First Day of Class

So you have NEVER been lost until you are without a phone, in a foreign city, with a language barrier, completely alone, and you have a time limit before class starts... That was me this morning. None of my roommates had class this morning so I decided to try to venture to class by myself. I gave myself an hour and fifteen minutes just in case and I needed it. I walked very quickly and didn't linger too long anywhere. Of course I got lost on the way there and on the way back. "Stupid American" didn't know there was a big difference between Navona and Nuova but I did make it to class and I will not be going alone ever again! I will admit it was a very victorious feeling when I finally made it.

My art history and world civ 1 class were combined today and I had no idea how it was going to go. Both professors Jacobs and McCoy lectured for about 30 minutes each, although they didn't get as much as they wanted in and they took a little longer than they wanted to. Then it took us 30 minutes to get to the site we were touring today, Musei Capitolini. We got to view the Greek art that we had talked about in class and it was a great reinforcement to look for the style and characteristics of each time period. Professor McCoy added some of the historic backgrounds of sculptures and inscriptions such as the bronze of the she-wolf and the twins Romulus and Remus which came from the legend of the founding of Rome. We took a lot longer than our class from 9-12. We actually went until 1:30 or 2. But it was so worth it and what better way to spend time!

On our walk back to the University we went by 3 gelato shops that all had different flavors. It's amazing! Did you know that 55% of gelato in Italy is handmade? Good thing we walk everywhere!

By the time I finally found Anne and Kat I was so desperate to finally be back at the apartment after getting lost so much I like attacked them haha. We went to another grocery store and found breads, jams, fruit, juice, and pasta so we don't eat out so much. It's so fun having our own kitchen!

This afternoon we went to the big street with lots of shopping. We bought shirts, Anne found a sweet leather jacket, I found a leather belt, and it was so hard not to impulse buy. But we had so much fun. Then we had dinner at this lovely restaurant outside and I got handmade tortellini filled with pumpkin, cheese, and topped with sage and butter. WOW. It was so delicious. We saw the Trevi Fountain by night and walked allllll the way back to our apartments.

I am absolutely exhausted after every day. There is too much to do and not enough time to sleep, oh the college life ;)

We are going on a day trip to Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este with our big group tomorrow!

Salve!

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius - the fake one in front of the museum.

Bronze Capitoline Wolf with Remus and Romulus added during the Renaissance

Early Greek Paintings on jugs. This one is a black-figure.

Marcus Aurelius real bronze - ultimate portrayal of an emperor's power

Hellenistic Period sculptures were developing more realism - detail of the lion biting and the horse's expression of pain

Capitoline Venus - Greek beginnings of female nudes and this portrays the contrapposto where the body's weight is shifted with a bent leg and starting to turn. This emphasizes movement.

Pumpkin Tortellini!

Trevi at night!

My roomies out to an Italian dinner. (Me, Krissy, Anne, Kat, and Ellie)

Rome Has Stolen My Heart

Today a group of about 40 of us started our study abroad at the U of A Rome Center. We met with our group in a piazza about 5 minutes from our apartment. A professor guided us to the Rome Center and it was through lots of narrow streets with weird turns and interesting landmarks so hopefully we can remember how to walk there! I know that this is going to be the best learning experience for me already though because everything the professors pointed out along our walks I drank in. They know so much about the city, it wouldn't be the same experience without them.

When we got to the "school" it wasn't really a school. It was an old building that was partly rented out to people to live in and has some classrooms and design rooms for architecture students. It was very Roman. So all morning we listened to information about the villas we are going to visit, the classes we are taking, and the rules and regulations. We had one break for lunch and we got gelato (chocolate hazelnut) and walked to the Vatican. My two classes are going to be so great! Both teachers have some lecture each time we meet and then we will go to some sites. For my art history class we have to write papers and memorize some art but I think overall it's really going to help us focus on certain pieces we get to see in Rome and develop our thoughts about them. My world civilizations class is going to be so cool. We are only going to focus on Rome and will have some readings but we only have two papers. I'm probably going to need to work harder than I anticipate but it is going to be so much fun no matter what work I'm doing because I'm in Rome! Everything is so applicable!

