A Promise Made

For our first free three day weekend, Anne and I headed to the south of Italy. On Thursday after our classes, we took at train from Roma Termini to Naples. We took the local train because it was only 11 euros but it lasted 3 hours...and the first hour we had to stand because it was so full. I'm not going to lie; I almost cried imagining us standing for 3 hours. But fortunately, a little Italian man took pity and showed us two seats! Then we took another hour train from Naples to Sorrento that was only 3 euros. However, the hostel that we booked was another hour outside of Sorrento and we had to take an 80 euro taxi at 9 pm through the winding roads all the way up and back down the mountains of Sorrento. You know the roads are windy when the driver has to honk when going around the turns because you can't see the cars around the bends. Thank goodness we finally got to a bed by 10:30 pm (we started traveling at 3 pm). You could say we're pretty much expert travelers now. My advice from that would be, save up your money and then spend it on a hotel that is on CAPRI!

The island of Capri is where we went on Friday. It was out of a dream. Anne and I had to take the bus to Sorrento again and then the ferry to finally get to Capri by noon. Then we decided we had done so much traveling to get on this gorgeous island, we just needed to relax. So we took the cable car up the side of one of the many mountains covering the island and sat down for a delicious and expensive seafood meal. We ate salmon and fried calamari while looking out at the coast and then topped it off with lemon Italian ice! It was so delicious. Then what do you know, we ran into our roommates, Ellie, Kat, and Krissy! They were staying on the island but had just got in. We went with them by bus to the other side of the island called Anacapri and took the chairlift all the way to the top of Monte Solaro. Wow, what an amazing view. It was so cool to dangle above all the hills, rocks, and beautiful blue Mediterranean Sea. I've never dreamed of a more beautiful place. I promised myself that I would come back to Capri someday and enjoy it for longer than one day.

Anne continued to get two more Italian ices haha, and I took tons of pictures as you will see later. But we had to say goodbye to our roomies and get on the ferry back to Sorrento at 6:45. Then we took the bus back to our hostel and traveled back to Rome today. You know that you've made a place your home when you travel away from it and when you return a certain warmth rushes over you. That is how I felt when we got back to Rome today.

Ciao!

The Mediterranean Sea!

Narrow roads down to the port in Sorrento

Capri!!!

The lift up!

The horizon is faded because the sea looked just like the color of the sky!

Selfie! ;)

On top of the world!

We were pretty far up.

Me and the roomies!

Anne and I have had so many great adventures! Couldn't have made it through all the traveling without her!

Lemons. I repeat. Lemons on lemons on lemons <3

Had to dip my feet in the cold rocky beach!

So many shades of gorgeous blue

Anne having a Little Mermaid moment in Sorrento :D

Florence in 28 hours

Yesterday we went to Florence with our whole study abroad group, Professor McCoy, Professor Jacobs, and a teacher from the Rome Center named Emilio who is crazy awesome! We followed him around everywhere listening to all he knew about the art we saw. He's been to Florence 60 times!

Anyway, we woke up yesterday at 5:45 am...so painful. We got to the bus at 7 to make our 8 am train to Florence or Firenze (also know in the ancient times as the "New Athens"). We were so tired from walking those 10 miles the day before and did not realize we would be walking to so many museums when we arrived in Florence. But as soon as we got there we dropped our bags and went straight to the first museum. We went to several churches that were filled with art and Christian depictions. I don't know a lot of the details of stories so Anne had to fill me in with all her Catholic knowledge. Professor McCoy also helped inform me about the different saints and their stories. There were a LOT of crucifixions and each artist had a slightly different interpretation. We also got to see Michelangelo's David as well as Donatello's. They were both very different. Michelangelo's was very heroic, marble, ideal, beautiful, and huge, while Donatello's was a younger boy, bronze, and standing on Goliath's head. By that time it was 1:30 and I was so starving I was imagining stuffing pizza's into my mouth...not too lady-like haha. Fortunately I got my pizza :).

