Off to the First Republic- Roma!

First off- Happy Birthday Grandpa Tasso! Since I can't call you up I'll just have to reach you via blog. I hope you have a great day and you and Mema do something fun for yourselves. Miss you!

Note: I'm posting all of my blogs for Rome in one post just to make it a little easier. Sorry it's practically a

book. Just think of it as a marathon for your eyes...

Rome 2/21/11

We began our day as usual; wake up at the last moment, throw some clothes on, and rush down to the train station to catch our 7:55 train to Rome. Since this was a little bit longer trip than we were used to (a whopping 4 days) we had to legitimately pack for once. Once we arrived at the train station in Rome (which is actually pretty sketchy) we hopped on a bus bound for our hotel. The bus couldn't go straight to our hotel though, so after it let us off we still had to trek for a bit to Albergo Sole. Our hotel was close to the river and right by a piazza that has a local daily market and a decent night life. Kelsey, Cara and I got our room keys, quickly freshened up, and hurried outside and down the street to find some grub before our walking tour that day. Basically, fast food in Italy consists of Paninis and pizza, which is basically all I've eaten for sometime and it's getting a little old. I appreciate that fast food isn't greasy here, but I could really go for some Arbys right about now. Anyway, we found a panini place that had good size sandwiches for 3.50 euro- pretty cheap! As usual, I had prosciutto (my new favorite because it's the closest thing to bacon) and mozzarella.

After we ate we met up with our tour guide who was a cute older woman named Eva. Her voice was kind of soothing and good for story-telling. I bet she tells a mean ghost story. Our walking tour was super quick and dirty. We went to a little loggia and then a church whose ceiling was painted to look like an arc even though it was flat. I'm not going to lie, I didn't catch the name of any of these things. I don't think anyone else did either, because I've asked around and most of my friends don't even know if we were told the name. This happens a lot on quick tours where you see five million things that you had no prior knowledge of. Any who, next we saw the Parliament building and the guards outside with their automatic weapons. Use them much? Close to Parliament was the galleria- a huge enclosed shopping and fine arts area...apparently also a good place for protests. We've seen a million protests against prime minister berlisconi since we've been here, and this one was no different than the others- loud people and signs.

Next was the Pantheon, probably my favorite thing in Rome. We didn't have much time there before we hurried off to a few more things including Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps. By this time it was night and we were all starving. Luckily, we had passed some place by the Pantheon that had a sign saying "3 Moretti (beers) and a pizza for 10 euro". Perfect. After wandering around to find the place, we were finally successful. It was pretty cool inside, a big wooden bar, chandeliers, shops inside, and of course, the Italian version of MTV on (which plays mostly American music). The owner was a young guy named Pasquali who was super friendly and accommodating. He accidentally made an extra pizza, which he gave us for free, and some extra beers since a few of us girls were splitting them. (6 beers for 4 people is a little awkward to split up). He then offered us Lemoncello shots (a really popular liquor here) for free, which of course we took. Since Pasquali had been so nice, we tipped him about 15 euro. He told us it was too much and when we insisted that he keep it, he gave us key chains and beer for the road! Plus, he sent us to a bar practically next to our hotel that we could get discounts at since he was friends with the owner. Nice guy! We went to that bar (Sloppy Sams) and found that the waitresses we all American students too, which made thing easy.
Drinks however, we outrageous even after the discount so the girls and I decided we were done for the evening. (Long Island Pitchers were 20 euro so about $26-- Houlihans has them for $4. Ouch). We concluded the night with the boys getting Kabobs (for about the 5th time this trip) and then back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep!

Rome 2/22/11
This morning we had free time. Perfect for revisiting places we spent 2 seconds in the day before! I got together with some IA girls, Brittany, Heather, Diana, and Amanda for a quick breakfast of pastries and cappuccino and a stop at the market. We made our way to the Pantheon first. The light was more direct than it had been the day before so I got a few more pictures of the occulus. I could sit inside the Pantheon forever, it's absolutely beautiful. Next was Trevi Fountain! Our tour guide the night before told us what throwing coins into the fountain means- 1 means you'll come back to Rome someday, 2 means you'll find a nice husband/wife, and 3 means you'll get a divorce! Since I threw 1 in last time I was in Rome with my family, obviously it worked so it better this time too. The wife of one of the professors that came with our schools made a funny comment about it- She asked where her husband went off to and we told her he was throwing coins in the fountain. She replied, Uh oh, he probably threw three! Insert awkward laugh here.

Next we were off to the Spanish steps, which took awhile because we got a little lost. The direction we approached everything was totally different from the last time I was in Rome, so I had a hard time with directions. We finally found it and got our pictures while trying to fend off all the annoying peddlers that throw things in your hands and try to force you to buy them. On our way back to the hotel, we found ourselves in Piazza Navona which has a large fountain and obelisk in the middle of it. Music was playing, bubbles were everywhere, it was a beautiful day; it was practically out of a movie. The girls and I basked in it for a few moments before getting paninis again by the hotel for lunch.

