Roma & Vatican City: A Clash Between Ancient and Modern

My internet hasn’t been working the past week, so my apologies for this blogpost being a week overdue.

As I sit here indulging upon a fine DOCG (cheers for those who recognize this name), I’ve been contemplating for a while how to incorporate a riveting introduction into my blog; one that has both style and class. I guess the sentence prior technically is a valid opening but talking about an opening and using that for one’s opening is plain silly. I have come to the realization that with each new blog post it is much easier to write, but I have had less and less time to write one with all my weekend travels, planning for the upcoming weekend travel, and having to attend something called a class. Nonetheless, my past weekend was incredibly fantastic, adventurous, tiresome, weird, and legen….dary. This perhaps could be my shortest blog as this weekend felt as if it lasted a month and everything simply blended together, or a typical length one if my writing develops into a solid rhythm and I recollect everything. I personally am quite excited to see how this shall unfold.

Another realization that I have come to is that in comparison to the extremely rigorous and intellectually strenuous past semester I had, this semester is absolutely pointless in terms of learning a vast amount of knowledge. The classes are extremely easy and slightly pointless as most of our teacher’s talk in broken English and the concepts are very elementary. As is such, the only time I’ll actually reference my classes are the field trips I go on for my art history class and what I make in my culinary class. For this week’s art adventure, we toured the highly coveted baptistery that sits adjacent to the Duomo. The outside represents a very Romanesque architecture as it is very plain and not incredibly welcoming, but as you walk inside, your jaw immediately drops. Only a 4euro charge, this was an absolutely marvelous journey as the ceilings are all covered in mosaics with a gold background. There are roughly five different layers of the ceiling, where each layer tells a different story from the Bible: genesis, stories of Joseph, stories of Mary and Jesus, and because Firenze’s patron saint is John the Baptist, the murder of Saint John. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but there is always the chance I might stop by again, or just borrow a few pictures from Google of course. My cooking class this week was absolutely phenomenal and one of my favorite meals I have ever made. For dessert the three girls in my group made a chocolate soufflé, which was absolutely life changing, and although I didn’t make it, the recipe is so simple it amazes me how more people don’t make it more often. While they made the soufflé, my roommate Ryan and I took on the task of making a spinach and also a pumpkin risotto from scratch. Initially we made the vegetable stock and then worked our way to the risotto which was one of the more intensive recipes I’ve had. The taste was incredible, and every bite kept changing mine and my housemate’s opinion of which flavor yielded the most rewarding sensation to our taste buds.

Skipping to Wednesday late afternoon, I bolted out of my class, swung by the local wine store to purchase a giant jug of bianco wine (5 liters to be exact) for only 8euro (more on this story to come), went home to pack, and booked it to the corner café to grab a panini. The panini was excellent but I had given 15minutes to make my train figuring that the café stop would take a max of three minutes. Well by the time I finally placed my order I already burned three minutes, and then the barista took a little over 5min heating the panini up, which still wasn’t finished but through my broken Italian and my superb charades skills, I was able to tell her I needed it right now for the train. Luckily I managed to snag my train right as the doors were closing considering that was the last intercity train for the night so I would then have to spend 20euro more for the Eurostar. The train ride was quite enjoyable as I was able to snack on my prized panini, which had brie, salami and lettuce, listen to my favorite indie rock music, and then start on my newest Kurt Vonnegut novel: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewalter; and exceptionally good novel, but not nearly as good as his other novel Slaughterhouse-Five (fun fact of the day: my favorite book of all time). I eventually landed in Roma Termini, the main train station in Rome, and then met Courtney who led me back to her apartment. I must say, her apartment was exceptionally lovely and quaint, not to mention she was only a few minutes away from the colosseum. The view from her place overlooks San Giovanni from merely laying on her couch while the warm breeze comforts you is unbelievable, not to mention her apartment is very small which adds a nice amount of character and warmth to the place. As we waited for Brittney to arrive from her place, I presented the jug of bianco as a gift to Jess as she requested it when she laid her eyes upon it when she visited Firenze. The impressiveness of the size and the low cost was not enough to mask the incredibly disgusting taste of the actual wine. This would probably be a valid explanation for why the shop owner lowered the price of the jug a few euros without me even saying a word to him. Maybe it’s because she’s from California, but she did not actually mind it opposed to everyone else dousing their taste buds with the nearest liquid in site. Upon Brit’s arrival, we ventured off to a local Irish Pub called Scholars where Court and I caught up while Britt and Jess schmoozed it up with a couple of French guys by the names of Pierre and Timothy (pronounced Timotay). Unfortunately, Rome’s public transportation closes before midnight so we were forced to walk about 45minute home. This is part of the reason for the reason I believe I lost over 7pounds alone just walking around Rome.

