Last Night

What did I do this last week?
Well I went to St. Peter's Basilica, which was the most amazing building I have ever been in; the statues, paintings and sheer magnitude of the basilica were amazing. I still cannot believe that people were able to build things like that so long ago. Everything from the floors up to the ceiling were expertly adorned with symbols and scenes from Catholicism.
Climbing to the top of the basilica was pretty awesome too. 551 steps up spiral staircases and strangely slanted steps to get to one of the greatest views in Rome.

We really did not have enough time in Florence. The lines for the Academia and Duomo were insanely long (3 hours or more) so those were pretty out of the question considering that the professors had already made reservations for a Museum (I keep forgetting which one) and our farewell dinner. Oh, well I guess I'll just have to go back someday. Florence was a pretty city, though not as pretty as I had imagined it to be. Maybe I'll appreciate it more when I'm older. At the moment though, I'm just looking forward to being home.

Caucasians

Have you guys seen The Big Lebowski? I was trying to tell the class at a bar that there was an astute allusion to the caucus mountains when "The Dude" was referring to white Russians as Caucasians. Anyway, I was just thinking what a relief it was that somebody shared the same sentiment about someone as I did about a night that did not go well (just look at one of my previous posts as in the one right before this one towards the end.) But I found out that maybe things weren't the way I pictured them to be because, admitidly from a less than reliable source at the time I was getting this story about how someone was kinda not nice. Anyway I'm kinda numb at this point, but I was glad to find out that I wasn't alone in my sentiment. Cool.

P. S. I got pulled in by the tie by some random chick at the bar (I made sure to seem really uncool at the last second so she let go cause I had no idea where she'd been, but it was still kinda cool, but I coulda done without. Italy is fun!)

It's the Weekend!

Thursday night was a great time for the most part. I got to spend my day making ratatouille for the entire group including our professors and one of their families. In total there ended up being about 25 people in the apartment. There was a sort of inner peace that came with methodically and calmly breaking down various vegetables; two hours I spent cutting eggplants, zucchini, tomatoes and onions. I threw in a little white win because I knew it would bring a little brightness to the relatively bland ingredients. Bennet, one of the professors brought over some chicken parmesan he made from scratch. A bunch of the guys made a great looking caprese salad for the entire group.

Bennet showed up early with his chicken parm and shot the breaze with us until the other people showed up. I get the feeling that he misses his college life and just had a great time drinkin' with a bunch of chill guys, making food and talking about ancient literature and, well, women. I'm told that, after a few glasses of wine and a Guiness, he told the guys that somebody's gotta get lucky sooner or later.

The dinner ended up being a success. People actually liked the ratatouille, which was a nice departure form the pasta, bread and cheese diet we've been living off of and Bennet's chicken parm almost put me in a coma because of how good it was in addition to the fact that I haven't had some sort of dead animal to put in my system for so long.

By the end of the dinner, a lot of the girls were a bit past tipsy and chatting with the professors. I got goaded into making desert for some of them who were a bit too impatient to wait for the others to finish their pasta (okay fine, if a pretty face tells me to cook I can hardly say no...) I tossed some (okay a lot of) butter into a pan along with some unknown amout of brown sugar and fresh, pitted cherries (all of which I had to pop myself *giggles*) and made a simple, artery clogging syrup. After that had just about come together, I threw in some Bacardi rum and lit the whole lot on fire. Actually the whole point of that dish was the flambe to impress the guests. Isn't that what a host is supposed to do? I served up the cherries royale over some creme gelato that Professor Evert brought over; tt ended up being a big hit. Even Evert told me "This brown goo with the cherries in it is delicious!"

After the dinner was complete and an innumerable number of dishes were piled into the sink, the girls invited us out to a pub, but because the other guys had previous engagments (which I was not privy to) I was the only one who ended up going who wanted to do something that night and let me tell you. Drama. I mean as soon as we left, there was drama because of a misunderstanding between the girls and one of the guys over plans for going out that night. Apparently they thought he was going behind their back with the other Geneseo group, who was doing the Hum I and II program in order to get some action (well, knowing something about this kid and his story with one of the gals, I could def see where these girls were coming from).

