Arrividerci, Roma!



My beautiful roomates



Our beloved terrace!



In our classroom at CEA

I am already saying goodbye to Rome! I can't believe we are half way through with the semester! Those 7 weeks completely flew by! Yikes! They have been some of the most incredible, stressful, difficult, memorable, exciting weeks of my entire life. I wouldn't trade it for anything! I have learned so much from this amazing country and culture, I don't really want to leave, but then again ther are so many other things and palces to see and experience. It's bittersweet. I'm really going to miss our apartment on Nomentana--from our crammed tiny kitchen for 7 girls to our beautiful terrace where we shared many heart to heart and silly conversations. And our campus; all the staff are completely amazing! I honestly don'y think I'll miss public transportation--it was a love/hate relationship, but I don't I'll miss it and it won't miss me. Also just the familiarity I have acquired in Rome. I was jsut getting very familiar and comfortable with where places are, where to go, what bus or metro line to take and now we're pulled from that and thrown into another unfamiliar country. But that is also what I love about this trip--it definitely keeps us on our toes. Ti amo, Roma! Off to Athens, but first, Munich!

Paestum, Sorrento and Pompeii!



At Paestum!

 It was the weekend before finals and we had another excursion planned. Sweet! (It was a good excuse to keep putting studying off) It was so well worth it though, even despite all the cramming at the end. The whole bus ride you'd hear everyone "Botecelli's 'Spring,' 1480, Uffizi, Florence..." in preparation for the Art History final that we were all dreading. After our lunch break, Dr. K, the CEA archeological professor gave us a tour of Paestum, which is another ancient Roman city, much smaller than Pompeii, but still spectacular. We also toured the musem as well

I apologize that this is probably the most side tracked comment, but as I am writing this, I am enjoying an Oreo--something I've been craving for a long while...too exciting! :)




Cough medicine cake



Anyways, Sorrento was next on the map. Such a beautiful city! I wouldn't mind living there one day. It sits right on the coast line and out hotel room had quite the view of the coast, all from the balcony. We just couldn't get enough of it! I always look forward to hotel meals, because they are usually fantastic. This one was certianly no different: Tortellini with ragout sauce, bread, chicken and roasted veggies! It was fantastic all up until dessert. This pains me so much to say that dessert was rather not very tasty. It was a homemade strawberry cake. Sounds good, right? Think again. Imagine it tasting like cough medicine...yea.

It was too nice of an evening to just hang out at the hotel. Christian and I decided to wander around the streets of Sorrento. We stopped at another balcony area that overlooked the sea and watched a random fireworks show. Not sure what is was for exactly. However, low and behold, the balcony was actually the terrace of another hotel. Definitely didn't realize that. And there was a gate and we bascially got locked in. Oops! No worries, we just had to ask and we were on our way. Note to self: make sure it is not another hotel before walking to their terrace. haha



Sorrento at sunrise



Being a crazy person, Jacquie, Sam and I all woke up at about 6am in hoped of watching the sunrise over the sea. Well we walked down to the ports, but realized the sun rose in the opposite direction, from behind the mountains, conveniently. Oh well, it was a gorgeous morning and we all able to watch everything light up and the day begin in Sorrento.

 

Mt Vesuvius!



We couldn't exactly go back to sleep after we got back, we had Pompeii to see! You walk into this ancient city, literally frozen in time and you can picture the bustling streets of this huge place. It's rather hard to take it all in actually. It was a very advanced city at the time. Everything is preserved so well after Mt. Vesuvius erupted in the year 79. You see bodies in permanent positions from the time of the eruption. Mt. Vesuvius is still an active volcanoe and is actually expected to erupt again soon, supposedly. Luckily it didn't happen when we were there! But before we left, we had to salute Mt. Vesuvius for life and prosperity. I like to leave on a good note :)



saluting Mt. Vesuvius!



 

 

perserved bodies of Pompeii







Abbey Road, Pompeii style





We're scared Mt. Vesuvius is giong to erupt again!









