cinque.

quartto.

tre.

due.

uno.

cinque terre.

We hopped on the 10:30 train to Pisa and then took the train from Pisa to Monterosso. Today we decided to head up to northern Italy to visit the infamous villages of Cinque Terre. Five fishing villages surrounded by the Mediterranean sea are connected by a long trail that leads straight through every city. We decided to do the hardest hike first and then end easy. The Gorilla and I both had the realization that the gelato was getting to us, and the endless nights of pasta needed to come to an end. For about the first hour of our hike, we had to stop every five minutes to "take a look at the scenic view" or other wise known as taking a breather. I sure got my work out for the week. We hiked through the first village and then stopped in the second for lunch. We ate along water and decided that because it was a nice sunny day we deserved gelato. Again with our reasoning, but hey, good weather is a good reason to eat good gelato. I took nearly 200 hundred pictures, let out about 2 million and a half toots and told the Gorilla silly stories while singing songs. We finally finished the hike around 5:30 and we decided to stay to watch the sunset at a restaurant on a cliff facing the water. We ordered wine and cheese and chatted with a couple from Wisconsin. Finally, when the sun went down, we headed to the train station to catch the 7:52 train back to Florence. On the way home we had to stop in Pisa but for some reason we were not able to get a ticket in Cinque Terre to get all the way back to Florence. And just as we stepped off the train in Pisa we were able to hop aboard a train to Florence. I convinced the Gorilla that we would be fine with out a ticket because so many times when we have bought tickets, they never check. However they obviously checked today. Luckily we had cute smiles on today and the ticketer told us that we could get off at the next stop and buy a ticket to Florence or else it was going to cost us a 115 euro to make it back to Florence. 50 euro each for riding the train back without a ticket could have been our penalty but instead we took his advice and got off the train two stops before Florence. Well I might have caused some havoc because we didn't buy tickets, at least I wasn't pulling a Gorilla and not have a single euro on me. Clearly I had to come to the rescue and buy tickets for myself and the Gorilla. I was able to buy mine with out a problem but the Gorilla took too long trying to find money and putting it into the slot that the machine canceled the ticket and gave her a credit for the amount. The Gorilla started freaking out but luckily I just happen to have 5 extra euro on me and I bought her another ticket. The best part of this whole fiasco was that they didn't even check our tickets on this train ride home. Typical. Exhausted from a day of splendor and delight, I climbed into bed and started to type this post and began watching "Into The Wild" but fell asleep before the credits came one. Best day abroad!

photogs of photogs in photog.

THIS IS MY PHOTOG CLASS.

four observations.

I was supposed to have my book arts project done and by I, I mean the class was supposed to have our projects done but it looked like I wasn't the only one who needed the rest of the class period to finish. This is not a typical Allison thing to do (that is, not have something in on time) but my project took so long to dry that I couldn't actually finish it. However, I also pulled a typical Allison move on this project and rather than doing the required two mono-prints I ended up doing 14 different prints and a cover printed on the letter press. Typical. I finally finished after class and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I am going to photograph it at our book arts show next tuesday and then I will post them.

I made four observations and realizations about my photog teacher today.
1. she has saggy boobs. I am really saggy one, do your boob hands low do the wobble to and fro boobs. You are probably wondering why in the world I know this but lets just say when your photo teacher uses her work as an example of the next project and her whoo ha's and private parts are the main focus of her work, you can't help but make these kind of observations. Don't worry I am already premaritally scarred and there is no therapy that can save me now. The Gorilla said she woke up from a nightmare about them.
2. She is not a lesbian. Not that I would of cared, but I just assumed she was because she seems like she would be. In her second demonstration today she showed a million and a half pictures of this man, and finally someone in my class goes, is that your lover?. And she replied that we would have to spend an entire semester going over that one. Weird.
3. Then I realized she was insane. She not only told us that she has conversations with her dead grandfather in her dreams and when he speaks to her, it is in English even though he didn't know a drop of English. When she was explaining the story she thought the weird part was that he spoke English to her but when I heard it, I thought the weird part was when she was saying that when her and I quote "dead grandfather comes and speaks to her in her dreams". Not to mention, she said he comes often. This story was told at the beginning of class and then at the end of class I also had another realization that she was insane when a kid in my class jokingly said that he would have to start either selling his body or selling drugs in order to have enough money to buy all of the photo supplies we needed for the next assignment and as a response to his comment she said that she would take him up on some crack.
4. She gets pleasure out of making us suffer. First she is always saying how she is trying to save us money when it seems that every second she is requiring us to drop 20 euro on some paper, some slide film and then she ends up making us do so many tests with it that we end up having to buy more of it. Second reason: we have a mini photo assignment over the weekend to make prints from our slide film. When slide film is processed it makes a positive image on the actual film, and then when you go to try to print the slide on a regular enlarger it makes a negative. She didn't tell us this, we figured it out on our own but in the end we had to make 6 prints (which for her means 12 because they have to so perfect) because we had to make 3 of the negative and 3 of the positive. She didn't tell us that slide film did this, but when I decided to stay after class to get it done before the weekend, she sat and laughed with a devilish joyful smile knowing that we had a lot of work to do.

