Pippo the eyeless dog

I am not completely sure about the spelling actually because that word hasn't existed in my vocabulary until now. I really love Pippo and he has provided us with conversation pieces or distractions from the awkward silences at dinner. Everyone in Italy has a dog and this breed is very popular. Once again not an area of expertise and I have no idea what it is. The the dog situation here is quite funny because they have very few breeds. People either have a small wiener dog or a huge horse sized dog, weird. I guess they substitute children for a pet. My family also has a cat but lets be honest nobody cares about it and they usually just say the cat instead of its name. I don't really care for it especially when it sleeps on my luggage under my bed and scares me. Funny story, the other day at dinner we got a good laugh because Pippo was eating the cat food again because he gets confused and doesn't know which is his haha poor dog. Oh how I love Pippo. But really I know you are a little shocked seeing this picture. It is kind of creepy but still a very cute dog! Side note: Those shoes you see in that picture would be my 10 euro purchase from the market.

The Church is true

I absolutely love my ward in Italy and I have really enjoyed the time I have spent going to church. Today was no exception. What few members they have try really hard to accommodate us which I feel bad about. They want us to understand the lesson so that we can participate. The members are awesome people though. Sacrament meeting was probably the most tender thing I have seen in quite a while. We were lucky enough to see the primary program for the year. I really enjoyed hearing the primary kids singing during Sunday school but now I got the actual performance. There was a total of 6 primary children and that included Peter our director’s two kids. We heard beautiful musical numbers such as I am a Child of God, I Love to see the Temple, We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet, and one song I did not recognize. But those 6 kids sang their little hearts out. Peter’s kid Jacob and Eve participated as well and gave scriptures or little one line sentences. Their Italian and accents sounded much better than all of us. The other little kids gave mini talks. It's funny kids are the same no matter where you go. We had the little girl who would fix the microphone like a hundred times and putting it right by her mouth. One child sang really really loudly but that’s definitely a good thing with so few people. My favorite was the chubby little boy in a vest that talked with a lisp. Awww seriously it was the most tender thing and I had the biggest grin on my face. I love the little Italian primary children. At the end of sacrament the Primary children stood and we all sang Called to Serve. I wish that it was appropriate to take pictures in church because I wanted so badly to capture this moment in time.

Good news and an answer to prayer! I am happy to report that all sessions of conference will be broadcast from our little church in Siena. It is going to be a marathon weekend for sure. Sunday night we will be able to stay and watch the Sunday afternoon session from 10 to 12 at night. I am happy beyond words that it all worked out and that we get to watch it in English. But I am very sad that I will not be in attendance at the Conference Center. Good thing the spirit is the same no matter where you are. Those of you privileged enough to go I am very excited for you and I can’t wait to hear what you all have to say when its over. Don’t worry Nicole I still intend to have our usual 10 hour conference chat, notes and all as soon as we find the time.

Another favorite Sabbath activity would be to go sing with the Elders in the Campo. Well the road in front of the campo. Usually 6 to 8 girls show up and it is quite fun. I know you are all thinking wait...Autumn you can't sing. Before you become embarrassed for me I am more of a body than a voice. The singing in Italian is helping with my pronunciations or so I hope. One of my favorite hymns is There is Sunshine In My Soul Today. It is like a tongue twisters saying all the c's and ch's in the chorus. Sometimes we throw in an english verse with I am a Child of God. This past time we attempted the Sisters in Zion/Army of Helaman melody but... it didn't go over so well. Moral of the story singing in the Campo is fun.

Charmed in Cortona

(View from the top of Cortona with the Tuscan hills in the background)

We had a free Saturday so we made the most of it by going to visit some more beautiful Tuscan towns. It was Anna, Emily, Shannon, and I who ventured out into the countryside to be wowed (refer to picture below for facial reference). The first stop on the trip was taking a bus to Arezzo. Not my favorite mode of transportation but it works. We don't really have set plans when we go to the cities because we find that just by walking around and consulting Rick Steve's it provides a fulfilling experience. We walked the streets and found the Grande Piazza. This is where Life is Beautiful was filmed. I would question their use of grande in the name of this piazza considering it's pretty small size. We always have to walk around the local Cathedral and wandered through to this library. We realized that they had free internet in the library so we had Emily sign up to do it which was not an easy process actually. But the whole reason behind spending our time in Arezza on the internet was to buy plane tickets to PARIS!!!!! Emily had found 50 euro tickets (including tax) to and from Paris on the weekend that we wanted. We decided not to wait any longer and to buy them immediately. Me and Em bought ours first with it being a grand total of 68 euros flying out Wednesday night October 15th and coming back Saturday night October 18th! We are also following Kennedy Center rules and back for church on Sunday. It was too bad when Shannon and Anna bought their tickets the 60 euro tickets were gone and they had to pay about 100 euros. But hey we are going to Paris and it is going to be great. Since purchasing took longer than expected we then had to quickly see the sights of Arezzo. We walked through this park and climbed a tree. We visited this Fortress of the Medici that was covered in I love you graffiti. The views were amazing and enjoyed our quick stay in Arezzo.

Then we took a train to Cortona. This city is up on the side of a mountain and had to take a bus ride. I didn't know this and I was saying how we should just walk haha yeah right. Now this town is BEAUTIFUL!!! I thought Siena had steep hills but this place had significantly steeper roads. It felt like we were walking up a 90 degree angle. This is where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed so maybe some of you have an idea of what it looks like. Personally I have never seen it. Of course we visited a small Cathedral then started our own little walking tour. It lead us through people's yard's and these trails/walking paths. We found a new way to get up to the basilica of St. Margherita that is on the top of the mountain. Don't worry they had her actual old body on display for a reliquiry. The views of the entire valley were life changing though. It was love at first sight for me! I will definitely be returning to this charming little city someday with a male of whom I am married too. I want to (and will) move to Cortona and live in a cute house covered in flowers haha. I wished that we would have had more time there but we had to be back for dinner since we didn't tell anyone we wouldn't be back for dinner. This time we wanted to avoid the bus so we figured out a train route to get us home. While riding the train we happened upon some terrible smells that should never be encountered by the human nose. The train system is no problem but Siena's local bus systems gave us problems. With that fiasco over I was home an hour later than intended and mad we did not have more time in Cortona. It was an absolutely wonderful day of traveling and I love Tuscany even more.

