Roaming Rome with Renee

As a "welcome back to Rome" gift, Tom Cruise showed up last night.
I'm only half kidding.

The Mission Impossible 3 world premiere was here so we went to check it out. My friends and I got some good pictures of him, but when a girl started crying next to me, I knew it was time to get out of the crowd. The crazy nutcase didn't deserve 15 year old girls crying because of him. The "mission impossible" was trying to get out of the chaos in sandals without getting stepped on.

Anyways, here are only a select few pictures from my trip. There are so many that I decided to only post one from each city. The best of the best, if you will.

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Top o' the mornin', lads and lassies!
I'm in Dublin, it's the last day of my spring break. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am, indeed, alive.

I will update with greater detail later, but here's the lowdown:

Paris was so much fun. I met great people and barely slept. I saw the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Paris Opera House (where Phantom of the Opera is set), Champs Elysees, among other things.

Vienna was kind of boring. But in my history class, we'd been studying the Hapsburg empire which was located in Vienna, so it was neat to see their palace.

Cologne was rainy, but really nice. I went to a chocolate factory on my birthday and ended up getting free admission because of that fact.

Munich was a blast. I met up with my friends Emily and Robin there and we spent an evening at the most famous beer hall in the world - Haufbrauhaus.

Brussels was funny. I met my friend Mary Catherine there and the biggest tourist attraction is a fountain with a little boy peeing.

London was great. I have a bad habit - it's called theatre. In three days, I saw three shows: Mack and Mabel, Guys and Dolls, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, starring Christian Slater. FABULOUS.

There was a mixup in flights from London to Dublin, so I got here a day later than expected, but it's been wonderful. Yesterday I went on a musical pub crawl (I had seen it on the Travel Channel a few years ago and decided that if I ever made it to Ireland, I'm doing it... so I did), and they had me sing! It was great! Today I toured the Guinness factory and had my free pint at the top.

And tomorrow I go home to Rome.
And in two weeks I go home to Indiana.

Here's my spring break schedule:

April 6 - leave Rome 18.04
April 7 - arrive in Paris 8.30
April 11 - leave Paris 17.16
April 12 - arrive in Vienna 8.30, leave Vienna 21.16
April 13 - arrive in Zurich 6.29, leave Zurich 16.02, arrive in Cologne 21.04
April 15 - leave Cologne 6.54, arrive in Munich 11.33
April 17 - leave Munich 7.26, arrive in Brussels 14.32
April 18 - leave Brussels late afternoon, arrive in London early evening
April 20 - leave London early morning, arrive in Dublin midday
April 23 - leave Dublin early evening, arrive in Rome in one piece

Ciao, amici!

I had quite an eventful weekend. My dad flew in on Wednesday so I spent a few days playing tour guide.
Wednesday we did a quick walking tour of ancient Rome, Thursday we meandered the Vatican City, Friday we toured the Sistine Chapel, Castel Sant'Angelo, and caught a glimpse of St. Peter's, Saturday we headed to Pisa and saw the leaning tower, and Sunday we souvenir shopped at Campo de' Fiori and Piazza Navona. It was a whirlwind of Rome!!

Friday night, our friends from Iowa State threw a black & white party at their flat, which was an absolute blast. They made liters upon liters of sangria and played really great music (everything from American Pie to old school *NSync). And later we discovered Woolite takes red wine out of white skirts!!

Pisa was really great. The weather was perfect. From the top of the tower, you can see all of the quaint little city, including the big soccer field!

The highlight of my weekend, though, was the vigil for Pope John Paul II on Sunday night. It started at 8:30 with readings from some of his writings, then continued with a rosary in Latin. Thanks to my friend Alexandra who had copied the Latin translation, I successfully said a Latin rosary! At exactly 9:37, the moment JPII died a year previous, Pope Benedict XVI commemorated JPII and gave us his blessing from his apartment window.
Approximately 500,000 had filled St. Peter's Square last night. We were all given candles and many people held their countries' flags. (Most of the flags were from Poland, JPII's home.) Before everything started, lots of people were dancing and singing and chanting "Giovanni Paolo!" I'm pretty sure I heard the "Santo, Santo" chant, too. (That's Italian for "Saint.") It was an amazing experience. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to attend.

Pictures are here: ( Read more... )

This weekend has been beautiful weather-wise. It's been about 60 degrees and sunny the past few days. (Except for Friday, the day Emily and I decided to wander and it rained.) It's perfect weather to get out and sightsee, but unfortunately, I have 4 papers to write.

