Congratulations, you made it to spring! This is usually my favorite time around Catholic’s campus: the trees are blooming, the sun is shining abundantly, and Andy Grammer is playing on iPods throughout campus. While things aren’t exactly the same here in Rome, the trees are still blooming, the sun is finally shining abundantly, and I continually blast Andy Grammer in my apartment for my host mom, my neighbors, and all of Italy to hear.
In my book, spring serves as a universal applause from Mother Nature that we made it through winter, and I can think of no better reward than Spring Break. Before I even left the States, I planned out my spring break to include the one thing I’ve always wanted to do: ski in the Alps.
Starting out my break, I was blessed enough to have my girlfriend, Bronwen McAuliffe, come visit me for a few days. We shuffled around from monument to monument, ate our weight in pasta (a weekly occurrence for me), and I was able to show her how Romans live their daily life. Not only was it nice to
see her, but she also brought me every kind of Reese’s known to man, which was amazing.
[Bronwen and I on one of the Seven Hill overlooking beautiful Rome]
After we parted ways I set off for my Swiss ski adventure in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland. Based at the foot of the Eiger Mountain, Interlaken (the city in which my hotel was located) was the most stunning place I have ever been. Early the morning after I arrived, I boarded a train to go to the base of the mountain, rented my skis, and climbed onto the ski lift that took me up the mountain. Before this trip, I had only skied in Indiana, which as you may expect doesn’t really have mountains but rather large hills. The chairlift at Perfect North Slopes in Indiana takes a maximum of five minutes to ascend the hill, but the mountain I skied down in Switzerland took 45 minutes to reach the top!
Once I got off the chairlift, I attempted to ski down slopes that were entirely too hard for me, fell down many times, broke three ski poles, and was sun burnt from being so high up in the mountains, but I had the time of my life. It was great to finally be able to spend time in nature again after traveling from city to city for three months.
[The absolutely stunning view from the top of the mountain]
[My picture taken by the three old French Ladies I befriended at the top]
[View of the top from 1/4 of the way down.]
[I stopped to eat lunch at the top of the mountain after a few runs. When I came out the top of the mountain was inside of a cloud! I couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I skied through the cloud and then down the rest of the mountain. It was so cool!]
[My hotel/restaurant/bar/heaven]
[Day #2 of skiing: a cabin in the midst of trees]
[Impeccable view]
[Another beautiful view]
After three days of skiing, I boarded an overnight train for Prague, Czech Republic to meet some friends for the remainder of the break. The train departed mid-evening and arrived in Prague the next morning at 10:30 am. Prague was beautiful, and definitely extremely different from any city in Western Europe. We only had a few days in Prague so we were limited on what we could see but managed to tour the castle, visit the old town square, and find a TGI Friday’s to celebrate our halfway point of being abroad.
What lies ahead for me: Cinque Terre, Nice, Monaco, Venice (this time in warm weather), London, and the Bay of Naples. So until next time, continue enjoying the sun, good luck on your papers as the semester comes to a close, and above all, continue blasting Andy Grammer.
I realize I have been absolutely horrible at updating this blog, so the following posts are backdated updates that I wrote for my school newspaper over the past month and a half! Can't wait to see you all very soon!
What a whirlwind week. I’ll start from the beginning though and give you a play by play.
Saturday-Venice
As I have said in previous blogs, our program here in Rome is set up where we take classes through Catholic at St. John’s University, but our Italian classes are taught at a school by the Spanish Steps that specialize in teaching Italian to students abroad. As a part of our enrollment there, they plan special events, one of which was this whirlwind of a trip to Venice for Carnivale. For those of you who don’t know, Carnivale is the European version of Mardi Gras (Think Mardi Gras in the 1800s/Marscerade)
I woke up at 6:30 in order to make it to the Roma Termini train station for our fast train to leave toward Venice. We arrived in Venice at 12:30 where it was a balmy 28 degrees. Holey Moley, it was freezing. We had a complete blast in Venice, but one of the distinct aspects we were immediately introduced to was the wind. Because Venice is set up around the water and canals, all of the windy walkways turn into wind tunnels. So it was cold to begin with, but the wind made it unbearable. We still had a blast though!
When we arrived, we left the train station as a big group of 60 students, but a group of four of us bought a map and broke off from the rest of the group to find our own lunch. We figured part of Venice was getting lost and finding our own way through the city, so we found a little restaurant to grab a quick lunch.
