So Thursday night, the 4th, was my friend Ben’s 21st birthday, and what better place to celebrate it than in Rome?
Well, after a few train delays (always always always in Balogna) we finally arrived in Rome around 10 pm, over an hour late for our pub crawl. We got a quick drink and explored the city a little bit and then went back to our hostel. My friend, Leigh Ann, who was with us, lived in Rome for a month last summer so we were able to get the inside scoop on everything ROMA.
So the hostel was an interesting experience. It was a private room that four of us shared, we had our own bathroom, and it was only €20 per night for each of us, but we were in a sort of dingy part of Rome (think of Italy’s answer to Chinatown in NYC), near/not so near Termini train station, and the traffic could be heard LOUD AND CLEAR through our closed window every morning. So that was kind of annoying, but hey, When in Rome, right?
So first of all, the Termini train station, the main station in Rome, is basically a shopping mall. It’s huge and contains every kind of store you could ever need. There was a McDonalds inside of it and across the street, and most people in Rome spoke English.
We bought Roma Passes for €23, which gave us three days of unlimited access of the Metro system (the subway), free admission to two museums, and discounts at others. This was by far the greatest deal ever.
Some of the sites we saw included Vatican City, Saint Peter's Basilica, the Forum, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, Trajan’s Column, the Trevi Fountain, and more that I know I’m forgetting. I didn’t get to the Sistine Chapel this time, but I will be returning to Rome in the next few weeks and will definitely see it then.
I could continue bore you and myself with a reflection of all the sites we saw, but the pub crawls were by far the best part of Rome. We went on one Friday night and had so much fun that we went and found another to go on Saturday night. Both nights, we paid €20 for a t-shirt (I took an extra one each night, so I came home with four new t-shirts), unlimited drinks at the first bar, pizza, and then one free shot at every other bar we went to. The first night we made it to three bars total and the last night we made it to the fourth and final bar before the four of us WALKED ALL THE WAY back to the hostel. I haven’t the slightest clue how far it was, but I’m glad I wore tennis shoes both nights.
So this was our last travel weekend of the summer, because my study abroad program ends on Friday. I have my two finals that day, and then I will be catching a bus to Venice at 2:30 pm, and picking up Heddy at the Marco Polo airport around 10:30 pm (hopefully). I have not finalized logistics yet, but as of now the plan is to book a hostel with a few other CIMBA people in Venice Friday night, possibly stay in Venice Saturday night, and then Heddy and I will head off to either Greece or Florence (haven’t decided yet). The tentative plan is to spend the week of the 14th through the 20th somewhat repeating what I have already seen, but this is not a problem because 1). I now know how to navigate myself around Italy, 2). I can’t wait to go back to all of these places anyway, especially Cinque Terre, and 3). We will likely have a free place to stay in Rome, with Heddy’s friend who lives and works there as an English teacher. After that, we’re basically winging it.
I will try to update as often and be able to Skype as often I can. I will be keeping my computer with me in Italy, but it may be locked in a train station for a few periods at a time. I do have a European cell phone now and will be texting periodically to let you know where I am and when. Heddy also has a phone with her.
I was hoping that I would be better at keeping up with this! I'm sorry that this hasn't been as regular as I would have hoped!
Anyways, Cinque Terre was the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life! Cinque Terre, which means "Five Lands" is composed of 5 adorable towns in the Liguria region of Italy, along of the coast of the Ligurian Sea. The towns are Monterosso (#5) , Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore (#1). My four travel mates and I stayed in an apartment for three nights just off of the harbor in Riomaggiore (check out the view from our window!!!). I bought a post card while I was there, and you can actually see our apartment on the postcard - in other words, we had an awesome view and fell asleep and woke up to the sounds of the sea.
(The reasoning behind the title: one of our travel buddies, Ben, got stung by a small jelly fish one day when we all swam out to some rocks to sunbathe. He was fine though. And the busted ankle was Matt - who fell really hard one night while we were exploring the nightlife in Monterosso.)
Cinque Terre has beautiful rock beaches and great views, but the real purpose of going is the hike the 9K trail along the coast through all five towns. The entire hike is estimated to take approximately 5 hours (there are some very difficult, steep parts of the trail). We completed the hike it 3 hours and 45 minutes. We are BAD ASS. Unfortunately my camera died halfway through the hike, but I got the best views in.
Anway, we're off to Rome this weekend. It's Ben's 21st birthday today, so we're planning on doing a pub crawl in Rome tonight to celebrate. €20 and we get a t-shirt, free wine/beer for an hour, and then 1 free drink from every bar we got to. Can't wait!!!! Rome is going to be way cool, look forward to pictures!
Unfortunately, I don't have time at the moment to write a post, but here is a public link to the photo album I created from our trip to Florence last weekend:
Today was the first full day with all 215 CIMBA undergraduate students here on campus. We checked in approximately 200 students total yesterday, so it was a little crazy, but overall, the day went rather smoothly.
Backing up, last Friday was a very busy day for all the staff and RIs, as we prepared welcome packets for students and went on a scavenger hunt through Paderno and campus.
The CIMBA campus is absolutely beautiful and it shares grounds with a Catholic Italian boarding school called Instituto Philippin. Therefore, there are Italian students everywhere throughout the day, ranging from elementary age to high school age kids that also live in the dorms.