The following day I was awoken by the marvelous breeze, the pleasant warmth of the sun and the incredible view of San Giovanni, if only every morning yielded this amount of luxury. Unfortunately for Britt, she was awoken at 9am by a friend informing her of the art field trip she was supposed to be on, which was extremely unfortunate considering we stayed awake until about 4:30 just chit-chatting. Upon her return I embarked upon my first tour of Roma where we toured San Giovanni, the Church by their apartment that was incredibly marvelous. According to Britt, one of the pillars in the Church produces condensation and drips down the pillar to form a puddle a few weeks before the Pope’s death. In addition to the tomb of the head of both martyrs Saint John and Saint Peter and the incredible architecture, San Giovanni is well worth a visit if one ever stops by Roma. Our next venture brought us to Courtney’s school as we had a few minutes to kill before we met Jess for lunch. It’s incredible how different my school and her school are considering we are both a part of the same program, but her school consists of one lonely floor in an office building opposed to the five or so buildings that consist of my school. After this quick visit we then departed to a local café where we devoured a suppli (a local dish consisting of rice, mozzarella, eggs, wrapped in breadcrumbs and deep-fried). Next we swung by the President’s house which was not all that impressive in comparison to the White House as it did not stick out much from the other buildings surrounding it. After several snapshots of the changing of the guard, we ventured a block down the road to the highly coveted Trevi Fountain. I must say, the fountain is not exactly what you would anticipate seeing as it is oh so much more marvelous then pictures or words can describe. After tossing my coins into the fountain like a true tourist, I dabbled upon a very delicious nutella gelato that Courtney had been raving about for weeks. Although the gelato was incredibly fabulous as I can still recall the exact taste of it, Firenze’s gelato still surpasses any gelato I had in Roma. Our last stop was the Spanish Steps, a very pretty sight indeed but I felt it was no where near as marvelous as it tends to be made out to be. A few quick photos, a stop by the local grocery store, and we were once again back at Court’s apartment where her and I whipped up a quick gnocchi and pesto dish with a side of her famous and extremely delectable chickpeas, peas, garlic, olive oil and a dash of water (a recipe that I have now incorporated into my daily dinners). Of course, our night would result in the same events that took part the night before, minus the French boys but plus a few Marist students who are studying with me in Firenze. It’s truly remarkable how it appeared that the majority of Firenze students from LDM decided to all go to Roma this weekend, and even more remarkable how in this relatively small pub I managed to bump into a few classmates.

The following morning Court and I went tourist hunting for the initial part of the day, venturing to the Santa Maria Basilica for our first destination. Although it lacks a majestic façade, the interior to this Church was once again absolutely breathtaking. This Church not only encompasses an impressive architectural design, but also houses the Meridian Line that runs right through the center of the Church. That day it was so warm and pleasant out so Court and I chose to go to this massive park where we just walked around and enjoyed the nature. I do enjoy cities, but after a month of walking on cobblestones and cement, the feel of grass beneath one’s feet is extremely heartwarming. After enjoying the crisp breeze and watching as couples leisurely rowed across a small pond in the heart of the park, we trekked back to Court’s place where she awaited the arrival of her cousin and cousin’s boyfriend. From there, I met up with Britt who would become my new tour guide for the rest of the weekend as I didn’t want to intrude on Court’s time with her cousin. With our eyes set on touring the Colosseum and Roman Forum, we got entirely sidetracked as we passed by the Sacred Steps (the marble steps from Pontius Pilot’s palace that Jesus climbed with the cross on his back) and as we are both practicing Catholics, paid a visit to this monument. It’s surprising to me how such a vital aspect of the Catholic religion has gone unnoticed by so many people as neither myself, Brittney, or several others I have talked to have ever heard of these until we stepped foot into Rome. Although we had our eyes set on the Colosseum, we decided to climb the steps (one must climb solely on one’s knees as Jesus had done) which was an absolutely incredible experience. Perhaps some of the greatest pain I have ever felt as even today, six days after the climb, my knees are still extremely sensitive and sore. The first four steps were merely uncomfortable, but after that (there are a total of 28 steps) it was absolute searing pain with every movement you took. This experience wasn’t incredible because of this unbearable pain, but because amidst all the pain it really opened and cleared your mind, allowed you to think deeply about absolutely anything and everything, and was an amazing religious experience. Apart from the actual climbing of the stairs, the house that encases these stairs is marvelous, from the artwork, to the chapel, and to the preserved parts of the stairway where Jesus’ own blood fell made this an absolutely remarkable stop on my journey through Rome.

Unfortunately, the climb took around an hour so we missed the Colosseum, but as I felt about the events that unfolded for this entire trip, everything happened for a reason. I was able to take some great photos of the Colosseum at night and wasn’t forced to rush through the tour as we saved it for the following day. Britt then went back for dinner to her host mom’s apartment while I fended for myself for supper. This was one major aspect of Rome that I was not entirely pleased about: after roaming the streets for over 45min, I passed by fifty pizzerias and then only two trattorias that were overly priced. I eventually settled on a pizzeria where I miscommunicated with the server by trying to say I wanted it to go, while come to think of it I believe he was asking if I wanted it caldo (hot in Italian). The pizza was still good nonetheless, but other then that, the food selection in Rome was atrocious to the vast amounts of quality restaurants on every corner in Firenze. I then met back up with Britt where after much convincing we decided to go see the Vatican at night (actually that was only to please Britt if she is to read this, as it actually didn’t take any convincing since I was up to do whatever but we finally settled on the Vatican even though she insists to this day that she told me numerous times that she wanted to be in bed by 20:30). As this was the first time I had ever been to Rome, this was also the first time I have ever stepped foot into the Vatican, which aside from the incredibly relaxing sensation from the walk in the park, this yielded an astonishing amount of warmth over me. After a few quality snapshots of the outside of St. Peter’s Square, we started our trek back to Court’s place with stops by the Tiber River, Castle Sant’Angelo (a castle commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, as a mausoleum for himself and his family that was later used as a fortress and castle by a number of Popes), and finally arrived back home after a delightful run in with a snazzy black Lamborghini.

