Venice

I’m sorry it has taken me so long to write an update about my life here, but I haven’t felt very motivated to write lately, and now that I have internet access, I’m only writing this update by the sheer force of my will. Okay, it’s not that bad, I do have some desire to write, but still…

Let’s see… the most eventful things that have happened to me recently are that I went to France for the first time (and now many times since then; we are staying right on the border) where I went swimming, rafting and hiking. I also took a three day trip to Venice, which was so much fun!

Venice really is a magical city. It is full of people, carnival masks, smelly rivers, pigeons, and bed bugs. Yes, bed bugs. I definitely got bitten by them while staying in a hostel there. I still have the marks from them two weeks later.

I spent most of my time wandering around the less crowded streets and stumbling upon pretty bridges and old churches. The main things I did go to included St Mark’s Square, St Mark’s Basilica, the Peggy Guggenheim modern art collection, the Glass museum, a glass blowing factory, the cemetery, and I took a boat down the grand canal a few times. I never did take a gondola though; they were just too expensive (cheapest fare was about 60 euro for an hour).

St Mark’s Square…not as cool as I was expecting. It is definitely huge, and the fact that it is supported above water and not ground is pretty cool. The shops that surround this piazza were mostly really expensive jewelry stores, a few café’s and some tourist shops. There were definitely a lot of pigeons though, and they were very friendly.

St Mark’s Basilica… really cool. I think it is just as impressive as St. Peter’s cathedral in Rome. It isn’t as big, but the golden mosaics inside are amazing. Words can’t really describe it, but I’ll post some pictures. I went inside, saw the mosaics, which all have a gold background, so the whole building lights up from the light that reflects off of the walls. You have to pay to see some special things, and out of the three things to see, I chose to go into the museum, which was upstairs and skirted the edges of the nave and transept. I got to go outside and see the square from above as well as have a view of the surrounding area. The museum had some cool things that showed the different phases of the cathedral, and how it was reconstructed. They also had some really huge and old bronze horses that used to be outside on top of the cathedral, but were replaced by new ones, old tapestries, and lots of other cool stuff. You could also go up close to the golden mosaics which was really cool.

The Peggy Guggenheim collection… I consider myself only mildly interested in modern art, and I found this museum to be amazing! Peggy Guggenheim was a supporter of, and major collector of modern art. I got to see original artworks created by Picasso, Pollock, Kandinsky, Brach, Matisse, Hopper, and many more. Those are the only ones I can remember right now. I’m really glad I went here. And, it was one of the few places where I could get a student discount without being a member of the European union!

The Glass Museum…this is on a separate island called Murano. Murano is really famous for it’s glass, and they were (I think) the first people to invent mirrors. The museum was cool because I got to see really old glass that dated from the B.C. era. There were lots of really cool things made of glass that I got to see, but I think the coolest thing was a life size bed with sheets made with glass. Another cool thing was a table centerpiece that was a garden made out of glass. It was about 4x8 feet big, with intricate walls and arches and plants all made of glass.

Glass Factory…this was really cool too, although there were a lot of people so I didn’t get to see very well. They were making some kind of statue of a woman. They showed us a picture of the finished product, and what amazed me most was that they could know what it would turn out to be, with lots of different colors and intricate designs, because while working with it, the glass is just a red ball that looked nothing like the finished product.

The Cemetery…the different thing about cemeteries in Italy is that there is no grass. The graves are either covered with a stone slab, or with gravel. But there are so many flowers all over the place. Check out my pictures to see what I mean. They also have family tombs. I’m not exactly sure how it works, if the bodies are actually buried under the floor of the room, or what, but there were lots around this cemetery. What I mean by tomb is a room, a bout 5x10 square feet that is gated off. Each family can decorate the inside however they want. Most have an alter, and a cross, and lots of flowers.

The Grand canal…It was fun to ride down the grand canal the first couple of times, but when I realized that it was faster to get to most places by walking, I didn’t ride the boat busses much anymore. The busses are really crowded and more really slowly. As far as the canal goes, I didn’t think there was anything special or charming about it, in and of itself. I did like to watch the gondoliers go by, but I don’t think I ever heard one sing the entire time I was there. It was also cool to see the bridges and the fronts of really old buildings. Most of the building that face the grand canal were once Palaces and are either now empty, or have been turned into museums.

So, besides all that, I just wandered around, got lost a bunch of times, found my way back again, and spent a lot of money.

As far a s the hostel goes, it wasn’t too bad besides getting bed bugs. We got free dinner every night, and free breakfast, but the breakfast wasn’t served until 10 am, so I usually got fruit from the grocery store.