Thursday night, I decided to take myself on a tour of Rome. All the monuments are lit up at night so I wanted to see them. I walked from the Pantheon, to the Trevi Fountain, to the Spanish Steps, to the Quarinale, to Piazza Venezia, to the Forum, to the Colosseum, to Piazza Navona, and back home. I considered going down to the Vatican but it was getting late and my legs were tired! I discovered the nighttime setting on my camera and took some good pictures. And you can be sure the pictures are posted at the end of this entry!

Friday, as I said, Emily and I decided to wander. We took the subway to Piazza di San Giovanni, where we were told the Scala Sancta are. The Scala Sancta (or Holy Stairs) are said to be the stairs Jesus climbed to face Pilate for his sentencing. St. Helen had them brought to Rome from the Holy Land. They are now protected by a walnut casing but windows are cut out where blood is present. (I couldn't see anything in the windows - the light was bad and the glass was dusty.) You can climb the stairs, but only on your knees. (see picture) Since it was a Friday in Lent, the Scala Sancta were quite busy and we had to wait quite awhile on each step...on our knees. I'm not going to complain, because at least I hadn't been scourged at the temple beforehand like a certain man that walked the stairs before me, but I couldn't walk very well after that!!

After the Scala Sancta, we went across the street to a church called Santa Croce. Nestled in a room off of the sanctuary are relics of the cross. Out of respect, I don't have pictures, but I'm sure if you Google "Santa Croce" you can see. We saw a large plank of the cross and the inscription Pilate had written above it. That was unbelievable.

Yeah, Christ's steps and cross... just another day in Rome.

And today is the Rome Marathon so all the streets are blocked off. Good thing I don't have to go anywhere!! The runners have a gorgeous day to do so. They're lucky!

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Tuesday at 6:00 am, the entire SMC Rome Program boarded two buses for northern Italy. I hadn’t even recovered from Barcelona yet.

We arrived in Ferrara early afternoon. The weather wasn’t too bad, but we stomped around a Jewish cemetary to see the grave of author Giorgio Bassani. We watched a movie of one of his books, The Garden of the Fitzi-Continis. Or something like that. I guess that was neat. Mind you, we’d been up since 6:00. After the cemetary, we checked out the main square in Ferrara. It’s actually really quaint and pretty. The d’Este family built two huge castles facing the main cathedral, illustrating the tension between church and state. I found it interesting. After seeing the square and a museum nearby, we checked in at our fabulous hotel. Most of us made it an early night.

Wednesday we boarded the bus at 8:00 and headed to Mantova (Mantua in English) where we toured two d’Este palaces - Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale. I really enjoyed Palazzo Te. I suppose Palazzo Ducale wasn’t too bad either, but I was already tired of all the art. It starts to look the same after awhile... We headed back to our hotel in Ferrara around 4:00 and my friends and I hit up the pizzeria across the street for some fantastic pizza. Afterwards, Abby, Megan, and I gathered in Robin and Emily’s room for movie night - Wedding Crashers. Don’t make fun of me because I hadn’t seen it yet. Hi-lar-i-ous.

(I think I should note here that our hotel rooms actually have televisions! And thanks to CNN being in English, we learned that people were stabbed in Campo de’ Fiori after the AS Roma vs Middleborough soccer game. Campo de’ Fiori is about a 5 minute walk from where we live in Rome, and had we been in Rome, we probably would have witnessed this. So as boring as all the tours were, it’s a blessing in disguise that we were in Ferrara.)

Thursday’s departure time was 7:30 and this time we were off to Ravenna. We toured countless churches with a guide with the strongest accent ever. And it doesn’t help that she’s crazy. But that’s beside the point. The most note-worthy thing from the rainy day in Ravenna (why does it always rain when we tour cities or when I forget my umbrella?) was Dante’s tomb. That was pretty awesome, actually. We left Ravenna around 3:00 and stopped at a couple unnecessary sights on the way home. One was a church... imagine that! And I lost an earring I had purchased in Barcelona, making me unbelievably sad. Dr. Prebys insisted on stopping to see the Po River (looked like the St. Joe River in Mishawaka) as well as the Adriatic coast (which would’ve been cool had I not been soaked from the rain). At least I found some chocolate in my purse, making up for everything (except the missing earring). If there were ever a time for chocolate, it was then. Definitely.

