HEY everyone!
Italy is so AMAZING, but i haven't been doing any blogging in the last little while since my computer died.... thankfully i recently found a little internet cafè near my apartment and they only charge £1 an hour.
As for the last week and a 1\2 we-
-painted in fiosole
-went to sienna
-went to parma
-went clubbing
-went to san giamano
-ate the worlds best gelato
-saw the david
-sketched a lot
-and much much more that i've written down and i'll have to write about later.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
luca
tonight it's too late to post new pics, but i'm reminding myself what i need to write about:
-the train to luca
-bike riding around the city
-sketching
-cool record shops
-my attempt to not buy things
-seeing rick steves again
-train home
i'll explain everything later
-the train to luca
-bike riding around the city
-sketching
-cool record shops
-my attempt to not buy things
-seeing rick steves again
-train home
i'll explain everything later
Saturday, May 9, 2009
hello from florence
I LOVE IT HERE! really, it is amazing. This morning I woke up and went to the pitti palace gardens and sketched. While I was sketching a class of kids came by and kept peeking at my drawings. They kept telling me how good I was (that gave me a little confidence boost which was nice). They tried to speak to me in english. They actually spoke very well. I was surprised that they knew so much english for being so young. Then I tried to speak to them in Italian. It was really fun. I posted a pic of the gardens i'm drawing in... i think i only have one pic towards the bottom of gardens (those are them)... beautiful huh? after I sketched i went to the market and picked up balsamic vinegrette to bring home... the stuff that we've found to be the best tastes like candy and you can put it on everything... from strawberries to bread. It's so good.
yesterday I baught a leather jacket. I know, so unlike me... but i like it and leather her is everywhere here.
Being vegetarian has been the easiest thing while in Italy. I wouldn't want to eat too much of the meat anyways. I basically eat cheese, breads, fruits, and veggies... everything except meat. I really like it.
love,
Amber :]
yesterday I baught a leather jacket. I know, so unlike me... but i like it and leather her is everywhere here.
Being vegetarian has been the easiest thing while in Italy. I wouldn't want to eat too much of the meat anyways. I basically eat cheese, breads, fruits, and veggies... everything except meat. I really like it.
love,
Amber :]
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Day 7 & 8
So right now i'm trying to figure out how to add minutes to my phone... not fun... i know italian, but when a computer is trying to speak to me in italian it doesn't work very well for me.
Anyways, the last two days have been REALLY fun. Yesterday I went to the market and a woman taught me how to make pasta sauce. I'm sure a lot of people know how to do this, but it was news to me. You take sun dried tomatoes and boil them in a pot. You leave them there until it makes sauce. Then you add olive oil and spices. It's SOOOOOOOO good.
also olive oil is more expensive depending on how old it is. The younger it is the more expensive it is.
the market is pretty much an amazing experience in itself. It's comprised of a ton of vendors who are selling food. Meat, bread, and cheeses are all on the first floor and produce is on the second level. The best way to describe it is a massive farmers market. I LOVE IT!!!
When you buy food here it tastes amazing but when you make it, it tastes even better. I'm so excited to learn how to cook more food :]
After shopping at the market i went on a little walk around town by myself. It was a little scary, but i think i've got a handle on this town. While it's pretty touristy it also has it's little local hang outs. Someone described it as the new york of Italy last night and I believe it (minus the huge skyskrapers.)
Today was really fun! we started classes. I officially feel like an artist and less of a tourist now. We went to the pitti palace and sat up on the wall and sketched comps for our landscapes.
Typography class is AMAZING... its outside in a little courtyard. In the courtyard there is a turtle that looks like a grown up Turtle (that's Grant's turtle, for the rest of my family that doesn't know that). I didn't have my camera today, but when i do i'll put a pic up. In that class i'm making a magazine and 2 logos. I'm not going to finish those in europe, but i'll finish them over the summer and apply to the BFA program in August... SO... I've gots lots to get done!
