One of those days

Today was one of those days that I would've like to have a do-over. Things at work refused to work, users found my phone number, and an irrate father yelled at me. The father was actually funny because he just needed someone to listen to him get things off his chest. After he said his peace, he apologized for ruining my day.

On the flip side, I met my friend Marie's sister Julie. It's so funny to put a face with a name. I felt we were old friends because Marie is always talking about the "other Julie". The other fun thing that happened was that I actually went to the market in shorts. Now this may not seem like a big thing, but I've never been terribly comfortable about wearing shorts out of the house. But for some reason, I felt like going for it today.

Sunday 7.08.07

Coming Home...


I planned for this trip for months and although we had been to some extraordinary places, I was ready to go home. Don't get me wrong, I love to travel. but there's nothing like your own bed and your own bath.

That morning we loaded up in the van and headed off to the airport. When we got there, Celeste made sure we made it to the right counter. When it was time for us to leave, it was surprisingly very emotional. She wasn't coming with us and for each of us, it was like leaving our mom at the airport. It was difficult for all of us.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that the flight attendent in Canada took a special liking to Marie, Sara, and me because we wanted to know when she was coming by for the last time for trash. She was mildly amused by us and we by her. By this time, we were are all a little punchy and extremely anxious to get home. There were laughs had by all.

Reflections...

I learned a lot about myself and other people on this trip. I learned that as open-minded as I try to be while traveling, I learned that even among new surroundings, I still need structure. I'm someone who needs order in my life and I think that one of the more difficult things about traveling in a group is that I can't be in control of every situation. I'm not saying that I'm a control freak, but giving up complete control is something that I'm not completely comfortable with yet.

The other thing that I learned and you may be surprised to read this, is that I'm 34 years old. This is significant because for the first time, I was the second oldest student on the trip. There were a lot of students who were between 19-25. I felt completely out of place among them. One of the things that I hadn't been prepared for was the fact that the things that people find fun in that age group don't appeal to me anymore. The thing is that it doesn't even bother me.

The last and most important thing that I learned is that I would love to visit Italy again and even other places in Europe as well. Of course, I think that I would go any plan my own itinerary. Italy was gorgeous and there was so much we didn't get to see. I've always said that I if I ever got married, I would like to honeymoon in Mexico. But now, after being in Italy, I think that Europe is running a close second.

All in all, I'm glad that I went on the trip. There were days that made me wish I hadn't left Columbia, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

Saturday 7.07.07

Vatican City

We started our day in Vatican City...and no, even though it is considered another country, you don't need to show your passport, nor do you need to go through customs.


We left the hotel and boarded the bus which left us at the border of Vatican City. It was a bit hot out and having to wear a blouse the covered my arms completely made it feel suffocatingly hot.

We made our way in and our first stop was the Vatican Museum. There were a ton of paintings, mostly like the paintings we had seen for the previous three weeks. But there were still interesting. In every room there were floor to ceiling paintings, mostly scenes from Italian history or of the Catholic Church.



Of course, you can't go to the Vatican and not see the Sistine Chapel. Here's the only thing about the Sistine Chapel: it's like the Hotel California, you can check out whenever you want, but you can't ever leave. We walked around for a while, with necks craned to the ceiling looking for the "fingers".

After walking through a ton of hallways and still not seeing the fingers, we decided to take a break and sit on bench and watch people go by. After sitting for a few minutes, I remembered that in the Agony and the Ecstacy, Michelangelo's painting was in a large room with a pulpit, not in a hallway. So we soldiered on, getting more and more lost within the chapel. Apparently, the Sistine Chapel is more than just one room; it's the entire building. We ended going through room after room of paintings and even ended up going through the modern art exhibit where they had a modern version of the pieta.

After what seemed like 4 hours, we finally made it to the "room". It was so crowd and I had a hard time finding the "fingers". Thanks to the binoculars that I lugged with me, I was able to see the fingers close up. It was great seeing the ceiling, but I have to say that if the 40,000 other people hadn't been in the room at the same time, it would've been a lot better. As much as I wanted to take a look at all the parts of the ceiling, the crowds made it unbearable.

