So here's the thing, today's date is actually July 31st, 2009, not quite my birthday. I've now been home for two months and have finally decided to finish my blog so I can print it out and have it as a memory. I'm going to do my best to remember everything...
So April 18th Morgan and I returned from Paris around 11pm where we dropped off all of our bags and immediately sat down at the kitchen table (standard) with our laptops to catch up with the world. Jill's family had just left so she joined us and we were being incredibly, overtiredly silly catching up with eachother and the like.
Closer to midnight we were talking to Eric on skype when at midnight Jill pulls out a pistachio cake (my favorite that I usually have on my brithday. Well, let me tell you a little about this. Somehow the ever so amazing and crafty Jill figured out a way to work the oven, find a pan and bake me a cake which she covered in Pistachio gelato. SO GOOD!) Okay, so she pulls out a birthday cake and they all sing Happy Birthday to me. Then they pull out a bottle of champagne Jen had left for me since she was in Southern Italy with her family, so we popped that (quite a sight, let me tell you) and started the festivities. Still cracked out from Paris, we spent the rest of the night dancing around the apartment, drinking champagne (legally now?) and finally made it out the door around, um, 2am? We ended up at an American bar actually, where I shared a nice little salsa-ish dance with a skeezy old man, had some fun drinks, including a car bomb, and just having a great time with the girls. When the night ended it was quite convenient that the bar was only around the corner from our flat because we were quite exhausted.
Overall my birthday was fantastic, I think it's so cool I can say I turned 21 in Italy... even though everyone's response is always, "does it really matter there?" My crafty family and whimsical boyfriend all sent me cards and pictures of presents that really made me smile. Thank you everyone who wished me a happy birthday, and to all those who forgot, well, there's always next year ;)
Friday, July 31, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
PARIS!
So, I'll always have Paris. Yes, yes I will. Just got home from Paris and I think it has to be my new favorite city, it was mesmerizing to just walk around. We were only there for 4 days but we packed in as much as we could. Jill and Jen's families were here in Florence for the week so it was just Morgan and me taking on on ol’ Par-ee. We stayed with her friend Michelle who is studying there which was really nice, especially after hearing about some of the hostels other people from our program stayed at. Plus Michelle is fluent in French, knows the (confusing and all in French) metro system and the city like the back of her hand. That and she is so much fun. Her apartment was quite different than ours, much smaller (like...much smaller. whole apartment possibly the size of our kitchen) but a small sacrifice to live in the heart of Paris.
We flew in Wednesday afternoon, dropped all of our stuff at Michelle's apartment and went out for "Turks." It was basically a gyro but they're literally on every corner of every street, delicious of course. After dinner we walked by le Moulin Rouge and the ever so amusing sex district which was nothing but bright neon lights with propositions everywhere. Moulin Rouge had a huge line and looked SO cool. Just judging by the outside I think next time I'm in France and am loaded (heyyy public health sector, I hear it’s on the up and up! that and combating le swine flu) it would be so cool to pay the $150 per plate for a show. We continued down the busy street and entered Montmarte. This was the artistic quarter where all the old poets, writers and artists used to hang out. There were plaques on the wall saying van Gogh, Matisse, Langston Hughes, Picasso, Sisley, Degas, Cezanne, Renoire, Manet... etc had all been there. I can absolutely see why they would go there, it was gorgeous and probably left them with great ideas and inspirations.
After that we got a bottle of wine and took it up to Sacre Coure. This gorgeous church was built as a gesture of expiation of the "crimes of the communards" of France and in honor of those who died in the Franco-Prussian war. The church sits high up on the outskirts of Paris and overlooks the city, the view was absolutely gorgeous. We hung out on the stairs for a while, enjoying our wine and the view as we were entertained by some very friendly local French drunkards. We had a few groups of guys come up to us, they loved that Michelle spoke French, but also wanted to practice their English on us. It was hilarious, they kept saying that France is their home and they absolutely love it, and they were so so happy we decided to come visit. Once we were thoroughly chilled from being at the top of the mountain and entertained-out, we headed back down to Michelle’s to get some sleep.
Thursday morning Michelle made us eggs, bacon (which I’m finding is different in every country) and a fresh croissant from the bakery next door. It was delicious and nutritious and we were ready to start our sightseeing. We walked around town taking it all in. The city is such a combination of old and new. The buildings looked old but then you walked down underneath them to a bright and modern metro. We took the metro to Versailles and did an audio tour. I had no idea how HUGE and how absolutely gorgeous it was. There were bright gold gates leading in, rooms decorated beyond belief and beautiful gardens, probably the biggest I have ever seen. Of course, though, my favorite room was the hall of mirrors. Between the full length windows and the elaborate chandeliers reflecting in the mirrors, the room was incredible.
We went back to Michele’s where she made us dinner, authentic Creole roasted chicken and potatoes, it was delicious. After dinner we headed over to the D’Orsay which houses the “rejects” of the Lourve. You know, the rejects (think impressionists) Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir. It is an old converted train station which added to the funkiness of it and honestly, I enjoyed the art in here more so than the "older fashioned" art in the Louvre.
Around 9pm we were kicked out of the D'Orsay and headed over to the Eiffle Tower. Walking up to/under it I realized it was way bigger than I was expecting. Quite a massive structure for something that was only supposed to be temporary. The tower was originally built as a World's Fair exhibition and was to be torn down 20 years later. It proved to be a valuable communication hub and the government said it could stay. Fancy that. We were there at night and it looked so beautiful lit up. Now you're all thinking that the next thing I did was climb the Eiffle Tower. You are in fact correct, but I'm not sure you have the correct definition of "climb." I CLIMBED it, as in, all 43 stories, 686 steps. It was so cool and I'm so glad I did it...as were my legs the next morning. We had to take an elevator to the tippy tippy top, which we did, and the view was incredible. Everything looked so different (but gorgeous) lit up at night, especially along the Seine (river). While we were at the top it started to sparkle (it does so every hour on the hour) and it scared us to death when it first began. I thought it was pretty lit, but when it sparkled it was unbelievable. So we climbed back down and ran to this Tower overlook in time to catch it sparkling again. We got crepes (blueberry and nutella, the guy told me it was like vodka-going to knock me off my feet...he was right) and sat up on the ledge to see the Tower glimmer. I know it's just a tower, but it really is beautiful, makes me laugh when I think about how the Parisians hated it, calling it an "eyesore" when it was first built. There was even this novelist Guy de Maupassant who claimed to eat inside the tower everyday and when asked why he told everyone that it was the only place he couldn't see the wretched thing. Haha! Back to Michelle's to sleep and prepare for day 3...
Friday Morgan and I got up early while Michelle went to a job interview and headed over to the Catacombs. Going there I knew I was going to see quite a few bones, but I never knew the history of it. Apparently as Paris began to grow and these new inhabitants began to die, the cemeteries quickly became overrun with...dead bodies. The city became stricken with, um, disease, as open mass graves with improper burials and other shady business was occurring, so something had to be done. The police chief came up with the idea to move all of the corpses to the hollowed out mines under the city. I cannot describe to you in words how many thousands of bones there were in these massive piles, you have to see a picture.
Next we went to St. Michael’s fountain to regroup on our way to Notre Dame, I recognized it as soon as I could see it from all the pictures I’ve seen (and the Disney movie). We went inside, which was of course beautiful and saw the famous stain glass. The size is very deceiving, I was not expecting there to be as much as there was inside. Along with the many smaller chapels inside, I really liked the biblical scenes carved out of wood on many of the walls. Morgan went to catholic school and knew many of them, so she was a great little tour guide.
Notre Dame is right near the Latin Quarter so we walked around there afterwards. We stopped for some “Paris' most famous” ice cream, and, well, yeah, I guess it was really good. How exactly can something be “Paris-best” or “World’s-best” anyway? Supposively there is a list some group assembled rating many of the world’s largest cities’ best ice creams and this made the top ten. I got French vanilla and caffe, mmm.
We hopped on the subway and headed over to Père Lachaise Cemetery. I have never seen so many graves in one place. There were no typical American headstones here, all of them were big, elaborate…things. The thing is there were so many of them that there was probably only up to 6 inches between some of them! It kind of looked like lego graves from far away. Anyway, while we were there we figured it would behoove of us to pay our respects to Mr. James Morrisson, and so we did. His grave was not nearly as elaborate as the rest, but he had quite the crowd around him. There were cigarettes and roses all over, as well as love poems addressed “To Jimmy.” Next stop was Oscar Wilde’s, yes I did kiss it with red lipstick. I had a little hesitation, had to put that Rutgers Public Health knowledge aside for a moment after seeing the mass amount of red lips on it, but when in Paris… There were some really interesting things around his grave, let’s just say people left some notes in red lipstick on the grave. The last famous grave we paid our respects to, yes, that is in fact what we were doing? Anyway, it was Bach. It was really cool to see his grave, I had another one of those “study abroad” moments. I never thought I’d be able to say I saw the grave of one of the most influential musicians in history. One other thing I noticed about European graves was that there are always fresh flowers. They seem to respect…worship? their dead more so there, to the point where there are actually pictures in frames on top of many…
On Friday nights after 6pm the Lourve is free to students so we took full advantage of that. We had a scenic walk through the Tulieries, which used to be the gardens surrounding Catherine Medici’s (viva Italia! Even in Par-ee) palace…before the palace was burned down. Now it’s just a pretty area leading up to the Lourve. Walking up to the museum was incredible, not only is it gianormous, but seeing the glass triangle in person was surreal. While we were waiting in line even looking up through it was incredible. Keep in mind by this point we were already exhausted, so walking around the Lourve was done at a much slower pace and accompanied by the occasional groan from our poor little feet. So main sights that we did see was the Hammurabi code, dear God I have no idea how anyone was able to read that! It’s a big rock covered from top to bottom in an organized mess of columns of hieroglyphics. We hung with Mona for a while, she’s actually quite a bit smaller than I was expecting. The crowd around her was huge and to be honest, her eyes really are creepy. We experimented; they do actually follow you as you walk around the room. Mission accomplished Davinci. We saw the Venus, which made me laugh because it was the Italians who destroyed her, the tiny gnome/snail and Napolean’s crown/sword. We saw tons of other things, but next time I would love to devote a whole day in there and just roam around for hours.
By this point we were even more exhausted and now starving. We headed back to the Latin Quarter for one of the famous “meal deals” where you get a 3 course meal for cheap. Of course I tried the escargot (I liked! That is, after I figured out how to use the funny looking “snail holder”) for my meal Beef Bourgione and a traditional apple tart for dessert. It was delicious and I enjoyed my meal next to the restaurant’s cat. Yeah, that wouldn’t fly in the Stati Uniti, but it certainly added to the Parisian ambiance.
After dinner we stopped at Michelle’s favorite piano bar. The three of us shared a “fish bowl” (any Stuff Yer Facers?) which of course made us laugh. It came out with sparklers and between that and the awesome outdoor atmosphere we really enjoyed ourselves. Good music, good drinks, good people. By then we were spent so we headed back to Michelle’s to pass out.
Saturday was another early morning as it was our last day in Paris, but we awoke like broken-backed grandmas hobbling to the shower. We had the traditional pan de chocolat (chocolate croissante, so good) for breakfast and went to check out the Opera house. This was Michelle’s favorite building in Paris, it really was absolutely gorgeous. We wanted to tour the inside but it came down to doing that or the Arc de Troimphe and we opted from the latter. So we walked from the opera house to the Arc and for those of you who know Paris that is REALLY FAR. It was nice though, we really got a taste for the different neighborhoods in Paris. So we saw the Arc, it was weird seeing traffic going through such a famous historical landmark! While there we walked down the famous Champs de Elyse and drooled over all the pretty things we couldn’t afford. It started to rain which was fine because we had to get going back to Florence anyway, we were just happy we had such great weather for our other days.
After packing up everything at Michelle's we headed out for a last hurrah of Parisian food and attempted to try a Thai/Asian/Creole infusion. I imagine that food is delicious, unfortunately we did not pick the best of places to get a good taste. Next began our journey back home to Via Ghibbellina by metro, bus, airplane and then another bus. We returned home, exhausted, around 11pm.
I am SO glad I got to go to Paris, it may be my favorite new city. Thinking about it now, having someone who lives there and knows the area so well provided us with such a first hand experience, without having to fight with the French language, the metro and having to make any major decisions on what to see and what to skip. I think I could have spent another week, or month, whatever, visiting the city. We packed in so much in those few days we were there, definitely my best spring break ever!
We flew in Wednesday afternoon, dropped all of our stuff at Michelle's apartment and went out for "Turks." It was basically a gyro but they're literally on every corner of every street, delicious of course. After dinner we walked by le Moulin Rouge and the ever so amusing sex district which was nothing but bright neon lights with propositions everywhere. Moulin Rouge had a huge line and looked SO cool. Just judging by the outside I think next time I'm in France and am loaded (heyyy public health sector, I hear it’s on the up and up! that and combating le swine flu) it would be so cool to pay the $150 per plate for a show. We continued down the busy street and entered Montmarte. This was the artistic quarter where all the old poets, writers and artists used to hang out. There were plaques on the wall saying van Gogh, Matisse, Langston Hughes, Picasso, Sisley, Degas, Cezanne, Renoire, Manet... etc had all been there. I can absolutely see why they would go there, it was gorgeous and probably left them with great ideas and inspirations.
After that we got a bottle of wine and took it up to Sacre Coure. This gorgeous church was built as a gesture of expiation of the "crimes of the communards" of France and in honor of those who died in the Franco-Prussian war. The church sits high up on the outskirts of Paris and overlooks the city, the view was absolutely gorgeous. We hung out on the stairs for a while, enjoying our wine and the view as we were entertained by some very friendly local French drunkards. We had a few groups of guys come up to us, they loved that Michelle spoke French, but also wanted to practice their English on us. It was hilarious, they kept saying that France is their home and they absolutely love it, and they were so so happy we decided to come visit. Once we were thoroughly chilled from being at the top of the mountain and entertained-out, we headed back down to Michelle’s to get some sleep.
Thursday morning Michelle made us eggs, bacon (which I’m finding is different in every country) and a fresh croissant from the bakery next door. It was delicious and nutritious and we were ready to start our sightseeing. We walked around town taking it all in. The city is such a combination of old and new. The buildings looked old but then you walked down underneath them to a bright and modern metro. We took the metro to Versailles and did an audio tour. I had no idea how HUGE and how absolutely gorgeous it was. There were bright gold gates leading in, rooms decorated beyond belief and beautiful gardens, probably the biggest I have ever seen. Of course, though, my favorite room was the hall of mirrors. Between the full length windows and the elaborate chandeliers reflecting in the mirrors, the room was incredible.
We went back to Michele’s where she made us dinner, authentic Creole roasted chicken and potatoes, it was delicious. After dinner we headed over to the D’Orsay which houses the “rejects” of the Lourve. You know, the rejects (think impressionists) Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir. It is an old converted train station which added to the funkiness of it and honestly, I enjoyed the art in here more so than the "older fashioned" art in the Louvre.
Around 9pm we were kicked out of the D'Orsay and headed over to the Eiffle Tower. Walking up to/under it I realized it was way bigger than I was expecting. Quite a massive structure for something that was only supposed to be temporary. The tower was originally built as a World's Fair exhibition and was to be torn down 20 years later. It proved to be a valuable communication hub and the government said it could stay. Fancy that. We were there at night and it looked so beautiful lit up. Now you're all thinking that the next thing I did was climb the Eiffle Tower. You are in fact correct, but I'm not sure you have the correct definition of "climb." I CLIMBED it, as in, all 43 stories, 686 steps. It was so cool and I'm so glad I did it...as were my legs the next morning. We had to take an elevator to the tippy tippy top, which we did, and the view was incredible. Everything looked so different (but gorgeous) lit up at night, especially along the Seine (river). While we were at the top it started to sparkle (it does so every hour on the hour) and it scared us to death when it first began. I thought it was pretty lit, but when it sparkled it was unbelievable. So we climbed back down and ran to this Tower overlook in time to catch it sparkling again. We got crepes (blueberry and nutella, the guy told me it was like vodka-going to knock me off my feet...he was right) and sat up on the ledge to see the Tower glimmer. I know it's just a tower, but it really is beautiful, makes me laugh when I think about how the Parisians hated it, calling it an "eyesore" when it was first built. There was even this novelist Guy de Maupassant who claimed to eat inside the tower everyday and when asked why he told everyone that it was the only place he couldn't see the wretched thing. Haha! Back to Michelle's to sleep and prepare for day 3...
