how fitting is it that we spent the fifth weekend in cinque terre! ("five lands!") this trip was the one I planned before we even got Rome so I was very excited when it finally came to the moment of boarding the train! t'was kiersten, alex, kim, lindsey, raul, elizabeth and I! and what a fun little group it was! when we arrived in cinque terre it was late on Thursday night, a little brisk outside and quite lacking in taxis. finally, with a little go-get-em attitude we ended up flagging down a taxi-van with exactly 7 seats! once we got checking into the hostel and were given the information about the trains everyone was pretty much lights out from a long afternoon of traveling! we woke up bright and early to catch the shuttle down to the first city (Riomaggiore) we ate crepes for breakfast which were made to order right in front of you!! we hopped on the train with the intention of going to the second city (Manarola) but if we know anything about italy by now it is - expect the unexpected! we get off looking at the very beautiful but very not second city - Monterosso - the fifth city! so with a quick change of plans, we decide to hike down instead of up! unfortunately only 2 of the 4 hikes were open, but that was about 4 hours of hiking! gorgeous views of waterfalls, terrance farming, the beautiful Mediterranean, foliage, and bridges are what we got to enjoy on our very warm and scenic hike! on the first hike to Vernazza (the fourth city) we came across an oh-so-casual jewelry stand! of course I had to buy something! we ate by the port in Vernazza, in a umbrella-ed little restaurant. we had to burn those calories somehow, and what way better than to make it to the middle city - the end of our hike - Corniglia! there we met an adorable couple, matt and molly, who were on their honeymoon! molly doesn't know it yet, but matt is taking her to Venice and Verona later on!! we took a train back to the second city and sought out these legendary cliffs! for what, you may ask? ahh, why for cliff jumping of course! quite the adrenaline rush with this 30 foot drop!! ( I went 3 times with alex!) raul nailed it with were we ate dinner! almost everyone ended up with pizza or pesto pasta and we all shared a bottle of cinque terre's finest Vino Bianco! the last day was reserved for some beach time, laying out and just relaxing from our little workout the day before! we were back in Rome Saturday night just in time to have a good nights sleep to wake up Sunday morning to go to mass one last time in St. Peter's Basilica and to hear the pope's blessing in the square! breath-taking as always!
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so after a long week of exams and presentations pompeii and ischia were quite the treat. first we spent a sold two hours in the city of pompeii. our professor, dr. rea, walked us around the ruins explaining their significance. from amphitheaters to gyms to fast food restaurants we learned how the pompeiians really lived some 2000 years ago! mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79BC and covered the entire city in ashes, and now it has been excavated and people have the opportunity to tour it! believe it or not, italians when they go on vacation in august will drop of their dog in pompeii and leave it there until their vacation is over! after our time in pompeii and a brief tour in the naples museum, we were off to ischia. now, what is ischia you may ask? well it is a small island located off the coast of italy where one of our professors grew up! the day after we got settled in our entire group took the bus to a magical place called giardini di posiden - "Posiden's Gardens". A spa with pools of 16 different water temperatures all warmed naturally by the mountain they were carved into. This included sauna and access to the beach on the mediterranean! sherrie, our professor, told us students in summer's pass swam out to a large rock and jumped off. sure enough! a good 20 minute swim got you to the rock, and the view looking back at ischia was to die for! unfortunately we had to leave paradise and head back to the bus, but not before i haggled with a street vendor for a cute dress! i became really good friends with the boys who worked at their parents hotel where we stayed! they taught me some italian and i taught them a thing or two in ping pong! the second day, delayed slightly by the rain, allowed us to explore the castle aragonese of ischia there on the island. after the sky cleared up we made the trek to go "cliff jumping". while the jump was a little shorter than i had expected it was still fun to swim in the waters of ischia! later that night we all gathered on the rooftop of our hotel and watched the fireworks light up the night sky from the castle we had explored just earlier that morning! the fireworks only go off once a year and represent a siege of the castle many years ago! how lucky were we?? i almost forgot! the hottro quattro bought heart-shaped lanterns and sent them soaring off into the sky over the Mediterranean ! (that was for you benny!) as we know all good things must come to an end and this trip was no different! after a weekend traveling in paradise where time doesn't matter and buses scrape against one another to squeeze by in narrow roads, a ferry boat lead us away as we waved goodbye! until next time ischia!after back to back weekends traveling i have to say it was a nice change of pace to spend this past weekend here in rome! after all it is my home! thrusday night the hottro quattro dressed up in matching little black dresses and headed down to the tiber river summer festival! there we managed to find a mexican restaurant - which