Internet in Italy is Impossible. Sorry!

Delays in writing seem to be caused by a variety of events, although in the case of the delay that puts the posts for Forence and the Cinque Terre slightly behind schedule, it is entirely due to a lack of internet access in Cinque Terre, Pisa, and Rome.  It wasn't until we arrived in Sorrento that we had reliable (and free) internet, even in our own room.  Please enjoy our last few days of events, below.

Florence with Andy! Part 1.

Day One:

After departing Castiglion Fiorentino for the last time on this trip, anyway, I hopped aboard my train to Florence, knowing that Andy would be waiting for me there, and he was.  Six weeks of waiting seemed to disappear as I welcomed him to Italy with a hug and kisses aplenty.  Our first course of action was to find our hotel, the Hotel Sampaoli.  We had directions but had neglected to have a map.  Despite this, we found it with little trouble, situated on the fourth floor of a row of buildings, just north of San Lorenzo (and its famous market) and the Medici Palace, directly over a Greek Restaurant. 

We rang the bell, heard the door click, and entered.  We were greeted in a minute or two by the man running the establishment who offered to help us with our bags and lead us up the stairs. The only complaint we could have lodged about our room was its location, literally opening on the lobby and its traffic, but the room itself was of a reasonable size, had a decent bathroom, a window, and a very large fan.  No AC but that's not uncommon and the fan did much to cool the room.

Me on the bed in Hotel #1, Sampaoli in Florence.

Nice people, decent location, no AC.

After resting for a bit, we headed out in search of lunch.  I took Andy to the small panini shop I'd been to on two of my previous visits to Florence and enjoyed their panini while walking around.  I took Andy past many of the notable spots including the Duomo, Orsanmichele, San Lorenzo, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi, and the Ponte Vecchio.  At the Palazzo Vecchio I gave Andy a informal version of my presentation about the statue of Perseus and Medusa.  We also hunted down the restaurant we had reservations to dine at the following evening, the Quatre Lione, which had been recommended by the neighbors we'd recently acquired back in Austin.  Past the ponte and a right at a book shop and there it was in a small piazza.

We headed back towards the hotel, stopping to grab a gelato at Grom on the way (strawberry and lemon for both of us) and took a stroll through the San Lorenzo Market, as Andy was tired from his flight.  Apparently, there'd been a group of teens on the flight who didn't ever shut up and sleep, so he wasn't able to get any sleep on the flight.  While he napped, I played on the computer and looked up the train schedule for our departure to the Cinque Terre and the hours of the Galileo Museum.

Strawberry and Lemon Gelato from GROM Florence

For dinner we went to a spot recommended by the hotel (there are only two they recommend, the second being the Quatre Lione) called Za Za.  The outside seemed loud and full, so we opted to sit inside and were lead to our choice of tables by a very perky Japanese girl.  It seemed that the place had a lot of front-of-house Japanese people, actually, which I found rather odd.  I had Tagliatelli (the really wide noodles) in boar sauce, grilled chicken with roasted potatoes, and a salad.  Andy had Pici with pesto sauce, a mixed grill platter with chicken, beef, lamb and a pork sausage with roasted potatoes, and a salad.  We tried a house white wine with it, and Andy followed it all with his first Italian coffee (which he's now addicted to because they don't make him as "hot" as a full cup of coffee would).

Dinner was followed by a slow stroll around Florence, enjoying the cooler air of the evening and the lessened crowds.  We walked towards the Ponte Vecchio and saw all the jewelry shops closed up for the night with their beautiful wood coverings in place to protect the glass and jewelry inside and took photos of the Arno with the lights reflecting off it from the buildings along the banks which, since I didn't have my camera at the time, we decided to return the following evening to get better shots.

The End of the Line...

It's over.  My six week study abroad is finished and I'm celebrating in a hostel in Florence with Andy, who is sleeping off his plane ride next to me as I write.  I told him to sleep on the plane but, apparently, that's difficult when you're surrounded by a school's worth of high school students, particularly when they won't shut up and sleep themselves.

The last week at Santa Chiara was pretty calm.  We stayed in Castiglion Fiorentino all week so that people could work on their group presentations and the class photography exhibit, which was on Tuesday.  It went pretty well, I think.  I was in a mood not fit for company, so I spent the time up in my room watching the Disney Animated Hercules and listening to the people in the courtyard below.

Wednesday was the first day of group presentations including the one for the group I was in.  One group went earlier in the day and discussed the roads.  After that we had a break and headed on a half hour hike to a nearby vineyard called La Pievuccia.  They organically grow, process, and bottle a variety of wines as well as olive oil and honey.  The owner took us on a tour of the wine making area, although they won't be doing any processing until the harvest in September, and discussed how they grow their plants, why they chose to be organic, and even slightly more natural than organic, as they process without chemicals, as well.  He, apparently, doesn't like Californian wine because in the states wine is something people drink on its own, so it needs to have certain flavors, but here, wine is designed to be eaten with food, so it is much more subtle.

 Olive orchards at La Pievuccia.

After the tour, we sat down to a tasting, with food, of course, little flower shaped pizzas were served with a light white wine, bruschetta with tomatoes and cheese and crostini with an olive paste came with the rose wine, and very good salami and bresaola with a nice bread came with the red.  Somewhere in the middle there were pieces of cheese topped with a plum sauce or a very light honey.  The last taste was of their vin santo, a very concentrated wine that ages for at least five years, I think, in warm temperatures.  It's made from grapes that have been picked and let dry almost to being raisins and tastes a lot like them.  It was served with biscotti, which wast to be dipped in the vin santo, as our TA, Erica, demonstrates in the image below.

Erica was always good for a laugh and a slightly (or entirely) inappropriate joke.

