Italy Trip Part 4

As we drove from Rome to Florence we stopped in Siena. I have to say, I think Siena was my favorite place we went to on this trip and I wish we'd gotten more time there.

 First view of Siena. So pretty.

Pretty much all the streets in Siena slope downwards towards the center town circle. It means it's pretty hard to get lost. (Since I got lost a lot on Rome I appreciated this)

 The buildings in the town circle are actually build to be rounded. It's visible on both buildings, though I think this second picture makes it a little clearer.

Every year the different sections of Siena send a horse to the center circle and they have a race around. The district that wins goes on to have a big party. My favorite part about this race is that the horse can win even if the rider falls off.

We saw the most adorable puppy eating a cone. Needless to say everyone in the group promptly stopped listening to Dr. Texas and focused on the puppy. He's so cuuuute!

 The Duomo.

 I loved this shot I got of the stained glass from inside the Duomo.

 We found this clothesline while we walked around Siena. Clotheslines are actually better for the environment than dryers.

One of the streets that sloped down was very steep. This little restaurant had outdoor seating with specially slanted tables and chairs so that people (and food) stay upright. So I got a picture of myself sitting on one of them.

Since I had the shot of the puppy eating a cone (though there was no gelato in it) and since this has been a shorter post I'm going to write a little about the gelato I had in Italy. It was really good. As in, I didn't want to have ice cream for a little while after I got back because I was afraid it would just taste awful in comparison. (I've since gotten over it thought gelato is still amazing!). I found a lot of gelato places had flavors similar to American flavors (chocolate, mint chocolate chip, strawberry) some more commonly seen as sherbets in America (mango and other fruits) and some I'd never seen before (Tiramisu, Nutella and stracciatella). The stracciatella was sort of like chocolate chip except it was so much better. I seriously had some gelato everyday. It's amazing. One of the cool things about gelato shops is that unlike America where if you want multiple flavors it cost's extra or is just done more rarely, in Italy it's expected that you are getting two or more flavors at once on your cone/in your cup.
 
Now I want some gelato and all I have is plain old ice cream.

Italy Trip Part 3

Okay so this part starts with the Vatican.

Yes that one. With the pope. Whom my friend Monika decided to start writing a movie about. (It's called "The Pope and Me". It's an adorable story and a group of us worked together to make a little theme song for it's opening credits.) Anyhoo... Who likes Michelangelo?

I had two pictures of this and the lighting wasn't great on either one. This one was slightly better lighting so I choose this.

I loved how amid all this classic renaissance art in the Vatican there was also this really modern looking piece.

Here's some of that typical Vatican-y art you were all expecting.

Somehow my argument that the Pope let people paint on his ceiling didn't do much to convince my parents to let me paint my ceiling. That fact that I don't have the ability to make it look anywhere near this good should be irrelevant.

Cool shot using a window as a mirror. Dr. Texas pointed out that we could do this.

Back in Rome, a nice scenery shot on the way to dinner.

We also passed these on the way to dinner. (The Spanish Steps guys)

I loved the Trevi Fountain. I think I got decent lighting on this despite it being night. And henceforth dark.

It's the pumpkin dome. Can you guess why?

 The next day we went to the Colosseum.

  

This is the less famous view of it from the inside.

A bunch of people playing Ninja nearby the Colosseum. It seemed fitting at the time. Also, the reason everyone has an earphone it is because we had these devices called whispers that allowed Dr. Texas to tell us things about what we were seeing with having to be loud in museums. He spoke into a little microphone and we heard him in our ear. We also heard it when he coughed into the microphone. That was a weird experience. These come up in another fun story from Florence.

This is supposedly the cave where Romulus and Remus were originally raised by the wolf.

So that's it for Rome. Tomorrow, Sienna and (maybe) a bit of Florence.

Italy Trip Part 2

So we spent a few days in Rome. One of the coolest things about this trip was that we were given time to wander around the cities we were in on our own. After spending so much time going on school trips where the most "wandering" we go to do was inside of a museum or zoo, getting to explore cities in foreign countries was a freeing experience. We were sent out on our own to find lunch see sights we would never have found otherwise. Not to say that there weren't a lot of organized activities becuase we were kept plenty busy.

This huge bologna was pointed out to us by our tour guide, a professor from Trinity College. (Henceforth referred to as Dr. Texas.) This was nearby a little panini shop that my friends and I found and had lunch at. It was another little hole in the wall place, with great sandwiches at great prices. Once when we were eating on the bench nearby an Italian woman came by and asked us where we bought them and we directed her over to the shop. It felt like we were natives. Except for the lack of a common language part.

 I want a tree on my roof.

This was a beautiful "country" estate that we visited.

 The ceilings were painted with scenes from the story of "Cupid and Psyche". Something I've found interesting, mainly because of my love of fairy tales is that there's a strong similarity between the Greco/Roman story of "Cupid and Psyche" and the Norwegian fairy tale "East of the sun and west of the moon". There are a number of fairy tales that appear throughout cultures but I'm always amazed to see the universality presented in such a way.

 The rooms upstairs in the estate were painted using perspective so that the walls looked like windows.

 While exploring Rome my friends and I found a bakery that made this adorable cake. I had to take a picture. Also, at some point my friend Greg bought a cane. I don't remember quite what day that was but I know it was during a similar wandering around period.

And there are the kitties! Look how cute they are!

So we went to a lot of museums that I don't remember the names of. These next few pictures are from one of those. I'm just going to post what pictures I have and let you go "ohh" and "ahh".

