((A/N: Last day...unless you count coming home, which I guess I do. So I guess I'll post again tomorrow.))
We started off in Lucca, a relatively small city/town/place with walls from the 16th century running all around it. You could walk off of them if you wanted to since the top of the wall is also the ground from the inside. It looks a lot like what happens around here when they build roads through hills. Solid ground at the top and then a sheer drop. Except in this case that drop is a lot shorter, the solid ground isn't a hill (well, it is, it just doesn't look that way when you're driving up), and instead of just dirt there's a really thick, 16th century wall there. You'd break a few bones jumping 
Yes, well, anyway, we started off with an introductory tour during which we looked at several cathedrals, what used to be a Roman amphitheatre but is now just a circular square, a couple towers the folks back in the day would build as a way prominent families competed with one another, and the ancient Roman forum. No, not that forum. That one's in Rome. This was the, like I said, ancient one from when apparently Lucca was the capitol and before the one in Rome. It's very small and sits next to...whatever cathedral it is. ((A/N: It was San Michele in Foro, a lovely duomo with exquisite, if not mind boggling detail.)) But there's still an open air market there! Forum essentially means market so...yeah...grand isn't it? After all this time, it's still being used for its original purpose.
There were some lovely scarves I was looking at, but I decided that they're everywhere and that I could get one in Florence later. Only later, on the bus, did I think of how cool it would have been to be able to say that I bought something in the ancient Roman forum. But oh well. I did get some more gelato on a corner nearby, so that kind of counts. Stracciatella again because nothing beats it. I don't need to try any other flavors, I just know.
Speaking of tastiness, Sarah, Monica, and I stopped by a little pizzaria--also on a corner, all the good places to eat are always on corners. At long last, something that I actually thoroughly enjoyed. I can't remember what it's called in Italian, but it was basically pizza with spicy pepperoni. Obviously, the word we used was not "pepperoni" since that means little peppers. I have to wonder if some Italians don't think we love peppers on our pizza since, no doubt, so many of us have made the mistake of saying pepperoni when we really mean spicy salami. Apparently someone in our group at some point got miffed because they ordered pepperoni pizza and got, yes, pizza with del peppers on it. Silliness. :P
The pizza was cut into rectangular slices on a flat, wooden slab. Then it was cut into four smaller strips, which is how it was served to us. I may be exaggerating, but I think Monica was on her first strip when she looked over and was shocked to see that I had already scarfed down my pizza. She was very entertained that we had finally found something that I would eat. At this point, it's become a bit of a joke amongst part of our group that I'm such a picky eater that I eat NOTHING. And it's mostly true. I've been surviving off of the snacks I brought and the rolls we get every morning at breakfast. Cereal, too, but the rolls are handy to keep with me for later in the day.
The bathroom was kind of exciting. Apparently, the light in there was on a timer and the person in there before me hadn't taken that long. I'm assuming they time it so as to give the average person enough time to do their business. Well, I was still in there when the light turned off. It was pitch black and I had to grope around for the switch, which was actually in the other portion of the small bathroom. There was the tiny front room with the sink and then the tiny back room with the toilet. So I had to get into the front room and actually open the door into the pizzaria a crack so that I could find the switch and proceed to go back and perform the hunt for the button with which to flush the toilet, which is now quite common in my day.
It was funtimes.
Well, I finally bought something. I got one of those glass cubes with little bubble images inside of it depicting thetower, cathedral, and baptismal of Pisa and a somewhat tacky little jug/vase thing. I'm a sucker for little bottles like that. And my glass cube came in a cute little box, which made it all the better. I also ended up becoming mildly obsessed with the little Easter egg trees and such. It is Easter week, after all, so they're everywhere. Monica was greatly amused by this.
Florence--well, I should say as much as possible but there's just too much. It feels like an entirely different day than the one we spent in Lucca. We all started by visiting the Piazzale Michelangelo, which overlooks Florence, a.k.a. Firenze. I'm confused as to why we call it Florence when the people who actually live there call it Firenze. But whatever, we got some amazing pictures up there.
After we got settled into our hotel, we went out with Cynthia and Melissa for the "second best" gelato in Italy. The best, according to Cynthia, being in Rome. Then we went sightseeing. We didn't go inside anything, there was just a lot of walking and picture taking and being awed at the sheer magnificence of things. Namely one, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, which you can actually see in two of the pictures above. And its baptismal. But I was cold and wet and the sky was gloomy and my fingers were freezing so I decided that I'd get most of my pictures tomorrow since Cynthia informed us that we were going on a tour of these places then during which we could actually go inside them. It didn't help that I was exhausted before we even started.
Melissa took us by an apothecary that has since been turned into a shop where the same basic things are still sold--well, similar things. I'm really not entirely sure what I'm talking about anymore, but there was scented stuff alongside these oils and ointments and such that are supposed to help you with some ailment or another. I bought a little golden box in which you're supposed to put potpourri. I just really love the box. Rather expensive, but compared to the prices of all the leather jackets and handbags everyone is going to be spending their money on tomorrow it's probably a steal. We're going to a leather shop and an adjacent jewellry store tomorrow since Firenze is famous for its leather and gold. Anyway, according to Melissa, the same box is probably three times more expensive on their website.
