Colin's Visit

I know I've been MIA for a bit, but I've been busy entertaining my first visitor from America. After an hour of waiting impatiently at Fiumicino airport last Saturday, I finally caught a glimpse of red hair hovering at about 6'3" in the crowd of newcomers to Rome, and it was quite the happy sight. We started Saturday with the Italian staples of pizza and gelato, then kept it pretty low key, walked around my neighborhood, introduced the first of many bartenders to the American phenomenon of Jagerbombs, and spent the evening in Campo de Fiori until I mysteriously fell into my old trick of randomly breaking out in hives (possibly a SoCo allergy?).

Sunday was the grand tour of the different areas of Rome. Got off the metro at the Colosseum, which Colin was so keen on seeing and then embarked on our way to Villa Borghese, where I had read about a potentially romantic rowboat excursion on the little lake there. Stopped at the Vittorio Emmanuele monument, headed down Via de Corso, stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain, saw the Spanish Steps, and finally made it to our destination. The lake was quite small actually, but had a cool faux temple in the middle, and the rowboats were pretty cute. I even saw a turtle. Then we wandered around and caught a tram to wherever it was we saw a cafe we deemed worthy of providing some afternoon sustenance, then made our way back home. Colin was pretty keen on seeing the Redskins game and Erin was craving some American football too, so we met up with everyone at Scholar's Lounge. The football was eventually trumped by the Rugby semifinals, so we witnessed the victories of South Africa and England, then made our way back before the Metro closed.

Monday I had class in the morning so Colin got to sleep in a bit, then he met us at Argentina just in time to get some Kosher goodness in the Jewish ghetto. Love me some falafel. We spent the next couple hours in the area around school... Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Campo de Fiori by day (Colin bargained for some scarves and a belt, and we indulged in a kiwi from one of the fruit stands), and made it back in time for Mythology. Colin proved his expertise in the area by defining hubris as "excessive pride" and earned himself some brownie points, and after class Lucia (the professor) gave us some advice for good dining venues. When we finally found the one it was closed, so we settled for an appetizer and bottle of wine in Campo de Fiori before wandering about to find a more appropriate dinner place. This came in the form of a really awesome pizza place right by my school, where we ate, drank, and met a middle aged couple from North Carolina and then a group of young Spaniards. The place was right across from Abbey Theatre, where Meghan and I had gone with Scott and Tom the Thursday before and found enjoyable, so we made a pit stop there after dinner. Who should we find there but Scott, Tom, and Brendon, so we had a few more drinks then headed back home.

On Tuesday Colin met up at school again, this time for Maurizio's Masterpieces of the Vatican class. Went to St. Pietro in Vincoli where Maurizio gave us a moving description of St. Peter's chains that allegedly are stored there and Michelangelo's Moses. Unfortunately in the time it took for him to prep us for what we were about to see, the church had closed. Reverted to Plan B: Santa Maria Maggiore. Came back to school, got some lunch, then headed to Ancient Rome. Despite his expressed desire to spool in the Colosseum, the 11 euro admission and long line was a deterrent (we tried to hop onto the back of an Asian tour, but for unknown reasons we were detected), so we had to settle for a gallivant through the Forum and a brief stop at Circo Massimo. I enjoy the free food during Apertivo time at Freni e Frizione so I took Colin there for dinner, then we went back to Abbey Theatre for Trivia Night, which turned out to be a blast. At first it was just Colin, Meghan, and I on the team that would win one of our three prizes of the night for best team name: "It's Not Wrong if She's Sleeping." I guess coming from Charlottesville gives you a nice advantage when it comes to winning the trivia name competition. We greatly enjoyed the Limoncello that served as our spoils from that victory, and also ended up with 2 bags of Wafer cookies for being the last to enter double digits on the scoreboard, and for being the most obnoxious team (surprise!). Despite the fact that teams had a 5 person max, I guess no one was really that threatened when Pete, Ben, Jeff, Hannah, and Kathleen joined in later.

Wednesday started as another schoolday, and I was a little disappointed that Maurizio didn't take our Renaissance and Baroque Art class out on the town as usual, because it would have been a good way for Colin to get to see more of Rome. Instead it was an art lecture followed by a quiz, which Colin took, and at least humored Maurizio with his definition of art ("A form of expression, a three letter word, and a nickname for Arthur."). We had the great idea of biking the Appian Way and seeing some aqueducts and catacombs, but it turned into a more complicated process and a more stressful bike ride than we had bargained for, and we were getting hungry, so we returned the bikes after a short ride and headed back to town for some more, well, pizza. Somehow spent 5 hours on our own in Trastevere before everyone else met up with us, and had a great time. I really like that area, and if I ever am in possession of any kind of funds I'd like to spend more time there.

