After the tour of the "Parco della Musica", Diana, Laura and I headed on a quick hunt for lots of the bigs things to see in Rome. We took the metro to Via Veneto, a street where all the famous people used to hang out and of which we talked about in class. Then we ran to the Spanish steps, which had these large concrete things on them. They were some sort of demonstration that just didn't belong there. After that we ran to the Trevie Fountain. Diana really wanted pictures of all of these things in the day time, so that is why there was so much running.
Well, the Trevie was our last stop and we met up with some people there and decided that we all deserved a break after a long day. We went back to the hotel and everyone came and hung out in our room and we had some girl time. (You know, we chatted about the boys we like, etc..haha)
Anywho, after girl-time we went out to supper. We went to a cute little restaurant and had some more great food and bonding time! Then (this is where the title of the post comes in) we got some wine and went and sat by the Trevie Fountain and drank our wine. It was so relaxing and fun; definitely something that doesn't happen everyday! After an hour or two we headed back to the hotel and hung out in the guys room for a while.
(Hint: the next paragraph is quite boring and lists museums/villas/artists we saw on Saturday morning. Feel free to skip it!)
The next day, it was up early to visit the Cancelleria where we got to see Giorgio Vasari's room of 100 days (someone we studied a bit) and a cool exhibit of Leonardo Da Vinci's machines. Then, we headed to the suburban Villa Farnesina which had a hall painted by Raphael. We had a bit of time off where we ate lunch and walked around until we headed back to the hotel to get the bus to go to the Villa Borghese. This Villa was also filled with artwork; a lot by Micheangelo called Carravaggio (not the Michelangelo Buonarroti with whom we are all familiar! ;)) and a temporary exhibit comparing Caravaggio and Bacon. As someone who doesn't appreciate, or understand, modern/contemporary art, I was more interested in teh Caravaggio. Italian has truly taught me how to appreciate/like Renaissance Art. I never thought I'd say/write that!!!
After the Borghese we got on the bus and headed home. At the Villa Corsi Salviati (our villa) we had a lovely supper cooked by Bruno then broke apart from each other and skyped/facebooked/looked at pictures, etc.
Rome was such a fantastic trip and I'm so glad that I'm going back for ten days; it'll be great!
Also, I failed to mention all the times that we got gelato in Rome. I hadn't had it since before fall break, so we accidently binged a bit in Rome...oh well......
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Sisters, Sisters, Sisters
First of all, the whole time we were in Rome, I counted the number of nuns/sisters in habits that I saw. My total count was 63! And we only spent about 3-4 hours in Vatican City. I can't imagine what my count could be over the ten day trip to Rome for Christmas! It made me really happt to count the sisters and all my friends were helping me out--but, have no fear, I am the best at sighting habits and veils! :)
Anyway, the trip started early Thursday morning; we ate breakfast, packed our lunches, and headed to the bus that was chartered to take us down to Rome. 3-4ish hours later we arrived in Rome. We had a little time to unpack and get settled. I roomed with Laura and Diana. It was a great situation...and the hotel was just like an American hotel, which was quite pleasing! (Towels in the room, bathroom/shower in the room...)
Then, we headed out to meet our guides for the Roman Forum and Coliseum. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we learned all about the ancient, ancient, ancient city of Rome. It was so weird to think I was standing on the same ground that people stood on and rode their chariots on so many thousands of years ago. After the tour of the Forum, the guides took us to the Coliseum and told us a bit about it; then we were free to go. Diana and I ran around the Coliseum taking pictures and looking at it. It was such a strange place....gladiators....human sacrafices...all that crazy gross stuff! I have a picture of me in the Coliseum and I'm smiling...I realized later when I saw it that it is kinda weird to smile there but oh well! Anyway, at 4:30 we met Professor Mariotti at the Arch of Constantine (after getting gelato!) for a little walking tour back toward the hotel. The hotel was by the Theatre of Pompey, which meant nothing to me in terms of geography so I figured I should take advantage of Professor Mariotti's sense of direction in Rome. Per usual, the tour was informative and filled with facts (most of which I can't remember anymore..but it was great nonetheless!).
