dicembre e novembre in a small nutshell

As I drag my hands onto the keyboard, after the whizz of a couple months, I have finally gotten around to attempting to write in this blog. Life has been rather swamped with things to do, so I suppose we'll zoom back into time in November.

All aboard Nave Italia!
Gathering our suitcases, Rotary took us to set sail in the ocean for a few days in the open water. Staying in a Navy ship, we limboed, did some "interesting" pilates, played peter pan and the pirate, danced, tied knots and watched the sun turn red. After my acquisition of sea legs I found getting back onto land to be quite demanding.

Waters of La Spezia

mast climb, sailor time

so knotty!

this certainly cannot be real

the rotary/ navy ship crew

Glancing and prancing through November

The Lake of Lecco along with it's parallel dimension

a rather autumn scene 

smiley family times at the Bellano gorge

crisp day along Varenna

With my friend Carson, we went on a marvellous hike up the mountain "Resegone" (meaning "Big Saw" in dialect). There, we came across a little stand where friendly mountain men gave bread, salami and vin brulè to fellow passerbyers.

With Lecco friends, we made an International Night supper featuring appetizers, main dishes and desserts from the countries we came from (Australia, US, South Africa and Canada!) 

Canada rep

December provided more than a gloop of green and red paint on the pallet of seasonal cheer. Bumbling around with strings of lights and ornaments, the holiday spirit started off with the redecoration of our humbly beloved... well actually rather desolate and morbid, school library. My actual Christmas and Christmas eve was well spent with my family, stuffing our stomachs with as much fantastic food as our bodies could hold. 

The Lecco crew offering Christmas well wishes from the Bertacchi library

The mountains from Bormio- 

we took a little day trip away from school to lay in natural warm water in the old Roman baths and watch the snow fall

 Me and my wonderful fam

Tuscana

When I found out a month before that my family was going to take me with them to the Tuscany region, I could hardly grasp the insanely strange concept of seeing the sights that I so fondly saw reflected off of history books and documentaries. We set off in the camper for a little break from normal life, going to the cities Lucca, Pisa and Florence. It's very difficult to perceive the immense elegance and beauty that goes along with these old cities. It comes in such a way that it almost evokes a sort of longing or feeling that seems to pull and yank at you. 

pretty patterned pillars of San Michele in Lucca

The city of Lucca including it's neat circular piazza

Duomo and tower of PISA

now... everyone push!

Down ya go

Ponte Vecchio on a sludgy day 

small bit of the Medici ceiling

Duomo of Firenze (Florence)

The Rape of the Sabine Women

in only a little portion of the boot

Realizing that I've been in my PJ's more than I've been in decent clothes this week, I thought I probably ought to be productive and write a little something in this little blog. Right now tissue paper is skewed across my desk and I've been basically living off of peppermint tea while hiding from the rain and slugging around with my cold. It's rather hard to reencounter what has happened throughout October seeing as the month was stuffed full of happenings. This will only be a teensy part of it so bear with me...

In my highly occupied October there was barely enough time to catch a breath. I got to go to the Last Supper (unfortunately I didn't dine with Jesus but instead viewed Mr. Leonardo's astonishing depiction), painted primary colours across the Duomo Plaza, watched the ballet Raymonda in the most extravagant opera house- La Scala, had a bowl of fun while bowling on my 18th birthday, visited Bergamo Alta with it's dripping gold on white church, rendezvous'd with some lovely international friends from England and Austria, climbed to the top of the Duomo, went to listen to an amazing pianist play some good ol' Bach and Chopin, ate some of the most scrumptious food I have ever eaten made by my host nonna, brung up my Canadian roots and went skating in Lecco and got kooky at The Kook's concert in Milano. And that's just some of it.

Now here are oodles of photos!

Oh... just a regular church in Milano

beautiful fresco's cover every inch

White paper paint day

red, blue, yellow, red, blue, yellow

Our EYE

we're in a postcard

incredible street art across the Lecco pedestrian passageway

Jamaica bar- Just some rasta's drinking some juice out of a bowl stuffed with fruit and absurdly long straws 

La Scala featuring Raymonda

18 candles are a lot to blow out

Ciao nonna!

the setting red sun

I thought that bowling was like golf... the one with the lowest score wins...

90's bowling shoes

Bartholomew holding the nice shawl of his own skin

The top of the Duomo... I will let the photo speak for itself

Mary cast in gold

The Apocalypse panel of stained glass in the Duomo (apparently a nail from Jesus's crucifixion lies in a box at the top of this stained glass)

Bergamo is on fire

A beautiful tomb in Bergamo

not one pillar is the same

The Kooks were way too good. Almost died to get this photo though. Battling through sweat, over anxious tall men, the incapability to move without triggering a tidal wave and crazy elbowing girls.

By the way the Kook's opening band Molotov Jukebox was one of the best bands I have ever heard live. Including a funky accordion, trumpet and violin it was hard not to get groovy. Oh and the lead lady singer just so happens to be the actress that plays Nymphadora Tonks in Harry Potter... how neat is that?

What a snazzy stance

next door nonna's flowers

And a nice hello from the steps of Bertacchi