Heaven

Hey!!! I am in Cala Gonone in Sardinia and internet is annoyingly expensive. Prolly little to no updates until July 2nd when I am back in Milan. Sorry :( Yesterday I met the girls at the airport in Cagliari and we drove 3 hours through mountain and then got to a beautiful beach surrounded by mountains and very few tourist. Its amazing. Today Tara and I went on a nice long walk and did some really fun rock climbing!! Then we layed by the beach and read. Tomorrow we are going on a sailboat to all the little beaches along the coast and going into some cool caves. Pretty jazzed about that!! We are headed back to Milan July 1st late at night. Ill update with pictures when I get a chance.


<3

Headed to Paradise (Sardenga)

Okay, so this morning I woke up feeling great because my B&B last night had A/C!!! Thank God!!!! I am now in an internet cafe checking on some stuff before I head out to meet up with Tara, Gretchen and Becca around noon. We are going to head north on the island up the beautiful coast, La Costa Smeralda. Check it out!! We are staying a gorgeous resort town and have looked into doing some cool excursions! I'm pretty excited!

Anyways, I'll update again as soon as I find internet. And on my future posts I am going to disable people from leaving comments so email me if you want to comment because some weird people are leaving comments. It kinda freaks me out that random people are reading this blog. I mean, honestly, it is not that interesting. Get a life. Okay, enough of me being a bitch. The point is email me comments/advice if you have them!

Peace

<3

Here is a picture of La Costa Smeralda...AMAZING!!

I love Rome and I HATE Pisa

Sorry...I've lost track of the date!

Okay so it has been awhile since I have had internet, which means that this is going to be a pretty long update. My last day in Rome was awesome but pretty tiring. At noon I met my tour group for the Vatican Museum and St. Peters. I decided to do a tour so that I didn’t have to wait in the really long line to get in and because it was with the Australian girl who did the tour of Palatine Hill and she was really funny. Vatican Museum was such a sight. The painting and the statues were amazing. A lot of the gold detail reminded me of the Palace of Versailles. The museum was really interesting but it took forever to go through so by the end I was exhausted. My favorite part of the museum was Raphael’s rooms. The detail of this work and the meanings behind each one was really cool to see and hear. The Sistine Chapel was beyond what words could describe. It is amazing that Michelangelo was a sculpture and had not painted before he started the chapel- he just learned as he went!! St. Peters was awesome to see because of how huge it is and because of it’s meaning, but it wasn’t as interesting to me. Maybe it was because I was so tired but it just felt like another old European church. After I finished up the tour I was super hungry and tired from walking all day in the heat so I grabbed some lunch and headed back for my siesta!! I am so happy Rome had free public Wi-fi cause I got to talk to Jul like every day! To finish off my trip to Rome I decided that I would head to the “Heart of Rome” and see all that I wasn’t able to in the days before. I went to the Trevi Fountain, walked across town and grabbed a slice of pizza and sat on the steps of the Pantheon, watched the artist draw and paint in Piazza Navona while I ate the most amazing dessert called “tarfuto” or “death by chocolate” at the Tre Scalini Bar, walked back across town to for another look at the Spanish Steps and then headed back to my apartment to pack.
The next morning I got to the train station at 6:30 and headed to Pisa. Pisa was a really big let down from the start. I wasn’t expecting much from it as it really only has the “Field of Miracles” and because Rick Steve’s says it doesn’t offer a whole lot. Since I knew that there wasn’t a whole lot I reserved a room at a B&B that had air conditions, a TV, near the train station since I was leaving in the morning, and it said that it had internet. When I got to my B&B they told me they had moved me to a different one in town. I didn’t really want to change but I had little choice so I went with it. It ended up that I was in this shitty little house. Where I am pretty sure I was put in her kids room with no TV, no internet, and no A/C and then lady never talked to me she sent her Thai maid. Needless to say I was pissed off and tried to talk to them but the Thai maid didn’t speak any English and I don’t speak enough Italian. I ended up wasting an entire day and some money. Pisa pretty much bummed me out, but at least it was only for one day!!
Today I left Pisa and came to Sardenga. Sardenga is an island off the coast of Italy (google it-its amazing). It is suppose to be gorgeous, but right not I am in the main city waiting for Tara, Gretchen and Becca to arrive tomorrow morning from Milan. I was hoping to hit the beach today but Italians don’t do anything on time and my flight was almost 2 hours late, which ate up my afternoon. So…I grabbed a sandwich and went to the internet café. Now I am back in my B&B, which by the way was also switched on me because the one I reserved had a pipe burst, and this one smells like crap. I am seriously bummed about this situation since the last 2 weeks everything has been amazing and the last 2 days have kind of been downers. Anyways, it is siesta right now and everything is closed so I am going to watch 2 more episode of Will & Grace on my computer and then I am going to go grab some dinner. I cannot wait until the girls arrive tomorrow and we head up the coast to see the beautiful beaches!!! I need to relax on the beach again-the big city, the heat and the humidity made me so tired!!