Friday Morgan and I got up early while Michelle went to a job interview and headed over to the Catacombs. Going there I knew I was going to see quite a few bones, but I never knew the history of it. Apparently as Paris began to grow and these new inhabitants began to die, the cemeteries quickly became overrun with...dead bodies. The city became stricken with, um, disease, as open mass graves with improper burials and other shady business was occurring, so something had to be done. The police chief came up with the idea to move all of the corpses to the hollowed out mines under the city. I cannot describe to you in words how many thousands of bones there were in these massive piles, you have to see a picture.
Next we went to St. Michael’s fountain to regroup on our way to Notre Dame, I recognized it as soon as I could see it from all the pictures I’ve seen (and the Disney movie). We went inside, which was of course beautiful and saw the famous stain glass. The size is very deceiving, I was not expecting there to be as much as there was inside. Along with the many smaller chapels inside, I really liked the biblical scenes carved out of wood on many of the walls. Morgan went to catholic school and knew many of them, so she was a great little tour guide.
Notre Dame is right near the Latin Quarter so we walked around there afterwards. We stopped for some “Paris' most famous” ice cream, and, well, yeah, I guess it was really good. How exactly can something be “Paris-best” or “World’s-best” anyway? Supposively there is a list some group assembled rating many of the world’s largest cities’ best ice creams and this made the top ten. I got French vanilla and caffe, mmm.
We hopped on the subway and headed over to Père Lachaise Cemetery. I have never seen so many graves in one place. There were no typical American headstones here, all of them were big, elaborate…things. The thing is there were so many of them that there was probably only up to 6 inches between some of them! It kind of looked like lego graves from far away. Anyway, while we were there we figured it would behoove of us to pay our respects to Mr. James Morrisson, and so we did. His grave was not nearly as elaborate as the rest, but he had quite the crowd around him. There were cigarettes and roses all over, as well as love poems addressed “To Jimmy.” Next stop was Oscar Wilde’s, yes I did kiss it with red lipstick. I had a little hesitation, had to put that Rutgers Public Health knowledge aside for a moment after seeing the mass amount of red lips on it, but when in Paris… There were some really interesting things around his grave, let’s just say people left some notes in red lipstick on the grave. The last famous grave we paid our respects to, yes, that is in fact what we were doing? Anyway, it was Bach. It was really cool to see his grave, I had another one of those “study abroad” moments. I never thought I’d be able to say I saw the grave of one of the most influential musicians in history. One other thing I noticed about European graves was that there are always fresh flowers. They seem to respect…worship? their dead more so there, to the point where there are actually pictures in frames on top of many…
On Friday nights after 6pm the Lourve is free to students so we took full advantage of that. We had a scenic walk through the Tulieries, which used to be the gardens surrounding Catherine Medici’s (viva Italia! Even in Par-ee) palace…before the palace was burned down. Now it’s just a pretty area leading up to the Lourve. Walking up to the museum was incredible, not only is it gianormous, but seeing the glass triangle in person was surreal. While we were waiting in line even looking up through it was incredible. Keep in mind by this point we were already exhausted, so walking around the Lourve was done at a much slower pace and accompanied by the occasional groan from our poor little feet. So main sights that we did see was the Hammurabi code, dear God I have no idea how anyone was able to read that! It’s a big rock covered from top to bottom in an organized mess of columns of hieroglyphics. We hung with Mona for a while, she’s actually quite a bit smaller than I was expecting. The crowd around her was huge and to be honest, her eyes really are creepy. We experimented; they do actually follow you as you walk around the room. Mission accomplished Davinci. We saw the Venus, which made me laugh because it was the Italians who destroyed her, the tiny gnome/snail and Napolean’s crown/sword. We saw tons of other things, but next time I would love to devote a whole day in there and just roam around for hours.
By this point we were even more exhausted and now starving. We headed back to the Latin Quarter for one of the famous “meal deals” where you get a 3 course meal for cheap. Of course I tried the escargot (I liked! That is, after I figured out how to use the funny looking “snail holder”) for my meal Beef Bourgione and a traditional apple tart for dessert. It was delicious and I enjoyed my meal next to the restaurant’s cat. Yeah, that wouldn’t fly in the Stati Uniti, but it certainly added to the Parisian ambiance.
After dinner we stopped at Michelle’s favorite piano bar. The three of us shared a “fish bowl” (any Stuff Yer Facers?) which of course made us laugh. It came out with sparklers and between that and the awesome outdoor atmosphere we really enjoyed ourselves. Good music, good drinks, good people. By then we were spent so we headed back to Michelle’s to pass out.
Saturday was another early morning as it was our last day in Paris, but we awoke like broken-backed grandmas hobbling to the shower. We had the traditional pan de chocolat (chocolate croissante, so good) for breakfast and went to check out the Opera house. This was Michelle’s favorite building in Paris, it really was absolutely gorgeous. We wanted to tour the inside but it came down to doing that or the Arc de Troimphe and we opted from the latter. So we walked from the opera house to the Arc and for those of you who know Paris that is REALLY FAR. It was nice though, we really got a taste for the different neighborhoods in Paris. So we saw the Arc, it was weird seeing traffic going through such a famous historical landmark! While there we walked down the famous Champs de Elyse and drooled over all the pretty things we couldn’t afford. It started to rain which was fine because we had to get going back to Florence anyway, we were just happy we had such great weather for our other days.
After packing up everything at Michelle's we headed out for a last hurrah of Parisian food and attempted to try a Thai/Asian/Creole infusion. I imagine that food is delicious, unfortunately we did not pick the best of places to get a good taste. Next began our journey back home to Via Ghibbellina by metro, bus, airplane and then another bus. We returned home, exhausted, around 11pm.
I am SO glad I got to go to Paris, it may be my favorite new city. Thinking about it now, having someone who lives there and knows the area so well provided us with such a first hand experience, without having to fight with the French language, the metro and having to make any major decisions on what to see and what to skip. I think I could have spent another week, or month, whatever, visiting the city. We packed in so much in those few days we were there, definitely my best spring break ever!
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| 09-04-15 Paris |
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Sorrento, Capri, Positano, Pompeii
We booked this amazing trip to Sorrento, Capri, Positano and Pompeii through this company called Bus2Alps, it's a cheap travel company for students where they provide you with transportation, lodging and guided tours for all around 189 euro, it's great. So the day started out great, I got a text message that my only class was cancelled (good and bad, see here in Italy if they cancel class they have the authority to reschedule it, so the day after spring break (and my birthday!) I have a makeup class after the rest of my normal classes). yay. Anyway, having no class was great, I relaxed all day and got my stuff ready. We left Thursday night around 8pm on a big coach bus and got there around 3am. We were scheduled to stay in the #1 hostel in Italy, literally called 7th Heaven, we checked out the website and it looked like a 5 star hotel (note hoStel vs. hotel). Anyway, when we're almost there our guide told us that we were actually staying in beach bungalows (yes, with the W). Cool, right? I'm going to reply yes here, but not in the 'cool' that you think I'm referring to. So we get off the bus, it's 3am, we're tired, the bus driver is taking forever to come check us in, we just want to go to bed since we have to be up for 8am tomorrow.... we're freezing and cranky. Finally we get checked in and are the first to be taken to our bungaloW. Umm, it's a campground. We're staying in...army barracks? mini-cabins? I don't know what it is but the freakin heat didn't work and it was miserable. Insert obscenities ending in "NOT IF WE WERE IN 7TH HEAVEN HOSTEL". So I slept in leggings, sweat pants, socks, t-shirt, long sleeved shirt and jacket AND I had the sheets over my head the whole night. End complaining about fabulous trip, HERE.
We get up with the sun and mosey over to our included breakfast. It was a pretty walk, through the very hilly forest including both evergreen trees as well as orange and lemon trees. It's in this glassed in room in the center of the camp and consists of rolls, jelly, corn flakes, barley expresso, brown orange juice. Typical small European breakfast, not what I prefer, but I've grown accustomed to. After breakfast we walk down to the water where we caught our ferry to Capri. It was a nice ride, the sun was out and took about 40 minutes.
The first stop was the Blue Grotto. Totally not what I was expecting! The ferry pulls up close to the side of a cliff and there are a whole bunch of older Italian men standing in these little row boats, slightly reminiscent of a much less classier Venetian gondola. We all hop into these row boats and they take us to this 4 foot by 4 foot hole in a cliff? He says duck down on three, 1...2...3...and pulls on this rope, contorts his body in a matrix pose so he's low enough to not have his head clipped and then we're in this pitch black cave. I look out at the water and it's an electric, indescribable, absolutely gorgeous, bright blue. The boatmen take you around in a circle while singing in Italian and it was such a cool experience. He said the water reflects into this tiny little hole, off the bottom and results in this unbelievable illumination of the water. So pretty, we were in and out of there in 5 minutes. We heard about an hour after we left, the waves were too high and they had to close it for the day. We were so lucky! On the way to the area of Capri we were being dropped off we also stopped at the Green and White Grottos. They were pretty, not as pretty as the Blue Grotto, and also not in a cave. Same thing with these, the way the water reflected onto the cliffs which were naturally tinted these colors, the water looked the colors.
Next we docked at Capri and got off the boat, we were to meet our tour guide at the top of the town. Okay... 40 minutes later we made it up! We trekked up some serious hills with random concrete stairwells interspersed and definitely got a workout. It would have been a little rough had the views not been SO gorgeous. It was such a unique town, like nothing I've ever seen. There were literally no streets form where we docked to the top where the center of town was. We were walking on people's "streets" but then there were stairs so there was no way cars could get down there. The views out to the water were beautiful and while we were more towards the center on our winding way up, the authentic homes looked very Greek with the white stucco exteriors, fun roofs and unique gates at their entrance. Not to mention all of the vegetation, fruit trees, pretty flowers and palm trees. Once we got to the top we were pooped and had to stop for these frozen ices we saw everywhere. I got melon, Jill and Jen got lemon, they were so delicious and refreshing. During the rest of the tour we learned about the natural architecture of Capri, how they had to figure out ways to build into the mountain. You know, something that wouldn't fall off the cliffs or be gone in a few years. Saw lots of shops, not as many churches, and the local buildings etc. Honestly, just looking around was mesmerizing, everything was so pretty. Our guide told us not to get too excited about Capri, and not to buy anything down here because at the top of the island was Anacapri where things were prettier and less expensive.
So, we take a bus to Anacapri. That alone was an experience. We buy our 1 euro ticket and are packed into this mini-bus, think sardines. The very rugged southern Italian bus driver gets in and we're off. I'm standing next to, or should I say on top of, an older white haired Italian woman who was lucky enough (and totally deserved) a seat. Begin ascent to Anacapri. It's steep, and winding, and steep, and winding... He's going fast. How fast? I peek over to the speedometer since I'm basically standing on the driver/the old woman next to me and well, OH! the speedometer doesn't work. Around some more turns, now we're on the edge. He's not slowing down though, taking these turns like a racecar driver, I look over the my friend the old lady and she's doing the sign of the cross, saying an prayer in Italian and closing her eyes. I wish I was kidding. 20 minutes of this insanity later and he finally stops and opens the door. I get off and apparently our faces said it all, the guide laughed and said he loved seeing people's faces the first time they take this ride up. It's starting to become funny now.
Now we're in Anacapri, we thought the views were gorgeous down in Anacapri, but here we're higher so we can now see more beautiful views. We're taken to a shop at the top of a hill and given a Limoncello and chocolate tasting. YUM. The regular Limoncello was much stronger than any I've ever had, the cream one was sweeter and the melon one was interesting. The chocolates were delicious, dark, white, milk, then all of those covering orange and lemon peels. Ultima! (delicious) The store also made homemade sandals. We investigated to see if they were worth it, they were of gorgeous very pleasing to look at but provided no support. As in, don't buy them and plan to walk around in them all day. The poor college students forwent the sandals and opted to eat lunch that day.
We were given some free time so we take the chairlift up to the tippy top of the island. So cool, it was a long ski-lift type thing but you had your own seat It took about 15 minutes each way of just a relaxing ride to see the entire island. At the top there was a little park with a cafe overlooking the Mediterranean. We vegged up there a bit, took tons of pictures, drooled at the sights, and then took the chairlift back down. So cool. We were a little hungry so we picked a cafe and had a quick lunch. Jill, Morgan and Jen tried the pizza because it claimed to be the original Neapolitan pizza (it is the next town over) but I opted for the Gnocchi Sorrentina. My gnocchi was delicious, it literally melted in my mouth. Their pizza was also delicious, thicker and greasier than Florence's, just how pizza should be. I love italian food.
We did a little shopping at the top and then took the bus, driven by a much calmer driver, back down to Capri. We hung out at the rock beach by the marina where our boat was to pick us up. Although it was rocky, we were just so happy to be at a beach and of course stuck our feet in the Mediterranean. So we spent the day in Capri and got our first taste of what southern Italy is like. The people were just so nice, nothing was rushed, we saw the coca cola scooter boppin down the street making deliveries where all the shop owners knew him by name, etc. i don't know how to describe it other than people just really enjoy their lives and don't mind working there. A very pleasant change from the frustrated-with-foreigners Florentine shop owners.
So we took the boat back to our campground for a much needed nap and shower. We met up with everyone and took the bus down to the center of Sorrento for a group dinner. We had the 3 course "tourist" dinner consisting of authentic minestrone, then a fish and tomato dish and chocolate cake for dessert. Of course it was delicious, after that we waddled back to our cabins where we passed out from exhaustion.
Saturday morning we assembled around 10 after our breakfast and got on the bus for Positano. We were on for about 25 minutes when they pull off into a big circle and inform us that tour buses are not allowed into Positano so we have to get off and walk for about "20 minutes" down. Right, so, it's cool that Positano is trying to keep it a less touristy town, I can certainly appreciate that, but this 20 minute walk was not 20 minutes, it was at least an hour. We walked up and down a windy road through the mountains. It was gorgeous to walk through, just not what we were expecting. We stopped at one of the many produce carts on the side of the road where we tasted a southern lemon. The thing was literally the size of my head and was the sweetest lemon I've ever tasted, not tart at all! Believe it or not, the most delicious part was the white rind. So we finally make it into town, but we're supposed to be heading to the beach. Another 30 minute walk down the steepest, oldest, most unique stairs. A lot of stairs, more than I think I would ever be able to convey to you via blog. Like, I wish I was told we were going to be doing this much up and down because I would literally have stretched first and now worn flip flops. Finally we make it down to the beach and it was so so so so worth the hiking, the view was gorgeous. This beach was sandy and of course as soon as we get down there the clouds roll in. Don't worry, we laid on the beach for hours anyway. I fell asleep for a good hour, it was so nice to just lay there in the warm sand.
It started getting chilly with the clouds so we decided to get a warm snack with hopes that it would clear up in the meantime. We found a great little garden cafe where we got cappuccinos and warm ricotta and pear tarts. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. We stayed in there for about an hour enjoying the warmth and the sights and it finally started to clear up. On the way back down to the beach we perused some shops, things there were expensive but so fun to look at. When we got back down to the beach we of course had to retake all the pictures we initially took because it was cloudy then and everything looked so much better in the sun. We hung out on the beach for a while taking it all in and then it started getting dark. Walked back to the top of the island to catch the bus back into Sorrento. After waiting for a while we decided a bottle of wine was necessary to pass the time. The little old man selected a white wine for us (taboo in Italy) and told us it was not only local, but the best one he had. It was so good..and only cost $3. Sweet.
Back to Sorrento where we cleaned up, took the bus back into the center of town and went out to eat. We picked an adorable little restaurant with a very authentic Italian feel down to the table clothes. I got Spaghetti and clams because Florence doesn't have much seafood to offer. It was delicious, we stayed there for a while after enjoying the atmosphere before heading back up to "camp."
I loved Positano but wouldn't like to live there for the sole fact that I could never carry my groceries up and down those insane stairs. Natives there must have legs of steel. It was probably my favorite beachy town to walk around and just look. It's amazing how the houses are arranged on these cliffs, most of them are even very old. It was a relaxing day where I really started to get a feel for southern Italy.
Sunday morning we checked out of the army barracks, i mean campground, and headed for Pompeii. We had an hour or two to walk around the area outside of the ruins, but there wasn't much to see other than the many tents set up by the overly aggressive Moroccans trying to sell you everything in sight. Our tour guide spoke great English, knew the ruins like the back of his hand and was incredibly witty. He was our favorite tour guide yet because he included all of the incredibly interesting historical information, literally painted us a picture of what it used to look like, but also made us laugh with his jokes. His common theme was comparing the past to today saying "nothing has changed." He also knew way more about American politics/pop culture than I did. When talking about where the hunters used to be, he said, "you know, the Dick Cheneys."