My hopes of starting the following day’s adventures at an early hour failed miserably as I was not able to meet up with Britt until about 12:00. The reason for Britt’s tardiness was not due to her typical miscalculation of time (similar to my sister Kristen who always claims everything is merely a 15min walk from no matter where your starting point is, even if it takes over an hour; a very traumatic experience for a 13yr old me while venturing through Paris), but because she was pulled aside by the police at the train station for questioning. Aside from her terrible misrepresentation of arrival time, another thing I learned about Britt is that she has some of the worst possible luck in the world, and something like this would obviously happen to her. The reasoning behind her run-in with the cops was because her host mom had her buy a red metro pass which was a bit cheaper then the blue pass that Court/Jess had, but apparently she was not eligible to have a red pass and so this once in a blue moon day that the cops actually checked everyone’s passes, she just so happened to be one of those unfortunate victims. The cop apparently was a complete jerk as he refused to speak any English to her, so through her broken Italian she managed to escape a 100euro fine and other repercussions, but still managed to have a very traumatic experience where the cop ripped her pass very aggressively right in front of her. Fortunately for her, the rest of our day was very pleasant as we paid a few extra euro (about 10 I believe) for a guided tour of both the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, mostly due in part to the fact the line was wicked long and the guided tour allowed us to skip it. As these are perhaps the most toured places in all of Italy, and actually probably all of Europe, there is no reason to discuss how amazing both landmarks were. The only misfortune we ended up running into was at the end of our tour at the Roman Forum where our tour guide went off on a little spiel about how you could use the same tour company for a tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel but would have to wait until Monday as its closed Sundays and closes at 4 on Saturdays. Now if my foreshadowing merely a sentence prior did not give it away, then I am about to reveal some of the most disappointing news of my study abroad experience thus far. As it was almost nearing 3 o’clock when our tour ended, I realized that the Vatican was slightly far away and we had to leg it (a British slang word for run as fast as possible to one location) to get there in time. Of course I had an incredible amount of adrenaline flowing through my system and was extremely more motivated than Britt in reaching our final destination of the Sistine; so looking back on that, my apologies for that Britt but way to be a good sport about it! Once Britt navigated me through the Metro and we arrived at our stop in Vatican City, she pointed in the direction of it and I went on an all out sprint and arrived about 15 or so minutes before 4. My heart essentially dropped when I arrived there and found myself faced with a line comparable to the line for Splash Mountain in Disney World. Nevertheless, I sucked it up and hopped into line and reached the end with about 5min to spare and with high hopes that they would be late with closing it. Now I can’t recall if I mentioned this prior, but one of my favorite lines from my all time favorite movie in the world, Good Will Hunting, was the scene where Robin Williams is talking to Matt Damon in the park and asks him if he has “ever smelled the inside of the Sistine Chapel,” in order to convey to him that he has not truly experienced life as he hasn’t stepped foot outside the south of Boston. As Court/Jess/Britt can all vouch for me, the amount of times I quoted that line while in Rome was astronomical, but it depicts the extreme amount of excitement I held for finally stepping foot into the most famous Chapel on Earth. This is why I was extremely disappointed and saddened when I found out that at 4:05 there was no possible way I was going to make it to the Chapel, and even more saddened when I learned from a worker that the Sistine Chapel was not in fact in St. Peter’s Square, that I had actually stood in line for that long for the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica, and that the Chapel was about a kilometer down the road. Although I have had so many lessons in both art, history, and CCD classes about both St. Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel, no one had ever mentioned to me (an apparently to Britt/Jess/Court) that the Chapel was not a part of St. Peter’s Square but it’s own separate entity. After feeling like a complete buffoon and tourist in front of that worker, I cheered myself up by completing a full tour of St. Peters, the tombs of the Popes (which was very remarkable as I was able to see the tomb of Pope John Paul II and Saint Peter), and finally was cheered up by the presentation of a chilled bottle of water from Court/Jess/Britt (another aggravating feature of Italy is the fact that I don’t stay nearly as hydrated as I do back in the States as I have yet to find a place that sells reusable water bottles). As I mentioned prior, all these events occurred for a reason as I was able to get a full tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum, but even though I missed the Sistine Chapel, I was able to plan to arrive in Rome a day before I fly out for Easter break with Court and spend all day Wednesday touring the Sistine Chapel, and the catcombs/Vatican Museum which I would not have had the opportunity/motivation to see if I had seen the Sistine Chapel that day; not to mention seeing the entire Chapel in only 10 or 15minutes would not have been as rewarding and worthwhile.

After walking by the Tiber, this time in daylight, and the Circus Maximus (essentially just a large oval of sand with a strip of hilly grass in the middle), we went to a local restaurant where I indulged upon a very pleasant plate of tortellini with prosciutto and a fine glass of their house wine. Afterwards, my last night in Rome incorporated a walk to the Trevi Fountain at night, and surprise surprise, another trip back to the pub Scholars, which I know feel as if I’m truly a regular there and the waiters all know who I am. Our night did not end there where drama began to unfold back at Courtney’s place as earlier that day they discovered their water no longer worked because the water company had turned it off, due perhaps to the fact that there were so many guests residing in their tiny apartment: there were the three residents, myself, Jess had four friends, and Claire had five friends visiting. When I left Sunday afternoon their water was still not turned back on (they ended up getting it fixed by Monday) even though the landlord had shown up several times with a plumber. Another thing about Italy I have learned is that they are very slow about doing everything, and their technology is not nearly as advanced as ours is back in the States.

