Okay, one last post

So after my adventurous flight home I felt like I needed one more post to really wrap things up. Some of you have heard my tale, but I wanted to make sure that EVERYONE knows of my nightmare and offers the appropriate sympathy.

So, I left my hotel in Milan at 8 am, walked to the train station to catch the shuttle bus to the airport. Dad calls me to say that the airlines called him to say that my plane was delayed. Don't know why they didn't call me. So my plane was delayed 2 hours, but Alitalia was very nice and gave me a voucher for a free breakfast. And I saw this fun sight at the Milan airport--a lego Harry Potter!



I get on the plane, take off, etc. I didn't get a personal tv on this flight--and like Katie was, I was shocked. So I couldn't choose my own movies and was subjected to a really, really horrible movie with Christina Ricci, who plays a girl born with a pig nose. And then there was an even worse Italian movie about who knows what.

I arrived in New York, a little late but I had a 5 hour layover. I go through customs, immigration, etc. No problems. I find my gate but have lots of time, so I have some dinner and wander the shopping areas. I went to the Brookstone store and sat in their automatic-massage-chair for quite a while. That was nice. Then they announce my flight will be delayed, and then delayed some more. I keep wandering and go back to the massage chair. I also was amused by the numerous birds inside the terminal.
Oh, and let's not forget this sight: an iPod vending machine!!
It confused/bemused people so much that everyone stopped to look and I couldn't get a picture without some random stranger.

But back to the epic....After all the delays, they announce my flight has been CANCELLED. I go to my gate and wait in line to talk to an agent, then they send me to another gate where I wait some more. Then they tell us to use the courtesy phones to talk to an agent elsewhere, but the phones don't work. I wait in line again, and then they announce that desk is closed and I have to go somewhere else to wait in yet another line. Finally I talk to somebody and I'm rescheduled for the next morning, through Atlanta. Now, this itinerary will cause me to miss my Dallas-Austin connection, but because I booked this leg on a different airline, Delta won't help me. They absolutely refuse to even consider putting me on an Atlanta-Austin flight instead. I called American and they will only change my flight with a fee. Argh!! I argued with a few more agents to no avail.

(At this point it is about 11 pm--that would be about 5 am Italy time so I've been awake for almost 24 hours now.)

You may remember that Alitalia gave me a free meal when my flight was only slightly delayed. Delta did NOTHING for me. I begged for a hotel voucher or a discount or a meal voucher and they didn't do a thing.

I checked at a hotel services info desk if there were any places with cheap rooms, the guy laughed in my face.

So I spent the night at JFK airport. I rode the AirTrain around a lot, to find the nicest terminal to hang out in (terminal 4, if you're ever stuck there too). I was also very amused by the AirTrain because I'm 99% sure that the recorded voice doing the announcements on it is the guy who played Data on Star Trek: TNG.

I slept in a phone booth for awhile, then on the floor behind some plants, then in the food court in a booth. Then I sat in a chair next to a nice old lady who commiserated with me. There was also an arcade area where they had a couple of race-car games (the kind where you sit in the seat and pretend to actually drive) and some people were sleeping in those. (teehee)

At 4 am I couldn't sleep anymore, so I thought I'd make my way back to my terminal and check in for my flight. But, my terminal wasn't open yet. So, I got creative and took some pictures.



Ok, so I fly to Atlanta. No problems, miraculously. In Atlanta I got my boarding pass for my next flight to Dallas--they wouldn't give it to me in NY which I thought was strange. As they start to board, there's an announcement that says, 'If you're waiting on standby for this flight please check the screen to see if your name is on the clear to fly list.' I casually look up and see my name--I realized why they wouldn't give me my boarding pass in NY! Those Delta bastards only had me on standby and didn't even tell me!!! Thank god there was room on that flight, because I really would have lost it if I hadn't gotten on....

You'd think this would be disaster enough for one flying experience...but it gets worse. I'm so tired I sleep all the way through the flight to Dallas, until we land and I hear the attendant announce, "Welcome to Austin." what?!?! Apparently, there was a storm over Dallas, we couldn't land, circled the airport and then got rerouted to Austin to wait out the storm and refuel. So now I'm in Austin and Simon is in Dallas, ready to pick me up. I begged the flight attendant to let me off--and I think she saw I was about to go crazy (or already had gone) and was going to lie for me and say I was sick and let me off--but I wouldn't be able to get my luggage. I didn't want to make Simon wait in Dallas for my luggage while I was in Austin....and Delta wouldn't forward luggage if it wasn't picked up.... so I stayed on the plane.

And then, of course, my luggage wasn't even there. I hope you all appreciate the irony.

So I think door-to-door it was about 38 hours of travel with only about 5 hours total of sleep (in 1 hour spurts). Oh, and without any real meals. Just peanuts and snacks and the gross salad I had at the JFK airport (it was an avocado salad that didn't come with any avocado.)

But I'm home now. My luggage was delivered, remarkably, the next day. I went back to work today and was basically a zombie, but I don't think my boss noticed that I didn't really do anything.

Lily seemed somewhat happy to see me.