So, about the ruins. Pompeii had a population of around 20,000 and only about 2,000 died from the 79 AD eruption. Way less than I thought! Also, the city is 8 miles from Mt. Vesuvius so no lava ever made it there, all of the damage was from the suffocating fumes and the 16 feet of ash that settled upon the city. They say the eruption had to be somewhat predicted as only 2,000 were left in the city, but there were still those stubborn Italians who stayed. They found fresh bread in the oven, dogs tied up and bodies found in areas which suggest they were conducting "every day life" type of activities.
Vesuvius actually had another bad eruption during WWII in 1944 but I suppose the activities of the war overshadowed the destruction. A few towns were destroyed, as well as a US bomber group of over 80 planes. Since then the volcano has been very quiet, believe it or not this is really bad and people are worried. When a volcano has little activity, occasionally quaking and spurting things it means it is releasing pressure. Since nothing is happening they fear the pressure is massively building up which could cause a big blow. The tour guide joked that there are Italian instruments monitoring the volcano at the top, but then he said if they're anything like other Italian machines we may be in trouble. Sure they haven't reported anything, but that doesn't necessarily mean nothing is happening...
Our guide also did a great job at describing the way of life of the Pompeiians back in the day. He said they were a pleasure driven society between their purging and brothels, but were also ahead of their day intellectually. On the pleasure aspect, they were known to eat and drink until capacity, purge, and then come back out to do it again, all day long with company. As for the brothels, there were tons of them! We went into the largest one where they had stone beds (so they didn't stay too long!) with diagrams on top so you didn't even have to speak the same language, you could just point to what you wanted. Our guide said to us as we were walking in, "please, no flashing!" We of course all giggled until we figured out that these were painted on the walls as frescos so flash photography would have ruined them. Since we giggled he then proceeded to yell at us saying, "oh stop being so prude!" Such a jokester. So apparently the ocean used to be much closer to the city so on the main drag leading in they carved penises into the sidewalk in front of where you could find "nice, friendly women" for the sailors who had just returned. (ahhhem! don't get any ideas) Apparently morals were quite different than ours these days. They were the end of the Pagan era and were more of a social community than a typical Christian Italian city. Openly practicing homosexuality was not only widely accepted but almost encouraged: peace and love for everyone, homie. They promoted pleasure in everything, and were very open about all aspects of the pleasure in their lives.
As for intellectual and architectural accomplishments, the city of Pompeii was very advanced. It's such a shame it was destroyed, I feel like this would have been all over the history books. Not only was it so advanced, it was also all made of marble and frescoed everywhere so it was gorgeous. They didn't quite have street drainage systems (although they had the first form of sewage systems in their bath houses and aqueducts) so the sidewalks were much higher than the streets, and the city placed on a hill so the water would roll down. However, one still had to cross the streets so they were the first to invent the crosswalk. These were raised (2 feet-ish) large boulders placed sporadically across the city for the pedestrians to cross the street without having to walk in the sitting water on the streets. They also placed iridescent rocks within the cobblestone so light would reflect and illuminate the carriages way at night.
We also saw their town halls, museums (which I think were erected later on to house all of the artifacts they could save) and their bakeries which were also advanced for their days. There were over 40 elaborate stone water fountains which were used as landmarks in the city when people were trying to meet. It was a regular city with most of the things our cities today have, but it's crazy to think about how long ago the figured out all of the things we're still using today.
About two thirds of Pompeii is excavated and they have halted excavations. They're currently faced with some problems, they receive over 3 million visitors/year who touch and try to take home "souvenirs" so they're causing problems with preserving the ruins. They decided the best way to combat this is to leave the remaining one third preserved under the ash to keep it for future generations to remember.
While I loved the beaches, cruising on the boats, the funky shopping and gorgeous sights of Capri and Positano, Pompeii was amazing for the sights and historical aspect. Learning is so much fun when in Italy! Heh.
We got back on the bus for our 6 hour trip back to Florence Sunday night. We later found out that three hours before the earthquake we actually passed through that area. I was feeling so lucky to have experienced everything I saw this weekend, but then I started to feel much more lucky that the earthquake didn't affect me. My mom told me that when she tried to call my Italian cell phone it said, "we're sorry, the country you are trying to reach right now is unavailable." Scary! But we're all okay and had a wonderful weekend!! :)
We get up with the sun and mosey over to our included breakfast. It was a pretty walk, through the very hilly forest including both evergreen trees as well as orange and lemon trees. It's in this glassed in room in the center of the camp and consists of rolls, jelly, corn flakes, barley expresso, brown orange juice. Typical small European breakfast, not what I prefer, but I've grown accustomed to. After breakfast we walk down to the water where we caught our ferry to Capri. It was a nice ride, the sun was out and took about 40 minutes.
The first stop was the Blue Grotto. Totally not what I was expecting! The ferry pulls up close to the side of a cliff and there are a whole bunch of older Italian men standing in these little row boats, slightly reminiscent of a much less classier Venetian gondola. We all hop into these row boats and they take us to this 4 foot by 4 foot hole in a cliff? He says duck down on three, 1...2...3...and pulls on this rope, contorts his body in a matrix pose so he's low enough to not have his head clipped and then we're in this pitch black cave. I look out at the water and it's an electric, indescribable, absolutely gorgeous, bright blue. The boatmen take you around in a circle while singing in Italian and it was such a cool experience. He said the water reflects into this tiny little hole, off the bottom and results in this unbelievable illumination of the water. So pretty, we were in and out of there in 5 minutes. We heard about an hour after we left, the waves were too high and they had to close it for the day. We were so lucky! On the way to the area of Capri we were being dropped off we also stopped at the Green and White Grottos. They were pretty, not as pretty as the Blue Grotto, and also not in a cave. Same thing with these, the way the water reflected onto the cliffs which were naturally tinted these colors, the water looked the colors.
Next we docked at Capri and got off the boat, we were to meet our tour guide at the top of the town. Okay... 40 minutes later we made it up! We trekked up some serious hills with random concrete stairwells interspersed and definitely got a workout. It would have been a little rough had the views not been SO gorgeous. It was such a unique town, like nothing I've ever seen. There were literally no streets form where we docked to the top where the center of town was. We were walking on people's "streets" but then there were stairs so there was no way cars could get down there. The views out to the water were beautiful and while we were more towards the center on our winding way up, the authentic homes looked very Greek with the white stucco exteriors, fun roofs and unique gates at their entrance. Not to mention all of the vegetation, fruit trees, pretty flowers and palm trees. Once we got to the top we were pooped and had to stop for these frozen ices we saw everywhere. I got melon, Jill and Jen got lemon, they were so delicious and refreshing. During the rest of the tour we learned about the natural architecture of Capri, how they had to figure out ways to build into the mountain. You know, something that wouldn't fall off the cliffs or be gone in a few years. Saw lots of shops, not as many churches, and the local buildings etc. Honestly, just looking around was mesmerizing, everything was so pretty. Our guide told us not to get too excited about Capri, and not to buy anything down here because at the top of the island was Anacapri where things were prettier and less expensive.
So, we take a bus to Anacapri. That alone was an experience. We buy our 1 euro ticket and are packed into this mini-bus, think sardines. The very rugged southern Italian bus driver gets in and we're off. I'm standing next to, or should I say on top of, an older white haired Italian woman who was lucky enough (and totally deserved) a seat. Begin ascent to Anacapri. It's steep, and winding, and steep, and winding... He's going fast. How fast? I peek over to the speedometer since I'm basically standing on the driver/the old woman next to me and well, OH! the speedometer doesn't work. Around some more turns, now we're on the edge. He's not slowing down though, taking these turns like a racecar driver, I look over the my friend the old lady and she's doing the sign of the cross, saying an prayer in Italian and closing her eyes. I wish I was kidding. 20 minutes of this insanity later and he finally stops and opens the door. I get off and apparently our faces said it all, the guide laughed and said he loved seeing people's faces the first time they take this ride up. It's starting to become funny now.
Now we're in Anacapri, we thought the views were gorgeous down in Anacapri, but here we're higher so we can now see more beautiful views. We're taken to a shop at the top of a hill and given a Limoncello and chocolate tasting. YUM. The regular Limoncello was much stronger than any I've ever had, the cream one was sweeter and the melon one was interesting. The chocolates were delicious, dark, white, milk, then all of those covering orange and lemon peels. Ultima! (delicious) The store also made homemade sandals. We investigated to see if they were worth it, they were of gorgeous very pleasing to look at but provided no support. As in, don't buy them and plan to walk around in them all day. The poor college students forwent the sandals and opted to eat lunch that day.
We were given some free time so we take the chairlift up to the tippy top of the island. So cool, it was a long ski-lift type thing but you had your own seat It took about 15 minutes each way of just a relaxing ride to see the entire island. At the top there was a little park with a cafe overlooking the Mediterranean. We vegged up there a bit, took tons of pictures, drooled at the sights, and then took the chairlift back down. So cool. We were a little hungry so we picked a cafe and had a quick lunch. Jill, Morgan and Jen tried the pizza because it claimed to be the original Neapolitan pizza (it is the next town over) but I opted for the Gnocchi Sorrentina. My gnocchi was delicious, it literally melted in my mouth. Their pizza was also delicious, thicker and greasier than Florence's, just how pizza should be. I love italian food.
We did a little shopping at the top and then took the bus, driven by a much calmer driver, back down to Capri. We hung out at the rock beach by the marina where our boat was to pick us up. Although it was rocky, we were just so happy to be at a beach and of course stuck our feet in the Mediterranean. So we spent the day in Capri and got our first taste of what southern Italy is like. The people were just so nice, nothing was rushed, we saw the coca cola scooter boppin down the street making deliveries where all the shop owners knew him by name, etc. i don't know how to describe it other than people just really enjoy their lives and don't mind working there. A very pleasant change from the frustrated-with-foreigners Florentine shop owners.
So we took the boat back to our campground for a much needed nap and shower. We met up with everyone and took the bus down to the center of Sorrento for a group dinner. We had the 3 course "tourist" dinner consisting of authentic minestrone, then a fish and tomato dish and chocolate cake for dessert. Of course it was delicious, after that we waddled back to our cabins where we passed out from exhaustion.
Saturday morning we assembled around 10 after our breakfast and got on the bus for Positano. We were on for about 25 minutes when they pull off into a big circle and inform us that tour buses are not allowed into Positano so we have to get off and walk for about "20 minutes" down. Right, so, it's cool that Positano is trying to keep it a less touristy town, I can certainly appreciate that, but this 20 minute walk was not 20 minutes, it was at least an hour. We walked up and down a windy road through the mountains. It was gorgeous to walk through, just not what we were expecting. We stopped at one of the many produce carts on the side of the road where we tasted a southern lemon. The thing was literally the size of my head and was the sweetest lemon I've ever tasted, not tart at all! Believe it or not, the most delicious part was the white rind. So we finally make it into town, but we're supposed to be heading to the beach. Another 30 minute walk down the steepest, oldest, most unique stairs. A lot of stairs, more than I think I would ever be able to convey to you via blog. Like, I wish I was told we were going to be doing this much up and down because I would literally have stretched first and now worn flip flops. Finally we make it down to the beach and it was so so so so worth the hiking, the view was gorgeous. This beach was sandy and of course as soon as we get down there the clouds roll in. Don't worry, we laid on the beach for hours anyway. I fell asleep for a good hour, it was so nice to just lay there in the warm sand.
It started getting chilly with the clouds so we decided to get a warm snack with hopes that it would clear up in the meantime. We found a great little garden cafe where we got cappuccinos and warm ricotta and pear tarts. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. We stayed in there for about an hour enjoying the warmth and the sights and it finally started to clear up. On the way back down to the beach we perused some shops, things there were expensive but so fun to look at. When we got back down to the beach we of course had to retake all the pictures we initially took because it was cloudy then and everything looked so much better in the sun. We hung out on the beach for a while taking it all in and then it started getting dark. Walked back to the top of the island to catch the bus back into Sorrento. After waiting for a while we decided a bottle of wine was necessary to pass the time. The little old man selected a white wine for us (taboo in Italy) and told us it was not only local, but the best one he had. It was so good..and only cost $3. Sweet.
Back to Sorrento where we cleaned up, took the bus back into the center of town and went out to eat. We picked an adorable little restaurant with a very authentic Italian feel down to the table clothes. I got Spaghetti and clams because Florence doesn't have much seafood to offer. It was delicious, we stayed there for a while after enjoying the atmosphere before heading back up to "camp."
I loved Positano but wouldn't like to live there for the sole fact that I could never carry my groceries up and down those insane stairs. Natives there must have legs of steel. It was probably my favorite beachy town to walk around and just look. It's amazing how the houses are arranged on these cliffs, most of them are even very old. It was a relaxing day where I really started to get a feel for southern Italy.
Sunday morning we checked out of the army barracks, i mean campground, and headed for Pompeii. We had an hour or two to walk around the area outside of the ruins, but there wasn't much to see other than the many tents set up by the overly aggressive Moroccans trying to sell you everything in sight. Our tour guide spoke great English, knew the ruins like the back of his hand and was incredibly witty. He was our favorite tour guide yet because he included all of the incredibly interesting historical information, literally painted us a picture of what it used to look like, but also made us laugh with his jokes. His common theme was comparing the past to today saying "nothing has changed." He also knew way more about American politics/pop culture than I did. When talking about where the hunters used to be, he said, "you know, the Dick Cheneys."
So, about the ruins. Pompeii had a population of around 20,000 and only about 2,000 died from the 79 AD eruption. Way less than I thought! Also, the city is 8 miles from Mt. Vesuvius so no lava ever made it there, all of the damage was from the suffocating fumes and the 16 feet of ash that settled upon the city. They say the eruption had to be somewhat predicted as only 2,000 were left in the city, but there were still those stubborn Italians who stayed. They found fresh bread in the oven, dogs tied up and bodies found in areas which suggest they were conducting "every day life" type of activities.
Vesuvius actually had another bad eruption during WWII in 1944 but I suppose the activities of the war overshadowed the destruction. A few towns were destroyed, as well as a US bomber group of over 80 planes. Since then the volcano has been very quiet, believe it or not this is really bad and people are worried. When a volcano has little activity, occasionally quaking and spurting things it means it is releasing pressure. Since nothing is happening they fear the pressure is massively building up which could cause a big blow. The tour guide joked that there are Italian instruments monitoring the volcano at the top, but then he said if they're anything like other Italian machines we may be in trouble. Sure they haven't reported anything, but that doesn't necessarily mean nothing is happening...
Our guide also did a great job at describing the way of life of the Pompeiians back in the day. He said they were a pleasure driven society between their purging and brothels, but were also ahead of their day intellectually. On the pleasure aspect, they were known to eat and drink until capacity, purge, and then come back out to do it again, all day long with company. As for the brothels, there were tons of them! We went into the largest one where they had stone beds (so they didn't stay too long!) with diagrams on top so you didn't even have to speak the same language, you could just point to what you wanted. Our guide said to us as we were walking in, "please, no flashing!" We of course all giggled until we figured out that these were painted on the walls as frescos so flash photography would have ruined them. Since we giggled he then proceeded to yell at us saying, "oh stop being so prude!" Such a jokester. So apparently the ocean used to be much closer to the city so on the main drag leading in they carved penises into the sidewalk in front of where you could find "nice, friendly women" for the sailors who had just returned. (ahhhem! don't get any ideas) Apparently morals were quite different than ours these days. They were the end of the Pagan era and were more of a social community than a typical Christian Italian city. Openly practicing homosexuality was not only widely accepted but almost encouraged: peace and love for everyone, homie. They promoted pleasure in everything, and were very open about all aspects of the pleasure in their lives.
As for intellectual and architectural accomplishments, the city of Pompeii was very advanced. It's such a shame it was destroyed, I feel like this would have been all over the history books. Not only was it so advanced, it was also all made of marble and frescoed everywhere so it was gorgeous. They didn't quite have street drainage systems (although they had the first form of sewage systems in their bath houses and aqueducts) so the sidewalks were much higher than the streets, and the city placed on a hill so the water would roll down. However, one still had to cross the streets so they were the first to invent the crosswalk. These were raised (2 feet-ish) large boulders placed sporadically across the city for the pedestrians to cross the street without having to walk in the sitting water on the streets. They also placed iridescent rocks within the cobblestone so light would reflect and illuminate the carriages way at night.