I hope that things are amazing back at home!!! Love you all!!

<3


Below:mosaic in the Vatican Museum 2. ceiling of the vatican museum it is flat and just painted to look 3-d 3.Me at the Trevi fountain 4. blurry me in front of the Pantheon 5. my yummy dessert!!!

I want to live in Rome forever

Ciao,

Being in Rome has been great! While I love it so much here, all I can think about when I am seeing this sights is how much my dad and Jesi would love it even more. I love to travel and I want to see the entire world, but I am not educated on anything historical. I didnt start liking history until the end of high school and my college schedule didnt allow me to take any classes in history. Jesi and my dad are so smart and know so much about everything that seeing these sights would mean so much more to them. I hope that they both make it to Rome or Italy sometime soon!!

Today I took the metro over to the Colosseum to start my "Caesar Shuffle" but while I was looking a bit confused trying to read my map some guy asked me if I wanted to join a tour. I was a little reluctant at first, but when I looked up at the Colosseum and saw how massive it was I didn't think that I could tackle it by myself, so I joined the tour. It was a really good thing I did because it was only 11 Euro and a great Italy woman gave the tour of the Colosseum and then a really great Australian girl gave the tour of Palatine Hill. It was well worth the money. Without hearing their insider information everything would have just looked like a bunch of rotting brick. They gave so much information that I could not even digest it all, but nonetheless it was super interesting.

The Colosseum is massive. It was interesting to see how the Colosseum looks now compared to what it would have looked like when gladiators were actually fighting in it. Today I learned that when the Pope's were building Rome they decided to take the limestone and marble from the ancient sites instead of spending money to get new products. This is the reason that all the ancient sites are in brick instead of looking more like how they did when they were built. If the pope's would not have done this then many of the site in Rome would look not only better but their structure would also be more secure. I thought that was pretty crazy!

Palatine Hill was very cool. I knew nothing about it before going on the tour. For Palatine Hill going a tour is really a must!! Otherwise it would look like just a hill of dirt and maybe a circus if you could picture it. Pataline Hill is where the Emperors of Rome built their house. It started off one house on the hill (that had three tops) and over the years the house was added to until the people of Rome created the word "palazzo" or palace for it because it was the huge house on Palatine Hill. In the end that palazzo was built to be so large that the top of the hill was flattened and the palazzo walls perimeter was one mile long. Only little pieces of that palazzo exsist today and it looks nothing like it would have. The pope had all the marble recycled into the Vatican and St. Peters. There is only a little marble still on the ground and some marble pillers broken in a pile. We poured some water on the marble to clean it and the colors of it were amazing. It would have been such a sight to see it back before it was torn up. Also on Palatine Hill is a circus where they used to have Olympic games and carriage races. Just 3 months ago Communi di Roma opened up Augustus house for tourists to see. That was really awesome. It was pretty small but amazing. The house has some of the oldest frescos and mosaics in existence. They were beautiful! From the Palatine garden there is a beautil view of the Forum and since it was so hot and humid out I decided to not walk through the Forum, but rather use my guidebook to look at everything from the view. I will go through it next time I visit Rome. From the view I was still able to see most things like the Arch of Titus, Basilica of Constantine, the Forums main square, Temple of Julius Caesar, House of the Vestal Virgins, and more. The Vestal Virgins was really interesting to me. I cannot believe that 7 year olds were chosen to spend 30 years of their life making sure that the candles never blew out. And to top that off that only one woman actually finished her term because life expectancy was only 35.

