S.I.T.

This past week I went on the Souther Italy Tour with USAC! It was a 5 day organized trip with the program. Monday we left Viterbo at around 7:30 and went to Napoli first. We got a guided tour of the main spots of the city and the archeological museum, which the museum was kind of boring. We were provided with lunch as well and had pizza, which Napoli is where pizza was invented so it was supposed to be really good! Well it was good but not the best I have ever had in my life, plus I think I am just over pizza! After that we headed to Sorrento which is where our hotel was. We had dinner provided for us every night in the hotel and at first I thought it was going to be really good but the meals kind of got worse and worse as the days progressed. Tuesday we woke up and drove to Pompei and had another guided tour of the ancient ruins in Pompei which was better than the museum. We were provided with lunch there as well and oh guess what we had pizza AGAIN! That afternoon we were supposed to go to Vesuvius which is a volcano and hike up it but the weather would not permit it. So instead we were driven back to Sorrento and had a free afternoon. I stayed in Sorrento and walked around it and went down to sit by the sea and had a relaxing afternoon. Wednesday was a free day but since we didn't get to do Vesuvius the day before they offered to take whoever wanted to up to the volcano to hike it. So I opted to do this! It was my favorite thing I did the whole week! You drive about halfway up it and then hike the rest! You have an amazing view of the sea, the mountains and the villages! And you can see the crater and steam coming out of it! Yeah the volcano is still active but safe to hike up....? Anyways after that I had another free afternoon so I went to the island of Capri, ate lunch there and had the best gelato of my life there! I wanted to do the blue grotto but it was closed because the tide was too high so I couldn't. Thursday was the Amalfi Coast, the drive there was terrifying! You are driving on this winding road in a bus on a cliff and its a straight shot down to the sea! I am afraid of heights so I had to calm my breathing the entire time! Once we got to Amalfi we were once again provided with a guided tour of the city and the duomo and then were free for lunch. After lunch we drove to the town of Ravello to go through the Rufolo Gardens, it was okay the best part about it was the view! That night when we got back to Sorrento I went to a shoe store and got really cute white sandals made for me and found out what shoe size I am in Europe! 44! haha huge! Friday was our last day there and we had to check out of the hotel and then we drove to Casserta to visit the Royal Palace and garden there. We had a guided tour of the Palace and then were free to walk the gardens which is supposedly 3 miles, not sure if that is true! After that we started to head back to Viterbo and got home at about 7:30! I am so exhausted from the trip but I had a lot of fun and got a lot of great pictures!

On Mt. Vesuvius

The duomo in Amalfi

The view at the Rufolo Gardens in RavellaAmy, Rachal, Jenny, Me and Cassie at the Royal Palace Gardens in Casserta

The Royal Palace at Casserta

Since when do Italians care about loudness....

So this past weekend two of my really good friends Elspeth and Emma Anderson came to visit! They got here on saturday and then monday we headed off to Florence and Cassie joined us as well. We all hadn't seen each other in a while so we were talking and laughing and being hysterical because that is what we do! There was this Italian guy sitting directly behind Cassie who every once in a while when Cassie would laugh he would try to imitate it and mock it, only causing all of us to laugh even more! Then as we were getting closer to the Florence train stop, he shouted "Basta" which means that's enough or stop it basically. This also made us laugh more for some reason and then he said "Silence Please" in english and we quieted our laughter a little but still continued to laugh. As the train was slowing down to come to the train station we had to get off at the guy stood up and said something in Italian, basically he was saying that they have had to listen to us for 2 hours on the train, after he sat back down Cassie started laughing again which made us laugh as well! Then the guy took a water bottle and poured it on Cassie's head which her cat like reflexes smacked in back towards his face but unforntuantely most of the water got poured on Cassie! I could not believe something like that actually happened in real life! Seriously that type of stuff only happens in the movies! That guy was so rude and no where on the train did it say that you can't talk or laugh! Also the train doesn't have assigned seats so he could have got up and left and gone to a different car of the train plenty of times! This was the craziest thing that has happened here so far and we have encountered other rude Italians but mostly they just give you dirty looks or don't move out of the way for you, or shove you when you are trying to get on the metro, or try to run you over with their car when you cross the street. All of those have happened to me except getting water poured on me, but that is just extreme rudeness even for Italians I think!

Two Months

Today I have officially been living in Italy for 2 months! Crazy huh? I realize I haven't been blogging a lot lately so here is what I have been up to the last few weeks....