We also saw their town halls, museums (which I think were erected later on to house all of the artifacts they could save) and their bakeries which were also advanced for their days. There were over 40 elaborate stone water fountains which were used as landmarks in the city when people were trying to meet. It was a regular city with most of the things our cities today have, but it's crazy to think about how long ago the figured out all of the things we're still using today.
About two thirds of Pompeii is excavated and they have halted excavations. They're currently faced with some problems, they receive over 3 million visitors/year who touch and try to take home "souvenirs" so they're causing problems with preserving the ruins. They decided the best way to combat this is to leave the remaining one third preserved under the ash to keep it for future generations to remember.
While I loved the beaches, cruising on the boats, the funky shopping and gorgeous sights of Capri and Positano, Pompeii was amazing for the sights and historical aspect. Learning is so much fun when in Italy! Heh.
We got back on the bus for our 6 hour trip back to Florence Sunday night. We later found out that three hours before the earthquake we actually passed through that area. I was feeling so lucky to have experienced everything I saw this weekend, but then I started to feel much more lucky that the earthquake didn't affect me. My mom told me that when she tried to call my Italian cell phone it said, "we're sorry, the country you are trying to reach right now is unavailable." Scary! But we're all okay and had a wonderful weekend!! :)
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| 09-04-02 Sorrento, Capri, Positano, Pompeii |
Monday, April 6, 2009
Earthquake?!
I'm alive!
I'm sure you were all losing sleep wondering if this awful earthquake was near me, but it was in fact 150 or so miles south of Florence. On my trip back from Sorrento on the bus last night we actually were near it, saw some bad weather but luckily didn't feel anything. From everything I've been reading and hearing, the earthquake sounded pretty bad. USA says it had a magnitude of 6.3, Italy swears it was 5.8. 50 reported dead with thousands injured, and many more expected to be found. 10-15,000 buildings were destroyed and thousands were left homeless.
This was a really bad earthquake! It never occurred to me that coming to study in Italy put me at a risk like this, rather eye opening. Berlusconi declared a state of emergency, but Florence seems to be functioning on par.
So this week is midterms, and then spring break! Stay tuned for the Sorrento/Capri/Positano/Pompeii entry and pictures (after I ace these midterms of course).
Ciao!
I'm sure you were all losing sleep wondering if this awful earthquake was near me, but it was in fact 150 or so miles south of Florence. On my trip back from Sorrento on the bus last night we actually were near it, saw some bad weather but luckily didn't feel anything. From everything I've been reading and hearing, the earthquake sounded pretty bad. USA says it had a magnitude of 6.3, Italy swears it was 5.8. 50 reported dead with thousands injured, and many more expected to be found. 10-15,000 buildings were destroyed and thousands were left homeless.
This was a really bad earthquake! It never occurred to me that coming to study in Italy put me at a risk like this, rather eye opening. Berlusconi declared a state of emergency, but Florence seems to be functioning on par.
So this week is midterms, and then spring break! Stay tuned for the Sorrento/Capri/Positano/Pompeii entry and pictures (after I ace these midterms of course).
Ciao!
Monday, March 23, 2009
I basically met Shakespeare and Dante this weekend.
Ciao!
This past weekend was Rutgers excursion #3 of 4 to the region of Veneto and it was definitely the best one yet. We got on the bus at 7am on Friday for a 4 hour trip to Verona. The weather had been in the high 60's all week but of course the 2 days we go somewhere it drops to 40, so we had a rather chilly guided tour of the city. We were very confused when we saw the first stop...it was a pink Colosseum. Apparently around 1117 Verona suffered a devastating earthquake leaving the city in need of rebuilding. At that time Roman influences were so strong so most of the architecture was of Romanesque styles, hence the Colosseum lookalike. Right next to it was a building with the same front as the Pantheon, we kept finding more and more and doing double-takes left and right. The next stop on the tour was the Casa Di Giulietta (as in Shakespeare's Juliet) which I'm still a little confused about. I know "Juliet" didn't exist, but I think it was the house of the Capulet family who did exist, but Juliet was a made up character in the real feud between the Capulets and the Montegues (thats what i got from the tourguide who spoke broken english). We saw THE balcony, touched the famous golden boob of Juliet for good luck, and signed the wall of love on the way out. The house itself was much smaller than I imagined. I first thought it was cool to be standing in the same place Shakespeare had, then she told us he probably never set foot in Verona but only set the story there after reading lots about it. Bummer.
So on our way down to the river we stopped at a little church, honestly at this point after seeing so many gorgeous churches I don't even remember what it was about. (Siena's duomo is still my favorite) The river (with clean water?! - a rarity in Italy) overlooked beautiful mansions. Next was to the farthest part of town where we saw the last remnants of the wall which used to surround the city. There weren't very many specific sights to see in Verona, but walking through the streets it gave off a very authentic Italian city feel. It would definitely be a live-able city, not too touristy.
After the tour we had some free time for lunch so we picked a cute little place and were told to try their famous Spritzer (orange, white wine and seltzer - delicious!). They failed to inform us we would have time for lunch and I had just eaten a panini so I went with a gelato covered fruit salad, so good! It came with this ridiculously long, absolutely unnecessary lime green straw which served no purpose other than providing mass amounts of entertainment for five 21 year olds. After lunch we all hopped back on the bus for the Valpolicella wine region...
Nick picked a special little winery for us to tour and have a tasting at... a direct descendent of Dante, how appropriate! It was the Sergeo-Alighieri winery (they added that first name when the last daughter of Dante got married to keep the Alighieri name alive). We had a guided tour where they walked us through all the different rooms/houses for each step in the wine making process. We started out in the gardens, then to the bamboo drying racks room, next to the pressing area, then where they store it down in the humid rooms in vats, the second place where aging occurred in cherry vats for less time, and then finally to bottling. Then comes the best part, the wine tasting. We tried 3 different wines, all of different ages with crackers to go inbetween and cleanse our palates of course. It was so cool, the woman was explaining to us the differences between the wines and teaching us how to drink them. So not only was the the land and the view gorgeous, the old authentic italian buildings were quaint, but the wine was absolutely fabulous.
We hopped back on the bus headed for Bardolino where we had dinner and stayed the night/overtook the hotel. Like, literally we were the only guests and occupied every room in the joint (Italian hotels are generally very tiny). We got there before dinner so we walked around what was our first visit to an Italian beach town and went down to the water. It was a little chilly but seeing the boardwalk, (quite different from what you're thinking at the jersey shore) the palm trees and the water was well worth it. After walking around and seeing, yep you guessed it, the wall that used to surround the city during feudal italy, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. It was an alright meal, we probably overwhelmed the poor chef having to cook for us all. Afterwards everyone kind of split up and did there own thing and Nick and i got into a sangria making contest of sorts. It was fun, I like to think i prevailed as the superb fruit-cutter. Later that night everyone sat around (like, almost all 50 of us) playing a little "never have i ever" and just chatting. We all passed out on the early side, this whole touring europe thing is exhausting, in order to get up for venice the next day.
After a 3 hour bus ride/nap we walk out of the bus into the streets of Venice and... now I knew the streets of Venice were water from the books I read, but like, I walked out of the station and...the streets were water. It was the most bizarre sight but probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I saw a taxi FLOAT by followed by an ambulance wailing it's...boat sirens? It was so much to take in, luckily we had a tourguide who gave us a tour of the city for the first half of the day. The first stop was the newest addition to venice, it's 16 million euro bridge made of steel and glass which caused great controversy in the economics department of Venice, made very evident by our local tourguide. It was however, pretty to look at, the steps were glass and at the top we had a great view of the main waterway.
Next we were taken out to lunch at Taverna San Trovaso where we had the greatest lasagna I've ever tasted in my life. No exaggeration. They make it with a different type of cheese and barely any red sauce, it almost looked brown, but I'm totally getting the recipe. Segundo piatti was veal and french fries (again, I swear, if I get french fries one more time while I'm in Italy...) and for dessert - authentic tiramisu. After lunch we had some free time to walk around and do a little shopping. This was probably my favorite city to stroll and look in all the little shops. I know I say this about every city, but it really did have it's own specific feel to it.
We ventured back to Piazza San Marco and walked through La basilica di San Marco, it was over 1000 years old and every thing inside was mosaiced. It was gorgeous and huge...and...a...church. After we walked down to the water and took lots of pictures and looked out at all the other islands. Venice is made up of about 118 small islands surrounded by marshy causeways. Gondolas used to be the main source of transportation between these, but they seem to be moving more towards motored boats, how boring.
After our free time we had to meet back at the train station where we took a train to a nearby town, hopped back on our bus, and had about a 3 hour ride back to Florence. I loved the trip, I would definitely go back to at least Venice and I think winery touring/tasting could definitely be a new hobby of mine! As for the title of this entry (basically meeting Dante and Shakespeare) it's just so incredible to think that I could've been standing in the exact same spot that someone so remarkably intelligent, creative and well-known once was. Most of these famous figures who I've had some type of a involvement with since I've been here were seen so unorthodox because they were the first to try their new respective styles, but look at their legends now. This is definitely one experience I could not have gotten in New Brunswick, New Jersey...
Pics:
This past weekend was Rutgers excursion #3 of 4 to the region of Veneto and it was definitely the best one yet. We got on the bus at 7am on Friday for a 4 hour trip to Verona. The weather had been in the high 60's all week but of course the 2 days we go somewhere it drops to 40, so we had a rather chilly guided tour of the city. We were very confused when we saw the first stop...it was a pink Colosseum. Apparently around 1117 Verona suffered a devastating earthquake leaving the city in need of rebuilding. At that time Roman influences were so strong so most of the architecture was of Romanesque styles, hence the Colosseum lookalike. Right next to it was a building with the same front as the Pantheon, we kept finding more and more and doing double-takes left and right. The next stop on the tour was the Casa Di Giulietta (as in Shakespeare's Juliet) which I'm still a little confused about. I know "Juliet" didn't exist, but I think it was the house of the Capulet family who did exist, but Juliet was a made up character in the real feud between the Capulets and the Montegues (thats what i got from the tourguide who spoke broken english). We saw THE balcony, touched the famous golden boob of Juliet for good luck, and signed the wall of love on the way out. The house itself was much smaller than I imagined. I first thought it was cool to be standing in the same place Shakespeare had, then she told us he probably never set foot in Verona but only set the story there after reading lots about it. Bummer.
So on our way down to the river we stopped at a little church, honestly at this point after seeing so many gorgeous churches I don't even remember what it was about. (Siena's duomo is still my favorite) The river (with clean water?! - a rarity in Italy) overlooked beautiful mansions. Next was to the farthest part of town where we saw the last remnants of the wall which used to surround the city. There weren't very many specific sights to see in Verona, but walking through the streets it gave off a very authentic Italian city feel. It would definitely be a live-able city, not too touristy.
After the tour we had some free time for lunch so we picked a cute little place and were told to try their famous Spritzer (orange, white wine and seltzer - delicious!). They failed to inform us we would have time for lunch and I had just eaten a panini so I went with a gelato covered fruit salad, so good! It came with this ridiculously long, absolutely unnecessary lime green straw which served no purpose other than providing mass amounts of entertainment for five 21 year olds. After lunch we all hopped back on the bus for the Valpolicella wine region...
Nick picked a special little winery for us to tour and have a tasting at... a direct descendent of Dante, how appropriate! It was the Sergeo-Alighieri winery (they added that first name when the last daughter of Dante got married to keep the Alighieri name alive). We had a guided tour where they walked us through all the different rooms/houses for each step in the wine making process. We started out in the gardens, then to the bamboo drying racks room, next to the pressing area, then where they store it down in the humid rooms in vats, the second place where aging occurred in cherry vats for less time, and then finally to bottling. Then comes the best part, the wine tasting. We tried 3 different wines, all of different ages with crackers to go inbetween and cleanse our palates of course. It was so cool, the woman was explaining to us the differences between the wines and teaching us how to drink them. So not only was the the land and the view gorgeous, the old authentic italian buildings were quaint, but the wine was absolutely fabulous.
We hopped back on the bus headed for Bardolino where we had dinner and stayed the night/overtook the hotel. Like, literally we were the only guests and occupied every room in the joint (Italian hotels are generally very tiny). We got there before dinner so we walked around what was our first visit to an Italian beach town and went down to the water. It was a little chilly but seeing the boardwalk, (quite different from what you're thinking at the jersey shore) the palm trees and the water was well worth it. After walking around and seeing, yep you guessed it, the wall that used to surround the city during feudal italy, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. It was an alright meal, we probably overwhelmed the poor chef having to cook for us all. Afterwards everyone kind of split up and did there own thing and Nick and i got into a sangria making contest of sorts. It was fun, I like to think i prevailed as the superb fruit-cutter. Later that night everyone sat around (like, almost all 50 of us) playing a little "never have i ever" and just chatting. We all passed out on the early side, this whole touring europe thing is exhausting, in order to get up for venice the next day.
After a 3 hour bus ride/nap we walk out of the bus into the streets of Venice and... now I knew the streets of Venice were water from the books I read, but like, I walked out of the station and...the streets were water. It was the most bizarre sight but probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I saw a taxi FLOAT by followed by an ambulance wailing it's...boat sirens? It was so much to take in, luckily we had a tourguide who gave us a tour of the city for the first half of the day. The first stop was the newest addition to venice, it's 16 million euro bridge made of steel and glass which caused great controversy in the economics department of Venice, made very evident by our local tourguide. It was however, pretty to look at, the steps were glass and at the top we had a great view of the main waterway.
Next we were taken out to lunch at Taverna San Trovaso where we had the greatest lasagna I've ever tasted in my life. No exaggeration. They make it with a different type of cheese and barely any red sauce, it almost looked brown, but I'm totally getting the recipe. Segundo piatti was veal and french fries (again, I swear, if I get french fries one more time while I'm in Italy...) and for dessert - authentic tiramisu. After lunch we had some free time to walk around and do a little shopping. This was probably my favorite city to stroll and look in all the little shops. I know I say this about every city, but it really did have it's own specific feel to it.
We ventured back to Piazza San Marco and walked through La basilica di San Marco, it was over 1000 years old and every thing inside was mosaiced. It was gorgeous and huge...and...a...church. After we walked down to the water and took lots of pictures and looked out at all the other islands. Venice is made up of about 118 small islands surrounded by marshy causeways. Gondolas used to be the main source of transportation between these, but they seem to be moving more towards motored boats, how boring.
After our free time we had to meet back at the train station where we took a train to a nearby town, hopped back on our bus, and had about a 3 hour ride back to Florence. I loved the trip, I would definitely go back to at least Venice and I think winery touring/tasting could definitely be a new hobby of mine! As for the title of this entry (basically meeting Dante and Shakespeare) it's just so incredible to think that I could've been standing in the exact same spot that someone so remarkably intelligent, creative and well-known once was. Most of these famous figures who I've had some type of a involvement with since I've been here were seen so unorthodox because they were the first to try their new respective styles, but look at their legends now. This is definitely one experience I could not have gotten in New Brunswick, New Jersey...
Pics:
 |
| 09-03-20 Venetto |
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ireland!
Hello lads!
Just returned from Ireland (Wed-Sun) and had a fantastic time! We stayed with our roommie from Rutgers (Jacquie) and it was so nice having a "real home" to come back to exhausted every night. We literally came with just a backpack, 5 days of...life for 4 girls in 4 backpacks, quite amusing. Jacq and her rommates have a legit house with a living room, 2 floors, many jail-less bedrooms, a redone kitchen and the nicest roommates ever. Not to mention we got to spend 5 days with Jacq!
So we got in Wednesday night and first stop was of course a pub. We went to Oliver St. John Gogary Pub and had our first Guinness in the homeland. Okay, slight exaggeration, everyone got a Guinness because they felt they needed to pay their homage to Ireland/St. Patrick's day, and Jacq and I enjoyed a much lighter beer, Smitticks. There was an old man band playing pub songs and the atmosphere was just so jolly, like something I've never experienced before. We made friends with some clearly inebriated Irish lads, it only made the night more fun. We headed back after a few hours to get a good night's sleep for hiking the next day.