The following morning I was absolutely thrilled to wake up at 8am (a very rare occurrence) as Britt and I were about to step forth onto my favorite journey of this weekend: Sunday Morning Mass, in Latin with the full choir and hymnal, at none other then St. Peter’s Basilica. After my poor luck with the Sistine, I made sure we arrived over an hour early to the service (you really only need to get to the square an hour ahead of time, 30min in the security line, and 30min before mass in order to get a good seat), but we were able to get incredible seats right in the middle aisle and four rows back from the altar. The mass was breathtaking, with what appeared to be over 50 clergymen, an incredibly beautiful choir, a mass that I did not understand one word of but was incredible nonetheless, and the fact that I was standing amidst some of the most phenomenal architecture in the world all contributed to this glorious experience. What added to this fantastic experience was that as we were leaving the mass, Britt and I realized that the square was filled with thousands of people, which didn’t take us very long to realize that Pope Benedict was about to make his weekly appearance/speech from his apartment. Words would only deter from the greatness of this experience, so I will not try to lament on this event. It did amaze me though how the Pope was able to convey his message in six different languages, and even though I could only understand the English and bits of the Spanish, his speech was incredibly fluent in all six languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and I believe Latin?).

Another enjoyable moment for the day was my proud purchase of roasted chestnuts, which were very tasty and now I can finally relate to that popular Christmas jingle. Afterwards, I returned back to Court’s to find them filling up pots and pans (they were only able to use a minimal amount of water) in order to bath from, and from there I packed my things to my return journey home. I was planning on taking the Regional line, twice as long as the Eurostar but over half the price off for the ticket, but unfortunately the one incident I ran into with the lack of English speaking people in Rome (opposed to Firenze where essentially everyone speaks a bit of English) was at the Train Station where I could not figure out where track 2 PE was. I had assumed it was merely on track 2, which it wasn’t, and when I had came to that realization I only had 6min to spare and could not for the life of me find one person who spoke English. I ended up missing my train, switched my ticket for a Eurostar ticket (a 2hr ride opposed to a 4hr one) as the next Regional Line was not for a few more hours and I would not get home until 9pm, and finally got home around 4pm. I must say, my body has not been nearly that sore for years, the amount of walking we did was incredible, so much so that I ended up running places and bolting it up stairs as my body was so numb I figured I might as well get in the extra workout since I couldn’t even feel legs. Even though I had an amazing time in Roma, I was incredibly happy to be back in Firenze (one of the main reasons I succumbed to buying the Eurostar ticket) as it felt like home in comparison. Roma was nice, but I felt that aside from the extremely old ruins and the Vatican, making it an archeological paradise and essential pilgrimage to all practicing Catholics, it was very modern, expensive, lacking a vast amount of incredible food and character/warmth that Firenze has to offer, and in some ways very similar to New York City. It is completely different from Firenze, but I am going to have to side with the majority of travelers and say that Roma is a very nice place to visit, but I’m glad I chose Firenze as a place to live and study.

The French Riviera- Monaco, Nice, St. Paul, Cannes, and Eze

With every new post that comes and goes, my attempts to make them short, sweet, witty, and to the point continuously fail. I am merely beginning to write this one and I already know this will take me quite some time to express every encounter and experience that presented itself to me this past week. First, a small editorial from the last post, I forgot to mention the wonderful restaurant that I attended last Friday with Courtney and her friends. We went to Trattoria al Trebbio where I indulged upon a plate of the seafood pasta special that were very good, the muscles were smaller then I would like, and felt it just needed a little more taste to make it phenomenal. But, what was phenomenal was Courtney’s cheese raviolis. They were so delightful it made my meal taste almost bitter, the sauce was out of this world, the raviolis texture was pristine, and I would definitely recommend that dish to anyone who has the fortune of going there. This restaurant is on via delle Belle Donne, 47, which is awfully close to the SMN train station, and is just very cozy, small but quaint, and filled with a plentiful amount of Italian regulars who would consistently have drinks with the one waiter that serviced the entire restaurant. Without even tasting the food and merely just breathing in the atmosphere of a restaurant, one can easily tell how incredible their meal will be, and this is one of those places. Also, for college kids like myself, the price was very inexpensive, only about 10euro with food and a glass of wine.

Now, back on track to my encounters of this past week. Not much occurred at school, nor do I anticipate much occurring in the near future. Having spent endless hours last semester in the library and slaving away at my desk, it is a nice break to not take all senior level courses, yet part of me actually does miss the stress that accompanies the endless path of homework and the history essays I actually do enjoy writing. The only interesting thing worth mentioning is my cooking class where we made a delicious entrée, …., and then for desert we made a panna cotte with a blackberry and strawberry syrup as the topping. Both were absolutely delightful with every mouthful, but what was very exciting was the fact that this is indeed the intermediate cooking class I was looking for, and in addition our teacher stresses presentation, another aspect of cooking I find very fascinating. In five minutes alone, I learned three different ways of cutting a strawberry to make it look like a flower. Aside from cooking class, that Wednesday night, I searched far and wide on the Google search engine for the best Kebab place in all of Firenze. For whatever reason, kebabs are extremely popular here and you see them spread sporadically throughout the city. After searching many forums, I wrote down the address for a place called Mesopotamian Kebab, on via della Oriuolo 14r, and a few of my housemates, Jon, Pat, Russ and I set off to the Holy Grail of Firenze kebabs (only 4euros) conveniently located only a few blocks from the Duomo, and we indulged upon the best kebab I have ever had in my life. In fact as we were walking back home and reminiscing about our remarkable endeavor, a few passersbys heard the name of the restaurant and went wild about how incredible these kebabs are, thus another reason you should take a trip that way if you visit Firenze.

