A trip to Siena

A one-day trip to Siena, pictures included:

Preparing for take-off

Half of me wants to remain in Pisa, to enjoy the warm Italian weather, the time with the friends here, walking along the seaside with Nicolás and talking about...

Half of me wants to go home, to hug my mom and dad the way I never did before, to breathe Iaşi, to meet good-old friends, to re-enter a world of photography, to go to the countryside and forget about technology!

As for the "3rd half" of me is eager for a new start! To start the Master and to actually study for a change or to go in another internship, one not only to fill all the blanks left by this one, but also to force me to grow even more!

***

As for now, my room is for rent!... My airplane ticket is already taken (thanks to my Isa) for the 15th...

Spiagge Bianche, with Nicolas and Gennaro

Monte Serra

When during the day the heat is too much, you start heading for the mountains! So that's what we did too: we climbed from Tre Colli all the way to the top, until we reached the RAI antennas. Then we went down on the other side of the mountain, until Buti. Since it's still Ferragosto, at 6PM there was no bus to take us directly to Pisa, so we took one to Pontedera (think about Piaggio) and from there we took a train to Pisa.

Here are the pictures:

Money, money, money!

When it came to payement, I chose to open an account at the same bank that Università di Pisa (or at least the Dipartimento di Economia Aziendale) uses - Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Pisa Livorno. I took this decision so the time required for the money transfer would be shorter.

The fact is that on the 31st of July, almost two weeks ago, the money were sent from the University... and yesterday I was still complaining about not receiving my salary yet. That is after a month and a half of work. It looks that the bank workers also enjoy their holydays :-?

This question just startes getting answers inside my head! :D

Shopping List

Today I changed the supermarket! For me, when I'm trying to save as much as possible, the "relationship with a supermarket" becomes more intimate. So, I tried COOP and Carrefour, but:

• I only enjoyed Carrefour when I found a sales period. After that I just got lost in the diversity of products.
• I gave up on COOP for a single simple reason: they don't allow me to pay with a Maestro / debit card / carta bancomat. So since I didn't receive my salary yet, that is a problem for me!

So, today, I gave Esselunga a chance: I took the map and went to find it.

Esselunga S.p.A. is an important Italian retail store chain. Founded in 1957 by the Caprotti Family with Nelson Rockefeller, the company is now entirely owned by the Caprotti family through Supermarkets Italiani S.p.A.
It was the first supermarket chain in Italy and was the first to introduce on-line shopping and self-produced biological products.
With its 17,000 employees the company, had a €4.9 billion turnover in 2006. Esselunga controles about 9% of the Italian grocery distribution market.
Esselunga is entirely owned by the family and is not on the stock market. This fact, rare nowadays for a company of these dimensions, makes the chain even more particular.
It is ranked as the fourth most profitable company in the European retail sector (in proportion to its size) and it is Italy's 23^rd largest company.

[wikipedia]

Keeping in mind that I searched for reasonable quality at the lowest prices, here is a list of things I bought:

• 1l. of milk = 0.79€
• 10 medium eggs = 0.89€ (!)
• 1l. pineapple (100%) juice = 0.65€
• 20 slices of cheese (400g.) = 1.84€
• 2*125g. cups of yogurt = 0.59€
• 175g. Choco desert = 0.19€
• 400g. tomato sauce = 0.99€
• 1kg. mayonnaise = 1.99€
• 1l. oil = 1.39€
• 600g. cream = 1.17€
• 560g. ketchup = 0.65€
• 400g. of bread (5 cereals) = 0.89€
• 420g. olives = 0.99€
• 1kg. pasta (cravattine) = 1.39€
• soup ingredients = 0.99€

Next time I will go with Nicolás, because he knows this supermarket better. For now I am pleased: I took products till I could barely carry the basket and I paid 16.43€ for all of them.

Still, I'm eagerly waiting for the University Canteen to re-open on the 27^th: it's way better to have an entire meal for 2.5€ and moreover to forget about cooking and washing dishes! :o)

Lucca and the Wall

Today I went to Lucca with Isa... A city full of history! Too bad I completely forgot to recharge the batteries from my camera before leaving home! :(

Going South, towards clear waters!

Today I went with Nicolás, Gennaro and Tommaso to the seaside. Just that this time we went South, to find cleaner, clearer water!
First stop: Calafuria, the sandstone quarries
Second stop: Torre Mozza

From the train station to my house

After going to the train station with Isabela, I traced my way back home in some photos:

Worth mentioning are the paintings from Corso Italia and the Pasquale Santoro exhibition - Cieli / Skies - from Museo della Grafica (Palazzo Lanfranchi).

Aeroporto Galileo Galilei, Pisa

Since when I came to Italy I landed in Bologna, today - when my girlfriend arrived to Pisa - I took some photos of the Galileo Galilei International Airport: