A week in pictures

I am keeping this as short as humanly possible so I can get straight to my adventures in London.. so here’s my past week in pictures!

Left: I have blunt cut bangs. This is me growing them out. The crazy happenings in Rome, people.
Middle: My oral presentation in Italian was on Thursday and my professor interrupted me to tell me I should really look up when I speak Italian. Yeahnothankyou.
Right: I went to watch the Italians play in the World Cup! It was a sad day in Rome after the match ended.

  

Left: A nifty looking piece of history at the Colosseum
Middle: The Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum
Right: Let’s take a moment to appreciate the fact that one of the students kicked in a door as a prank, on accident, and tried to cover it up with duct tape. Let’s all take bets to see how long that takes to back fire.

 

Left: Meet Jacob and Renoli. This is us bonding on our return from the soccer match.
Right: My second trip to the Colosseum in a week – It was just as great the second time.

Left: Remnants of the Roman Forum
Right: More ruins

Left: Definitely a huge highlight of the week! Accidentally finding a huge music festival in  Piazza del Popolo with Jacob and Renoli
Middle: The concert was HUGE and had amazing live artists
Right: Highlight of my night? Watching the Italians dance.

Middle: Back to my happy vibes book from France – I really liked this week’s reading on taking ownership and responsibility for where you are at in your life! You’re the only person in charge of your own happiness.
Right: Libraries will always be my go to place no matter which country I’m in. This is my dorm’s library and I spent a lot of my week down here just studying, reading, and catching up on travel planning.

 

Left: You can’t really tell from the picture but good Lord did it pour this week. Super dreary but that’s okay because…
Middle: At our good bye dinner for half of our program who is leaving, we had an unlimited supply of Coca Cola! I filled up my wine glass with coke and declared it to be a great night.
Right: The restaurant we were in was the typical Italian place with guys on the walls with mustaches. No big.

Left: These super great guys I met at Campo di Fiori one night.. an hour before my flight left for London. When in Rome?
Right: Mercedes and Michelle. This picture is our relationship.

 

Left: Bitter sweet about this picture. This was our group for first session and half of the kids are leaving because they run on a different calendar than we do.. Next week we get a new group of students and I was sad to see these guys go.

This week was an incredible mix of new memories, new people, and old history! I can’t wait to share all about my 9 day vacation to London and Dublin!

Ugly Americans

So I’m absolutely rushing through these next two posts because I’m in LONDON, ENGLAND and I can’t wait to share all this trip’s adventures! So in no particular order here is a recount of my parents’ stop in Rome last weekend.

 

Here are a couple pictures from the Colosseum from when the ‘rents were visiting. I was really surprised by the size – the pictures had led me to believe the place was gigantic but when I actually got there it wasn’t nearly as big as I’d had in mind.. like as big as The Swamp. That being said the sheer history that took place there was incredible. It was both horrifying and unbelievable that the games (aka battles) lasted for hundreds of years before they were halted. I am thrilled that as each generation grows we are less and less satisfied with our quality of education/entertainment/politics and feel the need to change it as every new generation comes into power.

  

Afterward we went to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum and whoa dang. It took me right back to Pompeii. I loved seeing the ruins because it was definitely a flash back to the past. I also loved that during all of these trips I was visiting with my parents! After so long in Rome on my own it was nice to give up the reigns and let the ‘rents pick the time and place. No complaints on that end.

   

After that my dad took up a modeling career. This is him featured in the top left with a classic cowboy hat,  chic shorts, and a pose Tyra Banks would kill for. Ladies and gentleman, I introduce Dave.

In all seriousness we went to a really great museum that I can’t remember the name to. Which is pretty typical. All I know is I was that person who didn’t see the sign to turn off the cameras.. but I kind of can’t even regret it because I captured a shot of the Michaelangelo’s Cristo della Minerva which I really enjoyed.

    

I think these two pictures deserve their own caption.
Day 2 or something we go out for dinner. I’m excited, right? Parents finally come to town which means I can eat for the first time in weeks. My dear mother who at some point in my life valued the safety of her children had us walk to Travestere. For those of you unfamiliar with the Rome geography, Travestere is its own stinkin’ district. Long story short we walked the wrong way on a highway and almost died. Seriously, no big deal. I promise.

