Massive Post

     Ok. Well, by now we all know I fail as a travel blogger. I'm going to do a "quick" summary of the last month I was in Italy, since it's been bothering me that my blog is unfinished! I kept a journal in 2010 for every day of the year with at least one thing I did per day, so I'll use that for my guide and talk just about the most important stuff!


(Tip: hit and hold "ctrl" before clicking on the yellow links to open them in a new tab- it's faster that way)

     On November 28th, I worked on the rough draft of my architecture paper... just kidding. (Well, I did go to the Ara Pacis museum and take pictures... I want to talk about the imagery on the altar but I will restrain myself)

     At the end of my last architecture class, I got really sad... it started to hit me for the first time that I would be leaving somewhat in the near future. That class was definitely my favorite, since I learned so much about Rome's history and learned to really appreciate the beautiful palimpsest the city is today.

     That weekend Kate, Catherine, and I left for Paris in the early morning! We met Liat, who got there on Thursday, and Katie at the metro stop by our hostel! Katie had to go study for her French final the next day, so the rest of us seriously bundled up and trekked around Paris. Honestly, guys, I can't pronounce or spell ANYTHING in French, so you're just going to have to trust me that I saw some cool stuff. Oh, we saw Notre Dame; I can spell that! We walked along the Seine at night, where we could see the illuminated Eiffel Tower from afar, and went to the Louvre for a very short while and saw the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and of course the controversial glass pyramids outside the museum, which I loved. I had Chevaliers de Sangreal playing epically in my head. The Louvre is enormous, though- it goes something like, if you were to spend ten seconds on everything in the Louvre, eight hours a day, five days a week, it would take you four months to see everything. We walked down the Avenue des Champs-Elyees (yes, thank you Google, that IS what I meant) and saw the Arc di Triomphe. It was absolutely frigid but the avenue was decorated for Christmas and bustling with activity, so it was fun. 

     In the morning we did a three-hour free walking tour with a hilarious guide. It was freezing, snowing, and beautiful, and we saw many cool sights that I can't spell. For lunch we found a tiny non-touristy cafe with our first (and only) really nice waitress, who didn't speak any English. Katie said that she was usually treated much better by the French, probably because she was speaking French and we were speaking English- even though some people gave her an attitude for having an accent! We went to the Eiffel Tower and saw it sparkle on the hour. It was almost unreal to actually be standing by the Eiffel Tower! 

     We returned to the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame again in the morning to see it in the daytime and take more pictures. My roomies checked out of the hostel, but since I didn't have Monday class I stayed another day, which I spent with Katie! We went back to her host family's house, which was really nice, and I got to see what a French neighborhood looks like away from the main city. We were going to go to the Louvre again but her foot got run over by a car, you know, no biggie. Katie was speaking in French and laughing, so it couldn't be too serious! After some ice back at the house, Katie the Trooper and I limped to the metro and went to a modern art museum since the Louvre had closed, where we stayed for a decent amount of time. 

     Back in Rome for the Immaculate Conception holiday, since we had no class, Claudia, Liat, and I went to the Jewish Ghetto for the last day of Chanukah. Actually, on our way there, we saw the Pope speaking from way up in one of the buildings in the Vatican, and everyone was running down the streets not to miss him! The Jewish Ghetto was the busiest I've ever seen it. I loved the Jewish children wearing yarmulkes and paper menorah headbands!

     Fast forward to after finals! I finished on the early side, so I had time to take a day trip before the program ended. Flying was the cheapest option, so even though it was less than an hour plane ride, that's what I did! I took a taxi to Termini station at 4:30am, a shuttle to Fiumicino airport, a vaporetto (water taxi) to the island of Murano in the Veneto! I got there pretty early, around 9am, and it was very quiet- the residents were saying good morning and chatting on the streets by the water, while I was eavesdropping and trying to understand their Italian. I got to use my Italian several times when I had to ask for directions- I was so glad we covered that in class, since I was actually able to understand them! I watched a glassblowing demonstration, which was cool to watch. I decided I absolutely love glass! After spending quite awhile in quiet Murano, I took the vaporetto to Piazza San Marco on the island of Venice. I saw the famous cathedral, the Dodge's Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, the Rialto Bridge, and after I had seen most of the major attractions I went to find the sidestreets where the locals would live. I knew I was successful when I stumbled upon a dentist, a store that sold doorbells, and a cleaners! I can't think of three places any less touristy. I asked for directions quite a lot and had fun understanding the Italian! Except for when I ask for directions, I've noticed that I get stared at a lot less, so maybe I am starting to blend in! I got back pretty late at night, but I was extremely glad I went. I wish I could have had more time, but it was so worth it to have a day.

