Florence and Tivoli

The first week that I was here, I had so much spare time because I didn't know what to do, but now that everyone is settled and classes have begun, I have almost no free time except weekends, if I'm not traveling. Of course, as soon as I get steady internet I have no time to use it. But that's a side note because I need to finish up my Florence story.

There were three of us that traveled together: Kelsey, Sheeba, and myself. We tried calling the other people that were there (about half the program) but no one was answering, so we just decided to do what we wanted and try to meet up later. As we're circling the Duomo, we run into some people from St. Johns. Apparently, Florence is tiny, because we ran into the rest of the St Johns people about half an hour later. We walked everywhere and saw the Duomo (I gaped for a good ten minutes--its huge, and beautiful), the Ponte Vecchio, the river Arno, some huge piazza that had a carousel, the leather market (bought a little wristbag and I love it), and tons of beautiful statues and buildings. What I like about Florence in comparison to Rome is that everything is medieval. Rome has modern parts (like where I live) and then the ancient, but Florence is the same architecture everywhere (at least where I went). The food was incredible, and inexpensive. I'm excited to go back when my mom gets here and do the things I didn't get to because I didn't have enough time.

My first hostel experience was okay. There was a latino dance party going on in the basement, which was actually just someone playing sort of spanishy-crappy music and a bunch of people in their mid twenties dancing like idiots. Europeans (especially the traveling ones) do not know how to dance. They're so awkward. It made it hilarious to watch. One of my friends here (Eyal) is from Venezeula and actually knows how to dance (he was the one that wanted to go to the party), so we meringued a little bit around everyone else. I didn't know what I was doing, but it was hard to tell because he was so good. It was so much fun.

The next day we went to the Gallera Accademia and waited in line for an hour in the rain to see the statue of David. It turned out to be worth it because David is amazing. He's huge, and you feel like he's going to walk away. The rest of the statues in the museum were really cool too. We spent about an hour in there because it was so small and then peaced out. It was cold and raining and we were not prepared for bad weather. I almost bought a sweatshirt. We had to take a Eurostar back even though we weren't planning on it because there was a train strike on the regionale. Some of our friends had just planned on coming up for the day on Friday but couldn't go back because of the strike, so instead of getting a hotel in Florence, or staying with some of us in a hostel, they took a bus to Pisa and stayed there, took pictures in the morning, and then caught a train the next day. We think they were delirious. Anyway, I paid about thirty more Euro than I wanted, but I got home and took a shower and it was wonderful. It was a good starter trip because I learned all the things I shouldn't do. And that I need to check the weather before I go anywhere.

I guess I still haven't learned my lesson because I went to Tivoli today even though I had an idea that it would rain. Tivoli is a small town about half way between Rome and Naples. It's beautiful, but hard to manage in the rain. I wasn't prepared, and neither were most of the people I was traveling with. We went to this park that was absolutely beautiful, but treacherous to navigate in the rain. The stairs were impossible and some of them were marble and it was so dangerous. I guess I need to give you some background about how I got to Tivoli in the first place.

It was a school sponsored trip. A bunch of us signed up because we didn't have plans for this weekend and it was only supposed to cost 6 Euro roundtrip. Our Student Activities planner person is a very enthusiastic Italian man named Domenico and he came with us. He's from Calabria, which is southern Italy, but he's lived in Rome for awhile. He's hilarious because he although he speaks good English, its not perfect, and hes always trying to get us to speak Italian to him. Anyway, when we got to the train station he realized we had about ten minutes to buy our tickets, get them validated, and then get to the tracks. We ran through the station, which was up and down marble stairs and through corridors, and someone started singing Eye of the Tiger. It was great and exhausting. We made it, barely, and got situated. Domenico had been to Tivoli before, but he wasn't that familiar with it. He got us to the park and we all took a bunch of pictures, but by the time we were ready to go it was pouring and no one wanted to go to the Gregorian villa, which was the whole reason to for going to Tivoli in the first place.

We ended up eating lunch and going home because everyone was cold and wet and the villa was completely outside. All in all, it was a lot of fun because we were all in the same conditions together. It's still raining right now, so I think we're doing a movie night with some weird looking hot chocolate that I picked up at the supermarket. Tomorrow I'm going to an American bar to watch a University of Florida game because everyone here from UF actually has school spirit, unlike us Wagner kids who could care less about our football team. It will be fun. I might also try to go to the catacombs outside of the Vatican, but I have to convince someone to come with me. It's supposed to be creepy.

It's Sunday, everything except some cafes/supermarkets are closed, and its about to rain. Therefore, I am in the computer lab. I'm pretty sure my laptop has a virus, so I'm going to make an appointment with the IT person on campus and hash out this computer thing. I want to be able to skype.