We brought two (large) bottles of cheap white back to their apartment and started the preparty. There I met one of the girl's sister, who was a gorgeous five foot seven blond of Czech decent, who was extremely personable (we'll call her E). I immediately felt my IQ drop 50 points as soon as she smiled at me, though I would like to think that I didn't show it. Her winsomeness would lead to some pretty heavy sister-sister drama later, but it was all good fun up until then.

We previously had plans to go on a pubcrawl in the Forum, but were late getting on the metro back to their apartment so we decide to hit up some pubs that they've heard of. Polishing off the last bottle of wine, we walked to Piazza Navona to one of the "dirty American" bars, where the drinks are strong and the beer is cheap. Along the way, E would say "ciao" to just about every guy she came within 20 feet to, which started to get her sister (we'll call her C) worried and a little angry.

We made our way to the bar and met up with some of the people from the other group. A couple of the girls from my group started chatting and introduced me as "the really good cook," which I'm perfectly happy to accept, especially since one of the gals, a supermodel-eque italian brunette (if she were taller, I could def see her as one) told me that "girls really go for that." It was a nice thing to hear coming from her, especially after a few Guiness were in me.

After we all were satisfied with drink and left the bar, the drama started. Apperently E had just talked to one too many guys (and was kissed by some italian boy), causing C to just go angry sister on her. At this point I also learned that I was that guy that C trusted enough with her baby sister to have me talk to her when she wasn't around (E is only a year younger than C). While it's nice to know that I'm good enough friend with C to do that, I can't say that I enjoy trying to console a distrought teenage girl who has her sister down her throat. It's like trying to pry apart two tigresses trying to rip each others' throats out, using only a small stick and a folding stool.

E told me to go back with the apartment with them cause she didn't want to be alone when her sister really started to tear her apart. To be honest, at that point I wanted to run the hell out of there, but at the same time I had certain amount of sympathy for her that I would at least stay for a bit. Thankfully they ended up "talking" things over in the lobby of the apartment building while me and a couple of the other girls "walked" up to the apartment, where we just waited for the whole thing to be over.

When they came back up, things had calmed down enough so that I was mildly comfortable with the environment; at least I was comfortable enough to fall asleep on the floor.

The next morning they got up early to share what I hope was a peaceful trainride to someplace where they and their mom and aunt were spending the weekend. At least I had a quiet metro ride back to the apartment, where I slept the entire 90 degree day away.

You Can't Stop Me, Mothertrucker, Cause I Saw the Pope!

The night preceding the morning to pope day was pretty cool. We all just sat around an apartment and socialized for a few hours, tossing back some brews or vino or very mixers made with jet-fuel. I stuck to Heineken. While that was fun, it also caused some of us to a little bit less than 100% the next day, making me think that somebody was probably going to pass out or have an involuntary protein spill midway through the Pope's blessing.
Also, it was HOT. I'm talkin' you step outside and you want to sweat, but your body is like, "Eff this" and just dies. Well, not quite, but it was painful sitting there for three hours, listening to the Pope talk about stuff in Italian.
A bunch of people left halfway through, their faces wrenched up in pain from the previous night. I decided to stay just because I was already about a medium well and thought I might as well go for a well done. Plus, I wanted to see the blessing.
A kind old lady behind me was so kind to give me her umbrella. I spent a good 5 minutes after the mass trying to thank her in Italian and she said something some strange language that threw me off. I thought she might have been from Sicily or something until she said, "Brah-Sil," making me realize that I was being an idiot for not noticing she was speaking Portuguese. I ended up just smiling a lot and saying "Gracias" for the umbrella.
After the ceremony I went with some of the gals to get some much needed Gelato at a really good Gelateria and started to make my sweaty trek home.

