day one / sat 30 jan 2010 =
we had to leave the villa at 6am to take a bus to the train station to catch our train at 7. walking down the steps of genoa with heavy luggage is not easy! it must have been hilarious to see all of us trekking down the hill. we were headed to naples but had to change trains in rome first. before we got to rome, they had to change one of the cars on the train, so we ended up missing our train in rome, so we didn’t have reserved seats on the train to naples. it was kind of a mess, but good to know what to do in case we ever miss trains on our own.
we arrived in napes at 2pm. naples isn’t the cleanest or best city, so sylvia had arranged for a private rental bus to pick us up and bring us to the hotel. the hotel we stayed at was so nice and had just opened. it had a cool bar and lounge area and cute balconies off of each room facing a courtyard. breakfast was included each morning, which was good.
we were all kind of tired from the train ride, so bernhard (our studio professor who lives with us) took us to look at a cool church and then to a famous pizza place that one of our other studio professors had recommended. it was a small place that had been there forever (it reminded me of bruni’s and mack and manco’s combined) and only served two kinds of pizza. naples is famous for its pizza and this place did not disappoint. there was so much oil on it, it looked like a puddle, but it was so good! we got gelato afterwards and stopped at a little grocery store right next to the hotel. we got a couple bottles of wine and everyone hung out in catherine and my room for a while until a bunch of us went to the hotel bar and lounge. catherine, tyler, jeff, and i wanted to explore and asked the front desk where a close, safe place was to go out and they sent us to a bar called ‘papaloca’. it was cool, there was music and dancing and on the walk back to the hotel, catherine and i had the most amazing piece of pizza with ham and corn on it. weird i know.
day two / sun 31 jan 2010 =
professor poole rode with us back to naples and took us to this pizza place called pomodorino. no surprise, it was amazing. he then took us all around naples from the water back to the center of the city telling us the history. it was really interesting, and we saw that naples isn’t as dirty and sketchy as we thought it was.
day three / mon 1 feb 2010 =
we left naples at 9am and had our little bus take us back to the train station. we took a train to rome and then lugged our suitcases on the subway down two stops to where our hotel was. we literally walked out of the subway station across the street from the coliseum. it was crazy! we walked a couple blocks to our hotel. hotel mercure was one that clemson has used before and liked because of its location. i could see the coliseum from my window!
we went with bernhard inside the coliseum, to tour the ruins of the forum, and to the pantheon. we took some cool pictures. bernhard knew of a gelato place near the pantheon that he said was the best, called ‘della palma’. we got there and i have never seen so much gelato! the counter wrapped all the way around the whole room. we were in heaven!
that night a bunch of us went to dinner with bernhard and then he told us about this little irish pub where a lot of american students hung out, called ‘scholar’s lounge’. a couple of us went out to it that night and it was trivia night. it was pretty cool, really crowded! afterwards, max went with me to try to meet up with sam steindl (my friend from high school who was doing a winter session in spain and italy and ended up being in rome the same time as i was!) and her friends.
we walked to her hotel and went with her and a couple of her friends to meet other friends who were doing a pub crawl. we ended up blending into the pub crawl group and took a bus to this little bar/club across town. it was really cool and i was so glad i got to see sam while we were both in europe!
day four / tues 2 feb 2010 =
our tour guide from genoa, giudita (who gives us our tuesday daytrip tours) came to rome for three days and started tuesday off with a tour of renaissance and baroque architecture. we saw famous fountains and churches and walked allll dayyyy. i swear, giudita has the shortest legs but always seems to be miles ahead! not as bad as bernhard though…he walks faster than dad! and doesn’t stop after crossing streets…i guess i’m used to it, right mom?
we would always get about an hour for lunch (usually amazing pizza or pasta) and of course gelato. on all of these tours, it’s always so cool to see the sculptures, buildings, and paintings we read about and studied in our art/arch history classes in person!
we went to the scholar’s lounge again (it was karaoke night!) but it was way too crowded so we ended up going to this place called ‘the drunken ship’ with 2 for 1 drink specials!
day five / wed 3 feb 2010 =
another fun filled day with giudita. she took us to the vatican museum and to saint peter’s. it was gorgeous. it’s so crazy to be in places you’ve seen on tv and in movies all the time. the sistine chapel was gorgeous.
i had lasagna and gelato for lunch and then we headed to the eur to see a lot of buildings from the fascist era, which goes along with our italian rationalism class. see? we are doing some work here!
that night some of us went to hard rock cafĂ© for dinner. we were in need of some american food. it was amazing. my table had nachos, cheeseburgers, pulled pork, and chicken. we definitely needed that. and- unlimited free ice water! that’s a first in italy! afterwards we went to scholar’s lounge for a drink, but it was so crowded and we were so exhausted, we didn’t stay very long.
day six / thurs 4 feb 2010 =
last day with giudita! today was contemporary and modern architecture (my favorite so far). she took us an auditorium by renzo piano, which was amazing. we had a tour by a guy that worked there and got to go in all the concert halls. there are three of them at different sizes so they’re used for different types of functions. it was really cool.
