Only in Italy: Birthdays Galore, Ancient Ruins, and Chocolate All in One Week!!!

After my trip to Prague, I was ready for some relaxation, but first I had a week of birthdays and celebrations to attend! On Monday night after my classes, I met Shelby and her brother, Brandon, at Scholar's, an Irish pub in Rome. Scholar's has a pub quiz every other Monday night and we decided to participate. There were 10 rounds in the pub quiz and we were the first team to score a perfect 10 on one of the rounds, so our team won a free bottle of brandy. We ended up about 5th or 6th out of 15 teams, so I think we did pretty good. It was something different to try, and Shelby and I want our roommates and other friends to form a team for the next quiz.

Tuesday was my roommate Robin's birthday. Her boyfriend and his mom were also visiting Rome, so we all went out to dinner first to celebrate. After a little fiasco with the chicken parmesan I ordered, we were ready to go out to celebrate Robin's 21st birthday. We decided to first go to a chocolate bar. This fancy chocolate bar only serves shot glasses made out of chocolate!! I had a shot of mint Bailey's with whipped cream and sprinkles on top- it was the perfect dessert to my dinner. Then, we decided to go to the ice bar in Rome. It was near the Colosseum, and EVERYTHING in the bar was made out of ice! The bar, the seats, even the glasses! They gave us parkas, which were really just shawls with some insolation, and gloves, for a 15 euro cover charge. Luckily, it was open bar, so we could order whatever drink we wanted for free- normally, the drinks are up to 10 euro! We could only stay in there for about 1 hour though, before we started to freeze!!

My other roommate Liz's birthday was on Thursday, but she wanted to go out on Wednesday to celebrate. We started again at the chocolate bar and this time I tried a shot of coffee liquer. It was surprisingly good with the chocolate shot! On the day of her actual birthday, a small group of us went out dinner and it was another great birthday celebration. I'm still anticipating my 21st birthday and it's a month away!!

On Friday, I was finally able to get the relaxation I needed from my trip to Prague and busy week in Rome. I don't have classes on Friday, and so I slept in, left the apartment once to go grocery shopping and cooked dinner. I stayed in with my roommate Liz while Shelby and her brother went out to watch the Phillies game, since it was his last night in Rome.

I was excited for Saturday, even though it meant waking up early. We went to the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Pompeii is a city about three hours south of Rome traveling by bus. It is located near Mount Vesuvius, which is still an active volcano. The ancient city was originally built on volcanic ash, and so when the city suffered an earthquake, many buildings were destroyed. Soon after the earthquake, Mount Vesuvius became very active, and the volcanic ash and debri (not the volcanic lava) began "raining" down on the city. The people of Pompeii fled the city, but they thought the volcano was done being active and they wanted to return to get their belongings. Obviously, they all were buried in the volcanic ash and it wasn't until around 1750 when it was first excavated. The day trip was really interesting, and I learned a lot about the ancient history of the people who lived in Pompeii.

The trip to the chocolate festival was on Sunday, which meant getting up early again, but this time, it was waking up early for chocolate!!! I was even more excited to go to Perugia, another three hour train ride north of Rome, for the 2009 European Chocolate Festival. I was going with Lizz, Robin, her boyfriend, and his mom. At the festival, they were having chocolate sculptors, meaning that the chunks of chocolate that the scupltors scrape off the huge chocolate block would be given out to the audience watching. People were pushing and grabbing for the free bags of chocolate, but it was worth the wait! It was sooooo good. And then I tried some hot chocolate- it was just as delicious- it was really thick and chocolatey and of course hot, since the weather in Perugia was a little bit colder than Rome. In the sunshine, it was beautiful weather and I was almost afraid my chocolate was going to melt. To take a break from the crowded festival, my roommate, Lizz, and I snuck off to catch a glimpse of the city and countryside of Perugia. It was beautiful because we were in the Tuscany region, with the rolling hills and amazing landscape. We participated in some fun activities for a milk chocolate candy company called Milka, such as limbo, playing memory and getting our picture taken with a purple cow. I felt like a little kid in a candy store because each time we did one of the activities, they gave us a free mini-bar of chocolate. I was kind of disappointed they didn't have fountains flowing with chocolate like I imagined, but the free chocolate definitely made up for it. Now it was time to go back down the hill to the train station in Perugia to catch our train back to Rome. We arrived back in Rome at 8:30 PM and back to our apartment at around 9:30, just in time to start studying for midterms. :(

During midterm week, the ResGrads at AUR decided to have a workshop on massage therapy. Of course I was in, I love massages! Alex, one of the ResGrads, is actually a certified massage therapist, so he was able to show us the proper technique to focus on our shoulders, neck, head, arms and hands to relax the muscles and tension that builds up in these parts of the body. They provided us with some tea to start the night off right, and then we had almost 2 1/2 hours of giving and receiving massages. It felt great and was the best way to relax from the stress of midterm week! After our massages, we indulged in some delicious pizza. It was a great night to just de-stress and learn a thing or two about massages and relaxation techniques. Well, I need to get studying for my Italian midterm, but soon I will be leaving for Greece for my fall break. I cannot wait and am so excited to see some of the Greek islands and go to a toga party!! :) Until next time, ciao!

