Recent Life in Rome

I have been rather horrid at updating this as of late, so this is going to be a rather all emcompassing entry. Some highlights of the past couple weeks have included catching the last 15 mins of an AS Roma vs AC Milan game. I may have pre-gamed a little too hard and getting to the stadium turned into a treck that could only be beaten by the epic adventure hope. I was a modern day Oddesys, wrought with distractions and challenges. It took me three hours to get home rather than ten years, but still- it was a journey.

In one of my classes we also went to a place where cheese is made. It is part of an agrotourism network. They have 700 sheep, we still have not found out who is the shepard though. I was able to touch some goats- which after being so animal deprieved for two months made me week. I churnched some fresh cheese and even got to try some of the made product. It was unofficial at home and some people here decided to celebrate which made the day all the more interesting for those of us who were sober.

Layers of Rome has continued to be interesting and my favorite class. This past week I was lucky enough to spend a two days with Paul. One in the church of St Peter in Moritorio- which is quite prominent in Angels and Demons and in the Chiesa Nuova while a mass was going on. He is so interesting and I may be in love with him..mildy haha

I am really excited for my upcoming trips and am really enjoying the wonderful weather in Rome.

Castllo Della Regine

While being from Chicago has made me immune to most snow, ice, wind, hail, and blizzards I did feel particually intriqued by the fact that I saw snow in Rome. The time frame varies by who you talk to but it has not snowed in Rome in at least a decade. Now this was not by any means a blizzard, but it sure closed down roads and delayed public transportion for quite awhile so we were of coarse late to the vineyard- I believe we have yet to ever leave on time for a trip. It will be a sad day when that happens.

Castello Della Regine is a vineyard located in the small town of Amelia, Italy that emcompasses around 300 acres of land. The vineyard has existed for around fifty years but was founded with strong italian traditions. In addition to producing several varities of wine it also makes olive oil. My intial reaction was that this area was pretty, but would be breathtaking in the spring, fall, or summer. Due to winter all the of branches and trees were barren and snow is not high up on my beauty list. When we got off the bus to see the areas where the grapes were grown, I wanted to venture out into the fields, but a gust of wind peppered with hail pretty much killed that idea.

We were greated by our guide, Guiseppe, who took us around the different growing areas as well as inside the fermentation areas. The grapes are destemmed before being crushed to make red wines. The skin is also removed before the crushing process to make white wine, and removed after a short period to make rose wine. The mixture is then put into a vat, where the size is inversely related to the quality of price of the wine. The best wines are aged in barrels for at least a year before being bottled.

We were lucky enough to get to sample some of the wine and even create a mixture of our. We chose a sweeter red mixed with a very dry red to create a strong tannin affect. After this adventure we got to enjoy lunch at a beautiful site at the vineyard.

While this day was cold and snowy, I was still able to see the beauty in the region and gain an appreciation of the vinification process. Guiseppe was very helpful and even sadly told us that he and his girlfriend had recently broken up. He also told us that if we invite him to a party, he will bring twelve bottles of wine. :-) I would have loved to have seen the area closer to summer or even the harvest season, but am still happy to have had the experience.

Florence...Firenze...whatever

So we decided fairly last minute to spend the weekend in Florence. I was looking for a relxed weekend because I had already been to Florence four years earlier on a high school trip. I did want to see DAVID in all his naked glory. That was my main goal for this weekend and I happily acomplished it on Saturday. It was so much bigger than I imagined and I will not lie- pretty hot. Ah I sound like Bella Swan, a cold hard piece of marble was sexy to me. We met some really nice guys who were staying at out hostel and first told us they were commercial pilots and later admitted to being in the National Guard stationed in Kosovo. I am not sure why they felt the need to hide that, but it made me sad that they were afraid of being judged. There may have been an incident with vomit- but it did not involve me at all. I actually did quite a bit of shopping in Florence, ha my bank account loves me for that one. I did go over the Medici Palace and to the bridge. All in all it is a very pretty city and I'm happy I went back for a few days. I got too see the main church and dome again and reminisence to the days where I shared some Gilato with an Italian boy with a Euro Mullet when I was 17...ohh Antonio haha

I also have to admit how much I enjoyed the food over this weekend. I had some of the most amazing minestrone soup and gnocci ever. I know the Florence isn't known for it's food, but i def loved it.

Venice for Carnivale

Due to some internet issues a few of these posts have been backlogged- but I am working on getting them all up.

Well rule one I learned during this trip- Do not take night trains in Italy- it is not worth the money saved. It was as scary as everyone made it out to be. Thirty one of us from the program decided to go to Venice this weekend, and 7 of us bought a train tickets together. There are supposed to be 6 people in a cabin, but for safety reasons, we decided to all cram into one and take shifts sleeping.

We finally got into Venice around 5am. Venice is a confusing place to navigate- from what I understand even a lot of the locals do not know the the streets and simply meander in the general direction of their destination. It was still dark when we left the train station, but the canals and bridges were really pretty. We found our way to our hostel eventually, only to learn we couldn't even drop our stuff off until 9am. We found a little cafe where i had some of the most amazing fresh juice my lucky lips have ever met. We then decided to enjoy the sunrising over the main square - San Marco and were greated by the first of the people that dress up in elaborate costumes. A vendor explained to us that people come from all over to wear these costumes that they spend all year designing and creating. They love taking pictures with people and are really hoping to get noticed by professional photographers. After stumbling back to hostel from sheer exhaustion we were informed that we couldnt even check into our rooms until after 5pm- not cool, but it was carnivale so what can ya do? We decided to then take over their common room by sleeping all over the floors and couches- do not think they were too found of us. Jess and me booked together and got put in one room where I made the bed and laid out all of my things to later be told that i needed to move to another room- 4 hours later. This hostel really did not know how to deal with having this many people, they were nice but really understaffed. They did make us free pasta though :-) On Saturday we ventered to Morano- where they are famous for making hand blown glass. We watched a demonstration and shopped around the cute island. The ferry ride to and from the island was really pretty. I am so proud of Jess- she did not throw up once.

We then walked through the crazy crowded San Marco square again before heading back to our hostel for dinner. We got ready and went out and saw some live music in our masks. I wore a silver and pink cat mask in honor of my beloved Rico back home :-) It really was not as crazy as I thought it would be. There were a lot of families out. I was expecting crazy/party/mardi gras in new orleans type of party- but this was much more tame. I still really enjoyed the atmosphere and all the costumes. Sunday was Valentine's day and we even went on a romantic sunset gondola ride around some of the canals. It was so romantic and I got share it with Jessica...awww. I really loved Venice and would like to go back some day when it isn't so crowded with the Carnivale tourists- which I was most certainly a part of. The train ride home was pretty intense too. When we first arrived at the train station there was a DJ and a party going on-which was a great farewell from the city, I like to think it was just for me. When we got onto the train there were three men in our cabin, who did not want to move out of it and then came back ten mins to look for something they has lost. They then proceded to sit outside our door for a majority of the night. But we all made it home with everything in tow. All in all a great and beautiful weekend.