After the tasting, we had the opportunity to purchase some of the products we'd just tasted, and I took the opportunity to buy three bottles of the red wine because I know people at home who will enjoy it, a bottle of the vin santo because in small amounts, it's very nice, a jar of honey, and two bottles of olive oil.

While some of the students stayed to swim in the pool at the vineyard, the members of my group among a few others, opted to head back to Santa Chiara.  On the way back, I took the opportunity to snap some photos.  I took the one below of the Montecchio Vesponi Castle nearby as we were so much closer to it than at Santa Chiara.

The Castle of Montecchio Vesponi

As I was walking along, I saw some little chicks in an enclosure and found them quite cute but I didn't take any photos.  As I was wandering off, a man with lots of hair caught up to me in his white van and, in Italian, started saying something I imagine was something like, "Did you want to take photos of the chicks?" and "Come, come it's OK."  He led me over, gave me a prime spot overlooking the chickenwire mesh keeping the little fluffy things in, and urged me to take photos.  After a bit, he led me towards where the chickens and roosters were kept and urged me, again, to take photos, even suggesting I use a flash to get better shots but it was light enough, even in the shade to go without.  Then, as I was thanking him and heading off, he said something else I didn't understand and yelled to a younger man on the upper story porch to tell me something in English.  He asked if I could send them the photos if he gave me his email address so I told him that I would, and I did.  Here are a couple, one of some of the chicks, and one of a huge rooster with funny white feet.

Later, we gave our presentation with its scavenger hunt, awarded prizes to the winners, and went off to dinner.  Another group went after dinner and that was about it for me that day.  It had been long. At some point I did manage to get up to Cocoa Palm for gelato.

Lemon, Strawberry & Frutti di Bosco

Thursday started with another presentation followed by lunch then another presentation or two... or three... then we went off on another walk to La Pievuccia, this time for their dinner.  Apparently, it's common for some small wineries to offer dinners, or at least, they do there.  We'd been talking about doing it for almost the whole trip, so everyone was pretty excited.  We got semi-dressed up, as there'd be a long walk to get there, and headed out for dinner at eight.  The food was very nice, an appetizer plate with several offerings, lasagna, roasted pork with spinach and thin slices of potato, panna cotta covered with a mixed berry sauce, and your choice of vin santo, grapa, or Nocino, a walnut based liqueur.  I had the first, as I knew I liked it and grapa burns out my nose hairs and I'm not that huge a fan of walnuts. While the food was good, the best part was that we were sitting outside in the early evening with a nice breeze on a smal patio near the olive orchards.  Afterward we took a taxi (in batches) back to Santa Chiara.

Friday was composed almost entirely of packing and getting ready to leave, as I needed to take a train at around 11:30 to meet Andy in Florence on Saturday.  I had my last couple of meals at Santa Chiara, and enjoyed my last gelato at Cocoa Palm (mango, peach, and raspberry, I think); there's a photo on Henry I have to download at some point.

And that was that.  It was over, I was packed.  All that was lacking was a few hours and a few last minute chores like stripping my bed, picking up a bit of trash, and the last minute packing after the morning activities.  I said, and hugged, good bye some of the people still at the center, grabbed my bags and left for my last walk down the hill to the train station... and towards Florence and Andy.

Good bye, Santa Chiara.  Farewell, Castiglion Fiorentino.

And on the Seventh Day, She Rested... and Ate Cake

No, I'm not god, or God, or Marie Antoinette or whatever... but I did take a break from doing stuff yesterday.  After staying up late the night before, I slept until noon or so, then checked email and went to lunch with my roommate and a couple of other girls.  Then we went and got very delicious tiramisu from Hermes' bar, which was really good... then I did... something... Oh, yeah, I came into the studio for the internets and talked to Andy on Google Chat for a while.  I contemplated going to the Palio race but, as it was a walk up the hill and not nearly as relaxing as I wanted, and was likely to be full of people, I opted to stay at Santa Chiara and do stuff on the webs and such, including talking to Erica on the Facebook chat thing while we were sitting in the same room, only a few feet away from each other.

A bit later on, I printed the posters for the exhibition on Tuesday as well as the invitations for the faculty.  The former were given to the U of Virginia students for dispersal around town, and the latter were folded in half, personalized, and given to Ann to distribute to the faculty members, RAs, and staff of Santa Chiara.

Then we had dinner... on plastic plates, with plastic cups... I guess that, since so many people were out at the Palio and eating later (they were saving dinner for the people who were off to the Palio) and didn't want to have to do dishes.  We had really nice rotini in a super cheesy tomato sauce, which was delicious, and the very thinly sliced rare beef with amazing mashed potatoes and a salad.  I think dessert was the torta di nonna, grandmother's cake, which we've had before but was really nice and very sweet.

After dinner, I went back to the studio and did more online stuff, maybe talked to Andy some more... something like that. Then I went up to my room and finished reading Dragonsong, it's a short book... promise.  Monica had been downstairs watching Moulin Rouge and we were both reading in bed, her a magazine she got from another girl, me, the aforementioned book, and snacking on cookies.  Before she came back, I took the photo below... a long exposure shot out my window towards the hills and the night's full moon.

The long, white streak a bit up from the bottom of the image is a car's headlights during the eight second exposure for the image.  Here's one of the moon on its own with a much faster exposure setting, so you can actually see the craters and landscape.