Thursday morning we got an early start for hiking in the Wickalow mountains. We stopped for BAGEL SANDWICHES (<3home<3) on the way to the bus and loved every bite. The ride was about 45 minutes from Dublin and dropped us off at the beginning of the "Wickalow Way." We hiked through Wickalow National Park and ended up in the town of Glendalough. The countryside was so gorgeous, and it's true, I saw more shades of green than I ever could've ever imagined existed. We also saw some sheep, horses, puppies, adorable old Irish grandparents and many other gorgeous natural sights. We were spent on the ride back so we all took a nap, showered up, and got ready for our first Irish meal. Off to Sheehans for some authentic Irish dinner, they had Guinness pies, meat & potato everything, lots of curry dishes?, fish & chips, basically all of the essentials. Since we had a Guinness the night before we opted for the Jameson & Coke tonight. The meal was delicious but we were stuffed so we sat around and chatted for quite some time. I just loved sitting there A. with my friends (Jill, Jacquie, Morgan and Jen) and B. taking in the overly friendly Irish, hearing the live music (more pub songs) and admiring the adorable pub decor. Once we digested enough to go out dancing we made our way to Messer-McGuires Bar and danced the night away. We encountered an interesting, what we think was a birthday party where we found plastic handcuffs, a blowup doll and some other interesting paraphernalia. Never a dull moment in Ireland! The old man DJ soon became our good friend as we were requesting songs left and right, anything from Lady GaGa to Build Me Up Buttercup. Needless to say, we had a wicked awesome time.
Friday morning we went out for a typical Irish breakfast at Sophie's cafe. It was delicious, sunny side up eggs, sausage (with spices i've never tasted before), bacon (but more like pieces of thick ham) and these baked beans in a tomato sauce. After, Jacquie gave us a personal walking tour of the city of Dublin. It is such a cool city with a mix of very old and very modern attractions, however it was probably ten times cooler because everything was hustle-bustle and decorated for St. Patrick's day. We hit the main attractions, St. Patrick's Cathedral and it's courtyard which had more flowers in bloom in March than I've ever seen anywhere in the USA. Walked along the river, saw all the major pubs, the spire (the 390 ft. stainless steel tower in the center of O'Connell street). We walked along the main streets and stopped in some fun stores which were of course decorated for St. Patrick's day. There were people out in the squares playing music, even a comedian who picked on us for being American, of course. Everyone on the streets and in the stores were so so friendly, oh, and the all spoke English! On the way back we stopped at...McDonald's for the ever so famous March Shamrock shakes...in Ireland. I don't like them so I got a McFlurry, but it was quite an experience going to a McDonald's in Ireland. Friday night was interesting. We got back, ate some dinner at the house and brought Morgan to the bus stop for the airport because her boyfriend was coming Saturday. To make a long story short, she got to the terminal at exactly 47 minutes until the flight (Ryanair says you need to check in only 45 minutes early) and they wouldn't let her on. We didn't know thise so we're sitting in the living room a good 2 hours later and Morgan storms back into the house. She had to buy another ticket which left for Rome at 6am Saturday morning, so obviously we had to go out drinking to cheer her up. There's a slight possibility she may have made the flight if she hadn't stopped to buy some authentic shepherds pie mix on the way, but I guess we'll never know. I have to say, she made it for dinner yesterday night and it was delicious. I don't know if it was worth the extra $175 she had to pay for a new ticket... but it was a great experience!
Saturday we slept in and spent the morning lounging with all the roommies. Eventually we made it out to Stephen's Greene and sat in the sun, people watched and wrote a few postcards. Walked around town a little more, did Merrion square, bought a few souvenirs and just enjoyed the city. Apparently in Dublin they stop serving dinner around 5 which didn't help our hungry stomachs at 8 when we were looking for dinner. (They close at 5 because they assume nobody eats dinner since Guinness can basically fill you up enough, and the Irish don't need to eat before drinking anyway) We ended up going to Captain America's (i know... but you gotta do what you gotta do) and had burgers. It was delicious and a really fun "Americanized" place, but don't worry we went to a great Irish place after. We went to Purty Kitchen, Jacq's favorite place to go dancing, and had so so so much fun. The bottom floor had a live band and the top floor had a DJ. Danced our pants off until the wee hours of the morning, the Irish way.
Sunday came so fast and we decided we needed to do one more Irish thing before we left that night. We chose touring the Guinness factory and were very happy with that decision. The museum-y part was shaped like a pint glass and walked you through the different floors which told you each step in the brewing process. Everything was so high-tech and they accompanied it with the history of Arthur Guinness and his beer, showing all of the quirky old ads. It was really interesting! When we got to the top floor there was a gravity bar which overlooked all of Dublin and they gave you a free pint of Guinness. Not going to lie, I don't love it, but I must say it did taste much better having it fresh from there.
We got back to Jacq's and had to repack ALL of our stuff, including the new things we bought, into our tiny little backpacks. We stopped for dinner on the way at another great Irish place and got an Irish coffee to prepare us for the trip. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare because we couldn't afford missing class due to a Morgan-esque incident. It was good though, caught up on some Dante reading in the airport and tearfully got on the plane to come back to Italy. Oh my life is sooo rough. I have to say though, it was so nice being in an English speaking country. I didn't realize until I woke up from the bus back into Italy and my little Italian headache returned from having to constantly translate every sign I see here. It just felt like the people were so much nicer to us, maybe because we weren't obnoxious poor-speaking students who just frustrate the locals here. Perhaps too it's because they're always drunk there, or maybe we just needed a little break form the harsher Italians. Whatever the case is, we had a fantastic trip and I'm only half kidding, I'm happy to be back here. I have to say though, I would absolutely love to go back and see the rest of Ireland, we only got a taste of what it has to offer.
We couldn't quite stay for St. Patrick's Day, so we went to the Dublin Pub in Florence to celebrate. They had green beer and we had a great time. It wasn't quite like Ireland, but don't worry, we practiced our new Irish accents while we were there. I don't think the holiday is very big here, mostly Americans in the bar, but that didn't impeded on our fun.
Next up: Rutgers excursion #3: Venetto. We'll be visiting Verona, Bardolino, Valpolicella for a winery tour and Venice!
Just returned from Ireland (Wed-Sun) and had a fantastic time! We stayed with our roommie from Rutgers (Jacquie) and it was so nice having a "real home" to come back to exhausted every night. We literally came with just a backpack, 5 days of...life for 4 girls in 4 backpacks, quite amusing. Jacq and her rommates have a legit house with a living room, 2 floors, many jail-less bedrooms, a redone kitchen and the nicest roommates ever. Not to mention we got to spend 5 days with Jacq!
So we got in Wednesday night and first stop was of course a pub. We went to Oliver St. John Gogary Pub and had our first Guinness in the homeland. Okay, slight exaggeration, everyone got a Guinness because they felt they needed to pay their homage to Ireland/St. Patrick's day, and Jacq and I enjoyed a much lighter beer, Smitticks. There was an old man band playing pub songs and the atmosphere was just so jolly, like something I've never experienced before. We made friends with some clearly inebriated Irish lads, it only made the night more fun. We headed back after a few hours to get a good night's sleep for hiking the next day.
Thursday morning we got an early start for hiking in the Wickalow mountains. We stopped for BAGEL SANDWICHES (<3home<3) on the way to the bus and loved every bite. The ride was about 45 minutes from Dublin and dropped us off at the beginning of the "Wickalow Way." We hiked through Wickalow National Park and ended up in the town of Glendalough. The countryside was so gorgeous, and it's true, I saw more shades of green than I ever could've ever imagined existed. We also saw some sheep, horses, puppies, adorable old Irish grandparents and many other gorgeous natural sights. We were spent on the ride back so we all took a nap, showered up, and got ready for our first Irish meal. Off to Sheehans for some authentic Irish dinner, they had Guinness pies, meat & potato everything, lots of curry dishes?, fish & chips, basically all of the essentials. Since we had a Guinness the night before we opted for the Jameson & Coke tonight. The meal was delicious but we were stuffed so we sat around and chatted for quite some time. I just loved sitting there A. with my friends (Jill, Jacquie, Morgan and Jen) and B. taking in the overly friendly Irish, hearing the live music (more pub songs) and admiring the adorable pub decor. Once we digested enough to go out dancing we made our way to Messer-McGuires Bar and danced the night away. We encountered an interesting, what we think was a birthday party where we found plastic handcuffs, a blowup doll and some other interesting paraphernalia. Never a dull moment in Ireland! The old man DJ soon became our good friend as we were requesting songs left and right, anything from Lady GaGa to Build Me Up Buttercup. Needless to say, we had a wicked awesome time.
Friday morning we went out for a typical Irish breakfast at Sophie's cafe. It was delicious, sunny side up eggs, sausage (with spices i've never tasted before), bacon (but more like pieces of thick ham) and these baked beans in a tomato sauce. After, Jacquie gave us a personal walking tour of the city of Dublin. It is such a cool city with a mix of very old and very modern attractions, however it was probably ten times cooler because everything was hustle-bustle and decorated for St. Patrick's day. We hit the main attractions, St. Patrick's Cathedral and it's courtyard which had more flowers in bloom in March than I've ever seen anywhere in the USA. Walked along the river, saw all the major pubs, the spire (the 390 ft. stainless steel tower in the center of O'Connell street). We walked along the main streets and stopped in some fun stores which were of course decorated for St. Patrick's day. There were people out in the squares playing music, even a comedian who picked on us for being American, of course. Everyone on the streets and in the stores were so so friendly, oh, and the all spoke English! On the way back we stopped at...McDonald's for the ever so famous March Shamrock shakes...in Ireland. I don't like them so I got a McFlurry, but it was quite an experience going to a McDonald's in Ireland. Friday night was interesting. We got back, ate some dinner at the house and brought Morgan to the bus stop for the airport because her boyfriend was coming Saturday. To make a long story short, she got to the terminal at exactly 47 minutes until the flight (Ryanair says you need to check in only 45 minutes early) and they wouldn't let her on. We didn't know thise so we're sitting in the living room a good 2 hours later and Morgan storms back into the house. She had to buy another ticket which left for Rome at 6am Saturday morning, so obviously we had to go out drinking to cheer her up. There's a slight possibility she may have made the flight if she hadn't stopped to buy some authentic shepherds pie mix on the way, but I guess we'll never know. I have to say, she made it for dinner yesterday night and it was delicious. I don't know if it was worth the extra $175 she had to pay for a new ticket... but it was a great experience!
Saturday we slept in and spent the morning lounging with all the roommies. Eventually we made it out to Stephen's Greene and sat in the sun, people watched and wrote a few postcards. Walked around town a little more, did Merrion square, bought a few souvenirs and just enjoyed the city. Apparently in Dublin they stop serving dinner around 5 which didn't help our hungry stomachs at 8 when we were looking for dinner. (They close at 5 because they assume nobody eats dinner since Guinness can basically fill you up enough, and the Irish don't need to eat before drinking anyway) We ended up going to Captain America's (i know... but you gotta do what you gotta do) and had burgers. It was delicious and a really fun "Americanized" place, but don't worry we went to a great Irish place after. We went to Purty Kitchen, Jacq's favorite place to go dancing, and had so so so much fun. The bottom floor had a live band and the top floor had a DJ. Danced our pants off until the wee hours of the morning, the Irish way.
Sunday came so fast and we decided we needed to do one more Irish thing before we left that night. We chose touring the Guinness factory and were very happy with that decision. The museum-y part was shaped like a pint glass and walked you through the different floors which told you each step in the brewing process. Everything was so high-tech and they accompanied it with the history of Arthur Guinness and his beer, showing all of the quirky old ads. It was really interesting! When we got to the top floor there was a gravity bar which overlooked all of Dublin and they gave you a free pint of Guinness. Not going to lie, I don't love it, but I must say it did taste much better having it fresh from there.
We got back to Jacq's and had to repack ALL of our stuff, including the new things we bought, into our tiny little backpacks. We stopped for dinner on the way at another great Irish place and got an Irish coffee to prepare us for the trip. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare because we couldn't afford missing class due to a Morgan-esque incident. It was good though, caught up on some Dante reading in the airport and tearfully got on the plane to come back to Italy. Oh my life is sooo rough. I have to say though, it was so nice being in an English speaking country. I didn't realize until I woke up from the bus back into Italy and my little Italian headache returned from having to constantly translate every sign I see here. It just felt like the people were so much nicer to us, maybe because we weren't obnoxious poor-speaking students who just frustrate the locals here. Perhaps too it's because they're always drunk there, or maybe we just needed a little break form the harsher Italians. Whatever the case is, we had a fantastic trip and I'm only half kidding, I'm happy to be back here. I have to say though, I would absolutely love to go back and see the rest of Ireland, we only got a taste of what it has to offer.
We couldn't quite stay for St. Patrick's Day, so we went to the Dublin Pub in Florence to celebrate. They had green beer and we had a great time. It wasn't quite like Ireland, but don't worry, we practiced our new Irish accents while we were there. I don't think the holiday is very big here, mostly Americans in the bar, but that didn't impeded on our fun.
Next up: Rutgers excursion #3: Venetto. We'll be visiting Verona, Bardolino, Valpolicella for a winery tour and Venice!
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| 09-03-15 Ireland! |
Monday, March 9, 2009
Fiesole
Fiesole, pronounced "Fee uhh sole lay" is said to have "heavenly" sights in some guidebooks we read.
We slept in on Saturday and got off to a leisurely start. Sensing a pattern here?? When in Italy... one behaves as a slow moving, relaxed, stress-free Italian. We figured out the Florence bus system and hopped on for a 20 minute ride up the cliffs of Tuscany. We got off towards the top and literally just walked around the town for a few hours. We found lots of scenic overlooks which were gorgeous to just sit and look off and take tons of pictures. There was a little park at the top near a school which was fun to walk around there. It was a gorgeous day, sunglasses were a must and finally, a coat was not. The weather is supposed to start to break this week... good thing I'm going to Ireland where it's 45. There's no escaping this cold!
So we walked across the town at the top and assumed the road we chose would lead us back to where we came from. The whole time we were joking (but secretly stressing) that if it didn't we would have to walk ALL the way back up this gianormous hill...think roads over cliffs. The walk down was gorgeous, it cut around the edge of the town so there were sights and villas thats you only see in the movies. We were in luck, the road let us right back to the piazza where the bus dropped us off. We decided to walk halfway down the hill instead of catching the bus there to see more of the town. It was so steep walking down, I couldn't imagine walking up the hill. We took our time coming down, again admiring villas and cliffs, and eventually caught the bus into town.
When we got back to our apartment we all sat down and looked at our gorgeous pictures and caught up on some emails. We went out to a little pub we've been eyeing for dinner and got hamburgers and birra (silly Americans). I had an Italian beer because it was the only non-basically-black beer, and I liked it. I got the Messicano burger (jalapenos and formaggio (cheese)) I know, quite the eclectic mix, but it was fantastic. Manola said the only time Italian's drink beer is when they eat pizza. We decided to extend that pizza exception over to American hamburgers, even though I got a Mexican one...ehhh, minor details. So after that we checked out the Dublin Pub because that's where we want to go for St. Patty's day. We loved it, it was adorable and so quaint, perhaps the new favorite.
Classes all this week, leaving for Ireland Wednesday night until Sunday to visit Jacquie!! (roomie from rutgers) So no updates until at least next Tuesday. Don't miss me too much :)
Fiesole pictures:
We slept in on Saturday and got off to a leisurely start. Sensing a pattern here?? When in Italy... one behaves as a slow moving, relaxed, stress-free Italian. We figured out the Florence bus system and hopped on for a 20 minute ride up the cliffs of Tuscany. We got off towards the top and literally just walked around the town for a few hours. We found lots of scenic overlooks which were gorgeous to just sit and look off and take tons of pictures. There was a little park at the top near a school which was fun to walk around there. It was a gorgeous day, sunglasses were a must and finally, a coat was not. The weather is supposed to start to break this week... good thing I'm going to Ireland where it's 45. There's no escaping this cold!
So we walked across the town at the top and assumed the road we chose would lead us back to where we came from. The whole time we were joking (but secretly stressing) that if it didn't we would have to walk ALL the way back up this gianormous hill...think roads over cliffs. The walk down was gorgeous, it cut around the edge of the town so there were sights and villas thats you only see in the movies. We were in luck, the road let us right back to the piazza where the bus dropped us off. We decided to walk halfway down the hill instead of catching the bus there to see more of the town. It was so steep walking down, I couldn't imagine walking up the hill. We took our time coming down, again admiring villas and cliffs, and eventually caught the bus into town.
