These last few weeks have flown by! I can't believe that the semester's end is only a few weeks away, it seems way too soon! Last week we had our program's northern Italy trip. It was really fun. I loved seeing a bunch of different cities in the north, they were a lot different than Rome. But before I talk about that, I'm going to try to remember some of the stuff we've been up to while in Rome.
One the best things I've done lately here in Rome is go to the Borghese Gallery. It was sooo full of such amazing pieces of art. My very favorite ones were Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, Rape of Persephone, and his David. I had learned about all of those last year in Heritage, and it was just so great being able to see them in person. I've decided that Bernini is definitely my favorite sculptor. His stuff is all around Rome, seriously, there is a bunch of his stuff in museums, churches, random piazzas, everywhere! We walked to the Gallery so we therefore had to walk through the Borghese Gardens, and they were really pretty. It was raining that day, so they probably weren't as pretty as they are in the sunlight, so I really want to go back up there soon. And it's finally turned to nice, warm weather here in Rome, so hopefully I'll make it up there soon.
Although I haven't been up to those gardens lately, I have been back to the orange gardens we found. It was sooo nice the two times we've been back up there. Me, Jillian and Leanna went the first time and brought books and just lounged around for a few hours. We felt a little guilty, not going out and going to museums or whatnot, but we decided that we were experiencing real Italian culture. Italians always seem to just being out doing fun stuff, relaxing, and hardly ever at work! Well that might be an overstatement, but sometimes it seems like the whole city is on vacation. But yea, it was just such a nice sunny day to be out in the sun reading. And the best part was that I was reading Twilight! I've become a tad bit of a fan of it :) I haven't finished the last one yet, but will be this weekend! Haha, anyways, Jillian and I made it back up there again, on another sunny day. I think it's one of my favorite places in Rome.
Another fun thing we got to do was take a tour of the Pontifical North American College (the NAC). It's where all of the seminarians that are learning to become priests go to school and live. They are the ones that organize God Squad and they always come to our lunches at the hotel . We have become friends with a group of them and always have a blast with them. But one Sunday afternoon a bunch of us got a tour of the NAC. The best part was at the end when they took us up to the roof which had a fabulous view of Rome! We ended the tour with a trip to Old Bridge gelateria (one of the best ones in Rome).
And then last week was our big trip to Northern Italy. We took one day trip to Siena before we went to Northern Italy for the week though. Siena was really pretty and hilly. We took all our tours and then we were free for lunch. One of my friends, Meghan had been there before and knew of an amazing little restaurant that homemade their pasta there. It was sooo good!! We spent the rest of the afternoon in the big piazza watching all the little bambini (children). And ended the day with some really good gelato.
Last Tuesday we left bright and early, 6am, for our Northern trip. The bus ride was 5 hours long :( but it wasn't too bad, with ipods and books (especially Twilight!). We got to Ferrara and went to the Jewish semitary where we had some oral presentations (I luckily was not in any of the classes that required those so I didn't have to make any presentation the entire trip!). We saw Giorgio Bassani's tomb (he's a famous Italy author from the last century). We went to two different palaces and then went and saw the big castle in the middle of the city. For the entire trip we were staying at a hotel in Ferrara and just taking day trips to different cities around the rest of northern Italy. The hotel that we were staying in was super old and used to be a palace in the 15th century! Jillian and I got a quad with two other girls, Michelle and Jessica. Our room was really neat, it had two levels and a balcony.
Wednesday we went to Mantua, where we went to two more palaces, Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale. They were pretty cool. There was a bunch of really nice art work in them. After tours we had lunch. We had been told that the specialty of Ferrara and Mantua was tortellini with pumpkin in it. I had tried it the night before in Ferrara, but was told to try it in Mantua as well because it was different. It was really good in Mantua. They put cinnamon and sugar on top of. We also found a really good bakery with these little specialty pastries. That night back in Ferrara we got Mexican! It was the first time since being at home that I've had Mexican. As much as I love Italian food, it's kind of a problem because they don't have many ethnic restaurants at all, so all you eat is Italian food, so it's nice to have a change.
Thursday we went to Ravenna. My favorite thing there was being able to see Dante's tomb! Ravenna's specialty food is this sandwich thing that you can get any kind of cheese and meat you want in it, and it's in this flat bread type stuff, it was really good. They also have lots of fruits there so we hit the grocery store up and got a whole lot of fruit for the rest of the week. Friday we went to Padua wehre wee got to go to Scrovegni's Chapel. It's this little chapel that has all these different beautiful paintings. The only weird thing was that before we were allowed in the chapel we had to be "disinfected". It was strange. We had to sit in this airtight room for 15 minutes while I guess they were sucking out all the dirt in the air or something. Later that afternoon we went to Vicenza, where we saw the Teatro Olimpico, it's this really old theater. It was pretty neat looking, it had all these statues surrounding it and a really cool stage design. It was really funny though because once we were done with oral presentations, they guys that had let us in told us we should stay for a "performance", which we thought would be really cool...false. It was really just a light show sort of. And it went on for 15 minutes. And we all, including the professors couldn't stop laughing.
Saturday, was our last day, and we went to Bologna. I think that Bologna was probably my favorite city. A lot of the cities were pretty quiet, and I think I'm just more used to Rome and all it's noise, that I liked Bologna a little better because it was more busy. We did a bunch of tours of the churches and the piazzas around the city. Bologna also has two leaning towers in it, like Pisa. And they were just stuck right in the middle of downtown. Supposedly the entire city was filled with towers, everyone had one. I really wish I could have seen that! After tours we found a restaurant for lunch and got to try Bologna's specialty, their meat sauce, and it was pretty good! We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around looking in shops and of course getting gelato. Then we made our way back to the bus and had a lovely 5 hour ride home.
