An Italian Goodbye

We leave for France in the morning.  I realized that I will be leaving this country that I have lived in for over six weeks and the country that I have definitely grown to love.

http://www.mondosapore.com/mondosapore/2006/08/index.html

I remembered an episode of I Love Lucy-- the one where she loses her passport and has difficulty crossing into France from Italy ("Lucy's Bicycle Trip", funny thing is they are going from Italy to Nice, too).  In this episode she pauses for a brief goodbye to Italy.  Since I am a huge fan of quotes and an even bigger fan of the show, I know that I can't say it better myself.
"I just want to say goodbye to Italy, I sure hate to leave.  Farewell Italy with your beautiful mountains, and your lakes and your wonderful people.  Goodbye dear Italy.  No I’m not going to say goodbye, I’m going to say arrivederci." <3

The Last Supper

It was one of those times where a big lunch and some gelato left us not really hungry for dinner.   But, since we were tired, really had to eat something, and it would be our last dinner in Italy, we decided to eat in our hotel.  We all got drinks and mom and I split the spaghetti—and managed to annoy the wait staff.  They didn’t like the idea that we weren’t eating a full Italian meal in their restaurant.  But once we began eating, we realized it was some of the best spaghetti we had eaten in Italy, so we made dad order some.  Then he ordered another Heineken for us to split.  The restaurant staff was confused and slightly annoyed with us and we found it hysterical.  The three of us were cracking up for a good half hour.  Oh, wait.  You thought I meant The Last Supper.  Well then, I suppose I can write a bit about that.  But first, let’s go back.

We arrived in Milan to a beautiful train station and made our way to the hotel.  We spent the first day shopping in the shopping district.  This is the district that contains the offices of Gucci, Prada, Versace and Armani.  I was in window-shopping heaven.  In the nearby and much more wallet-friendly mall, I was able to shop at an incredible H&M and I can now say I bought some clothes in Milan.  Our trusty guidebook led us to the seventh story of La Rinascente, an Italian department store, for an afternoon snack.  This stop is recommended strictly for the incredible view of the cathedral.  We ended the day at a cozy Italian restaurant where the waiter complimented my Italian and told us about his dreams to go to Los Angeles.  Why Los Angeles?  His favorite movie, Pulp Fiction, is based there.

When we learned that Da Vinci’s Last Supper was located in Milan, we knew we had to see it.  However, getting to see it is not as simple as it sounds.  Since the popularity of The Da Vinci Code, getting in to see the painting requires a reservation at least one week in advance unless you book a tour.  So, despite our exquisite skill at avoiding tours, we booked at three-hour tour of Milan that guaranteed our fifteen minutes (that’s the maximum amount of time they allow each group of no more than twenty-five people) with the infamous work.  The tour started with the Cathedral, the mall, and a castle.  The castle museum was definitely an unexpected highlight of Milan.  It contained this ceiling fresco by Da Vinci that was commissioned to give the feel of a garden (below) and this beautiful, unfinished sculpture of Mary and Jesus by Michelangelo (above).  Both pieces left an impression on me.

Finally, we were off to see Da Vinci’s masterpiece.  Our tour group had to split up to follow the limit of twenty-five.  We were placed in a holding room, then another, before the blacked out automatic doors let us into a slightly humid, almost dim, temperate room.  The rectangular room is quite large, and empty.  There are only two prominent walls in the room, one with a large fresco of the same time period and The Last Supper opposite of that.  There are absolutely no pictures, but I snuck one.  I felt a little bit bad, but I didn’t use flash and half of the picture is my dad’s stomach.. so it’s all good.  The painting absolutely took my breath away.  The massive portrayal of Jesus and his disciples is nothing short of incredible.

We ended the day with another visit to the cathedral.  The doors contain some surprising modern history.  There is damage to the bronze doors from bombings in WWII that we were able to find.  Inside, the cathedral contains the nail that was (probably) in Christ’s right hand when he was crucified.  The nail is honestly impossible to see because it is so high up on the ceiling.  However, the trip back was worth it because the cathedral (the second largest in Italy) is, as Mark Twain described in Innocents Abroad: “So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful!... I cannot understand how it can be second to anything made by human hands.”  After our exploration of the interior, we made our way to the top.  The view and the architecture on the exterior are even more impressive than the stained glass windows and beauty of the inside.