After lunch, the whole group made its was to the Vatican for our tour. We got our headsets and met our tour guide, an American who had been living in Rome for some time. It wasn't long before Cara, Kelsey and I decided he was the worst tour guide ever! He first made it overly clear that he was Protestant and kind of down-played Catholicism's stance on a lot of things- fine if your a tour guide at somewhere OTHER than the Vatican. Funny thing we noticed later was that a lot of the guys in our group really liked this tour guide and most of the girls disliked him. I'm sure that says something, but I'm not really sure what. We went into the museum to get tickets and then directly to a courtyard where he spent forever explaining the paintings in the Sistine Chapel which we hadn't even seen yet; so obviously we had no clue what he was talking about. Eventually we started to wander and played for awhile with a huge, spinning bronze globe in the middle of the courtyard. It had sections that looked like they had been eroded away so you could see machinery inside. There wasn't anything around that explained what it was about, but we enjoyed taking pictures of it.

Finally we got to go through the museum, although too quickly in some parts and not enough in others. We also saw the Vatican's modern art collection, which I don't remember seeing before. They had a Salvador Dali painting that was pretty cool, but that was about it. The Sistine Chapel came after the modern art. We spent a bit of time looking at the paintings, Michelangelo's overly masculine women and such. Just like last time I went to the Vatican, the guards were constantly shushing everyone (resulting in more noise than they were preventing) and kept yelling "NO PHOTO!!!" at people. Ah, peace. Next was St. Peter's Basilica! Unfortunately, mass was already in session when we were there so we couldn't see the entire front half of the cathedral. Since this was our last stop, we left St. Peters and got ready for our trek home.

Italy's wind is basically the same as Kansas, gale force winds a lot of the time. We had been braving them all trip, but this evening was particularly brutal! The girls and a few of the guys wanted to find some place to eat that had burgers and American stuff. We followed the boys for awhile till basically they admitted they didn't know where they were going. By this time we had passed our hotel by 8 or 9 blocks, so the girls and I split off to find some pasta closer to the hotel. We went to a little place in the piazza next to the hotel that wasn't too expensive. Another thing about Italy, even with the cold and gale force winds, they still eat outside because many places don't have more than a few spots inside. Outside we were, and heat lamps only do so much. We had our dinner, which was alright, and went back to the hotel. Our room was on the 5th floor with a nice sized terrace, so we spent some time there. It was definitely too cold though, requiring us to move inside with card games for the evening.

Things I've learned/noticed so far:
We all desperately miss Santa Chiara's food when we leave. To get something similar, we would have to spend a fortune! I don't know how they do it at the study center, I'm just glad they do.

My stomach has become a bottomless pit. For lunch today (it's the Saturday after Rome as I'm writing this) I ate two sandwiches and an entire pizza...and I could definitely go for something else. I also keep getting extremely dehydrated due to the lack of available water and mostly- bathrooms. Both of these things remind me of how I was in grade school- able to eat a ton and always dehydrated. Nostalgic I suppose?Surprisingly, I haven't gained any weight so I guess I'm using everything I eat!

There are definitely less smart cars now than when I was in Italy 5 years ago. I had this suspicion for awhile but going to Rome confirmed it. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of them, but now a lot of people seem to be buying hatch-backs that are a bit larger. I've even seen Jeep Cherokees, Fords, and a Range Rover! Glad that SUV's aren't dead yet in Italy, even though gas is around $8 a gallon.

Rome 2/23/11
The agenda this morning was for all of us to meet outside our hotel bright and early and go to the Campidoglio. We observed it's little piazza while waiting for our tour guide and headsets for the day. Our tour guide arrived and had us follow her to the nearby forum. I have to say I was pretty excited to go into the forum. I don't remember if it wasn't available last time my family was in Rome or we just didn't have time with our schedule, but I know we didn't go in it. The ruins were pretty cool, our tour guide was knowledgeable of the area so she gave us a play by play about what happened where. Apparently the only people that were allowed to live down in the forum were the priestesses who took care of relics. The priestesses usually signed something when they were only 6 or 7 years that gave them to this life for 30 years (the average life expectancy at the time was only 25-30). We also learned that the reason the life expectancy was so low (and this goes for Pompeii too) was because the pipes and vessels that held their water was made of lead...oops.

After the Forum, we went to see the Coliseum...well just the outside. We were quickly whisked away to a church, I think it was St. Gregorio. Under the church are preserved ruins of an old Roman Village. The coolest part was seeing how wide the streets in between houses where then. Our tour guide was about 5'4" and relatively petite- she said that she was about the size of an average Roman man at the time the city was built. The alleys were literally sized for the average man's shoulder width and no more. I swear I barely fit through the space. They also had some ancient frescoes and water systems down there. After finishing at the church, it was about 2 something. We hadn't eaten yet and we were supposed to going directly to the MAXXI, which is a modern art museum. After the majority of us threw little hissy fits because we hadn't gone into the Coliseum and they were about to drag us to, of all things located amongst historical venues, a modern art museum. Gag me. We quickly won (I think our professors actually felt the same), so we got lunch and went into the lovely Coliseum! Since we didn't have an actual tour guide, Cara whipped out her Rick Steves book (which has basically been our go to tour guide for the entire trip. The book is great!) and
told us fun facts about the ancient uses for the venue. Since I had been there before and remembered a few things, I was able to supplement her facts. (Take that Rick Steves!) Just as it had been before, the Coliseum was absolutely awe inspiring and we all agreed that it wasn't a trip to Rome without seeing it.