Overall, the trip to Northern Italy was really fun. I really enjoyed being able to see such a variety of cities, I think I got a good feeling of Northern Italy. I'm excited though because Jillian and I are leaving this Thursday night for Sicily! So now I'll be able to see some of Southern Italy. I'll try to write about that trip when I get back. Ciao!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Pisa, Lucca, Viareggio and more of Rome
Wow, so I have a lot of catch up to do. I'll just start with two weekends ago. We decided to stay in Rome two weekends ago, which is always a nice idea. Midterms were last week so the weekend consisted of some sightseeing and walking around our beautiful city, but unfortunately also included a whole lot of studying (a good preview to the next week). But one afternoon Jillian, Maria and I went looking for the key hole on Aventine Hill that supposedly had an amazing view. That afternoon was so beautiful! On the way up to the key hole we stumbled upon this orange garden that had an amazing view as well. It looked over the entire city! We will definitely be going back there for a picnic or studying once it gets a little warmer. We did eventually find the key hole, and it really was great. It's this random door with a big key hole that you look through and is a garden with a little aisle of ivy going up to a window thing that has a perfect view of St. Peter's! It was really neat. It was also cool because we were standing obviously on Italian soil, bu looking through a garden that was property of another country (I can't remember the name), then looking at St. Peter's which is on Vatican property, so technically we were looking at three different countries at once! After that, we kept walking and found this quaint little church. It had amazing echoing abilities! No one else was in there so we started humming and it sounded so cool! We were going to try to sing something but then people walked in haha. We want to go back there for mass sometime though. We walked on and found ourselves near St. Paul Outside the Wall which we thought was actually pretty far away. We saw the pyramid which was cool. We ended up taking a bus back for me to make it to class in time, but realized we weren't as far away as we thought so we're probably take that walk again sometime.
That weekend was also Valentine's Day. Jillian and I decided to have our own special dinner that night. We got all dressed up and were really excited about getting some really good food. We asked our friend Daniel where we should go for dinner, and he suggested a place right around the corner. Unfortunately, when we got there we soon found out that a nice little restaurant on Valentine's Day might be a little hard to come by without a reservation. We were disappointed but kept walking. We ended up at the Pantheon, and thought that that would serve as a great backdrop. We were stupid though and picked the worse restaurant in that piazza! It was so disappointing, it was probably the worse meal I've had in Rome! Jillian's tasted like it was microwavable Chef Boyardee! And I don't even know what mine tasted like, horrible is all I can say! We were a little perturbed to say the least, but to make things better we went straight to Giolitti's, which is the best gelato in Rome. Some of the friends we've made there helped make the night a little better and gave me an extra flavor :) After that, we headed back to the room and made the wise decision to watch "Three Coins in the Fountain", which is a movie that won the Academy Award in 1954. It is all shot in Rome, and it was just so much fun to see our little world on a movie! Of course, it was an incredibly cheesy romantic story, but what else do you really want to watch on Valentine's Day!?
The next week was midterms, no fun at all! Most of the time here the work load is very minimal (compared to back at Millsaps), which how it should be while you're studying abroad trying to travel etc. But last week definitely was a lot of work! But now it's all over and so far the grades have come back good. Friday night, to celebrate being done with midterms and to make up for our horrible meal the past weekend, we made the safe and delicious decision of going to Baffeto's for dinner. It was so good! They have the best pizza ever and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who comes to Rome. Also, in the spirit of Catholicism, being in Rome and all, we watched Sister Act, which was super fun.
Saturday (this being this last Saturday), Leah, Jillian and I left for a three city tour. We took a train Pisa first. Pisa was nice, mostly just for the tower and the surrounding area, other than that, there really isn't much at all to see. The tower is really neat though! It's just amazing to me that it's still standing! It was really funny because like us, everyone there was taking the picture where you look like you're holding up the tower. What made it really funny was that there was this huge open grass area, but no one was supposed to be out on it, but of course everyone did go out, so every 5 minutes you heard the patrol whistling telling people to get off. Other than the tower, we went in the cathedral which was pretty. We also went into the Bapistry because it supposedly had a really cool acostic system thing and they did demonstrations. This one lady would get everyone quiet and then would sing a note and it would echo back a whole bunch of times at all the different pitches. It was kind of crazy, I really wish I could have heard a choir in there though. We also went into this old cemetery that had frescos. It was pretty because the sun was setting and was shining in through these arches.
After Pisa we hopped on a train to Lucca, which was a pretty ride because the sun was still setting. Ahh the Tuscan sun is just so pretty! We got to Lucca and found our hostel which ended up being that we were the only ones going to be staying there and the guy that ran it didn't stay the night, so we were all a little unsure about that, but no worries we all came out alive (however, I did wake up to the sound of a really creepy, scary cat that had to have been very angry right outside our window). That night we went into the city walls to walk around. The city of Lucca literally does have these huge medieval walls surrounding it, which is super cool! We walked around the town for a long time, getting lost, but that was ok. Lucca is much less touristy than any of the cities I had been to so far, I really liked it. It's a town you could live in very easily. We got dinner in Lucca, but headed back to the hostel early because we were all exhausted.
The next day we walked around Lucca a little more. We found this really neat tower (there are a lot of towers in Lucca) that had trees at the top. We climbed up the stairs, lots and lots of stairs, to the top and got a beautiful view of Lucca just as the city was waking up. It was very serene. Then we grabbed breakfast and headed to the train station to catch a train to Viareggio for some Carnevale fun.
Carnevale is the Italian version of Mardi Gras. When we got there there were so many people getting off the train all dressed up in all different sorts of silly costumes. Once we got to the festivities the costumes only got better. There were countless families dressed up together, in bee, skunk, hot pink bunnies, royal families, Italian mobsters, anything you could think of. We found some food for lunch and top it off when some gelato while we sat listening to the band that was playing. After a while the parade started. There were so many weird floats! We didn't really understand them, we wished we knew more about the culture so we could understand better. One of the more interesting ones was a communist float that had a huge devil's face on it with communist symbols all over it. All the floats were all so interesting and creative. Supposedly there was one with Obama on it somewhere along the line but we had to run to catch our train before it got to where we were. Overall the trip was really fun, it was nice to see three different places in one weekend.
This week has gone well so far. Nice change from midterms. Today was Ash Wednesday, so with the start of Lent, was the beginning of the station churches in Rome. Each day there is a different church that has traditionally held mass during lent in the years passed. So this morning Jillian and I, along with a group of other girls were up before 6am so we could make it to the 645am mass. Although it was early it was nice. Today's church was up on the Aventine Hill which of course was a pretty walk. And all the seminarians (many that we know from Mass at the Saint Mary's chapel and from God Squad, which we have one Mondays) were there. It was a nice start to the day. Later on today a few of us attempted to go to this outdoor market near the Vatican but it wasn't open today unfortunately, but we did get some gelato from probably the best to get it after Giolitti's, so all was good. Then tonight some of us went to see Revolutionary Road at the theatre near us. It was a good movie I thought, sad though.
So I hope I've caught up on things now. And p.s. someone told me it is hard to leave a comment because I guess you had to sign into aol or google or something to leave one, but I changed it now so that you don't have to do that, you can just do anoymously, just sign your name at the end so I know who wrote it.
