Last Day In Roma

Tomorrow I leave for Paris. Bright and early. However, I had time for one last perfect day in this beautiful city.
I started off by saying goodbye to the Colosseo. I must have just sat in front of it for about 45 minutes just staring and thinking about how much I'll miss seeing this amazing monument everyday. Then it started to rain so I ran over to the Pantheon. Seeing the rain come down into the Pantheon from the oculus (or "great eye") truly looks magical. I mean it literally looks like magic fairy dust or something falling down and making everyone's wishes come true. When it stopped raining I strolled over to St. Peter's Basilica and got my final gelato on the way (clementine and chocolate...yum!). Inside the basilica I walked around for a while taking in all of the amazing art and architecture. Then I noticed that there was a baptism going on so I watched that for a while as well. I finished up my trip to St. Peter's by sneaking onto the back of a tour group going down into the catacombs. It was really cold down there but also really neat. So many tombs of popes. After that excursion I met up with my last remaining roomie, Dre and her mom. We walked around and shopped for a bit. I realized that I had spent so much time in Rome but never actually bought anything for myself. I ended up getting a Roma soccer scarf and a cute green dress from Zara (Kate Middleton shops here!). Now I am completely exhausted and plan on taking an early night. Yet, all in all a very successful last day.

It's A Bittersweet Symphony

This past week has been an emotional roller coaster.

I started off being stressed about my final papers. But then, when hope was just about lost, I found a Rachel! Having Rachel come visit was fantastic. I loved showing her around Rome and running around eating gelato, crepes, and cannoli (this is not a mistake. cannoli is plural). I was also fun to show off my Italian language skills :)

However, Rachel left after a few days and I was left in the middle of finals week and completely stressed out. On Thursday I took my last final. The feeling of not having to memorize anymore emperors or popes was amazing. However, the joy of being done with finals was quickly replaced with denial and sadness. Thursday night IES hosted a farewell dinner and it was almost impossible not to cry. It was the last night that we all had together after spending four of the best months of our lives together in Rome. One of my roommates was leaving early in the morning so we stayed up all night saying goodbye to people and then went to Gianicolo. Gianicolo is by far one of the best sights in Rome. It is an overlook of the entire city that we pass on our way to school everyday. During the summer Gianicolo is filled with lovers and happiness, because who wouldn't be happy when you look like your life should be on a postcard? However, last night Gianicolo was home to seven girls laughing and crying and reminiscing about the best four months of our lives.

I am still in denial about leaving Rome but it's starting to hit me and it makes me incredibly sad. Yet at the same time I am happy to be going to Paris to see some of my favorite people and then to go home and be with my family, who I have missed very much during the past semester. I am currently packing all of my belongings and cleaning our apartment and buying last minute Christmas presents. I'm going to miss Rome but I know that I'll make it back one day and it'll feel the same. After all, Rome is the Eternal City.

My Oh My, How Time Flies

I cannot believe that is is December. That means that I have to go back to America soon. Sometimes it feels like I only got here last week. But before I go I have so many things to do! This past week I went to the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel. AMAZING. I'm definitely planning on going back before I leave though. I was really impressed with all of the ancient statues, especially, the Laocoon and the Augustus Primaporta. However, the painting/frescoes definitely topped the statues. I was overwhelmed by the size of Raphael's School of Athens and Parnassus and of course the Sistine Chapel is just as amazing as you think it would be. Here are some pictures of my life:

Laocoon

Augustus

School of Athens

Sistine Chapel

In other news, I have actually been doing schoolwork and not just running around Rome being fabulous. Finals are upon me and therefore much studying and essay-writing has been taking place. However that will not stop me from continuing to visit all of the places in Rome I have yet to go. This mainly refers to my attempts to discover the best gelato in Rome.












Now onto the exciting events that will occur before I leave for America. First, Rachel, my very good friend from the COW is taking some time away from philosophizing at Oxford to come romp around Rome with me! I've very excited to finally have someone come visit me so I can use my vast knowledge of Rome for the forces of good! And by that I mean that I'm really happy to see a familiar face and help her explore the wonders of the Eternal City!
Once my study abroad program ends and Rachel goes back to Oxford, I will be going on one last grand adventure. This adventure will take me to PARIS, a beautiful city that I have fallen in love with before and will most likely do again. Except this time around I have the added bonus of being there with many friends and the one person who I'm most excited to see... Mike! aka Boyfriend! Ahhhh! So excited!
But lets not get too ahead of ourselves, I still need to get through finals first.

