The next day I took a train to Venice with 2 of my friends. We saw St. Mark's Basilica in Piazza San Marco, Doges Palace, the Bridge of Sighs, the Grand Canal, the Rialto Bridge, and mostly I was just amazed at how there were no streets, just water ways. There were no cars or vespas anywhere. Very different from Rome and anywhere else I've been in Italy. We didn't ride on a gondola because it was a little chilly outside and would have been even colder on the water, but our hotel looked out over the water so we saw plenty of people pass by our window on a gondola so it was basically like we were riding on the gondolas too.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Sabina/Venezia
On November 11th, I went on a field trip coordinated by my school to Sabina, Italy which is famous for its Olive Oil production. Our guide told us Sabina is the next Tuscany and I can see why. It is conveniently located only about 45 minutes outside of Rome, but it was hard to believe we were anywhere near a big city because we were surrounded by olive groves and rolling hills. First we took a tour of the grounds and watched the groves being harvested. We even got to use some of the fancy plastic mini rakes to help harvest, too. After that we visited the mill where they actually squeeze the juice out of the olives to make the olive oil and then we tasted the olive oil that was made that day. Then we went back to the villa and had lunch outside on the patio. The food, obviously, was cooked with a lot of olive oil. It was delicious! We had bruschetta, salad, pasta, chicken, and tiramisu for dessert.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Greece (almost), Milan (actually)
The first weekend in November, the plan was to travel to Thessaloniki, Greece with two of my friends. Unfortunately, one of my friends overslept and then the other friend who made it to the airport with me forgot his passport so I decided I didn't want to go to Greece all by myself so we took the bus back to the train station. Since we were already packed to go somewhere, we decided to take a train somewhere within Italy. There was a night train to Milan that was relatively inexpensive we hung out in a Rome until that night around midnight when we took a train to Milan that arrived at 6am.
It's said that people from Rome hate the city and the people from Milan and vice versa. I can now see why. The two cities are very different. Rome is a big city disguised as an ancient one so sometimes you forget how big the city actually is. Milan is actually a big city. It is very industrial looking with big buildings everywhere and actual paved streets and other modern attributes that I've forgotten exist after living in Rome for all this time. Unfortunately, it rained the entire time we were there and we weren't prepared for rain since it was supposed to be sunny in Greece all weekend...
We visited the Duomo which the the famous cathedral in Milan. It was nice to get a break from the rain so we hung out in there for a while. Next we walked to the church where The Last Supper is on display. The tickets were sold out until 2012 though, so we didn't get to go inside and see it. We walked through the park and saw the Arch of Peace. The next day we saw da Vinci's horse (designed by da Vinci, constructed by America and given as a gift to Milan). Then we went to an art gallery that had works by Caravaggio and Titian and others. All in all, the best part of the trip was that we stayed in a 4 star hotel with a breakfast buffet included for only 50 euro! Off season travel is the best.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Fall Break
Barcelona
The first 3 days of fall break I was in Barcelona. It's interesting because in Barcelona they don't speak Spanish, they speak Catalan. Two of the people I was traveling with were native Spanish speakers but Catalan was so different, that even they had trouble communicating with the Barcelonians sometimes.
By coincidence, the same weekend we were there, a festival was going on in one of the main plazas where a lot of restaurants from the area set up a sort of market and had free samples of the wine or food that they sell. They were also selling kebabs or sandwiches or plates with small samples of the food from their restaurant. It was wonderful because we got to a try a lot of different tapas and other food from Barcelona without spending a lot of money. We also visited two of Gaudi's churches. The first one, the less famous of the two, we went inside and even got to go up the roof for a view of the city. The architecture was so intricate, it was beautiful. The second Gaudi cathedral is the more famous one called "Sagrada Familia". In fact, it is still uncompleted even though Gaudi is no longer alive. Even when we were there, scaffolding surrounded the cathedral as if it were still a work in progress. The architecture really was breathtaking. The details all around the outside of the church were phenomenal. After visiting the churches we walked down to the beach and walked along the coastline. The beach was beautiful and FREE which is more than I can say for any beach I've been to in Italy so far. It was the end of October but the weather was still really nice. If I had my swimsuit with me, I wouldn't have been opposed to going for a swim. For dinner the first night we received coupons from the hostel for a free dinner from a restaurant that was located near the hostel. It was called "Travel Bar" so it was clearly not known for it's wonderful food, but a free meal is a free meal so we all had a traditional spanish meal of chicken curry for dinner that night.