That weekend was also Valentine's Day. Jillian and I decided to have our own special dinner that night. We got all dressed up and were really excited about getting some really good food. We asked our friend Daniel where we should go for dinner, and he suggested a place right around the corner. Unfortunately, when we got there we soon found out that a nice little restaurant on Valentine's Day might be a little hard to come by without a reservation. We were disappointed but kept walking. We ended up at the Pantheon, and thought that that would serve as a great backdrop. We were stupid though and picked the worse restaurant in that piazza! It was so disappointing, it was probably the worse meal I've had in Rome! Jillian's tasted like it was microwavable Chef Boyardee! And I don't even know what mine tasted like, horrible is all I can say! We were a little perturbed to say the least, but to make things better we went straight to Giolitti's, which is the best gelato in Rome. Some of the friends we've made there helped make the night a little better and gave me an extra flavor :) After that, we headed back to the room and made the wise decision to watch "Three Coins in the Fountain", which is a movie that won the Academy Award in 1954. It is all shot in Rome, and it was just so much fun to see our little world on a movie! Of course, it was an incredibly cheesy romantic story, but what else do you really want to watch on Valentine's Day!?
The next week was midterms, no fun at all! Most of the time here the work load is very minimal (compared to back at Millsaps), which how it should be while you're studying abroad trying to travel etc. But last week definitely was a lot of work! But now it's all over and so far the grades have come back good. Friday night, to celebrate being done with midterms and to make up for our horrible meal the past weekend, we made the safe and delicious decision of going to Baffeto's for dinner. It was so good! They have the best pizza ever and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who comes to Rome. Also, in the spirit of Catholicism, being in Rome and all, we watched Sister Act, which was super fun.
Saturday (this being this last Saturday), Leah, Jillian and I left for a three city tour. We took a train Pisa first. Pisa was nice, mostly just for the tower and the surrounding area, other than that, there really isn't much at all to see. The tower is really neat though! It's just amazing to me that it's still standing! It was really funny because like us, everyone there was taking the picture where you look like you're holding up the tower. What made it really funny was that there was this huge open grass area, but no one was supposed to be out on it, but of course everyone did go out, so every 5 minutes you heard the patrol whistling telling people to get off. Other than the tower, we went in the cathedral which was pretty. We also went into the Bapistry because it supposedly had a really cool acostic system thing and they did demonstrations. This one lady would get everyone quiet and then would sing a note and it would echo back a whole bunch of times at all the different pitches. It was kind of crazy, I really wish I could have heard a choir in there though. We also went into this old cemetery that had frescos. It was pretty because the sun was setting and was shining in through these arches.
After Pisa we hopped on a train to Lucca, which was a pretty ride because the sun was still setting. Ahh the Tuscan sun is just so pretty! We got to Lucca and found our hostel which ended up being that we were the only ones going to be staying there and the guy that ran it didn't stay the night, so we were all a little unsure about that, but no worries we all came out alive (however, I did wake up to the sound of a really creepy, scary cat that had to have been very angry right outside our window). That night we went into the city walls to walk around. The city of Lucca literally does have these huge medieval walls surrounding it, which is super cool! We walked around the town for a long time, getting lost, but that was ok. Lucca is much less touristy than any of the cities I had been to so far, I really liked it. It's a town you could live in very easily. We got dinner in Lucca, but headed back to the hostel early because we were all exhausted.
The next day we walked around Lucca a little more. We found this really neat tower (there are a lot of towers in Lucca) that had trees at the top. We climbed up the stairs, lots and lots of stairs, to the top and got a beautiful view of Lucca just as the city was waking up. It was very serene. Then we grabbed breakfast and headed to the train station to catch a train to Viareggio for some Carnevale fun.
Carnevale is the Italian version of Mardi Gras. When we got there there were so many people getting off the train all dressed up in all different sorts of silly costumes. Once we got to the festivities the costumes only got better. There were countless families dressed up together, in bee, skunk, hot pink bunnies, royal families, Italian mobsters, anything you could think of. We found some food for lunch and top it off when some gelato while we sat listening to the band that was playing. After a while the parade started. There were so many weird floats! We didn't really understand them, we wished we knew more about the culture so we could understand better. One of the more interesting ones was a communist float that had a huge devil's face on it with communist symbols all over it. All the floats were all so interesting and creative. Supposedly there was one with Obama on it somewhere along the line but we had to run to catch our train before it got to where we were. Overall the trip was really fun, it was nice to see three different places in one weekend.
This week has gone well so far. Nice change from midterms. Today was Ash Wednesday, so with the start of Lent, was the beginning of the station churches in Rome. Each day there is a different church that has traditionally held mass during lent in the years passed. So this morning Jillian and I, along with a group of other girls were up before 6am so we could make it to the 645am mass. Although it was early it was nice. Today's church was up on the Aventine Hill which of course was a pretty walk. And all the seminarians (many that we know from Mass at the Saint Mary's chapel and from God Squad, which we have one Mondays) were there. It was a nice start to the day. Later on today a few of us attempted to go to this outdoor market near the Vatican but it wasn't open today unfortunately, but we did get some gelato from probably the best to get it after Giolitti's, so all was good. Then tonight some of us went to see Revolutionary Road at the theatre near us. It was a good movie I thought, sad though.
So I hope I've caught up on things now. And p.s. someone told me it is hard to leave a comment because I guess you had to sign into aol or google or something to leave one, but I changed it now so that you don't have to do that, you can just do anoymously, just sign your name at the end so I know who wrote it.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Barcelona
This last weekend, three other girls (Jillian, Leanna and Laurel) and I went to Barcelona, Spain. I was really excited about going because before studying Italian, I had studied Spanish for 5 years, and had yet to go to Spain. We booked a late flight on Thursday night using Ryanair. Now if you don't know what Ryanair is, it's this airline that has really cheap flights around Europe, but sometimes (most of the time) they fly you into a city that is outside of the city you want to go to. So then, you have to take a bus ride to where ever you really wanted to go. Our flight took us to an airport that was an hour and a half outside of Barcelona :( but that was ok, we were still really excited when we landed! We had planned on getting a late dinner there since everyone we had talked to had said that people in Spain stay out really late and don't usually eat dinner until around 11pm, so that sounded perfect to us!