Since our teachers gave us free time to go where we wished, we decided to go back to the Vatican to climb to the top of the dome. Cara's mom had said that her only regret after visiting Rome was that she didn't go up in the dome. Therefore, it was Cara's mission the whole time to make it up there. We hopped on a bus and made our way over there. After we stood in a security line for some time, we easily got through. (The screener was texting instead of looking at the screen, which should make the Pope feel safe). We had two choices in going up to the dome- elevator and then steps or just hundreds of steps. Obviously, we chose steps. Getting to the portion where the elevator takes you wasn't bad, it was going up the actual dome that was awful. The first stairwell had an extremely small radius and no railing- boy did I get dizzy fast. The next stairwell was a long hall that was tilted because of the dome, so you had to kind of lean against the curved wall to walk. It was like a fun house. After this was another fun-house like set of stairs and then- the narrowest circular stair I've ever been in with a rope hanging down the middle to help steady yourself. By the way, there aren't landings anywhere since Italy doesn't seem to have any codes. Honestly, I don't think an elderly person would even be able to climb up the dome since there aren't resting points. Finally we

made it to the top and gazed down at the beautiful city. It was totally worth the climb to see all the Vatican

gardens and all of Rome beyond. Mission accomplished! After our climb down, we were exhausted so we caught a bus back to our hotel, found food, played card games and called it a night.

Pompeii 2/24/11
In order to get to Pompeii, we had to catch a bus early in morning. The meeting time was 7 outside our hotel and then we were going to go to the bus together. Communication hadn't exactly been great this trip, so we didn't know where the bus was picking us up. I had packed my stuff and still had 10 minutes to spare so two other students and I ran down the street to get a pastry. A few people including the professors were outside ready to go when we got back so I ran up to my room to get my stuff and the roommies. We got down there at about 7:03, maybe :04 and everyone was gone already. Luckily, Cara was able to call one of the guys who told us where the bus was picking us up. Apparently instead of counting us to make sure everyone was there, they just said "Is everyone here?" which of course everyone there can say yes to. After running to the stop with luggage, we found that the bus was late. Of course, it's on Italian time. Once it got there, we hopped on with everyone else and started our 3 hour bus ride to Pompeii.

Once we got there, our history teacher Giovanni Pasquali gathered us and we started our tour. The day was absolutely beautiful, not too windy, and warmer than we've had. Giovanni first took us to the temple of Jupiter and a middle class house, which was actually pretty large and even had its own courtyard garden. The best part of the trip to Pompeii was when Giovanni took us to the lab complex where relics that aren't on display to the public are kept. The building was too small for all of us to fit in, so he brought relics out one at a time, show and tell style. They had burned bread that was shaped like a bundt, grain, beans, rope, skulls, and even a coin for passage to the afterlife that they found with a man's bones. Save yourself a penny for the ferry-man! It's pretty amazing the things that have been recovered from the city. Giovanni then took us around Pompeii some more. He showed us a bar that was like the fast food joint of the day, the amphitheater, and the largest private dwelling in the city. Sadly, we didn't get to stay that long because we still had a 3 hour bus ride back to the train station that would take us on an over 2 hour ride back to Castig F.no. Most of my classmates including my roomies opted to go to Sorrento and Capri this weekend, so they stayed behind. I, however, managed to get super dehydrated in Milan and haven't had time to recover due to travel yet, so I went back to the study center. Personally, I can't wait to eat Santa Chiara food again and enjoy a restful weekend with a few friends in our home away from home.

Things I learned:
I kind of learned how to use the bus system in Rome. Well, for all intensive purposes.

Pirate bar in Castig F.no has great pizza...I mean it's great after over 6 hours of travel and it being 11 at night.
Actually it's pretty good, and you can get a Postmeister beer with it. Delicioso!

Next for travels: Perugia!
If you read all of this, you get a Nutella covered cookie. I'll get right on mailing that... :)

