Final 8 Days

It is crazy to think about how I wll be home in 8 short days.  Finals are upon us (I took my Italian final yesterday afternoon), and I have more next week.  I leave the Rome center in 5 days and then I am traveling to Scotland and London with Marissa.

My friends and I have been talking about our experiences and heading back to Chicago.  We know that we'll be able to return to Rome and Europe and walk the same streets and see the same monuments, but the experience of being together will not be the same.  We won't be here studying and traveling on the weekends and living the way we are now.

So as studying, finals, packing, and saying goodbyes take over my life, I will most likely not be blogging until I get back home to Cincinnati.  I still have a lot to talk about with Capri, Assisi, Amsterdam, Sicily, Scotland, London and Rome.  I am going to finish writing my blog posts because it is something that at least I can look back on!

Arrivederci!
~Christina

Easter Sunday and Tivoli

I'm going to start this post about Holy Thursday.  There is a tradition after Holy Thursday Mass to visit other churches.  These churches set up a side altar with flowers to remind people about Jesus' time in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Fr. Al, the Campus Minister for the JFRC, lead a group of about 25 students on a "church crawl".  We visited 11 churches over a few hours and prayed in each of them.

Afterwards, we went to dinner (getting our food around midnight no less!) at Osteria dell'Anima.  We were served an appetizer, pear pasta (!!!), and a meat dish.  It was a typical Fr. Al dinner, so there was also plenty of wine to go around.  We finished dinner around 1:00 AM, and headed back to campus.  This is where my Verona and Venice blog posts come in!

Once we galavanted around Verona and Venice and made our way back to Rome, we had tickets to Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican.  I'm not going to lie, people were nervous.  My friends and I debated whether or not we would go due to the attacks in Brussels earlier that week.  We decided that we would regret not going.  How many times could we really say we went to Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican with the Pope? 

We arrived around 7:15 and stood in line for about an hour.  It was madness when the gates opened.  There were many security checkpoints, so we felt pretty safe.  We made our way into the Square, and found some seats in the front section.  We got pretty lucky with our seats!

The Mass was beautiful! Thankfully there was a guide that we could follow since the Mass was mostly in Italian.  Receiving Communion was interesting, because it was basically a free-for-all.  Once Mass was over, the Pope went around in his Popemobile.  He then went to his balcony where he gives his Easter and Christmas Blessings.  This was really interesting to experience! 

We then had to make our way out.  This was definitely an experience.  We were only allowed to head out one direction but we wanted to go the other way.  We walked around the walls of the Vatican (literally walking around a country in a about 30 minutes! haha).  We got our paninis and then Old Bridge Gelato.  You definitely get the most bang for your buck!

On Monday morning, Marissa, Colleen, Emily, Maranda, Brittnay and I went to Tivoli.  We caught the regional train to Tiburtina and then a train to Tivoli.  Tivoli is where Villa d'Este is located, otherwise known as where they shot part of The Lizzie McGuire movie.  

The gardens were amazing!  It is obvious why they chose the gardens to film the movie.  There was a musical fountain, but it was kind of disappointing.  I thought that the water would match the music.  However, it was just the hydraulics playing the music.  We continued to walk around the gardens and, of course, took lots of pictures!  

Overall, it was a pretty good weekend!  Definitely non-stop with Verona, Venice, Easter Mass at the Vatican, and then Tivoli! Thankfully I have a great group of friends whom I am able to spend this time with!  

I have quite a few blog posts to write over the next few weeks.  I can't believe that my time in Rome is almost over!  It certainly has flown by!

Arrivederci!

~Christina

Venezia

I was 12 years old the first time I visited Italy with my family. We took an “Adventures by Disney” land excursion that went to Rome, Florence and around Tuscany, and Venice.  I loved the entire trip, but there was always something magical about Venice. The canals, the gondolas, the masks, what’s not to love? I knew that I would be going back to Venice with my friends because they had not been yet, so I was very excited.

Marissa, Colleen, and I arrived in Venice on Friday night after our adventure in Verona.  The train only took one hour, which was perfect.  Our hotel was close to the train station so we dropped our bags off and headed back out.  We didn't have any plans for the night, so we wandered around.  It was so nice to have time and walk at a leisurely pace.  We found the Rialto Bridge (the famous bridge), which, unfortunately, was under construction.  

Building with the colors of the Belgian flag

It was really interesting to walk around Venice at night.  There really aren't any street lights; well, there are some but they aren't placed every 10 feet.  Venice is also a maze.  Because of the canals, you can't walk straight and get from one bridge to the other.  You have to make multiple turns.  Sometimes you run into a dead-end and its only the canal, but that's when you turn around and find a different route. It was also nice because there weren't TOO many tourists at night.  There were some, but it felt pretty quite.  It was eerie at some points, but after all of the tourists we have been pushing through, it was peaceful.  