After eating lunch, we headed to San Marco’s Square. San Marco’s is a huge piazza bordering the sea where all of the Carnivale festivities were based around. On our way to the square we stopped in shops to warm up, but also to check a Venice to-do off the list: buy a mask. As I said, one of the big things of Carnivale is that it’s like a huge masquerade. We purchased our masks from a vendor and then went to the parade.
Holy wow, talk about something out of the Travel Channel. The parade was out of this world. Combine a Fourth of July parade, Halloween, a circus, and thousands of people and you will have Carnivale in San Marco’s Square. We made our way to the middle of the Square to take it all in, but only stayed for a short while because of the temperatures.
After this, we were frozen. So, to thaw out, we found an Italian equivalent of a mom and pop coffee shop and decided to stop and thaw out for a few hours. We ordered wine, Irish Coffee, hot chocolate, and humus over a few hours time. Great people, great conversation, and warmth. It was great.
We had a few hours left, so we found a cozy Italian restaurant for dinner and then made our way back to the train station after getting gelato on the way. (The golden rule about Italy: It can be freezing outside (literally), but it is NEVER too cold for gelato. Never)
[Italian Countryside somewhere in between Rome and Venice]
[A vendor selling masks in the streets of Venice]
[A close up of a mask]
[I didn't have time to go in and get this, but it looks amazing]
[One of the many canals in Venice]
[Even though it was freezing, people still paid through the roof for a gondola ride]
[Myself, Kaleigh, and Erin with our masks on in San Marco's Square]
[Part of the parade in the Square]
[More people]
[...and even more people]
[Myself on top of one of the main bridges]
[An extremely cool church in the middle of Venice]
Sunday-Venice/Rome/Siena/Arezzo
Our train left Venice at 12:30 and arrived back in Rome at 7:00 am. One of the things I will constantly thank my parents for is my ability to sleep on transportation. As soon as I get onto a bus/plane/train, I pass out immediately, it’s great. The other three in my sleeper car had troubles falling asleep—not me.
Anyways, we arrived in Rome and I had a two hour window, to leave the train station, go home, regroup, pack up for Tuscany, and then meet back at school by nine when our bus was going to leave…talk about a bad way to wake up.
I regrouped myself (grabbed breakfast on the way to school) and was on the bus ready to fall back asleep again. The great thing about this trip was that the Catholic was footing the bill. It was going to be an action-packed weekend, filled with bus rides, tours, and wine, but lived up to be so much more.
[The Roman countryside on the way to Siena]
The first stop on the weekend getaway was Siena. A quaint little town in the Tuscan countryside, Siena is placed on a hill and looks like it is stuck in the middle ages. One of the really cool things is that Siena is where the beginning of the most recent James Bond movie was filmed (link below). They are famous for a horse race (that we were not there for), but we stood in the same square that it takes place in.
Things accomplished in Tuscany:
·Toured a museum of Art right off the main piazza. I wasn’t extremely interested in the art, but Siena was extremely interesting politically. During Midieval times, they combined church and state, so this tour was of the main governmental building of the time. The chamber where they debated laws was right next to a chapel. It was pretty cool being able to see how they coincided and the way in which it affected their political system.
·I had the best Italian meal so far in my time in Italy. I would have taken a picture of it, but I ate it too quickly. Spaghetti with meat sauce…YUM. I ordered two. The waiter thought I was crazy, but I didn’t care
·Ordered hot chocolate while waiting on the bus. The hot chocolate in Italy tastes like a melted Hershey bar. I don’t know what they do to make it taste magnificent, but whatever it is, it works.
[The view of Siena when we got off the bus]
[Siena from the balcony of a museum]
[More Siena]
We left Siena a bit before dinner time, trekked to Arezzo where we checked into our hotel, had a well-deserved warm meal, and crashed into bed. The coolest part of the hotel? The towel warmers. So clutch.
Monday-Arezzo
On Monday we woke up and toured Arezzo. Arezzo is a lot like Siena in that it is a small mideaval town in Tuscany. We toured around the city, and it was beautiful, but the highlight of the day for me was the wine tasting tor we did later that day.
We boarded the bus (yet again), and made our way deeper into the Tuscan countryside. We got off at this picturesque castle that has been turned into a winery. We were able to tour the old castle (that is NOT heated) and then the winery in the basement of the building. Our tour guide absolutely loved his job, so it made our tour 100x better.
After the tour, we went across the street to their restaurant where we sampled the wines that they talked about on their tour. That in conjunction with a great dinner convinced almost everyone in the group to buy a few bottles of wine from them. I walked away with: three wines (one white, two red), a full stomach, and an odd desire to be a vineyard maker.
