Day 17 - Ignominiously

5-30

Ignominiously. That is the word of the day. I definitely sat in the bus for about 20 minutes trying to decide what it means and how to say it. Due to our lack of internet I am still uncertain about the latter but as soon as I figure that out all that remains is for me to use it. I stumbled upon this word in my reading. We had a lot of time in the bus today.

We started out late and had breakfast at 9. My roommates and I were in fine form, I believe the best line said, not in the least bit out of jest, was, “Ice cream is not a sweet it’s a privilege.” It was an interesting morning. We left the hotel with all of our bags sitting in the lobby area and went to see the churches in Assisi. We started off with the Basilica of Saint Francis. I find that going to these churches makes me curious about all of the Saints they like so much. I have every intention of looking up both Saint Francis and Saint Clare as both were a big deal in this church.

It was cool to see St Francis’s tomb area. There were a bunch of pictures in there and I was a little confused but figured that if you were worried about someone that would be nice to think of a saint looking out for them. Then we crawled up the road to the city center where two more churches awaited our arrival. We saw the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (yes, there was another one of those in a different city) which had baby angels in it. They looked mischievous enough to please me so I attempted a few pictures. Next was the Cathedral of San Rufino, this was my favorite. It was super simple and yet I was still impressed by it. I just enjoyed being able to see the vaults and columns without having to look through all the adornments.

After that church we raced down the hill (this whole time we’d been climbing up streets going up a rather steep incline) to get some lunch before we snagged our bags from the hotel and went down to the bus. Where we drove for over three hours. This was where I did my reading and found the word of the day. We had a flight out of Rome to get to Sicily which didn’t leave until 7 in the evening. So we wasted 3 hours in the airport in whatever ways we could find. Alaina drew a picture of me and I looked awful. She didn’t give her best effort, I didn’t even have a body but it was funny. We finally got onto the plane which was a free-for-all-for seating and got all ready to go. After a 1-hour delay, we took off and had an unsuccessful 45-minute flight. Just as my book was getting to the really good part, we landed and everyone clapped. I laughed out loud at that because I had no idea people actually clapped for the pilots ever. We found out coach bus and loaded on. I was a bit tired and so I started going on about opening the overhead cubbies because they were a little tricky. Alaina kindly informed me that I had had a long flight and was psychologically damaged. I laughed really hard. I just find it so amusing to see what she’ll say next. We’ll have internet but I have to get the code for it. It is interesting because the rooms are so much smaller that it’s only me and Linsey in here. 

I was going to talk about my book but that seems silly since it has nothing to do with Italy and I can just talk about that when I get home. I will just go to bed now because it has been a long day and I am tired. We are pretty happy with this hotel because we get a full shower door here so the floor doesn't get wet when we shower. It is so nice!

Day 16 - The day of climbing

5-29

So we got up and got some delicious breakfast and met out front to start the day in San Gimignano. We were supposed to start off with a torture museum but found that that would have to be delayed and so we went off to our rooms to regroup before going to climb the Tower. We had a balcony, which I already said that I loved, and while we were regrouping a harp player started setting up outside our window. And then the man in the room above us began to sing. Let me add this to the list of I-feel-like-I’m-in-a-movie moments.  Unfortunately the harp player was dinking around and hadn’t started playing before we left. Time for the Tower, I don’t know what its official name but we climbed it. The climb wasn’t awful and it really did have a cool view of the town.

 After the tower we went to the torture museum. Now I am going to tell you that I can stomach quite a bit. I watch the History and Discovery channels and have seen some things on torture before but what I got hit with was nothing like I was expecting. It was just torture method after torture method. They were gruesome and malicious and numerous. There wasn’t any lead in or lead out to prepare you, just the torture device, a brief description of its use and sometimes a picture. I was out of that museum in record time. I think there was just something too awful for me about seeing what other people can and will do to each other over petty things like bickering and being a busy-bodies. It hurt my heart to see that stuff.

So after that we walked around a little hoping San Gimignano would be so kind as to show us some beauty; it obliged and we found some great pictures and fun little look outs. We stopped back at the hotel to get our stuff into the van and found that the harp player had started playing. It made me so happy. We grabbed some gelato from the World Champion (2007-2008) gelato shop and then packed out gear into the bus and left. We drove to Sienna first where we stopped for quite the workout.

We went to another tower, the tallest of course, and waited in line to climb that. Erdogmus got tired of waiting so we walked over to the Duomo of Sienna and went inside to see the cathedral. It was really stripy but I liked it overall. It was interesting because the Duomo actually never got finished so that made for some differences between it and other cathedrals we’ve seen. We got a call from the guy waiting in line for us and so we scurried back to the tower and climbed it. I was panting by the time we reached the top. I think that might have been the most stairs we’ve ever climbed in one go. The view was amazing, though, and while we were up there a marching band passed by which was fun to see. During this climb I found a new appreciation for my shortness. As the stairs got steeper and the walls got closer together (they really did, my shoulders were definitely touching both walls at one point) the ceiling also would sporadically plunge leaving a five foot two inch tall opening. How do I know it was this tall? I never had to duck; I came close but never had to. Going down was the real treat for everyone else; trying to hunch over and navigate down the stairs safely. Yay short people! The top was sweet though, I should have some pretty sweet pictures.

Then we went back to the Duomo and saw the museum, went on top of what was supposed to be the façade (since it’s not finished it is not) and went into the baptistery. I have found that I like baby angels. I don’t know how long this partiality has lain dormant but it is here and I have noticed now. I see them everywhere and they make me laugh. Other people now point them out to me, too. There were some great baby angels that I saw today. In the baptistery we also saw a real kid getting drug  by the arm by his mom, who then—wanting to take a picture—trapped the kid between her legs to free up her arms. All this time the kid is making so many different noises (grunting, laughing, squeeling) and we are all dying laughing.

After that we grabbed some quick pizza. A huge slice, like as big as my face, for 2.5 euro. It was amazing. Then we loaded onto the bus and drove to Assisi where we are staying the night. We found our rooms and packed our overnight bags for the next two nights since we’ll fly to Palermo tomorrow and don’t want to haul the big bags. While I was packing I noticed that I was running dangerously low on underthings and so with the help of the complimentary soap and shampoo, some hot water and the hair blow-dryer, I remedied that as much as I could. Hopefully that’s all dry in the morning when we have to leave! Night!

Day 15 - The Leaning Tower

5-28

I had a nightmare last night. The dream itself seems silly now but I just remember waking up totally afraid and disoriented. After going through and consciously working my way through the dream, finishing it off in a non-scary way, I managed to get back to sleep. My watch woke me up next and I was not pleased. I finally drug myself out of bed and got my stuff together and got some breakfast and my stuff and headed down to meet up with the bus.

We got our stuff loaded and each got our own 2 seats on the bus. We were off to Pisa. We stopped 2 hours into the trip so that people could use the bathroom and grab some food. Linsey, Alaina and I had packed sandwiches and apples so we ate lunch and then we were off for the final hour of our journey. We arrived in Pisa and got up to see the tower and the church it goes with. Our reservation to climb the tower wasn’t until 2 so we had some free time to find food if you wanted and just shop and take pictures in the area.

