we went to the beach and were silly with happiness
Friday, July 31, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
p.s- did i mention that we joined a little water aerobics group at the beach and definately did a good ten minutes of cardio in the sea while music played in the background and hot italian boys looked on... also that as we walked out on the pier one boy gave me the once over, whistled, then he and his friends did the slow clap as we passed... i love italy
oh my gosh and i completely forgot about the near death experience in naples! we were walking back to the hotel and heard some lound chanting ont he main road we walk to get back...then we saw police, then the armed forces in a row of armed shields and helmets pushing away an angry mob of loud protesters that sounded p.o'd! thankfully before we marched straight into it we heard T.J yelling at us to stop stop! and he led us a safer way home away from the riot and through the more artsy secretly quiet part of naples.
now make sure you read the post below this becuase its the full one, this was just a side note and the "blonde brigade" underneath is the real one. hope you like the pics! the first are from the beach, then the last one if from pompeii, we felt like the muses! kind of like in hercules bahahahhaha
The not so lost city and the adventures of the blonde brigade
Some days i need inspiration to start writing, either the task seems to daunting, or a vicious cold that's been going around the group finally catches up with you. Turns out I've got both!
Conveniently I just had a huge plate of inspiration on my way to get groceries for my last week in Rome. Across the street from my house is a little fruit shop I think Ive talked about before. But I may have failed to add a few details. Two guys work there that I think are around 25 yrs. Old. The tall dark and handsome one is from Egypt and sure looks the part of an Egyptian prince if you ask me. Every time I come to get fruit he helps me get a bag then smiles and waves me inside. When he rings me up he always always rounds my bill down. For instance today when I bought four peaches two lemons, three tomatoes, three bananas and two nectarines he kindly whittled down my price to three euros…basically free. With what little English he possesses he says “how are you?” and I say, “im great and you?” “good grazie” and gives a dashing ‘Im not positive if I said that right’ smile. Needless to say I have a slight crush on the fruit man. The other is a shorter more Italian looking guy who whistles every time we enter the store. He on the other hand is more forward and if I just want one nectarine for breakfast he goes in the back, washes it off for me, and gives it over for free and waves me out the door without any payment. Ahhh, its good to be a blonde hair, blue eyed American girl in that store! So today the Egyptian prince once again helped me through my purchase and tried to make small talk and I was all nervous because I can never understand him ahahhaha it was marvelous. One time when I was leaving the store a little old lady stopped us and said “that boy wants to ask you to a party!” and I said “…uhhhh our courses take up too much time im sorry!” ahahahah we all have gotten very good at making up excuses for why we can’t go to parties and on dates, Italians are just so welcoming and unusually attracted to girls they can barely understand…
Anyway, that was long, but you needed to know about my inspiration for this post! So once again another week has passed in a blur of bright colors and dreamlike places so here come the stories.
Lets start with Monday. We started the day with a trip to the train station, a place I swear I live most of the time here. We got our tickets to Naples for the next day then went on an excursion to the beloved fruit shop to get some fruit for the day. The main event of the day was our tour of the Vatican. Honestly not one of the most amazing things Ive seen, but I think a lot of that has to do with the untruthfulness of it. If I ignore how dark and weird it all was I would have to say it was beautiful. Everything was adorned with the best of the best. Some of my favorite things were the giant pinecone out in the courtyard, only because…who else has a giant bronze pinecone in their back yard? Of course the Rafael rooms were fantastic. His work was so gorgeous and colorful and the faces of his characters each represented a certain philosopher or contemporary of his. He even portrayed his rival Michelangelo (who he claimed was a genius after seeing his work in the Sistine chapel and he was embarrassed that he’d even tried to compete with him) as one of the young philosophers in the huge painting of the School of the Romans..or philosophers..whichever you prefer..or is right. I cant remember. Either way just being in those rooms made me feel like I could easily paint my own ceiling with portraits of my family and friends and pass them off for pagan gods and goddesses. Every little piece of wall and ceiling was covered in bold stories and scenes about life in a much different time than ours, I felt like I really should just go back in time to when studying painting and music and philosophy was welcomed and appreciated, ah the past, dreamy.
Next we moved through the tapestry room filled with huge rugs of biblical stories as well as papl comings into power. One of the most shocking was of Christ coming out of the tomb and all the roman guards falling to the ground in terror and Christs hands and feet torn up, but the look on his face one of triumph and promise. It was really wonderful to see the scene displayed on such a huge scale and to think that the designer sewed every stitch into that one work of art was mind boggling. Painting is one miraculous art, but to do it with a needle and thread and that many colors and level of intricacy? Wild. The Sistine chapel was next. I know this may be sad, but the place was anticlimactic. Don’t get me wrong, the paintings on the ceiling and walls were the most beautiful works Ive ever seen, but its hard when you’re crammed in such a small space with about 400 other people, no exaggeration, and everyone is staring at the ceiling taking pictures, though we all were warned against it, and battling to be heard by ones neighbor though signs clearly state silence is required. It was chaos. But the painting were so epic and beautiful you could just feel for Michelangelo and the time and effort he put into his work at such a young age of 26. Oddly enough he didn’t actually lie on his back and paint endlessly into the night. He actually just stood on scaffolding at a normal reach to paint his masterpiece. The scene of Adam and God in the middle of the ceiling is something Ive never thought to much about other than it looks so real, but here in the chapel itself it is obvious that the paint has been cleaned and brushed so that it almost blends in with the rest of the scenes and you have to strain your neck and eyes to get a good look at it. If you block out the world around you, you can start to see the work at its best. Each individual scene is painstakingly perfect, the muscles and lines of the body stressed over and popping out of the wall. The angelic hosts that surround the walls are almost lifelike and altogether lovely. Unfortunately we only stayed for ten minutes due to the lack of oxygen in the air…400 people tend to do that to you.
We found a secret passageway that ended up being a shortcut to st.peters basilica and that is a place that caught me way off guard. The second I entered the enormous structure whose walls are gilded in gold and white I inhaled sharply and took a step back. The place is a masterpiece to behold. I really can’’t even explain it other than it is beautiful in every way. It is spacious and open and the long corridor is lined with smaller chapels that hold beautiful sculptures of saints and the Virgin Mary. The small chapels used to be used as entertainment theaters that performers took over to entertain the worshipers waiting in the line to the front of the chapel, but none of that remains to be seen. Now there is just gold, lots and lots of gold. The walls and ceilings are crafted to pop out at you and curl around your senses so that your neck finally has to scream at you to look down before your head falls off of it from all the staring. The huge altar in the front of the chapel is held by four swirling pillars that look almost alien in the classical church, but they posses a gorgeous force all their own, being some kind of dark wood that stands out against all the gold and white décor. Oh goshers really its just beautiful and huge and that is that.
While waiting for my roommates I hung out with good ol’ heston and we talked about the state of my apartment and the interesting dynamic that ensues there. He laughed when I told him that the oldest of us was not myself, turns out I act a lot older than my 23 year old roommate…that just gives a glimpse into the obnoxiousness of these girls sometimes. Wow its hard to live in a house full of girls! But as consolation I got to spend the afternoon with the boys at their place. They, thankfully, all get along and share food and space in decency with one another. They took care of me and chatted for a while then took me to the metro station and rode home with me to make sure I was safe, ah I love being friends with boys, so much easier. Later that night when I led a supremely late group of girls from my apartment to our dinner reservation with the whole group I was thankful that at least I’d had that hour of solace with civilized returned missionaries to get me through the day.
Speaking of the dinner it was a great success. Our professors arranged for a restaurant to hold all 45 of us and feed the huge group too! The night was filled with hilarity and the loud laughter of American teenagers and young adults filling this little restaurant. We then went to one of the most famous gelato places in Rome called Giolitti. The gelato was good, but I unusually didn’t get what id asked for and ended up with an interesting combination. Oh well still delish! Those poor gelato men were scooping and plopping any type of gelato they could find and chucking cones into our greedy American hands while trying to understand our broken Italian flavor orders. Studs.
The next day we woke up early to get on the train to Naples and buy tickets for Brihndisi (the town with the ferry to Greece) we waited in line at the station for 20 min. and met the nicest English guy on a small trip abroad by himself. Though we could hardly understand his thick British accent, he was patient with us and asked about our program and told of his travels around Europe and how travelling alone really did have its advantages (though he thought out loud that he wouldn’t suggest it to girls) His cowboy hat and ruined fake brazillian flip flops really added to the “hungry handsome world traveler” look and it was really exciting to talk to someone who spoke English for a while and was attractive to boot.
Finally, after sitting on the floor of the station for a good 45 min (our group was a little over zealous after the last train fiasco to Florence) we boarded the creaky train to naples. Getting out at naples we realized that we definitely were not in the beautiful northern half of Italy any more. We walked out of the station and I felt like I was actually in downtown LA or perhaps Miami, either of them being terrifying and mostly blacks. We hopped on a bus and one of our professors loudly announced “This man just told me to watch out, there is a pick pocket on this bus!” thank you Holtzopfel, you are freaking hysterical. So we all covered our bags with our hands, but unfortunately, Dr. Hatch’s son did lose his watch before we even got to the hotel. Talk about a crazy place. I felt unsafe every minute we were there, not counting the night we spent in the Marriott. Can I just tell you that I love Marriott hotels? I do, I do so much that Id like to live in one some day. This place was great. Clean sheets, clean bathroom and warm shower with an overhead spout. Shampoo and conditioner and lotion and body wash and white fluffy towels and comfy beds and two pillows and last but not least…an Italian Book of mormon. Ha!
Interruption- two tragedies just occurred. 1. Just did my laundry and put in my scarf….i now have a lovely navy blue shirt and one less white shirt and my green pants have a slight blue tinge to them…sweet! Its like getting new clothes! 2. The grocery store did not have tresor…my favorite noccicola cereal sad day! No hazelnut chocolate filled pouches of joy for me.
Back to Naples. The place was terrifying. But then we made our way to Pompeii in a tiny stuffy HOTT train, all of us a bit crabby from the disarry of naples and the far awayness of everything. Then we got to Pompeii and the day instantly changed. Holy wow. We got off the train and there it was, the most perfectly preserved ancient city of all time. The buildings still stood at almost the original heights and the small streets were navigable and quaint. It was as if the whole town had just gone on vacation and we, as tourists, had come to town only to find that the friend we were visiting had left as well. Ancient Billboards in red paint, advertising some ancient amenity, still clung to the sides of walls and open doors let us peek at rows of toilets still waiting for the next occupant. The houses still opened up to a wide front room where a large stone pool laid beneath an open window in the ceiling so that water could collect for decoration. The walls were painted the most vibrant shades of red, yellow and green with tiny murals in the corners and strewn across canvases. One door step had a mosaic of a vicious looking dog, one we could only g uess meant “beware of dog!” other houses held more intricate mosaics on the floor or around columns that held up the house. We sat in the houses or outside of other buildings only imagining what might have happened there. We supposed that we stumbled across some stables where exotic animals and possibly petting zoos were included. Maybe we saw a grand estate or two and the local gymnasium where good jewish boys knew not to go because of the level of nudity allowed. Sounds like my kind of place! There were big open areas as well. Places where parties and balls and great gatherings of the neighborhood might have taken place. And of course the huge ampitheater where people sat on stone benches cheering on their favorite gladiator and watching the trap door where any minute a lion might escape and decide the fate of his prey. Flowers covered every nook of every road and big pink petals were strewn across the dirt pathways here and there. In the streets the stone was risen like it was awaiting a flood. Unfortunately it was for a much more vile purpose than mere rain insurance, it served as a kind of outdoor plumbing where excess was poured but the stones provided a realatively clean way to get around still. Sick. At least they were handy. As we walked throught the local park of the time we found a little round tomb looking building and hopped inside. It was dark but cooler and a little on the creepy cave side. As we started to exit I swear I heard a moan from the other end of the cave where light couldn’t reach and we all sprinted out in a fit of shivers. Hastily we moved along. We spent a good 3 hours at least in that place, maybe 4 , I lost track of time as it seemed it didn’t even exist in that place. The story goes that Pompeii, being quite the hub of all evil, was warned about an explosion from mt. Vesuvius so most of the people fled the city with their families and valued possessions. Unfortunately time was short and the left most of their lives at a standstill to flee the disaster. Some people were not quick enough and as the lava flowed, the dock to get out of the city was filled with people rushing to the boats. When Pompeii was discovered by modern archeologists they found several bodies in action positions frozen in the black ash tomb on that same dock. Contrary to popular belief the city was not the forgotten city. It actually was widely known that the city had been covered and lay waiting under the black ash from the time of the flow, so looters and old families returned soon after and took most of the “good stuff” from the site. Still it is considered the best idea of what ancient roman life was like at the time of its glory, and I can see why. Its completely open and preserved and if it were not for the random college archeological groups still excavating parts of the city I would assume that people still lived there. It was just beautiful and a little eerie walking down those streets. I loved every second of it.
