[nasty] naples.sorrento.hurculaneum.capri

south field trip. (meaning the portion of the trip supervised by our professors)
NASTY NAPLES
we left from termini station in rome early thursday morning of october 1st. yup-this meant that my roommates and i made a very early morning trek to termini station. it was quite interesting to see rome at 6:30am. things were very calm and we saw the sunrise. we took a 2 hour train ride to naples (which has now been "dubbed"- "nasty naples.") we visited the archeological museum in naples, had lunch, and then trekked through the rough part of town to get to napoli centrale so that we could head to the next destination.
before we could get to the train station we experienced even more naples "wrath."  we ended up finally getting on a bus to the train station because our professors finally figured out that we might miss our train if we didn't hurry. on the bus: various students had their "personal bubble's" popped, their pockets invaded, and their bags crushed because we were like sardines on that silly bus. the next issue we had in naples was because of the ticket system in europe. when you get on the bus there are machines where you must "validate" your ticket to prove that you paid for it and you have every right to be on that bus or train. well, because there were almost 40 design students on the bus plus 100 naples civilians there was no room to breathe, let alone get to a machine to validate out tickets. lots of people had validated their tickets, and its rare that policemen come on the bus to check, but on this day one decided to hop on and make some trouble. anyway- more things occurred, but to shorten the story my professor chris ended up paying a hefty fine. ouch. OH and we missed our train (but caught the next one).

first covered shopping center in naples

piglet: archeological museum naples

SORRENTO
once we finally arrived in sorrento we were pleasantly surprised by our hotel accommodations.  the entrance was a canopy of kiwi and there were plants such as lemon and lime trees, and wild orchids growing right outside. our room was called margarita because all the rooms were named after flowers and our room even smelled like the flower. pretty cute. it was lovely to sleep in a clean bed and use nice clean towels. the breakfast was amazing as well!
ok- back to sorrento. our professors planned a great dinner for us a "the lemon tree" in sorrento on thursday evening. the entire restaurant was like a garden and the food was amazing. we had four lovely courses from antipasti to pasta, and sea-bass to lemon desert.
after dinner my professor pia surprised us by convincing a local discotheque to open its doors just for us. we were all very full from dinner but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go dancing....with my professor! strobe lights and all- we enjoyed a night of grooving at the  ironically named "hollywood in sorrento" discotheque.

HERUCULANEUM
early friday morning despite the rain we ventured to herculaneum. this city is near pompeii and was also covered by ash in 79 A.D. when mt. vesuvius erupted. there are acres of civilization that have been recovered. most of the remains are well preserved and we could see frescoes on the walls and brightly colored mosaics that are hundreds of years old. we also saw the remains of bodies that were struggling to escape. overall it was a fascinating but sad place to see.
 

SORRENTO.CAPRI (the portion of the trip on our own)
after herculaneum my five interior design roomates (laura, megan, tina, eek, and allison) and i headed back to sorrento for dinner. friday and saturday night we stayed at campeggio villaggio in a cabin for 9 euro a night. cheap, cold and damp!

the highlight of my travels so far is our day trip to the island of capri on saturday october 3rd. we took the ferry from sorrento to capri and  had a day full of relaxation. right when we got off the ferry we were approached a nice italian fellow who offered us a day on his boat to float around the island, and he promised that we would be able to  jump out and swim. after deliberation we decided to go with raffi and it was a splendid day. we saw multiple grattos, or caves that surround the island and we were able to swim and bask in the sun. the main gratto, the "blue gratto" was closed because the water was too rough, but since we were on a smaller boat we were able to go into some of the smaller caves instead. 
later that night we lounged around our cabins and enjoyed more of sorrento. we trained back to rome on sunday and it was good to be back in our "rome home."

laura, megan, raffi, tina, allison, eek, and me.

pantheon

the pantheon: my neighbor and it took me 4 weeks to finally visit the inside!

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!