Scarf Sisters

How awesome is it to have a cousin visit you, not to mention while we're both abroad in Europe?!? It was sooo much fun to have Mikaela come and visit Rome! Her and her 2 friends got into Rome Friday night and found my apartment where I made some dinner for them. I was so fun to make dinner for someone! We dined on crackers, cheese and salami, cheesy fried zucchini, pasta and biscotti with Nutella (of course, I refrained from the Nutella) and wine. The next day they joined me for breakfast before heading out to see the Vatican museum and the Sistine chapel, which was definitely something I had been looking forward to seeing for a long time. Well, after waiting in a huge long line, signs came up saying the museums were to be closing at 1:00 and opening again at 3:00pm. What?! Well we reluctantly got out of the line and good timing on that-- a tour guide came up to us offering a guided tour by an art historian from New York with a VIP enterance (since it was closed). We were all sick of waiting and all wanted to see the museum so we went for it! So beautiful! I could have sat in the Sistine Chapel for the whole day, except it was wall to wall people and guards yelling "no photo!" We did get seperated from the rest of our group in the end and ended up with the tour guides binoculars somehow. oops! After that gelato was needed! I tried to bring them to my favorite gelateria with 125 flavors, but being such a great tour guide, I got us lost and couldn't find it for the life of us. I knew we were in the right area though! A for effort at least?! But we settled for another one of my top picks, so not a total loss. We also enjoyed a restaurant dinner right by the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona with some amazing artwork and street preformers. Day well spent? I think YES!



Inside the Colosseum!



Sunday was dubbed Colosseum and Roman Forum day. The whole 5 weeks I had been living there, I still hadn't actually been inside the Colosseum. We walked inside and Iwas blown away at just a glimpse of it. It was actually a very picturesque sort of day--it was later in the afternoon and the sun was beginning to set behind the Colosseum. You try to picture what it looked like during the gladiator games. (I don't know about you, but I kept picturing the scenes from the movie Gladiator--one of my favorites by the way). You were able to see the passageways the gladiators waited in before a battle as well.



One thing to keep in mind if you ever visit the Roman Forum: There are olive trees everywhere, but don't do what Julie, Mikaela and Cassie did--don't eat them! haha They are disgusting apparently. Definitely no where near to  an olive we're probably familiar with. Just a side note :)

We hopped the crowded metro back to my apartment and they headed back to their hotel where were said our goodbyes. I didn't want to see them leave! 10:30pm rolls around and I get a knock on my apartment door. Mikaela, Cassie and Briana are standing ther with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, cookies and chocolates. They are too sweet! :) Such an amazing weekend! It was so great to see some family come visit! I can't wait to see you all at Christmas!

PS Why scarf sisters? Well, I think the picture says it all...we love scarves!

Much love :)

Crepe alla Nutella!

I wouldn't normally write about a silly night with crepes, but these weren't just any crepes. These were Nutalle crepes! And why the heck is this worth writing about, you ask? Well about 3-4 weeks ago, my roomate, Kayla and I, made a bet: who could go the longest without eating Nutella. Silly bet, I know, but we both realized we had a serious addiction to Nutella. For example: after about 2 days a huge jar would probably be close to gone if not empty...yea. So this fast of Nutella was necessary. BUT our one exception was crepe and Nutella night. And it was so worth it! It tasted so good! It was actually a bit much to be honest, it was like a Nutella binge! But oh so wonderful! We are both about 5-6 weeks strong! (I lost track of the time) and we are going to see if we can make it to the end of the program, so about another 6 weeks to go!!


Ready to take our first bite!



A weekend in Florence!



Florence Cathedral



If you think Rome is a place to shop, wait till you see Florence, in the Tuscany region or Italy. Shops and vendors are everywhere! Shopping and museum visits were bascially the entirety of the weekend. it is afterall the popular manufacturing city of leather. Apparently, many "famous people" order their apparel from Florence. We saw a leather coat in a shop window costing 2000 euros! Yikes!!

We arrived by train and immediately checked into our 4 star hotel, called the Hotel California, so needless to say, we were all singing "Hotel California" for the rest of the day. As soon as we dropped out bags off we had to go chase after Paolo (art history professor) at the Bargello museum. Many of Michelangelo's first sculptures were in this museum as well as some of Leanoardo Da Vinci's paintings. After keeping up with Paolo and his shape up tennis shoes for clsoe to 2 hours, we had a lunch break. We were looking for something cheap (of course). Pizza anyone?! We found a restaurant with 5 euro pizzas--whole pizzas! That's right! And what's even more classy, we found a quiet alley way, sat in the street and ate our whole pizzas. Just picture 5 of us, all with our pizzas just chowin' and chillin' in the alley way.



my whole pizza!





