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
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Italian/American Differences
Pretty much says it all in the title. Here we go.
1. Italians are much, much more laid back than Americans. I think it's that the concept of time is so different. I doubt anyone ever uses the phrase "time is money" here. From 1:00pm-4:00pm is siesta time- all the shops close because people go home to have lunch and nap. Walking on the street, eating, drinking, everything is done at a relaxed pace. Even the laundry takes its time- a cycle can last up to six hours and the clothes are hang-dried. When walking on the sidewalk, I have to remember this when it seems the people in front of me are moving at a snail's pace. It's a different speed of life- the atmosphere is contagious since no one seems stressed out. I suspect this is one of the main reasons the Italians live so long, not just the Mediterranean diet and all the walking.
2. Italians dress more modestly and formally than Americans. I'm not saying they walk around in fancy clothes, but I have only seen one person wearing sweatpants, and no one wears t-shirts (unless they're walking around in a tour group). The one exception seems to be the beach. Every beach is a topless beach, some are nude, and speedos and thongs are all over the place.
3. Everyone smokes.
4. Italians are much more personable at shops and restaurants. I remember the first night, at the API welcome dinner, when not many people ate the dessert (we had already had an appetizer and 2 courses!), the chefs came out to talk to one of our program advisors about why no one finished the dessert, and if they should make another one (we were a group of 75 people). In Italy, when the waiters come out and ask how your food is, they really want to know! If you don't finish your meal, be prepared to be asked why not, and for weird looks (even a refusal) if you ask for a to-go box.
5. A bar in Italy is completely different from a bar in America. An Italian bar is pretty much a little restaurant, sometimes outside, where people will order some wine or something and hang out. Italians do not drink to get drunk, they drink slowly and in moderation (see #1). If you see a loud, drunk person, that's probably an American study abroad student...
6. Traffic lights are more like...guidelines. Crossing the street with a "Walk" light certainly does not mean that someone isn't going to keep on driving down that road. On the flip side, pedestrians cross whenever they feel like making their way through a couple lanes of moving traffic. So, not sure what those silly lights are for.
7. The American first floor is the Italian ground floor, and the American second floor is the Italian first floor, etc.
8. Paying at restaurants (I use this term generally to mean any place that serves food, haha) can be confusing... First, there is sometimes a sitting fee, usually around 2€. This is instead of tip. Then, the bread they bring out to you may or may not be free. It depends on where you are. In Rome, the bread could be free, or else you might get hit with a 9€ charge on your bill at the end of your meal to split among everyone. When my roommates and I were in Sorrento, no one touched the bread- it looked and smelled delicious, some kind of focaccia, and we all stared at it longingly. When the waiter came by, he looked at us with a really confused look and asked why we didn't eat the bread. Turns out it was free- he laughed, and we demolished the bread. Also, water is never free. You have to specify mineral water senza gassata (without gas) or else you'll probably get the natural bubbly kind, and always without ice! (Ps. places don't open for dinner until around 7, and even then you'll be the only one in the restaurant!)
9. At an Italian supermarket, the customers are supposed to bag, weigh, and price-sticker their own fruits and veggies- but don't think about touching the food without a plastic glove!
10. You've never seen PDA until you've been to Italy.
Well, that's all I can think of for now! I feel like I've gotten used to to many of these differences already, and some of them were hard to think of because they already don't seem that odd. I pretty much love the Italian culture. I'll update later about my weekend, and I'll post more Italian/American differences as I think of them! :) Ciao ciao!
1. Italians are much, much more laid back than Americans. I think it's that the concept of time is so different. I doubt anyone ever uses the phrase "time is money" here. From 1:00pm-4:00pm is siesta time- all the shops close because people go home to have lunch and nap. Walking on the street, eating, drinking, everything is done at a relaxed pace. Even the laundry takes its time- a cycle can last up to six hours and the clothes are hang-dried. When walking on the sidewalk, I have to remember this when it seems the people in front of me are moving at a snail's pace. It's a different speed of life- the atmosphere is contagious since no one seems stressed out. I suspect this is one of the main reasons the Italians live so long, not just the Mediterranean diet and all the walking.