aallllmost satisfied by cravings! friday, the roommates and i ventured out towards downtown rome to go shopping! until the end of the month rome's summer SALDI are in effect! (saldi = sale!) on our way walking there we ran into SherBear! (our nickname for one of our wonderful professors! - Sherrie) Not only did she take us to the prime shopping area but took us to get iced coffee- a little different than expected but very delicious, brought us to the Spanish Steps (unfortunately under scaffolding), and recommended a quaint restaurant that the hottro quattro made reservations at! After than we made our way from store to store, i was doing more window shopping than anything! after coming back to our apartment later than night we began studying for our exams we had coming up! (also planning our amazing adventure for saturday!) Saturday morning we rose bright and early to catch a taxi to the catacombs. we weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was quite the site to see. picture an underground cavern filled will enough groves to fit 40,000 people - adults, children and babies alike! some parts of the ceiling still had the original artwork dating back to 200sAD! after the catacombs (sorry momma - no dogacombs!) we had a few hours to kill until we had to board our train to Castel Gadolfo! (which is where the Pope's summer home is!!) We found a small park and ate at a chinese restaurant for lunch before we got on the train! about 45 minutes later we arrived at our stop, which to our surprise wasn't much of a stop at all! pretty much we were let off in the middle of the mountain overlooking a beautiful lake! an italian couple oh so nicely pointed us down the mountain in direction of Papa Francesco's summer home and off we went! made it to the bottom of the lake! still unable to find the home (thinking it would be fairly obvious, i mean, he is the pope!) we asked the guy working at the gelataria where we could find the home. just as sweet as could be he walks us outside and says alright the first thing you got to do is... "walk right back up the mountain." we couldn't help it, we burst out laughing! to make a long story short, we found the house, once again not what we were expecting but still delightful! (check it out in the pictures!) after our long and successful day we found a relaxing restaurant overlooking the huge lake! sunday morning kiersten and i enjoyed mass at St. Peter's Basilica, met Tina, a lovely lady at the gift shop who helped me practice Italian for 30 minutes, and the Pope for his angulus blessing! what a treat! after eating lunch at a place called "la mela stregata!" (which means the haunted apple!) - which was a snow white themed lunch, and flagging down a taxi the rest of the day was filled with studying for our upcoming exams! over the course of 2 days i had 4 assignments, 1 quiz, 2 mid terms, 1 final exam and a presentation! if that doesn't explain my absence on my blog and if that doesn't deserve a vacation to Ischia then i don't know what does!! ciao! there's so much i must tell you to catch you up on isabella's adventures! but as the saying goes: "a picture's worth a thousand words," so i'll let them do most of the talking for me! this weekend our entire group (including our lovely professors) spent our time discovering to alluring city of Florence! one of the major shopping hubs and the leather capital of the world; Florence was much different from anything we've seen thus far! as you scroll through the pictures, most of them will have a play by play of what was happening in each scene. what you will not see, is the amazing meal we were served friday night! complete with a wild boar pasta that makes my mouth water just to think about and pork slices filled with steamed veggies that must have been marinating all day. as custom, italians serve anitpasta (appetizer) prima piatti (first course), seconda piatti (second course) and dolce (my personal favorite - dessert!) and of course you can't wash down a good italian meal without wine! friday was an early morning train ride followed quickly by two tours: Uffizi and the Acccademia! Our amazing dinner later that night - which the hottro quattro dressed up for!! After we stuffed our bellies, we got the opportunity to experience the Florence night life! Early morning the next day (shoulders and knees covered out of respect) we headed off to our guided tours of Santa Maria Novella and the Santa Croce churches! After a long morning of walking and beautiful history, we were treated to the Vivoli, possibly the best gelato i've ever tasted! The rest of the day, we spent shopping! (well, mainly looking!) The leather market is no joke! Every vender and just about every store has the leather aroma wafting from their products! Sunday morning, we packed up - wish we would have had more time there - but were off to Chianti for our vineyard and wine tasting tour and amazing lunch! it wouldn't be false to say i'm quite the expert now when it comes to knowing a good wine! castello di verrazzano is famous around the world and sells more than just wine! olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette were among their specialties! now, i'm back in rome, writing postcards! any last minute requests?? - make sure to send your address through my... alrighty folks! let me catch y'all up to speed!! since the last time we chatted a lot has happened! last thursday we were taken to the museo di risorgimento (also known as the wedding cake) by Gianfranco and he took us on our own personal tour of the beginnings of italy becoming united. he taught us of all the emperors that held power, and hope italy made its transition to the