Travel plans! Starting this weekend!!! Thank you Ryanair!!!

So, since I'm in Europe, I decided with the approval of Rob and Deb of course (and taking my very limited funds into consideration) that I would travel to as many cheap places as possible and make the most of this European experience. Ryanair is officially my most visited website (other than Facebook) here in Rome. There are deals that come from no where I swear! I've booked several weekends away with my friends and can't wait to go and check em all out!

First, to kick off my travelling semester abroad, I'm heading up to Venice this weekend with a JCU sponsored event. There's a group of students heading North, and we leave tomorrow at 6am for our weekend away! We'll be staying in Padua, and training to Venice for a day, touring Verona, and touring Padua. I'm pretty pumped to see Juliet's house in Verona (...from Shakespeare people), and see the gondolas in Venice. Should be a fantastic trip. I was called on Monday; I was on the waiting list and somehow a spot opened up for me! Should be great I am so excited! I'm heading up with my friend Andrea who lives downstairs. I'll be sure to blog as soon as I get back about it all.

I'll be heading to Paris the following weekend -- booked my flights last night with all my roommates for 50Euro roundtrip. NBD, weekend getaway to Paris! We're all totally excited for this as it'll be our first weekend away all together. We were thinking of calling the chefs in advance to prep for the crepes production they will need to supply us with!

Next comes Brussels Feb11-14. The girls from downstairs and I booked this for 43Euro roundtrip. We plan on eating more than our fair share of waffles, and renting bikes to burn off the calories.

March 4-7 I'm heading up to London to stay with Sam's family. He unfortunately won't be there, but I called a rowboat office to see if he could rent one to make the trek across the big blue and come for the weekend -- apparently there was nothing they could do for me... Dangit! Oh well, should be a great time. Sandie is going to tour me around and show me the sights which will be fantastic no doubt.

For Spring Break (March 17-27) the girls and I are going to plan a Greece trip. We're hoping to catch a cruise through the islands. Nothing's been booked, but I will definitely reserve an entire blog section for that excitement. Kern (my best friend and teammate from ODU,  sidenote who just got accepted to PT school!!! Way to go Kerno!) is already jealous, and I plan to totally soak in all the Greek rays and eat a million olives.

The first weekend in April (8-10), I'll be heading to Barcelona for 78Euro to see a soccer game and soak in the European religion they call football. That weekend is already pencilled in as a completely amazing experience I won't forget. And to boot, it'll be another chance to hit a beach and soak in the sunshine.

April 24th is Easter weekend, and the week leading up to that I will most definitely be here in Rome for Holy Week. Hopefully Mom gets a ticket to Rome for that week, as it would be totally unreal to share it with her. That will be a monumental week I'm sure.

Other than that, I have one more trip to definitely plan, up to Amsterdam to visit all the ex-ODU hockey girls I've stayed in touch with. I'm pretty excited to get up there at some point and see that place. It'll be a nice time to reunite with all the ODU girls too, and maybe catch their hockey games for the clubs they all play for.

Great semester of travel ahead. I am so fortunate to be able to experience all of this and I am so grateful. Not a day goes by I don't count my blessings.

Exploring Roma (4): Villa Borghese, Home of the Rich and Famous

Well, the Vatican was something else. I attempted to do it justice through describing to you what my eyes saw, but I'm just throwing this out there...it's ten times more exquisite there than what my words depict. 

Following my awesome weekend, I wanted to get out in Rome and get going on my to-do list. That being, to see and know Rome by the time I leave this place. I realize I'm here for four months, but there is so much to do! Monday was crap weather, but Tuesday I whipped out my trusty guidebook (good ole Frommer's) and picked a day trip. I don't have classes until 5:15 during the week, so my days are literally free until then. It was a really nice day on Tuesday, so the great outdoors was a good option. I also used this day as my test-run of the public transportation system they call bus routes around here -- they're more like alley thrill-rides though, coming from experience!

Villa Borghese is Rome's Central Park, or Stanley Park. The only difference(s)... there are Baroque statues on the path corners, and fountains and faux temples among the perfectly trimmed trees. The park became city property in 1901 when the famous Borghese family went bankrupt and sold off their estates--the museums, fountains, everything. The Villa Borghese borders the shwankiest neighbourhoods of Rome. The park boasts a bunch of opportunities for activities -- there's a lake for boating, bike/rollerblading paths, gravel paths for running, a horse track, a bunch of benches for sitting and taking in the rays or reading or simply being at peace with yourself and your thoughts. The park is by all descriptions lavish and beautiful -- the trees are equally separated, the paths are all groomed perfectly at equal widths, even the people are groomed perfectly. I'm sure I need to throw this in here...yes, I dressed for the occasion and made sure I kept the guidebook in my purse for fear of degrading the park's "You have to look the part to be here" aura. 

