Earthquake? Really?

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!

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. :)

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!

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).

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!

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!

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!

Jackie Week- Day 3

My only class for the day was Italian, so we had a full day of shenanigans ahead of us! After Italian, we made a quick trip to the train station to get my rail pass validated, and then we stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things for the apartment.

Our first major stop for the day was the Salvatore Ferregamo SHOE MUSEUM! Oh yes, that's right. A whole museum devoted to shoes.



For those unfamiliar with the name, Salvatore Ferregamo is known as the "shoe-maker of the stars". The museum was AWESOME! We saw the wooden forms for celebrities like Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe. There were receipts from orders for Mrs. John Wayne, Ginger Rogers (OMG), Katherine Hepburn. The walls were covered with pictures of Ferregamo and all of these old-Hollywood hot-shots. Then, there were the shoes themselves- each one a work of art, exquisitely and masterfully made! Some of the owners- Marilyn Monroe, Sofia Loren, Carmen Miranda, just to name a few. As usual, photos were not allowed, but we couldn't resist taking just one!


The Ferregamo museum was just TOO much for a couple of shoe nuts like Jackie and me. :) Our heads were like spinning by the time we walked out of the museum. :)

We headed back to the apartment for lunch. The weather was really nice, so we decided to go to the Boboli gardens.







After the Gardens, we decided to walk up to the Piazzale Michaelangelo, which has a beautiful view of the city, and a fake David! lol! :)....of course, more inappropriate comments were inevitable. :)

There were SOOOOO many stairs up to Michaelangelo's square! ugh!




And that's not even counting the steep streets we had to take to get to the stairs! lol!

But it was definitely worth it! The view was gorgeous!





Since we were already in the neighborhood, we went up to San Miniato. More stairs. UGH. lol

After all this exploring, we were exhausted, so we went back to the apartment to chill for a little while. We had dinner with my roomies, then we all went to Loch Ness. Some awkward Swedish boys bought us roses. We're pretty sure they were like 15. LOL.

Only two more fun-filled days with Jackie left! :( The week is going too quickly!

Jackie Week- Day 2

Again, classes dragged on FOREVER. Renaissance Art was interesting- we started talking about paintings today and visited Santa Maria Novella to see a couple of famous works. In Ballet, we watched part of Swan Lake, which was really good, but I was really tired, and the classical music was so relaxing, that I kept doing the fall-asleep-head-jerk.

After class, I came home and fixed lunch for Jackie and me, and we skyped with Mom for a little bit before heading out. The weather wasn't the greatest, so we decided to go to the Galleria dell'Accademia to see the David. Jackie LOVED the David. Understandable- he is pretty awesome! lol And of course, we had a blast making a ton of completely inappropriate jokes about David and his "rock solid" body. haha! ;)

After the gallery, we went to the San Lorenzo market to shop. Jackie wanted to get some souveniers and presents. Having Jackie here makes me really homesick! Going shopping at the market reminded me of going to Eastland with Jackie and NikkiKacy! I am having a GREAT time in Italy, but it made me miss ISU a lot! :(

After shopping, we headed home for dinner. We were really tired once again, so we stayed in and caught up on 3 months worth of Cosmopolitan magazines that we had missed during Christmas break and since I've been in Italy. Again, Cosmo night in Italy made me homesick for Cosmo nights on Atkin 6! :( I LOVE having Jackier here, but it makes me miss all of my other school friends!

Jackie Week- Day 1

So, Jackie's first day in Italy. Unfortunately, this coincides with my busiest day of classes. I went to Italian, and then came home and fixed us some brunch. We stopped at Giovanni's for coffee- well, cappuccino for me, ciocolatta for Jackie. :) After coffee, we went and scaled the Duomo. Yup, all 463....again. :) This time it was a little bit less crowded, so that was nice. And it's just different going with Jackie, we had a great time!



After climbing the dome, we went into the Cathedral, which Jackie really enjoyed- you know, it means a lot more to her, as she is actually Catholic. :) Unfortunately, we couldn't catch a Mass in Italy, but Jackie still enjoyed the Cathedral.

After the cathedral, we walked around to see some other sights in Florence- the Baptistery, the Piazza della Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio. We even stopped by Borgo just to say hello to the guys!