Saturday in Siena

One student was sick when we went to Siena the first time, so Ann promised to take her back before the program was over so she could see it.  That was yesterday.  Ann said that anyone who wanted to, was free to come with them so I took her up on her offer, met the others who had down at the station (I got a ride from one of the people who runs Santa Chiara because she was taking some other guests down to the station), and got on the 7:51 am train to Arezzo.  We would be taking a bus from Arezzo to Siena.  The rides were uneventful and we got to Siena around ten, grabbed a snack, and wandered off to see what we'd missed before.  I spent the day with three of my fellow students including Eric, a guy only thirteen days younger than me and the second oldest student on the trip, Maggie, and Amanda, the girl who'd missed the first trip to Siena (who is in the photo with the scarf I posted a while ago).

Essentially, we retraced our steps from the first visit but first we went into the San Domenico, the church that houses St. Catherine of Siena's head and one of her fingers, to see what I considered my chief reason for returning to Siena, to pay homage to (read gawk at) my pseudo patron saint's remains.  I also lit a candle for grandma Catherine because I thought she would have liked to if she'd been there.  After that we went to the Palazzo Publico and Piazza del Campo, which are set up for the Palio, a major horse race between the nine districts of Siena, which is always held on the 2nd of July, which is Friday.  The road around the piazza has been filled with "holy soil" and there were people working to get it very flat, steamrollering it, wetting it down, etc.  The photo below shows what I like to see as a true example of Italian work ethic.  One guy works, the others watch or "guard", a sophisticated form of watching. 

Rather than going in to the Palazzo with Ann, her sons, and Amanda, Maggie, Eric and I went to a small plaza behind the Palazzo where they have markets on certain days of the week but not, apparently on Sundays.  It's the same one the restaurant we went to on the first trip is situated on.  We enjoyed the view, took photos of the houses around us and sat down under the covered plaza to wait and chat.  A little girl and her father were playing in the plaza and I took some photos of them, including the one below.  Although she seems sleepy, she was only actually in this position with her eyes closed for a few seconds.  It wasn't the shot I was looking for but I love it.

When we got the call that Ann and Amanda were headed for the Duomo, we headed in that direction and Maggie and I bought tickets (still only 5 euro for students to get access to six different buildings) and, after Ann had bought tickets for Amanda, her boys, and herself, we went into the Duomo while Eric stayed outside to sketch.  It hadn't changed much since we were there a couple of weeks ago but they had decorated the nave with flags representing the nine areas in honor of the palio. I saw a really old guy (below) dressed all in white with shiny gold sneakers (very popular here) talking with two women while standing in an area that looked like it was getting some work done on it.  After they finished talking, he knelt down on the floor, mixed up some stuff, and started re-grouting one of the tiles on the floor of the Duomo.  After a bit, a tour guide started talking to him (in Italian) and translated to her British tourists that he was the restorer in charge of all the Duomo's floors.

Then we headed out of the Duomo and off to lunch around 12:30.  One of the RA type people we have here at Santa Chiara had come with us (as had three other girls from our group) and before separating after getting off the bus, we'd decided to meet at her favorite restaurant, and eat their famous gigantic, cheese-filled gnocchi... which were amazing.  Soft, fluffy, not gummy or heavy in an amazing sauce that I can't even begin to describe.  I also had some bruschetta covered with bright red tomatoes, salty cheese, and a liberal dousing of olive oil, and a small mixed salad.  Rather than forcing them to put together a table for eleven, we sat in three groups, Amanda, Maggie, Eric and I sat in a room away from Ann and her sons, who were seated at a table next to the other four.  Eric got a white fish in a tomato based sauce which I didn't try but smelled amazing.  Maggie got two large but thin pieces of steak that had been cooking in a sauce that tasted like heaven and had been primarily composed of Chianti.  Amanda had tiramisu and Eric and Maggie shared a panna cotta with caramel sauce, which I tried and it was delicious, the caramel not tasting at all burnt, which it so often does.  The waiters, who I'm guessing also are the owners, were very nice and the male of the two was very often flirting, winking, and teasing everyone. After we'd eaten he brought two bottles to the table, one of grappa and the other of amaretto.  Apparently we were getting a drink on the house, I had some of the amaretto, which wasn't di'Saronno but was smoother and soft, sweet, and warm.

The Sign

Menu and Hours

After taking our leave, we went back up to the Duomo museum, saw the amazing stained glass window from the Duomo again, below (the one in the Duomo is a copy), the beautiful Duccio Maesta, and, one of my favorite sculptures of the trip, a small sculpture of a boy with very curly hair lying on a large cushion, which I think is a memorial statue for someone's brother, or so my Italian would have me believe.

 Duomo Window surrounded by statues originally on the exterior of the Duomo facade.

 These two photos weren't "supposed" to be taken, as photography is not allowed in the Duomo Museum... Oh well.

Then a quick turn around the Crypt and it was nearly four... lunch was a very long event, and rightly so.  We went in search of gelato which took longer than it should have thanks to Eric's assurance that he knew where we were going when, in fact, he didn't but Maggie and I pulled out our maps, figured out where we were, and got us headed in the right direction.  I got strawberry and lemon but I nearly opted for coffee and dark chocolate... I decided I wanted something refreshing rather than heavy, though the coffee gelato is usually very good.  Maybe Cocoa Palm will have it today.

Then we headed off for the bus station, grabbed some bottled water, and climbed on the bus.  On the way back, I listened to music and took pictures of the countryside through the bus windows.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Olive Trees

The Countryside with a Castle and Silos

Agricultural Work

Sometimes a great shot was... interrupted, I suppose, by very impertinent signs, trees, and often just my inability to get ready when the bus was moving 30-50 miles per hour.  I also had issues with window glare but I think, overall, the shots came out well.

