In the past few weeks I really havnt left Rome due to a lack of desire to move and also the need to catch up on some homework. I have been wandering around the city, which has been warm the past few days, and catching up on drawing in my sketch book (which is required for a class. I have to do about two and a half hours of sketching every week). Today Anne and I went to Bernini’s angels on the bridge leading up to the Vatican and it was amazing. Though the angels were beautiful, it was painful to spend two hours drawing all ten of them. Afterwards we wandered back to our apartment, made sandwiches, and walked over to Café Good for cappuccinos and Internet access. Anne has since then gone to class and left me with Joe and Tim to do homework and blog.
I would be going away this next weekend, but I have midterms next week and I don’t want to do poorly on those. I may go to Napoli (Naples) for a day, but that would be the most adventurous I would get. I think for that trip Joe and I will go together, as I think Anne is out of town. For now I sit and study Italian in hopes that I will remember the irregular conjugations of –ire verbs. Ciao for now!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Late Blog on the Trip to Florence
I am sorry that I have not blogged in a while. I have been a bit lazy and tired. After having been here a month, I didn’t feel that I had that much to talk about (not to mention that time I actually go to write a blog the internet doesn’t work). Anywho, here is a recount of the trip to Florence along with a few other tid-bits.
Joe, Anne, Candace and I all traveled to Florence toegether. Our adventure began at 5:45am Friday morning last week when we woke up in order to catch the first bus to the train station. Luckily for us, the bus stop was only a block away from our apartment (a bit of a walk for Joe) and we arrived at the station with enough time to buy food and board our train. I do not tend to do so well on trains, so I lay my head down and slept the whole way there, which wasn’t that hard considering the early hour that we had arisen. When we arrived it was overcast but thankfully not raining. We walked about 25 minutes from the station to our hostel. It wasn’t a bad place to stay, but the bathroom floor was covered in water from people splashing it out of the low shower.
That first day we locked our belongings in the room and wandered down to the Uffizi gallery and spent a good 5 hours looking at a gazzilion paintings, sculptures, and items that I had learned about in my Renaissance art history class. I have to say that it was stunning to see the Birth of Venus and Primavera in real life, but the best for me were the old golden altar pieces by Massacio and other pre-renaissance painters. Its nicer to have Primavera on a poster, but the 12 foot tall figures sitting on golden thrones. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures that I can put in here as there were no photographs allowed. The only ones I managed to take were from behind unsuspecting tourists who I used as a shield against the guards.
After so many hours in the museum we found a gelateria, obtained some sustenance, and went back to our little room. We then crashed and took a two hour nap. Just below our place and across the street was a cute little pizzeria. Earlier in the day I had seen a poster for a dance show choreographed by a man from the New York Ballet, so we got tickets and went after the pizza. The show was pretty darn good, but at the end the kept bowing, and being sent forward to bow. Three, even four times would have been fine, but it was something in the range of ten times and eventually they closed the curtain on the dancers. There was no standing ovation as the show wasn’t spectacular, but being from New York I assume he was used to American’s loving any show they can afford to see, and expected a standing ovation from the Italians. After the show we went to sleep in our hostel, but had a very hard time falling asleep due to the bar below our place that had a party going till about 4am.
When we woke on Saturday we were all tired but we got up and went to see the gigantic statue of David. He was incredible, standing 14 feet tall and placed on a marble pediment that must have been 8 feet rising form the floor. There wasn’t much else to see in that gallery, so we took our time admiring David. When we finally managed to leave we went and stood in line to climb the Duomo. After about a half an hour we got in started up the stairs. They were small, cramped, and I felt sorry for the man in front of me who had a cane. After something like 460 stairs that more or less went straight up, we came on top to see a magnificent view of Florence with a beautiful golden sky and hundreds of buildings. We stayed up their as long as we could until it became too crowded and made our way down again, which for some reason was much more difficult than going up.
We were supposed to stay another day, but we all flelt overloaded with all the art we had seen and our wallets were hurting after having spent so much money on food. Pizza normally costs something like 1.5 – 3 euros in Rome, but in Florence, it was 6-9. Not wanting to waste any more money or have another terrible nights sleep, we took an evening train back to Rome, and got home at about midnight.
