That has become my saying now - "Next week this time"
Because in less than 5 days, we'll be in Italy. So very exciting. Everything I say is "next week this time we'll be flying out or arriving or leaving for Cinqueterre..." I'm ready to go!!!
The time difference worries me. I've never had to fly so far on an airplane before, with the farthest being the almost 4 hour flight to NYC. This time around, the flight to Newark is the first of THREE flights. We fly to Newark, to Rome, to Florence, then take a bus to Siena. If it is 11pm here, it is 6am the next day in Italy. Seven hours. Hopefully we'll be able to sync up to talk to parents and friends back in the states.
Today began the first of the packing, at least for me. Matt has been in NOLA since last Thursday, so he did much of his packing before he left MS. Today was the grand toiletry trip. Tomorrow is a trip to the mall, for last minute odds and ends. Wednesday is a final shopping day and the beginning of trying to find a way to fit all of my stuff in the suitcase.
It will be fun. And next week this time, we'll be just a few hours shy of waking up at our bed and breakfast in Monterosso, Italy.
:)
Monday, May 25, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
T-minus 8 days, 20 hours until departure
We just woke up and realized that in a little over a week we'll be temporarily out of the clutches of parental domicile and into the boundless unknown of Italy. We still have a lot of packing, learning Italian, and reading class materials (b00) to finish before we enter the Continental Airlines terminal at the Louis Armstrong Airport, but all that's secondary to the wonderful feeling of knowing that for a month, an entire month, our chief worries will be whether to pick up a bottle of white or red, or whether we want antipasto or a panini for lunch. These are dilemmas I think we're both more than ready to take on. Speaking of food, it's time for brecky. Ciao...
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Getting Closer!
Well, tomorrow is my last final. Today marks 23 days until we board the plane!!! In exactly 3 weeks it will be third full day that Matt and I will be in Italy. As a matter of fact, it will be the end of our second day in Cinqueterre (maybe third - I'm having a hard time reconciling the time difference). I think it's something like a 7 hour difference.
Next week I will be in MS with Matt (while he's taking his last 2 finals, poor thing). I will be doing much shopping and departure preparations.
If you hare familiar with international travel and have any suggestions as to what to pack, things to remember when dealing with customs, or just general tips - please don't hesitate to share!
Arrivederci!
Next week I will be in MS with Matt (while he's taking his last 2 finals, poor thing). I will be doing much shopping and departure preparations.
If you hare familiar with international travel and have any suggestions as to what to pack, things to remember when dealing with customs, or just general tips - please don't hesitate to share!
Arrivederci!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Update!
Hey everyone.
The countdown is ticking! Today is 28 days until we leave! Exactly 4 weeks until the eve of our departure. It is quite exciting.
We have been receiving correspondence about the program including a book that we had to buy for pre-arrival reading. It's called Art Law in a Nutshell, and I'm assuming that it is a brief overview of the topics we will be covering, in order to give us some grounding to start with.
In other news, tomorrow I am getting a Blackberry, and hopefully - if everything goes right - I will have international access while I'm in Italy in order to better keep up with the blogging! Alos, I created a Twitter account the other day so, in case you are interested: http://twitter.com/meganspeterson.
Hopefully I will be updating more after this week is over - I have three finals left of my 1L year of law school! Quite exciting!!
The countdown is ticking! Today is 28 days until we leave! Exactly 4 weeks until the eve of our departure. It is quite exciting.
We have been receiving correspondence about the program including a book that we had to buy for pre-arrival reading. It's called Art Law in a Nutshell, and I'm assuming that it is a brief overview of the topics we will be covering, in order to give us some grounding to start with.
In other news, tomorrow I am getting a Blackberry, and hopefully - if everything goes right - I will have international access while I'm in Italy in order to better keep up with the blogging! Alos, I created a Twitter account the other day so, in case you are interested: http://twitter.com/meganspeterson.
Hopefully I will be updating more after this week is over - I have three finals left of my 1L year of law school! Quite exciting!!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Eight Weeks
Eight weeks and we will be enjoying our first full day in Italy.
As stressful as this semester has been, with Moot Court and just generally lots of pressure - this Italy trip will be well deserved.
After receiving some emails from Tulane about the trip - it looks like our group will be fairly small, which I like.
I don't really have anything to update on, I'm simply trying to get through the rest of the semester so Matt and I can begin the REAL blogging in June!
