Blessings From the Pope...

I haven't posted in a while, but I have a story that is just too good to not tell.  So here is what went down.  Trent, Luke, and I all had planned on going to a blessing from the Pope south of Rome.  We got up very early in the morning and headed to Termini train station.  We arrived and had no idea what train we needed to get on.  I asked a train engineer which train to get on and we all got on the one he said.

Well, the train pulls out and we begin our 40 minute train ride to Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer home.  The ride was great, but there was a loud woman sitting next to us that started to drive me nuts.  The train continued on down the tracks and an hour later, all three of us began to get worried.  I finally ended up asking another person on the train if we were ever going to get to our destination.  He replied, "I'm sorry, but you're on the wrong train."  Great!  At the next stop all three of us hopped off the train so we wouldn't get ticketed for being on the wrong train.

Off of the train, we quickly realized that we were in the middle of nowhere, and I'm not lying.  There was a black man, a crazy, greasy haired woman who was also lost, and a chicken at the train stop we were at.  The black man luckily spoke English and we asked him if he knew how to get to our destination.  He had no clue.  A train was scheduled to stop at the stop we were at in ten minutes.  All three of us ran across the tracks to a tabacchi shop to buy our train tickets.  We then ran back and to our dismay, the train never arrived.  Two more trains were scheduled to stop and never did.  In the end we lied on a train platform in the sun for two hours waiting on a train.

When our train finally arrived, we hopped on and headed back for Rome.  When we got back, the was no time to get to the Pope's blessing so we headed home.  I guess I will never forget this trip for the rest of my life.  The link below is to a Facebook album of photos from the day.  They are pretty good.

Our Crazy Trip to See the Pope

Weekend in Cinque Terre

This past weekend, including Friday, was the second of our 3-day weekends of my summer semester.  I along with my classmates, Aaron N., Aaron R., Trent, Kyle, Caleb, Nick, Travis, and Garret, all decided we would make a trek to the five cities known as Cinque Terre.  We gave the weekend a name, "The Bro Weekend".  A well-suited name if I do say so myself.

We left for the city of Riomaggiore at 9:46 am on Friday morning.  The train ride took a little over 5 hours to reach the final destination.  On the ride there, I shared a train cabin with a couple from Oregon.  Both of them talked my leg off the entire time.  I eventually had to ignore their conversation so I could catch a little shuteye.  They were interesting though.  Their daughter has an internship in Rome.

When we finally arrived in Riomaggiore, the first order of business was to find food.  We found a pizza place that was just down the street from our hostel.  It was called Il Bomber Pizza.  The pizza was huge and absolutely delicious.  We checked into our hostel, threw on our swim suits and headed for the beach.

We took yet another train to the city of Monterosso.  Monterosso is the furthest of all of the cities in Cinque Terre.  It is also the only city that has sand beaches.  On the train ride we caught glimpses of the ocean and its cliffs through small holes cut into the mountain, that's right, the majority of the train ride was through a mountain.  Everyone was like a kid in a candy shop looking out the windows!

In Monterosso, we jumped off the train and ran for the beach.  The beach was no too full and we snagged a couple of beach chairs.  The waves in the water were very powerful.  On my way into the water, a wave knocked me down and threw me around like a rag doll.  It was actually pretty fun!  Aaron Nihart and I ended up making a game out of getting hit by waves.  The goal was to stay sitting the longest.  It was very difficult to win!

We spent the rest of our night in Monterosso sitting on a sea wall.  A live band was performing directly behind where we sat.  It was a Rolling Stones impersonation band.  It was hilarious because they would talk to the crowd in Italian, and then begin to sing perfect English for the songs!  At 11:45 we finally caught the train back to Riomaggiore.  We were all exhausted and quickly fell asleep.

The next day we awoke at an early hour.  The plan for the day was to hike a trail that connects all 5 cities of Cinque Terre.  The first leg of the trail was a perfectly flat stretch that skirted along the edge of the mountain above the waves of the Mediterranean Ocean.  The rest of the trail was not the same.  What was once flat and easy hiking turned into a 2 foot wide path that literally went vertical for many portions.  I thought I was going to break my ankle several times.  I along with a couple of other guys said to heck with finishing the trail and hopped on a train to go to the beach.  The rest of the guys finished the hike. They looked exhausted when they finally reached the beach.

That night, everyone went out for a nice supper.  I and several other guys were craving fresh seafood.  Riomaggiore delivered.  I had a seafood salad that contained octopus, squid, prawns, crab, swordfish, and several other things that I couldn't identify.  My main dish was a fillet of swordfish with grilled eggplant.  I of course had to finish with a cheesecake.  I definitely felt like a fatty at the end of that meal.