Melissa also took us to see a shop in which she's spent hundreds at a time. And it's no wonder! They well what I believe she said were handmade leather bound books. The paper isn't handmade in all of them, but there are a few. Obviously they're more expensive than the rest. I bought a small journal with a fleur de lis design, much like my original travel journal that Chad gave me for Christmas, except it's not refillable. And sold in Italy instead of Barnes & Noble. Both made in Italy, though! Haha. Really, since I love leatherbound journals so much, it's rather fitting that I end up traveling to Italy and getting one directly from the source. ((A/N: I adore that little book and I use it all the time, for every little thing from grocery lists to random ramblings and writings. Kendra can attest to this. xD))
More things happened. We foudn out that the house they say was Dante's actually wasn't. Melissa would know because Dante is one of her "dead boyfriends." So, if you ever come to Italy, don't pay for the tour of Dante's house. The house itself wasn't even built in the right time period and nothing it it is from the right time either. dante was born in that general area, yes, but no one knows exactly where--it sure ain't that house, though.
After all of that, we came back tot he hotel only for Monica to find her mother sweety and not all that well lying on her bed. She's a diabetic and her blood sugar was way too low. So Monica called for Sarah, Sarah called for Cynthia, and Cynthia called for the woman among our group who happens to be a nurse. Louis is fine now, but it was pretty worrisome.
Not only that, but one of the older women's husbands is missing. She and her little group somehow managed to misplace him somewhere in Florence. How? Not a clue. Usually, group memebers keep an eye otu for one another. We sum up who all is gallavanting about with us and occasioanlly look around just to make sure everyone's still there. We even do it for other groups, making note of where we last saw this group or that.
It's 10:30pm, they lost him before we even came back tot he hotel for dinner, and Ihave no idea if they ever managed to find him. Just one disaster after another today.
Random sidenote to end the day, the first day for which I've actually managed to finish an entry for: what is up with our room keys needing to be stuck in the little slots by the door for the lights to work? I mean, yeah, you'll never misplace your key, but it's kind of hard to find that slot in the dark. Not that we have that problem with this hotel. They actually provide a single working light by the door so you can see what the heck you're doing with your key. The previous ones were rather inconvenient.
((A/N: This entry is nearly verbatim what I wrote in my original travel log. It's probably THE most accurate entry you'll see here.))
Photobucket is being annoying again, so instead of the individual albums I failed to link to throughout this entry: Lucca & Florence 3-19-08.
In any case, we had breakfast, gave our luggage to Carlo, the bus driver, and hopped on the bus for a few hours. The countryside was nice and several shades of green and full of sheep, goats, cows, horses--y'know, the works. This much I can say: the Tuscan countryside is lovely. Didn't really have much of a chance to take pictures of it, though, unless they were through the bus windows and those never came out right. Oh well. I have more than enough pictures of Italy's greenery from later in the day. We also drove by the Mediterranean Sea. Very, very green, I have to say. I was excited about this for no real reason in particular. I guess I was just glad I got to see it. And listened to Voltaire as I was seeing it. In fact, that's just about all I did during the bus ride. There are a few songs of his that may forever remind me of the Tuscan countryside. ((A/N: I was right! There are some songs of his that will occasionally just take me right back to Italy.))
We stopped off in Grosseto first. It had a cathedral, this much I remember. The San Lorenzo Cathedral. By today, though, I'm kind of all cathedral'd out, so I don't have much to say about it. Except that I think this may've been the one in which I almost ate the stone flooring because of one of those reliefs carved into the floor of a dead person. Though for all I know that could've happened yesterday. Yes, actually, that's probably it. See? I'm already confusing my cathedrals! They're all just blurring together at this point and I can only really distinguish the big ones without going through my massive photo collection.
Well, we had lunch there in Grosseto while some folks went with Dr. White and Melissa to a museum. After yesterday, Sarah and I figured we'd opt out of that one. I had a few slices of pizza--with del peppers since it was the women next to us (and in our group, of course) who'd ordered it and I think they said "pepperoni" instead of whatever you're supposed to say to get what we consider pepperoni. I pulled the peppers off, though. Not quite that brave. In some magical way, we got out of paying for lunch yet again (we didn't have to pay yesterday either, I believe Melissa and the others took care of that).
'Tis Sarah's pregnant belly. Hoyes, the Professor causes the other group members to want to feed us for free. ((A/N: The "Professor" was my nickname for him at the time. At the time of writing he's approx. 7 months old and can be fawned over and admired in Sarah's blog.)) Well, anyway, that's where we sat and ate with Monica and her mom Louis. We all decided that, if we have time when we go back to Rome on Sunday, we'll all get a taxi and go to the Forum. This would be grand since that's one of the main sights I was hoping to see on this trip.
Mime! Haha, there were a few of these guys in Grosseto. I love mimes. :)
ue to the limited number of them they give out (they do this to ensure that there are never too many people in the tower so it doesn't, y'know, fall), we couldn't go in. But Vig got us all tickets to go inside the cathedral and the baptistry, so that's where all my attention was going. We didn't get to go into the graveyard beyond that big wall you can see in some of the pictures, but meh, the baptistry made up for that. It has the most amazing acoustics you'll likely ever hear. While we were in there, it dawned upon me that there was this incredibly eerie, beautiful whisteling noise emanating from every crevice of the structure. I started looking around for the source and realized that it was Melissa whistling. But, oh my God, you could hear it everywhere. And the tune she was whistling was so perfect and haunting. Admittedly, the baptistry isn't much to look at from the inside, but to hear someone humming, whistling, or singing in there is absolutely fantastic.Technically, you're not supposed to do that, though. I believe Melissa was shushed many times, albeit, I believe that's when she was singing. Whoever was in there that was watching us and doing the shushing apparently didn't mind the whisteling, or at least I never heard them complain. After Sarah and I left--probably while we were in the duomo (cathedral)--Melissa apparently got kicked out. But while we were still there and up in the second story, a priest or somesuch who worked there came in below and started singing. I caught a video of it for the sound alone, though it hardly does it justice. You really have to be there.
