Where I've Been

As previously mentioned, I wanted to make a post about all of the places I've seen in Florence. The list is as follows:

Michelangelo Square
Ponte Vecchio
Church of San Lorenzo (including the Old Sacristy and the Medici Chapel)
The Bargello Museum
Church of Santa Maria Novella
Monastery of San Marco
The Ufizzi Gallery
The Boboli Gardens
Church of Santa Croce
The Duomo
Casa Buonarroti (Michelangelo's house)

I am extremely happy I was able to see all of these places. Tomorrow I plan on visiting the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine to see some of the works by Massacio. I have so much to say about all of the places that I've visited that it would make for a very long post. So instead, please just check out the pictures of all of the wonderful places I've been- I think that they can better speak for themselves. Also, thanks to Mike I realized that I forgot to comment about something very important that I saw when I was in Rome- the Sistine Chapel. After writing about it in my diary and in a few emails, I think I just thought that I wrote about it in my blog as well. This probably goes without saying, but it was exquisite. There are 9 stories from Genesis on the highest part of the ceiling and the lowest part of the ceiling is surrounded by paintings of the ancestors of Christ. When originally commissioned, Michelangelo was told to only paint 12 figures on the ceiling- the apostles. However, after debate with the Pope, he was able decide on what he wanted to include on the ceiling, which ended up being over 300 figures. Also in the Sistine Chapel is the Last Judgment, depicting the return of Christ and the Apocalypse. The figures in this painting are much more fierce and muscular than those done before by Michelangelo, as this piece was completed about 20 years after the ceiling.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures below! I will be traveling into Switzerland and France this coming week and then I will be home! I plan on making one final post once I get back to the states, so please be looking for it in about a week and a half.


View from the Uffizi Gallery of the bridges of Florence.

The door to my mom's old apartment!

Il Duomo.

Il Duomo.

View of Florence from the top of the Duomo.

View of Santa Croce from the top of the Duomo.

The Church of Santa Croce. This piazza is my favorite in Florence.

Inside Santa Croce, there are works by one of my favorite artists- Lucaa della Robbia.

Inside Santa Croce.

View from the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge).

Boboli Gardens.

Always time to pose for a picture!

View from the Boboli Gardens.

Great view of the Duomo from the Boboli Gardens.

More works by della Robbia, this time inside the Monastery of San Marco.

More San Marco.


View along the Arno River.

Outside the Uffizi Gallery.

View of Florence at night from Michelangelo Square.

My Last Weekend

My last weekend here in Italy was a perfect end to my travels while staying at the Villa. On Friday morning I left with a group of 14 other people to go to Pompeii. First we climbed up Mt. Vesuvius. There are a few pictures below of the view. Also, something very interesting (to me at least) was that we had a little tour once we reached the top and the tour guide showed us a mineral originally found on the volcano, and therefore it's called Vesuvianite. For those materials geeks like me (Mike this for you), feel free to google for further information.

View from the top of Mt. Vesuvius

More view.

My friend Erica and me on the top of Mt. Vesuvius.

Looking down into the volcanic ash.

After hiking up Mt. Vesuvius, we went exploring through the ruins of Pompeii. The ruins were nothing what I expected, and I don't mean this in a bad way. There was so much to see! We only spent about two hours there, but I think I could be there for a whole day. It was amazing because the first recorded eruption of the volcano happened in AD 79 but we could still see frescoes on the insides of some of the houses. The volcano has erupted quite a few times since then, the most recent in 1944. Our tour guide said that there are many predictions regarding when it will erupt again.

Ruins of Pompeii.

More of the ruins. I love the trees. I'm not sure what kind they are, but they're all over Italy.

Sitting on an ancient Pompeian street.

More of Pompeii.

Fresco inside a Pompeian house.

Peeking through a window in Pompeii. It's interesting to think of the history right in the spot I'm standing. How many Pompeians looked through this window before AD 79?

After Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii, we headed over to our hostel in Sorrento. We ended up having a later dinner (around 10:30) at an amazing restaurant. I had one of the best meals I've had on my whole trip. It was a risotto with seafood- oysters, mussels, scallops, squid, and shrimp. It was to die for! We also had a white wine with peaches in it, and this was delicious! We all enjoyed the restaurant so much that we went back the next night (but more on that later).

Saturday morning we had an early start to head to the island of Capri. Once we arrived we took a boat tour around the island, stopping by each of its grottos. The most fascinating was the blue grotto. We actually got to take little canoes full of 4 people into the grotto. My pictures from this didn't turn out very well, but hopefully you can also look up online to see what it really looks like. And I also lucked out big time! The rower for my boat was one of the "cool rowers" and he let the girls in my boat swim inside the blue grotto! I admit I was a little scared because it was dark, but as soon as he told us we could swim, I was the first to jump in the water! A lot of other rowers don't even offer to let the passengers swim or they make them pay money. But not ours! It was such a crazy and exciting experience!

On the way to Capri.

Grotto Verde (the Green Grotto).

A lighthouse for Mrs. Bartlett :-)

Kate and me on our way to Capri.

Kate and Courtney and Me.

Inside the Blue Grotto.

This is also inside the Blue Grotto. I know that it is pretty blurry, but the coloring captures what it looked like! It was so amazing to swim inside!


The rest of the day we laid out on the rocky beaches of Capri before heading back to our hostel. And yes, we went back to the same restaurant as the night before. My meal was again great (pasta with seafood this time). However, half of the table ordered pizzas for dinner that night and for some reason there was a backup on making pizzas. So half of us got our food a long time before the rest of the table. In the meantime everyone was chatting and having a good time, when all of the sudden my friend Courtney started to cry. She was just so happy that it made her cry. But our waiter thought that she was crying because it took them so long to get our food, so he brought everyone at the table a free shot of Limoncello! It was the first time I had it, and thank goodness some of the people at the table knew that you were supposed to sip it instead of taking it all in one gulp. It was very refreshing, but very strong.

Free shots of Limoncello wiped away Courtney's tears. My friends (from left to right)- Allie, Suzy, Cory, Kate, Me, Erica, Mike, and Courtney.

On Sunday we went to the beach in Sorrento and I swam and swam and swam. Nothing beats swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. After a while though, everyone was pretty tired, so we just wandered around town and ate some food and relaxed until it was time to go to the train station. We took a train from Sorrento to Naples, and then Naples to Florence. However, one of the coolest things happened while we were at the train station in Naples. I don't know if I had previously mentioned this, but my roommate Kate is deaf. And I remember one of the first things she said to me when I met her was how cool it would be if she could meet deaf Italians. Well, her wish came true- we ran into 5 deaf Italians in the train station! There was another girl traveling with us whose brother is deaf, and so she knows sign language as well. So she and Kate were signing with the 5 Italians. It was one of the coolest things that I've ever seen. American Sign Language is different than Italian Sign Language, so it was still a little bit difficult for them to understand each other. But they were able to pick up each other's signing pretty quickly. Having been a part of this experience just sealed the deal for me in making this the best weekend I've had on my trip here. And I am so happy for Kate because she just couldn't stop smiling the whole time!

Our new Italian friends! On the far left is Allie, whose brother is deaf and in the middle is Kate. The rest of the group are the deaf Italians that we met. This is going to be one of my most favorite memories of the trip.

After about an hour in the train station we left on our night train back to Florence, and didn't get back until around 2a.m. We didn't realize that our seats could be rolled down into beds, so it was a little bit uncomfortable. But I'm glad I got to experience a night train ride.

Now a little reflection- I can't believe I have been here for 5 weeks, and only have one week left in the Villa (and two total left in Europe)! I have been on so many adventures and seen such amazing things that I never could have dreamed. I have already written up a post on the things I've seen in Florence, but I need to upload pictures to go with it so please keep a lookout for that in the next couple of days. As for after leaving the Villa, I plan on going into Switzerland and France for a few days each before heading back home (but I will let you know more about my plans in another post). I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to read my posts and leaving comments, emailing me or even calling me- I really appreciate it. It's been great to see all of these wonderful things but still feel close to home.