Milano and Lake Como

Saturday we woke up early and went down to breakfast in the hostel. They had tasteless cereal, which I ate, and some rolls with nutella. The good part? They had one of those automatic coffee dispensers except instead of what we're used to it had Italian cappuccino and other delicious things. So of course, I started my day with two cappuccinos since I've felt a little caffeine deprived lately. We traveled to the amazing Duomo of Milan which is the most beautiful cathedral I've ever seen. We went inside for awhile and basked in the immense space and glow from the stained glass windows. Now for the fun part. We bought tickets to go on the roof of the Duomo, which only cost us 3 Euros. The climb wasn't bad but the stair radius was really small, and I was really dizzy by the time I reached the top. Once we reached the roof of the Duomo, we saw that not only the facades were intricately carved but the roof was as well. We walked through the scalloped flying buttresses and took lots of silly pictures. Then we reached another small stair that lead us to the very top. Up here, we could see Switzerland! Kinda. We could see the Swiss Alps clearly behind the city. Again, many more silly pictures we taken up here while we basked in the sun and the gloriousness that is Milan.
After the Duomo we went into the Galleria, but didn't stay here long because we were starving! A fun note, a McDonalds is across from Loius Vuitton in the Galleria. Pure Class. We found a little place away from the heart of the city (so we didn't have to pay and arm and leg) and everyone got Kabobs except me. They still just taste like greek gyros to me, which I'm not enthralled with, so I just had a simple panini instead. Also, my first Coke since I've been here. It was cold, fizzy, and glorious. After lunch, we were off to find the little castle down the way from the Duomo. After getting side tracked a few times by stores along the way, we reached the cute little castle. There wasn't really anything to do except walk straight through it and when we got through we found a surprise--a carnival! I don't know what the occasion was but some of us jumped into bumper cars to join in the festivities. In front of the carnival was a beautiful park with a white gateway arch at the end. After nice stroll through the park, we went back through the castle and to a little gelato place close by. Here I had- Limone and Mango! delicious, but not quite as good as the limone and fragola. I'm pretty sure all gelato that I eat will have limone in it somewhere.

Shopping was next on the list of things to do that day. First we went down the rich street where things are layed out in sweet displays and we can't even afford to breathe the air inside the shops. A lot of the expensive shops have like, bouncers standing at the door and it's really intimidating. Plus we get the feeling that here, if you look like crap you're not welcome; unlike in the US where a lot of really rich people dress crappily so the doors are open to basically everyone. We then moved to the street whose shopping was more in our price range and did some speed shopping before we had to catch a train back to the hostel. Everyone that my roomies and I were with had a soccer game to go to, so we walked with them to the stadium. We had hope to all eat together, but there was nothing around the stadium except for street vendors. After seeing them off, Kelsey, Cara and I went back into the city by the Duomo and did some more shopping at our own pace. We then found a restaurant in the area that wasn't too overpriced and had a nice sit down dinner. The Waiter kept asking if we were only doing the starter course of pasta, which of course we were since we're poor college students. While enjoying our meal of pasta and wine (which was our only real meal that weekend) we did a little people watching and made up life stories about the people next to us who seemed to be really important or rich. After a chill dinner, we headed back to the hostel for the night.
The next morning we woke up to cold rain. We had an early breakfast, checked out of the hostel, and went to the central train station to buy tickets to Varenna which is one of the towns on Lake Como. We reached Varenna and found an ethereal landscape with high mountains, the lake and brightly painted towns all around. Once there, we caught a ferry to Bellagio, which is the most famous of the little towns. Unfortunately, our pictures didn't turn out so well since it was so foggy and rainy, and nothing was in season so all the trees were pruned back and gardens a bit sparse. We strolled down one of the little shopping loggias, looking at the local silk products. When we found a nice looking point over the lake, the boys cracked open a bottle of cheap street vendor wine and we had a toast in plastic cups. Very classy if you ask me. The other bottle of wine was finished on the ferry ride back to Varenna.

Here's the nerve wrecking part of the day. We booked our tickets from Milan to Arezzo at 7:45 since it was the last train before an overnight one which would have put us in Arezzo at 5:30 am. We were supposed to get into the Milan station from Varenna at 7:40. A 5 minute connection time. Our train to Milan was 3 minutes late = 2 minutes to get off our train, find the new one, validate, and get on. We made our way to the first car as the train was pulling into the station and as soon as the doors opened, we were off like greyhounds on a race track. I don't think I've even run that fast even through the Atlanta airport. I managed to be one of the first to find the train and got on as the conductor blew the whistle. We had everyone there except for 2 or 3. Cara kept saying "due mas due mas!" (two more) to the conductor. Lucky for us, the guy that was getting on before me had 5 suitcases to load which bought us an extra minute to get on the train. Adrenaline rush to the max. We finished our 5 hour train to Arezzo and then had a 30 minute wait for the train to Castiglion F.no.

We always seem to think we're out of the water when we get back to Castig. What we forget is the 20 minute hike up the hill. Since we only had a meager breakfast and crappy but expensive lunch, we dropped our stuff off at the study center and headed to pirate bar for some pizza to wrap up the evening. I ate a whole one. That, my friends, is a successful end to an adventure.

I realize this post and the one before were really long and probably only my parents are still reading. If you're not my parents and read this whole thing, you must be really bored right now and hopefully this post brought you a little bit of entertainment.
Now...Off to Roma in only 7 hours and I need to finish packing... Ciao!

It's Just a Hole in the Ground...No, Really!

For Friday, we were going to the Ferrari Museum in Modinello and then eventually make our way to Milano. We knew the Museum was out of the way and it would be a bit of a trek to get there, but we had no idea what we were in for. First I should start out by mentioning that there were 14 of us travelling together and organizing that many people is not an easy feat. We left Castiglion Fiorentino at 8:25 by train and went to Arezzo. There, we had to wait two hours to catch the train to Bolognia because the first one was too pricey or something. There wasn't much to do in Arezzo that morning, hardly anything was open so we walked around aimlessly, kicked pigeons, and sat in a park for awhile till it was time to leave. Once we made it to Bolognia, we had about 45 minutes to scarf some lunch. The Bolongia train station was a lot larger than we realized- we had no idea what was there so I guess we assumed it would be small. Two eatery places were available- a fast food pizza place with some outdoor seating and McDonalds. Given that I don't eat McD's in the states, I passed, but some of our friends ate there and it ended up being close to $10 American dollars for a meal! Who knew McD's was practically gourmet here? After lukewarm but yummy pizza we scarfed some limone e fragola (lemon and strawberry) gelato and made our way back to the station to hop on the train to Moderna.

