So, apparently there was a pretty bad earthquake in central Italy last night. Not to worry though, Florence was not harmed, and I was safe and sound snoozing through the whole thing. No big: this isn't the first time I've slept through an earthquake. Haha!
Here's the link to the story for anyone interested:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30061140?GT1=43001
Ciao!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Sorry, I've lost the will to blog. lol.
So, the week with the family was great, but unfortunately for all of you, I just can't bring myself to sit down at the computer long enough to tell you all about it. Haha. And this weekend, I'm going on a trip to Pompeii, Capri, and Sorrento, so no blogging! Maybe sometime next week. :) Stay tuned. Pictures are up, though! Sorry. :)
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Finally caught up!
OK, so the blog is all caught up from Milan to Rome. Nothing to report about this week. Midterms have pretty much dominated the week. But, I'm finally finished, so Spring Break has officially begun! :) Mom and Dad get here tomorrow, so no promises on when the next post will be!
Ciao!
Ciao!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Yes, I am still alive and well. :)
There has been much concern over the lack of updates to my blogs. Sorry to cause so much distress, but it has been crazy! The week after my trip to Milan, I had a ton of work to get done before Jackie came to visit. While Jackie was here, every minute I wasn't in class, we were off doing something or other. And then this week is midterms, so there was much studying and writing papers over the weekend and first few days of the week. But, I've only got one more test, so I will do my best to catch up on my blogging, and hopefully get it all done before my family gets here on Friday!
Ciao!
(and just to clear up any confusion, I backdate all of my blogs, so they will be in order- new stuff starting after the trip to Milan).
Ciao!
(and just to clear up any confusion, I backdate all of my blogs, so they will be in order- new stuff starting after the trip to Milan).
Friday, March 13, 2009
Jackie Week Day 5, Part II.- I've seen Gladiator plenty of times, I know how this works!
Next on the agenda was the Colosseum. The minute we stepped out of the Metro station, the Colosseum was already looming over us. Well, no need to ask for directions this time.
We hopped in line. People once again kept pushing the tours, which we ignored completely- A) We didn't really have enough time for another tour. B)We had already gotten screwed on one tour today, and were not making that mistake again! C) I've seen Gladiator enough times, that I think I know how this whole Colosseum thing worked! LOL.
Good call on not getting a tour, as we only had to wait in line for about 10 minutes. NICE. The Colosseum is pretty straight forward, so I'll just skip the chatter and give you the pictures. :)
Good thing we got to the Colosseum when we did, because by the time we left, the gates were closed! The Colosseum, the Forum, and Palatine Hill all close an hour before sunset. Oh, ok, let me just get out my sundial and see if we have enough time. LOL.
After the Colosseum, we went to check out the Pantheon, which unfortunately, ended up being closed to visitors because, crazy!, they were actually having church! lol.
So, we grabbed a quick gelato and headed to the Trevi Fountain.
The Trevi Fountain area was PACKED. It was absolute craziness! We fought the crowd and finally made it down in front of the fountain. Once we got there, we practically had to beat the stupid guys with Polaroid cameras who want a euro for a picture off with a stick! Good LORD! We had no sooner gotten rid of one, then another one came up! UGH! We finally found a couple of friendly tourists to take pictures for us. We both took turns tossing our coins into the fountain (but unfortunately, both pictures were taken on Jackie's camera for some reason. hmmm...) and decided to call it a day.
We took the train back home and CRASHED. We had WAAAYYY too much fun this week, and I was EXHAUSTED. Since Jackie's flight was so early, we had originally planned to pull an all-nighter, but that just wasn't going to happen! lol. I slept on and off until around 4:30. We called a cab and took Jackie to the airport. I didn't want to let her go! and unfortunately, I couldn't even stay to get her all checked in because the cab driver was waiting to take me back to my apartment! :( I loved having Jackie here for the week, but her visit made me really homesick. :(
The rest of the weekend was all work, no play. Studying for midterms. Ugh.
Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from our trip to Roma in my Picasa album!
Ciao!
We hopped in line. People once again kept pushing the tours, which we ignored completely- A) We didn't really have enough time for another tour. B)We had already gotten screwed on one tour today, and were not making that mistake again! C) I've seen Gladiator enough times, that I think I know how this whole Colosseum thing worked! LOL.