After supper we all went to relax on the rocks next to the ocean.  The cool breeze that came off of the Mediterranean was a great relief from the heat that we have become accustomed to in Rome.  Nearby and party was going on.  A large foam machine was blowing foam onto the crowd.  On our way back the hostel, you could see a trail of foam leading up the road.

The final day in Cinque Terre, we woke up and immediately headed for the ocean to take in its beauty one last time.  After about 2 hours we decided we should head out.  We once again grabbed some pizza from Il Bomber and began our short trek to the train station.  We all got on our train and headed for Rome.  I didn't want to leave Cinque Terre.  It was such a great relief to get out of the big city of Rome and back into a small town like I'm used to.  I will definitely make another trip back some time in my life.  I think you will see why!

 

One Heck of a Week Part 2

Well, it took a long time, but I am finally completing the second part of this post.  I will begin with my early rise to head for the airport.  Actually it was a late rise.  I had planned on waking up at 5 to make my way to the airport.  At 6:30 I woke up, freaked out and grabbed my stuff to run out the door!  I ran to the nearest taxi station and somehow told the driver where I needed to go.  He sensed my urgency and hightailed it towards the Ciampino Airport.  The ride to Ciampino is set at a set rate of 30 Euros.  He however only charged me 26 Euro.  That helped my day get a little better!  I flew Ryanair out of Rome.  Now if you have never heard of Ryanair, you have never heard of the cheapest airline in the world.  Don't get me wrong, the planes this airline flies are all basically brand new, but everything about the inside of the planes is dirt cheap.  The seats don't recline, legroom is nonexistent, you have to walk to the plane, and the flight attendants are always on the speaker trying to sell you stuff.  Oh well, it got me to Spain, my final destination.

When I arrived in Valencia, Spain, 2 hours late might I add, my friend Lauren Briggie greeted me as I came out of the airport terminal.  She was a little worried that I was never going to arrive.  We jumped on the subway and headed for downtown.  The first order of business was to find me a hostel to stay in for that night.  The hostel I booked was called the Purple Nest.  It was quite a crazy hostel.  A group of Australians had just arrived the night I arrived.  They were going nuts in the basement of the hostel.  Two guys were gone and running around in their underwear.  A live band was playing very loudly and needless to say, I didn't sleep very much that night.

When I woke up in the morning, I had a creepy 50 something year-old man looking at me from the bed below me.  I put on my clothes and got the heck out of there.  Lauren and I hoped on the subway again and headed to the ocean to release a rehabilitated turtle back into the Mediterranean Ocean.  It was pretty neat to see the thing flop its way into the water and then disappear beneath the waves.  By the time we had finished the release, it was past noon.  Lauren and I met up with her classmate and we headed towards the beach to eat.  Paella was on the menu.  We got a seafood paella and a Mediterranean paella.  Both were a delicious meal.  We then made a visit to the City of Arts and Sciences.  The architecture of this area was ridiculous.  It appeared as if I was walking through the future.

My next order of business was to find a new hostel.  I was hoping I could stay with Lauren host mother, so we headed to her apartment.  The woman appeared nice as could be when I first met her.  That changed very rapidly when Lauren asked if I could stay.  She was fine with it, but then changed her mind and started asking me to pay for the room.  I was fine with it, but it very rapidly escalated downwards.  She began freaking out and then started to ask me to leave her apartment.  I couldn't understand anything the woman was saying, so I just looked at her, nodded, and smiled.  In the end, I got the heck out of there and found a new hostel.

The following day was an another early rise.  Lauren, her room mate and I all headed our for a day at the beach.  The beaches in Spain are much different than the beaches in Italy.  First off, the topless women are much hotter and there are more of them!  I could go on, but I won't.  The beaches are also less crowded.  We spent basically the whole day swimming and laying out.  It was great to just relax.  The only complaint I had from the beach was that I forgot to put sunscreen on the backs of my knees.  Lets just say they were a bit toasty!

That night Lauren and I went out to check out the city of Valencia.  We decided we were going to eat at several tapas bars.  Tapas bars are little places where they serve h'orderves.  Spanish people eat these tapas before they go out to actually eat.  The first place we went was great.  The second place was one of the scariest dining moments of my life.  First, the waiters at the bar were Chinese and spoke no English and limited Spanish.  Second, everything in the bar was seafood.  Lastly, they recommended stuff we didn't recognize.  We both survived the experience, but I never want to do that again!

