Sunday, January 25, 2009

Tivoli and The Vatican

Saturday me as well as a bunch of friends went on a day trip to Tivoli, which is about 20 miles outside of Rome. JCU organized the trip and it was free for students in my study abroad program! Our first stop was Hadrian's Villa, which was a summer retreat from Rome for the emperor in A.D. 118-134. Since it's so old, the villa is just ruins now but walls, statues, fountains and swimming pools are still standing. We had a tour guide and she was able to tell us what things once were and give us insight as to what life was like during that time. Next on our stop, we got dropped off in the center of Tivoli for a lunch break. After lunch we walked to Villa d'Este, which was commissioned by Renaissance noble and cardinal Ippolito d'Este in 1550. Inside there are amazing fresco's , that unfortunately we could not take pictures of because it would damage the color. Outside the villa are gardens and tons of fountains. The only drawback to the day was that it rained alllll day and it was very cold. Most of us were soaked even with umbrella's and could not fully enjoy the tour and scenery.


Hadrian's Villa


Villa d'Este

Today, Christina, Jessie, Andrew and I went to the Vatican. We took the tram from our apartment building to the river and walked the rest of the way, about 15 minutes. Piazza San Pietro is absolutely beautiful; the buildings that line the street as you approach are rustic and painted in yellows and light orange. As you walk in the piazza, you see St. Peter's Basillica. Inside, everything is made of either marble, bronze or gold. It's absolutely breathtaking and so detailed you have to come back again to really see it all. We stayed for mass, not with the pope himself though unfortunately. We didn't get to see the Sistine Chapel or the museums because we came too late in the day and they were closed; we're going to have to make another trip to Vatican city to see the rest!


St. Peter's Basillica

Friday, January 23, 2009

Christmas Everyday!

Since we've moved in, I think everything has stopped working at least once including:
-1 toilet
-the heat
-oven was uninstalled
-stove burner
-washing machine

We have come to the conclusion that since everything is literally brand new (still have tags on stuff) they just weren't finished installing things in our apartment. Everyday a maintenance person comes to fix things we didn't know were broken (like the heat, although it definitely explained why we were so cold!) or to bring us something new including:
-medicine cabinets for both bathrooms with mirror, shelf, light
-clothes drying rack (of course the day we bought our own...)
-and a TV!!!! It's seriously like Christmas everyday! (p.s 1 of our 8 channels is Italian MTV, they play American songs and Italian. We have been glued to it all day, seeing as we haven't watched TV in about 2 weeks)

Today was the field trip to Ikea so we could pick up a few things for the apartment, most importantly HANGERS!!! My roomies were nice enough to pick me up a few things there. I am now officially completely unpacked and moved into my room, it's an awesome feeling :) I didn't make it to Ikea because my Aunt Therese who lives in Florence came down to visit me! I haven't seen her in 14 years, it was a very exciting and emotional reunion. Since I had to visit the Vittorio Emanuele monument in Piazza Venezia for my history class, we went there together so I could take some notes and then we had lunch. Our visit was short, but definitely worth it and I'm so excited to visit her in Florence next week!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

So much to do, so little time!


My apartment! (notice the pink post-it's- we labeled everything in Italian haha)



Today officially ended my first week of school; I only have classes Mondays and Wednesdays! My classes seem pretty cool, really small though. My "big" class is like 22 students and the smallest is 6 students haha. My teachers are chill so it should be a pretty good semester, my homework load is basically just to read, the usual. This week the gang and I started planning our travels. So far my roommate Christina and I are going to Florence next weekend to stay with my aunt, February 20-22 a bunch of us are going to Venice for Carnival, and February 27-March 1 we are going to Barcelona. We also signed up for 2 different day trips in April, one to Capri and one to Pompeii that includes a hike up Mt. Vesuvius! Still left to plan is spring break, we're thinking Paris, Amsterdam and London and a couple more weekend trips. There are so many places we all want to go, but not enough time! I'm considering pushing my flight home back a week so that I can go to Greece (the original plan was to go to Greece for spring break, but it won't be nice weather yet in March so it would sort of be a waste of money). Most of my friends are staying at least 2 weeks after school ends, so they plan to do more traveling. Staying an extra week would be cutting it close to going to San Diego for graduation, but whatever, it will be a kick ass grad month! Well actually grad like 6 months if you include this whole semester and Jordan in June hahaha.

Yesterday for Obama's inauguration, JCU (John Cabot University, my school here) had a little party for the event. They had the entire CNN coverage showing on the big projector screen and snacks and wine (of course!!!!). It was amazing watching him get sworn in and listen to his speech. An Italian news station was there filming our reactions during the ceremony. The whole room of students and faculty were just silent and I literally got chills during his speech. I started feeling a renewed sense of pride for America and it motivated me to want to be a part of that change. I love Italy, but nothing can top the freedom and uniqueness of the U.S.

