Hvratska

Whoever said Croatia is Europe's hidden treasure was so right. I guess I am a little biased because I got the insiders tour of the north part from a Croatian but hey, it just means I got a taste of the real place. If you haven't guessed by now I went with Andrej and we stayed at his house in Rijeka. It was so cool to get a glimpse of where he grew up and to meet his family and friends, literally all of them (except Dino, if I spelled his name right).


Anyway, I took the train to Trieste where I met Andrej and his dad and we drove through Slovenia (where my passport was stamped! YEAH!) and into Croatia. If the borders were as easy to cross into America... I don't even know what chaos would ensue... but now that I have gotten a little of topic (at least in my brain) lets continue. So Andrej's dad dropped us off where Andrej grew up and we met up with his mom and her husband. I also met his mom's parents who live in the downstairs of the house. Andrej's grandfather (who speaks Croatian, German, English, and Italian) started talking to me in Italian... I failed miserably but it's ok. Oh and his wife speaks Russian and Croatian. Impressive right? After a brief time together Andrej's parents headed to their house and Andrej and I passed out (ok we talked and stuff until like 3 but that's ok).

yeah you know that looks great

The next day we got up fairly early and went around Kvarner (the area where Rijeka is), got lunch at this great restaurant with a view in Kastav, took a ferry and ended up on Cres (one of the large islands in the sea by Rijeka). Okay, I can't just graze over that lunch because it was amazingggg! Basically we ordered the mixed meats platter for two and it was perfect. But don't take my word for it, here's a visual :) 
The original plan involved swimming and hiking but due to the time, freezing temperature of the water, and purely wanting to soak in the atmosphere, we ended but just hanging out in the actual city of Cres. Basically we laid around on the beach, did some gymnastics (rather I did some handstands and cartwheels), and got some yummy ice cream bars (and mine definitely won the best ice cream of the two award) before taking the ferry back to Rijeka. I think this was the night we decided to watch a movie... and choose the Hangover because neither of us had seen it. No offense to anyone who likes that movie but it is horrible...


Now this next day was unreal, but before I get to the main place we went I want to throw in that we headed inland from the sea and bam! Mountains! Beautiful, tall, mountains. On the way to our main objective of the day, we stopped at this cute little cabin to have lunch with Andrej's dad's parents. They speak no English, no Italian, only Croatian... let's just say poor Andrej became the translator. However, we were still able to communicate fairly well. His grandmother even remembered me from when she came the America to take care of Andrej while his parents were away. Weird right? They were so sweet though.

NOW for the main attraction of the day: Nacionalni park Plitvička jezera (or in english Plitvice Lakes National Park). This place is so incredibly beautiful. Take the rainforest feel of Costa Rica and mix that with the Mediterranean and perfectly clear water, waterfalls everywhere, and rainbows and that's sort of like what this place is like. I originally found out about it from this list of 40 places you have to see before you die (Number 16  http://www.boredpanda.com/amazing-places-to-see-before-you-die/) And for some more visuals...

I would recommend that anyone who can get here, GO. It is so cool. You walk around, under, and along the waterfalls (that are literally everywhere) on these flattened wood log walkways, some of which are covered in water. Oh! And the water is completely clear. It almost looks like there isn't any. For more pictures go on Facebook. I have so many.
Here is the website http://www.np-plitvicka-jezera.hr/hrv/ to the park. Check it out!

When we got back to Rijeka from the epic day in the National Park, we stopped and got some food (some stew thingy which was really good). Then we called it a night.

The next day we got lunch with Andrej's mom and her husband which was grilled meat. YUM. That stuff was great. Although the honey flavored liquor at the end was rough... After that we took a drive around the bay (i think that's what you call the area, regardless it was Kvarner) and went to this cool look out on the top of the hill. We walked around, took some pictures, and got coffee while watching and narrating a sailboat race. Then we went to a beach close by and just enjoyed the day. It was nice because right when we were about to leave we got to hear this really cool Croatian band. The style of music is like a mixture of Hawaiian and barber shop quartet (yeah figure that one out :P). Then that night Andrej and I headed over to Matija's (Andrej's friend) house to watch the Chelsea-Munich game. After Chelsea won, (WOO) there was an epic jam session since they are all musicans. Oh, it was most of Andrej's closest friends. I won't even try to spell their names... but there were three of them, Andrej, and me. It was a lot of fun.