Wherefore Art Thou Venezia

The roomies and I went to Venice! However, it was quit cold and we couldn't see too far most of the day because it was so foggy!! It was still really fun though! Venice is not like any other city I have ever been to. The closest would probably be Amsterdam but that is only due to the many canals. Amsterdam is much more organized though. There are no main streets in Venice, the whole cities consists of twisting little streets and bridges. Although it still only takes twenty minutes to walk from one side of the city to the other. Oh did I say city? I meant island. Venice is actually a small island off the coast of Italy. We spent most of the day in Venice doing some Christmas shopping, we even hopped on a water-bus and went to the even smaller island of Murano to go shopping as well. Murano is the island where all of Italy's famous glass is made.

See!? An Island!

I can't tell you much else about my shopping excursions because that might ruin some Christmas surprises!
Venice was really pretty though. We went to the main square (St. Marco) really early and no one else was there and even though it was foggy it was really beautiful. We went inside the church and the entire ceiling was gilded with gold. It was quite awe-inspiring.

San Marco

Next up: More field studies and feeling confused about having to go back to America soon

Catching Up. Finally.

Ciao tutti! In Italiana that means "hello all!". See? I am learning something! So. My life after fall break. It's time to catch up. I've been spending most of my time researching for presentation, going on magnificent field studies, registering for classes for when I go back to the Woo, and getting my midterms back. I did really well on my midterms. Three As and two Bs! I also got As on my Italian composition and quiz that we took after we got back. I think I'm taking some pretty good courses for Wooster although it's going to be a hard semester since I'm starting Junior IS!? That is crazy. IS seemed so far away when I first started at Wooster, which feels like yesterday. Oh well. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. Speaking of time moving quickly I only have 30 days before I leave for Paris! Which means that I only have 34 days before I have to leave Europe! That makes me sad but I think I'll definitely be happy to be home. But I'm not gone yet! So back to my life in Rome:
I have discovered my favorite museum in Rome, and possibly Italy. It is called the Villa Borghese and is a smaller house located in the gardens of the actual Villa Borghese built by the Cardinal Nephew Scipione Borghese. This museum has a beautiful collection of mainly Baroque and Renaissance pieces. Some of my favorites were the paintings by Raphael and Caravaggio and the immense collection of Bernini Sculptures. Here is my favorite:

Apollo and Daphne

I've also visited St. Peter's Basilica several times in the past week for field studies. It really is an amazing place. However, I did not particularly like that they replaced all of the amazing paintings with mosaic copies. If a painting was produced with oil on canvas there is no way that the same effect can be created with mosaics. The other thing that I thought was unfortunate was that you can only view Michelangelo's Pieta sculpture from far away and through a thick glass wall. Why must people try and destroy art and ruin it for everyone else? In a few weeks I go to the Vatican museums which I am excited about. I'm particularly excited to see The School of Athens.
Now, this weekend. Tonight I am catching the night train to Venice! Some of my roomies and I are going to spend all of Saturday there and hopefully get a lot of our Christmas shopping done! We may even take a waterbus to Murano, which is famous for it's glass. I'm really excited to go and see more of Italy! I'll tell you all about it when I get back to Rome!

Hello Venezia!

Frites and Sweets

Finally, Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a lot of fun but I definitely liked Spain better. Spain smelled better. Also, Amsterdam was a bit rainy. However, I still loved my trip there.

This is pretty much what Amsterdam looked like during the day. Good thing we had lots of frites (french fries) and waffles, and bagels to keep us warm! Amsterdam is an expensive city so we spent most of our time just walking around and exploring the city. We went to several famous squares (Rembrandt, Dam, etc.), the museum park, and the large public park. It was a lot of fun. We also went on a canal tour of the city which was really interesting.

