Again, the internet here hates me, so here is my blog from the weekend!
Okay. I am definitely not making any promises about the length of this blog. I haven’t had an opportunity to update in three days, and I am going to write as much as I can remember. I won’t be offended if you choose not to read all of it. I will begin where I left off last time:
We did end up getting to go out with our host father on Thursday night, and it was a lot of fun! It was the 3 Alabama girls, 5 Kansas girls, Matt, two of his friends, and—of course—Paolo. Perfetto! We went to a club called “Central Park,” and danced for a few hours with a bunch of randos. Then we had to pay 10 Euros to get out when we left (Lame!). Sorry family, but we didn’t end up getting back to the apartment until around 3:30 AM.
Ero molto stanca la prossima mattina, to say the least. I got up early Friday morning, around 7 AM, to shower and get my stuff packed up before school. Class felt super long because it was Friday and because I was beyond exhausted. We practiced il congiuntivo, or the subjunctive tense, most of the morning. That wore me out more than anything.
After class Sara, Jessica, and I went to a travel agency just outside our school to book train tickets for the afternoon. It was already after 1, and our train was leaving in like 1 ½… and we had at least an hour of walking to get back to our apartment and to the train station. Uh-oh! We ate lunch on the way and rushed as much as possible, so luckily we got there in plenty of time for our train.
The train made a lot of stops, and we actually had only a few minutes to switch trains in Livorno and Campigia Marittima. Actually, in Campigia we got off our train and got back on the same one. Finally, we got off in Piombino. We were supposed to get off at Piombino Marittima, but we were confused and got off at the wrong one. So we had an awfully long hike to il porto where we were supposed to buy ferry tickets.
We got ferry tickets from Piombino on the mainland to Portoferraio on Isola D’Elba. We had to run to catch our ferry (which was HUGE), but once we got going the view was amazing. We were on the boat at the perfect time. The sun made everything even more gorgeous, and it was hilarious seeing how the ridiculous wind made my hair go crazy.
It was love at first sight. Between Elba and me, that is. Such a beautiful island! Where Napoleon was exiled, for those of you who aren’t history buffs like myself. Actually, I had never heard that until Sara was telling me what she hoped to do for the weekend. Still, very interesting. But being exiled in paradise doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world.
We needed to get to where we were staying for the night before it got too dark, and we ended up taking a ridiculously expensive taxi (45 Euros, split 3 ways) to get there. But I got to practice my Italian with the cab driver, and I was proud of how well I was able to communicate in at least parts of the conversation.
The driver, Marco, dropped us off at our hotel, Hotel Yacht Club, in beautiful Marciana Ma
rina. After we checked in, we went for a walk around town and enjoyed the last rays of sun. Then it was just super cold and windy. Not exactly what we had expected for an Island paradise in June… And none of us had packed appropriately. We were really all just worried because our cab driver had said that the weather was supposed to be bad the next day, and we did not want our plans to be ruined.
After finding the beach where we were supposed to kayak in the morning we stopped in a few cool shops, grabbed some dinner that had probably been sitting out for a while, and headed back to the hotel to relax with showers and the American movie Fracture dubbed in Italian.
We went to bed early after praying for good weather, slept for about 8 hours, and woke up to enjoy a huge complimentary breakfast. I was happy to see that it was not raining, although it was overcast and not too warm. We made our way to the beach, anyway, and met our instructor Gaudenzio. He told us the water was too rough for anybody but experts (which we are obviously not) to go out alone, so he agreed to give us lessons in the bay for the set price. Hallelujah!
I literally may have died if I had gone out without him. After he gave us wetsuits, life jackets, and kayak skirt things to put on, we headed out to the beach where our kayaks were. We learned how to get into our kayaks, put the skirt around the seat to keep water out, and then how to get out in the water. The first thing we actually learned in the water was how to handle the situation when you capsize. That meant he flipped our boat over into the super salty bay of what Sarah has informed me is the Ligurian Sea. I think he said 36 parts per thousand salt? Whatever it was, it tasted like licking a salt shaker whenever it got in my mouth.
