After seeing the frescoes, we visited two other churches, one of which held another partially destroyed fresco by Piero, and the other which held one of Cimabue’s crucifixes.  Now, that may mean nothing to you, but after spending the larger part of first semester learning about Cimabue and his influences on Giotto, this discovery was quite exciting for us.  What amazed me was that this world famous cross was located in a small Dominican church, unguarded by anything.  There was no one in the church watching it, and there were no cameras, in case something were to happen.  This would never happen in America.  It goes to show how much Italians respect their art.

Once we had taken in as much Mariotti as we could for the morning, we split off and were able to carry on with the rest of our day.  Most students headed back, however, me and a small group stayed with Professor Schank and Carol(his wife), and headed to Sansepolcro, another small town in Italy.  Sansepolcro is the hometown to Piero della Francesca.  While here, we went to a museum that housed more works by Piero.  It was awesome being there with Schank, and having him explain to us the history surrounding the works of art.  We surprised him with our knowledge of art history as well, recognizing the flag in the fresco as Florentine.  As we were walking through the arch into the other room, an alarm went off.  We were later told that the alarm went off because one of the guys we were with is 6’6″ and his height set the alarm off.  Yay for giant Americans! haha  We went into this room upstairs that showed the under layer of frescoes, the area where the artists draws the picture he is going to paint.

We had to hurry back in order to catch the bus, to get on the train, that would get us home in time for dinner.  It turned out Schank had misread the times, so we had another hour to wait before the bus got there, and we were going to miss dinner.  To waste the time, we played hangman.  Schank had called Helen, and arranged for us to be able to get dinner when we got back.  On the bus, there were a lot of middle school Italians yelling inappropriate things in English, and I had mentioned how I wish I had my i-pod, so Schank let me use his i-pod.  For the next three hours I zoned out to The Beatles.  When we got back, just a half hour dinner had started, they brought out the food they had put aside for us.  French fries and Sausage!!! It would have been a bummer to miss out on that one.

Saturday we were planning on going to San Gimignano, however, when we returned to the Villa and looked up times for the bus, the bus left at 7:10 AM or 1:40 PM.  We decided that the 7:10 AM was too early, and the 1:40 PM was too late.  Instead, we stayed in Florence.  It has been a long time since I’ve spent more than a morning in Florence, and it felt so good.

When you are constantly walking with the intention of going somewhere, it is easy to pass things by.  So, when we headed into Florence, we went with an open mind.  Our first destination was the Accademia.  Florence is starting to fill up with tourists…not just tourists, but all of the groups studying abroad in Florence have officially arrived, and English can be heard pretty commonly as you walk the streets, which is a disappointment.  It’s funny how possessive we get over the city after only being here 2 weeks before the other groups started arriving.  So…we headed to the Accademia, in order to see the David.  As the city gets more populated, it’s harder to get in places.  In order to try to beat the crowds, we decided it was about time we saw the David.  We took our time perusing the art that was in the the Accademia, and then spent a good amount of time just staring at the David.  It is a very impressive sculpture!

After we went through the Accademia, we grabbed lunch, and then headed to the market.  We spent a while searching through the market, looking for souvaniers and other goodies.  Then, we decided to go back to the church where we started our first expedition through Florence.  Tons of stairs later, we stood at the top of San Miniato, where we were graced with some of the most beautiful views of the city.  We sat down on a bench, enjoyed the sun on our faces and talked.  It was one of those moments where I looked around me and was extremely grateful for where I was, and who I was with.  I’ve met some pretty amazing people here, and being able to go through these experiences with them has made this experience more than I could have ever hoped for.

We headed back into town, and decided to spend some time in the Uffizi.  Usually we get in free with our museum passes, but Saturday, we got in free because it was International Women’s Day.  Sometimes being a girl really does pay off;)  We made our way through the Uffizi, starting on the opposite end of where we have gone in class.  Taking our time, we discussed the paintings, the things we liked/didn’t like, the things we knew and could share to offer insight.  We did our best to take advantage of the situation we have been given here.

We left the Uffizi as it was closing down, and randomly walked the streets of Florence until we came across a cute ristorante with a fairly priced menu.  Following dinner, we headed to the best gelato in town, GROM.  After eating some delicious gelato, we headed back for the bus.

After brunch Sunday morning, I headed into Florence with my eurorail pass to book my seat on our upcoming journey to Naples/Pompei/Sorrento.  Once the ticket was booked, I went with my roommate Meagan into town to help her find a pair of jeggings.  The day before, we had walked past this shoe store, and fallen in love with this pair of shoes.  We decided we might as well go in and try them on.  After we had both tried on multiple pairs of shoes, we were in love with the ones we saw in the window, and we both ended up leaving the store with them.  I left with two pairs:S  We continued on our journey through Florence in search of jeggings.  At the end of the day, no jeggings were found, but I had bought a sweater, and we had both purchased Firenze sweatshirts.  Having gone into Florence to accompany my roommate, I had returned with equal amount of bags.

That night we cuddled up on my bed to watch The Hangover.  I also booked my flight to Barcelona!:)

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting Dava Sobel.  She is a New York Time’s Best-Selling Author for two of her books: Longitude, and Galileo’s Daughter.  My professor invited her to talk about her book Galileo’s Daughter, and then later, she held a session where we discussed the process of getting published.  It was a very awesome experience, especially since I would like to write a book, maybe.  Some day.

Fast forward to Thursday 3:50 PM.  I was anxious and nervous.  I headed down to the front door to wait for my language partner…30 minutes later, she still hasn’t shown up.  I decided to give her 10 more minutes, and when she is still a no show I headed back upstairs to check my e-mail to make sure I had the right date.  I open the e-mail, see that it says 4:30 PM, not 4.  Look at the clock, it now says 4:35.  I quickly exit my e-mail and run down the stairs with enough time to see Rosita walking towards the long table room with my Conversation Partner.

Her name is Valeria.  She is originally from Lecce which is in the Puglia region of Italy (AKA Southern Italy, in the heel of the boot).  She is an only child.  She goes to the University of Florence, and her major is similar to mine, but where as mine is International Studies, hers is more focused on European Studies.  She came to Florence because her cousin went to school here and recommended it.  She has a boyfriend.  She doesn’t currently have a job because it is hard to find part-time work as a student in Italy.  We discussed my family as well, and what I do at school, as well as at work, and here, at the Villa.  She asked where I have been in Italy, and I asked her for suggestions on where to go, and if she has traveled often.

All of this was completed in about 30 minutes in English and 30 minutes in Italian.  She has an electronic dictionary, so if she wanted to say something she couldn’t express in English, she would look it up, and if I wanted to tell her something in Italian that I couldn’t express, I entered it for her in the translator.

After we had finished our discussion, I took her on a tour of the Villa gardens.  We made plans to meet again and then said our good byes.

Yesterday, I realized that I’m leaving for Naples Thursday morning, and our meetings are in the afternoon, so I texted her, she texted me back and we will be meeting next on March 25.

There was no meter, and we knew right away we were going to get screwed over on the price, but at this point, we just wanted to make it to the hostel.  Barely ten minutes later, the taxi pulled up in front of a building, that was in no way marked as the hostel, and we handed over the 20 euro.  We buzzed the door and a few moments later were greeted by the hostel owner: Gianni.  Gianni graciously gave us informational brochures on things to do in the area, and a tour of the hostel.  We were staying on the third floor, and we were the only guests that night.  If you don’t like stairs, you shouldn’t go to Italy.  They are EVERYWHERE.  We tossed our stuff into the room, and immediately headed out to find food.  It was just past 4 and we had been on buses all day (the only thing I had eaten was a bag of tomato flavored potato chips that tasted like ketchup.  It probably sounds wierd, but it was SO good!).  We took the route Gianni had suggested led to the water.  As we turned the last corner, the water poured out in front of us.  Boats covered the beach to the right, and to the left, the beach opened, following the water into the distance.  Wanting to grab a bite to eat, we took a left and headed along what I considered the boardwalk.  The boardwalk covered a good two miles and ran parallel to the beach and the coast.  We got about half way up the boardwalk and had yet to come across a place that was open.  Discouraged, we turned back around and decided to head to the other side.  Walking along the other way, we passed small groups of men fishing.

