I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with this, but I've been fighting illness for about three weeks now, and I think I've finally kicked it. When I'm sick I find it difficult to make time for the necessities (like waking up, and leaving the room), let alone writing a journal entry. Also, I've been busy. Not that I need to make excuses, but it makes me feel better to know that I have sort of legitimate reasons. Anyway.
Mom and Pam were here last week, which is why I was busy. They arrived on the 7th, which was during my midterms, so in between tests and studying I was showing them around Rome. It was a lot of fun, but very different actually living the tourist life here. As a student I have been to a lot of touristy places and done a few tours, but I usually do it with other students who also live here. The first day they were completely jet-lagged and tired so I took them to Trevi, Spanish Steps, and my school, and then to the best gelato (Old Bridge) I've found so far. I kind of pushed them to do more than they should have, but it was fun.
The next day I had a midterm until 6, so I only met them for dinner. We went to a restaurant that I'd been eyeing since I got here, and it was a great meal (Taberna de Grachi). We had annoying Americans sitting next to us, who, when they found out I spoke some Italian, enlisted my help in translating the waiter's Italian accented-English. I was kind of annoyed at them, but at the end of the meal the most annoying guy handed me a card and said, "You don't look like the kind of girl that would need this, but I'll give it to you anyway". It was a get of jail free card from the Chicago Police Department. Score.
Thursday was the first day that I had mostly free. We went to the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. I had saved this for when they were coming, so it was really cool for me too. Word of advice---nothing in the Vatican is labeled, so if you ever go, get an audio guide. I would look at a statue and be like...I know what that is but I have no idea why. The Sistine Chapel was pretty cool. I was a little underwhelmed at first, but once I started looking I began to appreciate why it's the Pope's chapel. Every surface of the chapel is covered in pictures and painted tapestries and they're all perfectly proportioned. It's pretty incredible.
Friday was our last day in Rome, so mom and I did a tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. It was also very cool. They had just opened up a part of Augustus' home that had been pretty well preserved--it still had frescoes on the walls and the paint was still bright. I was very excited about that.
Saturday we went to Florence by train. This was my second trip, but I liked the city much better this time. I had more time, and I was able to see more. My favorite part was the Santa Croce church, which held the tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli. It was beautiful and full of history. I think I have more interest in the Renaissance than I knew. The facade looked a lot like the Duomo.
We also went to the Piazzale Michaelangelo, which is above the city so you can see all of Florence. We went right before it rained so it was a bit cloudy, but the view was still great. We went to the Uffizi galleries, which were way more impressive than the Galleria Accademia (where David is) because they housed so much more art.
We also took a cooking class at the hotel we were staying at, which had about 8 rooms in total and was very cute but out of the way. The cooking class was fun because we made it fun--Mom and Pam bought chef hats for us at the Ponte Vecchio which made the chef laugh. She didn't speak English, so her daughter was translating. Once she found out I spoke some Italian, she directed most of the cooking lessons at me, and while I understood most of it, I had to ask for clarification a few times from the daughter. We took the class with a mother and daughter from Florida, who were interesting. We had a good time, and the food was delicious. We learned how to make Tuscan tiramisu. So good.
After Florence we went to Venice. More on that later, I need to sleep.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Pompei
My original plan for this past weekend was to go to Oktoberfest. Unfortunately, due to poor planning and EXPENSIVE housing, it wasn't possible. Now that I'm not going, I can tell the way that we talked about going: flying to Frankfurt, renting a car, and driving down to Munich on the autobahn in an automatic minivan. Once we got to Munich, we were going to sleep in tents until Sunday, when we would take an overnight train home (12 hours). I, of course, would not have been driving, but it would have been at lot of fun. Carlos (one of the students from UF) used to live in Berlin so he knows about driving in Germany, but that still doesn't make our plan any less ridiculous. There were about 8 of us trying to do this.
So instead of all that, I stayed in Rome. On Saturday I went to the Castel Sant'Angelo because it was raining and it was the closest museum to our dorms. It was pretty cool. They had an exhibit on Egypt's influence on Rome, which is pretty obvious once you get here. There are more obilisks in Rome than in Egypt because the emperors stole them all. Also, there are
temples to Egyptian gods and goddesses, particularly Isis. We call Castel Sant'Angel the Hadrian castle because most things we've studied here were built by Hadrian, like the Trajan forum and the Pantheon. Anyway, the Castle was cool. The bottom half was built to be a massoleum for Trajan, but got turned into a castle for the Popes later on. There is a bridge between the castle and the Vatican in case Vatican city ever gets attacked. We tried to get onto it, but (logically) they've got it blocked off. The view from the top of the Castle is great. Not exactly worth the 8.50 euro I paid to get in, but a good afternoon nontheless.