The whole thing was a little terrifying at first, but it turned out to be really fun. After we had semi-mastered the whole capsizing thing, it was finally time to learn how to kayak. My arms are not so in shape, so that part was pretty tiring. Our instructor took me and Sara on a short trip out to these awesome rocks, but he didn’t want to take two novices any further… especially because I don’t believe we signed any kind of waiver. I was proud of myself for not capsizing in the deep water. Relaxing and thinking clearly under pressure are not so much my best talents.
We went back to the bay, took some fun pictures, changed out of our amazing wetsuits, rinsed off, and paid our 25 Euros a piece. Worth every penny… or Euro cent… especially since the instructor should have cost us much more.
We went to find an ATM and a bus stop before doing anything else. After a quick lunch at a cute restaurant on the water (where I had what has become my favorite sandwich of tomatoes, mozzarella, lettuce, and this one with balsamic vinegar. YUMMMM!), I took a nap on the beach. I used my purse as a pillow and wrapped myself as much as I could in my tiny little towel. Darn wind made it not so comfortable, but it was an enjoyable sandy venture nonetheless.
I was kind of sticky, sandy, and still salty from the water, so I took a nice relaxing shower and rocked out to some Italian MTV (which actually plays music videos!). We then went out to enjoy our second, and last, night in Elba. We saw so many familiar faces on our walk. It makes me think that Marciana Marina is the kind of small ocean town where everybody knows everybody. Che bello! But that also means that they surely knew we were tourists… and some of the few Americans, since most of their tourists are Italian or German.
We took pictures by a fountain, and of course I managed to sit in some bird crap. Uber lame. My poor pants. Earlier this week I totally stuck my hand and notebook in bird poop outside the Uffizi. FML. But we found a water spout where I attempted to wash it out, at least… making my butt less dirty and more wet.
After that adventure, we climbed out on the awesome rock Sara and I had kayaked to, took some gorgeous pictures (“Sarah, don’t pose that hard!”), and went to a cute pizzeria for dinner and good conversation. Then we stopped in some cute stores on the way home and, of course, got gelato. I tried Nutella flavor this time, and it was quite yummy.
We went to bed super early since the bus we had to catch was at freaking 6:55 AM. We woke up in plenty of time, checked out, grabbed some fruit that was already out for the complimentary breakfast, and made it to our bus stop. We loaded the bus and listened to some rocking techno-ish dance music… which was in English, at least. Just how I want to start an incredibly early Sunday morning.
The bus took us back to Portoferraio, where we were supposed to catch a ferry back to Piombino. We walked around the town a little first, thinking we may go to the Napoleon museum before realizing we were just too worn out. And I had a splinter in my foot (which still refuses to come out). So we sat for a while, watched a sea gull attack a plastic trash bag, and went to get on the ferry.
I mostly just sat inside and wrote on the ride back to Piombino, and the ferry seemed to take a lot longer than it had in the other direction. Things just go slower on Sundays, or so it seems. When we got back to mainland Italy, we found the train station 2 minutes from the port which we were supposed to go to in the first place on Friday… which made a difference of about 25 minutes in walking time. Yay!
Okay. I am definitely not making any promises about the length of this blog. I haven’t had an opportunity to update in three days, and I am going to write as much as I can remember. I won’t be offended if you choose not to read all of it. I will begin where I left off last time:
We did end up getting to go out with our host father on Thursday night, and it was a lot of fun! It was the 3 Alabama girls, 5 Kansas girls, Matt, two of his friends, and—of course—Paolo. Perfetto! We went to a club called “Central Park,” and danced for a few hours with a bunch of randos. Then we had to pay 10 Euros to get out when we left (Lame!). Sorry family, but we didn’t end up getting back to the apartment until around 3:30 AM.
