Spring in Rome

Since I arrived in January I can't say the weather has ever been bad. During the first week of March it rained everyday but other than that, January through April is way more enjoyable in Rome then it is in Conklin.
My apartment is in Trastevere, the 'true Roman' area of Rome. My school is located in Monte Verde which is one of the higher end areas of Rome (think the Italian version of Lincoln Park in Chicago). During the first two weeks of April there were blossoms everywhere! It was absolutely gorgeous in Rome!
On the 20min walk from my apartment to school there is my dream house, it has a roof that you can hang out on and is the epitome of Italian design. There are these huge wisterias (i'm guessing on the name of these flowers) growing all along the side of the house and on the entrance gate. It was so beautiful that I couldn't not share with everyone at home.

Entrance gate to the house.

You can just picture yourself sitting on this windowsill reading a book and loving your Italian life.

My dream house! 

Side note: I took a cooking class a few weeks ago and learned how to make Cacio e Pepe, a common Roman pasta dish. So my roomies and I had family dinner night and I cooked for them, they were super impressed. If I can find the right kind of cheese when I get home then it can be my contribution for one of the Half Moon Lake dinners we have

Recipe for the best Italian dinner ever: Cacio e Pepe, bruschetta and a bottle of Tuscan wine!

Orvieto

Two weeks ago we took a day trip to Orvieto with my ISA group, Orvieto is a small town an hour and a half north of Rome, its very small and reminded me a lot of Siena, it has a beautiful church in the center of the town that is dedicated to Mary, I don't know if you've noticed but I feel like EVERY church in Italy is dedicated to Mary, I know this sounds bad but all these churches are starting to blend together, and my interest in them is becoming less and less. When I told my mom about this she said "you have ABC syndrome, just Another Beautiful Church."

Orvieto's ABC

The really amazing thing about Orvieto's church is that it was built to be a suitable place to house the Corporal of Bolsena, which is a miracle that occurred in 1263. The story tells of a traveling priest who was doubting the truth of transubstantiation (the change of bread and wine turning into the body and blood of Christ), well one day during mass he witnessed his Host bleeding so much that it stained the altar cloth. The cloth is now on display in the church, being Catholic it was an amazing thing to see.

The town of Orvieto was built on the very top of a hill and has miles and miles of underground tunnels. The tour guide took us through some of them and told us that the tunnels had three main uses: 1. they provided safety when other towns were attacking, 2. they provided a cool place to work and lots of olive oil was made here, and 3. they used the first floor tunnels for 'pigeoning' where they cut thousands of holes into the walls and pigeons would roost, mate, and lay eggs, they would would then sell the eggs and also sell pigeon meat. We called the first floor tunnels the pigeon brothel.

holes carved into the walls for the pigeons, A.K.A. the pigeon brothel

The rest of the day we walked around the town and tried the local cuisine. Orvieto is most known for its olive oil and black truffles (don't get your hopes up, I thought the tour guide was referring to chocolate, but APPARENTLY black truffles are mushrooms, yuck!)
After an amazing lunch we climbed the clock tower to see the whole town, the view was not as amazing as Florence's but it was still beautiful.

Maddie and I at the top of the tower

view of the whole town

Excuse me miss, are you in queue?

I am terribly sorry for not updating in a month! I really will try to be more persistent with it.

Last month Maddie found out that her favorite band ever, 'Band of Horses,' were going to be performing in London England. When she asked me if I would like to fly to London for the weekend to see them I thought "well I don't really NEED an excuse to go to London, so i'd have to say yes!" And off we were for a weekend in -what became- my new favorite city.
Early Thursday morning we had to call a taxi to take us to the airport, since the buses don't run at 3am, and we haggled with the taxi driver to take us there for 30euro (he probably would have charged us 50euro otherwise). The driver was crazy! We literally ran three red lights! He was going 90km/hr and never hit the brake once between my apartment and the airport. His idea of 'slowing down' was letting off the gas. I felt like I was apart of Grand Theft Auto. Thankfully we made it to the airport with no crashes and no speeding tickets (which I don't even think they have those here).
After experiencing my first RyanAir flight (very cheap flights that go all throughout Europe, just a little unreliable)  we finally landed in Heathrow Airport. We then took a bus to the train station where we met up with Maddies friend Celine. Celine lives in Norway but went to school with Maddie during their senior year of high school, she had never been to London either so agreed to meet up with us for the weekend. We all then made our way to the hostel...now if you've ever stayed in a hostel you know they are a hit or miss. This one was a miss. But to save Dad and Uncle Don any unnecessary worrying i'm just going to say that it was a very safe place run by nuns :)