Once we finished up the orientation of our study abroad experience, we decided to join the bookmaking group because the professor was going to take them to the Pantheon. We followed and went in a few churches and she explained the Caravaggios. I don't know much about art other than French artists so it was so fascinating to listen in. The Pantheon was awesome too! It's amazing how such old architecture can be preserved in a modern city. After that we moved on to see the Trevi Fountain which was even more spectacular than I have imagined or seen in movies. Anne and I both tossed in the one cent euros we had. I made three different wishes :) We got more gelato too and tiramisu is definitely my favorite so far! I walked around all afternoon with Kat, Ellie, Anne, and Krissy. We are all roommates and everyone is super cool. We all went into some shops and I had to buy some pants and a jacket since it's chilly here! It hasn't gotten higher than 60s and everyone said it would be hot so we only brought shorts...oh well. We also went to the Spanish stairs and climbed to the top for a really cool view of the city skyline.

After that we were pretty tired and I'm pretty sure we walked over 6 miles today. But we packed in a bunch of the tourist parts of Rome so we can enjoy more of the local sites. When we finally made it back to the apartments we enjoyed leftovers from the restaurant last night in the oven we had to light ourselves...we're learning! I will also mention that there is a very intricate recycling system here that is kind of annoying but we're getting used to it.

I am having so much fun getting to know everyone and getting to know the city! I have great expectations for the month ahead :)

Ciao!

French Embassy

Inside the Pantheon

Michelangelo's

Trevi!

Piazza Nuova

Spanish Steps

The descent

We really want these for our kitchen!

Angels :)

Vatican!

Pantheon

Skyline

When in Rome

Leaving Verona and taking the trains to Rome turned out a little more complicated than we anticipated. We took the train at 9:30 this morning from Verona to Milan. The station in Milan was really old and pretty large. However, we had booked the next train from Milan to Rome with 5 minutes in between. THIS IS NOT ENOUGH TIME. Haha. We got to the station at 10:55 and the next train was at 11. By the time we found it we waved goodbye.

Then by the time we finally realized who to ask for help because we didn't have reservations for a different train it was 20 minutes until the next train so I started to stress a bit. The woman we had asked for help from asked three other station workers what to do about our predicament and we're pretty sure she thought we we're complete idiots for only putting 5 minutes in between but we just wanted to get on the next train. So while all the workers were speaking Italian we were blindly following and hoping their verdict would be in our favor. I kept thinking over and over, "for the love of God please just put us on this train." Fortunately they took pity on the Americans and gave us three seats on the next train to Roma Termini. When the ticket master came buy to stamp our tickets, he looked at our reservations and back at us and just rolled his eyes and kept going. I mean we were two hours into the ride, what was he going to do? Kick us out? So we made it to Rome only an hour later than we thought.

Next we grabbed a taxi to take us to our apartments arranged by the University. If you've seen Harry Potter think about the Knight Bus drive and that was how our taxi ride was. It was completely insane. The driver owned the road. He flew through the city even though it was about as cramped as New York. I couldn't even watch the road I was so afraid we would crash into a bus or fly through the car in front of us. Then he was talking to Mark in Italian and commanding him to answer back in Italian about where we were from. It was pretty funny and Mark did a pretty good job! The driver also made a comment to Mark about how lucky he was to be with two beautiful girls, "the American way." We all laughed at that one.

We made it to our apartments alive and there was some mix up with the room assignments but we got it all figured out. We've been realizing that we have to buy some things too when we need them like toilet paper for example, or body wash. Haha. But we'll figure it all out sooner or later.