We finally found a restaurant and went straight in. Mind you this was not a place for tourists. The gentleman taking our order really didn’t understand too much of what we were saying. I think okay no big deal, I’ll go for the pizza. Problem is I think maybe I was a little shaken up from the near death experience because I see “pizzicheria” and think YUP that’s pizza for sure. I’ll take the formaggio. I’m so cultured.

30 minutes later, I’m dying of hunger, the wine is gone, and I had made a hike just to get there. Out comes our food and on my plate, 4 pieces of cheese. Yes. I ordered cheese for dinner. The shock was overwhelming but I had no choice but to enjoy it because the manager looked so proud of me that I felt like I was overcoming cultural divides with these 4 pieces of cheese.

So I ate with gusto and that was my story with the cheese.

 

This is mom, dad and I practicing our serious time in front of the Vatican. This is a sarcophagus we saw in the National Museum of Rome.

   

I have never done so much in one weekend. One of the better places we visited was the National Museum of Rome. I feel like at some point I’m probably going to become desensitized to all the statues I see (I mean come on, how many different ways can you sculpt an old dude), but for now I’m still on that statue high.

I loved visiting the place and it’s one of those things that if I hadn’t had my parents along I probably wouldn’t have made time for it!

One day we went to two churches. I’m going to be embarrassing and wait to say the names of them until I can text my mother and ask for a reminder.

Either way we saw the really great Bernini sculpture of St. Teresa of Avalon. A lot of the time here I get frustrated with my lack of knowledge of art, religion, or politics of the day. This was an exciting sculpture to see because I had a background understanding of who St. Teresa of Avalon was, I read the Dan Brown book where it mentioned the sculpture, and I had previously read up on what the significance of the sculpture was. It definitely made the viewing process a lot more enjoyable.

 

The ‘rents and I at the Eatery. Need I say more?

  

To wrap up the wonderful weekend with my parents we randomly took the metro one evening and my mom decided to pick the San Giovani stop to find us some dinner. After we spot a pizza joint we look across the street and see a massive building. We saw a couple people coming out so we decided to check it out.

I’m so glad we did. It’s called the Basilica of St. John Lateran and we found out after our visit that it’s actually considered to be the highest ranking basilica above all others in the Roman Catholic church. The fact that we casually stumbled into this just goes to show how incredibly unique Rome is turning out to be!

It was a magnificent basilica with every nook and cranny stuffed with some form of art or another. The ceilings were ornate, the walls had niches crammed with statues, and every other foot was a chapel tucked away into a little cubby. It was absolutely stunning and I was so glad to see it!

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Throughout the weekend, every time my parents or I would do something outrageously embarrassing, my dad would hiss “ugly Americans”, just to really solidify our rank as the lowliest amongst all the countries. Every time my mom whipped out the map with expert skill and ease, my dad would whisper “ugly Americans”. If I complained about my dad’s cowboy hat, UA. If I forgot how to ask for the check in Italian, UA. If I pushed a door instead of pulled it, UA. At every point we were committing some serious cultural no-nos but it was humbling to recognize that I really can’t “unamericanize” myself. I can do everything in my power to assimilate to another culture and respect the place I’m in, but at the end of the day I probably laugh a little too loudly, my map probably crinkles a lot when I open it, and I’m sure my excitement over gelato and coke is offensive to someone somewhere.. But that’s okay. So hey, here’s to the rest of my life as a proud, ugly American.

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My weekend was made so much better just with the presence of my parents. I’ve definitely missed my American culture and a lot of us have just adapted here and done our best to “fit in”. Having my parents come made me feel like it was my first time in Rome and I was happy to be able to experience a part of Europe with them. It was pretty great.

Tomorrow I need to put up pictures from last week so I can fast forward to my current trip to London and Dublin! Stay tuned for more of my travel adventures!

 

My Monday to Thursday job

Getting off that France high wasn’t really much of a challenge when I got to jump right back into all the fun happening in Rome.