Once again the Mormon community is very small

Friday afternoon we are strolling about the town when we discover this huge chess tournament. They had this larger than life size board in the middle with intense matches going on and then a whole bunch of chess boards set up on the side. While standing around watching we ran into this group of guys who just happen to be Mormon BYU graduates haha. I find it hilarious how this small traveling band of gentleman that were in Siena for the afternoon found the few Mormons that are actually in the city. Friday nights in Siena for Mormons usually consist of eating gelato and hanging out. We invited the guys if they were still around later to join us. Surprise surprise we all met back in the campo later that night. I think I had one of my most typical BYU nights not even in Provo. The suggestion to play Sardines in the Campo was thrown out so we all agreed. We played a few rounds and I did lose once which required me and the other loser to go hide. The initial spot was standing behind a wall by the stairs but changed quickly. It ended with some of the group standing inside a bancomat acting as mannequins yeah...haha. This was intended to be in an obvious spot where we could easily be seen but this tactic proved unsuccessful. See what I mean about typical BYU activity even in Siena Italy haha. I honestly can't even remember the last time I played night games. But it was probably much better than what we would have done otherwise. We even had a small group from a contrada parading around and singing oddly enough. That stuff is always entertaining. It was a random day from chess tournaments to night games in the Campo.

Public Humiliation 101

Also known as Drawing 101. As we all know I cannot draw. This is nothing new or shocking. Our next assignment was to draw an object in the Cathedral museum but only using shading. I was already stressed out about the whole thing but it only got worse when I got there. I decided to do this angel wing which was a bad choice. You aren't suppose to draw using lines and I had no idea how to go about it otherwise. I had to draw more of the wings than actually shade them which is completely wrong. Did I mention that I hate drawing!! I drew it out of proportion so everything was a little off and I had to shade more of the body than I intended. The worse part is that people kept walking by and of course have to take a look at the masterpieces the intense "art students" are creating. They are all are a little shocked when they see what crap I am attempting to draw. I thought the blind contours were bad but technically this is more embarrassing considering I am actually looking at my paper and it is supposed to be representational. I basically feel like a complete idiot drawing in public where people can see what I am doing haha. I guess it's all part of the experience I guess. I hope future assignments don't cause me this much stress. Sorry no pictures to capture the awkwardness of this event thank goodness. One last note do not expect any postings of my art (if you could call it that) just FYI. I have already suffered enough humiliation from strangers let alone people I will see on a regular basis.

Yay or Nay on the skinny jeans

Recently I purchased my first pair of skinny jeans. I for so long was very anti skinny jeans. I thought they looked good on others but definitely not on myself. Well its a sad thing to admit but I fell to peer pressure. I move to Italy where all the Italians wear them and most of the girls in my program wear them. I thought they all look really good why not just try it out. Well Cailey found this store that had a cute pair for super cheap. It is cheaper then anything I could find in the states. I decided to test it to out and see if they look good on me. I must say I do rather enjoy them but I doubt I would buy another pair. The wash on the front isn't my favorite but hey I paid 20 euros. So look past the wash and focus on the style. But I would love to hear your opinion and see what you think. I am surrounded by very honest and blunt people so I trust you guys are going to tell me the truth.

Finocchi???

The other night for dinner Fiorella brings out this dish and we heard her say lasagna. We were beyond excited because she had made the most delectable lasagna a previous evening. But then she informs us that its finocchi lasagna. Me and Karli had a run in with finocchi earlier in our stay but were unsure as to what it was. We figured it was an onion because of the texture and didn't know the Italian word for onion. Well Neloufay (that is the Swiss woman who is living there as well and that is a complete guess at her name) had no idea what it was either. After further discussions with Fiorella we are even more clueless as to what this mystery vegetable is. We determined that you cannot possibly buy this item in the states. She brought it in to show us but it looked completely foreign. By appearance it resembles an onion slash the bottom part of celery on steroids. Talking with Cailey the next day this mystery food apparently does have a name in English and can be found within the good old US of A. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name. I am sure of one thing though that when I leave Italy I will never see another finocchi for the rest of my life.

Lies all lies

Since my time in Italy something has been brought to my attention or in this case my lack of attention. All girls before arriving to the country receive a stern warning of forward Italian men and to watch out. Then after the warning people look at me and say especially you because of that blonde hair. Well, either I am the ugliest person walking around Siena or Italy for that matter OR the forward Italian men thing is all a lie. Now I do realize 1) I am a foreigner 2) I look like I don't belong 3) wear a lame backpack everywhere and 4) lack designer clothing but still. For how much everyone was telling me to be careful I am a little disappointed. Ciao bella is directed my way on a rare occasion. I even smile at everyone as I walk by and day after day I get unresponsive or looks of disgust. This has led me to my conclusion of my complete and utter ugliness and that people have exaggerated about the flirty local men. Its definitely a combination of both. But I do think people need to calm down the talk of overly forward Italian men because its just not true. The end.

Firenzied

Peter took the drawing class to Firenze for the day. It was a whirlwind of art, architecture, and a little romance. I l-o-v-e Florence. Peter showed us around the city to get us oriented. But I felt well oriented considering the fact I was here oh about two months ago. I did my presentation on the Duomo which I think went swimmingly. We went through the Uffizi with Peter so it was fun to hear his perspective on the art. We also got these awesome art passes that get us into all the great museums in Florence and we get to skip all lines. I was more than happy to see Botticelli's Birth of the Venus and Primavera again. On the Ponte Vecchio we admired all the gold and sparkly jewelry. I ate this glorious concoction of a warm waffle, nutella spread, and a scoop of stracciatella gelato. I was able to impress these English men with my knowledge of the Duomo and the Gates of Paradise haha if only they knew I did a presentation on it earlier. This time around I got to see The David by Michelangelo which was a highlight. Cailey found the location of this great store called Promod which all of us ended up buying something haha. I splurged and bought this very cute fitted blazer and another shirt on sale. I found myself once again running through the streets of Florence to meet up with the group to leave. Another monumental event of the day was Cailey showed me this unnamed store in Siena where I bought my first pair of skinny jeans!! I never thought I would do it but I must say they are cute. Let the shopping begin...now that I have started it won't stop scary!

Smitten by Lucca

Cailey, Emily, Anna, and I all too a quick weekend trip to Pisa and this beautiful medieval town called Lucca. The transportation aspect seemed inefficient but it was tons of fun. We did Pisa on Friday morning and were rained on the entire time. We tried to make the best of it but it was pretty miserable. Pisa didn't take long then we took a train to Lucca which at first wasn't so charming with all the rain. We got protection by visiting churches and museums. We saw old Roman ruins under this church. We visited this statue nicknamed "Sleeping Beauty" for the woman's high fashion and gorgeous looks. We were told that lonely women would rub her nose in hopes of getting a boyfriend. We were sad to find the statue with a rail around it prohibiting us from receiving her good luck charm. I guess we will just have to remain in our very single and lonely state. Next stop on the tour was a Cathedral museum where we saw the most beautiful gold jewelry all encrusted with diamond and other stones. By this point the rain stopped and our love of Lucca set in. This town is beautiful and we spent the evening walking around and shopping. Our hotel was surprisingly very nice although we were stowed away in this basement of a hotel. We appropriate nicknamed it the "cave". I was the lucky soul who got the couch bed with a huge rod in the middle of my back. I had to switch sides every thirty minutes or my body would ache haha. Oh and my Rainbow's stained my feet brown since I basically stood in water all day, lovely.
Saturday we got up early and walked the wall of the city. Lucca is known for its huge wall that completely surrounds the city. Lucca is beautiful and green. The walk around the wall was our favorite part because we got to see everything. We commented how we are going to some of the most romantic places but yet we experience them with only females haha. Maybe somebody a male can be involved in my Italian adventures. Another highlight of the morning was the antique market that just happened to be on the Saturday we visit. Everybody walked away with some gems. It was interesting to see how everything looked like something grandma Hess owned or would own. I bought a cute long necklace. I ate the best pastry which Italy is known for obviously but seriously life changing pastries. The rest of our time was spent walking around being charmed by Lucca or sitting on the wall enjoying the view. The trek home wasn't so fabulous because bus travel is not my favorite. The train aspect isn't so bad. But the weekend was great and it was fun to get away for a while. Disclaimer: we all look like crap especially me from being rained all day and my amazing mattress.

