Monday, January 11, 2010
Buon Natale!
Hey Friends, Family, Random Blog Stalkers ;)
Sorry it’s been like 10 years since I last blogged. It’s been crazzzzy busy with the holidays and school, etc. I’m sure most of you can relate. Anywho, thought I would bring you up-to-date on my adventures in Italy. Actually, this time some of my adventures take place in the good ol’ U.S. of A! Confused? Some of you should be..
It all began about a month ago when I realized all my friends in Rome would be going home for the holidays. Being that most of them are from Europe, this made sense for them to take their (unfairly short) 2-hour flights home for our winter break. Thinking about the fact that I would be all alone for Christmas and New Year’s made me doomed to be Ebenezer Scrooge in the upcoming weeks. Thus, my parents decided to help me out and send me home for the holidays :) I was sooo excited!! I thought the next time I would be stepping foot on my homeland would be another 4 months ahead of me! And, to add to the excitement, I decided to make it a surprise for all my friends and family. Pretty sneaky, huh?!? We’ll get back to this in a minute..
As the holidays neared in Rome with all the piazza markets open and street lights hung, one of my best friends from Pittsburgh, Jennie, came to visit me the week before we both headed back to the States. We had fun walking the streets of Roma, showing her the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Trastevere, Spanish Steps, etc, etc. One of the things I hadn’t seen, since my arrival in Rome, was the Vatican. So, she and I, and my Irish & Swedish friends, made a day visit to Vatican City. It was pretty amazing to see the Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel. All the history of the paintings was just unreal. Seeing Da Vinci paintings and Michelangelo’s ceiling- I feel like you could visit it 100 times and still have more to learn about the art. We were pretty lucky this particular day because we moved fairly easily through the museum, hearing that otherwise it’s normally wall-to-wall people and you’re typically just pushing your way through. Not sure why it wasn’t quite so crowded considering it was less than a week before Christmas and the streets of Rome were getting more and more claustrophobic by the minute! But, I guess we were just lucky.
After the tour of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican museum, Jennie and I decided we wanted to see the actual Vatican, itself. My other friends had seen it before so they said they’d meet up with us later that night and headed back into the city. Jennie and I waited patiently in line for about 45 minutes until we noticed that the line wasn’t even budging. I saw a few police officers monitoring the line so I went to ask them what was going on. From what I could understand, there was some sort of church mass going on and would be over shortly. As promised, the line began to move and as we reached the front a man asked us for our tickets. We didn’t know we needed to buy a ticket to get in so we just moved aside and asked where we could find a ticket booth. As we asked this, a generous young man offered two extra tickets to us. We were thrilled! So, we jumped back in line and headed into the Vatican. When we read what was on the ticket, it said something about the Pope and universities in Rome. We were sort of confused until a nice girl, around our age, from Nigeria told me that the Pope was going to be speaking to us about students in Roman Universities. So, long-story-short, we got to listen to the Pope speak for about 2 hours about how these students were going to have a big impact on the world, etc, etc. He could have been talking about why the grass was green and I would still be in awe of him. I mean, I GOT TO SEE THE POPE!! And not in a typical way either, which made it extra unique. I, of course, took many pictures of him (which will be posted later) and was happy to be able to understand him, for the most part. Definitely goes down as one of the best memories I’ll have in Rome :)
Jennie and I continued to have fun in Roma, going to the best pizzeria in Rome, right around the corner from my apartment in Trastevere, and eating at the best gelateria in all of Italy near the Pantheon. Then we walked all that food off by doing some damage shopping the streets of Via Del Corso, near the Spanish Steps. Before we knew it, it was nearing time to leave for Christmas.
We headed home on the 22nd, and after a relatively smooth flight, despite the ignorant woman next to me who flung a ravioli on my new winter coat, I arrived back in the States and was picked up by my friend, Sara. She’s the best. She drove all the way out to the airport to pick me up and help me surprise my friend Stephanie at her house. It was worth staying up ‘til 7am Rome time seeing Steph’s shocked & confused face as I stood on her doorstep. lol I continued to surprise people as the week progressed, and loved getting every reaction possible: screams, tears, pure shock -definitely the most entertaining moments of the entire trip back. I was so glad I got away with all the surprises and extremely happy to be sharing the holidays with all the people I loved.
After a too-short break, I headed home. :( I have to tell you the weirdest thing that happened on my trip back though..
During my flight en route to Rome, an [assumed] narcoleptic man fell next to my seat & was lying passed out in the aisle. After about 20 seconds, and some man slapping him on the face, he jumps right back up & asks if anyone was in the bathroom ..?? After my initial shock, that apparently no one else shared, I turn to the man across the aisle and whispered “oh my gosh!!!” whom responds with a shrug & continues to stare out the window. Now, I've either been watching too many Twilight Zone's or absolutely NOTHING affects Americans anymore.
Molto molto strano..
*phew*
Man! This was a long blog. Hope you didn’t fall asleep reading it- I think my hands did writing it! Anywho, my cousin Hillary comes to visit me this Thursday and we’re heading to GREECE on Friday!! I can’t wait!! I’ll have many stories to tell and lots of pictures to share.