As stressful as this semester has been, with Moot Court and just generally lots of pressure - this Italy trip will be well deserved.
After receiving some emails from Tulane about the trip - it looks like our group will be fairly small, which I like.
I don't really have anything to update on, I'm simply trying to get through the rest of the semester so Matt and I can begin the REAL blogging in June!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Not much
Not much to update as of right now.
We have all of our living arrangements booked. Our apartment in Siena, the hotel in Monterosso (Cinque Terre) and the hotel in Venice!
I'm not sure if I've posted the link to our apartment in Siena but it is so nice! You can find pictures and a description here.
Yesterday I received an order I made for some Rick Steves' travel books. I purchased his Italy 2009, Florence and Tuscany, and Italian-English phrasebook. With these three, and the Frommer's Italy 2009 that my mom bought me, I think we'll be set.
This weekend Matt and I plan on charting out some hikes through CT and Siena, so once there is more to tell, I will update!
We have all of our living arrangements booked. Our apartment in Siena, the hotel in Monterosso (Cinque Terre) and the hotel in Venice!
I'm not sure if I've posted the link to our apartment in Siena but it is so nice! You can find pictures and a description here.
Yesterday I received an order I made for some Rick Steves' travel books. I purchased his Italy 2009, Florence and Tuscany, and Italian-English phrasebook. With these three, and the Frommer's Italy 2009 that my mom bought me, I think we'll be set.
This weekend Matt and I plan on charting out some hikes through CT and Siena, so once there is more to tell, I will update!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Cinque Terre Plans
Right now Matt and I are in the planning stages of our trip to Cinque Terre. We will be getting into Siena on June 1 and, since we have the apartment we rented for the whole month, we hope to leave all of our big luggage at the apartment. We will spend one night in Siena and downsize our luggage and on June 2, we will head to Cinque Terre (CT).
Trains connect to CT from Siena, but they are lengthy... Siena/Florence/Pisa/CT. But, the good news is that if we leave early enough from Siena, we can stop in Pisa, have some lunch and catch the obligatory photo with the leaning tower. That's what I plan on doing, anyway.
For the basics on CT, there are five little towns, from east to west (what is more like south to north): Riomagiorre, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. You can hike from one end to the other in about 7 hours - so they are very close together. Not to mention there is a local train which travels among the towns and takes only about 5 minutes to get between each one.
We decided to stay in Monterosso, which is the only town with a sizeable beach, plus it is kind of like a "resort" community in one part - meaning we will have things to do well into the evening with bars and restaurants and the like. We decided on a nice little bed and breakfast - the B&B Il Parco. We plan on taking the train to Riomaggiore (on the other side of the 5 towns) on one day. The hike between Riomaggiore and Manarola is known as the Via del Amore or the lover's walk. It's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. Other days we might rent a boat for the day and go exploring, hang out at the beach or go shopping. We plan on spending four nights there, so hopefully we will be able to find much to do. From what I hear, half of the fun is simply walking around, taking photos (we all know how much I love to do that), and just enjoying the scenery.
I'm so ready. It's gonna be a great trip.
Trains connect to CT from Siena, but they are lengthy... Siena/Florence/Pisa/CT. But, the good news is that if we leave early enough from Siena, we can stop in Pisa, have some lunch and catch the obligatory photo with the leaning tower. That's what I plan on doing, anyway.
For the basics on CT, there are five little towns, from east to west (what is more like south to north): Riomagiorre, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. You can hike from one end to the other in about 7 hours - so they are very close together. Not to mention there is a local train which travels among the towns and takes only about 5 minutes to get between each one.
We decided to stay in Monterosso, which is the only town with a sizeable beach, plus it is kind of like a "resort" community in one part - meaning we will have things to do well into the evening with bars and restaurants and the like. We decided on a nice little bed and breakfast - the B&B Il Parco. We plan on taking the train to Riomaggiore (on the other side of the 5 towns) on one day. The hike between Riomaggiore and Manarola is known as the Via del Amore or the lover's walk. It's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. Other days we might rent a boat for the day and go exploring, hang out at the beach or go shopping. We plan on spending four nights there, so hopefully we will be able to find much to do. From what I hear, half of the fun is simply walking around, taking photos (we all know how much I love to do that), and just enjoying the scenery.
I'm so ready. It's gonna be a great trip.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Official
It is official.
