fun despite less-than-ideal weather. It was Italian Labor Day. On the way, we stopped by a public park so that Pierluigi’s dog, Toby, could stretch his legs. At this park (why on earth don’t they have these in the US??) they had a playground-turned-public-gym. Instead of monkey bars and tic-tac-toe, there were a number of individual exercise machines, like an elliptical, a leg-press, these discs you stand on and twist back and forth, working your obliques, and a number of other strange contraptions. It was awesome. I don’t frequent gyms, but I would totally go to this place all of the time. Did I mention there was also a zipline??
I finished my last exam this morning, and now as I sit here trying to come to terms with the fact that I return home in a little over two days, I am experiencing ALL OF THE FEELINGS.
I don’t have words to describe how happy and thankful I am for the time I have had here in Siena, but I am sad that that time is ending so soon. I am happy for the friends I have made here, but I am sad to be leaving them for a future in which there is no certainty we will see each other again. I am happy to be going home, to see my friends and family, to eat a burrito from Chipotle and “real” ethnic food. I am happy I will be going to the beach for the week I return, and that I have an exciting internship lined up for the summer. I can’t wait to blast music and sing out loud with the windows down and that heavy Virginia air blowing in my face. But I still can’t say I want to go home. All I can say is that on the plane ride on the way home, the tears are going to flow. At least it would lend a nice symmetry to my time abroad.
Packing shall commence this afternoon, concluding only at 6am on Sunday morning when I will begin my homeward travels.
Summer 2011 CET Sicily Students featured in La Sicilia newspaper
Posted by Randall Salisbury, CET Italy Programs Manager
Summer 2011 CET Sicily students were featured in La Sicilia, a daily Italian newspaper based in Catania, Sicily. The photo was taken when the Documentary and Journalism students visited the La Sicilia printing press earlier this summer.
Translation: “American students visit the ETIS 2000 plant”
The CET Catania program, under the tutelage of the University of Catania, hosts a group of American university students who take courses in journalism, history, language, and literature. A group of these students visited the ETIS 2000 printing plant where “La Sicilia” (among other national newspapers) are printed. In the picture are…
Full page PDF of CET Sicily Summer ’11 group in La Sicilia newspaper
Beautifully unbeautiful: Chiesa San Nicolò, Catania
I stepped inside and felt, at once, a little disappointed. The church was undergoing serious construction, so I could not really walk around. I was reading a sign about San Nicolò’s significance when I was startled by a loud snort. The source of the noise appeared to be an older gentleman dressed in a checkered fleece, despite the heat, who was sitting asleep on a wooden bench nearby. Every so often, he would let a strident snore escape as he sat slumbering on his throne. Eventually, he woke up and noticed us. He said a few introductory words about the church in Italian, walked to the door where two other men stood and then sat behind a desk where he clasped his hands into a ball on its surface and began humming peacefully.
I was struck by the serene manner in which this man carried himself. With his calm movements in mind, the church assumed a new atmosphere for me. It became a beautifully walled city of white marble, whose interior was punctured by shafts of bright light. The construction scaffolding, though quite expansive, only carried the weight of one or two workmen, whose silhouettes were foggy in the dusty light and whose panging hammers were like dripping water on stone. The church had transformed from a decrepit monument into a heavenly sanctuary, draped in an atmosphere of sleepy luminosity. And yet, it is this very luminosity that lends such an environment a certain vibrancy, infusing it with an unquenchable vitality. Despite the church’s incompleteness, all of its various elements – the man, the sound of hammering, the shafts of light – form their own harmonious ecosystem and I, a casual tourist, felt close to God in its presence.
The Catania Fish Market
The Catania Fish Market is like nothing I have ever seen before. To try to get an idea, some have described it as the best fish market in the world. When we arrived in Catania, Sicily we were told about the fish market, but honestly I did not know what to expect until I arrived. The fish market is opened Monday through Saturday from the morning until 2pm. Friday morning, as we started out on our walking tour around Catania, all I heard from other groups was how unique the experience was. Finally we made it to the Piazza, and tucked behind it – not quietly may I add – was a mob of people. The smell of fish was spread throughout the square even before entering but got even stronger the closer we got. There were fish, lots and lots of fish. Sea creatures I had never seen before or even knew existed. At each stand were the Sicilians yelling, I do not even know what, trying to sell their fishes or just to get the attention of the people walking by.
A Sicilian fisherman was unique to any other fisherman that I have encountered in the past. He wanted me, especially since he knew that I was American, to take his picture. The fisherman wanted to show you what they had, even though they knew that you were not buying fish. They would pose for pictures and smile as we flashed our cameras when walking by with fascinated looks. The fish had just been caught that day or night before and were probably as fresh you can find. Each stand too was very different. One man might have caught a thirty-pound fish, while the man next to him was selling a bucket of Sardines. Some of the fish did not even look like fish. For example, one was probably three feet long but it was metallic silver coiled. To not get too graphic about the gory details, it really made me appreciate the process that was involved from catching the fish, to selling the fish at the market, to preparing the fish either at home, and then to enjoying it.
Even if you do not like fish, or are a vegetarian, I would strongly recommend visiting the fish market if you ever visit Catania. It was much more than just the selling of fish and other sea animals, but was an insight to the Sicilian way of life. They were proud of who they were and expressed this through the fish that they caught. While I am not an expert by any means, and have only been to a handful of fish markets before this trip, I can say that this was definitely the most unique and exquisite market that I have ever seen.
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