Florence: City of Rain

So, we were in Florence for 3 days, and it rained how many days? Oh, that's right, all of them. However, we still had a good time. These pics are of the Duomo, which is a really big church in Florence. Then we have a pic of us eating a dinner we bought from the supermarket in our awesome hostal. Also, we hiked up this big park to see a monastery where monks supposedly chanted every evening around 5:30. It turns out they actually have Mass. But we did get some awesome arial views of the city. The pic from far away is one of these views, complete with Ponte Vecchio Bridge. Then we have a rainy pic of the shops on this bridge. It's all ridiculously expensive jewelry. I'm talking RIDICULOUS! Finally, we captured our Vivoli's experience. Vivoli's is a gelato shop that Uncle Steve and Aunt Nancy (along w/ many travel books) highly recommended. 'Twas delicious!

This One's for You, Miss Fording

So, in the Vatican Museum there's the room of the animals. Basically just imagine all of these mythical creatures in statue form. This camel head was pretty huge, and just looks so happily content. It made me grin and think of you, Natlie.

New Friends (Alaskan Style)

So, our hostal choice in Rome was great. It was called Alessandro Downtown. The room we stayed in was a mixed-sex room with 8 beds. We met the Polish girls the first 2 nights. Then the last 2 nights we met these 2 crazy kids: Chris and Brian. They're from Alaska, and they took a semester off school to travel the world. They started in China, then Egypt, India, Europe, then they'll finish in the Bahamas and the States. Totally jealous! But we hung out with them all day at the Colosseum and then that night. As you can see from the picture, we played a very classy game of speed quarters with 3 euro boxed wine. As it turns out, I was not exactly on my A-game that night, so I drank a little more than the rest. Anyway, after that we decided to wander the streets of Rome until we found Campo di Fiori (the night spot of Rome, along with the Spanish Steps). Chris (the blond one w/out the hat) brought his iPod, so he and I each had an earpiece. Drunk iPod singing through the deserted streets of Rome is what ensued next. Our 2 favorite songs that night to belt out were none other than Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" and JoJo's "Get Out." Classy and trashy. I love it. Also, we rocked out to some hard-core Brian McKnight. Hilarious. Good times had by all.

POPE TIME

I learned that on Sunday the pope comes to his window and blesses everyone that's in St. Peter's Square, so I had to go. I ended up going to 10:30 mass in St. Peter's Basilica, then frolicked out to the square to get some quality 1-on-20,000 time with Pope Benedict. He said the blessing in about 6 different languages, and was fairly fluent at all of them. I was impressed. (And DEpressed b/c I'm still just trying to master Spanish. Whatever Bene.) Anyway, I wasn't told until afterwards that apparently everything you have with you is blessed by the pope, too. Man, I seriously missed out on a great souvenir opportunity. I mean, seriously, I could have bought a pencil and given it to someone as a souvenir b/c it would have been blessed by the pope. Luckily I had lots of receipts in my purse, so I don't want anyone to be surprised when they get a receipt as a souvenir...

GOD TIME: St. Pete's and Vatican City

On Saturday we spent the whole day at Vatican City. There is a ridiculous amount of stuff to see here. These are just some of the pics I took. The picture of me is at the back entrance of St. Peter's Basilica looking up the nave toward everything. The huge altar with the 4 pillars is the altar where only the pope can say mass. The picture of the statue is Michelangelo's original "Pieta," where Mary is holding the dead body of Jesus. Then we have a picture of the back altar of the Basilica. All of the golden rays coming out are very breath-taking in person. The picture doesn't do it justice, but there is a dove in the middle of the rays, and the wing-span of the dove is 6 feet! (Yes, friends, my impressive wingspan doesn't even compare.) Oh, and I almost forgot! We went under St. Peter's Basilica where alot of the popes are buried, and I was able to see the tomb of John Paul II. It was a very moving experience, and there were lots of people there praying. Sadly, no pictures could be taken. (I thought about sneaking one without a flash, but I didn't want to the take the chance of being haunted by a dead pope.)

Wait, wait! Is.......that.........RUSSELL CROWE?!?!?!