The next day, I have to say one of the highlights was that for breakfast we went to a little restaurant called "Buenas Migas". I had focaccia bread with chocolate on the inside and a coffee. The restaurant was so cute. It reminded me a lot of a Panera Bread. Unfortunately, I don't think they actually served migas, but the chocolate focaccia was delicious. After that, we basically visited all the parks in Barcelona. First we just went to the regular ones with fountains and trees and things. We took a break in the middle of the day to visit the Chocolate Museum. I bought olive oil chocolate with salt. It actually didn't taste as gross as it sounds. We spent the rest of the afternoon in Park Guell which is the most famous park in Barcelona because it has on display a lot of Gaudi architecture including the mosaic lizard that has become a sort of symbol for Barcelona. There were also Gaudi houses (one of which Gaudi actually lived in when he was alive) that looked like gingerbread houses and caves that had designs carved into them. After the park, we stopped by the Arch of Triumph in Barcelona. Apparently every city in the world has one of those, at least in Europe. For dinner that night, our last night in Barcelona, we had paella. I had paella valencia which is rice with chicken and vegetables. We also drank sangria, so all in all it was a very Spanish meal. The last thing on our list to see was the Magic Fountain. At nighttime, it's supposed to light up so that's why we saved it for our last night. We walked over to what ended up being a pretty deserted side of town (granted it was midnight by the time we finished dinner and a Sunday) and unfortunately the Magic Fountain was not lit up and there was no one around. We still took plenty of pictures there though. It was a very scenic location with big white columns and the fountain set in front of a gigantic palace.
Lisbon
We only spent 2 nights in Lisbon and here, in case you didn't know, they speak Portuguese and once again we had a little trouble communicating sometimes. Our hostel was located outside of the main city center but in a well known district called Belem. Just down the street from our hostel was a beautiful garden and a free art museum. We were also only a few blocks away from the coastline so for dinner on the first night we had dinner at a restaurant that was on top of the water. I ate steak with the "house sauce" which was some kind of honey mustard with butter and mashed potatoes. It was delicious, although I'm not too sure if any part of the meal was Portuguese.
The next day we went to the free art museum and walked around the garden. For the afternoon, we took the bus into the city center and saw some famous monuments and statues and then, of course, went to a park. Parks are the best because they are free. After that we went to see St. George's Castle which is a gigantic castle in the middle of Lisbon. It took a little bit of work to find it, but there were some really wonderful views once we climbed to the top of it. That evening we walked around the more modern part of the city that has the aquarium and we even found a casino and a mall! It was the first real inside mall that I've seen since I've been in Europe. It had a movie theater and a gigantic food court with all different kinds of foods, so that's where we ate dinner obviously.
Madrid
The first thing we did in Madrid was go eat an early dinner because our flight got in at an odd time so we hadn't eaten all day. We went to a place near the Plaza del Sol and all of us ordered the exact same thing, hamburger with guacamole and black beans. We were all craving Mexican food. The guacamole was good, the burger part however was not. But at least we had guacamole!
The next day was a museum day. We visited the Museum del Prado which had paintings by Picasso, Caravaggio, Titian, Goya, Rubens, Rembrandt, Bosch, El Greco, and Velazquez. I was most excited to see Las Meninas by Velazquez, Girl on a Ball by Picasso, and Saturn Devouring his Sons by Goya. We even got free entrance into this museum because we were students! Besides the Louvre, it is probably my favorite museum I've been to in Europe so far. After that we went to a park that had a huge pond in the middle of it that people were rowing boats on. It was beautiful. That evening, we followed the Rick Steve's guidebook on Madrid (thanks to Danyelle Evans) and did a tapas (basically like appetizers) crawl. This is something that we were all really excited for. The Rick Steve's guide was perfect because it gave us the names of 5 locations all within a few blocks of each other and it told us exactly what to order at each place. At the first place, "Museo del Jamon" (Museum of Ham) we ordered croquettes, which look like mozzarella sticks but have potatoes and ham inside instead of cheese. They were delicious. The next place, "Casa Abuelo" was famous for their wine made in house and their garlic shrimp. Since I don't like seafood, I just ordered the wine. It was a sweet red wine, and it's the first red wine I've had that I've actually enjoyed. The next place was called "La Oreja del Oro" (the ear of gold), and we ordered pimientos del padron. They were mostly sweet peppers, which I was little skeptical about eating because they looked exactly like mini jalepenos! The waiter told us that most of them are sweet, but a few of them are super spicy. I tentatively tried one, and it was so delicious I continued to eat them even with the possibility of getting a really spicy one. Luckily, I didn't! It might have been my favorite dish of the tapas crawl. The last place was called "Casa Toni" and we ordered patatas ali oli which are fried potatoes with a garlic mayonaise sauce, patatas bravas which are fried potatoes with a spicy red sauce and a plate of champinones (sauteed mushrooms). We also ordered a pitcher of sangria at here. It was the perfect way to end our tapas crawl and we all applauded Rick Steves.