Vesuvo, Pompeii and the Beach

Going on a pub crawl the night before going to Vesuvius probably wasn't the best decision in the world, but thankfully the only indecency I succumbed to, to the dismay of everyone in the various clubs and bars we crawled to, was dancing my ass off everywhere we went, whether it be on the dance floor, on tables, platforms or oil drums. I'm also thankful that, unlike the girls in the group, I did not have to fend off creepy European guys.

After a two hour nap, which was surprisingly restful, we got on the bus for Vesuvius. I have to give it to our bus driver. He was a pro and handling that beast, taking us through hairpin turns on cliff's edge and expertly navigating the narrow, winding streets while avoiding other buses, bikes and pedestrians.
Reaching Vesuvius, we all got off the bus and made our way to the entrance to the gravelly climb to the summit, which consisted of a wooden shack selling various refreshments and trinkets (by this point I was jonesing for a cornetto, but wasn't going to shell out 3 euro for one.) Coots/Alex/Ryan/Giuseppe (0ne persone with many names) and I power-walked to the top, passing through sections of the path that gave us a great view of the Mediterranean and where the wind swept clouds over the trail, providing a cooling mist the the sweaty tourist.
Reaching the top, we found another wooden shack, selling much the same things as the shack at the bottom of the volcano. The view from here was pretty fantastic and I decided it would be best enjoyed with a plastic cup of wine.
From Vesuvius, we rode to our hotel, a small, cozy place about a hundred meters away from a Mediterranean beach. Immediately after setting my stuff down in the room and claiming a bed, I threw on my swim trunks and ran down to the smooth sand and warm waters. The sea stayed about knee deep for 20 meters in and did not go much deeper than that at the swimming boundary about 40 meters out.
The next day we went to Pompeii, about an hour away from our hotel. We lucked out by getting a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic tour guide who pointed out everything, from the tomb of his ancestor, to the castings they made of the original plant-life on Pompeii, which told them what to plant and where to recreate the site, pre-eruption. He also pointed the many ancient fastfood joints, dubbing them "McRomas", and the brothels, which had falic arrows pointing the way to these houses of pleasure. We visited the most famous brothel, or lupenaria (refering to the house as one of she-wolves), which had a kind of illustrated menu of "specialties" (Yeah, could I get a number 3, a number 7 with some fries on the side? Thanks.)
There was a lot of ancient graffiti on the lupenaria about the various girls and their reputations. One of them was a warning in latin about one poor working girl how got the clap and another recomended a professional...well our tour guide wouldn't tell us what her speicalty was, but Professor Everet, being pedagogue we is was so kind to do his best translating the latin phrase and told us that "Well, I can't make out the whole thing, but the second word is 'job'." (Of course he was joking.)
Getting back to the hotel, everybody made a mad dash for the beach. I actually decided to run the beach a little bit and got a bunch of strange looks (maybe it was because I was the only guy NOT in a speedo.) I actually got harassed by a very wrinkly, middle-aged Italian woman. Guess they get pissed when somebody is just trying to stay in shape.
After the sun started to set and the water started getting chilly I hung around the pool with some of the gals, who were trying to even out their tans in the fading light. I spent the hours between then and dinner eating mozzarella cheese and drinking wine with professor Bennet, conversing about food preparation and eating by the pool. I think he's a really cool guy.
That night was filled with wine drinking and singing on the beach. It was great to just chill out on a beach with about 10 liters of wine and a guitar, singing American songs, listening to the waves gently washing up on the beach and enjoying the salty night air.
After draing almost all of the wine, a couple of the gals and I were terribly hungry and decided to raid the kitchen for sustenance. I'm in debted to the management for leaving the keys in the locked kitchen door. Scavenging for something not too complicated to prepare, we ended up making away with a couple bottles of mineral water and some toast. Not a bad score, considering we did it in a near pitch black kitchen.
The next morning, some of us woke up in a haze, while other woke up just plain hungry. I was part of the latter, rushing down to the breakfast buffet and eatching just about anything I could get my hands on. We went to some Greek ruins in Paestam, which were none too exciting and got back on the bus to for Rome.