Leaving the chapel is as hard as finding it. We wondered around, again, looking for the exit and ended up in a fenced in garden. We wondered around some more and eventually made it out by the Vatican museum exit. By this time, we were starving, so we dragged our malnurished bodies into a restaurant across the street. The people welcomed us and encouraged us to "mangia". A kind young man carried our trays to the table and brought us crushed ice. We felt like queens, that is until we got the check. Our food, which wasn't that good, came up to 81 euros ( $110). Now, keep in mind that I said that we brought our food to the table on trays... so needless to say the meal was not worth 81 euros. We were 4 angry women for a couple of hours after that.

After we were robbed, we decided to try getting into St. Peter's Bascillica. But the lines were so out of control and the sun was so hot, we decided to leave and try again later. Of course we didn't know how to get back to the hotel... we only knew the number of the bus. We chased down the bus and eventually made it back the metro station. The streets of Rome are so choppy and I had to go to the bathroom in the worst way. I just knew that my bladder was going to explode. But like the big girl that I am, I was able to hold it.

At the metro station, Marie and I decided to stop and have a glass of wine and talk. Keighley and Tiffany, who by this time had become fast friends, went back to the hotel to take a nap and watch tv. Right near the hotel, we found a restaurant that had french fries and waiters who cared to serve people. We sat outside reflecting on the past three weeks and wishing that we had done more together. It hadn't been until Thursday that we got to do something together. During our visit to the museo dell Opera in Florence, we decided to let everyone walk ahead and we just caught up. It was nice.

After the drink and fries, we were summoned by Tiffany and Keighley. We decided to head back out and try to get back to St. Peter's Basillica, the bone museum, Bocca della Verita (on the right), and a few other places. Nothing was open or should I say, everything closed early that day. So we decided to go back to the Pantheon and find some food. By this time, everything was funny to us. We had a massive case of the giggles. All was good with the world.

But as much as we loved Rome, we were all ready to go home. We talked about the food we wanted to eat. We were so close... only 24 hours to go.

Friday 7.06.07

Traveling to Rome

We started the day with a trek to Rome, our final destination in Italy. We travelled by bus, metro and by foot to get to the Marco Polo Hotel in Rome. Let's just say that it was a long trip and leave it at that :(

After arriving at the hotel, we all scrambled to get ready for our 3pm appointment to at the Colosseum. We took a bus to the metro to the Colosseum and made it there in just the nick of time. The colosseum is awesome and I had a hard time believing that it has been around for 1900 years. It is also hard to believe that it was the site of incredibly violent gladiator games and even the martyrdom of early Christians.

Not long after arriving, Marie, Keighley, Tiffany and I met up with TJ (Tiddly-D), Marie's newphew and his new bride, Mel. They are a cute couple, even though TJ is like two feet taller than Mel. Mel was determined to see all of the Colosseum, while Keighley was just glad to see a familiar face. We managed to get some great pics of the big C and then we emerged into the blistering sun on the prowl for bottled water and a meal. Tiffany and I decided to let Marie and Keighley have some alone time with TJ and Mel. So they went off shopping, while we went to find some food. We walked for a while looking for the Pantheon and ended up going by the Monument of Vittorio Emanuelle II, the place where Mussolini gave many of his speeches.

A couple of hours later, after a meal and visit to a local music store, we met up with the gang at a restaurant in front of the Pantheon. Since TJ and Mel were only in Rome for the day, they had to leave after dinner. So the gals and I decided to go see what was inside the Pantheon. Inside the Pantheon, which is an old church, there are alot of paintings on marble walls. The weird thing about the Pantheon is that at the top of the massive dome, there is a hole, which is completely open. We couldn't figure out why there wasn't massive amounts of bird poop on the floor. But after doing a quick check on Wikipedia, we now know the story of the dome. The hole is the only source of light for the Pantheon and the only source of air ventilation. When it rains, the water that falls inside is automatically drained away by tiny holes in the floor.

Here's the funny thing about the Pantheon...When it's time to close, a lady announces it on a microphone sort of the way Target announces that you have ten minutes to bring your purchases up to the front counter before they throw you out of the store.

After the Pantheon, we headed over to the Trevi Fountain, which was very cool even though every other tourist in Rome had descended on the fountain. The rumor about the Trevi Fountain is that if you throw in some money, you'll come back to Rome. It's a good thing that I'm not given to superstition. My thinking is that if I keep my money, I'll be closer to going back to Rome.

