When in Rome...

I’m all caught up on my various weekend traveling, but I’ve again fallen behind on what I’ve been doing in Rome. I promise not to include a detailed explanation of my new-found love of peach juice juiceboxes, or a list of excellent foods to eat with Nutella. Both lists would be quite extensive.

With my Ancient monuments class I’ve seen the remains of the Mausoleum of Augusts, Augustus’s Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), the obelisk of Marcus Aurelius, an obelisk/sundial from the Field of Mars, and the Pantheon. And that was just last Tuesday. On Thursday our class went to Ostia, an ancient city with very well preserved, albeit boring, ruins. The highlight was seeing the stone public toilets, I’m so glad I didn’t have to use those. They are incredibly unsanitary. Today our class went to the baths of Diocletian, which was cool because the remains of the huge public bath building were incorporated into a church as well as an archeological museum. We also saw remnants of Rome’s city walls right near the main train station. I’ve been right near those walls 8 times in the past month, and have embarrassingly never noticed the huge structure. We also went to the lower level of the train station, where remnants of another part of the wall sit in the McDonald’s seating area. That’s Rome for you!

On Wednesday I went with three girls to see the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museums are supposed to be some of the best in the world, they hold art collections from popes. The marble statues you would expect sit alongside ancient Egyptian artifacts, old maps and enormous tapestries. I ended up splitting the cost of an audio guide with Laura, since we both wanted to know what we were looking at, but couldn’t rationalize spending 7 euros extra after paying the 18 euro entrance fee. It worked out really well, because as soon as one of us got bored listening to the guide ramble on about obscure sculptors, the other one saw something they wanted to know more about.

The only part of the museums where I listened to the entire audio guide was in the Sistine Chapel. It really is as beautiful as you’ve heard. The colors are incredibly vibrant, and everything is so detailed. There is a ton to look at, it’s definitely overwhelming. We sat on the edge of the crowd for 45 minutes just taking it all in. I <3 Michelangelo.

I liked the museums a lot, but the audio guide was frustrating because there weren’t explanations for things we were curious about, while we heard far more than necessary about unimportant objects. Also, the museum is a huge maze, and the signs are terrible. It took us a lot of time wandering around halls we’d already seen to find other parts of the museum, which was just silly.

On Monday night, Claire and I decided to take an adventure. There is a huge outdoor staircase not too far from my apartment. I’ve always wondered where it lead, but never ventured there, since it’s not necessarily the safest for women to be wandering around Rome with no clue where they are or where they’re going. Claire looked at a map and figured out that the steps led towards Janiculum hill, which was supposed to be a great lookout point over Rome. We weren’t disappointed. After an uphill hike through a residential area with huge beautiful houses, we spent awhile gazing out over our adopted city trying to pick out landmarks in a skyline packed with church and temple domes. Eventually, we meandered back down to Trastevere towards Pizzeria ai Marmi , a restaurant we wanted to try since it’s always packed, no matter the time of night. Of course we got there at 6:15 and it didn’t open until 7:00. We’re good little Romans, so we got gelato before our excellent pizza. :-)

Last night six of us went on a mission to get pastries at a positively reviewed bakery in the Jewish Ghetto. We got there to find it closed until August 31. Definitely a bummer. We ended up getting fruit tarts at a restaurant near the city center instead.



From there, we hopped on a bus to Castel Sant’Angelo, an impressive prison turned museum. It’s a huge, circular, ominous looking building. They have special performances and markets at there on summer nights, so we were excited to see what they had going on. Castel Sant’Angelo was SO COOL, it’s no wonder parts of it were featured in Angels and Demons. We paid admission plus a supplement to walk part of the passageway to the Vatican (the pope’s escape route in times of trouble) and the prison below. The building was full of winding stone staircases and passageways, and had tons of huge doors. There were beautiful views of Rome from the top. The passageway was really creepy, a narrow covered stone hallway with slits for windows which led to an uncovered pathway high above the city streets. I loved it.

We didn’t know where to pick up the bus we needed, so instead we headed towards the Vatican to pick up a different bus, and spent awhile in St. Peter’s Square staring up at the huge, lit up Basilica. Absolutely beautiful.



This morning, Heather, Claire, Laura and I got up early and met at 7:30 to head back to the Vatican to go into St. Peter’s Basilica. We got there quickly, and went right in. We have heard rumors of hour-long lines beginning at 10 a.m., so it was great to enter quickly. The Basilica is enormous, ornate and beautiful. We saw gold taken from the original Pantheon decorating the interior, as well as Michelangelo’s Pieta, the only sculpture he ever signed. There are a few popes in crypts there, as well as the tomb of St. Peter.



