Athena Blogs

Ciao.

Sorry for the delay yet again, but this time I have a legitimate excuse: I've been battling bronchitis.  Let me make a recommendation here and now: bring cold medicine from the US. You'll miss it when it's not here.

Last week I had a great time just wandering around Florence once again.  My apartment is very near to Santa Croce.  I haven't gone inside yet, but considering it's the burial sites of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli I definitely will.  Another must see, but sometimes missed site in Florence is Piazza Michelangelo.  It's on the other side of the River Arno and a bit of a climb, but the view is simply breathtaking and absolutely worth it, particularly if you're an artist. 

Friday night two of our friends from Tuscania came in to visit us as well as two students we met in Rome.  Friday our group decided to cook an amazing Mexican feast.  It was delicious and nice to spend time together once again. 

Saturday we did the typical sight seeing things.  We went to the top of the Duomo (Basillica di Santa Maria del Fiore).  Yes, for €6 you too can climb about 500 stairs.  Don't let the stairs be daunting, it's a rough trip up, but well worth it.  You're able to see Brunelleschi's dome up close and a spectacular view of the entire city of Florence.  However, if you're at all claustrophobic, this may be a trip you want to sit out.

On Sunday our group took a quick day trip to Pisa.  By train Pisa is only about an hour and a half away from Florence.  We took a late morning train and arrived in Pisa around lunch time.  On our way to the Leaning Tower we stopped to get lunch.  We enjoyed exploring the city on such a beautiful day.  Finally we reached the “Field of Miracles” which houses the Leaning Tower, the Baptistery, the Camponsanto Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery) and the Duomo. 

We took several photos with silly poses of the Tower.  This may sound silly, but I was kind of surprised at how much you can tell that the Tower leans.  It was built slightly slanted, on accident, but has continued sinking as all the buildings have done in the area.  Currently the Tower has a metal rod running the length of it to prevent it from collapsing.  We didn't have much time to spend in Pisa as our friend needed to get back to Tuscania, but it was well worth the day trip. 

I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving!  I have just over two weeks left in Italy and I still feel like I have so much to do.  I definitely need to start making some headway in my sight seeing here in Florence.  Gabie and I also may do a day trip to Siena this weekend if I feel up to it. 

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

- Amanda

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write again, but things have been so busy here. We're exploring Florence and trying to accept the fact that these are our last weeks in Italy.

I believe when we left off I was headed to London and Warsaw/Auschwitz. This trip ended up not happening. My flight to London was Tuesday morning out of Rome, so I was going to go to Rome Monday night and stay. However, there was a transportation strike all across Italy and no trains were running. I decided to take the earliest train I could on Tuesday morning (5:50 am). I knew that as long as I took a cab I should be able to make my flight.

I did make it to the airport on time, but upon my arrival I quickly realized something was wrong. There were too many people just sitting on the ground. I learned that the airport had been closed, I later learned there had been a problem the day before and the airport's one runway was closed. My flight, along with several others, was cancelled.

They were able to reschedule the earlier flight and the later flight, but not my flight. There was little chance I would get on another flight. I took a cab back into Rome with two Italian women and two British women. I stopped by the school and evaluated my options and realized that London was out, but I'd go back to Florence and see about making the end of the trip happen.

I returned to Florence and realized I wouldn't be able to do any of the vacation, that was disappointing, but I managed. I spent the week in Florence with my roommate Elizabeth. That was nice, we explored a bit and I was really able to relax throughout the week.

Sunday everyone returned from their travels and we four girls decided to go get lunch. Well most restaurants are closed on Sundays, especially for lunch. We wandered around for a long time looking for one specific restaurant, but discovered it was closed. We had lunch at a small shop instead. It was nice to be back with everyone.

After that we stopped by this market/festival type thing going on in the piazza behind our house. It was a great time! Many local shops had set up stalls selling deserts, oils, and wines. All of it looked so delicious that we all just wandered around a few times just to take it all in. Elizabeth and I finally decided on nutella crepes, while Gabby got a macaroon, and April got a baked potato. All of them were delicious. We sat outside just enjoying the market for quite a while. After that we just went home to rest for the start of school the next day.