     December 16th was our Arrivederci Dinner with API. Before the dinner, Claudia, Liat, and I worked on a very addicting puzzle online- oh, Via Borsieri :) We're awesome, what can I say? The dinner was in Trastevere, and it was really fun but sad saying goodbye to our API directors. The next night my roommates and I went to dinner in Prati for the last time (had some awesome gnocchi) and then hung out more at the apartment as usual while packing. I miss you girls a lot! Shout out to any of you who've read this far in my blog ;)

     On the 18th, all of my roommates left :( We all woke up to say bye to Catherine at 7am, and after she left we all kind of stood around feeling sad that now we were down one! Claudia left at 9, and Liat left a little later to go to her hotel, but I would see her later that night since she wasn't leaving until the next day. Kate and I finished packing and cleaning the apartment, and started heading down to catch her taxi at around 11:45 since we had to all be gone by noon. I was the last to leave the apartment, which was pretty depressing... I forgot to check on Nudie the noodle! The first night in the apartment when we all cooked pasta for dinner, Kate threw a noodle on the ceiling to test if it was done and it stayed up there all semester. The last week we were there we noticed it was starting to peel off, so maybe Nudie will fall down after we all leave! Crazy! After saying bye to Kate, I lugged at least 100 pounds of luggage through the metro to Termini, where I found my hostel nearby and checked in. I'm not sure if I told the broken sink geyser story, but yeah, that's what I saw when I came to check it out awhile ago! The hostel was nice, though- I was pleased with it. After, I walked to Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and continued down that direction finding new things along the way, which was interesting as always. Liat called and I met her and some other people in Piazza Venezia, and we had carry-out dinner looking at the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine all lit up, which was amazing of course. After I said bye to Liat, I went back to the hostel, where I was staying in an 8-bed mixed dorm, and everyone was sleeping so I had to be super quiet!

     Wow, I did so much the last week I was there, but I'll try really hard to keep it short and bearable! 

Day 1

- Basically, did a lot of walking around areas I've been and finding new places- Via Nazionale, Trastevere, Jewish Ghetto

- At the free dinner at the hostel, I talked to two theater majors studying abroad in London who told me all about their adventures in Amsterdam!

- At night I went to Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Spagna. Perhaps it was the time of year, or maybe because it was pretty late and kind of rainy, but I had these places practically all to myself! They were strangely empty, but it was really nice and peaceful.

Day 2

- Stopped by the Vittorio Emanuele II monument and climbed to the top on a whim, realizing I hadn't done that yet!

- I went to the Jewish museum and spent the morning/early afternoon there. I found it all incredibly interesting and got to see the inside of the synagogue. The history of the Jews in Rome is fascinating and very long- in a nutshell, they were forced to live in the tiny ghetto under papal rule and were finally free when Italy became a unified state, but were oppressed again when the Nazis came to power. Still, the culture in the ghetto thrived and still does today, as many Jews still live there. 

- Afternoon = more wandering and Christmas shopping

- After dinner I tried to rest my feet and take a bus to Piazza Venezia, but I accidentally ended up on Via del Corso so I walked along the Tiber to Trastevere. It's very pretty at night, with all the small streets and restaurants and vines covering the walls. 

Day 3

- To make a long story short, TRAIN TICKET FIASCO. Highly frustrating. But at 10:36am I finally was on a train on my way to Siena! I almost missed my transfer, since apparently the second train I had to take was actually a bus, but I found it and got to see the awesome Tuscan scenery via coach bus. In Siena, I saw the Piazza del Campo, Torre del Mangia, Duomo di Siena, and several other churches that I forget the name of. 

- Siena is a small, very beautiful medieval town, and I feel like a day was enough to get a good feel of it. It was nice to be in no rush, just walking around, popping into churches and meandering down side streets illuminated with Christmas lights.

- When I got back to the hostel, I was super confused because all the beds had been rearranged and I no longer knew which bed was mine. I had to go to the front desk and get it figured out, and, horror of horrors, my bottle of lotion was lost/stolen. Ha, but anyway, I got that figured out, but instead of having a top bunk in the corner I had a bottom bunk right in front of the door and next to smelly-feet guy. Lovely. Gotta love hostel living. But hey, the shower temperature was consistently hot, which is more than I can say for the apartment!

Day 4

- Explored on the metro line- went to northernmost end of metro A, got out at a bunch of stops and walked around for a few minutes, residential, not touristy at all.

- Got off at Lepanto in Prati and went to the market in Piazza Mazzini one more time. Did some Christmas shopping, then walked to Piazza Navona and did some more Christmas shopping.

- Had my last packed lunch in Piazza Farnese sitting outside Palazzo Farnese, just people-watching and thinking about the awesomeness that is Rome.

- More Christmas shopping in Trastevere.

-Talked to some people at dinner who were studying abroad at University College London (they didn't know Andrew, though!)

- Went to St. Peter's Basilica at night and sat looking at it for almost an hour. Near the end, I saw police giving food and drink from an ambulance to the homeless people who were staying the night in the piazza.

