Round&Round&Round She Goes

For our return trip to Italy we had to take another ferry. Luckily this time it was only 12 hours and it was sans-midterms. We were enroute to Venice, the city of water streets. Our ferry took off at 1 am and surrounding the port were tons of people who, Linda explained to us, were attempting to smuggle their way onto the ferry to get to Italy. They’ll try anything from hiding under truck beds to climbing over barbed wire fences, and we saw it all from the comfort of our vans. There were people crouched behind bushes hiding from the port police, trying to find any moment to sprint onto the boat. It was desperate and it was sad. Another example of what the economy has done to people all over the world.

The next day we arrived back in Italy and I couldn’t have been happier. That meant more gelato, more pizza, and more pasta! We stayed at an old Villa outside of Venice that was decorated with black and white pictures of the people who used to live there. The area we stayed was the summer escape for the rich during the hot, stinky summers in Venice.

We only had one full day in Venice so we did everything we could to make the  most of it. You have to take a ferry into Venice, because there are obviously ZERO cars in the area. I wouldn’t suggest swimming to Venice as the water surrounding it is quite dirty and stagnant looking. The ferry ride got us all excited as we watched beautiful, old buildings and striped gondoliers go past us. The whole idea of Venice is romantic and mystical.

We got off the ferry at San Marco, a massive area with a Piazza, tons of shops, and beauty all around. In Piazza San Marco we saw the Basilica di San Marco which is covered with beautiful gold inlay and colorful mosaics. There was also the beautifully crafted blue and gold Saint Mark’s Clock Tower standing up next to the Basilica. The reason for the focus on Saint Mark is that it is said that two Venetian merchants stole St. Mark’s remains from Alexandria and smuggled them into Venice in a case of pork meat. So much for the ten commandments, right guys?

San Marco is also home to THOUSANDS OF PIGEONS. And people are obsessed with them. Remember the gargoyle who was always covered with pigeons in the Disney movie, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”? Well she hated the pigeons, but people in the San Marco square PURPOSELY get the pigeons to sit all over them. Holding bread crumbs in their hands, there are whole families with pigeons cooing, pecking, and crawling on them for a photoshoot. Venice: where New York’s bird-rats are glorified. Yuck.

We wandered way from Piazza San Marco and into the hustle and bustle of the many Venetian shops. Filled with beautiful Venetian glass, lace, and masks, every store was tempting. We treaded lightly in a store filled with Murano and Venetian glass – I was scared to death that one wrong move would bring an entire shelf to the floor. The Corning Museum of Glass is like kiddie class compared to the artwork of the Venetian glass. After the glass we found an awesome mask shop. It was huge and was filled top to bottom with masks from 5 euro to 3000 euros. There were classic Venetian masks with gold and colorful, glittered masks, and even masks to make you look like an animal. We all tried on practically every mask in the store, and the store managers loved us. They gave us capes and hats to try on with the masks and chatted with us the entire time. Needless to say, almost everyone left with a mask that day.  We had to! It’s so Venice!

Next on the checklist was a gondola ride. Before I die I’ve always wanted to go on a gondola and this was my chance. We bargained, made some gondoliers mad, and eventually found a good place with a good price for a short, but enjoyable gondola ride inside the city walls. We stepped onto the black boats that are decorated with red and gold pillows, and comfortably rode under bridges, on the streets of water. Our gondolier talked with us about our trip and America and his history in Venice. His father was a gondolier and the gondola he rowed was his very own. When asked how many striped shirts he owns, he laughed really hard and offered us the shirt he was wearing. I’m assuming he has more striped shirts than I have Seneca Farms t-shirts. (And that’s a lot.)

While wandering around Venice we found the Rialto Bridge, or Ponte di Rialto, which was built in 1591 across the Grand Canal. It has great glass shops and an awesome view of the Canal. Marco Polo’s house was also stumbled upon…yea you know what happened next…I wish we could leave the pool game to the pool. The rest of Venice was spent blowing our daily budget on pretty things and yummy food. We got our fill of the last Italian gelato…so depressing.