I am sitting here going back through my pictures from last week and I am continuously awed by the sheer amount of history and life here in Rome. I was speaking with my mom last night (more about the ‘rents in a later post!) and I was saying how much I love being surrounded by people. Every day there are kids, puppies, older couples, and young business-y type people walking the streets of Rome. It definitely makes you feel guilty if you allow yourself to be cooped up inside all day because you just know there are people  seeing something cool and exciting right outside your window!

Anyway.. Here is my “typical” Monday – Thursday

   

First up.. My Monday adventure back to the hospital! I had to go get my booty problems all cleared up so after missing my bus stop and waiting for 2 hours, I finally got to see a doctor and he gave me the all clear!

Earlier that day I had a quiz to study for so my friend Mercedes, Michelle and I walked 10 minutes to Piazza Cavore where we all studied for our various classes. It was a beautiful day with birds chirping, dogs barking, and kids screeching at the top of their lungs. My favorite.

The picture in the middle is my face of joy when I realized I’m never going to conquer Italian. We must have sat out there for 20 minutes slowly panicking over our lack of Italian and just praying our teacher, Ms Ipolita, didn’t come over and quiz us.

Tuesday was something of a blur.. really the most important part of Tuesday was when I finally watched an episode of Game of Thrones and captured this stunning smile on Arya’s face. Arya doesn’t smile. This was maybe the highlight of my Tuesday — I don’t even feel bad.

WEDNESDAY DOE. We started off the day going to Galleria Borghese with the program I’m with. This is one of those museums all the guide books say to do and it was absolutely filled to the brim with sculptures and stunning artwork. During our walk to the gallery we passed through Piazza del Popolo and had a great view of Rome once we reached the top at Villa Borghese, a huge park in the middle of Rome.

Once in the museum I quickly established that my favorite sculpture was The Rape of Persephone. I was blown away by the life like quality of the marble and where Hades hands dug into Persephones thigh it looked like her skin was actually stretching out. It was absolutely remarkable and I enjoyed the minor fact that I recognized enough of ancient mythology to understand what was being illustrated.

  

We continued through the halls of the gallery and seeing all the paintings and sculptures gave me a huge appreciation for the patience and creativity of the artists back in the day. It definitely saddens me that up until this trip I had no preference one way or another for art. However after being in Rome for even just 3 weeks I am definitely being challenged to reevaluate my previous attitude toward art!

After our trip to Galleria Borghese my Italian teacher took us to Eataly to identify all the different food types in Italian! Whoa man, Eataly is big. They had every food group you could possibly think up and it was 4 floors of a foody’s heaven.

I mentioned my new obsession with brie but I think I’m expanding my addition to encompass all types of cheese. I about died when I found the “formaggio” section of the place.

Thursday was hands down my favorite day this whole week. My priest from Tampa, Florida was in town. Yup, he just swung by Rome before he jetted off to a bunch of other countries in Europe. He knew I would be studying here this summer so he invited me to celebrate a private Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Wow.

I actually didn’t take any pictures because I wasn’t really there for the scenery aspect, more just for the Mass but take my word that it was beautiful. I did figure I should take a picture as I was leaving St. Peters but there are definitely more to come when I go back!

We celebrated Mass in one of the side chapels within the Basilica itself. Before we actually made it to Mass though my priest invited me back into the Sacristy which was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in my short time here in Rome! It was quiet because it closed off to the public but you could hear the slight murmurs coming from priests all around the room as they prepared to deliver mass in various chapels. We were also led back into a room not opened to the public and I wish I could recall the name of it. We walked in and it was empty. It was dead silent and also one of the most beautiful rooms I’ve ever been in. The ceiling was ornately decorated and there were seats around what appeared to be some kind of altar or another. I was informed that there are priests who live in Rome and their full time job is to go in this room every day and pray.

After the quick tour of the room and Sacristy we went and celebrated mass. It was so, so lovely to hear Mass in my native tongue and from a priest I admire and know.

After Mass I headed over to Villa Borghese. I knew from Wednesday that the park was massive and I wanted to explore it a little more.