After seeing all those sights I was exhausted from the sweltering heat and decided to head to the Spanish Steps to grab some lunch. The Spanish Steps were beautiful but there were too many Chinese tourists bumping into me so I got some pasta at this little outdoor cafe in a cute little piazza. Then I wandered off into the "window shopping" triangle of Rome. It was just like walking around Rodeo Drive. Nothing too special, except for the gown in the Dior window.

After returning back to my side of town, near the Vatican, I stop in the TIM store and got an Italian cell phone. So...any of you can call me with international calling or a calling card. My number is 366 5268107. But before you dial that number, if you are calling from the US, you need to dial 011+39. Okay, well I hope you all are doing great and having a wonderful summer!!


<3


Below:1. view of the Forum from Palatine Hill 2. View of the Forum from Palatine Hill and the three huge arches are the Basilica of Constantine 3. Me on the Spanish Steps 4.and 5.Palatine Hill- pieces of the remaining palazzo 6. the circus 7. pieces of marble (while marble from italy, yellow from spain, purple from Egypt which is rare, Augustus had it all outsourced to Rome and the vatican has 80% of it at 20,000 euro per square inch) 8. Me trying to take a picture with the skyline 9. Casi di Augustus' fresco 10. Outside of the Colosseum 11. View of the inside of the Colosseum (the stage would have covered all of that brick. the brick goes two stories deep and that is where the animals were kept and the slaves who were forced to fight for their masters) 12. Me inside the Colosseum 13. The shopping Triangle in Rome

I <3 Rome

Okay, so today after my long siesta I decided to venture out into Rome and see some sights. I was planning on doing the "Dolce Vita Stroll" but as I started to walk I came upon some other side street and sights that I wanted to see, so i just went with it and meandered. I started at Piazza del Popolo where I went into Santa Maria del Popolo, a church, which was not too beautiful on the outside but gorgeous on the inside. Inside there was an amazing alter (like usual) but the most interesting thing was Raphael's Chigi Chapel and two paintings by Caravaggio. Piazza del Popolo has an obelisk which was brought to Rome by Augustus after he conquered Egypt (so far I have seen a ton of obelisks but everytime I see them I love to stop and just stare at them and the people who are sitting at the bottom of them on the stairs. They are fascinating to me!) After leaving Piazza del Popolo, I walked down Via del Corso, the main street in Rome, where many locals stroll the street after siesta. I ventured off this street to see the Mausoleum of Augustus and Augustus Ara Pacis (Arch of Peace). Half way down Via del Corso, I grabbed some gelato and realized that I needed some money, so in my search for a bancomat I stumbled upon the Pantheon. It was really crowded, so I went inside for just a minute and decided that I would return tomorrow to grab a picnic on the steps. After getting back on track for the "Dolce Vita Stroll" I went to the Victor Emmanuel Monument, climbed the steep steps to Santa Maria Aracoeli, climbed Michaelangelo's Grand Stairway to the top of Capitoline Hill, sat awhile in the campidoglio (the hill's main square) and admired the museums and the statue of Marcus Aurlius, and walked down to the terrace behind Plazzo Senatario (mayoral palace) to see the view of the forum. After checking out all of that I wandered down Piazza Venezia where I saw some ruins and the outside of the Colosseum (I am going to the Colosseum and the Forum tomorrow).
Side note: It is crazy to me that in just a few hours of strolling through Rome I saw so much histroy, which I am embarrassed to admit that I know little about any of it. I was online last night, and a bunch today reading about all of the stuff I have seen and will see. Being here and seeing everything has shown me how uneducated I am when it come to history. I am for sure going to sign up for some classes in fall to learn about it all!
After seeing as much as I could tonight in a few hours, I was forced to end my night because it is Sunday and everything closes early. I couldnt even find a place open to eat dinner so I grabbed McDonalds, which I also am embarrassed to admit was soo good. It was like a little taste of home. I have been craving some meat (if you consider mcDonalds meat) after eating all the bread and pasta! After eating I tried to find a bar open to watch the Italian's in the Eurocup but I failed. I ended up coming home, reading about the Forum and Colosseum, relaxing and watching some episode of How I Met Your Mother. I am going to head to bed early tonight so that I can get up decently early and make my way to the Colosseum and Forum before eating lunch on the Pantheon steps (it is a challenge to accomplish this in the heat and all before siesta when everything closes!!) I am having a great time here and I am not getting lonely here by myself. I knew I would have a great time, with or without company, but I sure am glad that Rome has free public wi-fi so I can talk to Jul and my fam and my apartment has a DVD player for our kind of DVDs. Thank God!!