The next day we went to lunch at a Mexican place and ordered burritos and tacos and quesadillas. Not surprisingly, it was not like anything I've ever had in Texas, but we weren't expecting much. After that we went to another park and saw some botanical gardens and two old castles. That night we stumbled upon a restaurant called "Peggy Sue's American Diner", and we couldn't resist. It was decorated in true 1950s fashion with black and white checkered tile on the floor and red vinyl on the booths. It even had Dick Van Dyke show reruns playing on black and white TVs. I ordered an "Aretha Franklin" burger, onion rings and pink lemonade. The onion rings were divine. For dessert I had apple crumble with vanilla ice cream.
The next day, our last day, for breakfast we went back the "Museum of Ham" restaurant but this time actually sat at a table instead of just ordering tapas from the bar. It was breakfast, so I ordered a sandwich with egg and ham and cheese with orange juice. It was probably one of the best breakfasts I've had in Europe. They were famous for their ham, so I suppose it was a good choice. Afterwards, we visited "Mercado San Miguel" which is almost exactly like a Whole Foods, minus the grocery store part. There were a lot of different counters and each served a different kind of food or drink, like chocolate, olives, alcoholic drinks, hamburgers, chips, tapas, etc. I got some chocolate cookies and sangria. After that we went to a cathedral and a palace and an Egyptian tomb that was originally in Egypt but was relocated in Madrid, not sure why though. For dinner we ate at a Chinese restaurant. Not the best chinese food I've ever had but I got an egg roll, fried rice with vegetables, and chicken with mushrooms (not sure how that one is chinese) and a coke and dessert all for only 7 euro.
This concludes my fall break! I'm sure I forgot a lot of things, except for the food of course which I remember vividly.
The first 3 days of fall break I was in Barcelona. It's interesting because in Barcelona they don't speak Spanish, they speak Catalan. Two of the people I was traveling with were native Spanish speakers but Catalan was so different, that even they had trouble communicating with the Barcelonians sometimes.
By coincidence, the same weekend we were there, a festival was going on in one of the main plazas where a lot of restaurants from the area set up a sort of market and had free samples of the wine or food that they sell. They were also selling kebabs or sandwiches or plates with small samples of the food from their restaurant. It was wonderful because we got to a try a lot of different tapas and other food from Barcelona without spending a lot of money. We also visited two of Gaudi's churches. The first one, the less famous of the two, we went inside and even got to go up the roof for a view of the city. The architecture was so intricate, it was beautiful. The second Gaudi cathedral is the more famous one called "Sagrada Familia". In fact, it is still uncompleted even though Gaudi is no longer alive. Even when we were there, scaffolding surrounded the cathedral as if it were still a work in progress. The architecture really was breathtaking. The details all around the outside of the church were phenomenal. After visiting the churches we walked down to the beach and walked along the coastline. The beach was beautiful and FREE which is more than I can say for any beach I've been to in Italy so far. It was the end of October but the weather was still really nice. If I had my swimsuit with me, I wouldn't have been opposed to going for a swim. For dinner the first night we received coupons from the hostel for a free dinner from a restaurant that was located near the hostel. It was called "Travel Bar" so it was clearly not known for it's wonderful food, but a free meal is a free meal so we all had a traditional spanish meal of chicken curry for dinner that night.
The next day, I have to say one of the highlights was that for breakfast we went to a little restaurant called "Buenas Migas". I had focaccia bread with chocolate on the inside and a coffee. The restaurant was so cute. It reminded me a lot of a Panera Bread. Unfortunately, I don't think they actually served migas, but the chocolate focaccia was delicious. After that, we basically visited all the parks in Barcelona. First we just went to the regular ones with fountains and trees and things. We took a break in the middle of the day to visit the Chocolate Museum. I bought olive oil chocolate with salt. It actually didn't taste as gross as it sounds. We spent the rest of the afternoon in Park Guell which is the most famous park in Barcelona because it has on display a lot of Gaudi architecture including the mosaic lizard that has become a sort of symbol for Barcelona. There were also Gaudi houses (one of which Gaudi actually lived in when he was alive) that looked like gingerbread houses and caves that had designs carved into them. After the park, we stopped by the Arch of Triumph in Barcelona. Apparently every city in the world has one of those, at least in Europe. For dinner that night, our last night in Barcelona, we had paella. I had paella valencia which is rice with chicken and vegetables. We also drank sangria, so all in all it was a very Spanish meal. The last thing on our list to see was the Magic Fountain. At nighttime, it's supposed to light up so that's why we saved it for our last night. We walked over to what ended up being a pretty deserted side of town (granted it was midnight by the time we finished dinner and a Sunday) and unfortunately the Magic Fountain was not lit up and there was no one around. We still took plenty of pictures there though. It was a very scenic location with big white columns and the fountain set in front of a gigantic palace.
