Barcelona

So, I apologize again for being awful at updating my blog. Things have been absolutely CRAZY and so busy, which I suppose is good thing. I will update you all on my spring break mainly through pictures, because I figure those are the most interesting.

I went on spring break with two of my roommates, Melanie and Lindsay. We began our journey in the wonderful city of Barcelona. The city is beautiful, and I love Spain. I wish that I had time to visit more Spanish cities because I find it to be very interesting, plus, I get to put all of those years of Spanish to use! The city is located on the water which was a nice change from Rome. Barcelona also kind of reminded me of Paris, and well, most European cities that are not in Italy for the matter. It has a main road called La Rambla which has tons of shops and restaurants. Rome doesn't have a main road like this so it's nice for there to be one spot for everything.

Some of the highlights of Barcelona include:
-Eating tapas and drinking sangria
-Going to the Picasso museum
-Reuniting with one of my best friends from Marist, Meagan
-Going to Parc Guell
-Going to the Sagrada Familia church

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy! Adios!

Jake Comes to Rome!

Jake came to visit me in Rome this past week and we had an amazing time!! I was so happy that he was able to come :)
He arrived in Rome on Saturday morning and was super jet-lagged. But I followed my dad's advice and didn't let him sleep so that he would adjust to the time difference. That morning we took a walk around my apartment, went to lunch, and then came back and relaxed for a little bit. That evening we went to the Pantheon and walked around there, Piazza Navona,and ended up at the Colosseum which is beautiful at night. We went to dinner in that area and had some delicious pasta.

The next day we walked over to see the Pope speak in St. Peter's Square. Then we went over to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We also went to the Vittorio Emmanuele monument, which has the tomb of the unknown soldier on it. We went to the top of the monument which gave us an amazing panoramic view of Rome.

The next day I had class, so Jake walked around the city and then we met up and ate lunch on the Spanish Steps. I had a midterm that afternoon so I sat there and studied which was really nice. Then I took my test, we came home and relaxed, and then I brought Jake to the train station because he went to Budapest for 2 nights to visit his brother Zach. It ended up being good timing because I had to finish the rest of my midterms.
On Wednesday afternoon I was finally done with my tests and Jake landed back in Rome that night. The next morning we went over to the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. Then we went back over to the Pantheon area and walked across the Tiber River to Trastevere for dinner. We had a great meal-I had cacio e pepe, which is a Roman dish that is basically spaghetti with butter, parmigiano cheese, and pepper.
On Jake's last day, Friday, we went for a picnic in the beautiful park, Villa Borghese. The park is a lot like Central Park in that it's a giant park smack in the middle of the city. It's beautiful, and you can rent those multi-person bikes and rowboats which looked like a lot of fun! Next we went to the Capuchin Crypt, which is a church filled with thousands of human bones of Capuchin friars. It was really creepy yet really interesting at the same time. After that, we went back to the Trevi Fountain and then to the National Museum of Rome, the Palazzo Massimo. The museum is filled with tons of interesting and famous Roman artifacts, yet it was completely empty, which i find to be kind of sad. We had a good time there, though!

Next we went out to a nice dinner, went home and woke up early for his flight this morning. I had an amazing week and I'm really sad it's over, but I'm so happy that Jake got to come.

BUT i leave tomorrow morning for my spring break to Barcelona, Vienna, and Prague and I'm sooo excited I can't believe it's actually here! I'll have a super long update about my break next week!

Ciao until then! Love you all!

Finally...

So I have absolutely no time to update my blog these past few weeks...but I guess that's a good thing, right? I have been keeping busy and have been having a great time. I'll take you through a quick summary of what I have been up to.

The weekend of February 17th-19th I went to Paris to meet my family. We spent Friday and Saturday in Paris and went to Disneyland on Sunday. It was very crowded because French schools had off for a few weeks. But it was really cool to see the Disney magic in a different culture and language!

After a few days in Disneyland, my mom, dad, and Billy came to Rome for the rest of week. We did the regular tourist-y things, like the Roman Forum and the Vatican. On that Friday we went to Pompeii which was really cool. All of the ruins are extremely well preserved due to the ashes. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius is something we have learned about in school since elementary school, so it was awesome to finally see it in person!