Oh, Moderna. Moderna = hell hole. This is officially the ghetto of Italy. We got off the train and entered into a dilapidated city, which obviously used to have really nice buildings and spaces but has been abused over the years. Now, it's just graffiti filled and filthy. We knew we had to take a bus to get to the museum, but what we found out was that we had to take a bus to the bus that would take us to the museum. Here we go. So first we figure out we have to take the number 7 bus to the bus station. Easy enough right? We all get on the bus and start looking for the station. We saw a small stop that was near a couple of buses, but it wasn't labeled like we were told it would be so we stayed on the bus and kept riding. And riding...and riding. Finally, we make it to the end of the line and have to ride all the way back to the original spot were we got the bus. Come to find out, we were supposed to get off at about the third stop. In case we're counting, we are up to three hours wasted due to transportation on this trip. We bought tickets for the new bus and had to wait awhile for it to come plus the 30 minutes or so that it took to get to the museum. While waiting, a few of us had to use the bathroom and we were super thirsty so we went to a bar/cafe across the street. On the back wall was a door marked "Toilette" that was obviously a unisex bathroom. I went to check it out and inside was a trough for a sink, a hose for a faucet, and literally a hole in the ground for the toilet. This is not uncommon in Italy, come to find out. We are all at the point that if the bathroom has a seat and something papery that isn't completely wet, we're psyched out of our minds. As you can imagine, we left that place asap and just waited for the bus.

The bus took us to Modinello, another sad place that looks like Moderna but much less urban. It's kind of ironic that such an expensive car is manufactured in such a poor, dilapidated area. (The Maserati is made here too, and who knows what other companies). We found the museum at about 4:50 and the museum closed at 6, so we thought we wouldn't get through it all. We definitely did. The Ferrari's were cool and all, but I don't know anything about cars and the gallery was actually pretty small. Still, we took some pictures with our favorites and a lot of my friends bought the over-priced memorabilia. Just a note- it took only 45 minutes for us to get through the entire gallery. Not worth it. By this point we had spent so much time, money and strife getting here that the day had to be funny- because if we weren't laughing we would probably cry.

We had to hop on the two buses back to the train station and sadly didn't make it in time to catch the train that we needed to so we had to wait awhile for the 8:30 train to Milan. Since we hadn't eaten, we decided to look for a place along the main drag. As we walked less than one block down the street, we quickly concluded that this was a bad and unsafe idea and hurried back to the McDonalds/cafe inside the train station. yes, McDonalds again. We ate and played games while we waited for the train. Were the mishaps for the evening over? Of course not! A four person train ticket was lost and had to be re-bought and Cara had coat buttons coming off. Darn you Moderna! The thing that pretty much saved the entire night? 1 euro shakes. Delicious. Finally, we got onto the train to Milan. Upon arriving in the beautiful Milan train station, we bought weekend metro passes and took the metro to our hostel. Finally, success!

Things I learned-
I basically already knew this but I now have first hand experience- The hygiene in other places is not at all what it is in the USA. So, being on an over booked train for a few hours smells really lovely. Almost lovely enough to completely knock you out, but not quite.

I learned how to fully use the train system in Italy and metro system in Milan. Actually the metro is just like New York or Chicago so I probably shouldn't count this....what the hell, might as well!

Again, bathroom many times means just a hole in the floor. I would kill for the loveliness of a Johnny on the Spot at this point. Also, antibacterial wipes are becoming my best friend.

Firsts-
First stay in a Hostel! It was pretty nice actually. Clean and they provided some breakfast. Can't complain about that!

I'd also like to mention that this weekend, we went to 7 different cities in 3 days. quite the feat if you ask me. I'll try to get a blog about the actual stay in Milan soon, and our trip to Lake Como! We leave for Rome for the rest of this week around 7:55 tomorrow morning, so no internet at all for awhile. I can't wait to tell everyone about Milan- which is the best place we've visited so far.

Arrivederci!

Cortona and Siena

Cortona
So last weekend the gang and I decided to venture to Castiglion Fiorentino's rival town- Cortona. It's a short bus ride away and located pretty much on top of a mountain. After nearly hurling (Cara was on the brink) as our bus twisted and turned up the narrow winding road to the top-ish, we realized why Italy doesn't have theme parks and rollar coasters...this is their equivilant. The bus stop was a like a balcony that jutted out over the valley and the scenery was astounding. Unfortunately, it was really overcast the day we went so the pictures I took didn't really turn out. As if landscape photos ever do. We ventured to the central piazza, had a piece of pizza, and then set about on our main task for the day...to climb all the way to the top of the hill.

