Anzio and Venezia

It is that time of year again, Mardi Gras is on March 8, and that means from now until then, Carnevale di Venezia (Venice Carnival!). This was an event I needed to attend, if only just to say I've been in Venice for Carnival. But first, I took a couple of side trips.

On Wednesday I took my first on site visit for a class. I went to Ostia Antica with my Archaeology class. Ostia Antica was Ancient Rome's original port town, but it became deserted after the coastline extended a few miles. This place is really cool because it is literally an entire city of ruins, literally a few miles worth of ruins. My guidebook informed me that this is the place to go if one does not want to make the trek all the way down to Pompeii. It was not destroyed by a volcano like Pompeii was, but remnants of the entire city are still there (much like in Pompeii). Unfortunately I forgot my camera on this trip. I would have rather just walked around the city by myself, but we had to follow one of our professors, who does not speak very loudly and is not at all engaging. He did mention, however, that a few things (like the Ostia theater) are just replicas of what was originally, and they are very poor replicas at that. The reason they are there is because in the early 1940s, Rome was supposed to host the World's Fair (though that never happened because nobody wanted to visit fascist Italy). Mussolini insisted that Ostia Antica's archeologists recreate the city for an exhibition, but they did not have enough time to do everything, and did a terrible job.

On Friday, Gabby, Zoe, and I took a day trip to Anzio, a city South of Rome right on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. We went basically to just relax on the beach and eat their famous seafood. The seafood was the best part. We chose this restaurant because it had outdoor seating and it was a gorgeous sunny day, and we wanted to see the water as we ate. This turned out to be a GREAT decision. The main chef took our orders and served is everything. We got THREE FREE COURSES from the chef. He first brought out a polenta with some sort of grated, salted fish on it. I'm not sure exactly what it was because the chef only spoke some English, but it wasn't that great. Zoe and I did our best to eat all we could, just so we didn't seem rude. Then he brought out a second course of thick, ring-like noodles with calamari. BENE, it was delicious. Then we got the dish we ordered, which was pasta with baby lobsters and clams. Probably one of my favorite dishes ever. This is usually the type of pasta I get at Italian restaurants at home (Frutti di Mare). Finally, after we said we didn't want dessert, he brought us out Italian flaun with caramel drizzled on top if it. We also had two glasses of wine each, and only paid for our main pasta dish and the service charge. He also gave us a recommendation of his friend's restaurant in Rome, hopefully we can check it out and get equally great service. Sometimes it is actually really awesome being an American tourist in Italy. Italians love to impress foreigners with their food and drinks, and this often leads to a lot of free additions to meals.

Anzio

Me in front of the water

Pasta with baby lobster and clams

Italian flaun

Then yesterday morning, I woke up at 4:30 AM to get to Termini station for a 7 AM bus to Venice. The bus ride took about 7.5 hours, and unfortunately I'm not much of a bus/airplane sleeper, but it was all worth it because we were heading to Carnevale. We got into Venice at around 2:30 and we had to book it to Piazzale San Marco, where the main action and performances were. We were meeting up with a Res grad, someone who worked in the student life office, and a resident student to go to a fancy dessert aperitivo. Unfortunately, they didn't make it very clear that we needed to be in full costume, we only wore dresses and masks but we actually had to look something like this:

(Taken from the internet) There are people who actually wear these full on costumes, as well as Marie Antoinette style costumes and wigs.

Anyways, it was unfortunate we couldn't get into the aperitivo, but we decided to just walk around Venice and stop into random places for drinks (especially Bellinis, champagne and orange juice famous in venice). It was fun seeing everyone in their masks and costumes walking around. I do kind of wish we stayed in San Marco to see the performances, but the place was packed. I had a really great time though, and had delicious gnocchi with salmon for dinner. We then had to get back on the bus at 10:30 to head back to Rome. We got in at 5 AM this morning, and I've been napping on and off ever since. this is another place I'm excited to go back to with my parents because I was running around the place so quickly, I didn't have time to stop and look at things, take pictures, or do anything touristy. Plus I'm really hoping to take a boat around the Venetian canals, but not fall in because they also work as the Venice sewage system.