2. Italians dress more modestly and formally than Americans. I'm not saying they walk around in fancy clothes, but I have only seen one person wearing sweatpants, and no one wears t-shirts (unless they're walking around in a tour group). The one exception seems to be the beach. Every beach is a topless beach, some are nude, and speedos and thongs are all over the place.
3. Everyone smokes.
4. Italians are much more personable at shops and restaurants. I remember the first night, at the API welcome dinner, when not many people ate the dessert (we had already had an appetizer and 2 courses!), the chefs came out to talk to one of our program advisors about why no one finished the dessert, and if they should make another one (we were a group of 75 people). In Italy, when the waiters come out and ask how your food is, they really want to know! If you don't finish your meal, be prepared to be asked why not, and for weird looks (even a refusal) if you ask for a to-go box.
5. A bar in Italy is completely different from a bar in America. An Italian bar is pretty much a little restaurant, sometimes outside, where people will order some wine or something and hang out. Italians do not drink to get drunk, they drink slowly and in moderation (see #1). If you see a loud, drunk person, that's probably an American study abroad student...
6. Traffic lights are more like...guidelines. Crossing the street with a "Walk" light certainly does not mean that someone isn't going to keep on driving down that road. On the flip side, pedestrians cross whenever they feel like making their way through a couple lanes of moving traffic. So, not sure what those silly lights are for.
7. The American first floor is the Italian ground floor, and the American second floor is the Italian first floor, etc.
8. Paying at restaurants (I use this term generally to mean any place that serves food, haha) can be confusing... First, there is sometimes a sitting fee, usually around 2€. This is instead of tip. Then, the bread they bring out to you may or may not be free. It depends on where you are. In Rome, the bread could be free, or else you might get hit with a 9€ charge on your bill at the end of your meal to split among everyone. When my roommates and I were in Sorrento, no one touched the bread- it looked and smelled delicious, some kind of focaccia, and we all stared at it longingly. When the waiter came by, he looked at us with a really confused look and asked why we didn't eat the bread. Turns out it was free- he laughed, and we demolished the bread. Also, water is never free. You have to specify mineral water senza gassata (without gas) or else you'll probably get the natural bubbly kind, and always without ice! (Ps. places don't open for dinner until around 7, and even then you'll be the only one in the restaurant!)
9. At an Italian supermarket, the customers are supposed to bag, weigh, and price-sticker their own fruits and veggies- but don't think about touching the food without a plastic glove!
10. You've never seen PDA until you've been to Italy.
Well, that's all I can think of for now! I feel like I've gotten used to to many of these differences already, and some of them were hard to think of because they already don't seem that odd. I pretty much love the Italian culture. I'll update later about my weekend, and I'll post more Italian/American differences as I think of them! :) Ciao ciao!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Epic First Post
So. BLOG. I have been meaning to start this for a really long time! I need to get started somewhere... so to get myself warmed up, I'm going to do a super-quick summary of everything so far! (Yes, everything!)
August 29: I start out the whole adventure 30 minutes late (go figure, it's me) because I slept through all my alarms. I woke up at 5:30, finished last-minute packing, left for the airport late (surprise), took stuff out of my suitcase because I was afraid it was too heavy, said bye to the family, saw Linda at the terminal before our flights took off, flew to Washington DC, waited for 6 hours, got on the 777 plane to Fiumicino, and slept for most of the plane ride. Whew. There was a map on the screen behind every seat, so I always knew where I was, which was neat. I saw mountains one time from the plane when I got up to stretch my legs- so pretty!
August 29: I start out the whole adventure 30 minutes late (go figure, it's me) because I slept through all my alarms. I woke up at 5:30, finished last-minute packing, left for the airport late (surprise), took stuff out of my suitcase because I was afraid it was too heavy, said bye to the family, saw Linda at the terminal before our flights took off, flew to Washington DC, waited for 6 hours, got on the 777 plane to Fiumicino, and slept for most of the plane ride. Whew. There was a map on the screen behind every seat, so I always knew where I was, which was neat. I saw mountains one time from the plane when I got up to stretch my legs- so pretty!