Ignore the first 15 seconds or so. That's just Melissa being shushed. xD
Did I provide all of the albums in this entry? Hm, I'm not sure, so here's the album for the whole day: Grosseto and Lucca 3-18-08.
I had a roll on the bus. It was grand, especially since I've kind of stopped with the whole eating thing. Or at least eating as much as usual. Italy isn't very appetizing.
Either way, we made it to the Colosseum! Woo! One of the main reasons I wanted to go on this trip was so that I could see such things as the Colosseum. 'Cause I'm going to be completely honest here, I didn't come to Italy for all the cathedrals. (*gasp!*) I know, I'm crazy. Sure, they're worth seeing, but what can I say? I'm a Classics minor after all, so OF COURSE I'm going to be more excited about the ruins. And it's the Colosseum! The Colosseum!
I mean just look at it!
You can tell I'm excited can't you? 'Cause if not I've...I've just failed you. Horribly. But, yeah, this was pretty much the thing that really sticks out in my mind about today. Seriously, the Colosseum. I can now say that I've been to the Colosseum. I hardly remember anything Vig told us about it except for pointing out some of the original tile work and then the thing about the seats of course and everything else was about how they used to keep the gladiators and animals in the now exposed labyrinth of chambers under a wooden floor that was covered with sand. And they had an elevator or two to bring up said animals and gladiators. Aside from the trapdoors, I mean. But, aside from the elevator thing, this was information I already knew. I've known about it since I was just a kid reading some cute little books on Roman history from the school library and thinking about how spectacular it would be to actually see the Colosseum.
I can die happy now. :)
What was even better was that, while I was up on the second flight taking pictures (and getting my picture taken like I promised I would), I noticed a little blackish grayish smidge moving about on the grass near the Colosseum floor. It was a cat. A little stray cat was wandering about the Colosseum. That just made my day right there. xD I didn't get any good pictures of it, but if you look reeeeaaally closely here, in the full size picture, you can just make it out in the middle of the grass. Almost the center of the picture.
So after we walked around the entire Colosseum and Vig was yelling at us through the headsets that we all needed to come downstairs and regroup so we could leave, I was taking a picture of the triumphal arch, Arco di Costantino (the Arch of Constantine), across the street...
...and a bird pooped on me. xP That's one of those things I'd hoped would never happen, but it did. In Rome. With a whole day ahead of me still. Yeah, it was special. But I had some wipes on me and I did get it out of my shirt (and hair Dx) rather quickly so the spot wasn't too noticable. It was only later that I was informed that, in Italy, a bird pooping on you is actually good luck. So yay! I guess.
Well, after that we had nothing else planned so we were allowed to do as we pleased. So we decided to walk to the Forum across the street in a big ol' group, past the triumphal arch, and over very large cobblestone that I was sure my ankles or knees would give out on. And then a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum...well, it's true! Something funny DID happen on the way to the Forum! I have a theory that something funny always happens on the way to the Forum. That's why they put those costumed gladiators there, ready to prey on unsuspecting tourists.
It wasn't us they were preying on, though, and I wish I'd had my camera out at the time because it was priceless. One of these gladiators was going to pose with this group of tourists. He grabbed each one of the three guys there in turn and threw them on the ground, one on top of the other. Then he struck a pose, placing one foot triumphantly on top of the pile and pulling the two girls close to him, one in each arm. Needless to say, there was much laughter and amusement involved and, like I said, I wish I'd had my camera out.
Anyway, I didn't get to go inside the Forum itself. We just looked at the ruins that we could see from the outside. I believe it was Monica and her mom Louis--part of our group, obviously--who decided to go off on their own and actually go inside. I actually wanted to go with them, but there was some confusion as to what everyone was doing and by the time I looked they were already gone. So I was kind of disappointed. One of my goals for this trip was to go into the Forum. But, as it turns out, going with Monica and Louis would've been a bad idea. They told us later that they had to pay 11 euros for a ticket when it used to be free and the ticket was for the Colosseum and another area as well, though I forget what it was. The catacombs perhaps? Either way, the lady there was mean, they went in and walked right out again without realizing it. There were no signs or anything to direct them. They couldn't get back in and found out that you're supposed to get a map at the gift shop outside at the entrance before going in. They ended up not seeing anything that you couldn't see from the street. So I guess I count myself lucky that, instead of going with them in a failed attempt to see the Forum, I went with Cynthia (Dr. White, the professor heading the tour) to go on an insane tour of what seemed like every single last cathedral in the whole of Rome.
I can't for the life of me remember where all we went. Even my pictures aren't all that helpful. I still haven't identified a number of places we visited--and certainly not for lack of trying--and some cathedrals don't allow picture-taking. I suppose I'll have to make a note to ask Sarah if she remembers anything about them. All I really recall are the Piazza Venezia (or The Wedding Cake, as they like to call it) at the beginning of our adventure and the Piazza Navona at the very end before we took the subway back to the hotel.
Oh! Of course! The Pantheon! How could I forget? It feels like that was an entirely different day, but we did in fact visit the Pantheon today. It was magnificent, inside and out. Though not quite so magnificent from the back. I didn't even know where we'd gone until we rounded the corner and I saw the gargantuan columns and doors. I figured we were just going to see another cathedral and, at that point in the day, they were really all starting to blend together, so I wasn't all that excited. But when I saw where we were--wow! I mean, I knew it was big, just not how incredibly big. The inside was incredibly crowded, making it difficult to take decent pictures, but I tried to ignore that. After all, I'd already been in one massive, crowded, uncomfortable building today, I was used to it by now. Besides, it was the Pantheon. Despite the sheer beauty of St. Peter's Basilica, this was just so much more worth my patience.