What I enjoyed most about all the time spent in the bus was zoning out to the tunes on my iPod and watching the scenary. Northern Italy is really stunning. It’s flat but green and is bursting with wildlife. I’d never seen so many herons and pheasants. They were beautiful.

Friday was probably my favorite day. We went to Padova (Padua in English) and Vincenza. In Padova, we toured the church of Saint Anthony, where the Saint himself is buried. We got to see Anthony’s tomb as well as a small museum of relics. They have his jaw and tongue there - both incorruptibles. It sounds gross, I know... but think of it this way: we actually got to see the flesh of a saint. I think that’s cool. No pictures were allowed so I paid a priest a euro for a tour book with pictures of the cathedral. Vincenza wasn’t anything spectacular. We toured the Olympic Theatre, which was nice for me. Since I don’t really appreciate all the art we see as much as I should, I really appreciated an ancient theatre.
Anywho, Friday was Saint Patrick’s Day and we spent it in Padova and Vincenza. Isn’t that kind of sad? But do not fret! When we returned to Ferrara, Abby, Emily, Robin, Megan and I celebrated St. Paddy’s Day in a very unconventional way. We splurged on a big Tex-Mex dinner, complete with a pitcher of margarita. The night was tri-lingual, as we all ordered in a strange mix of English, Italian, and the broken Spanish we remembered from high school. Mexican food on an Irish holiday in northern Italy... jealous?

Our final day in northern Italy was Saturday and we headed to Bologna. It’s really a nice city with lots of good shopping. And it was by far the most interesting day...
In the morning we saw the tomb of St. Dominic, as well as various other churches and works of art. The afternoon was spent in H&M and Zara (goooood shopping). I lost ANOTHER earring so I made up for it by buying a new blazer. Anywho, we were to be back on the bus by 4:00 and somehow I became seperated from my group of shopping buddies and didn’t quite make it. We’ve had it drilled into our heads since day 1 that if we’re not on the bus by the specified time, we’ll be left. So I wandered Bologna for awhile, not able to find my bus... and ended up hopping a train at 5:20. I mean, we all know the story about last semester when a group of girls were left at the airport their first day here. I made it home a good hour before everyone else, touched bases with Meganne the RA, and dyed my hair. (Don’t worry - nothing drastic, just darker.) The SMC Rome Program isn’t too pleased with me, but hey, I can’t change the decision I made. Besides, I’m pretty independent, I went to Spain alone... I think I can handle a 4 hour train ride back to Rome. Bologna isn’t Aruba. Haha, probably shouldn’t joke about that.

Today I have to go speak with the program director regarding my little “incident”... maybe I’ll just tell her I liked Bologna so much I wanted to stay. Or maybe I’ll chalk it up to being an Aries and she’ll think I’m nuts and kindly tell me to leave her office.

So that was my week in a nutshell. Sunday was spent attempting to be a dilligent student and today starts a whole new week. Yay! Until next time...

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¡Hola amigos!

I’m back from lovely Barcelona and I’m officially sunburnt. Jealous?

I had the greatest weekend. For those of you who don’t know, I went to visit my friend Karen, who is studying at a language school in Barcelona. She was a foreign exchange student at Mishawaka High School in 2003. She’s actually from Cologne, Germany but is absolutely brilliant and speaks 5 languages now (German, English, French, Spanish, and Latin). And for those of you who know Karen, she sends her love!!

Thursday evening I boarded a bus outside Hotel Tiziano to the train station. From there I took a train to Fiumicino Airport in Rome. At the airport I met three other American girls from Gonzaga headed to Barcelona, too. We traveled together and ended up staying at the same hostel. We got to the hostel safely. It was a great location, on the Ramblas right next to Plaça Catalunya and only a 10 minute walk from the beach. Upon arrival, I went right to bed because I was exhausted!!

Friday morning I wandered the city since I couldn’t meet with Karen until 6 in the evening. I discovered a STARBUCKS!!! (For the record, we don’t have Starbucks in Rome...) So I grabbed a caramel latte (and was surprised how easily my Spanish came back) and took pictures of a very pretty cathedral, the Ramblas (a tree-lined street filled with street performers and vendors), Plaça Catalunya (main square), the beach, the port with sailboats, and the most beautiful open market I’ve ever seen. The weather was absolutely gorgeous - clear and sunny, around 65-70 degrees.

