Ciao, bella!

I've just taken two final exams on less than an hour of sleep.. and I think I did pretty well --yay! I have two more to do (both on Friday.. yech..) but my brain is totally burnt out from the massive amounts of studying I did yesterday, so I've decided to put up my final blog. If I don't do it now, I probably will never do it, because the rest of this week is going to be crazy, then I'll be home. This post is really super-dee-friggin'-duper long, so be prepared.

I had tuesday and wednesday of last week off (but not Monday. I skipped like most other visiting students did!) and so I took advantage of that and went to Italy for five days! Due to scheduling complications, I had to go without my usual travel buddy, Caelainn, and that was sad. Italy is a beautiful country, though, and I had a good time exploring Rome and Venice.

I arrived in Rome on Thursday night, on my own, because the three girls (Amy, Melanie and Traci) I was spending the weekend with had a different flight. It was near midnight and I was a little spooked because I had to find my way to my hostel (too broke for a taxi!) and there were only men on the street. I managed alright though, and slept in a dorm-style hostel room with three middle-aged men. I wasn't happy with the situation,but they were all passed out by the time I got there, and I didn't interact much with them in the morning, so it wasn't too bad.

I met up with the other girls the next morning, after an hour-long trudge around Rome with my luggage, from my hostel to theirs. The hostel owner was a sketch but funny dude named Johnny, who had tons of tattoos of naked girls (supposedly all his "conquests") covering both his arms. We definitely think that he was housing an illegal number of people in the tiny "hostel" (24 people in an apartment that should've fit 8, tops). It was an interesting experience staying there for two nights.

The first day, we went to Vatican City:

Fun fact: Vatican City is the world's smallest sovereign state, and it covers less than 1 sq km. Here is a view of the line that we waited in to get inside St. Peter's Basilica. Yes, it curves all the way around. :P

Melanie and me, excited to be in Vatican City! As you can see, the weather was grrreat.

Roman architecture, art, etc = wow. I was delighted with the amazing sculptures I saw everywhere.

Here is our fun little group, during our 2.5-hour wait in line.

The front of the basilica.

As you may already know, one must be properly dressed (i.e. covered up) in Vatican City. This signs cracks me up because it seems like flashing a little belly is acceptable. :P No worries, I did not enter in a tank-top, haha.

The first thing we did was go straight up to the dome, which is Michelangelo's masterpiece.

This is a beautiful mosaic inside the dome.

We had to climb through some super narrow passageways to get up higher.

The view from the top was spectacular!

Vatican City, in all its glory.

So, at this point, I got separated from the group. I looked around for them a bit and for some reason decided that they must have gone back down without me. So.. I headed down. And was promptly lost in Vatican City. For an hour. It was sort of scary but mostly funny in retrospect. I felt like a little kid lost in a large city, but of course, neither of those things hold true. :P

After reuniting with my group, who told me I was silly to think that they had left me, we entered the basilica:

One of the numerous gorgeous artworks inside.

dome!

Outside the basilica, we took some pictures of the funny Swiss guards. Love the uniforms, hee.

After visiting Vatican City, the natural thing to do is.. eat gelato!

Oh, my dear, scrumptious gelato. What good times we had in Italy. How I miss you.

..I could write an ode, but I won't.


Anyway! We returned to the hostel (to find our tiny room filled with 8 bunks..), took naps, hung out with all the (college-aged) people in the hostel, and then went to see Rome's famous Trevi Fountain.

Magnificent.

We all threw coins in, per tradition. I hope my wish comes true. ;)

Horrible-quality picture, but I have so few group shots that I had to include this one.

We had dinner (and gelato, of course) near the Trevi Fountain, went to Campo de Fiori for cocktails, then turned in early so that we would be well-rested for the next day.


We woke up early and headed to the Vatican Museums:

to our dismay, the line stretched for several blocks..

but, when in Rome, you can't miss the Vatican Museums! I'd say the 2-hour wait was worth it.

I got to see one of my favorite sculptures, "Laocoon and his Sons." (this one is actually a replica because the real one is in the inner courtyard.) I like it because it's so dynamic and it's rendered in amazing detail. The subject is the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons being killed by sea serpents sent either by Apollo or Poseidon as punishment for trying to expose the ruse of the Trojan Horse. A little morbid, but also cool.


We worked our way through the museums, toward the Sistine Chapel:

the main courtyard

giant head!

inner courtyard

ceiling

one of many frescoes on the walls/ceilings

look at that ceiling!

and finally, the pay-off: the awe-inspiring Sistine Chapel. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I couldn't help sneaking some (flash off, of course!) I had to blindly aim the camera because I couldn't be obvious about it. This one is the best one I took, despite my head being in the way:

absolutely amazing.

We had a delicious lunch, then headed to the Colosseum:

The Colosseum is a massive arena that seated 500,000 spectators and is a symbol of Eternal Rome. It was mainly used for gladiator combat and other spectator events.

yee-uh!

The line was pretty long, so we opted for an inexpensive tour, which turned out to be very informative. I really enjoyed hearing about all the interesting important and trivial facts our tour guide provided us with.

There he is, complete with handy-dandy visual guides.