Day 5 (last full day in Roma)

- I finally did the Appia Antica walk! I started at the Aurelian Walls, walking on top and inside of them. Along the Via Appia Antica, I saw the ruins of lots of neat stuff (eloquent, right?). It was very pretty and with lots of greenery. 

- At the end of the road, I had no idea where I was so I hopped on a bus to the Giulio Agricola stop on metro line A and found the park of the aqueducts, which was very impressive. I would love to just go for my daily jog in a park with ancient Roman aqueducts stretching across the landscape! I also found a random flock of sheep in the park- pretty cool.

- Took the metro again to Barberini, where I walked to the Fontana di Trevi and got the all-natural gelato that my teacher said was her absolute favorite. It was. Amazing. A superb last gelato in Roma! 

- Went back to the hostel and began packing and making sure my stuff was in the right suitcase- breakables in the carry on, large liquids in the checked bag...

- Went to Trastevere and walked around a bit before going to dinner at my teacher's favorite authentic Roman eatery (I think I've mentioned it already, but I've been following religiously all semester my teacher's list of her favorite places to see and things to do in Rome). It was a small trattoria called Augusto, and I "splurged" and ordered an insalata as an antipasta, since it was my last dinner in Roma- whoa, livin' on the wild side here.  Also needed to use my last few euros, since a couple euros isn't worth exchanging. The rigatoni cacio e pepe was a great last meal in Roma!

- After dinner, I said goodbye to Trastevere and Piazza Trilussa, crossing the Tiber over the Ponte Sisto and walking to Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, and the Pantheon before walking back to the hostel. It had been raining since I left the trattoria, but it was kind of fitting somehow. I took the night very laid back, just enjoying again all my favorite places, and it was perfect. 

     Well, I won't go much into my trip back, since it's not that interesting! The only notable things are that the lady at the airport was very nice and let me go on with my suitcase weighing 25.5 kg, a good 2.5 kg over the weight limit, without charging me 150 euro for overweight luggage! Also, the regional flight I took from DC to Atlanta was the tiniest plane I've ever been in- no one's carry on luggage would fit in the overhead bins, so we all had to check them. After slight confusion at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (HUGE airport...really, wow!) I found my family and Andrew by the baggage claim, and we had our slow-motion reunion and all that jazz... it was a merry Christmas Eve :)

Photo albums:

Paris

Venice and the last days in Via Pietro Borsieri

Last week in Italia

A bit of catch-up

Rewind back to November...

     On the morning of the 19th (Friday) I went to Stazione Termini to pick up Andrew! He took a pretty early flight- I think he left his room in London at 2:30 or something. The reason for this madness was so he could come to my make-up architecture class at 1:30! We were both glad he came for the class- it was a really good one, as usual, and afterward we were right by Chiesa di San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, which he wanted to see. We did a lot of checking out cool architecture, which was fun! Roma certainly has a lot of it. We headed onto the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Giolitti, and Piazza Navona, where we looked in S. Agnese. For dinner we went to a good place in Prati, away from all the touristy areas!
     Saturday was our three-year anniversary! It was also the first anniversary we've been able to spend together... somehow we never managed to do that when we were in Tennessee and Georgia, but we did when we were in England and Italy! Since Andrew had been to Rome twice already, I wanted to show him some of the places that are not so touristy. We went to a bunch of places with interesting architecture, such as Palazzo Farnese (hey, that was on my final...) and S. Ignazio and Piazza S. Ignazio. Since on Friday I took Andrew to the most famous gelato place in Rome, on Saturday I took him to the tiny hole-in-the-wall gelateria by school that my roommates said is tied for the best in Rome- it is literally a hole in the wall, since you can't actually go into the place, you just order from the street. From there we went to the Gianicolo Hill. I've been before during the day, but we went when the sun was setting and the view was fantastic. All the lights in the city were starting to turn on, and it was beautiful. Our anniversary dinner was very... hilarious! We wandered around Prati, looking for a good place. We finally came across one which was very Italian, and I got to speak to the waiter in Italian, which was fun! I continued to attempt this after Andrew's food arrived- he got tortellini, which had meat instead of cheese inside, which we didn't know. I tried to communicate to the waiter in Italian (English translation of my beautiful Italian):

Me- "Is it meat?"
Waiter- "Yes, tortellini has meat"
Me- "She's a boy vegetarian" *points at Andrew*
Waiter- "Oh..."
Me- "Menu?"

