BUONGIORNO!
okay, so i´m no longer in italia...but i was!! and i honestly can´t remember everything i´ve done since i last posted before going to rome...but let´s see...i watched phantom of the opera in spanish one night, which was interesting (la fantasma de la opera!) because all the singing was in spanish too! i definitely prefer it in english i think.
we left for italy at 10 pm on thursday night, after all my classes. i actually had to leave hebrew early so i could make it to the bus station by 7:30, the bus left at 8 for girona, and then the plane left at 10 from girona. we arrived not in rome, but in the campineon (sp?) airport, and then had to take a taxi to our hostel, which is a 5 minute walk from the vatican! we were so tired by the time we got there that we basically got ready for bed and went to sleep. but the hostel was really nice! we had our own room for 4 people and our own sink and shower. the toilet we had to share with the rest of the floor, which was fine. the people who worked there were very friendly though!
so we woke up at 8 am the next morning, and were out the door by 9 (parents you would be oh so proud) and went straight to st. peters. i love that place. it is so amazing, even though i´ve seen it twice now, i don´t think it ever gets old! (by the way, i posted all the italy pictures already so you can see where we went as well as reading it here). after st peters we waited in an immense line to get into the vatican museum. there was a cute little market next door to the line, so we took turns peeking into the market. they had really yummy dried fruit, every kind of fruit you could imagine, it was kind of weird. dried kiwi!
the vatican museum, of course, was also amazing. who could say otherwise when you´re staring at michelangelo, rafael, etc...wow. i got to see my favorite painting again, rafael´s school of athens! yahoo! i just stared at it for a while, wishing i could take it with me. así es la vida, no? and thes sistine chapel, also amazing. but it makes my neck hurt to look at it because you´re just staring up..and up..:)
after that we went to the colliseum, and by the way, it had started to RAIN. at st peters there was a little drizzle, but by the time we got to the colliseum we were getting wet. our feet were wet, our pants were getting increasingly wet...rising up to our knees. but it was the colliseum! so we were happy. we paid 8 extra euros to get a tour guide which served for the forum too, so it was very nice. we got our fill of roman tidbits! hehe. and then afterwards, we went to the forum to get our tour..and by that time it started downpouring. like ridiculous amounts of rain, to the point that most people ditched the second tour and just went for cover somewhere. but we perservered! because we knew we were in rome for only 2 days, and when in rome...hehe. so we got our forum tour in torrential rain, but it was fun. we had a nice british tour guide lady who was very cute and funny. by the end of the tour it had decreased to a drizzle again, and this made us pleased because our shoes had become lakes. we popped into a cafe to warm up and dry off, and there i had my official italian rip-off, a coffee the size of a shot glass for 3.50 euros!! but it was good. and now i can say i´ve had italian coffee in italy.
we decided to take the bus home because rome only has 2 metro lines due to the inability to go underground with so many archaeological treasures, but considering we knew nothing about the bus systems and don´t speak the language, this proved a tad difficult. we finally found a busstop and asked someone which bus to take, but then when we tried to buy tickets the machine just ate amy´s 5 euro bill and the rest of us didn´t go near it...we told the bus driver we couldn´t buy tickets and he just told us to get on. that´s when we realized it´s really easy to just ride the roman buses without paying :-O so...we did. that night we went out to dinner at a cute little place, it wasn´t quaint, but it was really tasty. and then we went to an american movie. we saw goodnight, and good luck...or something? the george clooney movie about mccarthyism. it was really good! oh, and we also went to the trevi fountain that day! i forgot. it would´ve been nicer to see it when sunny, but it was still really cool.