Not far from the fountain, we came upon a marble shop that had a ton of things carved out of marble. We were really impressed at first because they seemed to be selling fruit at 11pm...that is until we realized that the super realistic fruit was actually made of marble and that we weren't supposed to touch it. We had a really good laugh and crank called Marie's sister Julie.

Thursday 7.05.07

We took our final trip to Florence to visit the Bargello and the Museo Dell Opera - Duomo. The Bargello has the "other David" the bronze version by Donatello. This version came before Michelangelo's David and is believed to be the inspiration for Michelangelo's David. When we arrived they had David up on cinder blocks. There was a lady doing restoration work on David. It looked like she was cleaning him with a Q-tip.

Besides seeing the David, there were a lot of sculptures in the Bargello. Each of the sculptures was more intricate than any of the other sculptures we had seen at any other museum. There was also a wood carved model of the Palazzo Strozzi (Giulianio da Sangallo).

After the Bargello, we went to the Museo dell'Opera near the Duomo. This museum has a ton of sculptures, but the highlight was seeing the Gates of Paradise. There were individual panels (originals) on display and it was so interesting to see the detail on each panel. Each panel contained a scene from a biblical story. The other panels are on the Baptistry across the street from the Duomo in Florence. When we went the baptistry, there was a huge crowd around the Gates. Each person seemed to be trying to identify what each panel represented.

The last thing that was really interesting was seeing the Deposition. This sculpture is a variation of Michelangelo's Pieta which depicts Christ being carried away from the torture stake by Mary (his mom) and Mary Magdalene after his death. There are two interesting things to note about the Deposition:

1. - The man in the sculpture is Nicodemus or possibly Joseph of Arimathea. However, the face is widely considered to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo himself.
   
2. - The female figure on the left was not completed by Michelangelo. After working on the sculpture for eight years, Michelangelo became frustrated at the impurity of the marble and tried to destroy the sculpture. After his death, Tiberio Calcagni was assigned the task of completing the sculpture.

Wednesday 07.04.07

Today has been the cloudiest and coolest day in Siena. We didn't have any set plans to see museums. We did, however, plan to spend the morning with Marie going over questions about the art journal. I was sure about some things in the book, but had questions about other things. So we planned to meet at the student lounge.

While in the lounge, I got to work on my blog, read some news, check some email and update my website. I still have a lot to do on my website. I never seem to be able to finish websites. I tend to have bursts of energy when I can be really productive. But for right now, I'm settling for functional.

While we were sitting and chatting, Marie and I started talking about the hotel arrangements in Rome. Because the number of people is uneven, some roommate have to be split up. Thankfully, Tiffany and I will stay together. Tiffany is planning a "bad movie night" in the hotel.

For lunch, we went to Osteria il Tamburino. It's less than five minutes from our apt and I've walked by it every day. We went in solely based on the fact that we saw french fries on the menu and to my amazement, we were all able to order our food, drink and of course, french fries. I ordered veal in tomato sauce. Marie and Keighley order grilled chicken and Tiffany ordered salad. The fries were like steak fries, thick, freshly salted, and hot out of the oven. It was the first thing I've eaten in 2.5 weeks that felt like home. All four of us had a glow of happiness that surrounded us. The rest of the food was good and I have to say that between the food and the company, it was the best meal I had in Siena.

Tuesday 07.03.07

The Duomo
The visit consists of three steps; the Duomo itself, the museum and the baptistery. We visited the Doumo and the museum today. You can see through all the ornate carvings why it took 200 years to construct. Every building contains orginal columns that seem to be made of marble. As with most places, you can't take pictures.

But I did get this picture from the outside:

Monday 07.02.07

The Palio in Siena
We watched this on TV from our apartment. But we were actually only a couple a blocks away.

Sunday 7.01.07

We didn’t have anything on the schedule for Sunday. The congregation that we visited last week was away at the district convention, a challenge, that neither Tiffany nor I could handle. We struggled through the 45 minute public talk. We told Chicita that we would wait until we were back in the US to go to the convention.

I also welcomed the day off because I had killer blisters from all the walking we’ve done. So to have a day off my feet was like manna from heaven. I did go out to the bottega down the street to get a few snacks. Otherwise, Tiffany, Stephanie and I just sat in the house and watched music videos. MTV Europe is so different from American MTV. The first difference is that they actually show videos most of the time, albeit it the same stale 20 videos. We talked most of the day and watched the people going by on the street below.