Finally on the right side, we saw a place that looked open.  We walked in and were immediately greeted by an older couple.  We asked if they were serving dinner, and they replied not until 6.  We had another hour to kill.  We continued to walk around the water and sat on the edge.  Giardini Naxos is the most beautiful place I have been in Italy yet, scenery-wise.  From where we were sitting, we could stare off into the water in the distance.  The water was the bluest water I have ever seen.  The shoreline was speckled with black volcanic rock that added a harsh contrast to the crystal clear water.  Looking up to the left, we could see Taormina sitting on the hill, sparkling in the sunset.

We counted down as the time reached six, and headed straight to the restaurant.  We devoured our food.  Once we had paid our bill, we headed back to the hostel, not wanting to walk around at night when we didn’t know where we were.  When we got back to the hostel, we discovered there were movies in the common room, and for the first time in a long time, we snuggled into some chairs and watched a movie.

The next day we got up, put our swim suits on, and headed to the terrace.  The hostel had a huge terrace with beach chairs available.  We laid out our chairs, put our i-pods on, and enjoyed the sun that is so often hidden behind clouds and rain in Florence.  After a few hours, we packed up our beach chairs, and walked to the grocery store.  The hostel had a kitchen, so we decide we’d cook our meals to save on money.  We perused the aisles at the grocery store, creating our meal plan for the night, as well as some wine.  After returning to the hostel, we made sandwiches, and then decided to head down to the water.  I spent the afternoon wading in the water along the beach as well as collecting sea shells.  After we had walked the entirety of the beach, we brushed the sand off our feet and walked the boardwalk.  The boardwalk was full of cute restaurants and shops that weren’t open.  Traveling during the off season is both frustrating and liberating at the same time.  We had wanted to climb Mount Etna, but trails don’t open until April.  It would have been cool to walk the boardwalk with a more lively environment where things would actually be open, at the same time, I enjoyed the tranquility that comes with the off season.  It was the perfect culmination to the trip.  While walking the boardwalk, we got gelato at one of the few open shops.  As we were completing the boardwalk, the sun began to set, and we decided to head back to start our dinner.

Meagan was head chef, we had pasta with peppers, onions, and tomato sauce.  It’s the first time we had to prepare a meal since arriving here.  Once we finished cooking, we headed upstairs to eat our meal on the terrace.  From the terrace, you can see both the city, and the sea.  To culminate our night, we once again watched a movie.

Our last day in Sicily, we decided to visit Taormina, the town we originally thought we were staying in.  We once again took a bus up the hill.  Once we reached the top, we walked out to this look out spot which gave beautiful views of both Giardini Naxos to the right, Mount Etna, and the sea below Taormina.  We turned to walk back towards town, and found ourselves in the perfect position to view a soccer game warming up below.  Climbing up yet more stairs, we came across these pods that took you down to the coast below.  I set aside my fear of heights, and climbed in.

Once we reached the cost, we noticed this large rock in the distance that we could climb.  The coast here was much rockier than the one in Giardini Naxos.  I carefully wrapped my camera around my wrist…and tossed my jacket over my soldiers as the hot sun beat down on me.  One after the other, we climbed up the rock, until we reached a point where we couldn’t maneuver the rock anymore.  After reaching that place, we sat and enjoyed the sun, and the cool water below.  Now that we were sweating, we decided to head back down.  Reaching the beach once again, we turned around to look back at the rock we climbed, just in time to see some people cliff diving off of where we were sitting.  The water was a little too cold for that.  As much as we wanted to swim, we couldn’t let the water go above our knees.  I guess that makes sense, seeing as it’s February.  After taking the pod back up, we caught the next bus home in order to make meal number two.  This time, we had bought tortellini, and fried up some onions to place on top.

We spent our last night packing for the final time, and by this point, we were looking forward to being back at the Villa…our comfy beds…food prepared for us on a regular schedule…our home.

The next morning we caught a 9 o’clock bus to the airport.  Although our flight didn’t leave until 4:25, the next bus didn’t come until 3:10 and it was an hour bus ride.  Begrudgingly I said goodbye to the warmth and the water.  I spent the day at the airport reading a book for one of my classes.  Our flight landed with enough time for us to catch a cab and be home in time for dinner.  First meal back at the Villa.

As we neared Sicily, we began our descent.  I started to get worried as it appeared we were going to land directly into the water.  Out of no where, ground appeared, and we had landed.  It felt so good to be back in Italy, where I could at least somewhat understand what was going on around me at all times.  After receiving my luggage, we headed straight to the information desk, using Italian to ask how to get to the city.  Every time I attempt to speak Italian, I usually get one of two responses, either the person is grateful, and compliments my speaking skills, or the person automatically switches to English, usually proceeded by an exasperated look.  This person was the former, not the latter.

We followed the storm of other people from our flight to the bus that took us into town.  The nice part about Sicily is almost all of the buses used for public transportation are semi-comfy coach buses.  The ride into the city was about an hour, it skirted the sea as it moved its way deeper into the city.  Our hostel was a brief 10 minute walk from the central station.  With my traveler’s back pack, it was clear I was a tourist, and we attracted quite a few glances as we made our way along the busier streets.  Being here during this time means that when we travel, we are traveling in the off season, therefore, everything we do, while it may be more acceptable during tourist season, is perceived as strange.

After walking up 12 flights of stairs, we entered the doors to our home for the next three days.  We were greeted by an incredibly friendly Italian man who proceeded to show us around the hostel…our room…the bathrooms…the terrace…and the common room.  To save money, we stayed in a 5 person mixed dorm.  Which meant that 5 people of either sex can stay in the room, the door to the room is left unlocked, and everyone is given an individual key to the front door.  At that time, we were the only ones there, however, another boy would be joining us for the night.  The hostel owner then sat us down, gave us a map and proceeded to explain the main sights of the town, where the bus stations were located in relation to where the hostel was, and where some of the best Sicilian delicacies can be found.

After being briefed and taking a few moments to settle in, we headed off to catch our first real glimpses of the sea.  We were also starving, so decided to try one of the Sicilian delicacies that had been mentioned to us.  Using the map he had given us, we made our way to the first recommended location: Bar Touring.  If you are ever in Sicily, you must go here, and order an Arancina.  An Arancina is a Sicilian delicacy.  There are a variety of flavors, but the general consistency is risotto deep fried into a ball shape.  I had a spinach one.  It was delicious, and while we saw many variations on the Arancina, none came close to the one we enjoyed at Bar Touring.  After enjoying our first Sicilian meal, we headed to the Terrazza Mare, and took a seat on the rocks…enjoying the warmth of the sun and the endless view of the bright blue sea.

We enjoyed the views as the sun began to set, and decided to head back before it go too dark since we weren’t familiar with the area.  When we had returned to the hostel, we encountered our other roommate for the night, an Aussie named Brendan.  He had just been traveling through Northern Africa.  And we sat for awhile exchanging travel stories.  When the hostel owner showed up, we asked for suggestions on where to eat.  He gave us the card for a place, and told us to let the owner know we knew him.  Following his advice and directions, we headed to a quaint little restaurant about 10 minutes away.  We decided to sit outside, enjoying the nice change of weather.  While it was still pretty chilly at night, it was much warmer than the weather we had become accustomed to.  Our meal was to consist of an antipasto(appetizer), a primo piatto(pasta), a secondo piatto(meat), fruit, coffee, and thanks to Giuseppe, all you can drink.  Amanda and I both ordered the mixed antipasto, which was a combination of bruschetta, some bread, and some fried things…including french fries!  My primo piatto was pasta al forno, that had been recommended to me by Giuseppe.  It reminded me of spaghettio’s, mostly because the noodles were o’s and it was in a red tomato sauce, it tasted nothing like spaghettio’s.  By the time the secondo piatto came around, I still had food left on both my antipasto plate and my primo piatto.  The meat I ordered, was also what was recommended by Giuseppe, was 3 variations on pork, or so I thought.  I tried some of all the variations, and fed some to the stray cat that had been sitting at my feet all night.  Fun fact about Sicily, there are tons of stray dogs and cats.  Our waiter came out as we were attempting to finish our secondo piatto asking if we wanted fruit and coffee, to which we graciously replied non grazie.  He returned with another 1/2 liter of wine, in which me and Amanda continued to sip as we pushed the food around on our plate.  Again, he returned, this time assuming we weren’t going to finish the rest of our meals, and brought out a complimentary shot of limoncello.  Amanda and I, full from our meal and light headed from the wine, headed back to our hostel 3 hours after having left for dinner.  Exhausted from the early wake up that morning, we fell asleep satisfied.