I met Karen that evening and we went to dinner. Afterwards, we took the metro to one her favorite places in the city. It was a palace on a hill with a view of the city and below us was a fountain show with music. Breathtaking. Then we headed to a bar to meet up with her friend Beatte. This is an interesting story... Karen knows Beatte from her school, but they’re both German. Beatte brought along her roommate, a Japanese girl named Keiko, and Keiko’s other Japanese friend (I can’t remember his name). We shared a table with an English guy who works as a translator in Barcelona and his half-German, half-Spanish friend. I can’t tell you how interesting the conversation was or how many languages were being spoken. It was so darn cool. I learned so much about different cultures!!

Saturday morning, Karen and I met for breakfast and then she took me on the official Spanish tour. We met Beatte again and went up to the highest point in Barcelona called Tibidabo. There’s a small amusement park up there as well as a church. We sat on the church square for awhile and soaked up the beautiful sun and the beautiful view. What is so picturesque about Barcelona is it is located between mountains and the sea.

After Tibidabo, the three of us headed to Parc Güell, a park designed by Gaudi. (This weekend made me fall in love with Guadi’s architecture.) The air was so fresh there! We were still on the mountain a little, so we still had a great view of the city. We sat on a balcony in Parc Güell and had ice cream. Good times.

And Karen’s Famous Spanish Tour continued!! We hopped the metro to some park with an unpronounceable name. (Spanish is easy for me to pronounce, but the Catalan dialect is impossible.) In this park was the Arc de Triomf, which looks just like the arches of triumph in Rome, but at this point Karen told me a fun fact that I’d never considered: Spain wasn’t involved in either World Wars so all of its landmarks remain unscathed, unlike much of Europe (including Rome). The rest of the park was absolutely bonita, with a fountain again designed by Gaudi. (His stuff is everywhere.) We sat for awhile on an island in a little man-made lake and watched the people in rowboats on the lake and the wild parrots competing with the pigeons for food.

I had told Karen I wanted to have a typical Spanish dish at a typical Spanish restaurant for dinner. That evening we headed to the Olympic Village right on the beach to a really nice restaurant. She ordered codfish and vegetable paella for me, a very typical rice dish for the Catalunya region, and local wine. The fish was so fresh, the paella was absolutely delicious, and the wine was better than a lot of the wine here in Italy! Exhausted and completely stuffed, we called it an early night.

Sunday morning was the final day of my Barcelonian vacation. After breakfast on Plaça Catalunya, Karen took me to Sagrada Familia, which is a church designed by -guess who!- Gaudi. He died before he could finish it, so it is still under construction and is due to be completed in 2025. It is the most interesting church I’ve ever seen. The front and the back are designed in two completely different ways. The back has the only representation of the Crucifixion where Christ is crucified with the cross parallel to the ground (this sounds bizarre -and it is- but I’ll post a picture). Then we went to Hospital de Sant Pau, which is a really ornate hospital with pretty trails and orange trees. It sounds silly to say we visited a hospital, but Karen says it's one of those places worth seeing but no one ever mentions it.

We spent the rest of the day at the beach (hence the burnt nose and freckles) before catching the 4:00 bus back to the airport. Aaaaand now I’m back in Rome!!

I have successfully traveled alone. I’m invincible.

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Hey hey, just wanted to let everyone know I made it to Barcelona safely. There's internet in my hostel... but it's unbelievably slow. And for some reason my email won't open (SMC girls - is our mail down?), so if you need me, leave a message here.

Barcelona is absolutely beautiful. I may not go back to Rome. Ever. I had Starbucks this morning. Yup.

Stay tuned for pictures and the like!
¡Adios!

Hi, friends!!

Abby and I spent the weekend traveling! Friday and Saturday we were in Venice, then Sunday headed to Florence. It was a lot of time in the trains and I have trouble sleeping as it is... but we had a blast.

Venice
We arrived in the afternoon, took a boat taxi to our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and went exploring! We hung out in St. Mark's Square and window shopped most of the evening. We were exhausted so we headed to bed early. The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel, then it was back to the main island. We spent far too much money on the little shops! After gelato in the square, I decided I wanted to feed the pigeons. That was the best decision I've made in a long time. St. Mark's Square is full of far-too-friendly pigeons. I took my chances with the bird flu, bought a bag of bird seed, and was subsequentally mauled by birds! I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. Abby's afraid of the birds, so she took pictures of them all attacking me. They guy that sold me the bird seed was obviously entertained by the hundreds of pigeons attacking me, so he kept giving me more and more food. After I couldn't laugh anymore and my hands were battered from bird claws, we decided to call it a day and went back to the hotel for siesta. (I love that there's built-in naptime in Europe!) Refreshed and rejuvenated, we had a nice dinner on the grand canal, took in the nightlife, and retired for the evening. I loved Venice. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Florence
Florence was rainy. No, that's an understatement. The skies decided to unleash its wrath on Florence just as we arrived. Within the first half hour, Abby and I were soaked up to our knees. Our umbrellas didn't do much good. Freezing, we found refuge in a restaurant down the street from the famous Duomo. We warmed up and the rain got substantially lighter. We made quick trips to the square outside the Uffizi Gallery (where the David is located), as well as the beautiful Ponte Vecchio. Florence is very medieval-looking, with castles popping up here and there. I really liked it, I just wished it hadn't rained so much!