In the alley way



One thing is for sure, we were all looking forward to the free multi course dinner at the hotel that night--4 courses with this one: bread, pasta, pork and gravy, veggies and ice cream for dessert! To go along with such a delicious meal was an intense conversation with my roomates Kayla, Jacquie and Mikala where we basically planned out our entire futures :)

It was a beautiful night in Florence so what better way to end it than with drinks on the hotel terrace with most of our group? Couldn't get much better!

Next day was museum day--we had 2 to get to today and for the first, all I will say is Michelangelo's David. I was in complete awe at the sight of this handsome statue. I mean jaw-to-the-floor type of awe. You'd round the corner at the Accademia museum and you think of angels singing "alleluia" one you saw this statue. I think I stood in front of David for close to an hour. I could go on and on explaining the whole sight of David, but for your sake I won't. Long story short: I was Michelangelo's famous David, and it was amazing!



Hat shopping!



Before our next museum visit with Paolo, we had some free time to wander and shop the streets of Florence. We admired all the leather and scarves that we passed and I had to try really hard to not buy too many scarves. ( I think most of the girls have actually developed a bit of a scarf fettish here) but I caved and bought another anyways, after some bargaining of course! Pretty sure every girl went back with at least one scarf. So we did our fair share to help the economy

Off to see more artwork. This time taking notes and running with Paolo now in his fedora hat at the Uffizi musuem. I was exhausted by then so staying focused was a bit of a challenge. The main thing I remember from the museum is that all of Botecelli's artwork is from 1480...

By the end I was museum-ed out. We went out for dinner that night with Paolo who desperately wanted his Florentine steak, which is supposedly deliciously famous, but I wouldn't know since I didn't get that.

Last but not least was the Medici Chapels followed by even more shopping and eventually a train ride home to Rome. Let's sum up Florence: shopping, David, shopping, museums and food! :)

You see, we went to Assisi!

Let me just say that this day was one of the happiest days ever. Why? Not just because of seeing the town of Assisi, but it was the very first day this entire trip that I was able to wear a sweathshirt for the entire day! Not just in the morning and in the evening but the whole day was chilly enough for a sweatshirt. Why is this such a big deal you might ask? I've been missing the Minnesotan fall weather like none other lately, so having the opportunity to wear a jacket definitely made my day complete! :)

I realized I am a terrible writer. I think I have found myself using the adjective "beautiful" a few too many times. But, let me use it at least once more: Assisi was nothing short of beautiful! We (and in "we" I mean Brittany, myself, Lauren and Julie, so a bit of a girls day) hopped on a train at a bright and early 7:45am and enjoyed a relaxing 2 hour train ride. As soon as we got there, afer enjoying the scenery the whole way there, we bused it up to the "up-town" part of Assisi, where all the sites are. All the buildings in Assisi are the same pinkish limestone color. You'd think that would be boring if the whole town looked like that, but it is the complete opposite. It gave the whole town such originality and simplicity!



Delicious pastries!



           We had no set plans at all for the entire day. We just ended up wandering around, stopping at places when we felt like stopping. We had no map in had either. If we got lost, no worries. It's not like it's not happened before anyways! So we just meandered through the quite streets of Assisi admiring the jaw dropping churches and window shopping and drooling as we passed any pastry shop! (Of course, we had to stop for one eventually, and good thing, because it was delicious!) Also, I think I have a scarf addiction here. The scarves are so unique! We saw a little vendor outside one of the churches, so naturally, we had to look...and purchase. We'll just leave it at that! :)



Fondonte Ciocoloto, yum!

We were on our way to the Basilica of St. Francis when we passed a cafe with a huge sign: "Hot Chocolate" with a ton of different flavors! We decided it was chilly enough for something warm to drink (it was a little cloudy anyways)! I am so glad we stopped. The 4 of us shared a entire cup of Fondonte Ciocoloto. Let me tell you: It is nothing like hot chocolate! It is sooo much more exciting! It is much richer and thicker than cocoa and much more chocolatey. (Which I consider to be a good thing!)



Basilica of St. Francis



After enjoying that Fondonte Ciocoloto, the Basilica of St. Francis was the next thing we found. (Hard to miss actually) This was such an incredible church! The frescoes of St. Francis' life in the upper level were completely amazing and so much detail in the mosaics of the altar and ceiling! Then we walked to the lower level to see the relics: his robe/tunic among other things. And finally, continuing to a lower level underground, was his tomb, surrounded by the tombs of his companions. I don't even know how to explain it. Truly astounding though.

What a, for lack of a better term, beautiful day in Assisi! :)

Lookout tower