Anyways, I hope to be calling all of you soon, once I get this phone thing figured out i'll let you know. Btw right now is 6:40pm that means its around 10am your time... if anyone wants to get online around this time i'd love to talk to people. (I hope i don't sound desperate, but i kinda am)... i guess my roommates might be getting sent home... i dunno... then i might be completely alone over here in my little apartment.
ttyl
Love,
Amber
Anyways, the last two days have been REALLY fun. Yesterday I went to the market and a woman taught me how to make pasta sauce. I'm sure a lot of people know how to do this, but it was news to me. You take sun dried tomatoes and boil them in a pot. You leave them there until it makes sauce. Then you add olive oil and spices. It's SOOOOOOOO good.
also olive oil is more expensive depending on how old it is. The younger it is the more expensive it is.
the market is pretty much an amazing experience in itself. It's comprised of a ton of vendors who are selling food. Meat, bread, and cheeses are all on the first floor and produce is on the second level. The best way to describe it is a massive farmers market. I LOVE IT!!!
When you buy food here it tastes amazing but when you make it, it tastes even better. I'm so excited to learn how to cook more food :]
After shopping at the market i went on a little walk around town by myself. It was a little scary, but i think i've got a handle on this town. While it's pretty touristy it also has it's little local hang outs. Someone described it as the new york of Italy last night and I believe it (minus the huge skyskrapers.)
Today was really fun! we started classes. I officially feel like an artist and less of a tourist now. We went to the pitti palace and sat up on the wall and sketched comps for our landscapes.
Typography class is AMAZING... its outside in a little courtyard. In the courtyard there is a turtle that looks like a grown up Turtle (that's Grant's turtle, for the rest of my family that doesn't know that). I didn't have my camera today, but when i do i'll put a pic up. In that class i'm making a magazine and 2 logos. I'm not going to finish those in europe, but i'll finish them over the summer and apply to the BFA program in August... SO... I've gots lots to get done!
Anyways, I hope to be calling all of you soon, once I get this phone thing figured out i'll let you know. Btw right now is 6:40pm that means its around 10am your time... if anyone wants to get online around this time i'd love to talk to people. (I hope i don't sound desperate, but i kinda am)... i guess my roommates might be getting sent home... i dunno... then i might be completely alone over here in my little apartment.
ttyl
Love,
Amber
Monday, May 4, 2009
DAY 5/ Day 6
The last two day's i've been really tired and sick of traveling... I was really happy to get into Florence tonight and finally get a little bit settled. However because i haven't been keeping my blog up i've missed some good adventures my trip:
Day 5:
-paestum
-Orvietto
-the Duomo
Day 6:
-cool little town
-olive oil and a little man
-meeting rick steves
-finally getting to florence and getting settled in our apartment
Paestum
This is where the temple of Hera and Athena are. The temples that were found on this site were ancient greek temples that archaelogists were only able to find after clearing out large amounts of foliage and taming molaria.
while we were here there was a cheese festival. It was really fun to go around to all of the booths and eat different cheeses.
Orvieto
my favorite place thus far in Italy. You have to hike to get there, and it's exactly what I imagined italy to be like. The sky is so blue it's almost like the fake sky immitated in that one hotel in vegas. Everything there was pretty surreal and so happy. It was pretty perfect and I really want to go back there.
The Duomo
breathetaking and very large. ( i need a new list of adjectives) The paintings inside were depictions of hell. They were painted during the lower part of the rennaissance and were forerunners to michaelangelo. new fact: nudes were only painted when they were doing something heroic.
Cool little town/Olive oil man/Rick steves
In a little town on top of a hill live 10 people. In 5 years scientists say that this little town will fall. The only way to the town is to go across a really long draw bridge and hike up a hill. In the town there is a lot of olive oil and cheese. There also happens to live a little man who owns a little brushcetta shop. His name I can't remember, but he gave us bruschetta and told us that he was born there. He owns an olive oil mill and is spending his life there until the town falls to the ground.
Also, I met Rick Steves in this little town. He's pretty cool
Florence:
we must be on the really dirty part of florence because right now i'm missing rome. I hope we find the nicer places. Our apartment is really small and we are switching off sleeping on the couch. I'm so grateful to be here and to be getting settled.