My half weekend in Florence was great, but I'm glad it was only for two days. I was ready to come home at the end of it, mostly because I had no shower options at the hostel we stayed in. We took the Eurostar in, which I'm grateful for because my first Italian train experience was very nice and comfortable. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Florence from Rome on the Eurostar, and we got there around 11am on Friday. I'm glad it was a short trip for the following reasons:
1. All of us forgot phone chargers, and all our phones died.
2. No one brought shower stuff.
3. We forgot to look up EVERYTHING. Including where our hostel was.
4. It rained.
We managed to find the hostel without too many problems, had lunch at a restaurant by the train station that was delicious. I refused to eat a panino in Florence, only pasta. It was a good decision on my part, because I had the best meals. The wine! The wine we had at dinner was the best so far. I'm getting ahead of myself. The hostel was nice, for a hostel. It was clean, had a pool and a continental breakfast. It was close to the train station and the Duomo. It worked out very nicely. I was with two other girls (Kelsey and Sheeba) from St Johns and there were two guys staying in the same hostel (Ben and Eyal) so I felt completely safe, especially since the boys were on the same floor as us.

TBC...(Grocery run)

To expand...

My first weekend in Rome was not all that I hoped for. The airport was frustrating and unairconditioned, which led to a lot of smelly tourists. I couldn't figure out how to work a payphone (still not sure I could) and didn't have any other way of contacting the outside world. Luckily when I was still fumbling with the documents I had someone noticed the bright red St. Johns folder I had and came up to me. A whole group of St Johns kids were gathered on the floor of the airport waiting for the shuttle to come. I was the only Wagner kid, so I didn't recognize anyone. The shuttle was late coming to get us, so everyone thought they forgot or just didn't see us. Not so: turns out, everyone is late in Italy. Lesson one.

The whole first weekend was not good. I got sick from something and spent most of my time in bed or in the bathroom. I did get a chance to walk around a bit before that though, and saw some of the sights. Rome is beautiful, and complex. And very, very, hot.

Monday was better, and class was fine. My classes here are okay, not spectacular. I've only had one or two of each though, so we'll see as the semester wears on. Everyday after class I have a lot of spare time, so last week I napped through my afternoon, along with the rest of Italy. They follow the siesta tradition, or "pausa" which means a lot of stores close between one and four pm. Sometimes its inconvenient, but I understand. If I could get away with not working for three hours a day, I would too.

Tuesday I became myself again and explored around the Piazza della Repubblica, which is a big building that has a history I don't know about, like most of Rome. It's pretty, and there are a lot of shops. I'm on a never-ending quest for an Italian book that I'm not sure exists. My professor claims to have one, and demands that we do too, except no one has found it yet. I've checked two cities so far. That was my first experience with the Metro, which probably has about twenty stops total, between the two lines. It's only worth it if you're going more than three stops away, because they're so close together that you could walk between stops in five-ten minutes. The bus systems is supposed to be more comprehensive, but I haven't braved that yet. I'm still walking most places (which means I have developed leather feet. It took a week of pain, but I think I'm golden now).

My school is about a ten minute walk from the Spanish steps, which are cool but not my favorite part of Rome yet. The Trevi fountain beats that because its huge and intricate and beautiful. I have pictures, but as my laptop is still out of commission I'm in a computer lab and unable to upload.

The weather was unbearably hot last week. I would try to start out the day in pants but I'd change to my only pair of shorts halfway through the day. I really need to do laundry. It's finally cooling down (wearing pants! woo!) but only because it rained.

I forgot to mention my dorms. They're pretty cool, for dorms. They're in the same building as everything else, which means I can roll out of bed and into class in less than five minutes. They're up the tallest staircase I've ever seen. That staircase rules my life. Most decisions in the morning are made around how many trips up the stairs I'm willing to make that day. The elevators don't work here yet, like the WiFi. They have made us no promises on when they will function, which makes me think their ballpark is next spring. My room is huge, and has an archway. It's actually kind of awkward, but I like it. Everyone in my program lives on the same floor, which makes it easy to plan trips and dinner. The first couple nights were hard because all 30 of us would try to go out together. I heard someone say, "We need to start getting cliquey. This is ridiculous." We have now, and everyone has kind of found a group of people. I really like the people from the University of Florida. We all went to Florence this weekend.

I'll have more on that because it was insane, but I'm going to look up flights to Barcelona and then go the Festival of White Lights thats happening in Rome tonight. I'm not sure what its about, but it should be fun.

Notes until I figure out my life

Bullet notes because I have five minutes and no internet on my laptop:
Rome smells like cheese.
Siesta means that I nap a lot because no stores are open between 1 and 4.
Classes are okay, except for Religions, in which I may blow my brains out (I don't care about metaphysics, I want to know about ritual).
There are a bajillion stairs between coffee and my dorm room, which means I haven't been getting as much as I want.
There is a very good gelato place across the street. We don't go out to bars, we go get gelato.
Everything takes longer in Italy, which means I may never get WiFi in my room, or a coin operated laundry machine, or an elevator.
There is history EVERYWHERE. And it's awesome.
Romans stole a lot of stuff from other people and pawned it off as their own.
The metro here is a joke. I figured it out by looking at a map once.
No one eats dinner til 8 or 9.
Lunch is huge.
Florence is awesome (way more on that when I have time)
Need caffiene, so more later.