After the inauguration, the roomies, Andrew, Zac and I went to a wine tasting our study abroad program organized. It was really fun to feel so classy and Italian, not to mention drinking some delicious wine! We tasted 3 kinds, a white, a red and a desert wine, each complemented by an appetizer. I surprisingly really liked the white, too bad I don't remember what it was! I guess I'll just have to try some until I find it!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

OMG I live in Rome :)



It's crazy that I've already been in Rome for a week, time has flown by! I've been playing tourist almost everyday, trying to see as much as possible. Today a few of us went to one of Rome's biggest flea markets and it's right around the corner from our apartment. Apparently, you can usually find some pretty cool stuff, like weird antique things but we didn't see any. It was mostly clothes, shoes, bracelets, sun glasses etc. After that we headed across the river into the main part of the city to see the Colosseum. Along the way we saw tons of ruins; I couldn't figure out what they were (if they are even in my guidebook) but they were pretty awesome. The Colosseum blew me away. You walk down a normal street, lined with modern buildings and museums as well as statues and ruins and then in the distance you see it. It boggles my mind that some thing so old is still standing, it was completed in A.D 80...thats freakin old! At least once a day I stop to appreciate that I live in Rome, one of the oldest and historic cities in the world. Anyone who is thinking of going to Europe, you HAVE to come to Rome. You can literally find everything here, amazing sights, food, nightlife and it's really easy to get from place to place. I'm basically obsessed....

These last few days we have had great weather, sunny and "fresh" as claud would say, perfect for walking and sightseeing. Later in the week it's supposed to rain, booo, i'll probably take the tram to school. I hate walking in the rain.

Tomorrow I start classes :/ I'm excited to start feeling less like a tourist and more of a local by having a routine with classes and going to my favorite cafe's and markets but I don't want to study! A group of us are starting to plan our travels throughout Italy and Europe so I really hope my classes don't require a whole lot of work.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Salute!



These past few days have been a lot of fun, we've been walking A LOT. My feet have been hurting since I arrived but it's worth it because there is just so much to see and do in Rome. Time seems to pass really fast here; my usual routine consists of waking up and getting some breakfast, doing some sightseeing, eating lunch at a little cafe, continue sightseeing, go home and relax, get ready, pre-game and go out at like midnight. The first night my roomies and I went out we went to Piazza de Fiori which has a bunch of "American" bars. They were mostly packed with study abroad students, so I got to meet some more people from my program. Last night we went to an Irish pub that had mostly Americans, a few Irish guys and some Italians. This place was a blast, they played mostly old school American music, we're talking Britney Spears, Journey, Spice Girls, Hanson, The Village People etc. Every girl was like "omg this is my song!!!" it was awesome. Tonight we want to DANCE so we're going to a discotecha! I'm really excited to see what it's like, apparently clubs here are legit so we shall see. I have already found a little crew to sight see, party and will travel with which consists of Christina, who I share my room with, Jessie another roomie, and Molly and Lauren who live a few blocks from us. We have also become friends with a few boys from our program who live upstairs and they are a lot of fun too. I thought coming to Italy alone would be scarier, but I have made friends so fast and with some awesome people already. Although I'm not sure how I would do if i had to navigate Rome alone (Christina is my personal mapquest hahaha) I'm just not really worried about it because I know I can figure it out on my own. I've already started taking a bunch of pics of not only the sights but going out also, there are way too many to post here so check my facebook.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

I'm finally here!!!

After months of anticipating my arrival, I'm finally in Rome! The plane ride wasn't too bad although I almost missed my connecting flight from Germany to Rome, which would have sucked big time! I found 2 of my roommates on my flight from SF so it was really nice not to be alone on my flights and navigating through the airports. It took a few hours to get on the shuttle the study abroad company provided and find each students' apartments (our company leases apartments from a few different buildings so we are a little spread out). Let me just say that people drive RIDICULOUS in Italy. There are virtually no traffic laws it seems, cars park wherever they want and pedestrians definitely do not have the right of way (It's day 1 and I almost got ran over haha). We watched a video at orientation that was really funny and so true about Italy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOo36FnSTqQ. Anyway, there are 6 of us total in my apartment which is completely furnished from Ikea; no joke it seriously looks like an Ikea showroom. Today was my first real day in Rome and my roommates and I were able to do some exploring around our neighborhood and sample some delicious Italian cuisine between our school orientations. It's definitely going to take a few more days to get familiar with the Trastevere neighborhood and walking to and from campus, but luckly we don't start classes until Monday so there is plenty of time to figure it out. So far I have met a bunch of really cool people who are just as eager as me to get out in the city and see everything as well as do a lot of weekend traveling to other countries. That's about it for day one, I'll write again in a few days!