Day 5:
-paestum
-Orvietto
-the Duomo
Day 6:
-cool little town
-olive oil and a little man
-meeting rick steves
-finally getting to florence and getting settled in our apartment
Paestum
This is where the temple of Hera and Athena are. The temples that were found on this site were ancient greek temples that archaelogists were only able to find after clearing out large amounts of foliage and taming molaria.
while we were here there was a cheese festival. It was really fun to go around to all of the booths and eat different cheeses.
Orvieto
my favorite place thus far in Italy. You have to hike to get there, and it's exactly what I imagined italy to be like. The sky is so blue it's almost like the fake sky immitated in that one hotel in vegas. Everything there was pretty surreal and so happy. It was pretty perfect and I really want to go back there.
The Duomo
breathetaking and very large. ( i need a new list of adjectives) The paintings inside were depictions of hell. They were painted during the lower part of the rennaissance and were forerunners to michaelangelo. new fact: nudes were only painted when they were doing something heroic.
Cool little town/Olive oil man/Rick steves
In a little town on top of a hill live 10 people. In 5 years scientists say that this little town will fall. The only way to the town is to go across a really long draw bridge and hike up a hill. In the town there is a lot of olive oil and cheese. There also happens to live a little man who owns a little brushcetta shop. His name I can't remember, but he gave us bruschetta and told us that he was born there. He owns an olive oil mill and is spending his life there until the town falls to the ground.
Also, I met Rick Steves in this little town. He's pretty cool
Florence:
we must be on the really dirty part of florence because right now i'm missing rome. I hope we find the nicer places. Our apartment is really small and we are switching off sleeping on the couch. I'm so grateful to be here and to be getting settled.
DAY 4
Today was good... and long... and i ate a ton of gelato. We spent most of the day on the bus and got off at a few stops. I think everyone was slightly cranky because we were on a bus all day riding through small streets. At one point we left two of the girls at Herculaneum and the bus tried to get back to the site after going a couple miles and couldn’t because the streets were so small. Eventually they got back to the group but it took awhile. As for now, I’m in Salerno, and it’s just at ghetto as naples. but I got Pizza for 1 euro.
Today we:
-went to herculaneum
-went to pompei
-rode the bus
-got lost in naples (creepy)
Pompeii
pretty cool. The Roman’s are perverted. I don’t mean to sound derogatory by saying this but there are penis’s pointing to the brothels. Our tour was 2 hours and after awhile I got sick of hearing about brothels. However outside pompeii all the vendors are very typical. "special price for you bella" that's all you hear... emmie almost got stollen. Some guy came up to her and asked her if she wanted to come to sorento with him. kinda creepy
Herculaneum
This was better than pompei. It was a lot smaller and a lot more maneagable to see. The layout of the city was very well planned and laid out. I wish i could appreciate city planning more to appreciate the city and pompei more than I do.
Naples
Definitely infested with the mafia. Emmie and I had to go out and buy some things and no one spoke english. In fact, the store owners stand outside of their stores and wont let you in unless you tell them what you want. Everyone is angry and no one speaks english. I'm glad I knew some itallian, but it's not worth going back to.
Solerno
YAY this is where I got a phone... talked with my mom for 16.66 minutes and then ate 1euro pizza and really good gelato
Today we:
-went to herculaneum
-went to pompei
-rode the bus
-got lost in naples (creepy)
Pompeii
pretty cool. The Roman’s are perverted. I don’t mean to sound derogatory by saying this but there are penis’s pointing to the brothels. Our tour was 2 hours and after awhile I got sick of hearing about brothels. However outside pompeii all the vendors are very typical. "special price for you bella" that's all you hear... emmie almost got stollen. Some guy came up to her and asked her if she wanted to come to sorento with him. kinda creepy
Herculaneum
This was better than pompei. It was a lot smaller and a lot more maneagable to see. The layout of the city was very well planned and laid out. I wish i could appreciate city planning more to appreciate the city and pompei more than I do.
Naples
Definitely infested with the mafia. Emmie and I had to go out and buy some things and no one spoke english. In fact, the store owners stand outside of their stores and wont let you in unless you tell them what you want. Everyone is angry and no one speaks english. I'm glad I knew some itallian, but it's not worth going back to.