Considering my weekend officially starts on Wednesday at 4:15pm, that kebab completely tired me out, and also I was in a vicious battle with the common cold, so Thursday I stayed home, drank about a gallon of orange juice, and just spent time reading and talking to my housemates. Friday the real excitement went down as Pat and I traveled to the small hilltop town in Tuscany called San Gimignano. My apologies if I perhaps use the same adjectives in several instances throughout these posts, but my trip has been nothing less then incredible so far so I feel like I’m running low on classy adjectives; that, and my internet isn’t working so I sadly do not have access to Thesaurus.com where I could put forth a façade that I am well rehearsed in the use of inspiring adjectives. San Gimignano is renown for their towers that line the town, their gelato that I sadly did not partake in, and the medieval feel/look it has. I absolutely adore towns such as this one; a town that makes me feel as if I were in one of the scenes of Lord of the Rings and has the ability to make me vividly imagine that every dark/small alleyway I take, a few hundred years ago there were some epic sword battles that took place where I was standing. The two hour bus ride, which was very confusing the first time you use the Italian bus transit, was well worth it as it only cost around 12euro for a round trip and there are no fees when you hit the city, unless of course you want to take part in the tourist trap museums or climb one of the towers where you can get the same view from any angle of the city. But oh my, the views were breathtaking, the hills, the houses, the smoke from the fires, and most of all the smell of fresh beautiful air was enough to render you speechless. After a few hours of walking around we eventually headed back to Firenze.

The Towers of San Gimignano

I almost did not include the following because my words could not possibly do the beauty of The French Riviera justice. But for the sake of writing down my memories, this must be done. For the sake of future reference, the places we visited were Monaco, Nice, St.Paul, Cannes and Eze. My house, everyone except Pat and Jeff, woke up at the dreadful hour of 5am, hopped on a bus, and napped for quite some time in perhaps the most uncomfortable seat ever (the typical European really must be quite a bit shorter then my 6’3½ frame, because this coach bus was more uncomfortable and smaller then the seats on a yellow schoolbus). Our first stop on our excursion of the French Riviera, graciously paid for by the school, and by graciously, I mean they were generous to not keep all the tuition money for themselves, was the second smallest city-state in the world! If you guessed Vatican City as the smallest, you are correct, if you guess Monaco as the second smallest and my first stop on this little jaunt, then you are also correct! I’m just going to spit it out right now, but Monaco was either my favorite or tied for my favorite town, as Eze would be the game changer and put a run for Monacos money.

Monaco was fabulous, especially after having spent the past few weeks having to wear a sweatshirt and jacket, it was almost to hot to even be wearing pants. This small country is surrounded by mountains, which block the wind and create this very warm climate, ideal for the English to choose this as their winter vacation destination. Although Monaco was absolutely lovely, its apparent why the rich and famous have chosen this as one of their homes as property can run around 230million euros, but if I had the money I would probably not choose to live here. It was very pleasant seeing all the rich homes, but they were all so packed together that there was really no beach or land, the only construction they can do here is to either build up or down, every square foot of land is being occupied. Seeing the ocean was very heartwarming as it did remind me of Great Hammock Beach (in OldSaybrook, CT), and Nice especially reminded me of it considering I was able to actually step onto the beach. 

Monaco and my housemates: Ryan, Jon and Russ

After a few hours spent in Monaco, we ventured 30min to the second largest city (and airport) in France: Nice. I’m going to come out and say it right now, but I didn’t think Nice was anything special. This perhaps was due in part to the fact that I was overly excited to step foot on a beach once again, but was knocked back about 15 meters (going with European measurements now) when I found that rather then sand, there were these extremely smooth/white pebbles lining the beach that were extremely uncomfortable to walk on and especially lay on. Foregoing the chance to take a dip in the sea and trying to heal my disappointment with the sandless beach, I took the opportunity to go on a little photoshoot of the beach, dogs, fishermen, etc. As in Monaco, we once again forwent going on the provided tour as all of us agreed that it’s incredibly more exciting to venture off on your own with no motive in mind other then getting lost and finding your point A once again. We spent some time traveling the city after the beach, stopped at a café where my housemates all bought a glass of Leffe beer while I enjoyed my dainty Orangina. Now when I say dainty, I’m not exaggerating as it was the same size as any normal Orangina, but in comparison to the gargantuan goblets that my housemates received, it was very dainty indeed. My intense craving for the French’s soda of choice was quickly extinguished after I realized that both our drinks cost exactly the same price and it took me merely 10min to consume my beverage, in comparison to the entire hour it took them to drink there beverage. The beach and my misfortunes with selecting the wrong beverage were not the main reasons for my dislike of Nice, but the main reason was I felt there was not all that much to do and it looked like a lesser version of Paris. It had many of the same elements and culture of Paris, but it didn’t have the same feel and besides the beach, there was not much excitement. I capped the night off by watching BBC in my hotel room where I caught up on the events in Egypt, watched an episode of The Simpsons, even though it was in French I had seen it before so I was able to get by, and finally crashed by ten o’clock while my housemates roamed the streets in their suits (yes they suited up to blend in with the rich and elite) only to be heartbroken when they could not find any riveting and exhilarating clubs/bars/casinos/whatever else the rich dabble in.