Ugh, I keep forgetting things. I think I'm done but then no, I remember something else. Let's see, there was Cynthia's kids drinking out of a water fountain in a little park carrying water via the old aqueducts (I, sadly, did not partake), those in our group who wanted only to get drunk for St. Patrick's day and got these weird Dr. Seuss-like hats that were green from a bar that had them last year (they said St. Patrick's Day 2007 or somesuch), and the long search for lunch. We all split up and Sarah and I couldn't find anyplace that looked good to eat, nor one that had a bathroom. But we stumbled upon Melissa, Cynthia's friend, and some of the other members of our group. Melissa told me to put me in one of my books and then made me try white wine, which was nasty. Then I felt bad because I didn't eat much of the pasta that I'd ordered and I think I confused the waiter since there was so much of it left. And I think I confused many others as well. Just because I wasn't eating. But I don't really like pasta all that much and, well, this is Italy, there's pasta by the barrelfull here. So I guess I'll either get used to it, or I'll starve.
My vote's for the latter.
Photo albums for the various locations we visited (in no particular order): Rome 3/17, ruins across from the Forum that I never learned the name of, San Luigi dei Francesi, Santa Maria del Popolo, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, another cathedral, a neat looking place we passed by, and a very large courtyard area where we got gelato. I had stracciatella. :)
Lookit! Seats! SEATS! THAT'S WHERE THEY USED TO SIT AND WATCH GLADIATORS KILL EACH OTHER!!! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!
You can tell I'm excited can't you? 'Cause if not I've...I've just failed you. Horribly. But, yeah, this was pretty much the thing that really sticks out in my mind about today. Seriously, the Colosseum. I can now say that I've been to the Colosseum. I hardly remember anything Vig told us about it except for pointing out some of the original tile work and then the thing about the seats of course and everything else was about how they used to keep the gladiators and animals in the now exposed labyrinth of chambers under a wooden floor that was covered with sand. And they had an elevator or two to bring up said animals and gladiators. Aside from the trapdoors, I mean. But, aside from the elevator thing, this was information I already knew. I've known about it since I was just a kid reading some cute little books on Roman history from the school library and thinking about how spectacular it would be to actually see the Colosseum.
I can die happy now. :)What was even better was that, while I was up on the second flight taking pictures (and getting my picture taken like I promised I would), I noticed a little blackish grayish smidge moving about on the grass near the Colosseum floor. It was a cat. A little stray cat was wandering about the Colosseum. That just made my day right there. xD I didn't get any good pictures of it, but if you look reeeeaaally closely here, in the full size picture, you can just make it out in the middle of the grass. Almost the center of the picture.
So after we walked around the entire Colosseum and Vig was yelling at us through the headsets that we all needed to come downstairs and regroup so we could leave, I was taking a picture of the triumphal arch, Arco di Costantino (the Arch of Constantine), across the street...
...and a bird pooped on me. xP That's one of those things I'd hoped would never happen, but it did. In Rome. With a whole day ahead of me still. Yeah, it was special. But I had some wipes on me and I did get it out of my shirt (and hair Dx) rather quickly so the spot wasn't too noticable. It was only later that I was informed that, in Italy, a bird pooping on you is actually good luck. So yay! I guess.
Well, after that we had nothing else planned so we were allowed to do as we pleased. So we decided to walk to the Forum across the street in a big ol' group, past the triumphal arch, and over very large cobblestone that I was sure my ankles or knees would give out on. And then a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum...well, it's true! Something funny DID happen on the way to the Forum! I have a theory that something funny always happens on the way to the Forum. That's why they put those costumed gladiators there, ready to prey on unsuspecting tourists.
It wasn't us they were preying on, though, and I wish I'd had my camera out at the time because it was priceless. One of these gladiators was going to pose with this group of tourists. He grabbed each one of the three guys there in turn and threw them on the ground, one on top of the other. Then he struck a pose, placing one foot triumphantly on top of the pile and pulling the two girls close to him, one in each arm. Needless to say, there was much laughter and amusement involved and, like I said, I wish I'd had my camera out.
Anyway, I didn't get to go inside the Forum itself. We just looked at the ruins that we could see from the outside. I believe it was Monica and her mom Louis--part of our group, obviously--who decided to go off on their own and actually go inside. I actually wanted to go with them, but there was some confusion as to what everyone was doing and by the time I looked they were already gone. So I was kind of disappointed. One of my goals for this trip was to go into the Forum. But, as it turns out, going with Monica and Louis would've been a bad idea. They told us later that they had to pay 11 euros for a ticket when it used to be free and the ticket was for the Colosseum and another area as well, though I forget what it was. The catacombs perhaps? Either way, the lady there was mean, they went in and walked right out again without realizing it. There were no signs or anything to direct them. They couldn't get back in and found out that you're supposed to get a map at the gift shop outside at the entrance before going in. They ended up not seeing anything that you couldn't see from the street. So I guess I count myself lucky that, instead of going with them in a failed attempt to see the Forum, I went with Cynthia (Dr. White, the professor heading the tour) to go on an insane tour of what seemed like every single last cathedral in the whole of Rome.
I can't for the life of me remember where all we went. Even my pictures aren't all that helpful. I still haven't identified a number of places we visited--and certainly not for lack of trying--and some cathedrals don't allow picture-taking. I suppose I'll have to make a note to ask Sarah if she remembers anything about them. All I really recall are the Piazza Venezia (or The Wedding Cake, as they like to call it) at the beginning of our adventure and the Piazza Navona at the very end before we took the subway back to the hotel.
