Florence Program Day 5-7 (Rome)

Friday 8-28-08

We met for breakfast around 8 am and were out the door by 9. Our group walked up a huge hill to get to the San Mineato Dmonte cathedral. Monks take care of the grounds and also have a shop that sells different "medical" creams. Our instructor bought one to heal mosquito bites, since many of the other students had some bad ones. We had an amazing view of the city from there, so it was a great place for a group drawing session. Around 12:30 we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags for the weekend. Dana, Kerry, Casey and I headed to the train station and got a pizza before our 3:09 train. The ride was about 4 hours, so we got into Rome around 7pm. We got off and walked to the hostel we had booked. After checking in and seeing our room, we headed out for dinner. We walked by the Colosseum and the MET, which were lit up and beautiful. We ended up eating at a place called Pastarito, which is like an Italian P.F. Chang. After dinner we headed home because we planned on getting up really early the next morning. I slept well since I had air conditioning and a nice down comforter.

Saturday 8-29-08

Our alarm went off at 6:15 am. We got up and got ready as quickly as possible. By 6:50 we were walking to catch a bus. After getting on the bus we realized we could not pay with cash, so we got off soon after because you can get fined up to 50 euro if you are on a bus without a validated ticket. We later learned that you buy the tickets in convenience stores or at news stands. We walked the rest of the way to the Vatican. We ended up going inside of St. Peter's Cathedral first. It was so huge! There were about 6 different alters throughout the church. We were there during the morning mass, which was happening at almost every alter. After leaving the church, we walked to the Vatican Museum entrance. We ended up waiting in line for about 20 minutes, which is very short. The first great thing I saw was Raphael's School of Athens fresco. By far, my favorite thing so far has been seeing Michelangelo's frescos in the Sistine Chapel. I got to see God Creates Adam and the Last Judgement in person. It was so incredible to see them, because I understand the history and can greatly appreciate the work put into them. Another interesting tidbit we found in the museum was a painting by Jacob Lawrence, a Seattle artist, who has a gallery dedicated to him at UW.
After visiting the Vatican we walked along the river and went to a market. We all bought some tasty dried fruit. I had everything from carrots to strawberries, there was so much to choose from (some covered in sugar). Then we headed to Piazza Navona, where there are lots of artists selling paintings. Our intstructor gave us the address of a bakery to get "the best pizza in the world" nearby. After eating our yummy pizza, we sat on a bench in the shade for a while because it was too hot. Then we decided to go the the Colosseum, but on the way got a bit lost and ended up trying to find a chocolate and wine bar one of our group members had been to a week earlier. We were told that you could get shots in a chocolate glass, that you eat. We found the shop, but it wasn't going to open for another 20 minutes so we decided to sit down outside and draw the store front while we waited. An employee showed up and told us that it would not open for another few hours. We continued to draw, and when we were finished we dicided to go to the store front and bug him one more time to see if he might let us in. This time he let us in. He told us that the bar was run by a group of theatre actors. Then he showed us the list of all of the different kinds of shots you can take (which all had very naughty names). He offered to let us all try one. I had one made with chocolate liquer and mint bailey's, with whipped cream and chocolate power on top. You take them by putting your head back and then dropping the whole thing in your mouth. After taking one he offered to let us try another. We were all interested in the absinthe shot, and so he let us all try a tiny sip of it to see if we wanted it. I didn't like the taste, so the other 3 girls had that and I tried the coconut rum instead. We all had a really good time there, and had the whole place to ourselves. We offered to pay, but the bar tender said it was on him and to come back if we were ever in Rome again.
Next we walked back to our hostel and took showers. After getting dressed we headed to Trevi fountain to take some pictures. Then we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe. We were all dieing to have a hamburger. We had an hour wait for our table, so we sat in the bar and had a drink until our table was ready. I had a mojito, and it was expensive! After I had completely finished my hamburger and fries, we left and went to a bar called Old Station and hung out there for a few more hours.

Sunday 8-31-08

I woke up around 9:15 and had breakfast that the hostel provided. We got ready and had to check out by 11. Unfortunately, the hostel wouldn't let us leave our luggage there for the day, so we had to walk back to the train station and get lockers for the day. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes, and then headed to a cafe to get a coffee. The first destination of the day was the Colosseum. We went inside and toured the whole arena, which was huge! When we got out we decided to sit and draw for a half hour in the shade. Then we decided to walk to the Parthenon, and grabbed some fresh fruit on the way. The dome on the Parthenon is quite large, with geometric designs on the inside. The Spanish Steps were the next place we wanted to see. On the way we were walking down a street with all of the designer label stores. A GIGANTIC hornet/wasp/bee landed on Kerry's dress. Caseyfreaked out and ran away and I grabbed one of her arms to hold her still while Dana tried to carefully brush it off. This thing was scary. It was at least 2 inches long and fuzzy. The ironic thing is, about 100 meters down the road another smaller bee landed on Dana's sun glasses and Casey freaked out again and fell on the ground. It was really funny, you had to "bee" there. After hiking to the top of the Spanish Stairs we decided to go back to Trevi fountain one last time and throw in a coin. By the time we did that it was time to head back to the train station.
We got our luggage out of the lockers and went upstairs to find something to eat. About an hour before our train was leaving we noticed a lot of police cars pulling into the parking lot. There were at least 40 cars. Then at least 100 police men in swat gear (helmet, bat, shield, gun) came into the train station. They lined up on both sides of one of the terminals. We were kind of freaked out because we didn't know what was going on. A man told us that earlier in the day Naples had played Rome in a soccer game and tied. The police officers were there to escort the Naples team onto the train. I have never seen anything like it. We waited around to see what would happen when the team arrived, but their train got delayed (probably because the team was late) and we had to go get on our train before it left back to Florence. We were back in Florence by 11 that night.

Monday 9-1-08

Today we had breakfast at 8 and a group meeting at 9. We talked about what we would be going this week. Then we had group presentations of the neighborhoods we researched. My group had the Oltrarno, which is the neighborhood we are living in. After that we broke for lunch and met up again in the early afternoon for some studio time. We did two drawings and then worked on our notebooks. I made a journal that I am drawing in and scrapbooking. I am saving all kinds of receipts and brochures from the trip, and putting them in as I go. I also plan to add these entries and some photos after I get home. After our studio time Dana and I went for a walk and got gelato on the way back. I am just relaxing right now until we have a group dinner at 8. Our instructors were nice and had assumed we would all have really sore feet by today, so we were given a lot of time to rest. We will be going to Pisa this week, as well as a nice beach.

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