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

The Sites of Rome

So I am finally back in the swing of things! It is my second week in Rome and I have already visited the Vatican, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Coliseum, the Spanish Steps, the Piazza Navona, Capitaline Hill, Largo di Torre Argentina, and the city night life.

Caitlin and I arrived in Rome with a little delay around 10pm. We got moved in and the next day we were off touring the sites of our apartment neighborhood and the areas around our school (displayed below).

We also went on a walking tour that week to the city center. We all got the ridiculously stylish tour ear phones and followed a professional tour guide on a walking tour- she was an amazing lady and would describe each site with such great detail!

On example of an interesting fact is that the Spanish steps are only called that by the Americans because of the Spanish Embassy down the road but in Italian they are called the French steps- this is because the steps are made on a hill towards a french church and in times of rain the parishioners had to climb this slope to get to mass and eventually they got sick of getting so muddy that they built these steps. They are actually the widest steps in all of Europe.

On Tuesday I, along with a group of five others, went to the smallest country in the world- the Vatican. I could write so much about what happened there but I will just make a list...
1. One of my friends was unaware of the dress code and was almost not allowed into the Vatican due to exposed knees but they let her by if she walked around with a sweater draped over her knees
2. the Vatican is the second largest church in the world
3. the Church has on display the bodies of 4 dead Popes, their bodies under glass but you can see that it is their hair and fingernails, only wax is put on the skin to reduce the decay
4. Inside the dome of the Vatican you can put the statue of Liberty comfortably inside
5. There is so much history from just a small tile on the floor to an angel in the corner of a painting that I loved it all

After we had mass at the Vatican (in Italian) we got a tour of the Vatican by one of the girl's in our groups second cousin who is going to Pontificate American College to become a priest. He also brought us to his college and we got a chance to go to the rooftop and see the most amazing view of Rome (above)

On Wednesday for my history class we toured the ancient city of Rome starting from the first buildings that were built up to how it formed into an empire.

Thursday after class we had a PIZZA and GELATO crawl sponsored through our school- it was amazing! I had pumpkin, yes pumpkin pizza and fig and chocolate gelato... so good!

Saturday I went to Subiaco to visit the monasteries of St. Scholastica and St. Benedict. Nestled in the hills of the city Subiaco we walked on the cobble stones of the past to catch a glimpse of our schools name bearer Saint Benedicto and his time that he spent in the caves near the monastery. St. Benedict fled Rome when he was around 14 to Subiaco and was taken in by a nearby monk. Around that time he also became a hermit and lived in the caves of the area for 3 years....

I have also at night visited the American bar of Rome called Scholars- they remind us of our home a bit so we have gone there three times and always have a good time

Hope everyone is enjoying fall in Minnesota enough for me and they are eating a lot of pumpkin :)

See you all in about a month and ten days!

Look at that Cow!

the cow by our Interlocken hotel

ON the Swiss alps with the top of Europe in the background

 Lucerne market

The abundance of swans at the water tower in Lucerne Switzerland

For Halloween our group celebrated halloween in Rome, cait dressed up as one of the seven deadly sins as Pride and I dressed up as a French painter- it was a good night!