Ero molto stanca la prossima mattina, to say the least. I got up early Friday morning, around 7 AM, to shower and get my stuff packed up before school. Class felt super long because it was Friday and because I was beyond exhausted. We practiced il congiuntivo, or the subjunctive tense, most of the morning. That wore me out more than anything.
After class Sara, Jessica, and I went to a travel agency just outside our school to book train tickets for the afternoon. It was already after 1, and our train was leaving in like 1 ½… and we had at least an hour of walking to get back to our apartment and to the train station. Uh-oh! We ate lunch on the way and rushed as much as possible, so luckily we got there in plenty of time for our train.
The train made a lot of stops, and we actually had only a few minutes to switch trains in Livorno and Campigia Marittima. Actually, in Campigia we got off our train and got back on the same one. Finally, we got off in Piombino. We were supposed to get off at Piombino Marittima, but we were confused and got off at the wrong one. So we had an awfully long hike to il porto where we were supposed to buy ferry tickets.
We got ferry tickets from Piombino on the mainland to Portoferraio on Isola D’Elba. We had to run to catch our ferry (which was HUGE), but once we got going the view was amazing. We were on the boat at the perfect time. The sun made everything even more gorgeous, and it was hilarious seeing how the ridiculous wind made my hair go crazy.
It was love at first sight. Between Elba and me, that is. Such a beautiful island! Where Napoleon was exiled, for those of you who aren’t history buffs like myself. Actually, I had never heard that until Sara was telling me what she hoped to do for the weekend. Still, very interesting. But being exiled in paradise doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world.
We needed to get to where we were staying for the night before it got too dark, and we ended up taking a ridiculously expensive taxi (45 Euros, split 3 ways) to get there. But I got to practice my Italian with the cab driver, and I was proud of how well I was able to communicate in at least parts of the conversation.
The driver, Marco, dropped us off at our hotel, Hotel Yacht Club, in beautiful Marciana Ma
rina. After we checked in, we went for a walk around town and enjoyed the last rays of sun. Then it was just super cold and windy. Not exactly what we had expected for an Island paradise in June… And none of us had packed appropriately. We were really all just worried because our cab driver had said that the weather was supposed to be bad the next day, and we did not want our plans to be ruined.After finding the beach where we were supposed to kayak in the morning we stopped in a few cool shops, grabbed some dinner that had probably been sitting out for a while, and headed back to the hotel to relax with showers and the American movie Fracture dubbed in Italian.
We went to bed early after praying for good weather, slept for about 8 hours, and woke up to enjoy a huge complimentary breakfast. I was happy to see that it was not raining, although it was overcast and not too warm. We made our way to the beach, anyway, and met our instructor Gaudenzio. He told us the water was too rough for anybody but experts (which we are obviously not) to go out alone, so he agreed to give us lessons in the bay for the set price. Hallelujah!
I literally may have died if I had gone out without him. After he gave us wetsuits, life jackets, and kayak skirt things to put on, we headed out to the beach where our kayaks were. We learned how to get into our kayaks, put the skirt around the seat to keep water out, and then how to get out in the water. The first thing we actually learned in the water was how to handle the situation when you capsize. That meant he flipped our boat over into the super salty bay of what Sarah has informed me is the Ligurian Sea. I think he said 36 parts per thousand salt? Whatever it was, it tasted like licking a salt shaker whenever it got in my mouth.
The whole thing was a little terrifying at first, but it turned out to be really fun. After we had semi-mastered the whole capsizing thing, it was finally time to learn how to kayak. My arms are not so in shape, so that part was pretty tiring. Our instructor took me and Sara on a short trip out to these awesome rocks, but he didn’t want to take two novices any further… especially because I don’t believe we signed any kind of waiver. I was proud of myself for not capsizing in the deep water. Relaxing and thinking clearly under pressure are not so much my best talents.
We went back to the bay, took some fun pictures, changed out of our amazing wetsuits, rinsed off, and paid our 25 Euros a piece. Worth every penny… or Euro cent… especially since the instructor should have cost us much more.