After adventures back near the hotel to the Fountain of the River Gods we headed to supper. I think there were 6 of us and we ate at outside at a restaurant in some Piazza so that we could people watch. I had a delicious noodle with crushed red pepper (apparently a specialty of Rome); I loved it so much since, evidently, Tuscany doesn't know spicy...and I like spicy! Anyway, after supper we got some wine and ran into some architechture students. Then, a group of about 8 of us found a random bench connected to a building in a random piazza and drank our wine and took some pictures. It wasn't until the next morning on our way to Vatican City that we found out we were drinking wine and "chilling" literally on the steps of the French Embassy...whoops! :)
After our French Embassy encounter we headed back to the hotel for bed. Early Friday morning we set off for our hike to Vatican City. It was a twenty minute or half hour walk and we were there staring at THE VATICAN! It was quite a sight...needless to say my "nun count" shot up from about 9 to 43 in the next few hours. We were told a bit about the structures and what we would see (we had already had 3 hours of in-class lecture on this) and then set loose in the Vatican Museum. I won't go into terrible detail about what I saw, but I do have a couple funny stories:
1) I went through the Museums with Diana and we decided to go to the Sistine Chapel prior to the stanze (rooms) of Raphael. The Sistine is supposed to be the last part of your tour and you can't get back to other parts of the museum....oops! Anyway, we needed to get back in and went and talked and smiled to the guards who let us sneak up the stairs you can only go down "because we were nice"...anyway, we felt pretty cool.
2) When we finished our exploration of the Raphael Stanze and got a decently-priced espresso (how Italian do I sound?) we went back to the Sistine. We were told we had to leave out the door on the left because it will put us right at St. Peter's. Well, that door is reserved for tour groups, but we were told to, whatever we do, get through that door. If you go out the other door you have to walk around the whole country, literally, and then go through security again. Well, the door was shut and there was a mean looking guard by it. So, what do Diana and I do? We blend in with a tour group. A tour group, of Asains! It was funny. The tour guide came and asked us in Italian where we were going, etc. We thought he was going to yell at us but he was super nice and said (in Italian), "Oh yeah, you're going the right way..." That whole situation made me giggle quite a bit!
After this we went through the crypt where a bunch of popes are buried, including John Paul the Great. It was cool to see....Anyway....
3) St. Peter's treasury. It cost 4 Euro to get in and I figured I would go with Maggie and Phil in December and she decided she didn't need to go in. We ran into our friends Ryan and Katie near there and they were also debating paying to get in. Diana and I decided to buy postcards. She walked up to the checkout and said in Italian, "I think I have 5." Well, he corrected her and told her she needed the subjunctive form or something and we started talking. He asked us where we were from and questions like that. Upon hearing we were from WI he says, "Oh, 'That 70s Show" and got really excited because he likes that show. Anyway, others were approaching the checkout and he says, "Do you want to go into the museum for free?" And we say, "What? huh?" Then he told us to wait a minute. After he helped the other customers he asked his question again and upon answering in the affirmative, he took us and told his buddy to let us in for free! It was great!
(I think Diana and I might make a good pair because we got a free bus ride in Oslo too. We like to think it's because we're cute!)
Anyway, after the museum and a walk around St. Peter's we had to get going to make it to the Music Park. It's a newer construction of three huge concert halls that we got a tour of. It was alright and cool to see. The best part was the extremely comfortable chairs. I wanted to steal some for the classroom here at the villa.
I'm going to continue the post from Roma in another post so as to encourage people to read it....it's a little long now....
Anyway, the trip started early Thursday morning; we ate breakfast, packed our lunches, and headed to the bus that was chartered to take us down to Rome. 3-4ish hours later we arrived in Rome. We had a little time to unpack and get settled. I roomed with Laura and Diana. It was a great situation...and the hotel was just like an American hotel, which was quite pleasing! (Towels in the room, bathroom/shower in the room...)
Then, we headed out to meet our guides for the Roman Forum and Coliseum. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we learned all about the ancient, ancient, ancient city of Rome. It was so weird to think I was standing on the same ground that people stood on and rode their chariots on so many thousands of years ago. After the tour of the Forum, the guides took us to the Coliseum and told us a bit about it; then we were free to go. Diana and I ran around the Coliseum taking pictures and looking at it. It was such a strange place....gladiators....human sacrafices...all that crazy gross stuff! I have a picture of me in the Coliseum and I'm smiling...I realized later when I saw it that it is kinda weird to smile there but oh well! Anyway, at 4:30 we met Professor Mariotti at the Arch of Constantine (after getting gelato!) for a little walking tour back toward the hotel. The hotel was by the Theatre of Pompey, which meant nothing to me in terms of geography so I figured I should take advantage of Professor Mariotti's sense of direction in Rome. Per usual, the tour was informative and filled with facts (most of which I can't remember anymore..but it was great nonetheless!).