This is a picture of Amsterdam at night. Everything it lit up but the main roads were brighter than usual since they already had some Christmas lights up! Rembrandt Square was our favorite place to visit at night. There are always so many people around the giant statue of the painter. Rembrandt is also a great place to find bars and the like at night. One of the nights we also ventured into the Red Light district. It was a little ridiculous. We saw some guys get a drink thrown at them by one of the window girls and the whole street just has a seedy kind of quality. But, it's an experience. After all, it's all about the story!

One of the days we were there we took a day trip to the city of Naarden where one of the people I was traveling with has a family friend. We were hosted for the day and ate a traditional Dutch lunch. This consisted of many types of bread, meat, and cheese. The most interesting thing about Naarden is that it is shaped like a star. The city was constructed in this way as a method of defense. The city has lots of underground tunnels that allowed the soldiers to listen to any changes in the movement of the lake. It was a really neat town, and at the end we even got to see a group of school children load and fire a cannon!

Below I'll put some more pictures of Amsterdam and then I'll promise to put up another post soon about more current events going on in my life!

Landmark at the Museum Park

Occupy Amsterdam: Sponsored by Banks

Real Madrid

The second part of my fall break was spent in the city of Madrid. Madrid is a very different city than both Barcelona and Rome. For starters it is a much smaller city. It is also a much more industrial city. However, it is still beautiful and full of historical sites and amazing art; enough to keep anyone busy for several days.
Our first day we flew in around lunchtime, so after exploring the area around our hostel we mainly just napped until dinner. For dinner we had paella again, because it's just that delicious. After dinner we went around to check out all of the different bars around our area. It was pretty fun, but most of the nightlife was closed because it was a Monday and most places are only open Thursday to Sunday.
The next day we did a tour of the city on a Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus. This is a bus that stops at major landmarks of the city and you can get off and explore then hop back on the next bus (they come about every 15 minutes). This was a lot of fun because we got to see all of the city and explore it too! My favorite stop was the Royal palace and gardens.

Royal Palace & Gardens

Some of the other sites were the government buildings and the cathedral. There is also the two art museums: El Prato and the Reina Sofia. We visited these the next day along with the botanical gardens. However, this blog would not be written by me if I didn't tell you all about our dinner adventures! For dinner we went to a restaurant that served traditional Spanish stews and had a Michelin Star! I was quite impressed. The stew was absolutely delicious. They serve it in a ceramic jar and the waiter then pours out the liquid onto a bed of noodles. Then you scoop out the meat and potatoes and vegetables and add them to the broth and noodles.

The waiter told me I had to hold my napkin like that.

Francisco de Goya 3rd of May

Now I can tell you about the art museums! The first museum that we visited was El Prat. El Prat is the largest art museum in Madrid. It houses the masterpieces from artists like: Carracci, Caravaggio, El Greco, Velasquez, and Goya. My favorite was the paintings by Goya. The museum had his black paintings as well as the famous 3rd of May. I didn't realize how large some of the paintings are! The Reina Sofia museum was dedicated to more modern art. There I saw many paintings by Salvador Dali and Picasso. The main attraction of the museum is Picasso's massive Guernica. 

Temple of Debod

That night we went to watch the sunset at the Temple of Debod. The Temple was brought to Madrid from Egypt and is placed on a hill that overlooks the rest of the city. On our last night we also went to see a flamenco show! It was lots of fun! There was a live band and it was really interesting to see the different styles of flamenco and all of the different moves. It's a lot more intense than I thought it was going to be! There is a lot of foot stomping! And that's about all we did in Madrid. We were just super touristy.
The next installment of my Fall Break blogs will be all about Amsterdam!

Pablo Picasso Guernica

 

 

Me Encanta Barcelona

For about the last ten days I have been traveling around Europe. The first stop on my adventure was Barcelona, Spain.

Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Europe, hands down. It is absolutely amazing there. We stayed at a really nice hostel close to one of the main streets and only a short walk to the harbor. The first day only three of us had arrived and we took a walk on La Rambla (The main street with lots of shops and restaurants) and ended up stumbling upon a market. However, this was not just any market. This was the Mercat de Mercats which is a market that is only held once a year is hosts some of the best of the best foods and wines of Barcelona. We spent just about three hours there grazing on cheeses, salamis, and seafood while sipping on Spanish wines. It was so much fun. And the longer we were there the more people we knew kept showing up!