Feburary 27th:
This day I had a field trip to Rome for my survey of art class, we visited 2 baroque style churches and the Borgese Gallery. Sidenote if you know where this quote is from you are my favorite: "I always say if it's not baroque, don't fix it!" Anyways this was the longest day of my life! We had to meet at the Porta Romana train station at 7:45 a.m. and that is the train station that is the furthest away from where I live! Then we get to Rome meet our teacher and proceed to the two churches we are going to visit, however we were only told we would be going to the Borgese Gallery, gotta love the Italians...We are at these churches until about noon and are given a 2 hour break for lunch! We are all thinking 2 hours seriously is that really necessary? So we meet at the spanish steps around 2 p.m. and go to the Borgese Gallery where our teacher proceeds to tell us every little minor detail about the outside of the building and the gardens surrounding it and then we go inside and she continues the detailed description of everything which would have been great if I were not so tired already! By the time our field trip was over it was 5 p.m., the longest field trip I have ever taken! Moving on.....

March 1st:
I am skipping that saturday because I honestly just sat in my room all day and did nothing! This day was a sunday, I had decided earlier in the week I was going to attempt to go to Rome to go to church. So I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning and get on the first train that leaves Viterbo on sundays which is at 6:54 and doesn't get to Roma Termini until 9:20 from there I had to take a bus down to a piazza called Sempione and then walk about 2 blocks up this street to the church building. When I found the church building I saw the sign The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Italian of course and I wanted to cry! I didn't exactly know where to go when I walked in but an Italian lady was walking in behind me and directed the way. There were 2 missionaries in the back that I spotted so I sat on the same row as them and realized one of them was translating into a little like walky talky thing. This lady in front of me asked if I spoke english and I nodded and she handed me another walky talky thing with headphones so I was able to listen to the whole thing in english! It was great finally being in church and having something that felt almost like home. After church the lady that handed me the headphones introduced herself to me and invited me over for lunch the following sunday.

March 6:
During the week I just go to school not that exciting so I am not really gonna write about it! So this friday I had another Rome field trip for my survey of art class. This time it was to the Vatican! We were able to go inside the St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum, which is where the Sistine Chapel is and the Rapahel's Rooms are as well! Well this field trip did was not as long as last week's thank goodness! And we didn't have to walk all over town either which was a plus! The Basilica was amazing and on such a large scale you feel so insignificant when you are inside of it! And the Sistine Chapel was amazing as well! It was darker in there than I thought it would be but still absolutely incredible to see in person! I highly recommend it! So after our field trip a group of us decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for an early dinner! When we sat down at the table and started looking through the menus all of us were like I feel like I am in America right now! It was a crazy feeling! I got a bacon cheeseburger something I have not had in a very long time! And got water for FREE in Italy! Incredible I know and you get free refills on drinks which is unheard of in Europe! It was such a good dinner and I will definitely be going back more than once!

March 8th:
Once again I am skipping saturday because once again I was a lazy bum that day and did nothing! This sunday I went to church in Rome again and was able to listen to the meetings in english besides sacrament meeting because they switched the chanel on the walky talky things and I had no idea how to fix them to the right chanel. After church this girl named Misha introduced herself to me and we had both been invited to lunch at the mission presidents and his wife's house (the lady from the previous week). When we got there we were informed that some of the missionaries and some African refugees that are taking the discussions would be joining us for lunch. It was a great sunday lunch with a ton of people around and a ton of good food, it felt like a sunday I would have at home! Well I exchanged e-mails with Misha and thanked everyone for the great meal and went to the bus stop to return back to Viterbo. I didn't get back until almost 9 because the trains don't run as often on Sundays so I had to take the 6:52 train home. When I got back I decided to sleep for a little bit before my parents called so the phone woke me up before my alarm did and sure enough it was my mom! I got to talk to Ava, it was her birthday and she turned 4 and I got to talk to Morgan, Lilly, and Roman as well! Roman and Lilly were both speaking so good! I was amazed! And I also got to talk to 2 of my brothers and their wives, my sister Carrie and my parents! It was great to be able to speak to everyone and we are planning on doing it again next week!

Weekend in Tuscany!

