LAGO DI COMO & LA FESTA DEL CIOCCOLATO A PAVIA!

A view of a cute little town on the lake from the boat

Well here I am at the end of what has been a fantastic weekend in Pavia. I was lucky enough on Friday to go to Lake Como for the day with Lizi! We set off at 9am and by 11 we had arrived in the small town of Como at the southern tip of the left ''upsideown Y'' of the famous Italian lake. We wandered into the center in the hope of seeing the lake, and from the first glimpse it was spectacular! We decided to start off our day in true Italian style by relaxing out in the sun with a coffee, only this time with an incredible view as well! I went for a cappuccino topped with whipped cream, and Lizi chose one with melted chocolate at the bottom! They were delicious, and I don't think there was a better way to start our day at the lake.

Our morning coffees!

After our coffees, we set off to walk around the harbour-front and admire the views (which were plentiful!) and imagine that we were rich and owned speed-boats to whizz all over the lake! Coming back to reality, we decided to take a trip up to the small town of Brunate by the funicular which creeps up the hillside in 7 minutes. The town at the top was tiny and there were a few shops and cafes, as well as restaurants and bars, but the main reason why visitors are drawn is for the incredible views down onto the town of Como and the lake. Whilst we were up there, the temperature started to climb and soon we were chilled out sunbathing overlooking one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life. 

A view from Como's harbour

A view onto the lake

The funicular train

A view from the hillside town of Brunate

A view down onto the lake and the town of Como

Us enjoying some sunbathing!

By about 1pm we realised we were pretty hungry, so grabbed some lunch before heading off for a boat cruise around the lake (as you so often do when you're an Erasmus student!) haha. The cruise lasted an hour and only cost 7 euros so it was pretty good value I think! We stopped at a few different villages (Tavernola, Cernobbio, Moltrasio and Torno), but didn't actually get off the boat as we were on a 'tourist round trip', but I think you could get on and off if you had a full day open pass. Next time I'll make sure to do that so that I can visit all of the little cute Italian lake-side villages! The views were incredible though, they took my breath away, and the way the villages  lit up in the afternoon sunlight was so picturesque. 

A map of Como!

The view of the lake and the towns all illuminated!

The lake!

Me on the boat!

A view on the water

The cute little village of Torno

Moving on from Torno!

Lizi enjoying the views!

After our boat trip, we had an hour or so until we wanted to get some dinner so we wandered along the waterfront until we reached a little park which the guide book claims is set around the 'Tempio Voltiano' which is dedicated to Allesandro Volta who was a pioneer in electricity and gave his name to the volt. More interesting to us however were the beautiful views from the park which were incredible as the sun set over the lake.

The Tempio Voltiano

Lizi and Me looking out onto the lake

A view of the harbour of Como

Lizi and Me by the harbour

Me watching the sun set over the lake

After watching the sunset, we decided it was time to find somewhere to have dinner, so we wandered off into the center of the small town of Como. Before looking at restaurants, the first thing that caught my eye was the Duomo in the center on the Piazza Duomo. It was a beautiful church which my guide book claims is 'Italy's best example of Gothic-Renaissance fusion'. It was very pretty, but however under restoration so we were unable to have a look inside. We had a look around the center's vast network of tiny narrow lanes before eventually deciding on a restaurant with outdoor seating on the main Piazza Cavour next to the lake. We both chose pasta dishes and shared a salad. After our meal we needed to head back to the train station to catch the last train back to Pavia, however we had some problems with the journey back due to one of the trains not actually being scheduled (We never did find out why). We ended up having to wait an hour at Milano Centrale for a train down to Pavia which then didn't get us into Pavia until midnight so it was a really long day.