We went from the Basilica to the entrance to for its dome, where you have the option of climbing 520 stairs, or taking an elevator and then walking up 320 stairs. We paid an extra 2 euros for the elevator, a great plan considering the treacherous walk up. There was one incredibly narrow and steep spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever, at least 75 or 100 steps. There was literally no end in sight, and I started getting a little claustrophobic, even though that usually does not happen to me. There were other sections higher up in the dome where I had to lean to one side as I was climbing steps so I didn’t hit my head on the ceiling, and I’m only 5’3”. It was bad. After 320 steps we were out of breath, but found ourselves high above the city with a cool breeze blowing (a rare event in Rome). It was a really, really great view of a really, really great city. The view was the reward for climbing 320 steps. It almost made the trek enjoyable. Almost.

Pienza & Montepulciano

I paid for a trip to Tuscany during orientation, and I have been looking forward to my day in the Tuscan countryside ever since. It was really nice to have a lot of friends going on the trip, and to have everything organized for us.

We had to be at the bus at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning, and were nearly late because the tram didn’t come. After some serious hustling (and a pit stop for croissants) we got on the bus for the two and a half hour ride past sunflower fields and farms to Pienza.

Pienza is a tiny Renaissance town, located high up on a hill. It was a run down hometown of a famous pope, who decided to transform it into the “ideal” town. Basically, the town is nearly circular and walled, the town square is in the exact center, with a main road running straight through. All other streets veer off in other directions, but lead to the main road, making it impossible to get lost. The entire town, matching architecture and all, was built in four years (which is a big deal). A walk around the walls surrounding the town give a 360 degree view of the Tuscan countryside. Pienza was absolutely adorable, and there are no cars around so it was peaceful despite droves of curious tourists. There were a ton of cute little shops full of cheeses, meats, pasta and spices. We had an hour and a half to wander there, so we took a bunch of pictures then set off in search of some food, since our lunch wasn’t until late afternoon. We stumbled upon a little place with a sign for Nutella crepes (one of the things I’ve been hoping to try here, but I never seem to make it out of my apartment for breakfast). They were small, but delicious, and we out them outside in between all of these pretty stone buildings. We wandered around town for awhile, went into the church that’s falling apart because the pope went crazy with the tower, and relaxed in the shade until departing for the medieval town of Montepulciano.

I didn’t make the connection until that morning, but Montepulciano is where they filmed the Italy scenes of New Moon, the second Twilight movie. It was quite a surprise to find that out. A bunch of us took a “Twilight Tour” with one of the trip organizers, who went to the town for a casting, as well as before and after shooting.

If you don’t know/hate Twlight, ignore this paragraph. Our “Twilight expert” walked us up a huge winding road through the town, which is where they filmed the scene with the Porsche racing through the streets. Then we walked through an archway and up a huge brick ramp, leading to narrow, crumbling stairs, where they filmed scenes of Bella running to save Edward. After a long uphill walk we made it to the piazza, which during filming was filled with thousands of people in red robes, as well as a fountain constructed just for the shoot (you can see the outline of where it stood on the ground). There’s a huge church, where all of the people file in, and a big stone building with a clock tower, with giant doors where Edward is about to show himself in the sunlight. I had seen some pictures from filming the scene, and they looked really great. It was way cooler to see it in person, exactly how I imagined it while reading the book. (I’m a geek. I know it. Move on.) I took some pictures standing in the same doorway where Robert Pattinson stood shirtless…that pretty much means we’re dating, right?

After taking lots of pictures, our Twilight group headed back to take a tour of a wine cellar (a former underground prison) and see all of the enormous barrels of wine. Then we went upstairs for the tasting. I thought I would learn much more about wine than I did, we were basically just handed small cups of whatever wine we asked to try, denoted by year. There were only 7 or 8 kinds, and I don’t know anything about them. I also tried some cheeses, olive oil and salami made by the family-run company. Everything was delicious, but I had no idea what I was drinking or eating, so that was sort of disappointing.

After the tasting, we got back on the bus to head to a farmhouse restaurant on the outskirts of Montepulciano, run by the same family who runs the wine cellar. We had our own courtyard and were served a delicious five course meal: wine, bread, unlimited water (rare in Italy), various salamis and hams, cheese, a strange artichoke, salad, amazing pasta, chicken, potatoes, biscotti and a sherry/dessert wine. It was all good, but I didn’t get as much food as I was expecting for a five course meal. However, I had a five course meal at a Tuscan farmhouse. So there.

We headed back to Rome after lunch, and all tried to fall asleep immediately because a lot of us were feeling carsick on the way up the windy streets (pretty much cliffside, without a guardrail). The trip organizers brought bags for any possible throw-up and passed them out on the bus, it was pretty funny. Apparently every time they do this trip someone has thrown up on the way home. Thankfully, our group could hold their wine, and proved to be the exception.

Florence

This weekend flew by. I can not believe I’ve been here three and a half weeks. It’s even less believable that I’ll be back on a plane home in 12 days. I figured out how to easily take public transportation back to the airport, so now I’ve decided to not think about leaving until it happens. I’m positive I’m not capable of that, since there’s so much at home I’m looking forward to. I’m going to do my best to just be in Italy, in the moment, for the remainder of my stay, and not worry about what happens after.

That said, this weekend was great! I took a midterm Friday morning, which I was super nervous about. I think it went well, the essay was on my favorite topic, the Colosseum.