Check you all tomorrow.

<3
Goodnight

P.S.I've decided that tomorrow I am going to do the same thing- longer siesta and then longer time outside at night. Other countries have it down right, napping in the afternoon is wonderful! Here in Rome, it is just too hot during the day to walk around.

P.P.S. I'm madly in love with Rome. I cannot wait to plan a trip back!


Below: 1. view of the Forum from Capitoline Hill 2.Part of the Forum 3. The Colosseum 4. Me walking by the Colosseum 5. Ruins 6. Via del Corso 7. Victor Emmanuel Monument 8.The stairs that I climbed to Santa Maria Aracoeli 9. Me in the campidoglio in front of the statue of Marcus Aurlius 10. Plazzo Senatario 11. Piazza del Popolo and the obelisk that Augustus brought back from Egypt 12. picture on the left in by Caravaggio 13. street in Rome 14. Alley to the Pantheon 15. Pantheon

Rome stole my <3

Hello!!

Today I decided to take it easy. I needed to relax by myself and get some rest. I woke up this morning and went over to the Vatican to check it all out and to see the Pope give his blessing. I could not go into the Vatican Museum or the Sisteen Chapel because they are closed on Sunday. But I figured that just seeing what I could today was good and then I'll try to see more in the next few days or make sure to see it all when I come back. Vatican City was pretty awesome. Even cooler than just seeing the Pope and the Vatican was seeing people from all around the world come together in St. Peter Square, who were all emotionally touched by just being there. It was quite an experience to see crowds from China, Germany, France, U.S. Poland, South America and more all come together in such a scene. The feeling around the blessing was so intense that it was almost too much for me to take in. There were people screaming and clapping and some even crying. As crazy as it was for me, I think that it is pretty awesome that people feel so strongly about their religion and/or travels.
Since it is ridiculously hot outside today after wondering around the Vatican I decided to grab some lunch and head back to my B&B for an early/longer siesta. I could not eat anymore pizza or pasta and I needed some protein so I grabbed a roasted chicken and I am feeling great. The pasta was starting to bloat me. Blah!! I am going to go out tonight after siesta to do the "Dolce Vita Stroll" (that is what Rick Steve's calls it) Basically, I am going to start in the Piazza del Popolo, wander down Via del Curso and end on the Spanish Steps, where I will hopefully be able to find dinner (not in a tourist trap!). I've got the metro down pretty well now so going out alone should be pretty easy and enjoyable. I cannot wait to have an espresso tonight and watch people stroll by. Pretty much I love my life :)

Well I'm going to finish up my siesta now. I'll write again tomorrow.

Lates


Below: the Vatican and an example of what I was talking about people and the pigeons. Why?? So gross!!!







Please excuse the double chin, the pasta is getting to me!

When in Rome...

Ciao,

Today is Sunday, the 22nd actually, but I am going to give a little update on yesterday and then tonight I will write about the 22nd since I have no idea what today holds for me. Yesterday, Tara and I got up a wandered around Catania. I only had a few hours there, before heading off to Rome, so we booked it as fast as we would to a few of the sites. We went to Ursino castle, which was really interesting. It was filled with ancient Greek and Roman finds. The castle was build in the 1200's but in the 1600's Mount Etna erupted damaging part of it. I found it interesting that because of the volcanic eruption, Ursino Castle is now further from the ocean. The lava flowed into the mote and onto the other side adding length between the castle and the ocean. After the castle, Tara and I did a walking tour that our B&B recommended. We walked past a Greek Theatre, bathes, a Roman amphitheatre, and some randomly gated off ruins that had no sign of what they are, as if they have no significance to life in Sicily. It is crazy how apartments are attached and things are built around pieces that have such historical significance.

Side Note:I know that there are going to be so many ruins that I am going to see on this trip, but I love them! I cannot get over how people just live their daily lives around these buildings, theatres, castles, churches and most interesting to me, the random pillers and statues. The detail of each one is amazing. It is crazy how much technology we have now, and 100's of years ago people created gorgeous architecture by hand, and we create straight lined modern simplistic designs. What are people in 400 years going to stay about our work compared to the Greek and Romans and to their own? Just a thought.