The Piazza Duomo

The facade of the Duomo

Saturday started off being a lazy day as I had a long lie-in after Friday's trip to Lake Como, but then I decided to do some housework and get through some of my laundry. I put the washing machine on with a dark load, and then when that was dry I decided to hang it outside on the washing line overhanging the balcony as the Spanish and the Italians do. I have never been convinced of doing this as firstly everyone can see your laundry and secondly there is always the fear that it might blow off. Anyway, I hung it out and it was a good place to dry my sheets for example as they are large double sheets. I then went off to put a white load on, and started to clean the dining area. I kept taking little glances at the washing line to check that my laundry was still there, and so far there were no problems. A few minutes later after doing the washing up, I turned around once again to check and it wasn't there! All of my washing had blown off onto the balcony of the flat below! I kind of knew that was going to happen.... it was just fate. Then later on I was in my room doing something on the computer and suddenly I heard a gushing sound and water cascading down from something. I just thought that it sounded like a nice sound, but then fear flooded over me (flooded being the operative word!) and I ran to the bathroom skidding on the way to see water pouring out of the washing machine as the door had come unlocked. I literally had my own 'Lake Como' on the bathroom floor! The funny thing was though that the washing machine still continued it's cycle, so in order not to have an even bigger flood than I already had, I had to stand infront of it holding the door shut with my hands for nearly an hour. When the cycle finished, I pegged out the clothes (inside this time on the safe drying rack!) and set about mopping up the water which took about half an hour again and 2 full 'mop and bucket' sized buckets of water. I suppose you could say that the only good thing about the disaster was that the floor got a good clean! After all of this stress I took a nap, and then a few hours later I went into the center to meet Lizi, Malene and Stefanie. The chocolate festival which I mentioned in my previous blog was on, and the piazza was buzzing with people and there was a sweet chocolate smell in the air!

All of the stalls from the festival on the piazza

The chocolate festival

On Sunday morning Lizi and I met at midday to go to Esselunga the supermarket and stock up on a few items. We then went back to my place to have a large salad lunch with the nicest big red juicy sweet Italian tomatoes I'd ever tasted! After lunch we decided to go out to get some sunshine down by the river, but beforehand we stopped off at the chocolate festival with hopes for some tasting opportunities! We wandered around and were pretty lucky to try chocolate from many stalls including crystalised orange slices dipped in chocolate, Sicilian dark chocolate and a milk chocolate with nuts in the middle. Lizi also bought 2 packs of chocolate pasta (yes... you heard that right, CHOCOLATE PASTA!!) to use as presents. I'm hoping she'll tell me what it tastes like as I didn't want to buy any as I can't understand why anyone would want chocolate flavoured pasta! I wish they had been offering samples of that. Whilst walking around we also noticed so many novelty items made of chocolate which were incredible! Have you ever seen chocolate cameras/cheeses/shoes/mechanics' tools/fish/iphones??? If not, check out the pics below! I think my favourite had to be the shoes! They were just so pretty, but unaffordable! Lizi and I really wanted to try them but they were 23 euros, so decided instead on two little milk chocolate fish which were much much cheaper!

Me by the chocolate festival poster!

The festival tents on the piazza during the day

CHOCOLATE CAMERAS!

CHOCOLATE CHEESE! (IT'S NOT REALLY CHEESE....... IT'S WHITE CHOCOLATE OF COURSE!)

THE PRETTY CHOCOLATE SHOES!

CLOSE-UP OF A CHOCOLATE SHOE

Lizi wandering around the Piazza

VERY REALISTIC 'RUSTIC LOOKING' CHOCOLATE MECHANICS TOOLS

THE CHOCOLATE FISH

Lizi and her chocolate pasta!

THE CHOCOLATE IPHONES!

After looking at so much chocolate, our mouths were watering so we walked for a few minutes down to the river to put out a towel and do some sunbathing and eat our chocolate fish before they melted! They were hollow in the middle, but had thick walls of lovely milk chocolate! I have to say that being a vegetarian, this is probably the closest I'll ever get to eating a fish =)

Lizi with her fishie!

Me with mine!

The beautiful Ponte Coperto

Me sunbathing by the river

Lizi and Me enjoying the sun!

