Day 21 (5-31-09) Giro D'Italia

Today was a day of culmination. It was the last full day of our trip to Rome. I started off the day by finishing up packing and then I ate whatever was left in the fridge for lunch. After this it was time for the Giro D’Italia. This was the best culminating activity that could have happened to end this trip. We are all tired and exhausted after how much effort we have put into this trip and it felt amazing to have a payoff this big. A group of us (Laura, Caitlin and I) stayed the entire five hours of the race. It was amazing and empowering to see so many people and to see the dedication of the cyclists. And of course we got to see Lance Armstrong, photographed above with Caitlin in amazement. It was so much fun and I haven’t felt that much adrenaline run through my body in a while. It was encouraging to see how much work and how tough all of the riders were whether it be recovering from a bad crash or the sheer power of cycling up some of these hills. I hope in the future I can see a race like this again. I took over two hundred photos of the race so I will be sure to post them sometime in the near future. After the Giro a group of us headed out to dinner by the Pantheon and we concluded the night with some gelato. Now time for some sleep before our long plane ride tomorrow. I will be back home (in Potsdam) tomorrow!

Day 20 (5-30-09) Relaxation

Today was a day of preparation and relaxation. I started off the day with twelve hours of sleep. After this I woke up and made myself some lunch from what was left in the fridge. After this I finished up some journals and photos that I have been waiting to post for a few days. It has been amazing how much we have done in the last few days so it felt good to do very little today. After I posted the last four blogs that I have been holding out on I went for a walk / photograph session for two hours in Villa Borghese. It was a great day to get out and walk around. It was also great to go and do some people watching. I felt so relaxed while I was doing it and it felt almost like I was back in the states. I took many great photos but one of the ones that stood out to me the most is posted above. I think I may call it “walking off to the future”. With this series of photos I was trying to grasp the feel of being in Rome and / or Italy. After I finished up my walk through the park I came back to the hotel where I did some reading of the websites that I normally read when I have time back home. After this I went out to dinner with room 314 (minus Liz and plus Julia) at the local corner restaurant. Here I ate a whole pizza and boy did it fill me up. Now I’m writing this journal and after this I will do some packing and some more research on the Giro D’Italia that I get to go watch tomorrow! One more day left: SCARY!

Day 19 (5-29-09) Florence

Today was the first day of our last three day weekend in Italy and a few of us wanted to change some things up. Now don’t get me wrong, we all love Rome but I feel that I have seen all that I want to see of Rome so instead of staying in Rome again this weekend a group of us decided to make a day trip to Florence! We started out first thing in the morning by catching the 9:05 slow train to Florence. After about a three and a half hour trip we arrived in Florence. Once we arrived we first got settled in by going and getting some pizza and calzones at a corner store because we were all starving. This is where we figured out that today was going to be a good day; the first meal that we had in Florence was AMAZING! It filled me right up and it was cheap. After we finished our meal we went and visited Santa Maria del Fiore. This is when I started to realize that the architecture in Florence was more from a renaissance period compared to the mixed architecture of Rome. Santa Maria was beautiful from the outside and was decorated in ornate and extremely detailed decorations. When you stepped inside the architecture changed to a very simplistic and plain design with only a few details here and there. It was a pleasure to the eye to see this change in architecture because I have been getting a little tired with the Roman architecture. After we finished touring the inside of Santa Maria we decided to climb to the top of the cupola just like we did at Saint Peters. The only difference with this hike was that it was a lot easier than Saint Peters but you got a much better view. From the top of Santa Maria you could see the outskirts of town and if you circled around the entire dome you could view all of Florence. It was another spectacular that was really worth seeing. After we finished touring the church we decided to start to just walk around Florence because one of the downsides to visiting Florence is that you have to pay to enter most exhibits and churches. So we just started walking around and sooner or later we ended up finding a place to shop which the girls in our group loved. This is also when I was able to get some photographs, like the one above, of the city and the beautiful architecture that it has to offer. After we finished up most of the shopping it was time to go to dinner. So our group went out and got dinner at a little restaurant on a side street next to Santa Maria. The food was excellent once again and it was cheap! It was also here that I realized how much more English was spoken in Florence compared to Rome. Pretty much everyone that was at dinner and the waiter were able to speak English and so did most of the other people that we met along the way throughout the night. Heck I even met a woman from Connecticut at dinner who was there with her husband for a few weeks. It was really a nice change of pace to be able to actually communicate with people rather than having to use jargoned Italian in order to get around. After this we headed out wandering towards a market on the other side of the town. On the way we stopped and got Gelato. This was the best Gelato that I have had yet! I got a strawberry gelato on top of a fresh made waffled covered in hot Nutella. It was so delicious. After we got our gelato we continued to walk along the side streets of Florence and the women continued to shop. As the day drew to an end we headed back to the train station to catch a high speed train back to Rome. After a twenty minute delay we boarded the train and now we are heading back to Rome. When we get back I’m going to freshen up and then go to bed to get a good night’s rest before the rest of the long weekend comes along. I do want to say that the side trips are definitely something that everyone should do and that I loved traveling out of Rome to do what I wanted to do.