I can definitely say I learned something in the two days we spent here.  Milan is so much more than fashion.  Don’t get me wrong, Milan is fashion, fashion is Milan.  The two feed off of each other.  However, this place possesses a rich history and has a story to tell.  So fashion isn’t so superficial after all.

"Pucci, Fendi, and Cardin, Valentino, Armani too/ Madame love them Jimmy Choo.../ Fashion" --Lady Gaga (for Confessions of a Shopaholic)

The Suffocation of Denim

No, that’s not an emo band.  Today, our second day in Venice, it rained.  A lot.  Oddly enough, this rain is not like Rome rain.  This rain is cold rain.  So I decided to wear jeans for the first time in a long time—and I realized that they are suffocating.  Haha, I am slightly kidding because anyone who knows me knows that I am a jeans kind of girl but, seriously, these things are constricting.

The first day in this gorgeous city we hit up St. Mark’s Square, the Academia Museum, Caffè Florian, and the cliché Venetian gondola ride. We enjoyed Renaissance Italian art for a couple hours at the Academia.  All of the paintings are a window into the past.  The one that I remember the most is of St. Jerome (here is a picture: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bassano/st-jerome/).  I just realized my favorite painting from Rome is also of St. Jerome (http://rester.us/HistoricalTheoBlogy/?p=8, by the way, these sites are just for the images, I didn’t read the content)—that’s kind of cool.  Maybe I should look into this guy…

Then we went to St. Mark’s square and enjoyed an afternoon snack at Caffé Florian.  This is arguably the oldest continuously running coffee shop in the world, dating to 1720.  It was a little pricey but the orchestra, atmosphere, food, location and company were totally worth it.  After, we went for that gondola ride.  Our guide has been working here for over thirty years.  He spoke very good English and gave us a tour of the city through the canals.  Venice has an extremely rich history and has housed or entertained many famous people including Mozart, Casanova, Marco Polo and Napoleon.  Each has a house or building along the canals that we were able to see.  After the ride and dinner, we made our way back to St. Mark’s square because I had heard it is best at night.  There was a couple taking wedding photos that I stalked.. so adorable.  The lights on the water and the buildings accompanied with beautiful orchestra music from the trattorias paint a stunning picture that I will not soon forget.

Today we shopped for more Murano glass—a Venetian specialty.  Because of the immense amount of rain we took it fairly easy and enjoyed some of the back streets and planned some of our next stops.  I loved seeing the rain fall on the Grand Canal and watching the city come alive with umbrellas.  The afternoon ended with some wonderful coffee and the night ended with gelato.  Goodness, I love Italians.

Tomorrow we’re off to Milan.  To say that I’m excited would be the understatement of the century. 

I'll end with the quote of the day and a song:

Dad: "Lauren, are we hip?" Mom: "Well, at least we have four original hips.."

"What a glorious feelin'…/ I'm laughing at clouds…/The sun's in my heart…/Come on with the rain/ I've a smile on my face/ I walk down the lane/With a happy refrain/ Just singin'/ Singin' in the rain" --Gene Kelly

Firenze: Round 2

Florence is a gorgeous city.  When I left for the first time with the study program, I was so depressed because I thought I would never get to see it again.  I have never been so gratefully wrong.

Our two-day excursion here was very chill.  We spent the first day in the religious center of the city, looked at some beautiful churches, and shopped.  The day ended with a restaurant from the guidebook.  My parents went with Florence’s signature, Florentine steak and, because I had tried the steak on my first trip here, I tried the special meatballs.  My goodness this food was incredible.  I loved this restaurant, especially because the nice old owner thought I could speak Italian.  We didn’t even get the tourist menus until we had to ask for them.  Now that is a win.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the river.  The sun had set and the lights were hitting it just right.  Florence is definitely a stunning city.

