Leaving Roma today is sad and bittersweet all at the same time. The trip has been a shmorgashboard of emotions (haha) but I had the time of my life here.
Arrivederci, Roma!
The city of warm embraces
The city that I love!
xoxoxo
See you in the States!
Kristen
ps I will update on Venezia when in New York
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Nothing like needing to be awake in 4 hours...
Four hours from this very minute I will be waking up (if in fact I decide to go to sleep) to get on a plane from Ciampino to Venezia (Venice)!! I'm so excited, I've always wanted to go on a gondola ride in Venice and I've heard the glass blowing there is amazing.
Tonight we went down to Piazza Navona and ate at a little restaurant and it reminds me of the Billy Joel song which has become our anthem of sorts. Then we wandered around the Piazza where they sell the fake Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Guess, Fendi, etc...bags...I bought a Prada bag for 20 euro and it's huge so it will help me transport souveneirs back to the States.
I come home in a week and that is crazy to me. I feel like I just got here and I really love Roma so much. AMO ROMA!! It's going to be sad to leave, we don't even like to talk about it. We've made friends and just have had a great time. I wouldn't have changed any of this for the world. It's been a heck of an experience.
As far as this blog goes, I think it's been a decent way of keeping you up to date on my life and happenings in Italia and hopefully you aren't upset with the lack of captions on my Webshots photos...slowly but surely they will get done, but I will probably finish when I am back in the States. I do a little bit everyday but I really don't want to spend too too much time on them with it being my last week here. Sunday will be a great opportunity to get some more pictures uploaded from this weekend and add some more captions, as we will be returning to Roma at around 10am.
Stay tuned for more!
Buono sera! Ciao!
xo,
Kristen
Tonight we went down to Piazza Navona and ate at a little restaurant and it reminds me of the Billy Joel song which has become our anthem of sorts. Then we wandered around the Piazza where they sell the fake Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Guess, Fendi, etc...bags...I bought a Prada bag for 20 euro and it's huge so it will help me transport souveneirs back to the States.
I come home in a week and that is crazy to me. I feel like I just got here and I really love Roma so much. AMO ROMA!! It's going to be sad to leave, we don't even like to talk about it. We've made friends and just have had a great time. I wouldn't have changed any of this for the world. It's been a heck of an experience.
As far as this blog goes, I think it's been a decent way of keeping you up to date on my life and happenings in Italia and hopefully you aren't upset with the lack of captions on my Webshots photos...slowly but surely they will get done, but I will probably finish when I am back in the States. I do a little bit everyday but I really don't want to spend too too much time on them with it being my last week here. Sunday will be a great opportunity to get some more pictures uploaded from this weekend and add some more captions, as we will be returning to Roma at around 10am.
Stay tuned for more!
Buono sera! Ciao!
xo,
Kristen
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
A (comedic performance in the) typical day in the life of yours truly...
9:00 wake up because it's too blistering hot in my room to continue to sleep
9:30 go online to find that Mark is still online and it's 3:30 your time
10:00 get ready for school/do laundry/hope the washer functions properly
11:00 wake Vanessa up because she always sleeps through her alarm
12:00 start walking to school or wait for the bus in hopes it will come...but it probably won't because nothing runs on a schedule here
1:00 new product development (marketing) class...which I enjoy very much and I got an A- on my last pop quiz...not bad if I do say so myself!
3:20 marketing ends and Jon and I go to Gli Archi, the bar on the corner by school where we usually get a salad and then finish off our lunch hour with either a cappucino or caffe fredo (cold coffee...no ice! Dunkin Donuts, our relationship will continue to go strong once I return to the States...you have no conceptual idea as to how much I miss you)
4:00 personal finance class begins...6 people in the class, I'm the only girl. it's always an interesting couple of hours.
5:00 ten minute break from class where the 6 of us discuss how we are nervous to get our exams back...I got a B, second best grade in the class. Again, not bad if I do say so myself.
6:20 personal finance ends and the mental debate with myself as to whether I should walk home or take the bus.
6:25 I am walking home. the 710 Via Lenin bus never comes anyway...I take 710 Via Carini to school...it is the most annoying bus in the world to try and catch.
6:50 I finally arrive back at my apartment...I'm probably dripping in sweat at this point, as the temperatures here have risen into the mid -90's with high humidity...my curly hair can't withstand the humidity and neither can my body.
6:51 I feel like I am suffocating, my apartment is just as blistering hot as it was in the morning when I woke up and just as blistering as it was outside.
7:00 Erika and I are hungry. where is Vanessa?
7:30 Vanessa gets back from her on-site class, Art of Rome...we scrounge up something for dinner
7:35 nothing to eat. we can either, a) make peanut butter and nutella sandwiches or, b) go to the SMA Gianicolense (market) before it closes at 8:00
7:40 we're in the market, peanut butter and nutella is good, but we eat it almost everyday...and if nothing else, we need bread
7:55 the lights go out in SMA Gianicolense. they are closing and instead of making an announcement, they just turn off the lights. that's your cue to get to the register
8:00 we leave SMA Gianicolense (which is right next door to our apartment, thankfully)
8:15 we are eating bread and dipping it in oil and pepper. it's delicious. it may be the single handed thing I will miss about Italia the most.