( As usual, pictures! )

Ciao tutti!

It’s time for another update! I know you’ve all been anxiously awaiting my regaling of recent endeavors. So here goes.

Our program has had quite a few birthdays this past month. To celebrate, a giant joint birthday bash was held at Scholar’s Lounge (the Irish pub mentioned a few blog entries back). The party was Olympic themed, had loud music, and drink prices were lowered for us. One of the highlights of my time here so far is watching the group of Notre Dame guys jumping up and down, singing as loud as they possibly could to Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” After expressing my incredulousness, one of the guys told me, “We LOVE Kelly!” You can’t beat that, folks. The ND boys LOVE Ms. Clarkson. Anyways, needless to say, Thursday morning’s Religious Studies class attendence wasn’t quite up to par. (Don’t worry, Mom, I made it on time!)

Friday morning, the entire program boarded two buses at 6:00 am. No one sells cappuccino that early, so I wasn’t a happy camper. We drove three hours in the rain to Siena, a historical city in Tuscany. Siena’s claim to fame is their beautiful Duomo (cathedral) and Saint Catherine. The Duomo is a breathtaking piece of architecture, but unfortunately was covered by scaffolding for restoration. We took a short tour of the inside, though. It was very pretty. It’s interesting to see the different kinds of design in the different regions of Italy. The Duomo of Siena is absolutely nothing like the churches and cathedrals I’ve seen here in Rome. In the Sanctuary of Saint Catherine is displayed the preserved head and finger of Saint Catherine. It sounds morbid (and it is) but that’s how relics are here. Siena was so fond of their saint that the petitioned to have her head. To squeamish American students, that’s pretty gross, but it’s actually kind of cool.
Anywho, had it not rained all day and had my toes not been cold and wet, Siena would’ve been absolutely fantastic. But it rained all day and my toes were cold and wet so Siena was only pretty fantastic.

Saturday I conquered my fear of shoe shopping in Rome. The whole shoe-purchasing experience here is a little different than what I’m used to... I’m forced to speak Italian and I tend to freeze up whenever I have to use this second language. But I mustered up some courage and proudly purchased a pair of suede heel loafers. I also bought a sweater at another store. The little old man that owned the store spoke to me in Italian and I actually carried on a conversation!! So much for freezing up when having to use it! I walked out of that store like I had just won a marathon.

That night, my friends and I had been invited to a toga party that some new friends with the Iowa State architecture program were throwing. They have an apartment just a quick walk from the Tiziano so we donned our togas and attended. It was a great night in Rome. We were served fruit and cheese and bread and wine and sangria... and I discovered Nutella. Nutella = tastiest chocolate-hazelnut-paste concoction on this side of the galaxy.
Remember I said the Tiziano is just a 5 minute walk to the Pantheon? Well, Iowa State’s apartment is even closer. So we HAD to take a toga picture in front of it. Unfortunately, I haven’t acquired a copy of that yet, so you’ll have to wait to see how American students really live it up in Roma. ( ”But )

Oh, and yesterday I bought a jar of Nutella. :-)

I’m planning on making it out to the Spanish Steps sometime this week (if the weather is nice enough and my midterms don’t overwhelm me), so I might be updating a second time. Keep an eye out.

It's another rainy Monday in Rome! At least the weather is getting warmer.

This weekend was nice. All but 10 people in our program went to Torino for the Olympics. I decided to stay back, needing some time to myself and not wanting to spend all the money. On Saturday, I decided to take a trip to Tivoli, a quaint city that's about two hours by bus from Rome. Tivoli is home to Villa d'Este, palace of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este. Villa d'Este itself is famous for its beautiful gardens and fountains, designed by Pirro Ligorio and inspiration to composer Franz Lizst. (More stuff on it can be found here: http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/lazio/villadeste.html) I'd heard wonderful things so I had to check it out.