After my family left that Saturday, I headed straight to the train station to meet people from my school for an overnight trip to Umbria, which is another region in Italy. We spent the first part of the day bird watching at a WWF reserve. Most of you kno that birds are my favorite animals in the world, but it was actually peaceful to observe them from very, very far away!! Next we went to a restaurant for lunch which served us a ton of food. We then visited an old castel in the town, but because we were all so ful it was difficult to pay attention to the tour guide (oops!) Next we got back on the train and traveled to the small town of Orvieto. That night we went to one of the oldest wineries in Umbria and learned a lot about the history of wine in the region. We also had a tasting of a red wine and a white wine along with some appetizers which were delicious! After dinner, a bunch of us went to a pub in the town and had a few more drinks. The town was so small and quiet and it was a nice break from the busy Roman city life! The next morning we went to see the amazing cathedral in Orvieto, did some shopping and then returned to Rome.

This past Wednesday Allie came to Rome! I was so excited to have a visitor and we had a lot of fun! I took her around the city, we did some shopping, and ate some delicious food. On Saturday we also visited the Villa Adriana in Tivoli which is a villa that belonged to an ancient Roman emperor who wanted to isolate himself from the city. It was beautiful and very relaxing.

Today we went to the Vatican for the Pope's blessing!! Fist he said a prayer in Italian, and then he made some announcements/shout-outs in German, Spanish, English, and Italian. During his announcement for the English-speakers, he welcomed all of the students visiting from the United States (me!!!) It was an awesome experience and I plan on going every Sunday possible!!

I promise I will get better at updating this blog! Love you all! xoxoxo

An Impromptu Trip to Florence

Ciao!! I'm sorry that it has been awhile since I have updated, things have been super busy!!! Last weekend the forecast said that it was going to snow again in Rome. We had a trip planned through our school to Umbria which ended up getting cancelled due to the chance of snow. However, I and some of my friends decided that we did not want to be stuck in our apartments for another snowy weekend. So we decided to go to Florence for the weekend! It was a really spontaneous decision but I am so glad that we went!!

We met at Termini train station on Friday morning and took a train to Florence which only took about an hour and a half. After we arrived, we found a hotel to stay at which was really nice and an amazing deal (20 euros a night!!) After checking in to our place we decided to roam around the city. We went inside the Duomo which was absolutely beautiful! Then we met up with some of Kiernan's friends from home that are spending the semester in Florence. We saw their apartment, and went to dinner at a really good restaurant. Here's a picture of my dinner:

After dinner we went to a pub called the Lion's Fountain which was a lot of fun! The next day we woke up and headed straight to Michelangelo's David. The statue actually gave me goosebumps. Every centimeter is filled with detail and it is just unbelievable. I probably stared at it for a good 20 to 30 minutes. Because I was so amazed I decided to get myself a tiny 3 euro replica of the David :) Next we headed to a Chocolate Festival that was being held in the middle of the city. There were dozens of vendors selling amazing chocolate. I bought Hot White Chocolate, which was pretty much melted white chocolate. Needless to say, it was delectable. After that we made our way across Ponte Vecchio to Gusto Pizza, which was supposed to be amazing. And it was. It was the best food I have had in Italy so far.

Next we met up with my friend Hollyn from Marist and climbed to the top of Duomo. It was absolutely freezing and so windy but the view was amazing!!

After that we went back to out hotel to relax for a little, and then we went to apertivo at a really cool place. I had a frozen strawberry daiquiri which was so refreshing and tasty! Then we went back to the lion's fountain and met up with some other people from our school.

The next morning we woke up early to hop on a train back to Rome. We originally were going to take the regional train which is a lot cheaper, however, due to "snow" in Rome, they were cancelling all regional trains. So a really nice man that works at the train station told us to take the express train in order to get back to Rome. We quickly bought a ticket and hopped on a train. However, once we got to Rome we noticed that it was a beautiful day with no sign of snow. The Italians are so silly.

Overall it was a very successful weekend! Florence is so different from Rome, I probably saw the entire city about 5 different times. I feel like I will never be able to see all of Rome no matter how hard I try!! But I'm really happy that I spent the weekend seeing another part of Italy!!

Brrrrrr.