There ya have it! That's pretty much what I do everyday, give or take. I'm going to miss so much about Italia. I'm starting to pick up on the language, but it's difficult being that I am surrounded by only Americans (pretty much) for 8 hours each day, at least. Hope everything at home is molto bene (very good) and I will be sure to update soon.
Grazie mile (thanks a million) for reading
Ciao ciao,
Kristen
xo
9:30 go online to find that Mark is still online and it's 3:30 your time
10:00 get ready for school/do laundry/hope the washer functions properly
11:00 wake Vanessa up because she always sleeps through her alarm
12:00 start walking to school or wait for the bus in hopes it will come...but it probably won't because nothing runs on a schedule here
1:00 new product development (marketing) class...which I enjoy very much and I got an A- on my last pop quiz...not bad if I do say so myself!
3:20 marketing ends and Jon and I go to Gli Archi, the bar on the corner by school where we usually get a salad and then finish off our lunch hour with either a cappucino or caffe fredo (cold coffee...no ice! Dunkin Donuts, our relationship will continue to go strong once I return to the States...you have no conceptual idea as to how much I miss you)
4:00 personal finance class begins...6 people in the class, I'm the only girl. it's always an interesting couple of hours.
5:00 ten minute break from class where the 6 of us discuss how we are nervous to get our exams back...I got a B, second best grade in the class. Again, not bad if I do say so myself.
6:20 personal finance ends and the mental debate with myself as to whether I should walk home or take the bus.
6:25 I am walking home. the 710 Via Lenin bus never comes anyway...I take 710 Via Carini to school...it is the most annoying bus in the world to try and catch.
6:50 I finally arrive back at my apartment...I'm probably dripping in sweat at this point, as the temperatures here have risen into the mid -90's with high humidity...my curly hair can't withstand the humidity and neither can my body.
6:51 I feel like I am suffocating, my apartment is just as blistering hot as it was in the morning when I woke up and just as blistering as it was outside.
7:00 Erika and I are hungry. where is Vanessa?
7:30 Vanessa gets back from her on-site class, Art of Rome...we scrounge up something for dinner
7:35 nothing to eat. we can either, a) make peanut butter and nutella sandwiches or, b) go to the SMA Gianicolense (market) before it closes at 8:00
7:40 we're in the market, peanut butter and nutella is good, but we eat it almost everyday...and if nothing else, we need bread
7:55 the lights go out in SMA Gianicolense. they are closing and instead of making an announcement, they just turn off the lights. that's your cue to get to the register
8:00 we leave SMA Gianicolense (which is right next door to our apartment, thankfully)
8:15 we are eating bread and dipping it in oil and pepper. it's delicious. it may be the single handed thing I will miss about Italia the most.
There ya have it! That's pretty much what I do everyday, give or take. I'm going to miss so much about Italia. I'm starting to pick up on the language, but it's difficult being that I am surrounded by only Americans (pretty much) for 8 hours each day, at least. Hope everything at home is molto bene (very good) and I will be sure to update soon.
Grazie mile (thanks a million) for reading
Ciao ciao,
Kristen
xo
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Post-Siena/Firenze
Ciao!
This weekend was phenomenal and I LOVED Tuscany! The wine tasting at Traquanda at 11:00 in the morning on Friday was intense and it was so fun. We really got to spend a lot of time together as a group just hanging out and enjoying the Italian culture. We also met a lot of people from other schools which is a plus side and the main objective in studying abroad. Traquanda was a quaint town in Tuscany about an hour away from Siena and 2 hours away from Firenze. It was great and we got a tour of the winery and information on what it takes to make the wines, etc. I also bought a couple of bottles and need to now figure a way to get them on the plane.
We checked into the hotel (Best Western in Siena) around 18:00 and took an hour nap so we could be ready for dinner at the hotel with the entire group at 20:00. Sadly, the dinner we had at the hotel was not even comparable to the lunch we had in Traquanda. The lunch was so insanely delicious that Ashley and I felt the need to photo document each course as well as the wine, so you will see these on my Webshots account very, very soon. After dinner, Stefano and Chiara (our chaperones from AUR staff) arranged for the bus that we took to Tuscany to take us into the town of Siena. When we got to Siena, it was nothing that we had expected. Being used to Roma and all of it’s liveliness, Siena was far from this life that we live in the city. There was little to nothing open and we were only in search of a bar or a restaurant that was open that we could sit at and enjoy each other’s company. After 20 minutes of walking, the huge group stumbled upon an Irish pub and we sat for awhile talking and just spending low-key time together. We were way too tired at this point to go out and party and had absolutely no intentions to do so.
We got back to the hotel at 23:30, which is a very early night for us, and passed out as soon as our heads hit the pillow. We were all so burnt out from the traveling and wine tasting that we were excited to be able to sleep. My accommodations in the hotel room were hilarious. The mattress was ridged, so basically, if I was laying on my stomach, which is how I generally sleep, there were parts in the mattress (just from general wear and tear) that my legs fit right into. Talk about an old mattress! Oh, and it was a cot, which was fine. It was just the worst mattress known to mankind.
