Catching up...

I promised I'd catch you up-to-date as soon as I got back this weekend, so here goes nothing:

Last week was pretty much your basic week; classes, meals, some Villa movies at night, some yoga and abs classes....all the typical student Villa happenings. We try not to go out to eat or shopping during the week to save money so we can travel as much as possible on the weekends. And since all of our lunches and dinners are provided for us Monday-Friday, why on earth would we spend money to eat??
Occassionally, we will go for some dessert somewhere after dinner -gelato, café, etc.- but not too often. We also might venture out during the day to make a trip for something particular that we're looking for, to see some of the sights of Genoa that we have yet to see and photograph, or to grab some necessities at the Di per Di.

The Di per Di. The translations is Day by Day. I don't think I have told you about that yet. Well, it's Italy's version of a grocery store, except MUCH, MUCH smaller. It has all the things that a grocery store in the States has, even a butcher where you select from fresh meats and cheeses. They also have a FINE selection of cheap chocolates. They also have lots of good juice drinks, cereal, and some Amercian things like Pringles and Coca-Cola. Basically, it's where you can find similar if not actual things to the States, and we use it as our "snack stash" store. We stock up and then we have something to snack on here at the villa during the day, in bewteen meals, and snacks to take with us on trips. All of us go to the Di per Di about 2-3 times a week.

Anyways, back to catching you up:

The big happening of last week was our 1st Day Trip!!! Over the course of living in Genoa, Italy, we will take a day trip every Tuesday (with the exception of 3 or 4 due to week long travels), every week for the entire semester. Most will be spent in parts of Italy, while a couple might be outside of Italy and in other countries. For each day trip, we will have a "tour guide" and, from what I can tell so far, she is pretty awesome!! Her name is Giuditta, but we call her Judy.

For our 1st day trip, we were to tour the Port of Genoa. I was really happy that we were going to stay in Genoa for our 1s day trip because in the 2 weeks that we had already been here, we'd taken many trips out into the city to explore, but we never knew any history behind the things we were seeing.

We began by getting up WAY early to meet her at the Piazza by 7:30 AM. On this particular morning, it was POURING down and rain and FREEZING. Needless to say, I didn't dress warmly enough, but luckily was well dressed for the rain. I had my rain jacket as well as my ever famous pink rain shoes (those things are SO old, but man I love them!!). However, my precious husband did not do so well in preparing for the rain. He had his rain coat, but alas, had no idea where the hood part (that can be taken off) had gotten to. So, the minute we leave the villa, he looks so pitiful!! I felt so bad for him, and was worried that the next day he would awake sick as a dog. The water just streamed off his head and down his face. Thankfully men were walking around the Harbour selling small and large umbrellas, and, it was about 2 hours into the tour when Jonathan finally broke down and bought a smaller one for about 3 euro. By this time, he was able to use it for about 20 minutes before the rain stopped.

He didn't pull out that umbrella not one more time all day long.

Oh well, it made for a funny story. :)

It was early and we had just stepped out of the villa...and already soaked

One thing about Judy is, she knows her stuff!! So we spent our first hour or so (in the rain) walking through the harbour obtaining as much historical information as she could put out in a short amount of time. We saw some beautiful, historical architecture that she knew just enough about to make you feel like you had had a crash course on the history of Genoa and its port.

We then moved on to a boat tour that included a view of the entire harbour area from sea and it was gorgeous. We had the boat all to ourselves, and it was the perfect way to begin the 1st day trip of the semester.

View from the boat looking back at the harbour

After our boat tour, we headed over to see 2 architectural complexes between the harbour and the historical part of the city. The first was Palazzata Della Ripa and the second was Palazzo San Giorgio. Both held significant importance to the city's harbour and were great for sketching for the architecture students. We spent a good bit of time there letting everyone sketch and we got some pretty good pictures as well.

We then headed to Galata Museo Del Mare for a tour of the museum of the sea. This partiuclar museum was built on the original site of the 17th century arsenal main dock. In the main hall, when you first come in, you can see the entire map of the waterfront of Genoa. It's incredible.

An aerial view of the entire waterfront of Genoa

The museum was probably my favorite part of our 1st day trip. It was one of the coolest museums I had ever been in and had a lot of hands on displays. Of course being that it was a waterfront museum, there were tons of boats on display. Small ones, large ones, interactive ones. Everything was set in the time of Christopher Columbus and his discovery (being that he IS a native of Genoa...interesting fact that I did not know).
After finishing up at the museum we had lunch, which we had packed, on the dock. We had a lot of fun feeding the pigeons!! :) They kept fighting over the bread pieces.

The pigeons fighting

After lunch we took a tour of La Commenda Di Pre' which is one of the most historical centers in all of the Mediterranenan, founded during the 12th century. This building was used as a hospice to knight monks and pilgrims that were traveling through the area to reach the Holy Land. It was incredibly old and incredibly beautiful. There were 2 parts, an upper and a lower. I didn't get too many pictures of the lower, just because it was so dark, but I couldn't stop photographing the upper. It was probably the oldest structure I have ever seen or stepped foot in.

The interior of the upper church of La Commenda

From La Commenda, we went to the Palazzo del Prince, which was the mansion and the headquarters of the Prince of Genoa. We toured the entire mansion; bedrooms, gardens, and banquet hall. Again, very old and very beautiful. We actually weren't supposed to take pictures, but I managed to sneak a few in. ;)

The ceiling of Palazzo Del Principe

Lastly, we ended the day with a trip to the tip of Genoa to se La Lanterna. It was quite the trek (we go everywhere by foot; if I haven't gotten in shape come May, something is wrong), but well worth it once we arrived and the perfect way to end our 1st day trip. I have never seen a more beautiful structure and the lighting when we got there was amazing. I have never seen the sky so blue. It was the perfect backdrop for such an important structure to the Genovese history. The Lighthouse was first constructed in the 12th century, then a new one in the 16th century, and finally restored as a museum from 1995-2004. La Lanterna is the symbol of Genoa; it rises some 85 meters (279 feet...everything is in meters here of course, and yes, I had to google that conversion!! HA!) from the base and 117 meters (384 feet) above the sea. It remains a functioning lighthouse and navigational aid for sailors even today holding a light beam that can be seen for up to 33 miles away.
Ridiculous.
And again, absolutely beautiful. Even the walk up to reach it was photo-worthy. The lighting was just so perfect.

La Lanterna...my favorite structure so far

So.....that at least gets you up-to-date on last week and our 1st day trip. I hate it because, I am getting so behind on blogging, but honestly, we go places and see things and photograph faster than I can tell you about them. And this bothers me because by blogging, I'm able to quickly put our experiences down so that I can come back to them and remember what I've seen and what I've done. I know if I don't, I'll forget. But really, we're hardly here, and when we are, it takes so long to process pictures and blog and everyone is always using the internet at the same time. It's fast, but it gets "clogged" up at times.

I do promise (mainly for myself) that I am going to try and do better. We just travel so durn much I can't keep up with it...I'm too busy seeing the world!!! :)

Ciao!!!