A street in Nice

I was pleasantly woken up the following morning by the sounds of my roommate Jon shouting and stomping around in the bathroom. Apparently he had just taken part in a duel with a cockroach that was inhabiting our bathroom. For those of you who were wondering, Jon in fact did win with one final charge where he threw his shoe and instantly killed the invader. My apologies for this lengthy transition/sidestory, but I will now take you on my journey to the Village of St. Paul, another 30min bus ride. This village was definitely a place worth seeing, but it was very similar to San Gimignano, old medieval village built on a hill with narrow streets and an incredible view, so I will not lament long on this stop. The high point of the trip was buying a nutella/banana crepe that tasted incredible, the low point was getting slightly lost on my way back to the bus. Now I wasn’t exactly lost (so don’t loosing your hair over it mother), but I opted to get the crepe at the last minute and so I only had 5min to get back to the bus and as I existed the gated village I took the left fork in the road opposed to the right fork that would have led me back to the bus. The roads were exactly parallel to each other, thus the reason I thought I was on the correct path as everything looked exactly the same, until I realized I had been walking for more then 5min and I was starting to go downhill. So what does one do when their lost? First they suddenly realize that they know absolutely zero French, and second they flag down the first car that drives by to ask where the Pharmacy is (where the bus was parked). The moment I stopped the car I realized my first realization and my attempts to say “where Pharmacy?” in every possible form that sounded like it could be French absolutely flabbergasted the old couple I was attempting to have a conversation with. After I concluded that this was a lost cause, I started to run back to the village and from there decided to take the other fork which led me directly to the bus. Now I haven’t ran hills in a few months, and I certainly haven’t run hills while balancing a crepe in a while, so by the time I reached the bus after running for a solid 10min, having to endure the banter of my housemates who couldn’t stop laughing at my inability to follow a simple route, and warmth of the bus that was starting to make me glissen all contributed to my crepe not tasting nearly as good as it should have, oh and even though I successfully balanced my crepe, I managed to drop my fork en route.

St. Paul

My next stop on this journey was to Cannes, about 45min away. Cannes was a very nice place, we only explored the main drag by the beach as that was the home to, well the beach, and the theatre that hosts the Cannes Film Festival. We explored the outside of the theatre which included the handprints of famous celebrities (Samuel L. Jackson, the Coen brothers, Mel Gibson, Spike Lee, etc.), had lunch at a local café where my friends all got hamburgers on a giant baguette that was also filled with French fries and ketchup, while I sipped upon a fine cup of espresso (I was still quite full from that crepe). When we went to pay I handed the cashier 10euros and received 3.50euros in change, which left me completely befuddled but I casually walked out of the restaurant as I figured it was my fault for not checking beforehand of how much the espresso cost, merely figuring it would be relatively the same price as an espresso in Firenze which is only a euro. After my friends finished paying and I was starting to build a personal vendetta against this local joint, I decided to ask the cashier how my tiny espresso was 1.50euros more then the behemoth of a sandwich burger that my housemates got. Again, I don’t speak a word of French, but the cashier appeared to understand and simply laughed and started speaking to me in French, so I still don’t know if she was playing a joke on this silly American tourist, or she thought I had also ordered a sandwich, so end of story, I was able to get my money back as it only cost 1.50euros.

Cannes Film Festival Theater

 After walking across the beach and jetties that again started making me quite nostalgic of the summers at the CT shoreline, we hopped on the bus to our final stop to the village of Eze. Now this village was pretty similar to St. Paul and San Gimignano as it had the same medieval feel, but it was so much cooler, wicked, epic, and phenomenal. Now the epicness did not start until after we finished touring the perfume factory that sits at the bottom of the village. Apparently Eze is known worldwide for their excellent perfumes, and I would sure hope so considering a tiny bottle runs for about 20euro. Initially the factory was pretty cool as our first stop was the testing room which looked like Dexter’s Laboratory, but it went incredibly downhill from there as my nose, eyes, ears, and brain were all clogged from the intense mixture of perfumes. So a little background on Eze, its in between Monaco and Nice, so very close to the Italian border, and was built high up on top of this hill overlooking the sea in order to protect the village from the pirates. After climbing to the top of the entrance of the village, I concluded that any pirate who dared infiltrate this village either was extremely brave, cunning, and a relative of Chuck Norris, or they were perhaps the most unintellectual human beings on the planet. Maybe it was running up a steep hill while balancing a crepe for 10minutes or so, but after climbing up an unpaved path, my group and I were extremely exhausted. A little advise to any pirates who read this blog, start climbing at dusk, climb halfway and camp out for the night and make sure to bring plenty of water, then wake up, have an espresso and do your thing. Even though the hike was very tiresome, it was also very incredible and rewarding as the views continued to get better after every step, we saw a GIANT chess board that made start reminiscing about Harry Potter, and the village itself was so much more awesome then the other two of similar sorts. I’m not one who likes to pay for the additional features of a tourist trap, such as fees to climb a tour, explore a tunnel, etc., but I finally caved in and payed my 3euro to reach the highest peak of the village. If it wasn’t so foggy and we could see perfectly across the sea, I may have never returned to Firenze as it was hard enough to force myself down the mountain after experiencing the beauty of the highest point. If any of you have seen Lord of the Rings, this looked exactly like the scene in the first movie where Frodo fights the nazguls, except the view was much more exceptional. Cacti everywhere, a lovely clock tower, the sea, mountains on every side, the giant chess board, and the lovely smell of nature all contributed to this being perhaps the most incredible vantage point I have ever stepped foot upon.