My family

This is my host family Fiorella and Giuseppe. Giuseppe was especially unenthusiastic about the photo. Clearly they both were in mid smile or complain haha. Frederique their daughter is missing. She has been M.I.A. for the past week and a half. I am not sure where she is always running off to. I have missed seeing her in the pink outfit that says Summer together spending your time (haha). Also Pepo the eyeless dog is not present in the picture. Apparently Pepo got in an accident where his eyed bugged out of his head so they just got rid of them. He is a cute dog but I am not going to lie the whole no eyes thing is pretty freaky. But I love my family they are so awesome. Fiorella is a great cook and I eat great meal every night. Giuseppe has his own shop refurnishing and building wood objects. Fiorella works there as well doing office things I am sure. Frederique is some sort of janitor cleaning up their shop and other places of business. I have gathered that she might have a boyfriend but it is unclear at this moment.

V.I.P. Contrada Business

On Wednesday we had a special lecture about the Palio and the different contrada's of Siena. We then had the lovely opportunity to go to one of the contrada museums. I should probably give a little background info on the Palio. Siena is divided up into neighborhoods. Every summer the different neighbors (if they make it past the selection process) send a jockey to compete. They hold a bareback horse race in the Il Campo basically for bragging rights for the next year. This is quite the intense competition and the Sienese are quite passionate about this. After getting the inside scoop from Luca we were able to visit the Contrada Museum of the Jaguar (each neighborhood is assignmed an animal or object like Jaguar, tower, or unicorn). The great part about it is the contrada museums are not open to the public even other Italians are not allowed to visit. This has been going on for hundreds of years so we saw their various "costumes" that they have worn over the years. We felt pretty special getting the V.I.P status. I think I am going to claim the Jaguar contrada because they won in my birth year (its a sign).

Waterlogged

Our first official weekend in Siena and we get rained on. Not only have we been sloshing through the cobbbled streets but its freezing. Friday morning I was dying of heat exhaustion. By the late afternoon it rained and has never recovered since. None of us are ready for the cold considering we packed mostly summer clothing and we are on a limited supply of that. We tried to make the most of our Saturday window shopping and being about the town. These cannoli at one of our favorite gelato stores Koppa Kabana had been calling my name forever. I passed on the gelato and ate the most delicious coconut Connolo, yum!! I hope it warms back up but I won't be holding my breath.

Birthday Boar

Emily referred to her guide book to point us in the direction of a good restaurant. Cailey, Emily, Sharly, and I decided on this Trattoria just down the street from the Campo. It was almost 8 o’clock and not a single person was in the restaurant until these undetermined foreigners joined us. It also was a rainy day so there wasn’t a lot of people out anyways. This little dinner celebration was half for my birthday and half for our first Friday in Siena. Me and Emily shared a meat and pasta dish so that we could get both. We decided to be brave and try a typical Sienese dish which was stewed boar meat! So I had birthday boar this year haha. It proved to be a great choice and I would recommend it to anyone because it tastes just like pot roast. Cailey seems to think it looked like cat food so it isn't the most aestically pleasing food. The gnocchi was good but a little too cheesy for me. Dinner was fun!!

Birthday boar!!

Afterwards all the girls were meeting up in the Campo so we could hang out and get gelato. Well things took a turn for the worse and started to rain. I rather enjoyed the thunder and lightning. We headed for cover in this tunnel and had this drunk Italian men singing to us. It was quite entertaining. Since it was my birthday gelato I went all out getting the three flavors with the yummy chocolate and nuts cone. I somehow ended up with all white flavors coconut, fior di panna (vanilla), and stracciatella. Emily joined in on the splurge purchase and we both enjoyed our HUGE gelato cones. We even took a video of the proper way to eat the massive amounts of gelato. Afterwards we just stood around in the rain under our umbrellas chatting away as usual. The birthday festivities were fun and we had a memorable first Friday in Siena thanks to the rain.

Dove Essedi?

Today's agenda was a walking adventure outside the city center to find this random computer store. I knew the first part of the way so I headed to the church which is just outside the city walls. At this point I bring out the map to make sure I am on the right street Giuseppe Mazzini. I make it to the train station ok without much consultation of the map. But I get thrown off past the bus station because the map didn’t seem to really reflect this round about and the various road choices. Well I went with left side and that seemed to a correct choice. The map situash got a little tricky after the bus stop. I encountered this other roundabout that was clearly not on either map so once again I guessed to go a certain way. I am starting to climb this huge hill and I am so hot at this point and out of breath. But seriously can I get a freaking correct road sign or a more detailed map that correctly displays all roads how they actually look. The universal language of pointing came in handy. I wanted to make sure I was at least headed in the correct direction. I stopped the first gentleman and he was somewhat helpful. I asked the next person I saw to basically reinforce what that guy kind of told me. I didn’t have time to be aimlessly walking around. It was already taking me longer than expected. This guy was much more helpful and pointing me in the correct direction. Still this road I was on was not marked and actually had other signs indicating the road was something else. I finally made it to the top. Then all the sudden the sign I had been looking for was right there Via Achille Sclavo after the entire hill had never once said that. Then I saw the road Florentina which the store was on this road so I got happy. I started traveling up Florentina and I pass this other weird intersection and it kind of actually corresponds with the map so I was ok pass this intersection and it will up this road on the left. I spot a laptop store but to my shock and horror I see the store is closed. A sign indicated that it will be closed until Saturday. I start freaking out thinking I walked all this way and its closed. But then I realize hey wait this isn’t the store haha so I trek on. I needed Essedi number cinquantanove (59) not Infoteca number diciassette (17). I had a freak out moment but from the map I should be arriving at it about now. I continue walking down the road well the sidewalk ends and I have this like inch wide space right on the road to walk in so it was pretty sketch. I see this lady so I greet her and ask Dove Essedi? I point on the map my final destination. I try to explain to her that it was a computer store. Apparently I looked like a tired transient person because she seemed to think that I needed food and sleep haha. She was thinking it was back the way I had come from. She wanted to help but did nothing more but give me great panic. I thanked her and she went on her way. I noticed the number across the street was sessanta sei (66) which would indicate that I had passed it already. I figured that the store must have been at this last intersection and I would turn around and go there. Then I see this old man and I once again stop him and ask Dove Essedi? He starts to talk then he kindly grabs my wrist and directs me in my original direction. This man was so kind that he was going to lead me to the store. I was sitting there completely flustered and hot. This nice old man was truly a lifesaver because I was about to turn around and go the wrong way. I wanted to explain in the few Italian sentences that I knew what my name was and that I was studying in Siena. But I let the opportunity pass and I didn’t say anything. We had to pass this sketchy corner. Which by the looks of the map it was suppose to be a straight shot none of this winding around steep mountain cliffs. Anyways he led me right to the store and I thanked him. What a relief it was to see the store and find that it was actually open. Just as the internet guy promised there was a nice gentleman who spoke English and was able to help me. At this point it had taken me almost an hour and a half of walking. I had to be back in Siena for school by 3 and it was almost 1:30. I explained the problem and he said to give him 5 minutes. He came back with the computer in a few minutes with a new chip thing in it. I am not going to lie I really don’t know what it was but it was some sort of memory thing. When I saw the screen working I cannot tell you how happy I was at that moment in time. All my stresses and worries had vanished. I was also happy to find that this little technological glitch only cost me $15 euros. To say the least I was very pleased and grateful that it was fixed. I am grateful to the internet café guy who told of this place, the old guy who took me there, and the nice guy who helped me in the store. At home this would have been no problem but being in Italy really complicated things. So I am so grateful for all these random people who helped me in all my disorientated states haha. But don't worry I got rained on as I trudged through the city center to get to school. I was completely soaked and dead tired from my walk to hell and back. But hey I made it just in time for class.

