That Was Spanish!! (On me trying to speak Italian to a girl we met from Bauhaus)

Finally done with the charette! We have closing comments from the professors today at five, but we don't have to present or anything, so yay! :) We had dinner and hung out last night to celebrate. They have frozen pizzas in the supermarkets here... nice surprise. It's such a load off my shoulders to be done with that and finally get to go back to my studio w/ my friends and work/hang out. ;)

We have a couple options of what we can do for studio projects for the rest of the semester or we can do documenting/analytical work on some part of Rome that interests us. I'm thinking a/b either continuing the charette project and making adjustments or doing some kind of mapping of the medieval family territories... haven't quite decided yet what interests me more.

Well, as I said, we don't have any obligations today until five so we're going to go SHOPPING!!! I need a cute dress and shoes to wear for my birthday, that in case you didn't know, is THURSDAY. But anyways, we're going to a store called Habana that is off of Corso Vittorio Emmanuele II, the main road that runs from Piazza del Popolo to the Vittorio Emmanuele II monument, pretty much through the heart of Rome. Besides that, nothing really exciting or no really good pictures. Sorry, we just haven't been sightseeing a whole lot lately.

Sightseeing goals for the next week:

Actually visit Trevi Fountain, which I have yet to do

Spend a night in Florence and visit a Tuscan vineyard

I'll let you know how it goes :)

Spring Forward!

Not much to say for today. I was supposed to meet my group up at studio, but definitely didn't go. Amy, Nicole, Zach, and I walked around pretty much the entire city of Rome. It was about three hours of non stop walking. There was some really good shopping but I just wasn't in the shopping mood; definitely saw some stuff that I want to go back and get though!

I guess tomorrow I'll actually go up to studio and contribute to our project that's due Monday... I'm just feeling lazy.

Just to give you something to enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKlxjbhB9HE

Sinistra- Italian for "left," as in "go left to the farmacia"

No pictures in today's post because I left my computer up at studio so I'm using the computer in our apartment. Maybe it will be entertaining without though. :)

Today we met at 9 at San Francisco a Ripa for drawing. Amy and I only lasted about an hour until we had enough and decided to run some errands. Amy bought some cold medicine in a farmacia, and I asked about getting prescriptions filled, which led us to the Ospedale Nuovo Regina Margherita. If the hospital thing doesn't work it, it could definitely be used as a maze. It was ridiculous, even without the language barrier! There were paper signs that told you which direction to go, if they decided to post any at all. We had to ask about four people, none of whom spoke Italian, before we finally found the pharmacy which isn't even open to the public. It was an experience!

We had Italian at 12:30, and then all of us met with our groups until four when we had a lecture.

I've been really proud of myself this week: I've only spent like five euro a day, if that. Today I bought a suppli, or fried rice ball for ,80 euro and then a cannoli that was AMAZING for ,80 euro. That's 80 euro cents each, which means I only spent 1,60 euro today! I ate breakfast, a sandwich, Pringles, and cookies for lunch, and then made pasta and garlic bread for dinner. So I AM eating, MOM! :)

Pretty good day; I'm just looking forward to the weekend. We have our project due on Monday, but I think we're gonna take Saturday off and just have fun around Rome since we haven't really had the free time to do that yet.

Goals for Saturday:

Ride rented bikes down the Appian Way

Visit the catacombs off of the Appian Way

Eat at a Mexican restaurant that I found online

Sounds like a good day to me. :)

I'm working on a map and series of picture showing my walk to studio so be looking for that the next couple days; I know you're excited. ;)

Is it bad that I'm craving tomato flavored potato chips?

Yesterday was a LONG day! We met in the piazza in front of Santa Maria in Trastevere at 9 for some sketching with David Braly. We walked around and sketched 'til about 11:30, then went and got lunch. We had Italian at 12:30, and then met up with our project groups at two to discuss the workshop. My group stayed until like seven and then Amy, Zach, and I had to go to the store to buy dinner supplies so we didn't end up eating until about 9. Needless to say, I was a very grumpy Katie.