We finished up yesterday with the Uffizi and all the Italian paintings and sculpture it contained. My favorite was "The Birth of Venus". That night we all we out to dinner with some of our professors at a steak place and it was so much fun! We all splurged because it was Anne and Sam's birthdays. I had a delicious penne with salmon sauce! We talked and joked all night with our professors. I've never felt more grown up. We covered all sorts of topics and I really enjoyed getting to hear their knowledge outside the classroom setting. They are some of the most interesting people!

Anne and I ended our day walking the few streets of Florence (it's actually really easy to get around) by night and got a "Mamma mia!" from a guy passing on a bike haha!

Today we started out at 9 am and followed Emilio to a few more museums. We saw the chapel that Michelangelo designed for the Medici family. We saw some art that they moved from the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral into a separate museum including the wooden "Maddaleana" by Donatello.

Once we finished we were allowed some free time and a group of us climbed the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo or dome and wow my legs were shaking at the end but it was so worth it! We got the most beautiful view of the city, completely unobstructed. Then we added one more museum because the Galileo museum sounded awesome! They had collected a lot of ancient scientific instruments that were really interesting to learn about. I saw lots of early electrical mechanisms, compasses, astrolabes, telescopes, microscopes, and watches.

We saw so much in our short time in Florence, I'm still trying to absorb it all. It was so much fun but I'm glad to be back in Rome!

Ciao!

Florence Cathedral

Florence!!

Fake statue of David in a piazza. What a gorgeous man!

One of the many depictions of Christian stories

Really cool crucifixion that shows increased depth

Groin vaults in the Santa Maria Novella church

The top of the Duomo as we climbed the stairs.

One of the views before we got to the top!

Davis checkin' out the view!

Wowwww

Love my best friend!

Our group on top of Florence!

Astrolabes in the Galileo Museum

Magnetic Compass

Galileo, you rock!

Compound microscope!

Yes these are Galileo's fingers...

the classic telescope

One of the many intricate ceilings with stories depicted from the Bible.

Gelato, Stamps, and Great Views

Finally the weekend has arrived! Today, Anne, Krissy, and I decided to make the most of our free time before we go to Florence tomorrow. We started out by conquering our stamp dilemma. Anne and I both had at least 10 postcards to send to the U.S. but everyone we asked told us different ways to find stamps and mail them. In Rome it is not easy. So I accidentally bought stamps that only go through Europe but at least I found out they were wrong. Then we found out that you can go to the Vatican to get stamps to the U.S., so we walked all the way to the Vatican to find the special stamps. The first shop we went in told us we had to buy postcards with the stamps and I was like, "NOOO!" So I went into the next one and was so tired of asking for stamps to the U.S. that when I asked the guy behind the desk and he said yes, I did a victory dance and he laughed at me. So I bought my stamps and put them in the red box for outgoing mail. I was so excited to be done with that and I hope everyone who gets them loves their Rome postcards with Vatican City stamps!

Then we went back to the gelato shop that gives you 3 scoops for 1.50 euros called "Old Bridge." I HIGHLY recommend it :).

Once we walked all the way back to the apartment it was 1 pm and we still wanted to go to the Borghese gardens. So we took a short rest and then tried to figure out how to take the buses there...that did not work out. Not all the stops are on there and the directions we got from the website were not matching up with the bus stop signs. "When in Rome," you walk. So we walked along the Tiber all the way to the Borghese gardens which we had to do more walking in haha. But it was so gorgeous and we got beautiful views of the city of Rome. We saw lots of darling dogs and Europeans do a lot of making out in public as well. But we really enjoyed the afternoon once the sun went behind the clouds and we headed back to our apartment at about 6 pm. On the way back we got our first quadruple-take when a guy on a scooter looked at us while he sped by and kept looking back. Anne even waved to him haha!

We sure did a lot today and we walked so much that my legs and feet were screaming! I ran into my room and flopped on the bed just to get my feet off the ground. To give you a grand total, we looked up that we walked about 10 miles today!

Tomorrow we are going to Florence with our whole group and we're staying overnight. It's going to be a blast! This time I will be prepared for the rain with my new Northface jacket!

Grazie e ciao!

Krissy and Me

Me and my bestie :)))

St. Peter's Basilica is everywhere!

There are so many breath-taking fountains in Rome.

Horse Polizia

Rome <3

These flowers are so gorgeous!