I got lost. That was to be expected but I was definitely a little surprised by just how big it really was. I ended up finding a map and wandered around. This park has everything. I found a lake, a dog park, and a fountain where I read my book for a few hours. There were musicians, go carts, segways, bikes, and trolleys. There were restaurants, museums, and casinos.. And I’m not kidding when I say I could spend the rest of my summer just in that park and be completely satisfied.

 

I could not think of a better way to spend a Thursday before Italian class.

It was an amazing week and one filled with new discoveries and a lot of fun. Friday is when my parents stopped by Rome to start off their 3 week adventure in Europe and we had a great time! More to come on that later.

Day 4 – Rocks in the French Riviera

Here are just a handful of pictures from our last day in France!

So much sadness that this was our last day! We woke up pretty late and decided to take one last walk around Nice and then we headed over to the beach! The night before I had learned to skip rocks so we spent longer than I’d care to admit playing with rocks and trying for that ultimate triple hop skip.

The beach had rock in lieu of sand so after I passed out I woke up with rock branding on my leg. Pretty cool if ya ask me.

 

I also decided to forget my sunscreen so the whole weekend was a blur of red and white. I’m hardcore Irish and my skin behaved accordingly. I had the worst burn on my back after I fell asleep on the beach and I’m still peeling, a week later.

Alison caught an earlier flight out of Nice because she had an exam she needed to study for.. which ended up being the best decision because our flight was delayed for 3+ hours!

Going to Nice was one of the most exciting travel adventures for me thus far – we planned the trip, paid, and then got to go on it! It was so rewarding to see everything come together. I think my biggest take away from this whole trip was that when things look like they aren’t going according to plan (a train strike, a rainy day, a flight delay) you just need to improvise and move on. It was the best possible trip and all the “accidents” that could have made the experience less enjoyable were easily overlooked because ya know. We were in France.

Day 3 – Aussies and Arkansas

Day 3 was filled with exploring, art, and strangers!

So once again we found ourselves splitting off into groups of 2 on this trip! Michelle and I are the sleep inners so we got a bit of a late start on day 3 and headed out at around 10. We went out into the streets hoping to find something going on that day and for me to be able to buy a beautiful tapestry I had spotted the day before.. Only one of those happened.

We found a book festival! Anyone who knows me knows that I love reading and despite the fact that the books were obviously all in French it was so cute to see how the festival was set up. I forget the name of the the whole project but the festival had 3 locations around Nice and Michelle and I ended up finding all of them which was really exciting. My favorite of the three locations was the children’s section. There were tons of kids running around and the illustrations in the books were beautiful. It was the perfect way to start off our morning!

 

After looking around in the morning at the festival and wandering around we stopped by the flower market to pick up some fruit and we found the third festival location. We spotted an english book pile and I purchased the book shown above. I think I’ve mentioned before but I love those feel good, inspiring books and this book has daily thoughts and reflections on how to live life positively. I loved that it was secondhand and that I was able to bring it back from France! So nifty.

Then we met up with the other two girls, Alison and Uyen and WE FOUND MEAT. Seriously our biggest struggle in Rome is finding meat. At the airport on our way to France when we stopped at the McDonalds I felt like i was at the US Embassy. I really, really miss my hamburgers. We all thoroughly enjoyed our lunchtime because it was the first time in a long time I got to eat some protein!

  

Just look how excited we are with all that burger and fries.

After lunch we found a flea market that only sets up in the big plaza once a month! There was a huge collection of random finds and antiques and I loved looking at all the different shops set up. It started to drizzle so we went inside a huge contemporary art museum that was free to the public!

 

I have never been huge on contemporary art, mainly because I find it really hard to understand. To me the paintings and the sculptures are much easier to admire and think about because its recognizable and you know somewhat how to evaluate what you’re looking at.. not so much with contemporary art. The minute I walked in I was immediately overstimulated. There was so much color, texture, and size that I didn’t even know how to tackle the first room.

But about 5 minutes in Michelle and I started to verbally analyze every piece we looked at which made looking at the art that much easier and enjoyable.

