Grand Teton & Yellowstone

Ciao All,

I have been out of the world for a few days spending time in Grand Teton & Yellowstone. They are both great and they both took me much more time to visit than I thought. So I have to change my trip plans and I am actually going south already. Still here the podcast for the few people who listen to them! They are essentially to have an excuse to speak to myself and not pay a therapist for analyse the issue..

Podcast Ita
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3XzhFMlhBWk1jUDA


Podcast Eng
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3QU56Y2g1VlJ2azg

Mitchell. A random place in South Dakota

Hi all! have you ever heard of the Corn Palace?? here is a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_Palace . Still it's this city in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota, which is the bigger empty land I had ever seen in my life, by the way. Well this building has the walls covered of corn. So every year, when it's the right time, they change the walls and what they are representing.

here some pictures!

Was not expecting the mascot of the landmark to be a corncob.. (joking!)

Theme of the year "Rock of Ages" .. why?? still, it's the world's only corn place if you were looking for more to come..

Yep. In 1908 they used this picture. The caption at least specify: "Symbol on this building was an "Indian good luck" sign". HFS.

Minneapolis, Saint Paul Pictures

Ciao,

here some pics of Minneapolis!

For some reason at Walker Art Centre they have an hallway full of Italian names of writers, actors, directors.. (my name is not in the list..)

In this "beautiful" place (Hennepin Park) there are a LOT of Pokemon. It was full of people wandering with their phone.. (I don't play Pokemon-Go..)

A small view of Minneapolis and the Stone Bridge

The Stone Bridge again, kinda nice having a walking-only track! Unheard in USA!

The Guthrie Theatre; I have no idea why their symbol is so similar to Turkish flag.

The brand-new USBank Stadium. My football (soccer) team played a friendly just 2 weeks before I was there..

The Saint-Paul Cathedral in Saint Paul (yes!! the name come from the cathedral!)

A scary picture of the entrance to the Cathedral. Yep, it's a catholic one.

They have small chapels with many saints. BUT they write Saint Antonio Patron of Italy.. it's NOT TRUE! it's Saint Francesco!!!!! Still this is the statue of Saint Antonio.

Nice wives of the skyline of Minneapolis and the bridge entering University of Minnesota Campus.

Weisman Art Museum. Yea, it's a Gehry, it's an easy guess. Still this beautiful building it's in UofM campus!!

Could people visit Minneapolis without paying visit to Mall of America?? YES, there is an amusement park within the mall, and yes there is a rollercoaster. Inside.

Salt Lake City Podcast

Hi all,

I know my podcasts are not very appealing but I am running around USA with so little time to write!
Salt Lake was nice and had the opportunity to know more about Mormons. It also looks like there is so many hiking (and skiing!) opportunities in Utah.

Podcast in italiano
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3WGk0RFBCS0tjNW8


Podcast in English
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3aDVyLXJUUFhTZlU

Milwaukee Pictures

Ciao!

few hours taken away from sleeping and here are some pictures of Milwaukee

Art made by children at the State Fair

Art made by children again. Yea, they are tin soldiers..

The beautiful interior of the Art Museum in Milwaukee

Down there you can see me!

Random place in Milwaukee

Denver and the I-70

Hi!
I spent the last two days in Denver! Really nice city and even nicer to get to Salt Lake through the I-70, an amazing highway!

here is the podcast from yesterday. I ended up staying in the middle of nowhere (the name of the city is actually Helper) because the US-6 was closed for an accident tonight. Weird. Police everywhere.

By the way here is a list of random places I found in USA:

Mitchell, South Dakota
Draper, South Dakota
Murdo, South Dakota
Wall, South Dakota
Vail, Colorado
Helper, Utah

definitely more to come! better to get going



Podcast in English
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3ZndncG4zNVZ2alE


Podcast in Italian
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3SFRVRFRHbWtwQlE

Pictures of Chicago

Hi!!

I had some time and so here some pics of Chicago!

One of the new skyscrapers; from my superior knowledge in architecture I think the base is too small.

Cheesy to put a map with a red dot "you are here" on a skyscraper..

Free concert in Millennium Park. The concept of "free" is unheard in USA

Let's go yachting on Lake Michigan!

Chicago seen from the lake (yea, from the yacht as just mentioned!)

Lighthouse seen from the lake

Amish Country Ohio Pictures

Hi all!

finally here some pictures of my first destination in the trip

(I am kinda OC about pictures so I have to check all of them before posting.. so I am done with just the first group of them!!)

This is how a "compost toilet" is. Not too bad if it's not too bad what you "produce"

This is the place where I was staying in Ohio and that's the only human being I spoke with that morning.

Crossing the road with some nice buggy

I actually don't think this was a real advertise... but may be.

This is definitely real and was outside Walnut Creek Cheese shop. I know it makes perfectly sense for Americans... 

The sun was pretty low on the road during my travel to Chicago..