On Sunday I went to Pompei, which is about three hours south of Rome, near Napoli. We left Termini (the Rome train station) at 7:15 in the morning. The train was delayed for half an hour, we didn't get to explore Naples like we wanted, but in the end I think it was for the better. There were three Italian men on the train that started talking to us. One was creepy and old and missing teeth but the other two were cool. One was about our age from Milan, and the other was about my dad's age. The guy from Milan spoke a little English, so he translated what I couldn't. They told us not to speak English in Napoli or else the pickpockets swarm you. And to get the Margherita pizza, because its the best. Oh, and Napoli has the best pizza in the world. We ate pizza in the train station and it was good because the sauce was different, but I knew that if we'd gotten the chance to explore we could've had better. The pizza we had in Pompei was more like what I though Napoletano pizza would be like. The sauce was runny and there was no cheese and lots of garlic. I liked it better.
Pompei is beautiful. We went on a clear, sunny day and the view was perfect. The ruins span a huge area, which isn't
that surprising considering it was a city. There were a lot of pretty well conserved houses that still had frescoes on the walls. You could see Mt Vesuvius (in the picture) perfectly. Pompei must be an archeologist's dream because there is so much that is still there, unaltered by time (only lava and ash). What I liked is that you got a real sense of what a Roman town looked like before it was dominated and changed by Christianity. Everything in Rome has been "popeified" because of the sharp change in religion, and while the churches are beautiful, the old ruins were scavenged for the marble and bronze it took to make those churches beautiful.
It was nice to have the "Temple of Jove" instead of the "Church that used to be the Temple of Jove." I'm glad I went.
Tomorrow my mom and her friend Pam are arriving in Rome. By chance, my art class is meeting pretty near where their hotel is, so I'm going straight from class, around noon, to meet them. I'm excited to show them around. We're going to Florence on Friday, making a side trip to Parma at some point (Monday?) and then going to Venice. I'm excited!
ps. I put a link to my pictures on the blog. They're on the side where it says, "pictures for Italy"
So instead of all that, I stayed in Rome. On Saturday I went to the Castel Sant'Angelo because it was raining and it was the closest museum to our dorms. It was pretty cool. They had an exhibit on Egypt's influence on Rome, which is pretty obvious once you get here. There are more obilisks in Rome than in Egypt because the emperors stole them all. Also, there are
temples to Egyptian gods and goddesses, particularly Isis. We call Castel Sant'Angel the Hadrian castle because most things we've studied here were built by Hadrian, like the Trajan forum and the Pantheon. Anyway, the Castle was cool. The bottom half was built to be a massoleum for Trajan, but got turned into a castle for the Popes later on. There is a bridge between the castle and the Vatican in case Vatican city ever gets attacked. We tried to get onto it, but (logically) they've got it blocked off. The view from the top of the Castle is great. Not exactly worth the 8.50 euro I paid to get in, but a good afternoon nontheless.On Sunday I went to Pompei, which is about three hours south of Rome, near Napoli. We left Termini (the Rome train station) at 7:15 in the morning. The train was delayed for half an hour, we didn't get to explore Naples like we wanted, but in the end I think it was for the better. There were three Italian men on the train that started talking to us. One was creepy and old and missing teeth but the other two were cool. One was about our age from Milan, and the other was about my dad's age. The guy from Milan spoke a little English, so he translated what I couldn't. They told us not to speak English in Napoli or else the pickpockets swarm you. And to get the Margherita pizza, because its the best. Oh, and Napoli has the best pizza in the world. We ate pizza in the train station and it was good because the sauce was different, but I knew that if we'd gotten the chance to explore we could've had better. The pizza we had in Pompei was more like what I though Napoletano pizza would be like. The sauce was runny and there was no cheese and lots of garlic. I liked it better.
Pompei is beautiful. We went on a clear, sunny day and the view was perfect. The ruins span a huge area, which isn't
that surprising considering it was a city. There were a lot of pretty well conserved houses that still had frescoes on the walls. You could see Mt Vesuvius (in the picture) perfectly. Pompei must be an archeologist's dream because there is so much that is still there, unaltered by time (only lava and ash). What I liked is that you got a real sense of what a Roman town looked like before it was dominated and changed by Christianity. Everything in Rome has been "popeified" because of the sharp change in religion, and while the churches are beautiful, the old ruins were scavenged for the marble and bronze it took to make those churches beautiful.It was nice to have the "Temple of Jove" instead of the "Church that used to be the Temple of Jove." I'm glad I went.