Monday morning we began class. In Florence we're taking Leonardo and Art. It's an art history course which is interesting, but not something I would have chosen on my own. It's something I've never taken before though, so it's definitely new. I find it pretty interesting overall.

I don't know much about Leonardo or art, but I've already learned that there's a lot more than goes into than I would have previously thought. After we got out of class I decided to go explore the city alone. I went to Santa Croce. Santa Croce is a well known church in Florence. There's a pretty famous statue of Dante there as well.

I didn't go inside, but I just enjoyed the piazza. After that I trekked up to Piazza Michelangelo. It's a beautiful piazza at the top of a hill. It offers a splendid view of the city and the countryside. It was a great place to just go think and it was a beautiful day. After that I just walked along the River Arno for a while. I really enjoy living so close to a river. It's beautiful and very calming.

Tuesday I began my second half of beginner's Italian. It's nice, I really enjoy this professor. I think she's really going to strengthen my confidence and help me learn a lot. She's extremely nice and makes me excited to engage in the language again, even if I'm not very good at it.

The rest of the week was pretty quiet. We're taking a tour of the city with our advisor today which should be nice. I'll update you guys again soon!

-- Amanda

Hello,

We've moved to our final city: Florence.  Although we've only been here for the weekend I already love the city.  We walk past “Il Duomo” everyday.  It's spectacular. 

We moved from Rome on Friday.  Thursday night we had several students over in hopes of eating all of our food before the big move.  We were somewhat successful, but it was a great time nonetheless. 

Friday, Gabby and I woke up and packed (I hadn't done any packing yet).  We cleaned the apartment and finally settled the great debate: to try to take our stuff (2 suitcases and a backpack each) by multiple metro trips or call a cab.  We settled for the cab idea.  It was much better.  They came and picked us up and took us right to the train station.  It wasn't really that expensive either.  We went by train to Florence.  I love traveling by train, you get to see so much of the countryside and it's just beautiful. 

An LDM staff member met us at the station and divided us up into cabs.  We were sent on our way to our new houses.  All four of the girls are living together.  Luckily we have a roommate here that has been exceptionally helpful in giving us advice and directions.

We did have an interesting time getting our suitcases up the stairs.  We're on the third floor again, which isn't so bad, but the staircases are so steep and our suitcases were very large and heavy.  It was the source of much amusement for all of us.  We did finally make it though. 

The first night we met Cory, one of the guys in our program, up for dinner.  We walked around for a long time just looking at Florence: the city is beautiful night or day.  We finally settled on a Mexican restaurant.  It was delicious and well priced.  We're likely to go back.  Italian food is delicious, but sometimes you just need a little variety.  Pizza or pasta isn't much of a choice sometimes. 

Saturday Gabby, April, another one of the three cities students, and I went to the San Lorenzo market. The market is really large and interesting.  Outside there are all sorts of stalls selling hats, gloves, scarves, purses, and more. Inside the Mercato Centrale are two floors.  The ground floor is full of stalls selling pastas and spices.  Also the first floor is full of butchers.  That was really an experience.  The second floor is my new favorite place ever though.  The second floor is all fruits and vegetables.  It's amazing.  Every type of fruit or vegetable you could want at good prices.  It was amazing.  It was so vibrant and full of life!  I got some oranges and we all got some dried fruit. 

In the afternoon we walked around with one of Elizabeth's friends that has been here for the entire semester.  She showed us some very cool things including a one euro gelato store! Mmm.  We also wandered around and did a bit of shopping. 

Sunday we got up and went to an “American Brunch” place.  Every sunday there is a bar that converts into a restaurant for the morning and offers American breakfast, which is pretty rare in Italy as their idea of breakfast is a coffee and a croissant.  While it wasn't the best breakfast I've ever had it was nice to have a bit of home for the morning.  In the afternoon we wandered a bit more, just taking the city in. 

It's so nice to just walk around here.  The city is really easy to navigate and if I ever get lost I just have to get back to the duomo and I can get back home.  It's time for orientation and I have a train to catch for my break (London and Warsaw!).

Ciao!
Amanda

Ciao.

This was the “Week of the Churches.”  While it may seem comical in a city of more than a thousand churches, my professor did indeed chuckle at me, I am proud to say that I went to 10 churches this week.