The next morning it was rise and shine at 7:00 in order to eat breakfast and be on the bus to Firenze. It was roughly a 2 hour ride and we slept and listened to our ipod’s the entire way. Thank God for the ipod; I would be lost without it. When we got to Firenze we had a 2 hour guided tour with expert tour guides who took us to all of the main sites in Firenze. Firenze is such a beautiful city, however I am very happy to be studying in Roma vs. Firenze. Firenze is a tad too quiet for my liking and much too touristy. It’s funny because I pictured Roma to be much more tourist oriented than Firenze, but it is very far from that. In Roma, your tourists are few and far between compared to the masses that were in Firenze. Upon the conclusion of our guided tour, we found a restaurant and Piazza San Marco and had some lunch. I split a Marinara pizze with Ashley and it was delicious! After lunch we climbed to the top of the Duomo, did some more sightseeing and picture taking and then did some shopping. I bought a few cute things for myself and some things for others. The straw markets are a GREAT place to shop, you just need to be careful of the pick-pockets in them. It’s a very crowded area and prime spot for the thieves.
Firenze was a great city and hopefully someday I will make it back. We definitely could have spent much more time there and we all wished that we were staying over in fun Firenze versus mildly dull Siena. We went out after dinner on Saturday night in Siena. We followed the entire AUR Study Abroad group to this bar where typically many Americans hang out and it was just that. It’s always so comforting to have Americans around you; it’s a sense of strange security, or what have you. The bar was very fun until it was time to go home. At 3am we lef the bar and tried to hail a cab. Needless to say, no cabs were running at this hour. Now, this is unheard of. There is no way that there were no cabs running at this hour – we think they did not want to pick up Americans because they assumed we were going to be loud and boisterous. After about an hour of sitting at the Piazza trying to get a cab, we all just decide to walk, except no one knows how to get back to the hotel. Long and short of the story is that we had to call some of our friends who were already back at the hotel because we needed them to give us directions. The concierge at the front desk of the hotel was assisting in the direction process and 20 of us walked from the bar to the hotel. All in all it was about an hour walk. We didn’t get back to the hotel until around 5:00am. We went to bed and then woke up at 7:50. Shy of three hours of sleep does not cut it for me.
Today, we had a walking tour of Siena bright and early and then had free time to ourselves to do whatever. We did some more sightseeing and grabbed lunch with all of the girls and some boys we met from the University of Maryland. The entire bus ride back to Roma (all 5 hours of it) was spent catching up on sleep from the night before, or lack thereof.
I will write soon.
Ciao ciao ciao!
This weekend was phenomenal and I LOVED Tuscany! The wine tasting at Traquanda at 11:00 in the morning on Friday was intense and it was so fun. We really got to spend a lot of time together as a group just hanging out and enjoying the Italian culture. We also met a lot of people from other schools which is a plus side and the main objective in studying abroad. Traquanda was a quaint town in Tuscany about an hour away from Siena and 2 hours away from Firenze. It was great and we got a tour of the winery and information on what it takes to make the wines, etc. I also bought a couple of bottles and need to now figure a way to get them on the plane.
We checked into the hotel (Best Western in Siena) around 18:00 and took an hour nap so we could be ready for dinner at the hotel with the entire group at 20:00. Sadly, the dinner we had at the hotel was not even comparable to the lunch we had in Traquanda. The lunch was so insanely delicious that Ashley and I felt the need to photo document each course as well as the wine, so you will see these on my Webshots account very, very soon. After dinner, Stefano and Chiara (our chaperones from AUR staff) arranged for the bus that we took to Tuscany to take us into the town of Siena. When we got to Siena, it was nothing that we had expected. Being used to Roma and all of it’s liveliness, Siena was far from this life that we live in the city. There was little to nothing open and we were only in search of a bar or a restaurant that was open that we could sit at and enjoy each other’s company. After 20 minutes of walking, the huge group stumbled upon an Irish pub and we sat for awhile talking and just spending low-key time together. We were way too tired at this point to go out and party and had absolutely no intentions to do so.
We got back to the hotel at 23:30, which is a very early night for us, and passed out as soon as our heads hit the pillow. We were all so burnt out from the traveling and wine tasting that we were excited to be able to sleep. My accommodations in the hotel room were hilarious. The mattress was ridged, so basically, if I was laying on my stomach, which is how I generally sleep, there were parts in the mattress (just from general wear and tear) that my legs fit right into. Talk about an old mattress! Oh, and it was a cot, which was fine. It was just the worst mattress known to mankind.
The next morning it was rise and shine at 7:00 in order to eat breakfast and be on the bus to Firenze. It was roughly a 2 hour ride and we slept and listened to our ipod’s the entire way. Thank God for the ipod; I would be lost without it. When we got to Firenze we had a 2 hour guided tour with expert tour guides who took us to all of the main sites in Firenze. Firenze is such a beautiful city, however I am very happy to be studying in Roma vs. Firenze. Firenze is a tad too quiet for my liking and much too touristy. It’s funny because I pictured Roma to be much more tourist oriented than Firenze, but it is very far from that. In Roma, your tourists are few and far between compared to the masses that were in Firenze. Upon the conclusion of our guided tour, we found a restaurant and Piazza San Marco and had some lunch. I split a Marinara pizze with Ashley and it was delicious! After lunch we climbed to the top of the Duomo, did some more sightseeing and picture taking and then did some shopping. I bought a few cute things for myself and some things for others. The straw markets are a GREAT place to shop, you just need to be careful of the pick-pockets in them. It’s a very crowded area and prime spot for the thieves.