After the test, I met up with Claire, Christina and Heather to head to the train station. We made it to Florence in an hour and 40 minutes, which was great. Though our hostel was a short 10-15 minute walk from the train station, we kept getting confused by our map. We didn’t realize Florence was so small. After lugging our backpacks and duffles up four flights of stairs, we met Veronica, an adorable Italian woman who owns the building. She gave us a map and circled everything we should see. She was adamant about us not going to see the David, and instead going to see the copy at Piazza Signora.

We settled into our giant room with 2 “king size” beds (2 twin mattresses pushed together), then immediately ignored Veronica, and set out for the Accademia Gallery (home of David). At first we walked past the unassuming museum, since it’s down an alley lined with graffiti. We only found it because of the line of people at the door. After paying 10 euros to get in, we saw the huge, gorgeous David in all of his rippling-muscled glory. He is HOT. There isn’t much else to the museum, so after wishing David were a real twenty-something attending our various colleges, we left after 20 minutes.

We made a stop at the swankiest McDonald’s I’ve ever seen (it looked more like a club than a fast food restaurant) on the way to the huge leather market at San Lorenzo. We hung out there for awhile, and spent a lot of time getting hassled by pushy Italian salesmen. The other girls bought a bunch of stuff, but I only got myself a few bracelets.

After shopping, we made our way to a restaurant Jamie recommended right near the Arno River, but found it was closed for July! We were disappointed, and commiserated with an American couple who also had a recommendation for the place. Instead, we crossed the Ponte Vecchio in a search for dinner, and I ended up eating delicious gnocchi at La Galleria (7 euros for a coke and pasta). With our stomachs full, we headed to Piazzale Michelangelo, home of David copy #1, a recommendation from a friend who went to Florence last week. It was a ten minute uphill walk to the piazza, but proved completely worthwhile. We arrived at the piazza as the sun was setting over our full view of Florence, including the massive Duomo church that dominates the skyline. Absolutely beautiful. We took a whole bunch of pictures, Heather declared it the most romantic place she had ever seen. We sat on steps drinking Bacardi Breezers, and watched the lights of Florence flicker on. It was the perfect way to end a rough week of tests and projects.



We got an early start on Saturday morning, and were checked out by 9:30am, and headed to the Duomo. The Duomo is probably the coolest building in Florence. It’s immediately visible on the skyline, a beautiful, ornate and colorful church in a sea of short brown, cream and yellow buildings. The Duomo has a huge red dome, and a matching campanile bell tower full of intricate designs in red, white and green. A substantial portion of the pictures I took in Florence are of the Duomo. After seeing such a beautiful building from the outside, I was excited to go in. Unfortunately, inside was incredibly unimpressive. It was just a big open space, a cool fresco on the dome, and not much else. Apparently, art from the inside of the Duomo has moved to museums over the years. Let’s just say I’m glad I did not have to pay an entrance fee.

We had planned to climb to the top of the Duomo, where there’s a great view of the city. It was 10 euros and we had already seen the entire city from even higher up the night before, so 3 out of 4 of us decided we’d rather not spend 10 euros (about $13.50) to climb 432 steps and see what we had already viewed much prettier at sunset. Claire was sort of upset, since it was a “must see” in her tourbook. I told her I’d go if she wanted, but she refused.

We ended up heading to another church Claire wanted to see. On the way, we went to Piazza Signora, Veronica’s recommendation, with copies of many of Florence’s famous statues, including the David (copy #2). It was full of tourists, but it was fun to have copies of such famous statues so accessible to the public.

Heather, Christina and I sat on steps outside of Santa Croce church while Claire paid 5 euros to go inside. We needed that break from walking. I’m convinced that no matter where you go or what you do in Italy, you will be faced with massive hills and steps. I’ve found steps in abundance in every place I’ve visited. I keeping going away for a weekend, happy that I won’t have to deal with the nine treacherous flights of steps to my apartment. I find even more steps and daunting hills instead. It’s just cruel, but it has gotten much easier than when I first arrived.

When Claire was done, we crossed Ponte Vecchio and looked at all of the ugly gold jewlery in the windows of the stores on our way to lunch. Then we headed to Palazzo Pitti, the art-filled former palace of the Medici family, which is attached to the famed Boboli Gardens. We splurged and got a package to see everything in the palace and gardens for 22 euros, which is quite steep for a bunch of college students. It was worth it though, we spent several hours wandering through the rooms of art, including a costume exhibit. My favorite was the throne room, literally just a huge, ornate room with the king’s throne in the center on a pedestal. Bad ass. The gardens were huge and full of steps and hills (surprise, surprise). They were high up on a hill, so we got another great view of Florence before shopping our way back to the other side of the city for dinner and two servings of free lemon sorbet at Buca Niccolini.

We got waffles with gelato both nights, another excellent recommendation from Jamie. I got Kinder (my new favorite candy) gelato on top of fresh waffles both times. This dessert might be a better invention than electricity.