After getting a couple maps and figuring out the transportation system we tackled the big sites of London, we saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abby, the London Eye, and of course took cliche tourist pictures with the red phone booths and double-decker buses.
I thought London was a perfect city, everyone was so nice and figuring out the underground transit was not hard at all. Maybe I just loved London so much because it was a nice break having everyone speak english and London actually has signs to tell you where to go (Rome has ZERO road signs) but I think the real reason was because London has Starbucks!

Not tourists at all...

WestMinster Abby

These doors are the main entrance to WestMinster, all bronze and gold (I think)

Parliament 

Double-decker bus

Friday night we headed out to the concert where Band of Horses, CeeLo Green, and Foo Fighters were all performing. It wasn't my usual country music but the Foo Fighters were really good.

Celine, Me and Maddie at the Concert

On Saturday we had lots of things on our to-do list left so we woke up early (yes Dad, BEFORE noon) and were ready to tackle the day. I heard a rumor that there was a mock Platform 9 3/4 made up somewhere in London and really wanted to find it. (For the four people in this world that haven't read Harry Potter, Platform 9 3/4 is the place where Harry has to find his train to get to his school in the first book, it technically doesn't exist to people who aren't wizards so he has a hard time finding it.) Well like the book we also had a hard time finding it. I had to ask a construction guy in the train station where platform nine and three-quarters was and he looked at me like I was an idiot and said "you mean platform 9?" Not wanting to seem anymore touristy than I already did I just said "yeah, 9" and he pointed me in the right direction. We then found platform 9 and platform 10 but still couldn't find platform 9 3/4. Now feeling even more like Harry himself I had to ask another guy if he knew where it was, this time I got somewhere because before I could even ask he just rolled his eyes and pointed saying "it's over there!"

If you're a Harry Potter lover like me you will know the significance of this photo. So excited to find Platform 9 3/4 

After which, we made our way to the Tower of London. The Tower is a historic castle that was founded in 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The castle was used as a prison as well as a royal residence until the Tudor period. The peak period of the castle's use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when Elizabeth I before she became queen, was held there. This use has led to the phrase "sent to the tower." Today the Tower holds the crown jewels, armory, and important documents. 

Unfortunately you can't take pictures of the crown jewels but needless to say they were amazing. The most impressive one there was the Royal Scepter which contains the Great Star of Africa, the largest cut diamond in the world, it's 530 carats. The Great Star of Africa was one of the nine diamonds cut from the Cullinan diamond which is the largest raw diamond ever found (3,106 carats). It definitely does not disappoint. 

you're not allowed to take pictures in the safe but I found this one on google, to see it in person was amazing

 Other than the crown jewels the Tower also holds armor and swords of past kings, replicas of their horses, and rooms and rooms of other historical objects, it was definitely worth the 18pounds to get in. 

King Henry VIII's armor and horse's armor 

Swords of England's Kings

Celine and I in front of The Tower of London

My favorite moment in London was when I was waiting in line to get a salad for lunch (I don't like the salads in Italy so I was very excited for this) and this lady tapped me on the shoulder and goes "excuse me miss, are you in queue?" I thought 'queue' was only something on Netflix so I thought it was so funny that Brits actually use it, i'm gonna start saying it now.