Definition of beauty

Thursday was early morning class with Peter for Drawing 101. I am already not excited to be taking drawing but what choice do I have. It didn’t help walking into class and Peter had all the tables pushed against the wall with this massive heap of intertwined chairs in the center of the room. First thoughts were crap what have I gotten myself into. Our assignment was to do a negative space drawing where you draw all the shapes around the objects instead of just doing a representational of the object. Surprisingly I enjoyed this assignment I am much better at just drawing random shapes then drawing something that is suppose to look realistic. That is the tangled mess we had to draw. The other picture is Cailey, Emily, me, and Shannon with our homemade drawing boards loving negative space.

Peter goes around to look at our sketch books to check off that we had done all the required drawing thus far. I am absolutely terrible at drawing. I should probably explain what a blind contour drawing is first so that you can understand the hilarious nature of his comment. A blind contour is to exercise the muscles in your line. You are not allowed to look at your paper but intensely stare at an object and follow the lines. You are to draw the object without looking at your paper but just draw what you see. I still do not understand the significance and my eyes do not feel more trained having done all these activities. So Peter is looking at my book and stops at this one blind contour drawing and says, “Oh this is beautiful. Looking at this makes me want to have us just do blind contours the rest of the semester”. What?? Are you kidding me it looks as though you gave a first grader a pencil and a sketch book. Emily sighs beside me because she absolutely despises blind contours. I am laughing because I thinking that is such crap. I just giggle at the thought of mine and Peter’s definition of beauty. Many of you have mentioned that I should post some of my drawings on the blog and I was adamantly opposed to such an idea. However I will make an exception this once and post my picture to really prove my point. I felt it was only appropriate so you could understand the hilarity of this situation as well.

My room

I thought you would want to see pictures of my room. My bed has surprisingly been very comfortable and I love my pillow. Me and Karli are so lucky we have the sink and toilet in our room. The shower head was a little questionable in our bathroom. Don't worry I was sketching a masterpiece at our desk.
Me and my super cute roommate Karli hanging out in the Campo at night

Porca Miseria

For those not familiar with this Italian phase its means pigs misery. I feel that in my case at the moment it is appropriate. I have had my laptop now for two years exactly actually and I have yet to have one problem. I get to Italy and things are great. My computer even works the best with the wireless internet at our school that everyone elses computer has issues with. Then randomly yesterday it was having issues turning on by the end of the night the screen went black and has never recovered since. I spent most of the day running around the city trying to figure out how to fix this technological glitch. I apologize parents for calling you at that insanely early time this morning. I was attempting to call Toshiba and I accidentally called the house. I sincerely apologize. This little message is to say that I will probably be temporarily out of commission for a while without my computer. This is very upsetting considering I use my computer for everything and my school work is pretty computer dependent. I am completely frustrated at the moment and this little technology dabocal makes me very mad. I still love Italy though and I am so glad that I am here. This is just the first trauma of the trip and probably wont be the last. Tomorrow I have the lucky pleasure of going on a walking adventure outside of the city center to find this computer store that supposedly can fix my issue though it will probably cost me some serious euros. Vent sesh over. But seriously I love Italy but I am just trying to get use to living without some of lifes luxuries that are so readily available in the states.

Come stai? First day of classes

I of course had to start the morning off scaring both me and Karli. We have to use Karli’s phone for our alarm clock which is still set on New York time. Anyways the plan was to get up at 8 am to leave for school at 9. Well I am right by the window so I woke up and the sun was brightly shining. It felt so late in the morning and I am of course so worried that we are going to be late so I grab Karli’s phone to check the time it said 1 am which if it was Utah time would mean it was 9 am so I wake up Karli saying its 9 am. She then reminds me that it is set on New York time which would make it 7 am and we still had a whole hour to sleep longer, haha whoops my bad. So we were able to get up at the correct time and make it down to breakfast with only a few minutes until we had to leave. Thankfully for us everyone in the house was already gone for the day. On the table they left us this fruit filled croissant and the ready made toast in a plastic bag haha. We weren’t sure if this would be the only morning we had alone so we decided to seize the opportunity and get the Seinfeld picture of us trying to cut down the heel of a pump haha. Because of our little picture taking we were a few minutes late in leaving for school. On the way out of the door we grabbed a nectarine to share which was a great choice. It was absolutely amazing. As I was eating this luscious fruit I realized that I had never eaten a fresh nectarine in my entire 21 years of living. The peach was better but the nectarine was nothing to be overlooked.We quickly learned that you definitely need no less than thirty minutes to walk to class. We also realized that the walk to campus is completely uphill the entire way. Apparently we live at one end of the city at the bottom of the hills of Siena and the school is located on the whole other side on top of the hill. Aren’t we so lucky. I look at this as a good way to keep the legs toned and in shape and help work off the HUGE dinner meals we have.
First thing at school was orientation. Nothing to important there and because we are from BYU we got to skip the thirty minute lecture on alcohol and drinking haha. He talked mostly of how we are adopting their language and because of that we are adopting their culture and everything else along with it. I was sitting there feeling really pumped to learn Italian and couldn’t wait to start but that feeling didn’t last too long after our first Italian lesson started. We were introduced to all our teachers who seem extremely nice. I am not going to lie our Italian teacher fits the suave stereotype that people have for Italian men and it doesn’t hurt that he dresses very nicely. Directly after orientation we jumped right into our first lesson. In groups we wrote down different Italian words we already knew in various categories like verbs, nouns, food/drink, and people. After that little exercise it didn’t take very long until I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. He just started going off about stare (meaning to stay in English) and essere (meaning to be) with little explanation.