Bottom line: she is a crazy, saggy boobed, hippie, communist who used to live on a commune who is not a lesbian and wants to buy crack from her students. and produces fairly poor work with beading all over it.

The Gorilla and I stayed up at the art school until close and then we came back home and did our typical Gorilla and sidekick evening routine of getting into our beds and typing our lives away until we get too tired. Tomorrow we are heading to Cinque Terre for a day of hiking. I sure hope the weather is nice. Cross your fingers.

pitti palace painters.

(view from the outside)

(view from the inside)

a day for painters at the pitti palace.

Today was my lucky day, I aced my Italian exam. Boo Ya! and I got to go on a field trip to the Pitti Palace with my painting class. Normally I am in the mood to paint but today after my delightful lunch I was just not in the mood to stand there and paint for 3 hours. My teacher obviously has ESP and so when I arrived at class I was thrilled that we were going on a field trip. I was able to take some snap shots of a couple of my paintings from the Pitti Palace before the security guide caught me. They have this intense alarm system at the palace and if you get too close a work of art, it sets off an alarm. It was entertaining because everything would be silent, and then all of the sudden a loud alarm would go off and everyone would look at each other to see who was the culprit. In Italian lab we started watching this movie about a women who leaves her family while traveling with her entire extended family. She ends up hitch hiking a ride to Venice where she stays in the apartment with this man whom she meets at dinner one night and has to ask to stay with him because she doesn't have enough money. We later find out that he has been trying to kill himself but every time he tries, this woman keeps returning. We haven't finished it yet but I will let you know. The Italians sure love dramatic films. I worked all night on book arts until the Mid-Mean-Nice-girl kicked us out.
I stayed up late trying to finish book arts but realized after a few too many head nods that it was time for bed and that I would just have to face the fact that I wasn't going to be done with my project tomorrow at 9:30. Nighty night.

post ness from wednesday feb u ary 27thness

beans beans the magical fruit.

My idea for the cover of my photog project went down the drain after I realized that I had spent 85 percent of Thursday class making book cloth only to find out that it shrivled up and died over the weekend. I spent my break putting together my creative allison juices and made a different cover, that I actually like better. What would a Tuesday lunch be without dried fruit and a hot Anna's sandwich, well it just wouldn't be a Tuesday afternoon. Obviously it was a beautiful (but cold) sunny day and I had to stay inside to finish my work. We had our crit for our slide film and the commi-hippie loved it. She reminded us of a little side project that we were supposed to do for her. At the beginning of the semester she told us that we had to keep a journal of our experience abroad and obviously I have been keeping up with it. Today she told us that we would have to turn in our journals but that we were allowed to cross out all parts that we didn't want her to read. I am pretty sure it would be a not soo good idea to leave in any part of my posts with the words "freaky, hippie, commi, long haired, freak" in my journal. I am going to have to work on trying to figure out what to keep and what to delete. Guess what I ate for dinner? No not Anna's, even better, LENTILS. We even let our roommate have stab at it. Yesterday when were cooking the beans, Emily's mom suggested we put the rest of the their parmeasean rhine into our soup for extra flavoring and last night we couldn't find it, so we assumed it had melted. So today when our roommate asked us what we had put in the soup we told her chicken, potatoes, mushrooms and onions. It looked like she was having a difficult time cutting something in the soup and I asked her what she was cutting up in the soup because nothing was that hard to break apart. She took a bite of the soup and goes "Oh that wasn't chicken or a potato, I am not sure what is but it tasted like cheese". Our roommate found the hidden cheese rhine and for her prize, we told her that she could have as much lental soup as she wanted. We couldn't stop giggling. Art school party tonight. Project due Thursday. The mid-night owl kicked us out at 11 tonight. She is so scary looking, I want to scream just looking at her face. 

i thought sundays were good days to do nothing, but when it is easter, mondays are also good to do really nothing.