Florence was amazing, but I learned that you really cant do everything on a weekend trip. Its not because it isn’t physically possible, but mainly because you get too darned tired looking at everything. The eyes and brain can really take only so much before you need to go home and think about what you have seen. And, after Florence, I realize how amazing Rome is. Florence is such a touristy place, and the area of Trastevere where Anne and I are living is perfect for study abroad. Time to go and get some lunch, have a good one and I promises I will post another blog soon. Ciao.
Joe, Anne, Candace and I all traveled to Florence toegether. Our adventure began at 5:45am Friday morning last week when we woke up in order to catch the first bus to the train station. Luckily for us, the bus stop was only a block away from our apartment (a bit of a walk for Joe) and we arrived at the station with enough time to buy food and board our train. I do not tend to do so well on trains, so I lay my head down and slept the whole way there, which wasn’t that hard considering the early hour that we had arisen. When we arrived it was overcast but thankfully not raining. We walked about 25 minutes from the station to our hostel. It wasn’t a bad place to stay, but the bathroom floor was covered in water from people splashing it out of the low shower.
That first day we locked our belongings in the room and wandered down to the Uffizi gallery and spent a good 5 hours looking at a gazzilion paintings, sculptures, and items that I had learned about in my Renaissance art history class. I have to say that it was stunning to see the Birth of Venus and Primavera in real life, but the best for me were the old golden altar pieces by Massacio and other pre-renaissance painters. Its nicer to have Primavera on a poster, but the 12 foot tall figures sitting on golden thrones. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures that I can put in here as there were no photographs allowed. The only ones I managed to take were from behind unsuspecting tourists who I used as a shield against the guards.
After so many hours in the museum we found a gelateria, obtained some sustenance, and went back to our little room. We then crashed and took a two hour nap. Just below our place and across the street was a cute little pizzeria. Earlier in the day I had seen a poster for a dance show choreographed by a man from the New York Ballet, so we got tickets and went after the pizza. The show was pretty darn good, but at the end the kept bowing, and being sent forward to bow. Three, even four times would have been fine, but it was something in the range of ten times and eventually they closed the curtain on the dancers. There was no standing ovation as the show wasn’t spectacular, but being from New York I assume he was used to American’s loving any show they can afford to see, and expected a standing ovation from the Italians. After the show we went to sleep in our hostel, but had a very hard time falling asleep due to the bar below our place that had a party going till about 4am.
When we woke on Saturday we were all tired but we got up and went to see the gigantic statue of David. He was incredible, standing 14 feet tall and placed on a marble pediment that must have been 8 feet rising form the floor. There wasn’t much else to see in that gallery, so we took our time admiring David. When we finally managed to leave we went and stood in line to climb the Duomo. After about a half an hour we got in started up the stairs. They were small, cramped, and I felt sorry for the man in front of me who had a cane. After something like 460 stairs that more or less went straight up, we came on top to see a magnificent view of Florence with a beautiful golden sky and hundreds of buildings. We stayed up their as long as we could until it became too crowded and made our way down again, which for some reason was much more difficult than going up.
We were supposed to stay another day, but we all flelt overloaded with all the art we had seen and our wallets were hurting after having spent so much money on food. Pizza normally costs something like 1.5 – 3 euros in Rome, but in Florence, it was 6-9. Not wanting to waste any more money or have another terrible nights sleep, we took an evening train back to Rome, and got home at about midnight.
Florence was amazing, but I learned that you really cant do everything on a weekend trip. Its not because it isn’t physically possible, but mainly because you get too darned tired looking at everything. The eyes and brain can really take only so much before you need to go home and think about what you have seen. And, after Florence, I realize how amazing Rome is. Florence is such a touristy place, and the area of Trastevere where Anne and I are living is perfect for study abroad. Time to go and get some lunch, have a good one and I promises I will post another blog soon. Ciao.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Life Goes On, as does the Vatican
So here I remain, wandering around Rome as the weather begins to take a turn for the worst and the homework really begins. Honestly, I do not have that much work to do at all compared to any real schooling. It is finding the time and the energy to stop wandering around this beautiful city to take the time to do what little reading I have. The hardest class I have is Italian, where all I have to do is memorize about 40 words every two weeks. It is not that arduous in the least, I just don’t want to take the time to do it. Tomorrow is my first Italian test, so we will see how much my studying today pays off.