 Galleria Borghese, home of Bernini's most elegant statues. Another full day event to do.

 The Galleria's side garden

 I think these are the Borghese family heads; they are on every corner of the paths

 The Galleria's "backyard"

 Borghese fountains at path intersections 

Benches and beauty

 Old ministry buildings from the Borghese era

Exploring Roma (3): Weekend in a Catholic City

Well, after a crazy weekend this past weekend, I'm finally posting about what actually happened. Forgive me for leaving you all in the dark...It's been a great week, busy with travel planning and school and exploring. 

Friday and Saturday nights were my first two nights out in Rome. And they were absolutely insane. The clubs here are larger than life. The music is a mix of European techno and American pop songs. It's amazing--the Italians know all the words to the English songs and everyone sings/shouts along. I highly doubt they know what any of the words mean though; the only spoken English I heard was limited to "Ciao, Bella" and "Bellisima" and "Di dove sei? Bella bella bella bellaaaa", accompanied with the typical stare-downs any "Americana" would expect in a foreign club... Needless to say, the Italian boys are both aggressive and cocky. Two traits that make them seem like the biggest creepers a girl can picture. It was all good fun. My roommates and I were out till 4 both nights. Everyone is remarkably sober when they walk out at 4am...the beauty of late-night clubs and fantastic music I guess.

Sunday was a fantastic day. I got myself out of bed for mass at 10:30 with two of my roommates downstairs at Basilica Santa Maria in Trastevere, a beautiful church ten minutes from my apartment that made the top ten churches of Rome in my handy-dandy Frommer's guidebook! The Catholic church has 22 recycled Roman columns lining the nave, and incredibly detailed mosaics along the apse. Mass was in Italian, but I actually caught a few words here and there of the homily! Albeit, those words were "Jesus", "Amen", "Christo", and a few other obvious ones... Haha! It was a great experience. The church is massive, and just being there and seeing everyone was pretty cool. The music was done by a men's choir (I'm assuming clergymen of some kind as they were all in robes....Mom....Nat... any thoughts?) and they were all amazing. When mass was let out, the whole square outside the church was filled with people and incense could be smelled for a good block and a half on our way home. 

Basilica Santa Maria in Trastevere

After mass, Andrea, Becca, and I walked to the Vatican. Took me a week and a half, but I finally made the trek. And let me tell you how incredible that place is. Words don't describe it. The walk there was filled with "Wow" and "Are you seeing this?" and the like. We didn't have tickets to actually go in St. Peter's Basilica or the museums, but simply being in Piazza San Pietro was inspiring. It is huge. The Baroque square was designed by Bernini in the 1630s to mimic a human embrace. The curved colonnade is the gateway to St. Peter's Basilica, the biggest church in the world. All along the top of the "arms" of the square are sculptures of the Patron Saints. Me and my pathetic eyes couldn't see all the details of these sculptures, but I'm sure they are absolutely unfathomable anyway so I didn't feel overly disappointed I couldn't see them clearly. In the middle of the square, there's a MASSIVE Egyptian obelisk where St. Peter was martyred in AD 64. Below the obelisk, the Vatican Nativity Scene was still up, but I actually thought it was slightly overrated. It seemed a little out of place, but this could have been due to my lack of perception from simply being surrounded by the overwhelming beauty of the square itself. The last Sunday of every month, students can get into the museums of the Vatican for free, so I will be taking a full day to embrace the inside of this incredible place later on in the semester. The Vatican really was the highlight of Rome for me so far, and I haven't even been inside to see Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, the bronze gold and marble plating of St. Peter's Basilica, or Bernini's remarkably detailed statues. I will be sure to dedicate an entire post to whenever that visit comes up. I feel like I'll have to mentally prep for that day -- my artistic imagination skills were overwhelmed just being in the square. I can't imagine how being inside will compare. 

 Ponte di San Angelo: Lined with Bernini's statues. This bridge crosses the Tiber, and is the main bridge into the Vatican City

 Piazza San Pietro

 One of the "arms" of Bernini's human embrace design concept

 The obelisk, and Nativity Scene at right. St. Peter's Basilica dead ahead

 The patron saints, watching over

 In front of St. Peter's...No big deal...! 