Silly Sign wants to be photographed

The bus was a bit late, so we missed our close connection for our train back to Castiglion Fiorentino, which meant we'd be late in for dinner.  Jen and the other three girls with her didn't want to wait, so they took a cab back which was supposed to cost around 30 euro.  Originally, we'd thought to take cabs, too but decided that we'd rather wait, plus there weren't any other cabs.  We got to Castiglion at 7:35 (dinner is at 7:30) and raced up the hill.  They knew we'd be late and had set a table aside for us so when we got there 18 minutes later after a walk that can easily take closer to 25 minutes at a normal pace, we still had food.  Spaghetti with pancetta in a tomato sauce followed by fried chicken, which was a bit dry), french fries, and a salad.  I had a nectarine and kiwi for "dessert".  Then I went to look at photos, video chatted with Andy on google chat, and went to watch Chicago... movie was good, but the DVD was very poor quality.  There was no color and sometimes very big pixels.  Not sure what was up with that.  Read a little... found a copy of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong, and went to bed around three.

Apologies and Excuses

OK... So, it's pretty clear now to... probably everyone... that I'm not good at this blog thing and the main problem started when I got stuck with doing the next posts for Rome, and then, since I didn't want to skip anything, I just stopped writing.  So, now all the interesting stuff is over as far as the study abroad goes, so instead of trying to catch you up, which I may do at some later point in time, I'm going to pretend I never missed a single day and start with today... after I post this.

I promise that I will make a best effort to summarize an old day as I do each new day... and when Andy gets here, I'll make him help.

The Weekend #2

Oh, gosh... where did I leave off... Friday?... and it's Wednesday now.  That means I've got about 4-1/2 days to make up for... let's make it five.  So... Saturday was a pretty slow day, got up late after being exhausted from Florence and went to a little place in Castiglion for lunch where you get your food by the pound as if it's a deli, although I suppose that's sort of what it was.  I got a quarter of chicken and some peas in butter sauce which were both very good for just over 6 euro, not bad, I thought.  

After that, we walked, and walked... and walked in search of the other gelato place in town.  It was a long walk.  One of the girls kept getting cat calls and whistles and honks and looks from the guys driving along the road, so we started counting.  By the time we finished what we guessed was a four mile walk round trip, she'd racked up fifteen of them, not counting general looks.  Oh, and the gelato was good but I guess we decided it wasn't worth the walk, although the A&Mers seem to go wild for it.

That's about all of interest that happened that day.  I don't remember what we had for dinner that night, I think the Santa Chiara dinners just seem to blend together.  I'm sure it was good.

Sunday a bunch of us got up early to catch a train to Arezzo for their first-weekend-of-the-month Antique Fair.  I wandered around on my own for a while.  I noticed one of the living statues preparing for the day, putting on his makeup while sitting on his podium.  There was a good deal of very nice furniture that I'm sure my mom would have liked, a lot of jewelry, pottery, rugs, paintings... quite the mish-mash of stuff, though I didn't end up buying anything.  There was also a lot of stuff that wasn't actually antique, including other jewelry, art, and little collectibles like the kitties below.  I'm not sure they serve any purpose, but they looked funny hanging on the line like that.

I didn't last there long and took the noon bus back to Castiglion Fiorentino... it lets us off at the top of the hill, which is helpful.  Went to Roggi's for lunch and had a pizza and then went back to Santa Chiara to pack for our departure to Rome just before eight the next morning.  After that I read for a bit.  I finished Twilight Watch on either Saturday or Sunday, so was reading the final book, Last Watch, which I'm almost finished with, now.

Shortly before our 6 PM pre-departure meeting, I found out that Ann wanted our two-page reading response paper before we left for Rome, so my plan to do it during the long weekend wasn't going to fly... so I was anxious to get enough of the book read to respond to the prompts properly and get it written later that night.

When we got down to dinner, we were surprised to see spoons, as we generally only have soup at lunch and have pasta for dinner but we had both.  Sausage and cheese tortellini floating in beef broth.  Interesting, but good.  The main course was roasted chicken and beef served with a fresh salad and mashed potatoes.

After dinner I scanned the prompts for their subject and started reading the text for the answers.  I don't think I did too badly, in the end, although I did take a break before writing my conclusion paragraph to go up the the medieval festival for the last time to watch their fireworks show.  It was rumored around Santa Chiara that they'd spent 10K euro on them, which didn't sound too impressive to me, as I know that the municipal shows for New Year's and the Fourth can often run several hundred thousand and up.

Maybe it was the location, maybe just a company that gives them a great deal, but the display lasted for at least twenty minutes and it was phenomenal.  They shot the fireworks around the castle's tower, some from a small section inside the inner walls, behind the tower, and others in front of the walls and the tower, so the explosions lit up the tower and framed it, emphasizing the shapes of the wall, tower, and open space.  At one point, there was even a cascade of white sparks coming down from the top of the tower like a waterfall, which lasted for a good 2-3 minutes on its own, with other fireworks going off in the background.  They had a plethora of my favorite types of fireworks and none of the gigantic orbs so prevalent in the States, which I find pedantic and boring. They were also predominantly white with gold, and tended to use color sparingly, which I found much more interesting and far prettier.

Afterwards, I'd pretty much decided that I'd never seen a city-funded display that I'd liked better than this and that it was necessary for me to come back again in the hopes that they'd do something as good in the future.  Then I wrote the conclusion to my paper, emailed it to Ann, and went off to dreamland.

Rewind to Rome... Day Three

I actually wrote this post weeks ago in Text Edit but never posted it because I couldn't get through the photo editing process and find some time to post.

Every Wednesday the Papa gives a speech in front of Saint Peter's, so Ann is of the informed opinion, which I would agree to if I had any other experience, that this is the best day to go to the Vatican Museum to see it's wonderful paintings and sculptures, plus the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's itself because if you get there while everyone is trying to go listen to the pope, they're not trying to get into the museum.  Considering the wait was less than 20 minutes, it seems very plausible to me. 