Firenze was a great city and hopefully someday I will make it back. We definitely could have spent much more time there and we all wished that we were staying over in fun Firenze versus mildly dull Siena. We went out after dinner on Saturday night in Siena. We followed the entire AUR Study Abroad group to this bar where typically many Americans hang out and it was just that. It’s always so comforting to have Americans around you; it’s a sense of strange security, or what have you. The bar was very fun until it was time to go home. At 3am we lef the bar and tried to hail a cab. Needless to say, no cabs were running at this hour. Now, this is unheard of. There is no way that there were no cabs running at this hour – we think they did not want to pick up Americans because they assumed we were going to be loud and boisterous. After about an hour of sitting at the Piazza trying to get a cab, we all just decide to walk, except no one knows how to get back to the hotel. Long and short of the story is that we had to call some of our friends who were already back at the hotel because we needed them to give us directions. The concierge at the front desk of the hotel was assisting in the direction process and 20 of us walked from the bar to the hotel. All in all it was about an hour walk. We didn’t get back to the hotel until around 5:00am. We went to bed and then woke up at 7:50. Shy of three hours of sleep does not cut it for me.
Today, we had a walking tour of Siena bright and early and then had free time to ourselves to do whatever. We did some more sightseeing and grabbed lunch with all of the girls and some boys we met from the University of Maryland. The entire bus ride back to Roma (all 5 hours of it) was spent catching up on sleep from the night before, or lack thereof.
I will write soon.
Ciao ciao ciao!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Under the Tuscan Sun
It is 5:43am my time right now and most of you have probably gone to bed, accounting for the time difference. I am up because I need to be at school by 7am to leave for Tuscany (Siena and Florence). I'm anticipating the trip will be a great time and I'm very excited to be able to report back to you on Sunday when I return.
I apologize for not putting captions on all of my Webshots photos yet. It may be difficult (and painful) to look through them but I promise they will get done sooner or later, most likely this week because it is much less busy on the school front.
Some pretty crazy things have been happening recently and just as an American may begin to feel as though he/she fits into the Italian culture, they do not. A boy in my marketing class was jumped the other morning in broad daylight at 6am and the story is nothing short of bizarre. A group of guys were laughing and joking around when one of them threw a coin in front of an acquaintance of mine, Alex. Alex goes to Salve Regina and has the typical personality of many people and did not see this as a threat. When he went to pick up the coin for the group of guys, he figured he was doing them a favor. He was and they started kicking him in the face and eventually did enough damage to send him to the hospital for an overnight stay. He was with Mike, a guy who lives with my friends Jon and AJ. No one would really mess with Mike....he's about 6'8" weighing in at probably a bit over 200lbs. He's not joking around. One guy out of the group was distracting Mike to the point that he actually didn't even see his friend getting beat up. The fools didn't take anything from Mike or Alex, they just beat Alex up and then left. Imagine that.
People say that the City is bad, that Los Angeles is bad, that even Providence you need to watch yourself, but it is so much easier for the people here who want to attack others. Americans stick out like sore thumbs for many reasons and if people want to profile others, it is simple and does not really take much effort at all. A scary story that teaches you that you can never be too cautious.
On that note, I had my second finance exam yesterday and hopefully that went well. My finance class is cancelled on Monday so I will have all afternoon to sightsee and I'm thinking I am going to head down to the Colosseo and go inside. We shall see.
Have a great weekend!
Ciao ciao!
xo,
Kristen
I apologize for not putting captions on all of my Webshots photos yet. It may be difficult (and painful) to look through them but I promise they will get done sooner or later, most likely this week because it is much less busy on the school front.
Some pretty crazy things have been happening recently and just as an American may begin to feel as though he/she fits into the Italian culture, they do not. A boy in my marketing class was jumped the other morning in broad daylight at 6am and the story is nothing short of bizarre. A group of guys were laughing and joking around when one of them threw a coin in front of an acquaintance of mine, Alex. Alex goes to Salve Regina and has the typical personality of many people and did not see this as a threat. When he went to pick up the coin for the group of guys, he figured he was doing them a favor. He was and they started kicking him in the face and eventually did enough damage to send him to the hospital for an overnight stay. He was with Mike, a guy who lives with my friends Jon and AJ. No one would really mess with Mike....he's about 6'8" weighing in at probably a bit over 200lbs. He's not joking around. One guy out of the group was distracting Mike to the point that he actually didn't even see his friend getting beat up. The fools didn't take anything from Mike or Alex, they just beat Alex up and then left. Imagine that.
People say that the City is bad, that Los Angeles is bad, that even Providence you need to watch yourself, but it is so much easier for the people here who want to attack others. Americans stick out like sore thumbs for many reasons and if people want to profile others, it is simple and does not really take much effort at all. A scary story that teaches you that you can never be too cautious.
On that note, I had my second finance exam yesterday and hopefully that went well. My finance class is cancelled on Monday so I will have all afternoon to sightsee and I'm thinking I am going to head down to the Colosseo and go inside. We shall see.
Have a great weekend!
Ciao ciao!
xo,
Kristen
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
God is our potential.
Ciao...
Today, I woke up at 6:30 to the cheery alarm noises that dear Siemens provides on their A70 model. Vanessa and I were going to meet Jon, AJ, Dominique and Laura on Via Trastevere - the street that they live on. We figured if we never woke up today then we would never make it to the destination - The Vatican.