The next morning’s attempt to shower was an interesting experience as Giuseppe was no where to be found, we had no towels.  And after being in the shower for about 3 minutes, the water went ice cold.  Italy’s facilities seize to amaze me.  As we were getting ready to head out, Meagan, who had spent her first part of Spring Break in Rome, arrived!  She informed us that the weather had to be about 70 degrees, so we all immediately changed into the summer dresses we had packed hoping for this opportunity.  Big mistake.  We hadn’t made it 5 feet out of our hostel before receiving some sort of remark on the outfits we were wearing.  Seeing as most of the people in Sicily were still dressed in their scarves and winter coat, I can semi-understand the reasonings for this.  We had unfortunately decided to walk through a market on our way to a bus stop.  The markets in Palermo are HUGE.  They are full of fresh fruit, fresh meat, fresh fish, and other small random trinkets.  I would have liked to spend some time searching through the market, as it was astounding the meat and fish that could be found.  The comments, however, made it extremely uncomfortable, so we decided to make it through the market as swiftly as possible.  As most of the comments were yelled in broken English, we knew exactly what they were saying.  My favorite comment was when one of the men yelled “L’estate viene!” at us…which means summer is coming.  After getting a banana for free, we exited the market.

We found our way to the bus stop, found the correct bus, and were on our way up the hills to the town of Monreale.  Monreale is a small city that outskirts Palermo.  It is located on top of a hill, and therefore has beautiful views of the city below.  There is also a byzantine church with a famous mosaic of Jesus that appears to be looking at you from any angle where you stand within the church.  It is one of the greatest extant examples of Norman architecture in the world, and as a national monument of Italy is one of the most important attractions of Sicily.  We spent time perusing the various aspects of the church, the murals, the alter, as well as tested out if the eyes really appeared to follow us as we positioned ourselves in different places throughout the church.  They did.  As we were exiting the church, we saw a sort of outlook down the road to the right, so we followed it and found ourselves graced by the views of Palermo spread out below us and into the sea.

We decided to walk around the town, and ended up stumbling into some cute little shops.  I ended up buying myself a necklace with a piece of coral dangling from it.  We continued down the path, and the girls bargained for some jewelry as well.  Proud of our conquests we headed back up the hill to eat something for lunch.  This was a good idea as we were heading to the Cappucini Catacombe aka that catacombs.  After spending about an hour and a half walking around trying to find them, we finally reached the catacombs.  We paid our 3 euro fee, and climbed down through the paths.  No photos allowed.  Although, now that I think about it, I’m not really sure why you’d want to take pictures, and after spending about 15 minutes walking around the catacombs I wasn’t really sure why anyone would want to go there at all.  While it was interesting, I felt as if I was intruding upon the graves of people.  Some of the skeletons were hung, so they were dangling which I found somewhat disrespectful as well.  It was sad to see the graves of children, and infants.  It was interesting to note how old the skeletons were, and that some of their hair remained attached through out the years.  It was cool to see, but not something I would ever need to repeat.

We decided to walk back to our hostel, which proved to be more difficult than it appeared on the map.  It was rush hour, and there were cars everywhere.  There are very few sidewalks in Italy as is, and there was a lot of construction going on in Palermo, so sidewalks and crosswalks were hard to come by.  Since we weren’t planning on spending any more time in this area of Palermo, we decided to stop at the pastry shop that Giuseppe had recommended to try the 7-Layer Sicilian Cake.  We traced up and down the streets in search of the place.  As street signs are also hard to come by in Italy.  Eventually, we decided to just go to the next pastry shop we saw, which did end up being the place we were trying to go.  The cake was AMAZING.  Well worth the search.

As the sun was beginning to go down, we decided to stop back at the hostel and change our clothes into a little warmer attire before heading down by the water.  Because Meagan had missed it the day before, we brought her to Bar Touring so she could try the famous Arancina, and then headed down by the rocks to sit by the sea.  There is a calm serenity about being able to sit there…as the sun sets…and watch the water extend into nothingness before you.

We headed back at 6:30 to meet up with our fellow hostel members, along with Meagan, another boy from Brazil who is studying in France was to room with us.  That night, Giuseppe and one of his friends went out with us for an intense seafood dinner.  Now I’ve had sea food.  Well I’ve had fried fish on Fridays, and once, I attempted to eat a cocktail shrimp, but beyond that, I’ve never been a fan of seafood, nor have I felt the need to eat it on any occasion.  But, when in Sicily do as the Sicilians do.  We went to this small restaurant off of many side roads so that I no longer knew where we were.  They had a grill outside, and piled on the table next to it was various forms of sea creatures…all so fresh that the lobsters were still moving.  I snapped a picture, but tried not to pay too much attention to the fact that shortly, that would be my meal(although, not the lobster).  We sat down, and they brought out bread and wine, because of course this meal included all you can drink wine as well.  The first course was a huge plate full of pasta, filled with creatures of the sea..such as calamari, shrimp, mussels, squid…I took pictures to witness the fact that I did in fact consume such things.  We had to finish the entire plate before they would bring out our second course which was a heaping plate full of yet more creatures of the sea: crayfish, squid, swordfish, some white fish with head and tail still attached.  The guy from Brazil who had the pleasure of sitting across from me during this meal, continually laughed at my faces as I attempted to consume all these various things which I had spent the previous part of my life avoiding.  Giuseppe made a toast to me at the end for sharing my first fish dining experience with him.  While I did in fact eat almost everything, I don’t feel the need to go out and eat it again any time soon.  It was an experience that I’m glad I didn’t miss out on.  Dinner was once again followed by Limoncello shots, which I’m assuming is a Sicilian thing at this point.

Once dinner was finished, and copious amounts of wine was consumed, Giuseppe took us all out to a bar.  We got a table and some beers, and sat around and talked about our various adventures.  My favorite part of traveling has come to be the people you meet.  This experience is a prime example of that.  The Brazilian is 18 years old, and has been to more places than I’ve been, and can speak at least 3 languages fluently as well as say multiple things in about 5 other languages.  The Australian has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.  I was utterly amazed by the things these young men have accomplished, and it inspired me to be appreciative of my time here, and to push my own boundaries as much as possible.

The next day, we decided to take a day trip to Cefalu, a town 45 minutes away by train that was along the coast.  The day started out beautiful, however, as we arrived, the sky was a threatening grey and the wind had picked up.  Even though it was chilly, we walked the beach, and I was able to put my feet in the ocean for the first time!:)  The water was FREEZING, but it was totally worth it.  We sat along the beach read, journaled, and enjoyed the proximity of the water.  As the clouds continued to approach, we decided to grab some lunch and wait it out.  After lunch, the weather wasn’t improving, while it hadn’t rained, the wind had picked up, so instead of staying at the beach, we decided to hike back up and wander the town for a little while.  We headed back to the train station in hopes of making it back to Palermo before it was dark to do a little more sight-seeing, but the train schedule didn’t coincide with those plans.  We made it back to Palermo as it was dark, and decided to get some kebabs for dinner.

After kebabs, we went back to the hostel, and Giuseppe invited us to his friends house to celebrate Estonia’s Independence.  Not knowing what to expect, we walked into a room full of random people, all volunteers from around Europe.  They were all crowded around the table awaiting a meal we didn’t know was being prepared.  Because we had already eaten and knew no one there, we felt incredibly out of place as we sat around the table and people attempted to introduce themselves.  People brought in the food, Estonian food, which apparently involves a lot of potatoes and apples mixed with carrots.  I tried a little of everything they passed around and it was actually pretty good.  Before anyone at anything, we passed around shots of vodka, because apparently Estonians start their meals with a shot of vodka so that they don’t “eat like pigs”.  The shots of vodka are then chased by pickles.  This is very interesting, and you must try it.  Seven vodka shots later, we decided to call it a night, people were getting rowdy, so we casually left with out saying good bye.  When we got back to the hostel, we packed up our bags to prepare for leaving in the morning.  As we were packing, we were talking amongst ourselves.  We exchanged e-mails, in hopes of keeping in touch with the friends we had met.