After our breakfast we met at the Piazza Navona at 8:30 and hiked across Ponte Sant'Angelo towards the Castel Sant'Angelo, which is also some old dead (Hadrian) guy's tomb.  We walked down what Ann considers a tragedy of Architecture, the Via della Conciliazione which was put in around WWII or so by some bad Italians who wanted to have impressive military parades... or something like that.  It was early.  She also pointed out a religious shop that had many different sorts of rosaries and would, for free, send them to the vatican to be blessed (en masse) by the pope and then returned to your hotel the next day.

While walking around the Piazza San Pietro we stopped to recollect as some of our number had headed for the head and, while waiting, I snapped this shot of a very happy cardinal.  He was flanked by a couple of priests of some level or other but the bright red beanie was what caught my eye.  Too bad it didn't have a propeller.  We achieved our quick entry into the Vatican Museum... what I honestly think was our first museum since this trip started... although I suppose the Spedale in Siena was a sort of museum.

My only goal today was to find one of the Swiss guard in their beautiful costumes designed in the 1500s or so by Michelangelo himself and take a photo of them with a secondary goal of buying a rosary and having it blessed by the pope for my grandmother.  Someone pointed out this guy, who I'm guessing is some sort of trainee Swiss guard guy because this outfit is not modern at all but it's also not their usual full uniform.  I worried when I saw him that they might have a different uniform to wear in the summer but I was happy to find later that this was not the case.  Sorry the photo's really bleached but it's the only one I shot and I had the exposure setting up a bit high and I'm too lazy to mess with it much in Photoshop.

There's way too much to see in this museum to really talk about it here and the photos I got weren't great, though I did get some nice shots in a few, better lit sections of it, including in the Sistine Chapel itself, which I have to admit was nice but a touch underwhelming.  Somehow I'd decided that it was a much bigger ceiling than it actually is (or at least than it appears, as...), and it's directly overhead, it's really, really high up, and the room it's in is packed with people who won't shut up.  The guards are constantly telling people to not take photos... (yes, I ignored them but I did it rather stealthily, if I do say so myself, so they were never yelling at me), and to be quiet, and I was trying to listen to Ann's podcast about the room and having trouble figuring out what was what, as I had neglected to put my field trip packet in my bag that morning.  So... not the best experience.  Here's one of my contraband shots.

After that we snuck out the group entrance, which gets you directly from the Sistine Chapel into St. Peter's without having to wait in another (2-3 hour) line.  I strongly suggest anyone who visits confidently strolls out this exit if they can at all manage it... preferably in the midst of a group of tourists to avoid being blocked by guard peoples.

The last "official" stop that day was to the Basilica itself.  I will say this... as small as the Sistine Chapel seemed, St. Peter's was HUGE.  There were tons of smaller chapels, a huge center aisle, and amazing art in the form of paintings, frescos, and statues including the beautiful Pieta.  On our way out, we saw a pair of brides entering with their new spouses and it seemed quite sweet and maybe a bit movie-ish.

As we were walking out of the basilica I saw not just one of the Swiss guards but THREE!  I would have attempted to get some better shots than these but silly people kept asking them questions like how to get somewhere or something like that and they were getting in the way of my shots and the other students I was with wanted to go buy rosaries and eat lunch.  Silly people... wanting food... it was only almost three.  Ok... I suppose I was hungry, too... I'm not sure that "hungry" is a strong enough word for what I was currently feeling, actually.  Oh well.  I found them, and I took photos and I'm happy now.  Then, I went and found a rosary for my grandmother, gave it to be blessed and hoped it would appear at the hotel the next day.

Then we went and ate.  We were headed back to the hotel and just stopped when we found a place that had enough room for the eleven of us who were still in a group.  I think I had ravioli in a rose sauce.  It wasn't bad, wasn't awesome.  I think the restaurant has two menus depending on whether you're Italian or a tourist.  I'm informed that this is not an uncommon practice.

Back to the hotel to rest a bit... my photos stop after St. Peter's, so I can't say for sure what I did but after whatever I did (which may have been something as sacrilegious as watching TV), I decided I'd had enough Italian food and went in search of the mythical kebab shop near the Campo di Fiori.  I needed some cash too and unfortunately, found the food (after running into some cohorts who set me on the right track) before I found the bankomat but I found the latter and headed back to the former and bought a doner sandwich, two dolmas, and some rice pudding (to go).  Then, stopping at a nice-looking bakery, I grabbed six amaretti, wonderful little almond cookies that were crisp on the outside but soft and buttery on the inside, and a gelato which I think was mint and dark chocolate but I'm not sure and I didn't have my camera on me.  Then I went back to the hotel, eating the gelato, got up to my room and gave a cookie to my ailing roommate, and sat down to watch TV while eating my dinner.  Mom, it wasn't Anatolia, but it wasn't horrid... well, the rice pudding wasn't great, really but... anyway. That was the end of day three in Rome.

Rome Day Two

In an attempt to just get this written so that I'm up to date, I'm going to try to keep this brief.  I've been procrastinating writing for the past three days because it seems like I have a lot to catch up on so rather than agonize about it further, I'm going to take the Band-Aid removal technique into hand and just do it... fast. 

Last post I discussed Monday, our long first day in Rome next up is Tuesday the 8th, which was a half day.  We met in the lobby of Hotel Tiziano at 8:30 after satisfying our hunger at the hotel's ample buffet breakfast of cereals, fruits, ham, cheese, bread, a variety of pastries and beverages.  Not the best spread I've seen but certainly varied.