Lisbon
We only spent 2 nights in Lisbon and here, in case you didn't know, they speak Portuguese and once again we had a little trouble communicating sometimes. Our hostel was located outside of the main city center but in a well known district called Belem. Just down the street from our hostel was a beautiful garden and a free art museum. We were also only a few blocks away from the coastline so for dinner on the first night we had dinner at a restaurant that was on top of the water. I ate steak with the "house sauce" which was some kind of honey mustard with butter and mashed potatoes. It was delicious, although I'm not too sure if any part of the meal was Portuguese.
The next day we went to the free art museum and walked around the garden. For the afternoon, we took the bus into the city center and saw some famous monuments and statues and then, of course, went to a park. Parks are the best because they are free. After that we went to see St. George's Castle which is a gigantic castle in the middle of Lisbon. It took a little bit of work to find it, but there were some really wonderful views once we climbed to the top of it. That evening we walked around the more modern part of the city that has the aquarium and we even found a casino and a mall! It was the first real inside mall that I've seen since I've been in Europe. It had a movie theater and a gigantic food court with all different kinds of foods, so that's where we ate dinner obviously.
Madrid
The first thing we did in Madrid was go eat an early dinner because our flight got in at an odd time so we hadn't eaten all day. We went to a place near the Plaza del Sol and all of us ordered the exact same thing, hamburger with guacamole and black beans. We were all craving Mexican food. The guacamole was good, the burger part however was not. But at least we had guacamole!
The next day was a museum day. We visited the Museum del Prado which had paintings by Picasso, Caravaggio, Titian, Goya, Rubens, Rembrandt, Bosch, El Greco, and Velazquez. I was most excited to see Las Meninas by Velazquez, Girl on a Ball by Picasso, and Saturn Devouring his Sons by Goya. We even got free entrance into this museum because we were students! Besides the Louvre, it is probably my favorite museum I've been to in Europe so far. After that we went to a park that had a huge pond in the middle of it that people were rowing boats on. It was beautiful. That evening, we followed the Rick Steve's guidebook on Madrid (thanks to Danyelle Evans) and did a tapas (basically like appetizers) crawl. This is something that we were all really excited for. The Rick Steve's guide was perfect because it gave us the names of 5 locations all within a few blocks of each other and it told us exactly what to order at each place. At the first place, "Museo del Jamon" (Museum of Ham) we ordered croquettes, which look like mozzarella sticks but have potatoes and ham inside instead of cheese. They were delicious. The next place, "Casa Abuelo" was famous for their wine made in house and their garlic shrimp. Since I don't like seafood, I just ordered the wine. It was a sweet red wine, and it's the first red wine I've had that I've actually enjoyed. The next place was called "La Oreja del Oro" (the ear of gold), and we ordered pimientos del padron. They were mostly sweet peppers, which I was little skeptical about eating because they looked exactly like mini jalepenos! The waiter told us that most of them are sweet, but a few of them are super spicy. I tentatively tried one, and it was so delicious I continued to eat them even with the possibility of getting a really spicy one. Luckily, I didn't! It might have been my favorite dish of the tapas crawl. The last place was called "Casa Toni" and we ordered patatas ali oli which are fried potatoes with a garlic mayonaise sauce, patatas bravas which are fried potatoes with a spicy red sauce and a plate of champinones (sauteed mushrooms). We also ordered a pitcher of sangria at here. It was the perfect way to end our tapas crawl and we all applauded Rick Steves.
The next day we went to lunch at a Mexican place and ordered burritos and tacos and quesadillas. Not surprisingly, it was not like anything I've ever had in Texas, but we weren't expecting much. After that we went to another park and saw some botanical gardens and two old castles. That night we stumbled upon a restaurant called "Peggy Sue's American Diner", and we couldn't resist. It was decorated in true 1950s fashion with black and white checkered tile on the floor and red vinyl on the booths. It even had Dick Van Dyke show reruns playing on black and white TVs. I ordered an "Aretha Franklin" burger, onion rings and pink lemonade. The onion rings were divine. For dessert I had apple crumble with vanilla ice cream.