When we awoke the next morning, we got our bags together, and headed to the central station, stopping to get a cannoli(which is a Sicilian treat…that we enjoyed on various occasions).  We then caught the bus to Catania, a three hour bus ride that brought us to the other side of Sicily.

As the time for our departure neared, the room filled, and everyone began to form a line for entrance onto the plane.  10 minutes after our departure time, an announcement came that our flight was delayed 45 minutes.  Everyone groaned, and took a seat again. 30 minutes later they made an announcement delaying our flight for another hour.  Watching the board, we saw the times change from 2:45 to 3:30 to 4:30, and then 5:30.  With no explanation, the next announcement stated the flight was delayed indefinitely.  Unsure of what this meant, me and another girl went to grab a snack.  Right as we were purchasing the snacks, another announcement stated that our flight was cancelled.  We begrudgingly headed to the gates to which we were assigned to discuss our options with all the other passengers.  There we proceeded to wait.  The line seemed to move at molasses pace.  Discovering that some people seemed to be heading to another window in which it seemed they were redirecting their flights, half of us headed over to hear what they had to say.

Our options:  500-600 euro flight that left in an hour.  A similarly priced flight the next night at 7 PM that they couldn’t guarantee availability for.  Another similarly priced flight but with a different company.  Or a refund, directions written on a sheet of paper…all in Italian.  We heard some people in the line in front of us discussing the possibility of an overnight train from Florence to Paris that night at 9.  We had about ten minutes to decide what we wanted to do.  We had already lost our hostel for the night.  Thankfully, one of the girls we met in line while we were waiting, spoke French, and called the hostel, exchanging our situation.  It was too late to cancel, so we still had to pay for the lost night.  Me and one of the girls, who I was traveling to Sicily with, were contemplating trying to get a flight to Sicily and bailing on Paris.  Eventually, we all ended up buying yet another ticket back into Florence and crossing our fingers we’d get on the overnight train to Paris.

Because we were all so stressed, the ride back to Florence was a silent one.  Once we arrived in Florence, we went to the ticket office to see if there was any possible way they could check for us to see if there was spaces available on the train to Paris.  Because the train left from Rome, and Florence just happened to be a place it stopped, the station didn’t sell tickets, nor could they check the availability.  Losing hope, we headed into the information, an exasperated group of 5…we had adopted one of the girls from the line into our group.  We explained our story to the guy in broken Italian/English…eventually we were able to work it out, and he generously called the train to see if there were open seats.  He left us with a sheet of paper that had a car number on it, and that was where we were supposed to go.  As the train’s arrival loomed ever closer, we watched for the track number to appear on the screen.  Once it did, us, and a large group of other people in the rail station headed for it.  Seeing the amount of people heading for the train, we all got nervous.  We searched the train car numbers until we found 59 and hopped on.  There was no attendant, so we didn’t know what to do.  One of us ran out to find one, while the rest of us guarded the door to one of the rooms.  The train attendant told us to just get into a room, so that’s what we did.  None of us breathed a sigh of relief until the train started moving.

We had to dish out another 125 euro just for the train ride.  (I made a claim on my refund for the price of the train ticket in addition to my flight cost…here’s to hoping I get some of that money back.)  After they had collected our money, we all just kind of sat there in utter silence, unable to believe the events that had occurred.  After spending the entire day going to/from the airport and making other such arrangements, we were all exhausted.  We pulled out the middle beds, and crampingly attempted to sleep.  If anyone is clausterphobic, this would have been there nightmare.  I couldn’t put my knees up, the other bed was that close above me.  I could barely roll over at all, the blankets were tiny, and the pillows were hard, but I was so exhausted I managed to fall in and out of sleep for the next 13 hours.  At 11 o’clock the next morning, I arrived in Paris.

Although we had made it into Paris, we still had the process of finding our hostel.  None of us spoke any French.  We walked up to the information booth, handed him our hostel’s address and asked how to get there.  A train and a metro ride later, we arrived at what was to become our favorite place: Gare du Nord.  It is the train/metro station, and happened to be located a ten minute walk from our hostel, making our lives from that point on, much easier.  Wanting to take advantage of the time we had in Paris, after checking in and depositing our bags, we left immediately to begin exploring Paris.  We hopped on the metro, and arrived at the Orsay Museum.

Not having much knowledge of art before arriving in Italy, every art museum I enter, is overwhelming.  The mass amounts of various art works has never failed to astonish me.  Luckily, for me, there was a Van Gogh exhibit.  That’s one artist I know!  It’s hard to describe the experience of seeing something that you know is of momentous importance/incredibly well known, and having not really knowing why, but enjoying it nonetheless.  The Orsay has an incredible impressionism collection which was also very beautiful.

After the Orsay, we decided the most productive way of seeing the city would be walking to/from all of the main sights we wanted to see.  So, we headed off to the Eiffel Tower via the Seine River.  We passed multiple architecturally beautiful buildings that I’m sure were of some significance, but I couldn’t tell you what they are.  40 minutes later, we found ourselves at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.  The lines to climb the Eiffel Tower were quite long even though it is still off season here, and after having to spend the extra money on the train, none of us really wanted to pay to climb to the top.  We took the usual tourist pictures, and I took an additional 40 pictures of the Eiffel Tower from a ton of different angles.  While we were walking around, we ran into a couple of the other girls that had gone to Paris, one of which was my roommate.  After the whole ordeal with the cancelled flight, it was really nice to see a familiar face and get a much needed hug from her:)

After we exhausted the picture taking, we decided to grab something to eat, and try to hold off until it got dark, so we could see the Eiffel Tower at night.  Since none of us spoke French, we went to the first restaurant that had an English menu and was still relatively close to the Eiffel Tower.  I ate an omelet, which is the first I have had since being here.  It was delicious, although I doubt it was very French.

We waited for the sky to darken as we ate, and once it was dark enough, we left the restaurant.  As we were walking back towards the Eiffel Tower, through an open street with a view of the Eiffel Tower, we saw the light show.  Which basically just made it look like the Eiffel Tower was sparkling.  We walked back to the Eiffel Tower and took a bunch more pictures at night.

After enormous amounts of picture taking, we decided to head back to our hostel, and actually get into our room.  Even though we checked into our room, we only spent a few minutes unwinding and then decided to head out and see Moulin Rouge.  We got lost a couple times, but eventually found Montmartre…the Red Light District of Paris.  While it had a lot of “interesting” things to see…we decided to head straight for the Moulin Rouge.  After seeing Moulin Rouge and the ridiculous line to get inside, I had my first crepe EVER!  Nutella and Banana.  It was delicious!  By the time we headed back to our hostel, it was going on midnight, and we were getting up at 7 the next morning to pack as much into the day as we could.

We started our next day with a croissant and Sacre Couer.  Sacre Couer is a church that sits on top of a hill with some of the most beautiful views of the city.  Because it was so early, our views were somewhat foggy, but beautiful nonetheless.  Sacre Couer is one of the most beautiful churches I have seen, and trust me, I have seen a lot.  Thanks to being there so early, we were able to walk inside the church before mass started.  The altar paintings were beautiful, as well as the French inspired stain glass, all of which was a change from Italy, a nice change.

After spending some time at Sacre Couer, we hopped on the metro to the Fountain of Saint Michael.  Here, we were meeting up with a free walking tour of Paris.  We had a little time to spare, so we walked over to the Notre Dame.  The Notre Dame is an incredible church, both inside and out.  We went inside, while a mass was in progress, and quietly walked amongst it.  The structure in and of itself is pretty astounding, the outside is intricately decorated and it is a perfect example of French Gothic.  While inside, I got to rub the toe of the Statue of St. Peter, hoping good luck would follow me for the rest of the trip.  Not wanting to be late to the group, we only had 5 minutes, so it was a brief experience.

While it didn’t rain while I was in Paris, it was windy and cold.  Colder than the weather I had adjusted to in Florence.  The tour guide was really awesome, unfortunately the tour itself wasn’t very awesome.  Once we reached the Louvre, we decided to break off from the group and grab a quick bite to eat, and then head to the Louvre.  We spent three hours in the Louvre, while that is no where near the time needed to see even half of the Louvre, it was enough time for me to see the Mona Lisa!!! As well as some other really cool pieces of art.  The Louvre is a very complicated and extravagant structure, it took me 30 minutes to find the exit.  While they have a little bit of everything, I spent a lot of my time in the French artist room, not just because I didn’t know how to get out of it, but because I had seen a lot of Italian art, and it was nice to see something a little different.  One of the best attributes of studying art in Italy is now, when going to museums I am able to pick up on things I had no clue about before.

