Goodbye for Now

Arriverderci Rome

                My last week of Rome consisted of many bitter sweet moments. I spent my last weekend touring the ancient port city to Rome, Ostia with my history professor and my classmates. We arrived to the site and spent the day listening to Jan-isms.

                Some examples of these Jan-isms are when he asks us questions pertaining to the readings that we “had” done before class and when no one knows the answer he goes into rants saying “do you want to me to commit ritual homicide by jumping off this cliff here?” Or picking on one of my fellow peers- mostly Hannah; “Goddammit Hannah!”

                The rest of my weekend was filled with studying for my three finals that I had that week all the while trying to entertain my friend that had traveled to Rome from his program in Madrid for the weekend.

                Skipping the time spent studying I felt like the last week of Rome was one of the most bonding times of the trip. All of us in the group were waking up from the dream of being abroad and were realizing what an amazing group we have all been apart of.

                For my last abroad seminar class taught by my director, Greg, we all shared moments from both sites in which we cherish the most. Some choose to recall hilarious episodes while others chose the sentimental path. Each person shared a moment that we could all agree upon being special and woud be one of our favorite memories as well.

                Some examples are:

Caitlin, Gretchen, Katie, Danielle, and I all shared the love that we had of climbing up Mount Olympus in Greece especially the moment where I burned my socks and melted my keens after trying to dry them off/heat them up after our summit climb.

Our whole group agreed that our tour of Delphi (a city filled with tourists traps and incest) with our History Professor Robert Pitt yelling at the random tourists of the sites:

                                “Curious people aren’t they”- to a Chinese group who were taking our picture

                                “I wish that I had a gun so I could shoot him in the head” – to the loud British man

Anther favorite memory of mine was going to the soccer game with Alexandra, Amy, George and Nickos- then celebrating the win at a hookah bar afterwards.

In Rome, we all agreed that our Thanksgiving in Florence was a weekend that we will never forget. We all loved remembering things that Paulo would say or point out- which was always about nudity.

We all had different memories that we cherished and I really liked hearing them all. 

               Caitlin said a really sentimental one about how when she was at the Vatican for the Papal Audience,        she was listening to the Pope as he was speaking he switched to English from Italian and it took her a while to even notice the switch which made her sad that when she back in America she wouldn't be hearing any the Italian language as much and she was going to miss it. 

              Wade remarked that he loved walking at night in the streets of Rome with a group observing all of the Christmas lights illuminating the roads as the roamed through the Via Velenzia, Via Del Corso, and the streets by the Spanish steps and by the Piazza Navona.

              I have to say that I really loved my time that I spent with my sister in the little town of Lucca. I truly enjoyed my time that I spent walking around in the slight drizzle on the uneven cobble stones of the ancient and enclosed city. It felt like I had gone back in time to the days that the city was built. 

I spent my last free day climbing the Dome of St. Peter's. It was AWESOME! I am so glad that I did it by myself. It was right around sun set and I was able to see the sun begin to dip down on the Roman horizon.

 a look down from the top of the St. Peter's Dome

 The view of the Roman horizon

 On top of the St. Peter's

Here I am, on the top!

My last look at the Vatican.

I can't believe that my time in Rome, and my time abroad, is done. I have seen so many things and I have learned soo much in only four months. I have grown so close to the 29 other members of my group and my directors Greg and Jeanine. I have built some relationships that will keep for a lifetime.

a taste of Italy

As a group activity my director, Greg Walker, was kind enough to organize for us a wine tasting. Needless to say I was over joyed with excitement! We were able to sample and analyze four wines; white, rose, red, and sweet.

Our teacher for the wine tasting gave us three categories that we should separate our wines into: visual, aroma, and taste. For visual we should determine if it is clear, crystalline, foggy... for aroma we state any smell that comes to mind such as oranges, rosemary, earth. Lastly for taste we determine if we can sense the four main tastes: bitterness, acidity, sugar, and salt.

I want to save some of the things that I learned for when I come home and share a glass with my avid followers but I shall leave you with this overall assessment, I love wine!

Another taste of Italy that I was able to enjoy was that of Christmas coating the city! Lights, wreaths, candles are starting to adorn all the shops and street ways of the town. On the night of the Emmaculate Conception, December 8th, there was a large ceremony in the Spanish Square where Pope Benedict the 16th came to say a prayer and to commemorate the placement of the wreath on the statue of Mary in the center of the square.