The first church was the basilica of Saint Clement.  It was one of the most interesting.  The basilica was built in the twelfth century, but excavations more recently have shown that it was built on top of a fourth century church, which was built on top of a first century roman housing complex.  There was a mosaic there depicting the tree of life which was one of the most beautiful mosaics I've ever seen.  It was so rich with Christian symbolism. 

The second church was San Giovanni in Laterno, which we can see from our balcony.  This church, although built and rebuilt many times to it's current grandeur, has the distinct honor of being the “first church” built in the world.  It was built by Constantine shortly after the Edict of Milan which allowed Christians to openly practice.  It is, more or less, the model for every church since. 

Another church was a church that is in Repubblica, a metro stop near school.  This church was really interesting because from the outside it looks very unimposing.  It's simply a brick, semi-circular, structure, but upon entering it's just as awe inspiring as any other church in Rome.  When I went in there was some type of liturgy going on, so I stopped an listened for a minute.  It also had one of my favorite weavings I've seen since I got to Italy...possibly ever.

Saturday, Gabby and I took the walking tour of Roman Churches as guided by Fodor and designed by Amanda, with a few side stops on the way.

The first church of the day was Santa Maria (there are a TON of those in Rome) of the Immaculate Conception.  While the church itself was fairly small, the draw, as we learned, is not actually for the church, but for the cemetery attached.  Now when I say cemetery please do not think of graves in the ground, outside, with headstones and such.  Nope this particular group of Chapuin (an order of Franciscan monks) decided to do things a bit differently.  There are five rooms decorated, and I do mean decorated, with the bones of over 4,000 monks that died sometime between the 1500s and the mid-1800s.  There are crosses made from femurs, chandeliers made from knee bones, and a variety of other decorations made out of bones that I couldn't identify.  If the bones weren't being used to decorate the walls they were either stacked up in mixed levels of bones and then skulls or decomposing as full skeletons in their friar robes.   The last room contained a sign that said in four different languages, “We used to be as you are and you will be come as we now are.” Combined with some malfunctions with the P.A. system while we were there...Gabby and I felt as though we hadn't missed out on the Halloween tradition and had visited Rome's own version of a haunted house. 

The second church was San Carlo della Quattro Fontane (Saint Carl's of the 4 fountains).  It was one of the smallest churches we had been to thus far.  I loved the ceiling which had an interesting design, but the dome was white and there was a dove at the very top.  The simplicity was quite the relief from all of the grandeur of the rest of the churches we've been too. 

The next Church was Sant'Andrea.  This church was ornate beyond belief.  It was decorated with gold, as most churches are, but also red Sicilian marble.  There was a very interesting mosaic on the floor and a really interesting depiction of Christ on the cross, but overall it was too much for my taste.

Next we wandered over to the Trevi Fountain and took a side trip into a church not on our list.  Outside there is a gate where lovers hang locks with their names on them.  It's a very cute tradition that's pretty common in Italian cities.  It started, I think, on a bridge in Florence with the military. 

We continued over to the Pantheon.  We've been before, but we wanted to take some pictures this time.  We couldn't go inside for some unknown reason so we kept walking.

Our next church was Santa Maria of Sopra Minerva.  This is the church in which Galileo was condemned.  It also has one of Michaelangelo's statues in it.  The ceiling was painted a bright blue, actually it kind of resembled the sky, which I thought was really interesting.

We stopped on the way at two more churches we found, but I don't even know their names. Once we left we were going to go to the Mamertine Prision, where Saint Peter had been held, but the sky was quickly changing so we decided just to start heading home.  The closest metro stop was at the Colosseum, but we got caught in a major protest (or the end of a major protest at least).  There were so many people that we literally couldn't move.  Gabby and I got separated, but we found each other and decided that even if we did get caught in the rain it was better to walk the several blocks to the next metro stop.  We made it to the stop without it starting to rain, but I got pushed onto a train and Gabby got left standing on the platform.  Whoops.  She caught the next train and we made it home - by then it was only raining a little.

I can't believe that my time in Rome is almost up!
-Amanda

Ciao tutti!

My first week of classes in Roma has come to an end.  This past Friday I went on a trip with the school to a region of Italy called Umbria.  We met at school pretty early especially considering the transportation strike.  Despite the complications that that created, we all got on the bus and drove for about three hours. 

