My Parents Came to Italy!

My parents arrived in Florence on February 13, and I stood in the airport eagerly waiting for them to come out. Despite the fact that it was a day before two of my last final exams, I was ecstatic. I went shopping to make them their first Italian meal, and had it all prepared for when they got to my house that night. I made Spezzatino with Polenta, accompanied with some fresh meats and cheeses...and of course, wine :) Naturally, I wanted to show them everything from the moment they got here, and even though they were exhausted, we still took a walk around the city center. They got here in the evening, so after our walk we got them settled into their hotel and I brought them to my apartment to eat the dinner that I had made earlier that afternoon. It was definitely a relaxing night, but I knew the next ones ahead were going to be packed and eventful! I was more than ready to show them all around the country that I'd been living in for over six months.

The day after they arrived we took the train down to Massi’s house to celebrate Valentine’s Day and to stay there for the weekend. The dinner was amazing, and it was so great getting to spend it with Massi, since it was our first Valentine’s day we were actually together in person. Not to mention, it was such a great feeling getting to reunite our parents together, since it had been two years since they last saw each other. The only thing different was the fact that I now speak Italian, so I suppose that automatically gave me the role of “translator.” Since Massi was so deep into studying for one of his exams, I was left to accompany them and keep the language barrier at a minimum. We had a great time taking them around in the small towns that surround his; I think that they especially enjoyed when we drove through the hills where Prosecco is made, where we stopped and had an amazing lunch. I really enjoyed that weekend; having mine and Massi’s parents together is such a good feeling…and I’m always bummed that it doesn’t get to happen as often as it should. 

After we left their house, we headed back to Florence where we spent the night at my apartment before heading on our week trip around Italy. From there, we headed off to Pisa, Lucca and then Rome, which can be summed up in one word….food. Okay, of course the history and the towns were amazing in their own ways, but overall, I ate better than I ever can remember. We stayed at Bed and Breakfasts, so the owners always recommended the best places to go and get the local cuisine. And they never failed….ever. I was in heaven of course, due to the fact that since I arrived in Italy I haven’t been eating out as much so that I could save money. So getting to have the homemade pastas, fresh meats, and the most delightful desserts was all complete heaven. Sadly, I will never think of regular pasta the same way again. You just can’t go back when you’ve had the stuff that was prepared literally right as you ordered it, all by hand. And in order to truly emerge into the Italian lifestyle and enjoy what it has to offer…having their food is without a doubt on the top of the list. Aside from the food, we got to see some truly amazing things in each of these cities. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was just incredible, and absolutely not justified in any photo that I have ever seen. The feeling of coming around the corner and seeing it right there in front of my face gave me goose bumps. You just don’t realize how much it actually is leaning, and how peculiar it is until you’re standing right there in front of it. We got to climb up to the top, which was such an experience since you could literally feel the lean as your climbing up; it definitely messes with your equilibrium! But getting to see it and climb it was an experience that I’ll never forget. 

We decided next to go to Lucca, which is a medieval Tuscan town that was completely salvaged in World War II. We found out that 55% of Pisa was completely ruined, so it was rebuilt after the war. However, Lucca was not affected by the bombings at all, leaving it 100% intact. You definitely get the feelings of its age as you’re walking through the quiet streets, admiring the medieval towers. The city center is inside of this Roman wall that was built in order to protect the city, so walking around the wall itself was an experience getting to see all the ancient roman construction that’s still standing today. We also went into a medieval torture museum, which left us all sick to our stomachs. I’ve never read or seen such morbidly disgusting material in my life, and I couldn’t imagine living back in the time where they actually inflicted these acts upon other human beings. If you’re interested, do your research! But it’s definitely not for somebody who’s faint of heart. 

Next on our trip was Rome, where we spent three days exploring as much as we could. The Colosseum, as expected, did not disappoint. It was the most surreal experience getting to walk up to it and see it in real life, then getting to go inside and stand where the Romans did thousands of years ago when they slaughtered people and animals in front of large crowds. The fact that it’s still standing strong today is absolutely incredible, and the feeling that I got when I was inside looking down on it all was unforgettable. I still can’t believe that I made it there before my own boyfriend, who’s Italian himself! I’ll take him there someday though. J We then got to walk through the ancient ruins of Rome, which was a lot larger than I actually thought. Their old structures and houses helped depict to us how they lived their everyday life so long ago. It really made me feel like speck in time, thinking that these people were just like us thousands of years ago, who have no idea now that their stomping grounds is now a park for tourists to see and experience. The next day, we moved onto the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Square. It was a crazy and historic time to be there, since it was just shortly after the Pope resigned and a few weeks before the new Pope would be elected. I’ve heard about the Vatican my whole entire life, but being able to say that you’ve been there is another story. It was truly beautiful, everything from the museums to the basilica itself. Other than that, we walked around different parts of Rome in order to get a feel of the city. It’s a true statement that you can’t see Rome in a day- it’s humongous! That’s the only thing that I didn’t really like about it, the fact that it was a big city with lots of people and traffic that felt like I was in any other city minus the history. Certain parts of the city were beautiful though, like by the river or in the different piazzas in the center. I will say that Rome is definitely a special and unique place, and I plan on going back and taking Massi with me!