Sorry for a blog full of complaints, but I'm not quite recovered from all the trauma. That, and blogging is addicting and I needed to post just one more time....

Milan

I left Florence this morning...sniff, sniff. I had to drag my bags down five flights of stairs out of the apartment building, and then across town to get to the train station... that was quite a workout. My train ride on the EuroStar was nice, and I was especially excited about the snack I found for the ride:
Nutella with dipping cookies and iced tea all in one! Actually, the tea tasted like dirty sugar water, but you can never go wrong with Nutella!

I arrived to a grey and rainy afternoon in Milan--grey and rainy seems to be the norm in Italy this summer. I checked into my hotel and then set off for the center of town where the Cathedral is. It is quite a sight--full flamboyant Gothic style.
Then I had written down a couple of things I thought would be fun to see, but I didn't really know where they were. I wandered for a while, thinking I might just happen upon them, but that didn't work. I found a tourist info office and then got pointed in the right direction. First stop, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. This is an art museum which is actually part of a library. I didn't get to see the library since it's closed on weekends, but I the museum was open and was quite nice. They have a Leonardo and some Raphael drawings. Its not quite the Uffizi, although still pretty good. They also had this really strange thing:He's some sort of little monster-man, made out of shells, from 17th cent. Germany, but that's all I know.

I was happy to have found that museum, and then thought I'd just wander, and maybe find something else on my little list. I found the Museo Poldi-Pezzoli, and it was an even better museum. It was started by an art collector in the 19th century who started turning his house into a museum while he lived there. I guess the place was damaged by bombings during WWII, so most of the original architecture of the villa is gone, but somehow all the artwork and furniture and china and jewelry and things survived. They had a little bit of everything..... Renaissace and Gothic paintings, ornate ebony and ivory furniture, armor, china, middle eastern carpets, clocks.....

The security guards at both museums were much better at their jobs than Florentine guards--I had a much harder time sneaking pictures here.

Then, I went out to wander again and found a really nice public park and garden. The modern art museum was there too, but I figured I'd had enough museums. I'll just have to go to that one next time I'm here. :)

Here's La Scala, the famous opera house. Something was going on tonight, but I'm sure tickets were a little beyond my budget. When it came time for dinner, I realized Milan was a VERY expensive place. I went to the cheapest restaurant I could find (which was still more than anything in Florence) and had the grossest lasagna ever. I think they may have used cheezwhiz. Blech. Not a good last supper. So tomorrow I head back home to Texas where the temperature is hovering around 99 degrees, last I checked. great. I think I might die in the heat this summer.

But two more photos before I sign off.
First, the ugliest hair cut I've ever seen:
Second, a new car for Katie:

My last day in Florence...

I woke up early this morning (a shock, I know) but I wanted to go back to the Uffizi, so I thought it would be best if I got there early. Lots of other people had that same idea though. I had to wait about 45 minutes to get in, which I guess isn't all that bad. I could have reserved a ticket, but I'm cheap and didn't want to pay the extra fee. But, it was nice to go back when I wasn't sick, and I enjoyed it much more this time. I noticed this funny detail in one painting--this is "Madonna with the long neck" which is the quintessential Mannerist painting in any art history 101 class, but I had never noticed this funny, unfinished little man in the corner: After the Uffizi, I went back to the best little panini counter I found the other day and got a fabulous vegetable panino. Then I wandered around town a bit. Since I've walked the whole town so much and there wasn't much I still needed to see, I decided to take the bus up to the hills to see Fiesole. When my class went, we just did library stuff and didn't actually see the town. First, I followed some signs to see some Etruscan tombs. Just a bunch of stones, basically, but they predate the Romans, so that's kinda cool.
Then I thought about going to the Roman archeology park and museum, but since I've seen it before I didn't want to pay for it. So then I went to the Duomo, which was a nice Romanesque style church. Then, I realized there wasn't much else to do in Fiesole, so I might as well go see the Roman ruins.
The amphitheater:

There were these two old ladies with this little boy in the park too--the old ladies talked constantly. Their voices carried all over, so I could hear them, no matter where they were, the whole time I was in the park:

Baby olives:
Then I decided I should go find some hilltop views.
I decided I might as well stick around for dinner, but it was still too early for that, so I went to the other side of town and climbed up the streets to see the views from that side. This wouldn't be a bad place to live, would it:
Local fauna:
I had dinner, and then I thought it would be fun to go back up to the viewpoint to watch sunset over the city. But, it was really windy and I got really cold, so I couldn't wait for the sun to completely set.

Tomorrow, I'll take the train to Milan and spend the afternoon there. Hopefully I'll have wifi at my hotel and can post more pictures--if not I'll post from home in a few days. On Monday, I take a few flights to get back home.

Well, sorry to report that there isn't much to report today. I thought I'd take it kind of easy today. I had a lazy morning then finally went out for a walk around lunchtime, just as it started raining. I went to a restaurant on the other side of the river called Quattro Leoni (four lions) which had been recommended by my friend Shannon. It was probably one of the best meals I've ever had, so I'm glad I decided to go. I had these funny little ravioli-dumpling-thingies filled with pear and in the yummiest cheesy-cream sauce with asparagus. MMmmmm.... I wanted to take a picture but it was kind of a nice place, so I didn't think that was a good idea. You'll just have to imagine it.