Day 18 (5-28-09) Peroni Beer Company and Farewell Dinner

Today was our last day of classes for our Rome trip. We started out the day a bit later than normal, ten o’clock, with an Italian language and culture lesson. This last language lesson was interesting because it was a bit different than the other classes. Today’s class was structured around the idioms that are used in the Italian language. Some of them could be directly translated into our language but some of the idioms were completely different from the idioms that we use in America such as “to be mozzarella” or to be a person that is a bit frumpy. After we ended this lesson a bit early we headed out to the last business we were going to visit: the Peroni beer factory. This was once again an interesting tour. We started the tour out with the man that runs the production of the beer and he is in fact the number two beer taster on the global beer taster list. It was interesting to see how they produce beer and to see how much beer that they actually produce. It was hard to believe that they were processing around 75,000 bottles of beer per hour. After we finished up the tour with this gentleman we went on a tour of the museum with a different person. This tour was a bit boring and took a little bit of time but overall I think that everyone, including myself appreciated the hospitality of the corporation. After the museum we headed over to taste some of their beer. This is where the tour didn’t meet my expectations. I was expecting to go and learn how to actually taste a beer. Instead we sat around a table, such as photographed above, and just drank beer and munched on some snacks. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this but I would have much more preferred to learn how to taste test beer seeing as this trip was a trip all about learning. After this we headed back to the hotel where we quickly changed into more formal clothes so that way we could go to a farewell dinner with all of the professors and students. This dinner started out by visiting Aldo’s apartment where we were all amazed by how extravagant his apartment was. After some snacks and wine at his apartment we went over to San Lorenzo’s restaurant for dinner. This was a great restaurant to have the dinner at because the food was amazing but the street vendors got quite annoying during the dinner especially when we were trying to roast the professors. The best part of the night, according to me, was when we roasted the professors. It was fun to roast them and it was even more fun to see them try to roast us back. All of us had a great time but as the fun started to wind down we headed back to the hotel. After finishing this journal entry I think I will head to bed because I think I’m going to go to Florence tomorrow!

Day 17 (5-27-09) Pasta, Navy and Mount Vesuvius

If I ever had to say what day was the longest day in my life, today would have been the day. We left this morning around seven o’clock and we returned back to the hotel around eight thirty at night. It was a great day though. To start off we took a three hour bus ride to the Campanian region. This bus ride wasn’t as bad as the ones the other day because today the air conditioning actually worked! It actually worked so well that most of us froze on the way there. Once we got there we visited the Grangnano pasta factory. This was an amazing little factory to visit. It was interesting to see how this little family owned and operated company could compete in the global economy and end up being a main supplier of gourmet pasta to Williams and Sonoma. It was also a great visit because they exhibited so much hospitality towards us. I can safely say that when we all left we were very satisfied with the company and the people that made up the company. They even let us attempt to make pasta and a photograph of this is posted above. After this we went on an hour drive to go visit the US Naval Base in Naples. This was a very amusing bus trip because the bus had to take back roads in order to get there. We took many roads that I thought a bus would never fit down or turn down but in the end we made it through without a scratch. We gave great props to the bus driver for doing such a great job. When we got to the Naval base we got a tour of it. It was very entertaining to see and talk to people that speak English again. The tour was very entertaining but most of us wondered why we actually visited the base. After the base tour we took the bus most of the way up Mount Vesuvius. Once the bus parked we started to hike up the remaining portion, in our dress clothes. It was very amusing to watch people hike up to the top of Mount Vesuvius in dress shoes and heels. Once we got to the top though the view was spectacular minus a few clouds. From the top of the trail we were able to see quite a few towns, including Pompei, and we were also able to see the crater that was left in the volcano after the last time that the volcano erupted. I was also very excited here because my camera held through for the day and I was able to get the type of photograph that I have been trying to hunt down for the last two weeks. I now feel safe to retire my current camera in the state that it is in seeing as it has made it from Guatemala to New England to the top of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. After visiting the volcano we headed back to Rome. Once we got back and settled in a little a small group of us went and ate at the basement restaurant again. Now we are all going to hang out for a little while and then I will go to bed.