Prague, Czech Republic

WOW! Those are my words to describe this city. The only downside of going to this city in early October: it's fall there, so it's actually kinda cold (but I remembered to pack 2 coats for this trip!), as opposed to the gorgeous sunny 80s weather I'm still experiencing here in Rome. This was one of my favorite weekend trips so far!

Our trip started off in Rome; we had to take a train to Florence to catch the Bus2Alps bus that was departing from there. (We is my roommate, Shelby, and her brother, Brandon, who is visiting Rome for 10 days). So I actually was able to return to Florence, my favorite Tuscan city! We caught the bus at 8 PM, meaning we would be driving all night long and arriving in Prague on Friday morning. We drove through Austria and Germany to finally get to the Czech Republic. I actually was able to sleep through most of the night. We checked into our hostel, the Czech Inn, as soon as we stepped off the bus. It was an even nicer accomodation than the hostel in London. They provided us with towels as well as maps of the city and free breakfast!

Now we were ready for another walking tour, this time in a new city! The easiest form of public transportation to use in Prague is the tram and all weekend, we had to ride the tram for about 2 stops to get to our hostel or to get to the Town Center. Our tour guide, Isaac, was hilarious and made the tour really fun. First, he showed us this really pretty building, the Museum of Natural History, but he told us that it's must more interesting from the exterior and not to waste our time on boring museums. If you met him, you would really find him funny, I promise! Next, he took us to the Old Town Square, where the Astronomical Clock stands. The show that takes place on the hour at the Astronomical Clock is overrated. Here's a link to all the YouTube videos http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=astronomical+clock+prague&search_type=&aq=0&oq=astronomical+clock++ and you can experience the short show for yourselves. I think it's something the Czechs are proud of, though. From the Old Town Square, we walked to the Jewish Quarter, where there are obviously many synagogues. There is also a Holocaust Museum to commemorate all the Jewish Czechs who died in World War II. We Shelby and Brandon are both Jewish, and we wanted to return to the Jewish Quarter on Saturday to explore a little more. Next, we were moving towards the Vltava River (as I said before, almost every city I've visited so far has at least one river!), and a view of the Charles Bridge. We caught a glimpse of the Prague castle- I couldn't wait to get to that part of the tour. As we continued our walk, we saw a working water mill on the Kampa island inside the city. Next to the water mill is a lock bridge. Not a far walk from the lock bridge is a wall to commemorate John Lennon's death. After he died, two Czech teens decided to spray paint some lyrics about peace, love, and happiness, and even included the lyrics to "Imagine." Many people have contributed and the wall looks pretty cool today. From there, we walked up a big hill, passing one of Mozart's apartments when he lived and composed in Prague for a short period of his life. At the top of the hill is not only an amazing view of the city, but also the Prague castle! It is one of the biggest in the world, but it is a functioning castle- meaning the Czech government has its offices there, so you can't actually go inside to the rooms of the castle. Inside the castle walls is a basilica and lots of fountains and small squares. Outside the walls are men who stand guard with serious faces. I took my picture with one of them- I will be posting more pictures soon. Our tour ended at the castle and we made our way back down to the Old Town Square for some lunch. I decided to have traditional Czech food- some goulash, bread dumplings, and potato pancakes. I didn't know that potato pancakes was a Czech food- I actually thought it was a German food, but they were pretty good! The goulash is not the goulash I eat at home- at home to me, goulash is shells, meat sauce, and green peppers. In the Czech Republic, it's almost like pot roast in gravy and yes, surprisingly, even though I hate gravy, I ate it with the gravy on top! It was a really good meal for lunch. After lunch, I stopped at one of the shops in the Old Town Square to dish out my own candy- I bought so much, it lasted me until Sunday night! After lunch, we walked around a little bit, then went back to the hostel to freshen up before going out for the night. That night, we decided to participate in the Clock Tower bar crawl, which would take us to several bars all in one night. It was fun to experience a different night life atmosphere than the one in Rome, and I enjoyed dancing at the second place the most!