On the way home, we grabbed some gelato before I had to head off to class for the rest of the evening.

Classes dragged on FOREVER....as if 5.5 hours of class isn't long enough already! After class, I came home to meet Jackie and we went over to Brent and Brians to hang out for awhile.

The Best Food and Wine in Pienza and Montepulciano

Day 2 of our field trip "Under the Tuscan Sun" started with breakfast at the hotel (roomies and I had the first Nutella we had eaten in nearly a month! haha!) After breakfast, we got back on the bus for another ridiculously beautiful ride through the countryside.



There really wasn't that much to see or do in Pienza- a couple small churches. Nothing spectacular. But if I was ever in any danger of staying in Italy forever, it was in Pienza. The town is SOOOOO adorable! I can't even really describe it, and I didn't take that many pictures. But, if I were going to stay in Italy forever, I would want to stay somewhere like Pienza, but maybe that's just me going back to my small town roots! lol! :)



The weather was absolutely perfect, so Shannon, Marla, and I found a spot on the city wall, and just hung out and enjoyed the sunshine until it was time to get back on the bus to go to the farm.

We toured a farm way out in the middle of the Tuscan countryside (the bus couldn't even get us there- we had to meet up with the farmer and his son and they shuttled us from the bus out to their farm, lol!). We toured the farm, where they produce cheese and salami.


This picture is of our chaperone, Luca. He's quite a character to say the least. :)


And here's Shannon with a baby lamb! It was like 4 hours old. Just throwing that out there. :)

After the tour, we went inside to the farm's restaurant where we had lunch, which included a grain and bean "soup", a course of salami and cheese (both fresh and aged cheeses), and dessert (an apricot pastry and a piece of mystery cake).

After lunch, we got back on the bus and headed to Montepulciano for a tour of a wine cellar and a tasting. But, to be perfectly honest, I couldn't have cared less about Montepulciano, because on the way to the farm, Jackie had called to tell me she had safely arrived at my apartment in Florence! YAY! So, I spent pretty much the entire time in Montepulciano itching to get back to Florence. lol.

I really can't tell you much about the wine cellar we toured, because I was NOT paying attention, but here are a couple pictures!





After the tour, we tasted three of the house wines, and then it was back on the bus to Florence! I was exhausted from the weekend, and tried to sleep on the way home. But, of course, I was too excited! Oh well!

I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to see Jackie when I got back to apartment! I practically ran up the stairs to our apartment! Jackie and I went for a walk around Florence, enjoying the lovely evening. We went and sat down by the Arno while she told me all about her travel. It was SOOOOOOO great to have her here in Florence! I know this week will go WAY too fast!
Ciao!

La Vita e Bella in Arezzo and Cortona!

Today was the first of our two field trips through school. The title of this field trip was "The Best Food and Wine 'Under the Tuscan Sun'". Over the weekend, we traveled to Arezzo, Cortona, Pienza, and Montepulciano.

Day 1 of the field trip started a little too early for our liking. We boarded the bus at 8 am and took off for Arezzo. The bus ride through the countryside was absolutely beautiful! Much better scenery than that along the interstates in Illinois. :)

We met up with a tour guide who took us around to the major sites in Arezzo (and also talked WAY too much, even the professor chaperoning commented on the lady's extra-lengthy explanations of EVERYTHING)- some beautiful churches, a few historic sites, and sites from a famous movie, which will be revealed later in the blog!

We saw far too many places to remember the names of all of them, so here are some highlights:




A fun fact: Life is Beautiful (La Vita e Bella, in italiano) was partially filmed in Arezzo! This is a beautiful movie, which everyone should see. It was really cool to see the places from the film in person!
It was so cool to see the places where this film was shot in person!


A famous piazza featured in the movie.




A chapel devoted to Mary Magdalene, decorated with mimosa flowers to celebrate Women's Day (March 8).


Piero della Francesca's fresco of Mary Magdalene. I don't know how to say this, but she's kind of a big deal. People know her.


Cimabue's Crucifix- it's also a big deal. Just go with it.

