Life Update

Bonjour! 

It's high time for an update from Swizzytown my friends (and family). I've had an amazing start to 2015 here and cannot believe that my year "abroad" is starting to wind down. Those who know me best can probably sense the anxiety spreading through my body as I start to think about moving on. This has been such an amazing experience for me - but more on that later. 

What have I been up to since I last wrote? Well, unfortunately the last post (in February) was actually from a trip that happened in October... so a lot has happened haha! A brief overview though and then (hopefully!) I will expand on some in individual posts :)

I went to Ireland to meet up with Mary Cate after Italy. Ireland was such an amazing trip and I cannot wait to go back someday. Great people, beautiful sights, and delicious beer. Here MC, Angela and I are standing (at a safe distance) at the Cliffs of Moher!

Couldn't make it home for Christmas but was lucky enough to take a two week trip with Jessica and Angela. We started in Geneva and headed through Zurich, Munich, Prague, Dresden, Berlin and finished in Amsterdam. We saw so many amazing things and made plenty of great memories. The picture is from one of the many canal bridges in Amsterdam after New Years.

Basel hosts the largest Carneval celebration in Switzerland so we headed there late on a Sunday night to experience the 5am parade Monday morning. Our well-intended plans didn't quite pan out like we hoped and we had to head back around 8 am the next morning- unable to fight our fatigue any longer. Here's me with a number of the masks and drums used during the parade. I'm trying to play it cool in this picture but they actually scared me a bit. 

Brussels! I took a day trip to Brussels with Bronwyn the last week of February. It was a very beautiful city and I couldn't get enough of the fries, waffles and chocolates. I've been living in a very biased country in regards to who makes the best chocolate but I have to give it to the Belgians- they do a pretty great job. Here is Bron and I in the Grand Place at night just before heading back to the airport. 

I'm in London! Classic tourist selfie on a double-decker red bus with Big Ben! Enough said.

The trip to England was made possible because of the amazing women in the picture above. My mom, Meghan and Sarah came to Europe over Easter to visit me and I couldn't remember being happier to see them in my entire life. We met in London, took a day trip to Birmingham and then to Newbury where we visited Highclere Castle (filming location for Downton Abbey). It was an amazing trip and I finally got to try out the British accent that I've been tirelessly working on since first picking up Harry Potter over ten years ago. 

We took the Chunnel from London to Paris and spent a few days in the city of ~love~. I was so happy to be back and it was amazing to share some of my favorite spots with my family. We hit all the major places and made good use of our Metro and museum passes. Here we are on a boat cruise on the Seine! Stay tuned for a later post with too many pictures of the Eiffel Tower...

May's trip was to Barcelona! It was my first time to Spain and despite my general preference for all things french I really enjoyed the city ;) It was the most relaxing vacation I've ever taken. I let Angela and Bronwyn (above with me on an escalator to the Parc Güell) plan the trip as I usually go a bit overboard with things I want to see. We had a nice time shopping, chilling at the beach and taking advantage of the Spanish lifestyle. 

We had this amazing view waiting for us once we made it to Parc Güell. You can see the Sagrada Familia (about one third through the photo on the left) and then of course the Mediterranean Sea! 

Back in Switzerland! We did a wine tasting in the Vaud region the other week. The wine was great but the views were even better. Here I am trying to act like a photographer for the vineyard or something... still kind of cool :)

I spend most of my evenings and days off at the lake. This is the marina in Coppet which is the closest 'beach' to my house. I never get sick of looking out on the lake. The sky is always beautiful and on clear days the mountains are so breathtaking. 

Speaking of amazing skies... due to a bit of a late night I was able to watch the sun rise with Angela last weekend. Absolutely worth being tired the next day though!

Don't want to leave the kids out! Here's Julie and I doing a bit of flower picking in a field nearby our house. They had tulip fields earlier in Spring that you could help yourself to and then leave a small donation to pay for your flowers. We liked to go make bouquets if we finished lunch early.

Nicolas, Julie and I enjoying a picnic at the lake a few weeks ago. We were nearly attacked by birds and ducks who wanted our snacks but overall it was a great afternoon. 

So that's a bit of my life these past few months! Oh I also learned how to ski (full post coming on the mishaps of those few days)! And I turned 25! I don't feel like a quarter of a century but considering people still mistake me for an 18 year old I don't think I should be too worried. Age is just a number right??