We found a restaurant for dinner along the Grand Canal.  We were all feeling pizza so we ordered our margarita pizzas.  It had been a long day so we headed back to the hotel.  We headed back through the winding streets, and found some TINY alley ways.  There was one where Colleen's shoulders just fit!

Different alleyway, but still, its small!

We woke up on Saturday morning with what we thought was a packed agenda.  Thankfully Venice isn't that big!  We ate breakfast at the hotel and then headed out.  Our first thing was to ride in a gondola.  He didn't sing to us (that cost extra) but he took us along the Grand Canal and through some smaller canals.  

After the gondola ride, we walked to St. Mark's Basilica.  The line was long, but the entrance was free, so we joined the line.  Thankfully it moved pretty quickly and we were inside within 25 minutes.  The Basilica is beautiful!  The entire ceiling is gold and sparkles when the light hits it.  

We walked by the Sea and saw the Bridge of Sighs, the Doge Palace and many gondolas.  We posed for countless pictures and enjoyed our time being in the sun.  We were hungry so we found some paninis and continued walking!  We also wanted gelato.  Some of our friends had recommended a place, SuSo Gelato, so that is where we went!  I got the Chocolate Raspberry flavor.  It was good, but it isn't in my top five.  

We had extra time, so we continued to meander through the streets.  We sat in the sun for about an hour and just relaxed.  It was much needed!  We continued on and then walked back towards our hotel.  The last thing we had to accomplish was to find masks.  We walked into several stores, but nothing was what we wanted.  When we thought we weren't going to find anything, we stumbled upon a giant mask store.  It was perfect!  We spent some time in there, because we were indecisive, and then quickly headed to a canal to take some pictures.  We didn't have much time before our train left so we were a little rushed, but the pictures turned out great!

We grabbed our bags from the hotel and headed to the train station.  Thankfully we were only a three minute walk.  We had to wait a bit before our train arrived but then we boarded the train for the three and a half hour journey back to Rome.  

I love Venice, it is one of my favorite cities, so I was happy I was able to experience it with my friends!  It was a great weekend and I was glad I could spend more time with Marissa and Colleen.  We met freshman year, so it has been a great experience for the three of us.  

Next blog post is about Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican and Tivoli Gardens.  That one will be posted tomorrow!

Arrivederci!

~Christina 

Letters to Juliet!

In order to not have VERY long blog posts, I am going to separate Verona and Venice.  

Colleen, Marissa, and I decided to go to Venice over Easter weekend so we could get back for Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican (more on that later). We also decided to stop in Verona because everyone was saying how cute the city is! We took our train on Friday morning from Termini, Rome’s main station, to Verona. It was about a three-hour trip, but honestly, it goes by so quickly when you look out the window!

We arrived in Verona and started our adventure. We had about four and a half hours to explore the city. Thankfully, I had done some research before, so I knew what we should see and how to accomplish it all in the time we had. TIP: if you are in Verona, buy the Verona card. It saves a lot of money and it lets you skip many of the lines!

We started by heading to San Zeno. This is supposedly where Romeo and Juliet got married.  The church was pretty and cool to walk around.  Then we headed to the Castelvecchio- Old Castle in English.  We probably wouldn't have bought a ticket, but since it was included in our pass, we headed in.  It is a castle that has been turned into a museum.  I was surprised to see how much Christian artwork was here.  But the main thing I liked about the museum was the view of the river and the mountains! I was surprised to see the snow-capped mountains in the distance.  

San Zeno

San Zeno

Snow-Capped Mountains!

Marissa, Colleen, and me

Leaving the castle, we made our way to Juliet's House with the Balcony and the Wall.  We walked through a piazza which house a large outdoor market.  This is one of the things I'm going to miss about Europe- all of the food markets!  We saw someone walk by with a giant fruit cup, so we knew we had to find those.  It was so good!  I don't eat that much fresh fruit, so it was much needed!

We then pushed our way through the crowds to see Juliet's house/balcony/wall.  People leave letters on the wall for Juliet, just like in the movie Letters to Juliet.  We took some pictures in the courtyard and then headed inside the house.  We toured the house and headed onto the balcony to take our own pictures.  We also got a great view of all of the tourists below us.

Our next adventure was to climb the Bell Tower.  We hiked the 84 meters to the top, backpacks and all.  It was a lot of work but we made it!  The view did not disappoint!  We had a fantastic view of Verona.  There were a few levels with lookouts, so it was nice to get pictures when we weren't too high.  

Once again we were hungry, so we stopped and got some french fries with barbecue sauce.  I couldn't tell you the last time I had barbecue!  We walked and ate and headed to the Arena.  It is a mini version of the Colosseum in Rome, but it is still used for concerts.  They were actually setting up for a show while we were there.  We walked inside and climbed more steep stairs to the top.  It was nice to sit for a bit!  

We then had to say goodbye to Verona and head back to the train station for our train to Venice.  Overall, I really liked Verona and I would definitely head back!  There is a lot to do and see in Verona.  Next up is Venice! 

Arrivederci!

~Christina