Leaving Italy was one of the saddest things of the trip. Mark my words, I’ll be back someday. Hey parents…how about a family vacation??

Our last few nights in Greece were spent in Meteora, an area with rock towers that stand out around the town of Kalambaka. Millions of years ago this area was under water, and the current weathered the rocks into smooth formations. Now that Meteora is no longer submerged, these rocks just stick up as if they are huge giants surrounding the small towns. As we drove around the rocks filled with old water caves and crevices, I imagined Meteora as a modern day, dried up Atlantis. No literally – I fake-swam through the town.

Eastern Orthodox monks were the first people to inhabit Meteora. At first the monks lived in the caves and fissures of the rock towers which provided them with a peaceful and beautiful place to worship. Later the monks built six separate monasteries on top of the largest of the rock formations. These monks were either crazy or had a VERY strong sense of faith in God’s ability to give them wings because the only way to reach the monasteries is over bridges or using cable cars. Built almost seamlessly into the hard rock, they cling to the tops of the shaped mountains and it’s hard to comprehend how the monks originally built them. One wrong step and it was a long way to fall. Maybe the monks were ancient giants. Let’s go with that.

The day we visited the biggest monastery, The Great Meteoron, the surrounding rock towers were wrapped in a blanket of mist, giving it a mysterious and yet already spiritual feeling. Inside there were various rooms of religious and Greek cultural history. The most religious rooms also have the most eery items. There is an entire room full of the skulls of the ancient monks. (Why?!) Near it is a room dedicated to the saints. It is painted top to bottom with gruesome portrayals of various forms of saint murders. The pictures vividly show bloody images of stonings, decapitations, boiling, burning, crucifixions, and beatings. It was like Christian Horror Movie Pictionary. Guess that saint based on his terribly unfair and disgusting death. I’m a fairly religious person but it’s hard to feel strongly about religion when it’s gruesome past is the main focus.

The monastery also claimed to have a part of Noah’s Ark…yea…right. That’s what we call early PR and marketing people. Get the people to come visit by claiming to have ancient relics. (In all seriousness after we saw that Linda suggested I do a Fulbright on ancient religious PR…interesting.) Noah is shaking his head right now.

But the monastery didn’t just hold religious memorabilia, but also had galleries and museum rooms of Greek history. The Gallery of Admirals had portraits of various Greek military, political, and intellectual individuals. Various writers, politicians, and military generals were presented. The most interesting was the lone female of the group, Laskarina Bouboulina. Admiral Bouboulina was a Greek heroine of the War of Independence in the early 1800s because she selflessly donated all of her property for the needs of the war. In a room full of men this woman clearly stood out.

Given that Great Meteoron is an extremely orthodox place, they had some interesting art that showed their distrust in science or rationalism. One sign said “rationalism is an excessive confidence in our own powers of reason…In essence; it is a form of disbelief, a lack of faith. It is not a simple sin, but a sinful state of mind.” They also had a painting portraying saints on one side and famous philosophers on the other. The description tried to explain how Aristotle’s and Plato’s philosophy were actually descriptions of the coming of Christ. It was an interesting take on the Ancient Greek philosophy. I’m just going to say a good balance works best.

The rest of our time in Meteora we spent learning about traditional Greek culture. The owner of the guest house we stayed in took us to a dinner where we were entertained by Greek dancers. Costumes and all they put on a great show. After dinner they welcomed us onto the stage where we all got to try our hand at Greek dancing. We all had left-feet syndrome. But it was a great bonding experience as we linked arms, trying to keep time with the live music. One of the Greek dancers in particular had a thing for Allison, and when a Greek waiter swept her away to dance, the Greek dancer turned to me. Oi. He was short and could only say one thing in English…”you are very beautiful.” Thanks dude. After he followed Allison and I INTO the ladies rest room where we tried to escape him I was no longer amused. He may or may not have lost his job.