We thought Castig F.no had steep hills...nope. I swear it was like a 60 degree slope in some parts. That might be an exaggeration, but my legs and glutes agree with the first analysis. The whole way up was "paved" with irregular moss covered stones that we tripped on a lot, till we reached the Church of St. Margherita which was almost the top. We saw glimpses of the beautiful 800 year old church on our way up and when we got there we were greeted with a huge black-top that the church rested on. Exit rustic charm. Best part of this cute little church- if someone in a wheelchair manages to wheel themself up the relatively unpaved, steep mountain that is Cortona, there's a ramp that bridges 3 stairs leading you to the church entrance. I'm sure it gets a lot of use. After this we finished our trip to the top and what was there? We think they were graves, but it was four large white stones that had some language carved into it- it kind of looked like Greek but I have no clue. After satiating our appetite for taking pictures and pushing each other off the stones, we made our much more leisurely trip back down the hill.

Things I learned this trip-
do NOT go anywhere near a bus till the doors are open. It might decide to tango with another bus in a space that's not really big enough for one...or so we found out from nearly getting run over when making our return to Castig F.no.

That thing I mentioned about the wheelchair ramp- it's the same all over Tuscany. If you can make your way through mountains, streams, and pissed off vehicular traffic to a door with a slight step up, their MAY be a ramp there...but probably not.


Siena
For our trip today we travelled to the beautiful Siena!... But sadly it was cold and pouring all day. Our tour guide was the same one we had in Arezzo, Giovanni (not to be confused with our history teacher, Giovanni Pasquali). He was as entertaining as before and has the attention span of a gnat like the rest of us. I mean come on people, I can only look at frescoes all day for so long before I zone out! First we went to the Church of St. Catherine. It looked like a medieval church but on the inside it had pretty good sized windows (medieval to romanesque churches have tiny windows that really don't do anything due to the technology at the time they were constructed) so I'm not actually sure what it is. There we some really beautiful frescoes inside of St Catherine and her finger was in a jar on display. Take note kids; if you're a holy enough person and become a saint, you too can have random body parts on display in different churches .  Next we went to the place where she lived. There was a lovely loggia that recently was covered with yellow glass so the semi-enclosed room glowed beautifully. One room had frescoes of her childhood and life that where pretty cool. According to the frescoes, you have to cut off your pretty hair and make yourself ugly to be holy. I'm learning lots.

After the frescoes we went to the city hall museum to see more frescoes. Again, they were lovely and Giovanni actually made the experience pretty entertaing. A few teachers with us from one of the other schools, did not. They stepped on Giovanni's toes a lot (figuratively of course) and tried to steer his spiels towards things that they had read in a book about what we were seeing. Needless to say, he was visably not pleased. Finally we went to the Duomo! This one was high gothic basically meaning it's suuuuuuuper decorative; probably the most of the gothic duomos we've seen. As always, the interior was insane and there were so many things to look at you had no idea what to do. My favorite part of the church- amazing scenes done in white, green, yellow, and pink marble on the floor inside and on the steps of the cathedral. They were by far the most intricate and elegant that we've seen. I'm adding that to the list of things to put in my house when I'm super rich; aka the house in my dreams which is where it will stay.

After our tours, we continued to brave the rain and cold making our way back to the bus area and huddling in a cafe with cappiccino till we could get the bus back on. Sadly, we barely took any pictures because of the weather and constant rushing, but luckly for me I have been to Siena before so I don't think I'll forget it.

This weekend- Milan! and then- ROME!!! For the next week and a half I will only be in Castig F.no for 2 days so no posts for awhile. Take care everyone and I can't wait to share more with you!!!

The Most Important Post of the Semester

Classes on Thursday and then, the weekend! I think it’s time to officially document the “Bar scene” in Castiglion…or lack of. Beginning with the assumed favorite, Velvet Underground. Personally, I like the Velvet just fine (at least during 10-11 specials) but it’s not a favorite of K-State for the following reasons: kind of expensive, really loud, smoky, and all the other schools are there too making it hard to sit down. Plus there’s live music on Thursday and Sunday- I personally don’t like random live music at bars so that’s a negative for me.

Now to the favorite bar of K-State….or at least one Zach Ferrel. We call it RAB bar for the following reason… It has no name. There’s just a neon sign sticking out over the street that says BAR, but backwards. Also, bar is a relative term for the place. It’s more like a large walk-in closet where no more than 6 people can sit at once…not an exaggeration. 6 people. The owner/ bartender is a precious, old Italian man who wears a white lab coat while bartending. Personally, I think this might have to be my new uniform when I go back to bartending in the states. He has a short list of drinks that he makes and no descriptions in sight. Upon ordering one he proceeds to dirty pour obscene amounts of pure liquor into a glass and stirs everyone’s beverage with the same spoon. Don’t worry about the taste of what you’re ordering, they all taste like jet engine fuel and burn the same on the way down. Burning your esophagus here only costs 3 euro, but of course a much needed liver transplant after will be a bit pricier.

The bar we usually end up is just called Pirate bar. It’s more specifically catered to us American students, which I gathered by the fact that one whole room has an American flag and MTV always on…and a confederate flag. Not sure what that’s all about. Pirate bar is a lot quieter so you don’t have to yell at everyone, there are places to sit, and the best part- they serve pizza till really late! Nothing like an authentic Italian pizza pie to cure the late night munchies.