Oh! Of course! The Pantheon! How could I forget? It feels like that was an entirely different day, but we did in fact visit the Pantheon today. It was magnificent, inside and out. Though not quite so magnificent from the back. I didn't even know where we'd gone until we rounded the corner and I saw the gargantuan columns and doors. I figured we were just going to see another cathedral and, at that point in the day, they were really all starting to blend together, so I wasn't all that excited. But when I saw where we were--wow! I mean, I knew it was big, just not how incredibly big. The inside was incredibly crowded, making it difficult to take decent pictures, but I tried to ignore that. After all, I'd already been in one massive, crowded, uncomfortable building today, I was used to it by now. Besides, it was the Pantheon. Despite the sheer beauty of St. Peter's Basilica, this was just so much more worth my patience.
Ugh, I keep forgetting things. I think I'm done but then no, I remember something else. Let's see, there was Cynthia's kids drinking out of a water fountain in a little park carrying water via the old aqueducts (I, sadly, did not partake), those in our group who wanted only to get drunk for St. Patrick's day and got these weird Dr. Seuss-like hats that were green from a bar that had them last year (they said St. Patrick's Day 2007 or somesuch), and the long search for lunch. We all split up and Sarah and I couldn't find anyplace that looked good to eat, nor one that had a bathroom. But we stumbled upon Melissa, Cynthia's friend, and some of the other members of our group. Melissa told me to put me in one of my books and then made me try white wine, which was nasty. Then I felt bad because I didn't eat much of the pasta that I'd ordered and I think I confused the waiter since there was so much of it left. And I think I confused many others as well. Just because I wasn't eating. But I don't really like pasta all that much and, well, this is Italy, there's pasta by the barrelfull here. So I guess I'll either get used to it, or I'll starve.
My vote's for the latter.
Photo albums for the various locations we visited (in no particular order): Rome 3/17, ruins across from the Forum that I never learned the name of, San Luigi dei Francesi, Santa Maria del Popolo, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, another cathedral, a neat looking place we passed by, and a very large courtyard area where we got gelato. I had stracciatella. :)
I totally forgot it was St. Patrick’s Day today. But that’s not really important anyway, so…there was really no point in mentioning it. Praise its uselessness! Praise it I say!
We got up around five thirty or so this morning and, thanks to jet lag, just as Vig had promised we were all quite awake. Then we took a bus and pranced off to a place where Carlo wasn’t technically supposed to let us off, but he did anyway so we had to move quickly. And then there was an issue with our water bottles since we were going to the Vatican museum and they wouldn’t let us take water inside. So Sarah put ours back on the bus and that, m’dears, is the last time I ever saw my dear water bottle. All well, I got others later.
Behold the statues above the arch we were waiting alongside! The door we actually entered through wasn't nearly as interesting as this. :P Click here for all of my pictures of the Vatican Museum. And some of St. Peter's Basilica. xD
We had to get there early to stand in line with the other groups waiting to get in or we’d lose our spot and then have to go and wait in the big huge line with all the non-group people. Only much later in the day when we were leaving did we realize how significant that was. The line we saw then stretched on and wound around so much that I had no idea which way it was going. Anyway, we went into the museum and it turns out that, no, I didn’t need my work shoes or slacks like I had thought originally. I just wore jeans and tennis shoes and got in just fine, but that may be because it was the museum and not some other part of the Vatican. Well, we had to wear these little radios around our necks and put the little plastic ear pieces in one of our ears so we could hear the tour guide. I don’t think it was Vig at first, but I do think he took over later. Dunno, my memories of today are pretty hazy. We just did way too much. I’m surprised I remember anything at all.
See? I told you the door we went through wasn't that pretty. And yet I took a picture of it anyway...
The ear piece made the inside of my ear itch like crazy and I had to hook the little radio onto my jacket and then my purse when I had to take my jacket off when I got too hot. This did not bode well since I kept knocking it off whenever I moved to take a picture of something. It also didn’t help that I had to hold my jacket in one arm because that made it insanely difficult to take any clear pictures on the first try.
The only things that I really remember were the ceilings and one picture of Jesus in particular. The ceilings in some of these halls…there was just so much detail! I guess you could call it busy but, really, they were gorgeous. Heh, I loved the ceilings far more than any of the paintings, statues, and tapestries we saw that day. They were, for lack of a better word, amazing. The painting that I recall depicted Jesus coming out of the tomb. Normally, that wouldn’t be that significant, but it was done with the same effect that the Mona Lisa has. As in, the subject is looking out at you and, no matter where you move, his eyes look like they’re following you. It’s kind of creepy and, yes, I do have a picture of it that depicts the effect pretty well. It’s so weird to actually be there with this huge Jesus watching you. I’m tempted to use the word profound to describe it, so I will.
The view outside one of the windows.
We went into the Sistine Chapel after going through the museum, but Vig had to get special permission to talk in there since he was a tour guide and didn’t have to talk very loudly since we all had the radios to listen through. I don’t know why but I always figured that the Sistine Chapel was a lot…smaller. I mean the room in general, I just didn’t expect it to be so incredibly large. I’ve seen a lot of the paintings in there before, back in high school in Mr. Crawford’s humanities class, so I felt pretty accomplished knowing that I was seeing the real things. Obviously, you’re not allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, so I had to look up the ones I have on Google. None of them really do it justice, though. There’s just too much to see all around you and it’s all too beautiful to be captured adequately in a mere picture.
They should really have places where you can lay down or something so you can look at the ceiling for extended periods of time because my neck was killing me after only a few minutes and I hadn’t seen nearly enough to stop looking. Just like with the ceilings in the museum, there’s an incredible amount of detail. Not just on the ceiling either, but the walls as well. On that note, it’s amazing how well everything’s been restored. There are still a few spots that they left untouched to show you just how bad it all looked before getting restored. You can barely see anything at all, it’s so dark! But, back to the detail. You’d be amazed at all the tiny, random little things Michelangelo painted to fill in all the gaps and blank spaces. I was thoroughly impressed by the philosophers and the sibyls. The niches that they’re sitting in look so real, it really makes you question if it can possibly be just a painting you’re looking at. This trick, I came to realize later, was extremely popular, especially when it came to the insides of cathedrals and depicting the lives of saints. They look so much like rooms you could just walk into or, at the very least, the columns and little decorations framing the frescoes look like carvings.