That night we went back to naples and decided to venture out into the craziness to find food. We ended up going down some sketchy road where men and women on motorcycles and children on four wheelers roamed free and wild and dangerous at all hours. We hid behind each corner, poking our heads out to check for clearance before sprinting to the next road in fear of our lives until we found the perfect place. A little pizza place where the owner definitely did not speak English, but we all got a huge pizza each for 2,50 E. so we were severely happy. We brought our spoils back to the heaven of a hotel and searched out a place to eat it. A kind man on the tenth floor gestured to us and said in broken English “you can eat your pizza out here!” and led us to a little door that opened out onto the roof of the hotel complete with tables and chairs and the most stunning view of the city of naples and surrounding cities. It was breathtaking in the darkness, all the city lights twinkling on the water and the big ships coming and going through the harbor. Behind the hotel it looked more like the slums of brazil, all the houses piled on top of eachother with random materials floating from balconies drying in the stifling heat. Even the night was a little warm, but the breeze from the coast made it comfortable. We sat in awe on that balcony and ate our huge pizzas with massive smiles on our faces for a day well worth it all. The night air filled with our joyful laughter at having a good cheap meal, a warm shower to look forward too, and a night where worrying about safety was the last thing on our mind. Oh how I love beautiful hotels!!
The next day was another story all together.
It started out great! We visited the Pompeii museum and saw all the artifacts they found in the ruins and the world of Pompeii really came to life for me. The museum itself was a wonder to behold, the grand staircases and huge open ballroom made me feel like a princess at a ball and of course, I couldn’t resist dancing through the hall because it was so magical. That brought on teasing from mark, but otherwise worth it. There were tons of thigns to see. Ancient glass that had the most beautiful colors and patterns and masks from the theater with mouths that opened in such a way that the sound from the actors was amplified. There were statues, of course, and heads of another thousand people, but mostly there was just MORE! More of everything and more complete pieces of everything so that it really felt real. My favorite part was the exhibit of mosaics taken from the city. Oh goodness if only I were that visionary. The colors and patterns were more exquisite than any painting ive ever seen. The time taken to place every tiny piece of colored stone in the exact spot where the tired eyes of a tiger or the scale of a fish or the intensity on Alexander the greats face would most be effective was astounding. And the frescos were beautiful too! Though not as shocking they still were so amazing because they were so well preserved, huge pieces of wall and floor were just taken from their places in the city and set up in the museum. It made me a little sad that I couldn’t see them in their natural habitat, but it was still neat to see them at all. The frescos were varied in subject matter, but I especially liked the pagan gods and goddesses and the love stories portrayed in them. One of my favorite things in the museum was a statue of two boys running that was life size. But the difference between this statue and all the others ive seen is that it looked alive. The white and blue paint in the eyes hadn’t worn away, or had been repainted by some artist, and the eyes looked intensely into the distant mark they were aiming for. The arms pumped the air trying to make way for the poised and tensed legs to fly through, each boy trying to out run the other. I got in close to the face of the winner and swore that one arm almost reached out to push me out of his way. I looked around me in surprise and found that I was the only one in the room. A little freaked I jumped into the next room with my little group and away from the boys game. The museum was amazing.
That afternoon a group of about 16 of us ventured out of our little haven at the hotel into the wild that is naples and back to the train station to catch the train to a place called Sorrento. We all got separated on the train, and our main navigator (matt, the only boy of course) ended up on a different par tof the train. Turns out that he and only the four girls with him got off at the right stop and the rest of us had to hop off and wait in the deathly heat for 30 min. to catch the train back to the right station. Grand. To make matters worse, I was with a few girls that I might have liked to have knocked over with one of the pieces of pottery in the museum. Lovely. Finally we got off at the right station and headed towards our hostel. And hour later, three walks up the same hill, two down the wrong trail, and one up some random secret garden like path later, we found the little youth hostel. I really do feel bad for the guys working at the shop down the road that we passed a good four times. They stared at us like we were idiots, or perhaps some group of blonde surveyors searching for a crack in the road..nope we were lost, superbly duperly lost. But we arrived eventually after we got directions from the other group (the second set, as the first were from lizzie who Im guessing looked at the road the whole way there…)Now ive never been an advocate for hostels, but this really was not that bad! The bright green and yellow paint on the wall was still bright and the owner was really quite nice and welcoming. Of course there was Ron, the old man who had been there for six weeks “and Ill be here for another six weeks!” He told us about each of the other guests at the hostel and all about the breakfast and owner and everything else we could possibly want to know about our night stay. Up in our room we realized that we shared a bathroom with two girls from some south American country, a couple from Europe and a friendly trail of ants. Our room slept 6 and we thankfully were given newly cleaned sheets to cover the nasty mattresses and pillows. Hallelujah. That evening we went on an excursion to the town of Sorrento to find that the actual city was super cute and quaint and charming in every sense of the word. The town, famous for their lemons, is right on the coast of the Mediterranean..or is it the agean…. Anyway, on the coast. We walked down lemon road and sampled lemon candies of all sorts and soaps and perfumes all made with the infamous lemons. We also saw the worlds hugest lemons in the world and I was tempted to buy one just to say that I did. We ate dinner at a little restaurant and by that time everyone was getting a little on the nerves of everyone else. Sooo we went back to the hostel, our spirits tired, but in marginally better moods than the first time we trudged up the five hills. A few of us found a little garden in the back of the hostel and sat out in the twilit lemon grove complete with grape vines for a ceiling. Random bits of playground equipment and blown over umbrells set the scene while a supremely loud cow mooed his way asleep. The night ensued into one big slumber party. We played cards down in the lobby while other couples wrote in journals and perused the free internet. The owner sat silently in awe I think that we all were there, not drinking or smoking, but still relatively happy and polite. Unfortunatley we were loud…no myself…but a few. Me and marie left the raucus to play speed in her room and we became so delusional that we giggled until our sides hurt and her roommates started wondering why they hadn’t seen such outrageous sides of us before. Marvy. I went to my bed and laid waiting for sleep in the sketchy night…for four hours…just laying there all my pent up anxiety making me useless at sleep. At three a.m my friend kelsy sat up straight in bed, only to find me in the same position and checked her watch. “what time is it?” I enquired. “ugh, 3” she sighed and we both chuckled and lay back down to endure another 4 hours before we could wake up. I finally did fall asleep thank heavens. That morning we got an awesome breakfast from the owner. He set out little baskets full of croissants and nutella, jam and toast and snack bars, orange juice, and even coffee if we’d have drunk it. Love that man!
Oh crap I forgot something- breakfast at the mariott…the first real breakfast id had in weeks and the most variety id seen in weeks. Ugh marvelousss. It was up on the roof again so as we sat for a straight hour enjoying pastries, scrambled eggs, fruits and any other breakfast treat we could lay our hands on, we watched cruise ships port and leave the harbor. Pretty much the happiest hour of my life. I was clean, well fed and well rested, lovely.
Back to hostel land. So we left the hostel (after I precariously showered but refused to wash my hair for fear of being in the sketch shower for more than two minutes.) and made our way back to the train station to seek out a beach to hang out on for the day. With no hope we decided to take good ol’ Rick steves advice and go to meta where apparently we would find a good beach on the amalfi coast. We took the bus all crossing our fingers that he’d suggested a good spot. The normal sized bus squeezed its way through the winding streets of Sorrento and san angelo almost squashing people, cars, road signs, and buildings on several occasions. Finally we stopped right on a cliff that looked down over the ocean. Success, the most wonderful sight to behold. A beach! A big black sandy beach! We raced down the steep steps towards the building where we paid a mere 2.50 to spend the day under four big red umbrellas lounging in the hot sun and spending most of the day in the warm blue water inhaling salt water when we smiled to big under water. It was heaven on earth no lie. I put down my bag stripped off my sweat soaked sundress and sprinted into the water diving headfirst as soon as it got deep enough. The water cooled down every hot part of me and I was as happy as the little half naked kids running along the beach while their friends tossed soccer balls at their heads and their moms yelled Italian warnings to them in sing song voices. The beach you see was not a nudist beach happily, but apparently that rule does not apply to children under 12 years old because I saw plenty of boys and girls in only swim bottoms and speedos and they were perfectly happy in all the naked glory. I envied them. Italians are so not worried about body image is relieving! The most wrinkly fat old mad was wearing a speedo and the hugest lady had on a skimpy bikini and they laid there in all their glory happy as clams. No one judged them and no one was judged. If only the U.s was like that we wouldn’t all have eating disorders and constantly be on diets to assure a svelt figure and no jeering comments. Sucks to be us.
We spent the whole day in the water, exiting only when we got a chill or needed food or water, but no longer than ten minutes out of the water because the air was so thick and the sun so hot on our pale faces and backs. We met a few Italian guys that were super nice and tried to chat with us in the water, matt approved of them so we decided it was safe to chat for a bit. They asked our names and when I said “Sydney!” Paulo replied “oh bellissima!” ha they like my name here! Anyway some of the other girls talked to them for a while and me and matt beat eachother up in the water and I floated in the thick salt for a good 20 min. just soaking up the water and sun. Basically a perfect day. Of course I am now sufficiently burned and red all over, but it was SO worth it. The water we swam in was surrounded by high cliffs on top of which laid the city. Big caves lined another part of the beach away from us and across the water another city jutted out in the mist. It was unreal and tropical in every sense. I could have stayed another day if I didn’t have to return to the hostel again, but unfortunately, as with most good things, the day came to an end and we boarded the bus then caught a train on the spur of the moment back to rome (conveniently we got to the train station early so we ended up taking a train eight minutes after we arrived that we didn’t know was even there! Plus we got to get on it for free with our eurail passes and that made us all marginally more happy) Then we were back in Rome sweet home and I came home, took a sleeping pill and crashed for a good soild eight hours. Today I woke up, ate breaky, and went back to sleep for four more hours and since then have simply ate, read and written all day long. I have a nasty head and chest cold, but with all the rest im hoping it will leave by tomorrow when we’ve planned a trip to the roman fortress so cross your fingers! All in all the week was yet another amazing experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. I never thought that Id have such extraordinary experiences but they just seems to come to me and I welcome them with open arms, especially if they involve noccicola or pizza! Hahaha. Ciao loves!
Conveniently I just had a huge plate of inspiration on my way to get groceries for my last week in Rome. Across the street from my house is a little fruit shop I think Ive talked about before. But I may have failed to add a few details. Two guys work there that I think are around 25 yrs. Old. The tall dark and handsome one is from Egypt and sure looks the part of an Egyptian prince if you ask me. Every time I come to get fruit he helps me get a bag then smiles and waves me inside. When he rings me up he always always rounds my bill down. For instance today when I bought four peaches two lemons, three tomatoes, three bananas and two nectarines he kindly whittled down my price to three euros…basically free. With what little English he possesses he says “how are you?” and I say, “im great and you?” “good grazie” and gives a dashing ‘Im not positive if I said that right’ smile. Needless to say I have a slight crush on the fruit man. The other is a shorter more Italian looking guy who whistles every time we enter the store. He on the other hand is more forward and if I just want one nectarine for breakfast he goes in the back, washes it off for me, and gives it over for free and waves me out the door without any payment. Ahhh, its good to be a blonde hair, blue eyed American girl in that store! So today the Egyptian prince once again helped me through my purchase and tried to make small talk and I was all nervous because I can never understand him ahahhaha it was marvelous. One time when I was leaving the store a little old lady stopped us and said “that boy wants to ask you to a party!” and I said “…uhhhh our courses take up too much time im sorry!” ahahahah we all have gotten very good at making up excuses for why we can’t go to parties and on dates, Italians are just so welcoming and unusually attracted to girls they can barely understand…
Anyway, that was long, but you needed to know about my inspiration for this post! So once again another week has passed in a blur of bright colors and dreamlike places so here come the stories.
Lets start with Monday. We started the day with a trip to the train station, a place I swear I live most of the time here. We got our tickets to Naples for the next day then went on an excursion to the beloved fruit shop to get some fruit for the day. The main event of the day was our tour of the Vatican. Honestly not one of the most amazing things Ive seen, but I think a lot of that has to do with the untruthfulness of it. If I ignore how dark and weird it all was I would have to say it was beautiful. Everything was adorned with the best of the best. Some of my favorite things were the giant pinecone out in the courtyard, only because…who else has a giant bronze pinecone in their back yard? Of course the Rafael rooms were fantastic. His work was so gorgeous and colorful and the faces of his characters each represented a certain philosopher or contemporary of his. He even portrayed his rival Michelangelo (who he claimed was a genius after seeing his work in the Sistine chapel and he was embarrassed that he’d even tried to compete with him) as one of the young philosophers in the huge painting of the School of the Romans..or philosophers..whichever you prefer..or is right. I cant remember. Either way just being in those rooms made me feel like I could easily paint my own ceiling with portraits of my family and friends and pass them off for pagan gods and goddesses. Every little piece of wall and ceiling was covered in bold stories and scenes about life in a much different time than ours, I felt like I really should just go back in time to when studying painting and music and philosophy was welcomed and appreciated, ah the past, dreamy.
