I can’t believe that our final semester here in Genova starts tomorrow. At times last semester it felt like the days were creeping along, but now we only have five more months here and I know it will go unbelievably fast! Nick and I had a wonderful, quiet first week back. We didnt venture out of the villa much this week as the weather wasn’t the greatest, it rained for three days straight. I have much respect for the Italians and the fact that they can’t just park in the parking deck of the local grocery store and stock up on grocerys when it’s raining. Trucking my bags of groceries up the stairs from San Nicola in the pouring rain made me thankful for what we have in the US, but I also really enjoyed my walk as well 🙂 Crazy?!?!?
On New Years we were still suffering from jet lag, even though I had really wanted to experience an Italian New Years, we stayed in the villa and lit a fire in the fire place and watched movies. At midnight people were setting fireworks off all over town, so we ran upstairs to catch them from the terrace up there, it was really pretty as they lit up the port.
Yesterday and today we successfully booked flights and rentals for our trip during independent travel week, which is the first week of March. We will be heading to Edinburg, Amsterdam and Berlin, I am so excited. We also booked a train ride through the alps for Valentines weekend. The train stops a night in St Moritz, with dinner and entrance into the Bormino Baths. I am so very exited for this trip and even more excited that we get to share with our friend Rebecca and Nate, who will be visiting from Charlotte! It will be such a wonderful time!
Today I went on a awesome run, I normally run up and then make my way back down, but today I ran down to Casteletto and then back up to the villa. It was a great view when I reached Casteletto out over the harbour, it was refreshing to see all the Italians taking the time sitting looking out over the Mediterranean. The run was so peaceful, well that is until I ran back uphill – lol.
Last night we enjoyed a really nice evening at Giudi’s flat for apertivo, she has a very lovely place. We now understand why she told Nick he couldn’t come over until his ankle was better, she lives four flights straight up in an older building with no handrail… Of course first thing Nick did was inspect Giudis bookcase, nerd alert 😉 We enjoyed delicious appetizers, some white wine and prosecco, and even better company. Lucca joined us and we had an evening of interesting conversation, from religion to US architecture codes to Miley Cyrus – lol! All in all it was a very lovely evening, we are so thankful to the Italian professors for opening theirs homes to us.
I am looking forward to a new routine starting tomorrow and hoping to get on a more normal sleep schedule, this 2 am habit is for the birds (and architecture students) 😉….