There’s no way I could possibly describe everything in the Sistine Chapel. There’s way too much and it’s nothing like actually being there and experiencing that sharp pain in your neck from looking up too much—okay, I don’t really recommend that last part, but it can’t be helped.
We all kept getting shushed because, no matter the rules, someone is always going to be whispering somewhere in the Chapel and when a couple hundred people are doing that it starts sounding like a mild roar. So, every now and again a priest would go up on the altar at the front and we’d all hear a shockingly loud “SHHH!!!” It carries a good distance, I gotta say.
After that I think we went down to see the tombs of the various different popes, where we, of course, weren’t allowed to take pictures. The little details on those carvings are unbelievable, though. Once again a “pictures don’t do it justice” sort of thing. It’s not like there was anything particularly large, colorful, or fantastically beautiful, it’s just all those tiny little locks of hair, folds in the clothing, wrinkles on their faces, and every other meticulous detail you could ever think of. The amount of work that went into all the stonework is baffling really.
We moved on to St. Peter’s Basilica where Vig told us to get pictures of the Swiss guards. Now, how I missed them I don’t know, but I guess I didn’t bother to look around even the tiniest bit because if I had, believe me, I would’ve seen them. I saw them after I came back out of the basilica but there was no time to get a picture then since we were moving on. So, yeah, I had to look up pictures of them online. I kind of feel sorry for them, though. I just…who the hell came up with those uniforms? Well, it certainly makes them a sight to behold. It’s no wonder everyone wants to get pictures of them.
My batteries ran out in the basilica, but Sarah lent me some so I could continue taking pictures. Once again I must comment on the sheer amount of detail put into everything. Also, it’s huge. No, huge is the wrong word. Hugemongous makes it sound silly. Enormous. Yes, that sounds about right. Absolutely enormous. The sculptures up near the ceiling didn’t look that large from so far away but one of them, I was told, was holding a little cross in her hand. From that distance, it didn’t seem very big at all, but the cross was actually a good deal taller than any of us. Sadly, I don’t think I got a picture of that, but if I had you only might be able to understand how gigantic that sculpture would have to be.
I kept losing the group, which got pretty frustrating. The ear piece for the radio wasn’t making the situation any better. It just kept itching like crazy. Basically, I just stopped paying attention to what Vig was saying and kept taking pictures. Flash doesn’t work in St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s just too big and flashes only travel about fourteen feet or so, thus making them entirely useless. I tried using it a few times for things that were closer, but even that proved pretty useless. This made things extremely difficult since, without a flash, my pictures tend to come out pretty blurry. Really, it’s that way with most digital cameras, but this place was swarming with people so, not only was I getting bumped into a lot, but I also had to hold the camera up above everyone’s heads. Thus, it was pretty hard to hold the camera steady, so I got a lot of blurry pictures and ended up taking a lot of doubles, just in case one of the pictures would reveal itself to be too blurry when I got home and uploaded them onto my computer. Some of them are, as misfortune would have it, and not all of them have doubles, so we’ll just have to live with the blurriness.
I think it was here that I was trying to take a picture of one of the chapels and a little car thing almost ran me over. I didn’t realize it was coming because my back was turned to it and I was pretty engrossed in getting my picture. So I was kind of shooed by one of the priests. Then I was almost run over by it again when it was coming back from whatever it had been doing in that chapel. That was after I was taking pictures of another chapel and a priest came up and shook his finger at me with a really sour look on his face. At least, I think he was aiming that at me. There was at least one other person taking a picture there, so who knows, but I found it mildly amusing for some reason. I walked away, of course, and stopped taking pictures there. I wasn’t about to do anything to disrespect one of the priests. It’s still a church, after all, and a very old one at that. Better to respect the rules or not go in at all.
Anyway, I won’t continue on about St. Peter’s Basilica. I had a very frustrating time in there overall so I’m not going to spend much time gushing about how beautiful and gigantic everything was. You get that sentence right there to describe it and pictures. This is only the first place we visited and look at how much time I’ve already spent on it.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention looking out into the Vatican from the museum and the fact that I found out—why I didn’t know this before I find very strange—that the Vatican isn’t part of Italy. It’s its own state, which is probably why it’s called the Vatican State. Once again, why I didn’t know this before is kind of weird. It’s common knowledge after all. Meh, well, I miss things like that sometimes. Heck, I remember when I suggested how wonderful it would be if cars just had a button you could push to keep the car going at a certain speed. Yes, that’s right, I thought up cruise control. Somehow I had gone through life having no idea that it existed. So, yeah, there’s your proof that things that are common knowledge have trouble sticking to my brain.
But I also found out that part of Arizona is actually part of the Vatican State. Apparently, there’s an observatory here that belongs to the Vatican. Who would’ve thought, eh?
After that, we saw the line I mentioned at the beginning of this entry and walked through it to get out and go into one of the shops. This was after Vig pointed out the window in the palace that the Pope usually addresses people from. Well, both of them. Though one is in St. Peter’s Basilica and isn’t used that often, mainly just for when the Pope is first chosen and goes to address the people. The window would be hard to pick out in a picture anyway since there’s nothing really significant looking about it. So, meh.
