Thursday, March 24, 2011

Conquering Rome

This past weekend our entire program ventured off to Roma! We took an hour and a half fast train on Friday morning and arrived at our hotel, which was located right between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. The hotel was oddly split in half by an outdoor terrace, but the side that I was on was filled with only us JMU students, which was very nice for the entire weekend.
On Friday our first tour guide took us the Vatican Museums, where we had to wait on a longgg 2 hour line filled with tourists. Rome was so filled with people, tourists filled every location that we entered. Vatican City is an entirely separate city from Rome, quite interesting history actually but I won't bore you with that stuff. Once we finally got into the Vatican Museums we walked through rooms and rooms of art work, sculptures, etc. The journey was very tiring especially since we were on the move from the early morning. If you go to Rome be sure to wear something with sleeves when you go to the Vatican because they won't let you in with only a tank top on, not that I know from experience but just a tip I heard before going. At the end of the Vatican Museums is the Sistine Chapel which was jam packed with people but it was cool to see the artwork of Michelangelo that we had been studying in our Renaissance Art History class.  After the Vatican Museums we went to St. Peter's Basilica which is right next door, which is a huge, breathtaking church. St. Peter's Square was also a gorgeous scenery, probably one of my favorites of the day after art OVERLOAD.
St. Peter's Square
Saturday morning we were greeted by our second tour guide, the son of the older man from the first day. Lorenzo, who hilariously entertained us for the entire day of "conquering rome." First we walked over to the Roman Forum, all the ruins of Rome which was incredible to see. There is so much history of Julius Caesar and the creation of Rome is such contained area. Our tour guide got a little bit into the history for all of our interests, but to see that these remains and that the Romans had a perfect drainage system to prevent flooding way back then was quite impressive.
Roman Forum
After the Roman Forum we went on to conquer the Colosseum and the Pantheon. First we enjoyed the amazing view from outside of the Colosseum before entering, and had time to take our classic touristy pictures, but no one stands out in Rome since there are just so many tourists. Our school group was able to bypass the long line to enter the Colosseum (score) and then we climbed to enjoy the view from the inside. The history that fills that building is endless and the fact that it is still standing is hard to even wrap your mind around. Next we went to the Pantheon which is a church that was much more interesting to me than the others. Rather than being pretty inside, it is filled with interesting architecture which displayed the Romans knowledge that the Earth was round, and their belief that Rome was the center of the world. Never thought I would be interested in architecture!




On our own time after the tour ended on Saturday we went to the markets and to see the amazing site of the Trevi Fountain. Yes, we all wanted to make our wishes, which we did, but I did not expect it to be as incredible as it was. I was expecting a small, dinky fountain, but it was huge!! Although it was jam packed with people there as well we managed to make our wishes and capture pictures of it too! :)

 We went out on Saturday night to have dinner in Campo di Fiori, a really cute Piazza with bars and restaurants and such. Then in the same area we went to a bar, The Drunken Ship, which was a fun place with alot of Americans, I recommend it if you head to Rome! Lastly on Sunday we were on our own with no tour, which was really nice for the final day. There just so happened to be a marathon in Rome that day so all of the streets in the center of Rome were blocked off, but it didn't cause any trouble until we had to walk 45 minutes to catch our train back to Florence. Me and some others went to see the Spanish Steps, but on our way we stopped at Zara to do some shopping. Why not, when in rome, right?! We then got a nice lunch at a Trattoria in Rome and then headed on our way back to the train station to return back to Florence.
Spanish Steps
This weekend, aka in 10 minutes I am leaving to go to the Almalfi Coast with 9 other girls on my program. We are going through Euroadventures and we will be staying in Sorrento!! I am so excited to enjoy the beach and the gorgeous weather. 
PS. It was 70 degrees today and has been in the 60's all week, there isn't even a need for a jacket during the day anymore!!! :) Sorry for those of you with snow at home!!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Just some standard day trips to wine estates and The Leaning Tower

This weekend we stayed decided to stay in good ol' Florence which was nice and relaxing since every weekend for the last month here we will be going somewhere else. Although this week I have been missing home like crazy, I can't believe there is only a month left here.