Solerno
YAY this is where I got a phone... talked with my mom for 16.66 minutes and then ate 1euro pizza and really good gelato
DAY 3
There is no lack of fun in Rome. I love it here and it’s only my 3rd day in Italy. Here’s what i wish i knew before I came to Rome. The people here dress REALLY nice. They wear lots of black and everyone wears sunglasses all the time anytime. If only I knew I would have brought more black.
Anyways, today was fun! (i mean what else would you expect other than loads of fun in italy, GEEZ!) I walked a ton and my feet hurt.
this is what we did today:
-took an elevator to the top of St. Peter’s bascillica
-went back to the medici villa for swag (stuff we all get... for free)
-went around the art district of Rome
-saw contemporary buildings
-saw the Pantheon
-went to the mouth of truth (from a Roman Holiday)
-Saw the extacy of st. Teresa
Dinner
Best Italian food i have ever had in my entire life. This was a restaurant that was in Robert’s book. It was in a little back allyway and had the coolest atmosphere. All of the furniture was mixed. The tables were vintage collections from the 1920’s and the decorations were pieced of objects that had been knitted over. Let me descibe this better. The object was underneath the knitting but there was no hole to let the object in. So for example they basically knit over the intire chair. The kitchen was exped by glass and it gave an industrial kind of feel because of the lining.
Exctasy of St. Teresa
I had never been to evening mass before tonight. Hearing it in italian made it much more authentic to me. As a group we walked into the church in the middle of evening mass without knowing. I couldn’t see the Exctasy when we first walked into this small church, and I was sure we had come to the wrong place until we decided to sit down as a group to listen to the mass. When i finally saw it I was surprised by how small it was. Especially for a sculpture by Bernini. But he pulled it off and it was perfect.
Mouth of truthcool, but not as cool as watching it in “only you”... it was locked in a cage and took a really long time to get to. but it was cool. The walk along the tiber to get to it was worth it.
Pantheon
It took us a while to find the pantheon. but when we found it, it was BIG, and when we went inside it was BIG. It kind of blew me back a little bit because of its size. It was probably one of my most favorite parts of the day seeing it peak through the noise of all of the buildings. It didnt’ blend in at all and was AMAZING. Gahh i loved it.
Contemporary Galleries/
Art District/
Art Hotel
Emmie, Robert, Hillary and I used Robert’s cool book to find all of the contemporary galleries in rome. It wasn’t too hard because most of them were in the same area of town which happened to be the art district of Rome. We walked around tons of litte shops and peeped in windows of shops that we wished were open, but were closed due to the holiday. We found this Art hotel (literally called the art hotel) that had great lighting and furniture. Every floor of the hotel was a different color. They used colored plexiglass to line the walls and floors and used really good lighting to illuminate the halls. It was interesting because the rooms had more of an oak and woded them to them with which accents. I dont think that the halls and the rooms worked very well as one piece together, but maybe that’s what the designer was going for. The 4th floor was blue, 3rd red, 2nd green, and first yellow.
Top of St. Peters
So today was the Italian labor day so basically only churches and restaurants were open. Bethanne (the illustration professor wanted to go up to the top of St. Peters. But I wanted to go see contemporary galleries with some other people at 10. So i compromised and did both. Anyhow We got up to St. Peters at 8. Took the elevator for 7euros up to the top. Climbed stairs with a bunch of sweaty stairs. By the way this staircase was VERY narrow and smelled VERY BAD. By the time we got to the top it was 9. And it was breathetaking. the Romans were such good craftsmen. They were very meticulous and worked well with detail. It was 9:30 by the time we got down (it doesn’t take as long to get down as it does to get up)... took the metro back to the hotel, got to the hotel at 10, and no one was up to go to the contemporary galleries.
