Monday, January 30, 2012

I love Rome

Roma-  Rome, capital of Italy.  

Last weekend, Carrie, Kyle, Jeff, and I took a little trip to Rome.  Whirlwind trip really.  

Day 1- We left Friday night after school from Bergamo.  I highly recommend that airport.  Wow!  It's clean, bright, friendly, and cheap.  Our flight was slightly delayed, but we still made it to Rome just before midnight.  We all agreed that we would split a cab to the hotel that night.  The only problem with that was that there were no cabs.  It turns out that there was a national cab strike.  We called 3 different numbers with little success.  Actually, one was successful, but the cab kept going to different parts of the airport and other poor, stranded souls took ours.  After an hour, Carrie hooked up her computer with her portable internet key and found the hotel phone number.  30 minutes later we had a cab and were on the way to the hotel.  This is the link in case you are curious.  5 star is not a bad way to stay. 

Day 2- We slept in a bit after the previous late night.  But we were out the door by 10:30.  After a long meander to the Vatican by way of the Spanish steps, we arrived at the Vatican Museum around 11:30.  That place is overwhelming in the best possible way.  I was stunned by the sheer quantity.  Plus, it was surprising how much of it was not necessarily religious or Christian.  But it is also clear that Christianity has very deep roots.  Evidently, the mummies and ceilings impressed me the most as I look back through my pictures since I seemed to photograph ceilings exclusively.  Well, almost.  The School of Athens was nothing to sneeze at.  I was delighted when Kyle reminded us that it was there!


mini mummies

Ceiling

Another ceiling

And, yep, another
School of Athens







 

After the excitement of one masterpiece, we ended up at another one you may have heard of:  The Sistine Chapel.
















the whole room

































































































































































That was pretty exciting.  Rick Steves' free audio podcasts are really the best and we spent a good 45 minutes there straining our necks.  I was surprised that the Oracle of Delphi made it up onto the ceiling.  See what I mean about it being not just Christian?  Also, just a helpful tip, the cafe right before the Chapel is cheap (for Rome) and has seating downstairs.  

After lunch, Kyle and Jeff headed back to the hotel while Carrie and I went to St. Peter's.  Again, wow!  It too is a bit overwhelming.  Luckily, there was a mass going on so we could only go to a limited part of the Cathedral.  From Peter, the 1st Pope, to Charlemagne, to Pope Benoit.  It has quite the history.     

Marble where Charlemagne was crowned
Michelangelo's Pieta
St. Peter's Square
Cheese!

That night was the best dinner I've had since living in Italy.  Cannot wait to go back this spring.  Wish I knew the name of the restaurant.  Passing the Trevi on the way, didn't hurt the charm of the evening.  The charm was disrupted temporarily by the 4 am wake up call we didn't order and the front desk asking what to do with the cab they ordered for us.  Not. My. Problem. 

Day 3-  After a mistake in speeds on a km/h (not mph) treadmill, I got my semi-long run in.  (It turns out that training for a marathon on the road is a bit tricky.)  Then off to the Colosseum.  It was incredible!  (Thanks in part to the free podcast.)  I could not imagine the terror of fighting in front of full stadium.  There is a great view of Hadrain's Arch and ruins of a temple to Venus from the upper tier.  It is tricky to find the stairs though.  Taxi strike over, we found one to take us back to the airport.  The 7th generation Roman explained that the strike was over the new tax Monti (new head of government) imposed.  





Bottom line:  Not a coincidence the letters of Roma can be rearranged to spell Amor!  I love Rome! 
 



Saturday, January 14, 2012

Italy in the News this Week

The Good...    Film to See? From The New Yorker

A short clip from the New Yorker about a film called "Voyage to Italy."  It has Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini.  I've never seen it, but maybe I should...


The Bad...     Keep Shopping Difficult from NPR

This should be good news, but it just goes to show that Italy is slow on the uptake.  I think I may have explained how hard it is to buy things here.  Evidently economists agree with me.  Consumer spending should be up.  Unfortunately, only immigrants can see this.  


The Ugly...     Cruise Ship Crash


Bummer.  Super sad.  

Friday, January 6, 2012

Words in English

Ahhh.  Home for the holidays.  It was so fantastic to be back Stateside for Christmas and New Year's.  I was only back for 11 days, but every single moment was perfect.  Now that I'm back in Italy I thought I would make a list of all the things I did in 11 days that I haven't done in 4 months.  

1.  Made copies of keys.  I still do not have a copy of my mailbox key (school cannot find a locksmith to make a copy) or a spare set for my apartment (I've tried, but they won't take my money or make the key of course).  In the US, I made copies of 2 different keys.  On Christmas Eve day!

2.  Watched a movie. In a theater.  In English.  "The Descendents" is fantastic and a real tearjerker just in case you were curious.

3.  Walked to an Asian restaurant.  That's right.  I walked.  Not possible in my town for anything except pizza.  I also ordered in sushi and walked to a Belgian restaurant, walked to a sandwich shop for lunch, and walked to McDonald's (for the record that is my third trip this fall/winter; 1st was for wifi in France; 2nd was for wifi and lunch in Germany).  Guess what I didn't eat.  Pizza!           

4.  Got my hair cut.  There was no negotiating or misunderstanding or drastic change.  I've been afraid to get a haircut here because they are expensive and I've learned from London and Paris, don't go to a new person without being able to communicate very clearly.  I can't do that here yet.  


5.  Bought a cell phone.  Yes, that's right.  It turns out you really do need one everywhere these days so I went to Target and bought a pay-as-you-go phone.  It worked and I even recharged it.  Ahhh!  The sweet smell of success.  I  actually thought that it might work abroad, but it doesn't.  Damn US locked phones.  It took me all of 10 minutes.   

(In any case, in an Italian phone update, I just bought a new cheapo phone for my Italian SIM card, but I still couldn't make calls.  I took it down to the electronics station at the grocery store and used my best smile to charm the guy into helping me.  It worked.  He couldn't figure it out either.  He ended up calling headquarters or something and they said I was out of credit.  He recharged it for me and when the new balance came up, I wasn't actually out of credit, but, it works now, so I'm not going to question it.  Plus, now I have a phone that charges regardless of what angle I put the charger in!)    


6. Did a load of laundry the morning I flew back.  Yes, that's right I washed and dried an entire load of laundry in under 2 hours!  My washer isn't even finished in two hours here.  Drying is out of the question.  




I did a ton of other really fun stuff and saw tons of people I really miss!  Quick highlights were:  my parents' holiday party, Christmas day, a road trip with a friend, a massage, homemade dinner and good wine with friends, a night in my old apartment with my old roomies, watching "The Good Wife,"  discovering "Damages," playing bananagrams on New Year's Eve, dinners with my cousin (at an old favorite) and a friend (at a new favorite),  and a 6-mile run with old friends.  


Finally, here is a reason to love Italy.  They sell this contraption.  Searching for shelving on amazon.it, this came up as a kitchen accessory.  I prefer to think of it as some sort of contemporary art, but whatever, it had me laughing at long last.