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.

You Mean I'm Not On Vacation!?

So far this trip has felt more like a vacation than schoolwork. In all reality I imagine it to stay this way as well. Even though I've had intensive Italian classes all week and I took my first quiz today and all academics start on Monday... All of my classes have field trips and part of the classes are wandering around the city looking at beautiful things. The last section of my quiz today was to order gelato in Italian! Everything is so laid back and relaxed here it's hard to be stressed about almost anything. This is exactly what I needed and at the same time, I'm learning a lot which is what I ultimately came here for.
On Wednesday the roomies and I had our Italian cooking class. We made vegetables au gratin and chicken rolotini. Both were so delicious and easy! After we finished devouring the tasty things we made I had several hours before my class started. I decided that i would spend my time wandering around the city and I just so happened to come across the Pantheon. It was so beautiful inside and was the perfect way to spend my afternoon. However the tourists were a little crazy, especially surrounding the tomb of Raphael. It was still so amazing though. After the Pantheon I of course went for some gelato. So delicious. :] Tomorrow will most likely be a relaxed touristy day for all of us. I think we're going to all go back to the Pantheon, then to the Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps, and then look in all of the fabulous stores on Via del Corso that we can't afford. Via del Corso is the main shopping street in Rome; featuring the likes of Gucci, Valentino, Louis Vuitton as well as places like H&M.
It also looks like I'll be going to Paris after the semester is over :D Some boy finally bought his plane tickets for Europe and I'm thrilled to be able to add Paris to the list of fabulous places I'm going to. But let's not get too far ahead. Next weekend (Sept. 16) I'll be going to Pompeii, Capri, and the Amalfi Coast!

The Trade-Off

If you want to eat the fabulous pasta, pizza, prosciutto, cannolis, and other carb/sugar deliciousness then you have to walk. There is no alternative. However, Rome is too fashionable for sensible shoes and even if sneakers didn't scream "American!" it's still too hot to be wearing almost anything besides sandals. The fact the Rome seems to be about 75% cobblestone doesn't help either. Therefore, the more we eat the more we walk; the more we walk the more our feet hurt. Yet, the pain in our feet does not seem to have an effect on our enthusiasm to see Rome and take hundreds of pictures. Yesterday two of my roomies and I walked from our apartment in Monteverde to the Porte Portese in Trastevere. The Porte Portese is the largest flea market in Rome. If you are looking for anything from AAA batteries to crystal chandelier's, this is your place. We walked around the market for at least two hours. After a quick lunch we walked out of Trastevere to the Tiber River and up to Castel San Angelo where we met a friend. Then we walked into the neighborhood by the Vatican, Prati. After just hanging around for a bit we took a bus to the Colosseum. The Colosseum was absolutely amazing! I was so happy to be walking on/in history. The Arch of Constantine is right next to the Colosseum, so we went and saw that too! :D We then took the bus home to rest our very, very painful feet.
Today was the first day of intensive Italian. I'm only in 101 so we learned greetings and the alphabet today. It was fun but I think I'm most looking forward to my cooking class on Wednesday morning. In other exciting news, I am going to Florence at the end of September!!!! We booked our train rides today and everything! This semester is amazing.

I'm on a Boat!

Yesterday I went on a day trip to one of the lakes just north of Rome. The lake is called Lago di Martignano. Lago di Martignano is a volcanic lake and is possibly one of the lakes that supplied water to the famous Roman aqueducts. Another volcanic lake a little more north still supplies water going to one of Rome's most famous neighborhoods, Monteverde (which is where I live!). The lake was so much fun, and very relaxing. The roomies and I went on a paddleboat and just kind of hung around in the middle of the lake. The water was very blue and felt really nice since it's still really hot here. By hot I mean that it is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit here today and Italians think that it's cooling down... After we got home from the lake I wandered around Monteverde and then we made dinner in our apartment. The Italian student that we live with told us that our pasta was a little overcooked but that our sauce was good. By the time we leave we should all be able to make a perfect Italian meal! After dinner we walked around by Castel Sant'Angelo, which used to be the jail as well as the place for public executions. We then went through Piazza Navona and went on to Campo di Fiori. Today, we're catching up on some much needed sleep and going to the market. then maybe we'll just do some walking around. After all, dinner isn't until 9pm!