Milan

This past weekend, Katie and I went to Milan and it was so amazing!

We started off the weekend going to Florence with class and we went and saw the Jewish synagogue there. It was influenced by the Mores, so it really just looked like a huge mosque. It was neat to see a change in scenery from the catholic cathedrals that we always go to, but I think I prefer the cathedrals. We did not get to take pictures inside (we weren't allowed to take ANYTHING inside) or I would have taken lots of photos to show the absolute difference between the synagogue and the cathedrals we've visited. First of all when we entered the synagogue we had to go through this massive metal detector/ security device that they typically have at airports that blows air at you to determine if you've got anything dangerous on you. We had to leave everything outside in lockers- cameras, phones, backpacks and purses, they weren't letting anyone get in with anything. My professor said it was a good indication of how safe the Jews feel in Europe.

Synagogue in Florence, Italy.

Katie and I went from the synagogue to get lunch and hopped on a train to Milan. Since we didn't want to spend 3 hours and 45 minutes taking one of the slower trains, we shelled out the extra 20 euro and got on one of the 'EuroStar' trains that only took us an hour and a half to get there. The trains are a LOT nicer than the normal 'regional' or 'intercity' trains that we always take. It was a nice chance of pace, not a lot of students or younger people on them, they were mostly businessmen and women. We napped on the train since we had to wake up at the crack-o-dawn to catch the train to Florence. We made sure to set an alarm though because we were scared that since it was just the two of us that we might both fall asleep and miss our stop.

When we got off the train we walked over to our hotel which we made sure to get close to the train station. We didn't want to have to haul all our stuff across the city to get the hotel. Our hotel was The Best!!!.... literally... the hotel was called Hotel The Best. Haha, they try with English and really make it sound funny sometimes. We dropped off all of our stuff and started walking around and shopped on Corso Buenos Aires close to the hotel. There are TONS of shops on that road and we made a night of it. Later we had dinner- a Burger King was conveniently located next to our hotel so we said 'What the hell' and had food that we were missing.

When we got to the hotel we hung out on the balcony and enjoyed the cool weather because our room was pretty hot and we couldn't figure out how to turn the heat down. I showered and when I came back out Katie was laying on the top of the bed and she looked miserable. The room was trying to bake us alive. We ended up having to turn off heater all together since we didn't know how to turn it down and we slept with the balcony door slightly ajar. While I was laying in bed though I had that feeling that I was going to wake up in the middle of the night and someone was going to be creepily standing at the foot of the bed. Thankfully we were on the third floor though so it would have been quite a climb to get up there.

The next morning we woke up at 8:30 and went downstairs for breakfast. We got croissants, butter, jelly and honey, as well as orange juice and cappuccinos- which Katie can't start her day without :-p. It was great to have a breakfast that we didn't really have to pay for- although I know they fit it into the room price somewhere. We headed out for the day and stopped at the front desk to talk to the receptionist that talks English. We asked her if she would call the church/museum for us that houses Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" and make a reservation for us in my name. When we asked her she laughed at us and told us that we had to have a two month in advance reservation and that it would be impossible to get in to see it. So at least we knew that and didn't waste our time going over there and get turned away.

This is a large open-air market that cropped up overnight in the parking lot outside of our hotel room.
We stopped there after lunch before we went to the duomo.

We started off by walking to the metro station and we bought one day passes for three euros. Milan has a pretty extensive metro system so we relied on it to get us around everywhere that we needed to go. We headed to the duomo- the huge Cathedral- and it is GORGEOUS! It is huge and in the gothic style and I absolutely loved it. Probably my favorite cathedral that I've been in so far... right up there with St Peter's! We went inside and saw some pretty amazing stuff. There is the body of one of the saints and it's in a glass tomb and has a metal mask on the face... kind of creepy, but neat!

Duomo. Milan, Italy.

Duomo. Milan, Italy.

Outside the duomo in the piazza, Katie and I got accosted by some African men that were insistent about putting bracelets on us. We have been warned and I was kind of prepared from my experience in Pisa, but still it was a little unnerving. More than anything it is just annoying though because they wont leave you alone and insist that you take the little string bracelet from them. I just took one and put it in my pocket and walked away and continued to take pictures and ignore him. Katie unfortunately got someone that was a little more insistent. He grabbed her hand and tied it on her wrist while she said "no" about fifteen times. Then once its on her they ask for a donation. Of course she said no because she wanted nothing to do with it. Thankfully we got away relatively unscathed. Now we have "friendship bracelets" and every time that we look at them we remember that "Africa loves us," something that they told us several times.