We caught an 8:50 train back to Rome (“because we live there”) after an exhausting, though excellent, 30 hours in Florence.

I had been considering a study abroad program in Florence for this spring. Though I had a great time in the city, I don’t think I’ll be applying to the program. Florence is really small, nothing took more than 20 minutes to walk to, and I saw everything I wanted to in a day and a half. The city is great for visiting, but I can’t imagine being satisfied living in such a small city for four months. Living in New York City spoiled me, so now I need a big city to keep me occupied. I’m considering Dublin and London, thoughts?

Sights and sounds

Time for a catch up. Between classes and traveling and all of these random day trips I haven’t elaborated on the sights I’ve seen recently. My sincere apologies.



Last Saturday a bunch of the girls decided to head to the city center and to shop and see some of the more touristy spots of the city. We went into two huge, beautiful churches, Santa Anna and St. Ignatious. We also went into the Pantheon, which was the definition of awesome. The circular ceiling leading to the sky was absolutely overwhelming. I can’t believe they were able to construct a building like that in ancient times. We got gelato at Giolitti’s (my favorite so far) and braved the crowds at the Trevi Fountain to throw some coins over our shoulders. In the afternoon we hung out at the underwhelming Spanish Steps, then window shopped down the 5th Avenue of Rome. A bunch of our guy friends met us at the Spanish Steps, then we all headed to a very delicious dinner at Hard Rock Café. It was expensive, but worth it. There’s only so many times a week you can eat pasta before craving a perfectly cooked hamburger.

Early last week I spent the night wandering around the city center again with Heather and Claire. We hung out in Piazza Navona for awhile, which was beautiful at dusk. We watched break dancers and guitarists and those people pretending to be statues. The piazza is lined with beautiful buildings, cafes and several huge fountains. It’s full of artists selling paintings of all of the popular sights in Rome. It was really cool to walk through and look at them all, I had a really hard time not buying anything. After Piazza Navona we headed to the Trevi Fountain, since we hadn’t seen it at night. We ended up running into an Italian navy band playing on the steps of St. Ignatious, it was nice to stand and listen for a little while (Heather was a high school music geek too). The Trevi Fountain is way better at night than during the day, and the crowds proved it. We were able to get some pictures and take in the impressive fountain before getting overwhelmed by all of the tourists and leaving the city center to get gelato in Trastevere.



My Ancient Monuments class also brought me to a lot of cool sights this week. Tuesday was spent at the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, where we saw tons of ruins and learned all about the heyday of ancient Rome. We heard about kings, as well as the senators of the Roman Republic. Most of the ruins in the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill are from different time periods, but my crazy German professor did a really good job at giving us a timeline for all of the buildings and stories behind them. Let’s hope I can keep everything straight for our midterm on Friday.

We met at the Coloseum for Thursday’s class, where we learned about the enormous Arch of Constantine, much of which uses pieces of other deconstructed monuments. Next we went into the Coloseum, which is just as cool as you think it is. I learned a ton about the construction of the building, much of which has fallen apart over the course of hundreds of years. I saw some reconstructions, and my professor pointed places that have been cleaned, modified and rebuilt over time. I feel knowledgeable enough about the building now to become a gladiator, they did let women fight! ;-) Since seeing the Colosseum at night was my favorite sight in Rome so far, I was really excited to see the inside. I did not leave disappointed.

Venezia

After little planning and lots of “maybes,” I finally ended up in Venice this past weekend. Friday turned out to be John Cabot University day in Venice, I went with five other girls, and two other groups of people we knew, including some friends, ended up getting on the 6:50 a.m. Roma to Venezia train with us.

After five hours of listening to my ipod and napping, we arrived in Venice a little before noon. We ended up eating lunch and hanging out at a great little restaurant for two hours while we waited to check in to our hostel. Everyone’s food was absolutely amazing, despite creepy wait staff. The restaurant seemed to be a local hangout, so it’s cool we randomly picked such a relaxed pace with great food.

After lunch we checked into our hostel, which ended up being great for the $33 we paid each. It was a really good location, right near the train station in an area with lots of shops and restaurants. We had two clean private rooms, each with their own bathroom. The rooms were tiny, and the shower was hilariously not its own contained unit, so it drained right into the floor next to the toilet. The best part was that the hostel had really great air conditioning, which I welcomed with open arms.

We spent the afternoon aimlessly wandering around. Even though I bought a map, we didn’t use it too much. We went through tiny little alleys and walked along canals and over beautiful bridges. The entire city is so gorgeous it’s unreal, the place literally looks like a movie set. I kept expecting Heath Ledger dressed as Casanova to jump across roofs and canals over my head (Casanova isn’t actually a good movie, but if you like Heath Ledger you should watch it.)