Good call on not getting a tour, as we only had to wait in line for about 10 minutes. NICE. The Colosseum is pretty straight forward, so I'll just skip the chatter and give you the pictures. :)
Good thing we got to the Colosseum when we did, because by the time we left, the gates were closed! The Colosseum, the Forum, and Palatine Hill all close an hour before sunset. Oh, ok, let me just get out my sundial and see if we have enough time. LOL.
After the Colosseum, we went to check out the Pantheon, which unfortunately, ended up being closed to visitors because, crazy!, they were actually having church! lol.
So, we grabbed a quick gelato and headed to the Trevi Fountain.
The Trevi Fountain area was PACKED. It was absolute craziness! We fought the crowd and finally made it down in front of the fountain. Once we got there, we practically had to beat the stupid guys with Polaroid cameras who want a euro for a picture off with a stick! Good LORD! We had no sooner gotten rid of one, then another one came up! UGH! We finally found a couple of friendly tourists to take pictures for us. We both took turns tossing our coins into the fountain (but unfortunately, both pictures were taken on Jackie's camera for some reason. hmmm...) and decided to call it a day.
We took the train back home and CRASHED. We had WAAAYYY too much fun this week, and I was EXHAUSTED. Since Jackie's flight was so early, we had originally planned to pull an all-nighter, but that just wasn't going to happen! lol. I slept on and off until around 4:30. We called a cab and took Jackie to the airport. I didn't want to let her go! and unfortunately, I couldn't even stay to get her all checked in because the cab driver was waiting to take me back to my apartment! :( I loved having Jackie here for the week, but her visit made me really homesick. :(
The rest of the weekend was all work, no play. Studying for midterms. Ugh.
Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from our trip to Roma in my Picasa album!
Ciao!
Jackie Week- Day 5, Part I. When in Rome...take illegal photos of the Sistine Chapel!
Jackie and I got up early to take the train to Rome. First on the agenda was the Vatican. This was the one place that Jackie absolutely HAD to go (being Catholic and all, it IS kind of a big deal. lol), so I wanted to make sure we got to see it.
Every book that we had looked through has said that the lines for the Vatican are HORRIBLY long, so as we were making our way over there, people kept asking us if we wanted tours, saying that we would get to skip all the lines and get straight in. Blah blah blah. It sounded like it would be a good idea, as we only had one day in Rome, and didn't want to spend it waiting in line. So, we paid the 40 freakin' euro to get the tour. Only to walk up to the museum with the group and see NO ONE. There was no friggin' line!!!! UGH! Suffice it to say, I was quite angry. It just seems wrong to con someone like that on a tour of the frickin' VATICAN!!!!....ugh.....anyway.
Jackie and her pretty yellow sticker, which we had to wear to mark us as stupid tourists who got conned into a tour. Ugh.
So, the tour was pretty cool, although it took a lot longer than perhaps I would have preferred. Oh well. We saw WAAAAAAY too much for me to try and narrate the whole tour, so here are a few shots.
On to the Sistine Chapel- which first of all, you can't get to without seeing the ENTIRE Vatican museum. Not that we weren't going to see it anyway, but just throwing that out there for anyone who may go to Rome in the future and just wants to see the Sistine Chapel- can't do it! lol.
Ok, so now we're going to take a sidebar to talk about Michaelangelo. I'm just going to say this, and know that there is no other way to put this that completely describes this guy: Michaelangelo was a BADASS. To expand on this concept, let's talk about his work on the Sistine Chapel. The Pope who commissioned Michaelangelo was kind of a jerkface. He and Michaelangelo didn't get along at all. But Mikey (as our tour guide affectionately referred to him as, lol) did it anyway, because you can't really say no to the Pope. The Pope really liked Michaelangelo's work, as a SCULPTOR. He commissioned him to PAINT the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel knowing that Mikey knew nothing about fresco painting. But, Mikey was a fast learner, so he soon mastered the tecnique and the ceiling turned out PERFECT. And then Michaelangelo put a few elements into the ceiling to spite the Pope- he painted a scene of God from behind knowing that the Pope would have to see God's butt every time he looked up when delivering mass. Also, he painted two different children giving old men who coincidentally (or not) looked like the jerkface Pope the old version of "the bird", which is a fist with the thumb sticking out between two fingers. He also painted a church official who demanded that he paint over some of the nudity in the chapel in the lowest part of hell in the Last Judgment with a snake biting off his you-know-what. LOL. Seriously, this guy didn't take crap from ANYBODY. Awesome. :)
Speaking of the Sistine Chapel, you are technically not supposed to take pictures at all, not even those without flash. This is because when the Japanese paid to have the ceiling restored, they got the rights to it. So, at first, we were trying to be really sneaky about taking pictures.