Next we moved through the tapestry room filled with huge rugs of biblical stories as well as papl comings into power. One of the most shocking was of Christ coming out of the tomb and all the roman guards falling to the ground in terror and Christs hands and feet torn up, but the look on his face one of triumph and promise. It was really wonderful to see the scene displayed on such a huge scale and to think that the designer sewed every stitch into that one work of art was mind boggling. Painting is one miraculous art, but to do it with a needle and thread and that many colors and level of intricacy? Wild. The Sistine chapel was next. I know this may be sad, but the place was anticlimactic. Don’t get me wrong, the paintings on the ceiling and walls were the most beautiful works Ive ever seen, but its hard when you’re crammed in such a small space with about 400 other people, no exaggeration, and everyone is staring at the ceiling taking pictures, though we all were warned against it, and battling to be heard by ones neighbor though signs clearly state silence is required. It was chaos. But the painting were so epic and beautiful you could just feel for Michelangelo and the time and effort he put into his work at such a young age of 26. Oddly enough he didn’t actually lie on his back and paint endlessly into the night. He actually just stood on scaffolding at a normal reach to paint his masterpiece. The scene of Adam and God in the middle of the ceiling is something Ive never thought to much about other than it looks so real, but here in the chapel itself it is obvious that the paint has been cleaned and brushed so that it almost blends in with the rest of the scenes and you have to strain your neck and eyes to get a good look at it. If you block out the world around you, you can start to see the work at its best. Each individual scene is painstakingly perfect, the muscles and lines of the body stressed over and popping out of the wall. The angelic hosts that surround the walls are almost lifelike and altogether lovely. Unfortunately we only stayed for ten minutes due to the lack of oxygen in the air…400 people tend to do that to you.
We found a secret passageway that ended up being a shortcut to st.peters basilica and that is a place that caught me way off guard. The second I entered the enormous structure whose walls are gilded in gold and white I inhaled sharply and took a step back. The place is a masterpiece to behold. I really can’’t even explain it other than it is beautiful in every way. It is spacious and open and the long corridor is lined with smaller chapels that hold beautiful sculptures of saints and the Virgin Mary. The small chapels used to be used as entertainment theaters that performers took over to entertain the worshipers waiting in the line to the front of the chapel, but none of that remains to be seen. Now there is just gold, lots and lots of gold. The walls and ceilings are crafted to pop out at you and curl around your senses so that your neck finally has to scream at you to look down before your head falls off of it from all the staring. The huge altar in the front of the chapel is held by four swirling pillars that look almost alien in the classical church, but they posses a gorgeous force all their own, being some kind of dark wood that stands out against all the gold and white décor. Oh goshers really its just beautiful and huge and that is that.
While waiting for my roommates I hung out with good ol’ heston and we talked about the state of my apartment and the interesting dynamic that ensues there. He laughed when I told him that the oldest of us was not myself, turns out I act a lot older than my 23 year old roommate…that just gives a glimpse into the obnoxiousness of these girls sometimes. Wow its hard to live in a house full of girls! But as consolation I got to spend the afternoon with the boys at their place. They, thankfully, all get along and share food and space in decency with one another. They took care of me and chatted for a while then took me to the metro station and rode home with me to make sure I was safe, ah I love being friends with boys, so much easier. Later that night when I led a supremely late group of girls from my apartment to our dinner reservation with the whole group I was thankful that at least I’d had that hour of solace with civilized returned missionaries to get me through the day.
Speaking of the dinner it was a great success. Our professors arranged for a restaurant to hold all 45 of us and feed the huge group too! The night was filled with hilarity and the loud laughter of American teenagers and young adults filling this little restaurant. We then went to one of the most famous gelato places in Rome called Giolitti. The gelato was good, but I unusually didn’t get what id asked for and ended up with an interesting combination. Oh well still delish! Those poor gelato men were scooping and plopping any type of gelato they could find and chucking cones into our greedy American hands while trying to understand our broken Italian flavor orders. Studs.
The next day we woke up early to get on the train to Naples and buy tickets for Brihndisi (the town with the ferry to Greece) we waited in line at the station for 20 min. and met the nicest English guy on a small trip abroad by himself. Though we could hardly understand his thick British accent, he was patient with us and asked about our program and told of his travels around Europe and how travelling alone really did have its advantages (though he thought out loud that he wouldn’t suggest it to girls) His cowboy hat and ruined fake brazillian flip flops really added to the “hungry handsome world traveler” look and it was really exciting to talk to someone who spoke English for a while and was attractive to boot.
Finally, after sitting on the floor of the station for a good 45 min (our group was a little over zealous after the last train fiasco to Florence) we boarded the creaky train to naples. Getting out at naples we realized that we definitely were not in the beautiful northern half of Italy any more. We walked out of the station and I felt like I was actually in downtown LA or perhaps Miami, either of them being terrifying and mostly blacks. We hopped on a bus and one of our professors loudly announced “This man just told me to watch out, there is a pick pocket on this bus!” thank you Holtzopfel, you are freaking hysterical. So we all covered our bags with our hands, but unfortunately, Dr. Hatch’s son did lose his watch before we even got to the hotel. Talk about a crazy place. I felt unsafe every minute we were there, not counting the night we spent in the Marriott. Can I just tell you that I love Marriott hotels? I do, I do so much that Id like to live in one some day. This place was great. Clean sheets, clean bathroom and warm shower with an overhead spout. Shampoo and conditioner and lotion and body wash and white fluffy towels and comfy beds and two pillows and last but not least…an Italian Book of mormon. Ha!
Interruption- two tragedies just occurred. 1. Just did my laundry and put in my scarf….i now have a lovely navy blue shirt and one less white shirt and my green pants have a slight blue tinge to them…sweet! Its like getting new clothes! 2. The grocery store did not have tresor…my favorite noccicola cereal sad day! No hazelnut chocolate filled pouches of joy for me.
Back to Naples. The place was terrifying. But then we made our way to Pompeii in a tiny stuffy HOTT train, all of us a bit crabby from the disarry of naples and the far awayness of everything. Then we got to Pompeii and the day instantly changed. Holy wow. We got off the train and there it was, the most perfectly preserved ancient city of all time. The buildings still stood at almost the original heights and the small streets were navigable and quaint. It was as if the whole town had just gone on vacation and we, as tourists, had come to town only to find that the friend we were visiting had left as well. Ancient Billboards in red paint, advertising some ancient amenity, still clung to the sides of walls and open doors let us peek at rows of toilets still waiting for the next occupant. The houses still opened up to a wide front room where a large stone pool laid beneath an open window in the ceiling so that water could collect for decoration. The walls were painted the most vibrant shades of red, yellow and green with tiny murals in the corners and strewn across canvases. One door step had a mosaic of a vicious looking dog, one we could only g uess meant “beware of dog!” other houses held more intricate mosaics on the floor or around columns that held up the house. We sat in the houses or outside of other buildings only imagining what might have happened there. We supposed that we stumbled across some stables where exotic animals and possibly petting zoos were included. Maybe we saw a grand estate or two and the local gymnasium where good jewish boys knew not to go because of the level of nudity allowed. Sounds like my kind of place! There were big open areas as well. Places where parties and balls and great gatherings of the neighborhood might have taken place. And of course the huge ampitheater where people sat on stone benches cheering on their favorite gladiator and watching the trap door where any minute a lion might escape and decide the fate of his prey. Flowers covered every nook of every road and big pink petals were strewn across the dirt pathways here and there. In the streets the stone was risen like it was awaiting a flood. Unfortunately it was for a much more vile purpose than mere rain insurance, it served as a kind of outdoor plumbing where excess was poured but the stones provided a realatively clean way to get around still. Sick. At least they were handy. As we walked throught the local park of the time we found a little round tomb looking building and hopped inside. It was dark but cooler and a little on the creepy cave side. As we started to exit I swear I heard a moan from the other end of the cave where light couldn’t reach and we all sprinted out in a fit of shivers. Hastily we moved along. We spent a good 3 hours at least in that place, maybe 4 , I lost track of time as it seemed it didn’t even exist in that place. The story goes that Pompeii, being quite the hub of all evil, was warned about an explosion from mt. Vesuvius so most of the people fled the city with their families and valued possessions. Unfortunately time was short and the left most of their lives at a standstill to flee the disaster. Some people were not quick enough and as the lava flowed, the dock to get out of the city was filled with people rushing to the boats. When Pompeii was discovered by modern archeologists they found several bodies in action positions frozen in the black ash tomb on that same dock. Contrary to popular belief the city was not the forgotten city. It actually was widely known that the city had been covered and lay waiting under the black ash from the time of the flow, so looters and old families returned soon after and took most of the “good stuff” from the site. Still it is considered the best idea of what ancient roman life was like at the time of its glory, and I can see why. Its completely open and preserved and if it were not for the random college archeological groups still excavating parts of the city I would assume that people still lived there. It was just beautiful and a little eerie walking down those streets. I loved every second of it.
That night we went back to naples and decided to venture out into the craziness to find food. We ended up going down some sketchy road where men and women on motorcycles and children on four wheelers roamed free and wild and dangerous at all hours. We hid behind each corner, poking our heads out to check for clearance before sprinting to the next road in fear of our lives until we found the perfect place. A little pizza place where the owner definitely did not speak English, but we all got a huge pizza each for 2,50 E. so we were severely happy. We brought our spoils back to the heaven of a hotel and searched out a place to eat it. A kind man on the tenth floor gestured to us and said in broken English “you can eat your pizza out here!” and led us to a little door that opened out onto the roof of the hotel complete with tables and chairs and the most stunning view of the city of naples and surrounding cities. It was breathtaking in the darkness, all the city lights twinkling on the water and the big ships coming and going through the harbor. Behind the hotel it looked more like the slums of brazil, all the houses piled on top of eachother with random materials floating from balconies drying in the stifling heat. Even the night was a little warm, but the breeze from the coast made it comfortable. We sat in awe on that balcony and ate our huge pizzas with massive smiles on our faces for a day well worth it all. The night air filled with our joyful laughter at having a good cheap meal, a warm shower to look forward too, and a night where worrying about safety was the last thing on our mind. Oh how I love beautiful hotels!!
The next day was another story all together.
It started out great! We visited the Pompeii museum and saw all the artifacts they found in the ruins and the world of Pompeii really came to life for me. The museum itself was a wonder to behold, the grand staircases and huge open ballroom made me feel like a princess at a ball and of course, I couldn’t resist dancing through the hall because it was so magical. That brought on teasing from mark, but otherwise worth it. There were tons of thigns to see. Ancient glass that had the most beautiful colors and patterns and masks from the theater with mouths that opened in such a way that the sound from the actors was amplified. There were statues, of course, and heads of another thousand people, but mostly there was just MORE! More of everything and more complete pieces of everything so that it really felt real. My favorite part was the exhibit of mosaics taken from the city. Oh goodness if only I were that visionary. The colors and patterns were more exquisite than any painting ive ever seen. The time taken to place every tiny piece of colored stone in the exact spot where the tired eyes of a tiger or the scale of a fish or the intensity on Alexander the greats face would most be effective was astounding. And the frescos were beautiful too! Though not as shocking they still were so amazing because they were so well preserved, huge pieces of wall and floor were just taken from their places in the city and set up in the museum. It made me a little sad that I couldn’t see them in their natural habitat, but it was still neat to see them at all. The frescos were varied in subject matter, but I especially liked the pagan gods and goddesses and the love stories portrayed in them. One of my favorite things in the museum was a statue of two boys running that was life size. But the difference between this statue and all the others ive seen is that it looked alive. The white and blue paint in the eyes hadn’t worn away, or had been repainted by some artist, and the eyes looked intensely into the distant mark they were aiming for. The arms pumped the air trying to make way for the poised and tensed legs to fly through, each boy trying to out run the other. I got in close to the face of the winner and swore that one arm almost reached out to push me out of his way. I looked around me in surprise and found that I was the only one in the room. A little freaked I jumped into the next room with my little group and away from the boys game. The museum was amazing.