So even though all of the snow is melted, it is still absolutely freezing in Roma. Yesterday we had a snow day, because Italians do not know how to deal with snow. All schools and public offices were closed due to about 2 inches of snow on the ground, which was mostly all melted as of Sunday night. I decided to take advantage of my day off by exploring some new areas of the city. I went to lunch with some people from my school at a restaurant that was supposed to give us a 10% discount with our student ID cards. However, the Italian waiter had no idea what our ID cards meant so we got no discount. However, the food was still wonderful. I had spaghetti with clams (the first time I've had spaghetti here!). It was delicious. After lunch we decided to get on the metro, and to get off at a random stop we had never been to before. We decided on Flaminio- Piazza del Popolo. I haven't uploaded pictures of it yet, but it was basically a beautiful square with a giant obelisk in the middle complete with some fountains. We did some window shopping in the area. I went to a candy store called Jollyland and purchased my first Kinder egg, which is kind of like a WonderBall. It's a chocolate egg with a toy in the middle. It was yummy and my puzzle was also fun to put together:) We eventually found ourselves on Via del Corso, which is the best/most expensive shopping street in Rome. All of the big designers are located on this street. We also discovered an H&M, Gap, and a Northface store which I might have to pay a visit to if it continues to be bitterly cold!! After a long day of walking around, I took the metro home. Because I had such a large pasta lunch I did not want to make more pasta for dinner, so some of my roommates and I went out and got pizza at the pizzeria on our street. Our goal is to eat there often enough that we begin to get discounts (although it is only 3 euro for 2 slices of delicious pizza) and/or for the woman to memorize our orders (although I'm hoping to try something different every time I go!)

This morning I had my History of Architecture class. We were supposed to walk around the Colosseo/Roman Forum yet they were both still closed due to the snow. So instead my professor had us walk around in freezing cold weather at 9am while she talked about it. I knew the things she was saying were interesting yet it was so difficult to pay attention because I could barely feel my entire body! Our professor then took us to the Basilica di San Clemente which was a beautiful church. Underneath the church lies an actual house from Ancient Rome. Our professor told us that at y times churches and basilicas were built on top of preexisting structures so that no foundation was necessary. It was amazing to see how well preserved these ancient structures were! After visiting the church/house our professor could tell how cold we were and let us go a little bit early.

Later today I had my Ancient Rome class. Because most outdoor monuments were closed, my professor brought us to the Palazzo Massimo Museum. The museum was filled with ancient Roman sculptures and other artifacts which were really cool. However, one of the exhibits actually took my breath away. This picture does not do it justice. A group of students from the University of Roma were performing an excavation of a site near the Colosseum. They found these glass balls, which belonged to Roman emperors. They were usually found at the end of a long rod that they carried to demonstrate their power. I was so amazed because the artifacts were so colorful and shiny compared to everything else in the museum. I hope to go back again to spend more time admiring them!!

Tomorrow I have one more day of class and then it's the weekend again! We're supposed to get more snow in Italy unfortunately... I'm hoping it's not too bad because we have a school trip to Umbria this weekend! I don't want it to get cancelled!! Okay well it's time for bed! Until next time, love you all! xoxoxo

Pictures of the Snow!

Yesterday my roommate Kiernan and I decided to go out and explore Rome in the snow, and I'm so happy that we did! Everything looked absolutely beautiful covered in snow. Here are some pictures:

Snow in Roma!

Ciao! Yesterday it snowed in Rome..for the 4th time in a century! I honestly was not too pleased...prior to leaving the US I anticipated the weather in Italy to be much warmer...I didn't even bring my heavy winter coat! But I guess that Poughkeepsie weather can't escape me! It was actually kind of funny to see all of the Italians react to the snowfall. A man in the apartment across the street from us stood in his window for about an hour videotaping and photographing the snow! Because it rarely snows in Rome, we figured that the city might've practically shut down. So we just had a lazy day in our apartment, and got some homework done (Yes I am here to study too!! ;)) I also did laundry for the first time. We have no dryer in our apartment, so all of my laundry is on a drying rack, and is still wet today. I honestly think I might try to find a laundromat around here because how will I wash my sheets and towels if they won't dry for days??

Later last night I went to get some pizza for dinner, then we went out for the night. We were going to find an Irish Pub but got lost in the snow and were freezing, so we ended up at Scholars (The American Irish Pub). However, on our journey we managed to see several Roman monuments covered in snow such as the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Wedding Cake! That was a lot of fun and we also met up with some other people from our school. However getting home was just as confusing as getting there, and after waiting outside in the snow for awhile, we finally found a cab to take us home (which only cost 8 euro for all of us!)

Today I might go to the Vatican to see it covered in snow which will be really pretty!

Oh and by the way I tried apertivo the other day which was awesome!! I've been working on planning some trips for spring break and stuff and hopefully I will go to: the Netherlands, Spain, London, Prague, and maybe Ireland and Budapest!