Right that's all from me and the update from my weekend! I'm off now to get ready to meet Laura one of my new Italian friends to go for an ice cream and a passeggiata (walk) by the river in the sunshine whilst having some Italian speaking practice! Oh 'La Vita Erasmus' is just too hard !!!!! Arrivederci xxx

A TRIP TO VISIT ROMEO & JULIET! - VERONA =]

The pretty 'Ponte de Vittoria'

Another week has flown by, and it's that blog time again! I've been in Pavia now exactly 4 weeks and one day, and I honestly don't know where the time has gone! It's only been a month, but somehow it feels like I've lived here forever and 'Mi Vida Erasmus' part 1 in Salamanca seems in the very distant past. This last week has been great, and in terms of Uni, I've finally managed to get my Learning Agreement signed and stamped and sent off to Leicester. I have chosen 'How to teach Italian', 'Spanish Language', 'Basic French' and 'Spanish Civilisation' which equal the required 30 ECTS credits. The funny thing is though that three out of the four modules don't run until the 4th trimester on the 16th of April, so I don't really have very much to do at the moment! I'm still going to my Italian Language course on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings and still very much enjoying the lessons, as well as making an effort to meet Italians with an on-going language exchange.

Last weekend has been special as Flo came out to visit me. Saturday evening we went to 'Loft' bar in the center with Lizi for a buffet dinner and some cocktails, and then early on Sunday we left for Verona! I booked the tickets a few weeks back and have been so excited to visit the city! We had planned to wake up at 6am to get the train at 8am, but that of course didn't happen. We instead took a train at 11 which got us into Verona around 1pm. All was hassle-free, however Flo managed to lose his Belgian ID card and we had no idea where! He thought at the airport maybe, but it could have easily have been on the coach to the center of Milan, or even on the train to Pavia! We decided to not worry about it and to find out information of what to do online, and then go to the Belgian Embassy before returning to Pavia. After all of the ID card drama, we easilly navigated from the train station to our B&B (with the help of 3G internet and my iphone's map app!) which was very close to the center. The B&B was really lovely, and we were the only people staying there! (Perhaps because it's not the tourist season!). Anyway, we were warmly welcomed by 'Carmelina' the owner, and I was treated to a good old Italian language lesson! The room was perfect for one night and very comfortable and although we didn't have an en-suite bathroom, technically we did as the one across the hall from our room was only used by us! The B&B was exactly what I expected, and it is very highly reviewed online apart from the one problem being that Carmelina doesn't speak any other language than Italian! - For me this wasn't a problem, it was a perk! (I grab at any chance to speak with natives!)

The B&B sign!

Our room.

After freshening up, and after I was able to escape from Carmelina, we wandered into the center in search of some lunch! The weather was cloudy to begin with, but soon the clouds all disappeared and the sun came out and the city really began to look beautiful. For lunch I was craving a McDonald's wrap meal (I hadn't had one since being in Salamanca!) so we went there for me to eat, and then after went to find a cute little take-out pizza joint for Flo as he was determined not to eat at McDonalds.... I'm sure he looked down on me for my choice, but in my defense I rarely eat there, however occasionally I fancy their wrap meal! Once re-fuelled, we went wandering around Verona. The first stop was a walk over the 'Ponte Scaligero' with views along the river Adige, before heading for the center of the city. I really loved the Arena which is Verona's Roman amphitheatre dating from the first century AD. It is also interestingly Italy's third largest Roman amphitheatre after the Colosseum in Rome and the amphitheatre at Capua. We decided not to enter as the prices were quite steep, however I think that after being in the Colosseum that this one wouldn't be much different!