[The view from the Duomo in Arezzo]
[The view from the Duomo in Arezzo]
[A piazza near the duomo in Arezzo]
[Another view of the Italian countryside]
[The view from the front doors of the castle]
[A few of many of the barrels in the basement of the castle]
[Very old bottles of wine bordering the walls]
[The four different kinds of wine we tasted]
Tuesday-Pienza/Orvieto/Rome
Tuesday morning we woke up, packed up, and headed back towards Rome. On the way we stopped in two stunning cities: Pienza and Orvieto.
Pienza is a super tiny town built on top of a hill (you seeing a pattern yet?) that was the hometown of Pope Pius. We were there for less than an hour, but were able to see duomo, get a few pictures of the Italian countryside, have a impromptu snowball fight, and load up on Peanut M&Ms.
Our last stop before arriving back in Rome was in Orvieto, which is about an hour and a half drive outside of the Metro area. My favorite city out of the four on the trip from the weekend, it was unlike any of the other three. We parked the bus in a large parking lot in at the bottom of the city and had to take a tram up the side of the mountain to reach the city. Once inside, we scattered to find individual restaurants to have lunch at before meeting back at the duomo for a tour of the cathedral.
Orvieto was just so cool because, yes it is built up on a hill, but the old walls still support the city today. Before going down to the bus, we walked around on the old walls, took many pictures of the Italian countryside, and traied to take it all in before leaving.
We finally arrived back in Rome around dinner time, where we were able to go back home and have dinner with our hosts. It was great to be back home, but I had a mountain of homework waiting for me upon my return.
This weekend has been very dull compared to last, yet just what I needed. I’ve been writing cover letters for internships over the summer, prepping for my Italian midterm on Monday, and starting on papers due in a few weeks.
What’s coming up for me:
·Italian Midterm on Monday
·A friend studying abroad in London (Armaine Decastro) is coming to visit this weekend
·Midterms are the week of the 27th. They shouldn’t be too tough, but I’m worried most about my Italian final which is the Friday of that week.
·Once I finish all of that though, I’m on Spring break!
Highs:
Weather
It’s finally warm! If you have been following my blog at all, you know that I have been complaining about the cold, so its great that it is finally warm!
Food
I’ve had really good food lately. As mentioned earlier, I had multiple dishes of Spaghetti in Siena that were GREAT. Also a new food that I have experienced this week is called Souple (I know I’m spelling it wrong). Imagine a mozzarella stick that is the size of your palm with rice and tomato sauce inside of it. It is absolutely great, I’ve had like 17 in the past few days. Also on another note, I found an international grocery store that sells food form all over the world. I obviously got Oreos, Peanut butter, and chips and queso. I’m a happy camper.
Italian
I’m almost done! I have a few tough weeks ahead of me, but once Spring Break hits, I’m done and go down to three classes a week!
Lows:
Diet Coke
I still have not found Diet Coke here and I’m starting to hit a wall.My body is beginning to shut down, so I’m going to need to find some soon.Luckily, Armaine is coming from London this weekend so I think she is bringing me a bottle from there.Supposedly it is the same as the States, so that will be a daymaker.
I know I've been slacking on updating the blog, but life has been so entirely busy here! I'm running to class soon, so I can't write much, but I thought I would at least show you what has been going on through pictures! So, here you are:
Florence
Florence was ABSOLUTELY beautiful. It's so interesting because it was my first trip while here in Italy outside of Rome. The only other European city I obviously had to compare it to though was Rome, which is beautiful and great, but without the Italian culture and language, it could be any large city. When we stepped foot into Florence it felt like you were inside a children's book. It was so cool, plus everyone in the city was extremely nice, so it made for a nice and relaxing weekend.
[The front face of the Duomo, the large church that Florence is famous for]
[My friends and I decided to rent an apartment while we were in Florence to cut back on costs, so instead of going out to eat, we went shopping in this market to get breakfast/dinner for the rest of the trip]
[This is the view from the bridge called Ponte Vecchio downtown Florence]
[Ponte Vecchio from the side street]
[One of my absolute favorite parts of Italy is the gelato. It tastes just as good as it looks!]
[Even the street signs are funny!]
[See caption above]
[Sunday morning we made eggs, homefries, and toast. It was a long overdue American breakfast]
[We hiked to the top of the Tower of the Duomo on Sunday which was absolutely beautiful]
[View from the top of the Tower]
[One of the main piazzas in Florence. So, so, cool]
[Want your pizza delivered? No problem.]