We took this little break and everyone had this hilarious look on their face of complete confusion. After chatting with us clearing a few things up amongst ourselves I understood better. Once I started comparing to what I knew in Spanish I felt even more better about it. Once everything was all said and done I could greet someone in Italian (which technically I already knew) and I could ask how they were and answer that question as well as ask where they live and where they are from. I have this feeling this is not going to be an easy process. Whoever said that once you learn another language they get easier as you go is a complete and total liar. I am getting Spanish and Italian all jumbled in my head because they are so similar. I was glad when Italian was over haha sad to say but it was true for me and everyone else.

We had a break before our orientation walk around the city. Everyone is addicted to their internet so they all pull out their laptops and utilize the schools to computers to check their facebook and e-mail. I lug my computer with me today so I did some drawing and hanging out. Drawing was horrendous and I hate it. But I missed the memo from Peter that informed us we had to do like two hours of drawing or something. So I am scrambling to get some drawing time in. Me and the girls (Cailey and Emily) went out for our usual lunch of stopping by a fruit shop. It is also friendly to the pocket considering thus far food has been the only thing I have spent my money on. That afternoon we took a walking tour about town. We were showed the cafeterias for the university students that we will not be frequenting with lunch with an average cost of 7 euros for a crappy meal. It’s a good way to mingle with the other students to work on our Italian but I will just have to find other methods. Half the time our professore was talking I couldn’t hear her or I was trying to figure it out exactly where we were. She showed us where things like the Laundromat, grocery story, etc. were located. After it was all said and done we headed for the grocery story. Afterwards we walked around and ended up by this gelato place that our professore said was a good place. I figured I needed some gelato therapy for making it through the first day of classes. Today’s choice was dark chocolate (fermate or fermante) and white chocolate (ciocolatte bianco) which was a fabulous idea.

I suggested drawing in the campo so I could knock out my two hours of drawing. I threw on the pod to hopefully make it a little more bearable. A bunch of us were having out drawing. It was a perfect evening and I loved sitting out there. I feel this will be a repeat experience. As we were leaving the piazza we spotted these very American looking people. We were glad to hear English so we stopped to see what they were doing. They were from Vanderbilt doing the exact same thing we were doing. Luca (the director of Dante Alighieri) mentioned that there was 55,000 residents plus 27,000 students. We are clearly one of many universities studying here. The trek home was long. I always feel victory when I leave the city walls thinking we are close but I quickly forget that we are all the way at the end of the road. We always discuss what we think we are going to have for dinner. It’s a curious question always on our brains. We are waiting to get something gross.

We had to put stuff in the fridge and we saw what we assumed was dinner on the counter and the label said Finocchi which just sounds sketchy. So we were worried. As Fiorella came in she was saying what sounded like People so we were laughing thinking she was maybe calling to us. Dinner was around 8 later in the evening as always. Frederique was gone so conversation was more sporadic amongst the Taddei clan. Very spicy sauce on the spaghetti noodles. Me and Karli shared one of those zucchini pods and ate this onion thing which I think is the Finocchi. I ate it and it was fine nothing life changing but sufficient. But I was really excited about the mozzarella!! I was informed to put olive oil, salt, and pepper on top which I do not recommend. I like just the plain mozzarella. I asked them what the name of the dog is and its Pepo. Later that night me and Karli made the connection that when Fiorella came in she was calling Pepo not people or us haha but for the dog which could possibly be blind. Then we had fruit for dessert and I enjoyed a pear. Of course the night would not be complete without an awkward conversation where nobody is understanding each other. We think they were asking about what we ate for lunch while we were at school or trying to tell us they would not have food for us one day. The rest of the night we just chatted and wrote in our journals.

Skype

Ok everyone I want you to download Skype. It is the glorious program that will make things a lot easier and cheaper for us to chat. Apparently if we are both logged into Skype than we can chat via Internet for free! We can figure out a time or something that we can both be on or whatnot. It takes like two second to download and it is fabulous. I am trying to find headphones with a mic on it that isn't outrageously expensive. But its pretty self explanatory so download ASAP!

Buon Compleano?

Apparently it’s my birthday despite everything feeling like it’s not. Definitely not a complaint I just don’t feel that old these days and no singing of happy birthday or cookie cake so it’s all slightly different from what I am use to. It is crazy to think of all that has happened though in the past year, wow! I would never have imagined I would be celebrating the big 2-1 in Italy so this is one for the memory books. I must say my life has been quite the adventure which makes me only excited to see what happens next. Although it could be a let down considering this summer has been well amazingly perfect. As for my birthday I am sad to report that the day was not as glamorous as one would hope. Church starts at 9 but most of us opted to show up for sacrament at 10:50. Guiseppe informed us that breakfast was at 9. Frederique and Fiorella were already gone and I am pretty sure he was waiting around to show us breakfast then he left. I already knew breakfast was small so my expectations were pretty low and I was not disappointed. Italians do not own toasters so they buy toast in a bag haha it is quite hilarious actually. For some reason the slices are of dwarfed proportions and are no bigger than a deck of cards. We ate premade toast with some fruit jam and these little breakfast cookies. I think we were given this drink that would be of the equivalent of Postum. We warmed the water and added this brown matter and it was as gross as it smelled. Sorry mom I just couldn’t do it. I was glad nobody was around so I could just throw it down the drain. Funny story: so they had a pretty modest kitchen that contains the essentials fridge, small sink, and tiny stove. But no worries they have a meat slicer haha. (Seinfeld lovers it is just like the meat slicer from the episode where Elaine tries to shorten her heel of her pump and bends the blade). That contraption seems somewhat fancy in comparison to everything else.

Of course I was running a few minutes late. We had our map in hand from Guiseppe that he highlighted for us with our intended destination. We never got lost we just missed the road that we needed twice. Luckily we were turning around to re-correct our mistake and there was Peter with everyone else. How glad we were to see them and glad to know we would not be missing sacrament. Church was right outside the city walls. We basically walked from one side to the other haha across Siena. This is a very very small branch. I think they had less than ten people total. I have evidence that the Mormon world truly is a small place. I noticed on the stand a familiar face. I knew one of the elders serving in the ward because me and Anziano White went to high school together. How random is that that I know someone in this tiny tiny branch that I am attending while living in a foreign country. An elder was conducting sacrament and it turns out that he is the branch president. I have heard of that happening but wow talk about responsibility. Singing in Italian is still a struggle I can’t seem to remember the difference on how to say the c’s and ch’s but hopefully not too much longer. I was a little worried for fast and testimony meeting with such few people but it turned out to be an awesome meeting.