The next day, we got up and I got a tour of Rijeka's city center, where Andrej went to high school, etc. Then we picked up Matija and drove to a lake where we took some photos, I caught a frog and then freaked out because I thought it was poisonous for a second, climbed a hill with weird wood structures, and hung out. Then we headed back because Andrej and I had a lunch scheduled with his dad and family. We had grilled fish and it was so tasty! Oh and it was Dodo's birthday :) (their doggy) I actually really liked the fish too. Complicated to clean since I hadn't done so before but luckily Andrej took pitty on me and did it for me after I struggled for a while. Before heading back to pack so I could catch a night train back to Bologna, we went up to this fort on the hill which gave a nice overview of the city. Totally worth it.


I seriously loved Croatia and by the end I understand why people don't want to work their. It's just too beautiful to do work! I was also learning a lot of the language pretty quickly although I am always so afraid of pronouncing things wrong... but hey it's ok. I'll get there. Now I need to convince my family to go visit :)

The 5..err... I mean 3 cities...Cinque Terre

Sadly this awesome trip was cut short by a stupid train strike, but more on that adventure later.

Cinque Terre was a different experience for me. I mean besides being an Italian city on the coast and another awesome place I traveled to, this trip was focused on relaxing and just soaking in the atmosphere (and the sun, as my burned body can attest to) rather than site seeing. Also, this was the first trip that I went on with a different group of Dickinson students. Now, not that I don't love everyone I have traveled with in the past but getting to spend some time with different people, by choice, was really nice and we had an awesome time. For those of you who don't know what the Cinque Terre is, its the north western coast of Italy in the region called Liguria (where Genova is) and is a set of 5 towns connected by a walking path. The best part about this area is that it is only recently a tourist attraction (made popular by Rick Steves) and therefore retains a lot of it's sea side small town feel. http://maps.google.it/maps?hl=it&tab=wl see where it says Genova? Zoom in and when you see La Spezia, go to the coast, that's where the towns are. The five towns are (in order) Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare. This past fall, the towns were damaged really badly by a landslide, in fact the only way to get between some of the towns now is the train. With that being said, let the adventure begin.

Riomaggiore

Most of us took the 6 am train to La Spezia and then to Riomaggiore and arrived around 10 am. We checked into our hostel (which with seven of us in a room kind of ended up giving us an apartment to ourselves, awesome!) The hostel was located in the center of Riomaggiore, or rather the main office was located there and the rooms were all over Riomaggiore, and we planned to stay Fri-Sun. So, after checking into the hostel, and while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive, we headed to the beach, which was all rocks. Big rocks, little rocks, funny shaped rocks, you get the idea... From sunbathing, to rock jumping, to swimming with the jellyfish, we just spent hours there and finally headed back to the hostel (now with the entire group) around 5 to shower and get dressed for dinner. Seafood of course! Apparently the specialties in Liguria are pesto, seafood, and foccacia. I had all of them and it was epic. After a fun filled dinner and being joined by another group of Dickinson students who happened to go when we did, we grabbed some wine, sweatshirts, and a guitar and headed to the beach to hang out and just enjoy the night. It was seriously an awesome experience.