When we got back to our apartment we all sat down and looked at our gorgeous pictures and caught up on some emails. We went out to a little pub we've been eyeing for dinner and got hamburgers and birra (silly Americans). I had an Italian beer because it was the only non-basically-black beer, and I liked it. I got the Messicano burger (jalapenos and formaggio (cheese)) I know, quite the eclectic mix, but it was fantastic. Manola said the only time Italian's drink beer is when they eat pizza. We decided to extend that pizza exception over to American hamburgers, even though I got a Mexican one...ehhh, minor details. So after that we checked out the Dublin Pub because that's where we want to go for St. Patty's day. We loved it, it was adorable and so quaint, perhaps the new favorite.
Classes all this week, leaving for Ireland Wednesday night until Sunday to visit Jacquie!! (roomie from rutgers) So no updates until at least next Tuesday. Don't miss me too much :)
Fiesole pictures:
 |
| 09-04-07 Fiesole |
Saturday, March 7, 2009
San Gimignano and Siena
Bongiorno!
Yesterday was Rutgers excursion #2 and they took us to San Gimignano and Siena for what was one of my favorite trips yet. We started out the day at 8:30 for a little over an hour busride to San Gimignano. The town is famous for it's medieval architecture, many towers, filming of quite a few movies (Tea With Mussoulini, Where Angels Fear to Tread...) oh, and white wine. Out of all of the towns I've been to so far, this one was definitely one of my top favorites, it had a different feel than any of the others, it was gorgeous, relaxed, antique yet modern and had so many panoramic sights overlooking Tuscany. Photo warning #1: i took way too many pictures off the cliffs.
Our tour began at the bottom of a hill, where we had to walk up a very steep incline to get to the entrance of the town. The entrance was reminiscent of a fort entrance which we found out is in fact what it was, during the medieval ages in feudal Italy it served as protection. The street we entered on, which was the main street of the town, was Via Francigena. This street crosses through Italy, France, Switzerland, and England connecting Canterbury and Rome for Catholic pilgrimages to the Vatican. Needless to say, it's a very long street. Duh Jes. Anyway, the main drag housed tons of little, adorable, home-y shoppes that we enjoyed looking in. Our first stop was the town's oldest church. Today the facade is still there but it has been turned into....dum dum dum...a little, adorable, home-y shoppe that sold wine.
As we were walking along we saw a few towers, there are only 14 left after about 60 of them had been destroyed or taken down due to war or urban renewal (tehe, thats public health). We stopped in the famous Piazza del Cisterna which houses the "world champion gelato" I couldnt quite get it at 1045am before even having coffee yet. So Jill and Morgan tried it and loved it while Jen and I enjoyed it's neighbor cafe's cappuccino.
Next we saw San Gimignano's duomo (main church) which was nothing to write home about. The cool thing about it was that it is one of the only duomos to not have a main one front door. This is because once the Via Francigena came through they decided to turn the church around so it's front was on the main street. There is something about destroying the back wall where the altar once was in a church, so they saved that wall calling it holy and put doors to the left and right of it. This also served as the separate women's and men's entrances during the period when men and women had to sit on separate sides of churches.
After that we walked up another huge hill which lead to yet another panoramic view of Tuscany. So. beautiful. Jen and I literally sat there for 40 minutes (we were given free time) just looking out, occasionally formulating thoughts. A bunch of the guys took off their shirts and were "sun bathing." Needless to say we all enjoyed FINALLY seeing the sun and feeling it's warmth. I could barely stand to take off my coat, but I did to feel the sun on my frigid Florentine bones.
Next was lunch, they took us out to this great restaurant, thanks Rutgers! I mean, mom and dad! They gave us pasta bolognese (without the redsauce, much better) then chicken and home made french fries (I bet they knew we were American). For dessert we had a tart with fruity jam, needless to stay we were stuffed. They gave us their famous San Gimignano white wine which was my favorite white wine I've ever tasted.
After that we hopped back on the bus for Siena. On the way we stopped at this really cool little commune that looked like a fort. The town is called Monteriggioni and it literally has a fortress of a brick wall (built in 1212) around the city of 42 inhabitants. The main street (and basically only street) running through here was Via Francigena, the one that runs from Canterbury, so this was a stop on many pilgrimages. It was tiny but very cool and I think the reason we stopped there is because Dante mentions it in his "Inferno." So of course there was a Via Dante Alighieri (street). Also, there was this big well and one myth says it's the well Dante enters Hell from.
We arrived in Siena around 4 and were given a short tour of the very hilly city. First stop was San Domenico Basilica, built in honor of St. Catherine who convinced the Pope to move the papacy back to Italy when it momentarily moved to Avignon. The fact that a woman is credited with this was huge. So now, the biggest thing I learned on this trip: do you know why some churches are just churches and some are basilicas? I didn't... Well, to be a basilica the church has to house a relic. Yes, a relic. So, inside the Basilica of St. Catherine is...her head and her thumb. Cool?
After the Basilica we had a long and very hilly walk up to Siena's duomo. It was absolutely gorgeous and my favorite duomo yet. Again, this one was originally intended to be the largest duomo in the world, but construction was never finished when the plague hit and killed literally half of Siena's population. For that reason half of the duomo is outside.
Our last stop on the tour was the main piazza of Siena, Piazza del Camp which is huge and houses the Paolo (famous horse race) twice a year in June and August. We saw pictures of the day of the race and it gets absolutely packed. After being told a little about the history and the architecture we were given free time to roam. By then we were freezing so we found a cute little cafe to get some caffe and warm up. After we ventured into some stores, met up with everyone and got back up on the bus to come home.
It was a great day and I would definitely go back to San Gimignano. It had the perfect mix of a quaint Tuscany feel with gorgeous sights, and a modern, hilly San Franciscian feel. I hope we have more beautiful days like this and I can't wait to be able to explore more outside sights.
Pictures!
Yesterday was Rutgers excursion #2 and they took us to San Gimignano and Siena for what was one of my favorite trips yet. We started out the day at 8:30 for a little over an hour busride to San Gimignano. The town is famous for it's medieval architecture, many towers, filming of quite a few movies (Tea With Mussoulini, Where Angels Fear to Tread...) oh, and white wine. Out of all of the towns I've been to so far, this one was definitely one of my top favorites, it had a different feel than any of the others, it was gorgeous, relaxed, antique yet modern and had so many panoramic sights overlooking Tuscany. Photo warning #1: i took way too many pictures off the cliffs.
Our tour began at the bottom of a hill, where we had to walk up a very steep incline to get to the entrance of the town. The entrance was reminiscent of a fort entrance which we found out is in fact what it was, during the medieval ages in feudal Italy it served as protection. The street we entered on, which was the main street of the town, was Via Francigena. This street crosses through Italy, France, Switzerland, and England connecting Canterbury and Rome for Catholic pilgrimages to the Vatican. Needless to say, it's a very long street. Duh Jes. Anyway, the main drag housed tons of little, adorable, home-y shoppes that we enjoyed looking in. Our first stop was the town's oldest church. Today the facade is still there but it has been turned into....dum dum dum...a little, adorable, home-y shoppe that sold wine.
As we were walking along we saw a few towers, there are only 14 left after about 60 of them had been destroyed or taken down due to war or urban renewal (tehe, thats public health). We stopped in the famous Piazza del Cisterna which houses the "world champion gelato" I couldnt quite get it at 1045am before even having coffee yet. So Jill and Morgan tried it and loved it while Jen and I enjoyed it's neighbor cafe's cappuccino.
Next we saw San Gimignano's duomo (main church) which was nothing to write home about. The cool thing about it was that it is one of the only duomos to not have a main one front door. This is because once the Via Francigena came through they decided to turn the church around so it's front was on the main street. There is something about destroying the back wall where the altar once was in a church, so they saved that wall calling it holy and put doors to the left and right of it. This also served as the separate women's and men's entrances during the period when men and women had to sit on separate sides of churches.
After that we walked up another huge hill which lead to yet another panoramic view of Tuscany. So. beautiful. Jen and I literally sat there for 40 minutes (we were given free time) just looking out, occasionally formulating thoughts. A bunch of the guys took off their shirts and were "sun bathing." Needless to say we all enjoyed FINALLY seeing the sun and feeling it's warmth. I could barely stand to take off my coat, but I did to feel the sun on my frigid Florentine bones.
Next was lunch, they took us out to this great restaurant, thanks Rutgers! I mean, mom and dad! They gave us pasta bolognese (without the redsauce, much better) then chicken and home made french fries (I bet they knew we were American). For dessert we had a tart with fruity jam, needless to stay we were stuffed. They gave us their famous San Gimignano white wine which was my favorite white wine I've ever tasted.
After that we hopped back on the bus for Siena. On the way we stopped at this really cool little commune that looked like a fort. The town is called Monteriggioni and it literally has a fortress of a brick wall (built in 1212) around the city of 42 inhabitants. The main street (and basically only street) running through here was Via Francigena, the one that runs from Canterbury, so this was a stop on many pilgrimages. It was tiny but very cool and I think the reason we stopped there is because Dante mentions it in his "Inferno." So of course there was a Via Dante Alighieri (street). Also, there was this big well and one myth says it's the well Dante enters Hell from.
We arrived in Siena around 4 and were given a short tour of the very hilly city. First stop was San Domenico Basilica, built in honor of St. Catherine who convinced the Pope to move the papacy back to Italy when it momentarily moved to Avignon. The fact that a woman is credited with this was huge. So now, the biggest thing I learned on this trip: do you know why some churches are just churches and some are basilicas? I didn't... Well, to be a basilica the church has to house a relic. Yes, a relic. So, inside the Basilica of St. Catherine is...her head and her thumb. Cool?
After the Basilica we had a long and very hilly walk up to Siena's duomo. It was absolutely gorgeous and my favorite duomo yet. Again, this one was originally intended to be the largest duomo in the world, but construction was never finished when the plague hit and killed literally half of Siena's population. For that reason half of the duomo is outside.
Our last stop on the tour was the main piazza of Siena, Piazza del Camp which is huge and houses the Paolo (famous horse race) twice a year in June and August. We saw pictures of the day of the race and it gets absolutely packed. After being told a little about the history and the architecture we were given free time to roam. By then we were freezing so we found a cute little cafe to get some caffe and warm up. After we ventured into some stores, met up with everyone and got back up on the bus to come home.
It was a great day and I would definitely go back to San Gimignano. It had the perfect mix of a quaint Tuscany feel with gorgeous sights, and a modern, hilly San Franciscian feel. I hope we have more beautiful days like this and I can't wait to be able to explore more outside sights.
Pictures!
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| 2009-02-06 San Gimignano Siena |
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Nuova classe
Ciao!
This week starts week 5 and that means the real classes begin. The rain has returned so that has put a slight damper on our excitedness about big girl classes, it's also provided us with way more bonding time with our umbrellas and wet jeans than desired. So Monday morning I had to drag myself out of bed for my 12:40 Italian Literature class, let me tell you, it was rough. Kidding. I actually was up at 8:15 because for once I got plenty of sleep! Loving the new schedule, no more language class at 9am every morning (I know that doesn't sound early but Jill and I were up at 6:45 everyday or else we didn't get showers, not to mention the 30 minute (walking) commute door to door). So where was I... up early, had time to get in a nice workout, shower and catch up on some things around the apartment all before class.
Get to class, perhaps I should reiterate that it was Italian Literature. "Tradition, Crisis and Transition in 14th Century Italian Literature." Quite frankly I'm scared out of my mind as I've never taken anything not ending in -ology. It's going to be okay though because Nick is the professor, right?? The first class was more of a history lesson leading up to the 14th century pertaining to the authors we'll be reading (headliners: Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio). It was interesting, most of the people in the class have a background in some sort of English or Literature, so I think I was a little less informed than most to begin with, but that just means I'll have some extra reading to do. He assigned La Vita Nuova and the first five canti of Dante's Inferno to read (totaling about 130 pages). I totally understood and loved La Vita Nuova (also Dante) and then I attempted to dive into Inferno. That was interesting. The left side of the page is Italian and the right is the English translation. So I read the English, it has an old-english sound to it but is WAY more easy to read than Shakespeare. At the end of each canto in the back is an explanation of everything that happened, I had to read each verse's, go back to the original verse to reread it and then I'd be like "OHHHH!" I almost find it fun, it's so interesting, the only problem is that it's incredibly time consuming.
Tuesday's class was European Politics. I love the professoressa, she's a native Italian but speaks very good English. The class is definitely heavy, it too will be a lot of reading and memorizing. Again, I'm one of two non-poli sci majors. It's not my favorite topic, but she makes it interesting and keeps me engaged. I need this one to graduate so I'm going to have to do well :)
After Politics I had Language class again, now we have it Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. I got another feisty professoressa and we're basically best friends. I sit in the front corner (there are 3 long tables arranged in a U) and she always comes over to me and we chat. I wish I could convey to you how crazy she is, but I definitely love her more than Manola. I'm liking that language class isn't every morning, but I'm sure my Italian will suffer a little. Elizabeta only speaks in Italian and I've been following everything, so we'll see...
Today I had Literature again and I seemed to keep up! Good sign. After was Language class and that's just fun, oh, and we get to practice our Italian.
Today (Thursday) I had Politics again which was good, and then Italian Cinema (which I do need to graduate, so don't think I'm not doing work here!). Francesca is the Cinema professoressa and that alone is fabulous. We're starting with Neo-realism which is the period right after WWI capturing "true life" aka no sappy, romantic, italian love stories. We watched "Open City" today and it was REALLY sad. The class is very interesting though, we cover all sorts of topics including Spaghetti Westerns.
Tomorrow is our trip to San Giminiininnao and Sienna, so stay tuned for pictures of that. It's supposed to rain all day so do a little anti-rain dance for me, per favore.
This week starts week 5 and that means the real classes begin. The rain has returned so that has put a slight damper on our excitedness about big girl classes, it's also provided us with way more bonding time with our umbrellas and wet jeans than desired. So Monday morning I had to drag myself out of bed for my 12:40 Italian Literature class, let me tell you, it was rough. Kidding. I actually was up at 8:15 because for once I got plenty of sleep! Loving the new schedule, no more language class at 9am every morning (I know that doesn't sound early but Jill and I were up at 6:45 everyday or else we didn't get showers, not to mention the 30 minute (walking) commute door to door). So where was I... up early, had time to get in a nice workout, shower and catch up on some things around the apartment all before class.
Get to class, perhaps I should reiterate that it was Italian Literature. "Tradition, Crisis and Transition in 14th Century Italian Literature." Quite frankly I'm scared out of my mind as I've never taken anything not ending in -ology. It's going to be okay though because Nick is the professor, right?? The first class was more of a history lesson leading up to the 14th century pertaining to the authors we'll be reading (headliners: Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio). It was interesting, most of the people in the class have a background in some sort of English or Literature, so I think I was a little less informed than most to begin with, but that just means I'll have some extra reading to do. He assigned La Vita Nuova and the first five canti of Dante's Inferno to read (totaling about 130 pages). I totally understood and loved La Vita Nuova (also Dante) and then I attempted to dive into Inferno. That was interesting. The left side of the page is Italian and the right is the English translation. So I read the English, it has an old-english sound to it but is WAY more easy to read than Shakespeare. At the end of each canto in the back is an explanation of everything that happened, I had to read each verse's, go back to the original verse to reread it and then I'd be like "OHHHH!" I almost find it fun, it's so interesting, the only problem is that it's incredibly time consuming.
Tuesday's class was European Politics. I love the professoressa, she's a native Italian but speaks very good English. The class is definitely heavy, it too will be a lot of reading and memorizing. Again, I'm one of two non-poli sci majors. It's not my favorite topic, but she makes it interesting and keeps me engaged. I need this one to graduate so I'm going to have to do well :)
After Politics I had Language class again, now we have it Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. I got another feisty professoressa and we're basically best friends. I sit in the front corner (there are 3 long tables arranged in a U) and she always comes over to me and we chat. I wish I could convey to you how crazy she is, but I definitely love her more than Manola. I'm liking that language class isn't every morning, but I'm sure my Italian will suffer a little. Elizabeta only speaks in Italian and I've been following everything, so we'll see...
Today I had Literature again and I seemed to keep up! Good sign. After was Language class and that's just fun, oh, and we get to practice our Italian.
Today (Thursday) I had Politics again which was good, and then Italian Cinema (which I do need to graduate, so don't think I'm not doing work here!). Francesca is the Cinema professoressa and that alone is fabulous. We're starting with Neo-realism which is the period right after WWI capturing "true life" aka no sappy, romantic, italian love stories. We watched "Open City" today and it was REALLY sad. The class is very interesting though, we cover all sorts of topics including Spaghetti Westerns.