The following day, Lauren met me outside of my hostel to take me to the airport.  She put me on the correct subway and off I went.  In the airport, I was able to talk to an American family from Vermont.  It was nice to hear their own stories of scary dining experiences.  I got on the plane and made my way back to Rome.  It was nice to finally be back "home".  This concluded one heck of a week!

Here's Some More Photos

Here is the new Facebook photo album.  The other one has been filled.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2205945872679.2132570.1368380983&l=529a68ee7c

One Heck of a Week Part 1

As you can tell from the title of this post, a lot has happened since I last posted on here.  I'm not gonna waste any time, so I'm gonna dive right on in.  On Monday my class and I all woke up and made our way to the Pyramid Train station.  This train station is very unique.  It is literally nestled between an ancient pyramid and a castle.  This is something that I never thought could exist, but it does!  Not to ramble on, we finally found our professor at the meeting point; however, the bus was not easily located.  My professor was on the phone with the driver, who only spoke Italian, for several minutes.  We thought we found the bus parked several blocks away, so I pulled out my camera and zoomed in to see if it was the correct bus.  It was so we made our way across the road to load up.  We finally left Rome about 15 minutes late and headed for the town of Bomarzo.

We arrived at our location in Bomarzo, the Parco dei Mostri.  This translates as the Park of Monsters.  The park was originally designed by a man whose lover had died.  As a tribute to her, he used the stone of the surrounding terrain to carve odd sculptures.  These included a mouth to Hell, a ravenous dolphin, a turtle, a leaning house, and battling figures.  We spent several hours in the Parco dei Mostri sketching and figuring out what makes it a successful park.  My professor gave us a lecture inside of the Mouth of Hell.  He later admitted that this was one of the coolest places he had ever lectured a class.  I would have to agree!  The heat was beginning to get to all of us in the park, so we finished up our activities and hit the road again.

Just before dark, our bus pulled into the farm that we would spend the next few nights.  This was a very unique farm to say the least.  Several guest houses were situated around the property.  The owners of this farm must have been very wealthy.  Each house appeared to have been recently remodeled, there was a large swimming pool, the main house was huge with an entire restaurant inside, and several hundred acres surrounded everything.  The farm produces olive oil, fruits and vegetables, and hosts agrotourism tours.  Every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the farm served all of us food that had been produced on the farm or very close by.  Each of these meals was several courses in size and VERY filling.  I felt as if I gained several pounds during our stay there.

A slight mix up occurred the following morning, therefore we had nothing scheduled until late in the afternoon.  I and all of my classmates took advantage of the situation and went to spend time at the pool.  It was great to be able to cool off in the pool when it was so hot outside.  The fun had to come to an end, so we finally left for our excursion to the cities of Sardinia and Viterbo.  Sardinia is home to several historic churches and gorgeous landscapes.  Viterbo was mainly a stop to explore a mountain top city.  In Viterbo we grabbed a bite to eat and wandered around the city.  After it got dark, we headed back to the farm.  It was two people's Birthdays, so we headed back out to the pool for a midnight dip.  My professor brought out his guitar and we all sang while he played along.  It is so much fun to have his guitar along.

The following day, we loaded up the van early in the morning.  Bagnaia was the destination on this day.  Bagnaia is home to the Villa Lante`.  Villa Lante` is a garden villa that we had learned about in our landscape history class.  It is an amazing design that is based around the idea of the taming of nature into the manicured gardens of earlier times.  This is accomplished through the use of an elaborate fountain system that links the entire garden together from the top to the bottom.  The top begins as a dense forest and then works its way down a hill into a parterre garden at the bottom.  The attached video shows a few of the fountains that are found in this garden.

After our visit to Villa Lante` we met back up with our bus driver at a nearby restaurant.  Now here is were a whole other story begins.  The bus driver was a man that I could tell was a little off his rocker when we first met up with him.  When we first found him on the first morning of the trip, he was looking the girls in my class up and down.  I didn't think much of it because that is the way most of the men are over here in Italy.  Well as time progressed, I could tell this man was trying to take us.  He was being provided housing for while on the trip.  That was a given.  He was also fed with us as well.  Well, back to where I left off at Bagnaia.  We come down the hill and arrived at the restaurant.  The bus driver is sitting at a table with several other tables reserved.  I was thinking, "Okay, he reserved tables for us so we can make our orders."  Well to my surprise and also my professor's, when we realized that the waiters were not bringing us menus, our food began to be delivered to our tables.  Appetizer, a bottle of wine for each table,  first course, second course, third course, and finally dessert!  What was supposed to be a meal of around 10 Euros per person, turned into a meal that was much more expensive.  I didn't appreciate the driver ordering an expensive meal for himself and everyone else.  I guess it's done now, so I can't complain because the meal was good and the school paid for it!  You can see from the faces of the girls in the photo, he was a creep.