getting lost in a vineyard is not so bad

After some much needed rest, we got up fairly early and planned to hike the 5 towns. Now remember how there was the landslide? Well, the easy paths between the 2nd town and the third as well as the paths from the 3rd to 4th to 5th were all closed, but the hard ones were open! Okay then, we walked the coastal path to town 2 (Manarola) and then followed the signs to the path for Corniglia, and headed straight uphill for a little over an hour when we reached a road. Now we had the choice to either take the road to the next town (between Manarola and Corniglia) or go up hill more into a vineyard where the path continued... we chose up. Strangely enough, after getting to the top of the mountain, in the middle of a vineyard, the path mysteriously disappeared... so we had to find our way through the vineyards. Okay freeze frame, we got lost, in a vineyard, in Italy, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, is my life even real? Anyway, after hoping some metal tracks, climbing under grape vines, going down random ladders, and finding the real path again, we made it out and to the next part of the path. The next part of the trail was flat which was nice and went through the woods. I swear it looked like the Adirondacks! Aka, I felt at home :) After an hour of that we spent an hour going downhill to Corniglia. Once there we grabbed some much needed lunch and decided that we were going to take the train to the fourth town, get gelato, and take the train to the fifth town and were going to swim there until we got tired and wanted to go back to Riomaggiore.


Sadly, when we got to the fourth town train station the rumors we had heard were confirmed... a train strike was going to take place from 9 pm that night until 9 pm Sunday night, aka if we didn't catch the next train out of Riomaggiore we would be stranded until Monday... I think we could have found a solution but the next train out was in an hour... and we had to pack and catch the train, if we missed it we were in trouble. Oh and we had no internet, no working ticket machines, and the desk people were NOT helpful so we had no time to find an alternative. So we ran back to the hostel then to the train station. We were really sad because we had paid for the second night, didn't see the last two towns, didn't get to go snorkeling (like we had planned), and dealt with some stressful situations rather than a relaxed time... but I think the trip was awesome regardless and I guess it means I just need to go back :)

Toscana

Dickinson did good. They took us to Monteriggioni, Siena, Piacenze, and Greve (along with some minor places along the way) but that's not even how they did awesome, it was the stories behind some of the places we went, Ben (our Art Historian pretend tour guide), and the overall experience of being in what I thought Italy was going to be like.

View from our window

1. We stayed in this ex-monastery (Sant' Anna in Camprena) that has become a refuge for travelers and those who want to escape reality for a while. Being there I can totally see why. The scenery was unbelievable and the atmosphere was perfect. For either a future anniversary or honeymoon or something I will go back with a significant other/husband, because that place is the closest thing I have experienced that can be called paradise. Oh, and on top of that, this place has a rule... if you stay there you have to stay at least 2 nights, but I mean, who would argue with that? Also, this is where they filmed parts of the movie "The English Patient" Fun Fact right? Oh and they fed us delicious food. As usual.

Mona Lisa View

2. We went and did a wine tasting at Villa Vignamaggio which also has some sweet stories about it. The Mona Lisa was originally painted there (yes by da Vinci) so the landscape was unreal and slightly familiar at the same time. Now the story behind Mona Lisa is pretty cool. So, some bandits owned this villa, but due to money issues the man was forced to sell it, and his daughter, Mona, to this other guy. Well the man she married decided to commission a painting by Leonardo da Vinci of his wife Mona and it is called in Italian "La Gioconda" because the husband's last name was Gioconda! Cool right? Also, the gardens behind the villa are where the movie "Much Ado About Nothing" by Kenneth Branagh was filmed. Pretty cool, especially since I have seen that movie! Another thing that was cool about this Villa was our tour guide/wine tasting leader. He and I are totally getting married. Handsome, knowledgeable, knows his wines, I think I am set :P (That was the joke of the day, every girl loves him)

Much Ado About Nothing Gardens

3. Siena had some incredible frescoes of good and bad government as well as an awesome panoramic view (that us history majors found) because the sign said down to exit, up for panoramic view, how much time do we have? none, ok RUN. (that was our decision process and we ran all the way up the winding stairs). However, what made Siena, and a lot of the educational parts of the trip great were Ben. He is a professor at Lewis and Clark College/University and Professor Davidson's Cousin. He knows so much about art history and the way he talks about it makes people want to know more. I don't know how to describe his style but in a nutshell, think about what your favorite teacher's style/qualities/knowledge/etc are and that's the feeling I get when I listen to Ben talk. I mean I have always liked art history, but he just makes it something so powerful and for lack of better words, cool.