After a quick lunch, we hopped on the bus and headed to Cortona, a town tucked up in the hills of the Tuscan countryside. HILLS being the operative word here.


This picture shows us scaling the steep streets of Cortona to get to our hotel.

We went on a short walking tour lead by our chaperone, Luca, a man of few words (which we all appreciated, lol). Before hiking up to the fortress at the highest point of the city, we stopped at the Gelateria Snoopy for a quick snack :) Snoopy must be popular, because over the course of the weekend, I saw at least two more Snoopy gelato shops and one Snoopy Pizzeria.



I think that I've mentioned this before, but it seems like EVERYONE in Italy has a dog, and a cute dog at that. We thought maybe it was just our imaginations, but our suspicions were confirmed when we saw this at a church in Cortona:


Yes, that is Mary kneeling at the foot of Jesus's cross.....with a dog. Apparently this obsession with dogs goes WAY back in Italian culture. haha. :)

So, we walked up the steep streets of Cortona to the top of the city where the old fortress was for a great view of the city.




Shannon and I chilling out, watchin the sunset from the top of the city, exhausted from a day's worth of walking and the equivalent of probably a good hour on a Stairmaster. lol

We made our way back down to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. We met out on the terrace in front of the restaurant for appetizers and wine before heading inside for an amazing dinner! The food just kept coming! We started with bread, as usual. Next came a pesto quiche (and yes, I DID have to look up the spelling for that, lol), followed by two different pastas, a ravioli with white sauce and a spaghetti with red sauce. The main course was a special kind of Tuscan steak with a salad, which while delicious, I barely touched, already stuffed and anticipating dessert. And dessert certainly did not disappoint- it was a HOT chocolate cake filled with chocolate sauce. YUM. We now understand the truth behind why Italians take so long to complete a meal- too many courses!

Completely stuffed from dinner, we decided to go for a stroll through the city with some new friends, two of them ISU girls! We ended up at a local pub where we hung out and talked while our food digested.



We all turned in fairly early, exhausted from the day, and anticipating another long day Sunday!

There are WAY more pictures from Arezzo and Cortona on my Picasa album!
Ciao!

Happy Birthday Marlie!

So after an insanely boring week of nothing but reading, watching mafia movies, and preparing for midterms- work which I knew I wouldn't get done while Jackie was visiting- finally there was some excitement- Marla's 20th birthday!

Shannon and I had talked to Andrea about planning a surprise party for her at Borgo Antico, so Shannon and I snuck out on Wednesday to talk over plans with Andrea and pick up decorations.

The day of Marla's birthday, I had dance club. We learned a couple of Italian dances: the Tarantella and one that I can't remember the name of, but I would call it the Italian version of square dancing- partnered dance where someone calls out a "figure" and everyone does that move or combination of moves. Both very fun.

After dance club, I met Shannon at the apartment, and we snuck out (luckily, Marla was napping!) and went to Borgo to decorate. We decorated the table with balloons, streamers, confetti, and a card that Julia had made.



Andrea set us up with the table right in front so that Marla would see the table right when she walked in. Olmo had made Marla a chocolate torte (cake) and even written "Happy Birthday Marla" on it in white icing. They had even bought Marla a present- ping pong paddles! :) So nice! We decided that we would get a bottle of champagne for dinner and pay for Marla's dinner.

We went home to freshen up. It was really easy to convince Marla that we should go to the restaurant for her birthday dinner, and she didn't suspect a thing. We walked over, making sure to keep her distracted until she was all the way inside the restaurant. Her reaction was PERFECT! She was so surprised!

We had a great time at dinner (well, except for Marla and Shannon ordered sardines and swordfish with muscles and all sorts of yucky seafood- the smell was so aweful I had to leave the table for a few minutes! UGH.)



After we finished our dinner, the waitress turned off the lights, and Andrea brought out Marla's cake, candles flickering "Buon Compleanno", and began everyone singing Happy Birthday. Marla, an easy cryer, finally teared up! It was so much fun!





We had intended to go out after dinner, but we ended up staying at the restaurant so late, that we just stayed there and hung out, played ping pong on a table (with a couple boxes of sugar packets acting as the net, lol). It was a great evening, and I think we all made it a very memorable birthday for Marla! :)