Day 16 (5-26-09) San Clemente and the Ministers Offices

Today started as another normal day. We started off with an art history class that took us to four churches. A figure in one of the churches, San Bernardino, is photographed above. After we did this we had a lunch break and then we had another art history class at the church of San Clemente. This church was very interesting because if you start at the bottom of the church and work your way up, you are actually working your way up through the history of Rome. This was a great culminating activity for our art history lessons. I do have some feelings about the art history lessons. To start off Professor Paul Gwynne is a great and extremely intelligent man. He was able to describe to us in extreme detail about a lot of history in Rome. Here in lies the problem though; there was too much detail. The two and a half hour classes were a bit long and for those of us that are not really interested in history it tends to put us to sleep. Overall I feel like the art history classes are needed but maybe with less frequently or about a more specific time period so that way we don’t have to cover a few thousand years worth of history in five art history meetings. After we finished our last art history class we headed over to the council of ministers office in Rome. This was a very interesting visit because we were allowed to see many things that most people don’t get to see and in fact if we probably wouldn’t be able to see the equivalent of these offices in the United States. I found it to be a great pleasure to visit these offices that the ministers hold their meetings in and where they vote on government regulations but it has been a long day. The tour was a little longer than expected and because we have had so many long days it caused a lot of our group to become very cranky. It was kind of disappointing that we kind or ran out of the offices when the tour was done because I would of liked to see more. Nonetheless we left and I headed back to the hotel in order to get ready for tomorrow because we have an early start tomorrow. When I got back I had some pasta that a group of us made and after I finish this journal I’m going to head straight to bed.

Day 15 (5-25-09) San Marco Wine and Frascati

It was very difficult this morning to wake up due to the fact that we were out at the movie so late last night but once I was up I got moving. Today we visited Frascati which is known for its wine vineyards. It was here that we visited San Marco’s wine factory which is the biggest private wine company in the Frascati region. It was interesting to see how the wine was processed and bottled but I still don’t know exactly how it was done because I could not hear the guy who was giving us the tour. The reason why I couldn’t hear him is because our group is just too large. This large group makes touring this city and these businesses very difficult and I do wish at some times that the group was a bit smaller. After we learned how the wine was made we got to go inside and have a wine tasting / lunch party. It was a lot of fun tasting the wine and learning how to taste the wine. I hope what I learned I can take back home and impress the family with it. The food was also great here to. It was a simple pasta dish but I would classify it as one of the best meals I have had while in Italy and this is not the wine talking. After we finished up our meal and said our goodbyes we hiked about a half mile up a highway like road to the next bus stop. It was here that we took a bus a little bit further into the town of Frascati. Now looking back there was no real point in doing this because when we arrived in Frascati all of the businesses were closed for their afternoon naps, including the one we were supposed to go visit. Now I would have enjoyed looking around the town for the afternoon and waiting for some of the businesses to open back up but it was extremely hot and our group was a little cranky so we decided to head back to Rome. After editing another batch of photos I took a nap and ate some leftovers for dinner. After this I plan on going to the Ice Bar in Rome for a few drinks with a few friends.