Barcelona
The weekend following, we went to Barcelona which was just as cool, but extremely different. I was expecting the food to be close to the Mexican I get at home, but was nothing near it. ALL of the food had a seafood component, which was interesting, but I wasn't really a fan of. While we were there though, we saw the Sagrada Familia which is a church that has been under construction for over a hundred years and is still going! It's crazy cool! We had more on tap to do, but I got food poisoning from KFC (Don't make fun of me), so after Saturday I was out of commission for the rest of the weekend. We still had a blast though!!
[We rented an apartment again. Only drag--it was on the seventh floor--with no elevator. It was 99 steps in case you were wondering.]
[Apparently Barcelona doesn't do doughnuts? They had them in the store, but apparently it's called Dunkin' Coffee? Either way, it was a nice dose of America]
[Doors of the Sagrada Familia. It says "Give us this day our daily bread" in so many languages. English is in the middle of the picture.]
[One of the really cool things we did was go to an Ice Bar, which is just what the title depicts, a bar made completely out of ice. You pay 15 Euro as a cover and get a a coat, gloves, and a drink. Even the cups were made out of ice!]
[The church we went in earlier that day (the Sagrada Familia) carved completely out of ice!]
[The backdrop of the bar.]
[I've had summit fever since we landed in Europe, so my vote on Sunday was to hike to the top of Barcelona to the Park Guell. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL/these pictures don't do it justice]
[Me at the top. I obviously still have food poisoning, so don't criticize the face.]
[Ignore the actual video, I just wanted to get the recording. When landing on RyanAir, they play this congratulating you on landing. It's the little things haha]
Snow
So last weekend, the plan was to go on a trip with school to Tuscany. The end of the week was super hectic because we had an Italian Final and then were planning to leave on Saturday morning.
Well...the snow leveled Rome. Even though it only accumulated a few inches of snow, Rome had no idea how to handle it. Anyways, we woke up on Saturday to a text from our program director telling us that the bus couldn't get out of the parking lot. It hasn't snowed this much in Rome since 1985, so it was extremely rare that it happened. Of course, I would be here on the year it would snow more than a dusting!
[Snow still falling!]
[A lot of the Italians didn't know how to drive in the snow, so they would pull over to the side of the road and leave their car there and just take the metro home. It was crazy!]
[Me with Rafaella, my Italian Teacher for 101]
On tap for this week:
Because the Italian Classes are intensive, I am done with 101 and moving onto 102. I have a new teacher and am not allowed to speak English at all in the class, so it is really hard, but it will be worth it!
Our Italian school planned a trip for us to Venice for Carnivale! So for this, we will be leaving on Saturday morning, taking a fast train, spending the day in Venice, and taking a sleeper train back. I'm super excited to see Venice because I've heard how unique it is, but I'm not looking forward to the cold temperatures!
Our Tuscany trip was rescheduled for this weekend, so we are leaving on Sunday and will be gone through Tuesday. I'm really excited to go on a trip with school though because it takes a lot to plan a trip! It will be nice to go and just have it planned out for me! (And my wallet will appreciate the already-paid-for meals haha!)
Highs:
Italian: While I am by no means anywhere near fluent, it is nice to have more of a foundation in the language. Also, as I said above, we took the final for 101 last Friday which means I'm completely done with one of my five classes for the semester!
Classes: I know that I am a super nerd for continuing to reference this, but it really sincerely is one of my favorite aspects of Rome. One of my favorite characteristics of people is when they have passion, which all of my professors have for their individual subjects. While some of them are extremely hard, I look forward to going to class everyday, and going home to do the homework. It's a really weird feeling, but I like it!
Spring Break: It is still a few weeks away, but we have been planning what our spring break is going to look like. I'm lucky enough that my girlfriend is coming to visit for the first few days of break, so I will be in Rome with her until Monday. Then I am planning to go to Switzerland for a few days to hike/maybe ski/see mountains, and then meet up with my friends in Prague on Wednesday for the remainder of the break. It's going to be an action-packed week, but I'm so excited!
Lows:
The Weather: Blah. I HATE the cold. One of the reasons I came here was for the climate. The beginning of January was 60 and Sunny, so I was extremely happy. The last week though, has been in the 30s with SNOW! Unheard of! Oh well though, it will soon pass and we will move on to warm weather!
Diet Coke: For anyone who knows me well, knows my obsession with Diet Coke. They have Coca-Cola Light here, which is marketed the same, but tastes COMPLETELY different. I'm craving it madly and will definitely be my first purchase upon return to the US.