We finally made it back to Rome later in the day.  I began to pack my clothes for my trip to Spain.  A fireworks show was supposed to take place somewhere in the city.  My roommates and I all went out to find a hill to watch the show.  The one place where another hill was, was where the fireworks were.  We could only see the tops of some of the larger explosions.  Oh well, I ended up getting some great photos of the Roman Forum while we were out and about.  I came back and went to bed so I could get up for my early flight to Spain in the morning.

More Photos

You can find more photos from my trip to Rome at this link.  Check them out!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2077277176042.2127234.1368380983&l=8e16087895

Musei Vaticani

It's Sunday here in the city of Rome.  I have yet to have a single day off of school this week.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, this entire weekend was centered around the study of the Vatican City and its design.  On Saturday, we had a lecture at 10 in the morning.  It is always difficult to get my butt out of bed on the weekends.  I did it anyway, but I wasn't too happy about it.  Dr. Golden lectured about the interior of the Vatican Museum.  After the lecture, we were free for the day.  I took this opportunity to take a nap.  I didn't do much else.  Watched a movie and went for a walk to a hill overlooking the city of Rome.  This basically concluded this day.

Well here we are to the highlight of the week for myself, Sunday's visit to the Vatican Museum.  We met our professors at the horrible hour of 7:45 am.  We received our portable headsets to listen while in the museum.  The line for the museum was literally a mile in length.  Approximately 10,000 people pass through the museum each day.  While in line, our professor Dr. Golden had us all work our way through the line where people weren't standing.  I had a man yell at me, so I kept walking without acknowledging him.  Other people were yelling at us all as well, but I just kept following Dr. Golden.  She told us they should have filled in the holes in the line!  Anyway, we made it into the museum after an hours wait in line.  The Vatican museum is the most expensive collection of art in the world.  We took several hours working our way through the museum.  The pieces of art were all impeccably preserved.  Everything still looked pristine.  The end of the museum tour was the highlight and one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  We walked into the Sistine Chapel at the area where the votes are burned during conclave.  The ceiling painted by Michelangelo was everything I expected it to be.  It is very hard to appreciate this chapel without actually stepping foot in it.  Of course, my favorite part was the painting of God reaching out to touch Adam.  I can only imagine the turmoil Michelangelo went through to complete this masterpiece.  After what seemed like only ten minutes, Dr. Golden told us we had spent an hour in the chapel and it was time to leave.  I could have stayed for another two hours!

This coming week will be void of blog posts.  I will be spending this week in Viterbo, Italy with my class from Monday to Wednesday and then in Valencia, Spain with my friend Lauren Briggie for the remainder of the week.  I hope I have a heck of a story to tell when I return.  Until then, ciao!

Getting Difficult Over Here

Well, class is not getting difficult, but I think everything that can go wrong with technology has occurred with me the past few days.  My computer crashed on me a few days ago.  The ISU tech guy tried to fix the problem, but left me with a computer that is as slow as molasses in January.  To top it off, all of my design programs were deleted in the process.  This couldn't have been better timing, because I have a project due tomorrow that is based on the use of a design program.  This leaves me to work in the studio computer lab which is currently at a temperature of 100 degrees, not joking.  I will stop complaining now, but because of all this, my blog posts will be absent of pictures until the technology problem has been solved.

Okay, now to some fun stuff.  This whole week has been situated around the study of the Vatican City and its design.  We returned on Tuesday to learn about the piazza that is found in front of the San Pietro (Saint Peter's).  We did some sketching and analysis of the piazza.  The rest of the day was spent working on the next project.  Wednesday was also a work day and not much happened.  Today was a little bit more active.  We went to the Villa Medici to check out the gardens that are found there.  The villa is now the embassy of France.  I didn't expect to go to France this morning!  Anyways, this villa overlooks the entire city of Rome.  The views are great.  I would post some, but I can't, sorry.

After the Villa Medici visit Kyle, Caleb, Nick, Aaron, Garret, and I all stopped at Burger King.  I can't explain to you how good this greasy food tasted when all I have eaten is pasta for the past month!  It was worth it, but it hit the wallet pretty hard.  We all thought it was worth it though.  The rest of the afternoon was studio work time.  Well, that is all I have to tell you about at this point in time.  This week has been relatively dead in comparison to the past.  I hope it picks back up again.