Do I want to go back? Definitely.

I don’t know when I will be able to post pictures, but I’ll post a link when I do. Ciao!

I love Rome

So this last weekend I went to Rome with Tammy, the other Au pair I met a couple weeks ago in Courmayeur. It was so much fun, but also so tiring! I’ll try to tell all the interesting stuff I remember. It was a pretty full weekend, but I hope I don’t forget anything!

Friday morning I took a bus from Courmayeur to Aosta to Torino. It was about 3 hours long, but wasn’t too bad. However, I had no idea where in Torino the bus was going to stop! On the way to Torino, I called the sister missionaries because they had invited me out to lunch with them, and we arranged to meet for a Kebab…somewhere. (By the way, a kebab is kind of like a burrito, but with shaved meat and they also put in it hot sauce and French fries). So I got to Torino, figured out I was at Porta Susa (a main train station), and tried to figure out what bus I had to take to get over there. Right then a bus pulled up and I made a split second decision to get on it, because it looked like it was heading in the right direction. But, once I was on I realized I didn’t know when I was supposed to get off! So, I quickly got off at the next stop, and, luckily, it was the right one! I had to catch another bus to get to the shop, and, again, luckily, it pulled up right away. I don’t know if the busses are just really prompt here, or if I was just in the right places at the right time, but I thought it was so cool that it was so easy. (This was my first time using the busses in Torino alone). So, blah blah blah, I ate lunch with the sisters (Sister Michela? And Sister Booth), it was fun, and then I headed off to the train station to get my ticket to Rome. The man who sold me the train ticket didn’t speak English at all, so I had to do it all in Italian! I got what I wanted, so I guess I really am learning how to speak.

My train didn’t leave until 9:55, so I went home, repacked, showered, and researched Rome. I’m so glad I did some research, because it is a huge city and I know I wouldn’t have been able to do half the things I did if I hadn’t done the research. I got to the train station about 30 minutes early, and found the train easily. I about died when I stepped inside the train, though, because it was so hot! And humid. I started sweating immediately. The compartment quickly filled up, with quite an interesting group of people. All men, all friendly, and none spoke English. The whole ride, they kept offering me (and eachother) their food, saying “Prendi! Prendi! Prendi!” (take it). At first I refused, but finally I just took it and said I would eat it later, because it was obvious they wouldn’t stop, and that I was offending them by not taking it. At one point, I got up for a walk in the corridor because it was so hot, and I saw standing in the compartment next to mine a friend from my ward! I was so happy to see someone I knew. The rest of the train ride was pretty uneventful.

I arrived in Rome at 5:48 am, without having much sleep, but really excited to start my day. I immediately set off in the direction of the Spanish Steps and Via Margutta. I am a huge fan of the movie Roman Holiday, so I was going to be sure to see some sights from that movie. It was so beautiful, and there was hardly anyone out yet. I went to the Spanish Steps and got my picture taken by some nice Japanese tourists. Then I went down via Margutta to see the apartment used in the movie. I was kind of sad because they were doing construction on the façade of the building, so I didn’t get a good picture. However, the courtyard was open, and I was able to go in and take some pictures. Sadly, it didn’t look anything like it did in the movie, but it was still beautiful. I headed up the hill to see if I could see the apartment from above. I wasn’t able to find it, but I did get some really pretty skyline pictures.

Next I headed down Via Condotti, which is a shopping street with stores like Dolce & Gabbana, Doir, Burberry Brit, Armani, and lots of other really famous and expensive brands. I some pictures of the window displays, and the prices, which were really insane (500 euro for a purse). After that I wandered around for a bit, and headed back to the train station to meet my friend Tammy. Oh, by the way, you have to pay 70 cents to use the bathroom it the train station. Ridiculous! We met easily and set off to find out hostel to check in. I had found it on google maps (I thought), but it turned out to be the wrong location, so we had to call them and ask for directions. After that, we found it easily. It was a really tiny hostel, with only three rooms and 27 beds, but it was cheap and we got a free pasta dinner, which was actually pretty good.

Once that was taken care of, we headed straight to the Vatican. I just have to say, it is huge! Enormous. Massive. Impressive. Bigger than I ever could imagine, and, of course, beautiful. We walked down the street and headed into the Piazza. If I thought it was huge from far away, you can only imagine how big it seemed from up close. The line to get into the Basilica seemed really long, so we got in it right away, but it only took us about 15 minutes to get inside. Everything was so beautiful! When you walk inside, immediately to your right is the Pieta (statue of Mary and Christ by Michelangelo). There were hundreds of people inside, and a lot of them were around this statue. I wasn’t able to get close enough to really appreciate it in person, but just knowing that I saw it in person is cool! I really wished that I knew more about Catholicism because every time I saw something, I wondered what it was, or what it did, or what significance it had. Despite that, having taken a humanities class recently, I knew a lot more about it than my friend Tammy did, which made me feel smart.