Talk to you soon.
xx
Kate
Sorry it’s been like 10 years since I last blogged. It’s been crazzzzy busy with the holidays and school, etc. I’m sure most of you can relate. Anywho, thought I would bring you up-to-date on my adventures in Italy. Actually, this time some of my adventures take place in the good ol’ U.S. of A! Confused? Some of you should be..
It all began about a month ago when I realized all my friends in Rome would be going home for the holidays. Being that most of them are from Europe, this made sense for them to take their (unfairly short) 2-hour flights home for our winter break. Thinking about the fact that I would be all alone for Christmas and New Year’s made me doomed to be Ebenezer Scrooge in the upcoming weeks. Thus, my parents decided to help me out and send me home for the holidays :) I was sooo excited!! I thought the next time I would be stepping foot on my homeland would be another 4 months ahead of me! And, to add to the excitement, I decided to make it a surprise for all my friends and family. Pretty sneaky, huh?!? We’ll get back to this in a minute..
As the holidays neared in Rome with all the piazza markets open and street lights hung, one of my best friends from Pittsburgh, Jennie, came to visit me the week before we both headed back to the States. We had fun walking the streets of Roma, showing her the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Trastevere, Spanish Steps, etc, etc. One of the things I hadn’t seen, since my arrival in Rome, was the Vatican. So, she and I, and my Irish & Swedish friends, made a day visit to Vatican City. It was pretty amazing to see the Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel. All the history of the paintings was just unreal. Seeing Da Vinci paintings and Michelangelo’s ceiling- I feel like you could visit it 100 times and still have more to learn about the art. We were pretty lucky this particular day because we moved fairly easily through the museum, hearing that otherwise it’s normally wall-to-wall people and you’re typically just pushing your way through. Not sure why it wasn’t quite so crowded considering it was less than a week before Christmas and the streets of Rome were getting more and more claustrophobic by the minute! But, I guess we were just lucky.
After the tour of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican museum, Jennie and I decided we wanted to see the actual Vatican, itself. My other friends had seen it before so they said they’d meet up with us later that night and headed back into the city. Jennie and I waited patiently in line for about 45 minutes until we noticed that the line wasn’t even budging. I saw a few police officers monitoring the line so I went to ask them what was going on. From what I could understand, there was some sort of church mass going on and would be over shortly. As promised, the line began to move and as we reached the front a man asked us for our tickets. We didn’t know we needed to buy a ticket to get in so we just moved aside and asked where we could find a ticket booth. As we asked this, a generous young man offered two extra tickets to us. We were thrilled! So, we jumped back in line and headed into the Vatican. When we read what was on the ticket, it said something about the Pope and universities in Rome. We were sort of confused until a nice girl, around our age, from Nigeria told me that the Pope was going to be speaking to us about students in Roman Universities. So, long-story-short, we got to listen to the Pope speak for about 2 hours about how these students were going to have a big impact on the world, etc, etc. He could have been talking about why the grass was green and I would still be in awe of him. I mean, I GOT TO SEE THE POPE!! And not in a typical way either, which made it extra unique. I, of course, took many pictures of him (which will be posted later) and was happy to be able to understand him, for the most part. Definitely goes down as one of the best memories I’ll have in Rome :)
Jennie and I continued to have fun in Roma, going to the best pizzeria in Rome, right around the corner from my apartment in Trastevere, and eating at the best gelateria in all of Italy near the Pantheon. Then we walked all that food off by doing some damage shopping the streets of Via Del Corso, near the Spanish Steps. Before we knew it, it was nearing time to leave for Christmas.
We headed home on the 22nd, and after a relatively smooth flight, despite the ignorant woman next to me who flung a ravioli on my new winter coat, I arrived back in the States and was picked up by my friend, Sara. She’s the best. She drove all the way out to the airport to pick me up and help me surprise my friend Stephanie at her house. It was worth staying up ‘til 7am Rome time seeing Steph’s shocked & confused face as I stood on her doorstep. lol I continued to surprise people as the week progressed, and loved getting every reaction possible: screams, tears, pure shock -definitely the most entertaining moments of the entire trip back. I was so glad I got away with all the surprises and extremely happy to be sharing the holidays with all the people I loved.
After a too-short break, I headed home. :( I have to tell you the weirdest thing that happened on my trip back though..
During my flight en route to Rome, an [assumed] narcoleptic man fell next to my seat & was lying passed out in the aisle. After about 20 seconds, and some man slapping him on the face, he jumps right back up & asks if anyone was in the bathroom ..?? After my initial shock, that apparently no one else shared, I turn to the man across the aisle and whispered “oh my gosh!!!” whom responds with a shrug & continues to stare out the window. Now, I've either been watching too many Twilight Zone's or absolutely NOTHING affects Americans anymore.
Molto molto strano..
*phew*
Man! This was a long blog. Hope you didn’t fall asleep reading it- I think my hands did writing it! Anywho, my cousin Hillary comes to visit me this Thursday and we’re heading to GREECE on Friday!! I can’t wait!! I’ll have many stories to tell and lots of pictures to share.
Talk to you soon.
xx
Kate
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