Our locations for the day were all on the south side of the Tiber river in the Trastevere area.  Before getting down there, though, we stopped a couple blocks away from the Campo di Fiori to look at the facade of a building and I discovered my first Roman film crew.  According to a guy wearing a vest emblazoned with something like Hollywood Special Effects team, it wasn't a film shoot, merely something for publicity but it looked like a lot of setup for a publicity op.  They even had one of the giant fill lights that look like orbs and are used to light up the park at night during ACL. 

The first real stop was Santa Maria in Trastevere which was the home of many beautiful mosaics by Pietro Cavallini.  The ceiling was not lit very well but with my 1.8 lens on a half second exposure I was able to see the actual brightness of the ceiling's gold leaf and the panels filled with pink, green, and blue.  There was also a really nice statue of St. Anthony of Padua with notes all over it containing, I'm guessing, prayers and requests to the saint.

After that, we went over, very briefly to San Crisogono, a small chapel with beautiful floors and a dead lady in a glass box, like Snow White but old.  I think we found out later that she'd died in the mid1800s and was beatified in 1920.  She had a small altar and while we were there, a priest was holding a mini mass for about eight people.  At first I thought it was a funeral so I thought it would be impolite to take photos.

The last stop that day was Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.  It's choir loft houses a beautiful Cavallini fresco of the Last Judgement but getting to it is a bit of a challenge.  It requires talking to the nuns who live there (under a vow of silence) and getting permission to go up, eight at a time in their little elevator to see it.  It was worth it, as it was very pretty and the view down into the main section of the church was nice.  They also sell beautiful cards and nice lavender soap (I think they make them themselves) so I bought a brick of the latter.  Even just sitting in my room it perfumes the air.  The photo is the ceiling in the church but I'm not sure who painted it.

That was it for the class stuff that day.  I joined Ann and her boys and Lawrence for lunch at a small place that Ann was familiar with from her previous trips in and it was very good.  After that we walked over to the hotel that Lawrence will be staying at when he returns to Rome with his wife so he could show us (Ann) one of his favorite restaurants.  It looks like a nice spot and it might be interesting to find again.  I don't remember what it's called but I think it's something like "The Cistern".

After that, we took the tram back to the hotel and, after sitting around contemplating what to do with myself for the rest of the day, I went off on my own to explore.  I ran into a tiny gelateria on a back street who knows where and grabbed my gelato for the day, lemon and frutti di bosco, I think... and wandered around taking photos down driveways and into courtyards.

I managed to find a couple of big things to cross off my list including the Trevi Fountain (which was swamped with people, mostly tourists, mostly eating the expensive gelato sold right in the square around the fountain).  I found this Japanese woman amazingly diverting, as she was wandering around with three cones (with mini cones on top) in her two hands, looking for her family so that they could claim them as their contents melted down to her hands as it was very hot that day.  It was a great place for people-watching.  People contorting themselves in odd positions to get the right photo, a priest in a long white robe carrying a backpack and roller blades, and kids, bored at looking at old stuff (I'm guessing here).  I found them all much more interesting than the fountain, but here's a photo of it for good measure.

My next goal was to find the Spanish steps as they're just a bit farther north than the fountain but I wasn't trying very hard to get there in a direct manner, mostly just wandering wherever it looked interesting to go.  As I was standing at a large intersection getting my bearings, I saw a parade of cars pass, the first of which was flying the Chinese flag.  I'm guessing the ambassador or something like that was headed off, followed by about 7-8 other cars.  I went off in the right direction and found myself going up a slight incline, waving at people I passed and  ran into one of the four or so Aveda salons in Rome... which is situated, interestingly enough, directly at the top of the Spanish steps themselves.  The steps were nice but I didn't find them nearly as nice as the steps in Paris up to the big cathedral where the scavenger hunt in Amelie was filmed, as they don't go up steeply enough to actually see the full flight of steps from the base.  To see them properly requires being on the 4th or 5th floor of the buildings facing them (I'm guessing, anyway).

I wasn't aware that the area around the Spanish Steps was the high-class shopping district in Rome or the home of the Plaza hotel... but it is.  I wandered around, window shopping and wishing I had the money for the beautiful jewels in the shops and telling myself that it didn't matter that I didn't have the money as I didn't have anything to wear them with.  Oh well.  Apparently the Cow Parade is in Rome... again (?).  I found two of them near the base of the Spanish Steps and a few others around later on, one of the ones near the steps was cloud patterned and had a swastika carved into it (by someone other than the original artist, I'm guessing).

As I wandered through the high-class shops, I ran into what appeared a retrospective of police vehicles in Italy including an old car, motorcycles, and even a new SWAT type van with one of the iRobot (makers of Roomba) bomb robot things.  It looked like they were preparing for a big event.

The shop windows and displays are beautiful in Rome, an art in themselves.  Ties are artistically curved to show off their sheen and patterns and placed with careful attention paid to color coordination with the others in the display.

I arrived at the area in front of (what I later learned to be) the Parliament building to see a small gathering of people waiting around a smaller group wearing all black with black and white patterned scarves around their necks and heads, with "PALESTINE" embroidered on them in red, green and black lettering.  I wasn't sure what was going on, but I felt it would be interesting to stay and watch and see what would happen.  

What ensued was a dynamic performance by fourteen men and women discussing the state of things in Palestine, individual stories of Palestinians, and occasional bursts of song.  It was performed primarily in Arabic and Italian and only occasionally in English but the performance was enough to understand the idea of the stories without necessarily comprehending the meaning of the words.

The performers were diverse, though most appeared to be in their twenties or thirties and they were lead by an older woman who spoke both Italian and English and (presumably) Arabic who spent much of the performance sitting in the audience, watching.  Each of the members played a role, speaking a story or translating it from Arabic to English or Italian.  The performance moved through a variety of emotions; sorrow, joy, despair, anger, betrayal, hatred, fear, hope and love.  