This is a picture of the “Jesus Field,” as it’s referred to which is over on the other side of campus. Apparently, every semester the American students play a game against the Italians – and generally lose miserably, from what I’m told (on Sunday, when the RIs had nothing to do, we sunbathed for about 45 minutes on the field – right in front of Jesus. ;-)
On Saturday, we were given the day off to explore Venice. We took a bus to the Castelfranco Veneto train station and then took an hour long train to Venice. We stopped at a pizza joint before heading to San Marco Square (the main part of Venice), took a picture at the Rialto Bridge (see below), and then caught a water shuttle out to Murano. Venice, Murano specifically, is famous for glass, so almost every shop was selling small glass sculptures of some kind.
Needless to say, Venice was beautiful, but by the end of the day, I was beyond exhausted… mainly due to the fact the night before, we walked to Crespano (the next town over) to celebrate my 21st birthday. The goal is to keep the bar a secret from all the other American students so the RIs have some place to get away if we desire. This will hopefully work out because it was hard to find - we got lost on the way. What was supposed to be a 15-20 minute walk turned into us walking around Crespano, lost, for over 30 minutes… in the rain. Needless to say, it was a fantastic time.
On Sunday, we returned to Crespano so we could attend the massive outdoor market they have every Sunday. This market sold everything – shoes, tops, jewelry (I bought 2 pairs of earrings for €1 each, vegetables and fruits, and more. It was fun and there was a great view the whole time.
Sunday night, we attended a barbeque on the graduate student campus in Asolo. Asolo, is absolutely beautiful and has the most breath-taking views I’ve seen so far.
I think that pretty much catches everyone up for now. I hope to update more often, but now that classes have started, I imagine that it will only be more difficult. Here’s hopin tho!
On our flight from Philly to Venice, they played “Yes Man,” which I had been dying to see, however, I fell asleep half way through the film. Given the time change and the fact that I did not have a reliable time source on or around me, I have absolutely no idea how long I slept.
As much as I’d love to enthrall you with how I spent the majority of the time on the plane reading Rick Steve’s “Europe Through the Back Door,” and Chelsea Handler’s, “My Horizontal Life,” let’s cut to the good stuff.
We had very specific, laid out instructions on how to get from Venice Marco Polo to the CIMBA campus in Paderno. Regardless, we got on the wrong bus from the airport.
But this is not bad:
Due to this happy mistake, we actually got to see Venice for a short period of time. Sure, we spend the majority of it sitting in the train station, but the thought of sitting at some sticky train station on the outskirts of Venice does not give me near as much satisfaction as this picture does.
Moving on, after a long day of planes, trains, and buses, we finally arrived in Paderno. By we, I mean the other two Resident Interns from KU, with whom I was traveling. This trip was Kara’s second summer with CIMBA, so she had a pretty good idea of what we were supposed to do and (BONUS) can actually speak some Italian. They’re both very nice, easy to get along with, and can at least kind of appreciate my sense of humor.
When we finally arrived in Paderno, we were greeted by Tommy, one of the Program Coordinators, who gave us our keys and showed us to our rooms.
<-- View from my window (can't really tell, but Mt. Grappa is in the background)
Leigh Ann, another Intern from KU, had arrived the day before, and, after dropping off our bags, we all went to lunch on campus and then down the street for espresso. By this point, I was so exhausted and cranky that coffee would have been a lost cause. So I passed on the espresso, went back to my room, and began unpacking. Still trying to shake my mood, I paused my packing and showered. This finally did the trick. I went downstairs (my room is on the second floor) and ran into Kara and Leigh Ann. Curious to see where we would be working, we walked over to the Undergraduate Office building, met some of the head CIMBA coordinators, and got to see our office.
The best part is that, in our office, there were three boxes full of hair dryers, flat irons, curling irons, head sets for Skype (link), and electronic converter/adapters. Given that I did not bring any of these things (the adapters that I brought only work in Northern Europe), this was like Christmas morning. Any mood I had before was long gone. After meeting, Katie, another RI who had just arrived (with her parents in tow – weird), I headed back to my room with my goodies. I was told to meet down in the courtyard around 7 pm.
I finished unpacking, straightened my hair, and then fell asleep for an hour. I was awoken by a knock on my door around 6 pm. It was Kara and Ashli, asking if I wanted to join them down the street for a drink before dinner.
BINGO.
Within 10 minutes, I was dressed and ready to go. I went down to the courtyard, only to find Katie, Kara, Ashli, and Leigh Ann sitting there looking disappointed. They informed me that the bar down the street was closed. So we all sat there and talked for the next 45 minutes, waiting for 7 pm to roll around. Adam and Tommy, the two PCs, arrived in the courtyard and walked us to a family-owned Italian restaurant, called Al Sole, up the street from campus. We sat outside, ordered pizza and wine, and enjoyed a beautiful evening.
Following dinner, I was still rocking a pretty good buzz and was in no mood to go straight to bed. Tommy and Adam went back to their apartment, and the five of us girls headed back to campus. By now, the bar on campus was open. Ashli, Leigh Ann, Kara and I (we invited Katie, but she respectfully declined) made a beeline for it and planted ourselves out in front of the bar with another liter of wine. It was the cheapest option, €0.80 per glass or €5.00 for the liter. We continued to shoot the shit for over an hour, finished our wine, and then headed back to our rooms.
This trip is off to a great start and I cannot wait to see how the rest of it plays out. I hope you will continue to follow me through my adventures in Europe.
