Hmmm... What to say about Venice.... I LOVE IT. The excitement of seeing Venice again since my previous visit two years ago was far from a disappointment. The reason I love this town so much isn't the churches, isn't the sites, isn't the weather, but simple their way of life. Everything is so simplistic and relaxing. No cars or mopeds to run you over, just the soothing sounds of running water, canals filled with signing gondoliers, violinists and accordion players on the corners, and streets that are made to get lost and discover the city from a unique perspective and that [View Full Entry]

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Yes I have survived my first earthquake. Thanks for asking I could tell you were all concerned (Sarcasm) So I'm sure much have you have heard, or at least those of you who don't live in a cave, that there has been a series of earthquakes 60 miles NE of Rome. Unfortunately, this earthquake registering at a 6.3 L'Aquilia and 5.0 in Rome has caused much destruction to the ancient city and has left many dead. This has been one of the worst earthquakes in over a decade. This earthquake happened on Monday at 3 in the morning. Unfortunately I was [View Full Entry]

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So this Saturday, Laura and I had a field trip to an Abbey and Castle that dealt with Dominican Monks and St. Thomas of Aquenis. We left and the morning and headed south the Monte Cassino. Its located half way between Rome and Naples in the hills. The Abbey itself is located on top of a mountain on a cliff side. They abbey was neat and actually saw where the monks and civilians camped out during WWII from the Nazis. Most of the Abbey was actually destroyed because it was thought to have housed Nazi soldiers but has been rebuilt in [View Full Entry]

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First big Wednesday trip and it was a blast... I don't have classes on Wednesdays so we left Tuesday night for Siena. Since we booked the bus over 2 weeks in advance we only had to pay 5 dollars for transportation. Talk about a budget traveler! So we arrived in Florence 11 pm Tuesday night, walk around see the famous Piazza del Campo, grab a piece of Nutella Piazza (don't worry, just nutella, no other traditional pizza toppings), and settled in for a busy Wednesday. After a quick breakfast at the Hotel we headed to Basilica Cateriniana of S. Domenico. This [View Full Entry]

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Its been a while since my last entry so enjoy this long post. So this past weekend I went on a IES funded field trip to a place called "Cinque Terre" and the medieval town Lucca. We hooped a train 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon noon and arrived in the town of La Spezia just east of "Cinque Terre" around 8:30. We settled into our nice hotel room and went out to dinner. The dinners the IES program always gives you is like a 5 course meal and when you leave you can just "roll" back to your room. Anyway we [View Full Entry]

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This past weekend I visited, now one of my favorite destinations, Praha. Laura, Jordan, Bianca, and I left Rome Friday afternoon and after a small flight delay we were on our way to a destination that hasn't always been available to the world for a long time. Praha has not also been a place the world could see due to its past communist nature. Now Praha is a beautiful city untouched my the outside world and has the feel as if time has almost stopped. [Before I go further. If it is at all possible try not to fly with Italians. [View Full Entry]

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Today IES offered us a free field trip to a small town just outside of Rome. I was glad to accept this trip and have read much about it in my Italy travel book which acts as a bible on my night stand and can always be found within a few feet of my person at any given time. We departed for Tivoli first and our first stop was the Ancient Villa Andrianna at the bottom of the hill Tivoli is located on. This villa once belonged to Emperor Hadrian and is now a site of ruins as far as the [View Full Entry]

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Yep you got it, field trip Fridays.... If you haven't realized the trend by now I usually have field trips for a lot of my classes on either Thursday or Friday. This is because I have every class on Monday for an hour where I learn in a classroom and two hours on either Thursday or Friday, depending on the class, where we usually walk around different parts of the city. I have three classes that do this (history, architecture, archeology) so I get to see the modern renaissance city for architecture and archeology and history focus on ancient sections. I [View Full Entry]

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Before heading back to Rome from an exciting weekend we decided to take an hour train to a little town known as Pisa. Again like my first trip to Pisa two years earlier it was raining. Leaving the train station we hiked from one extreme side of the city where the train station was to the other extreme where Pisa and all the sights were. We walked 20 mins to reach the other side, to give you an idea of how big Pisa is. Arriving at this massive leaning tower, the 20 min walk was well worth it. We attempted to [View Full Entry]

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This weekend is the first weekend that I am leaving leaving the Rome area without the aid of the IES program. Laura, Jordan, and I took a high speed train to Florence. We departed the Roma Termini station which is one of the biggest train-bus stations in Europe. The mix of the absolute sheer size and language barrier made it one hell of an experience. After figuring out the system 30 minutes later we departed for Firenze (Florence to us Americans) for a unforgettable weekend. Waking up from my short nap and arriving in a much smaller and more friendly [View Full Entry]

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