Well, I found a photo of a sketch I have completed, so hopefully you can get an idea of some of the stuff I have been doing while over here.  It is a page of details of the Roman buildings.  Specifically it is called spolia.  Spolia is building material salvaged or stolen from other buildings, mainly the Coliseum.  These materials are then used to build or decorate new buildings.  Hope you enjoy!

San Pietro

Today was a short, but very glorious day.  My Socratic Sandals group met with professor Golden at 8:30 a.m.  We met at a small piazza to the South of the Piazza Navonna.  We were given a short talk about a statue that is found here and then we began our way to the Vatican City.  Professor Golden led us on a route that would be similar to the route that pilgrims to the Holy City would have taken in ancient times.

We crossed the Ponte Sant'Angelo, which is an ancient bridge that is almost 2,000-years-old!  This bridge is lined with angels that depict different aspects of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  We stopped briefly at the Castel Sant'Angelo.  Professor Golden talked about the history of this round fortress.

Finally, we made our way to the Vatican City.  I had not yet visited the Vatican City since arriving in Rome.  I'm glad I did not do this, because the explanations that Professor Golden made the whole experience even more exciting.  We entered Saint Peter's after passing through security and waiting in a short queue.  The interior of Saint Peter's was just unexplainable.  The detail and scale of everything was so immense that it didn't seem like it was as large as it really was.  Professor Golden said that the Statue of Liberty would fit inside the dome of the church!  It didn't seem like it, but when I stood outside it made sense.  We completed quick sketching and then I had the afternoon free for whatever I wanted to do.  I ended up watching Angels and Demons and then going into the city to visit a bonsai shop.  It was nice to just take the day easy.

A Weekend In Florence

Well, it has been one heck of a crazy weekend!  I know I haven't posted in the past few days, but the reason for this is a good one, I have been in Florence (or Firenze to the Italians)!  I was in Florence one other time when I was in 8th grade.  I don't really remember too much of that visit to Florence, but it was nice to spend a few days there.

My weekend started at 4:00 a.m. on Friday.  My whole apartment and I woke up this early to make it to Termini train station to catch our train.  We all reluctantly woke up and headed out the door.  It was an interesting sight being up at those early hours of the morning in Rome.  There was literally no one else outside.  45 minutes later, we made it to the train station.  Our train ride took four hours to get to Florence.  Waiting at the train station for all of us was my friend Shalyn.  Last weekend I showed her around Rome, so we flipped roles and she was the tour guide in Florence.  Before leaving the train station I bought my return trip train ticket.  Because the train ride to Florence was so long, I along with four other guys decided to buy the fast ticket.  We printed the tickets and headed out into the city.

The first place we went to was the hostel.  The hostel's name was 7 Santi.  It was a nice place, but nothing like a hotel in America!  I dropped my stuff off and Shalyn, Trent, and I headed back to the city's center.  Shalyn had mentioned the chanting monks on the hill, so that is where we headed.  On our way to the church, we bought gelato from a little shop at the foot of a large hill.  I don't want to make anyone mad, but this gelato was possibly the best thing I have ever eaten.  It was like eating flavored silk.  My only regret was that I didn't get a bigger cone!  After living in heaven for a few minutes, I snapped out of it and proceeded to climb a million stairs to reach the church.  The three of us finally reached the top to find ourselves in the middle of a wedding party.  We made our way through the wedding and into the church.  Several monks were in the lower portion of the church and chanting/singing verses from the bible.  I had no idea what they were saying, but it sounded amazing.

Following the monks, we headed down the hill to the original location where the statue of David was located.  The view from the overlook was great.  You could see the entire city.  We were all hungry, so we made it down the hill and got a meal.  We all three met up with Shalyn's roommate Jess and found a restaurant.  Florence is famous for its bistecca, or steak.  Trent and I ordered a double order of bistecca to share.  This steak was gigantic!  It was superb, or it at least tasted that way because Romans don't eat much meat.  I was craving a big steak, and this bad boy delivered.

The next day, Trent and I met up with Shalyn and Jess at the Academia.  The Academia is the home to Michelangelo's David.  I had seen replicas of the statue, but seeing the original David was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  The detail of this statue is immaculate.  For some reason, the museum doesn't allow photos of the statue.  I didn't care what they said, I was getting my picture with David.  I hid behind a big pillar and asked some guy to take my photo.  I got away with it, but they were yelling at other people.