Brilliant, I say! I got the gender of "vegetariano" right, but I called him "lei" which means "she"... oops. Needless to say, we got the point across, and they didn't seem to hate us TOO much!
     On Sunday, we walked down by the Tiber to the Ara Pacis museum, technically outside the museum, and I did my dorky tour guide thing looking through the windows. I also wanted to show Andrew the museum itself, which is extremely modern and very controversial. Many Italians hate it- there was picketing in Rome the day it opened. I did my nerdy spiel also on the Mausoleum of Augustus and his Campus Martius developments in general (this is what I wrote my term paper on...haha) and then we walked to Piazza del Popolo, the Leonardo da Vinci museum, and Piazza di Spagna. After that we did a lot of walking around, particularly in circles because of my incredible sense of direction. It didn't help that it was pouring rain and looked like nighttime! My umbrella flipped inside out, broke in half after an especially harsh gust of wind, and flew down the straight while I chased after it. As I was standing up from picking up the umbrella, one of those umbrella street vendors was somehow RIGHT behind me going "ombrello ombrello??" and Andrew just died laughing... they really are everywhere when it rains, and they will harass you to buy an umbrella even if you are carrying one! Andrew and I went to the apartment to dry off and defrost before going to dinner, where we found another good place in Prati (no surprises there) where we got Andrew some gnocchi alla sorrentina! We also discovered that we out-Italian the Italians... Italians are known for eating slowly and having long dinners, but when we were finishing our dinner we realized how many people around us came and left, and that the waiters were hinting that it was time to go by coming and looking at us!
     Andrew was leaving Monday afternoon, but we had time in the morning to go to the top of St. Peter's Cupola. We climbed up 551 steps, stopping once at the inside of the dome and climbing up a very cramped staircase to the outside of the cupola! It was an incredible view- I never realized how high the dome was before then. We were able to see the Vatican city behind St. Peter's, and it was finally not raining so the sky was clear! I was so glad we did that- it was definitely something I had to do before I left. After, we went to the shuttle stop by Termini, where I said bye to Andrew. It was a great weekend- I can't believe we managed to visit each other in London and in Rome!!

    On the 23th I saw Harry Potter in English with Italian subtitles with API's movie night. Again, horrible sense of direction: somehow I ended up in Piazza Navona instead of Piazza del Popolo (seriously?) so I ran all the way to Piazza del Popolo, making it just in time for the movie! Phew.

     Wednesday I went to see the Pope with Liat, Catherine, and her friend from UGA. It was actually kind of funny, and completely not what I was expecting. The crowd was like that at a sporting event- when the people on the stage were reading the names of the big groups who had come to see the Pope, and they were all cheering and stuff like it was a spirit competition or something! People were chanting Ben-edict-o! Ben-edict-o! and waving posters... crazy! Afterward I went to my architecture class in Garbatella, which I loved. It's a public housing city away from the main city center, and it was beautiful. It's one of Rome's Garden Cities from the early 1900s, and the gardens and architecture were amazing. If I could pick one place to live in Rome, that would probably be it. It has such a strong sense of community- my teacher had some great stories, since one of her family members grew up there.

More catching up eventually... going to spend lots of time with my roommates today and having a packing party! Our program ends tomorrow, so I will be saying bye to everyone tomorrow morning when they leave and then going to my hostel in Rome, where I will be staying until the 24th!

Orvieto
Rome: Katie and Andrew visit
Rome: Pope Party, Garbatella, and some other stuff

From the worst blogger ever

Wow, it's been a month since I last posted something...

I've had this saved for a little while and was waiting until I was caught up to post it, but I'll just post what I have now and the rest later! Sound good? Ok...

Katie visited me in Roma! It started out a bit stressful since her friend Trisha was supposed to come with her Thursday night but missed the flight, but we figured out a way for her to get there Saturday morning. On Friday, I got to be a big dork and be Katie's tour guide around Rome! We walked to Piazza Venezia, Largo Argentina, Campo di Fiori, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Piazza Colonna, Fontana di Trevi, Piazza di Spagna, the Mausoleum of Augustus, the Ara Pacis, and Piazza del Popolo! It was a lot of fun and we talked a lot about history and linguistics, which was awesome. In between our famous monuments and piazze, I made sure to take Katie to Giolitti's, the famed best gelato in Roma! We went to dinner with my roommates, which was also a lot of fun. Most of us were going to see Katie again when we went to Paris! (Strange tenses writing this now, since we already went to Paris...) On Saturday we met Trisha, and went to some of the highlights from yesterday that she had to see. We also went to St. Peter's Basilica before meeting with my roommate Liat and her friend at another one of our favorite ristoranti in Prati. I had one of my favorite pastas in Rome there, spaghetti with fresh and sundried tomatoes... but I digress... after dinner I went back to Katie and Trisha's hotel room and hung out for awhile. The next morning we went to the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Colosseum, and Circus Maximus. Somewhere among these things Katie's shoes finally died... sad day... the French cobblestone is apparently much tamer than Rome's! We took advantage of an appetizer bar in Prati for a quick and cheap dinner before going to Termini, where Katie and Trisha took a shuttle to Ciampino for their flight the next morning at 7... gotta love low-cost airlines. They love it when you miss your flight, so they make them difficult to get to... anyway, it was great to see Katie in Rome, and when we said bye it was like "bye, see you in Paris!" How crazy is that??