Here is my first failed attempt at a sneak attack.
But, then everyone else was bold-facedly taking pictures. The security folks kept saying "No photos" very apathetically, and they weren't actually making anyone put away cameras or anything. I personally believe that they Italians are ticked off about the whole Japan thing, and they allow pictures without flash as their way of sticking it to the Japanese for taking away rights to THEIR masterpiece. However, they DO attack anyone who is STUPID enough to take a picture with flash. Understandable. I mean, is it REALLY that hard to turn the flash off? NO. And they really make an example of anyone who does, by immediately escorting them out of the Chapel.
After the Chapel, it was on to the Basilica of St. Peter. Keep in mind, that there are NO paintings in St. Peter's. Anything that looks like a painting, is actually a mosaic. CRAZY.
La Pieta by Michaelangelo- the only piece he ever signed and dated.
The tomb of St. Peter.
The Vatican was fun! (except for the getting ripped off on the tour part, but oh well!) Next, we headed to the Colosseum!
For more pictures from our Vatican adventure check out my Picasa album- and try to identify the two celebrity look alikes from the museum!
Stay tuned for part II of our day in Roma!
Ciao!
Every book that we had looked through has said that the lines for the Vatican are HORRIBLY long, so as we were making our way over there, people kept asking us if we wanted tours, saying that we would get to skip all the lines and get straight in. Blah blah blah. It sounded like it would be a good idea, as we only had one day in Rome, and didn't want to spend it waiting in line. So, we paid the 40 freakin' euro to get the tour. Only to walk up to the museum with the group and see NO ONE. There was no friggin' line!!!! UGH! Suffice it to say, I was quite angry. It just seems wrong to con someone like that on a tour of the frickin' VATICAN!!!!....ugh.....anyway.
Jackie and her pretty yellow sticker, which we had to wear to mark us as stupid tourists who got conned into a tour. Ugh.
So, the tour was pretty cool, although it took a lot longer than perhaps I would have preferred. Oh well. We saw WAAAAAAY too much for me to try and narrate the whole tour, so here are a few shots.
On to the Sistine Chapel- which first of all, you can't get to without seeing the ENTIRE Vatican museum. Not that we weren't going to see it anyway, but just throwing that out there for anyone who may go to Rome in the future and just wants to see the Sistine Chapel- can't do it! lol.
Ok, so now we're going to take a sidebar to talk about Michaelangelo. I'm just going to say this, and know that there is no other way to put this that completely describes this guy: Michaelangelo was a BADASS. To expand on this concept, let's talk about his work on the Sistine Chapel. The Pope who commissioned Michaelangelo was kind of a jerkface. He and Michaelangelo didn't get along at all. But Mikey (as our tour guide affectionately referred to him as, lol) did it anyway, because you can't really say no to the Pope. The Pope really liked Michaelangelo's work, as a SCULPTOR. He commissioned him to PAINT the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel knowing that Mikey knew nothing about fresco painting. But, Mikey was a fast learner, so he soon mastered the tecnique and the ceiling turned out PERFECT. And then Michaelangelo put a few elements into the ceiling to spite the Pope- he painted a scene of God from behind knowing that the Pope would have to see God's butt every time he looked up when delivering mass. Also, he painted two different children giving old men who coincidentally (or not) looked like the jerkface Pope the old version of "the bird", which is a fist with the thumb sticking out between two fingers. He also painted a church official who demanded that he paint over some of the nudity in the chapel in the lowest part of hell in the Last Judgment with a snake biting off his you-know-what. LOL. Seriously, this guy didn't take crap from ANYBODY. Awesome. :)
Speaking of the Sistine Chapel, you are technically not supposed to take pictures at all, not even those without flash. This is because when the Japanese paid to have the ceiling restored, they got the rights to it. So, at first, we were trying to be really sneaky about taking pictures.