the next day we wandered around ,looking for stuff to see in the rain. again. we ended up seeing the spanish steps, the victor emanuel monument, piazza navona, lots of italian stores (because we were sick of walking in the rain), and we ate in this little bakery for lunch and made a friend! the lady there had so much trouble understanding our orders, that at the end she just kept giving us free food. and then we kept ordering cuz we were like hey this is free! and if not free, very discounted! and it was extremely yummy except for this weird thing we bought that looked like brown sugar, but ended up being chestnuts that tasted like smoked salmon. it was really foul, but we pretended to eat it anyway because she was so nice to have given it to us for free! then we threw it away...hehe
that day kind of flew by somehow without us seeing too much touristy stuff, or maybe i´m just forgetting. but we had a very long dinner at this cute pizzeria and then got delicious gelato nearby. mmm....banana and chocolate/hazelnut...
amy and tim left early the next morning because they had an earlier flight, but me and alex stayed longer and got to enjoy the one sunny day in rome! yay! we had to leave rome by 5 pm to catch our bus to campineon (or however you write that airport) so we didn´t have too much time...but we went to a flea market which was crazy. and then from there we tried to find our way back to the hostel by walking, which of course led us to lots of neat little piazzas and cute restaurants and little street venders. it was neat. and then we walked up this monster hill to stumble upon a beautiful fountain! and from there we could see all of rome (well, not st peters because that was too far left) but we could see the colliseum, victor emmanuel, etc. it was awesome! then we went downhill to find our hostel and walked through st peters courtyard one more time.
we had 30 minutes to kill by the time we got to our bus station, so we ran over to the santa maria della vittoria church where bernini´s ecstasy of st theresa is held. it is such a beautiful church and a beautiful statue, it was so worth our last minute rush! and then we went home...
i got back to my apartment around 11:40 pm on sunday night, and had to get up at 9 for my 10 am class the next morning.. grrr..rome is better than class!!
but my lit class changed classrooms so now it´s not echoey anymore!! except now we´re closer to construction so there will be the occasional roar of saws and stuff...great. way to go UB. but i went up to her after class to ask about when i could meet with her to discuss stuff i´m not understanding (a fair bit), and she told me very specifically what i have to read (haha like entire books) and that i should compile a list of questions and ask her next monday because we don´t have class this wedensday! yay for spanish holidays! so i have a TON to read. but it´s ok, because atleast now i know what i have to do and that makes me feel better.
well i believe that´s about all...
i wish i could remember more of what i do during the days! hehe...sorry.
talk to you all soon,
love,
sar
we left for italy at 10 pm on thursday night, after all my classes. i actually had to leave hebrew early so i could make it to the bus station by 7:30, the bus left at 8 for girona, and then the plane left at 10 from girona. we arrived not in rome, but in the campineon (sp?) airport, and then had to take a taxi to our hostel, which is a 5 minute walk from the vatican! we were so tired by the time we got there that we basically got ready for bed and went to sleep. but the hostel was really nice! we had our own room for 4 people and our own sink and shower. the toilet we had to share with the rest of the floor, which was fine. the people who worked there were very friendly though!
so we woke up at 8 am the next morning, and were out the door by 9 (parents you would be oh so proud) and went straight to st. peters. i love that place. it is so amazing, even though i´ve seen it twice now, i don´t think it ever gets old! (by the way, i posted all the italy pictures already so you can see where we went as well as reading it here). after st peters we waited in an immense line to get into the vatican museum. there was a cute little market next door to the line, so we took turns peeking into the market. they had really yummy dried fruit, every kind of fruit you could imagine, it was kind of weird. dried kiwi!
the vatican museum, of course, was also amazing. who could say otherwise when you´re staring at michelangelo, rafael, etc...wow. i got to see my favorite painting again, rafael´s school of athens! yahoo! i just stared at it for a while, wishing i could take it with me. así es la vida, no? and thes sistine chapel, also amazing. but it makes my neck hurt to look at it because you´re just staring up..and up..:)
after that we went to the colliseum, and by the way, it had started to RAIN. at st peters there was a little drizzle, but by the time we got to the colliseum we were getting wet. our feet were wet, our pants were getting increasingly wet...rising up to our knees. but it was the colliseum! so we were happy. we paid 8 extra euros to get a tour guide which served for the forum too, so it was very nice. we got our fill of roman tidbits! hehe. and then afterwards, we went to the forum to get our tour..and by that time it started downpouring. like ridiculous amounts of rain, to the point that most people ditched the second tour and just went for cover somewhere. but we perservered! because we knew we were in rome for only 2 days, and when in rome...hehe. so we got our forum tour in torrential rain, but it was fun. we had a nice british tour guide lady who was very cute and funny. by the end of the tour it had decreased to a drizzle again, and this made us pleased because our shoes had become lakes. we popped into a cafe to warm up and dry off, and there i had my official italian rip-off, a coffee the size of a shot glass for 3.50 euros!! but it was good. and now i can say i´ve had italian coffee in italy.