Sorry about the shadow in the top left picture but
1. It’s in English. I about threw a party.
2. I love what it says. (“AIDS. You can’t catch it holding hands.) And I really enjoyed everything else the artist painted and created.

The other two guys up there were just weird and fun to look at. Again, I had no clue what I was looking at but boy was it fun to make up some crazy guesses with my friends.

Alison and Uyen found the jackpot! At the top of the Museum (gallery?) there was a door to get outside where you had a bird’s eye view of Nice. It was pretty gloomy out, unfortunately, but it didn’t take away too much from the phenomenal scenery. We stood out there for about 20 minutes just taking it all in. Nice is by far one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been privileged to visit.

So I’ve never stayed in a hostel before. I definitely envisioned a hole in the wall, dirty, unhygienic atmosphere going into this whole situation. Luckily my low standard set me up for a big ball of happiness when I went into a nice little dorm room with comfortable beds and a bathroom that accommodated for 8, which ended up not being too bad.

Hands down one of my favorite experiences of the entire trip was meeting people from all over the place. Our hostel in particular was packed. Remember those train strikes I mentioned earlier? Well the local trains would pick up again at 3 pm but the long distance ones were completely shut down. People were quite literally stuck in Nice so the hostel was overflowing with travelers who hadn’t intended on staying and new travelers who were just arriving. So the common room and kitchen was standing room only.

When we got back a few of us ended up making spaghetti in the kitchen and while we were downstairs we got to meet some guys from Sweden who told us it was quite typical to graduate from high school and then pick up any go travel until they figured out their college situation and wait until they were admitted. We met some Canadians who were out backpacking for the summer. We met a really cool girl from California who has a job lined up when she gets back but is traveling in between school and work. We talked to all kinds of people from all types of backgrounds. My favorite thing? Not a single person came into it stressed about what was waiting for them on the other side. We met people who had already been working and took time off or who were in between jobs. We met students. We met graduates who were trying to figure out what they wanted to do. We met people from all different walks of life and I just really loved hearing people doing something that’s commonly referred to as a “pipe dream” or impossible.

That night Michelle and I ended up going to the beach with two of the guys who were staying in our room. A 19 year old from Australia and a stand up comedian from Arkansas. Mom, before you freak out the kid from Australia was reading a Dan Brown novel for most of the day and the guy from Arkansas has a website.. So they check out. It was so fun. We had some good conversation about education and policies in Australia that I never really knew about and we talked with the guy from Arkansas about his travel plans and what it’s like to work in such a tough industry.

All together it was an awesome experience and I look forward to more trips that enable me to meet awesome people and make these kinds of memories.

Day 2 – Sharks in Monte Carlo

On day 2 we decided it would be easy and fun to take a day trip to Monte Carlo!

 

After sleeping in our classy and super luxurious private room in our hostel we all woke up at 8 a.m and set out to the train station.. only to find that the French train workers were on strike! We learned it wouldn’t be until about 3 that the local trains were set to start running again. This, of course, was after we already purchased our tickets. So we sat around and figured we might as well try and catch a bus headed that way. Ha. Joke’s on us because we sat by that port up on the top right and waited at a bus stop for a solid hour before we finally gave up waiting for a bus that wasn’t completely full.

   

At that point it was around 11 a.m so we figured we’d just wait it out until 3 and if we just loved it we could go back another day for the full day experience. While we were wandering around the city waiting for our train to save the day I bought a French macaroon and it was so so so yummy. I think the entire time I was in France I just tacked on “.. in France” to everything and it made things infinitely cooler.

Sleeping.. in France.
Eating.. in France.
Walking.. in France.

See? So much cooler.

  

Our train finally pulled up and whisked us away to Monte Carlo and we were all so excited! The minute we started walking, however, we quickly realized who should be travel buddies. Two girls were thrilled with the idea of just wandering around but my friend Michelle and I were the lazy ones in the group and we figured the sun and walking were not a good mix for us. I’d heard about an aquarium a gentleman who we had met at the bus stop had mentioned. So Michelle and I headed that way and we agreed to meet the other girls back at the hostel.