As we trucked down Via Trastevere and stumbled onto the 8 tram in desperate need of espresso and a croissant, we made it just in time to meet the rest of the group and head to Vatican City. When we arrived at the Vatican it was around 7:30 and it doesn't open to the public until 10:00. We waited in line for awhile and enjoyed breakfast there against the enormous brick walls that encase Vatican City. We were finally let in around 10:15 and made our way to the lines upon lines of people waiting to enter. We bought tickets, traveled up possibly the longest escalator I have ever been on and then waited in even more lines to finally arrive upon the Sistine Chapel.
The Sistine Chapel was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was painted by Michaelangelo in what seemed to be a rush job of 4 years. The Pope at the time wanted it to be completed as quickly as possible and this was a demand. Michaelangelo was 62 years old when he began painting the Sistine and was working with 20 apprentices. The Chapel was beautiful and pictures will be posted on my Webshots account very soon (p.s. pictures are prohibited in the Sistine....AJ and I took our flashes off of the camera and were able to catch a few photos and a couple of videos).
After the Sistine we ventured on through shops along the way and other artwork that adorns that walls, ceilings, and every other flat surface in sight. We then came to St. Peter's Basilica which we spent 4 Euro to climb the 700-ish steps to the top. The views from the top of Vatican City and almost all of Rome were incredible. Vanessa, Jon and I went into a special section of the Basilica that is designated only for prayer. It was amazing and the amount of cardinals and nuns that are swarming the Vatican is intense and somewhat intimidating, yet very cool all the same. The Vatican is absolutely crowded with tourists from all over the world and it is amazing to hear so many different languages spoken in such close proximity to each other - almost like Manhattan!
All in all our trip this morning was fabulous and I plan to do it again. Either tomorrow or next Wednesday, Vanessa and I are going to wake up early and get to the Vatican in order to listen to the Pope speak. We will see what time brings.
Hope all is well.
Ciao for now!
Today, I woke up at 6:30 to the cheery alarm noises that dear Siemens provides on their A70 model. Vanessa and I were going to meet Jon, AJ, Dominique and Laura on Via Trastevere - the street that they live on. We figured if we never woke up today then we would never make it to the destination - The Vatican.
As we trucked down Via Trastevere and stumbled onto the 8 tram in desperate need of espresso and a croissant, we made it just in time to meet the rest of the group and head to Vatican City. When we arrived at the Vatican it was around 7:30 and it doesn't open to the public until 10:00. We waited in line for awhile and enjoyed breakfast there against the enormous brick walls that encase Vatican City. We were finally let in around 10:15 and made our way to the lines upon lines of people waiting to enter. We bought tickets, traveled up possibly the longest escalator I have ever been on and then waited in even more lines to finally arrive upon the Sistine Chapel.
The Sistine Chapel was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was painted by Michaelangelo in what seemed to be a rush job of 4 years. The Pope at the time wanted it to be completed as quickly as possible and this was a demand. Michaelangelo was 62 years old when he began painting the Sistine and was working with 20 apprentices. The Chapel was beautiful and pictures will be posted on my Webshots account very soon (p.s. pictures are prohibited in the Sistine....AJ and I took our flashes off of the camera and were able to catch a few photos and a couple of videos).
After the Sistine we ventured on through shops along the way and other artwork that adorns that walls, ceilings, and every other flat surface in sight. We then came to St. Peter's Basilica which we spent 4 Euro to climb the 700-ish steps to the top. The views from the top of Vatican City and almost all of Rome were incredible. Vanessa, Jon and I went into a special section of the Basilica that is designated only for prayer. It was amazing and the amount of cardinals and nuns that are swarming the Vatican is intense and somewhat intimidating, yet very cool all the same. The Vatican is absolutely crowded with tourists from all over the world and it is amazing to hear so many different languages spoken in such close proximity to each other - almost like Manhattan!
All in all our trip this morning was fabulous and I plan to do it again. Either tomorrow or next Wednesday, Vanessa and I are going to wake up early and get to the Vatican in order to listen to the Pope speak. We will see what time brings.
Hope all is well.
Ciao for now!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Post-Sorrento/Capri
Ciao!
I have returned from our weekend trip to Sorrento and Capri. It was by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life and was so eye-opening and different when contrasted with Roma. The rugged, city streets of Roma were lost in Sorrento and Capri to the boat docks and beachy atmosphere of these port towns. They are gorgeous and I highly advise anyone and everyone to visit at some point in a lifetime.
We woke up early on Friday morning and Ashley, Tiffany and Laura met us at our apartment. We all traveled to the Roma Termini train station together and took TrenItalia to get to Napoli. There, we had to take a 50 minute, scorching hot subway to Sorrento. The subways and most other public transportation has an odor like no other. Italians do not have a bathing schedule as we Americans do and the smell in the public transportation is sometimes devastating, especially early in the morning. However, I have a great tendency, 9 times out of 10, to fall asleep on public transportation (usually just the trains), therefore leaving me unharmed by the awful odors coming from the natives. Napoli, from what we saw and what I have learned since living in Italia, has a huge garbage problem lately and resembles the South Bronx area of New York. It's somewhere that you go as a middleman to get to the place that is your destination. Some of our friends spent the weekend on a school sponsored trip to Pompei and spent some time in Napoli - they did not speak very highly of it, either.