This is the Mercat de Mercats

This is a sample of some delicious looking food that we saw and sampled

This served six with leftovers

The next thing we did was walk around some more and then head back to our hostel for a siesta. This was completely necessary since we needed to make room for the dinner that we were going to that night. We went to a place near the beach to try some authentic Spanish paella. It was amazing. Definitely one of our best meals. We even got sangria to go with our food! It was a little too sweet for me, but still quite good. I think I prefer Italian wine though, the Chianti that we had in Florence is still my favorite. After dinner we spent some time running around on the beach at night which was a lot of fun. Then we were off to discover Barcelona's famous night life. The club that we went to was huge and we danced and sang to the music all night. It is true that the locals stay out until 6am but we got tired before that, probably thanks to our giant dinner, and went back to the hostel to sleep. The next morning we met up with one of my roomies', Sara's, cousin. He is an architect who lives in Barcelona so he took us on a tour around the city and we got to experience Barcelona the way that the people that live there do, not just like a tourist. For dinner that night we had Tapas, a traditional Spanish dish which is essentially many different types of small servings that you choose from. Some of our favorites were the potatoes bravos (spicy potatoes), the ham croquettes, and the stuffed red peppers. The next day was devoted to experiencing the architecture of Gaudi. It was great to have an architect as our guide since he was really able to explain the importance and style of Gaudi. Here are some examples of his works:

It's so wavy!

It has a rainbow roof!

<- This church is possibly Gaudi's most famous work. It is called the Sagrada Familia and it is still under construction, long after the death of Gaudi. The four towers that are visible in this photo are only four out of twelve, one for each apostle. On the other side of the church there are scenes from the Passion carved into the facade.

This was our last day in Barcelona and we treated ourselves to an American comfort food done the Spanish way: burgers. More specifically, the best burgers in Europe and possibly the World. Yes, they were that delicious. We were unable to stop talking about them for a week. If you are ever in Barcelona, the restaurant is called Kiosko and it is amazing. The burger pictured is the Manchego burger with goat cheese and caramelized onions.

One of the most interesting things about Barcelona is that it is part of the region of Catalonia in Spain. Catalonia is currently trying to separate from Spain and become it's own nation. This is spurred by a sense of regionalism as opposed to nationalism. Catalonia also has their own language. It is more like a mixture of Italian and French than Spanish, and I actually found that I was able to read it better than normal Spanish.
Now, here are some more pictures of Barcelona:

This street had a Roman Triumphal Arch at the end!

At the beach after dinner

How perfect does this look?

Tired, on the boardwalk, and happy to be in Barcelona!

Midterms! Then Back To My Life Of Whimsy

Finally! Proof that I am going to actual school! Last week I had my Italian midterm which I think I did well on, but we shall see. This week I am studying for my area-studies midterms. My brain is practically bursting with all of the different pieces of art I need to know and their significance. It's pretty crazy. The class I'm most worried about though is Contemporary Italian Politics. Learning such a complex and utterly crazy political system is definitely difficult, and then how that system interacts with the European Union, it's madness! The Italians sure do love having crazy political scenes. But the sooner I get through my midterms means the sooner I leave for my fall break!
I really am living the life over here. For my fall break I am going to Barcelona, Madrid, and then Amsterdam! I'm really excited to be traveling with all of my roomies and explore all of these cities! In Barcelona I'm most excited just to immerse myself in Spanish culture and walk around pretending like I'm Picasso!

Barcelona: It looks pretty magical

Next stop is Madrid. Madrid is where I'll get to experience the art of Francisco Goya and his contemporaries. Also, the Botanical Gardens sound like they'll be pretty cool. I've also heard that the food's pretty great :)

Madrid: so excited

The last stop on our fall break is Amsterdam. We're all pretty excited to visit the Science Museum and the Ann Frank House. We also plan on taking as many water taxis as possible down the canals. It should be interesting going to a place that I don't really know that much about.