I sat through it all, taking over 200 photos of the performance.  At the end, they joyously paraded and danced around their "stage", hopeful for the future of Palestine and its people.  They ran through the audience handing out more of the scarves they wore.  I got one while I was looking through my images, placed over my shoulders by one of the performers with a thank you.

After that, I wandered back in the direction of the hotel, called Ann as she'd been talking about this restaurant that, for 15 euro, gives you a huge anti pasta selection she was planning to go to that night so I could find out where they were and if they were still going.  Some of the other students had been talking about going, so I thought there'd be more people.  Ann and her sons were waiting with Lawrence in the Piazza Navone for one of his old students to join them for dinner.  I found them there and, after waiting a bit longer, we headed for the restaurant without him.  It was tons of food but I didn't think it tasted nearly as good as what the huge tables of Italians around us were having smelled. Oh, and on the way to the Piazza Navone, I saw my second film crew for the day.

After that we went to my second gelato stop for the night, a small place near the Pantheon that had really good gelato.  I think I had strawberry and peach.  That's a guess.  Afterwards, I headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Rome Day One... Ups and Downs

Monday morning, early... to Rome... I had to schlep all my stuff down to the train station with everyone else and hop on the 7:57 train to Roma Termini.  It was a long ride on a full train and I spent it reading Last Watch.  Upon arrival, we headed for our four star hotel, the Hotel Tiziano to check in and leave our bags.  My first room, 204 was really nice... there were two full beds and one twin but the twin was tucked in its own little corner, away from the others, which I liked a lot... Unfortunately, it was not to last. 

Shortly after we arrived, we left again, as this was going to be a long day of touring the ancient sites of Rome, as we headed to the Campo di Fiori one of the girls asked if she could switch rooms with me so that she could be with the other people in my room... Since I really liked my spot and she didn't know what their room was like because it wasn't ready for them, I told her that I'd think about it, hoping to see it later on before I decided... more on that later...

This marks the beginning of about two hours that were just awful... after we got to the Campo di Fiori, Ann talked for a minute and, when she was done and people were headed off to get some food from the venders, I asked her if she knew where there was a cash machine and rather than simply saying something like, "Sorry, no.  Look around and I'm sure you'll find one." She responded in a voice that sounded, I thought, like she'd had enough of me and just wanted me to leave her alone and acted like I'd asked her something almost offensive... seeing as she's been in Rome dozens of times and I've never been, I thought it was a fair enough question to ask.  Apparently she didn't think that was the case. 

I spent the next twenty minutes walking around looking for one... in tears.  It really doesn't help that that would have been completely prevented if she'd given me the 90 euro I was supposed to have for our meal allowance in Rome, which I still haven't gotten and we only have one day left.  It also didn't help that I was starting to think this whole trip was a mistake.  I've never been good at joining groups, finding friends, and generally getting along with people.  Now I'm in a foreign country with no family, no friends, and no Andy, and, since I don't feel like any of the people on this trip care to spend time with me, no one but myself. 

I spend most of my free time alone, no one asks me to join them for dinner or to go somewhere unless I'm right next to them, no one calls me or texts me.  I've asked people to do stuff with me and it seems like they usually don't feel up for it, if they're already going and I ask to go along, I feel like I'm just a tag-along.  If I don't make the effort to be with people, I end up alone.  Maybe it's not a fair way to look at things, as there are people who seem to care, or act like they care, but it only lasts for short periods of time.  When I'm not around any more, it seems like I don't matter.

At the time, I'd not had anything to eat at all, so you can imagine that a lot of what I was feeling was due to my general grumpy-ness when I've got low blood sugar issues but sometimes I can't help feeling invisible even when I'm not hungry.  Usually I just deal with it and try to do something on my own as I generally find things better when I'm alone because I don't have to go at someone else's pace and I can do what I want to without worrying about what they want but I still feel lonely.

After finding a bancomat and a sandwich (and gelato, which I didn't take a photo of because I was still weepy and depressed, mango and fruits of the forest) the group was to meet at Largo Argentina, a collection of ruins only a couple blocks from our hotel.  Then we walked past more ruins towards the Piazza Campidoglio and Capitoline Hill which were designed by Michelangelo... I think.  I wasn't too interested in listening to Ann talk about it.

It wasn't until we started heading to the forum that someone asked me what was wrong and it was my roommate from Santa Chiara who is nice and she told me that a friend of hers had been on this trip in the past and has had similar experiences with Ann.  She also said that I could walk around with her, but apparently that offer was only limited to the next five minutes because it didn't last long.  Not to mention that, only that morning, she'd left me in the room to head off to the train station with another girl rather than waiting for me.  Maybe people just don't see what they do but there are definitely people who want to spend time together and do so, and I'm not one of the people that anyone picked.

Anyway, between her gracious offer to let me walk with her and Lawrence saying that no one could forget me after I said that I felt no one remembered I was around and that I felt invisible, I was able to cheer up enough to start taking pictures of the Roman Forum, our next stop.  It was big and full of broken marble stuff.  It seemed that other people were more impressed with it than I was but I've found that to be pretty par for the course when it comes to Rome.  

What I found to be the most interesting thing is that it was all under river silt for years after the area was flooded by the Tiber.  Even today people are working to excavate the forum ruins from the muck of thousands of years.  As we walked out of the forum proper area, we saw a crew of people working through a guard fence.