Reunited with the Gorilla at last, I hardly recognized the hairy beast. The Gorilla and I planned a very productive day full of eating dried fruit to going to two muesums, lunches, journaling at coffee shops, farting, talking, you know the typical Gorilla and sidekick things. We made it to the central market to get our dried fruit only to discover that frotto was not serving up his tasty fruity delights and that the entire market was closed. You could say that that was the first thing that put a damper on the day of production. As we were walking to head to the first museum, La Specula, located on the other side of the river, it started to rain. Obviously, the minute I step out of the warm shelter it starts to rain. You could say this was the second thing that put an ended to the pro-part of our day. Minorly freaking out and more sad that the market was closed than our feet were sopping wet, we decided maybe that we should rethink our day of activities. We made the executive decision that we should probably go get lunch before we went to any museum because god for bid we might possibly get hungry during the museum and then we wouldn't be able to concentrate. Considering the amount of food I have devoured in the past two weeks, it would probably be very very slim chance, that my body would actually cave in and get hungry because I am pretty sure I still have Romanian remains tucked some where. I wanted to take the Gorilla to my new found lunch place, Birbra. Being the Jew on Easter I convinced the Gorilla that it just had to be open. Now freezing and wet standing in front of the gates of Birba, I realized that maybe the Gorilla does know a thing or two. This could be strike three on the day. Then some serioius decision making time was needed. Well if Birbra was closed than maybe that meant that a majority of the restaurants were also closed. We walked down the street, Anna's was closed, so then we came to a conclusion that nothing would be open, however, our two favorite places (besides the open market dried fruit stand and Anna's) the centro and the euro store were still open. The fact that they were open solitified my whole theory about them being owned by the mafia. Just like the Jews, there is no way the Mafia celebrates easter. They need money. Our entire day turned a full 360. We came to the conclusion that we were just going to cook our own lunch. Thanks to Mama and Papa I. we now had stolen jams from the hotels free breakfast and Costco organic peanut butter dragged all the way from the States. While at the centro we also decided that we might as well buy food for dinner since we knew that our day full of museums was going to turn into a day in our cozy beds sipping coffee and listening to music. I guess in some way you could say our room is like a museum. It houses some of the worlds most interesting smells, scientists might be able to make a major break through with these odors. And we have a miny petting Zoo, I mean come on I  sleep next to the Gorilla and she doesn't mind if you pet her and she loves it when you feed her. I mainly chuck things at her and she likes that too. Lentils, blackeyed pea soup with Chicken, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, celery and carrots thrown together like stone soup would do for dinner on cold Monday night when the world (the world being my world of Italian restaurants were closed for jesus day) Without hesitation we headed to the euro store to pick up gummies in substitue for dried fruit. Somehow we had convinced ourselves that eating gummies was probably just as bad as eating dried fruit, so why not, perche no. We toasted PB J's, cut them in half fourth grade style, chopped up apples and dipped them in peanut butter with a big glass of peach ice tea to chase everything down. From after lunch until 7 oclock was a big haze. I just remember sitting in my bed catching up on life, pictures, blog-ness and then I realized it was 7 oclock and that I thought I might have bed sores. The Gorilla and I once had a fear of getting old and having bed sores sophomore year when we spent more than 100 hours working on an animation and this long period of sitting brought me back to those terrifying days. Scary. Scary Scary. Emily's family came over for dinner and it was sure an interesting family dinner. At the beginning of the semester Emily was looking at the pictures on the Gorilla's wall and there was a picture of one of the boys the Gorilla took care of in Ethiopia, and Emily goes, "Oh, you have a black brother too?". The Gorilla and I chuckled and we still chuckle now. What a weird way of asking someone if they had a brother. For a while we wondered if Emily's parents were mixed, even though she is white as whitey tidies. We had to explain to her that it was the Gorilla's friend from Ethiopia. But anyway we were able to meet Emily's "black" brother, even though after much thought, we realized he is not black at all and his skin is just more olive color than Emily's. We tried to avoid getting in the way of the fam, aka. we pretty much stayed in our room until we got hungry at 7 and our bed sores were really starting to soar. We picked up three bags of beans at the Centro, not too sure how much they would make, and we put them all in a pot. An hour later we had enough beans to feed an army and an entire town. We had to take out an entire tupperwear's portion just so we would have enough room to fit the other ingrediants. This is bad news bears, really bad but it looks like we are going to be eating lentils for breakfast lunch and dinner for the next week. We all know I should probably keep my bean intake to a minumum but I can't let good food go to waste. Dinner clean up and then back in my bed for writing and looking and things like tooting. The Gorilla couldn't fall asleep so I told her a good night story about a magic rock (a Mama I. original) and she fell right asleep. She will never admit this and I don't want the world to know, but she too snores. We are both vicitums to the clogged noses and vibrating throats.

the things we saw.

--

Sunday Is A Good Day To Do Nothing, Especially When You Are A Jew On Easter.

The family made an early journey back to the States after a week in three countries, and four different cities. I think they had a fabulous time and it was a special treat to have them here. After just one week of visiting a few of the worlds most incredible places, I can already predict the future for my family. Amy I will probably move to the Vatican where she will be the only Jewish artist commissioned to make mosaics at the Vatican gift shop. She will also open up the world's first Jewish confessional and will hire a personal tour guide where she will be able to ask a million questions and be quartered that no question will be unanswered and that all answers will be repeated as many times as she pleases. Adam I will probably return to the Cianti region to become the worlds youngest vineyard owner and will secretly import vodka from Romania. He will sell and drink it on the side. With great success, he will collect every soccer jersey from the San Lorenzo market and will sport them at every Italian soccer game. Papa I will spend his weeks in Rome as a wine bar shmoozer, dining at the finest restaurants after investing in Little Adam I's vineyard. The two of them will smell and swirl their wine to wine success. On his spare time, Papa I. will meet with all of the European JDC presidents and start wine clubs with them, obviously talking business and discovering new ways to help the Jews throughout the world. He will probably invest in an apartment in the Jewish quarter and start attending Shabbat services. Mama I. on the other hand will still be related to the rest of the family, however she will probably stay far away from the vineyard and help invest in my new journal company. She will find a small quant house in Tuscany (possibly down the street from the new family winery) where she will turn a majority of her house into a studio. The backyard will be big enough where she can make large scale sculptures. Not really knowing how and when she did it, it probably happened in her sleep but she will invent a new way of making gelato that is just as delicious as "real" gelato however it has the reverse affect, the more you eat, the more calories you burn. She will be become famous and Oprah will probably call her to have her on the show (automatic success) Obviously she will leave room for small printing press, paper cutter, corner rounded and racks of paper for me to launch my journal company. The entire family will learn Italian, so Amy I. will not say gracias to the waiters, Mama I will not put the wrong emphaaasis on the wrong syyyllable, and Adam I will no longer need to pretend like he knows Italian, he will actually know it. Now for Papa I, he will probably learn it but still never really get it but we will help him. Say goodbye Kansas City, with this prediction, it looks like the Isenberg's found a new place in the world.