I didn’t get anything at the shop, though I was toying with the idea of buying a rosary. I decided against it, though, since I only knew I wanted to buy at least some little thing here in Italy but not what exactly it was that I wanted yet. So then we moved on to the Colosseum via the bus.
To be continued...
I think our night only lasted for about four hours. It’s really weird how that works. The overhead monitors showed us where the plane was on various different sizes of maps, our altitude, the outside temperature, the amount of time until we would arrive, the local time at our destination, and how far away we were. It also showed where it was day and where it was night on the world, which was kinda neat. We pretty much just charged right on through the night and, thus, it only really lasted for what I’m guessing was about four hours. They turned off all the lights for it and showed a couple of movies. First was the second National Treasure movie and the other…well, I don’t really remember what that one was called. I watched part of National Treasure, but mainly used the sound to try to lull me to sleep. Really, I didn’t get much sleep on this flight. I tried, there’s no denying that, but planes just aren’t that comfortable.
I did try to sleep in Munich, though. When my mom went through Germany years ago when she was visiting Kendra’s mom in France they didn’t give her a stamp on her passport, but Sarah and I got stamps. Thus, I was happy. We still had our luggage with us, though, since we were taking them as carry-on’s so we didn’t leave the airport. Instead, we just went through security and found our gate. At this point, even the thought of food made me nauseous. I blame the meals we got on the international flight. They weren’t really that bad, but after eating them both I just…I dunno, everything aside from little snack foods made me feel sick. So I just munched on some of the snacks I brought and didn’t eat anything else. Then I did homework. Yes, homework in Munich. Glorious isn’t it? After that, though, I started falling asleep so I went with the flow of the crowd around me and curled up on the very uncomfortable bench and tried to take a nap. I kept waking up and being in pain, though. Every fifteen minutes or half an hour I would regain consciousness and try to get back to sleep only to realize how incredibly uncomfortable I was. Then I’d have to sit up for a while until I started to fall asleep again and then went back to trying to lay down. Lather, rinse, repeat. It was actually kind of horrible and it didn’t help any that, when we got on the plane for Rome after seven godforsaken hours, they served…something. I have no idea what it was but it was hot, probably tasted pretty good to some people, and the smell of it made me want to vomit. It smelled good, it really did, but, like I said, unless it was some sort of dry snack food it made me feel awful. I can’t really remember that flight. I think I was dehydrated, which made me more susceptible to motion sickness, so that didn’t help much, but I was so exhausted that I just kept drifting in and out of sleep for the whole, what was it, hour and a half?
I can’t even remember my first view of Rome. I was in an aisle seat, though, so it’s not like I could easily see out the window. Anyway, we spent a goodly amount of time in the airport, which mainly consisted of standing around waiting for the other group members to get their luggage. I was partly delirious during this time, though, but Cynthia—Dr. White, the professor in charge of the whole trip—warned us that this was the time when things started disappearing, so I was pretty paranoid about that, too. Nothing disappeared, though. Some people’s luggage was still back in Denver, however, and the airline actually asked them if they wanted them to send it back to Tucson. What the hell?! They’re in Rome with NOTHING and the airline wants to send their bags back to Tucson?!
Sorry, little bit of a rant there. It didn’t have anything to do with me, but you know how it works when someone else is having issues and then their frustration kind of transfers to everyone else around them.
In any case, we didn’t get any stamp to prove that we’ve actually been to Italy, so that was mildly disappointing, but oh well. Then we stood around waiting for everyone to show up next to Vigo Ludo, our tour guide who told us to just call him Vig/Vic—I never actually figured this out until after I got back and talked to Kendra, but for him the “c” and the “g” sounds are probably identical, thus the reason everyone in my group was calling him “Vic” when I swore he was “Vig.” He amused me, though. He said things like “bloody” and “jolly good” and I later found out that his accent sounded so strange because, yes, he was partially raised in England. I think he spent his earlier years in Italy, so his accent is a mixture of both (Northern?) Italian and British.
And then we finally left the airport long after the sun had set and met Carlo, our bus driver. I really didn’t want to pull out my camera at that point so I didn’t even make any attempts to start taking pictures, but we saw part of the old city walls, drove over the Tiber River, saw some statues and saw the top of some cathedral in the Vatican. Remember that I was exhausted at this point and that, for that very reason, this was written far in the future from when it actually happened, so obviously I’m not going to be able to remember some of the names of the things that we saw. 
As for dinner, at this point, I have no idea who we ate with our first night, but I’d be willing to bet two of them were either Louis and her daughter Monica and/or Christine and her niece Madeline. They served us pasta first, obviously, and then what they told us was veal. Now, I may be a meat eater and love it, but I can certainly relate to vegetarians. Why? I have issues eating baby animals. I figured that it was already dead, though, and the least I could do was try it, so I did.
It tasted like pork. And, apparently, it was too light in color to look anything like veal, so at this point I’m not sure if they were being entirely honest with us, but back then I still thought the remains of a dead baby were sitting on my plate. I managed to eat about half of the first slice until I started feeling pretty upset about it, so I just gave up and decided it was enough that I tried it. Like hell I was eating the rest of it.
But after that I finally got to sleep, so all was joyous and wonderful. On a completely random note, the toilets here are weird. Namely because of the fact that it takes a great deal of looking to find the elusive and very well-camouflaged button to make them flush.
The view outside our window. I have no idea what it is but it's neat looking and that's all that really matters. xD
Beward the Ides of March! OoooOOOoooo!