Ok, who doesn't think of Russell Crowe's "Gladiator" when they see the Colosseum? Wait, is that just me? Whoops. Well, here's the Colosseum. It was really impressive, and it's so amazing that you can just walk up to this part of history and touch it without someone coming up and tackling you. Oh, and I learned that apparently it used to be completely covered in marble, but the city of Rome takes recycling to a whole new level. Apparently they like taking materials from older buildings to make new ones. Soooooo, guess where all the marble from the Colloseum went..........................to God. Yeah, most of it was used to build St. Peter's Basilica. (If any of this info is wrong I have about 12 people that I can blame.) But seriously, who doesn't look at these pictures without hearing the crowd chant "MAXIMUS! MAXIMUS!!!!"? :o)

Roman Forum: Circus Maximus, Paletine Hill, and Me and Leah Hanging out on Roman Ruins

So, the Roman Forum was one of the coolest places that we visited in Rome because this was where all the hubub went down back in the day. Paletine Hill has lots of ruins, as you can see from the picture. The picture that looks like just a grassy hill with trees and a road down the middle of it is Circus Maximus. This is where things such as the big chariot races took place. Finally, Leah and I decided to make ourselves comfortable on irreplacible pieces of history. (Wowed by my "knowledge" of the Roman Forum? Yeah, me neither. We didn't want to pay for a tour guide, so we offered to take a picture for a group of students and their tour guide. We decided that to repay us for kindly taking their picture they would have to let us tag along and listen to their guide. We couldn't be too obvious, so we hung back a little bit at first and missed some of what the guide was saying. Then we just decided, WHO ARE WE KIDDING? They know we're mooching off of them, so let's just be shameless about it. Well, by the time we decided this, the tour was over. Waah-Waaah [said in Debbie Downer voice] ).

Polish girls, Spanish steps, Polish vodka, and Crazy Eye-Popping Man

Well, for our accomodations in Rome, we stayed in a hostal called Alessandro Downtown. We stayed in a co-ed room with 8 beds because it was the cheapest. That was one of the best decisions yet because we met some of the most fun people in our room. 2 girls that were in our room for the first couple of nights were from Poland. Their names were Joanna and Marta. Well, the second night we all walked to the Spanish Steps together. I'm not sure of the architectual or historical significance of the steps, but they are a hoot and a half at night. They are filled with drunk people that bring their guitars and just relax and happily sing drunk songs together. Well, Joanna and Marta were hilarious and sharing their quality Polish vodka with me. Oh, and they were telling us about how much European students cheat and how surprised they are about how honest Americans are in school. (And they have some pretty impressive and inventive methods). Oh, and they taught me cuss words in Polish because they thought it was hilarious.

Oh, and how can I forget about crazy-eyes. This guy was slightly under the influence of his beverage of choice, and he can pretty much make his eyes pop out of his head. He loved doing it around crowds because people were "fascinated." (By fascinated I mean creeped out. PotAto, potOto.) The night wouldn't have been complete without a picture with him.

Oh, and on our way home we had to use the bathroom, so we went into a McDonald's (ignoring the fact that the iron gate was halfway closed........does that mean it's closed for the night?). So, they wouldn't let us use the bathroom b/c apparently it had already been cleaned, buuuuuuuuuut they gave us free croissants instead! Ronald (McDonald) would have been pleased....

Night 1: Trevi Fountain & the Pantheon

So, our first night we decided to go exploring around the streets of Rome. The great thing about this city is that everywhere you turn you run into some huge historical masterpiece. Leah, Rebecca, and I found the Trevi Fountain and randomly ran into some other SLUers there. Trevi was beautiful at night, and I threw a coin in it (backwards, of course, like any good italian (or tourist) would do). I couldn't help but think of Sinatra's song "Three Coins in the Fountain." I don't even know if that song is about Trevi, but in my head it is. So, after Trevi, we got gelato (our first in Italy, and it was delicious), and wandered down some more streets. What did we stumble upon next? The Pantheon. It was closed for the night, but still impressive from the outside. :o)

ITALIA!!!

So, here begins my pictures and stories from Spring Break 2007: Italia. This is my first spring break where I've done something other than go back to D-town to work, so I was basking in this opportunity. We started our trip on May 2 in Rome, then contiuned onto Florence, Venice, and finally Milan. Italy is absolutely incredible, and hopefully you'll get an idea of my time here from these pictures. :o)