The next day, our last day, for breakfast we went back the "Museum of Ham" restaurant but this time actually sat at a table instead of just ordering tapas from the bar. It was breakfast, so I ordered a sandwich with egg and ham and cheese with orange juice. It was probably one of the best breakfasts I've had in Europe. They were famous for their ham, so I suppose it was a good choice. Afterwards, we visited "Mercado San Miguel" which is almost exactly like a Whole Foods, minus the grocery store part. There were a lot of different counters and each served a different kind of food or drink, like chocolate, olives, alcoholic drinks, hamburgers, chips, tapas, etc. I got some chocolate cookies and sangria. After that we went to a cathedral and a palace and an Egyptian tomb that was originally in Egypt but was relocated in Madrid, not sure why though. For dinner we ate at a Chinese restaurant. Not the best chinese food I've ever had but I got an egg roll, fried rice with vegetables, and chicken with mushrooms (not sure how that one is chinese) and a coke and dessert all for only 7 euro.
This concludes my fall break! I'm sure I forgot a lot of things, except for the food of course which I remember vividly.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Perugia
Every year in Perugia during the third week in October there is a chocolate festival. It is called "Eurochocolate" and it is similar to Oktoberfest in Germany except it's chocolate instead in beer. Perugia is a small town about 3 hours outside of Rome. It is also, coincidentally, the place where Amanda Knox was studying abroad and her trial actually took place there only a few days before I (along with a billion other people from Europe) arrived for the chocolate festival.
The festival took place in the center of the town and every street you walked down there were a million white tents and each one had a different brand of chocolate. I bought a "chocolate card" for 6 euro which allowed me to visit different tents that would stamp my card and give me a free sample of their chocolate. With this card I got hot chocolate, a chocolate picture frame, Toblerone, chocolate smoothie, chocolate cones, chocolate muffin, chocolate bread, chocolate cream cheese, chocolate liqueur, and a few truffles. It was a really good deal. My favorite was the hot chocolate because it was basically hot pudding. On top of all the free samples I also purchased plenty of chocolate to take back home with me.
The downside of the trip was that it ended up being freezing cold and all I had was a sweatshirt so I ended up buying a coat on the second day because I was basically frozen.
The festival took place in the center of the town and every street you walked down there were a million white tents and each one had a different brand of chocolate. I bought a "chocolate card" for 6 euro which allowed me to visit different tents that would stamp my card and give me a free sample of their chocolate. With this card I got hot chocolate, a chocolate picture frame, Toblerone, chocolate smoothie, chocolate cones, chocolate muffin, chocolate bread, chocolate cream cheese, chocolate liqueur, and a few truffles. It was a really good deal. My favorite was the hot chocolate because it was basically hot pudding. On top of all the free samples I also purchased plenty of chocolate to take back home with me.
The downside of the trip was that it ended up being freezing cold and all I had was a sweatshirt so I ended up buying a coat on the second day because I was basically frozen.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Classes/Film Festival
Since I didn't travel anywhere this past weekend, I figured I would blog about my classes and more about my everyday life in Rome. This is my schedule:
Monday:
12-1 Literature
1-2 Rome as a Living Museum
4-6 Italian
Tuesday:
12-1 Archaeology
4-6 Italian
Wednesday:
9:30-11:30 Literature
12-2 Rome as a Living Museum
3-5 Italian
Thursday:
12-2 Archaeology
3-5 Italian
For "Rome as a Living Museum" and "Archaeology", I have a one hour lecture once a week that takes place in the classroom and then for the 2 hour block, we meet on site somewhere in Rome at the Colosseum or a church or the Forum etc. and we walk around and actually see the things we are learning about in class.
My literature class is interesting. We only read excerpts from authors that have traveled to Italy and written about it. So each week we focus on a different author who has written a sort of travel journal on different parts in Italy. Definitely not my favorite kind of reading. We also have to write a journal entry once a week in our own travel journals. I'll let you know how that goes when I start writing mine.
I have Italian every day for 2 hours which gets to be a lot, especially by the end of the week, but I really feel like I am learning the most in that class and my Italian has improved a lot from knowing basically nothing which is helpful when I talk to people in the city.
On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings I have dinner with my host family. We usually have some sort of pasta dish with bread and salad. On Wednesdays I go the grocery store and get stuff to take for lunch and for dinner that night, or I go out to eat with friends. The grocery stores in Italy are small and the portions of food they sell are small, too. Most Italians go to the grocery store every other day if not every single day because they can only buy small amounts of food at a time.