On Saturday, we indulged in the free breakfast at the hostel and took our time getting ready for the day. Our tour guide for Bus2Alps, Dan, was going to the zoo, but it was a cloudy day and none of us really wanted to see the zoo in Prague, although it's supposed to be one of the top 4 or 5 zoos in the world. We decided to go to the Holocaust Museum, only when we got there, we realized it was closed due to a Jewish holiday the next day. So we walked around the Jewish Quarter a little bit more and then decided to do some shopping! I finally gave in and bought some cute European clothes at two stores, New York and H & M. I was so glad I could finally find some clothes that I liked. :) Plus, they were a little less expensive than normal because the exchange rate to crowns is really good- it was 25 Czech crowns to one euro. I almost forgot to mention lunch on Saturday- I had a sausage and corn on the cob and some fried dough covered in sugar and roasted almonds. It was the best lunch ever!! I missed sausage and although it's not the same as venison sausage, it was a great substitute. After all our shopping, we went back to the hostel to drop off our bags and meet the group and our tour guide at the Beer Factory. This place is a restaurant and night club, but we went there for dinner. They have beer on tap actually at the tables, so you can pour your own beer. I knew my brother and dad would love that idea. Shelby and I decided to split a Greek salad for dinner and get onion soup as our appetizer. They brought us onion soup with cheese, but it was not the French onion soup we were expecting. It was still delicious and tasted so good because it was cold outside!! When they brought us our Greek salad, we were surprised as well- they didn't even put lettuce in the salad- it was just cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, onions, and dressing. There was a soccer match that night between the Czech Republic and Poland taking place in Prague, so we decided to lay low at the Beer Factory during the first half of the game. Then, we walked to an Irish pub in the Old Town Square to watch the second half. There was also a soccer match being played between Ireland and Italy, so of course lots of people in the pub were watching that game too. The Czechs won their game (1-0), but the other game between Ireland and Italy ended in a 2-2 tie.

On Sunday, we woke up earlier, as we had to catch the bus at 11 AM. It was a loooooooong bus ride back to Florence, but we were able to enjoy the beautiful autumn scenery and landscape of Germany and Austria, because on our trip to Prague, it was dark and we were sleeping as we passed through it. My favorite part of the bus ride was driving through the Alps- the views of the mountains are just breathtaking! The bus dropped us off at the train station in Florence and we had a 10-15 minute walk to our hostel. The accomodation for one-night was even nicer than the one in Prague- we had our own bathroom, which meant we didn't have to share a shower or wait in line for the toilet. They also had free Wi-Fi, which most other hostels have as well, but this time, I had my computer, so I could do some work before falling asleep. We were up bright and early again to catch our express train (1 1/2 hours) from Florence to Rome. We didn't return to our apartment until around 11:45 AM and it was back to reality. Time to catch the bus to go to class again! And right now, I'm on my way to my Italian class, so until next time, ciao!!! :)

My First Visitors!!

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I saw my first visitors to Rome! Gwen Dalphon, one of my tennis teammates at Robert Morris, and Kristen Miles, who also attended RMU and was a Freshman Mentor with me, have been backpacking through Europe over the last 1 1/2 months- and Rome was one of the stops on their list! They had arrived in Rome on Saturday when I was still in Capri, and they saw some of the tourist spots (the Roman Forum and the Colosseum) after they checked into their hostel. They even showed me how to navigate the subway system in Rome! Until they came to visit me, I had only taken the bus and the tram for public transportation. The A line is pretty nice, but the B line is really dirty and I wouldn't recommend anyone take it unless they absolutely needed to. Another note about the public transportation here in Rome: Gwen and Kristen have been to numerous European cities and they said this is the most disorganized, chaotic and unreliable public transportation. Great, wish I had known that before I decided to study in Rome. But if that's the only downside to living in Rome, I'll guess I will just suck it up and sometimes wait 30 minutes or so for the bus or tram. Oh, I almost forgot to mention this too: on most public transportation in Europe, they allow pets. I usually don't see people with cats, but there is always a dog on the bus or tram. And Italians don't really keep their dogs on leashes; and, surprisingly, the dogs obey their masters and don't misbehave. There's usually dog droppings on the sidewalks, though, so I always have to watch where I'm walking!