After church we walked with Peter to find the school. On our way when passing by the Il Campo we ran into a procession of a contrada (neighborhoods, Siena is divided up into different contrada’s). They were all dressed up in their traditional costume. First it was guys playing drums and then guys with flags and that continued what seemed like forever. The young boys were first and the men kept getting older as the line went on. It was so cool to see and I realized how serious all this neighborhood distinction really is. I have been very curious what neighborhood we are apart of and who won the palio this year. Once we finally arrived at the school it wasn’t what I expected. It was a plain old building. I would have though a little bit more going on with the façade but nope. I can’t believe I will be starting classes so soon. I actually can’t wait to start learning Italian. It is so frustrating to be here and lack all communication and having to resort to hand gestures and pointing. Then we were all awkwardly standing around trying to figure out what to do. I suggested go sit in the Il Campo since there was no reason to go home to awkwardly sit around there. After a few minutes everyone decided to walk there. But when we finally got there we were all ahh…what do we do now. At this point we all split up and kind of went our separate ways. I was with the group that wanted to find food. I just tagged along and sat around while everyone ate enjoying the air conditioning which is a rare find.

After walking aimlessly we all decided to go back to our homes. This road by our house I noticed lots of cute little stores with clothing that is actually in my price range. I feel as though I might be doing quite a bit of shopping here which excites me to the core. While walking home we found Lillian and Sydney just sitting on the sidewalk. They mentioned they were waiting for the internet café to open so we stayed and chatted with them. They mentioned that if you pay one euro to some Tabbachi that you could have unlimited internet so I am all for that if we can find where ever that is. We checked out this Valley that is behind our apartment. We are not quite sure what it is but it sure is beautiful and I definitely don’t mind the green view. The trek seemed long and we were tired. I know its going to be a long semester of walking. Now I won’t feel so bad for my gelato addiction.

Luckily no one was home. We chatted for a while but ended up falling asleep. I swear I never in my life had been so tired. "Resting my eyes" for a minute ended up me falling asleep again. We were so out of it. Finally after I regained some consciousness I wrote in my journal. I am really trying hard to document everything and all awkward experiences. I was more than ready for dinner. We are typing away when we hear Sibley…Liman… so they call us by our last names. The first night when we introduced ourselves as Autumn and Karli they gave us the most confused face ever. At dinner they asked Sibley? Limon? So we indicated which was which and they have continued to call us that. Italians usually put your last name first and then your first name so they think our last name is our first haha whatever it is its hilarious. We laugh every time they refer to us. After our first day of class we will be able to truly introduce ourselves haha.

Dinner was again very delicious. If these two meals are any indicator of what is to come then I am in for some yummy food the next few months. Tonight the pasta dish was just like these little noodles in chicken broth with mozzarella. The main course was tomato and cucumber salad with oils. The meat dish was scraped out zucchini’s with some undisclosed meat product mixed in with the zucchini and the leftover picante carrots from the night before. Tonight I also did not make the mistake of pouring myself con gasse acqua, yuck! It is only naturale for me. I mentioned that it was Me Compleano (my birthday) today pointing downward indicating today. They were ohh….. The daughter asked how old and I indicated 21 (ventuno) After dinner was over they brought out these chocolates. Guiseppe indicated it was like a birthday cake blowing out the candles on top. Then Fiorella brought out the fruit bowl. Me and Karli shared the most glorious peach my mouth has ever tasted. I must say Italy has great fresh fruit!!! Oh my so delicious. That will be my lunch everyday frequenting the local fruit shops and its so cheap. Frederique grabbed something from the drawer and ran into the kitchen. She then comes out with these pink 21 candles!! I actually thought it was really nice of her. Especially considering I didn’t think she liked us very much. I truly appreciated the nice gesture. They had me try another chocolate and Guiseppe offered me a black licorice and I said no because I hate black licorice. But he insisted and they could tell by the look on my face that I was not enjoying it. They motioned for me to spit it out which I gladly did. As disgusting as that might seem I was ok with it. Frederique spit hers out as well so I didn’t feel as bad. We attempted to tell them that Karli’s birthday was next Sunday but it was a struggle. After this point conversation went downhill fast. The conversation about school in the morning was difficult. It was a failed attempt to plan breakfast in the morning haha or so we think thats what they were saying. Me and Karli left just laughing having no idea what just happened. I initially though Fiorella and Frederique didn’t like us I just think they don’t know how to communicate so they just feel weird. We felt huge from dinner so we decided to go for a walk and make our way to the internet store. The weather was perfect and it felt great outside. The internet was an amazing choice. I loved seeing all my e-mails wishing me a happy birthday and saying hello. I got to talk to mom and dad which was nice. Not for very long sadly but enough to raise the spirits. Thank you so much everyone for the e-mails I love hearing from you all!!! We came back to the house to take pictures of our room to document life in our humble dwelling.

