Last day in Rome-Sunday. January 28th

After a really long night and getting to bed after three because of the whole fiasco a small group of 5 of us woke up at 7:30 to go to mass at the Basilica. I'm really glad we went even though the service was in Italian I could still make out some of the stuff, and the process was pretty much the same as a traditional catholic mass. Saving the best for last, it was time to make our way to the real monuments of Rome: The coliseum. pantheon, and roman forum. Good thing we were told to buy our 3-event ticket pass not at the coliseum because again the line was out the wazoo. We instead went to the Pantheon first which unfortunately didn't open until noon because of mass but we still got to see it just not walk inside of it, We then headed to the Roman forum which was an experience in itself seeing the structures preserved from thousands of years ago, and upwards to the Palestine Hill, from which you can see the entire panorama of Rome. 

And to save the best for last, since I feel that not only is a picture worth a thousand words but I simply cannot do the coliseum justice by describing it myself. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I truly hope that every person can live to see it. 

--will add pictures later for some reason my uploader isn't working

I cannot fathom how a civilization so long ago was able to build such a tremendous structure so perfect in all dimensions. The coliseum was the last monument we saw in Rome. Afterwards we just got lunch and headed back to our apartment to pack, clean, and head to the train station for our train back to Lugano. Once we arrived in Lugano there was snow on the ground! It actually snowed today as well. Surprisingly they’re just starting their winter here I guess when it was in the high fifties last week. I hate the cold so I’m not happy. Well I have one hell of a week this week Italian Midterm and Consumer Behavior final group presentation. So wish me luck and along with that I have to plan our ten day trip. I leave on Saturday morning for Scotland, then London, then Ireland. CANT WAIT!

When in Rome...Saturday, January 27th

This morning we ended up sleeping a little later than wanted especially since we wanted to do a day tour of Naples and Pompei but couldn't get the wifi to do research on it. So we headed to the train station around 10:30am to find some information. The tour that we had heard about was way to over priced and not worth the money, so we split into two groups: one that wanted to do some more Rome exploring and then one that wanted to go to Pompei just not do a tour. It was possible to see all of the other landmarks on Sunday since our train didn't leave until 4:15 so I wanted to be in the Pompei group. We found out the train would be an hour to Naples and then we'd catch a 45 minute one to Pompei for 20 euors roundtrip. The problem was we were too late figuring it all out to for the 11am train, but the next one at 12 am took a really indirect route and wouldn't get to Pompei until 3:55. So we decided to take the 1 oclock train to get to Naples, and then go from there. Just another small hiccup when we went to go back to the apartment to get our passports and eurorails, we couldn't open the tour to the apartment. Someone had accidentally locked the bottom lock which we had the key to but the landlord told us to only use the top lock probably for those specific reason. Another small bump in the road as we spend a good 30 minutes trying to get the door open since one of our group member's eurorails were inside which we absolutely needed to get on the train. So we decided to go get lunch while Val and Bryce got a coffee at a wifi cafe to call the lady to try and come get the door open. Of course she ended up not being able to understand what Val was saying but we thought we had communicated to her to come meet us at the apartment. We were also hoping to get our hot water fixed. Yeah that didn't happen: true life I stink. Val though must have used her magic powers when we went back to the apartment because as we were walking up she got the door open. So exciting and thank god because the lady ended up never coming. I guess that's the cons of getting an apartment over a hostel. So we then run to the train station because by then its already 12:30 and we need to catch the train. At times we were legitimately running. We caught the train to Naples, and then had to wait 20 or so minutes for the train to Pompei. We arrived in Pompei around 3:10 and let me tell you if you thought Rome was a little dirty Pompei was straight dirt. I guess it's the luxury of living in Lugano which is one of the richest and cleanest cities in Europe, but Pompei was pretty much deserted. It took us a little bit to walk to the ruins but along the way we met the cutest stray dog who ended up no joke leading us to the ruins. We followed him the whole way, and we decided to name him Pompei (real creative right):

When we got to the ruins it ended up it what was #2 in the bad things that happened that day (#1 being the door) and it is true what they say bad things come in threes. We ended up getting there 10 minutes late. We were unaware that the last admission was at 3:30 and we were devastated. We paid and went all the way to Pompei to see the ruins and we couldn't even bride any of the workers to let us in. It was understandable considering that there were security guards everywhere and even one of them told  us look I'd get fired. Because the park didn't even close until 5 but they just stopped letting people in at 3:30. It was still kinda cool to at least see the outside of the ruins. I had no idea about the story of Pompei: how Mt. Vesuvius (a volcano) erupted completely covering the town in layers of molten. Then many years ago diggers came across this city underground. They uncovered the entire city and when you actually go inside they say you can even make out some of the human faces preserved  by the ash. I really hope I can one day go back and go inside because it looked so cool, but we did find out from a lady that it can take up to five hours to actually explore the whole thing. We were all still pretty bummed.