Day 14 (5-24-09) Running in Rome

Today was a day of recoup and recovery. And because of this, I didn’t take any photos today so the one pictured above has no relevance to today other than it is an interesting photo. I started off today by getting twelve hours of sleep. Yes listen to me correctly, twelve hours of sleep. It felt so good to finally catch up on all of the sleep I have been missing. One I got up I fixed myself some breakfast from what food was left laying around in the fridge. After that I went down Via Corso one more time to finish up any last minute shopping I could think of. Once I got back I laid back for a little while and edited more photos, to the point where I almost caught up. Then around four in the afternoon I went for a run in Villa Borghese. It felt great to get out and go for a run again. I did around four miles of running and I enjoyed every bit of it because it felt so relaxing. All of the stress and drama that have been building over the last few weeks just vanished for that half hour while I was running. I strongly suggest that anyone that enjoys running goes for a run in while in Rome because it was a once in a life time experience. I hope to do it again sometime during our last week while in Rome. After I got back from my run I took a shower to clean up and cool off and then I headed out to dinner with a group of friends. We ended up eating out at a small restaurant that was next to the Spanish Steps. The food was okay but once again not great. After dinner we went and waited on the Spanish Steps for a few more people to catch up. We all were gathering because we decided to go and watch the movie “Angels and Demons”. The movie was a spectacular movie. It was a great movie to see while in Rome because it was shot in Rome. It is funny because all throughout the movie you could hear people in our group saying “oh I’ve been there” and “look that’s close to our hotel”. I thought that it was not only a great movie for this reason but that it was a well rounded movie overall. After we finished the movie we walked back to the hotel and I once again passed out.

Day 13 (5-23-09) The Inside of the Coliseum

Today was the day of the Coliseum. After a small group of us finished lunch we decided to head down to the Coliseum and actually go inside. We took the metro down from our hotel and then we started to make our way to the entrance of the Coliseum. While walking there we were stopped by about ten people asking if we wanted a guided tour. We said no to all of them except for the last one because the last one was the cheapest and it included a two day ticket that allowed entrance to the Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, and the Museum. So after we paid the guide we were ushered into the Coliseum where we met the head guide. It was here that we coincidentally ran into most of the rest of the group. So we took the tour that took us through the Coliseum and then the Palatine Hill. It was a wise choice that we got the tour because I feel that if we did not we would have been totally lost and overwhelmed when viewing the inside of the Coliseum. We also learned some interesting facts about the places like that the Coliseum, for a period of time after its original use, was used as condominiums to house people. After we finished up the tour we took the metro back and grabbed some gelato from our favorite gelato place in Barberini Plaza. After gelato a few of us headed out visited the bone church. The bone church is a church that is nearby to our hotel that has a memorial hallway to many people in which all the sculptures in this hallway are made out of dead people’s bones. It was very creepy to see that many bones on display and to see that it was still an active burial ground for people. It was also disgusting that on some of the skeletons there was still a little bit of dried up flesh on the body. We then regrouped back at the hotel and a few of us went down to our favorite restaurant which is a block away. The name of this restaurant is still escaping me. We then came back and had a few more glasses of wine and we are planning on going to go to bed soon so that way we can get a good night’s rest because we have another long week ahead of us.

Day 12 (5-22-09) The Vatican

Today was an exciting day filled with excitement and relaxation. I started out the day when a group of us, including Professor Wears, headed off towards the Vatican. It was surprisingly easy to get there because all we had to do was to take the metro. Once we got there we quickly jumped into the line in order to enter Saint Peter’s basilica. The line to enter the basilica was surprisingly short and we were able to fly through it in only a couple of minutes. After security we were able to enter the basilica. It was a spectacular sight to see once you entered. It was neat to see how large everything was, we heard from a tour that some of the letters in the ceiling were really twelve feet tall, and it was neat to see all of the monuments that were inside of it. The one downside to this being the Vatican though is that it was extremely crowded and this means that it was a bit of a pain to navigate through all of the tourists in order to get some photos. This is kind of random but I do want to mention that my camera has been on the fritz between yesterday and today so I’m truly hoping that all of my photos are coming out alright and I will be investigating this issue in further detail once I get back to the states. After taking a quick tour throughout the basilica, because you could spend all day there, we decided to climb all of the steps, all 501 steps, to the top of the basilica. It was a painstaking and sweaty process but it was fun to climb to the top. Once we got to the top it was shocking at how amazing the view was. You could see all of the Vatican from the top and if not most to all of Rome from the top of the basilica. What is photographed above is one of the many panoramas from the top of the basilica. After catching our breaths at the top we climbed back down. We then grabbed a quick bite to eat outside of the Vatican and then I headed back to the hotel because I was having an allergy attack. After taking a little nap a few of us made pasta and ate dinner in again. After talking to my family on Skype, I’m now writing this and soon I will hit the sac again.