Matt and I are going to Italy this summer. We will be in Italy the entire month of June (and for my birthday on July 1) studying with Tulane Law's Cultural Property program. I'm absolutely excited about it. The two classes we are taking are (1) International Legal Framework for the Protection of Art and Cultural Property and (2) The Black Markets in Stolen and Looted Art and Antiquities. The first is basically a general cultural property law/international law seminar. The second is a look at the international criminal law systems and their attempt to monitor and curb black art markets. Sounds really freakin cool.
We bought our plane tickets and reserved the apartment we will be staying in while in Siena last night. Our itinerary includes a week-ish in Cinqueterre (June 1-6), a long time in Siena (7-28) and my birthday in Venice (June 29-July 2).
Cinque terre includes five little towns on the western coast of Italy, about a 2ish hour train ride from Siena. For some great photographs of the area, check this out. We intend to stay three nights, probably one in Riomaggiore, one in Vernazza and another in Monterosso. You can hike between the towns or take the inexpensive train/bus. I would love to go hiking, snorkeling and laying out at the beach and just generally enjoying a bit of vacation time before school starts. This area is the birthplace of foccacia bread and pesto (two of my very favorites), so I will be in for a treat.
Siena is an ancient little part of central Italy, about 1.5 hrs from Florence. We are staying in a quaint little apartment about 3 minutes from the school. The town itself is restricted to car access and is quite hilly from what I have heard, so I will definitely have to frequent the gym to get my calves in shape before arriving! Siena is nestled in the heart of the Tuscany region and is surrounded by the Chianti wine country. For great pictures of Siena, look here.
Finally, we will end our trip with an excursion to Venice for my birthday. We are staying three nights at the Hotel American, with a canal view room. I haven't even begun to think about what we will do in Venice while we are there...maybe go to a show, a museum...who knows? All I know is that I will be enjoying the gondola rides and having great local wine. I'm sure everyone has an image of Venice in their minds, but Flickr has great photos of it too, here.
Anyway, so that is the gist of it. I am so very excited about it and find it rather hard to focus on anything related to school this semester. Finding jobs for the later part of the summer and reading for class just seem so much less interesting now that I have Italy on the horizon.
Hopefully those who find themselves reading this will follow my blog as I continue to post while in Italy.
Ciao!
Matt and I are going to Italy this summer. We will be in Italy the entire month of June (and for my birthday on July 1) studying with Tulane Law's Cultural Property program. I'm absolutely excited about it. The two classes we are taking are (1) International Legal Framework for the Protection of Art and Cultural Property and (2) The Black Markets in Stolen and Looted Art and Antiquities. The first is basically a general cultural property law/international law seminar. The second is a look at the international criminal law systems and their attempt to monitor and curb black art markets. Sounds really freakin cool.
We bought our plane tickets and reserved the apartment we will be staying in while in Siena last night. Our itinerary includes a week-ish in Cinqueterre (June 1-6), a long time in Siena (7-28) and my birthday in Venice (June 29-July 2).
Cinque terre includes five little towns on the western coast of Italy, about a 2ish hour train ride from Siena. For some great photographs of the area, check this out. We intend to stay three nights, probably one in Riomaggiore, one in Vernazza and another in Monterosso. You can hike between the towns or take the inexpensive train/bus. I would love to go hiking, snorkeling and laying out at the beach and just generally enjoying a bit of vacation time before school starts. This area is the birthplace of foccacia bread and pesto (two of my very favorites), so I will be in for a treat.
Siena is an ancient little part of central Italy, about 1.5 hrs from Florence. We are staying in a quaint little apartment about 3 minutes from the school. The town itself is restricted to car access and is quite hilly from what I have heard, so I will definitely have to frequent the gym to get my calves in shape before arriving! Siena is nestled in the heart of the Tuscany region and is surrounded by the Chianti wine country. For great pictures of Siena, look here.
Finally, we will end our trip with an excursion to Venice for my birthday. We are staying three nights at the Hotel American, with a canal view room. I haven't even begun to think about what we will do in Venice while we are there...maybe go to a show, a museum...who knows? All I know is that I will be enjoying the gondola rides and having great local wine. I'm sure everyone has an image of Venice in their minds, but Flickr has great photos of it too, here.
Anyway, so that is the gist of it. I am so very excited about it and find it rather hard to focus on anything related to school this semester. Finding jobs for the later part of the summer and reading for class just seem so much less interesting now that I have Italy on the horizon.
Hopefully those who find themselves reading this will follow my blog as I continue to post while in Italy.
Ciao!
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