As part of the tour, we got to take free pictures with the actors dressed as gladiators and Roman soldiers and emperors. Here's "Julius Caesar":

This dude tried to behead me..

but I got him back.

Here's a shot of the interior of the Colosseum:

and here's us being goofy with our audio/walkie-talkie type things.

This is a view from the second level of the Colosseum, of the Arch of Constantine (Arco di Constantino).

Our awesome tour included a tour of Palatine Hill, atop which Rome was founded circa 753 BCE by the twins Romulus and Remus (who were nursed by a she-wolf).


We saw "domus augustana," which was Emperor Domitian's private residence, "domus flavia" which was the imperial palace, and his private stadium:

just a remnant of a "small" statue..


We also got to see the Roman Forum, in the valley between Palatine Hill and Capitoline Hill. (The exam I just took for Archeology involved IDing the Roman Forum and explaining its significance.) It was a shopping mall, civic center, religious complex all in one. The House of the Vestal Virgins, which housed Rome's eternal flame, was there too.

Here's a view of the Forum through the Arch of Titus:

As the sun was setting, I got some good shots of the Colosseum:

we look pretty tired, huh? long (but awesome) day.

We returned to the hostel for dinner (freaking yummy and slightly spicy lasagna) cooked by Johnny and his buddies and then went out for gelato with our new hostel friends (the four people who were in our dorm room with us).

Early the next morning (Sunday), Melanie and I flew to Venice (!) while Amy and Traci returned to Madrid in order to go to class on Monday like good girls. Missing class was certainly worth seeing the one, the only, Venice. Seriously, I've never seen anything like it. To give you an idea of where Venice is in relation to Rome:



We had a bit of trouble getting to our hostel, which was on the mainland, in Mestre, but we finally got there. From there, we took a 15-minute bus to Venice:


What a splendid city! It's made up of 117 small islands and 150 canals.
All day long we cruised the Grand Canal, relaxing and taking in the charming scenery. Melanie had been there before and told me that I would fall in love with it, and she was right! Of the places I've been, Venice is now one of my favorites.

OK, enough with the words -- just look at the pictures!

gondolas, everywhere! too bad they were too expensive..

My first Venetian pizza (yum!) at a snack bar where we met Peppino, a waiter, who later gave us a tour of Venice. He was a nice guy, as were his friends, and it was cool hanging with locals.

Venice is famous for its Carnivale masks (I bought one!) and its Murano glass (I got a necklace!).

Venice's form of public transportation is the vaporetto, a water-bus. How awesome is that?!

Peppino took us to see St. Mark's Basilica, after which we met up with some of his friends at a bar (ask me about my Italian dream-man, "dreads" ;D). Then we had dinner and I had the most amazing salmon tagliolini, totally worth mentioning.


The next day we had lunch near Rialto Mercato. On the way, we saw this doggy from our vaporetto:

heeh.

We did a bit of shopping around that area, then went to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, which was unfortunately closed. So we headed to the Basilica di San Marco, which was... also closed. It's ok, though, I got some beautiful pictures of the exterior:

We ended our second leisurely day in Venice with a fancy dinner.

mm, tiramisu (I put a lot of food into my posts, huh? Oh well.)

and our cow milk jug, hehe.

As we were heading back to our hostel, we noticed that Venice was starting to flood! I couldn't really capture it that well, but here are the pics I got:

Tuesday morning we reluctantly said goodbye to Venice and flew back to Rome. We took a bus to the train station near our hostel, and the ticket was hilarious:

"fatt passenger in transit" .. even funnier considering the sign we saw as soon as we boarded the bus:

bwahahahhaha. that is all.


So, back in Rome, we explored a little more. Here's the Triton fountain:

I just couldn't get enough gelato!

back to the Trevi Fountain..

then over to see Trajan's Column, en route to the Pantheon..

which was closed! ABOOO. The Pantheon is Ancient Rome's best-preserved building, over 2000 years old; it was originally a temple for all pagan gods but is now a church.

Brazilian Embassy in Piazza Navona

Spanish steps.

All in all, my Italy trip was grrreat, but it emptied my wallet. I've got just enough money to last me this final week -- I'll return to America penniless! :(

This weekend, being my last in Madrid, I went out with my beloved room/housemates:

Sara on the (your) left, Alison on the right.

aww, I'm going to miss these two goofballs so much!

After a scrumptious, fun dinner, we went to Parque Oeste to botellón with tons of other students from SLU. Botellóning is a Madrid tradition, where young people basically just go out and drink in the streets.. it's fun, but aimless, haha.

Aww, yeaa, my gals from the Tenerife orientation trip, reunited!
Urse, Lauren, Marion, Becky, Sarah!

I met up with my crew, and we headed to the huge "discoteca" Kapital but failed to get in, but it's ok, I still had fun -- good company never fails!

Of course I can't have a post without my partner in crime in Europe!

Wow, longest post ever. I'm tired.

I'm going home in four days, and it's bittersweet. I'm torn between wanting to go home because I'm desperately homesick and friendsick and wanting to stay in Madrid because I'm going to miss all the friends I've made here. But, I have faith that we will keep in touch, and I can't stay away from my people in the US of A any longer. It's been a fabulous semester, and now I'm ready to go hooome! Hope ya'll are ready for my return! ;D

Until then, arrivederci!