 The details of the patron saints I could capture

Exploring Roma (2): Ancient Rome

John Cabot hosted a walking, guided tour during the week of orientation through Ancient Rome. This was the highlight of my first week. I thought the sites that I explored with my roommates were beautiful. But Ancient Rome doesn't even remotely compare in my opinion. Ancient Rome is a wealth of continuing beauty -- the ruins are thousands of years old, and some of the monuments have details that my Nikon simply could not do justice. Our guide attempted to shed light on the fact that all the ruins and buildings still standing were painted in colour and adorned with gold plating back in the day. My imagination could not fathom this concept. The ruins of Ancient Rome are spectacular in their white/gray/brown-ish shade. In colour, hand painted and sculpted, I cannot begin to think of what the city looked like centuries and millennia ago... Here are a few shots of what my Nikon thought were good pictures.

THE ROMAN THEATRE (AKA, the Theatre of Pompeii), a meeting place of politicians, the senate, and a place of the arts; Ceasar was thought to have been assassinated here by Cassius and Brutus....ringin' a bell Shakespeare fans???

Greek and Roman architecture

 Remodeled 

The Mayor of Rome's house/office; perched atop one of the 7 hills of Rome

 View of the Theatre walking from the Jewish Ghetto

Next on the tour... PIAZZA del CAMPIDOGLIO, CAPITOLINE HILL; formerly home to three temples (The Temple of Juno, The Temple of Virtus, and The Temple of Jupiter). Pope Paul III Farnese commissioned Michelangelo to redesign the Piazza del Campidoglio. Check out this link (http://www.aviewoncities.com/rome/campidoglio.htm) for info that I can't retype! 

One of the designers of the Renaissance remodel after Michelangelo's death; 

either Carlo or Girolamo Rinaldi 

Palazzo del Conservatori; one of the Capitoline museums

The "fake" statue of Marcus Aurelius; the only equestrian statue. 

The original is in the museum.

The gate of the Piazza; joining sacred and political Rome in the Renaissance

SPQR; the symbol of the city. Denoted to represent the people's repulic and the power of the senate. "Chosen by the people, for the people..." --Senator Gaiuss in Gladiator

The She-Wolf; the statue of the myth of Romulus and Remus, the founding brothers of Rome, conceived by the god Mars. Check out this link (http://www.unrv.com/culture/romulus-and-remus.php) for the whole story...

Past the Capitoline square came the really old stuff... the ROMAN FORUM, 7th Century BC. This was the center of business and social outings of Ancient Rome. Decapitation of criminals were held here. Prisoners were kept in the surrounding buildings, many of which were later established as churches and temples. 

 Ceasar's Forum -- a small forum for Ceasar himself

 Mussolini widened this road in 1929, putting half of Ceasar's Forum underground.

The road leads to the Colosseum. 

St. Peter and St. Paul were thought to have been imprisoned here. It is now a church. 

Down the road from Mussolini's Palace, comes the COLOSSEUM, one of Rome's most famous monuments, and most impressive in my books. The stadium for gladiator fights, constructed in AD 80, seated 50,000+ Romans, and has now come to fall to ruins. Tours still go through it, and I plan on hopefully catching one of those and updating you all with some cool facts! 

Exploring Roma (1): The Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps

My first day of seeing Rome was unreal. There is so much to see here. The walk to school is beautiful, and there's nothing famous about it. Just a bunch of graffiti on old buildings and mopeds packed in like sardines. But the real beauty of the city stretches farther than the eye can see here...

THE PANTHEON, 27-25BC

The walk to the Pantheon is about fifteen minutes from my apartment. The Pantheon was built by the Greeks between 27 and 25 BC. It was eventually taken over by the Romans. It has been reconstructed several times due to war and natural disaster, and is currently being remodeled as seen in the picture. The name consists of the Greek words pan ("everything") and teon ("divine"); the temple was dedicated to all Roman gods. The 10-story high temple has a massive hole in the ceiling which is still open today, exposing the inside to the natural elements. The floor has built-in drains to alleviate the damages that rain would cause. The Pantheon hosts Catholic services still to this day.

THE TREVI FOUNTAIN, 1762

The Trevi Fountain (La Fontana di Trevi) is one of Rome's most romantic places. Knick-named the love fountain, this massive fountain is the end of the Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct built in 19 BC that supplies the fountain with its water some 20km outside of Rome. The baroque fountain was built in 1762 for Pope Clement XII. Tourists are all over the place here -- everyone is throwing coins over their shoulder into the water. The legend surrounding the fountain claims that anyone who throws a coin in will return to Rome. I plan to throw in several pennies...

THE SPANISH STEPS, 1585

The 'Spanish Steps' (la Scalinata della Trinita del Monti) is another landmark of Roman tourist attractions. The 137 steps lead up to the gothic French church, La Trinita del Monti, built in 1585. The second and third pictures show the view from the top of the steps. All of Rome can be seen here: the Vatican off to the right, the Pantheon and my neighbourhood (Trastevere) dead ahead -- one of the most breathtaking things I have seen so far.