When we arrived in Sorrento, I was still going mad because (if you have not heard) I was 99% sure I had lost my Citizen's Bank debit/ATM card. This is huge because a large chunk of my money for this trip was on that card. I woke my mom up in a panic at I believe 4am (SORRY MOM!!) needing her help. Thankfully, she was able to help me as always. (Your help never goes unnoticed.) I was looking for an ATM in Sorrento and of course there is only one in the town. However, this was shocking to me because Sorrento is such a touristy place. Many cruise ships dock there and it's very beachy and something that would appeal to many travelers who were taking cruise through Europe. We spent some time just taking in the beautiful sights and taking photos then we decided to get lunch. We ate at this small pizzeria which apparently wasn't serving pizze (that's how pizza is written in Italia) anymore. We settled for a roll with salami and mozzarella...see my photographs for a visual of this sandwich. It was awful so we needed to get gelati afterwards to fill us up. After this we found Peter's Beach, this rinky-dink beach near a port in Sorrento. Me, being the explorer I am, decided to walk farther and in front of the group, finding Leonelli's Beach. WHAT A GREAT FIND! This beach was everything we wanted. The beach itself was tiny but it had piers where we laid out for awhile in the hot afternoon sun and just hung around and talked. There we also took about a million pictures and just enjoyed the great weather. We really lucked out on the weather-front this weekend; it was supposed to rain but thankfully it didn't even sprinkle. It was great!
After awhile on the piers, we decided to take the bus to our stop at San Angelo, a bit outside of Sorrento - where our hostel was located. Pretty much, we came upon the Youth Hostel. It looked very shanty and I was not nervous about staying there, but more expected something similar to our trip in Pisa. This was nothing like Pisa. It was a dreary, dark building and for some reason fluorescent green lights were inside. It was an experience all in all and wasn’t the cleanest of places but it did the trick and for 20 Euro a night, who could complain? We settled in and then decided to venture out into San Angelo. As we walked down the long and winding roads (shout out to the Beatles) from the hostel to the main “town” of San Angelo, there were bats. There were not ANY bats. These bats came so close to your head that you honestly thought they were going to attack you. They would swoop down from 50 feet above you and almost land in your hair. Surprisingly, if this gives you any inclination of some of the girls that I am traveling with, I took it the best in not freaking out every time a bat kamikaze dove down at my head. I needed to just mention that quickly to prove a point (haha).
We made it to San Angelo and found this great pizzeria (everything in Italia pretty much is a pizzeria) called Moonlight. I ordered a great broccoli and mozzarella pizza and we just had a very relaxing dinner and then made our way back to our hostel later that night. We were all exhausted from our day of traveling and exploring so we called it an early night.
We woke up the next morning to a rooster, honest to God. Apparently there are quite a few farms in San Angelo and every time we opened the window to our room it suddenly smelled like we were living in a barn, but I digress. We woke up early in a venture to Capri. We took the complimentary shuttle from our hostel to the docks at Sorrento and then bought our ferry pass to Capri. When we got to Capri it was like nothing I had ever seen in Europe before. Granted I have only been to Portugal aside from this trip, but it was like a Caribbean island. The water was clear, blue and turquoise and was glistening in the hot Italian sun. We stepped off of the ferry (also, on the ferry, I saw an anemic boy pass out and then people were trying to revive him…it was disturbing and made a couple of us cry. It was very sad and I really feel horrible for people who get that ill so frequently.) Furthermore, in Capri we got a 10 Euro boat tour around the island and a trip to the Blue Grotto, as well. It was by far the best 10 Euro we have spent on this trip since we got here. My pictures from the Blue Grotto do not do it justice and as a matter of fact my pictures from this entire trip do not do anything justice. The beauty of the water and of the trip is incomprehensible for a person just looking at the photos. I will try and do a better job explaining all of this when I return to the States.
Capri was gorgeous and after our boat tour around the island (most of which was in Italian – I am getting much better at translating things in my head, but still speaking is difficult having such a knowledge of Spanish) we decided to head to the beach for the remainder of the day. We swam around in the crystal clear water (just like Narragansett…kidding!) and lounged on the rocks. The beaches in Capri have sand few and far between but after awhile of hurting your body on the rocks, you get used to it. We shopped around in the town by the port for awhile and I got a really pretty, large beaded bracelet and an Italia zip-up jacket. These were the first things I have actually bought for myself since being here. It’s strange when you study somewhere for a somewhat significant amount of time you forget you are a tourist. The funny thing about this phenomenon is that YOU forget you are a tourist, but NATIVES do not. Natives can pick you out from a group of 1,000. It’s quite strange and sometimes surreal.
We ate lunch at by far the best place since I have been in Italia. I am so upset with myself that I did not take pictures or even remember the name. I got a Margherita pizza (your standard tomato sauce and mozzarella) and it was the best meal since I have been here. After lunch we caught our 18:00 ferry back to Sorrento. Sadly, 18:00 is the last time they send a ferry back to the mainland. I actually would not have been too upset about getting stuck in Capri for the night, except we had already paid for the hostel. Also, I have become accustomed to speaking/reading/writing in military time due to it being the standard way of Italian living. Nothing is 6pm, it is always 18:00.