Anyways, today was fun! (i mean what else would you expect other than loads of fun in italy, GEEZ!) I walked a ton and my feet hurt.
this is what we did today:
-took an elevator to the top of St. Peter’s bascillica
-went back to the medici villa for swag (stuff we all get... for free)
-went around the art district of Rome
-saw contemporary buildings
-saw the Pantheon
-went to the mouth of truth (from a Roman Holiday)
-Saw the extacy of st. Teresa
Dinner
Best Italian food i have ever had in my entire life. This was a restaurant that was in Robert’s book. It was in a little back allyway and had the coolest atmosphere. All of the furniture was mixed. The tables were vintage collections from the 1920’s and the decorations were pieced of objects that had been knitted over. Let me descibe this better. The object was underneath the knitting but there was no hole to let the object in. So for example they basically knit over the intire chair. The kitchen was exped by glass and it gave an industrial kind of feel because of the lining.
Exctasy of St. Teresa
I had never been to evening mass before tonight. Hearing it in italian made it much more authentic to me. As a group we walked into the church in the middle of evening mass without knowing. I couldn’t see the Exctasy when we first walked into this small church, and I was sure we had come to the wrong place until we decided to sit down as a group to listen to the mass. When i finally saw it I was surprised by how small it was. Especially for a sculpture by Bernini. But he pulled it off and it was perfect.
Mouth of truthcool, but not as cool as watching it in “only you”... it was locked in a cage and took a really long time to get to. but it was cool. The walk along the tiber to get to it was worth it.
Pantheon
It took us a while to find the pantheon. but when we found it, it was BIG, and when we went inside it was BIG. It kind of blew me back a little bit because of its size. It was probably one of my most favorite parts of the day seeing it peak through the noise of all of the buildings. It didnt’ blend in at all and was AMAZING. Gahh i loved it.
Contemporary Galleries/
Art District/
Art Hotel
Emmie, Robert, Hillary and I used Robert’s cool book to find all of the contemporary galleries in rome. It wasn’t too hard because most of them were in the same area of town which happened to be the art district of Rome. We walked around tons of litte shops and peeped in windows of shops that we wished were open, but were closed due to the holiday. We found this Art hotel (literally called the art hotel) that had great lighting and furniture. Every floor of the hotel was a different color. They used colored plexiglass to line the walls and floors and used really good lighting to illuminate the halls. It was interesting because the rooms had more of an oak and woded them to them with which accents. I dont think that the halls and the rooms worked very well as one piece together, but maybe that’s what the designer was going for. The 4th floor was blue, 3rd red, 2nd green, and first yellow.
Top of St. Peters
So today was the Italian labor day so basically only churches and restaurants were open. Bethanne (the illustration professor wanted to go up to the top of St. Peters. But I wanted to go see contemporary galleries with some other people at 10. So i compromised and did both. Anyhow We got up to St. Peters at 8. Took the elevator for 7euros up to the top. Climbed stairs with a bunch of sweaty stairs. By the way this staircase was VERY narrow and smelled VERY BAD. By the time we got to the top it was 9. And it was breathetaking. the Romans were such good craftsmen. They were very meticulous and worked well with detail. It was 9:30 by the time we got down (it doesn’t take as long to get down as it does to get up)... took the metro back to the hotel, got to the hotel at 10, and no one was up to go to the contemporary galleries.
DAY 2
Well... i’ve been in Rome for 2 Days, Yes, 2 days i’m a survivor of gypsies, the mafia, and street sales man. And i’m here to tell you that my feet hurt, and among other things I love it here.
Here’s what I need to touch on for todays adventures:
-the colosseum
-the borghese gallery
-palatine hill
-best gelato ever
-great book store (the ara pachis)
-Coolest restaurant (i love good design)
COOL RESTAURANT
We used the book we found at the ara paccis museum to find a great place for dinner. It was amazing. I had a mushroom pizza. It was much better than the pizza I had the first night i was here in Rome.Great book storeI went here with Robert, another guy in my major. he’s about to graduate and has been telling me the ins and outs of the program. He really had to work his way into the program and he’s really cool. We went to the museum at the ara paccis (altar of peace) There we found a book that had the best design spots in rome. Tomorrow we are going to a group to go hunt them down. I’m so excited. Apart from all of the traditional art Rome does have a great modern--edgy design world. I’ll post more about it tomorrow.Best Gelato Ever!well i can’t remember the name of this place, but it was amazing. It was over by the trevi fountain and if I ever go back i will know how to get there. Apparently its been in magazines? I dunno... but I got banana, honey, and cinnimon-ginger. So good!