We headed off through the Arch of  Septimus Severus towards the Arch of Constantine which sits very near the Colosseum, our next big ancient site for the day.  It was big and a bunch of it was closed off because they're in the process of putting in a platform that puts visitors over the center area where there would have originally been a floor and allows them to get a better look down into the under area where the slaves and animals were kept. 

After that, we went past two tall memorial pillars with carved figures running in a spiral up them in a counter-clockwise direction on our way to the Pantheon, which is only a few blocks from our hotel.  It was an interesting building with a hole in the center to let in the rain, which seems silly.  I bet it looks really pretty in a rain storm, though.

Dinner out at a sort of mediocre place, pesto pasta and a pizza.  Afterwards we went to a giant book store just down the street from our hotel that Ann said had a nice sized selection of books in English, which was true.  Unfortunately, they were quite expensive.  I didn't get any as I'm still working on my last Watch book and I stole a copy of Sense and Sensibility from the book trade at Santa Chiara before we left for Rome.  After that we got gelato, this time I got a photo.  Dark chocolate and the fruits of the forest.

Headed back to the hotel for an early night after our long day walking around Rome.

Churches and Markets in Florence

Early morning train rides... make me tired.  Especially when they're preceded by late nights.  Got up in time to head out for the train and discovered that one of my fellow students had gotten locked out of his room by his three roommates.  He was quite angry because he was planning to go to Cinque Terre directly from Florence (the destination for the day) and all of his stuff, including his wallet and luggage was locked in. He managed to contact one of his roommates to have them come back, but by the time he got there and they were able to head to the train station (it's a 15 minute walk at least, so I'd already left at his urging) he barely had time to get to the station.  They managed it, barely, arriving only about a minute before the train.

The ride was relatively uneventful, and upon arrival we made a quick stop at a cafe for some food.  We were supposed to meet in front of the Basilica of San Lorenzo at nine but we weren't paying attention to where we were going and ended up taking a bit of a detour.  We made it just fine, though.  

After talking about the church (we didn't go inside) we walked past the Medici Palace and went over to see The Last Supper by Andrea del Castagno at Sant'Apollonia, which used to be a convent.  It was a very beautiful work with amazing colors and shading.  On the way out I noticed an odd work, part of which is shown on the left, in which the infant Jesus appears to have lost something down the good Virgin's bodice while she just stares on, knowing he can do no wrong.  or something.

After that, we walked over to the Dominican monastery, San Marco, which is home to an amazing collection of frescoes by Fra Angelico, of which we were not allowed to take photos.  A lot of them looked pretty identical, anyway.  There was one in each of the 20-30 monk's cells plus a huge Annunciation at the top of the stairs.  Gabriel's wings sparkle due to the addition of mica to the paint.

After that we headed over to the Foundling Hospital, or Ospedale degli Innocenti, which was where people could take unwanted infants and put them on a lazy Susan for the church (or state?) to raise.  Despite being called a hospital, it's actually an orphanage and was designed by Brunelleschi, the same guy who made the dome of the Duomo.  

Then it was 11:40ish and time for lunch.  Some headed to make the climb up the 460 some-odd steps of the Duomo, some for lunch... I went off, alone, in search of water, as I was so parched by now I was having difficulty swallowing.  After a cash machine (bancomat!) and a couple blocks, I found a cafe with liter bottles and got myself one.  It was cold and delicious, and took me some work to actually drink because I'd been so thirsty.  

Free of thirst, I wandered around, took pictures, and got slightly lost.  I've decided that I really like all the signs in Florence.  They're very vertical and bright, sometimes, and generally only make much sense from one direction without a mirror.  They tend to be very generic and require that you get up close to see the name of the shop itself.  After finding myself... or, more accurately, the large plaza with the fake David and a homo-erotic statue of naked men just off the Ponte Vecchio, I found a small sandwich shop, one with raw ingredients rather than premade panini, and got prociutto and goat cheese on a very nice, thin foccia crusted with salt crystals.  The goat cheese wasn't the typical soft stuff you spread on crackers, but a thinly sliced, delicious block of white.  I plan to find it again on our third trip.

Gelato (numero uno) for the day sits on the left.  It's a dark chocolate ganache with the frutti di bosco, fruits of the forest, which I really like.  The combo was really delicious.  It came from the same gelateria I went to the first week in Florence.  Oh, the background for the image was really yellow, so this one's been Photoshopped to remove it.

After devouring numero uno, I found that Florence has a Grom (the gelateria with the all natural, organic ingredients from Siena), and decided I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have their Lemon Chill-like puckery lemon and get the raspberry I missed when we were in Siena.  It was as good as I'd remembered, though the line was significantly longer.  After lunch I wandered around more taking photos, occasionally running into classmates, more often alone.

Around two I headed in the direction of the Ponte Vecchio to meet the rest of the group at our last stop for the day, the Brancacci Chapel at Santa Maria del Carmine and the beautiful frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino.

After our fifteen minutes in the chapel (apparently you're not allowed to stay long) we were free to do what we wished.  I joined some of my fellows for a walk through the San Lorenzo market and it's amazing collection of stuff... one might even say some of it was junk to clutter up your shelves, but there were masks and leather goods, purses, belts and diaries of "Italian" leather, clothes and scarves, and knickknacks.  

The ride back was quick and dinner was very saucy rigatoni followed by roasted chicken and buttered vegetables (carrots, squash, and potatoes).  We had a real dessert tonight, ice cream sandwiches in honor of two birthdays.  I was so tired by the time dinner happened that, though I managed to stay up relatively late, I didn't do much other than talk to Andy and mom before dropping into my bed (no room mate this weekend because she ran off to Cinque Terre with Michael and some others) and sleeping until 10 am.  Which I'm going to do now, other than having to get up at 8ish to catch the train to Arezzo for the antiques market.