Our first stop was at an olive oil press.  The new harvest had just begun the previous day so we were able to sample fresh olive oil.  They also showed us how the oil is made.  This particular oil is taken from not very mature olives.  They're separated from the stems, washed.  Then there is a paste that's made.  The paste is separated into waste, oil, and water.  Only the oil is kept.  It's then washed again and bottled.  It was delicious.

We got back on the bus and drove for about another hour.  We drove to Assisi.  I was very excited as this is somewhere I really wanted to go.  We got to see the town including both the church that St. Francis' original church is in and the new St. Francis Basilica.  Assisi was beautiful and really made me miss Tuscania.  We didn't get to go inside anything, so I may have to go back.  We went to an aguritismo, which is sort of a countryside retreat/farm type thing.  We had a wonderful multi-course lunch.  The food was delicious, as usual. There were a lot of cats and dogs just running around as well as a pig! We were actually able to pet it. 

Completely stuffed, we got back on the bus to drive to our last destination.  We drove about another 45 minutes to Spello. We went to a family run winery.  They made four kinds of wine (two white and two red).  The gentleman explained how they made the wine in italian. I understood some of it, but the wine professor translated everything.  They do age some of the wine in oak barrels for about a year and every wine is aged in a bottle for two years.  It was really interesting.  We were then able to try all four of the wines.  I liked the whites better, but they were all some of the best wine I've had thus far. 

After the tasting, several of us just went outside to watch the sunset and the beautiful scenery.  We piled back on the bus for our ride back to Rome.  I was able to talk so several of the Rome students and get to know them better.  I was able to relax and get to know some of the students, plus it was just a day of great Italian food and wine.  All in all, it was a great day.

Until next time,
Amanda

The last week was quite the whirlwind of traveling.  We had a week off of school so Gabie, Elizabeth and I went to Vienna and Prague.

Our vacation began early Tuesday morning.  We had a 6:30 train to Milan.  Our train ride was nice and quiet.  I got to watch the sun rise, which was beautiful. In Milan we had a few hours to explore the city so we decided to go see Il Duomo.  Il Duomo is the world’s largest Gothic cathedral and the second largest cathedral in the world (second only to St. Peter's in Rome).  I've seen the two largest cathedral's in the world this week.  It was truly stunning.  I haven't been inside St. Peter's yet, but Il Duomo definitely ranks as one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen.

We had a look around and then returned to the train station to catch a shuttle to the airport for our flight to Vienna.  We accidentally went to the wrong airport (whoops!), but an expensive taxi ride and about another hour later, things were fixed and we made our flight.

Vienna was spectacular.  I'm so glad we went.  Wednesday was our only day in Vienna (or Wien as it's called in Austria).  We were able to go to the Leopold Museum and see some interesting Austrian art.  My favorite place by far was the National History Museum, I got to see the Venus von Willendorf! This is a tiny statue of a feminine figure.  It dates back to the prehistoric age I think. It was awesome.  She really is the size of a keychain.  The museum as a whole was just very interesting, very me.  We saw the St. Stephen Cathedral which had a very interesting roof. We also went to the theme park that inspired Walt Disney.  While it was a lot of fun, it was also kind of creepy.  We went late at night and it was beginning to shut down.  We had a lot of fun taking pictures with the very bizarre statues though.

The following day we took a train to Prague.  Train has definitely become my favorite way to travel.  I love seeing all of the countryside.  Prague was lovely.  It was likely the only taste of fall I'm going to get.  All of the leaves were beautiful colors.

Prague wasn't everything that people had built it up to be for me.  I enjoyed it, but it wasn't spectacular.  We were able to see the Jewish Center which consisted of about 5 synagogues, a lot of information about Prague during WWII, and a very old Jewish Cemetery.  We also went to Prague Castle which had some of the most amazing views I've seen.  My favorite part by far was the John Lennon wall.  It's just this wall of graffiti.  If you weren't looking for it you'd definitely miss it, I almost did!  It was really great though.  A lot of song lyrics and inspiring messages.  I even wrote on it! (Love is all you need.) We also went to the top of the metronome.  There used to be a huge statue of Stalin at the top of this one hill.  After the fall of communism they took it down, it took six bombs to do it though.  In 1991 they put up a huge metronome to symbolize balance and that everything has it's own time.  It was pretty cool as well.