After we received a goodbye and good morning poke from Amy I. at 5 in the morning, Monica and I fell back sleep and then we re-woke up again pretty early, at least early for Allison and Monica time. We got up around 8 o'clock in hopes of sunny weather and short lines at the coliseum. Everything that we had hoped for and ever wanted in a day was the complete opposite. We obviously did not miss one chance of free food, and we hit up the delicious included continental breakfast. We had some what of a hope for the first 2 minutes we were walking down our street but then before we even could make it to the Trevi fountain to take pictures, we were singing in the rain. At first we thought it wouldn't be too bad and if we had survived yesterdays shower, we would surely be a-okay. Half way between the Trevi fountain and the coliseum, I realized my camera was out of batteries, and Monica realized she didn't bring hers. Typical I tell you, just a typical Allison Jane Isenberg thing to do, not charge her camera battery before she headed to the most famous site in Rome. Together with our not so smart minds we decided that we would rather splurge our money and have a lasting memory of our rainy time in Rome. With a disposable camera at hand, we united as many times together under our umbrella's to take pictures. In the world of digi cam's and digi phones, people were quite shocked when we handed them our disposable camera, and the simple act of pressing down was all they needed to do. We tolerated the rain until a massive hurricane of rain came pouring down and we called it quits and hailed a cab. I am a little ashamed to mention the rest of our adventures but we decided to come back to the hotel to protect our feet from flooding and our bodies from pneumonia. It was a good thing we came back because as we were stripping down our clothes from mother earth's generous bath, we heard thunder followed by hammering rain. We packed up our room, made to-do lists (Monica's was the final list before leaving london and mine was list for the rest of easter weekend) Monica became an esthetician and touched up one of my eye brows before we headed out the door to meet her-not-so-fun-friend who actually turned out to be just fine on this visit (the same friend that came to flo flo with her) By the time we packed up, got dressed and plucked and ate it was already time to go. Clearly it stopped raining the minute we were about to leave and even a few rays of the sun came through the clouds. This would only happen to me, so I am not surprised. Exhausted from two weekends of non-stop delicious and exciting travel, I decided that when Monica headed to the airport I too would head back home. I thought about staying for the rest of the day for about the two minutes the sun was out but realized that my water bucket shoes, sponge absorbing coat and wet hair should probably leave room for my next visit, knowing that it would indeed happen after my money toss in the Trevi fountain. I hopped aboard the 3 o'clock train back to the motherland. A bitter-sweet train ride home. Said goodbye to the fam and the almost fam and went back home to my fam in Florence.

Under My Umbrella, ella ella ay ay ay ay. Oo baby its raining.