Day 11 (5-21-09) Monini Oil, Nestle Chocolate, and Deruta Ceramics

Today was a business day which means that it was a long day. We ended up visiting three companies today: The Monini Oil Company, The Nestle Chocolate Factory, and Deruta Ceramic Production Company. There were ups and downs in visiting all of these companies. The Monini Oil Company was interesting to see because we learned how to taste test extra virgin olive oil there. The downside was that the company was not actually in production so we didn’t get to see it being made. I thought that out of the three this company was in the middle for which one I liked the most. Next we visited the Nestle Chocolate Factory. I found that overall this company ranked worst as to which of the three I like the most today. When we got there they huddled us into a corner to watch a few movies about their company for forty five minutes. After this we learned that the company was not actually in production so we wouldn’t be able to see the machinery in work.  Even though they were not in production they still gave us a tour of the factory. And by tour I mean a walk through a skywalk that was made for little kids; which means that in order for us to see the machinery we had to duck down in order to look through the glass. We never really actually stepped foot into the factory. This really was disappointing to me. After this we went and visited the Deruta Ceramic Production Company. This was my favorite out of the three by far. It was a small company and the director of the company was the one that actually gave us the tour. The company was in production so we did get to see some ceramics being made such as photographed above. We got an entire tour of the company from beginning to end and we were able to ask questions about their processes of production and how they export and import products and materials. I was very impressed by this and I know I will be referring a lot of people to their showroom in New York City because they do a lot of custom ceramic work. For dinner we went out to a restaurant where I had the best meal I have had since I arrived here and it was CHEAP. Now I’m back in my room checking my email and I know I’m going to pass out soon due to exhaustion. 

Day 10 (5-20-09) Espressaroma Coffee Company

Today was the BEST day so far that I’ve had in Italy. The group started the morning out with a visit to Espressaroma Coffee Company. This was a great company to visit because they extended so much gratitude to us for just being there and coming to visit them. When we first arrived at the coffee plant they greeted us with a nice warm cup of Italian coffee which was REALLY GOOD! After this we stepped outside and talked about the coffee production process and how they produced their coffee for a little while. It was interesting to hear all of this because I know it will come in handy when I go to help mentor St. Lawrence Valley Roasters at work after this trip. After this we then got a detailed tour of the plant. I found it amazing at how they could produce so many different types of coffee all at once in a very small compact area. Another interesting fact about this coffee company is that it produces as much as it sells / exports so that means that they don’t really have any inventory sitting around. After we finished up at Espressaroma we headed back to the hotel because we had the afternoon free to ourselves. Since we had the afternoon free to ourselves I decided to go visit the church that I had done a report on for this class: San Paolo Furi le Mura. To get there was a bit of a hassle but there was really no walking involved, just metros. Once I arrive I was stunned. This basilica was HUGE! You first started off entering into the garden which is photographed above. After this you entered the basilica that was easily twice as large as most basilicas that we have seen. It took me about a minute and a half to walk from end to end. The architecture was a blend of a few thousand years of Roman architecture and they chose the best materials that they could find at the time to rebuild it. It was very interesting to see this architecture because it was rebuilt only a thousand years or so ago. After I finished visiting my basilica I headed out back to the hotel where I took a nap. Now I’m eating some pizza I picked up from a corner store and after editing some more photos once again I will head to bed. 