On a side note: I've been looking for some good chips because I'm getting tired of my Sour Cream and Onion Pringles. One of the girls in my group shared some of hers with me and they were surprisingly good! They're tomato-flavored, which is weird but Italians have a weird taste for chips (there are ketchup flavored). So I'm gonna try and find them in the big supermarket underneath the department store (you have to go through the department store to get to the supermarket).

We walked around Trajan's Markets a lot yesterday. This is a picture of a medieval wall covered with moss; I just thought it was really interesting.

Trajan's Markets with a cute little van; I love the vehicles over here. :)

Today we met at Santa Maria again, but this time followed Via de San Francisco a Ripa to another church, San Francisco. Here are a couple views of the piazza in front of Santa Maria. I still have yet to take a picture of the actual church; somehow I always forget to.

Looking from the portico of the church into the piazza at the fountain.

The fountain in the middle of the piazza

What are they doing in there? I never know what they're doing.... I don't know...

Synopsis of my weekend:

12 Purchases
5 Travelers
1 Hair dryer
1 Lone boy
1 Waffle + Kit Kat gelato + Nutella
2 Nestle Nesquick bars
3 Cokes
4 Restaurants
5 Trips to McDonald's
4.5 Days
4 Destinations
2 Hostels
7 Train rides
13 Hours on trains
148 Euro for train rides
5 Church visits
2 Museums
3 Sketches
3 Trips to Florence's leather market
0 Gondola rides :(
0 T-shirts :(

The group on the train

Pisa:
I'm assuming no explanation necessary...

Church that the leaning tower is adjacent to

Siena
Piazza del Campo

Florence
View from the cupola of the Duomo

Venice
St. Mark's

Over all, AMAZING weekend!

Florence!

We're about to leave to get on the train to Florence. I'm not bringing my laptop with me so I probably won't be on Skype or get any e-mails so don't worry if I don't respond. I'll be back Sunday night. Buena sera!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today we had our presentations for class. I'm happy to say that everything went well; the professors were very nice. We made reservations at hostels in between classes and then went and picked up our train tickets after class. So everything's set now for Florence and Venice!

I looked at what all the Frommer's guide said we should do:

Florence:

Michelangelo's David

Get leather from San Lorenzo's market

Climb the Duomo

Ponte Vecchio

Uffizi Palace

Pisa:

Leaning tower

Baptistery

Siena:

Piazza del Campo

Torre del Mangia

Duomo

Venice:

Water taxi

Basilica and Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)

Bridge of Sighs

Ca' D'oro

Murano Island

Burano Island

And I really want to go to the church on the island but I can't remember the name of it.

Let me know if you can think of anything crucial that I'm missing!

I guess that's about it except that I'm including a couple views from the walk home.

Largo Argentina

Tiber: Ponte Sisto and St. Peter's in the background

The door to our apartment building

The entrance into the courtyardStairwell

I Better Buy a Gondola 'Cause I'm Going to Venice!

OK, so this is the plan for the weekend:

Wednesday night - Leave for Florence

Thursday - Siena or Pisa

Friday - Pisa or Siena

Saturday - Explore Florence

Saturday night - Leave for Venice

Sunday - Explore Venice and back to Rome

I mapped it out in case people wanted to see where I would be going and all. Pisa wasn't on the map but it's directly west of Florence. I'll post train schedules when we get our tickets, just for those people who like to be in the know (aka, Mom :) ).

Anyway, I didn't mention that yesterday a group of us went to mass at Santa Maria in Trastevere which is really close to our apartment. It was BEAUTIFUL on the inside! Gold coffering on the ceiling and wonderful 12th century mosaics! I surprisingly haven't taken any pictures of it yet but I'm putting one I found offline on here.

Not much to mention from today. We have a project due tomorrow so we've mostly been working on that all day. Tomorrow will be better though; Saint Patrick's Day! A group of us are going to hang out and I made sure to bring my green clothing. :)

I took this picture on our walk home from studio; it's shot from the Ponte Sisto, down the Tiber, looking at the dome of St. Peter's. Yes, it's THAT big!

But What about Elevensies?