Another note: we have hand signals for all the bars here. An awkward rabbit mouth gesture for RAB, V for Velvet, and a flutter of the hand on the shoulder for pirate bar. It’s supposed to be a parrot. We used to put one had over the eye and make a hook finger, but come on people. That’s too obvious! No disco-teccas here, but we’re still on the look out for new favorites.

Firenze take 3

This past Wednesday was our third visit to the lovely city of Firenze. As always, Kelsey, Cara and I wait until the last possible moment to wake up, throw clothes on, and rush down to the train station in time for a 7: something am train ride. This ride was a little different though. We had been wondering what happens when there's no room left on the train...what happens is you crowd the isles and air space in between carts hoping that everyone leaves at the next stop. However, since you're crowding everyone in no one can move to get off or on. Extra bonus, people smell really great in Europe. Nope. Lucky for us, Arezzo was the big stop for all the school children and business people to get off so we soon got seats.

This time in Firenze, we went to a museum which housed original and reproduced relics from the Duomo. All the statues on the outside of the building are no longer original, so the remains are kept in this museum and replacements are made as well. The main interesting sculpture that we saw was a Michelangelo statue which he not only didn't finish, but hacked to pieces because he didn't like it. An apprentice put the pieces back together and whisked it away to the Duomo. Also, one of the statues on the side of the church looks exactly like Voldemort! Harry Potter/ Cara Cotter felt much anguish at the sight of it. Creepy.

Next we went into the Duomo. If you've seen the outside you know it's an extremely ornate masterpiece. Not so much on the inside. There's practically no decor inside except for in the large dome. I guess they spent all their money on the outside? We crowded into a small downstairs section to see a little of the foundation and the tomb of Pope Gregory VIII- which is practically in the gift shop. Note to all reading this: if I happen to suffer an untimely death my wish is to have my tomb smack in the middle of a gift shop where cheap re-productions are sold at inflated prices. Nothing says rest in peace that.

                                                                                                                

After the Duomo- Lunch! First we went to a hole in the wall sandwich place (It's literally a hole in a wall with two guys behind a counter) which is cheap and super yummy. Only 2,50 Euro for proscutto and mozzarella! Then we set out for some cabob place which Cara vaguely remembered the location of, but not really at all. After blindly walking circles around the center of the city, we split into two groups- those bound and determined to have a cabob and those up for round two at the sandwich shop. I was in the later. With second sandwich in hand a few of us went to piazza Signoria to chow down and sit in the sun.

Now for the best part of the day. We had our science and technology class with Giovanni again at the Museo Galileo. It was show and tell/ touch day. First he showed us some really old scientific devices/ models that did different things, like use electricity to play bells. Then the highlight- we got to flip through some of the first widely distributed books printed on a printing press. The oldest was a mathematic book from the 1500's. Another cool one was an astronomy book that had a working model of the astrological signs and how to read the skies. We put our grubby little hands all over them for sometime, while hoping we weren’t ruining them and that no one would get paper cut from the multi-century old books. What kind of infection would that be?

After class it was off to the Ponte Vecchio! Holy cow, it would take forever just to window shop all of that. Lots of sparkly jewelry everywhere and I happen to have major shiny syndrome. The view was absolutely beautiful, like something out of a fairytale. We sadly had to scurry away to catch the last train before dinner. After a train ride home and long walk up the hill, we had our delicious reward of home Italian cooking and vino.

# of Steps Left = Infinity

So Friday we travelled as a studio to Orvieto! First off, it's on top of a huge hilltop and in order to get there, you have to take one of those little cable trolleys...Or you could just scale the mountain. We opted for option one. We went up the trolley and met our tourguide, Mara, at the city gate. She first took us to an outlook at the edge of the city where we could see the valley below and the massive walls containing the city. She said it was build on tufu, or brittle volcanic rock that is crumbling. I hope not too fast!

Next we were taken to a well that was specifically created to supply water to the pope at the time, who fled to Orvieto while fighting for control over the region. The well's steps are arrange in a double helix with a central shaft that lets light shine in all the way to the bottom. The reason for the double helix was to keep the donkeys which went down to get the water from seeing other donkeys going to the opposite way, causing them to try to turn around. Number of steps? about a million. Not to mention the rise and run was made for donkeys, not people. It was pretty magical though, the helix has windows to the central shaft so light is always coming in and you can see how far down the well is. Actually, this might be my favorite sight so far. It's architecural...right? 

Next we saw some underground areas that were used mainly for food storage. And the biggest portion of this underground network? Pigeon breeding holes...apparently pigeon was a huge staple of people's diet back in the day because they were abundant and you didn't have to take care of them. Yum? Other than this interesting tidbit, we could have done without seeing this site.

