MADRID: red,yellow and fun in the heart

Hi guys!!!what' s up???
everything good here!!!I've just come back from madrid and i already miss it :-(!!! it's incredible what beautiful it is... i walked around the town for 5 days; 24 h but i didn't mind about my swollen feet...all the weariness has been balanced out by the delight of visiting a place like that...

 WHAT WAS THE WEATHER LIKE???

My classmates and I had a really good time there.Before leaving I thought it would be cold and windy but in fact the column of mercury read 29° and the "madrileño" sun shone upon huge squares dressed of flowery gardens and water fountains.

                               THE CITY

Streets are full of period properties that now accomodate little shops,hotels and restaurants where it's possible to taste typical food like paella,churros,chorizo and sangria ( if you love eating spicy it's the right place for you).

                                                                                                           

FIREFLIES AT NIGHT:

Madrid never hits the sack before 4am so there is no difference beetwen day and night...At night it looks like a trail of fireflies had gone off upon the city: the squares fill up on outdoor coffees and the light of the lanterns placed on the tables stages magical colour effects .The first day I was shocked because when we arrived it was night( 1:00 am):plaza Mayor was floodlit and streets were full of people drinking or walking the dogs...

HOW TO MOVE???

 I had got to change my mind about hunging out at night because i had imagined it would be difficult or dangerous but luckily the city was just lively, funny, and never chaotic,could be thanks to the extensive transport network that permits to go to and fro at any hour without any difficult...

PEOPLE

But this frenetic rhythm doesn' have any repercussions on the behaviour of citiziens.People are willing and warm-hearted and they never get impatients not even if you ask them for directions while they are in hurry or are roller skating or cycling. From this habits it's easy o understand how much they took care of the environment.They also use metro(that is always full) as more as possible,they prefere ecological means of carrying to cars reducing wastes and pollution) and they don't throw garbage to the ground,therefore everything is clean and in order.

Spanish understood that the secret for a goodlife is put at first their happiness,be relaxed and take life less seriously. It's a bit like the clock stopped after dinner and the hand started moving again the following moring...maybe are these the tricks of their kindness!!!

FOOD:

The coffee where we used to have dinner and breakfast was pretty nice and cosy...eating wasn't a problem because food was delicious, therefore the most difficult was adapting ourselves to the eating time: they usually have lunch at 2:30 or at 3 and they have dinner at 9:30...all the rest of the night was devoted to the "movida": they live it up and they are right!!!

TRADITIONS :

They are sticklers for thei roots...The glue that pools this nation are traditions and they try to preserve them in each way: the city is fraught of typical locals where you can listen spanish songs or watch exhibitions of "flamenco"( the local where we went was cute ,they played good music, the ticket was cheap and it was possible to drink things like sangria).

ARTISTICAL CITY

Madrid is a town of artistical interest too: each street corner hides an idyllic spot and 3 famous museums have their headquarters there. We visited them in 3 different days because they take a lot of time..

• The "Reina Sophia" is a modern art collection where there are works like guernica(a painting of 8 m painted only with black and white that is considered Picasso's masterpiece ) or famous pictures made by Dalì
• the" Thyssen-Bonermizsa(that maybe owing to the time we spent in it was the one i liked most) is spectacular because when you visit it and you look the paints you feel like someone is telling you a tale because works make a chronological threads.It arouse such a big interest that I couldn't help watching all the pictures one by one,without skipping anyone.
• the "Prado"(that we had visited the last day) is surely one of the most equip museums of the world thanks to his special collection that goes from the 14th century to the 17th.In fact it was so big that we visited only 15 or 20 rooms, but if one day I'll come back to Madrid I'll surely visit it twice because as far as it seemed to me it's worth...

EREMIDA OF SAINT ANTONIUS

A really nice thing was the "Eremida di Sant Antonio de la Florida", a little chapel totally painted by Goya in wich there is his shrine...before going there i was wondering about how much this little room could be beautifull and huge ,considering its fame.When we went there it was morning and i imagined i would see a high-ceilinged building painted of gold and full of statues..In a first time i didn't appreciate this little room. but when i lifted my eyes to the ceiling,the frescos left me breathless...

ATOCHA

The following day we went to Atocha, the quarter near the"triangolo artistico" in wich there is the most particular station i've ever seen...in fact the first floor is used as tropical garden,in wich there are tens and tens of insects and turtles...unluckily i didn't see any parrot .... °_°* what a pity!!! but nevertheless it was beautiful...

PALACIO REAL

In the evening we had also visited Palacio real the ex residence of the royal family...it was a similiar to a labyrinth...it lack just Minosse to be perfect but in exchange there were 2 gold statues lion-shaped crouched next to the throne!!!this room was lighted thanks to 3 enormous windows and around 20 mirrors that reflected light. it was also amazing because from the balcony you could see all the square and maybe it was this the place the king gave his speech from..another thing i was impressed by is the starway of white marble that enterings in high society covered to be admitted.I also thought about dances of ladies-in-waiting,about their dresses and the enigmatic and misterious mood...

IDEA OF ART

The best thing of all is that Spanish have a larger idea of art: they are able to appreciate performance of street artists with the same pleasure that they feel when they watch masterpiece like "Guernica" or Francisco Goya' s pictures..A really nice performance to wich we had the pleasure to watch was a spectacular with fire....

LANGUAGE:

what about language???it wasn't difficult but they answer you in spanish even if you ask questions in italian or english , but it was good because that's the only way to learn how to speak....

now that you ve seen how beautiful is don't you think i ' m right when i say i wanna come back???it' s impossible to forget...i can't find any other word to describe it...nothing else to say. just: Madrid we miss you!!!

:-) by I*