 

We left Pompei disappointed and  heartbroken. Once we got back to Rome we had another delicious dinner, but I think I'm gonna say it was my favorite dinner that I've gotten so far in all of Europe. I order spaghetti topped with clams mussels and shrimp in a creamy tomato sauce. It was incredible. We headed back to the apartment to start getting ready to go out. We all went to the Drunken Ship, a popular bar in the heart of the city (the safe part where a lot of the clubs were located), so we had to take a taxi there. Didn't learn until the next day that we could have taken a public bus for free. Oh well learned our lesson there. The #3 bad thing I was referring to earlier happened that night when everyone I was with wanted to stay out later but one of the girls was too intoxicated to even walk so I went home with her because no one else from the group were. We ended up getting lost just the two of us in the unsafe part of town because our cab driver dropped us off at a metro stop instead of the train station. It was pretty scary I'm not gonna lie and that's never going to happen again. We absolutely need to travel in groups at all times during the night. Having a guy wouldn't help either and I know I need to memorize how to get to where we're staying. The hard part was that not only do all the streets look the same to begin with but it was also pitch black out. But we made it back safely and so did the other girls following us. So overall not as amazing of a day as would hoped.

When in Rome...Friday January 27th

Woke up at 7:30 am and ended up getting the last one of the weekend, which wasn't intentional. After Friday morning our hot water shower was shot so we all resorted to washing our hair in the sink and using face wipes and deodorant to mask the smells of our body odor. I can say that I officially lived the life of a real European backpacker. The thing is I can handle cold showers but the pressure even coming out of the nozzle wasn't strong enough to even take a shower. Just another unfortunate bump in the road. Rome ended up having some potholes.  Surprisingly, we were all out of the apartment by 8:30am and set off to the metro station and took the metro to Vatican City. Walking into the city this is what we were welcomed with:

Unbelievable right? Just wait until you see the inside. So I learned that Vatican City is actually it's own Country just a cool fun fact for ya. St. Peter's Basilica is where the Pope resides and it's built over St. Peter's grave. Walking into the church I immediately got the chills. I don't think I ever stopped having them inside. Tears came to my eyes because I was just completely overwhelmed with it's beauty.

The church was massive. It took probably a couple hours just to walk through the whole thing. Val and I ended up splitting away from the group so that we could take our time. I can say I haven't been as much of a devoted christian as I should in the past, but I sincerely have never felt closer to God. Val and I then were the only two in the group to pay to explore the museum inside the Basilica. It was filled with numerous amounts of treasures and other gifts donated to the various popes. It contained gorgeous crosses, chalices, robes, rosaries, and much other beautifully decorated with jewels. Even the robes were sewn with gold, not gold thread but legitimate gold. I couldn't even imagine the worth of all of them put together--it would probably be in the trillions.

Once we finished with St. Peter's Basilica we headed towards the Vatican Museum. Luckily we decided to go to the museum on Saturday because we passed the mile long line on Sunday; every last Sunday of the month is free. We would have spent hours in line. But instead it took us not even a minute to purchase our ticket to the museum. The collections of art inside the museum were extensive works of beauty. I had to hold back on facebook posting with the probably hundreds of photos I took of all the artwork, since this museum was one of the few to allow you to take pictures. Even the outside of the museum was amazing.

 

 Not just the paintings were incredible, but the ceilings and the walls were encrypted with the most beautiful artwork. All of the rooms leading up to the Sistine Chapel I felt were just as gorgeous as the pictures I had seen of the Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is one of the most famous landmarks in all of Europe. It was beyond remarkable, and my jaw dropped as I walked in but knowing the information about it's creation was even more fascinating. Michelangelo was one of the famous painters to complete work on the walls and the ceilings. His most famous piece is on the ceiling showing God's creation of Adam as there hands draw towards each other but never actually touch. Michelangelo turned down the pope's original offer for him to paint the front and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel because he considered himself a sculptor not a painter. Can you believe someone with such talent would say that? But the pope forced him to do it anyway and our Italian teacher that he became near blind after attempting to paint the ceiling because the paint would drip into his eyes. I ended up illegally sneaking a picture of the ceiling of the Chapel since we made friends with the security guard who said he would close his eyes lol he must have thought we were cute.

The Sistine Chapel was the exit point of the museum, and then we ended up getting gelato at the top rated and also oldest gelateria in all of Rome. It was soo delicious. We then walked to the Spanish steps, one of the most famous staircases in Rome. Val and I walked to the top where we got our rosaries that we bought at St. Peter's blessed by one of the priests at the Church. He did it in Spanish which was kind of cool just to put the languages of many religions together in one blessing (bought from the Italians and blessed by the Spanish).