Two rolled around and we started our ascent of the tower. It was actually really cool the stairs wound around along the tower in a big spiral. So many people have climbed it that the stairs have dips where everyone walks and on one side of the tower the dips were closer to the outer wall and on the other side of the tower the dips were closer to the inner wall. WE got to the top and were a little frustrated because you could barely tell from the pictures that you were on top of a tower that was leaning! We got a few good ones, though.

We went to the church and baptistery that went with the tower which is actually the bell tower of the church. Inside the baptistery a man (who worked there) went into the roped off section in the center and started singing chords. It was so cool because the space echoed enough that he could sound out the whole chord and you could just hear it ring. It was beautiful. After Pisa we were on the road again to San Gimignano where we are staying the night. It was about a 2 hour drive and I was miserable. I have only gotten carsick a handful of times but the bus we were in was a manual and the driver was insane. I felt awful. I was definitely one bad smell away from puking.

But we made it just fine and we hiked up to the hotel (cars are restricted here in San Gimignano so our bus couldn’t come) and we found our room. It has a balcony which overlooks some rolling Tuscan hills. There is a huge beautiful shower, big beds, fluffy pillows, and AC. We are so thrilled it’s not even funny. We are all so sad we are only going to be here one night because it is the cutest, most quaint little place and we all love it. We also realized due to the lack of cars there will be no motorcycles to wake us bright and early. I am ecstatic. We had a group dinner which was delicious! Had risotto for the first time at that; it was amazing. I plan to figure out how to make that when I get back.

Today on the bus I was thinking about loving people. I was thinking how hard it is to love people who are mean to you but also people who disappoint you all the time. Then I thought how amazing is it that God loves us all no matter whether we love Him or disappoint Him or what. I also thought about all the people in Pompeii and isn’t it interesting to think that God loved them too. God loved them and cared for them and I wonder if He gave them some comfort, a sense of peace there at the end. Time for bed.

Day 14 - Today I don't feel like doing aaanything...do do do, do do do

5-27

So today, right on schedule, the traffic woke me up at 7:30. But this day was to be my day so I crawled down and got my headphones and slid back up into bed and slept for another 2 glorious hours! When I finally emerged from my top bunk I got up in search of some food. So I plodded down to the kitchen and made some toast with jam from my bread. Then I went and got my computer out and got pictures put on and wrote down in my journal. Then I realized the kitchen was closed from 10 ‘til 2 and I suddenly desperately wanted my Fanta that was in the fridge. I ended up coming back to the room and reading a little and organizing my suitcase. Then I showered and got ready for the day; got my shower stuff packed up.

I played Rummy with some of the others. Got my Fanta out of the fridge. Then some of us went to the super market down the street. I wanted some more bread and I needed to break my 50 euro bill because they hate it when you try and pay for 2.50 gelato with one. After the market we came back and just chilled. We paid each other back what we owed since we’ve been lending each other money whenever one of us got short during the day. It rained this afternoon and is raining now. We made pasta for supper and that was delicious. I love pasta. It wasn’t fancy, just yummy. It was such a nice relaxed day. We have to take an overnight bag so I have to pack that still. We apparently only get to take a little bag with us for the overnight tomorrow night. Well I am off to do that. I love recovery days. :)

Day 13 - Roaming Venice

5-26

So today was our first free day. We got up really early, at 6 to get ready and walk over to the train station and get our tickets to go to Venice. After some confusion with the machines we had our tickets and got on the train. Since we didn’t get our tickets until that day we didn’t all sit together. So Alaina and Linsey were together and I was in a different car with some if the guys on the trip. We ended up playing Rummy during the ride. I told them that I hadn’t played in a while so they’d have to remind me of the rules. I realized later this was a bold-faced lie; I’ve never played Rummy before in my life. But it was ok because it was enough like other games that I had played that I was able to BS my way through it. I even ended up coming in second for points!

When we got to Venice, Alaina, Linsey and I got a map and started wandering. We ended up just following signs pointing to San Marco and the Rialto. We passed by this random doorway—since we weren’t on a schedule we went on a lot of random streets—that led to a little canal and we dipped our feet in. It felt really good. We passed a lot of little shops full of glass, masks and such. It was fun looking at something new; seems like most of the other cities have had a lot of the same stuff. We stopped to eat our packed lunches in front of a little church near the Rialto. The church had a clock that was a 24-hour clock! I was a little amazed. While we ate these tiny little birds were running around near us looking for food! They were so cute! But the pigeons kept coming over too and they were not a fun sight at all. I ended up deciding that the little birds were sent in to get food from tourists and the pigeons offered them protection.

We actually saw the rest of the group after lunch and they showed us what they had bought already. Then we went to the Rialto and saw the view from there; saw some gondoliers and cool buildings. Then we went into this a little church called the Chiesa Rettoriale di San Zulian and looked inside for a bit. It had carpet on the pillars which was different. It was actually an interesting atmosphere in that church but I just couldn’t get past the carpet on the pillars.

We finished our journey to San Marco and there was this huge line out front so we ended up just getting pics of the outside and calling it good. We then just started looking for signs that looked like they would lead to interesting places. We found the others again and then found the guys that had split off from them. Then we went hunting for a bathroom, which we found but had to pay a euro and a half to get in. That was sad but we paid it and did that. Then we looked for the church some of the guys had told us was nearby and free. That was San Giovanni; it was really simple but it had huge pictures on some of the walls but not all of them. It kind of looked unfinished. When we left here we saw a sign pointing to Fondamente Nuova and decided to check that out. We couldn’t find it for our lives and so we finally got out the map and realized we had been there. It was a dock thing that we had actually stopped and sat down on. There was an ambulance boat that sped by and made us laugh. The sirens here are so weird! We joke that we will go back to the states and not recognize them.

We followed some signs to another place called Alla Ferrovia and ended up back at the train station. We had just made a huge loop around the Grand Canal. This ended up being good because Alaina wanted to get these glasses at a shop we had seen earlier so we just went back that way. We miraculously found the shop again—we had marked it on the map but I still had my doubts about whether we’d be able to get to it. The lady in the shop didn’t speak any English though so Alaina had a question about whether she could buy just the blue glasses in a set so I got to speak a little Spanish and kind of translate for them. The lady didn’t know any Spanish either but we managed. Alaina ended up having to just buy the set. It was fun to speak Spanish again though because this whole trip I’ve been dying to. Just because hearing everyone else on the streets speaking Italian makes me want to speak it and Spanish is as close as I can get.

Then we wandered a little more and found some stuff to sketch. After doing that for a while we got some gelato and headed back towards the station. When we got to the station I realized I’d left my water bottle sitting on a bench! So we walked back to see if it might still be there. It was and there was a guy on the bench looking at it. When I walked up to grab it he just looked at me and asked, “Il tuo?” and I just said, “Sí, grazie.” I was so proud of myself because I’d understood him and everything! It wasn’t really that awesome but it was enough for me. So then we got on the train and our car was closed so we just took seats in other cars and got to Milan safe and sound. We then took the subway back to our stop and walked to the hostel. I am exhausted but I am so excited for the day off tomorrow! 