That's pretty much the motto for my trip to Italy. I've come to the conclusion that I eat like a hobbit; and it's never been more evident than now. :)

Last night Amy and I went to her second cousin's dinner party right off of the Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere. It had a Mediterranean theme, including a spinach casserole thing, octopus salad, and cous cous. The cous cous was good with shrimp on it! I tried most of these; the octopus wasn't actually bad. It was interesting to sit around with native Italians and here them converse and then pick their brains about stuff. Most Italians speak some English so it was easy to converse with them. We got asked about racism in Alabama, which was really interesting. I was surprised that Italians would know about Alabama's history much less have ever heard of Alabama!

We went to the market in Trastevere today to look around. We've heard awful stories about pickpockets there so we didn't take anything with us. I was very disappointed though; no one even bumped into me. :( I looked at a couple vintage postcards but they wanted two euro each so I decided not to get anything. It was hard to barter when you don't speak the language.

I'm posting some pictures of just cool stuff that I thought people might find interesting, like how we dry our clothes, our shelves of food, and my cereal. Enjoy :)

Ciao!

OK, here is the picture that I meant to put up the other day from the Juniculum hill. I tried to put a couple up but it wouldn't work so I just chose the best. You can pretty much see everything: Pantheon, monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II, Santa Maria Maggiore....

We don't have class on Fridays to allow for traveling and sightseeing so Amy, Jessica, Zach, and I decided to go to the zoo yesterday. It wasn't quite up to par with American zoos, but it was better than I expected. It had all of the usual animals: hippos, lions, bears,... Some of them looked pretty sad because the zoo also takes in wounded and abandoned animals. One of the giraffes had gimp ankles and they had a whole section for wounded birds. It was cool, except they fed them dead chicks which they left on the floor of the cage. But it was still an interesting experience because most of the signs were in Italian:

Afterwards we headed up to the Hard Rock Cafe because of course I have to get me a Roma shirt. :) It was REALLY hard to resist eating there; I could smell the burgers and French fries! But this is the back of my shirt:
It was really fun to walk around and see stuff but my feet were NOT happy about it as you can see below. :(Tonight Amy and I are going to a dinner party that one of her family members is hosting so we're going to let the low-down on info for our upcoming Florence and Venice trip. :)

We also got an e-mail today that said that one of the guys was getting together a trip to Naples and a couple islands for a weekend in April so that'll be REALLY fun! I have a lot to look forward to. :)

Exploring Trastevere

Yesterday after I posted, Amy, Jessica, Frances, and I explored the Janiculum hill in Trastevere, which is the residential area of Rome that we live in. The Janiculum is the hill that artists used to climb to draw maps of Rome because it offers the best view of the city. Needless to say, it was beautiful. I think I made like five photomerges. I won't upload all of them because it'll take forever to load, but I'll post the best. :)

After that, Amy, Zach, and I fixed dinner for ourselves which was a big accomplishment considering we don't cook. Amy and I had some pasta, sauce, bread, garlic cloves, and olive oil; and Zach bought some sausage on the way. We boiled the pasta and heated up the sauce to go with it. We also put olive oil and chopped garlic cloves on the bread with a little salt and put them in a skillet for a little while. Zach was in charge of the sausages, which were still tied with string. It was REALLY good. Everything's so fresh and organic here!

I miss home sometimes but I'm also really enoying this experience to totally get into a different way of life. It also helps that we found an international store on the corner that has taco mix, peanut butter, and cake mix and icing. :)

Mom, I told Lauren to help you with Skype. I don't know if there's something wrong with your computer or what, but all you do is hit call and we should be able to talk. Call her because it's been a week since I talked to you and that's just not right.

Retracing Sixtus V

OK, I'm sorry I haven't posted the last couple days. I'll go ahead and relate the events of yesterday; it was pretty exciting. :)

We traced part of the plan of Sixtus V yesterday, starting at the Spanish Steps and ending at Santa Maria Maggiore. We took our first means of public transportation, the tram from Trastevere to Largo Argentina where we caught what we like to refer to as "the short bus". I think it usually holds about five; we definitely crammed about 30 on there.

However, it only took like 30 minutes to get there and it was on the other side of the city, so I'm quite fond of public transportation now. It's a little difficult considering it's in a different language, but I looked up all of the routes online and wrote them down so it went fairly smoothly.