Here is my first failed attempt at a sneak attack.
But, then everyone else was bold-facedly taking pictures. The security folks kept saying "No photos" very apathetically, and they weren't actually making anyone put away cameras or anything. I personally believe that they Italians are ticked off about the whole Japan thing, and they allow pictures without flash as their way of sticking it to the Japanese for taking away rights to THEIR masterpiece. However, they DO attack anyone who is STUPID enough to take a picture with flash. Understandable. I mean, is it REALLY that hard to turn the flash off? NO. And they really make an example of anyone who does, by immediately escorting them out of the Chapel.
After the Chapel, it was on to the Basilica of St. Peter. Keep in mind, that there are NO paintings in St. Peter's. Anything that looks like a painting, is actually a mosaic. CRAZY.
La Pieta by Michaelangelo- the only piece he ever signed and dated.
The tomb of St. Peter.
The Vatican was fun! (except for the getting ripped off on the tour part, but oh well!) Next, we headed to the Colosseum!
For more pictures from our Vatican adventure check out my Picasa album- and try to identify the two celebrity look alikes from the museum!
Stay tuned for part II of our day in Roma!
Ciao!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Jackie Week- Day 4
Today, Jackie and I had planned to go to the Bargello sculpture museum before my ballet class, but we were sooooo tired from the day before that that just wasn't gonna happen! lol
After ballet, Jackie and I fixed lunch at the apartment and headed to the Uffizi. The line wasn't quite as long as the days before, but we still had to wait about an hour before we got in.
I was glad that we saved the Uffizi for last because it was a LOT bigger than I thought! We definitely couldn't have accomplished it any of the other days because it took a lot of time! It was really cool to see all the big names in art all in one place. The collection was incredible! All four Ninja Turtles (lol- Michaelangelo, Donatello, Rafael, and Leonardo (da Vinci)), Botticelli (who was my FAVORITE. OMG. Love Botticelli), who painted the Birth of Venus and Primavera (GORGEOUS), Rembrandt. CRAZY. It was also cool to see some of the pieces that we've been learning about in my art class. Of course, no photos here. And there are a lot more security people, so I didn't even bother trying to sneak attack anything. lol
We went back to the apartment to rest for a little while before dinner. We went to Borgo Antico for dinner. Andrea brought us both a parmesan basket appetizer and the usual glass of wine, and we split a mushroom and proscuitto pizza. For dessert, we split a piece of cheesecake with berries. O-M-G. It was SOOOOOO good! Jackie said that it was the best cheesecake she had ever had in her life, and that's saying a lot! lol
After dinner, we went back to the apartment to look over my books for Rome. Our last chance for shenanigans! :(
Ciao!
After ballet, Jackie and I fixed lunch at the apartment and headed to the Uffizi. The line wasn't quite as long as the days before, but we still had to wait about an hour before we got in.
I was glad that we saved the Uffizi for last because it was a LOT bigger than I thought! We definitely couldn't have accomplished it any of the other days because it took a lot of time! It was really cool to see all the big names in art all in one place. The collection was incredible! All four Ninja Turtles (lol- Michaelangelo, Donatello, Rafael, and Leonardo (da Vinci)), Botticelli (who was my FAVORITE. OMG. Love Botticelli), who painted the Birth of Venus and Primavera (GORGEOUS), Rembrandt. CRAZY. It was also cool to see some of the pieces that we've been learning about in my art class. Of course, no photos here. And there are a lot more security people, so I didn't even bother trying to sneak attack anything. lol
We went back to the apartment to rest for a little while before dinner. We went to Borgo Antico for dinner. Andrea brought us both a parmesan basket appetizer and the usual glass of wine, and we split a mushroom and proscuitto pizza. For dessert, we split a piece of cheesecake with berries. O-M-G. It was SOOOOOO good! Jackie said that it was the best cheesecake she had ever had in her life, and that's saying a lot! lol
After dinner, we went back to the apartment to look over my books for Rome. Our last chance for shenanigans! :(
Ciao!
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