Well this week went by so fast!!! I had 2 tests and a sketchbook to do that I never actually ended up having to turn in! Thursday night after all my classes I played soccer with a few kids from my program and 2 Polish boys! It was way fun and I was extremely sore afterwards!! Anyways Friday came very quickly for me and I had a Gardens trip to Pienza which is in Tuscany and about a 2 hour bus ride! It was this palace that was built on a hill and a small garden in front of it over looking an amazing view! It was a short tour and we were allowed to walk around Pienza until about 2. Me, Cassie and Rachal had decided to go to Siena which is also in Tuscany and just stay the night! So we had a little trouble finding a place open to buy a bus ticket but finally did it and the bus ride was about an hour! The scenery as we were driving to Siena was absolutely gorgeous! Just rolling hills of green with houses every few miles! Amazing! Well when we got to Siena I think we got off the bus a little too early and ended up having to walk a little ways but found a Ipercoop which is the big grocery store here and got some food to tide us over! After that we found the train station and got a taxi to our hostel which was a little far away from everything but that is okay it was the cheapest one in Siena! Our room which was more like a walk in closest had 3 beds and a sink! It was kind of nice just having the room to ourselves! That night we walked to the city center which took about 40 minutes because we had no idea where we were going! And we ate dinner there in the main piazza! Cheese Ravioli! It was delicious but not enough food! After dinner we decided to walk back to our hostel to get some rest! The next morning we were provided with breakfast which was either coffee or hot chocolate and bread with butter and jam! No joke....lamest breakfast ever! Anyways after breakfast we decided to walk to the left of our hostel to check out some cool scenery of Siena which we saw a little bit of and then checked out at like 9. We hopped on a bus to the city center and went shopping and saw the Duomo and the main piazza where horse racing goes on in the summer! My cuisine/gardens teacher asked me to buy her something for the Cuisine class so I did and had to carry it around all day so hopefully I get an extra piece if its good! ha! There isn't a bunch to do in Siena so we decided to get on a 2:30 train to come home and got back in Viterbo around 6. Today was really relaxing! I slept in, did laundry and got to talk to my mom, dad, and sister Carrie! 3 weeks in a row of talking to my dad!!! Well this week seems like it should be really low key as

well!

Famous Piazza in Siena

Pretty Tuscan Sunset

Tuscany

Venezia

This past weekend I went to Venice for Carnevale! It was complete madness!!! It was seriously crazy with how many people were there, dressed up and wearing creepy masks! Well my adventure started on Thursday night we got on a train at 7 p.m. in Viterbo and went to a train station in Chiesi or something like that and had to wait for 3 hours for the next train! So we finally boarded the night train at midnight and got to Venice at 5:30 in the morning! Almost the whole USAC group went to Venice this weekend and there was a few of us on the train, so we all walked around together for like 3 hours because no one could check into their hotels yet. So we found San Marco's Square and watched the sunrise over the water! It was so beautiful even though I did not want to be up that early carrying all my luggage around!! So we couldn't even call our hotel until 8:30 and that was just to ask them when we could check in, which we couldn't check in until noon! So we shopped a little on San Marco's square I bought my mask which is blue and silver and has blue feathers on the top of it! I look ridiculous in it! So then we were all hungry and decided to go eat somewhere, we just went to the first place we saw which was way to close to San Marco's because the food was nasty and expensive! So after that we were like tonight we are grocery shopping! After the horrible lunch we checked into our hotel took a much needed nap and then went to Ipercoop which is the big grocery store in Italy! Luckily we had a fridge in our room, so we could get cheese and salame and stuff like that! It saved a lot of money and time! The next day we decided to go to the island of Murano, which is where they make blown glass! We got to see a free demonstration of a guy making it and he made a little horse statue in like 10 minutes! It was crazy! So I ended up buying some souveneirs off that island! It was so cute and quiet I loved it there! Well then we went back to the island of Venice and me, Cassie, and Rachal went shopping at San Marco's and went inside the church there! The church was gorgeous! It had gold ceilings! No joke! So this time in San Marco's it was jam packed full of people and there were a lot of people dressed up in full out dresses and old fashioned type of clothing wearing masks! Not gonna lie it was kind of creepy! All you could see was there eyes moving back and forth because the masks covered everything else!! Well after that we went back to our place and had lunch and then decided to go on a gondola ride! The limit is 6 people on the gondola which was perfect, it was the 3 AZ girls with the 3 Iowa girls! So we went on it and got to see the fire station which they have fire boats instead of trucks, then we saw casanova's house, Napoleon's house, the Ponte Rialto which is the bridge over the Grand Canal! Everything is so beautiful there! That night we weren't really sure what was going on so we walked around San Marco's for a while and then decided to head back around 10! We got up the next day to catch our train at 11:45 and got back to Viterbo at like 7:30! My parents called me late again and I got to talk to my dad for the second week in a row! I love getting to talk to both of my parents! And I also got to talk to my sister Amy as well!

The Grand Canal at 6 in the morning!

San Marco's Square completely empty!

The Sunrise!

Murano!

Cassie, Rachal, and Me on Murano!

On the Gondola ride in our creepy masks!!(Beth, Cassie, Amy, Jenny and me)

Ponte Rialto on the Grand Canal!

Beth, Amy, Gondola Man, Rachal, Cassie, Me, and Jenny!

FOOD!!!!!