Villa d'Este is quite possibly the most beautiful place I've ever seen. It looks as if it has been cut straight out of a storybook. And it smells fantastic! After being in Roman smog for so long (it's so polluted here...), the fresh air was heavenly. The sun was shining, making each fountain sparkle. The palace is beautiful as well, but I was most struck by the gardens.
I took 125 pictures, but unfortunately, the camera I am using despises outdoor photography, and only about 8 of the pictures came out well. Even so, I'm including a myriad of pictures (good and bad) at the end of this entry because I'm absolutely in love with this place!

Roman life has taken on a routine. Thursday nights after dinner are deemed "Gelato Giovedì", or "Ice Cream Thursdays". A group of us head to one of the many gelatterias in the area. Sunday nights after Mass, Abby and I have a date night at L'Insalata Ricca, a tasty restaurant down the street. Yesterday our RA joined us! My friends Emily and Megan are taking some of us to begin a Monday night tradition at a pizzeria near Piazza Navona. They discovered it this weekend and it is supposedly amazing. I'm excited!

I forgot to mention last time that I went to an American choral concert last weekend. A high school choir from South Carolina gave a free concert at the Church of Gesù, down the street. They were pretty good, singing quite a few songs I had sang in high school. It was nice to hear some familiar choir music!!

That's all for now, ( make sure you click here to check the pictures! )

It's been another eventful weekend in Italy! After a tough week at school (don't get me started on my weekly critical papers I have to write for my Italian Cinema class... IN ITALIAN), Abby and I had originally decided to take it easy this weekend.
Things didn't go as planned.

Friday morning, we woke up extra early to head over to the Vatican. Abby hadn't seen it yet this trip. It gets really busy later in the day, so we arrived around 8am. After meandering the Basilica for an hour or so, we took a tour of the Historical Museum where we saw beautiful jeweled chalices and St. Luke's skull. Then we decided it'd be a good idea to climb over 500 steps to the top of St. Peter's dome. Besides the climbing, it was fantastic. The view from the top is unbelievable and the weather was perfect. Though a little hazy, we got some good pictures. Make sure you click the little link at the bottom to see. After our descent from the top, we decided to hunt down the Sistine Chapel. Mapless, we asked a Swiss Guard that we recognized from our adventures out, who pointed us in the right direction. But on our way, we stumbled upon quite a hubbub! A crowd was forming in the street, outside an elaborate gold door with the Pope's name on it. Soon, camera crews and reporters showed up so we decided to skip the Sistine Chapel (which closes at noon) in order to see what was going on at this door. It's really hard to eavesdrop in a foreign country, but listening to the reporters chat with each other, I caught the words Papa Benedetto and nuova porta, meaning "Pope Benedict" and "new door." Abby and I assumed we'd be seeing the Pope! Much to our dismay, only a cardinal and a few bishops graced us with their presence, but they blessed what was seemingly Pope Benedict XVI (or as I like to call him, Benny One-Six)'s new door. As usual, a picture follows.

Because our Eurail passes arrived this week, we took a very unplanned trip to Naples Saturday morning. In fact, we didn't even know what was in Naples nor what we were supposed to see there or even if the train station was anywhere near the actual city. We arrived around 9:30am and meandered for a few hours, not knowing what to see. Believe it or not, the Mediterranean is really hard to find once you're there. We saw the sea, then headed for lunch and an outdoor market. We found a newsstand and had to look at postcards to see what historical sites were there. Luckily, we had unknowingly taken a picture of Mt. Vesuvius and Castel Nuovo, so we were set. Naples is a very unfriendly, dirty city but I'm glad we went. And I'm angry at the American education system for not teaching geography well enough.

In a nutshell, that was our weekend. I'm not sure where I'll be next weekend. Some people are going to Torino but I might skip out and use my Eurail pass elsewhere. We shall see.

Happy Valentine's Day! Abby and I have invited a couple girl friends over for champagne, strawberries, chocolate, and sappy love songs out on our terrace tomorrow night. :)

( Follow the link for fun! )

I met Katie Couric yesterday in Piazza Navona. I told her she was my hero. I kind of feel like an idiot.

( As usual, click for the picture )

Ciao, tutti! It's another chilly morning in the Eternal City....

It's been another weekend of long touring. I've seen enough ancient art to last me a lifetime. Friday we toured the Baths of Diocletian, Palazzo Massimo, and Palazzo Altemps. Saturday we took a bus to the ancient port city of Ostia Antica. Our crazy tour guide seriously talked about ancient writing on rocks for hours on end. Honestly, I enjoy history, but it got to be too much. But make sure to look at the pictures to see how we kept ourselves amused/sane.