And no trip to London is complete without some gaudy souvenirs:

All of England is SO excited for this wedding, there's postcards, mugs, and banners you can buy with their faces on it

21st Birthday Weekend!

Turning 21 in Europe is no less fun than turning 21 in America. Even though you can 'already drink' the plus side is that ALL your friends are also legal to drink, regardless if they are 19 or 20. So Thursday night we headed to the bars and counted down to midnight. It was definitely a Birthday I will never forget.

The program that I am studying abroad with has two weekends planned for everyone. The transportation, hotel, and events are all included with the program cost. So Friday morning, the 18th, Maddie dragged me out of bed at 7am and made sure I didn't miss the bus to Florence. The bus ride took about four hours which was perfect for me because I just slept and drank water all morning.
Once we arrived in Florence we got settled into our rooms and then headed out to meet our tour guide. The tour guide for my group was Francesca and she was such a riot! She walked us all around the heart of Florence telling us all about its history and showing us the Cathedral, Duomo, and ending up at the Galleria dell'Accademia. The Galleria dell'Accademia's collection includes works by Botticelli, Perugino, and Ghirlandaio, but it is most famous for housing Michelangelo's  David. Francesca told us that Michelangelo was commissioned to make David as one of a series of statues to be placed on the roofline of the Florence Cathedral,  but because David is 17ft tall and weighs more then 6-tons the citizens figured not only could they not lift David to the roof, the roof probably wouldn't even be able to hold it without collapsing! So instead they placed him in the public square and then in 1873 moved him to the Galleria and have a replica in the square today.
It took Michelangelo three years to complete David (1501-1504) and was made out of one single piece of marble. The eyes of David are looking towards Rome with a 'warning glare' (Florence and Rome hate each other). Michelangelo also did not have a model to go off of, but like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo studied anatomy and carved everything completely by memory. It was definitely more impressive than any expectation I had.

Michelangelo's David; pictures are not allowed in the Galleria so I had to sneakily take one, Francesca told us that this is the better side of David :)

After spending hours in the Galleria we went out for my Birthday dinner, I ordered steak and potatoes, my absolute favorite meal! Even though i'm in Italy I still have my German need of meat and taters.

The next morning we had another tour with Francesca. She took us to the Ponte Vecchio bridge which is the only surviving bridge from WWII. She told us that when Hitler invaded Florence he walked across the bridge and loved the view so much that he told the German army to go ahead and bomb every bridge except this one. It use to be the site for the fish market but today it holds very expensive jewelry stores. There are also thousands of locks on the gates on the bridge, there is a tale that if you and your lover write your name on a lock and throw the key into the river then your love will last forever in Florence. Francesca told us, "yeah but then you go back to America and there you can get the divorce".

sooo many 'locks of love'

Francesca then took us to the Uffizi Gallery. It is one of the most famous art museums in the world and holds works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli (he painted the Primavera and the Birth of Venus), and many many others.

view of the Ponte Vecchio bridge from inside the Uffizi Gallery

After spending way to many hours looking at art we were free to explore to city on our own. Maddie and I took some great advice from our tour guide and headed to the Duomo. We then climbed the 464 stairs to the very top of the Dome for an absolute breathtaking view of the entire city.

-I tried to post a video that I took from the top but it wouldn't upload so i'll try to upload it to facebook-

After the Duomo we went to the leather market (Florence is famous for its leather) where I (unsuccessfully) tried to bargain for a leather jacket. I did end up buying one that I love but maybe if Brother Dan was with me I could have gotten it cheaper.
We then enjoyed our last night in Florence with an amazing meal, dancing in the Piazza, and just enjoying the beautiful sights of the town. If anyone goes to Italy I would say a stop in Florence is a MUST.

our tour guide Francesca, telling us all about her city

from left to right: Baptistry, Santa Maria Cathedral, Duomo, and Bell Tower. The very top of the Duomo is where we climbed to. 