On Thursday our wine teacher, Diletta Frescobaldi, took us to two of her family's wine estates about an hour away from Florence. She is the 32nd generation of her family, and her family has been producing wine for 700 years. She knows her stuff about wine. The two estates that she took us to were Pomino and Nippozano.
Pomino is at a high altitude, it is very mountainous and has mild days and cold winters. The climate is ideal for making white and red wine, so at this estate we saw the storage for the fermentation and the aging of the wines produced at that estate.
At the second estate, Nipozzano, they only produce red wine since it is at a lower altitude where it is warmer so it is not ideal for making white wine. At this estate we saw similar barrels where the wine ferments and is aged, but then we also got to see a cool tradition that the Frescobaldi family carries out. For each member of the Frescobaldi family that is born, they have their own wine produced, 100 bottles for a woman and 300 bottles for a man. These bottles are stored at the estate and are only opened for special occasions like a birthday, graduation, wedding, etc. 
Diletta and her bottles 

Caroline, Me & Stacey at Nippozano

The trip to the estate ended with our entire group entering the Castle where we had a lovely spread of 3 types of wine, one white from Pomino and 2 red from Nippozano, and some bread and cheese. Before we left we were able to get some souvenirs ;) 
Our spread!
On Friday Caroline, Stacey, Taylor and I all decided to take a day trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower. We heard from others on our trip that there isn't much else to see or do in Pisa so we figured we would spend a few hours there and then come back to Florence. We left Florence at 11:30 and arrived in Pisa an hour later. When we got off the train we looked at the map to get to the tower and some trickster scratched it out...so cleaver, but luckily we were forewarned. Everyone was ready for lunch so we decided to stop at a little Trattoria along the way so we didn't fall into any tourist traps. If you ever come to Italy, eat in Trattorias. They have the best prices and really good food. Ristorantes are the most expensive so try to avoid, unless it says pizzeria as well or you can check the menu first. So we had a delicious meal and killed about 2 hours in that place. Then we continued onto find the Piazza with the Tower and the Duomo. We got a little set off track because Caroline thought she saw the Duomo but it was just another church so then we walked out of the city walls and finally made our way to the Tower. Little side note: Italian cities used to all be surrounded by walls, in Florence the walls have been knocked down but in Pisa they were all still standing which was awesome to see. 
The Piazza has the Tower, the Duomo, the Baptistry and then a bunch of tourist stands with souvenirs and that's about it. So we took our touristy pictures, cause we had to... that's a given and then returned back to Florence. 



Last night we had aperitivo at Kitsch, which so many grad students have been telling us about, and it definitely lived up to what they said. They had a large spread and the food was delicious but it was super crowded. If you're coming abroad to Florence definitely make sure you go!

This week it's supposed to rain the entire week until Friday :( but this upcoming weekend our program is going to Rome! I'm so excited for this trip and for all the ones that are coming up. The trips are going to make this last month fly and then back home for the summer! Here's what's coming up....
March 18-20: Rome with JMU
March 25-27: Almalfi Coast
April 1-3: Venice with JMU
April 9: Cinque Terre
April 16: Rome with Parents then NY

PS. Last night there was daylight savings in America as I'm sure you all know but what's weird is that in Italy they don't move the clocks back for another two weeks, so for two weeks there is only a 5 hour time difference... crazy right?!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

doing as the locals do

Although today's classes were quite boring... today had some excitement worth posting about. Our amazing host mom's daughter has a salon here in Florence and was willing to cut my hair. So today was my appointment and Stacey came with me to get her nails done and for some support. When I asked if her daughter spoke English, my host mom said that her daughter could "understand" English, but I decided to bring a picture and to ask Chiara to help me out with some translations for hair terms. My salon was a nice, busy place, away from the center of Florence.. and I was definitely willing to give it a shot. I'm very happy with the way that it came out an the price was good and not a rip off. She thinned my hair for the first time ever and I have decided that I need to find the one hair stylist at home who I trust to do my hair any way that she pleases. Successful haircut in Italy...check!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Oh Fiorentina

For the past week nothing too exciting has been going on, except that we saw The King's Speech at the Odeon, loved it! But I did realize that I failed to mention in my blog that I have started to enjoy my classes throughout the semester. The work is easy and the topics have gotten interesting. My italian is definitely improving while I'm here and able to use it, and I have definitely developed an appreciation for both art and wine, two of the fabulous topics that I get to study. I'll be begging for these classes in grad school...

Today we woke up to a beautiful morning, a high of 66 degrees after a few days of rain, perfect for the Fiorentina soccer game vs. Catania (Sicily). The tickets for the game were only 10 euros which got us seats in Curva Fiesole, which is the curved part of the the stadium with all the wild, dedicated, Florence fans. The fans were wild, decked out in purple, with huge flags waving to show their support. I felt like I was in Yankee Stadium's bleacher seats, surrounded by the crazy bleacher creatures! Fiorentina won 3-0 and it seemed like the fastest professional game I had ever been to. I definitely recommend going for anyone who is studying abroad here, you feel like a local, but make sure you wear/buy some purple gear!