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| Big plane! |
August 30: Plane lands in Roma!! By this point I am tired, hungry, and thirsty, but I really don't care because I'm so excited and my nervousness has been gone ever since I got on the plane to
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| Piazza Navona at night |
August 31: In the morning we had our monuments of Rome
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| It exists! |
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| View from the kitchen balcony- many pictures stitched together |
September 2: We had our orientation at JCU which was relatively uneventful... later that night Catherine, Kate, Claudia, and I went to visit another apartment in the Vaticano neighborhood. It was a longer trek than expected, including a ton of stairs to get up to the apartment- we definitely need to find a different way to get there next time. We practically ran all the way back in order to get gelato before they closed, and when we got back we just hung out in the apartment which was fun.
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| Running down the stairs with Claudia, Catherine, and Kate to get to the gelato place |
September 3: Around noon we had our Christian Rome tour, and we went to Castel Sant'Angelo and Saint Peter's Basilica. I enjoyed these a lot more than I thought I would- Saint Peter's was incredible. It was so ornate and beautiful, and of course I took a million pictures.
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| Bernini's Baldacchino in Saint Peter's |
September 4: The only thing I remember about today was Catherine's now-famous dinner... the waiter came out and served her pasta out of an enormous hunk of Parmesan cheese. Enough said.
September 5: Sperlonga beach day! My roommates and I went with a tour group. The whole town was absolutely gorgeous. I wanted to spend another couple of days there just floating around in the water looking up at the town. I would love to live there- there's not much else to say about it other than just repeating how beautiful it was, so if you really want to know, proceed to my Facebook and take a look at my ten million pictures.
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| I didn't know which way to look, toward the town or out toward the ocean- both were so pretty! |
September 6: Since I have no Monday classes, I had a pretty relaxing day. I went to the open-air market, made the video tour of our apartment, and walked to the John Cabot campus (which took me an hour and five minutes!).
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| No other pictures for today, so I guess I'll put up this one of my lunch after the market! |
September 7: First day of classes (and Laura's birthday!) First was Ancient Rome and its Monuments from 9:30am-12:15pm. We walked to the Circus Maximus, the Palatine, and the Roman Forum. At each stop, my teacher talked about the monument/area and its history. I am really excited for this class, and I wish it wasn't just on Tuesdays! I went back to the apartment for lunch and then was 10 minutes late for Italian (2:15pm-4:05pm TR) since I waited for the 271 bus for like 25 minutes... stupid phantom bus! The teacher kept speaking to me in Italian which was basically awkward because, um, I don't speak Italian, so I kept staring at her blankly with no reply. Thirdly was Literature and Society in Ancient Rome, 5:15pm-6:30pm TR. Claudia is also in that class, and we love the teacher- elderly kooky Classics professor!
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| On-site Monuments class- legend says that Faustulus found Romulus and Remus washed up under this arch by the Palatine Hill! |
September 8: First Politics and Power in Ancient Roman Architecture class (1:30-4:15 W). We met in a classroom since it was the first day and went over the syllabus and et cetera, but I am really excited for this class! On the way back to my apartment, I stopped by the open air market in Prati (my neighborhood) and all of the people who work at this one stand were talking about me... there was one guy who could speak English who asked how old I was. There was much gesturing and chatting and I figured out they were so surprised that I was 20 since they all think I look 15! It was pretty funny but awkward... they were referring to me as "bella signorina" so I was pretending to not understand that and then skedaddled away as soon as they were done weighing my food. (By the way, at the supermarkets, if you don't bag, weigh, and price-sticker your own food, they get annoyed... I think they also charge you if you don't have exact change, but I don't really know!)
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| The peaches here are the best ever! |
September 9: Italian teacher continues to speak in mostly all Italian, so I got kind of confused. In Lit. and Society, the teacher gave a brief history of pre-Rome, which was cool- I am loving this history thing.