After leaving the Louvre, we walked through the Garden of the Tuileries all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe, a good two mile hike up the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, the shopping center of Paris.  The Garden, although it was winter, was beautiful.  There were two separate areas with large water fountains surrounded by lawn chairs, we all kept saying “imagine how cool this would be in summer”.  While I’m sure Paris would be beautiful in the summer, I wasn’t disappointed to be there during winter.  Paris looks good in winter.  The Avenue des Champs-Elysées was a huge change from the Montmartre the night before.  It was full of designer labels, including the biggest Louis Vuitton store I have ever seen.  Surprisingly, there were a lot of cinemas on the street as well.  There were multiple restaurants as well, and the city was a buzz when we were there.  We reached the Arc de Triomphe right as the sun was setting.  As we were enjoying the view, we were able to witness a changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  It was amazing how they stopped traffic on one of the busiest streets in Paris for just this purpose.  It shows how much respect the city has for such an event.

By the time we made it back to Gare du Nord, it was 7 pm, and we were hungry and exhausted.  We grabbed a kebab, which are EVERYWHERE in Europe, and then headed to Montmartre for one last crepe.  We packed our bags and snuggled in for our last night in Paris by 10 PM, as I had to be up by 3:30 to get to the airport before my next flight.

Italy is full of highs and lows.  I’ve never felt more blessed to be in any situation than the one I’m in right now.  The bonus of living in this community doesn’t revolve solely around the awesome food that we’re served on a daily basis; although at first glance this may appear true as we all huddle around the doors awaiting the bell to announce the meal is ready, but on the people.  Living in a community where you are always surrounded by people has allowed a group of 45 strangers to turn into a quasi-family.

Proof of this lays in the Villa party we had on Thursday night.  Going out in huge groups is not only difficult, but not ideal.  So, to solve this issue we through a Cantina party.  The Cantina is the basement of the Villa, which graciously absorbs all the sound that every other area of the Villa fails to cover up.  It started as a Toga party, however, realizing that the only sheets we had were the white ones that graced our beds, and white and red wine don’t really mix, some of our creative Villa-ins came up with the idea of a stereotype party.  Either dress as your stereotype, or dress as a stereotype in general.  Proof that the group of people I’m here with is awesome, exists in the fact that every single person, including our RA, created an outfit of some sort.  We were up into the wee hours of Friday morning, laughing at each others outfits, listening to music, and of course drinking lots of wine.

I like to think I’m extra special, because I was given the best roommates ever.  Coming into the situation, I was nervous.  I hadn’t had the best experience with roommates, and having to share a room again wasn’t really my ideal, especially when that involves me sharing a room with two other girls.  As I awaited my roommates to arrive the first day, I was both excited and nervous.  After meeting my roommates for the first time, I knew immediately that I’d be able to get along with them.  They’ve turned into my closest friends on the trip, and actually make me excited to be returning to school, which I didn’t think was possible.

After the late night Thursday night, I awoke Friday to a 4 page Galileo paper to write.  After much avoidance, I sat down to plug it out.  3 hours later, one of my roommates and one of our neighbors decided to go on a hike into the hills.  This was my first experience since our tour up in the hills.  As we made our way up the hill, Sesto got smaller and smaller.  We were told from the top on a clear day, you can see all the way to Florence.  Since it was cloudy, as most days here are, we couldn’t see all the way to Florence, but we were able to make out the Villa below.  We continued our ascent into the hills and reached where the road turns into gravel and hiked back into the woods to find a small waterfall.  As you get higher into the hills, the surroundings seem to transform and it feels almost as if you’re walking back in time.  The buildings are old, and the air is fresh, and your surrounded by an appreciative silence broken only by the gurgle of the water and the steps of your feet.  Having made it as far back as we could with the damp ground, we turned around to head back.  Three hours later, we returned to the Villa, just in time for dinner:)

Saturday, we headed to Perugia, a two hour train ride away.  We got up and made our way to the train station at 7 AM.  When we reached the hill town, the air was still heavy with fog, so our views were stunted.  We made our way into the main Piazza where the Fontana Maggiore of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano is located(two of the artists we studied in our art history course…the best part about taking that class…is recognizing what things are when you visit places).  After walking around for awhile, we meandered into the Umbria Art Gallery.  It usually costs 7 euro to get into, however, one of my roommates was able to convince the  person at the ticket office that we were indeed art students, who got into the museum for free.  So, with our free passes into the museum, we headed into the museum where we spent hours looking at pieces of art, and defining them based on the things we have learned in class…which was perfect for our midterm Tuesday.  We spent a lot of time comparing techniques, and just talking about the pieces in general.  Most of the art is religious focused, which sparked an interesting conversations.  Constantly being surrounded by religious artifacts makes me think about Gods place in my life.

After the art gallery, we discovered the sun had come out in our absence, so we headed back to the sight-seeing spot from before and got to capture some of the most beautiful sights of Italy I’ve seen yet.  I know it sounds like I keep saying that, but every view continues to impress me, especially with the snow-capped mountains in the background.

After the view, we decided to grab some gelato before we had to catch the bus back to the train station.  Now, I can say hands down, I’ve found the best gelato.  I have a feeling that nothing will surpass this.  It was the creamiest dark chocolate with chocolate chip frozen goodness I’ve ever eaten in my life.

Once we got back into town, we went out to eat at a restaurant in Florence.  I tried another pizza, but have yet to have something that beats the one I’ve had in Genoa.

Adding to the lovely experience we Villa-ins had on Thursday night, Monday night half of us gathered around the long table in order to study for our Art History midterm.  One of the nice aspects of living in this community is that we all take our classes together, so at any point, it’s easy to find someone to either help you or complain along with you.

After finishing my major assignments this week, my mind has switched gears to Spring Break.  I’m leaving for Paris tomorrow morning and then to Sicily on Monday.  More to come when I return:)

I’ve realized this, as well as the simple Capisco (I understand) is my most common used Italian phrase next to Boun Giorno, Grazie, and Si, of course.

I started my internship last Tuesday.  I had signed up to do a social service internship in hopes of leaving a better impression upon the people of Sesto, than the drunk, obnoxious American that we so commonly get associated with.  We had a meeting with the community center a couple weeks ago, in which we met with the organizer of activities.  We were given a brief tour of the center itself, which is under construction as they are moving to a new building, and is about a ten minute walk from the Villa.  The organizer’s briefly stated the available opportunities they had available at their institution, all in Italian.  While I hadn’t understood everything he had said, I had a grasp of the options: work with the older people of the community, work with children, or attend to a park in the area.

I had chosen this opportunity over helping out at the elementary school and middle school due to the fact that I would have only been allowed to talk in English.  However, I still wanted to work with kids, so that’s the program I chose.  They had described the opportunity as walking kids to school, so last Tuesday, I showed up at 7:45 AM in front of the Villa to figure out exactly what that meant.  One of my roommates graciously went with me (thanks Hayley!).  After saying our hellos, they inquired on our availability.  As it was 7:45 in the morning, my capacity for speaking Italian was at an all time low.  I struggled to think of the words in which to describe my class schedule.  Thankfully, Hayley stepped in to help me and eventually we worked out that I would be available to help out on Tuesday mornings.  Feeling a little discouraged, I got into the car and we were driven to the “walk stop”, a short distance from the Villa.

Once we arrived, we tried to make small talk, but due to my lack of communication in the beginning, the organizers seemed to assume I wasn’t able to speak Italian, and so would communicate to the both of us through Hayley.  Which made me feel a little more discouraged.  We were early to our spot, and there was a cafe close by, so the organizers invited us in for an espresso.  Neither me nor Hayley wanted an espresso, and the organizers thought this was the strangest thing ever.  They must have asked us at least 3 times if we were sure we didn’t want anything.  Italians love their espresso!