When we got to the city we strapped on our luggage and determined to get some real Spanish food set out into the city. However, as we continued on our journey, store after store was closed, we didn't quite understand. It was also strange because it seemed like all the stores had names that were in Chinese writing. After walking around not finding anything open for about 20 minutes we finally ran into an open restaurant, although it was not quite Spanish, it was sort of a mix of Spanish and Chinese, run by Chinese but sort of Spanish food. We walked in and everyone awkwardly stared at us, while we awkwardly stared back. At that point our group wanted to just turn around and leave but we thought that would be even more strange so we sat down. Jillian decided to order this meal that said it was rice with a tomato sauce and eggs. It was a little weird because as one meal came out after the other we noticed that they were coming out of the little closet off to the right. We would hear a little knock on the door and our waitress would go over and fetch one of our meals. Jillian's lovely dinner ended up being a plate heaping full of white rice with about a gallon of ketchup on top. It was pretty gross. Oh and then the bread smelled like fish, very strange. Anyways, we awkwardly ate our meals, being the only ones in the restaurant that were actually eating, and got out of there pretty fast. We couldn't stop laughing about our disgusting first meal in Barcelona. But don't worry, that first meal was not a sign of what the weekend was to bring.
After dinner we caught the metro to our hostel, which actually turned out to be really nice! It's always a little worrisome not knowing what the hostel is going to be like. When we checked in, we got to know the guy that was working the night shift, Nacho. He was super nice and helped us figure out everything we should do over the next few days. He even offered to make us a real spanish dinner on Saturday night and help us find our first destination in the morning since he would be leaving around the same time as us.
So the next morning, Nacho helped us metro our way to the first park we wanted to see, then we all got breakfast. Then he dropped us off at our tour around Barcelona. It was a free walking tour that ended up being really nice. We got to see a bunch of the historical sites around Barcelona, including the art school where Picasso would sit on the steps of and draw, the church where the wood that Columbus brought back from America is located and a whole lot of other stuff. We ate lunch at this really good Spanish restaurant Nacho had suggested and I got to have a Spanish omelet which was sooo delicious! We also had Crema Catalyan which is the Spanish version of Creme Brulee, sooo good! After that we went to the Picasso museum which was really neat! Later that night we went to a dinner where we got tapas, and then saw flamengo dancing. The day was packed full of really fun stuff!
The next day, we slept in, which was sooo nice! Not too late though, because we had a full day of walking ahead of us. First we decided to go to Park Guell, which is a park that Gaudi designed, it was soo cool! If you have never seen any of Gaudi's work, definitely check it out, it's so different than anything I've seen so far, it kind of reminded me of Disney World, but real art. Then we walked to Sagrada Familia, which is a cathedral that Gaudi designed as well, it is sooo cool! Part of it looks like what a sandcastle would look like if you put water on it, or built it with wet sand. After that we walked to two other houses that Gaudi built. The second one, the one that he lived in, we took a tour of. It was soooo cool! Me and Jillian decided that we will live there someday. There was this really neat fireplace and the two front rooms were completely open to the street with huge windows. The wood around the entire house was so cool too, really smooth. Then there was the awesome rooftop that had the most amazing tile designs. I really can't describe the house in a way to help you understand, so you'll just have to look at pictures. Anyways, then we walked around for a while and found this restaurant/bar that was called "Obama-British Africa" or something like that. It was a neat place with all this african art everywhere. We thought the name was funny though. We got this super good crepe with a lot of chocolate, bananas and walnuts, so good! Then we attempted to go to this magic fountain show, but it was closed, I was sad.
That night, Nacho made us this amazing lentil stew. It took a long time to make, but that just made it all the better. We ended up staying up talking with Nacho and some of the other people staying in the hostel. We talked with this one guy that was from Colorado. He has been backpacking around Europe for 5 months by himself and he had a bunch of stories to tell us from that and then from his hitchhiking around the U.S. We learned never to trust a guy wearing a dolphin spray-painted shirt.
The next morning it was time to go back to Rome. As much as we enjoyed Barcelona, we were all happy to get back to our city.
I am looking forward to Thursday because we are going to the ballet to see Sleeping Beauty. And then this next weekend we are staying in Rome. Hopefully, we will be able to fit in a lot of sightseeing this weekend, but midterms are also next week, so unfortunately there will also be some studying.
Hope all is well back at home. Miss you all and wish you were here exploring with me.
When we got to the city we strapped on our luggage and determined to get some real Spanish food set out into the city. However, as we continued on our journey, store after store was closed, we didn't quite understand. It was also strange because it seemed like all the stores had names that were in Chinese writing. After walking around not finding anything open for about 20 minutes we finally ran into an open restaurant, although it was not quite Spanish, it was sort of a mix of Spanish and Chinese, run by Chinese but sort of Spanish food. We walked in and everyone awkwardly stared at us, while we awkwardly stared back. At that point our group wanted to just turn around and leave but we thought that would be even more strange so we sat down. Jillian decided to order this meal that said it was rice with a tomato sauce and eggs. It was a little weird because as one meal came out after the other we noticed that they were coming out of the little closet off to the right. We would hear a little knock on the door and our waitress would go over and fetch one of our meals. Jillian's lovely dinner ended up being a plate heaping full of white rice with about a gallon of ketchup on top. It was pretty gross. Oh and then the bread smelled like fish, very strange. Anyways, we awkwardly ate our meals, being the only ones in the restaurant that were actually eating, and got out of there pretty fast. We couldn't stop laughing about our disgusting first meal in Barcelona. But don't worry, that first meal was not a sign of what the weekend was to bring.
After dinner we caught the metro to our hostel, which actually turned out to be really nice! It's always a little worrisome not knowing what the hostel is going to be like. When we checked in, we got to know the guy that was working the night shift, Nacho. He was super nice and helped us figure out everything we should do over the next few days. He even offered to make us a real spanish dinner on Saturday night and help us find our first destination in the morning since he would be leaving around the same time as us.
So the next morning, Nacho helped us metro our way to the first park we wanted to see, then we all got breakfast. Then he dropped us off at our tour around Barcelona. It was a free walking tour that ended up being really nice. We got to see a bunch of the historical sites around Barcelona, including the art school where Picasso would sit on the steps of and draw, the church where the wood that Columbus brought back from America is located and a whole lot of other stuff. We ate lunch at this really good Spanish restaurant Nacho had suggested and I got to have a Spanish omelet which was sooo delicious! We also had Crema Catalyan which is the Spanish version of Creme Brulee, sooo good! After that we went to the Picasso museum which was really neat! Later that night we went to a dinner where we got tapas, and then saw flamengo dancing. The day was packed full of really fun stuff!