Awkward

Saturday September 6th, 2008
-We were to be at the bus with our stuff loaded by like 6:30! So it was an early morning
-We drove along the coast again to Paestrum.
-We were given two hours to walk around the site and look at the ruins and the museum.
-The temples were way cool Temple of Hera 1 and 2. They were great examples of Doric and ionic order. It is still cool to me that I am seeing things in person that I studied. I was mad that I couldn’t remember more about the different orders.
-The museums was pretty cool. It was mostly pots and parts of the temple on display. They had these big pieces of stone with frescoes on it.
-Boarded the bus and made our way to Siena which was like a 7 hour process. The bus was insanely uncomfortable. Sleeping was a struggle. I attempted to watch Newsies but quickly lost interest. The rest was being lazy and attempting to sleep. Then I worked on my blog entries the rest of the time. We arrived in Siena a little after 6:30 and our families were supposed to be there about 7:30. It was so funny how everyone got so excited/nervous you could feel the nervousness in the air. We were all thinking oh my gosh we are finally here we are going to be meeting our host family that we have to live with for the next three months, yikes!! Me and Karli were getting so nervous just standing there as everyone was leaving with their families. Most of the people that came to get everyone spoke a few words of English and seemed really nice. Then this older man came up and apparently it was Guiseppe our host dad. He helped us get our stuff in the car. He was not really speaking to us and when he did it was in Italian. I am thinking to myself he speaks no English this is going to be interesting. On the way from the train station to his house we just sat in silence. I obviously was too tired to even attempt to understand the Italian. The apartment or I guess villa was not too far from the train station. We unloaded our stuff and took it into the house. He is explaining everything in Italian and we are just like nodding having no idea what is going on. They live on the first floor. Our bedroom is on the first level of the place. Our room though is actually not that small. I feel good about it. We have a toilet and a sink with a mirror. A shower head is technically on the wall but we are thinking the sign says no showering which is fine because that would be awkward to shower in there. But I am fine with showering somewhere else but at least having the essentials of a toilet and sink. He directed us also to the bathroom down the hall which we assumed was for the showering aspect. So we headed back to the room and he motioned for dinner. He shut the door behind him and left me and Karli in our overwhelmed state. We honestly were just like freaking out saying how we couldn’t believe what we got ourselves into. We were just like they seriously do not speak English. We both had figured that since we were beginning Italian students they would put us with people that spoke some English. Some people in the group do speak a little Italian so put those students with those people who speak no English and people like me and karli with people who can speak some. We witnessed the other families speak English to people in the group. Pretty much we were definitely in culture shock and did not know what to do with ourselves haha. I decided that we should go ahead and unpack our stuff. We weren’t quite sure when dinner would be. The room is insanely hot especially while we were unpacking. It is definitely going to be a sweaty few months until it gets cool. We heard some rustling of dishes downstairs and it sounded like they were eating so we were like ahh…do we go downstairs or what haha. We honestly just felt so awkward and had no idea what to do. We figured that they would come get us for food so we kept unpacking. Finally, Fiorella knocked on the door and said hello. She was just speaking away in Italian like we understood and then we were like eat. We headed downstairs. There is a small kitchen with a table. In the other room is an old couch with a tv and another table. Frederique was laying on the couch watching the tv with Guiseppe. She was an interesting person of large proportions. Giuseppe had changed and was now wearing these crazy shorts and a tank top. Frederique was about the same in a bright pink tank top and black capris. Fiorella was in a green and white sun dress. They motioned for us to sit down. We ate pesto and spaghetti noodles which was awesome! They were laughing at me though because I had no perfected the twirl of the noodles on my fork. For some reason mine would just get all tangled haha so they had a good laugh. They recommended that I cut the noodles which eventually I did. I was the last one to finish my noodles. A few minutes later she starts bringing out the other food. I kind of waited to see what they did to know what it was I needed to do. They passed around these carrots with a certain seasoning on it. It turned out to be picante carrots which were actually very good. It had a nice kick at the end. Fiorella cute up some tomatoes and cucumbers then added olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I passed on the tomatoes and put those sauces on my cut up cucumbers. They handed me lettuce which even now I am confused as to why it was on the table. Nobody else put it on their plate but me and Karli. I decided later to put vinegar and balsamic so that I awkwardly wasn’t eating just plain lettuce. At this point they figured out that we did not speak a word of Italian. Guiseppe kind of motioned that we will talk through gestures. I guess whatever works right. The main dish of the meal was prosciutto and sausage with these green looking things. I put some meat on my plate and when I started cutting that up they gestured to the green thing and said that I needed to eat it together. I obviously didn’t take the green thing because I had no idea how to go about eating it. I was thinking I would need to peel the outside shell. Apparently you just cut up piece of this fruit and eat it with the prosciutto. This also included sausage so I just grabbed one. The unknown fruit I thought wasn’t too bad. I rather enjoy it although Karli did not. The fruit had an interesting texture but it was surprisingly sweet. Anyways you were supposed to eat the prosciutto with this green fruit whatever it may be. Sidenote: We found out later that it was fig and apparently they are in season right now. They have this soft outer shell and its almost mushy/grainy inside, end note. We finally made it through dinner. The dad was asking about Gramsci square where we needed to walk to meet everyone for church. When we were driving to the house he pointed up this street for Gramsci so we were glad thinking it was a close walk but we were completely wrong. He found a map for us and gave us the directions to where the square was located and determined it was a twenty minute walk. Church will take like a 45 minute walk every week. He also showed us where the school was located. Its funny they are just completely opposite of each other. After dinner we cleared the table and they were asking us questions about what we drink. He said no to coffee and tea. He asked about this latte drink and we said no just to be safe but then realized they were referring to milk haha. They showed us this other drink which we think its caffeine free because it said it was natural and had a wheat symbol so we said we could drink it. Oh the joys of communicating with those who speak a foreign language. We just went back to our room to finish unpacking. One again freaking out that they speak no English. We also asked him about how to get in and he gave us the key. Leave it to Italy to actually skeleton keys its pretty cool. We then debated for a while about the shower and whatnot. We stole a roll of toilet paper from the other bathroom so that we could use it. The shower was fine just smaller than I am use too. When showering I had a bit of an issue. I swear either the water was extremely scolding hot or it was frigid. At one point it completely shut off and I still had shampoo in my hair. I was figuring that I would have to continue to wash it in the sink or something haha but luckily it didn’t come to that. Anyways we are completely cultured shocked and that’s putting it lightly. The room is still way hot even after the shower. We just wrote in our journals the rest of the evening. Anyways I can’t say it enough I feel so awkward here and out of place. Most of what they are saying just blows past me. At this moment in time I am so grateful for taking Spanish and being able to remember some words. Between mine and Karli’s Spanish we could figure out some things of what they were telling us. Also, there was this dog that sounded as though it was dying. I also heard polizia sirens which I sure hope I don’t hear those all night. Its interesting that the window open is the cool down. I guess that’s like Hawaii but in Hawaii it actually works here not so much. Hopefully tomorrow and everyday following will improve just a little. Anyways just getting over the culture shock. I know this will be an awesome experience just can’t wait until I get a schedule down and everything is not so new.

The Med

The Med
September 3rd
-Got up early and drove a few hours to Naples where we visited the National Archeological Museum of Naples. This had artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum.
-Then drove down to Herculaneum where we got to walk around the preserved city. It was so neat because the city was filled with hot mud and other materials it didn’t destroy a lot of the walls and ceilings.
-The drive from Naples to Minori was very interesting…to say the least. We were on the big bus but going down these windy roads up and over a mountain. At times it appeared as though we were going to fly off. A beautiful drive though with green mountains and sporadic little towns.
-Minori is a little touristy beach town on the Mediterranean. As soon as we got in we headed down to the beach to check it out. It is black sand beach so something that I am not use to having lived in Hawaii.
-Dinner in the hotel and then walking around the city for a few minutes.


September 4th
-We were headed to Pompeii for the morning so we had to have another windy drive but it was along the coast this time. Spectacular views!! The coasts are these steep mountain sides with cute little houses lined all along with black sand beaches. I was so tired and wanted to sleep but couldn’t stop admiring the views.
-Pompeii was great just like last time. I enjoyed the tour much more this time because he took us to more places than just the red light district like the last time haha.
-Peter wanted us to draw for an hour so me, Cailey, and Emily found a shady spot and drew. Haha it is so ridiculous I cannot draw. The worst part is people walking by are expecting us to be these amazing art students sitting around drawing but you can see the disappointment on their faces when they see what we are doing haha.
-After Pompeii we quickly made the drive back to Minori. As soon as we got in we threw on our suits and headed for the beach. We got in a good three hours relaxing in the black sand. The water was crystal clear it was great.
-Dinner in the hotel and then we decided to walk around the city again. We attempted to watch a soccer game but it was little kids. We walked by the water on these little cliffs and got some great pics of the town lit up at night. We ventured up some random stairacases to get another good view. The city is pretty small so walking around doesn’t take too long. Especially since the roads are small and windy walking them at night is too so safe.
-We watched two episodes of Arrested Development and then hung around all night!