The day we left, Linda, Tom and I were given the opportunity to be interviewed on a Greek radio station. Since I’ve missed my days with WRHU, I jumped at the chance. Thank goodness there was a translator because it was literally ‘all Greek to me’ (I had to!). We were questioned about the US and our trip so far, along with our opinion on the current economic troubles in Greece. Tom got the tough question about how he thought the economic struggle could be solved. I just chimed in about how good the food had been. Meh, pretty typical.

Meteora was a great way to end our stay in Greece. It was full of the natural beauty and traditions of Greek life and culture. I may have left Greece for now, but I know that I’ll be returning in the future. (For more gyros!)

On the way to Athens we did what we always do…stop at an ancient fortress on the top of a mountain. This time it was the mountain where it is said that Sisyphus’ was punished by the Gods to always push a rock up to the top but have it always roll back down on him. In modern day the fortress that is built there has a spectacular view of the surrounding town and the water on the coast.

Now, the home of Athena however, has seen better days. Even the rundown fortress looked better than Athens. It was the first city that I can honestly say is dirtier than New York City (because let’s be honest…NYC is pretty dirty). The economic turmoil in Greece is VERY apparent in Athens. Many Greeks say that the money they’ve received from the EU was squandered away by those in power at the top. They found ways to make it look like they used the money efficiently…but unfortunately a hefty amount made it into their own pockets. That may be the reason Athens looks like Athens.

The first thing that clued me into the depression was the graffiti. Driving in I could see that graffiti was everywhere. It didn’t matter if it was a bank, restaurant, or store there was graffiti on it. In fact, if a person stood still long enough they’d probably be graffiti-ed too. The second thing was the area where our hotel was. Seemingly in a great location, just a few blocks from the Acropolis, it was heavily drug-ridden and all of the locals told us not to go outside at night. Yup. That was the first time I’ve been nervous anywhere in Europe. Sadly, people in Athens (and many other places in Greece) are very desperate these days. On our walk to the Acropolis we stayed together like a pack. No one wandered off to be farther away than the others. It was a little nerve-wracking because people were swarming the streets and it was hard to keep track of each other let alone our bags. Along this innocent little walk we happened upon a particular Athenian casually shooting up heroin on the side of the street. Considering I’m writing all of this in the past tense, you can be assured I am just fine. In case anyone was worried. Ahhhh, Athens.

Well…the Acropolis was nice! It’s so funny how in these cities you could walk down blocks of streets with banks, graffiti, markets, and skyscrapers but then all of a sudden you literally stumble on ancient ruins. It would be as if thousands of years from now our famous monuments are buried under years of soil and just the tip of something….like The Statue of Liberty is sticking out. It’s kind of surreal.

We wandered up the hill to the famous Parthenon (which is easily confused with Pantheon in my head) and overlooked all of the wonder of Athens below us. There are still cranes around part of the Parthenon because it’s in a continuous state of reconstruction apparently. Next door to the Acropolis there is a new museum that holds all of the statues and priceless pieces of the Parthenon and other temples. Archeologists have pieced together bits of the friezes, top statues, and other really old structures. It’s kind of amazing how they can find one random toe of a statue in the rubble and based on old stories and drawings figure out where that one toe goes in the entire scheme of the Acropolis.

After touring the museum we met with one of Linda’s friends who is a linguist and works in Athens. He took us to a great Greek restaurant where we stuffed ourselves with more gyros, greek salads, and kebabs. He explained to us some pieces of the Greek language using Homer’s The Odyssey as an example. He printed out the first lines of the story to show us how it is purposely written to paint the picture better when told orally. He also explained to us the importance of understanding the basics of languages or cultures in different countries. One wrong flick of a wrist or finger point could personally offend someone you’re talking to. We asked him a lot of questions about Greece and the economic downturn as well as their relationship with the EU. He was very diplomatically honest in his answers and it was great to get to see the Greek perspective from him.