What Michelle and I had not anticipated on was a full fledged town type environment on the top of the mountain thing the aquarium was situated on. We got instructions from google maps and we were told to hike up a ton of stairs to reach the place. The bottom left picture was our view from our walk — it was one of the most incredible views I’ve ever seen and it would have made the trip to Monte Carlo worth it just with that one experience. However it just kept getting better!

Once we reached the top of the mountain (it could honestly be called a hill but I was sweating by the time I reached the top.. so we’ll call it a mountain)  we saw so many cute buildings! The first place we stopped was at a beautiful cathedral. I took several pictures but the Crucifix pictured on the top right was by far the most interesting thing I saw. I have never seen a Crucifix depicted with Jesus leaning away from the cross and I thought it was beautifully made.

Michelle is by far my new favorite travel buddy. We were walking at a snail’s pace and every time we saw something even remotely interesting we would just agree to check it out.. Which led us to a crepe shop! Holy cow that was an amazing crepe.

 

Finally we made it to the aquarium and since it was 2 hours until closing time it was pretty empty. Michelle and I raced around the aquarium and since I haven’t been to an aquarium in approximately a decade I forgot how much fun it was to look at all the different aquatic wildlife.

This aquarium was massive. They had tons of exhibits and it was virtually empty so we had a blast just running around and reading the signs for all the different displays. Did you know there are less than 10 fatal accidents with humans and sharks per year?

One exhibit used google maps to show the sea life in a couple areas but Michelle and I decided to check out our home away from home – Gainesville, Florida. We searched for our University and we found our bell tower and it was fun to look around our campus on the huge display. On the right we could write a message to the sharks and not to brag but I think I’m a pretty great artist!

AND THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY TRIP? Petting. A. SHARK. Guys, I pet a shark. It was the probably the most exciting moment of my life and I absolutely wish I was joking about that. We must have played with the sharks for a solid 15 minutes before we had to leave because the Aquarium was closing and at that point I was really wishing sharks were common household pets. My little shark girl’s name is Nemo and I’m pretty sure we connected on an emotional level.

That was by far one of the most fun afternoons I’ve had in recent memory. We explored whatever looked even remotely interesting and I enjoyed the slow pace and all the memories!

Day 1 – Baguettes and Brie

An advance warning of the next 4 posts .. There will be a lot of pictures.

  

I think I’m always a little nervous that something is bound to go wrong in any given airport, bus, or any type of public transportation.. But we made it! It was so fun to sit around with 3 girls I met just 2 weeks ago and realize we had effectively made our way to Nice, France. It was a #proud moment. I think the saddest part of getting there was watching Easy Jet ruin the lives of people who didn’t realize that “one bag” meant. one. bag. All the poor women with purses and men with briefcases never stood a chance. Anyways we arrived and since our hostel had messed up our room arrangement we immediately set out exploring our home for the next few days.

These are my gal pals above who made this trip as wonderful as it could possibly be! The top left is a picture of a beautiful park smack dab in the middle of Nice and every single time we walked past the park throughout the week we would see a million children playing and adults picnicking on the grass.

  

The streets were something straight out of a movie set. There were tons of little shops and the buildings were squeezed so tightly together you could barely fit three people in side by side. You’ll notice the BATHTUB on the top left. The hostel that had previously screwed up our room situation generously upgraded us to two private rooms and we got our own bathtub.. it was basically like a Four Seasons at that point.

 

We made our way to the beach and OH MY GOSH the French Riviera! It was stunning. I have more pictures from the beach in the posts to come but this was our first glimpse of the colorful coastline and we spent most of our evenings out there just sitting on the rocks and admiring the view.

    

This was a pretty central plaza to everything. In it you could find street performers, children, dancers, and more backpackers than I have seen in my entire life.

  

To wind down our day the girls and I grabbed a bottle of wine, 4 baguettes, and a slab of brie. It was perfect. We started off in the giant park we had visited earlier and then made our way over to the beach where we watched to moon come up and tried to wrap our minds around the fact that we were in one of the most stunning places in the world.