I learned that I really like Baroque architecture... Rome hosts some awesome examples of it, and my architecture class covered many of them! This gives me even more reason to love Piazza Navona and Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. The Piazza di S. Ignazio is also really neat- the shape of the actual piazza itself is very Baroque!

A few weeks ago was the last API trip- so weird... we met at Piazza Trilussa at 9am and went to the Catacombs of an Callisto and St. Paul's Cathedral.

That was rather short... hopefully I will post soon, but finals are going on right now- yikes! I can't believe in less than two weeks I will be home!

Milano, Orvieto, and more Roman Exploring

An update, finally! *is bad at this*

     Let's see, last Tuesday my morning on-site class was cancelled, so I went to S. Ivo della Sapienza and read in the beautiful courtyard for awhile before going to my next class. My teacher for Politics and Power in Roman Architecture gave us a two-sided sheet of paper with a list of things to see in Rome, and I have been working to see everything on the list. It is very worn and has holes where it's always folded and re-folded, and I've found some pretty neat stuff with it!

     I registered for classes next semester! I'm taking all theater, Latin, and classics classes, all of which are required for my majors and sound really interesting. Also on the perhaps less-exciting note of my academic life, I have been spending time in the library finding sources and information for the term papers for both of my on-site classes. Whoohoo, putting the "study" in "study abroad!"

     Last Saturday, Claudia, Kate, Catherine, Liat, and I went to the Gianicolo Hill, which is the second-largest hill in Rome. I've been trying to do all the outdoor walks and parks now before the weather gets too cold. It was a beautiful day- we climbed to the top of the hill and saw the Church of San Pietro, which is where the ancient aqueduct Aqua Paola used to be. Outside the church is a fountain, and across from it is a spectacular view of Rome. We played Name That Monument, which is exactly what it sounds like. There's the Pantheon! There's the Wedding Cake! There's St. Peter's! No, wait, that dome is St. Peter's! Or is it THAT dome? Anyway, then we went searching for, wait for it, a cannon! It goes off every day at noon as a tradition to mark the exact time. It was really neat to see it go off, even if it made all of us jump! Afterward, we went to the Jewish ghetto for lunch at a place right by the Porticus of Octavia and sat outside, which was neat. When we were done, Catherine, Liat, and I continued to walk around the ghetto and Tiber Island, where we walked around the island on Tiber level and saw the broken bridge and the ruins of the temple of Asclepius.

     On Sunday, I went to Milan with Catherine and Kate. We flew Easyjet, and everything going there went smoothly. We had some trouble finding out hotel, but we eventually found it. We went to see the Last Supper, but reservations to see it were full for the next two weeks! So, we moved on to Castello Sforzesco, a very picturesque castle which was beautiful despite the rain. Inside the castle is now a museum, and we saw lots of Renaissance art... and a weird contemporary furniture room? We were kind of confused about that. After, we had a nice lunch before the museum Pianoteca di Brera, where we saw more Renaissance art. We then headed over to see the Dali exhibit, but seeing as the line was three hours long, we decided to go back on Monday! We kept walking and stumbled upon the Duomo- we just looked up and there it was, a great, lit-up Gothic cathedral. It was breathtaking. We walked around the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and listened to a pianist playing in the covered courtyard. After meandering through some stores, we saw some people in costumes doing a zombie walk- Happy Halloween! One guy popped up behind me and scared me, haha. Creepy! We kept walking until we found a restaurant that wasn't crazy expensive. It was a good pick, because I had some great pasta and the waiters were funny. They kept looking over our shoulders and sneaking up behind us! After some good food and conversation, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed having heat, which we are still missing in our Rome apartment.

     In the morning, we went to the top of the Duomo. I love climbing up these tall cathedrals and looking out the tiny windows as I get higher and higher. It was so beautiful at the top, and the rain just made it even more so. Unlike the Duomo in Florence, there was a lot more area to walk around, and much more architecture at the top to see. I've decided I really like Gothic architecture. After walking around and soaking it all in, we took pictures jumping at the very top with our umbrellas and attracted some onlookers! Haha. We went back down and went inside the Duomo, where an All Saint's Day mass was going on. Next we went to Palazzo Reale to see the Salvador Dali exhibit. We were in line for hours, and a woman asked to wait with us after about two hours. She seemed nice and genuine, saying she changed to a later train back just to see the exhibit which she desperately wanted to see, so we agreed, and she talked with us for the rest of the line. She ended up paying for our nine euro tickets and wanted to take pictures with us! The Dali exhibit was really cool- I liked examining the paintings and noticing things that didn't appear right away. Sadly, after the exhibit, it was already time to go, so we walked back to our hotel, went to the airport, and found out our flight was delayed three hours! It wasn't so bad, though; I finished the play I was reading and read another one.