Day 12 - Running around Milan, seeing the sights

5-25

I woke up at 7 again this morning. We slept with the windows open which felt glorious because our room cooled down. On the other hand because the windows were open all of the noise from the street below crashed into the room at 7 in the morning. Stupid, stupid motorcyclists, they are so LOUD! It gave me time to fold my clothes and get them back in my suitcase, though, so I’m not too terribly upset.

We had a long day. We went to a science museum to see some of Da Vinci’s inventions and learn more about Da Vinci in general. I actually really enjoyed that. There was a room in another part of the museum that had the whole process of making a violin. I really liked reading about that. It made me miss my viola. I’ll have to dig that out when I get home. I also really liked all the stuff it had on Da Vinci, it had little models of boats and other inventions he had made. I am still in awe of that man’s curiosity and ingenuity. I mean, if it had been left to people like me we would not have what we have today. Next we went to San Lorenzo which has now taken over the spot of my favorite church. It was laid out in a circle which makes it different from other churches. It also had half domes and quarter domes (which is a Byzantine influence) and I just like how it seemed to build up to the major dome.

Then we had lunch. Me and Linsey got pizza. I felt like the lady behind the counter hated me because I don’t know Italian. It was later, while I was eating, that I realized how much it must suck to come to America to visit. I mean, we are here and know next to no Italian but we have managed to do just fine because so many of them know English. When they come to the US we get annoyed with them for not knowing English and we don’t know any of their language. I had realized all this before, the double standard, but I hadn’t thought about just how annoying it would be to have a country feel that way about its visitors.

Then we went to another museum, this one was a theater museum. It actually was in an opera house that they still use today. They were rehearsing the opera Romeo and Juliet while we were going through so we got to peek in from one of the boxes they have open for visitors. It was so sweet. I really enjoyed that one too. There were some costumes on display in there and some scores out. I kind of wanted to buy one of the poster things but there wasn't one of an opera I knew so I didn’t. We actually talked about going to an opera there tonight, there were still tickets open but we didn’t end up having time. After this museum we went to the Castle Sforza which was like a fortress. There were a lot of pictures in there. There was a special bit about Michelangelo that had his final piece he worked on and some of his drawings that he did to prepare for sculpting. It was really cool. I thought about what if he meant to leave pieces unfinished, what if he wanted them to look like that? I realize he probably just didn’t finish but still, I think there would be something interesting about leaving something unfinished so as to let people wonder. I mean writers do it with books all the time, the open ending so that everyone can choose their own. What if a sculptor did it with a sculpture—something like leaving the face unfinished or not polishing off the statue—to allow for a little something on the viewer’s part? Maybe that’s silly but it was just what popped into my head. This place also had a ceiling painted by Da Vinci. It looked like trees, which I thought was really interesting.

Last we skipped over to the Santa Maria delle Grazie to see the Last Supper painting. I really, really enjoyed this. We had a presentation before-hand about the painting so I got to look for some of the symbolism in it. I really thought that was cool: how much thought Da Vinci put into the painting. I also thought about how revolutionary that would have been painting-wise for that time with the single-point perspective.  I just don’t know how Da Vinci managed to think of all these things, who would think to paint with a new perspective. I mean, not just paint the picture differently (he chose to paint the moment Jesus said someone would betray Him instead of the moment following that where Judas was revealed, which is what most painters of that time chose to paint) but also to play with the whole technique behind the picture.

After the Last Supper, we came back to the hostel and went to the grocery store nearby individually to grab some food for the next few days since tomorrow and Friday are our “free days”. Me and Alaina and Linsey are going to Venice tomorrow and then hanging around here on Friday—hopefully we can sleep in if those darn motorcycles give it a rest!

Day 11 - Lectures? Oh, that's right, this is a class...

5-24

So I’m sitting here sweating up a storm in this hot, hot hostel! I am taking a shower as soon as I finish and passing out. The plan was to sleep in until 9 ish this morning but I woke up at 7 all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed so I got up and got some water and went through some pictures. I still hadn’t loaded yesterday’s pics onto the laptop so I did that and named some of the pictures on here. Then we went and hopped on the subway where we were serenaded by a guitarist and violinist. It was pretty sweet, let me tell you.

We were actually on our way to the university here in Milan to listen to some lectures. First of all, let me tell you that there were butterflies on the wall in this room. Like crazy artwork sculpted butterflies that were beautifully painted and looking like they had just taken off. I was a little amazed. The first lecture was over non-destructive techniques used to diagnose historic masonry structures, which sounds super dry but I actually enjoyed it a lot. It was all about how they have to take different things into account when repairing old, historic buildings or else their “repairs” might do more damage than good in the long run. The next one was over a project this group had worked on with how to best protect “Cultural heritage” stuff.  That one was interesting but so hard to stay awake for because I just didn’t get enough sleep last night due to the temperature of our hostel room. Whoooey!

After those we grabbed some lunch and took a tour of some of the testing facilities they have. Got to see some small examples of the tests they had been talking about that morning. Then we had one more lecture, which I am ashamed to say I don’t really remember at all. The woman talked really softly so I couldn’t always make out what she was saying. And the afternoon nap syndrome definitely started creeping in on me so I fought through and stayed awake but it was a challenge. We had a museum that we went and saw after the lectures. I actually enjoyed some of the paintings but I definitely was speeding through. There was one called Il Bacio that was really pretty. I actually really liked it a lot.  There was just something about it that took me into the scene. I wondered who the two people were and thought it reminded me a little of Robin Hood; him being all scraggly looking and her being so nicely dressed.

We took the scenic route home and I just ended up lying on the bed this afternoon. I didn’t sleep, just lay there, looking at the ceiling. Then we had supper together. It was super delicious! Jeff and Kathryn went shopping and got stuff to make tacos and they were awesome! I was so thrilled not to have to go find a pizzeria. Then me and Linsey and Alaina decided to do some laundry. I’m still recovering from that ordeal. To use the washer here costs 3 euro which I just didn’t want to pay so I sink washed. I also decided that I wanted to wash all my pants and most my shirts. Bad choice. My fingers cramped during the wringing process and we found out the dryer is good for nothing so our room is full of the wet clothes of 4 girls. I feel like we were pretty clever in the spots we found to hang it all up. Good thing we have a couple days here to let it get completely dry. I have decided that between the stairs and sink washing I am going to have a beach body by the time I get back. Probably not, but still it feels like I should.

Ok, I am exhausted, I still have to shower and we have the worst day of the trip schedule-wise tomorrow. So I am going to hit the sack and try to sleep in this sauna of a room. 

Day 10 - Hello Milan! Hello wifi! Hello stairs.

5-23

I changed the numbering of my posts in honor of the Italian (European) style of floor numbering. Every building we go to has the 0^th floor (the ground floor) and goes up from there. My favorite building had two basement level: -1, -2.

We got up for a late breakfast at 9 and then had some time to pack up before we left to parade over to the train station with our bags. We were really early again for the train but we were to Milan by 2. We then took the subway and then walked 15 minutes to our hostel. We are here and there is internet again and we are pleased.