Before dinner, the six of us decided to take a gondola ride, even though it wasn’t cheap (100 euros split six ways). We had a tattooed gondolier who was really nice and told us a little bit about the places we floated by. It was so relaxing and beautiful, such a cool way to see the city. At one point our gondolier pulled to the side of the canal to meet his friend who was waiting outside of his restaurant with a beer for him. One of the girls jokingly said we needed six more beers, so our gondolier yelled to his friend and pulled the boat back to the side of the canal. His friend came out of his restaurant to deliver us six beers. We paid him 2euros each, and went on our way. I loved it.

We went to dinner at a great restaurant called Vesuvio near our hostel that was so good we went back for dinner on Saturday also. On Friday, we decided to eat outside, despite ominous rain clouds. The food was great, but halfway through our meal it started raining, then pouring. My back was exposed from under the overhang, a few of us were getting soaked so eventually we moved inside, along with the rest of the al fresco patrons. Everyone was wet, but smiling, and our gorgeous waiter Fabio kept everyone fed.

Friday night we went to Campo San Margherita, which we heard was a cheap area for good nightlife. It ended up being a big open area with a bunch of bars and lots of young people, a lot like Campo di Fiore where we hang out in Rome.

Saturday consisted of a complimentary breakfast of a water bottle and good, though unidentified, pastry. We spent the morning shopping through Venice with two more girls from JCU, eventually finding our way to the Rialto Bridge and then Piazza San Marco, which was absolutely breathtaking.

The piazza is named for the enormous and beautiful church that sits at one end. I don’t know much about it, since the line was so long we didn’t have time to enter. I have heard the inside is even more beautiful than the outside, which is elaborately decorated with all different colors of marble, brightly colored paintings, and tons of statues. My pictures definitely don’t capture this breathtaking church. The rest of the piazza is lined with gorgeous old buildings, including a huge clock which shows the phases of the moon, along with the time and lots of other things I don’t know about. We stood staring at San Marco for awhile, before attempting to make our way back towards the hostel for dinner. We got pretty lost and spent half an hour walking in a circle, ending up back at the piazza. We took a little while to regroup and study the map, then Venetian mask-shopped our way back.

The brightly colored, often glittery Carnevale masks are all over the city. They may be my favorite thing about Venice, especially since they are more reasonablly priced than I anticipated. There are plenty that cost a fortune, and clearly those are the most ornate and gorgeous, but I picked up a few for myself that I think are amazing, and it didn’t cost much.

Venice is full of glass from Murano, another island nearby. Shops in Venice sell tons of beautiful glass jewelry (I bought myself a really cool tiger striped ring), decorative figures, frames and sculptures.

I found that people in Venice spoke better English than people in Rome, which I wasn’t expecting. I’ve been trying harder to speak more Italian, now that I know the basics, but it was really nice for people to completely understand me (the woman checking us out of our hostel is excluded from this category). Most menus were in Italian, English, French and German, which I thought was really cool. It was both tourist-friendly and really interesting to see the menus in all of the languages.

The meals I had in Venice were also better than the ones I had in Rome (except the food we make ourselves for family dinner). I can’t explain why, they just were.

I really enjoyed the Venetian environment. There are no cars allowed in the city, so it was incredibly peaceful, despite the droves of tourists. It was really nice to be able to hear yourself think, there weren’t any pain-inducing emergency vehicle sirens constantly wailing past you or Vespas zooming by attempting to run you over. It was nice not to have to play chicken with cars, which you tend to have to do on the winding streets and alleys of Rome.

Venice was breathtaking and a really great weekend away, but it’s not the kind of place I could live in. It’s a city revolving around tourism, I need a more thriving ccommunity to keep me occupied. I would love to spend some more time there, since our weekend was more about the atmosphere than seeing any of the well-known museums and churches that fill the city.

Tivoli

Yesterday, a couple of friends and I took a day trip to Tivoli, organized by our school. We all signed up last minute. None of us knew anything about Tivoli, but we decided it would be worth 20 euros to see more of Italy on a day we had nothing planned.

After a rough morning waking up and getting to the bus, we found out only a few others had signed up for the trip, I think there were only 18 people, including two JCU staff members. It was nice to get my own seat on the bus to sprawl out and sit with my ipod for an hour watching the Italy pass my window. I don’t have nearly enough music in my life here. I needed that time with my ipod.

Our first stop was Villa Adriana, which I would be able to tell you a lot more about, had I bothered to listen to the audio guide we had for more than four minutes. Instead, Pearl, Laura, Annie and I wandered around the ruins of a huge villa older than Rome for an hour and a half instead, taking pictures and taking in the quiet. Rome is such a fast paced and noisy city. You always need to be on guard and aware of your surroundings, since robberies are so frequent. Villa Adriana was a little outside Tivoli, and isn’t a huge tourist attraction. It was nice to wander around the ruins, knowing that my bag was safe if I put it down for a picture, since only my friends were within sight. I definitely needed that escape from Rome, but I didn’t realize how necessary it would be.