We were surprisingly ready for our 7:15 am pick up to the Vatican. Unfortunately it has been raining cats and dogs since Monica stepped off her flight in Rome (she brought the London curse here with her...and I fully blame her) and we thought we were going to have to wait in the unfriendly line of brightly filled umbrella's, fortunately Mama I. planned a guided tour or else we would have been doomed. Right when we got out of the car, Mossimio, the rat faced, long shnozed tour guide with stallion grey hair, greeted us on the other side of the Vatican. Monica the besty of bests thought that he was someone trying to get her to come inside his restaurant and she boulted from him as he tried to gather us together to tell us that we had time to grab coffee before the Vatican opened. We were too early for the hotel breakfast, so we were lucky that we could sip on a cappuccino and munch a croissant before our tour. Mossimo had us meet him at the front of the line at 10 till 8. At 7:57 we were the first ones walking into the Vatican museum. At 7:59 we were waiting at the gates inside the museum until the clock struck 8 and the machines registered that it was time for another day of tourists. Mossimo, the worlds fastest and most efficient walker and talker took us straight into the Sistine chapel. We were the only people (minus the guards) in the chapel for a good 15 to 20 minutes. Ironically the next tour group to walk in was the Miller family from Kansas City who just happened to be my cousin's best friend from high school's family. Angela is studying in Spain and was meeting her family in Rome just like me. A small world we live in. Mossimo took us through the history of Michelangelo's two part painting masterpiece. After many hours of Dolby's art history lessons, I not only found Mossimo to be 10 thousand times easier to listen to but I truly felt that I had an even better understanding of the work, and my knowledge of Michelangelo previous work helped to put this in context. I am ashamed to mention this because I feel that everyone who has already been to Rome said that their "wowza" experience happened inside the Sistine chapel, however I imagined the chapel to be much different than it was for some reason. Possibly bigger and brighter and for some reason more gold. Mossimio explained that the chapel was recently cleaned (recently for Italians is anything in the past 100 years) in 1994 and before then, the walls were probably four or five shades darker due to the soot that collected on the walls from the candles they used to burn in the chapel. We were also given the golden ticket to take a few pictures in the chapel. Most people are not given this opportunity. Mossimio captured some of the Isenberg's finest photo's. After the chapel, we toured the Vatican's entire collection of art work, statues, carpets, jewelry, maps and paintings. The Pope is a powerful man, he knows how to work his money. Mossimio had done his pope-work, and he was the man of all stories and answers. He even pulled out his duel packed cell-phone camera numerous times to give us a comparison of different paintings and zoomed in details that we couldn't see from where we were. I hadn't realized how much time we had been there until Monica's ADD started to kick her in the butt very hard, and when I looked at my clock it was already 11 o'clock and we hadn't even made it into the Basilica. We toured through the four rooms that Raphael was commissioned to do by the Pope and then finally made our way through the crowds to St. Petersburg. I can't even imagine the feeling people who are actually tied to this religion might feel upon entering this church but DAMN. I must say I have been to my fair share of churches and I think if I put them all together they would be about the same size as St. Petersburg. Unlike the first part of tour, the church was jam packed with every kind of tourist. Amy I. had met a record high for her questions and she was dying to go into the confessionals until Mama I. had to confess to her that we were Jewish and that we couldn't go in one. Mama I. must have been annoyed with her persistent questioning because she said it rather loud and Mossimo over heard...thats when he found out that we were Jewish. It was pretty unfortunate that the sky decided to rain all day because we were not able to tour around all Vatican city. Around 12:30 we headed over to the gift shop and Amy I. went crazy for the mosaics and we bought Aidan, Isabel and Bridget rosaries. We intended on going to the first Jewish Deli in Rome but it ended up not going to a Jewish deli at all, and I don't think they even had sandwiches at all. Papa I. and Little Adam I. headed to a rainy 3 o'clock football game and us girls decided that we would wander the street, possibly do some shopping. By the time we came home, it looked like we had just decided to take a group shower in our clothes, our shoes were filled and are hair matted wet to our heads. We were singing under our umbrella's ellas ellas ellas ay ay ay ay ay. The only way to protect us from any kind of sickness was naturally to get gelato. It cured all coldness and helped to keep my mind off the fact the entire bottom portion of my pants were soaked. We came back to the hotel stripped down and jumped in our pj's and then into bed for a warm power nap. For dinner we headed to a restaurant recommend by our tour guide Andre. I have yet to be unimpressed with this city and its food and we all split a variety of pastas, veggies and steaks. It was another enjoyable long dinner night. We just couldn't stop laughing! The only downfall to the diner were these invisible but visible enough fruit flies that swarmed our table. They didn't seem to bother anyone else but us, and sporadically one of us would try to smack them down. Our smacks and claps were not fast enough and Mama I. insisted that we ignore them because the tables around us were starting to stare. We headed back home and packed up. Last night of Isenberg reunion-ness, sad sad sad.

In Rome, We Did Roam.