Sunday we went back to Rome.  We were all glad to get home.  Classes begin this week.  I'm the only student in my Italian language class which should be very interesting.  More details to come!

Love,
Amanda

Hi!

We've moved to our second city, Roma. It is certainly different than life in Tuscania, in some ways better and some things will definitely take some getting used to.  One of the things that will take some getting used to is being farther from each other. 

Our group of six is spread out across the city in different apartments.  Elizabeth is in an apartment closest to school with 4 semester LDM students.  April is in an apartment by herself, it's tiny, but in a very nice neighborhood.  Cory and Dan are still together in an apartment about 10 blocks or two metro stops from me.  My roommate and I are still living together.  However, the metro is really easy to figure out since there are only two lines.  We all bought an unlimited metro/bus pass for the month of October.  That's definitely the best way to get around here.

One of the nice things about Rome is that there really is so much to see.  Our first full day in Rome was filled with wandering sightseeing. We had wanted to go to the Pantheon because there is an opening in the roof and it's a 'must see' when it's raining.  As it was lightly raining, we thought it'd be perfect.  We weren't really sure how to get there, so instead we decided we'd go to the Trevi Fountain.  We weren't really sure how to get there either, so we picked a reasonable direction and started walking.  We didn't find the fountain, but we did run into Trajan's Column. 

Trajan's Column is a huge column on which the emperor Trajan carved pictures of every detail of this one particular battle.  It stands in front of two large basilicas. Which were equally impressive.  We also found Victor Emanuel, which is a monument to some Italian war hero - I don't really know the details.  Additionally, we ran into ruins which Elizabeth told me are the Forum.  Finally, we kept walking down the street and saw the Colosseum.  It really was amazing to see it in real life.

Elizabeth, Gabie and I went back to our apartment to get ready to go out for the night.  We met up with Ashley and Alison from Tuscania along with the rest of the three cities students.  We all met at Trevi Fountain.  It's really beautiful at night! I threw in a coin so that someday I'll come back to Rome.  Then we all went out for dinner. 

Ashley had met this man earlier and he took us down this back street to a restaurant.  It was the best meal (and one of the best priced meals) I've had since I've been in Italy.  I had spaghetti carbonara.  Which is spaghetti with small pieces of salty meat, I think bacon and cheese.  It's Rome's specialty dish and it was so delicious. 

We then walked over to the Spanish Steps.  The Spanish Steps are the famous meeting point in Rome.  There are 138 steps (I read in a guidebook) and at the top there is a large palace and a nice view of Rome. 

We split up and three of us went back to Trevi and got some coffee and gelato.  I had mint chocolate and nutella gelato.  Both were amazing.  We took a closer look at the fountain, since some of the crowd had thinned out.  The details are really impressive.  Then we went back over to the Spanish Steps and climbed them.  The view was indeed very nice. 

Sunday Elizabeth and I ventured on our own.  We went down to the Vatican and were just in time to see the Pope giving the Sunday Mass.  I couldn't understand most of it because it was in Italian, but it was really cool to see everyone gathered in St. Peter's square and actually SEE the Pope.  He was in a window several stories up, but it was still really cool.  We wandered around the square a bit and then we decided to get some lunch and head over to Villa Borghese. 

Villa Borghese is a large park in the middle of Rome, kind of like Central Park in NYC.  It's smaller than that, but really well known for its fountains and its art museum.  We went over to the lake and rented a row boat for about half an hour.  Elizabeth did most of the rowing, but I attempted!  It was beautiful.  I'll definitely be back with a book so I can just hang out.

The three cities group is coming over for dinner tonight and our orientation is tomorrow.  We also have an evening mixer with the other LDM students.  However, Gabie, Elizabeth, and I begin our first break with traveling on Tuesday with a train at 6:30 in the morning!

-Amanda

Ciao!

It's difficult to think that it's already the end of my last weekend in Tuscania!! Our group moves to Rome this Friday.