Amsterdam: looks like fun

Only The Living Allowed

On Friday I went on a field study to the Etruscan Necropolis!! For those that don't quite understand my excitement, the Etruscans were a civilization living just outside of Rome and were an established culture before the Romans even existed. However, the Etruscans were crucial to the development of Rome. The Etruscans traded with the Greeks and then traded that information to the Romans. Without the Etruscans the Romans would not have obtained the Greek/Latin alphabet as early as they did. The Etruscans were also a highly evolved civilization, for example women and men were treated fairly equally. Women in the Etruscan culture were allowed to dine with the men and drink wine; things that would never happen in the Greek and Roman cultures unless the woman was a prostitute. The Etruscans also built quite lavish tombs in the Necropolis which include stone beds and chairs and well preserved frescoes. So, being as in love with ancient history as I am, I was super excited for this trip! Here are some pictures of the awesome things I saw:

Tomb of the Leopards

That mound is a tomb. Amazing.

Friday was also the first real Fall weather day. It made me so happy! Apart from this excursion my weekend has been fairly tame. I've mainly just been doing laundry and studying for my midterms that are coming up!

Not Oktoberfest

grapes adorn the fountains

This weekend most of my flatmates went to Oktoberfest. However, due to the large price tag, I decided not to go. Instead, I went with some other Wooster people and some new friends to the Marino Grape Festival! We only went for the day on Sunday but still had a blast! Marino is an old medieval town that was once used as a summer getaway for the Roman nobility who built large villas there. Marino is 21 kilometers south of Rome and is famous for the grapes and wine that are produced there! Every year they have this festival to celebrate their town and the miracle of the fountains. The miracle of the fountains is when the water that usually flows turns into a golden white wine. Before the fountain miracle there is a parade with people dressed in medieval costume and lots of good food! However, the town does distribute free bags of grapes, and they were quite delicious! The wine that flows from the fountains is also free, but it was a little difficult to get to since there were so many people there also trying to get their cup filled. We did eventually get our free wine and it was really quite good but it was definitely worth going just for the festival atmosphere and the free grapes! Did I also mention that the train to get there only cost four euro round trip? I love the European public transportation systems :)

Firenze Is Not A Centaur

This weekend I visited Firenze! By Firenze I mean Florence, not the awesome centaur in Harry Potter. Florence was one of the most magical places I've visited though. The art, the architecture, the markets, the food... it was like living in a dream. Our hostel looked out onto a smaller leather market next to the Uffizi Gallery. The Uffizi is where we got to see Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and La Primavera. We went to the Uffizi and another gallery, the Accademia, on Friday after we dropped off our things at the hostel. The main exhibit at the Accademia was Michelangelo's David. It was amazing! It is approximately five times larger than I ever imagined it would be and the skill of Michelangelo is just phenomenal. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos of the David. One man tried to take one while we were there and he was promptly run down by security and made to delete the photo off of his camera.

The Birth of Venus

La Primavera

 The next big thing that we did was to visit the Duomo and then walk up to the top of the dome. The inside of the church is rather plain except for the dome decoration. However, the dome's decoration and the dome itself were amazing! Although if you are at all claustrophobic I would not recommend climbing to the top of the dome, even though the views of Florence are breathtaking. After the Duomo we set off to explore the main leather market. Everything smelt so nice there! Leather from Florence is hands down the best I've ever seen. Since I was so inspired by the shopping, I made my one major purchase...shoes! I bought myself a beautiful pair of tall equestrian style black leather boots! They are so comfortable and soft; I cannot wait for Fall to actually show up in Italy! Most of the girls I went with bought leather jackets which are all beautiful and fit them perfectly. At the market we all definitely polished our bargaining skills, the vendors definitely try to sell as high as they can to unsuspecting tourists! Both nights we were there we had delicious meals. The first night we went to a little restaurant recommended by Rick Steves and had really great traditional Tuscan cuisine. We even met a travel book author and his wife who ended up buying us some Chianti wine, everyone we met in Florence was so nice! The second night we participated in an event called WineTown where we were able to do a wine tasting at different locations around the city. It was really fun! Then we went to a restaurant that was recommended to us by the people behind us in line to enter the Duomo. It was also really good! We even branched out and tried things like "black pasta" (pasta made black with squid ink). Overall, it was a very successful (ans expensive!) weekend!