After their espresso, we went back outside to wait at the stop.  Shortly, we saw a group of kids emerging from under the railway station, all in bright yellow vests.  The bright yellow vests signify that you belong to the walking group.  There was two other Italian woman who were volunteers that were already walking with the group.  One of which could speak some English, the other who couldn’t.  Both of them had kids in the group.  Once we were introduced, the organizers left and Hayley and I followed the group to the school, which was a short 5 minute walk from where we were originally.  We were able to go straight into the school and wait in the warm hallway until the bell rang, while the other students had to wait outside.  After the bell rang, and the kids hurried off to their classrooms, we turned to leave.  The volunteer who didn’t speak English offered to walk us back to the Villa.  On our walk back, she discussed her lack of English language skills and the difference between book language and actual language.  It was interesting to hear that she understood our frustration.

Once arriving back at the Villa, I had mixed feelings about the experience.  I was extremely discouraged that the organizers had assumed that I didn’t know the language after one brief encounter.  It had dampered my spirit and colored my experience before it had even really started.  While the other volunteers were nice, and more inviting than any of the other Italian people I have met, I couldn’t shake that feeling.  Since Hayley had only gone with me for support the first time, I didn’t know if that was an experience I wanted to repeat on my own.

Rosita, our amazing organizer at the Villa, who had put together this entire internship just this year, was anxious for feedback on our first experience.  Not wanting to disappoint her, I told her it was frustrating, but that the people were nice, which had really helped.  She promised the frustration would decrease as time went on and I became better associated with the program.  And since this whole experience is supposed to be about new opportunities, I decided to give it one more shot.

So this morning I woke up at 6:50, took a deep breath, and left the Villa on my own to find stop.  The stop is located right across the railroad tracks from where we take the train into Florence every day, although I was unsure on how to get to that side of the tracks.  The directions I had written down proved to be incorrect as I came to the first intersection where I was supposed to take a left, but the road name was incorrect.  I decided to walk towards the train station and took the first stairs at the train station instead of the second, and surprisingly enough, they led me right to where I needed to be.

I was waiting at the stop, the weather surprisingly not as cold as it has been the last couple days(although way better than the weather I’m sure you’re all having back home:)).  One of the organizers showed up, and I was immediately intimidated.  We exchanged hellos, and then there was silence.  A few minutes passed before either of us spoke, and then he brought up the weather and the fact that it was snowing in the mountains.  At this I took the opportunity to explain that the weather here is much warmer than back home and that we had just gotten a ton of snow.  From there he proceeded to tell me that he wanted to learn English, but he was old and it was hard.  We continued to discuss the language issue until the kids started showing up.

There were two new volunteers, as I went on Thursday this week instead of Tuesday because my class schedule had changed.  I was introduced to them, and the organizer left.  One of the volunteers could speak a little English, but I tried to stick to communicating in Italian.  She introduced me to the kids, and the kids proceeded to yell all their names at me at once, and so I still don’t know any of their names, but now they know I’m not just some strange American following them to school on Tuesday mornings.  Once we got to the school, the other volunteer, a grandmother introduced herself to me and her relation to the kids.  For the most part, the volunteers involved are either mothers or grandmothers of one of the children.  There are twelve kids in total.  While we were waiting for the hallways to clear, the volunteer that I first volunteered with, who had walked me back to the Villa on the first day, came up to me and said hi.  She said she was waiting for me on Tuesday, which made me feel horrible for not being there, but glad that I was remembered.

After the hallways cleared, we left the school, and said our goodbyes.  The icing on the cake was that I was able to make it back to the Villa all by myself, with no detours.

As this experience was much more pleasurable than my first, I’m actually looking forward to Tuesday, and getting to know the other volunteers and the kids better.  As well as practicing my Italian, which after all is the point of the internship in the first place:)

Upon entering the illustrious city, I knew I was about to experience something that would leave an everlasting impression upon my heart.

In preparation for our departure to Rome, a group of us sat down to watch the Lizzie McGuire Movie via Big Screen in one of our class rooms.  We all returned to those years not so forgotten in our minds when the Disney Channel took precedence in our lives.  We giggled at Lizzie and Gordo’s relationship, wondering why Lizzie couldn’t see that Gordo was the right boy for her.  We sang along to all the songs, and had a mini-dance party during her ending performance.  We went to bed that night with visions of Rome dancing through our minds to the finale song of the movie.

We had an early departure, eating breakfast at 6:30, and departing on the bus at 7:15…the sun hadn’t come out yet.  I would have loved to get some sleep on the bus in order to be well rested for our first long day in Rome, but my excitement made that impossible.  Shortly after our potty break, we put the Gladiator on.  This was my first time ever watching the movie.  30 minutes before the ending, we were entering Rome, and they shut off the movie.  I have yet to know how it ends.

Upon arrival, we made our way through the streets and to our hotel.  We stayed in a cute hotel, pretty close to the center of the city.  It was a perfect location.  Although, the showers were smaller than the ones at the Villa.  I did not know this was possible.  I’m beginning to think I’ll never find a place to successfully shave my legs here.  After a quick lunch, that we packed at the Villa, we headed out on our first tour: to the Forum.  We met our guides at the city hall in Rome.  The city hall has served that same purpose for many centuries and the structure of it has been built upon the primary structure of the building originally in it’s place.  From the back, you can see the different materials used at the various stages of the building’s life.  After walking behind the city hall, we were graced with the first views of the Forum.  Now, I don’t know what image enters your mind upon hearing that.  I had always assumed that the Forum was a structure of some sort.  Most likely with columns, as most things from the Roman period seem to have some sort of column structure base.  This, however, is incorrect.

The Forum is called such as it served as the meeting center for various activities such as ceremonies and basically any other gathering.  It’s structures vary in purpose.  From churches, to temples, to arches, to the Emperor’s Palace.  The Forum is home to some of the most well preserved ancient ruins.  Because the Romans followed the practice of filling in older structures, and building the new on top of them, the Forum was actually completely buried until excavations revealed the world that existed underneath.  We spent two hours walking through the ruins.  Seeing and imagining the world that must have existed in this place.  I was overwhelmed by the intelligence of the Romans and the beauty of their structures.  The Emperor’s Palace, once situated on the top of one of the hills, expanded to cover the whole hill as each Emperor added his own mark to the Palace.  Eventually, it expanded across from the Forum as well.  We were able to see a place in which they used to hold carriage races, and the remnants of the temples, and walk the same roads in which the ancient Romans crossed.

After leaving the Forum, we were led to the entrance of the Colosseum.  We were free to enjoy the Colosseum at our leisure.  The architecture of the building is astounding.  The fact that the structure was created in 70 AD and is still standing is in and of itself an amazing feat.  The fact that the structure is sound enough for thousands of visitors to walk the same paths through it in which those of the ancient world did is hard for me to wrap my mind around.  We walked to the top, and caught the view in which those who would have stood during ceremonies and other spectacles would have been positioned.  The view open to us allows us to see the under structure of the floor, in which housed the many operations that were performed at the Colosseum, including the Gladiators and the various animals which were used in order for entertainment during the Colosseum’s heyday.  After exploring the Colosseum and trying to grasp the fact that I was really there, and that this was really my life, I headed out to meet up with the group in order to continue our journey.

One of our professors is an astounding art historian.  I didn’t know it was possible for one person to contain so much information.  She took us on our next tour, which led us to a church.  No surprise there.  This church, however, was different.  It was discovered that the church was in fact built upon a previous church that stood during the Ancient times.  We were able to go under the existing church and see the structure of the original church as well as the structure of a home during this period.

After leaving the church, our professor led us on a walking tour back to our hotel.  We walked pass the place in which the Gladiators used to train.  We meandered through the streets of Rome.  We saw many things in which at this point, I don’t remember, but I’m sure were cool and there was always some sort of story to go along with.  At this point, we had been walking for five straight hours and everyone was exhausted.  Continuing on the walking tour, we were led to the Pantheon.  I had often heard of the Pantheon, but I was unaware of it’s purpose.  The structure of the building is absolutely beautiful and once inside, the top opens to the heavens.  Victor Emmanuel is buried here as well.  Had I not been so tired, I’m sure I would have appreciated it more.  The inside was beautifully decorated.  After one more stop, we were able to depart on our own.  Me and some other girls went and grabbed some dinner at one of the cute restaurants in the square.  Most of them had outdoor seating that were heated by heat lamps.  It was adorable.