Day 9 (5-19-09) Rome City Hall and Senate

Today was a great day in Rome. We started out today with our normal 9 AM departure and headed towards Rome’s city hall. Here we got a tour of the city hall along with a tour of the museum which is attached to the city hall. It was very interesting to see where the Roman government works and it was interesting to see all of the artifacts that make up Rome and the importance they had in the Roman Republic. It is here, in the museum, that we also got an awesome view of the city from the top floor. This is what is pictured above. After we finished up and were quite hot so we decided to head straight back to the hotel to grab some lunch and to take a nap before our Italian language class. It is amusing at how hot it has been in Rome. According to Aldo, our guide, this is the hottest May Rome has ever had since 1920; and believe me it is HOT. There is also no real place to escape the heat because no one really uses air conditioning in Italy and if they do they use it sparingly. After our Italian language class we spruced ourselves up and dressed up for our visit to an Italian Senate meeting. It was here that we got to sit in on a real senate meeting in which they were discussing the matter of the earthquake that hit Italy a few weeks ago. It was also interesting to see the lack of work that was actually done at this meeting. It seems like all of the decisions are made ahead of time in each parties committee meeting and that the real senate meeting is a place to talk on your cell phone, catch up on the news, or gossip to your friends.  After the senate meeting we came back and had dinner in the hotel room again but this time we had chicken along with our pasta. Now I’m still editing more photos and then I will make my plans for tomorrow afternoon because tomorrow afternoon we have free!

Day 8 (5-18-09) Gonfalone and US Embassy

Today was an okay day. We started off early in the morning again with another art history lesson. It was funnier this time because in order to get there we had to take the public bus and when you pack the morning rush hour people onto a small bus with thirty Clarkson students it get kind of packed; and when things get packed things tend to get funny. It was a great ride with a lot of laughs. After we arrived at the first church we then visited two more. Once again it was great to have Paul there explain all of the buildings and artwork to us but he was once again a bit long winded today. I realized during one of my daydreaming moments that I truly love how he talks about this history but I DO NOT LIKE HISTORY. I guess this is why I’m an ISBP major and not a history major.  After this I ran and picked up my suit and then ran back to the hotel for our two o’clock meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. This visit to the U.S. Embassy was neat. Once we got through security we were ushered into a room and we got to talk to a few of the Embassy representatives for an hour. It was somewhat disappointing though because I was expecting to get a tour of the Embassy which we did not. For dinner a group of us got together and made some pasta with marinara sauce. It was a great change up from the norm because it was not only cheaper but we got to eat our HUGE American portions again. Overall today was a day in which I felt exhausted because we had to do so much and because we had such a long and busy weekend. I’m looking forward to a good night’s rest and a shorter day tomorrow. Now I’m going to finish up editing some photos and making some phone calls and then I’m going to head to bed early again!

Day 7 (5-17-09) Third Free Day

Today we started out early again. A group of us woke up early and headed to the Sunday market at nine in the morning. Once we got there it was amazing to see what was there. I estimate that there was nearly a mile to two miles of vendors along this one street. It was crazy! While I was there I bought a few trinkets for the family along with some extra t-shirts and a pair of black dress shoes for the trip. It was interesting to see how all the vendors tried to sell their things because most of them were just repeats of the one next door. It was also interesting to see the dramatic price drop that occurred at the market. Everywhere we visited the other day while shopping was much more expensive than at the market. For example when we were shopping the other day on Via Corso an average pair of black dress shoes cost 65 Euros while at this market I was able to get a pair of dress shoes for 10 Euros. I strongly suggest to anyone that does visit Rome that they visit the Sunday market because it was a great sight to see. After this we went and looked at two churches: Santa Cecilia and Santa Maria degli Angeli. These two churches were great sites to see and I recommend that future groups go and see them. The first one, Santa Cecilia, was quite interesting because upstairs there is a mural from many centuries ago. It was also interesting because there was a wedding that was taking place today. I kind of felt bad because we kind of crashed the wedding as tourists but after all we are tourists! The second church, Santa Maria degli Angeli, was also in amazing church because of its grand size. This church was indescribable. It was gigantic and it was filled with tons of stone and tons of paintings / murals. It was interesting to see how the outside could be so deteriorated yet the inside looked perfect. I still cannot fathom how the Romans built structures like this so many years ago. It was awe-inspiring to stand inside of this church. Now I’m going to sit down and edit some photos. After that a few of us are going to go grab dinner and get to bed early because we have a long week ahead of us!