A wine tour of sorts...

This morning I woke up bright and early to head on a half-day trip to Greve in Chianti. I realized awhile ago that I won't have time to fit in a wine/bike tour in Tuscany during the rest of my trip, so I found this place in my guide book and I sure am glad I did!

It took about an hour to get there from Florence. Once there my friend Cory and I walked around a little bit before finding the main piazza. There were a ton of enoteca (wine shops) lining the square. But according to my guidebook there was supposed to be an enoteca with more than 150 bottles of wine for tasting - Le Cantine di Greve in Chianti. We got there at about 9:55a.m., 5 minutes before it opened. I know it sounds bad going to taste wine so early in the morning, but there really won't be any other time I'll get to do this on my trip and I wanted to see what it was all about!

Me in one of the many enoteca in the main piazza in Greve.

Wild boar is also a specialty of the area, so there were quite a few meat shops.

At 10a.m. we headed into the doors to the half museum, half enoteca. The people that worked there were very helpful and told us a good order to follow in tasting wines (dry to fruity). We each bought 10 euro cards that you would basically put in a slot that would then allow you to pour a little sample of wine into your glass. It's sort of hard to describe how it works so please refer to the picture below. They use a technology in which bottles rest in vacuum-valves, which is how they are able to have so many wines "on tap". The wines that we sampled were between 0.8 to 1.5 euro. We were able to try ten different wines by the time we left at 11:30. Also, there was a similar machine that dispensed different kinds of olive oil for testing. Although I don't know much about wine, the trip really was a great experience and I'm glad I got to partake in a wine tasting.

An wine opener used in the early 19th century. It's actually pretty similar to those used today, just a little bit bigger.

Grape crusher, although I'm not sure how old it is.

This is how we tasted the wine. You insert your card and then the buttons would light up and you could choose which one you wanted to taste. There were about 10 of these stations in Le Cantine.

Cory and me toasting to our first Chianti. If you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see the amount of wine we got for each sample. So I admit after 10 of these in an hour and a half, I was a little tipsy. But I couldn't space the tasting out over more time because I had to get back to the Villa for class!

My Roman Holiday

Ciao! What a busy week I've had! On Tuesday I had orientation for our weekend trip to Rome. As part of the orientation we got to watch the movie Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. What a movie! I really enjoyed it and it was fun being able to see some of the places that we would be visiting on our trip.

On Wednesday my mom's friend Rose invited me to dinner and we went to her friend's house in a small town called Vaino. We ate in their backyard which is a beautiful little garden. The family was very welcoming and I think a little bit excited to have an American coming for dinner. Throughout almost the whole meal everyone was speaking in Italian. I really liked this because I was able to pick up quite a bit of what they were saying. Also, Italians use their hands a lot when they speak so that helps with the translation as well. The dinner was delicious! In the kitchen the family has a brick oven for making pizzas. I sat down to the dinner table and the first pizza was brought out. I was half way through eating a piece, when the second pizza was brought out. And this continued on until there were 6 different pizzas- each very distinct and very tasty! We then had a fruit tart and gelato for dessert. It was such a great night and I though it was so cool to have an authentic Italian meal with an Italian family.

Backyard garden where we ate dinner.

Some of the pizzas we ate that night- YUMMY!

My Italian family :-) The woman in the middle is my mom's friend Rose.


The next morning the whole study abroad group left bright and early for our trip to Rome. I had an amazing time for the three days that I was there. We did so many things and saw so many amazing places. Once again I was in awe actually seeing up close places I've only ever seen in pictures. Once we got checked in to our hotel we headed straight to the Vatican. What an unbelievable place! St. Peters Basilica was beautiful. I loved Basilica di San Marco in Venice, but this was also very beautiful. We got to climb up to the top of the dome and look down at the whole church. We also climbed even further up outside to get a great view of Rome. The steps up to this area were really steep and very crooked, but we made it fine and they view from the top was definitely worth the hike up. Later that night I also got to see the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain.