Tomorrow is our trip to San Giminiininnao and Sienna, so stay tuned for pictures of that. It's supposed to rain all day so do a little anti-rain dance for me, per favore.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Pisa
So before you all even ask, of course I took the cliche leaning tower pictures. It was so much fun, and way more difficult than we expected. We slept in Saturday morning after exhausting ourselves between acing our finals and partying oh so hard at Nick's house Friday night and got off to a leisurely start. Jill, Jen, Morgan and I took the train to Pisa which was about an hour and ten minutes and set off to see the town. We had heard you don't need to devote more than about 4 or 5 hours there, but we wanted to find that out for ourselves. The walk from the train station to the tower was a straight-shot up one street, but it was full of shops and pastereccias so we stopped in a few and looked around.
We turned the corner of the street and then right in front of us, through some apartments, was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Again, like the Colosseum, it was so weird how people literally live next door. It leans only 5 degrees, which is about 15 feet...but it really looked like it was a lot! The field of miracles, which surrounds the Duomo, Baptistry and Bell tower, was significantly smaller than I expected. Regardless, it was still fun to just hangout there and take tons of pictures. The weather was in the mid 60's (yay finally!) and we refused to wear our coats. Can't have all our pictures from Italy bundled up with coats and scarves now, can we?? While on the subject of pictures, I think I found another calling in life: photographing people in funny poses in front of the leaning tower of pisa. I got down, literally laying in the grass, and took pictures of all the girls because I got so good at making it look like they were literally touching the tower. Needless to say I was down there for a while, and strangers kept coming up to me and asking me to take pictures of them! Too funny.
So there were touristy things to walk around and see, bought a few funny souvenirs for some people (is it you?!) and enjoyed just walking around. It was a very clean city, the streets were wider than Florence's and it just felt like a very upbeat and happy city. They too have an Arno (river) and with the weather being so perfect, we took tons of pictures. It was so clear the buildings were reflecting in the water, I don't know if you realize how dirty the Arno gets sometimes when the rain stirs it all up.
On our way back we tried to stop at a Rick Steve's recommended pizzeria (our goal is to try pizza in all of the cities we go to) called Galileo, because he studied and taught at the University of Pisa, but it was closed. We were already close to the train station and didn't find any other places that looked too good, so we hopped on the train and came back to Florence.
Went out for pizza at the pizzeria everyone had been talking about which is conveniently located literally across the street from our apartment. It was so good! I got (they're personal pizzas) mushroom, tomato, sausage, artichoke and mozzarella. Everyone keeps asking, yes the pizza here is different. It's much thinner and they do personal pizzas more often than big ones. They don't leave you with the greasy tummy feeling American pizzas do. I really like the pizza here, but sometimes I do crave a nice greasy slice of Alfonso's pizza. mmmm.
So we came back and were exhausted. Plopped down on our beds and were excited to look at all of our pictures. It was a great day, we had lots of fun and can now cross another great city off our list. Next weekend we have another Rutgers excursion in Tuscany (San Gimignano and Sienna). We've officially been here for a MONTH, ah! It's going at the perfect pace though, fast enough to not feel homesick, but slow enough to feel like we have time to get to do everything we want to. Monday starts our "real" classes, so I'll let you know how that goes. No more getting up at 7 and fighting for showers with 10 girls at a time, yay!
Pisa pics:
We turned the corner of the street and then right in front of us, through some apartments, was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Again, like the Colosseum, it was so weird how people literally live next door. It leans only 5 degrees, which is about 15 feet...but it really looked like it was a lot! The field of miracles, which surrounds the Duomo, Baptistry and Bell tower, was significantly smaller than I expected. Regardless, it was still fun to just hangout there and take tons of pictures. The weather was in the mid 60's (yay finally!) and we refused to wear our coats. Can't have all our pictures from Italy bundled up with coats and scarves now, can we?? While on the subject of pictures, I think I found another calling in life: photographing people in funny poses in front of the leaning tower of pisa. I got down, literally laying in the grass, and took pictures of all the girls because I got so good at making it look like they were literally touching the tower. Needless to say I was down there for a while, and strangers kept coming up to me and asking me to take pictures of them! Too funny.
So there were touristy things to walk around and see, bought a few funny souvenirs for some people (is it you?!) and enjoyed just walking around. It was a very clean city, the streets were wider than Florence's and it just felt like a very upbeat and happy city. They too have an Arno (river) and with the weather being so perfect, we took tons of pictures. It was so clear the buildings were reflecting in the water, I don't know if you realize how dirty the Arno gets sometimes when the rain stirs it all up.
On our way back we tried to stop at a Rick Steve's recommended pizzeria (our goal is to try pizza in all of the cities we go to) called Galileo, because he studied and taught at the University of Pisa, but it was closed. We were already close to the train station and didn't find any other places that looked too good, so we hopped on the train and came back to Florence.
Went out for pizza at the pizzeria everyone had been talking about which is conveniently located literally across the street from our apartment. It was so good! I got (they're personal pizzas) mushroom, tomato, sausage, artichoke and mozzarella. Everyone keeps asking, yes the pizza here is different. It's much thinner and they do personal pizzas more often than big ones. They don't leave you with the greasy tummy feeling American pizzas do. I really like the pizza here, but sometimes I do crave a nice greasy slice of Alfonso's pizza. mmmm.
So we came back and were exhausted. Plopped down on our beds and were excited to look at all of our pictures. It was a great day, we had lots of fun and can now cross another great city off our list. Next weekend we have another Rutgers excursion in Tuscany (San Gimignano and Sienna). We've officially been here for a MONTH, ah! It's going at the perfect pace though, fast enough to not feel homesick, but slow enough to feel like we have time to get to do everything we want to. Monday starts our "real" classes, so I'll let you know how that goes. No more getting up at 7 and fighting for showers with 10 girls at a time, yay!
Pisa pics:
 |
| 09-02-28 Pisa |
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
4th week recap
So what have I been doing since Bologna? Lots actually. To start, we got up Sunday morning and went to the American diner for brunch! We got the "All American..." 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, hashbrowns, bacon/sausage and American coffee. So how was it you ask? The eggs weren't so yolk-y, the bacon was probably more like the intestines of a gopher, the sausage was slightly burnt, the pancakes were very thin and the coffee was incredibly weak. Basically, the BEST thing I've eaten since I got here. I miss ihop, but I won't complain... the pizza, gelato, prosciutto and fresh produce here are to die for. So after our leisurely brunch we stopped by the store to pick up some cleaning supplies and we cleaned the apartment. It was well needed with 10+ people romping around all the time. I'm still not really sure where Sunday went but after cleaning, we did homework, looked at our Bologna pictures, made a family dinner and then it was bedtime.
Monday with Francesca's class we went to the Florentine American Cemetery. It was an incredible experience, when we first walked in it was a very quiet and solemn looking out at the 4,000+ crosses in the field. Then this older tourguide came out and gave us the history of not only the cemetery, but also America's involvement in WWII in Italy. The graves were all fallen American soldiers fighting on the Allies side specifically in Italy. It was amazing how this guy knew some of the specific stories of certain soldiers and how he made the whole place literally come alive. The average age of the guys in there (there were 4 women) was something like 19 or 20 which was really awful to think about, that's younger than me. It was emotional to think about that, all of the lost young lives, families affected, a war over trying to "take over the world." It was also interesting to hear Francesca's take on the Americans coming in and helping the ill-prepared Italians fight off the Germans. She's always telling us how grateful we should feel to be an American and I think I didn't truly appreciate this until I came here. She was talking about how if we didn't intercede, Italy would not at all be what it is today and who knows what else the Germans would have done. I've had a few other moments where I've really appreciated being an American, especially when it comes to freedom of speech, specifically of speaking out against the government. People here they are REALLY anti- Berlusconi (prime minister, who really really is awful from what i've been learning) and there isn't much they can do about it. There are quite a few laws and ways of life here that I don't think I'd enjoy having to get used to. So for that reason, I will see you all in the end of May, I promise.
Tuesday the weather was gorgeous and we actually got to enjoy our walks to and from school. We learned about The Great Flood in Florence in 1966 which literally destroyed the city of Florence. Luckily it was on November 4th which is a national holiday here so not too many people were out or at work which they say probably saved hundreds of lives. The water rose up to the second floor of most of the buildings (over 20ft) and almost destroyed the Ponte Vecchio (man that thing has withstood lots). After it finally stopped raining, the city was under mass amounts of mud and the stench was said to be awful, Francesca says she still remembers the smell. After class it was so beautiful so Jen and I decided to go for a run. We ran down along the Arno (river) and it made me almost forget that I don't really like to run. We were glad we went though, our bodies have been rather stationary other than the walking we do, I think I found a chair sore yesterday morning. So Tuesday was fat tuesday and here in Italy they eat a special cake called Schiacciata alla Florentine. I think we did it wrong, Francesca made it sound like they're supposed to cut it in half and fill it with whatever you pick. Us non-Italian speaking Americans couldn't quite convey that to the Pastereccia owner, so we got plain. While we ate we tried to come up with things to give up for lent, Jen's was the best... try to talk to 3 native Italians per day in Italian.
Wednesday we talked about the Mafia in Francescas class, it almost pained her to admit that the Mafia began in her home country. It was interesting, the theory about the Mafia begin as a "good" entity is in fact false, which I did not know. It began around the time when Italy started becoming a unified state, which is how the bosses became so deep rooted. The people were against uniting with their hated neighbors (remember the regionalism?) so they were against the one government which helped the fedual lords (bosses) rise to power. People began going to them because they could get "stuff" done faster than the new, inexperienced government. On a lighter note, it was Ash Wednesday so we decided since we live so close to the Duomo which happens to be Florence's most famous church we should take full advantage. We went around 6 and the mass was, yep, in Italian. I caught words here and there and could figure out where they were in mass thanks to CCD. The church was gorgeous between the frescos and all of the candles, it was however freezing in there thanks to the huge ceilings. The ashes they gave out were powder and they put it on top of your head instead of your forehead. They also gave out communion which I dont' think they do at home on Ash Wednesday, and it tasted like real bread. Overall, we were happy we went, it was very peaceful and beautiful even if we didn't totally understand.
Thursday was not very eventful, it was our final in Francesca's class. 2 essays which I'm sure I did fine on. Back home to study for the harder final which was the next day, language.
Friday morning got up nice and early, ate a hearty breakfast and set off for our intensive language final. Took it during the first half of class and then they shoved us all in a room and we had a "party." AKA everyone brought food which we ate while they graded our tests. They called us in one by one to show us how we did, I got an A =) Friday afternoon we stopped at the market on our way home, made a nice lunch and then went out to do a little shopping/window browsing/drooling. Friday night Nick (program director) had us all over for a little party which was fun. His apartment was huge with a sweet terrace on the roof. About an hour or so in a bunch left for the clubs but 10 or so of us stayed behind. I'm not a fan of the clubs here, I find it weird that at least half of the people there are in their 40's bumpin and grindin up on the 16 year olds in there. So the group that stayed had some quality bonding time with Nick. We found out that after he studied here he stayed for 2.5 more years and was a bike tour guide around Tuscany. (He just finds all the coolest jobs!) While doing his masters at Indiana he wrote a book when McGraw-Hill called personally and asked him, it's called "Streetwise Italian." When he asked me why I wasn't taking his Italian Literature class (that's what he's working on his PhD in) I told him I was a science major and my brain doesn't think that way. Then he told me his undergrad was in math.... now he's Italian Literature? So I'm thinking about taking it instead of History here, because I'm also taking Italian Politics and I feel like they will be similar. Plus I feel like I'm in Italy and I should broaden my academic horizons, we'll see how this goes...
So that was my week, next up: Pisa trip!
Here are some pictures from the American Cemetery:
Monday with Francesca's class we went to the Florentine American Cemetery. It was an incredible experience, when we first walked in it was a very quiet and solemn looking out at the 4,000+ crosses in the field. Then this older tourguide came out and gave us the history of not only the cemetery, but also America's involvement in WWII in Italy. The graves were all fallen American soldiers fighting on the Allies side specifically in Italy. It was amazing how this guy knew some of the specific stories of certain soldiers and how he made the whole place literally come alive. The average age of the guys in there (there were 4 women) was something like 19 or 20 which was really awful to think about, that's younger than me. It was emotional to think about that, all of the lost young lives, families affected, a war over trying to "take over the world." It was also interesting to hear Francesca's take on the Americans coming in and helping the ill-prepared Italians fight off the Germans. She's always telling us how grateful we should feel to be an American and I think I didn't truly appreciate this until I came here. She was talking about how if we didn't intercede, Italy would not at all be what it is today and who knows what else the Germans would have done. I've had a few other moments where I've really appreciated being an American, especially when it comes to freedom of speech, specifically of speaking out against the government. People here they are REALLY anti- Berlusconi (prime minister, who really really is awful from what i've been learning) and there isn't much they can do about it. There are quite a few laws and ways of life here that I don't think I'd enjoy having to get used to. So for that reason, I will see you all in the end of May, I promise.
Tuesday the weather was gorgeous and we actually got to enjoy our walks to and from school. We learned about The Great Flood in Florence in 1966 which literally destroyed the city of Florence. Luckily it was on November 4th which is a national holiday here so not too many people were out or at work which they say probably saved hundreds of lives. The water rose up to the second floor of most of the buildings (over 20ft) and almost destroyed the Ponte Vecchio (man that thing has withstood lots). After it finally stopped raining, the city was under mass amounts of mud and the stench was said to be awful, Francesca says she still remembers the smell. After class it was so beautiful so Jen and I decided to go for a run. We ran down along the Arno (river) and it made me almost forget that I don't really like to run. We were glad we went though, our bodies have been rather stationary other than the walking we do, I think I found a chair sore yesterday morning. So Tuesday was fat tuesday and here in Italy they eat a special cake called Schiacciata alla Florentine. I think we did it wrong, Francesca made it sound like they're supposed to cut it in half and fill it with whatever you pick. Us non-Italian speaking Americans couldn't quite convey that to the Pastereccia owner, so we got plain. While we ate we tried to come up with things to give up for lent, Jen's was the best... try to talk to 3 native Italians per day in Italian.
Wednesday we talked about the Mafia in Francescas class, it almost pained her to admit that the Mafia began in her home country. It was interesting, the theory about the Mafia begin as a "good" entity is in fact false, which I did not know. It began around the time when Italy started becoming a unified state, which is how the bosses became so deep rooted. The people were against uniting with their hated neighbors (remember the regionalism?) so they were against the one government which helped the fedual lords (bosses) rise to power. People began going to them because they could get "stuff" done faster than the new, inexperienced government. On a lighter note, it was Ash Wednesday so we decided since we live so close to the Duomo which happens to be Florence's most famous church we should take full advantage. We went around 6 and the mass was, yep, in Italian. I caught words here and there and could figure out where they were in mass thanks to CCD. The church was gorgeous between the frescos and all of the candles, it was however freezing in there thanks to the huge ceilings. The ashes they gave out were powder and they put it on top of your head instead of your forehead. They also gave out communion which I dont' think they do at home on Ash Wednesday, and it tasted like real bread. Overall, we were happy we went, it was very peaceful and beautiful even if we didn't totally understand.
Thursday was not very eventful, it was our final in Francesca's class. 2 essays which I'm sure I did fine on. Back home to study for the harder final which was the next day, language.
Friday morning got up nice and early, ate a hearty breakfast and set off for our intensive language final. Took it during the first half of class and then they shoved us all in a room and we had a "party." AKA everyone brought food which we ate while they graded our tests. They called us in one by one to show us how we did, I got an A =) Friday afternoon we stopped at the market on our way home, made a nice lunch and then went out to do a little shopping/window browsing/drooling. Friday night Nick (program director) had us all over for a little party which was fun. His apartment was huge with a sweet terrace on the roof. About an hour or so in a bunch left for the clubs but 10 or so of us stayed behind. I'm not a fan of the clubs here, I find it weird that at least half of the people there are in their 40's bumpin and grindin up on the 16 year olds in there. So the group that stayed had some quality bonding time with Nick. We found out that after he studied here he stayed for 2.5 more years and was a bike tour guide around Tuscany. (He just finds all the coolest jobs!) While doing his masters at Indiana he wrote a book when McGraw-Hill called personally and asked him, it's called "Streetwise Italian." When he asked me why I wasn't taking his Italian Literature class (that's what he's working on his PhD in) I told him I was a science major and my brain doesn't think that way. Then he told me his undergrad was in math.... now he's Italian Literature? So I'm thinking about taking it instead of History here, because I'm also taking Italian Politics and I feel like they will be similar. Plus I feel like I'm in Italy and I should broaden my academic horizons, we'll see how this goes...