we also saw the ‘palazzetto dello sport’, a weird-looking on the outside, really cool on the inside basketball stadium. they used it for the olympics years ago whenever they were held in rome. we walked by the maxxi museum designed by zaha hadid, but it wasn’t open yet so we couldn’t go inside. oh well, i guess i’ll have to come back ;) we also saw richard meier’s museum he designed for the ara pacis (altar for peace). this was my favorite building by far because of how simple and modern it was, in the middle of a historic city, and i love richard meier.
i also got to see sam again after lunch at the pantheon. she was about to leave to come back to the u.s. the next day so i got to say good bye!
we met back up with bernhard at 5pm and to the metro to the train station to go to florence. from the train station we walked to our hotel, a one floor hostel-like place fun by a family. it was adorable. bernhard knew of this restaurant called ‘za-za’ and all 22 of us went for dinner. it was amazingly delicious (shocking, i know…all food is phenomenal here!)
afterwards a bunch of us were outside our hotel deciding to go out or not and some girl came up to us with flyers advertising a bar with specials for a group of us. it was just around the corner (and she had promised free drinks) so eight of us went with her. it was this tiny place that we practically had to ourselves but turned out to be pretty fun. yes, we got our free drinks and free shots!
day seven / fri 5 feb 2010
today, professor jane zaloga from syracuse university, teaching in florence, met us to give us a tour of the city. i liked her a lot and she took us to a bunch of museums and churches and had lots of little stories to go along with the history of the places.
for lunch, bernhard took a couple of us to this little hole in the wall restaurant called ‘vini’ which was amazing. we had to wait twenty minutes to get a table that seven of us could fit at, which took up half the restaurant. instead of asking what we wanted to drink, one of the guys behind the counter just handed our table a jug of wine. he then proceeded to toast with all of us and drink his own bottle. and then try to give us another jug. the food was so good, too. the perfect amount of pasta, and only five euro!
afterwards i went shopping with a few of the girls. we only had to go to six shoe stores to find two of the girls their perfect pair of boots! i bought adorable leather gloves which i’m in love with and some people got bottles of wine to bring home with them.
we went back to the hotel for some down time before dinner, where we went with bernhard to another amazing place, and then to the ponte vecchio bridge for gelato.
that night this american bar called ‘the red garter’ was having a karaoke night. we got there earlier than most and were able to get tables on the second floor looking down at the stage. two girls from our group went up to sing and the whole night was a lot of fun. they sang a lot of old songs that we all sang along with.
day eight / sat 6 feb 2010
this was our free day. in the morning bernhard took us to a museum of historic florence and to the top of the duomo. four hundred and some steps later we all made it to the top and took pictures with the tiger rag. it was an amazing view!
three girls and i walked to the top of the hill to see panoramic views of the city and to go in this really cool church and walk through a beautiful cemetery. the hill reminded us of the steps of genoa, and we were not fans! we had our work out, so we decided we could get gelato.
there was a chocolate fair going on in front of one of the churches. a huge tent set up with dozens of tables set up with pure chocolate. it was unbelievable. i had hot chocolate, and in italy, it’s actually melted chocolate. sometimes you need a spoon to eat it, it’s so thick. so good!
while walking back to the hotel we saw lots of people dressed up for carnevale…kind of like italy’s mardi gras. it’s really celebrated next weekend in venice, but lots of other places get in on the fun we learned too.
we took naps before dinner, and some of us went with bernhard to this restaurant called ‘the divine comedy’, themed after dante’s famous work. i had lasagna, and it was the best i ever had! (sorry, dad!) afterwards we stopped by the chocolate fair and got some free samples for dessert. there was a booth that was giving out chocolate shots, this thick chocolate that had rum in it. i got a bottle to bring home to dustin, his two favorite things!
after dinner, catherine and i met up with the grad guys. jeff had a friend studying in florence and she took us out to this cool bar where some of her friends were.
day nine / sun 7 feb 2010
last day!! we had to get up early because we had appointments at two museums. in the second museum, accademia, we saw the famous ‘david’ and all attempted to sketch him. that didn’t turn out so well.
afterwards we had free time before we had to catch our train. we had lunch and logan and i did some last minute shopping. we met back at the hotel and walked (basically ran to keep up with bernhard) to the train station and took a train back to genoa with a quick stop to change trains in pisa.
in genoa, we took a bus back to as close as we could get to the villa, and most of us took the long way up the hill to avoid as many steps as possible. our challenge for next time it to pack not using a suitcase with wheels…yeah right.
the trip was so much fun but was so exhausting. one of the first days at the villa, bernhard had told us that genoa would become our ‘home’ and we would feel ready and comfortable to be back at the end of trips. he’s definitely right. everyone was definitely glad to be home sweet home.
thanks for reading my novel!! this upcoming weekend we have a four day weekend (for carnivale) and a couple of us are off to madrid! ciao!
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