This past weekend, there was a documentary film festival in Rome. I love documentaries so on Friday and Saturday I went to this movie theater located in a park on the north side of Rome. The theater actually looked very American, which I wasn't expecting. It was a lot cleaner than American theaters though. And there wasn't a place to buy snacks before the movie. The documentary on Friday night was called "The Horse Boy". I saw previews for it before I left for Italy so I was really excited to see it at the film festival. It was in English and it was about a little boy who has autism so his parents take him to Mongolia to see the shamans that live there so they can help him with some of the more severe parts of his autism. It was a really good movie. The next night I saw "Position Among the Stars". It was in Indonesian and it was about the struggle of a poor family from Jakart that wanted to send their daughter to college, but it was too expensive. Luckily, there was English and Italian subtitles so I could follow along.
Monday:
12-1 Literature
1-2 Rome as a Living Museum
4-6 Italian
Tuesday:
12-1 Archaeology
4-6 Italian
Wednesday:
9:30-11:30 Literature
12-2 Rome as a Living Museum
3-5 Italian
Thursday:
12-2 Archaeology
3-5 Italian
For "Rome as a Living Museum" and "Archaeology", I have a one hour lecture once a week that takes place in the classroom and then for the 2 hour block, we meet on site somewhere in Rome at the Colosseum or a church or the Forum etc. and we walk around and actually see the things we are learning about in class.
My literature class is interesting. We only read excerpts from authors that have traveled to Italy and written about it. So each week we focus on a different author who has written a sort of travel journal on different parts in Italy. Definitely not my favorite kind of reading. We also have to write a journal entry once a week in our own travel journals. I'll let you know how that goes when I start writing mine.
I have Italian every day for 2 hours which gets to be a lot, especially by the end of the week, but I really feel like I am learning the most in that class and my Italian has improved a lot from knowing basically nothing which is helpful when I talk to people in the city.
On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings I have dinner with my host family. We usually have some sort of pasta dish with bread and salad. On Wednesdays I go the grocery store and get stuff to take for lunch and for dinner that night, or I go out to eat with friends. The grocery stores in Italy are small and the portions of food they sell are small, too. Most Italians go to the grocery store every other day if not every single day because they can only buy small amounts of food at a time.
This past weekend, there was a documentary film festival in Rome. I love documentaries so on Friday and Saturday I went to this movie theater located in a park on the north side of Rome. The theater actually looked very American, which I wasn't expecting. It was a lot cleaner than American theaters though. And there wasn't a place to buy snacks before the movie. The documentary on Friday night was called "The Horse Boy". I saw previews for it before I left for Italy so I was really excited to see it at the film festival. It was in English and it was about a little boy who has autism so his parents take him to Mongolia to see the shamans that live there so they can help him with some of the more severe parts of his autism. It was a really good movie. The next night I saw "Position Among the Stars". It was in Indonesian and it was about the struggle of a poor family from Jakart that wanted to send their daughter to college, but it was too expensive. Luckily, there was English and Italian subtitles so I could follow along.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Pisa/Florence
On Friday morning a couple of friends and I took a train from Rome to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. We got there around 2 in the afternoon and for some reason even though it is the smallest town ever, the train station was located as far away as possible from the Tower so we had to walk all the way across town to get there. It only took about half an hour though. The Tower was actually a lot more leaning that I expected. It really does look like it is about to topple over at any moment. It is leaning about 15 feet to the south side. We bought tickets to go up to the top of the tower. The way it works is you buy a ticket for a 40 minute slot of time in the Tower and after 40 minutes you have to be out. It's actually a lot of work to get to the top because the Tower is so tilted that it makes it much more difficult to walk up because it increases the steepness of the steps and the staircase itself is only about a foot wide. Once we walked out onto the top it is so slanted that I definitely would've slipped off the top of the Tower if there wasn't a rail around the outside. The view from the top of the Tower was really beautiful. You could see the green Tuscan landscape and in the background there were mountains. The tower is not used for anything at all except for people to take pictures of and marvel at how it is standing even though it is so slanted (@Katie Luna). After checking out the Tower and taking a nap in the grass in front of it, we hopped back onto the train to Firenze (aka Florence). By the time we arrived in Florence it was dark outside so we checked into the hostel and went to dinner. For dinner I had gnocchi with fresh pesto sauce. The pesto was delicious. For dessert I had homemade tiramisu with a cappuccino. The tiramisu was the best ever. I need to learn how to make it. I could eat it everyday.