September 5th
-Luca (our director from the Dante Alighieri Academy) talked Peter into letting us have an entire free day. We boarded a boat in the morning that took us over to Amalfi (only 2.50 euros for one way!). The town is super cute and small. We walked the main road with all the little shops and businesses.
-We then set up shop on the beach which was another shocking experience. The beach was rocky. There was not one ounce of sand on this beach. It was much easier to float here. We kept laughing thinking about how all our friends were sitting in class and we were floating on the Med loving life!! I got some great sun and loved just hanging out at the beach. Luckily no nudity. But no body image issues here everyone wears as little as they want without any reguard to their body shapes.

-Saw a wedding party and it was everything you would expect from the Ialians.

-Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!!! I love it here. A completely opposite beach experience from Hawaii but I enjoyed it.

-Boat back to Minori and dinner at the hotel

When in Rome....

Day 1 August 30th
-Arrived at the hotel
-Cailey, Emily, Kimberly, and me took the train into Rome for the night
-Barberini Piazza and stumbled on the Spanish steps
-Just walked around to familiarize ourselves then found the Trevi Fountain
-Quick dinner at a pizza place which was not the best I have ever had.
-Ate our first gelato of the trip. I tried the coconut and am now obsessed!!
-Subway back to the hotel because we were pretty tired from the days travel

Day 2 August 31st
-Attended church at a small branch with a 15 minute walk uphill from the last subway stop. We didn’t have anyone translate because we were suppose to “submerge ourselves in the culture and it’s all part of the experience” says Peter our director.
-After sacrament Cailey, Emily, Kimberly, and Me went into the city and found a park by the Villa Borghese. We hung out there for most of the afternoon relaxing in the shade.
-Walked the street with all the designer stores and admired all the window displays.
-While eating we ran into a cute older lds couple who lost their baggage and were looking for a place to buy clothes. That’s a next to impossible task when everything is either expensive designer or cheap market stuff.
-I ate my first Magnum bar of the trip!! The next best thing to gelato. This time I tried the white chocolate and vanilla ice cream, yum.
-The Pantheon was our next stop to marvel at the huge dome and oculus.
-Ate dinner at the restaurant around the corner and ate a delicious cheesy pasta dish. I am already annoyed with having to pay for bottled water at restaurants and being given so little.
-Us girls played a few rounds of Uno on the Balcony eating some treats in Emily’s room. My balcony has a great view of the dome of St. Peter’s basilica but it’s the size of a pine head.

Day 3 September 1st
-The madness of the busy days begin
-That morning the group went to the Vatican Museums and it was awesome because I had not gone to these museums last time I was here. While waiting we witnessed a guy have an unfortunate accident on his moped and it was slightly traumatizing. In the museums I saw an altarpiece by Giotto, Caravaggio’s depiction of Christ being taken off the cross, Raphael’s Transfiguration of Christ, and his School of Athens (which we almost missed because we were being herded through endless galleries and weren’t paying attention). Of course we craned our necks to marvel at the Sistine Chapel for a while. The Last Judgment and the Banishment of Adam and Eve are my favorite frescoes. While waiting to cross the street I was being reversed in to by a car so I am not a fan of the death road in front of Vatican City
-That afternoon half of the group went on a walking tour with Peter. First stop the Spanish steps and walking down Via Del Corso (I would love more anything to live in some villa lined along this street in my dreams of course). We visited Trevi fountain and threw in coins (1 coin you will return to Rome and the second coin means a marriage in the immediate future). Della Palma is my favorite gelato place in Rome because of all its flavors. Today’s choices were chocolate coconut, fragananas (strawberry and pineapple), and then stracciatella ananas. Then, it was quick stop at the Pantheon and passed by Bernini’s elephant. The Doria Pamphilj was a wealthy family’s opulent that was also a museum where we saw a few Caravaggio’s. We glanced at Trajan’s column and visited the Campodoglio with Marcus Aurelius on a horse. A quick glance overlooking the forum before running off to St. Peter’s.
-We made it to St. Peter’s Basilica’s with 15 minutes to look around. Perfect time because nobody was there and enjoyed the Pieta by Michelangelo without annoying mobs of people.
-Completely tired from literally running around all day we headed back to the hotel for dinner. A small pizza place around the corner was the only selection but it was a bad choice (I learned from Cailey and Emily seaweed pizza = gross).

Day 5 September 2nd
-Woke up at 7:30 when we were supposed to be downstairs. Luckily our room was not the only one so we all got a late start to the day. The group went to the Villa Borghese museum and it was amazing!! We saw a few Caravaggio’s. David and Goliath would have to be my favorite. Bernini also stole the show at this museum with his David, Apollo and Daphne, and the Rape of Persteffonie statues that display his amazing talent of working with marble.
-A group of us headed across town to go to the Bone church but it closed for lunch. Next stop was the Coloseum but the subway we needed was closed and had to walk forever to walk to the other line.
-It was well worth it sweating all the way because the Coloseum is a must see.
-Across the street we went to the Forum and it’s crazy to think I am walking where the Romans were walking around less than 2000 years ago.
-It is still so hot outside even if it is September!! We were dying all day and constantly drinking water.
-Me, Cailey, Emily, and Christina were off to visit the last few stops on our to do list. We walked past the Circus Maximus on our way to the Boca Della Verita. Legend has it that if you put your hand in the mouth of the state and you tell a lie it will bite your hand off. I made it out of there with my hands intact no worries!
-I wanted to see the Ecstasy of St. Theresa and Peter our director told us it was in the Travestere area. Well he was completely wrong and I was able to talk with this lady who did know the location. It was a unnecessary stop to that area but I am glad we did because that is my favorite place of Rome!! We were drained from the walk so we bought watermelon which hit the spot. It was quite the hilarious experience because we were on the side of the road spitting seeds in a garbage while all the Italians driving by laughed at us. We didn't care we were so hungry/thirty that we disreguarded all manners and devoured the watermelon. Best purchase of the trip thus far. Our feet were dying but we made the trek back up to the Bone church. The crypt is designed with bones from 4000 different monks and children. It was pretty erie but neat to see. I convinced the others to go see the Ecstasy of St. Theresa by Bernini and once again another worthwhile but tiring walk. This was one of my favorite statues so I couldn’t come to Rome and not see it.
-Completely drained from the day we headed back to the hotel and we were ecstatic that they had the subway up and running again. A 10 minute subway ride versus a two hour walk is much preferred.
-Dinner was at that restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Since it was our last night in Rome we decided to go out. My meal of choice spaghetti noodles with clams and it was a good one. The intentions were to go back into Rome for the evening but…our feet were not too happy about that idea so we stayed in and packed up our stuff.