On Sunday Anne, Joe, and I went to the Vatican. We walked from school, along the river, up a hill, through a parking garage, and magically popped up right into Piatza Del Popolo with an incredible view of the Swiss Guards and St. Peters. Though I had seen it in pictures, just as you are seeing it here, it is much larger than I could have imagined. We walked around outside for a good twenty minutes admiring the perfect maintenance of the area of the Vatican and eventually wandered into the line for security in order to go inside.
Our first stop inside was to the crypt, where we filed under St. Peters along with a bazillion other people to view the old tombs of Popes long dead. We eventually passed our most recent Pope John Paul II, but were not allowed to take pictures of him. Unlike the tombs you can see here, his was a slanted low laying marble slab in white marble and inscribed with gold lettering.
We exited the crypt and walked around the back of the basilica and entered from the front into a gargantuan space that contained so many artistic details that we stood in the door way for at least a minute attempting to decide which way to go first.
Directly to our right was the Pieta, created by Michael Angelo, considered to be one of his three great masterpieces in marble (the David and Moses being the other two). It was much smaller than I had imagined it would be, and was hidden behind a bulletproof screen. If anyone remembers, someone wandered into St. Peters a few years back and shot at the Pieta for reasons I cant remember, and since then they have protected it with a flash reflecting window. I managed to get the best shots of it, but I wish I could have gotten closer. This one statue is my favorite of all the Renaissance bodies presented in marble. Mary actually manages to look fleshy while Jesus appears drained and very dead. How someone could have sculpted it out of stone baffles me.
While I was busy being captivated by the Pieta, Joe and Anne moved deeper into the basilica. When I finally pulled myself away we covered the left hand side, mostly because it was best lit and have more interesting paintings and sculptures than the other side. In the center of it all, where the cross meets inside, is the Bernini baldachin and was built to fill the space beneath the cupola, and it is said that the bronze used to make it was taken from the Pantheon.
Behind the baldachin is the Alter of the Chair of St. Peter, and is only open to the public during mass. Since it was Sunday, and we really wanted to get closer to take pictures (which isn’t really allowed) we went to mass. It was interesting to see what it is that they practice at the Vatican, having gone to catholic school myself and being of the Jewish faith. The whole service was in Italian, and the organ was amazing.
The whole thing only lasted about 45 minutes, and we watched as the light slowly faded in the windows behind the alter. By the time we wandered away it was 5pm, and therefore everything was closing down. We plan to return to see the museum sometime soon, and to walk the stairs that take you to the top of the basilica (it’s a really long climb even for the likes of me). I do have a few more things to talk about but I think this is enough for one post. Don’t want anyone to get too confused. Ciao for now!
Thursday, February 1, 2007
A quick note...
If you want to know what it looks like when I wander around during the day time, I thought I would take the time to try and post a few things here just so you can get a quick idea of my life here in rome. How do you like my city? Is it not beautiful? (I could not for the life of me manage to get this picutre turned the right way on this website. Just turn your head and you will get the idea)
The other night when I went with Tim to try and go get a new sim card for my phone, this is what we passed by. I think in total we must have walked past 8 major monuments just on that one 25 minute trek.
I think at some point in everyone's life, a visit to Rome is nessicary. Although many of the things to see here are only remnants of the glory that was once Rome, it is still fantastic to stand by these things and imagine their magnitude when they were first built and in use.
Ciao
Second Week of School
So, nothing has really happened this week other than classes really moving into full swing. We are hoping to go on an adventure somewhere this weekend, but it may simply consist of a few of us wandering around the museums of Rome, which we have only really made a small dent in.
Today I had my first “Rome and its Ancient Monuments” class, and we wandered around the older temples of the city and took photos and attempted to take notes while standing in the cold rain. Other than the cold and wet feet, it was a really fun class. It was a little basic for my taste, but when I signed up for classes I didn’t realize quite how easy some of them were going to be. For most kids here, they want the easiest thing they can get their hands on. If I do the reading for every class I am generally one of two people out of about twenty. The most reading I have had for class yet was about thirty pages, and nothing too difficult. I am amazed after all the reading I did last semester that some people complain here about the little that we are asked to do.