We went to find an ATM and a bus stop before doing anything else. After a quick lunch at a cute restaurant on the water (where I had what has become my favorite sandwich of tomatoes, mozzarella, lettuce, and this one with balsamic vinegar. YUMMMM!), I took a nap on the beach. I used my purse as a pillow and wrapped myself as much as I could in my tiny little towel. Darn wind made it not so comfortable, but it was an enjoyable sandy venture nonetheless.
I was kind of sticky, sandy, and still salty from the water, so I took a nice relaxing shower and rocked out to some Italian MTV (which actually plays music videos!). We then went out to enjoy our second, and last, night in Elba. We saw so many familiar faces on our walk. It makes me think that Marciana Marina is the kind of small ocean town where everybody knows everybody. Che bello! But that also means that they surely knew we were tourists… and some of the few Americans, since most of their tourists are Italian or German.
We took pictures by a fountain, and of course I managed to sit in some bird crap. Uber lame. My poor pants. Earlier this week I totally stuck my hand and notebook in bird poop outside the Uffizi. FML. But we found a water spout where I attempted to wash it out, at least… making my butt less dirty and more wet.
After that adventure, we climbed out on the awesome rock Sara and I had kayaked to, took some gorgeous pictures (“Sarah, don’t pose that hard!”), and went to a cute pizzeria for dinner and good conversation. Then we stopped in some cute stores on the way home and, of course, got gelato. I tried Nutella flavor this time, and it was quite yummy.
We went to bed super early since the bus we had to catch was at freaking 6:55 AM. We woke up in plenty of time, checked out, grabbed some fruit that was already out for the complimentary breakfast, and made it to our bus stop. We loaded the bus and listened to some rocking techno-ish dance music… which was in English, at least. Just how I want to start an incredibly early Sunday morning.
The bus took us back to Portoferraio, where we were supposed to catch a ferry back to Piombino. We walked around the town a little first, thinking we may go to the Napoleon museum before realizing we were just too worn out. And I had a splinter in my foot (which still refuses to come out). So we sat for a while, watched a sea gull attack a plastic trash bag, and went to get on the ferry.
I mostly just sat inside and wrote on the ride back to Piombino, and the ferry seemed to take a lot longer than it had in the other direction. Things just go slower on Sundays, or so it seems. When we got back to mainland Italy, we found the train station 2 minutes from the port which we were supposed to go to in the first place on Friday… which made a difference of about 25 minutes in walking time. Yay!
Our train was already there, even though we were an hour early, so I got onto it and just fell asleep on and off until we reached our first destination of Pisa. Unfortunately, the famous tower was a very long walk from the train station, but we took our tired feet and walked there anyway. These opportunities don’t just come around every day! We took a few cheeseball pictures with the tower, looked at the souvenirs, headed back to the train station, grabbed some food, and boarded a train to Firenze.
After only 2 days away from Florence, coming back still felt like coming home. I’ve grown attached to our Italian family, and I missed seeing them and trying to communicate with them at dinner. Those 2 days were plenty long to be away from them. We took the bus from the train station home, for the sake of our worn out extremities, and got back very quickly. Good call on that.
Paolo gave me a huge hug when he saw me, which made me very happy. I showed him some of our pictures from Elba, and he smiled or laughed at quite a few of them. Then the roommates and I relaxed for a few hours before dinner with the family. Oh, how I missed free food, and the people. Kate wasn’t feeling well and didn’t eat with us, and Kayla has still not returned from what I’m sure was a crazy trip to Rimini. But we did have two semi-random Austrian girls there who are staying here for a little while? I really have no idea. Oh, and P.S., the whole meal was vegetarian. Progress!
I talked to Matt for a little bit, and now it is time to crash before a long week of school commences in the morning. But I can’t wait to hear about everybody’s weekend in the morning. I’m sure my fellow Alabamians will have some crazy stories to tell…
Arrivederci la prossima edizione! Ciao, and major congratulations if you actually read all of this. I must say, I wrote A LOT. But it was an amazing weekend, and I just couldn’t help it. :)
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