Last Wednesday, I had a day to myself so I decided to hunt down the Vatican. The weather was stunning and the walk was less than 20 minutes down the street where we live. I got there early enough that I didn't have to wait in line to get inside. I saw John Paul II's tomb then headed up to the Basilica. I've never felt so small in my life. This place is breathtaking. You could spend all day there and not see everything. Abby and I are going to try to go to Mass there one weekend. I skipped out on the Sistine Chapel because you have to buy tickets and I wanted to wait until I could enjoy it with someone as opposed to exploring alone. Around noon, St. Peter's starts to get really busy so I headed out and went shopping on Via Del Corso, Rome's version of 5th Avenue. My new favorite words are saldi and sconto, or "sales" and "discount." I'm quite proud of my purchase - a CD called Vacanze Romane, literally meaning "Roman Vacation," but it's actually a musical adaptation of the movie Roman Holiday. And it's in Italian. I'm in love.

Thursday night, we learned a guy from Notre Dame's architecture program was going to be DJing at Scholar's Lounge, an Irish pub a few blocks from here. That ended up being a lot of fun. The place was full of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's students. I actually ran into a guy with whom I attended high school. Random!

Yesterday, we began planning our spring break. We're purchasing a Eurail pass that will take us from Rome to Greece, then Greece to Paris (with fun stops in random countries like Croatia and Montenegro), and all around Ireland in 15 days. The pass doesn't include our train from Paris to London nor London to Dublin, but it'll get us all over the rest of Europe. And we've decided we're flying home from Dublin. We're going to be exhausted.

Last night, our friend Mary Catherine talked Abby and I into staying up to watch the SuperBowl. So we headed back to Scholar's Lounge along with every other American student in Rome. With the time difference, we didn't get back home until 4am, leaving 3 hours to sleep before our first class. It was worth it though!! It was nice to have a little taste of the US, even though the commentators were British and we didn't get to see any of the commercials. There's something awkward, irritating, and wrong about Brits talking about American football.

Abby and I have taken on the task of trying all the gelato (Italian ice cream) in Rome. Our friend Amanda took a group of us to the oldest gelatteria in Rome, called Giolitti's. For 2 euro, you get 3 scoops of gelato plus real whipped cream. They have every flavor imaginable, but I'm having a slight love affair with a flavor called frutti di bosco... I'm not positive what all is in it, but I know it's berry something. Mix that with lemon and strawberry and I have quite a heavenly frozen concoction. Have I mentioned I love this city?

( Click here for a plethora of pictures )

Unfortunate news: I had typed a long entry last night, put it on a disk, and transfer it at this internet cafe but the computers here don't accept my disk. (The library with internet access is closed on weekends.) Thus you shall have to wait to see my awesome pictures and read about my awesome adventures until a later date.

Look for future tales of art museums, Ostia Antica, and St. Peter's Square/Vatican. Coming soon!

Buongiorno!! It's a beautiful but rainy Monday morning here in Roma. The weather has been unseasonably chilly and rainy. C'est la vie.

Friday we toured the Roman Forum and Capitoline Hill , Saturday was a trip to Palentine Hill, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Piazza Colonna, and Piazza Navona, and yesterday we meandered through the Circus Maximus, and the Baths of Caracalla. What I’m trying to say is we’ve walked alllllll over Rome to look at rocks dating back before Christ. History is cool, but not so cool when your feet are killing you! In all honesty, though, the tours have been very informative. We can better appreciate the city in which we live.

Friday night, Abby and I decided to hit up a little restaurant across the piazza from the Pantheon. We sat outside (heated patios with umbrellas!) facing the Pantheon and had a fanastic meal of veal and wine. There are a lot of street vendors here and when it starts raining, creepy guys selling umbrellas rush out of nowhere within minutes to accost innocent bystanders. Thus, we made a game of watching creepy umbrella sellers yelling “L’ombrello!!!” to anyone without one.

We’ve already made friends in Roma! Apparently the younger Swiss Guards like to frequent the same bar we do. (For anyone who isn’t familiar, the Swiss Guards are the dudes that guard the Pope. There are only 110 of them and we now know about 10!) We’ve hung out with them two nights in a row and have further plans in the works. Not all of them speak English, so it’s really interesting to try to converse. In fact, I successfully held an hour long conversation in somewhat broken Italian. We learned all about how the Swiss Guard works as a whole and before we left, I asked my new friend Ken to tell the Pope “Ciao!” for me.