Seeing the Pope again as he drove by in his Pope Mobile coming from the Spanish Square

The wreath on top of the Statue of Mary

I was blessed enough to have one of my friends, Alex Mathison, come visit me in Rome from his program in Madrid. I showed him most of the sites of Rome from the Spanish steps to the famous gelato place next to the Vatican called Old Bridge (supposedly that is where the Pope goes for his gelato)!

This week is my last week in Rome and in Europe! I will be spending most of my time observing the Vatican Museum as well as hitting the books from my apartment- hope you are all getting excited to see me as I am overfilled with excitement to see you!

Ciao for now

Soup Kitchen, Scavi Tour, the Leaning Tower, and the Circular Square (whew!)

Finally Cait and I had an opportunity to use our Eurorail passes so we decided to head on up the coast to the wonderful cities of Pisa and Lucca but not before...

Tuesday night of the past week a group of us served over 500 people ranging from young teens to crippled old men at a soup kitchen in the heart of Rome. It was humbling serving bread (panne in Italian) to people whom you couldn't even know how to hold a continuous conversation with. At times they would be asking if they could have something more but you had to use exaggerated hand gestures and talk extremely slow to understand what it was that they wanted (only a few times were we yelled at suprisingly). This was indeed an experience that I will share with me for the rest of my life.

Brigitta sporting the very fashionable apron that we were asked to wear

Earlier that day I also had another experience of a lifetime to attend a Scavi tour. Now for those of you who do not know what a Scavi tour I will briefly explain. It is the rare opportunity-in which you have to sign up for days in advance- to tour the underground of the Vatican, right under the St. Peter's Basilica! A group of us girls singed up for this tour and arrived at our scheduled time with no time to spare where after a short introduction walked the streets of Ancient Rome. Now I won't tell you all of what I was told in this paragraph because I want to save some mystery but I will tell you that I may or may not have seen the relics of the Saint Peter.....

(couldn't take any photos unfortunately)

And now onto the city of the infamous leaning tower.

Caitlin and I woke up on the Saturday morning of December the 3rd to hop on a 3 hour train ride up the coast of Italy to visit the city of Pisa and onto our final destination of the only walled city of Italy; Lucca. We actually didn't have any trouble (surprisingly) getting from Rome to Pisa to the site of the tower (I can just hear your praise!)

Here are some ridiculously touristic photos 

the tower itself

If any of you are Tebow fans you will appreciate this.. (Cait has better photos of me on her camera)

And I saved the best for last- Cait holding up the tower with just her pinky!

After seeing the tower and walking the town of Pisa...

We got back on the train to Lucca! I had booked a 4 star hotel (got a very good deal!) which was supposedly an 18 minute walk from the station. We planned on dropping our luggage off and then be off touring the ancient town.

a quick view of the walled ancient town before it started to down pour (little foreshadowing)

Little did we know that it would start pouring (didn't you just say that?)... But little did we know that the roads would all have two names, and that with the little Italian that we know we would end up walking in cicles for a good (I will admit it) 2 hours before we could find our hotel. Night had fallen and Caitlin was ready to give up and call a taxi because she was tired and wet (although she did have an umbrella). I on the other hand was stubborn and I had to find our hotel even though I was tired, wet (since I had only my sweatshirt hood to save me from the rain drops) and I had to pee really really bad!

So we are walking along this barely there sidewalk- I wish I got pictures- with cars splashing their puddles on our legs. I am trekking before Caitlin, because as I said I really had to pee, when I hear from behind me this,

"WHHHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!" 

I thought Caitlin had fallen or was hurt so I turn around expecting the worst but my eyes adjust and I see Caitlin holding her umbrella in one hand, her oh so undesirable bagels in another, and her dress tucked into legging, just soaked from a car splashing a huge puddle. The only reason that I contained my laughter at that moment is because I knew of the consequences, both from having to pee and to what Cait would do to me if I did laugh. Although now as I am typing this I can't help but chuckle.

So we made it a good ten minutes later to our hotel. Drenched, tired, a little hungry and very much relieved. 