     Friday I went to Orvieto and the thermal baths with API. The bus left bright and early at 7:30. When we got to Orvieto, we saw a beautiful panoramic view of the city. Orvieto is in the Umbria region of Italy, which is kind of like Tuscany but less touristy. We walked down to the bottom of an old well (and back up!) which was neat. In the town area, we saw another pretty Duomo, but I didn't have time to go up in this one. We had a short while to wander around the town and explore. Even though I was there for only a little while, I really liked it- it was very small, open, and not crowded at all. Next, the group met up again and went for a tour of some underground tunnels at the restaurant where we had lunch. The tunnels were carved out of the tufa. Orvieto has lots going on underground, not just tunnels, but the hot springs that feed the thermal baths and an extinct volcano! After a tasty lunch which we ate in the tunnels, we drove to the thermal baths. It was so weird to be swimming around in a hot pool and seeing the fall foliage! The closer you get to the springs feeding the pool, the hotter the water is. It was very relaxing and and also fun- at one point, one of the API directors decided to get a large part of our group to do water aerobics, which was so funny!

    Today (woo, finally caught up!) I went to the Baths of Caracalla with Claudia and Kate. We walked around and took pictures of the ruins for awhile. We were trying to follow a walk from Claudia's guidebook, but after Point 1 (the baths) we got a bit lost... so we ended up just walking around a new part of Rome, and I went back to the Piramide and the non-Catholic cemetery with Kate and Claudia since we were close by and they had never been. 

I cannot believe that I'm over halfway through my semester abroad- I have less than two months left! That is so crazy and a little scary... suddenly my study abroad time seems so finite. I feel like I still have so much I want to do here!

Picture albums:

Rome

Milan

Londra, Firenze, and more Roma!

Wow, so much to write about! I really need to blog more often...

     On October 7th I went to LONDON! I left my last class 30 minutes early, walked very quickly to Largo Argentina, waited about ten minutes for the bus (which seemed like a lot longer) which took me to Termini, where I literally ran to the Terravision shuttle station- it was about 5 minutes before the shuttle was supposed to leave and I couldn't find the place, so I was frantically going around until I saw the bus and then I started running! Whew... so after that panic, I waited like 15 minutes for the bus to leave (...) and about an hour later arrived at Ciampino airport. It's a tiny airport, so I just wandered around until about an hour before the flight took off. I flew Ryanair, so I waited the last hour in line just to make sure I got on (and got a good seat!) I sat by the window and had a spectacular view of Rome at night. The flight was only about 2 hours, and when I arrived in London, I ran to my second shuttle in a panic (deja vu?) which took me to Baker Street! I got there a little early, so I waited a couple minutes until I saw Andrew walking down the street! :) We took a double decker bus- a good first thing to do in London!
     Friday morning, we went to Trafalgar Square, where we took uber touristy pictures with the huge lions; Westminster (which has Big Ben, the Thames River, Parliament, and the London Eye), where we took pictures of a couple from the US who forgot their camera and is now going to send us a copy of their book when they get home; Leicester Square, which isn't pronounced how you'd think; Chinatown, where we took way too many pictures because of Andrew's new camera lens; Piccadilly Circus, which isn't a circus but a circle to us Americans; and University College London, the beautiful college where Andrew is studying this semester. For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant. Yes, Italian. I seriously will never get tired of Italian food. I eat pasta in Johns Creek, I eat pasta in Roma, and I eat pasta in London. After dinner we went back to Westminster, which was really cool because at night it was all lit up, and for some reason that night Parliament and Big Ben were lit with colored lights.
     On Saturday, we saw Portobello Market, the beautiful Kensington Gardens, V&A, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's Cathedral. After dinner we went to the Globe theater and saw Henry IV Part II! While not exactly the most thrilling, understandable play this century, we got to be groundlings and lean right up against the stage, and we definitely had some good laughs. It was so cool to see Shakespeare performed in London, in the Globe, with accents and all! We stood for more than three hours, and there was a closing bit since we went on closing night- we were very lucky because they added shows that season- it was so worth it!
     Sunday we were again very busy! We went to the Monument, where we climbed 311 spiral steps up inside the huge Doric column for an awesome view of London, and Greenwich, where the Prime Meridian is located. We went to the British museum with about an hour before it closed, so we saw the main attractions of the museum, such as the Rosetta Stone and pieces from the Parthenon. When the museum closed we went to King's Cross Station, where we dorkily asked a security guard where Platform 9 and 3/4 was! He was confused, so we specified, "like, in Harry Potter?" He wasn't sure where it was and we couldn't find it- we found Platform 9, and Platform 10, but no 9 and 3/4! It was pretty funny, though, and I think he thought we were crazy. Those Americans.
     Monday morning Andrew had class, so I started working on a paper for my own class. Afterward we walked around and had lunch at a nice cafe before I had to get on the shuttle to London Stansted. The journey back was relatively uneventful- I had a great view again from my window seat.
     I hope I didn't make that too long- I tried to keep it relatively short! It was great getting to see Andrew and as much of London as possible in one weekend! :) I can't wait for him to come to Rome!