Day two we had reservations to see the Ufizzi Museum and Academia.  The main goal was to see David.  Oh, we saw David.  His rear end was even more impressive the second time.  And, of course, I snapped some more forbidden pictures—just for my faithful readers.  <3

But before all of this fun, we had to ship my books back home.  We loaded up one of the carry on with books, dirty clothes and other loose ends that we could do without for the rest of the trip.  If anyone ever needs to ship from Italy, read on.  You can buy boxes inside and pack them.  You have to take a number and wait for your turn to come up on the screen.  Then, pray they speak English.  If they don’t, you can get by with a little Italian, a little English, less Spanish and a lot of hand signals.  Haha, after about forty minutes and a lot of worry, we got the packages off to the states.

The food today was quite impressive.  Lunch was at another guidebook recommendation—a small, family owned counter restaurant.  They were very nice about my crappy Italian and served us some of the best pasta I’ve had in Italy.  Later in the day we had gelato at arguably the best gelato place in Italy, the same place Professor Marino showed the group when we were here a couple weeks ago.  And, for a late afternoon snack, Belgian waffles cooked with a sugary outside stuffed with Nutella.. That’s correct.  I said stuffed with Nutella.  And for dinner we had some excellent pasta and chocolate soufflé.  Needless to say, we’re hitting the gym when we get home.

This city is a shopper’s heaven.  Aka—my heaven.  From Hermes to street vendors, there is something for everyone.  Mom and I buckled under the gorgeously soft Florentine leather and bought purses.  No worries, though, we saved over 50% on the purchase.  I know, I have skills. 

“Every mile, a memory/ Every song, another scene/ From some old movie going back in time” –Dierks Bentley

Fam Bam

I arrived at the hotel and thankfully they allowed me to check in without my parents and even helped me out with the bags.  I figured I was going to be waiting awhile and I didn’t want to buy Internet so I scrolled through Itunes to find something to watch.  There was some random “Friends” gag reel on there.. good enough for me.  About ten minutes in, I heard a knock.  They were here!!  Seeing their tired faces filled with that “thank goodness we’re here, wow we’re tired, omg we’re so happy to see you” contentment made me smile.

We hit the ground running since we only had two days in Rome.  Day one we hit all the tourists spots, walked most of Rome, and stumbled upon this little dessert shop with some chocolate cake that was to die for.  *sigh*  They got to Rome's favorite plazas, statues, fountains, streets, and The Colosseum (last picture) in less than ten hours.  That's right, be amazed.  On one of the side streets, we found a glass store.  The beautiful bulbs hanging in a zig-zag formation drew my mom and me inside.  The owner is a really nice man who took our picture while we shopped like crazy.  It may sound crazy, but that was definitely a highlight of Rome for me.

We ended the incredibly long day with Dar Poeta in Trastevere.  Sharing a beer with my dad was definitely fun.  I can still make fun of him because he gets Asian glow, I don’t.

Day two we hit up the Vatican in time to see the Pope make his speech on the screens (he is still out of town) and got to see St. Peter’s.  Then the folks wanted to climb to the top.  Seeing mom’s face when the stairs narrowed would have been funny if it wasn’t so hot.  The picture above is them, halfway up the stairs.  Haha, sorry mom.  We made it, though, and the view was once again totally worth the climb.

Later in the day we went down Trastevere where I showed them real, Italian street pizza, the apartments and my coffee shop.  Unfortunately they were closed for the midday Italian chillout time but, thankfully, the workers were there and I was able to say goodbye.  My coffee guy said ciao and, instead of a wink, blew me a kiss.  I thanked them for the wonderful coffee and said, “Ciao”.  We ended up a the Spanish steps and dinner in Trastevere (with a winky Italian waiter! Haha).  On our way back to the hotel, I realized we never said goodbye to Eugene.  My parents, the troopers that they are, said no problem so we walked a few blocks out of the way to the gelato place.  We got some gelato and I thanked him for everything and told him we’d miss him.