Once we were all equally stuffed and feeling a little rejuvinated we decided to find a wine bar to have a casual evening.  Instead, we found a bar called the Drunken Ship, and Buy 2 get 1 Free specials.  Upon entering the bar, which we knew was American, we were graced with lovely country tunes (I thought Italians don’t listen to country?  Well…they don’t.  Americans do.)  We all had a round and were discussing the events of the day and all the things we still wanted to see and do.  A couple drinks later, one of the girls had started talking to the owner of the bar.  2 free shots and a drink later, when Lady Gaga came on the sound system, we had no reservations in screaming the lyrics and dancing.  Not wanting to make it too late of a night, we headed back to the hotel at 1, having to stop and ask for directions(in Italian) along the way.

The next morning came earlier than I had wanted, but with an excited edge.  Today, we were heading to Vatican City!  The only bad news: my legs and feet were still exhausted from the day before.  But it was worth it to suck it up.  The road into Vatican City, thanks to Mussolini, is a straight shot of St. Peter’s Basilica.  The architecture is another structural wonder.  The museums are packed full of priceless works of art and artifacts.  Among my favorites were the ancient jewelry, the really big ancient baths, the tapestries, and the School of Athens painting.

I have no words for the Sistine Chapel.  As exhausted as I was by the time I got there, I couldn’t help but stare in awe at the ceiling for almost an hour.  We ran into my professor there and were really excited because this meant she could explain the paintings and the history.  As nice as it was to just sit there and soak it in, having her provide insight into the ceiling was absolutely priceless.

After leaving the Sistine Chapel, we headed towards St. Peters.  Having been at the Cathedral in Siena, I thought I would never see a church that was more beautiful.  St. Peters surpasses that times a thousand.  You wouldn’t know it from the outside, but the inside is absolutely gorgeous.  The frescoes, the sculptures, everything is indescribable.  We walked around the Basilica for another hour.  Just taking it all in.  Until recently, no church could rival it’s size.  I took a few photos, but they in no way do the Basilica any justice.

Giving into our hunger, we left the Basilica and found a quaint little restaurant to have some lunch.  I will admit that this was probably the most disappointing meal I’ve had since being here.  I ordered a margherita pizza.  Which was my first pizza of that kind thus far on the trip.  I’m not sure exactly what about it made it disappointing, maybe the sauce.  It just didn’t taste as fresh or as tomato-y as the other pizzas I’ve had since being here.

After lunch, we headed out in search of the Trevi Fountain.  Having just seen Lizzie McGuire, I was excited to toss a coin into the fountain and having my wish immediately come true!  On the road the Trevi Fountain is located on, we came across a gelateria and decided to grab some gelato to eat while seated by the Trevi Fountain.  Upon arriving at the Trevi Fountain, I was surprised by its grandiosity.  It was way larger than I had imagined it in my mind.  After finishing our gelato, I took out a coin, and made my wish.  It didn’t immediately come true(stupid movie!), but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Our next destination was the Spanish Steps.  We found out way into the Piazza di Spagna, but had no view of the steps, so we continued to meander through the Piazza.  On the opposite side, we saw a congregation of people, and assumed the steps would be in that general direction.  Upon reaching the steps, we all looked at each other as if to say, is this really it?  They were stairs, all be it lot’s of them, but they were just stairs.  Unfortunately our tour guide extraordinare was no where in sight, so we were bemused as to wait made these particular stairs a “must see”.  While exploring the area, we ran into a bunch of other people from our group, randomly, and decided to take a group picture on the steps.  No one really understood their significance, and I have yet to wiki it.

After our congregation on the stairs, we split off into groups again, and I went with some people who wanted to shop.  We walked the streets as we made our way towards the general direction of our hotel, stopping at random places to check out what they had to offer.  At this point, my feet were really starting to hurt, so nothing really grabbed my attention.  A few people found a couple things, but mostly we just looked.

Once we made it back to our hotel, me and my roommates decided to take a quick nap and regroup.  It was already 6:30, and by the time we were up and ready to find dinner it was going on 9 o’clock, which is normal for Italy.  We all decided to get a little dressed up.  We had no destination in mind, and just looked into windows of restaurants until we found one that caught our interest.  It was a quaint little restaurant and was relatively empty.  When the waiter came to take our order, a relatively older man, and we ordered half liters of wine (one red and one white) he insisted that due to the rain we needed at least 1 liter and possibly 2.  Unsure of what he would be bringing us, he appeared with 1 liter of red and 1 liter of white to take our orders.  For dinner, I had the best pasta since being here, which is absolutely astounding because we have pasta for dinner every night at the Villa and I have yet to eat something that I don’t like.  Yet, this pasta still managed to surpass them all.  I tried to eat as slow as possible in order to enjoy every bite.  By the time we had finished with our meals, we still had a half liter of wine to drink and wound up sitting there and talking until around 11:30.  Feeling a little buzzed from the wine, we decided to head out and meet up with other people from the group who had decided to check out the Drunken Ship.  After a pitcher, me and my roommate decided to head back to the hotel.

The next morning was even harder to wake up to.  And although declarations of “When in Rome” seemed like a good idea the night before, I knew it was going to be a long day.  Our first stop this morning was a palace of a wealthy man in Rome.  It is often referred to as a love palace as it was designed for pleasure.  It contains many beautiful frescoes, my favorite was the frescoes of the room that at one point was opened up to the gardens in the back.  The theme was the story of Cupid and Psyche.  Not only were the frescoes beautiful, but they depicted the entire story.  Having my professor explain the entire story, which was missing, was incredibly interesting.  Most of the paintings/sculptures that decorated the palace were Greek gods, which was a nice change from the Christian based paintings that we usually see.  Raphael painted here as well.

Once our palace visit was over, we broke off into groups again.  Me and a group of girls decided to go get some coffee and ended up sitting and talking until we needed to grab lunch and head back to catch the bus.  Our next destination was Villa Borghese.  I had no picture in my mind of what to expect when we got there.  The Villa is basically an art museum, with very strict rules, and very cool art.  The most popular sculpture housed there is Bernini, and the collection they have is astounding.  My favorite was his Apollo and Daphne in which Apollo is shown chasing Daphne as she is being transformed into a tree.  It’s absolutely beautiful, and how someone could carve that out of a slab of marble into that much intricate detail is unreal.  The Villa also houses collections by Caravaggio and Raphael.  We only had a 2 hour block, and didn’t get to see nearly everything that the Villa had to offer, but our professor gave us a guided tour which allowed us to hear background stories and have different paintings/sculptures explained to us.  By this point, we were all exhausted and even those two hours seemed longer than they should have.

We got on the bus at 5, and headed back to Florence.  While I was glad to be getting back to my bed and my room, and sleeping with my roommates, I was disappointed to be leaving Rome.  We accomplished so much, but there is still so much more to see.  I can’t imagine living in Rome and passing all of these amazing historical sights on a daily basis.  I wonder if that would cause you to take them for granted.  I know that I’m for sure going to take a trip back.  Rome’s history and it’s charm have left me captivated.

I meant to add this blog to add the few things I forgot to add in my post the other day, but I just had to mention dessert.

Moving on…

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday we went to an opera.  A legit Italian opera.  While I wasn’t really sure what it would be like, I imagined something with a large woman standing at the front of the stage singing something I wouldn’t be able to comprehend.  While I wasn’t able to comprehend what was being said, I was able to get the idea of the story that was unfolding in front of me.  It was a play…kind of like a musical, which I hadn’t expected.  The byline was a love story, no surprise there.  The costumes reminded me of a mixture of toad from Mario Party and Pokemon.  They all wore some sort of bright colored mushroom hat and had matching puffy pants and although the tiger, who I’m assuming was the pet of the king never said a word, he received the most applause at the end.  It was a vibrant performance, and surprisingly comedic.  And although it took up my entire evening, it was worth the lack of sleep that followed.

Yesterday I had my first laundry experience.  While I didn’t have any of the horrors some of the other students had…such as their clothes being sopping wet coming out of the washer or colors bleeding and dying everything purple, laundry here is not an easy feat.  First off, I had waited so long that not all of my laundry would fit into two loads…which is all the coins we are given at a time.  Thinking I was being clever, and beating the system, I decided to wash my knit tops and delicates by hand.  I had no idea that would take as long as it did.  My laundry was washed and dried before I had finished hand washing all of my left over items.  That, and my arms were sore.  It didn’t help that I was being rushed to catch a bus.  Even though it was stressful, and time consuming, it feels SO good to have clean clothes.  I also hung my jeans and most of my tops out to dry on the clothesline, so they smelt fresh:)   From now on, I’m going to do laundry more frequently…if I find the time, that is.