     The next weekend, I went to Florence with my roommates on an excursion with our program, API. We went on a tour of the city and saw the Duomo, the Medici family house, and Ponte Vecchio. Afterward we spent a lot of time around the markets and had some fun looking at jewelry worth hundreds/thousands of euros! For dinner we went to a small ristorante, which was delizioso.
     Saturday morning we met for breakfast at 7:45 and then headed to the Duomo, the huge cathedral that Florence is famous for. It is covered with beautiful colored marbles, and we were there at 8:30am sharp when they opened the doors so we could climb the almost 500 stairs up to the top. We had to meet with the rest of API at 10:30 to go to the museum, so we wanted to do it before the museum to avoid the long line to go up. At the top, it was an absolutely beautiful view. It was a clear, cool morning- perfect weather. After climbing back down, we went to the museum where we saw the David by Michelangelo. I'm not going to pretend to be an art expert or anything, it just looked pretty impressive to me! I've seen pictures of it, but I've never noticed how expressive his face is before. Or how big his head and hands are...

   On Sunday, Claudia and I went to the Circus Maximus where a bunch of Ancient Roman reenactment groups were doing performances. There were soldiers, gladiators, and dancers, and the whole place looked like a Roman military camp. It was a lot of (geeky) fun! We saw soldiers demonstrate military tactics and a lot of costumed people do a full Roman wedding, which was very colorful- people think of the Romans as all wearing white, but that's not the case.

     Midterm week can be summed up pretty quickly. Study sick study stress study still sick study midterm study stress next midterm study tissues last midterm DONE. I survived, and I think I did pretty well?

     Friday I went to the tour of the Vatican Museum with API and got to see many famous things, such as the statue of Laocoon and the Sistine Chapel! Also, among the not-as-famous things, I saw the Borgia room- the tour guide talked about how corrupt they were, and I was just standing there like hehe possibly my ancestors.... on Saturday, I went to the Villa Borghese Gardens, which was very pretty, and Sunday I took a walk to Palazzo Spada, where I saw the really neat illusion by Bernini- it's a corridor that was made to look much longer than it actually is, and the statue at the end looks life-sized when it's actually about 3 feet tall! After I left, I people-watched in a piazza for a little while and had fun understanding pieces of the Italian that people were saying.

Photo albums!
Tarquinia
Marino Wine Festival
London
Florence
Vatican Museum and Villa Borghese Gardens

Roma-Roma-ma-ah!

 Just so you know, it's October. CRAZY.

Let's see, I'll just start with some highlights since the last post.

I did my oral report on the Theater of Pompey for my Ancient Rome and its Monuments class... I think it went all right- I can't remember the last time I had to do an oral report!

On Thursday I visited Villa Farnesina. It was on the list my architecture teacher gave us of places to see, so I thought I'd check it out. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to! The villa was built in the 1500s and the interior walls are covered with incredibly ornate frescoes by painters such as Raphael. The frescoes all depict scenes and characters from Greco-Roman mythology and I had a lot of fun figuring out what everything was. When I was about to leave, I found a book by the entrance of the descriptions of what the frescoes were, and I was happy to see that I guessed most things correctly- I'm such a dork! Afterward I had some time between when the villa closed and my first class, so I had a had a snack at Piazza Trilussa and people-watched.

Friday I went to Tarquinia with API. I didn't get to go with my roommates (kind of complicated story having to do with a single make-up class) but it was still really fun. We biked through the medieval town of Tarquinia, which also has strong Etruscan roots, and made stops along the way to see churches and beautiful views of the countryside. For lunch we ate at an agriturismo, which is a farm that serves the food it grows to tourists vacationing there. It was dee-licious! After the lunch, I somehow got started talking with the wine connoisseur who talked for a really long time about wine tasting, and I told him my family was from Italy. He asked for the last name and where they were from, and I said Borgia and Cavallo, from Colliano. It's so funny telling people here Borgia- it always gets a good reaction!

I walked around with Claudia and Liat on Saturday, which was nice. We were heading toward the Crypt of the Capuchin monks, which was cool yet eerie- it's a crypt with several rooms decorated entirely of the bones of the monks from 1500-1800. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but I'm sure Google has some.