The next day, we slept in, which was sooo nice! Not too late though, because we had a full day of walking ahead of us. First we decided to go to Park Guell, which is a park that Gaudi designed, it was soo cool! If you have never seen any of Gaudi's work, definitely check it out, it's so different than anything I've seen so far, it kind of reminded me of Disney World, but real art. Then we walked to Sagrada Familia, which is a cathedral that Gaudi designed as well, it is sooo cool! Part of it looks like what a sandcastle would look like if you put water on it, or built it with wet sand. After that we walked to two other houses that Gaudi built. The second one, the one that he lived in, we took a tour of. It was soooo cool! Me and Jillian decided that we will live there someday. There was this really neat fireplace and the two front rooms were completely open to the street with huge windows. The wood around the entire house was so cool too, really smooth. Then there was the awesome rooftop that had the most amazing tile designs. I really can't describe the house in a way to help you understand, so you'll just have to look at pictures. Anyways, then we walked around for a while and found this restaurant/bar that was called "Obama-British Africa" or something like that. It was a neat place with all this african art everywhere. We thought the name was funny though. We got this super good crepe with a lot of chocolate, bananas and walnuts, so good! Then we attempted to go to this magic fountain show, but it was closed, I was sad.
That night, Nacho made us this amazing lentil stew. It took a long time to make, but that just made it all the better. We ended up staying up talking with Nacho and some of the other people staying in the hostel. We talked with this one guy that was from Colorado. He has been backpacking around Europe for 5 months by himself and he had a bunch of stories to tell us from that and then from his hitchhiking around the U.S. We learned never to trust a guy wearing a dolphin spray-painted shirt.
The next morning it was time to go back to Rome. As much as we enjoyed Barcelona, we were all happy to get back to our city.
I am looking forward to Thursday because we are going to the ballet to see Sleeping Beauty. And then this next weekend we are staying in Rome. Hopefully, we will be able to fit in a lot of sightseeing this weekend, but midterms are also next week, so unfortunately there will also be some studying.
Hope all is well back at home. Miss you all and wish you were here exploring with me.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
I just had the most fabulous weekend in Florence! Saturday morning, Jillian, Leanna, Caitlin and I got up at the very early hour of 5:30am to catch our 4 hour train to Florence. The ride wasn't bad at all, I slept most of the way there. Once we got there we found our way to our hostel. At first I was a little disappointed because it seemed like Florence was very similar to Rome by the looks, but the weekend definitely proved me wrong! We checked into our hostel and then decided we would go to the Duomo. The dome itself was huge (I think the biggest before St. Peter's was built). It was so big that they had to build a dome within the dome to help support it. The dome with in the dome had a dipiction of the Last Judgement, which was really neat. To get to the top we had to climb a good 500 steps! It was quite a hike, but totally worth it! At the top we could see eveything there was to see in Florence. And it was such a beautiful, clear, sunny day. The city was just beautiful, with pretty hills off in the distance. It was nice to get the big picture of the city.
After we left the Duomo we caught a bus to one of Jillian's family friends who lives in Florence. It was actually quite miraculous that we found the place. We had no idea where it was, only the bus line to get on, but somehow we found our way there! When we got to Vonna's house she gave us tea and pastries and we all sat around talking in Italian. I was really impressed with how much I understood! She showed us old pictures of when she had gone to visit Jillian's dad's family when her dad was about our age, it was so funny to see! Then her son Neri came over and told us he would take us out that night and show us around Florence.
First, he took us to Piazza di Michelangelo, which over looked a different part of the city. It was really pretty because the sun had just set and all the lights were turning on and reflecting over the river. After that he took us to this fancy bar where he got us pre-dinner drinks with strawberries. The bar overlooked the river and the Ponto Vecchio (the superold bridge, and the only one in Florence that the Germans didn't burn down during WWII). Neri took us for a long walk around the city showing us everything. It was so nice to have a person that really knew Florence. It was so cute he kept saying "this is my city", he seemed so incredible proud of everything, I loved it! After the walk we returned to the bar that actually had a restaurant on the other side of it and we had dinner there. Our table overlooked the river again and there was nice music playing. Neri ordered all these traditional Tuscan appetizers and explained all about them. We had wine, pizza, chocolate dessert, and some espresso. I was sooo full by the end of it! It was so nice too because he insisted on paying for all 4 of us! After dinner he wanted to take us to this bar that he always goes to. It was really funny because everywhere we went Neri seemed to know everyone! It was such an Italian thing! The bar was really fun because he got us drinks and we all went outside and some of his friends who spoke a little english showed up. We tried to teach Neri some American slang and it was hilarious! He thought all the words were so funny because they didn't make any sense at all. After quite a full night he took us back to our hostel.
The next day, we all got up and decided to go to some museums. It was a good day for museums because it was cold and rainy outside. I was really happy we had spent so much of the last day outside. First we went to the Galleria Accademia where David is. It was so awesome to see! He is absolutely huge! After that we went to the Uffizi. It took us about 3 hours for the whole thing. There was so much amazing art there!! Some of my favorites were of Botticelli's and Caravaggio. The Uffizi is a must see for anyone that goes to Florence! After that we had lunch and caught our train back to Rome. I absolutely loved seeing Florence and I am now really looking forward to Barcelona next weekend!
After we left the Duomo we caught a bus to one of Jillian's family friends who lives in Florence. It was actually quite miraculous that we found the place. We had no idea where it was, only the bus line to get on, but somehow we found our way there! When we got to Vonna's house she gave us tea and pastries and we all sat around talking in Italian. I was really impressed with how much I understood! She showed us old pictures of when she had gone to visit Jillian's dad's family when her dad was about our age, it was so funny to see! Then her son Neri came over and told us he would take us out that night and show us around Florence.
First, he took us to Piazza di Michelangelo, which over looked a different part of the city. It was really pretty because the sun had just set and all the lights were turning on and reflecting over the river. After that he took us to this fancy bar where he got us pre-dinner drinks with strawberries. The bar overlooked the river and the Ponto Vecchio (the superold bridge, and the only one in Florence that the Germans didn't burn down during WWII). Neri took us for a long walk around the city showing us everything. It was so nice to have a person that really knew Florence. It was so cute he kept saying "this is my city", he seemed so incredible proud of everything, I loved it! After the walk we returned to the bar that actually had a restaurant on the other side of it and we had dinner there. Our table overlooked the river again and there was nice music playing. Neri ordered all these traditional Tuscan appetizers and explained all about them. We had wine, pizza, chocolate dessert, and some espresso. I was sooo full by the end of it! It was so nice too because he insisted on paying for all 4 of us! After dinner he wanted to take us to this bar that he always goes to. It was really funny because everywhere we went Neri seemed to know everyone! It was such an Italian thing! The bar was really fun because he got us drinks and we all went outside and some of his friends who spoke a little english showed up. We tried to teach Neri some American slang and it was hilarious! He thought all the words were so funny because they didn't make any sense at all. After quite a full night he took us back to our hostel.