Palatine HillThis was fun. I think a lot of the girls on the trip had a lot of fun taking crazy pictures. Me on the other hand I had fun taking pictures of the brick. I also started taking pictures of tourists. I’m going to start a book of tourists. I think its a pretty ingeneous concept.
she's my favorite tourist thus far
I want this chair... you can store books in it
The Borghese gallery
Bernini is now one of my favorite scupltors. Michael Angelo does not compare to this man in my mind. I don’t think anyone could capture such emotion. We saw the rape of europa which was so beautiful it could make you cry. The way he has poseidon grasping europa makes you just cringe. It is so easy to mistake his sculptures for actual people. He doesn’t do stick skinny women, his women are real women, they are fleshy and absolutely gorgeous. we couldn’t take cameras into this place we just took our sketchbooks. I also met a group from dartmouth and i’m going to meet them in florence to get lunch. They seemed very sophisticated.
This is kelly and i in front of the borghese ( i can't turn us around)
The Colosseum
this was pretty awsome. By the time we had gotten there my feet were hurting and i was hungry (yes, the story of every tourist. However it was well worth it. On the end of our tour one of the really ballsy kids in our group yelled at the top of his lungs “I AM SPARTACUS!!!!” it was sooo funny. It was also completely inappropriate, but i’m so happy he did it. It made the many bricks of the colosseum much more fun to look at and gave the entire structure a better memory. We took many cool pics.
I really do need to start smiliking in pictures
"I AM SPARTACUS!!!!"
Here’s what I need to touch on for todays adventures:
-the colosseum
-the borghese gallery
-palatine hill
-best gelato ever
-great book store (the ara pachis)
-Coolest restaurant (i love good design)
COOL RESTAURANT
We used the book we found at the ara paccis museum to find a great place for dinner. It was amazing. I had a mushroom pizza. It was much better than the pizza I had the first night i was here in Rome.Great book storeI went here with Robert, another guy in my major. he’s about to graduate and has been telling me the ins and outs of the program. He really had to work his way into the program and he’s really cool. We went to the museum at the ara paccis (altar of peace) There we found a book that had the best design spots in rome. Tomorrow we are going to a group to go hunt them down. I’m so excited. Apart from all of the traditional art Rome does have a great modern--edgy design world. I’ll post more about it tomorrow.Best Gelato Ever!well i can’t remember the name of this place, but it was amazing. It was over by the trevi fountain and if I ever go back i will know how to get there. Apparently its been in magazines? I dunno... but I got banana, honey, and cinnimon-ginger. So good!
Palatine HillThis was fun. I think a lot of the girls on the trip had a lot of fun taking crazy pictures. Me on the other hand I had fun taking pictures of the brick. I also started taking pictures of tourists. I’m going to start a book of tourists. I think its a pretty ingeneous concept.
she's my favorite tourist thus far
I want this chair... you can store books in it
The Borghese gallery
Bernini is now one of my favorite scupltors. Michael Angelo does not compare to this man in my mind. I don’t think anyone could capture such emotion. We saw the rape of europa which was so beautiful it could make you cry. The way he has poseidon grasping europa makes you just cringe. It is so easy to mistake his sculptures for actual people. He doesn’t do stick skinny women, his women are real women, they are fleshy and absolutely gorgeous. we couldn’t take cameras into this place we just took our sketchbooks. I also met a group from dartmouth and i’m going to meet them in florence to get lunch. They seemed very sophisticated.
This is kelly and i in front of the borghese ( i can't turn us around)
The Colosseum
this was pretty awsome. By the time we had gotten there my feet were hurting and i was hungry (yes, the story of every tourist. However it was well worth it. On the end of our tour one of the really ballsy kids in our group yelled at the top of his lungs “I AM SPARTACUS!!!!” it was sooo funny. It was also completely inappropriate, but i’m so happy he did it. It made the many bricks of the colosseum much more fun to look at and gave the entire structure a better memory. We took many cool pics.