After Rome, we headed back to Florence so that my parents would have a week getting to experience my lifestyle in the city I call home. I was so excited to take them to all of my favorite places, eat at the best places, and to show them why I fell in love with this beautiful and special place. They stayed at a bed and breakfast just five minutes away from my apartment, and ate breakfast every morning at this delicious caffè with freshly made pastries every morning! We spent a lot of time just wandering around Florence, shopping and eating, with the occasional sight to see. During the week we also got to go out to dinner with our cousin Alessandra, who hosted me when I first got here. I was so excited for my parents to get to meet her, and they managed to communicate just fine! We also had a dinner with our cousin Francesco and his family, who own a winery near Sienna named after our family, Mazzei! It was so intriguing getting to meet him and make the connections with the family here in Italy. They were extremely hospitable and spoke such great English; it was an entertaining night full of amazing food and lots of laughs! I was so happy that my parents fell in love with Florence. They really seemed to enjoy their time here, which made me ecstatic. We had many great adventures, from food to sightseeing to the simple joys of Italy. I was so sad to see them go, but my Mom promises that she’ll be back in May…so I have something else to look forward too J

Ci vediamo quando torni, mamma e papà! :)

I SURVIVED!

So I recognize that it's been a significantly long time since I updated my blog. 

The reason for that? Well, after my last post I returned home to California for two weeks to celebrate the holidays and when once I got back to Italy I officially went into hibernation from the world for three weeks to prepare for my first exam at L'Università di Firenze. I feel bad for anybody that had to deal with me in that span of time, for I was literally a mixture of the walking dead and a ticking time bomb of anxiety. To help you understand why I was freaking out so much, let me give you a little background on the exam.

Basically, my course was on all the works of Giacomo Leopardi, a famous Italian poet from the 1800's. The book that we studied in class was called Canti, composed of his 36 poems. When I began studying for the exam, I knew just a few facts about the exam: it was going to be on two of any of the poems, it was oral, and in Italian. Other than that, I had no idea what to expect. I had never taken an oral exam in America, let alone in another language? That's when the anxiety hit. I went to see my professor a couple of times to get better information and she gave me a better idea of what she was going to be testing me on. I'll lay it out for you in the steps that she gave to me:

1. She was going to open the book to any poem.
2. I would have to give her the background information of when it was written, published, and what section of the poems it was in, as well as what part of Leopardi's life...and why.
3. I would have to read a section of the poem, and paraphrase it in modern day Italian.
4. I would then have to analyze that piece, and discuss the overall themes of the poem and be able to answer any of the questions that she asks me.
5. Process would repeat another one or two times.

That day that she laid it all in front of me and gave me an example of what it was going to be like comforted me and freaked me the hell out at the same time. I left her office and had what you could call a nervous breakdown, or what I think of as my lowest part of the whole experience. I had just a week. Although I had been preparing for it, the realization that I had to memorize so much more than I had previously thought, as well as watching my Italian speaking abilities crumble right before her under my intimidation...well downright almost gave me a heart attack! But I woke up the next morning knowing exactly what I had to do, and prepared to kick some ass. I analyzed every single poem, read essays on the construction of them all and how it changed, and then put all my notes that I had written down inside of my book, which I was allowed to take into the exam (although I didn't end up using it under the pressure). I didn't really leave the house much for the next week and allowed myself to be consumed by Leopardi and his beautifully depressing masterpieces.