After Villa Adriana we drove to the hillside town of Tivoli for lunch and a little exploring. Tivoli was beautiful, and you could see for miles from some of the lookout points. It was much cooler than Rome since it was so high up on the hill, we don’t get too many refreshing breezes in Rome. We didn’t do too much exploring, since our feet hurt and we knew we had another villa tour in the afternoon. We ate a cheap lunch al fresco, then found out we could have gotten much better food and atmosphere for only 1 euro more half a block up the street. We also walked around a few shops and got gelato, our new favorite activity. Before going back to meet the group we sat on a bench at the edge of one of the lookouts talking about the past week, and plans for the future, after Italy and beyond. It sounds a little silly, but it was really nice to take some time out to reflect surrounded by clean air and natural beauty.

We took a guided tour of Villa D’Este, a villa built by a would-be pope to demonstrate prowess in water and city management, accomplished by the creation of an enormous garden with the most beautiful and intricate fountains I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t aware places like this even existed. The fountains are all natural, they’ve looked the same for hundreds of years. Not only are the fountains beautiful, but they also tell stories. There is a Fountain of Tivoli with statues representative of the city. If you follow two incredibly long, skinny fountains (representing the Tiber River) to the other side of the villa, you end up at the Fountain of Rome, full of statues representing the powerful city. As usual, my amateur photography skills don’t adequately capture the power or beauty of the enormous fountains, but they should give you an idea.

How mad would everyone be if I had a destination wedding in Italy? I would love to get married in front of the Fountain of Tivoli at Villa D’Este. (Any takers? Haha.)

As I’m sure you’ve figured out from past entries, I’ve been super busy in the last week. I’ve seen a good chunk of Rome, and did it all by walking. Rome is also built on hills, so there are tons of stairs and slopes everywhere (not to mention the nine flights of stairs up to my apartment). Italian girls generally don’t wear sneakers, so I’ve been trying to wear more sandals and flats. The last few days I had to give in, and by yesterday afternoon my feet were so swollen that even my sneakers were killing me. I’ve been switching up my shoes, so at least I haven’t had to use any of the substantial supply of band-aids I packed in case of blisters. Last night a bunch of friends and I decided we couldn’t take the walking anymore. When we returned from our day trip in Tivoli we sat on our computers in our friends apartment downstairs for six hours with our feet elevated. It was great. Hopefully my feet will be feeling slightly better for today’s adventures around the city.

School's (Not) Out for Summer

I talked a little about my classes in my last entry, but I thought you might want to hear more about what I’ve been doing here academically.

I have my Italian class four afternoons a week for an hour and forty minutes. The class is fun, my professor is a hilarious Italian woman who is always happy to make her opinion known on everything to the way American guys dress to the Italian system of garbage pick-up. She's also very interested in making the class about Italian culture so we can know more about the lives of the people whose city we're currently inhabiting. I wouldn’t call it a hard class, but we learn so much every day that I’m having a little difficulty remembering everything we’ve gone over. It is not helping that my head isn’t fully in class mode yet. Six months of co-op and an incredible city to explore aren’t really helping me focus on my studies. I’m going to take time today and tomorrow to really study what I’ve learned in the past week so I don’t far too far behind. It would be a shame if I couldn't remember the Italian names for various utensils and classroom objects. :-)

My archeology class, Monuments of Ancient Rome, is a completely different class from anything I’ve ever taken before. It’s an on-site class, so we meet around the city at 9am on Tuesday and Thursday, and then walk around to learn about ancient artifacts, buildings, paintings and everything else we pass until 1pm. The class is more or less a guided tour of Rome, lead by a crazy German archeologist. I have a few friends in the class which is good, we commiserate when our professor has us walk long distances and stand around Etruscan museums for four straight hours without a break. The class will be an excellent way to both see the city and figure out Rome’s transportation system (which I definitely haven’t mastered yet). This weekend I have to figure out a topic for a presentation and paper. I want to do something about concert halls or musical instruments in Ancient Rome. I have to do some research, let me know if you have any ideas.

Classes are good in general, just fast paced. They seem to pack even more material into classes than Northeastern’s summer courses. It may also be that I haven’t gotten back into the swing of classes, I’m hoping I’ll be better next week. I have trips planned every weekend after this, so I’ll need to devote more time Monday through Thursday to classes. Cross your fingers for me.

Another graffiti picture for Ian:

Sights and sounds

I’ve only been here one week and I already have to play catch-up! This might get problematic…

I feel like I’ve been here much longer than a week. I'm also positive I could live here for much more than five weeks and be perfectly happy. I love this city, it’s the NYC of Italy, super cosmopolitan, touristy, and diverse. I get the feeling that the Romans don’t realize how great they have it, I see most people walk by ruins like there's nothing there, without appreciating how much history they walk past on a daily basis. There are ruins in sandwiched between very modern buildings, and I find it hilarious that any time they try to build new metro lines they have to stop because they hit ruins.

Now that I’ve had a full week of classes, I can officially inform you that after 6 months of co-op, homework sucks. I haven’t had too much to do this week, but I will have papers and quizzes and midterms and finals over the course of the next month. I guess I need to stop going to happy hour every night. :-) I'm kidding about happy hour, but I have been going out every night to see more of the city.