Castel Sant Angelo, Serrento and Capri (and Boots)

We went to Saint Angelo's Castle last Thursday as a class. I have not ceased to be amazed by the architecture of these places. The first thing we saw when we walked past the formidable castle walls was another towering structure of brick and mortar. We walked through the narrow passages and up the even narrower staircases, stopping into rooms to see whatever artwork was kept therein and getting yelled at by those people who are payed to harass tourists who try to take pictures.
When we got to the top, we were treated to another great view of Rome. From the top we could also see a lot of the stairs and walkways that made the castle so castle-like. We just hung around the top for a while, talking about class and the trip and what we thought we were going to do for the rest of our time in Rome. One of the girls made a comment about the fact that "we get to just chill on top of a castle in Rome talking about what we are going to have for dinner," a reminder of just how lucky we all were to be there.

It was our second weekend in Italy and we decided to take a trip to Serento and Capri to see some of the Italian beaches and the Mediterranean. Getting there was a little brutal; sitting on a train in the hot Italian sun for seven hours was not my idea of fun, but hey I'm going to fricken beach so I don't really get to complain. We lucked out when we got to Serento because the owner of the hostel we were supposed to stay at overbooked, so she set us up in an even nicer place in the heart of Serento (plus she gave us a discount on a very decent restaurant nearby, making me very very happy!)
Serento was a very nice tourist town with a lot of small streets lined with pubs and small restaurants. There was a main street that was closed off to motor vehicles and where all of the ritzy little stores were.
The next day we went down to the port to catch a ferry to Capri. The weather was perfect and the water was beautiful, even in the harbor. There were schools of these little, colorful tropical fish just relaxing by the docks, which I thought was a testament to how great the water was.
The ferry ride was a short 25 minutes and was delightfully rocky (as in the boat was rocking side to side; there were thankfully no rocks to speak of. Sorry Dana) and we got a great view of some of the surrounding coastline.
When we got to Capri, the first thing we did was head over to a very small, rocky (this time yes, the hard thingys) beach and swan around in the Med (the very very cold Mediterranean) for a while and soaked up some rays, something that someone I know would call cancer; I just did not care. I was on an Italian beach on an island in the Med. The water was, again, beautiful. It was not crystal clear like the some of the waters in the bahamas, but it nontheless looked pristine. I guess it was the blue-ness of it that looked like it had a hint of turquoise dripped into it. I was looking through the surface of the water about 20 meters of the shore and saw a lobster just walking along the bottom. That crustacean was lucky because had I had my goggles, it would have been dinner. I'm not kidding. We had a pot and a stove back at the hostel and I was hungry for something other than pasta!
From the beach, we took a trolley ride up to the top of one of the mountains to a very ritzy part of town, where the brands were exclusive and the prices would put a hurtin' on anyone's wallet short of those who could actually afford to own their own island. We explored this very affluent part of town for a bit before deciding that it was time to head back down to the beach. As oneof the guys put it, "I feel like I'm losing money just being here."
Back on the beach we found the girls tanning on the beach, flipping over in a domino-like fashion, much the way you would flip burger on a grill. They chided us for not visiting the Blue Grotto, but when all you get is three minutes in a cove for 25 euro, I'll pass. I know some of you guys wouldn't put a price on something so unique, but I just didn't think that I was going to get enough wow for my buck (or rather euro.)
Having had enough of the island we tried to catch a ferry back to Serento, but not thinking ahead, or thinking ahead too far, we got round trip tickets, which forced us to wait another three hours on the island. The guys and I used that time to philosophize about the true meaning of virtue. No bull; we were honestly trying to find an answer. I'm not going to write it here because it was extremely long-winded and not worth the effort in my opinion.
When we finally got back to Serento, we met the girls for dinner where I had a very delicious pasta dish and several glasses of wine. After finishing, some of the girls took us to a pub near their hostel where they served beer and other refreshments in a glass boot (anyone see beerfest?) A whole 2 liters of whatever beer or cocktail you wanted. The owners of the bar were very accomadating, putting on some American hip-hop and giving us our own private imbibing room (probably to keep us from annoying the other customers because were got kind of loud after the 5th boot of cocktails. Mind you this was after each of us drank several glasses of wine. Also there were 12 of us.)
For our final drink we decided to have a little competition betweeen the guys (four of us) against the girls (eight of them) in seeing who could down a boot of hard cider first. The barkeep was happy to oblige our little competition by putting us in the front room and refereeing the contest. The girls got a head start and were done with about two thirds of a liter by the time we got our boot, but we as men had our pride on the line so each one of us dug deep to our frat boy nature and ended up dominating the girls by a near quarter liter. A proud day for men everywhere.
We stumbled out of the bar, taking some of the girls home when we got pulled into a club. This part was a little hazy for obvious reasons, but it was a great club. The bar was stocked with nicely with top shelf spirits, although everyone undoubtly went with beer and "what is the cheapest damn drink you got." The club was open air and saw nicely in a courtyard. The music was not too loud and there were a lot of Americans there just enjoying themselves. I just relaxed at a table, talking to some of the guys and gals of our group and having a good time. I overheard some people behind me talking about how great it was to be here and, being a bit more inclined at this point to talk to strangers, I turned around and interjected, somewhat rudely, but was received without offence. I ended up chatting with an attractive red-headed California girl about school and the programs we were participating in when I mentioned that we were going to Florence in a couple weeks, at which point she stopped me and told me to take down her number. I quickly borrowed one of my friend's phones and enthusiasticly punched it in under "Amanda (redhead)". Her friends quickly wisked her away from our table, at which point I got many congratulations from the group, some more bawdy than others. I admit I was kind of proud at that moment.
Heading back from the club, we picked up some gelato and made our way back into our hostel, where we fell into a deep sleep, not quite looking forward to being back in Rome the next day.