The next day, we all got up and decided to go to some museums. It was a good day for museums because it was cold and rainy outside. I was really happy we had spent so much of the last day outside. First we went to the Galleria Accademia where David is. It was so awesome to see! He is absolutely huge! After that we went to the Uffizi. It took us about 3 hours for the whole thing. There was so much amazing art there!! Some of my favorites were of Botticelli's and Caravaggio. The Uffizi is a must see for anyone that goes to Florence! After that we had lunch and caught our train back to Rome. I absolutely loved seeing Florence and I am now really looking forward to Barcelona next weekend!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Shopping, Churches and Obama!
So I'm up late again. Last night Jillian and I somehow managed to stay up probably until 4am and since I didn't have a class until 4pm the next day we ended up sleeping in until about 230pm!! Crazy and a little embarrasing I know, but I just say that it's me getting that sleep I've missed over the last week. However, now I'm not tired at all :( oh well, time to blog/avoid homework i suppose.
Anyways, let's see where did I leave off last time...oh yes, Sunday I ended up not going to the tour of the Vatican, I'll be doing it later, but me and Jillian and our friends Brett, Marie, Lindsey and Meg took the bus to this really cool outdoor market, Porta Portese, it was really neat! It's every Sunday morning and it has a whole lot of different stuff. It's kind of funny because some of it is on the nicer side but then some of the stuff is like the really wacky clothes that has totally been worn before sometime in the 80s, and a lot of it is like one euro. Marie got this really fun fake leather jacket that it was decided would be worn someday by someone, but we're not quite sure the details yet. Haha, it's really funny looking. And then there were a bunch of really crazy colored things, like jumpsuits and ski pants and like clown suits. It was amusing. Then there were a bunch of cheap shoe stands and purses and such. It was fun to look at (Mom you would have liked it, it kind of reminded me and Jillian of the market we went to in D.C. last summer). I however, unfortunately did not get any of the fun stuff, I only got some socks because I guess I didn't bring enough. Then Sunday evening we went to this really good pizza place, ahhhh it was soo good! A bunch of us went and got a whole lot of pizzas and just devoured them! They were super delicious! And then of course went and got gelato hehe.
Monday, after classes, me and three girls went on another adventure! We went to this amazing church, I will refer to it as the "Bone Church". First we went into the top of the church, it was beautiful of course. Then underneath the church there are these tombs of catholic monks. I wish I had been able to take pictures, it was like nothing I've ever seen before. When you walk in, there are five rooms in a row, and all of them have different tombs of the monks. All of the walls are completely and intricately decorated with the monks bones. It was actually extremely beautiful, but quite morbid at the same time. and then there were a few monks that were completely still together in their robes, they were arranged differently in each of the rooms. It was quite eerie, the tombs were very cold and there was older church music playing in the background. The designs done with the bones were really pretty, I actually thought it would be cool designs for a home...if they weren't done out of bones. At the last room, there was a tomb stone that said "You are now what we use to be and you will be what we are now" which struck all of us. It was definitely something to contemplate over.
After we were done there, we decided to go around looking in different churches. We went into the church at the top of the Spanish Steps, and it was really beautiful, as were all the rest of them. They are all so different than any church I've ever been to. I hope that I can go see a bunch more churches while I'm here. There seems to be one on every corner here.
Yesterday was also really fun in a different way. We decided to go to Scholar's, the Irish Pub that everyone here goes to, to watch the inaugration. It was so much fun! The place was absolutely packed and everyone was so excited about it! I was glad that although I couldn't be at home and wasn't able to go to it in D.C., that I was still able to witness it and be somewhat a part of it. It was just such an exciting thing to watch!
And then today, as I've said I slept a lot! So tomorrow hopefully I'll go out and do something exciting! I'm already looking forward to the weekend though, we have a bunch of tours! Yay! And then Jillian and I spent some time last night planning out our weekends for the semester, I'm really excited about all the trips! As of now, our first trip is going to be not this weekend but the next to Venice! Mostly our trips during the semester will be cities in Italy and then more of Europe once the semester is over.
Ok well hope all ya'll are all doing great! I miss you all!
Anyways, let's see where did I leave off last time...oh yes, Sunday I ended up not going to the tour of the Vatican, I'll be doing it later, but me and Jillian and our friends Brett, Marie, Lindsey and Meg took the bus to this really cool outdoor market, Porta Portese, it was really neat! It's every Sunday morning and it has a whole lot of different stuff. It's kind of funny because some of it is on the nicer side but then some of the stuff is like the really wacky clothes that has totally been worn before sometime in the 80s, and a lot of it is like one euro. Marie got this really fun fake leather jacket that it was decided would be worn someday by someone, but we're not quite sure the details yet. Haha, it's really funny looking. And then there were a bunch of really crazy colored things, like jumpsuits and ski pants and like clown suits. It was amusing. Then there were a bunch of cheap shoe stands and purses and such. It was fun to look at (Mom you would have liked it, it kind of reminded me and Jillian of the market we went to in D.C. last summer). I however, unfortunately did not get any of the fun stuff, I only got some socks because I guess I didn't bring enough. Then Sunday evening we went to this really good pizza place, ahhhh it was soo good! A bunch of us went and got a whole lot of pizzas and just devoured them! They were super delicious! And then of course went and got gelato hehe.
Monday, after classes, me and three girls went on another adventure! We went to this amazing church, I will refer to it as the "Bone Church". First we went into the top of the church, it was beautiful of course. Then underneath the church there are these tombs of catholic monks. I wish I had been able to take pictures, it was like nothing I've ever seen before. When you walk in, there are five rooms in a row, and all of them have different tombs of the monks. All of the walls are completely and intricately decorated with the monks bones. It was actually extremely beautiful, but quite morbid at the same time. and then there were a few monks that were completely still together in their robes, they were arranged differently in each of the rooms. It was quite eerie, the tombs were very cold and there was older church music playing in the background. The designs done with the bones were really pretty, I actually thought it would be cool designs for a home...if they weren't done out of bones. At the last room, there was a tomb stone that said "You are now what we use to be and you will be what we are now" which struck all of us. It was definitely something to contemplate over.
After we were done there, we decided to go around looking in different churches. We went into the church at the top of the Spanish Steps, and it was really beautiful, as were all the rest of them. They are all so different than any church I've ever been to. I hope that I can go see a bunch more churches while I'm here. There seems to be one on every corner here.