Carnival celebration. Milan, Italy.

Outside in Milan they were celebrating carnival everywhere, so there was confetti flying and all over the streets and it looked like Halloween on crack! Kids and adults were dressed up and faces painted. There were even face painting station all around, even outside the Prada store! Hah! The weather was gorgeous so we got to walk around and have a blast. We had lunch outside the duomo in this little Luby's-like diner- it was great! We got pasta- of course- and pineapple! It was awesome to have a fruit that we don't get often/I haven't had since I've gotten here.

After lunch we headed over across town to the Monumental Cemetery. It's the kind of cemetery that people pay tens of thousands of euros to get a plot in, and the tombstones were anything but ordinary. One guy had an entire bronze statue reproduction of the Last Supper that was about 30 feet long and 10 feet high; tons of them had little tomb buildings; one had a reproduction of Trajan's column, and my favorite of all was a man who's leg was getting attacked by Medusa's head covered in snakes, while holding a plane propellor. It was interesting and I really wish I knew the story behind it. We spent about an hour walking around the cemetery looking at all the amazing tombs and the hundreds of thousands of crypts that run through tunnels along underground buildings.

Tomb. Monumental Cemetery. Milan, Italy.

Inside Trajan's Column tomb, Monumental Cemetery. Milan, Italy.

Trajan's Column tomb, Monumental Cemetery. Milan, Italy.

Monumental Cemetery. Milan, Italy.

Medusa, propellor tomb, Monumental Cemetery. Milan, Italy. 

Last Supper tomb, Monumental Cemetery. Milan, Italy.

After the cemetery we took the metro back to the shopping district close to the duomo. We started on the street that has Prada, Dior, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, etc. It was fun to look at all the stores that we couldn't afford anything in. We also go to see people that brought their dogs into these stores. Can you imagine bringing your dog into the Louis Vuitton store in America? I could only imagine what they would say... definitely nothing nice. Along that street we saw two Ferraris, an Aston Martin, and a Maserati. It was funny because it appeared that they only let the "worthy" cars drive down that road. We definitely didn't see any clunkers there.

Expensive cars in the streets of Milan.

After the unreasonably expensive street we went to an area that had stores that we were more likely to purchase things at. We went to the Gap, Sephora, and United Colors of Benniton. I bought three tshirts from the Gap, which Katie teased me about because she said that I could buy in America. Katie bought an adorable dress from United Colors of Benniton and then we decided to go look for a hairband for me because mine broke when I was in Rome... and that's where the day got really interesting.

We went into Accessorize (which is Italy's version of a Claire's); most things in the store can be bought for less than 15 euro and most of it is the kind of stuff that twelve to fifteen year olds love. Okay, so we walked in and I didn't see a hairband that I liked so we continued to look at other things and made out way into the back corner of the store where the saldi (sale) section was. We were back there probably for a total of 60 seconds. I picked up a goofy hat and was about to try it on but a security guard (a big muscly dude) walked up behind us and I thought that he might not be happy if I tried on the hat. Stores in Italy are weird about you touching things in the store if you aren't going to buy it. Katie looked at a set of earrings and then we put it back and left the corner. The security guard stayed back there and was rearranging everything that we had touched. We moved down the wall and were looking at other things and the security guard walked over to us and was like "Come back here." I was a little taken aback but was like... okay... So we walked back there and he holds up an empty thing where there was probably a piece of jewelry and he said "Where is this?" Katie and I look at each other and I are like "Uh, we have no idea." And he was insisted that we had taken it and told us to empty our pockets and show him our bags (Katie had her bag with her dress in it). He searched our bag and looked through my purse and was still convinced that we had taken this. I looked at Katie was said "We're seriously getting frisked in a Claire's right now!" It was really annoying because we could tell that we were getting profiled because we were young and Americans. It took about five minutes before we were like "Dude, we didn't take the thing and we're leaving." We walked out with nothing more than a funny story to tell and a little bit less of a happy attitude. As I told Katie, if we were in America I would have just said, "sorry I didn't take it" and left, because I know in America that they can't search bags. However, since neither of us know the laws in Italy we thought it best to not end up in Milano jail.

