- 30 June, 2012 //
- Current Students Abroad, Emily in Rome, Europe, Study Abroad in Italy //
- Tags : classes, Colosseum, Italian, italy, Sorrento, Study Abroad in Rome, Vatican, Villa Borghese
- 0 Comments
Monday:
We had our first day of classes today. The program is set up so we have a two-week intensive language class and then I start the rest of my classes at the beginning of July. I go to class all morning, have a break for lunch, and then I have an afternoon activity. I am trying really hard in Italian because it is so helpful to communicate with people around here…people speak less English than I expected. We then spent the afternoon at the Vatican. We had a great tour from one of my professors about the history and symbolic meaning of a lot of the statues inside the St. Peter’s Church. One of the facts I found more interesting was that glass was not used anywhere in the building, so the piece at the end of the main aisle at the back of the church is actually stone that was carved down so much that light can shine throw it…it has the appearance of beautiful stain-glass, but it is actually not! At the end of the tour we had the chance to go to the top of the Dome of the church. This adventure includes an elevator half way up and several staircases that are in tight quarters to bring you to the highest point in all of Rome! It was so high…I didn’t realize until that I was a little afraid of heights. After the tour we went back home, changed, and came back to the school to meet up for a group dinner.
Tuesday:
We rocked it again. We stopped at a local snack bar before class to grab a cream pastry and a cappuccino…a quick pick me up before class so we could stay awake! We then went to class in the morning and learned a little more than just the alphabet today. I was introduced to a bunch more vocabulary and verbs that will be helpful soon I’m sure. During break we went and got my cell phone that I have needed to communicate with the rest of the girls in my group. We also stopped for a quick bite to eat and enjoyed another round of gelato…but this time we hit the jackpot! This has been the best gelato I have had in Italy thus far. We went back to the school to enjoy a film in Italian (with subtitles of course). It was a little long to sit through after a long morning, but it was nice to watch a movie for the first time in the last couple of weeks. After we got ourselves over to the main train station in Rome so we could purchase our tickets to Sorrento for this weekend. We wanted to buy them from the station so we didn’t have extra fees or purchase the wrong ones by accident. On our way home we hit the grocery store to buy up a few groceries for the rest of the week. We were able to find a good deal on pasta, we picked up some fresh mozzarella, and pesto! I have been craving a good pesto sauce on some bread of pasta. We cooked up the pasta and a Bolognese sauce we found and had our first home cooked dinner. We finished up the little homework we had and went to sleep after another full day.
Wednesday:
I was a bit tired this morning and I wasn’t too excited to get dressed and take on a 100-degree day. I had a little cereal for breakfast before we rushed off to class. I think the heat and diet change is getting to most of us in some capacity because a couple ladies had to miss class and a few others, including myself, were not feeling the best. We made it through another lesson (the vocabulary list is getting really long now…) and had a lunch break where we grabbed some pizza across the street. A couple of us are going to Sorrento/Capri this weekend so we booked our hotel over the lunch break too.
We met up with another teacher Piu who took us for a tour of the Roman Forum and Colosseum. The weather aside it was another fantastic time seeing the beautiful architecture and ruins. We went inside the Colosseum for a self-tour around the entire top and the entire bottom and then we walked around the Roman Forum area. This is a large Piazza type area that includes a lot of pieces (columns, half walls, pieces of flooring, etc. all left in the original area) of the once built up ancient city. After we rushed home to find something cold to drink, eat some food, wash up, and pass out. I felt like I drank plenty of water throughout the day, but I too was completely exhausted from the temperature spike and the intense amount of walking that included too many stairs. It’s already near the end of week one already…I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Thursday:
We had another full day! We attended our normal Italian class in the morning and had a planned tour at Villa Borghese Museum with our professor Pia. We had to take two crazy bus rides to get to this beautiful part of Rome….it is a large grassy area in the heart of this insane city (similar to Central Park in New York City). We walked around the museum while Pia gave us a specialized tour and told us about the mosaics, the paintings, and the statues. It was another warm weathered day in Rome so we were glad to have a walking tour inside a building for a change. We made our way back home and had a few things to get done. We had to pack for our weekend to Sorrento and we all had to study because we already have our first mid-term tomorrow! We studied, ate, packed, and got ready for another big day. I ended up staying up late to have a much-needed conversation with Derrick. Being apart is really hard pretty much every minute of this trip, but we also believe that the things that are hard to do are the most worth and are what makes you stronger in the end. I’m off to sleep because tomorrow is already here…
Friday:
Today we had to make our way to class with our packed backpacks because we were heading right to the bus station after class to head to Sorrento for the weekend. We studied last night because we already have a mid-term today for our Italian class. We also had a little oral exam, which wasn’t too difficult. Much to our surprise, that we discovered yesterday, there is a public transportation strike in all of Italy today. That means the buses are not reliable, the trains don’t work, and the metro is a no go. Fortunately, we were able to book a private bus that goes directly from Rome to Sorrento…a good four hours, but at least we are able to sleep all the way! We had to grab a taxi to get to the bus station that was a little further away. We had plenty of time to get everywhere, which was good considering we hit a little traffic and had another 20 minutes added to our trip. When we got out of the taxi we weren’t feeling too well considering the stop and go movement in the overheating car…. it was not the most enjoyable ride we have had here.