That afternoon a group of about 16 of us ventured out of our little haven at the hotel into the wild that is naples and back to the train station to catch the train to a place called Sorrento. We all got separated on the train, and our main navigator (matt, the only boy of course) ended up on a different par tof the train. Turns out that he and only the four girls with him got off at the right stop and the rest of us had to hop off and wait in the deathly heat for 30 min. to catch the train back to the right station. Grand. To make matters worse, I was with a few girls that I might have liked to have knocked over with one of the pieces of pottery in the museum. Lovely. Finally we got off at the right station and headed towards our hostel. And hour later, three walks up the same hill, two down the wrong trail, and one up some random secret garden like path later, we found the little youth hostel. I really do feel bad for the guys working at the shop down the road that we passed a good four times. They stared at us like we were idiots, or perhaps some group of blonde surveyors searching for a crack in the road..nope we were lost, superbly duperly lost. But we arrived eventually after we got directions from the other group (the second set, as the first were from lizzie who Im guessing looked at the road the whole way there…)Now ive never been an advocate for hostels, but this really was not that bad! The bright green and yellow paint on the wall was still bright and the owner was really quite nice and welcoming. Of course there was Ron, the old man who had been there for six weeks “and Ill be here for another six weeks!” He told us about each of the other guests at the hostel and all about the breakfast and owner and everything else we could possibly want to know about our night stay. Up in our room we realized that we shared a bathroom with two girls from some south American country, a couple from Europe and a friendly trail of ants. Our room slept 6 and we thankfully were given newly cleaned sheets to cover the nasty mattresses and pillows. Hallelujah. That evening we went on an excursion to the town of Sorrento to find that the actual city was super cute and quaint and charming in every sense of the word. The town, famous for their lemons, is right on the coast of the Mediterranean..or is it the agean…. Anyway, on the coast. We walked down lemon road and sampled lemon candies of all sorts and soaps and perfumes all made with the infamous lemons. We also saw the worlds hugest lemons in the world and I was tempted to buy one just to say that I did. We ate dinner at a little restaurant and by that time everyone was getting a little on the nerves of everyone else. Sooo we went back to the hostel, our spirits tired, but in marginally better moods than the first time we trudged up the five hills. A few of us found a little garden in the back of the hostel and sat out in the twilit lemon grove complete with grape vines for a ceiling. Random bits of playground equipment and blown over umbrells set the scene while a supremely loud cow mooed his way asleep. The night ensued into one big slumber party. We played cards down in the lobby while other couples wrote in journals and perused the free internet. The owner sat silently in awe I think that we all were there, not drinking or smoking, but still relatively happy and polite. Unfortunatley we were loud…no myself…but a few. Me and marie left the raucus to play speed in her room and we became so delusional that we giggled until our sides hurt and her roommates started wondering why they hadn’t seen such outrageous sides of us before. Marvy. I went to my bed and laid waiting for sleep in the sketchy night…for four hours…just laying there all my pent up anxiety making me useless at sleep. At three a.m my friend kelsy sat up straight in bed, only to find me in the same position and checked her watch. “what time is it?” I enquired. “ugh, 3” she sighed and we both chuckled and lay back down to endure another 4 hours before we could wake up. I finally did fall asleep thank heavens. That morning we got an awesome breakfast from the owner. He set out little baskets full of croissants and nutella, jam and toast and snack bars, orange juice, and even coffee if we’d have drunk it. Love that man!
Oh crap I forgot something- breakfast at the mariott…the first real breakfast id had in weeks and the most variety id seen in weeks. Ugh marvelousss. It was up on the roof again so as we sat for a straight hour enjoying pastries, scrambled eggs, fruits and any other breakfast treat we could lay our hands on, we watched cruise ships port and leave the harbor. Pretty much the happiest hour of my life. I was clean, well fed and well rested, lovely.
Back to hostel land. So we left the hostel (after I precariously showered but refused to wash my hair for fear of being in the sketch shower for more than two minutes.) and made our way back to the train station to seek out a beach to hang out on for the day. With no hope we decided to take good ol’ Rick steves advice and go to meta where apparently we would find a good beach on the amalfi coast. We took the bus all crossing our fingers that he’d suggested a good spot. The normal sized bus squeezed its way through the winding streets of Sorrento and san angelo almost squashing people, cars, road signs, and buildings on several occasions. Finally we stopped right on a cliff that looked down over the ocean. Success, the most wonderful sight to behold. A beach! A big black sandy beach! We raced down the steep steps towards the building where we paid a mere 2.50 to spend the day under four big red umbrellas lounging in the hot sun and spending most of the day in the warm blue water inhaling salt water when we smiled to big under water. It was heaven on earth no lie. I put down my bag stripped off my sweat soaked sundress and sprinted into the water diving headfirst as soon as it got deep enough. The water cooled down every hot part of me and I was as happy as the little half naked kids running along the beach while their friends tossed soccer balls at their heads and their moms yelled Italian warnings to them in sing song voices. The beach you see was not a nudist beach happily, but apparently that rule does not apply to children under 12 years old because I saw plenty of boys and girls in only swim bottoms and speedos and they were perfectly happy in all the naked glory. I envied them. Italians are so not worried about body image is relieving! The most wrinkly fat old mad was wearing a speedo and the hugest lady had on a skimpy bikini and they laid there in all their glory happy as clams. No one judged them and no one was judged. If only the U.s was like that we wouldn’t all have eating disorders and constantly be on diets to assure a svelt figure and no jeering comments. Sucks to be us.
We spent the whole day in the water, exiting only when we got a chill or needed food or water, but no longer than ten minutes out of the water because the air was so thick and the sun so hot on our pale faces and backs. We met a few Italian guys that were super nice and tried to chat with us in the water, matt approved of them so we decided it was safe to chat for a bit. They asked our names and when I said “Sydney!” Paulo replied “oh bellissima!” ha they like my name here! Anyway some of the other girls talked to them for a while and me and matt beat eachother up in the water and I floated in the thick salt for a good 20 min. just soaking up the water and sun. Basically a perfect day. Of course I am now sufficiently burned and red all over, but it was SO worth it. The water we swam in was surrounded by high cliffs on top of which laid the city. Big caves lined another part of the beach away from us and across the water another city jutted out in the mist. It was unreal and tropical in every sense. I could have stayed another day if I didn’t have to return to the hostel again, but unfortunately, as with most good things, the day came to an end and we boarded the bus then caught a train on the spur of the moment back to rome (conveniently we got to the train station early so we ended up taking a train eight minutes after we arrived that we didn’t know was even there! Plus we got to get on it for free with our eurail passes and that made us all marginally more happy) Then we were back in Rome sweet home and I came home, took a sleeping pill and crashed for a good soild eight hours. Today I woke up, ate breaky, and went back to sleep for four more hours and since then have simply ate, read and written all day long. I have a nasty head and chest cold, but with all the rest im hoping it will leave by tomorrow when we’ve planned a trip to the roman fortress so cross your fingers! All in all the week was yet another amazing experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. I never thought that Id have such extraordinary experiences but they just seems to come to me and I welcome them with open arms, especially if they involve noccicola or pizza! Hahaha. Ciao loves!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sundae
choice words is what i have for some people. Choice words.
one saying would be the one made famous by my father "sounds like a personal problem"
another would be from my best friend Christine " you're a freaking idiot."
the last would be my mother and my theory on life "life sucks then you die"
now all these are not always true and only apply in extreme circumstances. amazingly Ive experienced all three in the past two days. Shocking!
Church was fantastic today. I met this presh missionary with 6 months left from south bend indiana! He was like "michigan is my back yard!" and I said, "no way, south bend is my back yard!" we were pumped to meet eachother...then he started indulging his family troubles and i stopped him there and kindly exited the scene...do i look like the kind of person one would indulge their lifes problems too? apparently I do because i sure do know a lot about people... I really dont mind i quite like people letting me help with problems, it just makes me chuckle that i seem like that kind of person. Neat.
There is an old man in our complex that shoos the pigeons off his window every day and they fly in all different directions away from his evil hand. The people across the way watch movies every night and their windows flash black and white for hours. There is a teenage guy that lives right above us and he and his friends watch us and attempt to talk to us. They were invited over one night by one brave girl in our apartment...i made sure that they never would come over again...they made their intentions pretty dang clear and Id have none of that. A family on the other side of the complex has a little baby that sometimes screams bloody murder right before it falls asleep and i have to wonder if they torture the poor thing...but then the rest of the day its silent so i think it's just baby blues. A resident way above us has a piano that he plays that fills up the whole quad with the most gorgeous sounds ever. It's like a sunday concert for our apartments only. Sometimes the pigeons scrounge for food on our deck and heather freaks out and scares them off with the chairs...she is afraid of birds.An nine year old boy gave a talk in church today, thats how few members are in the ward here. He was the bishops son. we ran out of toilet paper yesterday and contemplated using the beday...then we decided that paper towels would suffice. I wrote 6 pages of homework today. ahhh proud.
haha i just read some of that and i sound a little bitter, im not. Im really happy actually! i could live here always! just without some of the people..im really not a girl person. But dang do i love Italy. the people are more genuine and personable and loving and im learning a lot from them. Ok i just felt like i needed to write quick to get it all out of me and remember my little neighborhood. peace love ciao
one saying would be the one made famous by my father "sounds like a personal problem"
another would be from my best friend Christine " you're a freaking idiot."
the last would be my mother and my theory on life "life sucks then you die"
now all these are not always true and only apply in extreme circumstances. amazingly Ive experienced all three in the past two days. Shocking!
Church was fantastic today. I met this presh missionary with 6 months left from south bend indiana! He was like "michigan is my back yard!" and I said, "no way, south bend is my back yard!" we were pumped to meet eachother...then he started indulging his family troubles and i stopped him there and kindly exited the scene...do i look like the kind of person one would indulge their lifes problems too? apparently I do because i sure do know a lot about people... I really dont mind i quite like people letting me help with problems, it just makes me chuckle that i seem like that kind of person. Neat.
There is an old man in our complex that shoos the pigeons off his window every day and they fly in all different directions away from his evil hand. The people across the way watch movies every night and their windows flash black and white for hours. There is a teenage guy that lives right above us and he and his friends watch us and attempt to talk to us. They were invited over one night by one brave girl in our apartment...i made sure that they never would come over again...they made their intentions pretty dang clear and Id have none of that. A family on the other side of the complex has a little baby that sometimes screams bloody murder right before it falls asleep and i have to wonder if they torture the poor thing...but then the rest of the day its silent so i think it's just baby blues. A resident way above us has a piano that he plays that fills up the whole quad with the most gorgeous sounds ever. It's like a sunday concert for our apartments only. Sometimes the pigeons scrounge for food on our deck and heather freaks out and scares them off with the chairs...she is afraid of birds.An nine year old boy gave a talk in church today, thats how few members are in the ward here. He was the bishops son. we ran out of toilet paper yesterday and contemplated using the beday...then we decided that paper towels would suffice. I wrote 6 pages of homework today. ahhh proud.
haha i just read some of that and i sound a little bitter, im not. Im really happy actually! i could live here always! just without some of the people..im really not a girl person. But dang do i love Italy. the people are more genuine and personable and loving and im learning a lot from them. Ok i just felt like i needed to write quick to get it all out of me and remember my little neighborhood. peace love ciao
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Water Busses and Night Trains
I want to start out this gloriously long entry with a preface that this week/weekend may have been the most beautiful and fantastic one of my entire 20 years.
And now I have to check on my laundry that took 15 min. of pressing random buttons until it decided to start drizzling water into the eensy barrel…whirlpool Europe is SO not up to par!....yep,its still drizzling! Ah Success.
Alright so where do I even start? Oh yes forewarning, I just got home from Venice on the night train and had a total of about 3 hours of sleep to recover from the past week…so excuse my writing yes? So it is Saturday morning and actually the first cooler day ive seen here! Its miraculous! I think it rained here last night so that explains it. Its beautiful and breezy and all the old ladies are hanging out their table cloths and rugs to dry out the window. Someones baby us screaming its lungs out like it just got an ice cold bath, similar to my chilly shower this morning. But really who can deny any sort of shower when you’ve had the kind of week I have.
Tuedays night was the first adventure. We went as a group to the Roman Opera in the middle of some ancient ruins of Roman Baths. The ruins themselves were huge and looming and gave me some great ideas for the kind of bathroom I may want in the future…im really into the whole spa in your backyard thing, I think the Romans had the right idea. So we get to the place and its huge. The Stage is a tilted and raised platform painted a dramatic black white and red map like thing and the stadium seating is packed with perfumed ladies in their nicest summer furs and old men smoking cigs and looking sleepy. We of course are entirely underdressed but really just happy to be sitting down, even if it is in the last row on the far left side.
Side note- while we were waiting for our professor we saw this awesome fashion show being set up right next to the colosseum that ended right in the Triumphant Arch of Constantine! We sincerely wanted to join the sickly looking models but were appeased when we got to dance to the thumping rehearsal music and watch the designer coach the girls down the pre-runway show. Bizarre and unreal.
Back to the Opera. Three acts, two intermissions. Wow those things are boring! Now im just saying that the story lines are boring, the story could honestly be told in about 2 minutes, but the music on the other hand was incredible! The main woman was of course a little on the heavy side (which delighted all of us, because we conveniently knew when the play was over, because the fat lady had finally sung her last note) and her voice was perfect in every way, it was high and low and her range was awesome and her costumes (including a pick sequined number) were fantastic. The main guy was definitely my favorite though and completely stole the show every time he opened his mouth. It was just awesome in every way. Of course they threw in some special effects and some creepy priests to keep everyone awake. Like the dramatic stage being surrounded by a sudden ring of fire and the 10 soldiers shooting the loudest shotguns Ive ever heard and the live sheep bah-ing its head off while a little boy sang. And who could forget the epic murder of the villain by the heroine with a Candlestick in the shape of a symbolic cross. Just a whole myriad of wonderfulness really. OK that’s all I have to say about that.
Oh yeah, keep in mind that im using a lot of this blog for actual assignments for my writing class, so if I go into too much detail those of you who’ve taken a BYU English class will understand.