Then I was walking back across the river and spotted this:
If you click on the picture to enlarge it, look right in the center. You will see a nutria. Nutria are aquatic rodents. They look like beavers, until you see their tails, which are long and skinny like rats'. Simon told me to look for them in the Arno, and I have been but hadn't seen any until today. Exciting!

Not much else today.... but I'll show you some pictures I've been collecting of funny Italian cars.
This a little 3-wheeled, 1-person car and it kinda reminds me of something a cat or a pig would be driving around in a Richard Scarry picture book. I actually did see a woman driving one of these with her two kids in it! They were sitting on this little bench right behind the driver's seat (the only seat).
A funny electric car.
Another funny electric car.
And another, but I especially like the colors and stripes on this one.
And finally...

the old Fiat 500......and the new Fiat 500 (beautiful!!)

Bologna and the last day of class

Today was a long whirlwind day, starting at the train station at 7:45am and ending back at the station at 11 pm. We went to Bologna which I really liked a lot and wished we had more time to explore, but we had appointments at library-museums all day long.

We started at the library of the Institute of Sciences at the University of Bologna. The university is the oldest in the Western world (founded 1088) and this library was started in the 1700s. We saw a really cool display of plant and animal specimens alongside the woodcuts made from them, and then the books those prints ended up in. Very cool. Then we saw a room full of wax anatomical models--mostly of babies in the womb. (The university also had the first obstetrics department.) They also had this model of a woman...I like the melodramatic pose, and the pearl necklace.
We also looked at their beautiful reading rooms and some amazing illuminated manuscripts and incunabulae.

Then, we went to a museum of music and briefly looked at some of their wonderful things...instruments and art and the first printed books of music, and then other music books printed in a variety of ways. I thought it was all very neat, but we didn't get to see the whole museum because we were pressed for time and they had a classroom presentation prepared for us. I must say, though, that their online catalog system is the most amazing that I've ever seen. I know only library dorks get excited about things like that, so I won't bore you with the details. But trust me, it's great.
From there we had a very brief lunch break before we headed to the historic municipal library and archive. This was a very neat building (just like most of them in Italy) but I must admit that the presentation they had for us was a bit long winded and dry and they didn't actually show us any of the fun things in their collection. I struggled to stay awake.... But, then we got to go into the anatomical theater. This building was originally part of the university and this room was where they would teach anatomy...so a corpse would be on a marble table in the middle and students would sit all around and watch a dissection as the professor explained from his chair up above. It was a really beautiful room.
I like this sculpture...you may notice that the guy is holding a nose. This is because he was one of the first plastic surgeons. I guess in the 18th century it was easy to lose the tip of your nose in a duel. If you did, you'd go to this guy and he'd sew it back on for you.
Then, we had an appointment at the public library, but I confess that I skipped out on that one. I was a little worn out from the long-winded Italian lectures and super-fast museum visiting. And, I didn't want to leave without having seen a little of the city.
So class is over...but I still have a few days left before I head home (where I'll have to really start working on my projects).

The Bargello

Today's class activity was to visit the Bargello--a sculpture and decorative arts museum, in a building that has served as a palace, prison and government center. It is a really wonderful museum--lots of neat things to see, but a really nice building too. I'll just post a bunch of pictures instead of trying to describe it. One interesting thing though: Probably the most famous sculpture there is Donatello's David, but it was in restoration. However, they are conducting the restoration right in the gallery so you can watch the conservators work. Pretty cool--better than when they just put up a little sign than says "sorry, work not on view".

PS Just to let you all know too--today was a very good day for food! The best panino ever (for only 2.50!), super-good peach gelato, and yummy pizza and chocolate cake at Simon's old favorite restaurant.

PPS A note about the gelato: I tried ordering in Italian, and the lady quickly corrected my pronunciation. Upon further contemplation, I think I probably said something that sounded like "a small cone of fish gelato please" (the words for fish and peach are surprisingly similar, especially if you don't know how to speak italian) but thankfully the lady didn't laugh and no one else was around to hear.

Lucca (and fun with panoramas!!)

Today the class went to Lucca--a sort of improvised trip since things on our syllabus got moved around a bit and we had a free day. It's toward the coast, just north of Pisa. It's a really nice little town. And, this may surprise you, but I didn't go into any museums today, and only 1 church. We really just spent the day wandering and eating and wandering some more.

It is the only city in Italy which still has intact all of its Renaissance fortifying walls, which have been turned into a really nice walkway and park that circles the city. It is also known for one of its piazzas which is built on the foundations of the old Roman amphitheater, so it is oval in shape. Here is a picture, although it slightly skews the shape:
The town also has lots of towers--church towers, medieval palace towers, all sorts. So we climbed one--which has trees growing at the top! Here are some views.

That was probably the most exciting thing of the day, especially because of the clear blue skies (which I hadn't really seen yet this trip).