We did go to the Duomo here in Milan and we climbed to the top. We got to stand on the roof! I got quite a few pictures. We then went inside. It was so dark inside! It’s a gothic style church and so the idea is to have these huge windows. But all of the windows have stained glass so it doesn’t actually help that much. The stained glass was super impressive though! Oh my goodness. I’m not used to it being so detailed! There was one thing that was a depiction of Revelation. Now that was intense. 

It’s one of the girls’ birthdays so we are going to eat together and then I don’t know what. I am wearing my dress. I never thought it would actually come out of my suitcase but I am tired and it is clean and I really just did not want to choose between my 4 pairs of pants.

We went out for Liz’s birthday and found this pretty nice place to eat. It was on a boat which was pretty sweet. The boat didn’t move it was just cool to be on a boat to eat. Made me think of that song for a split second. I got what looked like mac and cheese with mushrooms but it did not taste like mac and cheese to me. I really enjoy the group dinners. It's more fun now because I know more of the people and we are all starting to get used to each others' sense of humors. I am tired and we have lectures tomorrow so today's will be short-ish. 

Day 9 - Shopping and some much needed relaxation!

5-22

Me and Linsey got up early, on accident, so we walked to the church before breakfast to fill up out bottles at the fountain there. When I was going to get dressed I got so annoyed because I only brought two t-shirts—bad choice for a girl who only ever wears t-shirts—and I wanted to wear one today. This would be no problem except I’d already worn my t’s the last 2 days! I ended up just sitting on the floor laying with my head on my hands in my suitcase. Then I changed into one of the dirty t-shirts. Then we came up for breakfast and ate with the group. We went on an urban hike up this hill to this place called the Piazza di Michelangelo and got to see a great view of Florence from there. I thought that all of our stairs were in preparation for the Duomo but I found even that was preparing me for today. It was so hot. It was actually probably less work today but it was so hot and we didn’t stop at all on the way which meant I thought it was harder.

After taking pictures up there we went down to another museum. We got to see more of Michelangelo’s stuff and this weird fountain with a woman with no nipples. We later found out that was because the water came out where her nipples should have been. Classy, right? There was a statue of Hermes that was pretty cool, though. He was standing on one foot on top of a gust of wind coming from a nymphs mouth (all you could see was the head) and he just looked like he was about to take off. I thought it was amazing.

We got the afternoon off and so first me and Linsey figured out our finances. How much we’d spent, what we’d spent it on, etc. We skipped lunch opting for some of the food we took from the last hotel instead. Then we went out and hit the markets. I managed to find gifts for most everyone on my list. I just have two more and I am under budget right now so I may be able to make a couple a little bit better. I am not sure how that will pan out. We don’t leave until late tomorrow so I am probably going to pack up tomorrow morning which means tonight I got to just sit on the terrace and sketch, read, and relax. It was a lot of fun. I was really hyper for some reason.  

So we went and sat down and got some pasta (which I really haven’t found a lot of pasta here that I love). Then we went for ice cream and found an H&M. I may or may not have gotten hit on randomly during this transition. I really don’t know if it did or not but one of the girls said this guy was hitting on me and I just know I was embarrassed. H&M was fun, though, it is like a department store kind of thing. So Alaina and I found all the ugly clothes and made fun of them. We also tried on hats and sunglasses. I was maybe a little crazy, which was odd because the gelato wasn’t until after H&M so it wasn’t sugar. WAIT! I had Fanta! Oh that sneaky, sneaky drink! I didn’t even think of the sugar in that. Anyway we had a ball in that store. Linsey and I actually tried on a long legged romper thing. They were gorgeous. Haha. Then we found an ATM for Alaina and went up to the terrace to sketch—I feel so fancy saying that we spent the evening “relaxing on the terrace”. I sketched some of the roofs that we can see from up here. I just really enjoy how the roofs overlap each other. I don’t feel like they are crowded, though, more just like they are cuddling with each other.

Note to self: Don’t ever drink Fanta again, it makes you super goofy.

Well, I think I am just going to figure out my finances for the rest of the trip and then read or go to bed or something. Who knows? Linsey and I did flirt with the idea of going out to find some Limoncello. It’s really yummy so it could definitely happen.

Day 8 - Two museums and three churches. Long day? Yes.

5-21

Today was really full. The churches were supposed to be for tomorrow but they switched it to today so that we could have tomorrow afternoon to do whatever we wanted. I am suddenly just really tired a lot. I have been getting plenty of sleep so I am not sure why I am so tired but I just hope I am not getting sick. I’ve been going crazy on the fluids today in an attempt to counter whatever may be coming.

So anyway, today, first we went to the Galleria dell ‘Accademia which housed more sculptures and more paintings. This is where the Michelangelo’s statue of David is. That was interesting to see. His hands and feet look ridiculously large up close but apparently from a distance it all looks normal. There were also plaster models of sculptures and some of Michelangelo’s unfinished statues. You could still see the chisel marks and everything. Then we went to the Santa Maria Novella which is a big church. Dr. E actually did her doctorate studies there so she knew a lot about it. The outside reminded me of the Santa Maria del Fiore just because both of them were white, green and pink on the outside. This was when we took our lunch break. There aren’t as many fountain things here as in Rome. The fountains I am talking about are just places where people can stop and drink or rinse their hands or fill a water bottle, not the big decorative ones. So we hunted one of those down and got some food and then headed back for the rest of the afternoon.

After lunch was the Basilica di San Lorenzo. This church was really sweet on the outside because the façade had never been put in place. So it really was just this big brick building that looked amazing and humble at the same time. I liked that a lot. The inside was beautiful the walls were really simple and there were stained glass windows and then the ceiling had all of this decoration on it that was gold. This church was funded by the Medici family so their family crest was also all over it. This one had a cloister which was beautiful and I decided that my house will have a little courtyard thing with an orange tree in the center like this one did. After this church we went to another church; the Santa Croce. This one had the façade in place but it also housed monks or nuns so you could see plain walls behind it a bit where they lived and stuff. This is also the place where Galileo and Michelangelo are buried. This one didn’t have vaulted ceilings so that made for something new and interesting. I decided while inside the color scheme of my dream kitchen. It was inspired by the inside of this church. 

Needless-to-say, I was churched out by the end of this. So we had one more museum left: the Galleria degli Uffizi. This is the one with the Birth of Venus and La Primavera. While we were waiting in line to get in I heard an accordion player playing what I think was Vivaldi’s Spring and then he started in on Canon in D. I was really impressed. It made me happy though to hear some classical music again. The Galleria took quite a while but it was a good time. I saw a picture of an angel holding a guitar which I recognized from somewhere; it’s called Musical Angel and I bought a postcard of it. My first souvenir of Italy for me!

I did see these shoes. Now I am not really a shopper but I just couldn’t forget these shoes that I saw and they weren’t ridiculously priced and I got them. I like them a lot though so hopefully other people will tell me they actually look good so that I know for sure. But when I was at the shoe shop there was this big guy. And I mean huge! He was so, so tall! I felt like a midget beside him and I usually just feel short so I am sure on this one. It was crazy. Then we had a group dinner which was delicious and we all had wine. I decided wine is definitely an acquired taste and I don’t have that one yet. It was funny. We sat on the terrace of the hotel which is just gorgeous and it was really a great idea on Dr. E’s part. We have a hike and a museum tomorrow but the afternoon is off so, fingers crossed, I’ll get some gifts out of the way at the market thing they have. I just have to figure out what gifts I am getting people. Sad day.