This morning we had a scheduled guided tour of the Jewish corridor and the catacombs so we had to wake up around 8 to be ready to go, dressed and filled with food for a tour at 10. I wasn't able to see anything last night but WOWZA Rome is incredible. We were just driving down the street and all of the sudden you see ancient ruins and columns on every corner. You turn the corner and BAMB! there is the infamous Coliseum. Yeah sure we have all seen it a book but nothing is like being right there in front of it. Unfortunately I missed the tour the fam fam took yesterday because they went to the pantheon and the coliseum with a guide. The coliseum was like Splash Mountain at Disney land and the line was extremely long. Andre, our tour guide, gave us a brief tour of the Jewish corridor which was actually a ghetto. Before the unification of italy, the pope ruled the land, so the Jews were put all together in one living community. It was very beautiful though, and if you were concerned, I wouldn't mind owning an apartment in the Jewish corridor. It is just beautiful. The synagogue is not what you would think if the average synagogue, it was much more elaborate on the outside and actually looked more similar to a church than a typical synagogue. The synagogue was actually relatively new in comparison to the rest of Rome and it was finished in 1904. I learned that the reason it looked like a church was because the Jews wanted to build something that was comparable to St. Petersburg but relatively to the number of jews. We then took the Mercedes van to the outskirts of the city to the catacombs. At one point all of the former popes were buried there, as well as all the catholics, however barbarians would come in and steal things from the tombs, so eventually most of the carcass's were removed from the catacombs, and all of the popes in fact were relocated to other churches. The catacombs extend 33 arches long but we we only saw a very small portion of them. Row after row of small cement barracks were like a maze to go through. Amy I. kept asking me if the small holes in the wall were for babies, and then I decided to ask her if every crack in the wall was for very small babies. It started to rain and cloudy when we came out of the ground, but we decided to make stop at the Roman baths and at the top of a mountain to see a view of all Rome before we headed back to the hotel to meet Monica for lunch. We also stopped at the Spanish steps as well. Rome is just unexplainable and beyond incredible. Fascinating and imaginative. You just want to know what it was really like to live in Ancient Rome because today with cars and cell phones and metros and what nots, it is still incredible, it must have been remarkable. We had planned on going to a restaurant recommended by one of our family friends but when Adam I. checked out the menu and saw that a majority of it actually had vegetables (OH MY) and no pizza on it (OH MY HOW COULD THAT BE!) we just couldn't go there. In the end I think he wishes we would of just sticked with our original plan because lets just say that our quest to go out to lunch started at 2:30 and we didn't sit down for lunch until 3:35. Papa I. being the super-jew that he is obviously knows the head of the JDC if Rome and obviously needed to introduce us to him. Only my father would know the head of the JDC in Rome, have connections with the JDC in Romania and thus make us have partial jewy mc jewy talk the entire time. I love you dad, you are my jew-ro. We had Papa I's friend, recommend us to a place that was pretty far away from where we were (I forgot to mention that we had difficulty finding the original veggie restaurant in the first place). When we got there, we sat down and the first thing the waiter tells us is that they are out of pizza. That had to be a joke. Italian restaurants just don't run out of pizza, especially when the menu is only two pages long and the second page is only pizza options and on the first quarter of the page is pasta but they don't serve that for lunch. 2 minutes ago we were admiring how delicious the pizza at the table next to us looked. 4 minutes later we found out that he was not joking about the whole being out of pizza thing. 4 and a half minutes later with a spoon full of attitude our waiter told us that we could order pasta but the options were, pasta with SQUID, (he really put a strong emphasis on squid...especially the squi part of squid) with olives and red sauce or something I couldn't understand. 6 minutes later we made a family decision to get up and leave. 6 and a half minutes later we were out of there. We then proceeded to go back the "the worlds most delicious pizza" place in the eyes of Adam I. (trust me he knows his pizza) but by the time we had finally arrived, they had stopped serving lunch. Desperate to eat anything, we literally turned the corner and chose the first restaurant on our left. We ordered quiet the feast. Monica the besty of best ordered lasagna and I ordered a veggie pizza and then we jointly ordered a caprese salad and then decided we would split everything. After we saw the portion size that they were bringing out for other people, we thought we had ordered way too much food but when the food finally came, we had no problem, none at all, opening up our little (mine not so little any morning) tummies and eating it all up. Monica the besty best is a champion in the sport of eating. It is actually her job. She could be a professional and now that I have been living in Italy it has become a side project of mine and I am learning to master it quite well. We came home from our two hour lunch and by two hours I mean the lunch that took two hours to find, and were exhausted. We did what we Isenberg's and one Pack do best and took naps. For dinner we went to this wine bar recommended by our family friend. On the top of the city of Rome, right next to the ledge over looking the city of Rome was this small quaint but modern upscale wine bar, The walls were completely white, blue LED lights lined the floor and funky wire light laps stood in the corners and scruffy hansom Italian men in sweaters and sport coats were at our service. You could tell that it was definitely not a touristy hot spot, which was really nice to have a true Italian experience in such a beautiful city. We ordered appetizers, and wine and water (one gas with gas, one not) with bread and steaks and seafood. We giggled the night away with stories with our first adventures with our dear friends ralph and up chuck, (obviously stories like these are told at the Isenberg dinner table) Little Adam I was an easy target. Appetizers took an hour and our main course took two and desserts were a must. Molten chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream topped with a side of requested wild strawberries, a pear strudel with a side of cinnamon gelato rolled in rise crispies. The sensation of the crunchy mixed with the creamy cinnamon was like a fourth of july firework celebration in my mouth. And we couldn't just get two desserts for the table, three was only fair. To cleanse our palettes we got a fruity sampler of gelato: mojito, raspberry and mango. Pleasantly full, with smiles on our faces we headed back down the mountain (for those of you who have been to Rome you are probably wondering what mountain I am referring to, it is more like a hill that over looks Rome) we decided to all go straight up stairs and into our cozy beds because tomorrow was going to be an early morning at the Vatican.

Watch Out Rome, The Jews Are Coming To Town.

I woke up early so I could head to book arts to get more work done however my teacher ended up being sick but I stayed anyway to work on photo and book arts. I was able to finish 90 percent of my photo project and about 25 percent of my book arts project. However, I felt like I have been working on my book arts project forever now! Yesterday in painting, I asked my teacher his favorite restaurant because not that I am getting sick of Anna's, I am just getting sick of the scene there. I wanted to find a more cultural and exciting place to dine, and he recommended a wine bar down the street from school called Bar Birbra. For only 3.80 euro I was able to get a large tomato and mozzarella sandwich, a side of spinach and a half a loaf of bread for the spinach (I didn't order the bread, they just gave it to me) I literally spent the entire day from 9:15 am until 8:15 p.m. at the art school to work. At 9:30 I hoped on the train to Rome to meet the fam for a Roman Holiday...well actually we just happen to come to rome during the most holy holiday in the catholic religion, Easter. Watch out Rome, the Jews from Prairie Village Kansas are coming to town. This should be a very interesting weekend. Monica the besty of the best is meeting us tomorrow morning. I made it Rome at 11:30. completely exhausted so I went right to bed.

thursday march 20.