OK, so back to my visitors. I met them at the Arch of Constantine by the Colosseum on Sunday because that's a good meeting spot for people who don't really know the city. We walked from there to the Capitoline Museum, where there are many famous sculptures and artwork. There are many frescoes there, and the massive statue of the emperor Constantine. They only have recovered a huge foot, his head, parts of his hand and parts of his arm with muscular features. There is also a bronze sculpture of the She-Wolf with Romulus and Remus, a statue of Hercules, and a famous bronze sculpture of Marcus Aurelius. From there, we could walk to the Pantheon, which is one of the best preserved ancient buildings in Rome. It was originally a temple and was converted into a church. We went inside and then decided to walk to the Trevi Fountain to throw in a coin for good luck and a return to Rome (and the fountain) someday. We walked back towards the Pantheon, where Robin and Shelby were going to meet us for dinner. I was taking Gwen and Kristen to a small family restaurant where the three of us (along with about 25 other AUR students!) had eaten dinner before. The food was so good I wanted to return. The first time I ate there, I had fresh pasta with bolognese (meat) sauce. This time, I tried the lasagna and it was sooooooo delicious. It didn't have lots of meat in it, definitely more cheese and sauce, but the noodles were so soft and I might go back and order the lasagna again if I have the chance. After dinner, we went back to my apartment so the girls could put up their feet and just relax.

While I went to class all day on Monday, the girls relaxed at my apartment. We re-energized their bodies for Tuesday by cooking dinner and drinking some wine at my place. Then, I decided to take them to the Steeler's bar, La Botticella, where a RMU banner hangs! We had our picture taken underneath the banner and the girls met Giovanni, the owner of the bar. On Tuesday morning, I had to meet for a group project in the center of the city, so the girls met me there after my meeting. After dealing with the transportation system yet again, we finally made our way to the Vatican City- we used the subway system, by the way. As we were exiting the Metro, we were bombarded with deals for tours of the Vatican. We decided to take one for 40 euro, which would show us around the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel, which had many important pieces of artwork by Michelangelo and Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci. After about a three and a half hour tour, we finally made our way in the Sistine Chapel, and we weren't even allowed to take pictures inside the chapel! We were also to remain silent and the ceiling painted by Michelangelo was not what I had imagined it to be. For those of you from St. Marys, I pictured it to be a more elaborate ceiling painted like Saint Mary's Church, but it's nothing like that. And since I couldn't take pictures, it's kind of hard to explain. It is amazing that he was able to paint such beautiful artwork on the ceiling! I had to hurry off to my Italian class, so I didn't make it to see St. Peter's Basilica. On the way to my bus stop, I did have some time to walk through St. Peter's Square, with the obelisk in the middle. Vatican Citywas pretty busy on Tuesday because the Pope was having a Papal Audience the next day, which I was unable to attend because of a presentation for my art class. I will return to the Vatican a couple more times, as I want to climb the dome of the basilica, am required to go there for my Art of Rome class, and want to attend the Papal Audience in November. Hopefully next time I won't feel so rushed and won't be so tired from the long walking tour and I'll be able to explore on my own.

Tuesday night, we met up with my friend, Megan and all of her roommates and other friends for her 22nd birthday. Megan really wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe in Rome for a good, American-style cheeseburger. This was another adventure, as the restaurant is tucked back in a corner of Rome. Several people gave us directions beforehand and we still got lost going there. But, we finally made it to the restaurant at around 10:30. We ordered nachos as an appetizer and it came with salsa and cheese and lots of guacomole and it was so good to have some Mexican food, finally! I think I was going through withdrawal. I still miss my Chipotle, but I decided to order a cheeseburger and French fries and they were pretty good. Sorry if I'm making you hungry by reading this, but food is something I always look forward to and the Italians sure know how to enjoy their meals!!

Wednesday was the day of my art class group presentation and so I had to wake up early to be on site and prepared by 9 AM. The girls also woke up early- they decided to go to a fishing/beach town that was about an hour train ride from Rome. It was a gorgeous day and they definitely enjoyed the sunshine while my group and I breezed through our presentation on mosaics in a church. When I got back to my apartment from class that night, they arrived a few hours later and we enjoyed just sitting around, chillaxing and talking. On Thursday morning, it was already time for them to leave! They were leaving for Florence and I went to the train station with them (long story short, I needed a couple express train tickets to Florence so that I could still go on my trip to Prague). We said our good-byes at Termini Stazione (the BIG train station in Roma), and I was so glad that Gwen and Kristen were my first visitors to Rome!!! :)

The Island of Capri

After my busy week at school with extracurricular activities and work from my classes, I was ready for more traveling. This weekend, my destination was Capri. All my roommates except Lizz were going on the trip, and I was just excited to see this beautiful island that everyone keeps telling me about. We had to be up even earlier than the Tuscany trip- we met at school at 6 AM this time, instead of 7 AM, meaning we had to catch the bus from our apartment by 5:30 AM. I'm still working on becoming a better morning person, but I definitely needed to go back to sleep once we boarded the bus to Naples. You're probably wondering why I was getting on a bus to Naples, but we had to take the ferry from there to reach the island. It's about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Rome to Naples, so I was all ready to go once we arrived in "Napoli," known for pizza and coffee. Since it was 9:45 AM, we decided to try out the coffee. We went to a coffee bar not far from our meeting point and I ordered caffe freddo (coffee with ice) along with a cornetto (crescent). It was not as good as I had expected, but Robin, my roommate, ordered a cappuccino and she said it was the best coffee she's had in Italy so far. Now it was time to board the ferry. My stomach had already been bothering me that morning, and the weather was not all that great. The water was kind of choppy and so the boat was rocky. I was NOT looking forward to my first ferry ride. I decided to just lay down and try to take another nap to get my mind off becoming sea sick. Somehow, I survived and made my way slowly off the boat. It was still an overcast sky and the water was rough, meaning we couldn't take a boat ride that day or do anything involved with the water.