Wednesday night is cuisine night!!! Well only 5 times throughout the semester but those 5 are going to be my favorite wednesdays!!! So tonight we had to give presentations about different regions of Italy and mine was on Sardegna but I didn't actually have to present because 2 other people had mine and it rotates on who presents in class! But we ate some bread from my region called Pane Carseau, it is known as shephard's bread because shephards used to take it with them while they would travel and needed it to last a long time, so it is a crispy bread! It would be really good with nutella!!! haha!!! While waiting for the ricotti to be prepared, which by the way I am the one who stirred it for 20 minutes and the teacher told me I did it better than the class the night before, we had beans and spek. The beans were really good and the spek was very chewy, Cassie couldn't finish hers because she said it reminded her of bacon bits that you give to dogs!! haha! Then we made ricotta with squid, and put the black ink in with it! This concept was not apealing to me at all but since I am somewhere new I need to try everything that is thrown my way so I tried it and it was not bad! I didn't love it but I could eat it without gagging! Then after that we had goulache, which is like beef stew with polenta. This was pretty good! I wasn't crazy about the polenta but the beef stew was really good!!! Then we had 2 different cheeses Asiago and Bastardo de veneto which were both really good!! Then we made tiramisui for dessert and she had other little pastries that are common in Venice around Carnevale, all the dessert was yummy!!! I loved it all!!

My Meal:

Black Squid Ricotta

Goulache

Cheeses

Tiramisui

Firenze e Pisa

This past weekend after my gardens field trip me, Cassie, Rachal, the Iowa girls, and Mike went to Florence and Pisa. In italian some of the names of their cities are different so instead of calling it Florence they say Firenze. And Pisa is just Pisa. Anyways we took a train after our gardens field trip and it took about 3 and half hours to get there. When we got there we found our hostel right away, it was really easy to find because it was just a few blocks away from the train station, it is apparently known as the best hostel in Italy. It was definitely worth the 19 euros a night we spent on it. It included free breakfast every morning and free tours(which we didn't participate in but they were available to us), and you could vandalize their walls, what more could you ask for? So friday night we went out to dinner, went back to our hostel to meet our other roommate because we had booked a 8 bed room and there was only 7 of us. So our other roommate's name was Daniel and he is from Australia! He was really cool and had left home at 17 and just been working all over Australia and decided to travel the world by himself and has been doing so the past 6 months and won't be back to Australia until September of this year! After we bombarded him with questions and he told us his life story we went out to a pub and just hung out and talked for a while. The next morning we got up and went to the street market and there was just lines and lines of vendors down these streets in Florence it was awesome! I got a lot of good buys for my family! I got something for my mom, my dad, my 3 brothers, my sister Carrie, and my sister in law Morgan! I can't say what I got them all because at least 3 of them will read this blog but I know they are all going to love their presents! After the market we decided to do some sightseeing! We went to see the Duomo in Florence which is their first cathedral called the cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, and for the low cost of 8 euros you could walk up 463 steps to an amazing view of Florence! It was really exhausting but totally worth the end result! After the Duomo we went to the museum where the David by Michelangelo is! Probably the biggest statue I have ever seen in my life!! It was way bigger than what I was expecting! I found it very strange that it was in that museum because all the other art work was not to that scale at all! Everything was way smaller than the David! He definitely is the main attraction there!! And you aren't allowed to get pictures of him but Rachal got 10 because she is awesome! After the David we went to the famous bridge in Florence called the Ponte Vecchio, it is lined with expensive jewelry shops!! Way too expensive to buy, but beautiful to look at! Then that night all 8 of us went to dinner together and then went back to our hostel and played card games, Daniel taught us a game that was pretty much Village Idiot but had a more vulgar name for it! ha! We all made our mark on the walls on our floor that night as well! I wrote the whole crew don't even worry! And a few other things as well! Sunday morning we decided we would go to Pisa which is only an hour away from Florence by train. Basically the only thing to see there is the leaning tower and it is apparently going to fall over so we might have gotten the last pictures of it standing!!! The thing that is very strange about it is that they let people go up it for 15 euros! I decided not to do it because first of all....15 euros?!?!?! For something that is not that tall and is in fact the only thing to see in the city, so if you are on top of it you can't actually see it.... Second of all its going to fall over!!! I did not want to die in Pisa so I stayed on the safe ground! Rachal however is braver than me and not as cheap as me and went to the top! We could see her and call to her and she could still hear us! After she came down we went to get lunch at a cafe and I have to say that I was not impressed with the food in Florence or Pisa!! But the gelato in Florence was pretty good and I had 3 and half helpings of it in one day! I went gelato crazy on saturday!!! haha!! After lunch we headed back to Viterbo on a train that took about 4 and half hours! I got back later than 5 p.m. which is when my mom usually calls me on sundays so they had to wait to call me at 11 p.m. my time but it was great because I got to talk to my dad! Which I haven't heard his voice in 3 weeks I think now so it was really good to talk to him even though he doesn't have a lot to say!!!

The Leaning Tower of Pisa!!!

Ponte Vecchio!

After Climbing 463 steps! The view of Florence!

The Duomo!!