A Bay Bay.

I woke up extra early because not only did I realize that I didn't know anything for my Italian quiz, and that I should probably study, I also realized that I had left all of my Italian books in my parents hotel. I got ready extremely fast and headed over there for an early morning study session followed by an early morning breakfast session. Today the family heads to Rome, so after my Italian quiz, which I believed I passed with flying colors, I met the family at the San Lorenzo market as they finished purchasing their final florentine finds. I brought them to the Marcano Central experience of the open market. I just love the atmosphere there and the dried fruit. We all got something different from the various stands. I ended up making a bold move and giving "baby cutting hands" a new beginning and I ordered one of the most delicious sandwiches. Salami with pesto, cheese and sun dried tomato on flat bread. We were rushed a bit for lunch because after we had already started eating we found out that we were apparently sitting at a specific restaurants table. Eventually we got the boot but it didn't really matter because we were almost done anyway and I needed to head to class. Yet again there were only two people in my painting class today. Its like having a semi private painting class, I started a new project using three 80 by 80 canvass, you will just have to wait and see how those bad boys turn out. I was going to go on a treasure hunt with my program in attempt to win 75 euro to a fashion shop but instead I decided that I should probably get some work done before I head to Rome this weekend with the family. Lime Joj and Michelle list are in town this weekend. Unfortunately their visit here has overlapped with the fam fam so I haven't been able to see them yet. I worked on my book arts for for an hour after class because I didn't want to spend my Easter Monday off doing any work, well I actually I don't even have the option to do work because campus is closed. Thank you Jesus. At 8:15 Joj Lime Dara and Effie called up to my window and like Repunzal, I let down my hair and then I walked down the street to meet them. We went over the river and through the woods (well not really through the woods, just over the river and down a few streets) to a unknown restaurant that Dara found in her Lonely Planet book. I am not even sure of the name because it wasn't on the outside of the building but it was the cutest authentic small Italian hole in the wall restaurant with a constantly changing menu. Our waiter became our new best friend, his cute smile and tiny butt chin. Dara and I split a pasta and chicken. We learned that when a waiter points her finger on her cheek and turns it when describing the dessert menu, that means you should order it. We listed to her finger and indeed it was the best decision. We didn't get done with dinner until a after 11, however the night was still young because we still had to go to the club saying "a bay bay". At Marcana tonight, Hurricane Chris was performing his one hit (and only hit) wonder A Bay Bay. The club was hoppin with every jappy American and their mother and cousin, however for once and the only time it was socially acceptable for me hang out with these people, we were able to get a special stamp that let us get up really close to the stage. I have to thank Jason, whoever you may be and wherever you are, you paid for a table at Marcana which enabled me to get in with a stamp and up close action. We got to the club rather late, Ricky Levy got there at 11:30, so with our 12:45 arrival I thought we might have missed "a bay bay" but after two songs from the DJ, Hurricane Chris, made his presence on the stage. The only girl who just happened to be dancing on the stage (actually she was not the only girl,l she was the only white person on the stage) was this girl named Allie, who is in my Italian class, who has not showed up for more than a month. She clearly has been busy. I also ran into another boy who has missed my painting class for two weeks now. He has also been busy getting with other people. I just can stand people like that. I finally ran into Ryan Katz, KC connection. After an hour of Hurricane Chris fun I was exhausted and ready to go home and luckily Lime and Joj were ready to hit the sack, so we all headed back home in the rain. Sniffles Sniffle in the my nose. Not soo good.

wednes day day of march 19thness.

Snores from the Shnoze and other stories from little adam i's friends: up, chuck and ralph.