Tomorrow my mom and her friend Pam are arriving in Rome. By chance, my art class is meeting pretty near where their hotel is, so I'm going straight from class, around noon, to meet them. I'm excited to show them around. We're going to Florence on Friday, making a side trip to Parma at some point (Monday?) and then going to Venice. I'm excited!
ps. I put a link to my pictures on the blog. They're on the side where it says, "pictures for Italy"
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Cinque Terre
Last weekend I went somewhere I had never heard of because even though I'm an Italian minor, I know nothing about Italian geography. The place is called Cinque Terre (five "lands" or cities) and it consists of five towns along the Italian Riviera. For my own reference, they're called Riomaggiore, Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterossa. One of the girls from UF planned the whole trip, arranged the hostel and train tickets, so all I had to do was hand over money, which was very nice. We took the Intercity train, which is the middle of the road train in terms of price. It was okay...the seats were grouped into six seats in a compartment, very Harry Potter-esque, except second class. We left Termini at 8:30 in the morning, which is far too early to be on a train. Anyway, the ride was beautiful. Most of it was along the water and we could see all the small towns along the way.
Once we got to Riomaggiore, we hiked up an enormous hill to get to our hostel, which wasn't really a hostel but an apartment overlooking the water. The trek was worth it once you looked outside on the balcony. There were eight of us all together in the apartment, and only one bathroom. That was the singular problem we had.
By the time we got settled, it was about 3pm, so we went down to the beach and played in the ocean. The Mediterranean is so salty! It burned a little when we first got in. There also wasn't really a beach at Riomaggiore, just a lot of rocks. It reminded me more of an East coast 'shore' instead of like home. The water was so clear though, you could see right down to the bottom. It looked a lot more shallow than it actually was. I tried to touch the bottom but couldn't because of how deep it was.
Before dinner we went up to a cliff and watched the sunset. The main attraction in Cinque Terre is the hiking trails, so we weren't really sure what to do the first night. We ended up just wandering around and having a good time.
After that we went to dinner at a restaurant and had amazing seafood and white wine (two things Cinque Terre are famous for). My mussels still had barnacles on the shells. It was incredible. We went to bed at 10 that first night because we'd all gotten up so early that morning. It was also because everyone was afraid of the 8 mile hike we were about to go on the next morning.
I bought amazing fresh fruit for breakfast and some foccacia that was soaked in olive oil. I ate very well this weekend, if you couldn't tell.
Once we got to Riomaggiore, we hiked up an enormous hill to get to our hostel, which wasn't really a hostel but an apartment overlooking the water. The trek was worth it once you looked outside on the balcony. There were eight of us all together in the apartment, and only one bathroom. That was the singular problem we had.
By the time we got settled, it was about 3pm, so we went down to the beach and played in the ocean. The Mediterranean is so salty! It burned a little when we first got in. There also wasn't really a beach at Riomaggiore, just a lot of rocks. It reminded me more of an East coast 'shore' instead of like home. The water was so clear though, you could see right down to the bottom. It looked a lot more shallow than it actually was. I tried to touch the bottom but couldn't because of how deep it was.
Before dinner we went up to a cliff and watched the sunset. The main attraction in Cinque Terre is the hiking trails, so we weren't really sure what to do the first night. We ended up just wandering around and having a good time.
After that we went to dinner at a restaurant and had amazing seafood and white wine (two things Cinque Terre are famous for). My mussels still had barnacles on the shells. It was incredible. We went to bed at 10 that first night because we'd all gotten up so early that morning. It was also because everyone was afraid of the 8 mile hike we were about to go on the next morning.
I bought amazing fresh fruit for breakfast and some foccacia that was soaked in olive oil. I ate very well this weekend, if you couldn't tell.
The hike started out nice and and beautiful. The first part of the trail that begins in Riomaggiore is called "Via dell'Amore" which means Lovers Lane because it is a stroll. Easy. After Manorola it got a little harder. There was a sign once you reached Corniglia congratulating you on climbing so many stairs. 
We stopped in each town because we needed an excuse to rest and to refuel on water. In Corniglia we got foccacia covered in pesto (another Cinque Terre specialty). There was something strange about Corniglia though--when we were exploring the town we noticed an "enoteca" (liquor store) that had beer/wine bottles with pictures of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin on them. It was very strange, and a little upsetting. I didn't get the full story, but I didn't really ask either.