Finally...To the Duomo! Orvieto's Duomo is absolutely amazing! The sides of the building are covered with green and white marble in horizontal stripes. (I kept thinking of Beetlejuice when I saw it). The facade is a masterpiece with tons of mosaics and carvings. This particular church was built to house the corporal that has Jesus' blood stained on it. In addition, there's also frescos of the last judgement in a room across from the corporal. The frescos had a ton of detail and color, and everyone was blond for some reason. Also, the artist put his ex-girlfriend who cheated on him in the paintings. First, we see her as a prostitute and then we find her in hell being ripped apart by demons. Since we're hearing this story hundreds of years after it happened, I have to say that painting her was probably the best revenge ever. Mad props to the artist who's name I don't remember... as always. The rest of the Cathedral was amazing as well. Tones of alabaster stone windows give a really warm glow to the interior, and the Beetlejuice stripes are inside too.

We concluded the day by getting pizza and gelato and sitting in the sun on a huge stairway to nowhere....and sketching. It was very collegiate of us.

Things I learned about Italy this trip-

There aren't guardrails anywhere- aka they want to you fall into the abyss/ test Darwinism. So far, no one has fallen into any wells or off any cliffs...so far.

There is graffiti EVERYWHERE- Including on the pillars of the beautiful Duomo. This begs the question- What the hell is wrong with people?!

We're going back to Florence tomorrow as a class to see their Duomo. Let the comparisons begin! Arrivederci!

Does it Come in Chocolate?

New firsts this week!-

First trip to Firenze (Florence) - On Wednesday we went on our first of 4 official field trips into Firenze. All 4 schools at Santa Chiara rushed to the buses chartered for our trip at 8am with juice boxes in hand (I had peach) and some weird breakfast pre-packaged pastery that tasted kinda like a twinkie. Our first stop on the tour was a beautiful Romanesque church named San Miniato which was located on a hilltop overlooking the city. Breathtaking view! The church itself was really dark inside with small, high windows that barely let any light in. The alter was also up really high and blocked by a short wall....apparently it was to separate the low class from the cleregy. How nice. Pretty much everything was green and white marble, and the windows varied from clear glass to stained glass and thin cut alabaster stone. Located in the back portion of the church was a crypt...some dead guys are buried here....i don't really know who or care. All the columns in this portion of the church were recycled from a previous church that had been torn down. Way to go green medevial town!

Next we made our way into town to Santa Croce- which was an Italian Gothic cathedral with a big star of David on the front. At this point...we're already getting a little tired of beautiful churches. It houses shrines to (and crypts of) a bunch of famous people... Galileo, Dante, Michelangelo so on and so forth. I get the feeling we'll visit a bunch more dead people before this semester is up.

Now the most important part of the day- LUNCH. We were all ushered into a little resturant on a side street where we took up almost all of the tables in the place. First was tortellini with what I think was a cream tomato crab sauce, then some meat (we actually aren't sure what it was, pork maybe?) and loads of vino rosso di casa. Then...class. Not a good choice after lunch and vino. Our science and technology class was held and the Museo di Galileo by our Italian professor Giovanni. He showed us some cool relics that mostly dealt with science and technology...and then sat us down to teach us something. Cue food coma. It was like highschool all over again. oops.

That was pretty much all for the field trip that day. The real fun came on Saturday when we went to the once a year CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL. It warrented all cap letters, that's how amazing it was. First, I should start with our train fiasco. A large group of KSU kids were traveling to florence Saturday morning so we gave ourselves about 15-20 minutes to buy train tickets. It wasn't enough. On the weekend there's no one at the ticket counter so you have to buy from one of the two kiosks. In front of us was the whole San Antonio's group and a bunch of other people...most of which who have never used the kiosk and don't know any Italian. This led to frantic button pushing...which led to a frozen machine and a bunch of KSU students unable to buy tickets in time for the train. So we waited about 90 minutes to get the next train (which was a 2 hour one with tons of stops, as opposed to the first one which was only an hour). During the wait, we went to an amazing pastery place near the station called "La Perla" where I had the most beautiful cappiccino ever made. Pictures were taken to capture its beauty. Finally, we made it on the train and were off to the Chocolate fest!

The piazza in front of Santa Croce was filled with chocolate vendors selling tons of goodies, and even giving a few samples out. I had a cabob of dark chocolate covered strawberries and some chocolate covered orange slices...rediculously amazing. There was also chocolate beer, rum, edible shot glasses (they were basically empty reeses shaped cups)....too many amazing things to list. We met up with some of the girls from Orvieto (shout out to Coop!) and basically shopped the day away! The Orvieto girls left in the afternoon so Kelsey, Cara and I did some people watching on the steps of Santa Croce. After we had been sitting there for awhile, a Medevial band in full costume started marching around the fair. While we were watching some intense flag flowing, Cara and I mused about how many distracted people were getting pick-pocketted at that moment.

Another thing about Firenze- Too many Asian tourists. Of course they all had their cameras out all the time. Cara took a picture of some groups taking pictures. It felt like there weren't many actual Italians in the city, so coming home to Castiglion F.No (as it's written on the train stop sign) is always refreshing.

And now- it's Packers Time! We're going to the Velvet Underground tonight to watch the Super Bowl. Should've brought my cheese head.....

Next post- Our trip to orvieto from Friday...

ps- there's no spell check on this blog thing and I'm usually typing as fast as possible while doing 50 other things before the internet crashes....this should be a sport. So sorry for the mistakes, i'm sure there's a million!