The study abroad group all got together for dinner tonight and the program took us to this nice Italian restaurant and stuffed us with food! We had mountains of bruschetta, meatballs, chicken, bread, pasta, pizza, and tiramisu! I think I'll be full for a week! Also, I highly recommend buying groceries in Rome because they are super cheap!

We have wifi here too so I will be posting more throughout my study abroad.

Glad to finally be settled for awhile and ready to make this city my home for a month!

La vita buona!

Verona Finale

We all woke up pretty tired this morning and we had an early train. In order to get to the train we had to take the water bus but it took an hour for the water bus to take us to the train station from Lido. We had to leave earlier than they served breakfast at the hotel and then by the time we were at the train station we only had 10 minutes so we had to skip breakfast. When we got to Verona we were all a little hunger crazed and then we had to figure out how to get the hotel. When we got to the station we had to go down the stairs and I was walking my suitcase down the stairs and all of the sudden I was on my butt. Showed me how tired I really was hahaha. We got on the atv bus that only cost 2 euros and then we had to walk to the hotel using Anne's Google Maps again. I don't know where we'd be without that thing! Then we had to take a taxi into Verona because our hotel is outside of it. It's a really nice hotel and the staff are really nice. We've been trying to use some Italian too. Mark got in trouble today though because he spoke Italian at a gelato shop and then the waitress started rattling on in Italian and he was like, "uhhh, not sure what you're saying." But it's fun.

We all got our own pizzas for lunch because we were starved. We got pizza with cheese and prosciutto on it which is ham that they just laid on top of it. It was so good and we looked at some other people eating pizza and got confirmation that we could cut it and then eat it with our hands. Mark had another three gelatos today but I just got hazelnut and it was divine!

Casa di Giulietta was awesome. We happened upon it while Mark was navigating us. First there were walls of signatures and drawings and we wrote our names. Then we saw the balcony and the quote from the play was on the wall. Anne and I signed a lock and locked it on the gates on the back wall. Shakespeare's just awesome :).

We just chilled most of the day and hung out in Piazza Bra chatting. It was really lovely outside and there were less pigeons in Verona than Venice.

Dinner was a little funny. I ordered ravioli and got back some noodle dish with mushrooms but I didn't realize it was lost in translation until it was too late. It was a "stupid American" moment haha. But I got tiramisu and all was ok :)

Our little pre-trip is coming to an end and it has been such a blast. Mark and Anne have become my European brother and sister :) love you guys! We head to our study abroad in Rome tomorrow!

Ciao!

Juliet's Balcony

Buon Giorno Venezia!

Venice is everything I dreamed it to be and so much more. Today was very warm and sunny in contrast to all the rain from yesterday. We had so much fun! We got to sleep in since we decided just to roam around all day. We had been told that Venice was the city to get lost in, and it was so true! We walked around a labyrinth all day. Mark was our navigator because Anne and I had no idea where we were going most of the time. We saw San Marco Square and walked in different alleys. Every corner we turned there was something new to see. The water followed us everywhere as well as the pigeons! They get a little too friendly with humans haha. We also managed to get two gelatos each today, so delicious! We also went in a big church and a lady tried to push me out because my shoulders weren't covered. It was a bit of a rude awakening. Last we decided to complete our day with a view from the top of the Campanile. It was beautiful. There were so many buildings packed into the little island. When we got up there it was exactly 5 pm and the bells started to ring. It was a really loud but awesome way to end the day. We had heard that Venice was dirty and to not bother going there. All three of us decided that was false advice. It is something everyone should experience if they want to see Italy. It is so unique and there are always gorgeous pictures of the water around every corner. We walked for 8 hours today and we are really feeling it! We love traveling way too much to stop though :)

Off to Verona tomorrow and then we will be in Rome on Tuesday!

Our Hotel

Mark!

Pretty busy for a Sunday

LOL

Selfies

Gelato #1

Mark

Mark navigating the alleys

Anne's such a cutie

The church we visited

The view of Venice

Through the eyes of Steph

Love these two <3

Ciao!