The next day we woke up and went straight to the Galleria Academia where the David by Michelangelo is located. Luckily we got there just before the line started to get insanely long so we only had to wait about half an hour to get into the museum. The temporary exhibit was Lorenza Bartolini sculptures, the most well-known of which is "Nymph and the Scorpion". Other than that it was a lot of sculptures of heads. After leaving that exhibit, we ended up right in front of the David. It was gigantic, a lot bigger than I pictured it. The details on it were amazing, right down the each and every muscle and vein. We spent a long time in the room with the David because technically we were not allowed to take pictures but we waited for the guards to look away and then snap a few, along with every other visitor there. I got a few pretty good pictures. After that, we had lunch (tortellini with meat sauce) and then we headed to the Duomo. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes and then bought tickets to walk to the top. At one point we got to walk around the inside of the top of the Duomo so we could see the frescos painted on the ceiling. They were really amazing. After almost dying from walking up the 463 steps to the top, we reached the top and were outside around the very top of the Duomo. The view ended up being worth climbing up all those stairs. Our tickets that we bought to go the top of the Duomo also gave up entrance to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The most well-known piece in this museum was Donatello's "La Maddalena", which is a sculpture of an anorexic Mary Magdalene. After the museum, we went to the Palazzo Vecchio in Piazzo Signoria. This piazza is basically a free museum because it has a replica of the statue of David in it along with the original of "Perseus Holding the Head of Medusa" by Cellini, along with a lot of other lesser known statues. The piazza is right outside of the Uffizi museum that has Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus", but unfortunately we did not have a chance to visit this gallery. We left this piazza and went to the Ponte Vecchio which is a famous bridge in Florence that crosses the river Arno that runs through the city. Along the bridge are a lot of jewelry shops and from the outside of the bridge it looks like it is lined with little houses. There was also a band playing music on it. We crossed to the other side of the bridge and walked to Piazza di Pitti which is on the grounds of the Palace of Pitti. There was a couple on the top of the castle, while we were sitting in the Piazza below, taking wedding photos. We left the piazza and went looking for the house of Galileo. We ended up having to walk up an extremely steep hill to get there. We felt bad for Galileo because he had to walk up the hill everyday. But there was a really nice view from where his little apartment building was so that must have been nice. Also, interestingly enough the building was for sale so if anyone would like to buy Galileo's house, you can! After that we had dinner at a little restaurant by the Ponte Vecchio. On the way back to our hostel we stopped at the restaurant that we had eaten at the night before get coffee and their amazing tiramisu again!
On Sunday we woke up and went to the Santa Maria Croce church that holds the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Dante. After that we went to the Cathedral that is attached to the Duomo. It was a really fancy church. We ate lunch and then caught a train home.
I think I found a computer that will let me upload my photos using just the memory card in my camera so be on the look out for those!
The next day we woke up and went straight to the Galleria Academia where the David by Michelangelo is located. Luckily we got there just before the line started to get insanely long so we only had to wait about half an hour to get into the museum. The temporary exhibit was Lorenza Bartolini sculptures, the most well-known of which is "Nymph and the Scorpion". Other than that it was a lot of sculptures of heads. After leaving that exhibit, we ended up right in front of the David. It was gigantic, a lot bigger than I pictured it. The details on it were amazing, right down the each and every muscle and vein. We spent a long time in the room with the David because technically we were not allowed to take pictures but we waited for the guards to look away and then snap a few, along with every other visitor there. I got a few pretty good pictures. After that, we had lunch (tortellini with meat sauce) and then we headed to the Duomo. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes and then bought tickets to walk to the top. At one point we got to walk around the inside of the top of the Duomo so we could see the frescos painted on the ceiling. They were really amazing. After almost dying from walking up the 463 steps to the top, we reached the top and were outside around the very top of the Duomo. The view ended up being worth climbing up all those stairs. Our tickets that we bought to go the top of the Duomo also gave up entrance to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The most well-known piece in this museum was Donatello's "La Maddalena", which is a sculpture of an anorexic Mary Magdalene. After the museum, we went to the Palazzo Vecchio in Piazzo Signoria. This piazza is basically a free museum because it has a replica of the statue of David in it along with the original of "Perseus Holding the Head of Medusa" by Cellini, along with a lot of other lesser known statues. The piazza is right outside of the Uffizi museum that has Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus", but unfortunately we did not have a chance to visit this gallery. We left this piazza and went to the Ponte Vecchio which is a famous bridge in Florence that crosses the river Arno that runs through the city. Along the bridge are a lot of jewelry shops and from the outside of the bridge it looks like it is lined with little houses. There was also a band playing music on it. We crossed to the other side of the bridge and walked to Piazza di Pitti which is on the grounds of the Palace of Pitti. There was a couple on the top of the castle, while we were sitting in the Piazza below, taking wedding photos. We left the piazza and went looking for the house of Galileo. We ended up having to walk up an extremely steep hill to get there. We felt bad for Galileo because he had to walk up the hill everyday. But there was a really nice view from where his little apartment building was so that must have been nice. Also, interestingly enough the building was for sale so if anyone would like to buy Galileo's house, you can! After that we had dinner at a little restaurant by the Ponte Vecchio. On the way back to our hostel we stopped at the restaurant that we had eaten at the night before get coffee and their amazing tiramisu again!