country we know of it today! it's amazing how one day you learn about history in class and the next day you're seeing it before your very eyes! at the end of the tour we were taken to the top of the wedding cake to bask in the awe of the eternal city! this was an amazing 360 degrees view of the city in all it's glory! (of course we took pictures!) on friday we went on a field trip to hadrian's villa in tivoli! (only a short 30 minute bus ride from roma) we learned the emperor hadrian was actually never supposed to become emperor because someone forged his documents of his legitimacy! he was a big fan of water, mainly for protection and self defense - believe it or not he would have water pans placed all around him so that he could use the reflection in the water to see if anyone was approaching! quite paranoid if you ask me! hadrain had 450 gaurds at his villa, and they moved about in an underground tunnel system so that the actual villa remained "pure" of slaves and servants. (Dr. Rea compared this to the modern day Disney where cast members travel underground to keep the allure of the "disney magic". the villa was incredible! hadrian's inspiration, you may ask? the world. including the underground: hades. his villa was made to reflect how the world looked with influences from egypt, greece, athens and rome. now on to why i titled this blog "v is for victory!" this weekend marked the date of our first weekend excursion! Venice and Verona! we caught a train to venice friday night, and arrived late at the hostel around midnight! the hostel was very clean and surprisingly had more than enough amenities. the mode of transportation in venice is none other than...a water taxi!! which bright and early in the morning saturday we took to the stop at Venezia where we were able to see St. Mark's Basilica! the amount of time it would take to have constructed and designed this church is more than i could ever imagine! (the entire ceiling is a mosaic, which alone is enough to blow your mind! - with enough little titles to cover 1.5 american football fields and over 500 columns!!) madison, kiersten, allison, mary kate and i all enjoyed lunch by one of the canals and were given free cherries as a gift! after a long day of shopping (mostly window shopping for myself) we headed over with the rest of our friends and hopped on gondolas to wind down the end of our day. we had quite the day ahead of us! come 4 am sunday morning miranda, madison, kiersten and i were off on another train to verona where we planned to have a leisurely stroll through this beautiful, little city! in just a matter of hours we were about to walk around, take a few pictures, visit juliet's house, write her a letter, select a few little treats, enjoy a shaded lunch with the view of verona's colosseum and witness one of the most well thought out and extravagant marriage proposals we'd ever seen! what more could a few girls ask for? back on the train by 2, meet up with everyone else back in venice and then we were on our way back home! the best part about getting back to rome was being greeted by our lovely missing piece of the "hottro quattro" - caitlin! as if venice and verona weren't enough monday's tour to the colosseum was educational as well as interesting! check out my pictures below to experience this amazing country because words just can't do it justice! p.s. i've been extremely excited and pleased to be practicing my italian in and out of class everyday! it's getting better and better and i've had at least 3 Italians tell me my italian was benissimo! also i bought the book The Help...just one slight difference...it's entirely in italian!! just like the book...i might need some help! **skipping to the end of this blog just so you can check out my pictures will cause your computer/phone to self-destruct. is it worth it?** well it proves to be a little harder than i thought to keep a daily blog! i'm sure you're on the edge of your seat waiting for my next post! so let me see if i can catch you up! in the past few days i have become best friends with my three wonderful roomies! (Catarina, Madison and Kiersten!!) they couldn't have paired us together any better! we've become friends with Bruno who helps us at the market every day! (only a 30 second walk from our house, with the most delicious fruits and veggies!) Our first night the entire study abroad group was treated to a wonderful welcome meal complete with mozzarella, bread, prosciutto, fried zucchini, fried fish, chicken, grilled peppers, pasta and for dessert "mille fiori" (which means a thousand flowers!) afterwards we walked the length of a summer fair that runs along the tiber river! (which we get to cross every day to go to school!) i am really enjoying my independent study with Gianfranco! it's a little over an hour where we have the opportunity to speak only italian without judgement. he is amazingly passionate about his language and it shows in his patience with his students. (especially me!) at one point when i was frustrated with the pronunciation of a word and i said "mi dispiace!" (I'm sorry!), he simply said "no, don't be sorry, cause as soon as you start being sorry it stops being fun." that really stuck with me! anyways, we've seen ancient ruins of temples to hercules, jupiter, etc. some of which have remained fantastically preserved. just walking the streets of rome i'm constantly in awe. there's so much history here! we've seen augustus' first ever permanent theatre! the romans' engineering and architectural capabilities are just breath taking! i've seen the Colosseum light up at night, and i watched the world cup USA game in the streets at the Piazza Venezia! This