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.