Past Episodes

As said before here are some audio files about my past few days:

Qui alcuni file riguardo ai miei giorni passati

In English

Podcast Postdate 1 - Amish Country

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3OWh2TjRPU2hLZTg

Podcast Postdate 2 - Chicago

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3eHpJcDBDOVk0U0E

Podcast Postdate 3 - Milwaukee
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3TjU0VUQ5MTFSLUU

Podcast Postdate 4 - Minneapolis

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3d1Z4ZV9GcXZpMU0

In Italiano

Podcast Retroattivo 1 - Dagli Amish (è diviso in due parti.. ho fatto confusione!)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3b1o5UkZGSzE4SUU

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3eEtHZThvbVR4N1E

Podcast Retroattivo 2 - A Chicago

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3ejZhSWR2NDBMZkk

Podcast Retroattivo 3 - Milwaukee
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3TDE2cmRkU3YyTkU

Podcast Retroattivo 4 - Minneapolis

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3SHhOdUhqS1JyVUk

What about a podcast to face my laziness?

Hi all!

it seems I have always so little time to update my blog that I had a "wonderful" idea.. if there is any of you still following me I will try to upload an audio message in both Italian and English telling what I am doing, especially when I have zero time to write something!

Visto che ho sempre poco tempo per aggiornare il mio blog ho pensato di registrarmi mentre viaggio e dire un poco quello che ho visto in giornata! ecco qui il primo file

Podcast in italiano
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3V3ZubVJ5TkcyV0E

Podcast in english
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3M2ZqamJHdzI4NHc

From Amish Country Ohio to Chicago

Ciao all,

didn't have much time to post in the last few days; I was in Amish Country Ohio on Thursday and Friday and then heading to Chicago for the weekend.

I would like to say something about Ohio... it is a gigantic farm??? there was corn and grass fields everywhere and I reached Amish.. that just become even more "intense".

still, Amish Country was kinda nice, even if it had the feeling that the part of their culture I was experiencing was commercialise and made "digestible" for me.
It was definitely weird to see people with that strange beard driving bugs, seeing all those barns built without a single steel nail in them but then everything else was just buying quilts, buying packed cheese (I thought it was an actual farm, but it was pretty much Ohio's version of Whole Foods), buying antiquities, buying wooden-furnitures.

After Amish I drove some 400 miles to Chicago, arriving in the evening.
I went from countryside to metropolis and moreover I went from loneliness to lots of friends! In Chicago I met some old time high-school friend and people from my American University.
Chicago in summer is always wonderful, lake Michigan is like a sea and the beaches, skyscrapers, bicycles make it all look like Miami.

But aside some nightlife, some deep dish pizza, some biking I had a Sunday on a (small) yacht. I must admit that it was great, the atmosphere of people having also their parties in other boats all around, the costal guard and Chicago Police scanning all over, the music, the distant beach and the sun made it look like some "Piranha" movie of early '90s. We only missed the drama, the backstory and we were pretty much a good 15 years older than classic characters in this sort of movies but everything was definitely looking the same.

Today I drive some 100 miles to reach Milwaukee and spend the day here. Cheese, beer, Harley is this what's Wisconsin is all about? More coming soon!

Brief parenthesis about the deep dish pizza: I will always consider it NOT to be pizza, but a sort of "pizza-pie"; a different dish which taste wonderful but it's not pizza. No way anybody can convince me otherwise.

My best friend for the next 6 weeks.. it's a KIA Forte, I will call it "La Forte" (Italian for "the strong one", feminine)

First 1000 miles done! in less than 24hours of driving..

..more pictures coming..

Just arrived in USA

Ciao!

Writing in the middle of NJ just a few lines; I am in USA and with already some 50 miles done and obviously some delay!

Just funny story from the border:
"Purpose of travel?" - "Vacation"
"One month of vacation and you write "unemployed" on the form? What's your profession?" - "Physician"
"Do physician get one month off from job?" - "I am in research now"
"So no seeing patient anymore?" - "Nah, hopefully not anymore :-)"

So now heading to OH, spending in Amish Country one night. This will be nice!

Leaving Europe!

Ciao a tutti!!

so it's time to leave.. I am about to take my flight and reach USA.

Why a trip to USA while so many Americans come to EU for vacation? Because although I really enjoyed my time in North America last year I didn't have the opportunity to travel that much. My first plan was to take on month off and do this same trip one year ago.. then life events took me to a different destination for my holidays and so I kept the idea for this year.
Also at the time I was pretty sure I would have been living in USA for quite some time more...

Life has changed and probably this will be my last time in the States for quite long.. if you reader didn't already know I will be living in Paris-Amsterdam-London for the next 3 years (mostly Paris in fact!) and so I will be losing my perfect American accent (ha ha ha would be nice if true) and maybe get a French one instead or a British.


But let's go to the trip:

the plan is go from East Coast (NYC) to West Coast (Seattle, down to SF) then back to NYC doing all the south.
But why is it all just a plan?! because for the first time in my life not only I am doing a REAL vacation mostly entirely alone (please feel free to join in YOU want!) but I am also not following the most precise plan and take things just as they come.

Will be hopefully be working on my trip plan during my next flight and idle moments in the next days and will keep you posted.. if you know me at least a little you know that entirely without a plan I can kinda lose my patience!

Sending American Hugs and European Kisses to everyone! ciao

ps could a trip to USA not start from a Starbucks? and could "Lorenzo" not be misspelled? DORED?!

ps2 here the file about my trip plan.. still going under major editing, help me if you want!!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Fqq7R4Comwjsi2J47dHUXRT2Dpd8WaxvXT1wl5AHvMI/edit?usp=sharing