is where the famous Alter of the Fatherland museum is located! (it's nickname (sopranome) is the typewriter or the wedding cake from the way that it looks!) we cooked out first meal together yesterday night, which i have to say turned out amazing!! today we did what the program calls the "Roman Holiday" tour, where we are guided around the area and are shown different historical sites which debuted in the movie "Roman Holiday". i stuck my hand in the Bocca della Verita (The mouth of the truth), which legend has it that if it chomps down on you you're not a truthful person. I can officially say I've thrown the frisbee at Circus Maximus (where chariot horse races were held and believe it or not help up to 300,000 people!) funny thing is, i'm mainly going by jaime here; isabella not as much! my small independent class does but everyone else for the most part calls me jaime! today i asked my professor, Gianfranco, how would you say "hakuna matata" in italian? his answer: "va tutto bene." What a beautiful quote to live by! welp, i'll make this one short and sweet! packing is pretty much done, just adding a few finishing touches then i'm off to the airport! just wanted to let everyone know (even though i made the post on facebook) easy ways to contact me! downloading the app "whatsapp" or facebook messaging me are most likely the easiest forms of contact! you're welcome to snapchat me or shoot me an email ([email protected]) but i'll only be able to reply to y'all when i'm in an area that has wifi! (refer to the above picture if you forget the consequences of texting or calling me!) i have to give a shout out to: mommy & daddy, grannie & grandpa, and aunt karin & uncle larry for all their sweet gifts for me to enjoy while i'm in italy!! thanks so much! said goodbye to devin at the ol' super lube, grabbin a quick bite to eat at tropical smoothie and then off to the airport! next time i'll be posting i'll be in italy! ciao!!
this week has been a very busy week! picked up my euros from the bank; even their currency is pretty! the rate between the euro and the dollar changes every day! today the exchange rate happens to be 1 USD = 0.715892 EUR. why do I know this? because i just bought a train ticket to cinque terre! a gorgeous part of italy that me and about 6 other people are going to as a side trip! (obviously you'll hear more about it when i actually get to visit!) my mom has been such a big help in preparing me for my journey in italy! there's just so many things you don't think about when going on a trip for this long! packing is the main thing! finding the balance between too much and not enough is the struggle i'm currently facing. i have a mason jar that i packed to the brim with toiletries (but nothing bigger than 3 oz - thanks TSA!), i have all the wonderful clothes my mom graciously bought me so that i can mesh with the italian fashion (longer shorts, shoulders typically covered, and some great walking shoes!) bathing suits are essential and electronic adapters and devices are all being charged so they're ready for travel!) Our professors warned us ahead of time what types of clothes are acceptable at churches like St. Peter's (pictured below) and the Vatican Museums. anyways, as i'm rushing around to finish my last minute tasks (such as figuring out what to do about my 2 books that haven't arrived from amazon.com yet!), i also have to say my goodbyes! for the past few days i've been in gainesville saying goodbye to my amazing boyfriend, Bennett, and all my fantastic friends! (if i tried naming you individually this post might never end - but you know who you are!) and tonight i get to say farwell to all my lifelong friends in tally at the food trucks at lake ella! i thrive when i have my friends around and that definitely makes up a huge part of the person i am. this experience of traveling to italy and staying with people i've never met is going to be quite the leap outside my comfort zone, but one i'm most anxious to take! here's for your italian lesson of the day: it was brought to my attention that "ciao!" in a post i had on facebook made it seem as if i had already left for italy, when in fact i was using it in the "hello" sense of the word. but "ciao", just like the hawaiian "aloha", means both hello and goodbye! so for now i leave you with "ciao!"
in a week, rome will be my new home! currently i'm getting the last minute preparations all ready (shopping for "appropriate" clothes, hoping my books all get delivered on time, saying goodbye to all my family and friends). my flight leaves saturday at 3:15pm from the tallahassee airport. twenty-one hours later i will have finally touched down in my dream country. this dream is finally turning into a reality. while i'm over there i'll be taking 3 classes, plus my online class from TCC. needless to say i'll stay busy! when we first arrive, everyone in our group (a little over 30 students) will enjoy a welcome dinner near the Piazza di San Cosimato! (pictured below!) soon you'll be receiving original jaime pictures as opposed to google's finest images! my first week there is a big one! i'm excited and anxious to meet all the new friends i will make on my study abroad experience! on the plane flight over, i plan to brush up on my italian and learn some key phrases to navigate around the country. for the past two semesters i've been taking beginning italian at the university. hopefully while i'm there i become a little more fluent. if you look at the very top of my blog you'll see the words "il mondo è bello perchè è vario." which means "the world is beautiful because it's different."
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