Day 1 was a complete success! It was a ton of exploring, a lot of negotiating with the hostel, and I spent the entire day admiring the charm of this beach town. I would need all the rest I could get because day 2 was filled with sharks and hikes!

 

Naples

So to wrap up a great trip we visited Naples and one of its big museums.. which I have completely forgotten the name of. This was definitely up there with my favorites. The theme of the museum seemed to be marble, marble, and marble. We walked past tons of these beautiful sculptures and I definitely had to sit back and just admire the commitment these artists must have had. They were super detailed and we learned about the different facial expressions and why they were made to look a certain way.

In an earlier post I mentioned how casually sex was thrown around in art.. and the bottom right picture is no exception. It was fascinating to walk through these exhibits and see what people wanted to leave behind when they no longer lived here on earth. What I would do to talk with one of these artists for just a day!

Another really cool part of this museum were the mosaics. These pieces have held up over the years and not only are they wonderfully made with intricate designs and painstakingly laid stone, but the color has held up over all these years.

To wrap up our short afternoon in Naples we took a bus to a pizza place! Naples is known for its incredible pizza and I, as an expert pizza consumer, have to agree. I have never tasted a better pizza!

It was a great way to end our 3 day, 3 stop weekend.
More to come on my weekend trip from Nice, France!

Paestum

Here comes a wild puzzle of different posts from different places. Sorry ’bout it.

After the dusty ruins of Pompeii, Paestum came as a nice vacation! We pulled up to the most picturesque, charming hotel I’ve ever seen. The rooms were carefully painted and I wish I had some pictures to show but I don’t because I suck. The hotel itself was a 5 minute walk from the beach so right after we all unpacked our things it was straight to the beach! I’m a Florida gal and where there’s a beach, I’m there. I’ve decided one of my favorite things is to visit different beaches in different places to note the similarities and differences.. one difference between a St. Pete beach in Florida and a Paestum beach in Italy is that there were maybe 10 men constantly circling back to our little group trying to sell us souvenirs. One similarity? The cloudless skies and perfect weather.

That first night we kind of all just kicked back and enjoyed our 5 euro bottles of wine and a couple of us played on the piano and sang — it was definitely a highlight of my trip. The next day we woke up and went to a museum that contained some artifacts from Pompeii’s ruins and some additional artifacts gathered from various spots. Like all museums, this place blew my mind. I never thought I would enjoy history until I visited another country that thrives on its past.

One of the more interesting things I learned about on this trip was the relationships between men and women, men and men, women and women. I know it’s incredibly naive and painfully ignorant but it rarely comes up in my mind that people 3000 years ago might have had a different approach on certain topics. And boyyyyy did those Italians have a different approach on things! So one of the things I found most incredible was the lack of taboo surrounding sex and partnership. Sex. Everyone did it, sometimes in public, and sometimes with multiple people. Sex to these guys was just a facet of life and they felt free and willing to talk about it, paint it, and sculpt it. Half of the things I looked at in both Pompeii and in Paestum was the different forms of art that demonstrated some kind of sexual significance.

This picture on the left above was probably a favorite of mine. Our tour guide explained that back in the day women were considered inferior (Surprise!) and they didn’t have much to bring to the table in terms of conversation. Men would then engage in a more intimate relationship with other men, whom they considered equals. Men were engaged in sexual and emotional relationships with other men and nobody batted an eyelash. Marriage was a partnership between men and women but not necessarily based on love — rather a mutual desire for children and well being. Past the bonds of a legal relationship, men were free to engage in intimate relationships outside of the marriage. This kind of thinking gave me a lot to chew on as I was there in Paestum. It made me laugh at our modernized idea of what “traditional marriage” looks like.

These were the ruins we visited that was a short bus ride from where we were staying! Not too much to say but that I loved being within touching distance of something so old and filled with so much history. It has been a very humbling experience that makes my 19 years on this earth look laughable in the face of thousands of years of men who have come before me.

 

The Vatican and Italian hospitals

[Written 5 days ago — I left my laptop in my dorm while I travelled to Nice, France so this is from a few days ago!]