In the last week I’ve seen:

- The Pantheon (from the outside…we were on gelato mission, but I’m going back with my archeology class)

- The shops, bars and restaurants on the banks of the Tiber River

- A communist festival, where I saw an Italian rock band, fulfilling one of my goals for this trip

- More of Trastevere, my neighborhood

- Circus Maximus, where chariot races were held

- McDonalds - we went there for an All American 4th of July, they had curly fries and shrimp!

- Campo dei Fiore, where there is a huge flea market during the day (I haven’t gone yet) and bars at night

- The pope - I went to the papal audience yesterday, one of the stranger experiences I’ve had. Ask me about it sometime if you’re interested.

My favorite sight so far was the Colosseum lit up at night. It was huge and eerie and peaceful and powerful. I had a really difficult time comprehending that I was actually there, that I was touching the building I’ve seen in so many postcards and on so many posters. It was absolutely surreal. I’ll be going back during the daytime for class, which I’m really excited for. I think I’ll be a gladiator for Halloween, who wants to help me make a helmet?

Last Sunday I went to the beach town of Sperlonga for the day with all of my new friends (it’s insane how close we’ve become in just a week, more on this in another entry). We spent the morning on the beach in 90 plus degree heat, and I got sunburned as usual. After lunch we all packed up and headed for gelato and a walk around the town. I thought the hilltop town looked pretty from a distance, but I couldn’t believe the views of the Tyrrhenian Sea, mountains and beaches I had from some of the elevated spots on the path around the town. I had chills from how beautiful everything was, definitely the most gorgeous place I’ve ever seen. I’m not very well traveled, but I’m positive that places like Sperlonga don’t exist in the United States. It really made me appreciate that I'm spending this summer in a different and incredible country. The pictures should speak for themselves, but my amateur photography skills don’t even start to capture the sights.

First impressions

After a few days in Rome I’ve done a little bit of exploring, though I’ve only seen the very tip of “the sights” on the lists of most short-stay tourists. I’ve spent most of my time in Trastevere, which is on the opposite side of the Tiber (Tevere) River from the main part of Rome. The area is full of winding streets, sidewalk sellers, small restaurants, pizzerias, coffee bars and shops. I live 15-20 minutes from the John Cabot campus (depending on how many stops I make for gelato and browsing). I’ll take pictures of the cooler parts of the route at some point soon.

I’ve already gone to a few restaurants, gelateria’s and stores. I saw the outside of the Pantheon and walked along the Tevere River. Based on what I’ve seen the last five days, I thought I’d share some first impressions of Roma:

Italians: Everyone was right, nearly all Romans speak English. I shouldn’t have worried so much about the language barrier. Usually, if someone doesn’t know English, someone standing nearby starts translating for you. I usually try to make up for it by saying “grazie” (thank you) a lot. So far so good. Two nights ago some friends and I stopped in a pizzeria at 2am on our way back from Campo dei Fiore, where there are a lot of bars. The man behind the counter didn’t speak English, nor did the two other girls in the pizzeria. One of the girls went outside to grab her friend, who came in and said to us, “I’m sorry if I don’t do this well, I’m pretty drunk.” He did a great job, and I was glad he was so nice about it.

Transportation: Italians are insane drivers. Insane. I’m used to bad city drivers in New York City and Boston, but the Romans take the cake. They go whenever they want, with no regard for traffic lights or pedestrians. And they all have tiny cars! It’s funny to see these smart cars speeding down the street and parked every which way, but it’s a smarter and more efficient way to drive through Rome’s winding streets and alleys. Also, Vespa scooters are EVERYWHERE! It really is just like the Mary-Kate & Ashley/Lizzie Maguire movies. I saw a woman on Friday morning driving to work on her Vespa in a skirt suit. Scooters are the norm, people walk around the bars at night holding their helmets, it’s pretty cool.

Heat: Rome is insanely hot in July. A/C is not the norm, though we do have it in a few areas at school. We keep our windows open all day and have fans in our bedrooms. I’ve been sweating from 10:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. every day. My hair is a wreck, and I’ve had no choice but to come to terms with it.

Food: Italian food is amazing, and Trastevere, the neighborhood I live in, is known for having the best food at the cheapest prices. I haven’t had a bad restaurant meal yet. I’ve been trying to be less picky about what I eat. I’ve had a bunch of mystery meat, including a late night slice of pizza topped with tunafish, olives and tomato sauce. It actually tasted great. Please don’t judge me. Most of the restaurants have outdoor seating, which I love. I was walking around the second day here, thinking that it looked a lot like Little Italy in NYC and Boston. It took me a second to snap out of it, and realize that I was wandering around the real thing, though being here still doesn’t seem real.

Supermarkets: There aren’t many big stores in Rome, the supermarkets I’ve found have everything, just without as many brands as you would find in the US’s superstores. Food shopping hasn’t been an easy task, since I can’t read labels. I’ve copped out a little bit and got Special K cereal, but I made a decision to start trying new Italian foods. I bought candy today called Kinder Beueno, it’s basically a way better kit kat. If I keep trying food and I don’t like something, it’s easy enough to pass things off on other people. The closest supermarket is in the basement of Italy’s version of H&M. It’s something you would never find in America, but the set up is normal here.