Santa Maria Cathedral. picture does not do it justice, most beautiful church ever!

halfway up our hike to the top of the Dome I took a quick pic of the view looking down, and yes those tiny spots are people. Mom and Aunt Jean would not have liked this climb :)

Inside painting of the Dome. BEAUTIFUL!

The wild boar is the symbol of Florence, if you rub his nose you will get good luck.

Sunday morning we were woken up early again and all piled back onto the bus. We drove three hours to spend the day in Siena, where we had another tour guide to show us around the town. Siena is a much smaller city than Rome or Florence and has the true Italy feel to it. It is most famous for hosting the Palio, a horse race held twice a year, one in July and one in August. It is the most dangerous horse race in the world, think Kentucky Derby x100.

Piazza del Campo: the horses race three times around the tear shaped circle.

Beautiful Siena!

All in all I would say it was a very perfect birthday weekend.

An Italian Grandmother and the Elixir of Love

I am very sorry for not posting in a while, but on the plus side I have LOTS to write about!

I have always wanted to go to an Opera, and what better time to go to one while IN Italy where the Opera was invented?! So my friend Jessica and I (who also is an opera lover) did a little bit of researching and found where THE Opera House was and set out to buy our tickets. Since we bought the tickets the day before the show we had to purchase box seats since that was the only seats still available, but thankfully we got a 25% off student discount. yay for being a student.
That night we went out to eat with Jessica's friend Jacob who was in town for the weekend. Now Jacob studies in Florence but was born and raised in Sweden and he told me his family lives "close to the Arctic Circle"  (and I thought living in MI and going to school in the UP was cold).  Also his name isn't Jacob, its pronounced 'Ya-kub', but since I don't have a clue how to correctly spell his name i'm going to make it easy for us all and spell it like 'Jacob'. Jacob is fluent in Swedish, English, and semi-fluent in Italian and Jessica is also semi-fluent in Italian, so I was in pretty good company to learn where a great restaurant might be. We decided upon a small family-run place where nobody spoke English and the only American in the whole place was Jess and I. The food was AMAZING. They had it set up where the meal is already planned out for you, so you just sit down and they bring an Appetizer (bread and olive oil, salami, olives, and bruschetta) , 1st course (bowl of pasta), 2nd course (veal with some kind of sauce), a dessert (lemon cake and a shot of limoncello), and of course all the wine you can drink. It was definitely one of the best meals I have ever had.
Now when I said that it was a family-run place I mean it would be equivalent to Grandma Kelly setting up a restaurant and all her kids/grandkids being the waiters. When we first walked in we accidently entered into the kitchen where this short, plump grandmother was cooking away looking as content as possible, and one of her sons sat us at the only open table in the place which was in the outside tent. There must have been a futbol team dinner going on because everybody else sitting in the outside tent was between the ages of 15-18 and male, with a few girls sitting on the guy's laps. It reminded me of Mitchells wrestling team dinner, except these boys were Italian and EXTREMELY loud. They were throwing food across tables at each other and shouting at each other that one would think a fight is about to break out.  Halfway through our dinner the Italian grandmother came out and (-the following I did not make up, this really did happen-) she grabbed one of the boys by the ear, walked him over to the door and started screaming at him in Italian, she then went and grabbed another boy, drug him to the door, and continued yelling at both of them. Jessica translated some of it for me and apparently the grandmother was telling the boys "you are shit! you come from shit! and you will never be anything but shit!"  She then pushed them out the door and literally slammed the door in their face, walked over and told all the other boys to leave.  Then walked over to my table gave Jessica and I a hug and kiss on the forehead, told us how beautiful we were, and asked us if we needed more wine.
When I am old I want to be exactly like this. :)

The next day was Opera day! The Opera was called L'elisir d'amore  or The Elixir of Love. I wasn't quite sure what was going on since the Opera was in Italian but the gist of it was: handsome farm boy falls in love with the most beautiful girl in town, she loves him as well but decides to marry the ugly General instead since he has lots of money and that's what her family wants her to do. Farmer boy gets depressed and wants to kill himself until a gypsy comes along with a magic elixir that will make her fall back in love with him. They either both end up taking it or both don't take it, I was a little confused. But long story short she leaves the General and marries the Farmer and all is fair in love and war.
The songs were amazing and we even had an audience stand up after one song and yell 'BRAVO! BRAVISSIMO!'
Even though I didn't quite understand the story I loved every minute of it and am now obsessed with the Opera. I now want to go see Carmen since Jessica told me that that's suppose to be the best Opera ever.