We checked into the Hotel San Michele. Our view of the island was awesome. Even with the cloudy sky, we could see the blue water and the rocky beaches. The island itself is so beautiful because of all the rock formations with the green terrain. It's a different form of paradise than I'm used to envisioning, but I would definitely call it paradise. The water is so clear, but at some places it's so deep that the color looks purple. From the island, you can see three different cities: Pompeii, Sorrento, and Naples. After checking in, we decided to go to Anacapri, which is not the top of the island, but closer to the middle of the island. We ate lunch there, and I had ordered fish because we were on an island! It was OK, not the best I've ever had, but now I had some energy to walk around and shop! There were lots of shops there, selling limoncello, a licquor native to Italy, but especially Capri because lemons naturally grow here; they also had souvenir shops, places where they would make personalized sandals, and much more. We walked around the shops and decided to ride the chair lift all the way to the top of the island for some awesome views. The ride up was a little bit scary, but I survived. It was like a ski lift, but it was only for one person. After that, we decided to take a bus down to Capri, towards the bottom of the island. There were more shops down there, which were definitely more expensive designer stores like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and even Swarovski. Because we were so cold from our lift ride and the chilly, dreary weather, we decided to get some hot chocolate and pastries. This was my first hot chocolate in Italy, and it tasted so good! We relaxed at the hotel before eating dinner there. I kept wishing that the weather would be nicer on Saturday.

Well, Saturday came and my wish came true! It was a gorgeous morning as we ate breakfast at the hotel with the awesome view of the island. Our AUR chaperones, Stefano and Kathy, decided to pay for everyone to take the chair lift to the top of the island. Even though the ride wasn't that fun, I was ready to see the view from the top of the island without fog and too many clouds distorting my view. And it was absolutely amazing!!! I can't even describe how the rocky island looks from atop. The water looks so blue and you are able to see the three cities clearer. I was not ready to leave the island; I was ready to explore some more!

So explore we did! After the chair lift ride and taking lots and lots of pictures, we rode a bus down to the port. It was another windy road and made me a little nauseous. Thanks to Shelby for always having a portable pharmacy with her- I was able to take some TUMS before we got on a boat. Everybody that's been to Capri says that you have to go see the Blue Grotto. Well, they weren't taking any boats to that Grotto because the water was just a little bit too rough. But it was safe enough to take a boat around the island and to any of the other grottoes. So Robin, Shelby, and I had taken the bus with some other AUR students and they wanted to take a boat ride as well. For 12 euro each, a man took us out on his boat and let us relax while we saw the island. We didn't ride all the way around the island, but we saw the place where Odysseus was probably seduced by the music of the Sirens (from Homer's The Odyssey). We saw the White Grotto and the Green Grotto and there was lots of coral near the grottoes. There were so many caves along the coast of island. Our boat driver even anchored the boat for about 20 minutes to let us jump off and swim in the beautiful water. I could see my feet in the water as I was swimming- it was that clear!!! It was so blue and really salty and a little bit cold, but it was so worth it. I wished that I could swim near the Green Grotto and dry out on the boat every day. This trip was definitely more of a vacation than a field trip. The boat tour lasted about 2 to 2 1/2 hours and the waves started to get choppy as we ventured back to the port. Good thing I took my TUMS so I didn't get sea sick. After drinking some lemonade (so good in Capri because of the fresh lemons) and eating a delicious pizza and some really good peach gelato for dessert, we rode the bus back to our hotel to grab our bags. I wanted to buy some limoncello before leaving the island, so we did that before taking the bus back down to port to catch the ferry. I decided right from the beginning just to lay my head down to avoid getting seasick; and it worked! I snuck a little half hour nap in before getting on the bus to go back to Rome. There was a lot of traffic and the trip seemed to take longer than 3 1/2 hours. I had such a relaxing day that the traveling was not going to bother me one bit- and the next day I would be seeing Gwen and Kristen, my friends from Robert Morris who are backpacking through Europe and are stopping to visit me in Rome!