St. Peters Basilica

Kate (my roommate) and me in front of St. Peters

Michelangelo's Pietà - one of my favorite pieces of art in St. Peters

Dome inside St. Peters. Just to put it into perspective for you, the letters that you see below the windows are about 8 feet tall!

More of the Dome.

A closeup of the mosaics that make up the dome in St. Peters.

My group of friends taking a little break on our way up to the top of the Basilica.

On top of Rome :-)

The next day began with a guided tour of the Roman Forum. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The guide was very knowledgeable and the tour was very informative. We got to see a lot of the Roman ruins, which were fascinating. The tour guide also mentioned that Rome has built up on top of itself and so there are certain areas where there are ruins 60 feet below what is present today- pretty amazing! Also, a lot of the remains of buildings have huge holes and gaps in them and this is because people would break out the metal nails, etc. supporting the buildings when metal was sparse. At the end of the tour we were at the top of Palatine Hill so we wandered around there for a little while before heading to the Coliseum. Now this is something to talk about. I was amazed by its size and the architecture. It was such a weird feeling thinking about its history and what it was used for and that today hundreds of people walk through it every day just as a tour. After the Coliseum, we went to the Pantheon and saw Rapheal's grave. This was followed by a daytime visit to the Trevi Fountain. That night we went to the Baths of Caracalla which houses an outdoor Opera. We got to see Lucia di Lammermoor which was breathtaking. The Opera had three acts, and my favorite was the second. Although it was all in Italian, we were given handouts explaining the story beforehand and this helped out a lot. I really enjoyed the Opera and the setting was perfect.

Roman Forum.

More ruins.

The Coliseum.

Inside the Coliseum.

The Trevi Fountain.

The girls and me at the Opera!

Kate and me at the Opera :-)

The stage.

It was really tough to get a good picture, but hopefully you can see how bright and colorful it was. And the music was equally as beautiful.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to go on a run around the Coliseum with a small group of people. After this a group of this headed out just to wander around a little bit. We first stopped by the Mouth of Truth (pictured description below) to have our Audrey Hepburn moment. Next we walked around an older part of Rome and found a really pretty church that had gorgeous mosaics inside. When we walked in we could hear the priest at the front and a lot of people were in the church. We figured it was mass so a few of us sat down. After a little bit I was looking around at all of the people there and I felt quite underdressed as they were all very dressed up. All of the sudden everyone stood up and so I assumed we were going to say the Apostle's Creed when I got a glimpse of the front of the church and saw that there were a bride and groom standing at the alter... Oops! After this we headed to the Modern Art Gallery. As expressed previously, I'm generally not a huge fan of this kind of art. But luckily one of the art professors came along and so I followed close to him as he interpreted the art for us. It was all very interesting and I actually ended up enjoying a lot of the art quite a bit. Our last stop of the trip was at the Villa Borghese. This was a beautiful Villa that houses gorgeous artwork. I thought that the works by Caravaggio were very interesting and I also very much enjoyed Bernini's Apollo and Daphne.

I'm an honest girl so my hand made it out of the Mouth of Truth all in one piece!

My weekend in Rome was definitely action packed, lacking sleep, but I had such a great time. Yesterday I spent the day being lazy and sleeping, which I haven't done since I got here. I always feel bad about sleeping too much while I'm here because I want to make sure that I see and do as much as I can! But it definitely was a nice little break.

Also, I wanted to mention that I realize I haven't posted much on Florence, even though I go there about 3-4 times a week. I'm hoping that I'll have time to post more about what I've seen there in the coming weeks. But for now, I have to start studying. I have an Italian quiz tomorrow and finals are already next week! I hope everyone back home is doing well and I can't wait to read your comments about my trip!