I loved Tuscany. I hope I get the opportunity to go back someday. Thank you Dickinson, you did well. Without you I wouldn't have been able to get to most of the places we went.

The Emerald Island.

4 days. It took me four days to fall in love with the place. I only went to Dublin, Belfast, and the Giant's Causeway and fell in love. Unbelievable. Please play this song (and then the successive playlist of the same artist or play The Dubliners because they rock as well) while you read because it will put you in the perfect mood for my Irish shenanigans that will follow :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPsuOEH1fY

Yeahhh buddy! Look at that 

The adventure started in Bologna where Ed and I took a train to Verona, then a bus to the airport, and then a plane to Dublin. When we FINALLY got there we were starved so we checked into our conveniently located hostel (literally a few minutes away from Trinity College and Temple Bar) and walked to a close pub called O'Neill's which turned out to be a famous pub. Win. We got our first Irish meal of Shepard's pie and a Guinness. Now that meal instantly hooked me on the country. I mean my mom makes a mean Shepherd's pie and this one stuffed me to the core with pure goodness.


Anyway, after getting our fill of yummy yummy food (and laying around in the pub for a little) we decided to explore the city a little and head out to Temple Bar (the bar district) where we went to THE Temple Bar, tried some cider, and then headed out to wander some more. We consumed some cookies, got into a club for free, and people watched like it was our job. I can't even describe this one white guy who was creeping on some girls from afar being mimicked by some asian guy. It was quite entertaining. Then we called it a night as we had a jam packed day the next morning.


Day 2 was even more hectic. We had a few things we wanted to see before catching a bus to Belfast, so we got up night and early and headed to Trinity College to check out the Book of Kells and some other really cool Illuminated Manuscripts. I was super excited when I found that they were in Dublin because my Art History class last semester talked about them. I love seeing a lot of the places and artworks that I have learned about because it's just so surreal. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed so I can't share the awesome, BUT the internet can! Enjoy: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram.jpg/220px-KellsFol034rChiRhoMonogram.jpg

After that we headed to the Guinness Storehouse to take the tour and get our free Guinness with admission. The museum is seriously cool. Lots of things to touch, very technologically advanced, and overall visually epic. I recommend people check it out if in Dublin. Also, the top definitely has the best view of Dublin in the city. OH! And you have the opportunity to try and pour your own, there is a waterfall inside, and the history of the beer is interesting in itself. When we were enjoying the view and drinking out beers at like noon, Ed and I both attempted to get foam mustaches... I failed. He however totally got it to work. Haha, very entertaining.


Time out. A note about our roommates in the hostel in Dublin. Two were from Australia (the girl was in Ireland for the Nationals of Irish Dancing...) and two Americans. Small world. They were all really nice. I guess that's all I wanted to say... awkward...


Then it was back to the Hostel, packing up, grabbing the Bus to Belfast and just enjoying the trip to Belfast.


Belfast. I really liked Belfast because it had that English influence that Boston has but is still very much Irish. When we finally arrived (the bus ride was about 2.5 hours or so) it was close to closing time for a lot of the places in Belfast which was not leaving us a lot of time to do things (everything closes by 5pm in Ireland...grrr). We checked in at our hostel and by the time we had done that mostly everything was closed so we just wandered around Belfast and grabbed some food. I had mashed potatoes and ham which was delicious as usual and we even got a dessert of vanilla ice cream with Bailey's on it. Then we wandered again. Belfast at night is really cool. Ed got some really sweet pictures and I wish I had brought my nice camera to say I have some of my own. Then we decided to head to sleep early because we had to be up really early for our Giant's Causeway Tour the next morning. Oh, first of all, the front desk guy was awesome. He knew a lot of interesting information and in general was chill to talk to. Although our first experience with him involved us not being allowed to bring Fish and Chips into the hostel... awkward, but afterwards he turned out to be awesome. Also, the two girls we shared a room with were from Spain. Let's just say it was fun listening to Ed and them speak Spanish, understanding generally what they were talking about and not being able to respond. Man, I wish I still took Spanish. Beautiful culture and language. Oh well.