We probably won't make it to the Olympics, which is a shame. Word on the street is most of the trains are sold out or ridiculously expensive. But Abby and I are planning on booking our spring break trains/flights/ferries soon. The plan is a few days in Greece, then a day in Paris, then we're taking the Chunnel to London, flying to Ireland, then back to Rome. For the record, I'm giving up sleep for Lent.

It’s hard to believe we’ve already been here a week. Though it seems like we arrived only yesterday, we’ve seen so much. It seems natural to cross a busy street, have a cappuccino, and head to class all before 8am. “Buongiorno” comes to me before “Hello” and it’s nearly instinct to say “Scusi” when bumping into someone on the street. But I’m already craving pancakes and chicken wings!

Please note that I had the address incorrect in the previous entry. If you plan on sending snail mail, send to:
Renee Woodward
Hotel Tiziano/Saint Mary's Rome Program
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 110
00186 Roma, Italia

That’s all for me today... I have a critical paper to write about a 1945 Italian film in Italian. That’s bound to be interesting! Enjoy these pictures. :-)
( Click here to see the pictures. )

I wasn't planning on spending so much time online, but I have a little time to kill until another fantastic meal. (Have I mentioned how scrumptious the food is?)

Yesterday I didn't have class until 12:45 but I woke up early, went to breakfast, then braved the cold to explore the town. (The weather is abnormally chilly... I feel like I'm still in South Bend.) After walking about 10 minutes, I stumbled upon Piazza Venezia (Google it, you won't regret it), the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum! I wasn't expecting any of that and I kick myself for not bringing my camera along. Then again, it's not like I won't be seeing it again! Remarkably, I found my way back to the Hotel Tiziano without assistance of a map. Later, Abby and I had half an hour before class so we hung out at the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. Jealous?

Classes are going well. I have the same professor for Italian Cinema as I do for Italian Language and Literature. She's fantastic, but the classes are back-to-back, taught in Italian, and fast-paced. My head was spinning afterwards! Fr. Mark (religion prof) is just as wonderful as everyone has said, though he reminds me of a devout Steve Carrell ("The Office" and Forty-Year-Old Virgin).

That's all for now, I suppose. Hope all is well back in the States. :)
For future reference, my address here is:
Renee Woodward
Corso Vittorio Emanuelle II, 110
00186 Roma, Italia

And as always, you can find me at rwoodw01@saintmarys.edu

Greetings from Roma!! After sitting on the runway at O'Hare for 1 1/2 hours and arriving in Frankfurt later than expected and not sleeping on any flight, I'm in the Eternal City safe and sound!

It's my first full day here and I'm only just started. This morning I had my first class - Intro to Philosophy and that was pretty swell. Fr. Dugan, my professor, seems fantabulous. Yesterday was traumatizing, though. Abby and I found our room (403), which happens to be the smallest in the Hotel Tiziano. It is approximately the size of my closet at home. Good thing we like each other! Don't worry, Maggie, we'll take good care of your old room. :) After having quite a bit of trouble attempting to call home, we headed to the classroom building for orientation. I can't tell you much of what was said, as I hadn't slept in about 30 hours... but I'm sure it was a good time. The interesting part of the evening was attempting to order dinner in Italian... and failing gracefully. I have a feeling my favorite Italian phrase will be Parlo solo un po' italiano, or "I only speak a little Italian." I finally got my calzone but wasn't quite sure what was in it. Abby suggested liver and once I realized it looked a bit like cat food, I lost my appetite. Ha! This morning made up for it, though. We had breakfast at Pascucci's which was amazing. I am in coffee heaven!!! Patrizia, the cashier, understood my Italian and was very patient and talked slow enough that I actually had a conversation with her!

Today I have a break from 9:45-5:00 so I plan on unpacking (or at least making the attempt to do so) and exploring the city a little! Word on the street is it's sale season... :)

Ciao for now!
Please leave comments. I'd love to hear from everyone!

My journey begins in 16 hours.

This is how I plan to keep all you folks at home updated whilst I roam Rome. I shall be leaving in 12 days - January 21. You'll be happy/impressed/dumbfounded by the fact that I've already packed one suitcase.

Feel free to leave me comments using the links below. Please sign them as well, so I don't think you're a creepy stalker. Unless you are a creepy stalker.