The Sites from Spanish Steps to Santa Maria Maggiore:

View from the church at the top of the Spanish Steps
The church at the intersection of the 4 Rivers
Yes, this is how Italians park.


Santa Maria Maggiore

And finally, JASON MRAZ!!! We had a little trouble finding the place because we got off on the wrong bus stop in the outskirts of eastern Rome, but with a little help from the locals, we found it!

THE COLOSSEUM!!!

Today was our only day to sleep in and do what we actually wanted to do. We already had the tickets for the Colosseum and Roman Forum for the weekend so pretty much everyone decided to visit the Colosseum today. We wound our way the mile or so to the Colosseum, walked around there, and then wound our way back to our apartment.

The Colosseum was awesome but it's kind of like the Grand Canyon where after a while you get kind of distracted. We started taking random pictures and just goofing off after a while, but hey, we had fun!

We had our first official cooking night in the apartment. We made cheese-filled pasta with tomato and basil sauce, sausage, garlic bread, and of course, wine. Zach joined us for a fun night of not having to worry about how much the meal was going to cost and if we're getting charged extra because we're tourists and where should we go eat... It was nice to just hang out and watch Italian MTV.

Actual classes start tomorrow so we'll see how that goes...

I'm Pretty Sure Italians Never Use the Bathroom

Today was LOOONNG. We weren't supposed to have class because it's the weekend but I guess they decided they needed to show us around or we would get lost...? We hit the Campidoglio, Roman Forum, and the Palatine Hill, which doesn't sound like a lot but we were there from 9 to 3... on our feet or walking the entire time. Not to mention that there were no bathrooms in sight the entire time. I'm glad I haven't had to go all day the last couple of days because there is nowhere. Italians don't believe in public bathrooms I guess. Maybe it's a good thing Mom and Lauren aren't coming; they wouldn't last. :)

I'm posting some photomerged panorams that I took of some of the sites. Click on them to see larger images.

Tomorrow we're going to the Colosseum and then hopefully to one of the big markets to look at cool stuff; we'll see what happens. :)

Campus Martius Tour

Today we went and met with our professors and other important people that I'm not quite sure what their title is. We're working with the University of Arkansas and Philadelphia University architecture students, so mayble we'll meet some cool English-speaking people. We also took a tour of the Campus Martius region of Rome:

Piazza Navona
S. Ivo
the Pantheon
Piazza di S. Ignazio
Piazza di Pietro

Everything is so much BIGGER than you think it's going to be, Piazza Navona and the Pantheon especially. Luckily it didn't rain today as we were walking all over Rome, that would have been miserable.

Last night I tried pizza margherita and gellatto... AMAZING! We even made friends with the man that works at the gellatto place right down the street, Giorgio. He recommended the place we went for dinner and then showed up there while we were eating and told the owner to be nice to us because we were friends of his. :)

It's amazing how local everything is. All the shops we need our located within a three minute walk. It's so cool.

Tomorrow we're meeting at the Campidoglio for Tour Day Nombre Due. It's cool to see everything but I kind of wish I could just walk around on my own. But we did find a place to get a hair dryer so that's exciting. Walking around with ugly hair and taking pictures... not cool. I'm trying to hold out for the 7:30 to 8 acceptable dinner time so wish me luck. I've been snacking:

Pop-Tart and banana for breakfast
Panini for elevensies
Montanare (Small fried pizzas; pretty much a tiny bit of marinara on a doughnut) for lunch

I'll have to post later; this blog is already pretty long. It's just so exciting!

A group of us under the oculus in the Pantheon.

S. Ivo

Fountain of the 4 Rivers in Piazza Navona

Sidewalk along the river

Apartment Pictures

Ashley and My Bedroom



The Bathroom


The view from our window!

Bienvenuto!

I'm here. We got in about 9:30, and it took us a while to call to meet someone to get our keys, get a shuttle from the apartment, actually help the guy find the apartment, and then go through basics with our landlord. But I'm here. I'm gonna go take a shower, eat something, and get ready for ANOTHER day with no sleep! But I'm really excited so that helps. :)

Setup

Ok, so I just set up my blog so I can keep everyone up to date with what's going on in Rome. I leave Wednesday and will get there on Thursday so stay tuned for posts from Italia! :)

A dopo