The Duomo dome was next on the list.  The four of us proceeded of climb to the top of the dome.  This required climbing 463 steps and lots of bitching and moaning from us all to reach the top of the dome.  The Duomo is the largest structure in the city of Florence.  The dome is the largest brick dome in the world.  Needless to say, you can see everything from the top.  The four of us just sat at the top for a long time just taking in the scenery.  Reluctantly, we had to make our way back down.  This was pretty scary.  Being fairly tall, I had to lean back while descending the nearly vertical steps of the dome.

Later in the day, I went to the Michelangelo overlook to watch the sun set.  The moon was supposed to be the biggest of the entire year, but unfortunately the sky was filled with clouds.  The view from the hill was so great, several of us just stood up there for a long time talking and feeding each other bull.  It was nice to just take some time and relax after a long day of sight seeing.  Of course, when we went down the hill, we all made a stop at the world's greatest gelato shop.  This time I got a huge cone!

My final day in Florence was a good one as well.  I woke up early and Annie, Kyle, Trent, Nick, and I all took a bus to the Boboli Gardens.  The gardens are the result of the Medici family.  The fortress of a house that greets you is very imposing.  The gardens were great, but had many hills.  I wasn't up for too much walking so we spent an hour here and then made our way out.  We all got some lunch and then we parted ways to go do the last few things that everyone had planned.

After a few hours, I met up with the four other guys that I was riding back on the train with.  We were early, so we sat at the edge of a clothing store.  We were all joking that we looked like homeless people.  I put some change at my feet and started to sing.  Everyone joined in, but unfortunately no passersby gave us money.  Better luck next time I guess!  After time passed, we got on our train.  This ride home was quite different from the trip to Florence.  The train we were on was a bullet train.  We traveled at a speed of 125 mph.  What took us four hours on the way to Florence, took an hour and 25 minutes to return.  We actually passed the train that the rest of my class had taken back.  Luke said he saw a red train fly by the window.  I like to think it was us!  Tomorrow is back to class, but before I go to bed, I gotta call Dad and let him know how the weekend went and to wish him a happy Father's Day.

"The Edge of Glory"

I mentioned I would post a video of Lady Gaga's performance.  Well, here are two clips from her performance.  Hope you enjoy!

Living Like the Amish

If you haven't noticed, my daily blogs abruptly ended on the night of Friday, June 10.  At that point in time, our internet crashed leaving my roommates, classmates living a floor above me, and myself in a world without internet access.  We quickly learned how to live without this modern amenity.  However, at 2:00 pm on Sunday, we lost power in our apartment.  This is where all heck broke lose.  I had a load of laundry going when the power went out.  The washing machine locks during a cycle, so for a long time, my clothes were swimming in dirty water.  I finally broke it open later that night and the water spilled all over the floor.  Fun cleaning that up with a small flashlight!  The other concern was the food in the refrigerator.  Now, just so you know, European refrigerators don't keep food as cold as the refrigerators in the U.S.  So you can guess it, in the morning we had a fridge that smelled like S#!T.  We pretty much threw everything out that was perishable.  Anyway, we finally got power and internet back on at 10:00 this morning, only to have it go off again at 11:30.  This time however, we already knew how to restore the power.

Now to the fun stuff, and this week and weekend was full of it.  On Friday, I traveled with my class to the town of Palestrina.  Palestrina is located in the mountains to the East of Rome.  There is an old Roman building that was revealed during a bombing raid by the Allies on Italy during WWII.  We had learned about this place in our landscape history classes in Ames.  It was cool to actually be in the place that I had learned about.  It was crazy getting around in this city though.  Everything was on a vertical hill.  Annie Remmerde, Kyle McMahon, Nick King, and I all decided that it would be a good idea to climb to the top of the mountain when we had an hour of free-time.  Ha!  I about died.  It took us 45 minutes to make it to the top.  Needless to say, my legs were definitely burning at the end of the day!  We ate lunch as a class near the base of the town and we made our way back to Rome.  We got slightly lost when we took the wrong bus, but it was quickly straightened out and we made it back to Rome.

Saturday was probably the highlight of my weekend.  I met up with my friend Shalyn from Iowa State and her friend Nathan at Termini train station in the morning.  We made our way out to see the sights.  On our way to the Coliseum, we ran into a girl from Brazil, Christiane, who was lost and trying to find the Coliseum.  We told her that we were on our way there and to tag along.  In the end, she stayed with us the rest of the day.  She was very intelligent and was very helpful when we needed to talk to an Italian.  She spoke something like 5 languages!  We hit up the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navonna, and many other places.  We met up with some more of Shalyn's friends and ate lunch near the Pantheon.  It was during lunch that it was mentioned that Lady Gaga was performing at a free concert.  Everyone wanted to go, so when we finished lunch that is where we all headed.  We stood at the concert for 4 hours waiting for Gaga to come out.  She finally did and the crowd went nuts!  We were only 100 feet from the stage.  I couldn't believe I was actually there.