Actually, I think the real Ides was yesterday. Everyone just likes to think it’s today. ((A/N: No, today is the Ides, I was right the first time)) Bleh, well, either way, got up early today, finished stuffing everything into my bag and backpack, which was surprisingly easy, and gave a few last longing looks at my laptop and cell phone before turning them off. Yeah, I know, it’s only for a little over a week, but I’m a hermit. As such I pretty much live on the internet, sad as that sounds. You can’t blame me for being sad about my cell phone, though, I’m not going to be able to talk to anyone really until I get back. Considering that I’m going to be on the OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET, that’s pretty scary. Even at this point, it really doesn’t feel like this is happening. I don’t know what I keep thinking will happen that will make this…not…be real…but it just doesn’t seem like I’m really going to be going to Italy or that I’m going to fly over a whole frikkin’ ocean just to get there.
God, I never thought that would happen. I’m kind of afraid of water. Even if it’s just the bathtub filled with standing water it’s…really eerie. It’s horrifying when I can’t touch the bottom of whatever body of water I’m swimming in. So, yeah, oceans freak me out. I can go out and wade around in the shallow water, but even then I have to be with someone. Otherwise…no, just no. It’s too creepy. Try as I might to go out by myself, I get too scared to have any fun. I keep thinking paranoid thoughts about our plane going down in the middle of the ocean and then what the news will say about us and how Vin will be left all alone because his wife and unborn son drowned and that they’ll never find our bodies so they’ll have to bury empty caskets and…and…I really need to stop being this paranoid. It doesn’t help anything.
Wow, I really didn’t say anything about what happened today did I? Well, it’s not really significant anyway. I started feeling a little sick on the flight to Denver, then when we got off of the plane there was no little covered path/platform thing that led from the door to the inside of the airport. We just had to climb down the stairs out into the open and then walk in ourselves, which is joyous because it was nice and cold in Denver. Then I got a sandwich inside, we waited, we boarded and Sarah was two rows ahead of me and my damn backpack wouldn’t fit under the seat in front of me. It was something weird about how the seats were set up so that there was a metal bar right in the middle of my little area, giving me about a hand’s width of space to work with. Luckily, though, none of the flight attendants seemed to notice so I didn’t have to put it up in the overhead compartment. Madeline, a girl on the trip who I actually only talked to much later (but I am technically writing this in the future, so, y’know, whatever), sat in front of me and some…guy that didn’t speak very good English sat next to me. He was with the guy sitting next to Madeline. Probably on a business trip or something, though at one point the evil German stewardess, for this is what we dubbed her later, asked if we were traveling together. I…don’t really know why. Maybe she thought we were both morons and so must know one another. Dunno, we never even talked or anything. Even when he had to go to the bathroom—I was in one of the two aisle seats in the middle row we were sitting in—I just got up without him having to ask. I mean, when the person next to you starts getting up, you kinda figure you should jump up and do them the courtesy of not forcing them to climb over you. And he only had to get up twice. It was a ten hour flight and he only got up twice. Okay, yes, I’ll admit, I only ever got up twice, too, but that was a mistake since everything from my waist down started getting numb and/or extremely antsy.
But more on the evil German stewardess! Now, maybe she was just having a bad day, but as a stewardess don’t you, y’know, think that maybe you should let the passengers sleep when they damn well please? Both me and the man next to me were trying to take a little snooze and then she pops up to hand out little drinks and bags of something mix. Not that I mind getting something to eat and drink on a plane, but it’s a ten hour flight. Maybe some people are too stupid to do so, but I brought snacks. Really, sleeping was more important to me at the time. I wouldn’t have had as much of a problem with her doing that if she hadn’t said: “Excuse me, excuse me! I’m talking to you!” Especially since she said it right after I had been jolted awake and was looking around frantically trying to figure out where the hell I was. And she was just being rude about it in general, so I decided from that point on that I really didn’t like her. But that’s okay, she didn’t like any of us either. Madeline was trying to get her attention once because she just kinda breezed right by when looking for trash to take a little while later and so she gave her a little poke in the ribs. She recoiled and kinda…snapped at Madeline, asking if something was wrong and then telling her to “just talk to me.” In more pleasant tones, this wouldn’t have been nearly as annoying, but she was being pretty rude about the whole thing. I can understand cultural differences, but she’s a stewardess on an international flight. I’m probably wrong to judge, but, like I said, she was pretty sour the entire ten hours and that does everything but make me sympathetic to her.
...and I still haven't written everything down. :P In my defense, however, I was so exhausted at the end of each day that I never managed to write very much. I only had half an hour to an hour at night to write anyway. Then it was dinner and then bed immediately after. What I DID manage to do, however, was jot down notes as a basis for writing about my trip to Italy later. Shortly after I got back, I actually did start writing, but I only got through the first two days and most of it was just about the planes and ranting about the attendants. That, and a lot of rambling. Luckily, the rest of my trip is logged in a journal, via the aforementioned short blurbs I managed to write down before dinner and notes for each day.
I have no excuse for not writing about my experiences during the remainder of the year, especially summer since I didn't have anything to do. I was just lazy, I guess. xP
In any case, now that a full year has gone past and Spring Break--my last Spring Break--is here again, I've decided to dedicate a blog to the week-long trip I took to Italy last year with my elder sister, Sarah, and all the other folks from U of A involved in the tour. Basically, I'll be making the posts on the days that coincide with what I did on those same dates a year ago. If that makes any sense. And then I'll put all of my pictures from that day on photobucket for all to admire and enjoy. It starts tomorrow with the strange ramblings I wrote last year about the plane. Boring, yes, but it was the first day of my trip so it counts and should be recorded.
Now all I have to do is go through my files and FIND said rambling. >_>
Edit: Just kidding, I found my travel log and it turns out we actually left on the 15th, not the 14th. Hah. xD I was confused because the -original- departure date was the 14th before everything got pushed back by a day. See? I'm not as scatterbrained as you think. Just a little bit.