Thursday I decided to skip out on Roman Emperors so Colin and I would have more time in the Vatican. Did the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's, which were both really awesome. The Sistine Chapel was entirely new to me and it really is incredible what Michelangelo was able to accomplish in both the ceiling and the Last Judgment. I had been to St. Peter's before, but by the time I had ascended the Cupola with my class and made it to the actual interior I was too worn out to really appreciate it, so I was glad to get back. We got a nice lunch in the Vatican, then we decided we should get back so we could get ready for the weekend, stopping in the Chiesa de Gesu (the first Jesuit church with another impressive ceiling) on the way. Colin got a haircut and 12 bottles of wine to bring back, and we were absolutely exhausted. The plan had been to do the Pub Crawl that we enjoyed so much for my birthday, but we started thinking it might not be the best idea before a 4 30 wakeup time, especially when it started raining. Instead we watched Wet Hot American Summer with Meghan, Erin, and Dan, then went to what was becoming our favorite end-of-the-evening hangout: the bar across the street.

4 30 came real quick on Friday morning, but we successfully called and caught the taxi and made our flight with no problem. We flew into Milan, where we spent a few hours (more than intended actually, due to some train confusion when trying to leave) checking out the Gothic Duomo there and walking about the city. When we finally made it to Como it was absolutely beautiful. It was a nice, brisk fall day and the lake and surrounding town was just so picturesque. We checked into the hotel, which we were pleased with, then Colin indulged in his first ever Doner Kebab (which holds particular relevance to all familiar with a picture I took in Spain that has sparked so much discussion on Facebook), and it was a very good experience for him. We took a ferry that stopped at a few other lakeside towns, and got off at the one where the posh Villa d'Este is found. I wasn't exactly sure what it was, but I knew there were gardens so we tried to go in and were promptly stopped by the Carabinieri. When trying to take pictures of the lake in another spot we found that we had once again caught the wary eyes of a number of Carabinieri, so we spent the rest of the afternoon scheming on how to break in and pretending that the Carabinieri were after us.

We wanted to make sure we made it back for sunset at the top of the Funiculare (the cable car that runs to the top of the mountain), so we returned and started our ascent to where we thought (going by what we had seen from the ferry only) it would start. We ended up walking up the steep streets for a good 20 minutes before finding out it started right from the lake. It still took another 15 minutes of walking around and asking directions before we found it (in what would have been the easiest place to get to ever if we had only known), but when we made it to the top and shared an excellent bottle of wine made in Como it was so worth it. The views were breathtaking, and we actually ran into one of the ladies (a Brazilian, actually, living in Italy and dating a German) who gave us directions earlier. Then we went back down and changed for a nice dinner in a restaurant run by the hotel.

The plan was originally to catch the 7 25 train to Venice Saturday morning, but I hadn't set the alarm properly and we didn't wake up til 7 40. There were later trains, but as we were walking to the train station Colin suggested that maybe we just return to Rome. He felt like he was coming down with something, and it would have turned into a lot of time on the train for not so much time in the city, especially when he had a whole day of flying to look forward to on Sunday. So that's what we ended up doing, and I think it was definitely for the best. Meghan had friends visiting over the weekend so we got to meet them for a second, Colin got another Doner Kebab, and we got to spend the last evening in our favorite hangout across the street.

Then we got up at 8 30 yesterday morning so we could get him on the plane. Everything went very smoothly, but unfortunately there was a police checkpoint before the line to even check bags so I had to leave him earlier than we had hoped. Did the hugs/kisses/"See you in 2 months" deal and spent the majority of yesterday doing absolutely nothing. Got a call at 2 in the morning saying that he got to Atlanta just fine so I guess it really was a successful visit. I had a great time and it was really nice to see Colin again:). Now I have midterms to focus on, but I'll get pictures up later.

A Rainy Day in Rome

the streets glisten and the tires sound wet.
the half dome over the apse of the basilica reflects the grey of the sky.
rounded octagons pass below... black, pink, and plaid.
all the types of trees look very green,
but the only thing falling anymore
is ash frome two floors above.
headlights and taillights
passing just to stop at streetlights.