we decided to take the bus home because rome only has 2 metro lines due to the inability to go underground with so many archaeological treasures, but considering we knew nothing about the bus systems and don´t speak the language, this proved a tad difficult. we finally found a busstop and asked someone which bus to take, but then when we tried to buy tickets the machine just ate amy´s 5 euro bill and the rest of us didn´t go near it...we told the bus driver we couldn´t buy tickets and he just told us to get on. that´s when we realized it´s really easy to just ride the roman buses without paying :-O so...we did. that night we went out to dinner at a cute little place, it wasn´t quaint, but it was really tasty. and then we went to an american movie. we saw goodnight, and good luck...or something? the george clooney movie about mccarthyism. it was really good! oh, and we also went to the trevi fountain that day! i forgot. it would´ve been nicer to see it when sunny, but it was still really cool.
the next day we wandered around ,looking for stuff to see in the rain. again. we ended up seeing the spanish steps, the victor emanuel monument, piazza navona, lots of italian stores (because we were sick of walking in the rain), and we ate in this little bakery for lunch and made a friend! the lady there had so much trouble understanding our orders, that at the end she just kept giving us free food. and then we kept ordering cuz we were like hey this is free! and if not free, very discounted! and it was extremely yummy except for this weird thing we bought that looked like brown sugar, but ended up being chestnuts that tasted like smoked salmon. it was really foul, but we pretended to eat it anyway because she was so nice to have given it to us for free! then we threw it away...hehe
that day kind of flew by somehow without us seeing too much touristy stuff, or maybe i´m just forgetting. but we had a very long dinner at this cute pizzeria and then got delicious gelato nearby. mmm....banana and chocolate/hazelnut...
amy and tim left early the next morning because they had an earlier flight, but me and alex stayed longer and got to enjoy the one sunny day in rome! yay! we had to leave rome by 5 pm to catch our bus to campineon (or however you write that airport) so we didn´t have too much time...but we went to a flea market which was crazy. and then from there we tried to find our way back to the hostel by walking, which of course led us to lots of neat little piazzas and cute restaurants and little street venders. it was neat. and then we walked up this monster hill to stumble upon a beautiful fountain! and from there we could see all of rome (well, not st peters because that was too far left) but we could see the colliseum, victor emmanuel, etc. it was awesome! then we went downhill to find our hostel and walked through st peters courtyard one more time.
we had 30 minutes to kill by the time we got to our bus station, so we ran over to the santa maria della vittoria church where bernini´s ecstasy of st theresa is held. it is such a beautiful church and a beautiful statue, it was so worth our last minute rush! and then we went home...
i got back to my apartment around 11:40 pm on sunday night, and had to get up at 9 for my 10 am class the next morning.. grrr..rome is better than class!!
but my lit class changed classrooms so now it´s not echoey anymore!! except now we´re closer to construction so there will be the occasional roar of saws and stuff...great. way to go UB. but i went up to her after class to ask about when i could meet with her to discuss stuff i´m not understanding (a fair bit), and she told me very specifically what i have to read (haha like entire books) and that i should compile a list of questions and ask her next monday because we don´t have class this wedensday! yay for spanish holidays! so i have a TON to read. but it´s ok, because atleast now i know what i have to do and that makes me feel better.
well i believe that´s about all...
i wish i could remember more of what i do during the days! hehe...sorry.
talk to you all soon,
love,
sar
posted by Sar @ 3:13 AM
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