Yesterday was also really fun in a different way. We decided to go to Scholar's, the Irish Pub that everyone here goes to, to watch the inaugration. It was so much fun! The place was absolutely packed and everyone was so excited about it! I was glad that although I couldn't be at home and wasn't able to go to it in D.C., that I was still able to witness it and be somewhat a part of it. It was just such an exciting thing to watch!
And then today, as I've said I slept a lot! So tomorrow hopefully I'll go out and do something exciting! I'm already looking forward to the weekend though, we have a bunch of tours! Yay! And then Jillian and I spent some time last night planning out our weekends for the semester, I'm really excited about all the trips! As of now, our first trip is going to be not this weekend but the next to Venice! Mostly our trips during the semester will be cities in Italy and then more of Europe once the semester is over.
Ok well hope all ya'll are all doing great! I miss you all!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
My first week in the eternal city.
I've been here for almost a week and everyday I've discovered a million new things everyday. I guess I'll start at the beginning, Saturday the 10th I took my straight flight to Rome. The flight was almost 9 hours, which wasn't too bad. I got to sit next to an Italian! I met some of the girls in the Dulles airport, most of them had come in from the Chicago airport. We were lucky and somehow had sits almost all together. When we finally arrived in Rome at 7:30 am we were all really excited and exhausted but had to wait in the airport until about 1:30 for the director of the program, Dr. Prebys, to come pick us up.
The ride to the hotel wasn't too long. We are staying the Hotel Tiziano, which is located in a very central place in Rome on the road, Victorio Emanuele II. I was excited to see Jillian for the first time in 5 months! She was waiting at the hotel for us. Once we got my bags into the room, we went out for our first walk in Rome! We ate lunch outside at one of the many restaurants that you can find throughout the city. On the way to the restaurant I very quickly learned that the Pantheon is only about 3 minutes from the hotel. It is quite a sight to see. Dad, I know you would love it! It's funny because it's just sitting there in the middle of the Piazza della Rotuna surrounded with more modern buildings. It's very beautiful. And of course after lunch we went and got gelato for the first time of many, many more, and it was absolutely magnificant! There were so many different flavors I had no clue what to get, and since then I've been trying all different kinds, and have yet to be disappointed. Later that night we went out to dinner and it was great as well. I got spaghetti pomodoro and we all split some of the house wine, which was pretty good. I haven't quite aquired a taste for wine yet so I'm just going to have to work on that slowly.
Monday, we started classes, I'm taking a music appreciation class, a political science class on modern italian problems, a religion/ethics course and Italian, of course. So far they are all really interesting and I'm really excited about all of them. This week we had class on Friday as a "makeup day" for days that we will miss when we take our northern Italy trip, but normally we only have classes Monday-Thursday, which is super nice so that we can easily take trips on the weekends. I also have a great schedule, Monday I don't have classes until 9:35, Tuesdays and Thursdays not until 12:15 and Wednesdays not until 3:55, which is so nice, a lot of the girls have class at 8am every morning, so I'm pretty lucky! It's also a nice break from the crazy busy schedule at Millsaps, both academically and in terms of extracurriculars. I have so much more extra time to go exploring and enjoy getting to know all the girls, who are all really fun!
Throughout the week we've been doing a good amount of exploring. So far, I've seen the Piazza di Spagna where the Spanish Steps are, to the la fontana di Trevi, which is absolutely stunning! I also have of course seen the Pantheon a bunch of times. We've walked through the Piazza Navona, which has Bernini's fountain of the four rivers. There are a lot of really pretty fountains here, especially at night. Let's see what else...I went running along the Tiber river the other day which was a really nice run, much different than just my scenic gym back at home. And we've just walked all throughout the streets of Rome, mostly in search of gelato!
Today, we had our first set of tours. This morning we got up and went to the Roman Forum. It was so cool! We were there for over 3 hours and I still felt like we were rushed trying to see everything. There were such neat things all over! It was so neat to think that it had been used thousands of years ago as a meeting place and being able to see exactly where the people would stand to announce news, to see the temples where they worshiped their gods, where the vestul virgins lived, one of the biggest basilicas in the world, and just all the remains of their social life. It was so beautiful once we climbed up to the top of the Palatine Hill (the location of where Romulus supposedly founded Rome) and were able to look down on the whole forum. From there we could also see the Colosseum to one direction, the dome of St. Peter's, Circus Maximus, and all the other beautiful building of Rome. Up at the top there was also a gorgeous renaissance garden. As we walked along we came to Augustus's (who was the adopted son of Julius Caesar, but really he was his nephew) home when he was emperor. We were actually allowed in his part of his home. It was so amazing because there were original paintings still up on the wall. Right next to his house there were also ancient huts which were from around 5 bc which were so cool to see because I've never seen such ancient stuff! We also saw Augustus's dinning rooms, I'll tell you, he had it good! The rooms were huge, and all he did was just sit there and was fed! That would be the life! His home also overlooked all of rome, quite a nice view if you ask me!
After the forum, we ate lunch back at the hotel, always a time to look forward to, we went to the Colosseum. It was MASSIVE! I finally learned about why part of it was missing, back before how great the Colosseum was, people started pilaging the marble that it was made of little by little, and actually part of St. Peter's was made from the marble from the Colosseum, because the Pope condoned it because back in the day they burned Christians alive in there for sport. We also learned about how within the first 100 days of the Colosseum they killed over 9,000 animals! I just thought that was horrible! We got to walk around and take lots of pictures, it was amazing to be in there! It was kind of funny though because it really reminded me of all the football stadiums that I would go to for football games or whatever nowadays, it's cool how we totally base our structures off of ones that were build thousands of years ago, I guess when it works, it works.
After a long day of touring, we were all exhausted and went back to the hotel and all took nice long naps! My friends, Lianna, Angie and Annie then went out to dinner tonight. We decided to eat right in the piazza where the Pantheon is located. It was quite an amazing backdrop! The waiter was so funny too, he tried to talk to us in english, but we wanted to talk to him in Italian, he laughed at our italian a lot. And as if having the Pantheon there wasn't enough, half way through dinner an Italian man with the most gorgeous voice started singing Italian opera right near us. He gathered quite a crowd...because he was sooooo good!!! We just kept saying how we are going to be so spoiled now, it was such an amazing dinner/experience. We sat there for a long time talking and listening to music. After dinner of course we had to get gelato! But since the rule is if you are walking while you eat gelato the calories don't count, we decided to get it and walk to the vatican. I had never been there before, and it was quite a sight to see! It was so majestic. You walk up and there are huge columns surrounding you with saints and other important religious figures at the top that are lit up. And then there was still a nativity scene from Christmas up. In the middle there is St. Peter's Basilica which is huge and imposing. It was so neat. Up at the top there are statues of the 12 apostles with Jesus in the middle. The dome is behind that. We just stood there for a long time looking at it. It's just something else. It was really interesting to have just been at the forum earlier in the day and having seen all the ancient temples to the gods and then going to a huge monument that celebrates a modern day religion, such similarities.