We figured out where we needed to jump on our bus and we were able to have our own double seats for the entire ride. After a few hours passed we were dropped off in what seemed to be the center of Sorrento. We took a minute to look around and then started our search for the Linda Hotel. We found it a couple of blocks down (which ends up being a couple of blocks away from the beach). We threw our stuff in our room, changed our clothes to swimming suits, and booked it out to find the beach. It just took us a couple of extra turns and consisted over what seemed to be several hundred stairs. Sorrento is pretty much up on a cliff and you have to work your way down to get to the beachfront…you have to earn it for sure. We timed it perfectly and watched as the sun set on the Mediterranean Sea…. we also took a little dip in the water, and slightly forgetting that we didn’t bring any towels. We aired dried as we walked back up to find a little dinner. We found a fabulous little place and picked out a few snacks to order. I wanted to have some breaded shrimp because the picture on the menu looked great! We crashed for the night!
Saturday:
We were hoping to get up much earlier then we did, but I guess between the long week and the long traveling day yesterday we weren’t able to get up much earlier than 9:30. We quickly got dressed with our swimsuits again and made our way to the beach area again to grab the ferry. We wanted to go over to the island of Capri for the day! We had the best day for it…the weather was extremely hot and sunny. We took the 20 minutes ferry ride across the way and got off at the other end. It was a little rocky and there were a lot of people that had the same idea…but we were able to see out the window, sit down, and enjoy the trip. We came up to the cutest little island full of little boats and fabulous little houses up on a hill. The scenery was just breathtaking…it was worth it to come over here. We found the ‘beach’ that consists of just major rocks instead of sand. We searched for a towel that we would have to buy because we didn’t bring any with us. Instead of each buying one, I was able to make a bargain with this guy that was selling them. I asked if we could borrow the biggest towel he had for the day and we would return it later. We compromised on a price and we had to just pay 7 euro. (I had to give him 14, but he said he would return half when I returned the towel…I figured that was fair.) (Also, the towels he was trying to sell where like 10 Euro each…so I thought it was a fantastic deal.)
We made our way to the beach, found a patch of rocks, and chilled out! We made sure to have our sunscreen on for the day because of the intensive sun. We had to take a break several times and take a dip in the water. After a while we decided it was time to grab some lunch. We found a great restaurant right on the beach so we picked it! I was in heaven when I found that I was able to order a hamburger- they are hard to come by around here. So I ordered the Capri Hamburger on the island of Capri- irony! I also enjoyed French fries and some ketchup that I am not able to find anywhere else…so needless to say I ate everything because it was completely delicious! We sat out for a while longer, adventured through a few stores, and ended our day at a gelato shop where we sat for a while and just enjoyed the view from the island. We had to catch our ferry back to the mainland…and we did just that.
We were able to change and went back out to find a little dinner. We found another great restaurant and I enjoyed some GREAT bologna pasta. I am really having a good time with the food around here. Time to go to sleep again…because after that sun gets to me there is no way I am able to stay up much longer.
Sunday:
We slept in again (I guess it was much needed) and we had to be out of our hotel by 11. We grabbed a little breakfast on our way out…I had an iced coffee as I would in the States…but it was not too similar. It was the first thing that I didn’t like while I have been here. We packed up our stuff and went down to the beach for the afternoon before we had to catch our bus back to Rome. We paid 10 Euro to sit in this private beach area and have a lounge chair, have changing rooms for later, and a floating device in the water. We were happy we went this plan because we it was very hot and I was thankful to have shade and a chair. As we were in the water on the floating device that was anchored to the dock, this little kid started to bug me. It was as if he was trying to get on the same chair as me in the water, and he was persistent. I was so confused, and I asked him to stop, but he said, “I don’t speak English.” Which was very suspicious. He ended up flipping me off which made me very upset. Kelsea and I ended up getting out of the water, talking with the manager, and getting him kicked out off the private beach area. The boy wasn’t too happy…but neither was I. Once that random incident was over, we enjoyed the rest of our time there. We changed and made our way back up the cliff and over to the bus station to pick up our ride back home.
We finally got home to Rome and took a taxi from the bus station directly back to our house. We unpacked, cleaned up, and went straight to bed. We have to be ready to go for Monday class again!
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