I really do need to start smiliking in pictures
"I AM SPARTACUS!!!!"
DAY 1
Dear Family,
I have no Internet… so I’m writing this in a word document and sending this when I get the Internet. Today is Wednesday night 10:48pm…. I miss you guys SOOOOOOOOOO much. Today was AMAZING. I love it here in Rome. This morning we ate breakfast, and then went over to Vatican City. It just so happened that while we were there the pope was there. It was such a big deal. I didn’t realize what a big deal it was until I saw him driving around in a white car waving his hand like miss America. He gave many speeches and I’m sure that he was sick of sitting around. After we were sick of waiting around for the pope to finish speaking we walked around. The churches here are bellisimo. On our way walking around there were some guys who kept saying “sign to stop drugs” the next time we walked by them they said, “sign to stop homosexuality”, then we walked by once more and they said, “sign to stop the Tutsis”. I believe they were members of the mafia and were planning to steel people. (Probably not, but that’s my theory)
Oh and since I didn’t get to update you on the trip here I’ll tell you all about it. It was long and I felt greasy when I got here. I walked up 4 flights of stairs with my luggage to find a beautiful little hotel with gorgeous yellow walls and a fabulous view of the city. We tried to steel some of the shampoo, but we weren’t successful when the box fell all over the floor… that’s a story I’ll have to show the pictures to explain. Then that night we went to go get food so we went to the pizza places the hotel suggested (again I think it was a mafia place) we got there and had to wait for a really long time for pizza. I ordered the seafood pizza. When I got it I didn’t know what to think. First of all it didn’t have cheese. I should have stopped when they handed me the pizza and the clams were still in the shells. Then after awhile after eating it I realized that the shrimp still had eyes. Then I started to realize that I had just eaten and octopus and so that’s where I drew the line. It was pretty bad and I decided that I didn’t want to eat anything after that unless it was purely authentic goodness. So I got gelato and the night was much better.
Anyways back to today. After the pope and the strange men, we went to St. Peters basilica. We saw the School of Athens by Rafael and then saw the Sistine chapel. Words cannot describe the feeling you get when you walk into that room. It was filled with beauty. And I loved it! Bethanne knows so much about those artists and she told us so much about the paintings. Like did you know that Michelangelo painted a drunken Noah before he started the entire thing? Yeah way cool! by that time it was 5pm and I hadn’t eaten since 8am so I had to eat. Food today was much better than the night before: gnocchi and caprese. If you think you’ve had good caprese you haven’t! It was divine.
This next story is for Andy. My friend Jessica and I wanted to go see the villa di Medici. So we got lost then we found it. We kind of snuck in… I guess you had to pay… but there wasn’t anyone and the door so we walked in and up an amazing spiral staircase. Up the staircase and in another room we found a man playing piano. I thought he was just a museum curator who played piano for the tourists…. The view out of that room made my mouth stop, drop and drool… we had the pianist take a picture of us. He was playing piano music from Chopin to Mozart and then to the movie Amelie. We continued to sneak around and find stuff. I’m sure the Medici family left some of their fortune somewhere in that villa. Then we walked back down to get out and it was closed and the door was deadlocked. A man began to tell us that we were actually in a museum/ art school. 40 artists are sponsored to be artists. They have to present their idea and then they can do whatever they want (as far as a project) and they are paid to be creative. The man we talked to was bringing a new concept to the Medici villa. It was the art of cooking. I got his email and we’ll be keeping in touch. I think it would be so cool to live there!!! Gahhh I can’t believe it!
From there on we walked over to the ara paccis (the altar of peace) and then we saw the trevi fountain, Trojan column and some cool castle that I will probably see again and learn the name.
For now I’m going to go to sleep because I might just fall asleep at my computer. Its now 11:09. I will try and post pictures tomorrow.
Love,
Boo
(p.s... more pics will come soon I swear... I just haven't had time to do anything with them)
my view from the airplane
YUM PIZZA!
The Vatican
me in front of the vatican (l-r: Kelly, heidi, Amber, Alexis)
THE POPE!