After adventures back near the hotel to the Fountain of the River Gods we headed to supper. I think there were 6 of us and we ate at outside at a restaurant in some Piazza so that we could people watch. I had a delicious noodle with crushed red pepper (apparently a specialty of Rome); I loved it so much since, evidently, Tuscany doesn't know spicy...and I like spicy! Anyway, after supper we got some wine and ran into some architechture students. Then, a group of about 8 of us found a random bench connected to a building in a random piazza and drank our wine and took some pictures. It wasn't until the next morning on our way to Vatican City that we found out we were drinking wine and "chilling" literally on the steps of the French Embassy...whoops! :)
After our French Embassy encounter we headed back to the hotel for bed. Early Friday morning we set off for our hike to Vatican City. It was a twenty minute or half hour walk and we were there staring at THE VATICAN! It was quite a sight...needless to say my "nun count" shot up from about 9 to 43 in the next few hours. We were told a bit about the structures and what we would see (we had already had 3 hours of in-class lecture on this) and then set loose in the Vatican Museum. I won't go into terrible detail about what I saw, but I do have a couple funny stories:
1) I went through the Museums with Diana and we decided to go to the Sistine Chapel prior to the stanze (rooms) of Raphael. The Sistine is supposed to be the last part of your tour and you can't get back to other parts of the museum....oops! Anyway, we needed to get back in and went and talked and smiled to the guards who let us sneak up the stairs you can only go down "because we were nice"...anyway, we felt pretty cool.
2) When we finished our exploration of the Raphael Stanze and got a decently-priced espresso (how Italian do I sound?) we went back to the Sistine. We were told we had to leave out the door on the left because it will put us right at St. Peter's. Well, that door is reserved for tour groups, but we were told to, whatever we do, get through that door. If you go out the other door you have to walk around the whole country, literally, and then go through security again. Well, the door was shut and there was a mean looking guard by it. So, what do Diana and I do? We blend in with a tour group. A tour group, of Asains! It was funny. The tour guide came and asked us in Italian where we were going, etc. We thought he was going to yell at us but he was super nice and said (in Italian), "Oh yeah, you're going the right way..." That whole situation made me giggle quite a bit!
After this we went through the crypt where a bunch of popes are buried, including John Paul the Great. It was cool to see....Anyway....
3) St. Peter's treasury. It cost 4 Euro to get in and I figured I would go with Maggie and Phil in December and she decided she didn't need to go in. We ran into our friends Ryan and Katie near there and they were also debating paying to get in. Diana and I decided to buy postcards. She walked up to the checkout and said in Italian, "I think I have 5." Well, he corrected her and told her she needed the subjunctive form or something and we started talking. He asked us where we were from and questions like that. Upon hearing we were from WI he says, "Oh, 'That 70s Show" and got really excited because he likes that show. Anyway, others were approaching the checkout and he says, "Do you want to go into the museum for free?" And we say, "What? huh?" Then he told us to wait a minute. After he helped the other customers he asked his question again and upon answering in the affirmative, he took us and told his buddy to let us in for free! It was great!
(I think Diana and I might make a good pair because we got a free bus ride in Oslo too. We like to think it's because we're cute!)
Anyway, after the museum and a walk around St. Peter's we had to get going to make it to the Music Park. It's a newer construction of three huge concert halls that we got a tour of. It was alright and cool to see. The best part was the extremely comfortable chairs. I wanted to steal some for the classroom here at the villa.
I'm going to continue the post from Roma in another post so as to encourage people to read it....it's a little long now....
Raise your hand if....
....you are terrible at blogging!
I'm raising my hand. It's been a while. So much has happened that I've failed to write about....darnit. It all stopped after my trip to Rome when I didn't want to blog without our schedule so that I could make sure to write everything that I did. I could never find the schedule. So, alas, you will only get what I can remember three weeks later...
I'm raising my hand. It's been a while. So much has happened that I've failed to write about....darnit. It all stopped after my trip to Rome when I didn't want to blog without our schedule so that I could make sure to write everything that I did. I could never find the schedule. So, alas, you will only get what I can remember three weeks later...
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