A view of the mountains of Lucca from our Hotel window

here we are entering the walled city since our hotel was just outside of it

The next morning we slept until our hearts contempt- ate our amazing breakfast until our stomach's delight and in a slight drizzle we walked our much anticipated town of Lucca (I did indeed have my "forgotten" umbrella). I really wanted to see the infamous Piazza Amphitheatro

which we saw!

And a caroulsel of the Piazza Napoli (a site Cait wanted to see) of which she was highly tempted to ride but thank goodness to save me from embarrassment didn't.

A view of the entrance of the walled city (Aunt Sue notice my boots!)- due to it being a Sunday most places are closed so the streets were mostly empty.

We sauntered our lazy way back to our hotel, gathered our overly packed bags and made our- exactly 18 minute walk to the train station. 

Ciao for now, I must be off studying for an exam that I have on Tuesday- wish me luck!

Florence

This year I had the wonderful opportunity to spend my Thanksgiving in Florence! My abroad group and I left on the Thursday of Thanksgiving and arrived with enough time to spare to explore the famous leather market.

Most of my time at the market was spent searching for... LEATHER BOOTS- I had been saving my money until this opportune moment and it was ready for it! We had a group dinner that night specially prepared for us by the cooks of the Hotel (California was the name). The menu consisted of an antipasta course of meat, cheese and olives, followed by a course of mushroom pasta, then a salad on the side of what we believe to the leg of a turkey; all to be washed down with some red wine. To top off the dinner they made us a special cake consisting of the colors of our flag- well they attempted with a frosting donning the colors of pink (red), white, and blue (turquoise). Below is a photo of the girls and boys of the trip all dressed up for dinner.

The other part of my time I spent with my classmates following around my amazing art and architecture professor Paulo to the many beautiful sites of Florence. I was able to feast my eyes on Bottecelli's "Birth of Venus" and "Primavera" along with many other works of the Uffizi museum (such as the Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci)- we were not allowed to take photos of the paintings but I did capture a beautiful scene of the Tuscan sun setting over the River Arno from the top floor of the Uffizi museum. The other famous artwork of Florence that I was able to view was Michelangelo's marble statue of David along with Cellini's bronze statue of Pericles beheading Medusa.

After some long hours spent with our Professor Paulo we still were able to explore the wonderful city of Florence. I spent hours walking up and down the picturesque cobble stone paved roads losing myself (with others- don't worry mom!) in the beauty of the sun awakening the reds, oranges, and yellows of the city. Here is a photo of Brandon and I along accompanied with some others on our charming walk through the city.

My final day was spent purchasing my long anticipated leather boots (don't worry about the price mom and dad!) with a good amount of sight seeing- going to places such as Michelangelo's Piazza, the Medici Palace, the Boboli gardens, the Duomo, and Ponte Vecchio- many breathtaking views of the Tuscan landscape!

A look from the Boboli Gardens

This is a view from the Michelangelo's Piazza

The photo above is of some of the ladies that I explored the city with taking a rest on the steps of Michelangelo's Piazza. There is a perfect viewpoint of the city of Florence in the background with the Duomo dome present right on top of Ricki's head.

Inside the church called the Duomo or also known as Saint Mary of the Flower- built in 1436 it fashions Gothic and Renaissance style. The exterior of the basilica is a unique design of different shades of pink, green, and white polychrome panels giving it a very interesting look.

Taylor (a.k.a. Jordan) and I sitting on a bench down the hill from the Michelangelo's Piazza; reminiscing in our love from Florence and for each other. Sadly in both circumstances we had to part. 

That concludes the highlights from my trip to Florence which was a book mark of my travels indicating that I am now on my last half of my trip abroad..! 

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with many things to be thankful for and that you are enjoying your preparation for the holiday season to come!

Roma- the Vatican- and Assisi

A view of Rome from the Victory Monument a little bus ride away from my apartment

At the Papal Address at 10:30am (got there at 8am) I was that close to the Pope! He gave his blessings to each person in the audience and their family- so I extend the blessings to you!

One of my first views of Assisi- a look at the St. Francis Monastery

The beautifully ancient streets of Assisi- barely wide enough for people and cars to fit through! We had a wonderful day spent- 12 of us in total- of wandering around the town and visiting the many churches; my favorite was the (upper) Basilica of St. Francis

The Castle of Assisi on top of a HUGE hill

Two boys from my group- Nick Homen and Will Breen. Unfortunetly we were not allowed to take photos in many of the churches that we toured and due to my poor quality of pixels the pictures that I did take are of poor quality. I can say that each church was unique in its own beauty! The Church of St. Claire- another patron of the town- held relics of St. Francis' abbot along with the very tomb of St. Claire!

