Lets Euro that Star to Rommmmma

I really wish my uploader was not lost so I could share pictures with you guys, they speak so much louder than words sometimes... but what I will do is share them on here when I get home for Christmas break which is less than a month away now!

This past weekend I went to ROMAA ! Yay. I was so excited to travel again on the weekend as staying in Florence all weekend has its pluses and minuses sometimes. Roma brought a life into me that I felt was missing the past 2 weeks. I was able to escape the Villa Rossa and my stresses of school, or daily things and jet on that Eurostar bright and early with a bunch of friends, it was also an all school trip, so included in what Syracuse tutition was. It was a gorgeous day in ROma and we toured the Vatican Museum with Rocky. The Lycoon, Sistine Chapel, School of Athens and Maps Room really stood out to me, not to mention the SIZE of the The Vatican, holy cow. We of course went inside St Peters bascillica and The Pieta was beatuiful. Lauren Romanazzi and I decided to climb to the cupola of ROme which was def. an interesting experience. Im never queasy going up high but as u get higher and higher the passageways get smaller and smaller and slant sideways so its a weird feeling going up, combined with the fact that we had to climb around a man who was passed out and they were trying to bring him back to life...but then we made it to the top and the view is pretty awesome. I gotta say, I enjoyed the Florence view more, I think its more beautiful since you can see Tuscany and The Arno, but Romes view is obviously awing beause Rome is huge! 4 million people i believe.

Lauren and I grabbed lunch and then we met up with our class again outside the bascillica and then headed to our hotel where we all checked in. Hotel was near Piazza Republicca, and right near the train station which was convenient for the next day. I roomed with Maddy, Lauren, and Emily, which was fun. We napped and goofed around at the hotel for awhile. Our room was super hot at the beginning, but we got someone from the hotel to turn off the heat and open the window, since we sadly couldnt figure it out. Maddy was under her bed covers when he arrived and I was on the bed, but Lauren did the talking, and I think he felt kind of awkward, and quickly said buona notte and left. It was funny at the time.

I couldnt nap too long because I wanted to shower and kept saying Were in Rome guyss. Eventually we made it out to explore the city of ROme at night which was a lot of fun. We took the MEtro, changed our train tickets for the next day so we could get back for the Fiorentina soccer game against parma on Sat. night.. We had a group of about 8 of us and we went to the Trevi Fountain, which was so incredibily beautiful, I thought. And we meandered through Piazza NAvona, and passed outdoor restaurants and lights, and Romans out enjoying the pleasant temperature. The streets are bigger, the piazzas are bigger, and there is so much life and vivaciousness in ROMAA. We finally settled for a restaurant near Campo di Fuori which was completely empty at nine but the prices looked right and it ended up being an adorable family run restaurant. Ravioli with spinach and cheese is what I got. Our first destination after dinner was a bar called the Drunken Sailor, an irish pub that was playing the OSU game, and they had ber pong. We made it to two other bars and there was lots of walking, and exploring, which is always fun. We all refused to take a taxi home, so we got home around 230 am and woke up around 8 on Saturday for ANCIENT ROME. Collosseum, The Forum, Capitlone Hill, THe pantheon, and i was abosolutely mesmerized by a Church called del Gesiuex. Great feeling.

By this point we all were feeling pretty tired, but the rest of our time consisted of lunch, gelato, and some shopping-browsing.

hopped on the 450 eurostar back to firenze just in time to attend a Fiorentina soccer game on the Curva Fiesole side, which means we were right in the hubub of the radical Florence fans.. which I will tell you about in my next Blog. So stay tuned!

I dont know how else reads this besides my mom, but thanks for reading whoever you are! I love and miss you all, and hope you are doing well.

where did the last month go?

I feel like so much has happened in the last month that I don't know where to begin... we had midterms, my parents came to visit me in Florence, I turned 21, I went to Greece, I had a crappy week after Greece getting midterms back, and sorting some things out at school, I had an amazing weekend in Prague, and then another week at school that was filled with ups and downs. I dropped my art history class, which I think is for the best as it was stressing me out too much and I'm ok on credits for Santa Clara. The classes that I do need to do well on that actually count are Sociology and Nutrition. Nutrition and Health, believe it or not, has been my hardest class here. We have 5 tests throughout the semester, and each test is on 3 chapters of infomration or about 150 pages. My first test really didnt go too well, but the 2nd was better, and the third was the best, but it was still an 80...multiple choice and I don't do too well...but Im keepin on keepin on. Well, I dont want to spend the whole blog sharing my grade worries with you, but they defintiely were there, but I have improved the situation for sure.

I went to my first Italian movie theater tonight. Myra and I saw Public Enemies in Italian after getting apperitivo with 2 other girls, Mary and Maggie. The seats in the theater, just like Italian women are are very small..i dont know how dad and michael woud manage as i could barely fit in them and they have an intermission during the movie.Certainly it was hard to follow but I understod more than I thought I would. Also, instead of a huge concessions stand they just have a man who goes around holding a tray of a few things to sell during the intermission like water, coke, popcorn, and ice cream bars. The theater was smaller than ones at home and actually not freezing cold but quite warm inside.

I finally saw the David on Friday at the Academia. He is truly massive. Maplethorpe's photography exhibit showing the human body forms and movement was also there. Quite the contrast in types of art.

Sleep is calling me, but when I get a new uploader I will post some pictures and go back and recount fall break and Prague and bits and pieces of the last month.

xox