I wrote the following entry on August 8th, 2009, while waiting for my flight to take off from Rome to New York:
It’s 1:44 pm, and I’m on the plane that will take me home. After five weeks here, being home now doesn’t seem real, but neither does living in Italy. Maybe one day it will hit me, but right now I’m still in travel mode, trying to get from point A to point B with the least amount of stress.
I’m having a difficult time making sense of my feelings, though I’m really excited to go home. I miss my family and friends more than ever before, despite longer periods of being apart before. I think it’s because I have been alone here, even though I’ve been surrounded by great people throughout my whole stay. I’ve been saying for weeks that I’m not homesick, that I simply wish my family and friends could be here with me to see and experience everything that I have, especially my parents.
Now I’m tearing up, and the 12 year old girl sitting next to me is staring. Awesome.
I’ve really loved meeting a lot of the people here, and learned more about interacting with new people with different backgrounds. Before this trip I had exactly one friend from the Midwest, now I have seven times that, and a strong desire to visit Wisconsin.
Not all of the people that I have met have been my favorite, but I’ve learned more about people with every intercepted eye roll, whine and rude comment.
There were nights when all I wanted was a group hug with my best friends, and days where I couldn’t imagine could be more perfect. I did my best to take whatever happened and make the most of it, I was very aware of my limited time in this country.
The end of this trip is the definition of bittersweet. I’ve loved Italy and would love to come back here one day, but I’d like to do it on my own terms. I’d travel with less people (or maybe alone) and give myself more time to breathe and take in everything around me. I’ll look back fondly on the trip, despite its imperfections, ad smile the first time I can say, “Oh yes, when I lived in Italy…”
In the airport, Khadijah (a fellow classmate at JCU and NU) and I got chatted up by woman from Long Island on her way back from a Mediterranean cruise. She was in awe of our experiences both in and out of the classroom in Italy. It was sort of nice to be envied, but also really made me appreciate this trip that much more.
I’m looking forward to hanging and have a working iPhone, and I’m psyched for the hummus and avocados I had my parents stock up on. I’ll head to Boston next week to see my friends and my cousin, and have a few days of birthday activities. I anticipate my birthday will be even more fun after being away for so long. I’m looking forward to a full month without responsibilities before heading back to classes. It will be my longest break from both school and work since I started working at Adventureland amusement park when I was 15. I’m ready to sit in my house, blast the A/C and watch reality TV marathons.
I know I’ll miss Italy, I already do (and I haven’t even left)! Eight of the girls had dinner in the piazza outside of the Pantheon last night. It’s so beautiful lit up at night, I got sentimental about leaving and teared up. I’ll miss all of the monuments, and the history I know because of my class. It will be foreign not to work so hard to have people understand me, and to have ugly US dollars back in my wallet instead of colorful euros. I’ll miss the Italians’ love of crappy 80s music, and seeing all of the colorful Vespas parked in long rows.
I should say I won’t miss the pushy Italian men and standoffish women, but their behavior can be endearing when you learn to attribute it to cultural differences instead of rudeness. The Italians are vicious, crazy drivers, but as long as they don’t hit you, it’s sort of amusing to watch the madness unfold.
I’ll miss the pasta, and the gelato and the best bread I’ve ever had. I’m sure I’ll always crave Italian food, though all I wanted while I was here was the variety of foods in America.
My plane just started taxiing, and I still haven’t mentally accepted that this is really it. There’s not a whole lot I can do about it I suppose.
Arrivederci Italia! Mi piace tu.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Lacking in the update department....
Sorry for not updating this week, I've been super busy with school work. I have a presentation tomorrow and a paper due Friday, in addition to two finals. Then I fly home on Saturday.
Check back for updates on what I've been up to early next week (or later this week if I start procrastinating). My sincere apologies for the delay, and I look forward to seeing you all soon. :-)
Check back for updates on what I've been up to early next week (or later this week if I start procrastinating). My sincere apologies for the delay, and I look forward to seeing you all soon. :-)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, July 27, 2009
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.
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?
Monday, July 20, 2009
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.
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.
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