frutti.gummi

After just a month in Germany and especially having had about 2 weeks of lunch at the school cafeteria, Italy feels like heaven. I went back for a workshop over the weekend and I truly enjoyed my stay. Spring has already arrived with warmer weather, blooming flowers and plenty of sunshine. The event was held in a building on the mountain side looking over the entire town. So the view is just excellent. I was lucky enough to get a room with the same view! The food and drink provided were delicious. I get to have cappucino for breakfast and machiato during coffee breaks. I miss machiato because it's not common outside Italy. I also craved for gelato and was about to go on a gelato eating spree. At first I bought 2 scoops and finished it while waiting for the rest to get theirs. Then we hung out in the piazza for a while and since no one had any idea where to go, I suggested to go to another gelateria. I went in to buy mango gelato and was surprised that most of the others also bought more gelato. When we were walking to another piazza passing a couple of gelaterias, I was tempted to buy more. However, I wanted to save some space for dinner and also didn't want to take the risk of getting sick since I was to be flying off the next day. Besides the weather, food, and beautiful scenery, I also experienced superb Italian hospitality. People are friendly with smiles on their faces and Italian guys can be really charming. With a combination of all these, one could easily fall in love!

Founded by the Romans, Maastricht is considered to be the oldest city in The Netherlands. It is home to many historial sights such as the Roman bridge, the city wall, churches and other buildings. It also has beautiful scenery; the Meuse river that runs through the city, the park along the city wall and vast grasslands. The city center is mostly a pedestrian only shopping area. For a small city, there are big multi-level department stores here. The city is charming with a nice blend of the old buildings and the new glass buildings. A 12th century church is even converted to a bookstore with cafe. It's amazing!

We also went to visit the pentagon shaped fortress and a small section of the caves with a total of more than 20,000 passages, which are the result of centuries of excavation of marlstone. Oh..the Coffeshop here is not a place to have coffee. Instead, it's a place where people can buy and smoke small doses of soft drugs. There isn't much free time to walk around because we took the guided tours by the tourist office. It was already 6pm by the time we finished. Surprisingly, all the shops are already closed. Even the waffle shop. :( Since it is only about an hour from Aachen, I hope to return to check out the stores and take more photos.