Mambo Italiano!

Well, a lot has happened since I last updated. We went to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii, then we spent the weekend in Sicily. We hiked up Vesuvius, which was really cool. We saw smoke coming out even though the volcano is dormant! Did you know that Vesuvius is due for another catastrophic eruption like the one that buried Pompeii? It could happen anytime, and there are thousands of people living in the area. They say there is a system that can tell in time when it will erupt, but since it hasn't erupted since the seventies, they haven't had a chance to test it! I guess they're just crossing their fingers!

Pompeii was very interesting. The casts of real people were touching. Some of them still had teeth and bones! We saw the town brothel, complete with frescoes depicting the options, kind of like a "prostititute menu!" It was pretty funny, but strange.

The Sicily trip was a little stressful. We had 13 girls, and everything that could go wrong without being disastrous, did. I don't really want to talk about it ;-) One interesting thing that we did was go to the opera in Palermo. We got the cheap-college-kid tickets and ended up in the highest level, all the way around the side. You either had to lean all the way forward or stand up to see the stage! When the opera started, we were amazed to realize that it was in English! There was a little screen above the stage with the Italian translation on it. As the opera went on, we realized that since the Italian audience had their own translation there was no reason for the Italian actors to pronounce the English correctly. We couldn't understand a word they said! It was certainly an interesting experience. We spent all of our time trying to figure out what was going on. It was called "A Rake's Progress" and it's by Stravinsky. The music is beautiful. I'm still not totally sure about the story!

This week we have visited a few interesting things. Civita di Bagnoreggio is called the "dying city." It is on top of a high mountain which crumbles away gradually. Every once in a while a building will fall off the mountain. Now there are only 17 people who live there. You get there by climbing one path that goes straight up to the city. It was very pretty. Then we went to The Park of the Monsters. It is a garden that a man built in memory of his young wife. It has lots of huge and beautiful statues and monuments. It was a fun place to take pictures!

This weekend I'm headed to the Tuscan countryside with three of my friends. We're going to learn how to cook Tuscan food and visit Florence. I'm excited! Tomorrow we're going to Asissi on a field trip. I'll update about that later.

Comment so I know people are reading! And don't forget to put your name so I know who you are! Ciao!

Week of the Dead!

A lot of stuff happened last week, and since I'm leaving for Pompeii and Sicily tomorrow, I need to get caught up with my blog so I don't have a million things to write about!

Last Wednesday we went on a class trip to Ceveteri and Ostia Antica. Ceveteri is an Etruscan cemetery town. It had lots of huge mounds with tombs inside them. The Etruscans were the people who lived in Italy before Rome was built. Not a lot is known about them because the only writings that survived were religious texts and not about daily life. Nobody even knows where they came from! They apparently believed, like the Egyptians, that the body still held traces of the spirit. Their graves were built just like houses. Some of them were very elaborate and some were just hollows in the side of the hill. We were a little bit bored by it because you can only see so many graves before it gets old! We made it more fun by pretending they were haunted houses. Some the tombs had passages that wound through the hill. They were so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face! We had to use our camera flashes and cell phones to light the way. That made it more interesting. Here's a pic of me sitting in one of the tombs on the little ledge where the body used to be (the bodies had all been removed):

After Ceveteri we went to Ostia Antica. It was an ancient Roman city that has been very well preserved. The coolest thing there were the public bathrooms, the apartment building, and the restaurant.

This weekend we went to Rome again. We like to spend time in the different piazzas just getting a feel for the city and eating yummy food. I got an extremely ugly caricature done of me! One very interesting thing we did was go to a church that has a very unique feature. It is called the Capuchin crypt, and I have never seen anything like it. The story is that this group of monks called the Capuchin monks lived at the church. As the monks died, their crypt started filling up. Eventually they had no more room, so they had to figure out what to do with the bodies piling up! They took all the bones from all the monks and made decorations for their chapels! These rooms were filled with skeletons dressed in monks' robes, chandeliers made of jawbones, and art pieces made of skulls! They said there are more than 4000 skeletons used in the crypt. It was semi-disgusting but very interesting! They wouldn't let us take pictures, but here's the Google Images site: http://search.aol.com/aol/image?query=capuchin%20crypt

So basically, this past week has been filled with dead people! It doesn't stop there, however; tomorrow we head to Pompeii! I think after that I'll be burned out on dead people, but hey! When in Rome...

Pictures!

So, I haven't been able to upload many pictures to this blog, and I know everyone wants to see lots of pics. Fortunately, Facebook lets nonmembers see photo albums. So, here are my first few picture albums for your enjoyment!

Arriving in Italy and our first day:
http://auburn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2207412&l=7798c&id=7005597

Scenes from Ariccia, the Chigi Palace, Frascati, Nemi, and Castel Gandolfo
http://auburn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2208392&l=8eb15&id=7005597

This album isn't totally finished yet, but I'll keep trying to update. There are some of Rome, Ceveteri, and Ostia Antica.
http://auburn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2209962&l=7ca64&id=7005597

Let me know what you think and which are your favorites!
I'll have to wait until later to update you on the latest goings-on.

Mi Piace Roma!

Buona sera!

