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