So, next morning we get up and ready to go on the train to Florence. Our little group of three gets on the metro to SURPRISE a malfunctioning train. The metro inches along the tracks and stops a bajillion times in random spots along the way. We start freaking out that we are going to miss our train so when we finally get off the supposed 15 min. ride that took us about 25 this time, we are booking it. We get to the train station and find that we have no idea how to read our tickets..American remember. We scramble around trying to figure it out and finally find this nice looking business man in a suit and tie that stops and helps us over to where we are supposed to be. I will forever be thankful to those people who sat in his meeting waiting for the kind gentleman at the train station helping the stupid American girls find their platform. Once we start calming down we realize that ANOTHER SURPRISE! No one else in the group is there yet! We get on the train and slowly the story unfolds about a group of girls who also experienced train difficulties (it was a rough day for the metro system) and ended up getting split up, some people having other peoples backpacks. A.k.a entire lives with them and girls sprinting onto the first car on the train at the last minute and crying drama queens that were nervous enough to separate completely from the group and basically a full on fiasco. I found it quite amusing.
Needless to say we all made it to Florence all right except of course the epic other half of my apartment that has yet to be on time for anything and actually missed an entire museum in Florence, wow they are SO COOL! Kill me.
So we went to the Uffizi museum where the famous Leonardo, Michelangelo and Botticelli works are and saw beautiful things as well as several marble heads…I swear every person in ancient Rome has a freaking stone head of him or herself in some random museum. Cant they just keep a couple and chuck the rest? Shoot.My favorites in this museum were the Venus in springtime, or the birth of Venus, and also some huge sketch by Leonardo davinci that was gorgeous on a big canvas with sepia colored paint or ink or something *kind of like the stuff the actor uses in Everafter) it was of the Nativity scene and it was sooo awe inspiring I could have looked at it forever and never have seen it all. After that we went along to see the giant statue of David, and giant it was! Though a little disproportionate…it was still a site to see! I still don’t understand how Mike got up there to sculpt that perfect jaw and curly locks, the statue is about 13 feet of super naked hunk! Of course one of my roommates got a nice postcard of his tight behind to send to her missionary…I passed on that opportunity (how funny would it be if she sent it saying “my dream butt. Work hard.” Bahahahahahahah)
Ohp, quickl break, gotta go push more random buttons to drain my laundry of the dirty water into the sink next to it…weird.
So after this hilariousness we find our hotel and realize that it’s the most picturesque, quaint little place run by this little vibrant Italian lady who shakes all of our hands and is thrilled to tell us anything she possibly can about the city. We get our 4 keys to the four different doors to the hotel (it was on some little street with the huge doors and gates inside that and door up the stairs then door to our room…lots of doors=lots of safety!) we have a big window that opens up to reveal another window of the tiny bed and breakfast/hotel and a beautiful window box full of pink and red flowers. ( of course later that night when I took a shower I stood in my towel and yelled “good night Florence!” to the world out our little window, who could resist?) We had soft towels for once, clean sheets, a great shower, and a bade, what more could we ask for? After an hour and a half nap we went out to explore the night and had just about the best night of our lives. We met a big group for dinner outside this cute restaurant and then of course went to find the best gelato in Florence, lead by Mark, the king of the Rick Steves Italian travel guide book. Truly this book has taught us all about the true meaning of good gelato, cheap food and secret entrances. So mark lead us to a beautiful dessert then marie and I and Kate and amy went to the Big famous bridge over the River to watch the sunset while the boys went to go give one of the girls a blessing who was feeling homesick and worn down. We came to find that Florence night life is awesome! On the bridge we sat down and listened to this awesome guitar player serenade the whole bridge that was full of locals and tourists just enjoying the night! We bought his CD..italian music? Duhhh! Then the boys found us and sat and listened with us for a while. I think they like hanging out with us because we make decisions fast and actually do them. So after a random group of candle bearing mourners walked across the bridge (while the kind Italian musician played soft music and we all sat quietly) we decided to go find this youth symphony that was supposed to be playing that night. Now I don’t think Ive made you see how awesome the night had already been. We knew we had a warm place to sleep that night, the music and atmosphere on the bridge was electric and light and fun and we just chatted and listened and watched the sun fall into the water with a brilliant sunset left behind and we were with people who were totally laid back and happily full of good gelato. So we walk a little ways to this little hole in the street that opens up to the beautiful grand church and inside is a free symphonic orchestra bit. Since it was nearing the end there were tons of seats open so we sit in the second row and start listening. Im not exaggerating when I say the first piece we heard made me cry it was so beautiful! We were all in shock! Me, mark, marie, and Heston just watched, jaws to the floor listening to these kids play that most moving song Ive ever heard. I was in Heaven. After that they played two upbeat pieces that included the trumpets on their feet and the clarinets dancing and the percussion were a show in and of themselves. We were all laughing we were so giddy. The music was awesome I cant even explain it!
Ok this is getting long sooorrry. So that night we were just in a fit back at the hotel and stayed up way to late chatting but it was a much needed girl time so that was fun. Then the next day we started out climbing the steps of the Duomo church. 436 steps I believe in a cramped, winding staircase big enough for one person wide all the way up to the top of the dome. We got so close to the intense paintings on the dome (complete with monsters eating men and demons cutting their skin in half to show their insides along with angelic children and thoughtful elders…) that we could have done a little damage if so inclined. So up the steps we went and at the top was the most beautiful view of Florence and the countryside surrounding it. Wow is all I can say. The view went for miles of what Italy is really supposed to look like. Terra cotta roofs and different colored houses with winding streets and designer shops and the ever present Catholic Cathedral looming above it all. After the long descent we walked around for a while down to a market that I had to buy this beautiful scarf from. I wanted a real silk scarf, but couldn’t fork out the euros, so I went for a simpler more funky colored one that I and 37 other girls are all in love with now. After that myself, marie,matt Mark, Heston and Marks sister Emily decided to strike out on our own to see the old prison in Florence. The building was awesome, but what was even cooler was the weapons room where me and the boys tried to decide which spear would do the most damage in battle and which we would prefer to use to kill and why…quite the interesting conversation pursued and I feel that if ever asked I would know exactly what kind of forked, winged, gun tipped spear I would like to use. Marvelous. But really looking at all the old armor and guns and saddles and equipment was way to cool and renaissancy to be true. Too neato. After this we went to a park and chilled for a bit, saw the famous house of Michelangelo (totally anticlimactic and quite boring with its plain façade and boring barred windows like everyone else’s house, its amazing what you decided to skip when a price to enter is involved) Then we went to see the house of the great Medici Family, the patrons of the arts and pretty much the rulers of Italy in their day and that was wayyyyy cool . It looks like the government still uses the old bank/house as a meeting place and it doubles as a museum to their genius. The man sure knew how to please his guests and colleagues and really knew how to convince them of his ways whilest also encouraging young artists (like Michelangelo) and performers like Catherine and her dance obsession. Dinner was awesome as me mark and marie decided to order three different things and split them making us the fullest we’d been in a while (they just don’t eat as much here and we get hungry! We have more like 5 meals a day, two of them often including gelato…)Then that night we watched the full sunset on the bridge as well as a bride and groom taking pics on the bridge. All of us girls cringed when we saw her long white trained dragging through the filthy streets of Florence already a sooty black rim around the edges. Just like the whole town her gown looked beautiful and glistening and classic at first, but with a close look the glisten is just a thick layer of sweat and the classic sense is attributed to the dirty film that covers every inch in the city. And yet it still holds its beautiful charm and romantic looks. The gorgeous night ended with my most expensive gelato here yet. 9 freaking euros that I thought was only going to be 5 at most…I was angry haha oh well you live life, then you die right?
The next mornings train ride went much smoother and we arrived in Venice on time and smelling a little better after a shower and a good nights sleep. We waited in a huge line of travelers to get rid of our bags for the day then set off on another amazing adventure. Now Venice ist eh place I would suggest for lovers, couples or just a day trip. Truly the most beautiful place in Italy ive seen so far. The water brings in a cool breeze to S.Marcos square and the pigeons seem to be friends with everyone, in the words of one small British boy to his sister “elli! Look! I made a new friend!” (say that with a tiny british boy accent and imagine an angelic face of a little bright eyed boy with a flying rat on his arm flapping around wildly) The coast comes right up to the steps during the day and the Gondolas bob up and down like old men chattering away all day. They remind me of the funny group of grandpas down an alley way in the Jewish Ghetto in Rome that just sit and talk madly with their hands chuckling and arguing together right before dinner time. We sat on the edge of the water and let it cool our scorching feet and dry legs. Then we decided to go into S.Marks cathedral but were discouraged by the huge line of people standing in the 90+ sunshine waiting. Miraculously there turns out to be a secret bag check across from the cathedral that is you check your bags there first you can get a pass that fast tracks you to the very front of the line and the kindly guard just takes off the big red rope and lets you in with a smile and a nod. WHAT!?!?! Did that really happen to us? Yes, yes it did, we freaked out because we got the star treatment and just skipped the miserable waiting! Freak we were like superstars bahahha. Thank you Rick Steves! The church was glorious. The floor was completely colored marble mosaics and the ceiling completely gold inlaid mosaics with marble portraits. It was just gorgeous. Though I did really want to cross over the other red ropes in to what looked to me like dungeons… someday. So then we wandered through the streets and looked into all the little glass shops and markets and had the best time. This is my kind of city, where artists are on every corner in every shop, blowing glass, shaping candels, painting masks and etching scenes of venice. One mask chop we went into had all these beautifully crafted, paper mache masks with intricate paint and detail as well as a couple metal lace masks and over the tob feathered pieces. I was in heaven and had to restrain myself not to buy one. It was more like a fairytale than reality and I really could’ve stayed for another two days. One thing we decided to do was take a water bus back to the train station that night, so after a delicious dinner of my first lasagna in Italy (the best ive ever had) we start walking toward the plaza where the ride starts with the sun set. We grab some famous gelato and head to the dock but unfortunately something amazing happens…it starts to rain. Hurray! Rain! We walk in it for a while licking our cones, happy to finally not be torched by the suns rays and cooling down a little. Then it starts to pour, as in pelt. The four of us girls and TJ scramble to the nearest doorway and huddle tight to protect our bags from the downpour. We laugh it off thinking it will stop soon. Just then something smacks me in the foot. Hail. Big, fat rock hard, icy hail comes at us from all directions banging into our faces and smacking us on the head and bouncing off our newly tanned feet. At this point we are all laughing hysterically thinking aloud that this cannot be happening right now. But sure enough through our screams we hear the people across our little hiding place chuckling at us and the tourists in the restaurant a little ways down taking videos and pictures of the soaking American girls screaming in the hailstorm. Probably one of my better moments Id say. The rain was hitting so hard that the little restaurant had to knock over some chairs and tables to shut the windows so the water wouldn’t get inside! Oh heavens just a hilarious turn of events on such a sunny gorgeous day. So wetter than a bathed pack of dogs we trudge up to the boat and find that the other group of girls had a similar, if not wetter experience and we all were quite a site to see. We hopped on the water bus and saw the rest of Florence on the Grand Canal out the back of the public transportation another group of girls later told us of their hailstorm experience mid-gondola ride and we had to admire the even more theatrical setting of their misfortune. The city at night was magical and the scenes were straight out of a picture book where the bright lights popped out over the water and the doors went right up to the water where well dressed couples waited on the water for a water taxi to pick them up for a night ride. Ah Venice, my kind of city.
The train station was terrifying. Random students and travelers slept on the floor or sat close in groups waiting for the night train and played poker or wrestled around us, the little BYU group (well mob like actually) of girls switching PJ shorts for skirts right there in the station, too cheap to pay the 80 cents for the bathroom and too afraid to leave the boys sight for too long. After we finally got on the train we realized that we had perhaps taken the wrong choice on this one. The train was cramped, hot smelly and ancient looking. And the people only added to the dimness. Think of Hogwarts express with only one side of small rooms and many, MANY more terrifying creepy men wandering the halls trying to talk to you. I walked into the car where the three of us girls were sitting and found a huge black women and an old Italian man with his little son sitting in our seats. I wasn’t really in the mood to negotiate so I announced loudly that these were our seats and they had to get out of the car right now because we had paid to sit in them. They all stared at me blankly then slowly removed themselves grumpily one by one. What the heck people Americans are NOT pushover, reserve your own dang seats! The one little Japanese guy (he was 23) who actually was in the right car chuckled as I ushered the unwanted creepers out of the car and said “they were in my seats too! Thank you!” haha we became good friends and I learned all about his studying in Stockholm and life in Tokyo where he lives but wishes he could go back to the Japanese countryside. Also about his love for harry potter and wide open landscapes…good guy. The two girls that ended up sitting in the car with us were so nice and studying in Madrid from Puerto Rico studying law. We all spoke English and were all well dressed and not terribly frightening as some of the people outside our little window were. (we closed the blinds ASAP when we realized that some sketchy man was staring into our compartment.) As I went to check on the other girls and find out where the boys were just in case I saw that the other cars were not so friendly as ours was and I felt bad for some of the girls who had to sit alone. Luckily the boys took charge and checked on us themselves a million times before they went to sleep, making sure no one was too freaked out or if they needed a sitting partner or to switch so as not to be alone they volunteered. Heston even went with me to check on maries car that was in a different part of the train. Gosh dang we are so lucky to have four very protective return missionaries that don’t take no for an answer for their girls…all 38 of us. Hahaha luckily there was only about 15 girls with us that night. After a little chat with our car we all settled down for some hidioderous “sleep” on the rickety loud train while lights of the multiple cities we passed flashed across our closed lids making us anxious and weary. Several times some strange man tried to walk in our car, perhaps looking for and open seat between stops? Each time heather said “escuzzi! And slammed the door in his face. We would have no strange men in our little haven except for the kind Japanese guy and our four body guards (whom the Puerto Rican girls adopted as their own as well “they look strong!” they said) Eventually, through a fit of sleep and dreams we arrived in Rome in time for the Metro to start up and bring us home again home again jiggidy jig. All was well with the world after I took a shower and rinsed the grime from the train and the dirty Venetian water off my body and tried to erase the stench coming off my limbs.
