Life sure is sweet ain't it. I am back once again to keep you updated on the best life experience of studying abroad, and am happy to report that I have been enjoying the best views and having the most relaxing and enjoyable time in Italy. Over the past couple weeks we got to visit two beautiful locations: Lake Como and Pavia.
During this time, my roommate Chris's mom had been visiting and it was because of her that we ended up going to these two places which I am very grateful for! Lake Como ended up being a last minute switch from Naples, and we went to Pavia because they have a family friend from years ago that had been living in Italy for the past 10 years and had a vineyard that we visited! I am really thankful that Chris and his mom let me come along to visit and that Sarah and her family let me stay because it was such an amazing experience that I would never have been able to have otherwise!
That's the thing about life, I feel like great things always happen when you are just open minded and willing to experience anything. Me and Chris have been talking about it and we agree that the best things in life come when you put yourself outside of your comfort zone. The best food, the best people, the best fun, the best experiences all come from being brave and trying something new. No better example than studying abroad! It was scary to leave home and go to a completely new and foreign country, but now that I am here, I can say that it really has been one of the best experiences of my life, and is something that I will remember forever. Life is good and every day is a blessing.
Anyways, enough life lessons, let's see the trip!
Lake Como
I really loved Lake Como. It was such a beautiful place and made me feel really happy to see. Lake Como is in Northern Italy, near the border of Italy to Switzerland. It is only 30 minutes from Milan, and about 2.5 hours from Florence by train. We stayed in the town of Como, but all long the lake there are multiple different towns you can visit, with the easiest way to get around being the ferry boats.
Lake Como was really beautiful and truly felt special to be there. I must have seen a lake before, but something about it really me stop and be amazed. Seeing the mountains really reminded me of being at home in Palolo valley and to me the shape of the mountains was all the same so it felt like I was back home, but in like 500 years in the future where the water level had risen to swallow up the floor of the valley which was fun to imagine.
In the first day we rode up to the top of a mountain on a Gondola ride. At the top there was a bit of a hike to a light house and a park and a little town where we got to look down on Lake Como, which was a really nice view. It was beautiful to look out, but I am glad that I don't live up there because those steep hills were killer to walk around.
After we came back down we explored the city of Como more and saw the big attractions and took a nap. That night after we went out to dinner, there happened to be a food festival happening where we got to get lots of little snacks like a potato chip skewer, shish kebabs, and Sicilian deserts. It was a pleasant and yummy surprise.
The next day we went and took the ferry around to see some of the other towns. We ended up stopping in Varenna and Bellagio, which made up most of our day. The towns were really cute and reminded me of the style of Cinque Terre. Of the 3 places we went, Varenna was my favorite, but it seemed like you couldn't go wrong going to any of the different towns along the lake.
Pavia & Vineyard!
The next trip that we went on was to Pavia to see Chris's family friend Sarah and her family Paolo, Lily, Mossimo, and Matteo. They had met them in San Fransisco a long time ago, but Paolo is Italian and had landed a job as a professor in the University in Pavia and so 10 years ago they all moved to Italy and have been living there ever since. I am really glad that they let me come along because it was a really nice place to visit and definitely not something I would have been able to experience otherwise.
It was cool because they were American-Italians, and so had both aspects as a part of their life and made the hard transition of moving to a completely different country while the kids were old enough to remember both countries. I thought it was a really cool perspective to hear and I learned a lot about what its like to live and grow up in Italy. It was also really nice because they were super good at cooking Italian food so we got to have lots of good, authentic Italian food.
They have a house in Pavia and about an hour away, so we got to see two different places on the trip. The first day we spent just exploring the city and getting to see the different sights of the area. It was a really nice and laid back energy in the town and felt like a nice relaxing living there. There was not a lot of traffic or cars on the road, people didn't seem like they were in a rush, and there was a lot of nature everywhere, so it really seemed like a great place to live.
After exploring Pavia for the day, we went to the Sarah's vineyard which was absolutely, mind-blowingly amazing. It was by far the nicest house I had ever been to and the view was even more spectacular. It was about a hour half drive from Pavia and was in the middle of farm land, which made for such a beautiful view of hills as far as you can see of just vineyards.
When they were telling us about the how they got it, they told us that it was a long process because you had to be a certified farmer to be able to buy a vineyard in Italy to ensure that it remains farm land and is not just being bought up by foreigners. The house itself was originally a farmhouse with a barn adjacent to it, and was not in the best living shape. Fortunately, Sarah is an architect and saw a vision for the place and completely remodeled it to be a surreal vineyard house for them to go to! The only thing is that the house comes with the vineyard which she says is quite a lot of work to keep up. But for a visiting passerby, a true treat :).
Scrumptious Food
As always, here is this installment of food in Italy. It was amazing to be able to stay with Italians while we were in Pavia because we got the best authentic Italian food experience. The first two pictures are the highlights of their cooking for us, and they really couldn't have been any better! There has been lots of other great foods along the way as well, it really is a joy to have all this good food all the time.
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