Considering what had happened the rest of the night was pretty uneventful. We did a little more shopping and took the metro back to the hotel. We had dinner that we took back to the hotel and fell asleep watching Casper. We were absolutely exhausted because we woke up early and had been walking all day. We slept like the dead.

We woke up early Sunday morning, grabbed breakfast and hopped on the train back to Castiglion. It was a great weekend and I'm really glad that I went with Katie. We've got ridiculous stories and things that we can joke about. Now when she's in a sad mood I just look at her and say, "Hey Katie, remember... Africa loves you," and she laughs. It was definitely a good weekend! :)

Trip to High School

Today we went to the local Castig high school and talked to the students so they could practice their English and interact with native speakers. IT was so fun! Going there we thought we were going to be speaking to a younger group (about 12 years old) and an older group. However, the first group turned out to be 18-20 year olds- so definitely no warm up with the younger children. It seems that we talked about everything! School, hobbies, movies, places to travel, siblings, pets, going out, sports, etc. As for holidays- they seem to celebrate Christmas the same, with Santa Claus and family meals.They don't have the Easter bunny, so explaining that was fun, they definitely had a laugh. They have a variation of the tooth fairy, but it's a mouse instead. And as for Halloween, they dress up and celebrate, but they don't trick-or-treat because apparently the older generation of Italians will throw water out of the windows at people.

Another thing was funny- they brought up drinking and we told them that the drinking age in America is 21. When we were talking to the 18 year old group they told us the drinking age is 18, and then when we talked to the 16 year old group they told us the drinking age is 16. Katie and I had a good laugh about that. Both groups said that the drinking age isn't really an issue and that the bars/pubs don't care. It explains why I see people in bars that look like they are 12 years old. But going to the high school and interacting with the locals is definitely one of my favorite things we've done so far. We've got some pretty sweet new Facebook friends now too! Hah!

Siena

Snow on the nearby hills. 

On March 2nd, the Texas A&M group went to Siena (a close by town in Tuscany). When we left Castig in the morning there was snow on the hills nearby. Thankfully it was much warmer and sunnier in Siena. I slept on the bus ride there, which was about an hour long. Our tour guide for the day was the same one that we had in Arezzo, Giovanni. He's really funny and constantly talking and telling stories to break up the non-stop art and architecture talk. His wife is originally from Dallas and he works as a cabinet maker in addition to being a tour guide.

Relics of Saint Catherine.

Our first stop was Basilica Cateriniana di San Dominico. It was a church dedicated to one of the patron saints of Italy, Saint Catherine. The most interesting thing about the church (at least to me) was that inside, Saint Catherine's mummified head is displayed as a church relic. It was kind of gross, I'm not gonna lie.

Afterwards we stopped at a nearby convent that is built on the site of Saint Catherine's house. We got to see some gorgeous frescoes and mosaic floors. We also got to see enormous choir books that are hundreds of years old.

We went to Siena's town hall which used to be a palace and also serves as a museum. Paintings covered every wall, ranging from medieval to renaissance styles. The room I remember most is a more recent set of paintings dedicated to the resorgimento.

Duomo. Sienna, Italy.

Duomo. Sienna, Italy.

The last stop on the tour was the duomo. It is in the gothic style and is absolutely beautiful. Inside, the columns and walls are made up of stacked limestone and marble to give the cathedral a striped effect. The duomo was built at the same time as the Florence cathedral in competition, but lost because its location on a hill caused architectural problems.

Piazza del Campo.

When our tour ended, Micah, Jillian, Katie, and I went and picked up a quick lunch and ate in Piazza del Campo. The piazza is famous for the yearly house races held there called the Palio. We ate and basked in the sun absorbing the warmth- something we rarely get to do.

The walk back to the bus was an event. Micah, our resident boy scout, decided to take us on a shortcut which took us off the map and into the abyss. Thankfully a woman we saw helped us find our way and we were actually the first people back. We to witness an awkward public make-out session while waiting for the bus to show up. Italians are way different about PDA than Americans it seems. They really have no shame- it may just be the younger kids though.