After doing laundry for the first time, not wanting to sit around the Villa and do homework all day, I headed into town to catch a bus to Fiesole.  A smaller town located up in the hills surrounding Florence.  The views were absolutely amazing.  Unfortunately, a camera can’t really catch what the eye can see, and I didn’t deem any of the photos worth sharing.  After walking up street after street of steep inclines, we reached a park that opened up into a view of Florence below.  Amongst the mixture of colored buildings and red roofs, you could just make out the Duomo.  I also caught a glimpse of the soccer stadium, which I’ll be heading to on Sunday!:)  We walked the streets and looked through a couple of the churches.  There were also a lot of plaques dedicated to the fighters of the resistance, which was big in the hills of northern Italy, which was cool to see.  After a couple hours of up and down those hills, my legs were burning, and we decided to head back into Florence to catch the bus back to Sesto for dinner.  I’m hoping all the walking I do will balance out all the food I’m eating!

Which reminds me, I gotta head to lunch.

Much love to everyone back home!

This weekend, well yesterday, I took my first trip outside of Tuscany into the coastal region of Liguria.  I stayed in Genoa, and on the way enjoyed beautiful panoramas of the Sea.

The 20 extra euros is an example of how confusing the train stations are in Italy.  Maybe for Italians, it makes sense, but me and my roommate Meagan, were very confused.  We started out the morning early, packed a quick lunch and hopped on the train to Florence.  We were excited to find an earlier train for a cheaper price heading for Genoa.  Apparently that doesn’t actually happen.  We got on the first train in Florence, and made it successfully to our transfer point in Pisa.  We checked the boards, and the next train to Genoa was in an hour, so we grabbed some caffeine at the train station and then headed to the platform.  Once on the train, we realize it is way nicer than previous train…and are unable to find 2nd class…although I’m not really sure what the difference between first and second class is on a train anyway…we give up…and find a seat.

Two stops later, the train ticket checker came through to check our tickets.  This is where the fact that I don’t speak very good Italian comes in handy.  The guy is trying to explain to us why our ticket is incorrect, and that we need to pay for a new ticket.  We have no clue what he is saying.  We pay.  He moves on.  Two minutes later, a man with a trolly selling treats walks through.  Hence the Harry Potter train.  Even with the train mishap, we make it successfully to our destination.  In fact, we got to take the train an extra stop so instead of the 40 minute walk to our hostel.  It was 10.

Or…it should have been 10.  We walked up and down the road for an hour and a half trying to find our hostel based on the directions we got from the train station and the ones we had written down from the website.  We walked past the landmarks multiple times, but with no luck.  Eventually we gave up and went to sit by the harbor to have lunch.  The sun was shining and the harbor was beautiful.  I didn’t know boats could be that big.  They made the yachts look tiny.  After we had some food in us, we decided to keep walking.  We were walking past the pharmacy for the umpteenth time when I happened to catch a glimpse of a road sign on the building.  It was the street we had been looking for.  Once we found the street, we looked for the number of the hostel.  Apparently, in Italy, street numbers are sporadic.  Eventually we found the building…there was no sign indicating the hostel was there…and rang the bell.

After settling in and dropping off our bags, we decided to walk down to the harbor and go to the aquarium.  It is the largest aquarium in Europe.  It was three floors and had everything from dolphins to the species that inhabit the arctic ocean.  They even had an entire tank devoted to the fish in Finding Nemo.  I even got to pet a sting ray!  It was really slimey and soft.  On our way out, we stopped at a hummingbird exhibit.  Meagan freaked out when one of them flew close to her…even though we were supposed to avoid fast movements and it was her idea.

When we left the aquarium, it had gotten dark and started to rain.  We were both hungry, so we decided to walk back in the hopes of finding a restaurant on the way.  None of the restaurants within a 15 minute walk were open.  Discouraged, we bought a bottle of wine and headed up to our room.  Looking through the guidebook, we realized most of the restaurants don’t open until 8 so we decided to wait until 8 and head down and try again.  To pass the time…we turned on the TV(this is the first television I’ve been able to watch since being there) and watched old reruns of The Hills in Italian.

At exactly 8…we slid our wet shoes and coats back on to brave the rain for something to eat.  The restaurant right next door to our hostel was open, so we quickly headed in.  We each ordered a pizza.  Hands down, best pizza I’ve ever had.  They prepared it right in front of us, and put it into an oven that literally had a wood fire burning inside.  Five minutes later, our pizza was ready to go.  Mine had mozzarella and red peppers.  It was delicious.  Especially with the wine;)

This morning, after having breakfast and packing at the hostel.  We headed out to catch a ride on a harbor tour…which was recommended in our guide book.  When we got to the harbor, we found the ticket booth, but no one was there, so we decided to take a walk out onto the harbor.  The water was a beautiful blue-green.  Once back by the ticket booth, we realized the sign that said a minimum of 10 people were needed for the harbor tour.  We had 2.  Apparently going to places during off season isn’t always a good thing.  A little disappointed, we decided to head to the next site on our agenda.  A fonicular climb up towards the original walls of the city, and the other side of the city.  I braved using my Italian, and successfully bought tickets to take what looked like a tram up a really steep hill.  When we reached the top, we walked out to see the views back down to the harbor.  The sun was out and the view was amazing.  Pictures seriously don’t do this place justice.  After we were done looking at the view, we decided to hike down.  The hike took about an hour…for what was a 5 minute ride up the hill…as the streets wound back and forth down the hill.

Once at the bottom, we headed back to our hostel to pick up our bags.  On the way to the train station…we stopped at yes…another pizzeria(don’t worry…I never get pizza during the week, surprisingly it’s a rare treat).  When buying tickets, we decided to go to the ticket office to guarantee that we were on the right train.  Again, I got to use my Italian.  We made it home with no other speed bumps, catching the bus to Sesto right before it left the station.

So here I am…typing this message to you.  I already uploaded my photos to facebook, in case you want to check them out.  I didn’t take as many because my batteries were low.

To attempt to catch you up on the previous week, in which I failed to find time to make a response would make this already long post even longer…instead, I’ll sum it up.  Which in no way gives either Pisa or Lucca the time they deserve, but this will do for now.

Last Friday, a group of 6 headed into Pisa.  We took the cheesy tourist photos and watched tons of other people do the same.  Basically everything you need to see in Pisa is located in the same Piazza as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, making a visit to Pisa a very easy trip.  Instead of taking the time to wander up and down the streets as we’d normally do, we caught another train into Lucca.  I’m not really sure why we decided to go to Lucca, but I’m very glad we did.  Lucca is the cutest town I’ve seen thus far…and that’s a very tall order.  The city’s original walls are still completely in tact, and finding an entrance into the city was an interesting task.  Once inside we spent hours walking the city streets…mixtures of old and new…until we found a stand to rent bikes from.  We rode bikes on the city wall, which is really like a park.  Tons of people were walking/running/biking on the hill.  After biking, we found a fountain that has the best water I’ve found in all of Italy.  Seeing as water is such a precious resource this was a big deal.  Before heading home, we stopped at a gelateria…where I had my first and most amazing nutella crepe.  If you have not tried this.  You should.  Right now.  I spent Saturday walking around Florence, exploring new areas(I found a place that has the best canolis!  And bought my Italian leather purse).  Sunday was completely devoted to homework…I didn’t realize I was going to have to actually go to school here.  I knew I had to take classes, but I assumed there would be some sort of agreement between us and the professors that we would of course learn, but we would absolutely not have 80 pages of reading a night.  They apparently missed the memo.  The weeks go by as they normally do at the Villa…class, homework, and of course the food.  I went with a group of people to meet this local program in order to get involved with some volunteer services while I’m here.  On Tuesday, I’m supposed to meet with the head guy and discuss my options.  I’m going to volunteer to walk kids to their school in the mornings, and a group of us are working out an activity where we’d go to the center every Monday for two hours and do some sort of activity for the older people in the community.

I’m sure I’m missing some of the finer details, but as it’s going on 1 AM here, I’m going to call it a night.  I hope all is well with everyone back home!  Love you and miss you!:)