Me trying to take a picture of someone really dressed up

My first look at Venice!

The Grand canal

Piazzale San Marco (St. Marc's square)

We joked that this was the leaning tower of Venice, though you can't tell it is tilted here

One of the famous mini canals!

Me in my mask

Next weekend I am going to Paris with Gabby and staying in the same hostel as I did in 2008 with high school. It should bring back some awesome memories, and I'm so excited to see everything again and eat crepes and a Croque Monsieur.

Tuscany Day Trip

This past week really brought me back to reality. Since January 24th I was stuck in a dream, in a foreign city with great food and days that were Sunny and 60 degrees. But Wednesday this all changed when it started raining for really the first time since I have been here. On Thursday it rained again and spoiled me started to feel sick. I had the chills on Thursday and from then until last night I had a splitting headache and stiff neck. I was upset since this sickness stopped me from going out with my friends and enjoying the beautiful weather on Friday. However, I was able to push myself out of the apartment for an hour on Friday to meet up my friend Lauren who I stayed with in Florence. She is visiting Rome for the weekend but is staying at the apartment of another girl who goes to AU (but is studying at a different school here). I wish I could have toured the city with her, since she went to the Vatican on Friday and I haven't been yet, but there is no way I could have climbed up 400 stairs to the top of St. Peter's!
Yesterday, I did my best to ignore my headache because I had already paid to go on a day trip to Tuscany for wine tasting. I'm sure the festivities yesterday didn't help my health but it was so worth it!

Yesterday I left at 7:30 am for a three hour bus ride to Trequanda, right outside of Siena with a group of about 50 students from AUR. We went to a winery/ bed and breakfast called Fattorie del Colle di Trequanda. This winery was originally founded in 1592. When the owner took control of it in 1998, however, she decided she wanted the entire staff to be female, and there were NO female wine makers in Italy at the time. This risk paid off since in 2004 the winery was named best in all of Italy.

First we had a tour of the area. The guide showed us a beautiful view of the Tuscan country side and told us a little history of the area. She told us the winery was in the Chianti region thus they were allowed to call their wine chianti. AND, the owner of this winery also has property in Montalcino, famous for Brunello, thus they are also allowed to make Brunello. There is also a chapel on the property and an Italian garden so she took us to see these things as well.

A photo of a part of the Winery

View of Tuscany hillsides

Statue in the Italian Garden- a tradition started by the Medicis

Tiny Chapel

Then the guide gave us a tour of the wine cellar and told us how they made wine there. I guess I didn't pay enough attention to recount how the wine is made, it is pretty complicated. But afterwards we tasted two wines. Their Chianti Superiore and Brunello. Apparently the Brunello costs about $100 in the U.S. It was probably my favorite of the day, our student life rep who took us on the trip even gave my table a refill of this wine!

Wine vats

aging the wine

wine, with Gabby in the background

Then, the chef of the property gave us a demo of how to make the pasta of the area, i couldn't understand what this pasta was called though. Then we had a four course meal that took about 2.5 hours to eat. For starters we had a meat, cheese, and bruschette platter. Then we ate the tuscany pasta with a delicious meat sauce. They gave me 3 helpings! The server asked me if I wanted a third helping and I said No, grazie because I knew there were more courses, but she said "no, you want it!" and served me anyways. It is rude to not clean your plate so I gave my third serving to a hungry guy sitting next to me, it was his fourth serving of pasta, and for some reason he was very grateful for it. Then there was a chicken and potatoes dish. Normally I would be very excited for a meat dish, since I haven't had much lately, but at this point I was about to explode and my appetite was low because of my headache. The dish was delicious, but I couldn't finish it. Finally for desert, the smallest dish of the day, we had a shortbread pie with jam, mine was raspberry. I wish I had taken pictures of the food, but I was too distracted by the amount I was eating. Meanwhile we had two more types of wine, one called Centrillo (or Cinderella, which made all the girls on the trip excited) and another that I didn't catch the name of. They kept topping off our classes, so I probably had about 4 glasses with the meal, and yes it did make my headache worse!