We continued what ended up to be a 12+ hour day with the Trevi fountain, where I sadly had no coins leftover to throw in the fountain. Oh well hopefully my wish will just come true with pure luck.

We ended up getting dinner at a really good restaurant that night, but they were expecting a dinner party so they could only offer us a choice of two pasta dishes. I ended up getting the dish with the pistachio and cherry tomato cream sauce which ended up being amazing. All in all a great day!

When in Rome...Thursday January 26th

We got out of class at 12 today, ate lunch at the Montarina and then caught the train from Lugano to Milan, and then caught another train from Milan to Rome. Luckily we had no problems this time with the trains thank goodness. There were 15 of us traveling to Rome, so it was a bigger group then who I was with in Florence. We got there around 6:45pm and walked to our apartment, which was a 5 minute walk from the train station. Unfortunately we only had one night to try and find a hostel for us to stay, and that night we had to write a 5-7 page midterm paper, so we we're a little pushed for time. Praise Val for staying up to 3 in the morning and finding us this apartment which slept 11, but we asked the guy if we could squeeze 15 people and he said it was fine but it would be a tight fit. When we got there the only problem was that we didn't have wifi to call or email the tenant to tell them we arrived. Fortunately, one of us had an international plan (it's like 99 cents a minute) to call the lady so she came to let us in. She wasn't very good at speaking English so she had a hard time understanding. For what we paid, the apartment was pretty nice. We just had 3 people on the 3 doubles and everyone else was on a single except for one person on the couch. It was really small though but did have a kitchen. The only problem which ended up being a large one was that construction on the building caused the free wifi to no longer be available. So that kinda screwed up some of our capability of planning (which you'll find out more about later). Once we got into our apartment and settled we went out to dinner to a pizzeria that our landlord recommended. It was pretty good but of course I got pizza again go figure. At least I have learned I need to go all out on the toppings so that I'm able to get some vegetables in me. My poor GI track is having a little trouble with all of that bread and cheese. After dinner, we decided to walk to the Coliseum to see it at night. Best decision of the day. Pictures don't do it justice but here's some to look at:

Afterwards, we just walked back to our apartment and we're done for the night. And the adventures of Rome continue....

Day 20-January 25th

Tomorrow I will officially have been in Lugano for 3 weeks! Wow does time fly. Today Eli and Taylor turned 10 Happy Birthday to both of you! Miss you guys so much. I just finished my midterm assignment, which was an essay that had to be turned in by the beginning of tomorrow's class. We we're given the assignment yesterday, so we didn't really have much time to write a 5-7 page paper. We had to write about a social issue that matters to us. Our task to was describe key factors that influences a person's decision to choose that behavior and then provide an explanation about how we would go about implementing an approach to motivate people to change that behavior. I decided to write about the social issue of college students taking Adderall when they are not prescribed it. I actually enjoyed writing about the problem and why it mattered to me but the actual hard part was coming up with a model to explain what constructs influence their attitudes toward the behavior. It took me a while, but I'm finally finished which is a relief! I can begin to start packing for ROME which by the way we can now go to because our teachers both cancelled class so that we can catch a train at 1:45pm tomorrow and get there before the strike begins. I cannot wait to go to Rome, and I'm really excited that we get an extra day there as well because I was worried that we weren't going to be able to see everything that we wanted. The only problem is that this weekend was up in the air so we haven't done much of our planning, like booking the hostel and setting up our tours, especially since the majority of us have been working on our papers. Bad timing Brinberg comon' now. Crap I just remembered we also have an Italian vocab quiz that I need to study for tomorrow morning. I guess packing will have to wait until tomorrow. We all know I'm a terrible packer; light packing is an obscurity. Oh well I only have my small school backpack to use because there's no way I'm lugging around that suitcase on my back. Can't wait to get my actually sized hiking backpack in the mail. It should be coming soon. Sorry Barb don't have any pictures toda, but I'm sure i'll have plenty from Rome. Be careful what you wish for.

                                                                Can you see the VT?

                                                          Ponte Vecchio Bridge at Night

                                                      One of the many gorgeous palaces

                                                          Santa Maria Novella Church

                                                              Inside one of the churches

                                               Group photo by the other side of the lake

                                                               Medici family coat of arms

                                                                     Famous Duomo

                                                           Outside of the Uffizi Gallery

                                                                      The Cathedral

                                                   View from the Piazza de Michelangelo

                                                                         Dome in Pisa

                                                                  Cathedral in Pisa

                                                           Sunset on the city of Florence

                                                              Leaning Tower of Pisa

                                              Up close of the Dome and Bell Tower in Florence