There was one main thing in Northern Ireland I knew I had to do and that was the Giant's Causeway. Man was it worth every cent. Speaking of cents. Northern Ireland is in Sterling. Woo! New currencies. Threw me off again though having to convert all the prices to euros and dollars. But that's a different topic for later on. Giant's Causeway. We got onto this really nice bus, right outside our hostel (I know perfect planning), and traveled along the Coastal Causeway Road along the northeastern coast of Ireland where we made several stops. The first being Carricksfergus Castle. Basically for only picture taking opportunities but the Castle was cool looking, there was a Jack Sparrow statue, and it was raining. Then we headed further up the coast and the sun started to break through just as we got to the Carrick-a-rede Bridge. Now this bridge was built by Salmon fisherman to get across this crater? ditch? umm... cavern? anyway, the bridge is a rope bridge and kinda shaky.. and Ed is terrified of heights. BUT he was awesome, and crossed that sucker twice! I loved it. The views were also unbelievable. See?

After that we made a quick stop at Dunlace Castle and took some pictures of the ruins that were once a castle on a hill. From there we went to the Bushmill Distillery for lunch. The fish and chips were very yummy as was the rocky road bar thing I had for dessert. There was this woman who was traveling on the same tour as us and started asking me if I was getting good photos. After affirming that I was she told me she was a travel agent, her camera was dying, and was hoping I could send her the best of the day. So, when I returned to Bologna I emailed her a bunch of photos. Who knows? My photos may be used in her Atlanta, Georgia agency! Cool right?


Then FINALLY we reached the Giant's Causeway. This was one really cool place. The rocks are shaped like hexagons and they form this really sweet looking wave going out towards the ocean (which in the distance you can see an Island with 40 inhabitants and tons of Puffins :) and past that Scotland!). We climbed around taking pictures for about an hour and a half and Ed even found the wishing chair I couldn't find! I was mildly impressed :P

I feel like pictures are the only thing that do this place justice... so here are some!












After getting our fill of this awesome place (more photos are on facebook) we headed back to Belfast and went to sleep. The next morning we had to get up early again to try and fit in the things we wanted to do before heading back to Dublin.


We got up early enough to get to City Hall where we wandered around a little (we couldn't take the tour because it wasn't until later) and then headed towards the Titanic Museum which had just opened earlier in the month. I thought it was also really cool. A lot of different mediums and technologies were used. My only complaint would be that there were little to no actual artifacts. Just a lot of reconstructions which I guess makes sense. Really that's a nit-picky thing to bring up because there was so much information and some many interactive elements. I think my favorite one was the three dimensional room that took you on a tour of the ship or the room with the excavations of the ship. Overall, the museum was really well done. From there we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our stuff, and caught the next bus to Dublin. We also accomplished (kinda) our goal of collecting all the sterling coins that made up the cool coat of arms on the back.


Now when we reached Dublin again, we had an epic race to see a few things before they closed and being that it was Friday, the times were even earlier. Our last day in Dublin was a whirlwind because as I have said, everything closes around 5, and being Friday everything closed by 4:45. Let’s just say we had almost no time at all to try and fit in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the National Library, plus we had to check in at our new hostel.  However, the champs that we are, we saw the Cathedral AND got into the Library AFTER it closed. Ed seriously has some persuasive abilities slash the man who worked there was super nice. Basically, we showed up 7 minutes after it closed, thinking that it closed at 5 not 4:45, and the guy told us they were closed and that we should come back tomorrow. We told him we were leaving on an early flight the next morning and couldn’t. So he said “fine, but we have to be quick!” It was awesome he acted like a tour guide and was telling us all the famous people that had read there and whatnot then ask if we wanted a picture so of course we said yes! He was awesome.