The rest of the night was spent reading and studying. Some people went out but the majority of us felt too unsafe to leave. In New York I can walk around without being conscious of where my bag is or who is walking near me at all times. In Athens I felt like I was on constant watch.

Although Italy and Greece don’t seem that far apart, it was quite a process to go from Sorrento to Nafpaktos. First we had to drive the vans four hours to Ancona on the coast of the Meditteranean where we could then catch the ferry. This ain’t no Staten Island ferry foaks. We took a 24 hour, cruise-like ferry to Greece. And by cruise I mean overpriced food, waterless pool, and drunken truck driver cruise. There were four of us to a little cabin and it was SQUISHED. By the end of the 24 hours I was ready to jump ship. To make matters worse we had to take 2 midterms on the boat. Wait, rewind…did I just say midterms? Oh yea, this is college and I swear I really do take real classes (and I learn a lot!).

I wish I could tell you more about Nafpaktos but unfortunately we took two more midterms there and I only really saw the food I ate I the restaurant near us. The food looked great if you were wondering. And it tasted great too. As we were leaving we visited the castle of Nafpaktos which is up on the highest hill, overlooking the sea. We walked around, enjoyed the view, and…had crutch sword fights? (Crutch fights with Michael’s crutches is a pretty common scene.)

Next on the itinerary list was Olympia which was actually able to be enjoyed without midterms. Olympia is (if you didn’t already know or guess) the sight of the original Olympic games. It’s also the sight that the torch is carried from to every Olympic game. While shopping we actually met a jewelry maker who had carried the torch for one of the Olympics.

Naturally, all of our competitive sides came out and on the day we visited the Olympic grounds we held an Olympic game all our own. Split into three even teams we had a variety of events to bring out the best in all of us. Our sweat is on the same track where the sweat of the Ancient Greeks lies. Each of our events was a type of relay. First was an all-out dead sprint back and forth across the track to our teammates. Next was a backwards run. And finally, the crowning jewel had three different pieces: the first teammate had to do ten jumping jacks before running across the track, the second teammate then had to spin around ten times and sprint to the opposite side, and the last teammate had to do ten lunges before running to finish the relay. It was a battle out there. Some people fell, and some pulled muscles they hadn’t felt in years. But there was only one team to win it all….my team. TJ, Amber, and I were the triumphant winners of the 2011 European Odyssey Olympics. It was a proud moment.

At the end all of the teams walked to the top of the grassy hill and did what all teams should do…rolled down the hill. And then we all went out for some Greek yogurt and gyros. (Why have I never realized the deliciousness of Greek yogurt before?!) (Also – if I never see another gyros in the next few months I won’t complain…I ate WAY too many of those in Greece.)

When people in Rome want to get away for a weekend, they venture to a little town on the coast called Sorrento. It’s a cute town with a beautiful location. Our hotel was within a 5 minute walking distance of the main shopping street, beach, and great restaurants. Needless to say we had it made and we were lucky enough to spend 3 nights there (which is a lot for us).

The first full day in Sorrento Linda was feeling under the weather and gave us a free day. Lucky for us, this was the warmest day we were in Sorrento so of course we spent the entire day in the sun. Linda had given us a tip the day before that we should venture to the gorgeous island of Capri where we could rent a boat to see the famous Capri Grottos. We changed into bathing suits, beach attire, and sandals and headed to buy tickets for the ferry.

While we waited for the ferry to arrive, we started a pick-up beach volleyball game. None of us have ever played volleyball for real, we’re all decently gangly, and we didn’t have a net. Picture it. The locals who were lying on the beach thought it was hilarious and would cheer and referee the game for us. Then, it was time to get on the boat so we gathered our things and headed out onto the bright blue Mediterranean Sea. With Vesuvius behind us we shoved off for Capri. Along the way we sang songs like “Don’t Stop Believing” and reminded ourselves that we could be on Hofstra’s campus taking midterms instead of the adventure we were having. We win.