When we got back to Sorrento we hopped on the C bus and met some other study abroad students who were studying in Florence but were spending the weekend in Sorrento/Capri as well. They were from a very small college in the Sacramento, California area and were our age. Among them was Alex, Jesse, Balvene, Candice, and Taylor and we actually found out they were staying at our hostel that night and for the rest of the weekend. They came out with us to the American Bar (yes, that was the name of the bar/club in Sorrento) and they will be in Roma in a couple of weeks so we are going to meet up with them for dinner and probably a night at Campo dei Fiori. They were really interesting people and I’m really happy that we met them. Balvene, an Indian girl who was also a student at this Sacramento college, talked to me for awhile about India, etc. Basically, I shared with her my idea to travel to India at some point next year…we will see how that turns out but I am absolutely dying to do some work in New Delhi. After the American Bar we returned to our hostel around 1:30 and immediately hit the sheets. We had a long day of traveling ahead of us and we wanted to be well rested.
We awoke at 8:00 and got ready and packed up camp. We did the essential check out process then we went to the piers at Leonelli’s Beach for a little while until we had to catch our train back to Napoli and then to Roma Termini. The day was a great beach day and we all soaked up the sun. We got back onto the subway to Napoli, where I actually did not fall asleep (shocking) and then transferred over to our train from Napoli to Roma. We all immediately fell asleep on the scorching hot train back to Roma and it was great. I felt so well rested when we got back to Roma, however I was on the verge of being severely dehydrated, which put a damper on the rest of my night and sent me to sleep at 22:30 (10:30pm). I slept for a solid 12 and a half hours before I woke up this morning at 11:00.
That is where the story of my weekend ends and today begins. I went to class today and then went down to Piazza Venezia with AJ and Jon to do some shopping. Tomorrow I am waking up at 6:00 with Vanessa to meet AJ and Jon at their apartment to venture out to the Vatican before we have class at 13:00. We are going to do some sightseeing and hopefully beat the Vatican chaos as well as get our Mass tickets for church with the Pope on Wednesday morning before class. I am really excited about this and will be sure to write tomorrow when I get a chance and relay my adventures.
Ciao for now!
Xo,
Kristen
I have returned from our weekend trip to Sorrento and Capri. It was by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life and was so eye-opening and different when contrasted with Roma. The rugged, city streets of Roma were lost in Sorrento and Capri to the boat docks and beachy atmosphere of these port towns. They are gorgeous and I highly advise anyone and everyone to visit at some point in a lifetime.
We woke up early on Friday morning and Ashley, Tiffany and Laura met us at our apartment. We all traveled to the Roma Termini train station together and took TrenItalia to get to Napoli. There, we had to take a 50 minute, scorching hot subway to Sorrento. The subways and most other public transportation has an odor like no other. Italians do not have a bathing schedule as we Americans do and the smell in the public transportation is sometimes devastating, especially early in the morning. However, I have a great tendency, 9 times out of 10, to fall asleep on public transportation (usually just the trains), therefore leaving me unharmed by the awful odors coming from the natives. Napoli, from what we saw and what I have learned since living in Italia, has a huge garbage problem lately and resembles the South Bronx area of New York. It's somewhere that you go as a middleman to get to the place that is your destination. Some of our friends spent the weekend on a school sponsored trip to Pompei and spent some time in Napoli - they did not speak very highly of it, either.
When we arrived in Sorrento, I was still going mad because (if you have not heard) I was 99% sure I had lost my Citizen's Bank debit/ATM card. This is huge because a large chunk of my money for this trip was on that card. I woke my mom up in a panic at I believe 4am (SORRY MOM!!) needing her help. Thankfully, she was able to help me as always. (Your help never goes unnoticed.) I was looking for an ATM in Sorrento and of course there is only one in the town. However, this was shocking to me because Sorrento is such a touristy place. Many cruise ships dock there and it's very beachy and something that would appeal to many travelers who were taking cruise through Europe. We spent some time just taking in the beautiful sights and taking photos then we decided to get lunch. We ate at this small pizzeria which apparently wasn't serving pizze (that's how pizza is written in Italia) anymore. We settled for a roll with salami and mozzarella...see my photographs for a visual of this sandwich. It was awful so we needed to get gelati afterwards to fill us up. After this we found Peter's Beach, this rinky-dink beach near a port in Sorrento. Me, being the explorer I am, decided to walk farther and in front of the group, finding Leonelli's Beach. WHAT A GREAT FIND! This beach was everything we wanted. The beach itself was tiny but it had piers where we laid out for awhile in the hot afternoon sun and just hung around and talked. There we also took about a million pictures and just enjoyed the great weather. We really lucked out on the weather-front this weekend; it was supposed to rain but thankfully it didn't even sprinkle. It was great!
After awhile on the piers, we decided to take the bus to our stop at San Angelo, a bit outside of Sorrento - where our hostel was located. Pretty much, we came upon the Youth Hostel. It looked very shanty and I was not nervous about staying there, but more expected something similar to our trip in Pisa. This was nothing like Pisa. It was a dreary, dark building and for some reason fluorescent green lights were inside. It was an experience all in all and wasn’t the cleanest of places but it did the trick and for 20 Euro a night, who could complain? We settled in and then decided to venture out into San Angelo. As we walked down the long and winding roads (shout out to the Beatles) from the hostel to the main “town” of San Angelo, there were bats. There were not ANY bats. These bats came so close to your head that you honestly thought they were going to attack you. They would swoop down from 50 feet above you and almost land in your hair. Surprisingly, if this gives you any inclination of some of the girls that I am traveling with, I took it the best in not freaking out every time a bat kamikaze dove down at my head. I needed to just mention that quickly to prove a point (haha).