Other than exploring old dilapidated temples, yesterday there was a student run fundraiser to help the model UN program that is sending 6 students (our friend Tim included) to Boston to participate in the Harvard three day event. Anne and I were talked into participating with a few of the degree seeking students on campus and we ended up getting toasted by the nerdiest group of adults I have ever met. In the end the scores were 179 to 170, but I thought that we should have done a little better after 3 hours of trivia questions. I am proud to say that in the student multiple choice sections, I answered every single one of the international organizations questions by myself. I am proud to say that sometimes classes do pay off. When the professors won, the man who teaches the International Organizations class here gave me his box of chocolates because when the teacher round came up, he missed one of the questions. Muahahah… mmmm, chocolate.
After the game a student band performed followed by a professors band. The students were ok, and many of the people attending the event trickled out from lack of interest. Anne is taking a class with the professor who was performing, so she wanted to stay and see what he could do. As it turned out, his band was great, and the 15 of us remaining rocked out to the three songs they planned to play, and the two more we forced them to continue with. After the gig, Anne, Candice, Joe and I went to get some food, and then went out to drinks with the professor and a gaggle of other JCU students. All in all it was a good time, a good night, even better because we got free JCU t-shirts.
Right now all of us are attempting to book trips to other countries and around Italy itself. Hopefully we are going to Florence on the 9th, either that or another fun area around Rome. During the semester we are hoping to hit up Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, the South of France (for spring break), and a few other major cities that slip my mind. After school lets out I think we are planning a tour of the Balkan area, and Greece is my first priority. If anyone has good ideas or tips on websites to use for flights or hostels, please either email me or post them here.
I need to head out and get some work done so I have some free time during the weekend, but you can be sure that there will be more posts with more interesting information coming soon. Ciao.
Today I had my first “Rome and its Ancient Monuments” class, and we wandered around the older temples of the city and took photos and attempted to take notes while standing in the cold rain. Other than the cold and wet feet, it was a really fun class. It was a little basic for my taste, but when I signed up for classes I didn’t realize quite how easy some of them were going to be. For most kids here, they want the easiest thing they can get their hands on. If I do the reading for every class I am generally one of two people out of about twenty. The most reading I have had for class yet was about thirty pages, and nothing too difficult. I am amazed after all the reading I did last semester that some people complain here about the little that we are asked to do.
Other than exploring old dilapidated temples, yesterday there was a student run fundraiser to help the model UN program that is sending 6 students (our friend Tim included) to Boston to participate in the Harvard three day event. Anne and I were talked into participating with a few of the degree seeking students on campus and we ended up getting toasted by the nerdiest group of adults I have ever met. In the end the scores were 179 to 170, but I thought that we should have done a little better after 3 hours of trivia questions. I am proud to say that in the student multiple choice sections, I answered every single one of the international organizations questions by myself. I am proud to say that sometimes classes do pay off. When the professors won, the man who teaches the International Organizations class here gave me his box of chocolates because when the teacher round came up, he missed one of the questions. Muahahah… mmmm, chocolate.
After the game a student band performed followed by a professors band. The students were ok, and many of the people attending the event trickled out from lack of interest. Anne is taking a class with the professor who was performing, so she wanted to stay and see what he could do. As it turned out, his band was great, and the 15 of us remaining rocked out to the three songs they planned to play, and the two more we forced them to continue with. After the gig, Anne, Candice, Joe and I went to get some food, and then went out to drinks with the professor and a gaggle of other JCU students. All in all it was a good time, a good night, even better because we got free JCU t-shirts.
Right now all of us are attempting to book trips to other countries and around Italy itself. Hopefully we are going to Florence on the 9th, either that or another fun area around Rome. During the semester we are hoping to hit up Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, the South of France (for spring break), and a few other major cities that slip my mind. After school lets out I think we are planning a tour of the Balkan area, and Greece is my first priority. If anyone has good ideas or tips on websites to use for flights or hostels, please either email me or post them here.
I need to head out and get some work done so I have some free time during the weekend, but you can be sure that there will be more posts with more interesting information coming soon. Ciao.
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