In Capri we haggled a few different locals to get a private boat around the island. The public boat is more expensive and it takes you to the grottos, but it doesn’t give you much freedom. We eventually stumbled on a Capri fisherman and his friend who were willing to give us the best deal. They brought us two boats and we split up 6 and 6 and headed out. We never imagined we’d end up with a tour and entertainment along with it. First of all, the fisherman called himself “Pizza Man” and he and his friend joked with us and told us stories the entire time. One of them even de-pantsed Tom, giving us all a sight none of us want to relive again. Afterwards, our boatman pulled out a penis-shaped steering oar and that started another whole bunch of banter and laughter between boats. Like I said…it was an adventure.

Now that I’ve worried my parents and all other adults reading this, let me say that the rest of the tour was more normal. They pointed out rocks that looked like animals, and took us right into the grottos themselves. We went into the blue grotto, white grotto, and green grotto, all of which give off their respective hue on the grotto walls while the mouth is a deep aquamarine blue.  But the best part of the tour was that they let us jump off the boat and swim in the grottos. Remember that we’re jumping into the Mediterranean in early April, so no matter how crystal clear and blue the water was it was still FREEZING. As soon as I jumped in it was like a punch to the stomach…and I’ve done Polar Bear Swims before. Although we didn’t spend a long time in the water, but we still jumped in three different times. At one point, the public boat pulled up behind us with tons of people squished inside, all of them looking out at us while we jumped, swam, and laughed in the water with our private boat tour. Suckers.

After we were all tired out and salty from the water we sprawled out on the boats and took a nap in the sun while we were shuttled around Capri. Once we made it back to shore, our boatmen suggested a cheap, good place to eat and we followed our stomachs to lunch. You can’t be in Capri without having Caprese salad so I gobbled one up. It’s my favorite salad and the fresh mozzarella and the environment of Capri itself made it one of the best Caprese salads I’ve ever had. (Every meal is good in Italy.) With an hour left before the last ferry back to Sorrento, some people took a taxi to the top of the mountain, while the rest of us hung out along the shore. I don’t think I can describe to you how fun that day was. The sun, the water, the people, and the experience in general made it in the Top 3 category for all of the days we’ve spent in Europe – and at least Top 20 for my life.

Back in Sorrento – for the next few days we had to study for midterms (Womp Womp.) so we didn’t venture too much outside of our hotel besides eating and shopping. We had class in a school called Sorrento Lingue. Linda is close friends with a woman who started the school. They host a bunch of study abroad students there as well as teach multiple language classes for the locals. A couple times we got to talk with a class of Italian students who were learning English. They were amazing at keeping up with the conversation, once again showing how behind America is in the language education category.

Sorrento proved a great place to buy souvenirs for everyone back home (so if I like you - chances are you got a souvenir from there), and we found a great,cheap oven baked pizza shop. The older woman who owned it loved us and would always give us free samples of friend veggie bread all the while repeating “Grazie! Grazie! Thank you! Thank you!”. I have a feeling that was the limit of her English knowledge. We also went to a famous gelateria, Primavera Gelato, with pictures of famous Italians plastered all over the walls. Even the Pope was on the wall – he is apparently a big fan of their gelato. The place was packed full just like Seneca Farms (the ice cream/food place I work at when I’m home) gets in the summer.

The last night in Sorrento we joined the masses of Sorrento youth on the main street where all of the restaurants and bars were. It was a street full of students from America and Italy alike. We hung out for hours dancing and talking and living it up the Italian way.

Now you understand the title of this blog. I loved Sorrento, and had a great time there, but Capri was a once in a lifetime adventure.