Sunday was a very relaxed day.  In the morning I attended Pentecost mass at the Pantheon.  At the end of this mass, they drop rose petals from the Oculus.  It was really neat.  There was a cardinal in attendance even.  In the afternoon, because we had no electricity, my roommates and I decided to go to the beach.  We spent most of the afternoon there and then returned.  I ate an excellent dinner across the street from the Crypt of Bones.  I had lemon sauce veal with a mixed salad with salmon.  One of the people I was eating with bought us a bottle of pretty expensive wine to share.  It was the best red wine I have had since arriving in Italy.  We walked around Rome for a while and then returned to my dark apartment.  Because there was nothing to do, I went to bed.

Monday was a boring day.  We got power back and I spent the rest of the day working on school projects in studio.  Well, I should probably get this posted before the electricity cuts out again.  Until tomorrow, ciao!

Busy Day, but Good Food!

I need to get to bed, so I will quickly tell you about the highlights of today.  I had the best supper of my life tonight!  A rack of lamb, rosemary potatoes, souffle`, and white wine.  The bill was horrendous, but it was so worth it.  We could watch the cook cut the meat with a cleaver and then cook it over a wood fired grill.  I will probably be visiting there again, only choosing a cheaper menu.

This section is going to be short and sweet.  I'm just going to post a picture of what I have been working on for the past few days.  We have been analyzing this plaza with Luke Voseberg.  We have spent a lot of time here.  Anyway, I'm tired and going to bed!

Music on the Terrace

Today was a relatively short day here in Rome.  We started off the day by presenting our Powerpoint presentations to the class.  That only took an hour and we started at 2:30.  We then took a break and went and got food and drinks for the weekly social event that we have with the whole group on Wednesdays.  We came back to studio and Lauren Golden gave her lecture about Palimpsest Rome.  It is sometimes difficult to stay awake during her two hour lectures, but her enthusiasm for the subject keeps me awake.

After the lecture, we retired to the studio terrace where we proceeded to eat snacks and drink wine.  We had two guests tonight who were Lauren's friends.  It was so much fun sitting on the terrace with the whole class talking.  As the night progressed, my other professor Michael Martin broke out his guitar and tambourine and began to sing.  Of course, he started taking requests and before long, the whole class had joined in singing.  I was asked to sing, so to change the pace of everything I sang some country.  Aaron wanted to hear Garth Brook's "Friends In Low Places", so that is what I sang.  I'm almost certain that our neighbors were going to kill us all, but it was worth it.  We kept singing, and before we knew it the time was 11:00!  We decided we needed to get some sleep, so our professor Michael moved our assignment due date back a day because we had spent so much time singing!  We made our way back to the tram stop and then back to the apartment.  I'm exhausted, so until tomorrow, ciao!

Project #2

Well, I started my day off at my new favorite place on the face of this earth, Bar del Cappuccino.  The owner, Luigi, makes designs in every cup of cappuccino.  This includes apples, like the design I had this morning, roses, birds, and other things.  The coffee is some of the best I've ever had and not to mention, the cheapest!  I also eat a marmalade filled croissant with my coffee almost every morning.  At lunch, Bar del Cappuccino makes pastrami sandwiches to die for.  Luigi's daughter just about kills herself making sandwich after sandwich.  As I said, the greatest place on Earth.

Well, as the title of this post states, we started our second project of the semester today.  The name of the project is Il Nodo E L'Incontro.  This translates in English to the node and the meeting.  Nodes are areas in a landscapes where people converge or meet.  This is very important in the study of my major because placing your designs at these specific points ensures that they will be used to the fullest extent.  Luc Vosberg and I are partnered together for this project.  We randomly wandered through the Trastevere part of the city of Rome.  This is the same section of the city where my apartment is located.  While wandering, we found a hilltop that overlooks the city.  This is where this photo was taken.  It was amazing to see a large portion of the city at one time.  I will definitely be visiting this site again in the near future.  We continued our project later in the night where we compiled a PowerPoint presentation of the path that we took through Trastevere.  We present the PowerPoint tomorrow.

Socratic Sandals

Today was the first day of Socratic Sandals in my program.  As a rule for the classes, photographs are not allowed.  Therefore, I will have no pictures for this post.  The idea behind this mentality is that you actually analyze what you are seeing with your mind and eyes.  In the end, you actually remember what you have experienced.  Most tourists experience places through the lens of their camera.  It's only when they return home that they actually process, what they have seen.  Essentially, we are going to retain more of what we have seen during our time in Rome. 