Hope to update soon everyone- love you all!

Italia: Pisa

Here we go my friends. The final installment in an Italian adventure that has long been finished. I'd like to view this blog though as a good book that you put down and pick up with ease- no matter how long it's been since you've been reading. (Bold, I know, referring to my own work as good but we should be our own biggest fans right?)

We arrived late in Pisa after returning to Florence from the vineyard, retrieving our bags from the train station lockers and catching another train east. The next morning, we slept in and waited for the rain to pass before setting out to hopefully catch a glimpse of the famous leaning tower. Here she is, below, artfully reflected in a puddle. (Angela is practically a professional photographer so traveling with her is great because I can follow a few steps behind and copy every cool picture she takes.)

 

 

And here she is again, in all her leaning glory. It was very cool to see this in person. I would say it's one of the more recognizable European landmarks so I felt lucky to be seeing it with my own eyes. We almost missed the Tower though... do I dare mention this off topic (and slightly embarrassing) anecdote? Of course. Well, we stopped for a coffee after leaving our apartment that morning and headed across the bridge to the touristy area of town. I guess the coffee hadn't kicked in yet though because we found ourselves a bit lost and nowhere near the touristy area we were searching for. The signs had led us the wrong way - typical Italian move. No, typical Angela and Kayla move - we were so busy chatting and not paying attention. Angela was finally smart enough to look up and we saw our first glimpse of the Tower, a few streets back in the opposite direction. Back on track, we made our way to take a selfie or two with the tilting queen. 

Attention: extremely original pose below! See what I did? It look like I'm pushing the Tower! (Speaking of pushing, finding an open stretch of fence here required a bit of pushing and quick movements when someone vacated their spot...)

Okay so the Tower was great but I'm going to take a minute now to say that the real treasure in Pisa is the Cathedral. If you find yourself here and don't go inside you are making a mistake. The outside was beautiful with the column details but wasn't extremely outstanding. I think I was naive enough to make the comment that it didn't look very well maintained... I mean jeez it's nearly 1000 years old... I don't know what I was expecting.  

Anyway, my tune changed as soon as we walked inside. This Cathedral is breathtaking. I loved the dark and light alternating marble pattern along the walls- something I had never seen inside a church before. The ceiling was an incredible gold tiled wonder- I walked the entire length of the church mesmerized by it. The pictures below are honestly just a glimpse at how amazing the interior was. 

Arches for days my friends! I loved this dark and light mixture. I'm still amazed looking back at these pictures and I think it is because this Cathedral was such a surprise for us. We had no idea that there was much else to Pisa besides the Tower (perhaps we just didn't research enough before arriving) and were pleasantly surprised to find such a beautiful Cathedral. (Disclaimer: there isn't much to Pisa besides the Tower, this cathedral, a decent Indian restaurant with free wifi, and a couple nice piazza's to chill and play cards on.)

The picture below was taken just in front of the altar. The shadowed angel statue looked so amazing against the incredible detail of the rest of the church in the background. 

Little bit of that ceiling... 

Before I leave this chronicle of Italian adventures for good I want to show you some of the drawings we found all over Italy. Random walls down alleyways and major streets had these guys playing around. 

Ciao Italy! You were good to us - can't wait to return :)

Wine-tasting in Chianti

I've wanted to visit an Italian vineyard since seeing Diane Lane's rural villa in Under the Tuscan Sun. This is a great film that my older sister enthusiastically recommended and which I too enjoyed for the first time somewhere around the mid-2000s (and probably every other year since then). After spending the morning with David in Florence, we took an hour bus ride south to Castello di Verrazzano near Greve, Italy. We wanted to do an afternoon tasting rather than a whole day excursion and chose this particular vineyard because it was easy to get to and not too expensive... always a plus :)

This beautiful view awaited us when we got out off the bus at the bottom of what would come to be the most challenging 30 minutes of our two weeks traveling together... The website mentions "a 30 minute walk ... through the vineyards of the property" to get up to the castle (if you take public transport). I thought this sounded pleasant and told Angela the 30 minutes was probably more of an overshot estimation because who would walk 30 minutes uphill to a castle for a wine tasting. Well, we did. 