We arrived in Assisi at 10am and hopped back on the train for a total of 2 hours of travel back to Rome at 6:20pm. By the time we arrived in Rome we all crashed for the night.

Today- November 21, 2011 at 7:10am I found out that I am the aunt of a beautiful little girl of Thomas and Brittany Coleman given the name Julia Rae! I heard the wonderful news as I was riding the bus on my way to the Vatican to have mass with one of the Priests of the Saint John's University. I actually shed some tears of joy and I cannot wait to go back to Minnesota and see her in person! Congrats Tom and Brit- you will make wonderful parents!

Pompeii and Naples

This past weekend I have had the fortune to experience many exciting things... to start on 11/11/11 I made the most epic wish at the Trevi Fountain right at 11:11pm... I hope it comes true!

On Saturday we made the three hour journey to Pompeii! We arrived at the site and got a special tour by an Archaeologist who explained many details about the ancient life of Pompeii and also described the extensive process of uncovering these ruins- they are only 3/8th uncovered!

Some interesting things about Pompeii are the city is set up like traditional Greeks with three main East to West road intersected by many North to South roads. It also had no class section of the city so the rich and the poor (little poor that they had) lived together. The streets had stepping stones so that when it rained you could still cross but when the Pope (John Paul the 3rd) came to visit they had to take out a stepping stone so that they could get his chariot through and they have never replaced it. Also when Mt. Vesuvius erupted there were several waves of ash and pummus stone before the three waves of lava covered the city. Sadly there have been 400 people uncovered from structural damage- the buildings falling on top of them, while roughly 650 people died from the lava. The town was covered and forgotten until 1599.

For that night we went to Serento- an amazingly cute town by Naples. It was awesome, we booked a four star hotel and that night we had a dinner provided (chicken, beans, potatoes, roman cake) and we walked the city. The main road had a orange and lemon orchard off to the right that we got to tour and sample some of Rome's delicacy- limonchello, which is a lemon liqour and very good. The street was already decked out in christmas decorations and had us all in the christmans spirit!

Coming into Sorento

The next day we went to Naples where we visited the National Archaeological Museum filled with artifacts of Pompei- things such as mosaics, medicinal tools, and sculptures (many of the fallic form..) After the museum we had a walking tour of the town- this included trying to maneuver down the most famous street called Via San Gregorio. This street has many carefully crafted nativity scenes complete with water wheels and moving figurines- I really was tempted to get one but the complexity of bringing it back to the states deterred me!

After that I had to go get some pizza.... especially since it was invented in Naples so Judy, Gretchen, and I went to this cute little restaurant that our tour guide recommended where I ATE A WHOLE PIZZA TO MYSELF! Granted I could have been done half way through but we all made a pact to eat every last bite and that is what we did.... (I got margarita, Judy got eggplant with mushrooms and mozzarella, while Gretchen got a ricotta filled calzone pizza). 

The day concluded with shopping the busy streets of Naples and then a 3 hour long bus ride back to Rome. Since it was a birthday of one of the girls in our group we all decided to go out to our trusty spot the Irish pub called Scholars- for some karaoke and a good time! The night ended well with us all being tired but able to attend our history class that next afternoon. 

This weekend Cait and I are looking into going up to Pisa and Assisi and then traveling down to the southern tip of Italy to enjoy the coast if we can but we will have to see!

I hope everyone is enjoying the anticipation for waiting for my brother's baby....! I know that I am :)

top five things I like about Rome

the top five things that I like about Rome

1. there is gelato everywhere! I have had chocolate, banana, french vanilla, fig, caramel, pear wine with almond, chocolate with hazelnut fondant...
2. The door knobs- I will post photos later
3. Roommates- we have had so much fun such as girls nights, zumba work outs, movie nights, and some amazing  pasta dinner with a french toast breakfast
4. The history- it is also every where, around each corner there is a monument dedicated to something and each street has a story
5. Piazzas... enough so that if you wander down a street and get tired you will be sure to find one close to where you can rest your feet and gaze at a fountain