first post ... sorry

Roma: 5/30/08 – 6/6/08
Ok so I don’t know where to begin … it was a whirl wind trip in Rome – Rome unplugged. When I landed in Rome I hadn’t gotten any sleep at all … so I was tired and had no idea how to navigate around the city let along the airport. Luckily I spotted some other Penn State students at the baggage terminal and we all split a cab to the hotel which was located on the north side of the city. Around the same time basically the other half of the program arrived and we all attempted to check into the hotel. Unfortunately we couldn’t actually check in until 3 pm … and it was only a little past 9 am (really like 3am on my internal clock). So they held our luggage and as a group we went off the explore Rome. We basically just walked around aimlessly until 2:30 pm, when we checked into the hotel and I was one of many who just passed out for a good while until cena (aka dinner). The first night we went to a nice dinner in Piazza Navona … which has to be my favorite place in Rome … and I got the best bruschetta that I have ever had in my life and gnocchi con cinque forgmaggi (with five cheeses) mmm … goooood!
That next morning I went with maybe 5 other people to mass at St. Peters Basilica which I don’t even know where to begin. We took the subway to Vatican City from our hotel and right when you enter the walls of the city its breath taking. You really are taken aback by the enormity of the architecture and sculptures of biblical figures. Stepping in there was a bit odd to me; I feel like I have looked at St. Peters my whole life, it almost became just a photograph that hangs in the dining room as opposed to an actually place. Naturally, I was walking around, over stimulated, with my mouth gaping open. The actual complex is rather large, and naturally the line to get into church began at the complete other end of the piazza. The line moved rather fast, all the while people from all over the world were snapping photographs of everything in sight. I chuckled at the irony of the x-ray baggage check machines that everyone had to go through before entering the actual church between the enormous marble columns, but either way I was one of many herded through the Basilica and through it to sit down from for mass. I’m pretty sure that I had to walk into at least 25 people that morning because all the while my head was almost permanently craned towards the ceiling the whole time. It was seriously breath taking – the amount of detail in the paintings and sculptures, even the marble floors, crazy. I actually didn’t sit down for mass until well after the homily had ended and was only sitting maybe 15 minutes before communion. I found myself stumbling up for communion with a gaping mouth and a stiff neck (from looking up so much), but I received it all the same (probably with at least 700 other people) and after I walked by the choir of monks singing for the communion precession. Side note: I thought it was quite funny to see Boise speakers on the wall inside the Basilica – they had to be specially made because they were colored “marble” to go with the side of the walls. Haha either way the experience was amazing.
The rest of the week in Rome just seemed like a blur. It was filled with countless visits to various churches and museums, as well as all the must see sights of Rome itself (i.e. colosseum, roman forum, etc.) Here are some highlights/my favorites:
The ancient Roman Forum (which by the way is enormous although very very broken) was really cool. We got this tour guide that is some how affiliated with Penn State who is always on the history channel about Roman history to give us the tour. Amazing. I really got a feel for the power and labor involved in the building and construction as well as the actual maintenance of such a large and important complex.
The Colosseum – well I kind of just went to say I saw it … it just looked like a really crumbled down version of Ralph Wilson Stadium. I’d have to say the highlight of the Colosseum was when a pidgin pooped on my head. Yup. I got pooped on the head while walking in the Colosseum. Only that would happen to me. Haha
This one church which I can’t remember the name had these crazy ceiling paintings that really played with the idea of perspective. Crazy stuff that these people were playing with so early in artistic history. There were actual points that you had to stand on the floor in order to see the paintings on the ceiling in the right perspective and they were ENORMOUS.
Campo di Fiori/Piazza Navona – those places were awesome. They were like a constant fair going on … vendors, mimes, street performers … there was always something interesting to look at there.
Trevi Fountain – a little elaborate but still very cool … on a sunny day that place is beautiful.