At Vernazza we rested by sunbathing on huge rocks. I think I fell alseep for a l
ittle while because I was exhausted. The best part is, the worst of the climbing was between Vernazza and Monterossa. It was literally stairs for half an hour. I have calves of steel now. It was around five in the afternoon when we got to Monterossa, and we were all exhausted. That was the most intense and beautiful hike I've ever been on. We started singing Beatles songs on the way down (one of the girls is obsessed, and one of the boys loves to teach music) and gained a chorus with a bunch of Americans. I had someone politely ask me if we could "change the cd" and it made me laugh. We didn't.
The next day we checked out of the hostel and wandered around Monterossa until our train left. We had pesto pizza (amazing) and I split this huge icecream coffee float with Fiona. Like I said, I ate well. We did all our touristy shopping that morning because we were on our way out. I got some pesto to bring home. Our plan all along had been to take the train to Pisa on the way home, take some pictures, and then contin
ue on the way to Rome. Unfortunately, when we got to the train station in Monterossa, there weren't any ticket people that spoke English. I was the only one in the group with any Italian at all, so I had to explain to the lady exactly what we wanted to do. Amazingly enough, we understood each other. There was a lot of gesturing, but with her basic English and my Italian we got it done. I was pretty proud. I'm definitely getting better.
Pisa is dirty, and smelly, and full of young Italian hooligans. I don't recommend it. We got off the train, ran to the tower, took pictures, and then ran back. I didn't want to stay longer. The tower is pretty cool though. It leans.
It was around this time that I realized I was getting sick. I lost my voice completely. I'm still kind of congested, but I feel a lot better now. I guess I just wasn't used to nature after spending so much time in a big city. Tomorrow I'm going to Pompei for the day, and possibly stopping in Napoli (although I doubt it--they were rioting last week) for a pizza. And then Monday, my mom and Pam are coming! I'm really excited to show them around my new home. I'm coming to the conclusion that I don't want to leave. I've already been here a month and I only have two and a half more. It's going by so fast!
We stopped in each town because we needed an excuse to rest and to refuel on water. In Corniglia we got foccacia covered in pesto (another Cinque Terre specialty). There was something strange about Corniglia though--when we were exploring the town we noticed an "enoteca" (liquor store) that had beer/wine bottles with pictures of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin on them. It was very strange, and a little upsetting. I didn't get the full story, but I didn't really ask either.At Vernazza we rested by sunbathing on huge rocks. I think I fell alseep for a l
ittle while because I was exhausted. The best part is, the worst of the climbing was between Vernazza and Monterossa. It was literally stairs for half an hour. I have calves of steel now. It was around five in the afternoon when we got to Monterossa, and we were all exhausted. That was the most intense and beautiful hike I've ever been on. We started singing Beatles songs on the way down (one of the girls is obsessed, and one of the boys loves to teach music) and gained a chorus with a bunch of Americans. I had someone politely ask me if we could "change the cd" and it made me laugh. We didn't.The next day we checked out of the hostel and wandered around Monterossa until our train left. We had pesto pizza (amazing) and I split this huge icecream coffee float with Fiona. Like I said, I ate well. We did all our touristy shopping that morning because we were on our way out. I got some pesto to bring home. Our plan all along had been to take the train to Pisa on the way home, take some pictures, and then contin
ue on the way to Rome. Unfortunately, when we got to the train station in Monterossa, there weren't any ticket people that spoke English. I was the only one in the group with any Italian at all, so I had to explain to the lady exactly what we wanted to do. Amazingly enough, we understood each other. There was a lot of gesturing, but with her basic English and my Italian we got it done. I was pretty proud. I'm definitely getting better.Pisa is dirty, and smelly, and full of young Italian hooligans. I don't recommend it. We got off the train, ran to the tower, took pictures, and then ran back. I didn't want to stay longer. The tower is pretty cool though. It leans.
It was around this time that I realized I was getting sick. I lost my voice completely. I'm still kind of congested, but I feel a lot better now. I guess I just wasn't used to nature after spending so much time in a big city. Tomorrow I'm going to Pompei for the day, and possibly stopping in Napoli (although I doubt it--they were rioting last week) for a pizza. And then Monday, my mom and Pam are coming! I'm really excited to show them around my new home. I'm coming to the conclusion that I don't want to leave. I've already been here a month and I only have two and a half more. It's going by so fast!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)