Not to blabber on, we began our Socratic Sandal at the Campo dei Fiori.  This location was a site of many deaths and assassinations.  Many public executions took place in this piazza.  We then proceeded to take a tour through many winding streets ending up at the Piazza Navonna.  This piazza was once a racetrack for Romans a few thousand years ago.  While there, a stage was being erected for some type of concert.  I'm a little curious to see what is actual going to occur there.  I would like to attend if possible.  After Piazza Navonna, we continued through winding streets and eventually ended up back at the Campo dei Fiori.  From there, Luc Vosberg, Annie Remmerde, Alex Klus, Trent Witt, and I all ate supper at a pizzeria just to the south of the Campo.  My supper was a plate of lasagna.  It was absolutely delicious.  As short as this post was, I don't really know where in the heck we were today.  The winding streets just confuse the heck out of me.  Well, until tomorrow, ciao!

Another Gorgeous Day

As I start this post, it is sprinkling lightly outside my studio window.  I'm working on a sketch project that deals with the Pantheon.  I have become very familiar with this famous architecture and its surrounding piazza over the past few days.  The project involves combining several sketches together on one page.

In class on Friday, we went on the first of several outings called Socratic Sandals.  The idea of these is to become more familiar with the history of Rome by actually going out and seeing the history.  It is very amazing to hear the different things that have occurred in this city.  For example, everywhere you walk, 60 feet below your feet is the level that the ground was at when the city of Rome was founded.  Because of this, construction of new things such as the subway system is always hampered because they have to do archaeological digs before they can continue.  Anyway, the Socratic Sandals were based on going underground.  We visited three sites around the city.  The first place we went to was the catacombs.  The tunnel system that exists is mind boggling.  It is somewhere around 15 miles of tunnels that the Romans excavated to bury their dead!  The second place visited was the Basilica San Clemente.  This was a church with an underground church below it.  Back in the day, the caretaker of the church kept hearing running water below the church that he took care of.  It kept him awake at night.  Curiosity finally got the better of him so he broke through the floor and found a two story church below him.  The running water was a spring that we actually all dipped our hands into and drank from.  The water was delicious!  The final place we visited was a church that decorated the walls with the bones and bodies of dead catholic monks.  It was very macabre seeing so many dead bodies hanging from the walls.  It was very pretty, but it was still difficult to think that you were surrounded by the bodies of thousands of dead people.  An interesting note about the bone church.  The deterioration of living material such as flowers and human bodies degrade at a slower speed.  People place flowers on the graves of some of the monks and the flowers stay fresh for months.  Very cool and creepy at the same time.  I couldn't take photographs of any of these places because they are such sacred places.

I have really been enjoying taking photos while we are out and about in the city.  Everything is so beautiful and the ruins of ancient buildings is something that I'm not used used to coming from the U.S.  I don't know how many photos have been taken but it is easily in the thousands!  Well, I think I have spent enough time on writing this post.  I should probably get back to work.  The rain is now coming down very heavily.  It makes it so relaxing to have the windows open with the cool breeze blowing through the studio.  Well, until next time, ciao!

Festa della Repubblica

Today was the Festa della Repubblica for the country of Italy.  This is essentially the same as our celebration of the Fourth of July; however, this was the 150th celebration of Italy's independence.  The streets were relatively empty and calm when I went to studio at 8:00 am.  By the time we had started class at 9:30, the streets had come alive and the air was filled with helicopters and airplanes.  It was very exciting because the highlight of the day is when 9 jet fighters buzz the city and spray red, white, and red smoke in the shape of the Italian flag.  I was unable to photograph the planes, but we did watch them fly over.  You can see some of the smoke in the image below.

We unexpectedly were in attendance for part of the parade.  The class was scheduled to do an analysis of the Piazza Campidiglio.  The piazza was closed during the parade, so that idea was scrubbed.  Instead, we were dismissed early for lunch so we could take part in some of the celebration.

Being a group of Iowans, it seems that rain always follows us wherever we go.  In the afternoon, the Piazza Campidoglio was finally opened and we went to complete our analysis.  We were there for about half an hour when it started to rain fairly heavily.  My professor said that it hadn't rained the entire summer last year and here it is, the second day of this program and it rained.  Well, that about wrapped up this day in Rome.  A little less activity packed than planned, but we still got to see two things that don't normally occur in Rome.  Ciao!