The Bustling City of Roma

Even though I've been traveling so much on the weekends, I continue to stay busy during the week. Everyone knows that I love to be busy, busy, busy all the time. Well, just because I'm living in another country doesn't mean that's changed. I signed up to be a part of the AUR Business Club as well as the Culture Club on campus and the International Relations Club. During the week of September 28-October 1, I was involved in activities with two of those clubs.

On Tuesday, September 29, I volunteered to help with the merchandise sale for the Business Club. This is the club's main fundraiser and we sell AUR t-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and other clothing. To encourage involvement in the club, they hosted an aperitivo, which I have already described, but in case anyone forgot, it's just basically finger food and drinks and enjoying everyone's company. Many people use this as a substitute for a meal once a week, because you can eat so many appetizers you will feel as if you've eaten a meal. Aperitivos are fun events and it was nice to mingle and meet other business students. Most of them were resident students, meaning that they attend AUR to obtain a 4-year degree. The other business students were study abroad students just like me. It was a fun night with free food and drinks and socializing! :)

That Thursday, October 1, Shelby and I went out to dinner with IR Club to a restaurant called the Thai Inn. I had never tried Thai food before but I've wanted to for a while. They fed us lots of appetizers and brought out so many dishes. They even brought out a dish of squid and pineapple, but I didn't try it. There were 30 students from AUR that came to dinner. Shelby and I agreed that we need to come back to this restaurant with our roommates and friends to share this good Asian cuisine with them. I'm looking forward to more cultural experiences with the AUR clubs.

Under the Tuscan Sun

So I had survived a trip to London, my first opera experience, and now I was about to embark on a different adventure: traveling to the region of Tuscany. Tuscany is known for its wine, beautiful rolling landscape with rolling hills, cloudless blue sky, and too many vineyards to count. This is what many people think of when someone tells them about the countryside of Italy. Don't get me wrong, the city of Rome has a certain charm about it- I'm not sure if it's the graffiti or the people or the delicious food, but I was excited to explore my way around a different part of Italy.

I booked this trip through AUR, so we had to meet at the school on Friday, September 25 at 7 AM! That meant being at the bus stop by 6:15 to be sure we caught our bus to Pisa. I slept most of the way to Pisa- yes, like the Leaning Tower! It was about a four hour bus ride there, with one or two stops to re-energize. When we got off the bus in Pisa, we were bombarded with salesmen trying to sell us anything from necklaces to purses to watches to sunglasses to umbrellas. It reminded me of the street vendors in New York who want you to buy their Rolexes, only you know they're not real Rolexes. Same idea here. Next, AUR had arranged a walking tour of Pisa with a tour guide, so we did lots of walking and saw the outside of the baptistry, basilica, and the famous Leaning Tower! I learned the Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, and from my opera class, I knew that Galileo's father was a composer who helped write the first rules for opera. After the tour, we grabbed some lunch, and then decided we wanted to attempt to get our pictures next to the Tower, pushing it away or leaning against it. Our attempts for all our pictures was pretty hilarious- I think we might have spent almost an hour taking pictures of the six of us- it was me, my roommate Shelby, my friend Megan and her roommates, Katie, Liz, and Melanie. Then, we found out that there were no more tickets left to climb up to the top of the Tower, so we decided to see the basilica and the baptistry. Both were really pretty buildings with lots of beautiful artwork. However, I unfortunately didn't realize that we would be going into a church, otherwise I would have worn a shirt that covered my shoulders. Melanie, Katie and I all had to wear this ridiculous paper robes to make sure that our shoulders were covered. If you look on my Facebook pictures, Katie posted a picture of the 3 of us in the robes. Pisa is a pretty small town, though. It was nice for a day trip, but we were all excited for what was to come on Saturday- Florence! We enjoyed dinner at the hotel and explored the night life near our hotel.