And so here I sit, so tired im starting to read my writing with a slight British accent and contemplating why I just ate three pieces of white bread, a spoonful of nutella and hazelnut wafers at 9 in the morning. Another glorious start to another glorious day.
Goodnight!
And now I have to check on my laundry that took 15 min. of pressing random buttons until it decided to start drizzling water into the eensy barrel…whirlpool Europe is SO not up to par!....yep,its still drizzling! Ah Success.
Alright so where do I even start? Oh yes forewarning, I just got home from Venice on the night train and had a total of about 3 hours of sleep to recover from the past week…so excuse my writing yes? So it is Saturday morning and actually the first cooler day ive seen here! Its miraculous! I think it rained here last night so that explains it. Its beautiful and breezy and all the old ladies are hanging out their table cloths and rugs to dry out the window. Someones baby us screaming its lungs out like it just got an ice cold bath, similar to my chilly shower this morning. But really who can deny any sort of shower when you’ve had the kind of week I have.
Tuedays night was the first adventure. We went as a group to the Roman Opera in the middle of some ancient ruins of Roman Baths. The ruins themselves were huge and looming and gave me some great ideas for the kind of bathroom I may want in the future…im really into the whole spa in your backyard thing, I think the Romans had the right idea. So we get to the place and its huge. The Stage is a tilted and raised platform painted a dramatic black white and red map like thing and the stadium seating is packed with perfumed ladies in their nicest summer furs and old men smoking cigs and looking sleepy. We of course are entirely underdressed but really just happy to be sitting down, even if it is in the last row on the far left side.
Side note- while we were waiting for our professor we saw this awesome fashion show being set up right next to the colosseum that ended right in the Triumphant Arch of Constantine! We sincerely wanted to join the sickly looking models but were appeased when we got to dance to the thumping rehearsal music and watch the designer coach the girls down the pre-runway show. Bizarre and unreal.
Back to the Opera. Three acts, two intermissions. Wow those things are boring! Now im just saying that the story lines are boring, the story could honestly be told in about 2 minutes, but the music on the other hand was incredible! The main woman was of course a little on the heavy side (which delighted all of us, because we conveniently knew when the play was over, because the fat lady had finally sung her last note) and her voice was perfect in every way, it was high and low and her range was awesome and her costumes (including a pick sequined number) were fantastic. The main guy was definitely my favorite though and completely stole the show every time he opened his mouth. It was just awesome in every way. Of course they threw in some special effects and some creepy priests to keep everyone awake. Like the dramatic stage being surrounded by a sudden ring of fire and the 10 soldiers shooting the loudest shotguns Ive ever heard and the live sheep bah-ing its head off while a little boy sang. And who could forget the epic murder of the villain by the heroine with a Candlestick in the shape of a symbolic cross. Just a whole myriad of wonderfulness really. OK that’s all I have to say about that.
Oh yeah, keep in mind that im using a lot of this blog for actual assignments for my writing class, so if I go into too much detail those of you who’ve taken a BYU English class will understand.
So, next morning we get up and ready to go on the train to Florence. Our little group of three gets on the metro to SURPRISE a malfunctioning train. The metro inches along the tracks and stops a bajillion times in random spots along the way. We start freaking out that we are going to miss our train so when we finally get off the supposed 15 min. ride that took us about 25 this time, we are booking it. We get to the train station and find that we have no idea how to read our tickets..American remember. We scramble around trying to figure it out and finally find this nice looking business man in a suit and tie that stops and helps us over to where we are supposed to be. I will forever be thankful to those people who sat in his meeting waiting for the kind gentleman at the train station helping the stupid American girls find their platform. Once we start calming down we realize that ANOTHER SURPRISE! No one else in the group is there yet! We get on the train and slowly the story unfolds about a group of girls who also experienced train difficulties (it was a rough day for the metro system) and ended up getting split up, some people having other peoples backpacks. A.k.a entire lives with them and girls sprinting onto the first car on the train at the last minute and crying drama queens that were nervous enough to separate completely from the group and basically a full on fiasco. I found it quite amusing.
Needless to say we all made it to Florence all right except of course the epic other half of my apartment that has yet to be on time for anything and actually missed an entire museum in Florence, wow they are SO COOL! Kill me.
So we went to the Uffizi museum where the famous Leonardo, Michelangelo and Botticelli works are and saw beautiful things as well as several marble heads…I swear every person in ancient Rome has a freaking stone head of him or herself in some random museum. Cant they just keep a couple and chuck the rest? Shoot.My favorites in this museum were the Venus in springtime, or the birth of Venus, and also some huge sketch by Leonardo davinci that was gorgeous on a big canvas with sepia colored paint or ink or something *kind of like the stuff the actor uses in Everafter) it was of the Nativity scene and it was sooo awe inspiring I could have looked at it forever and never have seen it all. After that we went along to see the giant statue of David, and giant it was! Though a little disproportionate…it was still a site to see! I still don’t understand how Mike got up there to sculpt that perfect jaw and curly locks, the statue is about 13 feet of super naked hunk! Of course one of my roommates got a nice postcard of his tight behind to send to her missionary…I passed on that opportunity (how funny would it be if she sent it saying “my dream butt. Work hard.” Bahahahahahahah)
Ohp, quickl break, gotta go push more random buttons to drain my laundry of the dirty water into the sink next to it…weird.
So after this hilariousness we find our hotel and realize that it’s the most picturesque, quaint little place run by this little vibrant Italian lady who shakes all of our hands and is thrilled to tell us anything she possibly can about the city. We get our 4 keys to the four different doors to the hotel (it was on some little street with the huge doors and gates inside that and door up the stairs then door to our room…lots of doors=lots of safety!) we have a big window that opens up to reveal another window of the tiny bed and breakfast/hotel and a beautiful window box full of pink and red flowers. ( of course later that night when I took a shower I stood in my towel and yelled “good night Florence!” to the world out our little window, who could resist?) We had soft towels for once, clean sheets, a great shower, and a bade, what more could we ask for? After an hour and a half nap we went out to explore the night and had just about the best night of our lives. We met a big group for dinner outside this cute restaurant and then of course went to find the best gelato in Florence, lead by Mark, the king of the Rick Steves Italian travel guide book. Truly this book has taught us all about the true meaning of good gelato, cheap food and secret entrances. So mark lead us to a beautiful dessert then marie and I and Kate and amy went to the Big famous bridge over the River to watch the sunset while the boys went to go give one of the girls a blessing who was feeling homesick and worn down. We came to find that Florence night life is awesome! On the bridge we sat down and listened to this awesome guitar player serenade the whole bridge that was full of locals and tourists just enjoying the night! We bought his CD..italian music? Duhhh! Then the boys found us and sat and listened with us for a while. I think they like hanging out with us because we make decisions fast and actually do them. So after a random group of candle bearing mourners walked across the bridge (while the kind Italian musician played soft music and we all sat quietly) we decided to go find this youth symphony that was supposed to be playing that night. Now I don’t think Ive made you see how awesome the night had already been. We knew we had a warm place to sleep that night, the music and atmosphere on the bridge was electric and light and fun and we just chatted and listened and watched the sun fall into the water with a brilliant sunset left behind and we were with people who were totally laid back and happily full of good gelato. So we walk a little ways to this little hole in the street that opens up to the beautiful grand church and inside is a free symphonic orchestra bit. Since it was nearing the end there were tons of seats open so we sit in the second row and start listening. Im not exaggerating when I say the first piece we heard made me cry it was so beautiful! We were all in shock! Me, mark, marie, and Heston just watched, jaws to the floor listening to these kids play that most moving song Ive ever heard. I was in Heaven. After that they played two upbeat pieces that included the trumpets on their feet and the clarinets dancing and the percussion were a show in and of themselves. We were all laughing we were so giddy. The music was awesome I cant even explain it!
Ok this is getting long sooorrry. So that night we were just in a fit back at the hotel and stayed up way to late chatting but it was a much needed girl time so that was fun. Then the next day we started out climbing the steps of the Duomo church. 436 steps I believe in a cramped, winding staircase big enough for one person wide all the way up to the top of the dome. We got so close to the intense paintings on the dome (complete with monsters eating men and demons cutting their skin in half to show their insides along with angelic children and thoughtful elders…) that we could have done a little damage if so inclined. So up the steps we went and at the top was the most beautiful view of Florence and the countryside surrounding it. Wow is all I can say. The view went for miles of what Italy is really supposed to look like. Terra cotta roofs and different colored houses with winding streets and designer shops and the ever present Catholic Cathedral looming above it all. After the long descent we walked around for a while down to a market that I had to buy this beautiful scarf from. I wanted a real silk scarf, but couldn’t fork out the euros, so I went for a simpler more funky colored one that I and 37 other girls are all in love with now. After that myself, marie,matt Mark, Heston and Marks sister Emily decided to strike out on our own to see the old prison in Florence. The building was awesome, but what was even cooler was the weapons room where me and the boys tried to decide which spear would do the most damage in battle and which we would prefer to use to kill and why…quite the interesting conversation pursued and I feel that if ever asked I would know exactly what kind of forked, winged, gun tipped spear I would like to use. Marvelous. But really looking at all the old armor and guns and saddles and equipment was way to cool and renaissancy to be true. Too neato. After this we went to a park and chilled for a bit, saw the famous house of Michelangelo (totally anticlimactic and quite boring with its plain façade and boring barred windows like everyone else’s house, its amazing what you decided to skip when a price to enter is involved) Then we went to see the house of the great Medici Family, the patrons of the arts and pretty much the rulers of Italy in their day and that was wayyyyy cool . It looks like the government still uses the old bank/house as a meeting place and it doubles as a museum to their genius. The man sure knew how to please his guests and colleagues and really knew how to convince them of his ways whilest also encouraging young artists (like Michelangelo) and performers like Catherine and her dance obsession. Dinner was awesome as me mark and marie decided to order three different things and split them making us the fullest we’d been in a while (they just don’t eat as much here and we get hungry! We have more like 5 meals a day, two of them often including gelato…)Then that night we watched the full sunset on the bridge as well as a bride and groom taking pics on the bridge. All of us girls cringed when we saw her long white trained dragging through the filthy streets of Florence already a sooty black rim around the edges. Just like the whole town her gown looked beautiful and glistening and classic at first, but with a close look the glisten is just a thick layer of sweat and the classic sense is attributed to the dirty film that covers every inch in the city. And yet it still holds its beautiful charm and romantic looks. The gorgeous night ended with my most expensive gelato here yet. 9 freaking euros that I thought was only going to be 5 at most…I was angry haha oh well you live life, then you die right?