St. Patrick’s is worth mentioning because of its gorgeous stained glass, collection of old flags, and overall how beautiful it was. I wish we had more time in it.  After the Library (which was after the Cathedral), we checked out the Oscar Wilde house and statue, both which we just a quick look from the outside as the house is not open to the public and the statue is in a park. It was cool to know he lived there. If I get back to Ireland I would love to do the literary tour in Dublin and the music tour. They seemed really cool.

I want to go back. There is so much more to experience on that little island and I didn’t get to really know the people, which I have heard are the best part. Guess I will be going back!

Here is Ed's Blog too if you want to here his take on the trip, just look under Ireland. There are three posts. http://ekewaka11.wordpress.com/

Beautiful Chaos

So, just for some background there are a few things you all should know before I go into talking about my trip to Rome.

1.  I strongly dislike cities. I like visiting them. I think there are positive things about them, but I prefer my    nature and fewer people. Cities smell, they have thick air, etc.

2.  I hate tourists even though technically… I am one. 

3. I am not a fan of huge spaces with lots of people (which is kind of a combination of the above things)

Those being said, I thought I might dislike Rome despite the amazing history preserved there. However, to my surprise (a welcomed one) I loved it a lot. At night it is peaceful, reflective, enchanting… but above all it’s like a time portal. You can actually imagine yourself in Ancient Rome when you wander at night after everyone (aka tourists) has called it a night. I got to see the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Emmanuel Monument, and the Coliseum in this peaceful state. Oh! And the scale of the monuments is breath taking. Look at the picture of me in the entrance of the Pantheon at night. Oh my goodness. I am so tiny and insignificant. 

It’s strange. Most of the others places I have been were amazing but pictures have done an awesome job of making them look like they do in real life. Rome wasn’t like that at all. Everything was so much more amazing than anything I have seen photo wise or media wise. I actually could imagine what it would have looked like in its Hay day. But, at the same time, I have no idea what it would have looked like besides the overwhelming feeling that it would have been incomparable and so incredibly magnificent. Words stink. I can’t even do it justice in my explanation of it!

Well now that I have completely gone off track I can’t write everything I did in detail because honestly this post would be wayyy too long, but I want to highlight some things.

The first night I was there, Derek, his roommate Tom, and I went for pizza then wandered the center of the city at like 1 am. It was a great way to start my adventure. Oh, and some more reference, I was staying with Derek outside the center of Rome. His apartment was awesome. It smelled like Hawaii outside his building, was a residential area, and they had a sweet balcony. And on top of that, his roommates were pretty awesome :).  He had the ideal situation. Living outside the tourist center but close enough to go in whenever. Perfect. It’s the “real” Italy experience. They even made friends with a local Roast place.  

The second day (Friday), Derek and I did all the major historic things and I hit up the Capitoline Museum (which I will discuss more later). We did Circus Maximus, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Coliseum. We also just generally wandered and I got to see Derek’s school. They have a really great view of Rome from their roof. I wish the Coliseum was still in its grandeur. It would have been sooo incredible. Horrible in the way it was used but incredible to behold. It’s weird with the Hunger Games having just come out and then seeing where the “real” historic place and events, that I am sure inspired the story, took place. Kind of makes me want to see the movie. Or watch Ben Hur or Gladiator. I know cruel and horrible but so incredibly interesting. Man was I born in the wrong era.