September 10: We left in the morning to go to Sorrento! During the drive, I saw signs saying Naples and Salerno... so close to Colliano, where my family is from. Hopefully I will get to visit them! We drove up Mt. Vesuvius on the bus. Picture this: thin, winding roads, and European drivers on both sides. After a somewhat precarious drive up, we stopped and hiked up the mountain- everyone was dressed for a hot day, and it was super windy and cold! Nevertheless, it was beautiful and exhilarating. I very much enjoy the outdoors, and a nice chilly hike up a dormant volcano with a view of the bay of Naples was pretty sweet. At the top, my roommates and I all took silly posing pictures on a rock, which was fun, and we got some good pictures! After we hiked back down, we headed on to Sorrento. I had the Sorrento-style gnocchi for dinner, which was highly recommended to us, and then we wandered around the town going into little shops for the rest of the night. Oh, and some awesome gelato from another shop that was recommended to us!
September 11: It was kind of weird being out of the US for this day. In the morning, we took a ferry to Capri, and if I thought that was beautiful, the boat tour around Capri was breathtaking. I took a million pictures and still had plenty of time to put my camera down and just enjoy the wind and the smell and the views. It was probably my favorite part of the day- the ocean and islands were gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and the boat was fun! After the tour, I tried finding the Venetian steps, but the people I asked either spoke Italian and probably knew where it was, or spoke English and had no idea. I ended up finding some random steps and walking up to Capri town, which was cool because I saw a lot of pretty entrances to houses. I can't imagine coming home every day to one of these beautiful villas overlooking the water. In Capri town, I met up with people and had lunch and then wandered around the shops. Capri has beautiful ceramic stores and I wanted to buy everything. Back down at the shore I put my feet in the ocean... the water was so clear, I just stood there enjoying everything until we had to take the ferry back.
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| Capri! |
September 12: We checked out of our hotel and went on a tour of Pompeii. The city felt so real; I could really sense that it was once a thriving town full of real people. It was amazing how there were intact frescoes and tracks on the road from chariots. Eheu, Caecilius, Metella, Quintus, Grumio, Clemens, and Cerberus... I wanted to stop by and say hey but I couldn't find them. Going into one of the villas might have been my favorite, since I felt like I was seeing all the things I first learned about the Romans in Latin I- triclinium, impluvium, cubicilum... hehe!
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| Chariot tracks between the stepping stones- don't get your toga wet when it rains! |
September 13: I went with my roommates to the supermarket and the open-air market... now the guys at the open air market are all calling me Sabrina, so I am confused. The last time they asked my name and pronounced it Si-VAH-nah, so maybe they forgot? Later, I finally made it to the bookstore by the Spanish Steps to get my textbooks (all but one... gotta go back I guess). I wandered around the area and found this awesome pasta place and omg. Pasta is like my favorite food and this place was full of different kinds of pasta, so it was heaven, or at least would have been if everything wasn't so expensive! Disney pasta, little Mexican hat looking pasta, black squid ink pasta, Christmas pasta, and... not sure what to call it... genitalia pasta? For real. And it's not the first time I've seen it, either. For dinner, I experimented with making eggplant. It turned out pretty good, except I cut my thumb AGAIN while chopping... really, I never do that at home, but this is the second time in like a week where my thumb has been bleeding profusely and I ran to Claudia asking for a Band-Aid. Tonight was my first night of doing homework- it was fun to be doing homework again (yeah I know, I'm a dork). My classes are all so interesting!
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| l'emporio della pasta |
September 14: I walked to the Piazza del Popolo for my on-site Ancient Rome and its Monuments class and actually made it on time without any problems. We met by this huge Egyptian obelisk and then proceeded to a museum where we talked for the rest of the time about Etruscan artifacts. It's really neat learning so much about the Etruscans- it's so important for Roman history because the Romans got so much from the Etruscans! I could go on but I don't want to bore everyone... after Lit. and Society in Ancient Rome, I learned of Claudia's groundbreaking (teehee, there's kind of a pun in that) theory- after the teacher talked about how important water was for the Romans (their cities are all around water sources and they were experts at getting water into the cities- hello, aqueducts) she told me that obviously, the Romans were water-benders. I agree completely. In fact, she continued to inform me that Moses was the avatar. Red Sea, burning bush, etc... so true.
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| Funky angle yet not the best picture, I had to stop and take notes... hundreds of tons, brought to Rome by Augustus in 10BC |
September 15: Dude, this is TODAY! Awesome! I am finally caught up in my blog!
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| The Forum Romanum and the Colosseum |
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