On Sunday, I went to the Marino Wine Festival and hung out mostly with Catherine and Liat. I wasn't planning on going, but that morning, right before my run, I decided I might as well, so I ran, quickly showered, and went out the door to the metro station. We took the metro to Termini, then figured out our train tickets and took the train to Marino. As soon as we climbed all the steps to get to the town, the atmosphere was like bam, FESTIVAL! People were dancing in the streets, singing in Italian along with the loudspeakers everywhere, wearing inflatable crowns... there was a parade and then at 4:00 wine was supposed to flow out of the fountains, so I went with Catherine and Liat because they wanted to get a spot by the fountain early. Turns out so did everyone else- we were packed in a mob of people all crowding around the fountain, and I seriously couldn't move. It was crazy! When the fountain finally started spouting wine, I was trying to get AWAY from the fountain, but everyone else was trying to get TO the fountain, and no one could get anywhere! We finally made it out of the crowd alive, then walked around more and hung out on some steps in the main piazza, talking and people-watching. About a half hour before our train was supposed to leave, we went down to the train station and waited. There was much confusion about which tracks the train was going to come on. When the train finally did come, it was even more madness. I looked down the length of the side of the train and saw about four people's feet sticking out of the windows- people inside and outside the train were lifting/pushing lots of people through the windows, many of whom didn't even have tickets. Catherine, Liat, and I got crushed against the train and couldn't get to the door, so we actually missed the train and had to wait 50 minutes for the next one! So chaotic.  We finally did make it back to Rome on the next train! It was crazy and fun and we were all very glad we went!

Video of the madness:

Also, I am going to London this weekend!! I am leaving my last class on Thursday 30 mins early, walking and taking the bus to Termini, finding the Terravision shuttle, taking the shuttle to Ciampino airport, flying to London-Stansted on Ryanair, finding the bus, then ending up wherever Andrew is! Whew! So excited!

Another Rome album!

Walking and Hiking Everywhere

I don't even know the names of many streets around where I live in Georgia, but I am getting a pretty good sense of direction around some areas in Rome, especially in Prati, my neighborhood. Check this out.


Via Guilio Cesare
Via Pompeo Magno
Via Cicerone
Via Plinio
Via Ottaviano
Via Vespasiano
Via Vergilio
Via Ovidio
Via Tacito
Via Terenzio


Can you guess why? Because these street names are not made up, they are CRAZY AWESOME. Because not only am I walking around the streets of Rome, almost in a mesmerized daze, I'm like, whoa, I'm walking on the Via Vergilio right now. How cool! When I walk along the Tiber, I often see a boat named Rhea Silvia go by. 


Let's see, last weekend I went to Tivoli with John Cabot and hiked up Monte Catillo and around Villa Gregoriana. We hiked for 2.5 hours up the mountain, which was beautiful and exhilarating and steep. At some point up the mountain, there was a forest of cork trees, which was really neat- the air on the mountain smelled amazing and full of fall, and in the cork forest it almost smelled sweet! The experts are still trying to figure out why the cork trees are growing there. When we got to the top we had lunch, then hiked back down the mountain. We saw wild horses once on the way down, about four of them and a foal! Once we reached the base of the mountain, we headed to Villa Gregoriana. Several waterfalls and rocky grottoes made for some beautiful views, even though it was rainy. There were tons of stairs there- we were going in loops or something, so every time we went down stairs we knew we had to come back up! At the end of the long day (about 6 hours of hiking) we hopped on the bus and came back to Rome. 


Lately, I've been doing lots of wandering. Last Sunday Claudia and I wandered around and found a really neat flea market in a piazza by our apartment. After and between all my classes this week I've been walking around wherever my on-site classes end. My architecture teacher gave a list of places we should see, so I've been trying to get to those places and enjoying whatever I find on the way. On Monday I didn't have class and I did about 5 hours of walking! This weekend was also a wandering weekend with my roommates Claudia, Kate, and Catherine. On Saturday, we wanted to see the Bocca della Verita, so we decided to have a slow day and get to the Bocca della Verita, but take our time and find lots of places in between. On the way, we went to Piazza del Popolo and people-watched, visited the DaVinci museum (which was fascinating and very impressive), checked out many little shops, had lunch in a trattoria on a small side street, hung out by the Pantheon, and did some more people-watching by the Temple of Hercules while we sat in the grass. We all agreed it was a day well-spent! Sunday we went to a flea market in the morning and stopped and had lunch. When we got back I went for a run since the weather is incredible- high of 75 degrees Fahrenheit! As I was saying before, I'm getting to know my way around this area, so I didn't even have to run in big loops over and over like I have been. I just ran around every corner that looked pretty. It was a very good run! Observation: jogging scares pigeons. 


Blogger is giving me some trouble uploading my pictures into the post, but here are the links so my Italy albums thus far! :)


Rome
More Rome
Sperlonga 
Mt. Vesuvius, Sorrento, Capri, and Pompeii
Mt. Catillo and Villa Gregoriana