Day 7 - Off to beautiful, smelly Florence

5-20

So I have a confession to make. I think my suitcase and I may have bonded this morning. We all got up and stockpiled on hotel food this morning. And I mean really stockpiled. Then we rolled our way down to the subway, got to the train station. First victory of the day: Sara got her Roma card to work! (NOTE: our Roma card acted as a ticket to some of the things we saw. It was also our metro ticket that we had to scan and I always, always had to scan mine like five times.) Anyway, we waited a long time for our train. We got on, I lifted my bag into the compartment—I was a little scared I wouldn’t be able to get it up high enough—and sat down and soon we were on our way.

It was about an hour and a half ride so I read over the information I had brought about Pompeii since that is what I am going to present on. I realized that I chose a good topic because the ride just flew by. Soon we were in Florence. Then it was time to “transfer” to the hotel. That bit at the beginning where I said I bonded with my bag? This is it. As we rumbled over the cobble-stones, either walking in a herd or a never-ending line, and I saw the other girls wrestling with their duffels perched precariously on their rolling bags, I was glad for my little suitcase. I decided that my bag is not an ugly color, it’s just distinct.

Anyway, we got to our hotel and put all our bags in our rooms. This is when I saw the toilets. There is nothing wrong with the toilet itself. I wasn’t in my room, but the bathroom of another room contained a toilet, a bidet and a sink. The tank of the toilet was six feet up in the air which I thought was odd and then I saw the shower. Now this is literally a 2x4 foot room and I looked up on the wall opposite the toilet and there was the shower head. That room literally showers over their toilet. So imagine my joy when we found that by mere luck of the draw, we got a handicap room which means we get a shower with its own area of the bathroom. No curtain, so everything will get wet, but still, big improvement.

Enough toilet criticism, first thing we did after we got rid of the bags was grab some lunch. Then we went to this science museum about Galileo. I realize you can’t see my face, so I’ll tell you; I find what I’m about to tell you SUPER AMAZING! So there was this map they made of the world as they knew it and do you know what one of the continents was named? That’s right, Sara’. Right up there with Europe and Asia. I may or may not have taken an illegal picture at that point. MY NAME WAS A CONTINENT! Another interesting thing they had were all of these models of different ways a baby can form and come out. It was actually a little gross but all I know is that I am glad they have made advances in medicine or I would not be having a baby. Ever.

So after the museum we went back to the hotel to get our own rooms and to prepare for the next event. Climbing up the dome of a church called Santa Maria del Fiore. Now this was the church that I had to read about in the book, Brunelleschi’s Dome, so it was super sweet to actually get to see it. We got to climb up to the top though. All 463 stairs! The view was absolutely beautiful but my legs were burning. All those stairs that I’ve grown to hate have been preparing me for this moment.  After climbing up, we had to go back down, of course, which was complicated because for part of the way there is only one path. And this path is not wide so you had to get real close and personal with complete strangers. We made it down, though. I actually enjoyed it a lot because for this church the dome actually has two domes: an inner and an outer. The path we were on actually ran between them and you could see them arching up beside you. It made the ceilings kind of short in some places but that was no problemo for me!

We came out and Erdogmus had some stuff to tell us about the church before we saw the inside. I was wearing a bright green shirt and these gnat things were landing all over me! I looked around and no one else got landed on so I freaked out a little because I was sweaty after climbing all those stairs. At first I wondered if I stunk. After I ruled that out I decided that the gnats were merely confused, thinking I was a flower and THAT’S why they landed on me. Even if it’s not the truth, it made me feel a lot better.

I loved the interior of this church. It didn’t have a lot of sculptures or anything impressive in that sense. It was actually really plain. But I loved that it wasn’t what they had done to decorate the building that made it impressive, it was just the building itself. Simple and astounding with just the ribs and walls painted. There were stained glass windows but it was just the architecture in it of itself that was what made it beautiful. How cool is that?

When we came out it started to rain on us! Big raindrops rain too. Luckily our hotel was like a minute away so we made it back before it got bad. We got burgers for supper. I know, we’re in Italy and we got burgers? But we all just missed meat. We have been eating cheese pizza and variations of that for days and days. Haha. I am not planning on doing that again but it was nice just to have a reminder of home.

So I feel like I’m in a movie right now. There’s no A.C. so the windows are open and through it I can hear the sounds of the people in the café below and classical music playing. I am not sure if the classical music is from the restaurant or not but it is there none-the-less and it kind of makes this whole thing kind of peaceful. It makes me miss playing my viola and singing. It’s too bad there’s not time for everything in a day. Unfortunately, sitting here alone, relaxing, I am starting to miss some people from home. It is so beautiful I just wish they could see it too. Hopefully this feeling passes. I still have almost 3 weeks left before I get to go home and see them!

Day 6 - Scavenger hunt!

5-19

So we started off early and made it to St. Peter’s Basilica. There was actually no line which never happens so we were all pretty thrilled. We spent about an hour in there. There was a statue of St. Peter (it is his basilica so that makes sense) and apparently people come and touch his feet. Like kiss the feet or touch them. It was funny to see because his feet are worn down. Like the one where he had toes the toes are all slanted down and I couldn’t even tell if the other foot had even had toes to begin with. I laughed a lot because there were all these priests and even a monk and they were standing with it getting a picture touching his foot. It makes sense I just never thought I would see a priest tourist. Made me laugh. I liked St. Peter’s Basilica. There was also a statue made by Michelangelo that was of Mary holding Jesus. It was really cool. It was apparently the target of a terrorist-type attack because now they have it behind bullet-proof glass. I really did like what I could see of it. I took lots of pictures there.

After the basilica it was time for one of our graded scavenger hunts. So we split off into 3 groups and each got a list of 5 things we had to take pictures of. They had to be in a specific order and all on the same camera, that sort of thing. So we split up and it was me, Alaina, Jared, Linsey, Carrie and Kathryn (sp?). Kathryn has been to Rome before for spring break and is kind of a loner so she knows her way around really well. What I learned about Kathryn today is that she is a professional speed walker. Not officially or anything but that woman can MOVE! She kept this rigorous pace and the rest of us tried to keep up, we really tried, but we ended up jogging most of the scavenger hunt. She’s a beast! We actually all decided to take the metro back from the Coliseum so that we wouldn’t have to try and keep up the rest of the way to the hotel. Needless-to-say, we were the first ones done. Erdogmus said that we get some sort of prize. She hasn’t decided what.