Here's Angela about one third of the way through our hike. It really wouldn't have been that bad except we weren't dressed for any sort of physical activity and it got SO warm as time passed. Oh and it seemed like we would never get there... And about ten cars and one vespa (all heading to the same tasting as us) passed us on the road. 

We did make it though- after an accurate 30 minutes of hiking through the vineyards/forest of the property. The gardens of the castle were absolutely beautiful though and provided a calming welcome upon our arrival. The noise from the fountain above helped mask my uneven breaths as we learned about the history of the vineyard. Giovanni da Verrazzano was born here in 1485. He discovered the Bay of New York along with much of it's coast and the Verrazzano Bridge in New York is named after him. 

Wine has been produced in this location since 1150. I couldn't really wrap my head around that but I knew we were probably going to be sampling the products of some very fine-tuned methods later that afternoon. Northern Italy is known for their red wines and southern Italy specializes in whites so we would be sampling a few reds and possibly a rosé. 

The views from the castle were incredibly beautiful. Tuscany was kind of dreamlike. I could imagine a very nice life sipping coffee as the sun rose, working the fields during the day, drinking the best reds in the evening, and falling asleep in a hammock each night. The hammock just because it's relaxing not because I saw any evidence that this is something people actually do here. 

We toured the castle and cellars before our tasting. The grapes below were picked specially for the vino santo that takes three years of preparation before it is ready to drink. The grapes are picked at a certain ripeness and then hung in the attic of the castle where (with the help of an insane amount of fruit flies) they mature and begin to ferment. After a couple months hanging like this, they are put into the wine casks where they mature for another two and a half years. Although this wine wasn't part of our tasting, Angela and I got to sample it because we hung around after the tasting with our awesome tour guide. It was really sweet and very strong. 

The wine barrels in the cellar were all massive. All the wine there could keep you stocked for your wine and cheese parties for the rest of eternity. I loved the barrel designs but only chose one to feature below. Well, two technically as you got a bonus pic of me modeling next to this year's Chianti harvest. 

After the tour we sampled three wines, a balsamic vinaigrette, and olive oil that is all produced at Verrazzano. The wines were all very good but the vinaigrette is honestly what blew me away. It was incredible. It's typically served with fruits or cheese and we had it with the cheese below (also delicious but that's almost a given). We were taught the official way to taste the wines which I will now describe in detail. 

1. Grab your glass by the stem. Never hold the goblet because that will alter the temperature of the wine. Look at it, observe the colors, think about what you are going to drink. 
2. Smell the wine. Don't just sniff the edge though- no, you place your entire nose into the glass and breathe deeply. What scents did you notice?
3. Now, take a small taste, swish it around your mouth and swallow. 
4. Put the glass back on the table, give it a good swirl. 
5. Take another taste. The wine has been given a chance to breathe and develop in the glass and will have a fuller flavor.
6. No need to continue swirling after each taste, simply enjoy the wine. 

A bit of an extreme process for my unrefined pallet but it was nice to play along... 

As I mentioned, we stayed after the tasting to chat with our guide and a group of Australians that were traveling Italy for a few weeks together. One of the couples was actually a year into a two year trip around the world... something to work towards in life if I've ever heard of one! We sampled the Vino Santo, bought a bottle of rosé, got a ride down through the vineyards (thankfully), and caught our bus back to Florence. We took a train to Pisa that evening so next post I'll share some stories from those few days... hope the suspense isn't too much to handle!

Ang and I sampling some pretty delicious wine. Cheers friends!

Italia: Firenze

We started our last morning in Milan with the routine cappuccino and then made our way to the Central train station. (Have I mentioned yet that I absolutely love traveling by train?) Despite the chaos of the ticket office, the rest of the station was beautiful and I wondered if an aspiring designer had thought to use it for a fashion show yet... **If this happens next year because someone read this blog please at least invite me to the show.**

A few short hours later and we arrived in Florence. We were greeted by warmer weather, winding streets and the overpowering yet still pleasant scent of leather. We had a leather market set up right outside our hotel window actually!

Angela and I walked through the market for a bit and I got a ~kewl~ sunglasses case. I wish I had purchased more. It was all real leather (they did the flame test on each item to prove it) and you could haggle prices to get a better deal. I will readily admit that my haggling skills are dismal but I love a good challenge and would be up to try again :) Just outside the market was a bronze boar that supposedly brings good luck if you rub it's nose. I suppose it is the explanation for my luck these days... 