I hate that I can’t update more, but I get so frustrated with the slow internet at the hotel! I have to force myself to even check my email. Anyway, I finally went to Rome! It is such an incredible place! We went on Friday and Sunday and just explored our hearts out. We saw the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, and so many other cool things! We went to a café called Antico Caffé Greco and had coffee. It was one of the most meaningful things to me because it has been there since 1760 and some of the world’s most famous philosophers, poets, writers, and icons used to gather there to discuss things back in the day. We sat there and had a coffee in the same room that had seen Byron, Keats, Casanova, and Goethe. The coffee was not too bad, either!

This is me in the Roman Forum. That was a really neat place, too.

The Romans aren’t as nice as the people here in Ariccia, but the visitors to Rome are mostly very friendly. Most Romans speak English, so the experience doesn’t feel as authentic there. I’m used to trying to get by with my little bit of Italian. That’s the fun part. The concierge at the hotel teased me today when I tried to say “Quattro”. I ended up saying “quaCHro” like a real southern girl. It was pretty funny.

Behold, the Coliseum!

Tomorrow we’re going on a field trip to visit the ancient Etruscan ruins. They were the people who lived in Italy before Rome was founded. It should be pretty cool. We’re going to see their tombs and stuff. Hopefully it’s not too freaky. I don’t like dead people very much. :-) I’ll let you know how it goes! Buona Serrata! (have a good day!)

Lovely Lazio!

This is me in front of the Palazzo Chigi, where we have classes!

Bongiorno, tutti!

I haven't been able to update in a couple of days because we're always really busy and the internet is spotty at the hotel. Finally, I found an afternoon where I could spend some time updating pictures and the blog! It's a really long post because so much has been going on! I’ve been eating a lot of meat. I had prosciutto so many times in the first few days. I also love the porchetta, which is pork with spices. Last night we ate Chinese food! It was way better than the Chinese food at home. It was cheaper than most of the other meals we’ve had. I got chicken with mushrooms and bamboo! That and bottled water was €4,80. Did you know that they switch the comma and period when talking about numbers and money? It can get sort of confusing.
My teachers are really cool. They’ve all done so much in their lives. Our Italian teacher and History teacher are married. Their names are Mario and Mary Lou Antonini. Mary Lou is from South Africa. She sounds like she has an English accent. It’s fun to hear her talk. Mario is old and kind of hard of hearing, but he knows so much about the history of Italy, Ariccia, and Rome. He just sits and talks, and he always has a problem with his Powerpoint. Their son is Maurizio. He is sort of a director. I’m not totally sure what his job is, but he’s around a lot and is very helpful and nice. Jessica is our liaison. I think she’s from New York originally, but she is amazing at Italian. She helps us figure out how to get around and get what we need. Cynzia (pronounced Cheen-tsee-ah) helps Jessica. She is gorgeous and so sweet. We are always asking the two of them how to say something in Italian.

Yesterday we took a tour around our area. First we went to Frascati, which is a beautiful town with an interesting mascot. They have lots of pictures and figures of a woman with three breasts. Apparently, two breasts are for milk and one is for wine! Then we went to Nemi, a small town with a beautiful lake where the Emperor Caligula used to stage mock sea battles. They are famous around Italy for their tiny strawberries called Fragolini, which are delicious! We ate lunch there, and I had lake trout that was served whole! It was delicious. Our final stop for the day was Castel Gandolfo, the place where the Pope has his summer residence. Since it’s not summer, he wasn’t there, but it was interesting anyway!

La mia pesce buona!

We had an interesting experience today. On Thursday afternoons most shops and stores in the small towns close for the afternoon. A small group of us needed stamps, so we went looking for a Tabacchi, which is a small convenience store. We passed a lot of closed shops but we couldn't find one that was open. Finally we spotted a tabacchi with a ton of people standing in front of it, so we decided to check it out and see if it was open. I asked a guy standing there if it was closed and he said no, so we went inside. All of a sudden there was a man yelling at us in Italian and pushing us out the door. We quickly exited, and the man started barking at us! The people around the store were laughing as we came out. We were kind of discouraged about it until we realized how funny it was!
Tomorrow we’re going to ROMA! I’m very excited to see all the beautiful and interesting things there. I’ll update about that soon. Ciao!

Bongiorno, Italia!

We have arrived! I'm finally in Italy, and it is so wonderful! The plane ride was so long and tedious; I only got two hours of sleep on the nine hour flight. When we finally got to Roma we were so excited! We goofed off with luggage carts for a while, then got on the tiny buses for the ride to Ariccia!



The scenery reminded me a little bit of Alabama except for the red and orange houses! We got to the hotel, which is amazing, and set up our rooms. Then we went to a bar and restaurant called BBQ and had pizza! I got a pizza called Capricciosa. It was sort of weird. It had different types of meat, eggs, and black olives. I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. After dinner we weren't tired so we headed to an Irish pub that was in town! It was a neat atmosphere, and it made me excited to go to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day! Today we toured the palace Chigi, where our classes are held, and we strolled around Ariccia and met the mayor. We ate at a restaurant called the BeBop, and it was pretty yummy. In about an hour we are going to take a walk to Albano, the next town over from Ariccia. They are having sales in all of their stores, so I guess we will shop a little! Ciao until next time!

This is our beautiful hotel! Hotel Villa Aricia.