After touring the basilica, we headed towards the Tombs. Again, it didn’t really mean much to me because I don’t know anything about past Popes and things like that. It was still interesting to see. Then we tried to get into the Vatican museum to see the Sistine chapel, but the line was long, and we found out that it was free the next morning, so we decided to come back then. Big mistake. When we went back the next morning, the line was 100 times longer. We didn’t end up going in at all. So, after visiting the Vatican, we went towards the Castle of Saint Angelo and the Tevere river. Here I bought a ridiculously expensive slice of pizza (4 euro), and took some pictures. This is the Castle that Audrey Hepburn stayed at in the movie.

Next we went to Piazza Navona. I think this is where I had my first “I’m in Rome!” epiphany. There was an accordion player, I was eating gelato, surrounded by pigeons and fountains and a fruit market and tons of people, and it just felt really…Italian. Then we went to the Panthenon, which was also really cool and impressive. Crazy to know that you are standing in a building that is thousands of years old. Then, we went to Trevi fountain, threw in a coin and took a break to rest our feet. Tammy’s sandals had broken soon after arriving, and we had walked a lot! So, we walked back to the Spanish Steps and took the metro line to the Coliseum. Wow. This was also really amazing. Earlier we didn’t think we would have time to go inside, but it turned out we did, so we went in and saw where all the gory history took place. It was really cool, but it has been changed, and renovated, and used for so many different purposes, that it was kind of hard to imagine how it actually took place. Still, it was really cool. After the Coliseum, we took the metro back to the Hostel, where we ate free pasta, and met some really interesting people. For my first time in a hostel, I thought it was fine, I’ll let you know when I have something else to compare it to. I had to share a room with 12 other people! It was really crowded and there was no hot water, but it was still fun, and they had free internet! We were pretty tired, but we found a couple of boys to go get gelato with us, then we came back and hit the sack. I was so tired that I slept really well.

The next morning we woke up around 8:00 am and headed straight to the Vatican. Unfortunately, as I said before, the line was way too long, so instead we took the metro to the Roman Baths. These were cool, but I didn’t pay much attention because Tammy and I were talking the whole time about the Church. She had a lot of questions, and, being a feminist, didn’t like that women can’t get the priesthood, but it was a really interesting conversation.

After the baths, we walked past Circo Massimo, which didn’t really look like anything except an overgrown track, and then we headed on to stick our hands in the Mouth of Truth. Even though the line was shorter, I think I waited about 30 minutes to do that (longer than for the Vatican). Then we took a bus up to Piazza Venezia, ate lunch, and then went to the Roman Forums. Again, we were originally planning on just walking around the outside, but then we found out that the ticket we bought for the Coliseum worked for this too, so we ended up going it! I’m so glad we were able to because there was a lot to see inside that you couldn’t really see from the outside. While we were there we ran into a friend from the Hostel and he walked around with us for a while.

Tammy’s train left at 6:30, so I went with her to the train station. I didn’t really know what to do after she left, because we had already seen everything we had planned on seeing, so I just wandered around. I’m so glad I got the chance to do this because I felt like my two days had been really rushed. I was able to finally soak in the feeling of being in Rome and just sit in a piazza and enjoy it.

My train left at 10:50 pm, and I was sad to go, but ready at the same time. After taking over 300 pictures, and spending 180 euro, I was definitely ready to go.

Per request…

First time riding on a train

First time staying in a hostel

First time in Rome

First time filling my camera completely in one day (I had to delete some pictures so I could take some on the second day)

First time taking a subway

I could say first time putting my had inside the mouth of truth, etc, but I think that first time in Rome covers a lot

New flavors of gelato I have tried…

Ananas (pineapple)

Kiwi

Ganduja (chocolate with nut flavor)

Crema di Grom (cream with…stuff in it. A specialty of Grom, a really nice gelateria)

Amareno (Black Cherry)

Cioccolato Extranoir (extra dark chocolate)

If any of you who actually read this entire post know of a better way of putting pictures online than loading 5 at a time through picasa web, please let me know!!!

Today I am going to another family house in Bardonecchia for 3 weeks. Next week I will be taking a three day trip from there to Venice. yay!!!