The Giant Chess Board

Lord of the Rings-esque

The View from a top of the peak in Eze

Finally we managed to pull ourselves away, and we traveled back to the bus and started our trek back to Firenze. Typically, I wouldn’t describe our return journey, but it was very interesting as we saw an Italian movie titled, “Welcome to the South,” about a man from Milan who gets transferred to a village in southern Italy and at first absolutely despises it but then falls completely in love with it. It was surprisingly a very enjoyable film and I would definitely recommend it. Anyways, this weekend was absolutely marvelous, incredibly exhausting, perhaps one of the longest weekends I have had in a long time, filmed with excitement and crepes, and I was able to explore a completely different culture and became much closer with my housemates. Oh one last side note, my housemate Jeff, the one from Egypt, actually left and went back to Marist to finish up the semester in hopes of being able to study abroad in Egypt next semester. Back to my main story. As I finish writing this at about 1:45am on Wednesday morning, I am still exhausted from this weekend but start my next journey on my itinerary to Rome in about 16hrs to visit Courtney, her housemates, and the Pope. Until next time, take care, love you all, and hope you still find enjoyment through my writing.

Ciao!

Mi Chiamo Andrew: "Things are gonna get weird"

The purpose for this snazzy title is that this is indeed the first sentence that I have learned to say in Italian! Well at least the first half of it, the second half of it comes from my housemates constantly saying the phrase whenever they're about to do something, and this weekend was indeed extremely weird, absolutely incredible, but just so weird beyond belief. My amazement, love, and infatuation with Italy continues to grow as everyday passes. My newest discovery is how incredibly beautiful the Italian language is. Sounds a tad girly I know, and I never thought I'd say that about a language, but comparing the little amount I have learned over this past week to the languages of English, Spanish, French, and German that I have dabbled in (well mainly in comparison to Spanish/English as I have only learned a few things in the latter languages), it really amazes me how well, amazing the language of my ancestors truly is. I have found its just incredibly fluid, smooth, and just simply off your tongue. I'm really looking forward to learning more about this language and hopefully being able to communicate to a certain extent with Italians I encounter. Such as the lovely Italian grandma who lives right below us. Doesn't speak a word of english, but she is quite the chatterbox as she talks to us for over half and hour in Italian while we just nod in agreement. But she is quite a lovely lady as she made our house fresh pasta sauce and gave us a box of pasta to enjoy.

This week I haven't been able to do as much exploring as I hoped, but I think I have almost made my body adjust to the time (most irritating thing about being here is that the first few nights I could not for the life of me fall asleep until 5-6am) and just been going to classes. Sunday was spent traveling the city with Russ in search for notebooks, which apparently Florentines only feel the need to have Beyonce and Unicorn notebooks, and then him, Pat and I ate at a local restaurant nearby, La Lampara, near the train station, where I had an amazing Pasta Carbonara for about 10euros. Having class only 3 days a week, with no class thurs/fri, may appear to be absolutely glorious, but ha that is just a facade my dear friends. Perhaps I am being a tad overdramatic and I'm sure I'll get used to it as the weeks pass, but oh boy, 2.5hrs of my Religion & Politics in the Middle East Class was quite painful (sorry myriah!). Not that the topic wasn't interesting, but the length, the fifty maps of essentially the same exact thing! and the lengthy delay of my professor speech as he's pretty fluent in English, but just takes him forever to find his words, adds to the pain. On the plus side, I've heard this class at Marist is quite rigorous and from the looks of it this class will be pretty easy. Moving onto my cooking class!

Brilliant class I must say, and seems like this is absolutely up my ally. As many of you know, one of my strongest passions in life is food and to cook, and this is exactly what this class is about. An intermediate cooking class that dives into the depths of what food is really about. We haven't done any cooking as of yet, but the professor took us across the street to the San Lorenzo Market which was incredible, essentially it's an indoor market that is absolutely gigantic. They have absolutely every type of food (well Italian) that you could dream of, and in such large amounts and such deliciousness to it. I have to hand it to these Italians (and not just with the food, but with basically everything), they really know what their doing. Everything was so fresh, from pasta, to entire chickens, to baked goods, and even a lot of fresh looking tripe that I would consider indulging in. My other two classes, intro to art history, and Europe after 1945 I don't have much to discuss as we merely went over the syllabus in my art class (which is excellent as we essentially tour places in Florence every class, and the other half of the class is spent discussing) and I didn't attend my history class as I switched into another class: The Social History of Renaissance Italy, for the reason that I wanted to take a history class on Florence instead of Italy/Europe as a whole.