The Opera House!

Took a really quick picture during the last song. The costumes were so cute!

Have to go to class now but Birthday weekend in Florence and weekend trip to London posts are soon to come!  

When In Rome...Do As the Romans Do?

The topic of this post is the differences I have realized thus far between Rome and Conklin (well besides the obvious):

1. Italy has NO ice. I didn't think this would be such a big deal, but I have, on many different occasions, missed ice more than I miss Sarah. So if anyone wants to mail me an ice cube tray I would love you forever.

2: There is dog poop on every sidewalk. Owners do not pick up after their precious fido once he is done doing his business. Something I learned after stepping in a pile the first night.

3:  You have to pay for water when you go to a restaurant. You also have to clarify that you want still water.

4: If you have a dog on a leash, you can't get in trouble for sleeping outside. Therefore, every homeless person in Rome has a dog.

5: Open containers are allowed in public places (i.e. the subway, walking down the street, etc.) but my Italian teacher told the class that the only people who actually take advantage of this rule are Americans and the homeless.

6: Bars in Italy are not the same as bars in America, bars have cappuccinos and sandwiches, a PUB has alcohol. life lesson.

7: Do not smile at people you don't know. They will either A: look at you weird, or B: be creepy men who then make kissy noises at you as you walk by.

8: Pedestrians do not have the right-of-way. ever.

9: Being a single American girl is not a bad thing. When going out to eat the waiter will give you free champagne, a bowl of strawberries, and then ask for your number. 

10: They have horse meat at the grocery store, right next to the beef stakes. There are no words to describe how grossed out I was. 

This is just the beginning. I am sure there will be more culture-shock stories to come :)

Santa Maria and the Pope!

After orientation on Friday, Maddie and I decided to explore Trastevere a bit. Thankfully to the Rome book Mom got me, we have lots of different sites pointed out for us. We decided to go see the Santa Maria church, built in the 12th century and is the oldest church in Rome. It is famously known for its beautiful mosaic artwork and it definitely does not disappoint.

Altar in Santa Maria

beautiful mosaic artwork

After seeing a church like this one begins to feel cheated, I think churches like this should exist in Michigan as well.


My ultimate goal thus far is to see the Sistine Chapel, and after learning that on the last Sunday of the month admission is free into the Vatican (usually the Vatican is closed on Sundays), my roommates and I had big plans to see it. But after having too much fun on Saturday night we didn't quite wake up at 8am as originally planned. So at 10:30 Sunday morning Maddie, Leah and I were finally up and dressed and ready to tackle the crowds. However after getting a little lost and taking the wrong bus we didn't get there till a little after noon and didn't make it past security till 12:30, which is also the same time the Sistine Chapel and all the museums close. Long story short we only got to see St. Peters Basilica, which is absolutely amazing but personally I think it looks bigger on t.v. then it does in real life.

St. Peter's Basilica 

inside view of St. Peters dome

Leah, Maddie and I overlooking the plaza

When we first got the the Vatican plaza there was a woman's voice on the intercom speaking in the Italian language, naturally I had no idea what she was saying and just thought she was telling the crowd how to enter into St. Peters and where to stand in line. It wasn't until a mans voice came on that I thought "hey that sounds like the Pope!" and low and behold I looked way up and saw Benedict himself saying a prayer (or maybe a reading? wasn't quite sure because he was also speaking in Italian) over the crowd. I was so excited!

Vatican plaza...St. Peter's basilica is the building to the left and you can just see the open window to the very right where the Pope was. 

Benedict! (thank God for a 50x zoom)