On Sunday we woke up and went to the Santa Maria Croce church that holds the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Dante. After that we went to the Cathedral that is attached to the Duomo. It was a really fancy church. We ate lunch and then caught a train home.
I think I found a computer that will let me upload my photos using just the memory card in my camera so be on the look out for those!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Paris
Bonjour!
This weekend my mom came to Rome and then we flew to Paris really early on Friday morning. The very first thing we did was go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and my favorite, Victory. Among other things we saw there. I got in for free because I am a student a European student (kind of). After that we went to the Museum of Rodin. This was a beautiful museum. It was free to get into the gardens which had the Thinker and a lot more of his bigger sculptures out there. The grounds were beautiful with a pond and trees and green grass. Then we went inside the museum (which was once again free for me because I am a student) and saw 3 floors of Rodin's sculptures. I took a million pictures of everything. As we were walking out of the museum, we saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance and decided to go see that too even though we hadn't eaten anything all day and it was 6pm. So we went straight to the Eiffel Tower and bought tickets to go up in the elevator. We took the first elevator up to the platform in the middle of the tower and then took a second elevator all the way to the top. We stayed at the top long enough to take some pictures and to gift shop but it was actually pretty chilly all the way up there so we took the elevator back down. After that we went to dinner at this little restaurant across the street from our hotel. I had steak and mashed potatoes but the mashed potatoes were basically cheese with a little bit of potato in them. They were really good. The steak was too. By the far the best meal I've had in Europe so far.
The next day we had a very French breakfast with croissants and baguettes with jam and nutella. Another great thing about France is the way they drink coffee. I can't get used to drinking little tiny cups of espresso and cappuccinos in Italy but in France they actually serve you a decent sized cup of coffee with milk in it. Also there are starbucks all over Paris! And the best thing is they have the American coffee drinks but French pastries. Best of both worlds. After breakfast we walked about 5 minutes to get to the French Pantheon. The main floor has a lot of sculptures and a gigantic pendulum that measures the degrees the earth turns every second or something like that. Below the main floor is the crypt where all the famous French people are buried. The ones that I recognized were Marie Curie and her husband Pierre, Voltaire, Henry Rousseau, Alexander Dumas, and Victor Hugo. Just as we were about to leave the Pantheon, we noticed there was a guided tour to the top of Pantheon that had just started so we jumped in with that group and go to up to the balconies around the main floor of the Pantheon and go up to the top of Pantheon and go outside. Here we saw some wonderful views of Paris. After we tour we left the Pantheon and headed towards the Catacombs. On the way we stopped at the Luxembourg gardens. The gardens were the grounds of what used to be some sort of a palace. There were trees and flowers and a pond and a lot of chairs and tables everywhere and people were just relaxing. It was nice. There was also and Orangerie where they had orange trees growing and more statues. It was very peaceful. After taking some pictures and hanging out here for a bit we started walking to the Catacombs. The Catacombs is an underground cemetery that is long passageways with piles of bones lining the sides of the underground tunnels. The bones are arranged artistically though and they are made into neat designs. Also at the beginning of the tunnels there is a section that used to be part of an underground prison and they have preserved the carvings of one of the prisoners that was held there. He carved huge castles and famous landmarks of Paris out of the rock in his prison cell. It was very interesting. After the catacombs we walked to the Arch of Triumph that Napoleon had built in his honor. It was in the middle of the busiest roundabout in Paris it seemed like and the only way to get to it was an underground tunnel that came up in the middle of the roundabout where the arch was located. Every night at 6:30 pm they rekindle the torches in the arch and we arrived right at 6:30 just as a marching band paraded around the piazza playing the French national anthem. After that we walked down Champs-Elysses, the street leading up to the arch, which is the major shopping district of the city with really fancy stores like armani and gucci. We looked inside H&M. There was also an Abercrombie & Fitch located inside a castle with gigantic metal gates leading to it that were guarded by 3 bouncers dressed head to toe in identical A&F swag. It was pretty ridiculous. Definitely got some pictures of them. Finally, we went and had dinner at a creperie. We had dinner crepes with spinach and ham and cheese in them which actually were not that great. I had a chocolate dessert crepe after and my mom got sorbet, both of which were delicious.
So here's the funny story about the pictures I took. My mom finally brought me a camera that actually works so now I've taken a ton of pictures but unfortunately I do not have the USB cord to connect my camera to my computer and upload them...so unless I can find someone with the same camera as me, I can't upload those pictures until I get back to the States. Sorry!
Au revoir!
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