Afterwards we gt to walk around the property a bit on our own and we made the trek back to Rome. On the bus they played "What happens in Vegas..." on DVD, so that made the trip go by fast. 

Next week I'm going to be in Venice for Carnivale for about 8 hours. We are going to a dessert apertivo that requires fancy clothes and a mask. It should be a very good time, and hopefully I won't be sick for it!

The Ghetto, Capitoline Hill, and the Pantheon

Compared to my last couple of weekends, this one was somewhat boring. After a week of just average classes, I decided that this weekend I was going to go out and explore every day. This meant walking each day from my apartment to somewhere I haven't been thus far. This way I am being touristy and getting a little exercise.

Friday:
I walked across the Tiber River with the full intention of taking a walking tour of Trastevere posted in my Fodor's guidebook. This tour would basically take me in and out of all the old churches in my neighborhood and then lead me up to a hill that overlooks Rome. The tour started across the Tiber river at Tiber Island. Tiber Island is literally and Island in the middle of the Tiber River. Originally this is how ancient Romans were able to cross the Tiber from ancient Rome to Janiculum (now Trastevere). It is here that the first bridge was built going from ancient Rome to Tiber Island than another bridge from Tiber Island to Janiculum. Now, strangely there is a hospital and a church on the Island, and the Island is NOT very big at all.

A picture of Tiber Island

Just a cool picture I took of the trees while walking along the Tiber River

However, once I crossed the Tiber I noticed a very large building with a green dome on top of it. In my archaeology class I learned that churches like the Pantheon, St. Peter's and all the others around Rome would put large circular domes on top of the churches to signify the power of the Catholic Church. However, the dome on this building was different, it was square, and I realized this was the Jewish synagogue in front of the Jewish Ghetto. This synagogue was built in 1904 and has a square dome to signify its power, but to differentiate it from all the Catholic Churches. Thus, I decided to walk around the Synagogue and I stumbled upon the Jewish Ghetto, which is really cool. The stores in the Ghetto sell Jewish items like menorahs and all the Restaurants serve Roman Jewish food. I read that Jews were very prominent in Rome in the 13th century, since they (stereotypically) were the doctors for the Popes, thus they were free to live wherever and build synagogues. However, soon the Catholic Church switched their stance, and as late as 1870, Jews were confined in the Jewish Ghetto. Then of course WWII happened, many Roman Jews were sent to concentration camps.

The Jewish Synagogue

In the middle of the Jewish Ghetto is an ancient Roman ruin. It turns out that this is Portico d'Ottavia, which was named by Augustus for his sister. This Portico originally housed two temples, a meeting hall and library. In the middle Ages, the ruins of the Portico were used as the Roman fish market. There is a walkway by the Portico which then leads to Teatro di Marcello, first built during Caesar's time, it was Rome's first permanent theater and had 20,000 seats. 

Portico d'Ottavia

Walkway to Teatro Marcello

Friday night I went over to the apartment of some guys who go to AU. They actually made Gabby, Zoe, and I dinner. Very nice of them.

Saturday:

Today I decided to walk to the Capitoline Hill since Gabby told me it had a great view of the Roman Forum. This walk led me first to Piazza Venezia and the Vittoire Emanuelle monument, built for the first King of a unified Italy. This building is truly amazing because of its sheer size, and also because it was built in the style of ancient Rome but in 1900. So for a while I just sat across the street on a bench looking at it. Then I walked up its stairs to get a better look at the statues on the building. The Capitoline Hill is behind Vittoire Emanuelle. This is one of the famous 7 hills of Rome between which  ancient Rome was built. On top of the Capitoline hill is the Capitoline museum, the first museum to be opened to the public. Behind the museum is a really great view of the Roman Forum.