Saturday, September 26- I've finally arrived in Florence. My friend from this summer, Leilani, had studied abroad here and told me it's one of the most beautiful places she's ever been. Well, she's right! There is so much to see and do in Florence and so little time! After breakfast at the hotel, AUR arranged for another walking tour of Florence, which ended at noon. On the tour, we saw a copy of the famous David statue sculpted by Michelangelo. We also saw the gorgeous city hall of Florence, lots of fountains, the guilded bronze (looks like gold) doors of the baptistry, and the outside view of the enormous cathedral. Our tour guide also pointed out the best gelato place in Rome, but more on that later. They gave us much more free time in Florence, and the girls and I were ready to go the leather market and shop til we dropped! At the leather market, I decided on a jacket. But then, of course, I saw a purse I liked just as much, so I couldn't resist and bought both! I also purchased lots of Christmas presents and I can't wait to come back to the States and give them to my family and friends. :) We ate lunch near the market and I had a ham and pineapple pizza that was actually good, even though it doesn't sound all that appetizing. After everyone was mostly done with their shopping, we decided to climb to the top of the duomo (the dome of the cathedral). Liz, one of Megan's roommates, wasn't feeling all that well, so she graciously watched our shopping bags while we climbed the 463 steps to the top!!! As we were out of breath and struggling to make it to the top of the dome, we realized the view was totally worth all that hard work on our bodies. Florence is a beautiful city with the view from above. Many people have told me that I need to climb to the top of the dome in St. Peter's to see the view from Rome, but I can't even imagine that it could be more breath-taking than this view. We snapped lots of pictures before making the climb back down to the ground. It was time for some gelato at the place where our tour guide suggested. The name of the place is "Perche no?", which means "Why not?" And after eating my strawberry and lemon gelato, I kept asking myself, Why not come back to Florence for this delicious dessert every day? That would be a dream come true. We didn't make it down to the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), where Megan said there's an amazing view to take some good pictures, but I was happy that I had my leather jacket and purse and got to see that great view of the city. We also didn't get to see the original statue of David, which can be found in the Academia in Florence. There were many art museums in Florence, and from my opera class, I knew that opera had been invented in Florence, so there were many music museums as well as theaters. After going back to our hotel for dinner again, we decided to go back to the same bar and just relax while having a couple glasses of wine.

Sunday, September 27 meant Trequanda! Those of you who have been to Italy before might not even know what I'm talking about. Trequanda is a really small old medieval town in the region of Tuscany. But to the members of our traveling group, it meant a day of wine tasting. We had breakfast at the hotel again and checked out by 8 AM. "Fattoria del Colle" was the name of the place where we would be having our wine tasting. In addition to a vineyard, it's also a resort with multiple swimming pools, an amazing view of the Tuscan landscape, a walking path through a small forest and a restaurant with delicious food. They showed us how they make their wine and then gave us a cooking lesson! I even got to roll my very own pasta- and I wasn't too bad, if I don't say so myself. LOL After telling us all about the wine and food culture of Italy, they finally decided to give us a taste. We tasted 4 different kinds of wine before they let us try the food. There were soooooo many courses- a meat and cheese platter as the antipasto, freshly made pasta with Bolognese (meat) sauce for the first course, second course was chicken and potatoes and green beans with lots of flavor, and dessert was a berry tart. It was the best meal I've had in Italy so far! And of course, they kept filling our glasses with lots of wine, since it was a wine tasting. There were plenty of photo ops and it was so nice to relax "under the Tuscan sun" by the pool on the property. It was a relaxing day after all the traveling to Pisa and Florence. I was glad to be back in my apartment in Rome, though. Traveling is worth it because you see so many new and exciting places, but sometimes it's exhausting and you just need somewhere to come home.

Il viaggio a Reims

You're probably all wondering, what does the title of this post even mean? Well, it means the Journey to Reims (which is in France) and it's the title of the opera performance by the Italian composer Rossini that I attended on Wednesday, September 23 for my opera class (just to give you a timeframe). The day before, I went to AUR to present my information to the police for my Permit to Stay. Basically, this just means that I'm legally allowed to be in Italy since I applied for my Permit to Stay. So I'm all safe and sound and accounted for in Italy, Mom and Dad!!

Anyways, back to the opera, my professor and classmates and I had quite a trip getting to the theater for the performance. We made it safely to Termini Station (a major train and bus station in Rome), but because of construction and normal Roman transportation delays, we had to jump in taxis to reach the theater. We weren't even on time to the show- we missed about the first 20 minutes of the opera, but we had already watched some of the opera as a DVD performance in class the week before, so we didn't miss too much. My first opera experience was interesting, to say the least. It's so different from the musical performances I've seen in the States, but without opera being invented during the Renaissance period, musicals never would have been invented. By learning in the classroom about the techniques of opera singers and the history of opera and different composers, opera is starting to grow on me. We spend about half of each class (I only have the class once a week, for 3 hours!), watching DVD performances or listening to arias (songs in an opera) of operas. I think I might have to go to New York City and get tickets to the Met (after I graduate college and can afford nice seats, of course- LOL).

London Bridge Is Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down

Andy and I were ready to see more of London on Saturday morning. Our hostel accommodations were great- I didn't have to wait in line for the shower or bathroom and they served us free breakfast with cereal, toast, juice, coffee, or English tea (of course!). Our first mission was to make sure that we had a ticket to the bus shuttle that would take us back to the airport on Sunday. That mission was easily completed!