Alright now I want to focus a little bit on the Capitoline Museum because not only does it have some of the most historic statuses and works known to man, but it had this unreal temporary exhibit of the Vatican’s Secret Archives. Man was it cool. "Lux in Arcana" as the exhibit was called had one of the coolest collections of incredible documents I have ever seen. Many of them were from the Pope of the time (which depends on when the documents were written) but some were unexpected. Here is a list to blow your mind: Galileo, Hirohito, Martin Luther, the ruler of the Safavid Dynasty, Michelangelo, il-Khan of Persia, some in Italian Vernacular, dowager Empress Wang, the Ojibwe Indians, al-Murtada the caliph of Morocco, Mozart, Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln both during the Civil War but on opposite sides, Alexis I Romanov, House of Commons, the deed to try and annul Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon with the seal of each signer (which there were a lot of), the Golden Bull, Constantine, Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius II, Pope Innocent X against the Westphalia Peace, Boniface VII, the floor plan of the Sistine Chapel including the placement of the Cardinals in it, the document formally ending the schism, Humanae Salutis, Voltaire, Copernicus, the defeat of the Turks at Vienna, the last Crusade, the interrogation documents of the Knight's Templar, Christina di Svezia, Mary Stuart, Marie Antoinette, Empress Elizabeth of Austria, a 1582 calendar missing 10 days, the formal recognition of Cambridge as a University, and the list goes on. These were the ones I either knew of or found interesting enough to write down. No pictures were allowed unfortunately but I recommend, if you are in Europe between now and September, that you should definitely go see it.

The third day I was on my own as Derek headed to Orvietto for a school trip. I took the opportunity (after very little sleep and walking ALL day the day before) to sleep until 10 am. It felt great. Anyway, I had a list of things I wanted to see and made a plan: National Museum, Borghese Gardens, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, and then back to Derek’s. And if I was not too tired I had some other ambitious places to attempt. Unfortunately I was exhausted so skipped the Church with Michelangelo’s Moses Statue (Church of Peter’s Martyrdom?) and the Ara Pacis (which was expensive and far away). I’m not too upset. There is way too much in Rome for me to see it all. Anyway, the National Museum was unbelievable. It had so many famous works I had learned about in art history last semester like the Discus thrower and Livia’s Garden Room fresco. They were SO much better in person.  Don’t worry I took plenty of photos. After spending a good amount of time in the museum I headed to the Borghese Gardens (which are MASSIVE) and had lunch under a tree while a jazz player serenaded the entire area. PERFECT. There were balloons, a little train, two person covered bikes, pony rides, and people everywhere hanging out, playing, eating, etc. The Spanish Steps were beautiful as well but much more underwhelming because of the amount of people there. The Pantheon, which I had previously seen from the outside at night, was just as powerful during the day, but much more crowded. The inside is very beautiful and cool with the hole at the top and hey Rafael is buried there! Anyway, I decided to take a Rick Steve’s suggestion for this slushy coffee with whipped cream thing around the corner. Well worth the 2 euro :) I would add something to his suggestion though, mix the whipped cream and the slush and BAM! Delicious. OH! And I also visited the Trevi Fountain again during the day (much more beautiful at night by the way) and tossed a coin in and made a wish :P

The Vatican. This city, also the smallest country in the world, is one incredible place. BUT being that I went the last Sunday of the month in April (aka the free day… where the Pope comes out to speak at 12) it was slightly crowded. Even my dislike of crowds though was unable to take away from the Sistine Chapel (which I got pictures of before they yelled at people to be quiet and “no foto”) or the Raphael rooms or the other beautiful works in there. The School of Athens was much more detailed and amazing than I had expected. The Sistine Chapel was also amazing. Seeing the creation and development of the world in that form and expression was a true privilege. After spending a ton of time in the Vatican Museum I got to go into St. Peter’s. The pieta was breath taking and the church itself resembles San Petronio in Bologna (if you know the story behind that church this will make sense, if not, google or ask me :)) which is so cool. It was beautiful. After that I had to return to Bologna, but was actually really sad to leave Rome. It was better than I could have imagined.

It is really sad that a lot of Rome was destroyed by a fire. I wonder what it would look like if there hadn’t been one, or if they hadn’t taken materials from past buildings to build more modern ones… Oh and fun fact. My professor right now is talking about Rome! And Christianity and Gods and preservation there which is weird because it’s cultural heritage and law… which I guess Rome fits under! And yeah yeah “Heather you should be paying attention!” I am :)