We made it to San Angelo and found this great pizzeria (everything in Italia pretty much is a pizzeria) called Moonlight. I ordered a great broccoli and mozzarella pizza and we just had a very relaxing dinner and then made our way back to our hostel later that night. We were all exhausted from our day of traveling and exploring so we called it an early night.
We woke up the next morning to a rooster, honest to God. Apparently there are quite a few farms in San Angelo and every time we opened the window to our room it suddenly smelled like we were living in a barn, but I digress. We woke up early in a venture to Capri. We took the complimentary shuttle from our hostel to the docks at Sorrento and then bought our ferry pass to Capri. When we got to Capri it was like nothing I had ever seen in Europe before. Granted I have only been to Portugal aside from this trip, but it was like a Caribbean island. The water was clear, blue and turquoise and was glistening in the hot Italian sun. We stepped off of the ferry (also, on the ferry, I saw an anemic boy pass out and then people were trying to revive him…it was disturbing and made a couple of us cry. It was very sad and I really feel horrible for people who get that ill so frequently.) Furthermore, in Capri we got a 10 Euro boat tour around the island and a trip to the Blue Grotto, as well. It was by far the best 10 Euro we have spent on this trip since we got here. My pictures from the Blue Grotto do not do it justice and as a matter of fact my pictures from this entire trip do not do anything justice. The beauty of the water and of the trip is incomprehensible for a person just looking at the photos. I will try and do a better job explaining all of this when I return to the States.
Capri was gorgeous and after our boat tour around the island (most of which was in Italian – I am getting much better at translating things in my head, but still speaking is difficult having such a knowledge of Spanish) we decided to head to the beach for the remainder of the day. We swam around in the crystal clear water (just like Narragansett…kidding!) and lounged on the rocks. The beaches in Capri have sand few and far between but after awhile of hurting your body on the rocks, you get used to it. We shopped around in the town by the port for awhile and I got a really pretty, large beaded bracelet and an Italia zip-up jacket. These were the first things I have actually bought for myself since being here. It’s strange when you study somewhere for a somewhat significant amount of time you forget you are a tourist. The funny thing about this phenomenon is that YOU forget you are a tourist, but NATIVES do not. Natives can pick you out from a group of 1,000. It’s quite strange and sometimes surreal.
We ate lunch at by far the best place since I have been in Italia. I am so upset with myself that I did not take pictures or even remember the name. I got a Margherita pizza (your standard tomato sauce and mozzarella) and it was the best meal since I have been here. After lunch we caught our 18:00 ferry back to Sorrento. Sadly, 18:00 is the last time they send a ferry back to the mainland. I actually would not have been too upset about getting stuck in Capri for the night, except we had already paid for the hostel. Also, I have become accustomed to speaking/reading/writing in military time due to it being the standard way of Italian living. Nothing is 6pm, it is always 18:00.
When we got back to Sorrento we hopped on the C bus and met some other study abroad students who were studying in Florence but were spending the weekend in Sorrento/Capri as well. They were from a very small college in the Sacramento, California area and were our age. Among them was Alex, Jesse, Balvene, Candice, and Taylor and we actually found out they were staying at our hostel that night and for the rest of the weekend. They came out with us to the American Bar (yes, that was the name of the bar/club in Sorrento) and they will be in Roma in a couple of weeks so we are going to meet up with them for dinner and probably a night at Campo dei Fiori. They were really interesting people and I’m really happy that we met them. Balvene, an Indian girl who was also a student at this Sacramento college, talked to me for awhile about India, etc. Basically, I shared with her my idea to travel to India at some point next year…we will see how that turns out but I am absolutely dying to do some work in New Delhi. After the American Bar we returned to our hostel around 1:30 and immediately hit the sheets. We had a long day of traveling ahead of us and we wanted to be well rested.
We awoke at 8:00 and got ready and packed up camp. We did the essential check out process then we went to the piers at Leonelli’s Beach for a little while until we had to catch our train back to Napoli and then to Roma Termini. The day was a great beach day and we all soaked up the sun. We got back onto the subway to Napoli, where I actually did not fall asleep (shocking) and then transferred over to our train from Napoli to Roma. We all immediately fell asleep on the scorching hot train back to Roma and it was great. I felt so well rested when we got back to Roma, however I was on the verge of being severely dehydrated, which put a damper on the rest of my night and sent me to sleep at 22:30 (10:30pm). I slept for a solid 12 and a half hours before I woke up this morning at 11:00.
That is where the story of my weekend ends and today begins. I went to class today and then went down to Piazza Venezia with AJ and Jon to do some shopping. Tomorrow I am waking up at 6:00 with Vanessa to meet AJ and Jon at their apartment to venture out to the Vatican before we have class at 13:00. We are going to do some sightseeing and hopefully beat the Vatican chaos as well as get our Mass tickets for church with the Pope on Wednesday morning before class. I am really excited about this and will be sure to write tomorrow when I get a chance and relay my adventures.
Ciao for now!
Xo,
Kristen
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