We are catching a train out to Florence tomorrow.  I’m going to miss this city but I am thankful for every millisecond in these past five weeks.  I am even more grateful I was able to share some of these experiences with my awesome parents.  I’m one lucky girl.

I'll be in Europe for some time still.  But since home is where the heart is, now I'm home.

"I've got my memories/ They're always inside of me…/ Now I'm finally where I belong…/ I've been searching for a place of my own/ Now I've found it…/ And I've got my heart set on what happens next/ I've got my eyes wide and it's not over yet/ We are miracles/ And we're not alone…/ And now after all my searching/ After all my questions…/ I've got a brand new mindset/ I can finally see the sunset…/ Now I know, Yeah this is home" --Switchfoot, "This is Home"

Ciao Roma

I left Roma yesterday and I’m leaving Rome tomorrow.

Most of my apartment was deserted by 6 AM on Saturday.  I woke up to say goodbye to everyone, do some dishes and go back to sleep.  When I got up around 9 I was dreading the task before me.  I had to pack up, figure out how to meet up with my parents, and clean the entire apartment in three hours.  The apartment was a disaster when I went back to bed at 6.  Everyone apologized for not having time to help clean it and I figured I would be able to get it all done but it would be quite the task.  But Susie somehow managed to clean out the fridge and take out ALL the garbage before she left with her boy for the airport around 8.  All that was left was a few dishes—she was heaven-sent.  I cleaned what was left, packed my bags and figured out how to get to the hotel.  With all of the luggage that meant a taxi.  By 11, I knew I had an hour left before we had to be out of the apartments, so I went downstairs to enjoy my last cappuccino from downstairs.  I got it to go (even though that is an “American thing”) and went back upstairs.  While I enjoyed that last coffee and checked my parents flight status, I played songs that reminded me of the trip.  “Closing Time”, “The House that Built Me”, “The Middle” and, of course, “I’ll be there for You”.  By noon I was on my way to the hotel.  That is when I said goodbye to Roma.

“Like I’ve been there before/ I’ll be there for you/ Cause you’re there for me too” –The Rembrandts 

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Five weeks have passed.  Ask any of us what happened to the time and we can’t tell you.

Our final days in Rome were spent furiously writing papers and studying for finals.  We fit some good times in-between, you can be sure.  Souvenir shopping, tossing in coins at the Trevi fountain, Dar Poeta (the best pizza, ever), gelato, finishing all the food in the apartments, not studying (no, no—that was a joke, we always studied!!!) and walking.

We just returned from our last night as a group in Roma.  After our second final (first one was Thursday) and long paper, we attended the farewell dinner.  It began to rain while we watched from inside the little Sicilian restaurant.  Some went outside and danced, we all talked, ate and enjoyed each other’s company.

Each piece of Rome is beautiful beyond expression and there is something particularly special about the nights.  The rain wasn’t too bothersome, thankfully it subsided for most of the time we spent walking.

After the dinner, the group split up a bit.  Tonight I went to the Trevi Fountain—where people throw in a coin that is supposed to ensure your return to Rome.  Since I had already thrown in a coin earlier in the trip, I enjoyed watching the others throw their wish over their left shoulder (thus crossing their hearts), as custom dictates.  The group decided to go to the Vatican and then to the river.  I will never forget the man, playing saxophone underneath the bridge on the Tiber.  The echo there was breathtaking and we all stood back in silenced awe.  This is when it hit most of us that this was goodbye.

Although I will stay in Rome for a few more days, I know this experience has come to an end.  Now it is time for me to go pack my bags and move out of the apartment that I have grown to love.

I want to end this post with two short goodbyes—

Rome: I’m leaving a piece of my heart here, take care of it for me.  One day, I will come back for it and end up leaving more here.  Thank you for the lessons, experiences and memories that will last a lifetime.

Revelle in Rome people: This group contains phenomenal people.  Twenty-six individuals who all, in some way, needed this trip.  We all learned something about ourselves and I will remember these lessons for a lifetime.  Thanks for the memories, the hugs, the walks, the gelato, the coffee, the talks, the late night hangouts, the food, the kindness, the smiles, the tears, the openness, the love.