The next mornings train ride went much smoother and we arrived in Venice on time and smelling a little better after a shower and a good nights sleep. We waited in a huge line of travelers to get rid of our bags for the day then set off on another amazing adventure. Now Venice ist eh place I would suggest for lovers, couples or just a day trip. Truly the most beautiful place in Italy ive seen so far. The water brings in a cool breeze to S.Marcos square and the pigeons seem to be friends with everyone, in the words of one small British boy to his sister “elli! Look! I made a new friend!” (say that with a tiny british boy accent and imagine an angelic face of a little bright eyed boy with a flying rat on his arm flapping around wildly) The coast comes right up to the steps during the day and the Gondolas bob up and down like old men chattering away all day. They remind me of the funny group of grandpas down an alley way in the Jewish Ghetto in Rome that just sit and talk madly with their hands chuckling and arguing together right before dinner time. We sat on the edge of the water and let it cool our scorching feet and dry legs. Then we decided to go into S.Marks cathedral but were discouraged by the huge line of people standing in the 90+ sunshine waiting. Miraculously there turns out to be a secret bag check across from the cathedral that is you check your bags there first you can get a pass that fast tracks you to the very front of the line and the kindly guard just takes off the big red rope and lets you in with a smile and a nod. WHAT!?!?! Did that really happen to us? Yes, yes it did, we freaked out because we got the star treatment and just skipped the miserable waiting! Freak we were like superstars bahahha. Thank you Rick Steves! The church was glorious. The floor was completely colored marble mosaics and the ceiling completely gold inlaid mosaics with marble portraits. It was just gorgeous. Though I did really want to cross over the other red ropes in to what looked to me like dungeons… someday. So then we wandered through the streets and looked into all the little glass shops and markets and had the best time. This is my kind of city, where artists are on every corner in every shop, blowing glass, shaping candels, painting masks and etching scenes of venice. One mask chop we went into had all these beautifully crafted, paper mache masks with intricate paint and detail as well as a couple metal lace masks and over the tob feathered pieces. I was in heaven and had to restrain myself not to buy one. It was more like a fairytale than reality and I really could’ve stayed for another two days. One thing we decided to do was take a water bus back to the train station that night, so after a delicious dinner of my first lasagna in Italy (the best ive ever had) we start walking toward the plaza where the ride starts with the sun set. We grab some famous gelato and head to the dock but unfortunately something amazing happens…it starts to rain. Hurray! Rain! We walk in it for a while licking our cones, happy to finally not be torched by the suns rays and cooling down a little. Then it starts to pour, as in pelt. The four of us girls and TJ scramble to the nearest doorway and huddle tight to protect our bags from the downpour. We laugh it off thinking it will stop soon. Just then something smacks me in the foot. Hail. Big, fat rock hard, icy hail comes at us from all directions banging into our faces and smacking us on the head and bouncing off our newly tanned feet. At this point we are all laughing hysterically thinking aloud that this cannot be happening right now. But sure enough through our screams we hear the people across our little hiding place chuckling at us and the tourists in the restaurant a little ways down taking videos and pictures of the soaking American girls screaming in the hailstorm. Probably one of my better moments Id say. The rain was hitting so hard that the little restaurant had to knock over some chairs and tables to shut the windows so the water wouldn’t get inside! Oh heavens just a hilarious turn of events on such a sunny gorgeous day. So wetter than a bathed pack of dogs we trudge up to the boat and find that the other group of girls had a similar, if not wetter experience and we all were quite a site to see. We hopped on the water bus and saw the rest of Florence on the Grand Canal out the back of the public transportation another group of girls later told us of their hailstorm experience mid-gondola ride and we had to admire the even more theatrical setting of their misfortune. The city at night was magical and the scenes were straight out of a picture book where the bright lights popped out over the water and the doors went right up to the water where well dressed couples waited on the water for a water taxi to pick them up for a night ride. Ah Venice, my kind of city.
The train station was terrifying. Random students and travelers slept on the floor or sat close in groups waiting for the night train and played poker or wrestled around us, the little BYU group (well mob like actually) of girls switching PJ shorts for skirts right there in the station, too cheap to pay the 80 cents for the bathroom and too afraid to leave the boys sight for too long. After we finally got on the train we realized that we had perhaps taken the wrong choice on this one. The train was cramped, hot smelly and ancient looking. And the people only added to the dimness. Think of Hogwarts express with only one side of small rooms and many, MANY more terrifying creepy men wandering the halls trying to talk to you. I walked into the car where the three of us girls were sitting and found a huge black women and an old Italian man with his little son sitting in our seats. I wasn’t really in the mood to negotiate so I announced loudly that these were our seats and they had to get out of the car right now because we had paid to sit in them. They all stared at me blankly then slowly removed themselves grumpily one by one. What the heck people Americans are NOT pushover, reserve your own dang seats! The one little Japanese guy (he was 23) who actually was in the right car chuckled as I ushered the unwanted creepers out of the car and said “they were in my seats too! Thank you!” haha we became good friends and I learned all about his studying in Stockholm and life in Tokyo where he lives but wishes he could go back to the Japanese countryside. Also about his love for harry potter and wide open landscapes…good guy. The two girls that ended up sitting in the car with us were so nice and studying in Madrid from Puerto Rico studying law. We all spoke English and were all well dressed and not terribly frightening as some of the people outside our little window were. (we closed the blinds ASAP when we realized that some sketchy man was staring into our compartment.) As I went to check on the other girls and find out where the boys were just in case I saw that the other cars were not so friendly as ours was and I felt bad for some of the girls who had to sit alone. Luckily the boys took charge and checked on us themselves a million times before they went to sleep, making sure no one was too freaked out or if they needed a sitting partner or to switch so as not to be alone they volunteered. Heston even went with me to check on maries car that was in a different part of the train. Gosh dang we are so lucky to have four very protective return missionaries that don’t take no for an answer for their girls…all 38 of us. Hahaha luckily there was only about 15 girls with us that night. After a little chat with our car we all settled down for some hidioderous “sleep” on the rickety loud train while lights of the multiple cities we passed flashed across our closed lids making us anxious and weary. Several times some strange man tried to walk in our car, perhaps looking for and open seat between stops? Each time heather said “escuzzi! And slammed the door in his face. We would have no strange men in our little haven except for the kind Japanese guy and our four body guards (whom the Puerto Rican girls adopted as their own as well “they look strong!” they said) Eventually, through a fit of sleep and dreams we arrived in Rome in time for the Metro to start up and bring us home again home again jiggidy jig. All was well with the world after I took a shower and rinsed the grime from the train and the dirty Venetian water off my body and tried to erase the stench coming off my limbs.
And so here I sit, so tired im starting to read my writing with a slight British accent and contemplating why I just ate three pieces of white bread, a spoonful of nutella and hazelnut wafers at 9 in the morning. Another glorious start to another glorious day.
Goodnight!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sugar, love, happiness
Today has been a day of sugar love and happiness. oh yeah and now that all of these people are reading this im pretty sure its gonna be boring cuz im all aware....sorry mateys
Last night was grand, i sat in bed for two hours and eventually woke up and yelled at my roomates :/ ha they were such good sports though and when i woke up i had the cutest note under my floor saying "you are so great thanks for letting us know how you felt in a great way without getting mean" bahahahah i was like shoot im pretty sure i yelled but they were so nice about it i love it.
ok so today was marvy. this morning we went on a church tour and saw these crazy churches that were so ornate and beautiful and freaking old. So we went into one that is from the 1st century A.D and this volunteer church keeper started talking to us and got soo excited that we were students from America and here in Rome for so long and getting the real experience and he was like "ok, here what i do, where your professor?" so we got Holzopfal and the guy like got out this key and took us to the back part of the chapel and we got to walk around the back stairs and see the mosaic up close, the oldest mosaic in Rome. Freaking Awesome, THEN he was like "ok you come back next weeks in group of five and I take you down to the basement and show you the house where Paul stayed with the church in Roma" freak saweet! it was awesome he was all excited to take us to the secret places! ugh im pumped.
k so then me and my friend marie just kind of snuck off and went on our own little adventure through Rome! We sat on this beautiful street full of cafes and shops and ate lunch under a little umbrella...dont worry we totally took pics because the moment was perfect and delicious. so then the rest of the day we just walked around and shopped and looked in stores and just had nowhere to go and nowhere to be. twas awesome. Then we ended up at the Trevi Fountain and just hung out and ate gelato (hazelnut and nutella...) and wrote some stuff and just sat and people watched for a while. yeah thats right, i just hung out at the Trevi fountain today, what up.
then we went to the Pantheon and met up with the boys and a couple other girls and took the 360 tour. for real that was the biggest dome ive ever seen in my life. The place is BC! The columns that hold it up alone are ginormous then you get inside and everyone you see just kind of stopd abrouptly and slowly enter. Its massive! If i could fill up that huge space with anything it would be nutella (I asked marie that question and she gave the perfect witty answer of "dancing, just one huge ball" ugh love her) anyway so this place has been there before Christ and its in awesome condition becuase the Romans ended up turning it into a catholic church so it was saved while the rest of the ruins over in Palantine hill were stripped for everything they were worth and used other places. It was so massive I cant even explain it, and the occulum shined down on us like a big giant eye watching us. We snuck into a little english tour and the guy said that at first they had trouble with rain coming in so they just put 6 little holes at the bottom of the Occulum and drained the water out. Shoot the Romans knew how to work their water.Every day i am even more thankful for free fountains in random streets, i wash everything, arms legs, face, and fill up my water bottle, fantastically convenient.
so when we were done being in awe, the boys basically dragged us ot the metro to get to some other church to meet the whole group and we squished in like sardines in a sweltering can, grand. We made it to the church where the popes used to be crowned or coronated or ordained or whatever and looked around that a little.
side note-- i never really realized how much we owe the catholic church. We have this idea that they are the devil apostate church but really they just had a fallen church and tried to pick up the pieces and put it back together, they just missed the light sadly. But without them we wouldn't have the bible, Joseph smith never would have read james, we would all be speaking arabic and reading the Quaran and Id be stuck wearing those awful veils over my head and crying secretly about my sweaty sarong...just overall a bad plan ya know? anyway I know we are mormon and we come from a protestant background, but we've got to cut the cat-lickers some slack! oh shoot can i say that? eh its my blog. but i really do have more respect for them being here, plus they saved a lot of the history that the Romans left behind, of course they destroyed an awful lot too...but im trying to be positive here!
annyywayy, so then we went to the sacred steps; the stairs where apparently Christ walked up Pilots house and was tried. Some queen and Constantine brought the marble back from Jerusalem and it is now covered by wooden planks to perserve...load of crap? I think so, but still it was heart breaking to see like 20 people on their knees going up the stairs one by one saying the same prayer every step and just knowing that it was totally worthless and nothing would come of it except sore knees and a pagan prayer stuck in your head…sad story.
Another thing that’s sad are confessionals, holy cows who’s idea was that? Way sad and kinda creepy. One of my roommates sat down in one (shes wild and will try anything) she was like “ok so ive never done confessional before how do we do this? And the priest was like, well you have to be a catholic, and she said “ohhh well Im atheist! But I still want to try!” and he was like, oh youre not ready youre not ready, and totally left the stall after her! Ha poor old guy.
Ok so anyway great night we then played some game outside the church and got to know each other a little better, then hopped on the metro and laughed loudly like Americans do talking about fuzzy peaches and their relation to small gerbils or rodents and how we enjoy the taste of nutella on English muffins. We ate dinner at this tiny pizzeria next to our apartment (I totally ate mushrooms everyone, way good here) then went to the bakery across the street for nutella filled cookies, ugh I love that bakery place. Then the fruit man opened his store for us and some woman told us that he wanted to ask us to go out with him tonight…we declined claiming our program you too vigorous…sad day, I love that fruit man. Oh well my Italian Lover is out there somewhere!!! Bahahaha ok im so tired I can barely stand it. This week we are going to Florence and Venice to I better get some rest! Love and miss you all
Ciao, ti amo!
Last night was grand, i sat in bed for two hours and eventually woke up and yelled at my roomates :/ ha they were such good sports though and when i woke up i had the cutest note under my floor saying "you are so great thanks for letting us know how you felt in a great way without getting mean" bahahahah i was like shoot im pretty sure i yelled but they were so nice about it i love it.
ok so today was marvy. this morning we went on a church tour and saw these crazy churches that were so ornate and beautiful and freaking old. So we went into one that is from the 1st century A.D and this volunteer church keeper started talking to us and got soo excited that we were students from America and here in Rome for so long and getting the real experience and he was like "ok, here what i do, where your professor?" so we got Holzopfal and the guy like got out this key and took us to the back part of the chapel and we got to walk around the back stairs and see the mosaic up close, the oldest mosaic in Rome. Freaking Awesome, THEN he was like "ok you come back next weeks in group of five and I take you down to the basement and show you the house where Paul stayed with the church in Roma" freak saweet! it was awesome he was all excited to take us to the secret places! ugh im pumped.
k so then me and my friend marie just kind of snuck off and went on our own little adventure through Rome! We sat on this beautiful street full of cafes and shops and ate lunch under a little umbrella...dont worry we totally took pics because the moment was perfect and delicious. so then the rest of the day we just walked around and shopped and looked in stores and just had nowhere to go and nowhere to be. twas awesome. Then we ended up at the Trevi Fountain and just hung out and ate gelato (hazelnut and nutella...) and wrote some stuff and just sat and people watched for a while. yeah thats right, i just hung out at the Trevi fountain today, what up.
then we went to the Pantheon and met up with the boys and a couple other girls and took the 360 tour. for real that was the biggest dome ive ever seen in my life. The place is BC! The columns that hold it up alone are ginormous then you get inside and everyone you see just kind of stopd abrouptly and slowly enter. Its massive! If i could fill up that huge space with anything it would be nutella (I asked marie that question and she gave the perfect witty answer of "dancing, just one huge ball" ugh love her) anyway so this place has been there before Christ and its in awesome condition becuase the Romans ended up turning it into a catholic church so it was saved while the rest of the ruins over in Palantine hill were stripped for everything they were worth and used other places. It was so massive I cant even explain it, and the occulum shined down on us like a big giant eye watching us. We snuck into a little english tour and the guy said that at first they had trouble with rain coming in so they just put 6 little holes at the bottom of the Occulum and drained the water out. Shoot the Romans knew how to work their water.Every day i am even more thankful for free fountains in random streets, i wash everything, arms legs, face, and fill up my water bottle, fantastically convenient.
so when we were done being in awe, the boys basically dragged us ot the metro to get to some other church to meet the whole group and we squished in like sardines in a sweltering can, grand. We made it to the church where the popes used to be crowned or coronated or ordained or whatever and looked around that a little.
side note-- i never really realized how much we owe the catholic church. We have this idea that they are the devil apostate church but really they just had a fallen church and tried to pick up the pieces and put it back together, they just missed the light sadly. But without them we wouldn't have the bible, Joseph smith never would have read james, we would all be speaking arabic and reading the Quaran and Id be stuck wearing those awful veils over my head and crying secretly about my sweaty sarong...just overall a bad plan ya know? anyway I know we are mormon and we come from a protestant background, but we've got to cut the cat-lickers some slack! oh shoot can i say that? eh its my blog. but i really do have more respect for them being here, plus they saved a lot of the history that the Romans left behind, of course they destroyed an awful lot too...but im trying to be positive here!
annyywayy, so then we went to the sacred steps; the stairs where apparently Christ walked up Pilots house and was tried. Some queen and Constantine brought the marble back from Jerusalem and it is now covered by wooden planks to perserve...load of crap? I think so, but still it was heart breaking to see like 20 people on their knees going up the stairs one by one saying the same prayer every step and just knowing that it was totally worthless and nothing would come of it except sore knees and a pagan prayer stuck in your head…sad story.