When we got back to Castig, all four of us roomies took a nap until dinner, which we almost missed if Adrian hadn't come to wake us up. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.

Rest of My Trip to Rome

Rome: Day 2

Yes, I slept until noon, don’t judge me! Haha I was tired and I rarely get the chance to sleep in. Liz and I quickly for ready and ran downstairs and found a pizza place nearby to grab something quick to eat. We had to meet up with the group soon to start a tour, so we were booking it.

Our tour took us to the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s. The museum was massive and seemed to go on forever. It housed hundreds of sculptures, paintings, tapestries, and marble funerary pieces. There were several large granite tubs that I think were used for bathing, and when I say large it was probably about eight feet long by four feet wide. All I could think was ‘dang, I’d love to have a bathtub like that!’

The tour of the Vatican museums ends in one the most famous rooms on Vatican soil. I’ll give you a hint: think Michelangelo. If you thought Sistine Chapel- ding ding ding, you are correct!

Walking in was one of those “Am I really here,” “Am I really standing in one of the most famous chapels in the world?” moments. In my head there was just utter silence and absolute awe. Michelangelo’s painting of the last judgment behind the altar was enormous. It showed Jesus at the top directing the division of the masses. There are two books being held by men. The smaller of the two is the book of names of people who were to ascent to heaven; the larger of the two books is filled with names of those to be drug down to hell. In hell there is the man who is in charge of the collection of souls- I forget his name; however, what I thought was funny was that Michelangelo painted him as one of his enemies who had ridiculed his work. He was painted with the ears of a donkey and a snake wrapped around his body biting his genitals. The painter’s was of getting back at his critic, a piece of artwork forever on the apse of a chapel for thousands to see every day.

And when standing in the middle of the chapel- looking up- there it is. One of the most famous paintings in the world. Michelangelo’s Creation of Man. God and Adam reaching towards each other with outstretched fingers. Try not to be jealous folks, I was there! I would have taken a million photos had we been allowed to, but to preserve the integrity of the paint and vibrant colors they removed even the possibility of a flash going off by banning photography all together. We spent about 20 minutes in the chapel and about 18 of those I spent with my head tilted back looking at the ceiling.

From the Sistine Chapel we exited and walked down a set of stairs that lead us to the right side of St. Peter’s Basilica. We entered though massive doors. When I walked into the basilica all I saw was massive expanse. It claims to be the largest church in the world and standing there realizing how small I was inside left me with little doubt they were lying. Once you enter, on the right is Michelangelo’s Pieta- a sculpture that he did when he was my age. It made me feel really accomplished, HAH! The content of the sculpture is far from rare, but the way he did it, the small change was what made it famous. Michelangelo carved into white marble Mary holding the body of Jesus after his removal from the cross. Instead however, of showing Mary in the elderly state she would have been in while having a son being 33 years old, Michelangelo depicts Mary as quite young. The tour guide told us that he carved it showing Mary seeing her son’s impending and unavoidable future. The sculpture is behind bulletproof glass because several years ago a man ran up to it with a hammer and started destroying Mary’s face (which has been restored with no visible difference).

Everywhere in the massive basilica are carvings, paintings, sculpture and ornate design. There is no way to describe everything! Instead of staying for the last 20 minutes of the tour which would have taken us out onto St. Peter’s square, Jillian, Erica, Carina and I stayed for mass in St. Peter’s. I know I’m not catholic, but once again I couldn’t miss the opportunity. Go big or go home, and mass in St. Peter’s is about as big as it gets. I just mirrored everything that Jillian did and sat quietly while all of the Catholics took communion.

A humorous thing happened while I was at mass- when everyone stood up and started shaking hands with those around them I was thinking “okay, we do this in Methodist church, I’ve got this.” It wasn’t until the end when I overheard Jillian that I realized I had been saying the wrong thing. Everyone else was shaking hands and saying “Peace be with you,” and I was saying “Nice to meet you.” The other girls thought it was really funny when I told them after mass was over. Overall it was a pretty cool experience- my first time going to mass and it happens to be at the Vatican and in Latin.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. We did some walking around and window shopping before heading back after dinner. Jillian, Liz, and I had Dixie cups of wine while watching American TV dubbed over in Italian. Undoubtedly the best part was Liz’s English narration of what was going on and being said.