After a lunch of nutella and crackers (it’s actually like toast except drier) and a kiwi, all of which were filched from the hotel breakfast set up this morning. We just cooled off in the hotel for like an hour. We were all sweaty from our hunt. We had a tour of the University this afternoon. It really wasn’t too spectacular. I mean, it was a really small space for a lot of students. I think they said there were over 150,000 students at this university and there are two others in Rome. That’s a lot of people! We did go see a church that was next to their Engineering College (which is a ways away from the main campus) that had a statue of Moses that Michelangelo had sculpted. Apparently he accidentally made the left leg too small so he had to try and fix it. He put a robe thing over that leg. He liked that one a lot, though, because I guess when he was done he looked at it and said, “Why aren’t you talking?” to it because it looked so real to him (NOTE: this is a very loose rendition of what went down because an Italian woman with pretty good but not great English was telling us this and I am trying to remember it). I thought that was interesting. Then we trekked back here to the hotel and I went and got a present for one of the guys at a shop about a short walk away and then went to a pizzeria really close to the hotel.

I did not get gelato today. I really just enjoy that there are gelato shops all over. I’m not even super crazy about gelato, I just like ice cream and they have like 4 shops on every block it seems. YUM! What I did instead was hang out reading and trying to recover in the hotel. We had a lot of time but I was just done. My roommates all ended up going off doing random things—one went with some others to exchange money and they got lost and the other two went looking for bargains—so I even got a little alone time which was glorious. I did open the window and poke my head out (there is no screen on our window which I think rocks) and I first of all saw this balcony next door with these beautiful red flowers climbing up it and I heard some Red Hot Chili Peppers. It makes me laugh how much American music we hear here. Ok, we may or may not be watching a movie here real soon so I’ll head out. Tomorrow we go to Florence so we are all frenzy-packing. Haha. Luckily, I did not pack too much or that would be a real pain.

Day 5 - Museum, museum, Sistine Chapel, museum...

5-18

I am just going to put out that I am absolutely shot so here we go. We got our glorious late start and took the subway up to the Vatican City area. We must have been running late though because we were really booking it for a while but we all got to the Vatican museum just fine. We went through so, so many rooms full of paintings and tapestries, sculptures and all sorts of things. My favorite was actually some eggs that the Russian tzars used to commission as gifts from this guy Fabergé. Some of them were pretty elaborate. There was one that was shaped like a tree (I don’t know why it was in with all the eggs…done by the same guy I guess) and it had a key and when you put the key in and turned it a bird popped out and sang! I didn’t actually get to see it do this but that’s what the card thing next to it told me it did. The other egg I liked a lot actually looked like a rosebud. Now, I liked it because it looked like a rosebud but then I read the little card thing and that is what made it one of my favorites. It said that Nicolas (who later became tzar) wrote in his diary “My dream – is to marry Alix G. one day” which he later did and her first Easter souvenir (that’s what the eggs were for, Easter) was the rosebud egg. Sigh. Sorry guys.

Moving right along then, so we went through the museum and there were a lot of paintings. Many of Mary and Jesus and a lot of Saints and such. I decided that I don’t like the way Mary is depicted in most paintings. She either looks like an idiot to me or she looks really mean. I found a maybe two Mary’s who were happy and not-airheaded looking but that definitely was not the norm. ANYWAY, after many paintings and sculptures, a hallway of maps (which are extremely precise, people still use them to find out where their Italian ancestors lived) we met up in a courtyard between museums. From there we continued over to the Sistine Chapel museum which houses a lot more than just the Sistine Chapel but that’s how we identified it none-the-less. We saw countless other paintings and artifacts and finally came to the Sistine Chapel where we found mobs of people (though it was less crowded than usual) taking many, many illegal photographs. There were police guys all around trying to enforce the no photography rule but I just felt bad for them. They were also attempting to keep it quiet. I give them credit for trying. Poor guys, I think that would be a long job.

By the time we finished in the Sistine we were all walking in a daze. So much to take in! Every painting has so many different parts; I felt like I could stand in some of the hallways for days and still not catch it all. There was picture of the creation/fall of Adam and Eve that I really liked. It had a lot of creatures in it: little weasels and birds and an elephant and tiger and lions and all sorts of animals interacting. I liked it a lot because the animals weren’t snuggling like they sometimes are depicted as doing, they were running around, baring their teeth at each other, not killing each other but not being best friends either. Then you see Adam and Eve being tempted. It’s actually right  in the middle but there so much other stuff that I hardly felt they were the focus. I thought that was interesting because wouldn’t that have been how it was? Everyone doing their thing while Adam and Eve get tempted by Satan. I really enjoyed it.

We tumbled out of the museums and went to get lunch. We got pizza, again. It was delicious as usual but I am beginning to worry I will get sick of Margheritta (cheese) pizza by the end of Rome. By this time it was 3 in the afternoon. We had spent 3+ hours in the Vatican museums! Refreshed by our interlude, we went off to see St. Peter’s Basilica. The line for that wrapped around the square though so we ended up nixing that in favor of finishing off the other things we were going to do today. So we marched over to the Castel Sant’ Angelo. That was so cool! There were all these courtyards on different levels and arches and stairways. There was one window in the stairway that had a couple of brick steps under it. I thought that if I lived in that castle that would be my reading niche. I was so bummed I didn’t get a picture of it. We went up to the top place (what is that called on a castle anyway?) and got some really sweet pictures of Rome. Pretty soon a mob of school kids with cameras came up and that was about when we decided to take our leave. Next we walked down to the Spanish steps and one of the guys presented about them. And after that we trekked up to the Piazza de Popolo (the one we went to yesterday) to go to that little Da Vinci museum that we didn’t get to yesterday.

It really was amazing. They had built a bunch of the machines that Da Vinci had drawn and we even got to turn the handles on some of them and watch them work. Now there was an amazing thinker. There were signs about how he learned about all of this stuff. He had this insatiable thirst for knowledge but not only that he just tried to combine all these things he knew into different inventions to make life easier or better. I can’t even imagine trying to function with so many different ideas and thoughts running through my head all the time.

That museum marked the end of our day together. It was about 630pm by the time we ended it all and we were all exhausted. We took the subway back down to the hotel and got off. Jared, Alaina and I went to get some gelato and then I decided that would hold me over. As soon as I got to my room I know I wouldn’t be leaving for supper: too much effort. So tonight will be a quiet one. I’ll shower and read some. Maybe hit the sack early tonight. We have an early morning tomorrow—we are going to try and hit St. Peter’s before the rush—so that should be interesting. I did take a lot photos of different paintings I liked and such, I just didn’t want to fill up a lot of space describing them when I can show you later.


OH! For those of you who have missed it, I would like to inform you that my watch tan-line has returned and is as blinding as ever. :D

Day 4 - A series of unfortunate (but hilarious) events

5-17
So today started off fabulously. I had a strange dream last night which I was disrupted from by one of my roommates, “Umm, you guys might want to get up.”  So I look at my watch and see it’s 745. We are meeting up at 8. Awesome.  Fortunately I was too tired to freak out so I just stumbled off my cot (did I mention I got stuck with the cot?) and got ready. I was better off than my other roommate who thought we had a half hour left. We made it down and even got breakfast in time. Yay for never wearing makeup! Haha.