I have also started planning for fall break and just booked my flights for Barcelona and Madrid! Now I just have to figure out where to go for my last days of break!

Worth It

My entire trip has just been validated with one trip to the Capitoline Museum. I am so incredibly happy.

Now, off to Firenze (Florence) for the weekend so i can see such sights as Michaelangelo's David, Brunelleschi's Duomo (dome), and Botticelli's The Birth of Venus

Fun With Jesus

Nave of Chiesa del Gesu

"La Deposizione" -Caravaggio

The way that my classes work in Italy is that I have each class twice a week and Italian three times a week. For the classes that I have twice a week we have one one hour period and then a two hour period. The one hour classes are generally lecture based. However, the two hour classes are where the real fun begins. During these larger blocks we generally go out and look at things pertinent to what we are studying. This means that so far this week I have been to a total of four beautiful churches. I tend to visit churches for my classes since they are some of the most characteristic places to see Renaissance and Baroque art. On Tuesday I visited Chiesa del Gesu, Sant'Andrea della Valle, and Chiesa Nuovo. Wednesday, I went to Basilica di Santa Cecilia. All of the churches I went to were Baroque in style and Santa Cecilia had a Baroque nave decoration but the majority of the church was Renaissance. The Baroque, illusionist paintings in Chiesa del Gesu were some of the most amazing things that I've seen in Rome. Pictures do not do the paintings justice, I am so lucky to be able to see the art in person! The characters in the paintings do not respect the architecture of the boundaries of their frames but instead give a three dimensional effect that is so powerful that you cannot tell the differences between the paintings and the actual sculptures that interact with them. The church of Sant'Andrea della Valle was also very breathtaking. The church is dedicated to Saint Andrew and houses many great works of art. Perhaps the most exciting piece that we saw was painted by Caravaggio. The side altar glorifying St. Andrew was also amazing. The altar was decorated with gold, black onyx, and lapis lazuli; it was beautiful. The last church we visited on Tuesday was the Chiesa Nuova, or New Church. This church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The church is home to an icon of the Virgin that is meant to be miraculous. What I found to be miraculous was the triptych of paintings by Rubens that surrounds the icon. The painting that is at the center has a hole in the center in which one can view the icon. The painting surrounds the icon with a host of angels and the paintings on either side depict saints that are also important to the church.

Altar/ Center painting

Buses Just Aren't The Same As Aston Martins

This weekend I went to Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, and the Amalfi Coast. This area has to be one of the most beautiful in the entire world. The views were so breath-taking that it's amazing that anyone ever leaves.

Here's a happy picture!

So, my weekend started off by waking up at 6 a.m. (12 a.m. for America) in order to get on the bus from IES that would take us to Pompeii. I was so tired that I was able to sleep on the bus for a little bit! (this is an amazing accomplishment for me). We arrived at Pompeii and were instantly amazed at the size of the ruins. Pompeii is a large city and there is still a lot more of it to be excavated. For me, Pompeii was a mixture of sadness and awe. The technological advancements, the art, and the architecture were all wonders of the ancient world. How did these people think of these things, would our own technology be further along if Pompeii had been found earlier?... It was amazing. However, looking at the people and knowing of the excruciating suffering that they endured before they died was heartbreaking. These people looked like they were in pain around 2000 years after their deaths. The art that I saw at Pompeii was just as amazing. The color that has been preserved and the use of perspective was a little overwhelming. Being so close to so much history and walking the same streets that the people I saw would have walked on just confirms that i really am going into the right area of study. We also got to see Vesuvius in the distance, which was really cool. Luckily, it wasn't smoking so we didn't have to run away!
We had a late lunch in Pompeii and then we got back on the bus and left for Sorrento. Sorrento is a port town that has been built into the cliffs on the side of the mountains. It is one of the most picturesque places in all of Italy and everyone fell in love with it's views and the friendliness of the town. Almost every girl decided that this was the place she would go for her honeymoon and many jokes were made about IES Roma: Wedding Edition. Since we were by the sea it was quite chilly at night and I had to bring out a cardigan for the first time. We were also all on the lookout for George Clooney because he supposedly has a house there (not surprising. if I were super rich I would have a house here too). On Saturday we woke up early again (6:45, ugh) and took the ferry to the island of Capri. Capri is not a very large island but I did A LOT of walking. After taking the tram-type-thing up to the town of Capri I made the trek up to probably Capri's second highest peak which is host to the Villa Jovis. The Villa Jovis was home to the Emperor Tiberius when he needed to escape the angry people in Rome. Tiberius was not a particularly nice emperor... From here we walked along the edge of the cliff on a path to get to Villa Lysis. Then we walked back to the main piazza of Capri where we took a bus to the other town, Anacapri. From Anacapri I took a chairlift to Capri's highest peak, Monte Solaro, at 589 meters (1932 ft).