So I think I've covered the highlights of what I've done so far this week. Tomorrow morning I'm going back to St. Peter's for a tour and then mass. I'm really excited about seeing more of it, and having my camera since I didn't have it with me tonight.
Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up my blog, hope ya'll enjoy reading it and I would love to hear comments back from ya'll! Miss all of you and wish you were here!
The ride to the hotel wasn't too long. We are staying the Hotel Tiziano, which is located in a very central place in Rome on the road, Victorio Emanuele II. I was excited to see Jillian for the first time in 5 months! She was waiting at the hotel for us. Once we got my bags into the room, we went out for our first walk in Rome! We ate lunch outside at one of the many restaurants that you can find throughout the city. On the way to the restaurant I very quickly learned that the Pantheon is only about 3 minutes from the hotel. It is quite a sight to see. Dad, I know you would love it! It's funny because it's just sitting there in the middle of the Piazza della Rotuna surrounded with more modern buildings. It's very beautiful. And of course after lunch we went and got gelato for the first time of many, many more, and it was absolutely magnificant! There were so many different flavors I had no clue what to get, and since then I've been trying all different kinds, and have yet to be disappointed. Later that night we went out to dinner and it was great as well. I got spaghetti pomodoro and we all split some of the house wine, which was pretty good. I haven't quite aquired a taste for wine yet so I'm just going to have to work on that slowly.
Monday, we started classes, I'm taking a music appreciation class, a political science class on modern italian problems, a religion/ethics course and Italian, of course. So far they are all really interesting and I'm really excited about all of them. This week we had class on Friday as a "makeup day" for days that we will miss when we take our northern Italy trip, but normally we only have classes Monday-Thursday, which is super nice so that we can easily take trips on the weekends. I also have a great schedule, Monday I don't have classes until 9:35, Tuesdays and Thursdays not until 12:15 and Wednesdays not until 3:55, which is so nice, a lot of the girls have class at 8am every morning, so I'm pretty lucky! It's also a nice break from the crazy busy schedule at Millsaps, both academically and in terms of extracurriculars. I have so much more extra time to go exploring and enjoy getting to know all the girls, who are all really fun!
Throughout the week we've been doing a good amount of exploring. So far, I've seen the Piazza di Spagna where the Spanish Steps are, to the la fontana di Trevi, which is absolutely stunning! I also have of course seen the Pantheon a bunch of times. We've walked through the Piazza Navona, which has Bernini's fountain of the four rivers. There are a lot of really pretty fountains here, especially at night. Let's see what else...I went running along the Tiber river the other day which was a really nice run, much different than just my scenic gym back at home. And we've just walked all throughout the streets of Rome, mostly in search of gelato!
Today, we had our first set of tours. This morning we got up and went to the Roman Forum. It was so cool! We were there for over 3 hours and I still felt like we were rushed trying to see everything. There were such neat things all over! It was so neat to think that it had been used thousands of years ago as a meeting place and being able to see exactly where the people would stand to announce news, to see the temples where they worshiped their gods, where the vestul virgins lived, one of the biggest basilicas in the world, and just all the remains of their social life. It was so beautiful once we climbed up to the top of the Palatine Hill (the location of where Romulus supposedly founded Rome) and were able to look down on the whole forum. From there we could also see the Colosseum to one direction, the dome of St. Peter's, Circus Maximus, and all the other beautiful building of Rome. Up at the top there was also a gorgeous renaissance garden. As we walked along we came to Augustus's (who was the adopted son of Julius Caesar, but really he was his nephew) home when he was emperor. We were actually allowed in his part of his home. It was so amazing because there were original paintings still up on the wall. Right next to his house there were also ancient huts which were from around 5 bc which were so cool to see because I've never seen such ancient stuff! We also saw Augustus's dinning rooms, I'll tell you, he had it good! The rooms were huge, and all he did was just sit there and was fed! That would be the life! His home also overlooked all of rome, quite a nice view if you ask me!
After the forum, we ate lunch back at the hotel, always a time to look forward to, we went to the Colosseum. It was MASSIVE! I finally learned about why part of it was missing, back before how great the Colosseum was, people started pilaging the marble that it was made of little by little, and actually part of St. Peter's was made from the marble from the Colosseum, because the Pope condoned it because back in the day they burned Christians alive in there for sport. We also learned about how within the first 100 days of the Colosseum they killed over 9,000 animals! I just thought that was horrible! We got to walk around and take lots of pictures, it was amazing to be in there! It was kind of funny though because it really reminded me of all the football stadiums that I would go to for football games or whatever nowadays, it's cool how we totally base our structures off of ones that were build thousands of years ago, I guess when it works, it works.
After a long day of touring, we were all exhausted and went back to the hotel and all took nice long naps! My friends, Lianna, Angie and Annie then went out to dinner tonight. We decided to eat right in the piazza where the Pantheon is located. It was quite an amazing backdrop! The waiter was so funny too, he tried to talk to us in english, but we wanted to talk to him in Italian, he laughed at our italian a lot. And as if having the Pantheon there wasn't enough, half way through dinner an Italian man with the most gorgeous voice started singing Italian opera right near us. He gathered quite a crowd...because he was sooooo good!!! We just kept saying how we are going to be so spoiled now, it was such an amazing dinner/experience. We sat there for a long time talking and listening to music. After dinner of course we had to get gelato! But since the rule is if you are walking while you eat gelato the calories don't count, we decided to get it and walk to the vatican. I had never been there before, and it was quite a sight to see! It was so majestic. You walk up and there are huge columns surrounding you with saints and other important religious figures at the top that are lit up. And then there was still a nativity scene from Christmas up. In the middle there is St. Peter's Basilica which is huge and imposing. It was so neat. Up at the top there are statues of the 12 apostles with Jesus in the middle. The dome is behind that. We just stood there for a long time looking at it. It's just something else. It was really interesting to have just been at the forum earlier in the day and having seen all the ancient temples to the gods and then going to a huge monument that celebrates a modern day religion, such similarities.
So I think I've covered the highlights of what I've done so far this week. Tomorrow morning I'm going back to St. Peter's for a tour and then mass. I'm really excited about seeing more of it, and having my camera since I didn't have it with me tonight.
Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up my blog, hope ya'll enjoy reading it and I would love to hear comments back from ya'll! Miss all of you and wish you were here!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