 We did a group picture in front of the finger with us all pointing up.

 It's Romulus and Remus. (Learning that story made me have one of those moments where you feel really stupid. Suddenly J.K. Rowling's naming of Remus Lupin made a lot more sense.)

 The view from the museum. So pretty right?

So we didn't all have to leave the museum at the same time. My friend Grace and I went back to the hotel on our own after some other people had left. We then got pretty lost. And had to pee. We finally found a restaurant that let us use their bathroom, and turned out to be near the hotel.

 The sink from that bathroom. Again, why can't American [blanks] be as pretty as Italian [blanks]. In a twist of fate that I still find funny, that restaurant turned out to be where our group had dinner reservations for that night.

 After dinner a group of us went with Dr. Texas to explore Rome after dark. We saw this cute little three wheeled car. (If you look closely you'll see that the back has only one wheel.)

 Dr. Texas took us to this fountain.

 We stopped by the Jewish part of Rome and had a traditional Jewish artichoke dish (it was like potato chips with artichoke leaves instead of potatoes. It was amazing!)

 Since we were going to the Vatican the next day, getting to visit the Jewish section of Rome seemed nice, like a reminder that even in the holiest of places we can all live in peace. Getting to see this whole area was especially meaningful to me because the first night of Passover occurred later in the trip, so I missed out on my family Seder.

Also we were in Rome the week leading up to Easter (and during Palm Sunday) so visiting the Jewish parts of town during some of the most holy days of Catholicism has a sort of fun irony to it.

So one fun little anecdote before I sign off for today. At dinner that night Greg initiated Grace into the Pen Fifteen club. He wrote it in huge letters on her arm. With a sharpie. Instead of a ball point pen. Because he genuinely thought sharpies washed off and ball point pens didn't. Did I mention this was the night before we went to the Vatican? Luckily Grace was able to wash it off with a lot of scrubbing.

Italy Trip Part 1

So back in April, I went to Italy and I said I would write all about it. Fast forward three months and I still haven't written a word. So... here goes. (Note: I have pictures but I don't know how well I'll be able to place them in the blog.

So the trip started in these beautiful gardens. As it's three months later I don't remember the name, but I know it was near Rome (if you know where this is please let me know and I'll update it). EDIT: Villa D'Este! Thanks Henry!

 Great view from the top of the gardens.

 They had an organ inside there.

 Me at the gardens.

The view from the edge of the gardens.

Before we went to the gardens we had lunch at an amazing little hole in the wall (kind of literally) that was so pretty. As we were waiting to get inside we got to explore the areas around the garden and we saw some cool sites.

 The restaurant.

 Very pretty street view. Why can't American streets be as pretty as Italian ones?

Some cool graffiti. I take Spanish but I'm pretty sure it says "Gabriele lives. Spaccarotella dies (should die?)" If you know for sure please let me know.

 This little village had a castle! A castle! I love castles!

 I love how this building looks like a face.

 My friends and I, being the mature grown-up type people we are found a playground. (We also found public bathrooms. See how mature I am to not be posting that picture!)


The view from the playground.

Then we went to Rome, where our hotel was. We spent a few days there. I'll write more about Rome tomorrow but in the meantime...

 We passed this on the way to the hotel.

This was near our hotel. It was a meet-up spot for a lot of the time when we were in Rome. There were usually a lot of cats there. I have pictures of this somewhere but I'll find them later.

FINALLY!!!!! Sort of...

I've been waiting for a while for my school to release my housing information for next year so that I might finally know where I will be living next year. After waiting eagerly for about a month I finally checked the school website and learned that the email with the link to my housing information would be sent out the first week of August. Keep in mind I was reading this a week ago. Then, on Monday I got an email from Freshmen Housing...

...letting me know that I'd be getting an email within the next few days with my housing information. Thanks for that guys. So I spent all this week obsessively checking my email looking for this. Last night I finally recieved my housing email. According to the email my housing contract would contain my room assignment, meal plan information and my roommate (if I was getting one) (which I was/am). Well, 2/3 isn't so bad. I know where I'm living and that I'm currently signed up for the default meal plan. I don't know who I will be living with. I know I have a roommate because my room is (room number)b. So there is probably a (room number) a. I am super excited to call in on Monday find out what's going on guys, I can't even tell you. (@sarcasm)

UPDATE: The system seems to have just been taking a while. I now have a roommate. Yay!

Movies in Spanish

So to prepare for my Spanish placement exam for university I decided to watch a bunch of movies in Spanish, since the immersion tactic is supposed to be more effective than the reading about what each tense is tactic. (also having done this with the Twilight movies for my midterm it seemed to sort of work. I also learned that the movie is much better in Spanish. Except for Charlie's part. If I could have him in English and the rest in Spanish that would be great!)

Anyway, I'm watching Juno in Spanish now and it's really interesting. Some lines were directly translated and others not so much. It's really funny to compare parts. One example, at the beginning when the clerk is being mean she says "Silencio old man" in the English version. In the spanish version she says, "cállate viejo estupido" aka, shut up stupid old man."

The most surreal part for me was that the voice actors don't just say the lines, but all the grunting or sighs are also redone by the voice actors which is funnier to me than it should be. The singing however, they left the original actors' voices in. Not to mention all the parts where there's something written are read by this Spanish man's voice (the seasons, Juno's signature in Bleeker's yearbook ect.).

What movies do you think are fun to watch in another language?