Now, it was time to sightsee. Our first stop: Buckingham Palace. As my cousin, Craig, who actually studied at Oxford through an exchange program with St. Bonaventure University, suggested, we took the Tube mostly everywhere. The closest stop to the Queen's house is St. James park, a beautiful, beautiful park where lots of people were enjoying the outdoors, eating picnics, or just walking their dogs. In the park, there's lots of little ponds and gardens and green grass and tons of colorful flowers. Even though autumn was just starting in England, everything was still green and blooming. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get very close to the palace and we didn't witness the Changing of the Guard, but it was still pretty cool to know that this huge palace was where the kings and queens of England lived. The Queen was at home, so we were unable to take a tour.

Our next stop was Winston Churchill's War Room Cabinets, which was really interesting. Even though I'm not a history buff, I really enjoyed this museum. This was actually where Winston Churchill's office was housed during World War II. It was in a basement to protect the leaders from German air raids. Churchill and his wife along with other Cabinet members had furnished bedrooms, but rarely slept in the War Rooms. They had a fully functioning kitchen in the basement and there were different rooms for secretaries, meetings, and even a telephone room where Churchill frequently called U.S. President Roosevelt.

Third stop: Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. We didn't go inside any of these places, just took pictures outside. Also, on the way to our third stop, I couldn't resist getting my picture inside a telephone booth. The Westminster Abbey was undergoing restoration or something, so we couldn't go inside, and it cost too much money to see the Parliament. The exterior of the Parliament was so different from the Senate and House buildings in DC that I was used to this summer. The architecture is amazing and beautiful on these Gothic style buildings. We crossed the River Thames just as a cycling race was going on and took some awesome pictures of the view of London from yet another bridge, can't remember the name of that one. After a hot dog and Fanta from a street food vendor, we bought our tickets to the London Eye, the famous ferris wheel in London. It has an amazing view of the city and there was a 4D show before we rode to the top of the ride. I can't even describe the view- it was so breathtaking! The ride took 20 minutes total and we waited in line for about 20 minutes, so not too bad, I guess. From the London Eye, we took several small detours until we decided to walk along the river to the Tate Museum of Modern Art. Walking along the river gave us more beautiful views of London. The exhibits at the art museum were kind of interesting, but nothing really stood out in my mind. Next door was the Globe Theatre, but they had a performance that night, so they couldn't give us a tour. We decided we would return the next morning for a tour because I loved studying Shakespeare in high school.

From there, we crossed the Millennium Footbridge, which was a pedestrian-only steel suspension bridge over the River Thames that opened in the year 2000. On the other side of the bridge is St. Paul's Cathedral. Before we went to the church, we decided to eat some fish and chips. It was an average meal, nothing special, but I knew I couldn't visit London without eating the meal. We didn't go inside St. Paul's, just walked around it and took lots of pictures, then decided to go to Trafalgar Square. It is a beautiful square and reminded me of my favorite piazza in Rome, Piazza Navona. It has lots of fountains and the National Art Gallery is located on one side of the square. That night, there was a life-size chess game taking place in the square. Just our luck, it started to rain as soon as we arrived. It was just drizzling at first, but then it started to POUR! Here was my first rain in London and we retreated to the Tube and traveled back to our hostel. We enjoyed a couple drinks at the pub right below our hostel, where we got a 10% discount. :)

On Sunday, we woke up and ate another free breakfast at the hostel. We checked out of the hostel but were able to leave our bags in a locked luggage room. We took a bus right down the street to the Globe Theatre for an official tour of Shakespeare's theatre. Unfortunately, I was surprised to find out that the Globe Theatre standing today is not where the original theatre stood, but I guess you have to work with what you have. It was another interesting tour and the theatre was a little chilly because- you guessed it!- it's an outdoor theatre just like it would have been in the times of Shakespeare.

After waking up to Shakespeare, we took a bus to the Tower Bridge, the most famous bridge in London. Once I post the pictures, you will all recognize the bridge. I had the opportunity to walk at the top of the bridge for one last view of the city. The Tower Bridge is still an actual working draw bridge that can stop the automobile traffic and allow large ships to pass while the bridge is drawn. I can't remember what year it happened, but a red double-decker public transportation bus hadn't stopped before the draw bridge started separating and so it had to jump the gap over the water! Everyone survived (there were no serious injuries) and now it is an infamous depiction in souvenirs.

Stops we missed in London: the British Museum, Abbey Road, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, and Leicester Square. I will have to come back. I'm thinking at tour of the UK may be in the plans, which also includes Ireland and Scotland.

The flight from London back to Rome wasn't that bad. I had a window seat again and slept most of the airplane ride. We decided to take a shuttle bus directly from the airport to a bus stop in center of Rome- so we cut out the train step, but it still felt like it took forever to reach our apartment in Rome. Luckily, I didn't buy too much in London, so my backpack wasn't too much of a burden on the 1 1/2 journey from the Ciampino airport in Rome to my apartment.