Rome Day 3:

The third day in Rome was kind of a blur. We had the same tour guide from the first day and we went to some more secondary sites- the Church of San Clemente (built upon 1^st century ruins of pagan temples), the Church of the Four Martyrs, and the Church of Saint John in Lateran. The last church is where the heads of Saints Peter and Paul are preserved as relics.

After eating lunch- we had Burger King- we went to the MAXXI museum. It’s modern art museum and has only been open for 3-4 months. I’m just going to say that it was not my cup of tea. It was one of those museums that is huge, four stories tall with all white walls- and the entire thing holds about 20 pieces of artwork. And on top of that the artwork was just weird. I a fan of museums with dinosaur bones it seems.

After the museum Jillian and I went off and did some shopping on our own. She bought a pair of sneakers and I bought some tights- things I haven’t work since elementary school. We had dinner just the two of us and enjoyed being away from a large group. I went to bed early that night in hopes that my feet could recover from all the walking.

The rest of the trip (Friday and Saturday) we spent down on the Amalfi coast. We saw some amazing scenery, gorgeous beaches and I put my toes in the Mediterranean. We stayed in Sorento, a little beach town with a lot of tourist activity. It was a pretty low-key weekend. Lots of walking around and window-shopping and on Saturday we went on a bus tour around the coast to see all the pretty sites. We stopped in Alamfi and Positano- two gorgeous beach cities. I bought some purple river pearl earrings and a pair of coral rose earrings. They were really cheap and they’re real! I was excited about my purchase.

On Sunday on the way back to Castiglion we stopped in Naples. One of the more interesting experiences of the trip. The city is run by the Camorra- their version of the mafia. They run every aspect of the town and it’s gotten pretty run down over the years. There were peddlers everywhere and I was on constant guard of my bad. The entire point of going there though was to show us that everything isn’t as picture perfect as it is in Castiglion. We also went because we are reading about the Camorra in our history class. It was pretty interesting overall, but I was ready to get out of there and be home by the time we got on the train. It was one of the most exhausting weeks of my life, but so much fun!

Rome- Day #1

I want to apologize that it has been a while since my last post. I was in Rome for the week and we didn't have any internet access. Also, it may take me a little bit to get everything posted from this past week because I am trying to be somewhat thorough with my blog because it was such an awesome trip.

Okay, so here we go.

The Rome trip was fantastic. When I got home I was absolutely exhausted because we were go, go, go all day, every day. We probably walked about ten miles minimum while we were gone. We left Castiglion Fiorentino (Castig) really early on Tuesday morning and we got on the train to Rome. Luckily I have mastered sleeping on the train, which requires clutching my backpack so nothing is taken while I am asleep. Also luckily, my backpack mostly serves as a pillow because other students are always around ensuring that I wont get pick-pocketed.

When we arrived in Rome we walked through the massive train station and met the bus outside, which drove us to our hotel. This was our first encounter with Roman drivers and how absolutely terrifying they can be. It appears to me that they don't believe in lanes and that they are all constantly late for very important meetings. For those people on vespas and motorcycles- which are more numerous than cars- they apparently get the right to drive like maniacs without any consequences. They don't stop at red lights, they'll drive on the sidewalk or median, and will zoom between two "lanes" of traffic without giving it a second thought. Now just imagine a group of 40 American students on their first day in Rome trying to cross the streets. The phrase "right of way" is an utter joke to Roman drivers.

We dropped our bags off at the hotel- Hotel Primavera- and had about an hour to hunt down something to eat. Katie, Luke, and I went to a little pizza shop near Piazza Navona (more on that later). The pizzas are huge rectangles and we communicated to the shop owners in broken Italian and with hand signals which one we wanted and how big of a piece. They heated it up in the brick oven and then weighed it to determine the cost of the slice. Then they fold it in half and make it into a pizza sandwich. This was the typical run down each time we got pizza in Rome, which was frequent because it was cheap and everywhere.