The Gorilla has another follower to her midnight cult. The cult of the "kill Allison when she is sick because her snoring makes you want gouge your eyes out" and or "kill Allison because she has a disgusting snore". The Gorilla however, is more aggressive in her actions because she yells and hits while Little Adam I., gently taps, which did not do the trick. Finally at 3 am, Little Adam I. brought me some miracle medicine (Vicks Vapor Rub) and I applied it to my neck and the snoring stopped instantly. We gathered for a quick morning b-fast in the hotel and then I headed to book arts while the fam went to the Uffizzi for a tour. It took longer than I expected to get the fam to my favorite of all favorite lunch spots (duh, the only) but today we finally made it to Anna's for an afternoon treat. But Mama I. was the only one who tried the real Anna's sandwich. The rest of the freakies had bagels. boo and boring. For the fam, it was actually an afternoon treat because they had a big afternoon of wining and dining in the Chianti region. A three stop wine tour is just the thing to do on a Tuesday afternoon in Tuscany. From what I heard from my mother and brother on the walk home tonight, it was surely an Isenberg extravaganza, the kind where my mother tours red in the face because my father and sister have pulled together their strongest traits, and Amy I. has asked a million and a half questions and Papa I. can't hear what was said the first time someone because he can't hear anything, so then he asks a question that has mostly likely already be answered or asks the guide to repeat something over. I picked up my slides film from Romanian sheep herding and they turned out fabulous and hippie commi teach loved them too. Tonight the Johnson Family of Mission Hills Kansas and The Isenberg Family from Prairie Village Kansas met at Aqua al Due for a delicious sampler meal. Originally the reservation was for 8:00 however due to a little too much wine tasting and due to bumpy roads and due to other facts like age limits and physical limits and things like up chuck and chucking up that leads to cloths chucking and showering, we had to push the reservation back until 8:15 which really meant we didn't sit down until 8:25 which meant that we had ordered before Papa I. and Little up chuck Adam I. met us around 8:35. Dinner was dinner-lious and beyond delicious. The family has finally caught on, it didn't take much convincing but they couldn't survive a night without gelato. Now they know I have felt the past two months. Unfortunately our family favorite place was closed so we had to go to neon puking lights-carnival-gelato down the street and now my family members are not only wine snobs after their little tour, they now have built up their taste buds that allow them to differentiate real gelato from the knock offs. I decided to let my bro and sis sleep in non snoring peace, so Mama I. and Adam I. walked me home from dessert. I was going to study for my Italian quiz tonight but I decided that I just didn't feel like it. And doing things that you don't feel like doing is bad. So instead I am sitting in bed writing this blog. I am exhausted and I must end now. Ciao ciao!

three good choices for five good isenbergs.

Unfortunately I had leave behind the fam for a majority of the day because Monday is the day when my classes take over. After painting, Mama I., Papa I, little Adam I. and Amy I. met me at my apartment and then I gave them a tour of my school and showed them some of my work. It was only slightly awkward when I showed my entire family my double exposure photo project and my whoo haws were hidden in the image. I just made Little Adam I. turn around because that is just crossing the brother/sister line. My Italian teacher recommended a restaurant for this evening. We made three very good decisions tonight. Uno:, we did not take a recommendation from the front desk. Due: We did not eat the bread at the table Tre: we made our way back to Perche No for more Pinkberry Gelato. Yum Yum Yum. Little Adam I. and Amy I. ordered the infamous Florentine Bistecca (did you say bistecca?) The steak was bigger than the entire plate. Little Adam I. is not so little anymore and has been thoroughly enjoying any opportunity to become a wine connoisseur. Like father like son. With his more mature mindset on this Saint Patties of Green Beer Patties Day and by mature I mean because we are in Italy where the drinking age is 2, Little Adam I. and Papa I. thought it would be fun to go to an Irish Pub to watch a some Futbal (for those of you back home, soccer) Now I will be the first to admit that I was just a wee bit embarrassed when we all walked into the Irish pub full of 20-year-old drunk American kids with my parents. Not that my parents are embarrassing at all, I just felt that we were out of place and for the first five minutes I think my insides turned the color of the beer they were serving, but then I got over it really fast when I realized there was a big screen TV, and that you only live once, and that my parents and sibs were only going to be visiting once, so I might as well get over it. Papa I. almost had a heart attack, not because there were so many kids or the soccer game was so intense but I think he had a wee bit of a realization of the constant struggle that I face everyday when he went to go pay for a couple of beers and realized that 5 euro is WAY too much for a cup of beer. (5 euros is like 8.50) We watched the end of the soccer and then I was starting to overheat because the masses kept piling in and we (meaning, Mama I. and Amy I. and I decided that we had had enough and it was time to go) Luckily Papa I. was on board because we all know Little Adam I. could have stayed the entire night. Dear The College Whom Accepts Mr. Adam Jeffery Isenberg, beware, this child knows all and wants to always have a fun time. I don't think Little Adam I is different than any other boy his age but it is just weird seeing you little, shnuggle bunny brother be in high school and almost old enough to drive. We were all picking on Little Adam I. and for shiz and gigz we made him take the "walk-the-line" test but instead of having him drunk, we made him spin in circles to see if he could make those monster feet of his walk in a straight line. He needs a little work. I decided to stay at the hotel with the fam tonight because the Gorilla was staying with her Mama and I would be lonely with out her. We were going to watch a movie, and the three of us nearly spent 25min. debating/fighting about which movie we wanted to watch when all of the sudden both Little Adam I. and I decided we were going to probably fall asleep and that Amy I. could just choose the movie. Agreement is one thing we Isenberg's have a difficult time doing. Obviously Amy I. and I were completely in favor of chick flicks and or chick flick comedies and obviously Little Adam I. didn't want to even consider any of the movies we agreed upon. Amy I. wasn't all that helpful either. She choose three movies that she would be willing to watch and as we turned the page to see our other options she would say that she would be willing to watch the same three movies over and over again. Luckily, Little Adam I and I decided that sleep was a better option or we could of been up the whole night just deciding what we wanted. I am getting the sniffles, which will probably lead to a cold which is very bad. I need to be a perky host for the next two days because the fam damn leaves Wednesday and I need to make sure they have the best time.

from two's days the 18th 08.