Last Friday the school organized a trip to Villa Lante.  It is a garden and park with several fountains.  It was one of the most beautiful places I've been thus far.  Three cardinals built the park.  The idea is that from any point you can see directly up to the other fountains, so it really appealed to my sense of balance. 

The first fountain was very large with four pond type pools surrounding it.  It was in a garden of hedges.  The second fountain was circular and had spouts everywhere.  The third fountain was semi-circular with two large statues of what resembled a merman, but was probably a mythical god.  The fourth fountain was a fountain that ran down the stairs.  It was my favorite.  From the top of it you couldn't see the third fountain, so it gave the illusion that the water was jumping from this fountain into a long table that the Cardinals used to serve guests meals. The fifth and final fountain in the sequence was a typical fountain that had some mythological creatures on the top. 

In addition there was a fountain that contained extremely green algae growing on the top.  This algae was actually proof that the water is very clear because it will only grow in extremely clear water.  There was a small fountain off to the side that was of a woman and water came out of the breasts.  This is the first fountain a cardinal would see upon deciding to walk through the gardens.  Additionally there was a Pegasus fountain.  There is a myth that says a Pegasus can strike water simply by striking the ground with its foot.  The entire area was so beautiful!

After we left Villa Lante our group split in two, with half the girls returning to Tuscania and the rest of us staying to get a tour of Viterbo's historical center.  Viterbo is a larger town about 20 minutes from Tuscania.  I hadn't been there yet.  One of the LdM professors showed us around town and was very informative.  The town is really prominent in the Catholic Church history.  It has had more Pope's there than anywhere else and the Pope's palace is where the first conclave was done.

According to my professor, the Cardinals of the Church had had a lot of difficulty electing a Pope, so the citizens of Viterbo decided to lock them in a room.  Several months later they still hadn't chosen a Pope, even being locked in, so the citizens decided that they were going to remove the roof.  A month later they still hadn't agreed so the citizens refused to feed them. 

They had reached a decision a few days later. When the man they elected (Gregory X I think) was told, he tried to refuse it, but they wouldn't let him because they didn't want to decide again.  Ever since then the Cardinals lock themselves in a room to choose the Pope.

It was very interesting in general, but it was really cool to see the Medieval structures because we've been surrounded by so many Etruscan buildings.  It's like taking a walking tour through history. 

Alas, I must go study.  My papers are not going to write themselves, unfortunately!

-Amanda

Ciao,

This past weekend was my first travel adventure.  The school had organized a morning trip to a close city, so the three girls (Allison, Elizabeth and Gabby) and I decided to go and knowing that it would make catching the train easier.  We met at the train stop and toured the Etruscan Museum.  We also got to visit the nearby tombs.  This area is extremely well-known for Etruscan history, especially the burial tombs that have been unearthed all around.  The tombs are similar to Egyptian in the way that they depict a scene of the afterlife (maybe a hunting trip or a sporting event) and contain articles that the deceased will need for such events.  It was raining, so that put quite a damper on the entire morning, but it did give me a good chance to talk to my advisor about life in Italy.  I was able to ask a lot of questions about crime, racism, immigration, and politics. 

We were able to catch a bus to the train station. The small train station was also a good test of our Italian skills.  I was able to understand a lot of things, but I wasn't able to form a lot of sentences to express myself.  After our wait we had a short train ride to Rome.  Upon arrival in Rome we found our platform for our next train and also I had my first encounter with a pay-to-use bathroom.  Sometimes there aren't open public bathrooms, but rather bathrooms that cost a few cents (this one was 80 Euro cents) to use. 

We made our train and settled in, only to quickly realize that on this longer train ride there were actually assigned seats, the same way there are on planes.  We had gotten on in the 5th car, but our seats were actually in the 11th.  We had to go through 6 train cars, with our backpacks, we unfortunately annoyed several Italians in the process.  However, when we got to our seats there were also people sitting in them, so we weren't alone in our confusion.  We took a bus and settled in our hostel for the evening.

The next morning we went to Venice.  It was as beautiful as I would have expected.  We wandered the streets and shops while making our way toward San Marco's.  San Marco's is the name of the largest and most famous church on the island as well as the name of the plaza in which it's located.  We found the basilica and were able to go inside.  It was very beautiful.  We were even able to go up top to the terrace and see all of the plaza.  The view of the sea was awesome from there.

