assisi [a day trip]

    
greetings from rome. as the weeks progress my time is getting more filled with school work and projects. however, its pretty nice when there are field trips sponsored by school because then my professors don't expect me to be working in studio! pretty handy. last week saturday, september 26, i went on a day trip to assisi.  the bus ride was about 2 and 1/2 hours but it was very much worth the trip. we visited various cathedrals in assisi, namely, the st. francis of assisi cathedral. the inside was marvelous and splendid in color, size, and decoration. unfortunately i wasn't able to take very many photos inside the cathedral because its seen as somewhat disrespectful,however, i did snap a few pictures of the original frescoes inside the church. st. francis of assisi is the patron saint of italy, animals, and the environment. there are three levels of the church but rather than 2nd and 3rd floors upward, they descend into the ground. thus, you end up two floor into the ground so the lower floor where the tomb of st. francis remains is quite dark and somber.
     after visiting the cathedral we had lunch at a quaint little restaurant where i had a delightful dish of various types of mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and parsley. although it was simple, the mushrooms were amazing and quite delicious.
     once we had some food in our bellies, we were ready to find another monument. we discovered the rocca maggiore castle. we had to hike quite a while to get to it, but the tour inside the castle was pretty interesting. there is a polygon shaped lookout tower that you can walk up to and there you see a pretty fabulous view of the entire city of assisi...and then some. take a look at the photos included and i will post more on flickr as well. love you all.

     on thursday i leave on another field trip- we are going to naples, pomeii, herculaneum, and sorrento- i will have lots of updates and pictures after the trip.

dirty dieci in cinque terre

cinque terre!!! last weekend my roommates and i ventured to the famous five villages (cinque terre) of riomaggiore, manarola, vernazza, corniglia, and monterrosso del mare. we took a train from roma termini to le spezia. after two late night phone calls to our hotel "night guard" we finally made it to our place of stay in lorento. Oh that was after we hopped on one MORE late-night train that smelled like a port-a-poty. anyway. we were exhausted once we finally made it to our hotel so we slept well and rose early to start hiking. cinque terre is known for its amazing hiking trails that go through the coastal cliffs between each of the five villages. unfortunately we weren't able to do all of them because it had rained recently which makes the trails pretty dangerous.

on saturday we hiked for a total of about 4 hours and then relaxed in vernazza where there is a lovely little beach and large rocks to lounge upon. the villages are all quite quaint and there are lots of little stores with interesting trinkets inside. after a short train ride back to our hostel we cleaned up and went out to dinner for pizza and seafood in levanto.

on sunday we got up bright and early to check the weather for the day and get breakfast at our hotel (italian breakfast:break, coffee, nuetlla and/or jam). then we put our swimsuits on hoping to take a dip in the ocean. unfortunately when we arrived in monterrosso, where the largest beach is, we were suprised to find a huge stormcloud above our heads. we had fun despite the weather though, we went to the little shops in the area and walked the coast a little before taking the train back to le spezia so that we could then get on a train back to rome.

overall we did a lot of walking, a ton of photo taking, and a load of gawking at the beauty of the coast.
 
a special thanks goes out to our helpful night guard at ospitalia del mare because he stayed up extra late waiting for the ten silly American girls to show up. He also patiently guided us by phone to certain trains and through the city so that we would find the hotel. It was 1:30 am so we needed all the help we could get.

the photo above is on the riomaggiore hiking trail which is known as the via dell' amore or "lovers lane", couples bring locks (or you can buy them) to lock to the gates and on Via dell' Amore. the whole thing is very sweet because people etch their names into the lock as if they are forever in love and linked to cinque terre. it was oh-so romantic. perhaps i'll make it back to lovers lane and leave a lock next time.

how to boil water....