The Oktoberfest [Volksfest] Entry

Let me just start by saying that this weekend was ridiculous, and that all 10 of us that went on this journey to Germany are absolute troopers. In the course of 48 hours we took 13 metro rides (4 Italian, 9 German... one of which was accidental), 2 plane rides, 4 bus rides, and 4 train rides in order to get us from our apartments, to Rome's airport, to Baden Baden, to Karlsruhe, to Stuttgart, to Bad Cannstatt and back. Things could have gone very badly in the midst of all that traveling. While we encountered seemingly severe obstacles (a missed train that may or may not have had to do with a last minute beer run, a missing shoe, a metro taken in the wrong direction after a very long day at a German festival, hotel reservations getting canceled because we got there five hours late), we got past them brilliantly. The question kept getting thrown around as to whether we beat Oktoberfest or it beat us... and while the game seemed close a few times and we didn't go without our losses, I'd say in the end we are the definite victors.

The true Oktoberfest is in Munich. After careful consideration, we decided to take my parents' recommendation of the Volksfest in Stuttgart, where they had ventured during their stay there when I was a wee babe, as Stuttgart was considerably closer to the airport we were flying into. However, between the German rail strikes and inconveniently timed beer runs we probably could have made it to Munich in about the same amount of time, and while we had hoped to get a little bit of festival in on Friday night, we arrived too late and too tired to make it happen. Not only that, we were informed that our reservations had been canceled (no one knew we had to check in at six, and even if the trains had run perfectly we never would have made it on time anyway). They were able to match our three rooms for Friday night, but there was only one room available Saturday. We could check for cancellations. Everything else was probably booked too. We were already putting too many people in the rooms, and were at this point not above shoving all 10 of us into the lone room if necessary. But we'd save that for the morning.

Some of us were exhausted from the travel, others decided that as long as we had done all the traveling, we might as well experience the area. We set out and met a soccer player and his coach who said that the area we were in was almost entirely industry, and really the only thing to do was go to the "Penthouse disco" that we saw glowing about a block down. Jeff, Dan, Megan, and myself decided to go for it, and enjoyed the experience. The name was misleading (everyone was fully clothed), the cover was cheap (8 euro), and aside from a brief skiff with a German questioning my appreciation of Third Eye Blind, everyone there lived up to the impression all the other Germans we met made-- they were all really nice.

In the morning we received good information from the people at the desk: the festival didn't start til 11, the metro would literally drop us off right at the gates, and there were two more rooms available. We were off to a decent start, to say the least. Things only got better when we got our first liter of beer from Lothar the beer guy... at 11 am. Enjoyed some German grub, and headed off to check out the other tents. The festival was massive. There were rides everywhere, at least 6 huge beer tents, music, games, crazy hats, little children, and Germans on benches to dance with and "Prost!" to Virginia and give you their scarves (no really... I wound up with an awesome Stuttgart soccer scarf that a German guy gave me).

After we had had enough of the tent festivities, we decided to take on the rides. There was the boat that swung back and forth, the drop zone, the merry-go-round, the bumper cars... and then there was that crazy one that flung you around. The guy next to me told me not to wear my flip flops. I laughed at him for only wearing socks, and showed how I was obviously not scared of any ride stealing my shoes, because, well, look how tightly I can clasp my toes! Well... sock guy was very wise. I held my grip until the very end, when suddenly my left shoe went careening over Bad Cannstatt to land on a beer tent, or maybe someone's head... maybe even someone's beer. In any case, it was never to be seen again, and it was only probably about 2 pm. I didn't have another pair. Neither did anyone else.

The rest of the day is a sunny, fantastic blur of merry-making, German beer chants, and smuggling liter mugs under my dress for souvenirs. That is, until we finally made it back into one of the main tents (the crowd by this time had become quite fierce) and I made my way to the bathroom. Hannah and Erin had been with me on the way there, but I couldn't find them afterwards. In fact, I couldn't find anyone, and spent the better part of the next 1/2 hour walking around a giant tent with no phone, no money, no ID... oh yeah, and no left shoe. That kind of put a damper on things, and when I finally heard, "Angela!" and turned around to Erin's bright pink shirt I was more than relieved. The night was kind of winding down at that point, and after hanging out for a little while longer, Erin, Meghan, Dan, and I decided to head back. Aside from taking the metro in the wrong direction for awhile, we made it back without incident, I made a beeline for my bed, and slept very soundly.

Given the hassle it had been to arrive, we wanted to allow ourselves PLENTY of time for the return trip. We still decided that we had enough time to return to the festival for about 1/2 hour and pick up some last minute souvenirs... but decided to sit that round out as far as beer went. Then we started the long journey back home, which went without incident, really, except I was a little preoccupied about my footwear situation. The bottom line was that I needed shoes, because I seriously doubted I'd be able to fly without them. We had 1/2 hour in the Karlsruhe train station, and I was on a mission.