So we took the subway back up to Piazza de Popolo, which is where we went last night. Sad day, right? We were all so excited that we’d gone exploring somewhere new, too. Haha. No, it was fine because we just briefly saw the Piazza and then went into a church there. I have decided that churches with sculptures by big windows are way more beautiful than stained-glass windows. I really enjoyed this church.  Which is why it is so sad that I don’t remember the name of it! No one else got to see the cool overlook/park thing we hiked up to yesterday so I feel like today wasn’t a repeat of our free time yesterday. We were going to go to this Leonardo Da Vinci museum that has little models of the inventions he drew but it was closed. I think we might hit that tomorrow.  We did go down to the Trevi fountain and I got a picture of me with the fountain. Then we went to the Pantheon and did some sketching. We had a long time for lunch and so I got some pizza for that and then we went exploring! We were just walking around looking at things. We found a shop called Tech it Easy. It was a shop full of little techie/sweet things that reminded me of stuff from thinkgeek.com. We decided it was time to head back and realized we were lost! Good thing we had a half hour, right? So we started walking in what we thought was the right direction, walked for a while, and then lost our confidence. So we stopped and asked someone thinking, “Who around here wouldn’t know where the Pantheon is.” And were informed that we were on the right path. Low and behold two blocks later we saw the magical sign pointing in the direction of the Pantheon!


To follow up this amazing adventure we went to the Capitoline Museums and saw the Piaza del Campidoglio, which Michaelangelo designed with these 6-foot wide steps. I thought it was pretty awesome. There were lots and lots of sculptures and painting in there. I thought it had a lot of neat sculptures. I liked the paintings a lot though because they had little card things saying what the painting was depicting. I got a couple mythological stories from that. We stopped at a building Erdogmus calls the “Wedding cake” which is a monument to Vittorio Emanuele II and went up on it to get some pictures of the city. Then we just came back to the hotel and had some time to recover before our dinner adventures.


Which ended up being quite the adventure. We got on the subway and went up the main street a ways. Then we found a pizza place which had delicious pizza. Then we went on a hunt for some gelato, found some really good stuff and then went back to the station to head back to the hotel. Once we got there Alaina remember this sweatshirt shop that had a really good deal and she wanted to head back that way. That was way over by the Pantheon which we had been walking away from to get to the station. So we doubled back and tried to find our way. After going the wrong way we turned around and walked the right way. 


We got totally lost. So here we are, in the middle of Rome, at like 9 at night. It’s dark and the streets are looking creepy and all I can say is hallelujah I was not alone! (NOTE: There weren’t any creepers out, it’s just I get weirded out taking my dog on a walk at night in Grand Island, Nebraska.) So we get to this corner and we are trying to figure out if this is the right way or not. So we’re standing there flipping the map around and around trying to find the street we’re on. At some point I noticed this guy SLOWLY putting his stuff away on his bike and watching us, laughing on the inside. So I point him out to the other girls and start cracking up because I realize this looks like something out of the movies. Three girls, lost, flipping a map around. So we ended up going up to him and asking for directions. As we walked toward him the look on his face was amazing. He was laughing at us but he just looked like, “Here it is. They have finally come to ask for help.” He told us we needed to walk the opposite direction we were going and it was about a mile away. 


I think we made his night. He definitely made ours. So we found the Pantheon, and the shop (which was closed) and then started back for the hotel. After seeing the moon over the Coliseum we soon arrived back at the hotel laughing over our dinner excursion. Great way to end the night. Even better knowing we don’t have to meet up until 10 tomorrow. Can I get a woot woot! Night guys.

Day 3 - Exploring day!

5-16
We didn’t meet until 930 today so we got to sleep in. We went to the place where Caesar was killed, the Area Sacra, which is where Rome’s cats live. That was cool. There were a handful of ruins in there and some paving. We couldn’t go down because they are still excavating but it was fun to see none-the-less.  Then we walked to the Piazza de Novena and looked at the architecture style of one of the buildings: it had a lot of different styles in it.


Then we went and saw the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva which from the outside looks like this sort of big, boring church but when you walk in all the sudden there are huge domes and arches and it’s enormous! It was so cool. I was running around looking at stuff, taking pictures when I just stopped and decided to drink it in. Oh my goodness! It was so big and beautiful and I thought about trying to build it and paint the ceilings way back when and I was just in awe. And God and I just had a moment that was too great. Just me being amazed at what He’d created us to be able to do. Soon our time here was done, though, and we were all getting hungry so we stopped at a bar (a pizza bar, of course) and got some lunch. Yum! We ate in front of the Pantheon and there was this accordion player playing all these classical songs I recognized! It was a little bit awesome, let me tell you.

Then, some of the people in our group wanted to spend some time at the Spanish steps and in that area so we hiked up there and climbed the steps (all 132 of them) and looked around up there. After that we got the rest of the day to ourselves. Instead of being lazy and going back to the hotel or to the city center a group of us decided to go exploring.

We got to a lot so this is going to be long and I apologize in advance!

We went to the Campo de Fiore (both this and the Piazza de Novena are like little plaza square things that have restaurants and shops with a fountain or statue in the center) and there was like this farmers market type thing set up with bags and food and spices and all sorts of things. At one point I walked up to some of the girls who were drinking a free sample of this stuff and one of them handed me the cup and said, “Here, try this, but don’t take too much”. So I looked in the cup (it was a little one) and there was barely any in it so I just drank it. Apparently, that is kind of what whiskey tastes like. It was alcoholic and it tasted disgusting. Maybe if I had had one of the fruitier ones it would have tasted better but what an awful first taste of alcohol. I won’t have any trouble waiting 2 years to give that a go again. I did find some cool stuff to get for gifts in the Campo so it was overall pretty good. Then one of the girls wanted gelato from a specific place so we ran around trying to find exactly where it was and found it and got some amazing gelato there.

From here we didn’t really know what we wanted to do so we started to head toward the Tiber River just to see stuff. We stopped at this place called the Archivio di Stato and looked inside. It had the coolest courtyard and we would have liked to run around but we were worried we might bother anyone who might be in there working or something. Apparently, at least according to the sign out front, it was like the university church or something at one point, which is pretty sweet. Then we went made it to the river finally and got some of the pictures of the Castel Sant’ Angelo and St Peter’s Basilica with the river and one of its bridges in it, which seem to be popular on the postcards here. We crossed the river and went to the Palazzo di Giustizia which is this ENORMOUS white building which is of course decked out in pillars and sculptures and such. We were all excited because we wanted to explore the inside of a building but apparently that is the current courthouse here. So when we saw the metal detectors at the entrance we rethought going in. We headed on to this giant piazza that was even further away. There was an event that they were getting ready for so it was not really very exciting, though. We saw this little building thing at the top of the hill behind this, however, and decided to go there. So we hiked up the hill, dodging traffic (most fun, real-life version of Frogger ever!) to this overlook building-thing. We get there and the view is AMAZING! There is also this huge park at the top which is gorgeous and just lovely.

Unfortunately we were all exhausted, having wandered and explored for close to 5 hours now, so we didn’t linger too long but went back down the hill in hopes of finding the subway stop that was nearby on our map. After crossing traffic on the “street of death” as I thought of it, we made it to the station and hopped on the subway taking a 20 minute ride back down to the stop in front of our hotel. (Let me note that the fact it took 20 minutes to get back is a testament to how far we really went from our little home-base as we traveled in the opposite direction of the places we go a lot, i.e. the coliseum, roman forum, etc.) Needless-to-say, we were exhausted and came up and flopped onto our beds to give our poor feet a break.