...for a home-made shampoo bowl. 

yup. we still don't have hot water in our lovely montecatini abode. all ten of us are stinky, sweaty, and hairy. although a cold shower can be refreshing, a cold shower is not supposed to take your breath away due to extreme coldness. thus, i boiled three pots of water to create my very own "shampoo bowl," at least my hair would be clean then. it had already been about two and a half days since i had showered or washed my mane so it was time. we are still waiting on our maintenance man to stop by to fix the following items:

- tina's v-shaped bed (it collapsed into a V while she was sleeping)

- the broken sink in one of the bathrooms

- the broken toilet seat in one of the bathrooms

- the collapsed walls of the shower in the other bathroom

- a broken stove burner

- and of course our hot water heater (which has already been "fixed" once)

- in the "mystery maintenance man's" defense, he did bring us a new washing machine, for which i am very grateful.

roma studio

i finally took some photos of studio since its now my second residence in rome. i dedicated most my weekend so far to studio and i'm sure its just the first of many weekends. oh well. its a nice place and we are fortunate to have a great space to work. iowa state university owns a portion of the building and its convieniently only a short walk away from my apartment. here it is...i'll post some more interesting photos later. ciao!

foodies...

 

buona sera. i decided that it was time to finally share a little bit of the splendor of foodies that i have been enjoying lately. campo di fiori translates to field of flowers and the produce is just as delicious as it is beautiful. i've already found a few places where i already feel like a "regular." the stand shown above with all the spices is one of my personal favorites. they have a plethora of spices, nuts, and dried fruits to chose from and they usually let you try a bite before you buy. fresh fruits and vegetables are the primary focus of campo di fiori, thus i buy all my produce at the market. when its time for sweets its gelato that i'm after. there are no flavors of gelato that i do not enjoy, but my favorites are the tart fruity kinds. yum-oh!

the colosseum

finally, my days of just being a tourist are coming to a close. i've been enjoying my time in rome, but i am ready to feel more like a resident than just a traveler. my first studio starts tomorrow and it seems like it will be quite interesting and we are going to be studying italian interior retail and lighting design. before i delve into school with full force i decided, with my fellow roommates, to venture to the spanish steps, and the colosseum today. pictured above are a few photographs from our visit to the historic site.

oh, and i also included a picture of my bruschetta- i know its not a complicated italian meal, but it was oh so delicious and made with the freshest ingredients from campo di fiori. i wish i could take everyone there, the market is so beautiful- i was in heaven at the fresh produce market.

second hand clothes, plumbing fixtures, bicycles, and kittens...

greetings to all. over the last few days i have been adventuring around rome, and trying to adjust to classes starting. its like i am on some amazing vacation and then when i was looking for some tourist attraction i accidentally stumbled into studio where i was forced to be a student. i am excited for classes to start because i am ready for a schedule and a routine, but its hard to focus on school when there is so much to do in rome.

although my rome abode is not the "ritz" i am starting to learn that what it lacks in class, it makes up for because of its location. we are close to many of romes most famous landmarks such as the trevi founatain, the pantheon, the spanish steps, and the colosseum. in addition, we are close to some of romes hidden gems too, like campo di fiori, della palma roma (the best gelato store YET!), and the porta portese flea market.

yesterday, i joined my roommates on an adventure to the ostia beach. i had found directions online and we hopped three different metro lines to get to the coast. the tyrannian sea is bright blue, big, salty, and has enormous waves. we spent most of the day crashing into the waves, and letting the waves crash into us. they were pretty furociuos but i was in heaven. it reminded me of the waves on the outer banks in north carolina. abby and i spent hours body surfing and crashing through the waves. most of us ended up with saggy suits because we had so much sand in the bottom of our swimsuits. suprisingly, we were not the only ones wearing swimsuits. although many italians went topless, a majortiy wore swimsuits (thank goodness). anyway. today we plan to visit a flea market that our rome guidebooks describe like this: "rome's biggest flea market-they sell everything: second hand clothes, plumbing fixtures, bicycles, and kittens..."