After the market we headed towards the the Cathedral. Now, I must say that if I've ever considered having a guest blogger describe a place, it would be this post about Florence. My sister Sarah is incredibly well-versed in this specific Cathedral and art/art history so if you would like more information about either, please contact her! I am too afraid to misrepresent any information though so, as per usual, I'll just leave some rambling thoughts and photos here :)

The Cathedral was amazing. I loved the design that decorated the building and gave it such a unique character. The Tower and Dome are two obvious main features of this Cathedral. Brunelleschi's Dome is noted as one of the greatest engineering feats of the Renaissance. The construction of the Cathedral began in the late 1200s but the technology or tools didn't exist to figure out how to construct the dome without external support (Sarah informed me that the Italian's hate buttresses) and there wasn't enough wood in the region to build enough scaffolding to complete the dome. Brunelleschi engineered a way to complete the dome though with movable scaffolding and it was finally finished in the 1400s. So cool!

 

We climbed the tower and the hike was well worth it! Here are a few pictures of the amazing views from the top of the tower. From up here I could definitely see how people fall in love with this city. It was breath-taking. 

We descended the Tower and snapped a few more pictures before heading for some aperitivo. Again, I loved the exterior of the Duomo- so striking and beautiful. Equally as striking is the photo below on the right- me modeling this season's latest grunge-chic travel line in font of the beautiful front doors of the Cathedral. I hear plaid shirts tied around your waist are making a comeback...  

 

I woke up early the next morning and made my way to the Accademia Gallery. I arrived before it opened but still had to wait in line for 45 minutes before getting in. I had a lovely view though (photo below) and also The Goldfinch on my Kindle to help pass the time. (Quick recommendation for everyone to read that by the way... amazing book!)

There was a temporary musical exhibit at the entrance that I perused a bit. Most of the instruments in the exhibit were all that remains from the Medici collection. The Medici's were extremely influential in so many ways to Florentine society and music was no exception. Below are a trio of violins that made me think of my younger siblings. 

Now, I had to make a tough call on which museum to visit in Florence as I knew I only had time for one. I chose Accademia though because I had to see David. I was not disappointed in the slightest. The building itself was constructed to house the famous statue after it was moved from the Palazzo della Signoria in the late 1800s. At just over 14 feet tall, the statue was so impressive. I don't claim to know much about art but this is some serious talent. Well done Michelangelo. You can walk around the entire statue and I took the PG image on the lower right in case nudity isn't your thing. 

David is of course the most well-known piece in the Accademia Gallery but I did see a lot of other amazing work. The hall of sculptures was unfortunately closed but I reached my phone in anyway to snap the below photo. There was a significant amount of iconography and other decorative pieces from churches through the decades in the Gallery. Again though, I was there for David so I didn't spend too much time elsewhere :)

After touring the museum, I met Angela back at the Cathedral so that we could take a tour inside. It is set up by the people of Florence to showcase their town and the artists/works they are most proud of. We had a pretty good audioguide that explained a lot of the pieces inside. Two of my favorites are below. First, is the 24 hour clock that hangs above the main entrance. The hands of the clock move opposite to our modern-day clocks in a counter-clockwise movement. (I struggled to find synonyms for clock in that last sentence... sorry.) The 24th hour wasn't our traditional midnight either. It indicated sunset which was a crucial indicator of time in the 1400s because that was when the gates of the city would close. The bells were synchronized to the clock to notify the farmers when sunset was approaching. My second favorite within the Duomo was the painting inside the dome. Now, as with many things, the picture below really doesn't do it justice. The dome is massive and standing beneath it, craning your neck as you try to take it all in, is something that a camera cannot really capture. I took a picture anyway though to share :) 

After touring the Cathedral we had some amazing pizza at Dante's. If you go to Florence, this is THE pizza place to visit. I would confidently say it was the best pizza I had in Italy. We left Florence that afternoon for a wine tour which I will write about next :) I'll leave you with two of my favorite pictures from Florence though. First, the woman in the apron below. What a character. This picture still makes me laugh when I see it. Second, is an Instagram aided edit from the roof of the Duomo. Such a gorgeous place- I still feel lucky I was able to experience it!

Ciao friends!