So that was my week, next up: Pisa trip!
Here are some pictures from the American Cemetery:
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| 09-02-23 American cemetery |
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Bologna
Ciao ciao!
So, woke up early again on a Saturday for the Rutgers planned excursion to Bologna. A little background for you, Bolonga is the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region and is a little over an hour north of Florence. It is supposed to be one of the best cities to live in, in Italy due to it's location (between the Po River and the Apennines mountains, and at the intersection of many main highways and trains) as well as it's strong industry.
Our first stop was this little school, nobody is quite sure what the name was. Samuelo (tour guide) talked about how the architecture of most of the buildings in Bologna are all brick. This is how Bologna became known as "the red city," and this happened because brick was significantly cheaper and more accessible than marble during the time when the city was being built. So at this school were many tombs, which are apparently found all over the city near schools, of esteemed professors. It's what they do there, they save the dead bodies of great professors. To each his own.
Next stop was the Basilica of San Petronio which is the 5th largest church in the world. When this church was being built in the 1300's the original plans for it would make it larger than the Vatican. The Pope wouldn't have any of that so he had it truncated (cut the top off) and halted any future construction. Anyway, inside the church was gorgeous, and it had about 10 or so mini side chapels. Each one was decorated very different than the next, one was bright with stain glass windows, the next was dark and dreary. There was also the world's largest sun clock in there which was really neat but complex, and no I couldn't tell what time it read.
The next stop was my favorite, The University of Bologna built in 1088 and is the oldest existing university in all of Europe. It was beautifully decorated and I had to keep reminding myself that people actually went to school here! They specialize in Law, Medicine and Humanities... I could totally go hereeee. My favorite room was the Anatomical theater which there are only 2 others remaining in the world (Netherlands and Sweeden). This one was actually reconstructed after it was destroyed in WWII but with all of the same pieces. It was a huge all wooden room with benches facing the middle where there was a marble table on a raised platform. The professor would sit at the head and instruct the TA's what to dissect in teaching the class Anatomy. So cool, and it's still used today. Famous graduates that I recognized: Dante and Copernicus.
After the university we broke for lunch. We were told to try the torellini because that as well as Bolganese sauce is what Bologna is famous for. We pick this cute little trattoria and of course I decided that since Jill was getting the toretllini I would just taste hers and get the Dill marinated Salmon because I have been dying for seafood. Bad move Gulutz. It comes out and at first I thought it was raw. Apparently it was smoked, oh and cold, like lox, but I didn't have a bagel, oh, and I don't like lox. It was served over a bed of julienned veges. Boo. I tried it, I ate a little bit, but Jill was nice and shared her exquisitely delicious homemade tortellini with me.
After lunch we climbed one of the two towers of Bologna, yes all 480 steps. By the way, the tower is leaning and a lightening rod had to be installed as it was frequently struck by lightening and caught on fire. It was well worth it though! The sight from the top was gorgeous, overlooking all of Bologna.
The last stop was the Santo Stefano church. I'm not really sure why this one is so famous. It does contain a sepulcher which has the exact replica of the exterior of Jesus's in Jerusalem. It was the least fancy of all the churches we've been to, and very dark.
Samuelo, the same guy who gave us the tour of Rome was our tour guide again. We weren't thrilled because he speaks mostly in Italian and you really have to focus on what he's saying to get it. He studied history and architecture in school and knows a ridiculous amount about both, and so he told us all of that...every....detail. He lost a lot of us because he just kept going not realizing that we weren't all as intensely interested in the gothic pillars as was he.
So that was our day in Bologna, I really enjoyed seeing the city but it was definitely not as much of a tourist city as Rome. Maria (our coordination assistant) said she lived in Bologna for a little while and thought it was a much better city to live in than Florence. Florence tends to be a heavily toured city (which is great since I'm only here for 4 months) but she said she'd prefer to live in Bologna. Guess what they say about the city is true!
Pictures from Bologna (click, it's an album):
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| 09-02-21 Bologna |
Saturday, February 21, 2009
week recap
Ciao a tutti!
I could say I had a fairly uneventful week, but... I'm in Italy so nothing is truly "uneventful" because just walking past the Duomo on my way to school is an event in anyone's eyes.
Monday with Francesca's class we went to the Salvatore Ferragamo museum, deep breaths Auntie! It was really cool, I must admit I didn't know much about him, in fact I didn't even know he was a shoe designer (go ahead, laugh). Anyway, I'd always admired these shoes in the window on the Arno (river) and figured because of the way they were arranged they were probably pricey. Well, after visiting this museum I'm going to go with pricey being a gross understatement, shoes were in the thousands. In his defense, he was an incredibly creative and innovative designer, but still that's just ridiculous. We saw shoes designed specifically for, and worn by Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Sofia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Eva Gardner, Greta Gertagarbo, etc. He became well known during WWII when specific materials were in low supply and he created things like the cork wedge and fishing line straps, revolutionary. I picked out a few great pairs if anyone needs a birthday present for me...(April 19th). Afterwords we ventured out to the grocery store again, and let me tell you we are now pros at Italian grocery shopping.
Tuesday we talked about Neorealism in Italian films (using real people instead of actors, on location shooting and no scripts to give the viewer a feel of what social and political issues are currently affecting the population) and watched a few experts these movies. I don't know how one person (Francesca) can know SO much about EVERYTHING, but she is a plethora of useful and interesting information.
Wednesday we were in class again, this time discussing the period of Italian history that Francesca and most Italians are not so proud of, Fascism and WWII. Learned all about Mussolini, how he was a journalist who came from nothing and used his personality and journalism contacts to succeed. By the end of his regime he had almost full control of the media and used that to his advantage. What I didn't know was that Italy's current Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is doing the same thing and people are worried that history is literally going to repeat itself. Berlusconi founded one of the country's ten largest privately owned companies which operates in media and finance, 3 out of the 9 national analogue tv channels, various digital channels, and a few large newsmagazines. When you group all of this together it accounts for nearly half the Italian media market! Forbes says he is Italy's third richest person (Michele Ferrero and Leonardo del Vecchio are numbers 1 and 2). So the Prime Minister here is strongly disliked, and is currently faced with no opposition in any of the recent elections. Uh-oh.
So back to Fascism, there are still paintings on some local walls of propaganda-type sayings from Mussolini's era promoting him and the idea. In Mussolini's defense he went about things very effectively, it's just his intentions were not so pure. He targeted (easily persuadable) kids by creating many sport/entertainment outings thinking the more he kept them busy they less time they'd have to think, and began teaching them his history in school so they'd grow up to like him; college professors by giving them the idea that within fascism they would have the freedom to do and teach whatever they want; and provided a sense of economic hope to those families in need, hmm...sound familiar? What was really funny is that during one meeting between Hitler and Mussolini, where Mussolini insisted he didn't need any translators present because he knew "enough" German, it is thought that Hitler told Mussolini of his plans to invade Poland and Mussolini accidently agreed... completely unaware of what Hitler really said. The thing was that under the Pact of Steel Italy was militarily committed to Germany, so that meant they too had to invade Poland.
Thursday was one of those lessons where I just smile because I can't believe that what I'm doing at the moment is getting me college credit. Don't get me wrong, I do my fair share of work here, but Thursday's class was a cooking lesson at Mario's, the oldest trattoria in Florence. Well, it would have been a cooking lesson had there not been 48 people on this program. They had to alter it a little, so we all piled into the basement of this trattoria where they served us our first course, Ribollita which was of course delicious. It's an ancient traditional Florentine first dish where I think they basically cook, and then keep cooking vegetable soup with going-stale bread until it becomes thicker. It was absolutely delicious. The second course was ziti with ragu, but not the typical ragu as it had no red sauce. It sounded like they just cook ground beef with some top secret spices and then put it on the macaroni (the oils from it made it good too). Very simple, yet again, very delicious. Normally with smaller groups this is a hands on lesson, so they had to modify it by just telling us verbally how they made this and we can email them for a written explanation. Of course I did mom.
Friday I woke up sick AGAIN, sweet. Haven't had one in 4 years and I get 2 in 3 weeks. We stopped at the San Lorenzo market to stock up on produce for the week on the way home from school. Went to the doctor that afternoon because I used up all the Sudafed I brought on my last cold. He was a really neat guy from England (with an accent!) who Rutgers uses so everything was free. He gave me a prescription for some super decongestant and I've been feeling a little better. Attempting to buy cold medicine all in Italian was too intimidating so since it was free I went to him, apparently that was a great idea because he said most of the stuff you find in the local farmacias (farm-a-chee-a, like CVS) are homeopathic type things...and written solely in Italian. Friday night we took it easy, the girls went over to the guy's apartment for a little and tucked me in early so I'd make it through our Bologna trip the next day.
Week 3 zoomed by, I can't believe how fast time here is going! I'm enjoying ever second of it though, and when I type up these blog entries it's fun because I get to relive my adventurous days. Stay tuned for the Bologna writeup, it's almost dinner time.
Monday, February 16, 2009
It's true, people do get pickpocketed in Rome. Then they punch me in the chest.
I bet you're incredibly interested in the title of this entry, and for that reason I'm going to give you the play by play of the day in the order that it happened and not start with the fact that I did in fact get punched in the chest by a pickpocket.
So, the day began around 6am on a SATURDAY morning (oye, what a life having to get up early to go see Rome) when we had to pack up and meet the 20 or so of us from our school at the train station. We set off for the 1.5 hour train ride (generally a 3 hour car ride) on a very comfortable train with nice big windows for the trip. The ride was gorgeous, it was hard to keep my eyes open to see the scenery as I was so tired, but I fought the sleep urge for the first half of the trip. I got to see the sun rising over the countryside inbetween Florence and Rome. Off in the mountains there were perfect villas perfectly spread apart where you still have neighbors, but plenty of land and privacy to yourself. Early in the morning there was smoke coming from the chimneys of many of them and needless to say I have since began researching renting the cozy villas for when i hit the lottery.
We arrived around 9am and set off on the walking tour with 2 professors from Linguaviva who were impressively knowledgeable about the history of Rome and it's sights for being an Italian language teacher native to Florence. The first stop was the basilica Santa Maria Maggiore which is the only of the basilicas from ancient Rome to hold it's original structure, even after the great earthquake which ruined most of the others. After the papacy moved back to Rome from the Avignon period and the first vatican began to deteriorate, it served as the temporary headquarters until the new one was finished. This church was definitely gorgeous, but you know, it's just another one of the hundreds of churches I've seen in Italy. I did get to see a beautiful wedding in one of the side chapels inside (there were a few mini-chapels inside the actual church) though, imagine getting married in one of the most famous churches in the country? World? Religion?
So next we're walking and seeing some hills, old stairs, cool buildings, through a part that had an almost San Francisco feel. Walking and walking... then we walk down this big hill and overlook this truly breathtaking scene of older remains on a cliffed area. I just thought it was a pretty sight, I mean, there were apartments to the right and streets cutting through. I kept walking. BAM, Colosseum! I wouldn't at all be exaggerating if I told you I gasped for air. I was so not expecting it to be RIGHT THERE and it was unbelievably huge, next to a palm tree?, gorgeous, ancient...huge. I can't explain this to you in words, but I swear it felt like everything went silent and I just stared at this massive structure thinking about all of the history in it and wondered what it looked like when it was in use. the entire thing, which held over 80,000 people was built in under 11 years and was used for gladiators, horse races, animal "hunts," some type of sea battles which i didn't quite understand, executions and shows for entertainment. i believe it was ruined in an earthquake, but don't quote me on that.
Next we walked some ways, saw the Olympic track where "Ben-Hurr type events took place" and some more random ruins. I don't know where we were, but we walked up (tons) of stairs and were at this great overlooking sight where we could see most of Rome via rooftop. It was gorgeous, there were gardens up there but I have no idea where it was. I wish I could scan my pictures into google and find out the name. Maybe I'll invent that to make tons of money so I can get one of those country villas I saw on the way.
The climb down dumped us in front of Campidoglio (Capitoline hill- yep, it's where we got the name Capital Hill from) which was designed by Michaelangelo and used to house the archives of ancient Rome. Today it's a museum and Rome's city hall. It was pretty, there were great statues and everything around it, but I think I would have taken much more from it had I went into some of the museums. We were on a tight schedule though, so maybe next time.
Up some more hills until we were overlooking Foro Romano (the Roman Forum) which used to house the royal family, the senate, and was basically the economic hub located right in the center of Rome. I guess it began to fall apart at the collapse of the Roman Empire and has since been deteriorating. I know it was ruins, but it was just a gorgeous sight and so weird to think that 25 feet away there was a main street with cars and traffic lights and electric things...
After the Forum, where everyone seemed to linger around because it felt like there was so much to look at, we gathered around Trevi's fountain and broke for lunch. We found this cute little trattoria where we all got Roman pizza and it was pretty good. I asked the woman if she had grated cheese to put on top of my vege piece...and she just looked at me and smiled, "we don't do that here ragazza." hrmph.
After lunch it started getting really cold, like, really cold. We took pictures and threw a penny into Trevi Fountain for good luck and met back up with the group. While we were standing around we were near a Burger King where a man was pulling out his wallet on his way in. (suspenseful music, commence) A stocky little older man dressed all in dark colors snags the wallet out of the buisnessman's hand and jets. Just so happens I was standing perfectly in the line of fire, probably 5 feet from the incident, and the thief runs directly into my chest and pushes me back. Did I mention he was stocky? Ouch! At first I thought he was going for my bag too, but he was just trying to run away from the now-starving victim (that's what he gets for choosing Burger King in Italy!). We kept our eyes peeled and cheered when the guy caught the thief and grabbed his wallet back. Mr. Pickpocket got away... No bruises to report, but you can send me flowers for the emotional damage.
After the eventful Burger King incident we arrived at the Spanish stairs, quite uneventful after the last sight. I'm not quite sure why they're so famous, all I gathered was that they divided the Spanish and French quarters of Rome. They're about 200 years old and beautiful, but I'm not sure why they're such a landmark to see. Perhaps I'm missing some of the history, any Spanish stair buffs in the audience? I do know that one guy tried to drive a Celica down them and broke a few while doubling the legal BAC, cool?
Next was the Pantheon which translates to "all of the Gods" as that is who it was dedicated to. This 5,000 ton dome was built out of just ONE concrete piece. There's a "great eye" which opens to they sky at the top and is the only source of light and ventilation. There are holes in the floor which allow for drainage in rain, I'm guessing that means the hole at the top is glass-less (I couldn't quite understand him, he kept saying all the things we were supposed to know in Italian...in Italian).
That was the end of the tour on one side of town, next was to the Vatican. The walk was pretty and we saw many minor sights of fountains, piazzas and castles on the way over. The biggest castle was Sant'Angelo which was built in about 135 AD and it as well as the original bridge leading to it still stand. It was used for an array of things, originally for a Roman Emperor, then as a fortress during a war, something with the Pope (I'm noticing a trend that the Pope was forced to move around a lot) and finally now it's a museum. I would have loved to tour it, but again, tight schedule!
The tour ended at the Vatican. This was another truly breathtaking sight, we also got there around sunset which I'm sure added to the mystique. The piazza in front was gorgeous with all of the statues of the saints, the fountains, and just the building itself. We went inside and again, I was left speechless. Gorgeous is an understatement, all of the detail in the doors, floors, banisters, ceilings, altars, everything was so unbelievable. I can't find any more adjectives to explain it, so I'll just have to tell you all to go visit because my pictures don't do it justice. There was a mass going on inside and even though it was not in English I just stood there in awe at how beautiful and peaceful it all was. There was a choir as well, which of course sounded beyond angelic, the pope wouldn't have anything but.
It was a long day and I saw so much, but I loved every second of it. I'm glad I went with a tour because there is no way I could have gotten that much out of the city myself. We took the metro back to the train station and came home only to go out for Morgan's 21st birthday. Celebrated at the Mexican restaurant Tijuana across the street and had a great time. Sunday was recovery day, especially for our feet. Caught up on some homework and went to bed early. This weekend is Bologna with Rutgers and a few various other things I'll be sure to update you on throughout the week. Ciao!
Pictures (click on the first picture to see them all)
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| 2009-02-14 Rome |
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