All I have to say is that it's absolutely incredible having a four day weekend every week of the semester. Come 4:15pm on Wednesday, I'm a free bird and can roam the city as I please. Thursday was an excellent day as it finally warmed up a bit and was very sunny, so Pat and I decided to really explore the city to it's fullest. I packed my camera and wrote a few sights to see in my journal, and we were off. I'm slowly starting to reach my limit for my Flickr account, so I won't be able to continuously post my photos, unless you have a Facebook, then the skies are the limit for checking out my photos which provides a better description of my week. So we set off to our first stop on our list which was Piazza Michelangelo. The amazing part about Florence is that when you set off to do one thing, you see fifty other incredible things on the way there. As my pictures will show, we did not get to the Piazza until the sun was actually starting to set as we had numerous opportunities to take glorious pictures of baptisteries, the ponte vecchio, and statues galore. Unfortunately, we were not able to find the Pizzeria Gusto (the best pizza you will ever have in your life) but I did find the best panini shop that I have ever had in my life! Cafe Amerini on via della vigna nuova 63. I had a fantastic prosciutto and brie panini that awakened my tastebuds like nothing before in my life. After the second highlight of my day, we continued to the Piazza where I was able to encounter one of my top 10 highlights of my life. Words cannot describe the beauty of the view from the Piazza which provides a magnificent panoramic of the renaissance city nestled in the foothills of Tuscany.

That night, Courtney Meek (whos studying in Rome this semester) visited with her roommate Jess, and their friend Brittney. It is commonly known that Florence has the best gelato in the entire world, and of course when I meet up with them, they are treating themselves to a McDonalds icecream cone. Setting aside these differences and anger, I finally accepted her friends who are actually really sweet. That night was spent going to Pizzeria Gusto, and circling the Duomo a solid twenty times in search for a wine bar, but eventually returned back to our house to swap some good ole' stories. The following day we did the main touristy things, duomo, ponte vecchio, fake david statue, santa croce (where Michelangelo tomb is) and for the second day in a row, went to piazza Michelangelo where we happened to run into Pat. We didn't actually tour the inside of santa croce, but they had a chocolate festival going on which was absolutely incredible. I splurged a tad, and ended up buying a cup of chocolate covered strawberries, and I must say, strawberries, plus chocolate, never tasted so delicious. The night was spent attending a few local hotspots before retiring once again to my apt where things got really weird as my housemates stumbled back one at a time and caused mayhem. The perfect description of my house is that this is the Jersey Shore house as they all resemble a particular character and it can get just as weird and crazy as the stuff that happens on the Jersey Shore. Rather then describing everything, (a little sneakpeak though: liquid on the walls, glasses broken, puncture wounds, and dinosaurs) just watch an episode and it'll explain everything.

In a failed attempt to go see Cinque Terra, we decided to visit the town of Pisa, apparently its kinda a big deal here in Italy to see a building that was poorly designed. But who knew an architectural flaw could be so amazing to witness before your eyes. Of course the moment I stepped foot onto Italian soil I was jonesing to take completely corny and touristy pictures with the Tower of Pisa. For those of you who were eager to know which I chose, I settled on three that included the typical holding it up pose, the Fonz foot up against the wall/locker pose, and the intellectual reading a book up against the tower pose. Seeing the tower was an amazing experience, but our lunch that was shortly to follow was not far behind in awesomeness. Of course we needed to eat Pizza in Pisa, so we chose a little quaint restaurant right by the tower where I had a pizza by the name of Sfiziosa which was, what a surprise, wicked awesome. It was topped with salami, gorgonzola, and mozzarella cheese. The pizza was lovely, but it was the conversation that we had with these two ladies, a mother and a daughter, that was even more lovely. As my group and those two ladies were the only ones sitting in the restaurant, small talk was obviously going to occur. My initial thoughts were that these ladies were going to provide us with the routine advice to travel through Europe and just to have fun. The conversation lasted for a good half hour where towards the end of it, the daughter Michelle went to use the bathroom and the waitress brought us out an amazing bottle of red vino that was perhaps the best bottle I have tasted thus far. After a very pleasant and entirely enjoyable talk with them, she gave us her business card so we could email her and we departed ways. After we returned home, googled who she was (as she mentioned she was in the movie/music business), we found out that shes the founder and owner of the company that did the visual effects for the Matrix movies. Now, for those of you who don't know the Matrix series, the movie has become extremely successful essentially because of the incredible visual effects laced throughout the movie. Courtney and co's final night consisted of going to a wine bar across the river which was again, absolutely incredible. Called Bevvion Enteca Bar, on San Niccolo 59r. It amazes me how with every coming day, Florence offers me incredible experiences that continue to vary. The winebar was so quaint and we spent our time sharing a bottle of chianti amongst solely Italians, while eating this amazing salty thin/crispy wafer thing. Unfortunately, our decision to go here was made very late and we had to leave as the place was closing, so we once again retired back to the apartment where we spent our time chatting it up with a few of my housemates.

A few side stories to cap off this very lengthy blog post, one being that I am no longer residing in "The Chamber of Secrets" and have moved into my housemate Ryan's room as we now have a new housemate Jeff, who's from Marist and was studying abroad in Cairo, but because of all the turmoil, he had to leave and opted to study in Florence for the semester (unless the unrest settles in the upcoming weeks, in which case he will return back to Cairo). Also, Courtney and I decided that we would become travel buddies while studying here as we live fairly close together, so we spent part of the weekend deciding on where to spend our springbreak and easter break. After countless hours of Courtney slaving away at the computer, we finally booked our springbreak trip to Amsterdam, Budapest, Prague, and Geneva. Then we booked our easter break trip to Paris and Barcelona. Also, we are considering on a trip to Ireland and Scotland during the month of April which would just be the icing to the cake. Sadly, there are not enough weekends in the semester to travel everywhere, particuarily in Italy, so I will definitely have to come back again in the near future. Now time to make a nutella and banana sandwich and go watch the Superbowl, GO PACKERS!!!!!!

Ciao!