Graffitti: Rome is FULL of graffiti. There’s graffiti on the outside of my apartment building, which bothered me at first, until I realized Romand have graffitied nearly every wall of buildings in this city. It’s not the graffiti culture of the US, with tags sprayed over others to show dominance over other artists, it’s just seemingly random tags everywhere. It’s upsetting to see the spray paint on some of the really old and beautiful buildings. I’d like to learn more about why graffiti is so dominant in this city. Below is a picture of my apartment building.

Music: There is none. Concerts aren’t a big deal here, which is the weirdest thing for me. I haven’t seen a single Italian walk around the city with headphones on, whereas in NYC and Boston, white ipod headphones are the norm. I haven’t used my ipod at all, and it’s sort of liberating, definitely a change of pace. At home I take my ipod out for a milk and eggs run at Wollaston’s, and usually I’m back before even one song is over. It’s a completely different culture that will take some getting used to, but it’s sort of freeing (and much safer) to walk with other people and take in the sights around me with all five senses.

Nutella: Italians love Nutella! (Shout out to Amanda!) They eat it all the time, Nutella croissants are everywhere, but I haven’t tried one yet. They sound phenomenal.

In general, I’m doing what I can to blend in. I don’t quite have the wardrobe of an Italian 20-something, but today a man on the street started asking me questions in Italian (he seemed like the people in the mall who beg you to take surveys). I shook my head and kept walking, so I think I at least treated him like an Italian girl would. :-)

Hopefully my Italian class will increase my vocabulary past grazie, scusi, ciao and boungiourno. Let’s cross our fingers, since I’m already signed up for Italian II at Notheastern.

The picture below is from my beach trip to Sperlonga, much prettier graffiti than in Rome.

Arrival and apartment

Buon giorno!

It’s the morning of my fifth day in beautiful Italia, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the past few days. Now I understand why my friends have such a difficult time explaining their study abroad experiences. There is simply no way to put the last four days into words, so much has happened that it might be impossible. I’ll do my best.

After a less than perfect flight (crying babies, lack of sleep on the overnight flight) and two hours at an unorganized baggage claim, I met a bunch of girls going to John Cabot while waiting for the shuttle. I also met the five other girls from Northeastern. It was all a little overwhelming and exhausting, but eventually we made it to John Cabot to check in to be handed a lot of information, maps and paperwork. We were then shuttled to our new apartment. I ended up rooming with Pearl, one of the girls from NU. We were in the shuttle with a cool girl who would live downstairs in our building.

The driver took us through the city, and though it wasn’t the best part of Rome, it was still a great drive. I love Italian advertisements, they’re much simpler and lower budget than the huge ad campaigns in the U.S. The Italians don’t seem as concerned with brand names as Americans, though there are signs for McDOnald’s and Coca Cola all over.

Side note: They don’t have Diet Coke here! And if you know me, that’s a problem. I’ve been drinking Coca Cola Light, which has no calories and tastes more like Coke Zero. It’s strange, but I’ve gotten used to it and like it now.

Based on our room number, I figured out that we were on the 4^th floor. I was right, but by Italian numbering it’s actually the 5^th floor, a staggering nine flights in a stairwell without air conditioning (the case in most of Italy). We had two Italian students from JCU helping us get into our apartments, and I was the only girl who wasn’t whining to the boys about helping with luggage. After a joking conversation about the boys liking me best, one offered to bring my luggage up. He then looked at the 55 lb bag (over weight at the airport, but they didn’t make me pay!) saying, “Wow,that’s big.” My offers to carry it myself were not accepted, which was definitely for the best, I ended up helping another girl with her luggage. So this cute Italian boy in a pink polo shirt carried my bag all the way up the stairs, panting and dripping sweat in the process. I felt so bad! (Note to Steph: I couldn’t quite figure out what he said his name was, but it was the Italian version of Lawrence…no joke! He didn’t know my name until after!) Both pink polo boy and the other one who helped with our luggage kissed both cheeks of all the girls in the apartment. A little sleezy, but it made me smile after far too many hours awake.

My apartment is enormous. There are 3 bedrooms for 6 girls, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a dining room with a “couch” that is more like a really low bed. Pearl and I took the biggest bedroom, which I love. All of our rooms have old wooden shutters, which I think is the coolest thing. We have a huge mess of old furniture and various appliances left here by previous residents. I like it though, even though it’s not perfect. The girls downstairs have a smaller apartment, but everything is much newer and cleaner. The apartment is much better than I expected based on expectations set up by JCU before we got here, so I’ll deal with the less than perfect things for the five weeks I’m here.

In the last few days I’ve noticed that nothing in Rome is new. The city has been here too long to have anything truly new and perfect. My apartment has more character than my previous Northeastern apartments, though the steps can be killer after a long walk around the city.