When in Rome

This past weekend was my first trip with the school to Rome. We took a coach bus which was cool because we got to see the tuscan countryside. What was not cool was the fact that by the time we got to Rome it was raining, hailing, and blizzarding! This was the first time Rome had gotten snow in 25 years! So of course, like any snowless city, they didn't know how to deal with it. Our planned tours of the Colleseo, Foro Romano, and ancient ruins were all cancelled for the afternoon, even though by the time we got to our hotel it was sunny and all the snow had melted! Despite the slight setback, we checked into our hotel and ventured out to see the Colosseum, which happened to be right around the corner from our hotel. As we rounded the corner I think my mouth literally dropped open. It's one of the most known architectural images in our history, and yet, unless you are actually standing right next to it, you can't possibly imagine the feelings you get- I was speechless. Our tour guide for the trip, Francesca, walked us around the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine giving us historical significances and telling us storied. We snapped pictures for another half an hour and then it was on to the Roman Forum. I have literally never seen so many ancient ruins before- VERY cool sight. The rest of the night was given to dinner at the hotel and going out. My friend, Mariana, and I went to this Irish pub near the Colosseum which was basically like an American sports bar. Go Beer.
The next day was the trip to the Vatican. We took our bus to the Vatican City and got a tour of the Vatican Musuems, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. I'd say the most memorable part of the whole trip for me was definitely being inside the Sistine Chapel. You're not technically allowed to speak or take picture- but everyone does- so I got plenty of great pictures of Michelangelo's ceiling.
St. Peter's Basilica was also really cool. It's the biggest church in the entire world and there are these markers on the floor of the nave that are labeled with other churches names basically showing that if they were placed inside St. Peter's where they would compare length-wise. Basically none even compare to how huge St. Peters is.
After the Vatican (which I wish we saw more of) we took the Metra to the Spanish steps and had lunch at a little spaghetteria down one of the side streets. I had the best spaghetti carbonara! Surprisingly it has eggs in it, and I don't even like eggs. Trying new things every day.... expanding my palette.
On our last day in Rome, we saw the Trevi Fountain. It was Valentine's day so I thought it was pretty romantic, even though I was all by myself ha! I through a coin into the fountain, so hopefully I'll come back to Italy!
Overall, the trip went by fast. Maybe I'll get back to Rome, because it's definitely a big enough city to take up at least a week of touring around. Needless to say, though, I was happy to be back in my smaller city of Florence Sunday night and get a full 10 hours of sleep before class on Monday.

More soon, Ciao for now!

Carnival in Viraggio

My first trip out of Florence was this past Sunday. The school arranged a day trip to a small town outside Pisa called Viraggio who hosts Carnival for the whole month before Lent. Venice is the most popular place for Carnival so most people go there, but Viraggio does basically the same thing but on a smaller scale. For those who aren't familiar with Carnival, it's basically a combination of Mardi Gras and Halloween and lasts a whole month, with parties each weekend, usually with costumes, floats, parades, and general madness. Even in Florence I saw a ton of people dressed up in masks and incredible outfits walking around the streets throwing confetti.
To get to Viraggio we took the train from the S.M.N. station (Santa Maria Novella) which is right behind the church, and on the opposite side of town from where I live. The ride was about an hour and a half and super easy. When we arrived my roommate Christy and my friend LJ explored the main street of town and found a little pizzaria where I had probably the best pizza I've had since being in Italy. Florence isn't particularly known for their pizza, so this place was a GREAT pick. After some food and lots of wine we headed over to the main square where the festival was going on. It was the most amazing thing to walk around and see costumes in Italy. They are nothing like Halloween costumes in the States. People with crazy make-up, men wearing full on zebra print onesies, huge purple afros, the most intricate masks I've ever seen, feathers, sequins--- it was literally aesthetic overload. The town is right on the beach too, so to have all the floats and people going by against the background of the Mediterranean was incredible. Nothing topped the floats in the parade though. These floats were straight out of Alice and Wonderland and sort of warped and creepy but completely entrancing at the same time. They were probably close to 5 stories high and it was nothing like a parade in America. There were no police or barricades stopping you from joining in and getting so close to the floats you could basically climb on. The whole event was so much fun and something I'm so glad I didn't miss out on. It was definitely a great day trip!
The only bad part was taking an hour and a half train ride back that was so packed I thought the train would break in half! Luckily we made it back to Florence in one piece--- and in plenty of time to catch the Superbowl, which started as 12:30 am here!
Ciao for now :)

10000000000 steps

The past week has been filled with classes, more exploring, and a ton of walking! My classes are so interesting and new. They're definitely not anything I'd be able to take in the states. One of my art classes is a photo editing class where we are asked to bring in photos that we've taken and then we take on the role of an editor to create a comprehensive chronology of our photographs-make a story-and gain the ability to be objective of our own work. (which is VERY hard). My teacher was born in Oak Park, but he's literally lived all over the world- Florence, Paris, London, New York, South Carolina- he is most definitely someone I will learn a lot from. And he's just a super cool guy, and considering the class only have 5 students in it, I think we'll all get to know each other pretty well.

Well, enough about school because, let's be honest, I'm hardly even thinking of classes when I live in such an amazing place. I decided that on wednesday after my class I would go exploring again on my own. I ended up at the duomo again and finally went inside. Not only is the inside the most amazing sight I've ever seen, but if you pay 8 euro you can walk up to the very top, the copula, and see all of florence. The duomo, which means dome, was designed by Brunelleschi, who was one of Florence's most important artists and architects. When I started walking up the stairs of the church, all I could think about was that I was climbing something made by Brunelleschi- someone who I had studied in school for months! After a while though, that enthusiasm faded and my legs starts to hate this decision as I realized I wasn't even near the top and I had already climbed hundreds of stairs! A couple hundred more and I reached the first of 2 stops on the tour up to the top. I was walking around the inside of the dome, where incredible Renaissance paintings covered every inch of ceiling over my head. I looked down and was in awe of how something SOO tall could have been built so many hundreds of years ago. After some more strenuous steps and creepy passageways I emerged onto the copula. It was the most amazing sight. I could see all of Florence and beyond! I saw the Santa Croce and where my apartment was located. I saw the Orsanmichele and the Santa Maria Novella. After taking a whole battery's worth of pictures on my camera I took some deep breaths and started my descent. The trip down didn't take nearly as long as the one up, but as I stepped off the last step into the piazza I realized I had made my first real important memory of living in Florence. Who knows if I would ever pay 8 euro again to climb until my knees broke, but the fact that I did it on my own and took in the moment with no one else around really made all the difference.
Hopefully, I'll have many more spectacular memories in Florence to come....
Ciao for now!