Quick interruption from my excursion series to discuss the crazy day I had yesterday.

It all started 1500 years ago… Just kidding. But whenever the Vatican decided to open its doors for business is when my troubles began!

Yesterday we had our weekly excursion sponsored by the school and we were taken inside the Vatican museum and, more importantly, the Sistine chapel. It was scheduled to begin at 2 and in case nobody is keeping up with Rome’s weather forecast, 91 is the low this week. So there’s that. I had a busy night before so I was running on little to no sleep and I never remember to hydrate. I was going into this situation with a disadvantage to start with! I was exhausted, hot, and dehydrated and I, as of yesterday, have diagnosed myself with claustrophobia. The Vatican was looking pretty rough to me.

Once we finally made it in we were given tinny sounding earphones to listen to our guide and I immediately had to take them out, effectively ruining the chance to hear about the specifics of what I was looking out. However the art was incredible and just the size of the collections was mind boggling. My only regret was that I wish I could have gone on a different day because all I could think about was how hot, stuffy, and close I was to strangers.. Which only worsened as we watched a young woman in a white dress slip in a pile of someone else’s vomit in the middle of the tour. So I guess my day was pretty great in comparison.

I made it through the museum and when we walked into the Sistine chapel I saw an open seat and I went for it. Not only did I finally get to sit my butt down but I had the world’s greatest view. The room was phenomenal. I think with all great art, places, or ideas we tend to glorify the reality of the situation. I was both surprised and relieved to find that the Sistine chapel was relatively small compared to what I had envisioned but the art was absolutely breathtaking.. That being said — it was just a room. It wasn’t Harry potter where the staircases moved and the paintings could talk. It was easy to envision Michelangelo sitting there getting neck cramps as he rushed to paint the ceiling in time for the pope. It was remarkably human and the fact that such a beautiful room could come from a couple guys with paintbrushes was even cooler than Harry Potter magic.

That was obviously the highlight of my day because from there it all went downhill. As soon as I stood up I felt a sharp pain in my left butt cheek. Yup, that’s right. I go to Italy for a summer and one week in I get an infection on my butt. For the past few days it has been progressively worsening and, standing there in the Sistine chapel, I realized I had to get it taken care of because I was due to leave for France the following morning.

By the time I got back to our dorm I swear I thought I was going to pass out. I was already really overwhelmed by my thirst, the heat, and the anxiety of being boxed in by strangers for the whole day. I found my RA on call and it took about two minutes to realize none of the administrative staff was really going to be of huge help. I was to find my way to the hospital, navigate the Italian language, communicate my pain, figure out insurance.. At 9 pm at night alone in Rome. I was stressing.

I finally found an admin who could help me make the appointment and luckily they had specialists there who agreed to wait for me. I got in a taxi (I figured I could experiment with the buses another time) and found my way to a great private hospital with an English speaking staff. I just kind of followed the signs and there was not even a moment of waiting before I was swept up in an elevator and into a nice, well lit room with the two most handsome Italian men I have ever seen. My doctors. They look like they had just graduated college and they were casually referencing my trip abroad as if I wasn’t standing there because of my butt cheek dilemma. The moment I realized that these two male doctors was all I was getting, I had to laugh at the whole situation. Here are these two young men, no women nurses, and my left butt cheek is on fire at this point. But hey, when in Rome.

It was by far one of the most surreal experiences. I’m accustomed the the American manner of medical behavior.. A nice, 50 year old-ish nurse in the room to de-awkward the situation, a divider between me and the body part called into question, and doctors who didn’t insist on making jokes about my ass. At some point I gave up on all pretenses of dignity and just turned around and joked back with the doctors as I watched them inspect my butt. It was genuinely the highlight of my stress-ridden day.

I practically wept with joy when the doctor prescribed me with antibiotics and told me to come back In a week and it was the most independent I think I’ve felt in my entire life. Which was pretty cool.

Sorry for the longest post of my life but I feel like this warranted a big explanation. Today I head out to France and I will post some more about that in the coming days!