this year at iowa state the 3rd annual pumkin carving contest for the interior design student association went worldwide! last week the rome students, including myself, carried out our own pumking carving contest on the terrace of the rome studio. our fellow interior design students back home with compete today, october 29 back in ames. the results from our carving contest will compete against those from iowa state because we emailed all of our photos after our event. since pumpkin carving pumpkins here cost 18 euro we decided to carve in pairs. my friend tina and i were pretty happy with our results and overall we had a great time.
a weekend in firenze.
early sunday morning a group of about 15 students (mainly my apartment) made another early morning hike to termini station. we had to be there even earlier this time- 7:00a which mean we left our apartment about 6:20a. we took a cozy fast train to florence so it only took about and hour and a half. when we arrived in florence it was still just as cold as rome, but it was a pleasant sunny day. we viewed the duomo which is a huge church with very ornate exterior decoration.
after an expensive cappuccino to wake us all up we headed to the uffizi. since we went in a group with a couple professors, we were able to get into the uffizi museum as a group (rather than waiting in line forever). the uffizi was amazing and i spent lots of time just absorbing what i was seeing and soaking up everything. among my favorite work that we saw were: the birth of venus by botticelli, we saw work by peter paul rubens, rembrandt, and carrvaggio.
after the rest of the group went back to rome, my roommates joelle, betsy and i stayed the night in florence so that we could see a little more of the area.
the other main gallery in florence is called academia and this is where the famous statue of david by michelangelo is located. the museum was great and there was a fascinating photography exhibit by robert mapplethorpe. after gawking at the statue of david with every other tourist in the building we went to visit one of the many leather markets in florence. thankfully we betsy has a friend who is studying in florence so we were able to stay with her we planned to meet betsy's friend lauren around 9:00p so we perused around the city and nearly froze. i'm surprised that i didn't "buckle" and buy a winter coat.
on monday morning lauren, being accustomed to florence, brought us to her favorite kabab place in town- doner kabab. it was the best kabab i've ever had, although i can't say i've had many quite like this one. we made a hike up to the piazza del michaelangelo where we saw a magical view of the entire city of florence. we also went to see the pitti palace which was the home of the medici family who were the merchants and bankers at the time of the founding of florence. there was a costume exhibit at the palace so we saw a lots of interesting clothing designs from renaissance ballgowns to high fashion gucci.
after, we went to catch a train back to rome.
overall the weekend in florence was wonderful.
unfortunately our week began in more of a somber way. we were notified by our professors that terry kirk, beloved art history professor, chose to take his own life. although he was not my professor, he was a close friend to many of my professors and it was difficult to see them in such pain. his students were impacted greatly by his spirit and vibrancy. last night we attended a memorial and it was nice to hear stories and memories from people who knew him best.
although italy is still very exciting and fantastic there are moods to be had and due to a load of school-work and a sudden drop in temperature have forced me to convince myself that this is just a lull that shall pass.
i have been traveling about eight weeks now and one of my most prized possessions was a last minute gift from my mom. (thanks mom). what could this magical gift be? yup. ear plugs. i have worn them to bed almost every single night that i have been away from home. in paris, my friend gina decided to draw on my ear plugs: one is a happy face ear plug, and the other is a sad face ear plug.
on monday morning i woke up to find that my "happy face" ear plug had gone missing and the "sad face" was the only one present to greet me in the morning. this gave me a bad omen for the day.
(observe the photo above). but.....this too shall pass right?
on the bright side of things!!!
-i got a great letter from my mom!
-i got an awesome package from my mom!
-i bought boots.
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."
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.
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.