Vittoire Emanuelle 

The Capitoline Museum

View of the Roman Forum from Capitoline Hill

Sunday:
Sunday I went to the Porta Portese market that stretches from the Tiber River all the way to my apartment. This happens every Sunday morning and they sell everything. Shoes, clothes, socks, makeup, kitchenware, anything you need you can find at this market. It is amazing, and now I know where to find things, even luggage (in case my cheap Target luggage doesn't last the next 3 months sitting under my bed). I didn't get any pictures of the market because it was so crowded, it was almost impossible to get a good picture of it.

Monday:

Today I finally went to the Pantheon. It is incredible!! The Pantheon sits in the middle of a small Piazza and all the buildings on this Piazza are relatively new and colorful. Then you turn around and there's the Pantheon, obviously old because it's bricks are stone grey. Inside it has the largest circular dome in all of Rome (at least I think it does). The Pantheon was originally a Pagan temple built by emperor Hadrian in 120 AD on the site of another Pantheon built in 27 BC by Agrippa. In 608 AD, the Pantheon was turned into a Church. There are 3 very important people buried in the Pantheon, Vittoire Emanuelle, Umberto I (The 2nd King of Rome), and Raphael the famous painter and architect.

Outside the Pantheon

The dome

A blurry view inside the Pantheon

a blurry picture of Raphael's tomb

Finally, on Monday night Zoe and Gabby cooked a few of us girls pasta with meatsauce and their roommate Rachel made a white chocolate mousse for desert in honor of Valentine's Day. All in all a very good, low key weekend.

Firenze

I spent this past weekend in Florence with Gabby and Zoe. We met up with Katherine and stayed at my friend Lauren's apartment, which was across the street from the back of the Uffizi.

We left Friday morning, meeting at Trastevere station at 8 am. Our train from the main Rome station (Termini) was supposed to leave at 9:15. However, apparently there are many different entrances to the terminals at Termini. We only saw the signs telling us to go to an underground passage with entrances to the middle of each terminal. Our terminal, though, was locked and the sign on the door was the only sign in the station that didn't have an English translation. This led to us running all over Termini station to find another entrance to the terminal. We missed our train by 3 minutes, the only thing that is ever on time in Italy. However, we were able to change our tickets to 30 minutes later at no charge.

We got into Florence at about 11:15. Katherine met us in the station and walked us to her apartment then to Lauren's. Both their apartment's are huge and very cozy! Florence is a tiny city compared to Rome. Literally everything is a ten minute walk from everything else. Lauren and Katherine live near the city center with all the museums, churches, and high class shopping. Luckily, the weather in Florence this weekend was beautiful. High 50s and sunny everyday.

Katherine and Lauren first took us to the Duomo. We climbed up its 430 stairs first to the inside of the dome near the ceiling frescos, then to the outside of the Dome. It was beautiful besides my irrational fear of heights. 

Outside of the Duomo, It was too large for me to take full scale picture of, so every picture I took is of little parts of it.

Picture of the Duomo's ceiling from the ledge that went around the inside of the Dome, really high above the church

View of Florence from the top of the Duomo

Afterwards we walked a little more around Florence and ended up at a chocolate festival! There were a ton of free samples of Italy's signature creamy chocolate and I think hazelnut sweet. I also bought myself a waffle dipped in chocolate and coconut.

A picture of just a few of the chocolate selections

That evening, we made our way across the Arno river and up a hill that led to an overlook of the city. There we watched the sunset then went into a church to listen to some Gregorian monks chant, we left as they started mass.