The Karlsruhe station is fairly big, and had a number of shops on its ground level. Unfortunately they were almost all food related, so I went to an Asian stand in the middle that had scarves and jewelry in the hopes that he'd have SOMETHING. Well, he did. Though he initially told me there was nowhere to find shoes in the station, when I explained my plight he: a) couldn't stop laughing at me (I mean, I was in the middle of a train station wearing an Oktoberfest hat and one shoe) b) got kind of shifty eyed and said, "Moment." c) led me to this large basket of scarves where he rummaged around til he got to the bottom and from it he withdrew... a pair of bright pink, satin, beaded slip on shoes that were three sizes too big. I looked at him in utter desperation, gulped, and asked, "How much?" He responded, "6 euro." I sighed, handed him the money, and slid them on. Dan later commented, "I think he meant six euro, and *stretches arms* this much pride."

With my feet appropriately covered, we were ready to embark once more, and aside from Erin having to check her bag because she was obviously trying to take down the plane by bringing her hair gel on board, it went quite smoothly. We all had some scrapes and bruises, but all ten of us managed to make it home in one piece. Well, Meghan may have left a chunk of her big toe behind when she fell on the way out Saturday night, but other than that, yeah, all in one piece. A few of us even made it to Italian this morning, myself included. And in fact, now I have to get ready for Mythology, so, ciao until my next European adventure.

Gladiator

We had a roommate movie night because Erin's dad sent her some DVDs. We squeezed onto our couch together and watched it on her laptop. I've always loved it, but I appreciate it much more now than I did as an eighth grader. It's really an amazing movie... the cinematography is excellent, the characters are so well developed and well played, and it was especially significant now that I'm living in Rome. It was so cool seeing the awesome and grotesque things happen in a place I'm slowly growing familiar with. I had walked by the Colosseum on my way back to school yesterday, and Erin and I tried a new metro/bus combination on the way this morning, where the metro let us out right in front of it. There's a part where someone marvels, "And to think man created this..." The awe is still there. (It was also kind of cool picking out errors too... such as the fact that statues never lined the arches in the upper levels that serve as windows, according to Maurizio anyway. And his word is gold in my opinion.)

Speaking of Maurizio, we actually went to the Vatican in his class today. St. Peter's. Climbed the 320 stairs to the top of the cupola. Absolutely phenomenal, I'm sure I don't even have to say. I'll load my pictures later. Two of the guys in our program actually have an audience with the Pope sometime during the semester, which is also very cool.

Another Week

I haven't been as good about updating as I would have liked... I guess this past weekend was slightly less eventful than the preceding ones though. Classes have continued pretty well. I'm particularly fond of Maurizio, our instructor for Masterpieces of the Vatican as well as Renaissance and Baroque art. We hit the ground running, all over Rome, and despite being in his fifties (I would assume) we usually have trouble keeping up with him and he's absolutely bursting with information.

This is our first weekend that we remained in Rome. Friday was a day trip through the school to Ostia, where we thought we (or at least I) thought we'd be hanging out at the beach we've been encouraged to check out there, but instead Claudio (the Roman Emporers and Archeology professor who is also very knowledgeable but tends to ramble and thus can lose our attention from time to time) took us on an excursion of ancient Ostia, which used to serve as the primary port town. Not exactly what we were expecting, but we did see some cool things and were able to make it back to Rome just in time for me to get to work on my expert Italian skills when the wireless guy and landlord came by. Yeah, having, "Sorry, we can't fix your hot water heater, I'll give you a call when we find out more," said to you in a foreign language, and being able to understand and respond, is endlessly gratifying. Kind of. Minus the cold shower for 3 days part. We were content to spend the rest of the evening doing absolutely nothing and having a great time of it.

Saturday the girls and Scott made good on our plans to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. I wasn't as desperate for an Amercian food fix as some, but it was alright. Next time I'm dying for a veggie burger and some nachos and have 30 euro to blow I know right where to head.

Scott and I had age-old plans to check out this club Alien I had heard of from a few sources, and after meeting up with the rest of the guys, striving to find non-American-filled places to hang out beforehand, trekking the streets of Rome up and down in uncomfortable heels to finally find a taxi that could get us there, our hopes were less than fulfilled in finding that we had to pay way more than we were thinking, and that we were in the small minority that was over eighteen there. Solid.

Sunday we absolutely just chilled out, and now I'm on my four hour break between classes before heading to Mythology. Erin just got a bunch of DVDs mailed to her from her dad, so I think we're gonna have an apartment movie night watching Gladiator tonight. Wednesday we're having a dress up dinner party at our place that I'm looking forward to. Aaaand... that's all for now.