Day 6 (5-16-09) Second Free Day

Today was another day where we had a slow start but a long day. I woke up around noon today and then edited and posted some photos until we had our group meeting at 5:30. After our group meeting a small group of us decided to go out and get dinner and then go visit a few museums because today all of the museums were free to enter. After having dinner at a small restaurant we headed out to the Pantheon. This was once again a marvelous sight to see but we truly missed having Paul there because it was very difficult to piece things together, especially when most of the descriptions were in Italian. After this museum we visited another one, which the name is escaping me, and then we visited the National Museum of Rome. This was a great museum to see because it had a lot of architecture along with a lot of sculptures. It was great to see once again how all of the materials the Romans were using were being blended together. It was also great to see some of the sculptures and to read, yes there were English descriptions, what they were about and what they depicted. After this we hiked back up to our hotel and we settled in for the night. It was a day that may seem like not much was done but I can assure anyone that we had a long day and that we all have never felt our feet hurt so much before.

Day 5 (5-15-09) First Free Day

Today was our first free day. That being said I decided to start the day off by sleeping in till eleven which felt great. When I woke up I felt refreshed and ready to start a long day. A group of us started off the day by going to a local corner restaurant where we got cheap sandwiches for lunch. After this we cut through the park to Via Corso where we did some shopping for the day. It was here that it started to rain slightly but that didn’t stop us from proceeding on. As we made our way down the street the women stopped at every store and the men and I perused the suit stores because I was in need of a suit. As we went and looked for suits we realized that there was a great variety of price between suits in Italy. I ended up finding one in a shop that I liked and was under 200 Euros. After trying it on and getting sized I paid for part of it and I will pick it up on Monday! After we finished shopping we headed back to the hotel to take a nap. By the time everyone was back together again we headed out to a restaurant called La Tavernetta that we saw on the way back from shopping. The food was great at this restaurant. I ordered regular spaghetti with sauce and it was amazingly great. This restaurant was also great because this was the first restaurant that was truly catering to us. They gave us good seats for the mass amount of people we had, they were prompt with their service, and they didn’t charge us a service fee. After the great dinner we headed out to Pepy’s Bar where we all got great drinks and had a great time. After sitting, drinking, and talking for a little while we decided to head down to Campo de Fiori to meet up with some of the others at a bar called the Drunken Ship. Here is where most of the group got “ship-faced” but we all had a great time together and we met a few groups of other Americans here. After spending a few hours at the drunken ship we headed out back to the hotel via cab and once we got back into our room we promptly passed out. It was a great day overall with some great friends who had a great time!

Day 4 (5-14-09) Farnesina and Trastevere

Settled. That is one of the words that describes today. Today I felt like I was finally settled in: my time clock has adjusted, I can find food, and I have Zyrtec! We started off today again with Professor Paul Gwynne and we got an art history tour of Farnesina and Trastevere. Once again I really enjoyed these tours because they were from a different perspective and they were just great places to see. I find it very exciting to see the way the Romans meshed all of the materials, such as wood and stone, and then mesh the old with the new all in the same building. This is neat to see because everything looks like a conglomerate of stuff compared to parts of the United States where we have brand new sections and old sections of towns. After this tour we came back and I went to a supermarket and a pharmacy where I bought food for lunch and Zyrtec for my allergies. Our next activity this afternoon was another Italian language and culture lesson. I’m still not really sure on what I think of Professor Maurizio Valtieri but I can tell you one thing: the consensus of the group is that we should not be paying all of these entrance fees and book fees every time we turn the corner. That should already have been taken care of ahead of time. I don’t care if the trip costs a little more but it is starting to kill me to have to fork out five to ten Euros every day. After this a few of us and Professor Frascatore and Wears went to visit the Piazz del Popolo and the Spanish steps. This is where the fun began. After we visited the Popolo we stated to walk down Via Corso, the major shopping street in Rome. Once we got part way down we decided to stop at a restaurant and grab a drink and some bread before we continued on. After this we did a little more walking till we came across a restaurant named 06 Bar. This looked like a great restaurant but that was not so. It took the waiter about an hour to get half of the food out and another half hour or so to get the other half out. At the end of this we decided that this was unjust and that we were not going to pay the 103 Euro bill. So we decided to pay 80 Euros and “dine and mosey”. And by mosey I mean make a b line towards the Spanish steps. After our hearts stopped racing from racing to the Spanish steps we sat down on them and took some photos, like the one above, and rested for a little while. After this the girls and I decided to walk back to the hotel where we met up with a few others and chatted about our afternoon. Now tomorrow all I have to do is find a sports jacket from one of the few hundred men’s clothing shops in Rome….. this will be interesting.