Half an hour later we were out again in search or sustenance. And after some indecision we ate at a place 10 minutes’ walk from the hotel. It was delicious, pasta and potatoes and chicken, yum. Now I have the evening off and I took it loading pictures onto my computer, writing this, and basking in the air-conditioned coolness of my room. We have an early morning tomorrow so this is all!

Day 2 - Coliseum, Roman Senate, Palatine...First day of class :)

5-15

Today was the first day of class. We went to the Coliseum this morning. We got an early start in an attempt to beat some of the crowds. We went in and heard one of the presentations from a guy who had chosen the Coliseum for his topic. That was interesting but then we got to go explore on our own for two hours. I just loved the brickwork and the arches. There are arches everywhere. At this point in the day they were still novel, but by later they I wasn't so impressed. I do really think we don't give ancient people enough credit for the things they accomplished. That thing is amazing!

I got in a couple sketches which was good. I actually really enjoyed the sketching. All the people who walked by would see me sketching and my favorites were the ones who would double back to see what I was looking at. Some of them even decided to take pictures of the doorways I was drawing. I am not sure but I think a few of them might have taken pictures of me too. That makes me laugh just thinking about it. I did feel awful official standing there with a sketch book looking at architecture. 

The Arch of Constantine was close so we saw that next. We spotted a wedding party taking pictures in front of that. We tried to go to this place Dr. Erdogmus remembered for lunch but she couldn’t find it. So we ended up going on this half hour walk through some of the back street-type things and that was cool. We just stopped and got sandwiches in the end. Lots and lots of walking today. 

We also got over to the Roman Forum. That was harder to picture since it's all ruins. I was a little disappointed because I learned that the senate building is not where Julius Caesar got stabbed. Apparently they (the senate) were temporarily relocated at that time to a place whose ruins are now the home of Rome’s cats. We saw that place yesterday. We saw the Palace of the Vestal Virgins today which had a beautiful garden out front and you could tell it used to be an impressive building. The girls who lived there were chosen when they were 10 and had to serve like 30 or so years in the temple of Vesta. They had to keep a fire going and keep a vow of chastity. If they didn’t do both, they were buried alive with a piece of bread. Apparently most of them ended up with this fate. Sad day, right? But they were really esteemed socially and got to live in what looks like it was a sweet palace.

We saw some people statues today! I actually saw some yesterday but I think I forgot to say that. The two I liked best were a tree-lady and (my favorite) a guy who looked like a green bronze statue except he was blinking! I also learned that Michael Jackson is not dead, he is just street performing here in Rome now. THAT was unexpected. 

So I wore my white shorts today. I did not spill on them or sit in anything, no sir, but I had this sinking feeling when I packed them that the day I wore them it would rain. It did. Fortunately not long enough or hard enough for me to get soaked but still. Just my luck. J I think it finally hit me this morning that we are in Italy. It’s not fully there but it’s starting to sink in. I love that the people don’t speak English here. They know it, but I just like walking down the road and hearing conversations in foreign languages. The little kids running around speaking Italian are so cute!I think I mentioned that we walked quite a bit. I suppose we really did not but we stood a lot, at least I did. I didn’t sit down all day for fear of getting these pants dirty! I think my legs are fine with what we did today but my feet are a little upset. We had free time this afternoon so I went ahead and uploaded my pictures and just kind of sat around. I had my first official Italian dinner. Meaning it was 4 courses. It was pretty good. I liked it. We had tiramisu and that was interesting, I liked it even though it had coffee taste all up in it. We walked around the center city after dinner and I threw a penny in the Trevi fountain and made a wish. That was sweet. We made it home just fine. We get to start late tomorrow which rocks. Tomorrow is just a museum of stuff from the sights we saw today so that is nice. It is pouring outside now. Glad that didn't happen this afternoon. 

Day 1 - Italy + Jet lag

5-14

The six of us who flew in this morning met Dr. E in the lobby and she bought us all breakfast. Then we went on this huge walk around just to get an overview of the stuff we’ll see. It was a two hour walk. I can't think of any better thing to do when you are exhausted from being up and flying. I took some pictures which I am hoping to label tonight before I forget what they are of. I just love the buildings here and how people actually hang their clothes from and have gardens on the balcony. There were also guys dressed as Roman soldiers which gave me a laugh and then I saw a horse-drawn carriage where the horse had a poop bag under his tail! It was so smart I just died laughing. 

Had my first taste of gelato. I had a flavor called Rose. I don’t know how to describe it but I’d say rose seemed pretty appropriate. We basically just walked past the major things. We did stop and see the pantheon. I got to see the holes left from the chunks that Brunelleschi took out of it to do destructive testing before he went to work on his own dome in Florence. (That is exciting because one of the books I read to get ready for this class was all about Brunelleschi and his big dome, Santa Maria de Fiore, so it was cool to see something in real life that I’d read about.) Jet lag is tough. I am so, so tired right now. We went for a walk on our own to stay awake after just chilling in the room this afternoon. We walked down to the old wall and to a basilica that is down that way. We figured out the taxi guy took us in circles on the way to the hotel from the airport and charged us way too much. Oh well. We went out to a group dinner and that was fun. We got some pizza and kind of got to know each other a little better. Time for bed now though we start class bright and early in the morning!

Day 0 - Flight

5 - 13
Mom and I got to Omaha no problem this morning and I met Alaina there. The flight got delayed but we still made our connection in New Jersey. I was so proud of myself I actually talked to my neighbors on the second flight! I didn’t get their names or where they are from but I know a lot about their daughters and I just feel like that was a big step. I did, however, find that that time at the end of the flight where everyone wants to leave but no one can get off the plane yet is way more awkward when you’ve made friends with your neighbors because it’s just hard to decide when you say, “Have fun! Bye!”. I think they didn’t know how to handle that either because they said goodbye right as everyone started standing which meant there was this awkward we-already-said-goodbye-but-you-are-still-right-here-next-to-me-I’m-just-going-to-ignore-you time. I also ate an airline meal. I think that was a first, let me tell you, it’s nothing to be excited about.

I realized I hate flying but I love seeing the clouds. I think I just hate that I can’t sit in more than 1 position and I feel like a nuisance when I walk around. I slept on the first flight a little and then on the long one it was more sporadic. Somehow, I managed to pass out during take-off on the second. I definitely woke up like an hour and a half into the flight totally bewildered. The good thing about that, though, was that then I really didn’t get any good sleep after. Which is normally bad, but after one semi-successful cat nap I looked out the window (which was not mine, I had to look across the aisle and over two people) and it was the most beautiful sunrise ever! The clouds were all fluffy-looking and the sky looked all smooth and it was the prettiest shade of red. I was so glad I saw that. I am not looking forward to the return flight though. 

I went to the bathroom at the airport and that was an experience! The seat popped up all on its own and that was new. I thought that a man must have designed these toilets. Then I freaked out because I couldn’t figure out how to flush it so I just started pushing buttons until something worked. It reminded me of Collinson’s class where she told us about the toilets of the world. There were six of us on the same flight over the ocean so we all got a taxi van and that was good. We made it to the hotel and met Dr. Erdogmus.