In Rome we had watched a History Channel video recreating the story about Pompeii. So on the way to Sorrento, we stopped in the ancient, buried city to get a look-see for ourselves. With the quiet Mount Vesuvius looming in the background we climbed the cobblestone streets of Pompeii. I would say we climbed the deserted cobblestone streets to make it more suspenseful – but let’s be real – there are tourists and school groups crawling all over the place. (Which is another issue entirely in all of the beautiful and ancient places we’ve been.) Nevertheless, is was a pretty cool experience to see all of the ancient artifacts, buildings, (and even people) that had been buried under the volcanic ash and hundreds of years worth of dirt.

Of course we ran off to find the famous brothel, and the people cast in volcanic sediment. Pompeii’s map system is not very user-friendly, especially since it’s in a different language. The brothel was…interesting…it had what I would describe as ancient porn. Lining the walls were pictures of various ‘positions’ so the patrons could simply point towards what they wanted, walk into the room, and get it. I suppose you could say the Pompeii brothel brought together people of various cultures because there was no language barrier issue in that…activity. But anyway…onto the stone people. We all pitied the people we saw cast in stone who had never made it out of the city and were still positioned in the same ways they had been when the toxic gases had filled their lungs and killed them.

On a happier note, there was a particular instance of excitement in Pompeii. Whenever we have a road trip I always wear my comfiest clothes. That day I had chosen to put on my Penn Yan Mustangs shirt. Well wouldn’t you know…while walking the streets of Pompeii I hear “Penn Yan Mustangs?! I graduated from Penn Yan!” I whirled around to see a woman coming towards me with a huge expression of surprise on her face. Everyone who was with me was completely bewildered. They’ve never heard of Penn Yan in their lives and here we are halfway across the world in Italy and I come across a woman who graduated from my high school. For the next ten minutes the woman and I talked about people we knew, where we lived and who our teachers were. (All the while everyone else is laughing hysterically.) She graduated in ’74 so I mostly smiled and nodded when she said some of the names…but it was still pretty cool.

From Penn Yan to Pompeii and back again. What a weird coincidence at a random place. That annoying ride at Disney World speaks the truth…it’s a small world after all.

Our next big city was Rome. But before we made it to Rome, we stopped at a farm in Tuscany. In the Cinque Terre we had picked up a girl from Hofstra who was studying abroad throughout Italy studying the slow food movement. She is in the global studies department and knew Linda through a previous Mexican Odyssey. The slow food movement is the process of using local farms and organic growth for food. It decreases the amount of vitamins and good stuff that is lost in other processes.

So after getting lost in the winding hills of the Tuscan region, and much frustration because the girl we picked up didn’t organize the drive efficiently, we finally made it to the farm. It turns out, all of the work it took to get there was worth it however; the man who owned the farm was adorable and so very generous. He spoke very little English but was overjoyed to have us for lunch and to show us his farm. He owned a huge olive farm and had laid out a long table with fresh olives and homemade olive oil from the land we eventually walked through. He then served us homemade bread and olive and artichoke pastes to dip with the bread and olive oil. After we had feasted on bread and olives he served us a thick green soup. It almost looked like pea soup but was made with a leafy weed from the backyard, potatoes, and other vegetables. He then let croutons made (in traditional Italian fashion) of old hard bread soak in the soup. It was one of the most fantastic meals I’ve eaten during the entire trip. I was full to the brim and I felt healthy to boot. After lunch we took a tour of the farm and then jumped into the van for Rome.

Considering the amount of time it took us to get to Rome, we didn’t get arrived and settled until nighttime. Since we only had a few days in Rome, we began seeing the sights right away. We walked from our hostel to the famous Trevvi Fountain – which by the way is still a zoo even at 11 at night. But it is also beautiful at that time of night. There we each wished our wishes, took our pictures, and basically lived every romantic movie scene in Rome. I tried to kiss Nadir, but he just wasn’t having it (he also doesn’t like to be touched though, so I wasn’t too offended).

The next morning we had a jam packed day. We started at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Legend has it that the place of the church was chosen by the Virgin Mary herself during a miraculous snow fall. It’s a beautiful church on the inside – with marble and frescoes of biblical scenes throughout the interior. But what probably draws the masses is that it holds a very unique relic – a piece of Jesus’ manger, on display within a glass case. That’s one old piece of wood.