Me in front of Florence, you can just make out the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio behind me

On Saturday, Katherine and Lauren took us to the central market, which is a daily morning farmer's market. If I lived in Florence that is where I would shop everyday. In front of the market is the San Lorenzo market, which is where vendors sell leather goods and scarves. Whether the leather is real or not is questionable. Then Gabby Zoe and I alone went to the Academia to see Michelangelo's David and then the Uffizi art museum. No picture are allowed in either building. But I did take a picture of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi sits at the corner of the Plaza. Also in this plaza is another museum and even some original statues made by famous artists, though I guess I couldn't tell you who these artists are

Palazzo Vecchio

For dinner, we went to a restaurant that supposedly has the best gnocchi in Florence. I agreed. The gnocchi was very simple with a cheese and truffle oil sauce. But they serve large (American size) plates and it is rude in Italy to 1) not clean your plate and 2)take a doggie bag home. I was very disappointed in myself that I could not finish the gnocchi, but it was extremely rich. This restaurant also had the best balsamic I've ever tasted, it was apple flavored and I have to find it!

On Sunday we tried to go leather shopping. We found some pretty nice places, but I could not get myself to splurge for an expensive leather item. I did buy myself a key chain though just as a cheesy souvenir. I left to come back to Rome at around 7:30 PM that day. 

I can't wait to go back to Florence with my parents. There is so much to do there that I did not do. It was probably the most beautiful city I've ever seen. I love Rome, but the ruins mixed into the big city aren't exactly beautiful, they are really cool though. Florence is more of a Medieval/Renaissance city.  My next trip will be the 19th and it is a day trip for wine tasting and lunch in Tuscany with the school. Hopefully I will become very knowledgeable about good wine, because it is hard to be picky about wine here when you kind find a lot of bottles for just 2-3 euro!

An Uneventful Week of Learning

This week wasn't the most adventurous. Like the great student that I am, I went to school and did all the homework I had to do.

Monday:
I woke up earlier than I would usually have to on a Monday to get to school at 8:30 to sign up for trips. I am going on the Tuscany day trip on February 19 for some wine tasting and good Toscano food. That evening I had my first class, Rome: Republic and Empire. This will probably be my best class this semester in that I will be learning about ancient Rome. The Professor did a great job of describing events and then showing where these things happened in Rome. Now I can go out into the city and see them myself.

Tuesday:
This day and Thursday are my busiest days with THREE classes. First I had Italian. This is my most frustrating class because it is not taught like any other language class I've ever taken. There is absolutely no organization. The professor just asked us what words we knew and then gave us phrases on how to introduce ourselves, etc. Meanwhile she didn't give us much grammatical background. ALSO, I though since I knew French, Italian would be somewhat easy because they're both Romance languages. But they are nothing alike. For example, in French when you say "I live in Chicago" you say "j'habite a Chicago" but in Italian it is "Venga da Chicago." However, Spanish and Italian are pretty much the same minus a few letters here and there. So most people in the class have a background in Spanish, so they can easily guess how to say things in Italian. So I feel like I am behind in the class already.
After that I had Pop music and mass culture, which does not seem like it'll be too much of a blowoff class like it sounds and then Images of Italy in British in American authors. This class seems like the easiest English class I will ever take.

Tuesday night, though, I took a cooking class at AUR. The chef is the chef of the restaurant I ate at last week with the 10 euro meal that included wine and three courses (He also happened to look like Billy Crudup). He taught us how to make a potato and artichoke apertivo (yes, I learned how to cut my own artichoke). The picture of what we made is below:

Then we made hand made pasta in a fresh tomato sauce

Then for dessert we made a pear and apple strudel.

The class was definitely worth the money and he sent us an email of the recipe with very detailed directions. Hopefully I will be able to recreate everything, especially the strudel.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday I finally had my Archaeology class. This class will have a few onsite visits to excavations. The professor started saying that the class wouldn't be about monuments. However, she took us on a walk around campus to show us some interesting stuff. We stopped at an overlook of the city and she started pointing out monuments to us. Not too sure how the class will go, but I'm sure I will be learning even more about Rome.

This was definitely a boring post, but hopefully the pictures of food made it more exciting. This weekend I am visiting my friends Katherine and Lauren in Florence so there will be an even better post on Monday.