I gave a report on this statue my first semester of college... we go way back
*more pics will come soon I promise!
we saw the chinese doing it so we had to join in
I have no Internet… so I’m writing this in a word document and sending this when I get the Internet. Today is Wednesday night 10:48pm…. I miss you guys SOOOOOOOOOO much. Today was AMAZING. I love it here in Rome. This morning we ate breakfast, and then went over to Vatican City. It just so happened that while we were there the pope was there. It was such a big deal. I didn’t realize what a big deal it was until I saw him driving around in a white car waving his hand like miss America. He gave many speeches and I’m sure that he was sick of sitting around. After we were sick of waiting around for the pope to finish speaking we walked around. The churches here are bellisimo. On our way walking around there were some guys who kept saying “sign to stop drugs” the next time we walked by them they said, “sign to stop homosexuality”, then we walked by once more and they said, “sign to stop the Tutsis”. I believe they were members of the mafia and were planning to steel people. (Probably not, but that’s my theory)
Oh and since I didn’t get to update you on the trip here I’ll tell you all about it. It was long and I felt greasy when I got here. I walked up 4 flights of stairs with my luggage to find a beautiful little hotel with gorgeous yellow walls and a fabulous view of the city. We tried to steel some of the shampoo, but we weren’t successful when the box fell all over the floor… that’s a story I’ll have to show the pictures to explain. Then that night we went to go get food so we went to the pizza places the hotel suggested (again I think it was a mafia place) we got there and had to wait for a really long time for pizza. I ordered the seafood pizza. When I got it I didn’t know what to think. First of all it didn’t have cheese. I should have stopped when they handed me the pizza and the clams were still in the shells. Then after awhile after eating it I realized that the shrimp still had eyes. Then I started to realize that I had just eaten and octopus and so that’s where I drew the line. It was pretty bad and I decided that I didn’t want to eat anything after that unless it was purely authentic goodness. So I got gelato and the night was much better.
Anyways back to today. After the pope and the strange men, we went to St. Peters basilica. We saw the School of Athens by Rafael and then saw the Sistine chapel. Words cannot describe the feeling you get when you walk into that room. It was filled with beauty. And I loved it! Bethanne knows so much about those artists and she told us so much about the paintings. Like did you know that Michelangelo painted a drunken Noah before he started the entire thing? Yeah way cool! by that time it was 5pm and I hadn’t eaten since 8am so I had to eat. Food today was much better than the night before: gnocchi and caprese. If you think you’ve had good caprese you haven’t! It was divine.
This next story is for Andy. My friend Jessica and I wanted to go see the villa di Medici. So we got lost then we found it. We kind of snuck in… I guess you had to pay… but there wasn’t anyone and the door so we walked in and up an amazing spiral staircase. Up the staircase and in another room we found a man playing piano. I thought he was just a museum curator who played piano for the tourists…. The view out of that room made my mouth stop, drop and drool… we had the pianist take a picture of us. He was playing piano music from Chopin to Mozart and then to the movie Amelie. We continued to sneak around and find stuff. I’m sure the Medici family left some of their fortune somewhere in that villa. Then we walked back down to get out and it was closed and the door was deadlocked. A man began to tell us that we were actually in a museum/ art school. 40 artists are sponsored to be artists. They have to present their idea and then they can do whatever they want (as far as a project) and they are paid to be creative. The man we talked to was bringing a new concept to the Medici villa. It was the art of cooking. I got his email and we’ll be keeping in touch. I think it would be so cool to live there!!! Gahhh I can’t believe it!
From there on we walked over to the ara paccis (the altar of peace) and then we saw the trevi fountain, Trojan column and some cool castle that I will probably see again and learn the name.
For now I’m going to go to sleep because I might just fall asleep at my computer. Its now 11:09. I will try and post pictures tomorrow.
Love,
Boo
(p.s... more pics will come soon I swear... I just haven't had time to do anything with them)
my view from the airplane
YUM PIZZA!
The Vatican
me in front of the vatican (l-r: Kelly, heidi, Amber, Alexis)
THE POPE!
I gave a report on this statue my first semester of college... we go way back
*more pics will come soon I promise!
we saw the chinese doing it so we had to join in
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