To conclude, a quote from my favorite blog and lyrics from a favorite song:
“We Breathe. We Pulse. We Regenerate. Our hearts beat. Our minds create. Our souls ingest. Thirty-seven seconds, well used, is a lifetime.” --Post from Goodmorningandgoodnight
"And wasn't it you who told me/ The sun would always chase the day?/ Wasn't it you who told me?/ Angels fly in the air tonight/ Saying, Wasn't it just like swimming/ Out on the lake?/ Stars collide, and the air's alive." --Better than Ezra

The Sistine Table

Mike and I took a trip to see Pompeii and Napels.  We had heard that Naples was extremely sketch after we booked the hotel.  We laughed a little and crossed our fingers.

We took an early morning train out and dropped our bags off at the hotel.  Mike’s breakfast was Mcnuggets, fries and a Coke.  Super healthy and delicious.  Then we jumped on the train to Pompeii.  The city was amazing.  The immensity of the city and beauty of Mt. Vestivus in the background was nothing short of awesome.  I remember two things from Pompeii: the literal street of houses that still contained some paintings on the walls and the perfectly petrified bodies of people and dogs.  Not to sound sick or anything but that is cool.

We got back to Naples and grabbed some Napoleon pizza.  It was definitely what we needed after a full day of walking around in Italy’s hottest city.  We walked to the bay and saw some beautiful castles before deciding to call it an early night.  As it got darker we felt like it could get a little more unsafe.  However, I am thankful that we saw this city.  It showed us how most of Italy really lives.  Rome is a sort of tourist attracting bubble that speaks English and does its best to cater to foreigners.  In Naples, we were able to stand back and observe how a less tourist-y city behaves.

So we ended the night with snacks and Breezers from the market while watching “Dark Knight” on my computer.

The next morning, we went to the Archeological Museum.  Hands down, this was my favorite museum in Italy.  It contains all of the artifacts from Pompeii and, like Naples itself, showed us how (ancient) Italians really lived.

The coolest exhibit in the museum, though, is a traveling Michelangelo exhibit.  It had sketches, diaries, letters and other Michelangelo artifacts.  Hands down, the most incredible thing they had was a table with a copy of the Sistine Chapel painted on it.

Before our train ride back, we got McDonalds, again.  I guess we fit the stupid American stereotype, but that’s ok.

"I'm living in fast forward../ Now I need to rewind real slow" --Kenny Chesney 

Pictures with the Pope

I knew I wasn’t leaving Rome without attending Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.  I told Mike that he was taking me if he went.  Last weekend was my first mass.  We got coffee and headed out to the Italian service, which happened to be held at the altar in the front of the Basilica.  Because so many people attend mass at the Vatican on Sundays, there are over 5 times all held at different spots in the Basilica.  We were lucky enough to sit in the front.  It was absolutely gorgeous.

We went again this weekend.  Mike wanted to attend a service in Latin so we woke up early, got coffee (of course) and made our way to St. Peter’s.  This time they had a little book with all of the prayers, calls/responses, and songs in Latin with Italian, Spanish and English translations on the side.  It was so cool to be able to follow along and actually understand what was going on.  It was such an incredible experience.

Last week I climbed to the top of St. Peter’s with Mike and Ben.  [Hahaa, no, not Mike’s roommate Ben but a Ben on this trip..] We woke up early to beat the crowds and it was quite an exhausting climb—551 steps.  But the view took my breath away.

That week we also saw Aida at an outdoor theatre near Circus Maximus and the Colosseum.  The backdrop was authentic Roman ruins.  Real, Roman ruins.  That was nothing short of awesome.  After the opera, I took a midnight walk to the Colosseum with Mike, Arvin and Kelsey.  The night ended with a simple pasta dinner at 2 AM in my apartment.  Yeah, sounds like Rome.
"Pictures of you, pictures of me/ Hung upon your wall for the world to see" --The Last Goodnight