Another thing that’s sad are confessionals, holy cows who’s idea was that? Way sad and kinda creepy. One of my roommates sat down in one (shes wild and will try anything) she was like “ok so ive never done confessional before how do we do this? And the priest was like, well you have to be a catholic, and she said “ohhh well Im atheist! But I still want to try!” and he was like, oh youre not ready youre not ready, and totally left the stall after her! Ha poor old guy.
Ok so anyway great night we then played some game outside the church and got to know each other a little better, then hopped on the metro and laughed loudly like Americans do talking about fuzzy peaches and their relation to small gerbils or rodents and how we enjoy the taste of nutella on English muffins. We ate dinner at this tiny pizzeria next to our apartment (I totally ate mushrooms everyone, way good here) then went to the bakery across the street for nutella filled cookies, ugh I love that bakery place. Then the fruit man opened his store for us and some woman told us that he wanted to ask us to go out with him tonight…we declined claiming our program you too vigorous…sad day, I love that fruit man. Oh well my Italian Lover is out there somewhere!!! Bahahaha ok im so tired I can barely stand it. This week we are going to Florence and Venice to I better get some rest! Love and miss you all
Ciao, ti amo!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
The first 100 miles
I feel like I haven’t written anything for days, but its really only been two! Gosh dang its so hard to keep track of the days and how much time has passed! I feel like ive been here forever but its only been like 5 days! We have done SO FREAKING MUCH in the past 5 days that my feet are starting to look more like ground beef…for real. We walk all over the place and these streets are not our nice paved ones in Utah, they’re the ancient stones placed by the Roman government in the first couple of centuries….a little on the uneven side to say the least. But its totally worth it to walk on those stones, its like I am now part of Romes history because I walked on the same stones they did. Wow crazy.
Ok so the last thing I think I talked about was the colosseum yeah? Ok so the next day we went to this great market in the CampeFiodori…or something like that anyways it was in the Jewish ghetto, oh yes there is one! And the market was beautiful! I got the most delicious white nectarine the size of my hand and it just dripped everywhere and was glorious. Then we got all this dried and sugared fruit that was to die for and great for snacking. I think I drink about 15 liters of water a day no joke. I get SO thirsty in the sun and walking! Thankfully there are random public fountains all over the place, just these ancient fountains spurting water out! People wash their feet in the ones on the ground and then the bigger ones people fill up water bottles and just drink straight out of them. I was a little opposed at first, but after you learn that there are no such things s water fountains in Rome you get over it rull fast. Plus its clean and cold and fresh.
Ok so moving on with the day that afternoon we went to these awesome museums with a million statues in the Victor Emmanuel building I think…hunh I should really know but I cant remember. Wait totally got it, the Musei Capitolini. It was gorgey of course and everything was over the top and they kept yelling at us for using flash photos…soorryyy. So there was this awesome view of the ruins so we were up there and this English guard was like “hey girls where are you from” “America, Utah” we say. “Oh do you know the Amish!” “uh…no? We are Mormons not Amish.” “Ohhhh you are the girls that dont have sex before you’re married!” “ahahahah yeah that’s us!!!” “Wow you girls don’t know what you’re missing!” “Well the boys do it too! And that’s why we get married early!” said I ahahahahhahaha I totally said that and then the girls I was with were like nuuhnh! Bahahahah it was so funny. So after chatting for a while with this awesome guard he was like alright girls be good until youre married! So awesome im glad that’s how they know us right.
On SAaturday we woke up obnoxiously early and headed out to the Spanish Steps. Our proff.Dr.Hatch (who is pretty much my favorite person in the whole wide world) talked to us about the steps and how in WWII aly soldiers slept on the steps and in the Piazza and it looked like a thousand soldiers had died. It was such a great sight because the English (and American) had finally returned to the heart of English speaking Rome. Of course the Shelley and keats museum was there and Babingtons tea house too, but we didn’t go in those. We did hope on some escalators and go to the Borghese Museum and gardends though! Wow talk about statues….there were a ton of them. Bernini statues up the wazoo. The Borghese villa was so elaborate and we tried to imagine what every room may have been back when that family lived there. My favorite sculptures were first the one of David throwing a sling. His face was super handsome and concentrated and pained almost and we really hadn’t seen many emotional sculptures so that was neat, then the one of the girl turning into a tree before hermes catches her and steals here away. Shoot wish I could remember her name. anyway, the sculptor portrayed roots coming from her toes and leaves coming from her hands, it was gorgeous! After the museum we (me and my friend marie) joined up with some of the guys and a few girls and went back to the Spanish steps to go down the most eexpensive store in rome. Holy Crap in a dish that road made me salivate….weird. Everything was dripping with diamonds and cash and fancy fancy. Some names you might recognize…Doce&Gabbanna, Cartier, Maxmara,Gucci, Prada, Valentino, Giorgio Armani, to name a few. I almost died I just wanted to go into every store! Unfortunately every store has a doorman, yes a man who stands right in front and checks out the people who come in judging to see if they will really buy or just are a nuisance to society. So we didn’t go in any, but we did take fancy pics lol.
So then we got some lunch and some stamps (the lunch guy asked us if we liked Obama…I said no and then he didn’t talk to me anymore, bahahahahha.) and then went on a gelato hunt and got some dang good stuff. And yes I have eaten gelato every day since ive been here, even in Austria. You don’t undertand! Its everywhere!!! I Just cant help myself! So after that we were all pooped so we went back to the Borghese park and took a rest in the grass. The un kept following me and a bird tried to eat me..but I did do a great sketch of a lightpost! Random I know but it was just neat ok!
Quickie- one of the guys here was in Michael Rushton’s mish and is in love with him. So ooi talked to him about it and we were telling the whole twisted story to marie and it was sooo fun hearing it from his POV. He is marvelous and I love him we are buds now. Yesterday he was like “Sydney you act just like Elder Daly!” (Sydney whites other mish) ahaha he was so insistent and kept saying that even the way I talk and move are just like him! He was like, you should hang out with him when he gets home!! Ahahah that so funny. So apparently me and elder daly could be good friends, we shall see.
So that night a huge group of us went to the Hard Rock café Roma! Ha! So much fun to eat a giant burger and water with ice! No joke I was sick as a dog after I ate that. That was the most food id eaten all week and my stomach was sooo angry with me. It was getting used to thin pizza and fruit and pasta. We have this awesome little fruit market by our house that sells every fruit imaginable for super super super cheap and the guy loves us and helps us out. Its marvelous.
After burgers we went on a night hike around rome and went to the pantheon and the trevi fountain and the Piazza Novona. We also stopped by the most famous gelato place in Rome but it was PACKED so I didn’t get tp partake, but I will I promise!
Aight this is obnoxiously long, sorry mates. Peace love and roma
<3 syd
p.s- my cousin Reese has brain cancer and has surgery tomorrow. keep him in your prayers please! love you reese!
Ok so the last thing I think I talked about was the colosseum yeah? Ok so the next day we went to this great market in the CampeFiodori…or something like that anyways it was in the Jewish ghetto, oh yes there is one! And the market was beautiful! I got the most delicious white nectarine the size of my hand and it just dripped everywhere and was glorious. Then we got all this dried and sugared fruit that was to die for and great for snacking. I think I drink about 15 liters of water a day no joke. I get SO thirsty in the sun and walking! Thankfully there are random public fountains all over the place, just these ancient fountains spurting water out! People wash their feet in the ones on the ground and then the bigger ones people fill up water bottles and just drink straight out of them. I was a little opposed at first, but after you learn that there are no such things s water fountains in Rome you get over it rull fast. Plus its clean and cold and fresh.
Ok so moving on with the day that afternoon we went to these awesome museums with a million statues in the Victor Emmanuel building I think…hunh I should really know but I cant remember. Wait totally got it, the Musei Capitolini. It was gorgey of course and everything was over the top and they kept yelling at us for using flash photos…soorryyy. So there was this awesome view of the ruins so we were up there and this English guard was like “hey girls where are you from” “America, Utah” we say. “Oh do you know the Amish!” “uh…no? We are Mormons not Amish.” “Ohhhh you are the girls that dont have sex before you’re married!” “ahahahah yeah that’s us!!!” “Wow you girls don’t know what you’re missing!” “Well the boys do it too! And that’s why we get married early!” said I ahahahahhahaha I totally said that and then the girls I was with were like nuuhnh! Bahahahah it was so funny. So after chatting for a while with this awesome guard he was like alright girls be good until youre married! So awesome im glad that’s how they know us right.
On SAaturday we woke up obnoxiously early and headed out to the Spanish Steps. Our proff.Dr.Hatch (who is pretty much my favorite person in the whole wide world) talked to us about the steps and how in WWII aly soldiers slept on the steps and in the Piazza and it looked like a thousand soldiers had died. It was such a great sight because the English (and American) had finally returned to the heart of English speaking Rome. Of course the Shelley and keats museum was there and Babingtons tea house too, but we didn’t go in those. We did hope on some escalators and go to the Borghese Museum and gardends though! Wow talk about statues….there were a ton of them. Bernini statues up the wazoo. The Borghese villa was so elaborate and we tried to imagine what every room may have been back when that family lived there. My favorite sculptures were first the one of David throwing a sling. His face was super handsome and concentrated and pained almost and we really hadn’t seen many emotional sculptures so that was neat, then the one of the girl turning into a tree before hermes catches her and steals here away. Shoot wish I could remember her name. anyway, the sculptor portrayed roots coming from her toes and leaves coming from her hands, it was gorgeous! After the museum we (me and my friend marie) joined up with some of the guys and a few girls and went back to the Spanish steps to go down the most eexpensive store in rome. Holy Crap in a dish that road made me salivate….weird. Everything was dripping with diamonds and cash and fancy fancy. Some names you might recognize…Doce&Gabbanna, Cartier, Maxmara,Gucci, Prada, Valentino, Giorgio Armani, to name a few. I almost died I just wanted to go into every store! Unfortunately every store has a doorman, yes a man who stands right in front and checks out the people who come in judging to see if they will really buy or just are a nuisance to society. So we didn’t go in any, but we did take fancy pics lol.
So then we got some lunch and some stamps (the lunch guy asked us if we liked Obama…I said no and then he didn’t talk to me anymore, bahahahahha.) and then went on a gelato hunt and got some dang good stuff. And yes I have eaten gelato every day since ive been here, even in Austria. You don’t undertand! Its everywhere!!! I Just cant help myself! So after that we were all pooped so we went back to the Borghese park and took a rest in the grass. The un kept following me and a bird tried to eat me..but I did do a great sketch of a lightpost! Random I know but it was just neat ok!
Quickie- one of the guys here was in Michael Rushton’s mish and is in love with him. So ooi talked to him about it and we were telling the whole twisted story to marie and it was sooo fun hearing it from his POV. He is marvelous and I love him we are buds now. Yesterday he was like “Sydney you act just like Elder Daly!” (Sydney whites other mish) ahaha he was so insistent and kept saying that even the way I talk and move are just like him! He was like, you should hang out with him when he gets home!! Ahahah that so funny. So apparently me and elder daly could be good friends, we shall see.
So that night a huge group of us went to the Hard Rock café Roma! Ha! So much fun to eat a giant burger and water with ice! No joke I was sick as a dog after I ate that. That was the most food id eaten all week and my stomach was sooo angry with me. It was getting used to thin pizza and fruit and pasta. We have this awesome little fruit market by our house that sells every fruit imaginable for super super super cheap and the guy loves us and helps us out. Its marvelous.
After burgers we went on a night hike around rome and went to the pantheon and the trevi fountain and the Piazza Novona. We also stopped by the most famous gelato place in Rome but it was PACKED so I didn’t get tp partake, but I will I promise!
Aight this is obnoxiously long, sorry mates. Peace love and roma
<3 syd
p.s- my cousin Reese has brain cancer and has surgery tomorrow. keep him in your prayers please! love you reese!
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