Day 3 (5-13-09) Tiber Island to Forum via Capitol

What do you get when you mix allergens, heat, and a slight humidity? The answer is an allergy attack. This was one of the most upsetting things that happened to me today. Because of my allergies I had a fogged head and runny nose all day that made the sites we were visiting less enjoyable but overall I did not let this ruin my day. Today was another excellent day. We started off with an art history tour of Rome. This tour started at Tiber Island and then ended at the Forum via the Capitol. This was a great tour lead by Professor Paul Gwynne. In this tour he showed us through the layers of art in Italy how Italy and Rome came to be how it is today. It was very interesting to see it explained in this way and because of this a great importance was given to each site we visited. One of the most beautiful sites that we visited was the Forum. This Forum, pictured above, was a large majestic site that was hard to believe that it was built a few thousand years ago.  After this we braked for lunch and then we had our Italian culture and language lesson. This culture and language lesson was okay but I will still have to wait and see if it will be a great help to me. By the time this ended it was time for dinner and a group of us decided to head down towards the Coliseum to get some pictures and to grab dinner. It was a beautiful site to grab photos and it was interesting to see how many people were visiting the Coliseum. After this we had dinner at a little restaurant behind the Coliseum. At the restaurant I had a great meal of gnocchi and a great view of the Coliseum. It was hard to believe that I was sitting next to one of the great wonders of the world with a group of great friends having a great meal. After this we headed down to the Trevi Fountain to see the fountain at night. It was a beautiful sight to see at night and we grabbed many photos of the group there which I will post later. I then concluded the night with an EXCELLENT cone of banana gelato at Trevi Fountain and from there we all headed back to the hotel where we all passed out once we returned. Now we have one more day of classes and then we have the weekend free!

Day 2 (5-12-09) Tour

Today was my first day in Italy and what an exciting day it was! First off we arrived at Rome right on schedule from our 8 hour flight from JFK. This flight was very amusing to me because it was my first long distance flight that involved a time change and it was quite funny at how I reacted to these two things. The flight was much longer than I anticipated. I thought that my drive from Connecticut to Clarkson, which takes roughly 7 hours, was easy, but this was not so. After tossing and turning for hours on the plane and after devouring both meals I was able to only get a few half hour cat naps in. After we arrived in Rome we took a bus, daringly though rush hour traffic, to the Mayfair Resort where we then checked in. It was pleasant to find that our room was already clean so after a bit of hustling and bustling we were able to check in. After a quick lunch with a few fellow classmates at Brancaleone Osteria – Pizzeria we began the highlight activity of the day: a tour of Rome with Aldo. This was our intense tour that involved around 7-8 miles of walking over a three and a half hour period and felt like it covered most if not all of Rome. It was a great introduction to the city of Rome and we were able to see and learn about many attractions in Rome. But this came with few problems. The first was the weather. We had beautiful weather today, around 75 degrees Farenheight and sunny, but it was also a little humid which made the tour seem very lengthy. The second problem was the lack of sleep among the group. Because most of us have only received a few hours of sleep over the last few days, the tour was a true test of patience with the group and was also a true test and realization of how much endurance we are going to need in order to make the most out of our trip to Italy. I do feel like the group was able to gain a lot of knowledge out of the tour though. After we finished our walking tour I went back to the Brancaleone Osteria – Pizzeria with a few other friends and we had pasta and pizza with a glass of white wine. It was a great way to conclude the first full day of our trip in Rome. 

Day 1 (5-11-09) Travel

It’s the first day and we are off to Rome! So far it has been a long day filled with excitement and tiredness and there is still a lot of the day left to overcome. We started off leaving the hotel first thing this morning and then we hopped on our first flight. The first flight was delightful (I actually slept through the entire flight) and we had no difficulty in the air or boarding the plan. We are now in JFK awaiting the arrival of our plane to take us to Rome. I have had a great time so far and it is great to experience the family feeling among all of us students and I feel like we have a great selection of students to go to Italy with! Out of all of this excitement though we have all grown very tired so it is amusing watching friends fall asleep here, there, and everywhere. Once we get on the plane and arrive in Italy it will be around 7-8 AM in Italian time and we will start the day with a walking tour of Rome. I can’t wait!