Anyways, Tara and I ended our walking tour at this little cafe/bar? where we got an arancillo (im not sure if that is how it is spelled). But in short, it is a fried ball of rice with different things in the rice. Tara got a Catanese which had eggplant and some other veggies and I got Ragu which was meat sauce. We had to get one cause 1. they are delicious and 2. Sicily is really well known for them. I would suggest everyone come to Sicily just to eat!!
After seeing as much of Catania as I could in a few hours, I had to head to the airport. Being that the Italians cannot do anything on time EVER I headed off a bit early, which was perfect because the bus which is scheduled to run every 20 minutes decided that it would only come once that hour and luckily the timing was perfect for me. I met this couple, an American woman and a British man, while in line for the bus who were really nice and helped me figure the bus and how it operates.
Everything worked out fine and I landed in Rome safely, an hour and a half late, Italians stress me out!! I managed by myself to figure out the airport, find the train station to get to Termini, take the metro to my stop and then navigate the windy streets of Rome to my B&B. My B&B is super cute! It is actually more like an apartment and it is located just one stop from the Vatican. Today, Sunday, I am going to head over to the Vatican Square to watch the Pope give his blessing and then head to the Colosseum to do the "Caesar Shuffle." I'll write about that tonight when I get back to the hotel. Well I'm off now to see some of Rome. Hope you all have an amazing day!

Arrivederci


P.S. Rome has free public wi-fi so I'll be on skype and ichat off and on for the next four days.

Ursino Castle

A street in Catania

Greek Theatre ruins

Me on the main street with the Roman Amphitheatre behind

entrance to the Roman Amphitheatre

Roman Amphitheatre in the center of Catania's main street

Tara and I eating the delicious fried rice ball

I love food in Sicily!

Today most of the girls left and went back to Milan while Tara, Gretchen and I stayed in Sicily. We left Taormina and went to Catania and Syracusa. Sicily is really neat in that all the areas are completely different from each other. Everywhere you go it really feels like you are changing scenery as opposed to other places in Europe. Catania is really cool. The buildings made from the black lava and it is very crowded and dirty, but still awesome! It isnt as sketchy as I thought it would be, but watching your bags is still a MUST! Syracusa is probably one of my favorite places I have been to (Right up your alley, jes) It is south of Catania about an hour and a half. It it partly on the main island and then has a peninsula which are both full of about 40 Greek ruins. We didnt get to spend too much time there since we just did a day trip but it was still great. I would totally recommend it to anyone. It was the off season there so we were maybe 3 of 10 tourist. We spent most of our time on the peninsula which was a neighborhood surrounded by a boardwalk with the most AMAZING view!! The water was completely see through and tourquoise. I always that those colors were photoshopped!! We were pretty bummed because the Greek Castle was being renovated so we couldnt go see it but we still saw the Tempi di Apollo and many other ruins. Tonight when we got back to Catania Tara and I went to this pizzeria where we had a pizza stuffed with spinach and ricotta. The food in Sicily beats out any food I have ever had! OMG speaking of food, last night in Taormina I had my all time favorite dish that I have ever had. Like I am actually going to plan a trip back here just to get it!!! I had ravioli with ricotta and pistachio. It was to die for! I cant even explain! I am soo going to learn how to make it! Anyways, tomorrow I am off to Rome for a few days and then to Sardina. I should get around to posting pictures while I am in Rome. Also, I am going to look into getting an Italian cell phone and then anyone can call me from the US whenever through phone cards or skype!! Ill post that as soon as I figure that out.

Hope everyone is having a great time at home. I miss you all!!!

xoxox :)

Produce market in Catania, Sicily

Cheese!!!

Only in Sicily can meat and fruit be this close together

View of a street in Catania (the buildings are dark in Catania because they are made of lava)

Bridge to the peninsula in Syracusa, Sicily

Tempi di Apollo in Syracusa

A chuch

Piazza del Duomo in Syracusa

The Duomo in Syracusa

Street off Piazza del Duomo which leads to the boardwalk

Tara, Gretchen and I on the boardwalk

The water is completely see through


view of Syracusa


Tara and Gretchen
View from the look out point


Check out the crazy huge bug bites on my face-HOT!

Supporting Italian soocer