Until next time!! xoxoxo

First 2 Days of Classes

Ciao! I have gone through almost all of my classes as of today and I'm pretty excited about all of them! Yesterday morning I had Elementary Italian. My professor is really sweet. She actually taught Italian for 10 years in the U.S. at Buffalo State and C.W. Post! I think that I am going to catch on to the language pretty easily because there are so many similarities with Spanish, and because I am able to practice the vocabulary around the city everyday! When you learn a language in high school or anywhere in America, it is hard to become fluent because you are not put into an environment where everyone is speaking that language. I'm hoping I will return home with a strong grasp on Italian!
After my early Italian class, some of my roommates and I walked around the area in which our school is located. We got lunch at a Panini place and I got Prosciutto which was delicious:) We found a bookstore where we bought our Italian textbooks, as well as some notebooks. I was happy to find some notebooks for just 1.50 each. At 3:00 I had my film class, Fellini. The class seems like it will be interesting, but maybe just a tad boring because we watch movies and I always get tired around that time haha. But we are going to go on some trips around the city to see where some of the films were made which will be cool.
Last night I got pizza at a pizzeria on my street which was really good. It was kind of like a flat bread with olives and tomatoes baked into it. Later at night we took a walk to the gelatteria down the block and I got nutella flavored gelato :)

Today was another early day with my 9AM History of Architecture class. The class is different than anything I've ever studied before so I'm interested to see how I will like it. I am also just eager to learn about all of the architecture that I'm living amongst. Almost every one of our class sessions is an on-site class so I'm sure it will be a lot of fun!
After my morning class I came back to my apartment to do some grocery shopping. It's really annoying to grocery shop here because you can only get a few things at a time because you have to walk it a few blocks back to your apartment. I found some packages that have enough prosciutto and provolone cheese for about 2 sandwiches which is good. I also got some iced tea, soda, yogurt, and cereal.I figured I would get mostly breakfast foods because I'm often out during the day to get other meals.

At 3 I had my first Ancient Rome class. The professor is really nice and I'm excited for the class to start. I've always loved history but I've never been that interested in ancient history. However I think that being able to see everything as we learn about it will make the subject much more interesting. This class will also be taking a lot of trips around Rome which will be awesome.

Random tidbit: I love how almost all of my professors have commented on my Italian last name, pronounced it correctly, and asked me where my family is from. My Ancient Rome professor told me I should go to Naples and Sicily (where my great grandparents are from). I definitely want to go if I can.

After class I just came home, made pasta for dinner, and relaxed. I'm really excited for this weekend because we decided to just stay in Rome because Northern Italy is expected to get a lot of snow this weekend. I'm excited to explore more parts of the city and try new restaurants. Our advisor from our school suggested we try to go to appertivo. Appertivo is when you can pay about 8 euro for one drink, and all you can eat food. It usually takes place from 7-9pm. Sounds like a deal to me!!
Until next time, xoxo

Some More Pictures

Click on the link for more pictures from my trip!

Weekend

This weekend was filled with activities! On Saturday we went to the Colosseum and Palentine. We took the Metro to the "Colosseo" stop and the Colosseum is literally right there once you exit the metro stop. It was absolutely incredible. We waited on a pretty lengthy line in order to get inside of the Colosseum. Europeans apparently do not understand lines and therefore everyone was cutting everybody. We eventually made it inside and it was just as cool. The only bad part was that because we didn't have a tour guide or anything, I kind of felt like I didn't know what I was looking at. Hopefully once of my classes will take us there on a trip so I can get a better understanding of it all.

After our day around the Colosseum we came home and relaxed, made some pasta for dinner, and then went out to an Irish Pub called Scholars. A lot of students that are studying in Rome go there so it was refreshing to hear a lot of English:) We stayed out pretty late and so we slept in today. Our ticket to enter the Colosseum, Palentine, and the Roman Forum was valid for 2 days so we thought that we would come back today in order to see the Forum. However, most of the city shuts down on Sundays and we got to the Forum too late to go inside. I wasn't that bummed, because I know that I will go back again when people come to visit and maybe even with some of my classes. Instead, we just walked around a park that's near the Forum. At around 5 o'clock everyone was pretty hungry, but it was very difficult to find an open restaurant. We stumbled upon a tiny little place and I got some pizza. Im eager to find more restaurants so I know where my favorite places are and whatnot. Tonight we just hung out to get ready for classes in the morning. I think we might go to Venice next weekend for Carnevale which will be awesome! I will update this week about my classes!! xoxo

More Pictures

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