Flo's pizzas! - on the left was cheese and nuts and then the one on the right was with ham and potatoes

The view of the Adige river from the Ponte Scaligero

Me on the Ponte Scaligero

Flo

Me by the Arena

The Ponte Pietra

I really liked the center of Verona as it was like a network of narrow medieval lanes lined with pretty buildings and expensive shops, and occasionally you come across a piazza buzzing with life. We wandered around absorbing the atmosphere, and stumbled upon this gorgeous view above of the Ponte Pietra. It really was a lovely view, and in the sunshine it was perfectly illuminated. We then wandered along the river until we came to the bridge. It was such a lovely place that I can understand why so many people were sunbathing there and eating ice creams! After a while enjoying the view, we went in search of two of the city's most impressive religious buildings- the Sant'Anastasia church and of course the city's Duomo. We found Verona's largest church- The Sant'Anastasia, not far from the center. It was mainly a gothic design which was started in 1290 and finished in 1481. The Duomo we then found very near to the bridge. My guide book claims that it was built in 1187 and is largely Romanesque with Gothic parts as it gets higher.  It was an impressive building, however no match to Milan's Duomo!

The center - on the piazza

Flo & Me

Us

The Ponte Pietra

Me posing on the bridge!

Another gorgeous view along the river

Us by the river

The Sant'Anastasia church

The Duomo

After seeing the city, I really wanted to go and see the legendary house of Juliet from Shakespeare's wonderful love story Romeo & Juliet which was based in Verona. The house and famous courtyard lies on 'Via Cappello' which is a street named after the family that Shakespeare turned into the Capulets. I was really excited to see the famous courtyard and balcony, however on arrival it was packed with tourists and just seemed incredibly tacky with everyone taking photos. I was sadly no exception here I have to admit! and Verona has really capitalised on the famous story with Romeo & Juliet gift-shops selling memorabilia and plenty of postcards . I think that the most memorable thing about the house was all of the lovers' grafitti which cover the entrance to the courtyard as well as an iron gate full of padlocks sealing people's love. There was also a bronze statue of Juliet in the courtyard, and her right breast looks incredibly polished as apparently it is good luck in love if you touch it! (Flo couldn't resist........)

Via Cappello

The famous balcony

The lovers' grafitti

The iron gate full with padlocks

Romeo and Juliet quotes on the wall outside Romeo's house

Flo getting some luck in love

By now it was early evening, and we decided to go back to the B&B to freshen up for a while before going out again later on for some dinner and a walk around. At around 9 we wandered back into the city center and it looked so pretty all lit up at night! The river looked especially pretty. We didn't take long in choosing a restaurant for dinner as we were so hungry, and settled quickly for one on the main piazza. Flo ordered a thinly sliced beef dish and I had a traditional italian spaghetti al pomodoro (spaghetti in a fresh tomato sauce with basil) and we both shared a large salad. It was a lovely meal and really good quality. Afterwards we then slowly wandered back to the B&B for the night.

Me by the river

The main piazza at night

Our lovely italian meal!

On Monday morning we woke up quite early to get up as we had to be out of the room in the B&B by 10.30, however Carmelina came and banged on the door around 10 to apparently ''wake us up'' but to me it just sounded like a crazy Italian woman shouting through the door haha! Anyway, she went out and we were left alone in the B&B! We went upstairs to the kitchen to help ourselves to breakfast and were quite pleased seeing lots of cereals, bread, packet croissants and biscuits. We were then even more excited at seeing a fridge which we opened and took out yoghurts, fruit, milk, juice and even a cake without first reading a sign on the front of the fridge. After enjoying our breakfast, we then noticed the sign in Italian more or less saying 'Don't take from the fridge' ----AHHHH! We did feel a bit bad, but considering we're not going to see her again I don't think it will matter too much! eeek! Maybe next time I should pay more attention to notices. After a lovely breakfast (Grazie Carmelina) we set off for the train station to get a train back to Milan. On the way I bought some lovely postcards of Verona which I can't wait to add to my ever expanding collection! Once in Milan we grabbed a quick pizza take-out and then set off for the Belgian Embassy to ask about what he had to do about his lost ID card. The lady was very helpful and told him exactly what to do, however she was closing so he was told to return the next day. Instead of further worrying, we went to look around Milan and I think Flo enjoyed seeing the city center.