There is so Much Fricken Stuff to See!

Oh, baby a double post day! Well, I gotta make up for missing a day.

So today was pretty fricken amazing. The awesome-ness began when we ate at a restaurant that served homemade gnocchi, which were tender, but not mushy so probably some of the best gnocchi I've ever had. We went to the Trevi Fountain, which was a LOT cooler than I thought it would be. I mean friggin carved marble statues and columns that were huge and rushing water. I think that's what made it. The sound of the rushing water with the grandeur of the marble structure made it so grand and almost mystical. I had previously received proper instruction as to how to toss a coin into the fountain so I guess I did it right, which means I'm going to be back some time (mom...can I have like 5000 Euros?)

From the Trevi, we made our way down to the Pantheon, which again, BLEW MY MIND. It such an amazing building on the inside. I couldn't imagine how grand it must have been back then when it was first built to have so much open space in a building made out of concrete and marble. Also the light shining in through the top of the dome was so beautiful it was like the light of God shining into the edifice. I also snapped some pics of Rafael's tomb. To think that a ninja turtle was entombed here is just so nuts (I'm joking; Don't worry!)

The last stop on the trip was made just because I looked on the map and said, "That looks pretty big, let's go there." I was saying this about the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, which turned out to be a lot cooler than I thought (just look at the pictures, man, and those don't even do it justice.) So, fine I don't know anything about Vittorio Emanuele II aside that he was the first king of a united Italy (thanks Wikipedia!) so I guess he was a pretty important guy (maybe...) We walked about halfway up the monument, taking extra care not to offent the guards carrying the assault rifles and guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier. Now the view halfway up was spectacular, but taking the elevator up the very top was definitely worth the 8 euro. I cold see ALL of Rome. I'm not kidding (again check out the pics.) It was the coolest thing. I could see the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Vatican, the Forum, a bunch of stuff I've never even heard of, everything! It was probably the highlight of the trip so far. I felt like the king of Italy standing on top of that monument, which was probably the effect they were going for.

So today was great! I'm excited for the rest of the trip when I can do little stuff, like explore some of the Piazzas. I still also have to visit the Coliseum and the Forum and Saint Angelo's Castle.

Also I'm taking a weekend trip to Capri where I want to see those coves and rocks (and maybe lay out on the beach a little bit.)