After lunch we wandered around for about a half hour looking at historical buildings and random painted people in Piazza Navona. Our first Roman tour began at 1:45PM. We left from the hotel- the guide, who was thankfully American (no accent) had lived in Rome for 12 years, so it was not a struggle to understand him. We saw the plaza in which Caesar was assasinated, ruins of Pagan temples, the Jewish ghetto, and blocks upon blocks of Roman ruins. We walked around the Roman Forum and saw pre-Christian temples, pillars, and arches.

We ended the tour at the Colosseum- yes, THE Colosseum. Take a moment to absorb that. The Colosseum built in 80AD which housed gladiator fights to the death, that was systematically flooded to house naval battles, and the Colosseum that still stands in Rome today, almost 2000 years later. It was breathtaking and one of those 'Wow, we really are in Italy" moments.

The tour guide explained that the massive structure still standing is believed to only be 1/3 of the original structure. I can only imagine the immensity of the original, whole thing. One of my favorite things about Rome was the amazing preservation of the historical and ancient sites. While some of the things are in ruins, I still find it amazing because they're 2000 years old, and sometimes even older!

As a side note- near the Roman Forum stands a church that Peter and Paul- the biblical Peter and Paul- were imprisoned. Sometime in the first century AD a great fire ravaged Rome. Blame was initially placed on Nero, but to remove blame from himself he shifted it to the Christians- more specifically the two well known ones currently living in Rome.

The walking tour was three hours long, and yes it did prompt the singing of the Gilligan's Island theme song. After the tour a group of 9 of us (Katie, Micah, Jillian, Luke, Braulio, Vincent, Adrian, Melissa, and I) went to dinner. Meal of choice? Chinese food. I know a lot of people would wonder why on earth we would get Chinese food in Rome. That's like getting Mexican food north of the Red River... weird. However, we've been studying immigration into and out of Italy in our LBAR 332 class and we knew that there is a significant Chinese immigrant population in Italy- notably Florence, Rome, and Venice. The idea of some authentic Chinese food and a chance of pace from pizza and pasta was something we could not pass up. I ordered sweet and sour chicken with chicken fried rice- yeah, yeah, it's not a very adventurous choice, but you've got to be careful what you order at a restaurant with the word "squirrel" on the menu.

After thoroughly enjoying our dinner, the group of us walked around Rome wandering in the general direction of the Trevi fountain. After some wandering around and a few minutes of choppy conversation with the locals (asking for directions), we finally found the fountain. It. Is. Breathtaking. First of all you have to remember that the thing is massive. It's not your typical fountain by any means. It was designed by Nicola Salvi in 1732 to cover the entire wall of Palazzo Poli. It is immense and absolutely goregous. We did the typical throw a coin over your left shoulder and make a wish. It was cheesy, but 'when in Rome...'

From the fountain, six of us went on a gelato hunt. Fortunately the gelateria we found just happened to be in the plaza in front of the Pantheon. We did not get to go in that night, because it had closed at 7PM, but we got to walk around the front where all the columns are and we peeked through the doors and saw the oculus in the ceiling.

We walked back to the hotel and I told myself that I was going to go to bed early. It was about 9:30 and I had already been awake for 15 hours. I was determined to get some sleep so I would be functional in the morning. But then... a group decided to walk to Vatican City (about a mile away from our hotel) and see it at night. Honestly, how could I pass this up?!

The walk over there wasn't too bad- just the typical cold and wind that everyone had learned to combat by dressing in lots of layers. On the way we saw Castel Sant'Angelo, or Castle of the Angels. If you have ready Dan Brown's Angels and Demons or seen the movie then this building should be familiar to you.

We took a left at the castle and went down Via della Conciliazone- the road that leads straight into St. Peter's square. The road was built, I believe, in the 1930s by Mussolini. Before that, there was no straight shot to get to the Vatican, but those wishing to go there had to wind through neighborhoods. St. Peter's Square is massive. Walking towards it I was thinking in my head "okay... I thought it would be bigger." When we walked into the square though I felt dwarfed by the surrounding 284 columns topped with statues of saints. An Egyptian obelisk stands at the center of the square, a reminder of the once great expanse of the Roman Empire. I took tons of photos of St. Peter's Square and the Vatican. It was a great view because there were virtually no people in the square with us- very rare. We walked around taking photos for about an hour and a half and then finally headed home. I went to bed around midnight- much later than I had intended, but it was totally worth it.