Next up was the big doozy in Rome, otherwise known as the Coliseum. It’s just as massive as it seems in pictures, and just as awesome. We walked around, took the usual gladiator shot poses, and basically just goofed around like a bunch of college kids are apt to do. Then we moved on to the Roman Forum which is a big park-like area where the Romans used to go to confer on special issues. There was more picture taking and walking, and then we all laid out on the lawn for a cat nap. It was a hot day so we got some sun while we got some zzz’s.

Then we went back to the Trevvi Fountain in daylight and made more wishes. I say when in Rome, take every opportunity to do things you may never be able to do again. From the Fountain we went to the Spanish Steps which is where many of the models for the old artists used to hang out and has now just become a place for people to congregate and hang out. We also walked to the Piazza de Popolo where many protests occur – unfortunately we only saw a mob of zombies. Seriously, they were promoting a zombie march taking place in a couple weeks. We also got more gelato – but that should just be expected at this point.

Day 2 in Rome was a bit Holier. We visited the Pope in the Vatican City. He was unfortunately sick so we couldn’t sit down for a talk with him, but he sent his regards. With all of our newfound time we decided to go through the Vatican Museum. We heard it has some famous ceiling or something.

Something I’ve learned in Europe: Art is actually really cool. And the Vatican actually has a crazy assortment of cool, not just Christianity-is-awesome art. We saw the famous sculpture of Laucoon (you know, the guy who warned the Trojans to “beware of Greeks bearing gifts” – that turned out well. Then we saw the famous Belvedere Torso that Michelangelo practically lusted after. There were rooms and rooms of seemingly out of place artwork to the Roman and Greek gods, and then all of a sudden BAM Christian art. The tapestries were some of my favorites because the fabric was humongous and so detailed. Alexi and I walked through almost all of the rooms in the museum and three paintings caught our attention. First was the ceiling in (what I think was) Raphael’s room – it was simply a painting of a room but in the middle was the Catholic cross and lying on the ground was an obvious sculpture of a Greek God – broken beyond belief. It took our breath away in one of those ‘we know what this is supposed to mean’ moments. The second was the painting by Raphael – ‘The School of Athens’ – it shows a whole slew of philosophers all in one place, with Plato and Socrates in the center. Third was obviously the big cahuna, or the Sistine Chapel. Amid the guards’ shushing and outbursts of “No Photo!” we stood in awe of Michelangelo’s shining jewel. And…we got a couple photos. I know, we’re mavericks.

We then sauntered on over to St. Peter’s Basilica which is said to be built in the exact place that St. Peter was crucified and therefore houses his tomb. Michelangelo undertook the planning of the Basilica’s dome at 74 and then Bernini helped finish it and St. Peter’s Plaza after he died. That church/cathedral/whatever you want to call it is spectacular. It’s humongous and beautiful. I would never be able to pay attention in Mass because I’d be staring at all of the art and sculptures the entire time. A few of us kneeled in the prayer room and had a moment of silence – something that is very rare on this trip. TJ had bought his grandmother a rosary, and he was able to find someone to get it blessed. Alexi and I rubbed the foot of the bronze St. Peter which is supposed to give you luck – or that’s what I hope anyway. We also visited the tombs of the popes, and found out that there is a guard on duty by the recently deceased pope’s tomb at all times. They’re celebrities in life and death I suppose.

From Vatican City we drove past Castle St. Angelo (which was featured in Dan Brown’s Angels&Demons for it’s fortified passage way underground to the Vatican) and then to Piazza Navona. There we visited a gelato shop (surprise) where they taught us how they make gelato. Lots of cream and fresh fruits. Obviously we had to sample a couple.

So that was Rome! Mom – you told me to eat gelato as much as I can so I hope I’m making you proud.