After that we decided to go visit the Peggy Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art.  Allison and I didn't go inside, but Gabby and Elizabeth did.  After the museum we decided to head back toward San Marco's and find a place for dinner.  We found a restaurant with a nice view of the sea, it was extremely overpriced, but hey, it was Venice. 

Venice at night was absolutely beautiful.  The crowds had thinned out considerably making the city even more enjoyable.  We weren't able to cross the Bridge of Sighs as it, along with several other buildings, was under construction, but we were able to see it.  While making our way back to the bus stop we found a band playing in one of the plazas.  I loved them!  They had a fun style. They were playing the accordion, spoons, a bass cello and a few other instruments.

The next morning we checked out of our hostel very early to take a trip to Murano.  Murano is an island off the coast of Venice that is well known for its glass.  For a very long time the island has been home to world famous glass artisans.  The water bus and the island itself was probably my favorite part of the weekend.  We found two large glass sculptures just put up in plazas.  We also toured the museum.  Outside they had several pieces of glass art that were very cool.  We caught the boat bus back to Venice.  The three girls got off a stop too early.  I didn't realize it until I got off at the right stop.  We quickly found each other though, so it wasn't a problem.

After some minor confusion about the bus schedule we made it back to the train station just in time to catch our train.  We got on the right car this time, but I was caught in a whirlwind of an Indian family loading several large pieces of luggage onto the train to store.  At one point I was pretty sure they were just going to pick me up as part of their luggage.  We settled in for the trip and I got down to studying for my midterm on Monday.

Everything went smoothly for the rest of the trip. We made it back to Tuscania safely.  Next week is already our last week here, which is extremely difficult to believe!  I'm going to miss this quiet town, but am getting excited for our move to Rome.

Ciao,
Amanda

Greetings from Italy!

Life is now into full swing in this quaint Italian town.  Classes are finished for this first week.  One of the great things about going to school at LDM is that every week they organize free side trips.  This Thursday after class our group took a tour of the largest volcanic lake in Europe: Lake Bolsena.  It was really pretty. 

We toured around two islands in the middle of the lake.  One of them used to be a papal residence.  The second island now has a convent on it, but our guide told us that it wasn't “historically interesting.”  One of the best parts is they allowed us to get off and swim!  Only us crazy American students got into the water, but it was so clear it was mesmerizing.  After the tour we went to get pizza at a local place. 

When we came back we watched a group of older men playing botcchi ball.  Some of the girls were taking pictures and one of the men joked in English that they were going to start charging for pictures, we later learned he was an Australian gentleman that spends his summer vacation in Italy.    After a while I went down to the pier by myself and just sat and thought for a while.  It was very peaceful.  When we got back to Tuscania our entire group of 13 met at one of the guy's houses (they have a very nice place with a private courtyard) to make dinner together.  It was wonderful!  We just hung out, talked and got to know one another. 

Another great thing about being in Italy is things just sort of happen here.  For example, Friday, despite not having classes, we got up early to go to the Friday Market.  They hold a street fair every Friday morning here. 

We walked around with one of our advisors, Mei.  She helped teach us some vocabulary and we were allowed to practice our Italian.  After that she took us to her house, which is incredibly artistic and classy.  We went and got coffee afterward.  I had a cup of ginseng cuppachino (which here is coffee and milk together) and a croissant filled with nutella.  Nutella has quickly become my new favorite sweet. 

We were discussing renting bikes to ride back to the lake, which evolved into a discussion about Mei's fear of deep water.  Somehow this turned into us going to one of the other professor's houses to swim at his pool.  He was busy, so he just gave us the keys and we headed over.  His mother was home, but she stayed by the house.  We swam for a while and laid out for a bit after that.  Then Mei showed us some stretches.  I was by far the least flexible, but it was still fun.  We stayed there for several hours.  There are pictures of this. 

After we left we were all going to meet for dinner, but it began to storm so my roommate, our friend Elizabeth that lives across the street and I opted to make dinner at our place instead. 

The rest of the weekend was spent doing homework and getting to know Tuscania better.  We're off for another week of classes realizing we only have 11 days left of classes in Tuscania!

Until next time,
Amanda