We happened to be there on the anniversary of Italy’s unification, thus it was a holiday weekend for many Italians. One day while walking around to see churches we heard this huge sound coming from the sky. Naturally I thought I was going to die and the city was going to be blown up, but it was just the Italian Airforce that left the smoke of Italian colors in the sky. Pretty cool, especially since I didn’t die.
Let’s just say by Friday I was exhausted … never try and visit all the sites of Rome in just a week. Rome was definitely fun, but I was ready to get out of there and see the rest of Italy.
Todi: 6/6/08 – 6/13/08
Todi had to have only been maybe an hour and a half outside of Rome in Umbria (basically the countryside of Italy) We got there about 6 at night and immediately got picked up by our families and brought to our house. My family consists of Carlo and Rita Rellini, who have to be mid 50s to 60 years old and they own a bridal shop that centers on central Italy. Rita is always home but Carlo travels locally a lot. They have two sons Lorenzo, 27, who is kinda like an Italian cowboy … he works at a stable and still lives at home. Michele, 25, lives about an hour away where he works as a chef in two restaurants and visits about once a week. Then of course there is Nonna, the adorably senile grandmother who lives in the apartment on the first floor of the house. She speaks really slow and yells at you unintentionally (probably because she cant hear very well anymore), but is probably the most typical Italian grandmother I have ever seen in my life. They have a couple cats, but my favorite has to be Pipito their small dog and Baldo their yellow lab … it makes me miss Nicky but I’m happy that their around. The house is kind of like a split level. I live in the bottom floor with one other girl in the apartment (aka one bedroom, bathroom, living room/kitchen) and the office is on the bottom floor too. You have to go up stairs to get on the first floor of the house where there is a big patio to eat pranzo and cena (lunch and dinner) and then on the first floor is where everyone else lives and the kitchen and family room are. The other two girls in my house live in the only room upstairs. Rita is an AMAZING cook. I can’t even begin to tell you. She will take the simplest meal and turn it in to the most amazing thing that you have ever tasted in your life. I, Teresa Florence Carosa, will now eat fish, mushrooms, and coffee. Yes, I know I was quite surprised too. I’m telling you everything tastes better in Italy. People from my program are all making a joke that is the only thing people have said since getting here … “I don’t like this, but in Italy, it’s amazing.” Typically we have pasta for pranzo which everyone comes home from work for because basically Italy shuts down for 3 hours and we have a meat for cena, which is usually as late as 9.
Classes are going well … Italian is always a challenge because, are you surprised, Italians always find a way to make things harder, hence the language is very complicated. Yet, I’m getting a lot of practice since studying is like 24/7. Art History is interesting … its really cool to actually learn about something and then go see it in person the next day. Art is always fun for me … everything around Todi looks like something on a post card or a painting or something. While eating Pranzo I see the entire town of Todi sitting on the mountain. Its gorgeous.
Roma: 6/14/08 – 6/15/08
Me and 7 other of my friend from the Todi program decided that it would be fun to go to Rome for the weekend so we found a cheap bus and hostile to stay in. First off, I don’t know how hostiles got a bad reputation because ours was amazing. Included breakfast, private room, internet, etc. and on top of that the beds were SOOO comfortable. We stayed literally a block away from Vatican City and just spent the weekend taking in the city and just chilling out acting like Romans. It was nice to stop and take a breath and really take in the city for what it was. I saw the place were Caesar was killed (which I guess is where all the stray cats congregate in the city .. weird) The weekend was fun but there were a couple of interesting events. Four of us (not me) getting stuck in an elevator and 5 Italian firemen had to go and get them out. Haha I was napping so no worries. Then we tried to get the bus back on Sunday night and missed it soo we had to find an alternative route back to Todi, which by the way is like hardest place to find a bus into from any major city, and that made things interesting. Romans don’t help any one. That’s for sure. Anyways we ended up on a train to Terni, and then took a bus from Terni to Todi and got home fine. It was an adventure to say the least.