Side note: Leopardi is most certainly the most depressing author that I have ever read. He spent his whole childhood studying, to the point that he developed scoliosis and became blind in one eye. He then realized that he was horribly ugly, was completely alone, and had wasted his whole youth without truly experiencing and enjoying it. Therefore, his poetry is highly concentrated on the the loss of youth, in Leopardi's eyes, "the springtime of life." He writes a lot about youth being full of happiness and hopes for the future, but once you arrive into adulthood, you realize that the only thing that is guaranteed in life is pain and suffering, with the only true escape being death. The vastness of the universe exemplifies the true worthlessness of human life, and nature condemns humans to imminent pain. That's just a tiny background and idea of what you find in the majority of Leopardi's work, which I like to think of as a beautiful curse. I found myself feeling truly impacted by his words, however I had to continue to keep myself happy and sane because it's really hard to surround yourself with so much sadness and despair for long periods of time without feeling impacted yourself! I truly became very passionate for his poetry, and felt a lot of pity for the lonely life that he lived. I know that after some time I'll continue to read his work...a little more spread out ;)

Finally, after numerous espresso's, endless notes and translating, a loss of a little sanity, and one giant emotional roller coaster, exam day arrived. I had been getting so much support and words of encouragement, from the staff at the California University, my friends, and my family. The night before, I went to my Italian grammar professor to have a "pre" oral exam, and he spent an hour with my testing my knowledge and giving my advice to take into the test. I was scheduled to be at the office at 9:30 am, and a calender would be put up showing the order of everyone. She was calling people in one by one, and each person was taking about 30-50 minutes to complete the exam. I noticed that I was originally the 5th person when I registered to take the exam, but she had moved me down to the second to last one. So I sat and waited....and waited. That was probably the worst part, just sitting there and waiting for it to actually happen, reading over my notes, and then getting waves of major anxiety and just slowly getting tortured as she would keep coming out and not call my name. She even left to take a lunch break around 11:30, and advised me and the only three other people left to eat something as well. I tried my best to choke down a sandwich, and continued waiting. When I was finally next, I stood up next to the door and began pacing right in front of it. Two of my American friends that are also in the class with me came to listen to my exam, as advised by our Italian professors since they will be taking the exam in late February. They were a great source to calm me down, and also gave me words of reassurance. The professor came out to call my name, although she told me that she wanted to do the last guy before me, since I'm the American girl and would take the longest. Gritting my teeth, I agreed although inside I was screaming that I just wanted this to be over with already! Did I mention that by this time it was 3 pm? I had been waiting nearly five hours to take the test...five hours which made out to be an even steeper emotional roller coaster than the whole process of studying.

AT LAST she came out to get me, and I nervously got all of my things and headed to sit down in her chair. The exam started off a little rough, since I let my nerves get the best of me. She opened the book to one of the poems that I didn't particularly like, Le Ricordanze, although I decided to not say anything. I had a hard time paraphrasing the stanza she gave me, and she told me that I wasn't grasping the overall picture of this part because I was translating it word for word. In that moment, I was so intimidated and scared thinking that she was just going to tell me to come back in February. Although her next question led us into my absolute favorite poem, Canto Notturno, which made me very excited because I had prepared this one so well and had felt very passionately for it. I knew all the dates, and all the questions that she asked me, and successfully explained the theme and all of the symbolism in the poem. She was happy with this one, so she then moved onto other questions, which led us into the last poem, Aspasia. I'm not a big fan of this one either, but I knew a lot about the period that it came from and what influenced the poems and how to explain it, so I gained my confidence with my knowledge back. Although this entire time, I knew that my Italian had been way worse than I was capable of, because I crumbled under the pressure of being in front of her and let it get the best of me, expressing the first thing that came to mind which wasn't always the correct verb tenses. In the end, she told me that I needed to work on my pronunciation and grammar, which was expected, and for a moment I worried again that I wouldn't get a good grade due to that fact. But she went on to say that she wasn't my Italian teacher, she was there to teach my Leopardi, and my grammar mistakes didn't mean that I didn't study my ass off for this test, which see could see. She then told me that she was going to give me a 28, and I about jumped out of my chair. On the Italian scale, they go out of 30, and a 28 is equivalent in America to a solid A. Since this class was worth 6 units, I really needed to do well for the sake of my GPA! I wasn't expecting that high of a grade at all, since I had heard so much that a 25 was great for a foreigner. It was truly the happiest and greatest surprise that I could have received.

In that moment, all of the hell that I dealt with while trying to study for that exam was validated. The weight was lifted off of my shoulders, and the reality finally started to sink in that I got an A at an Italian University...on a test that was given to me in a complete other language. Needless to say, I went home and had a delicious dinner, a piece of chocolate cake, and a giant glass of wine in celebration. It feels so great to have come back to life, and I can finally say that I can begin to appreciate Leopardi, and not attribute it to the hell that he gave me in these past few weeks. This week, I truly showed myself that I'm capable of whatever I set my mind to, and hard work is always paid off. Now for a nice break before I see what next semester has in store for me!