View from Monte Solaro

On Sunday we woke up at 7 a.m. to begin our tour of the Amalfi Coast. The coastline was beautiful but very scary. Our bus was so large and the roads so small and curvy that it was a miracle that we didn't fall off of the edge. Our stop at the town of Amalfi was really cool. We went into the cathedral of St. Andrew were I was able to see the relic that they have of his skull. On his Saint Day the ear is meant to secrete liquid which brings good luck. As we continued our tour though we found out that we would not be able to go to our last destination, Ravello. Ravello had experienced a large fire on Saturday and on Sunday the town was still smoking. We saw helicopters dipping into the sea in order to get water to the mountain village. Even though they were able to put the fire out there was still a threat of the mountain crumbling so we were forced to continue our town down the entire coast on our way back to Roma. This was really cool though because we got to see Sean Connery's villa and drive down the same roads as that famous James Bond car chase. Unfortunately, Italian drivers seem to think that all vehicles can move at the same speed along coastal roads. Let's just say that i would have felt much better if I had been in the car with James Bond.

Next weekend: Firenze

I Go To School (I Swear)

So today was my first official day of classes!!!! Today i went to my Renaissance class and my Contemporary Italian Politics class. Both of these sound like their going to be really great! The only problems are that my Renaissance class is starting with things that I already know, which is a bummer but I understand that people who have never taken Roman or Medieval Art/History courses need the information. Also, I'm kind of afraid of my Politics class... we may have to engage in the dreaded... public speaking. :( I'm sure I'll work it out though. Tomorrow I have my first Baroque Art class which I am super excited about!!!! I know that we're going to have lots of field studies since Rome is pretty much the Baroque capital of the world. No big deal, I just live here.
The weekend was pretty calm this week. We ended up going to karaoke on Sunday but we left pretty early so that we could get to bed at a reasonable hour for classes. Unfortunately the night bus that goes to Monteverde is the slowest and most unreliable night bus. We probably waited 45 minutes for it to show up. It was no good. We also went to the Trevi Fountain Sunday night as well as after class today. It is definitely one of my favorite places in Rome and I cannot wait to go when there are less tourists (meaning when it gets colder). According to one of my professors this is one of Rome's hottest Septembers in a long time, so hopefully it will cool down soon. I'm really looking forward to it cooling down so that it will be easier to visit all of Rome's glorious churches. The churches have a dress code of covered shoulders and nothing showing above the knee. This is a hard dress code to pull off when the weather doesn't get below 80 degrees. Therefore my roomies and I have decided that when we feel comfortable enough to wear pants then we'll start going into every church we pass. I'm sure it will make for some spectacular pictures!
This Friday i leave for POMPEII! I'm super excited. I'm sure seeing the people will be fascinating and awful at the same time but I'm just too excited by the perfect preservation of the art to think about that right now! However, this trip probably means that I will have to attempt to do laundry this week. Laundry here is interesting since the washing machine is the smallest I've ever seen and there is no dryer. We have drying racks on our balcony and we just have to wait and pray that it either doesn't rain or our stuff doesn't get pooped on by a bird. How awful would that be!? I guess this is what culture shock feels like. Weird. Still, not as bad as buying eggs and realizing that I had to wash the hen's bottom feathers off of them myself... Oh Italy, how I love thee.