Flo infront of the iconic Duomo

On return to Pavia, Flo luckilly found the missing ID card behind the back of my desk, so he was very happy and of course relieved not to have to return to Milan the following day to go to the Embassy again. We were pretty tired in the evening, so slept early and then Tuesday morning we went for a walk around sunny Pavia. I showed Flo the Uni, and also collected my signed 'Learning Agreement' at the same time, and then we went for a walk over the other side of the river which was nice as the weather was so good, and we took some lovely photos of the river and the Ponte Coperto.

The river Ticino

The Ponte Coperto

Flo enjoying the sunshine!

Tuesday evening there was a get-together of a few of my new Erasmus friends at our favourite cockail bar in the center called Manà, and I wanted to take Flo along to meet everyone and taste the fabulous cocktails! We had a really great night with YUMMY cocktails, great company and great conversation.

A photo of a few of our cocktails!

Me, Malene and Stefanie!

Flo, Me, Malene and Stefanie

Lizi & Flo

The Italian boys, Karolina and Lizi

Us girls pretending to be Italian with our typical hand gesture!

Yesterday we both woke up quite late as we went to bed late the night before, but then went for a walk in the center and met up with Malene my Danish friend and Stefanie who is German for a walk in the sunshine down by the river. We soon couldn't resist having a typical Italian gelato (ice-cream!), so sat down to sunbathe and enjoy the best ice-cream in the world! Check out these beasts below! The flavours were amazing.... and tasted good, but Malene wasn't too impressed with her 'Violet' ice-cream which turned out to taste like the Parma Violet sweets, ............like 'soap' 'or what I use to clean my bathroom' quoting Malene!

Mine and Malene's ice creams! mine on the left: mango, mint and chocolate, and on the right, pistacchio, yoghurt and violet

Stefanie's on the right: strawberry and nutella, and then Flo's with pistacchio and cream as well as a big dollop of a nutella-flavoured thick gooey chocolate! mmmmm!

Malene's reaction when left with the Viola 'soap' flavour....... hahaha!

Flo and Me by the Ponte Coperto

Stefanie, Malene and Me by the Ponte Coperto

Stefanie, Malene and Me

Yesterday was Flo's last day, so in the evening we invited Lizi around for dinner where she and Flo cooked a steak! I had a veggie burger which wasn't quite so appetising for them, but still it was pretty tasty and we all had a really enjoyable meal. This morning we had to wake up early as Flo had to catch a train at 9am, then I went back to sleep for a bit before meeting an Italian girl called Barbara who I met for a language exchange! We enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine on the piazza and chatted away for over an hour in Italian (I'm quite proud of myself!) We then went to meet her friend Laura who was also lovely and chatted some more in Italian! After 2 hours of pure Italian language conversation which was the most extensive oral class I've ever had, I went to meet Lizi for a much needed pizza for lunch on the piazza, followed by a walk to the river and an ice cream in the gorgeous sunshine. We then went to our Italian Language class which was good fun today (as always!) we were learning the conditional tense, and using it to say what we would do if something happened.... for example what would you do if you were in a hotel and found a scorpion in your bed, or what would you do if you were in a restaurant after a meal and you didn't have enough money to pay. It really was a fun lesson as some of the answers people came up with were hilarious!

Mine, Flo's and Lizi's meal

Right, I think that's just about enough from me..... I think my blogs must get longer and longer every time! I really need to get some sleep now as tomorrow I am going to visit Lake Como for the day with Lizi! It looks beautiful in all of the photos I have seen, and it's stated in the guide book as one of the areas of Lombardy not to miss. Then at the weekend there is going to be a chocolate festival in Pavia ! A dream for a chocoholic like me! so I'll be checking it out with friends, and updating early next week on my weekend fun. Ahhhh che bello è la vita Erasmus! It really has been a great day, and I just thought to myself how lucky I am. Erasmus here in Pavia is much much better than I had anticipated. I love the city, the travel I'm getting to do, the Italian Language course, the food, the weather, speaking Italian and of course last but not least all of the new friends I've made. Grazie mille a tutti!

The poster for the chocolate festival in Pavia!