1. Visit the Vatican in the afternoon and St. Peters in the early evening right before it closes. All the tourist think they will be sneaky and get up early to stand in line before the doors of the Vatican Museum even open so they can beat the crowds-the problem is, every single other tourist in the city has that same thought. Go in the afternoon then head over to St. Peters at sunset when the crowds have all left and you have time to sit on the steps with [...]

1. Church bells go off every hour, but at strange times such as 12:17 or 9:43. 2. You can sit on a piazza with your friends and a pitcher of beer at 11:30 on a Saturday night and the people walking past you range from tiny kids who look a bit lost to really old people who also look a bit lost. Then to really kick up the weirdness, that piazza has a huge statue in the middle that looms over the bars full of drunk people to remind you [...]

Why I Love Euro Coins. 1. Everybody loves rainbows and Europe’s currency IS the rainbow. Grey, red, blue, orange, green, yellow, purple. Every bill is a brilliant shade of something wonderful for the eyes. Dollars are boring and green and kind of ugly. Yes, I said it. Ugly. America’s currency is an eye sore. 2. If you are visually impaired you can still buy things on your own since-guess what-Euros are different sizes! The 5 Euro is smaller than the 10 so the blind can use their spidey finger senses [...]

You know you are in Roma when… 1. You accidentally stumble across Francesco’s Holy Week Mass in St. Peter’s Square on the way home from class, and it blows your mind about how causal you consider this happening yet people from all over the world have traveled to Rome this month JUST for Easter and that mass. 2. You scored free tickets to Easter Mass in St. Peters from your teacher. 3. You go to a museum tour and the tour voice recording is the voice of the teacher who [...]

1. It rains only when you don’t have your umbrella. 2. The buses come when they please, and will definitely be late when you need to be somewhere important 3. The buses randomly change their routes mid-ride without any prior notice. 4. The local women have somehow mastered high heels on century old cobble stone and you will still trip all over the place in your flat soled shoes. Forget about heels since you will break your ankle. 5. It will be 38 degrees one day and 58 the next-and [...]

  My mom keeps emailing me to update me on how much snow she has to shovel out of her driveway. I’ve helped her shovel, it isn’t a pleasant task. Her house is on hill, so all the snow just piles up feet deep on one side and makes you want to cry a little inside, mainly since it is so misleading on how much work is involved. But instead of shoveling driveways or trying to bike to class in Minnesota, I’ve spent the past week on lovely little islands [...]

1. Fresh food is way cheaper than junk food. I know, right. This is where America fails. 2. If you try to go running in public or even do workouts in your apartment courtyard, you will be yelled at and called a whore by the local Italian women. Apparently here you are expected to go to the gym, change into workout clothes, work out, shower, re-do your makeup and get dressed again. That is just too much work. 3. Wine goes with every meal. 4. Drinking the cheap boxed cooking [...]

Rome:  This morning we woke up to face a bitter mood hanging over the apartment. The thunderstorms had ceased just a few hours earlier and we, at 7am, set out in uncertain weather to the Villa Adriana with our art history class…expecting an 8+ hour day of walking in rain, mud and a chilly breeze. And then a magical, wonderful thing happened. The sun peaked out. And it didn’t rain- not even a drop. Our entire day turned a 180 and suddenly we had 8 hours to explore these beautiful, [...]

Last week I woke up and just had an unexplainable urge to go to Switzerland. The idea of a weekend of mountains tickled me. Good thing I live in Roma and it was an entirely reasonable urge to have-so me and my roommate booked tickets to Zurich that night. On Thursday evening we flew into Zurich and the first impression we both had was “wow, this place is calm”, and that feeling stuck with me for the entire weekend. There is this strange sense of ease in Switzerland. Even in the [...]

  Each country has those things that make it unique. Italy is no different, so I am making a list of all the wonderful things that make Rome, Rome! You know you are in Roma when…. 1. Everyone is still wearing parkas, hats, and big scarves when it is 50 degrees and the locals give you judgmental/confused stares when you are wearing sandals and a simple zip-up hoodie 2. McDonalds are 100% classier than their counterparts in America 3. You can walk in or across the road when ever you [...]

  Despite being sent to the ER on Thursday, I was determined not to let a little fainting get in the way of our apartment trip to Barcelona this weekend-and I was so glad I went. Barcelona is such a hip, colorful city. I instantly feel in love with all the art, Gaudi buildings, skaters, and sunshine and seafood restaurants. We flew in Friday morning and after checking in at our hostel (Hostel Kabul-I highly recommend people to stay there if visiting the BCN), we walked down to the shore [...]

  Today was the first day of classes and we all took “1st day photos” in front of the school to send to our moms. THIS IS FOR YOU MOM! Today was also one of the first days here it wasn’t raining, so I was really happy about that. I was also a little annoyed… I mean, I finally broke down and bought an umbrella yesterday. You play dirty, mother nature. My morning class is called “Made in Italy”, where I learn about products produced here and how they market [...]

The past few days have been a crazy blurr of walking tours, Italian lunches and historical building after building. My body is rejecting this lifestyle of minimal food and too much walking-my ankles and knees hurt and I feel like I suddenly aged 50 years in three days. That’s not to say I am not have a good time-I am. I’m living in Rome, after all! Today was the last day of orientation’s walking tours before classes start, and I am thankful for that. There are so many consecutive days [...]

The past 3 days have been solid walking tours of the city and I wanted to highlight some of my favorite parts-of course it is so hard to narrow down the cool things since at every street corner in this city is another historical landmark. This is the street my school is on, apparently the Pope used to walk on this street during his initiation ceremony when he would march from the Vatican and tour around Rome. The past few days have been a crazy blurr of walking tours, Italian [...]

If I lean a dangerous amount out my bedroom window, this is my view. It still hasn’t hit me yet that I’m going to be living in Rome, waking up to St. Peters every day. My brain is still in a fog from traveling for 24+ hours on nothing but airplane food and an hour of sleep. Getting to the apartment was crazy. It was raining, hard. While packing I remember thinking to myself “Hmm, do I need a rain jacket? Eh, no, I’ll probably be fine. I can tough [...]