Soon

Hey! I had my first final today, and I have four more to go.  It wasn't too terrible, but I am glad I am now completely done with one class. Everyone that sent their things over to get blessed can relax now.  I got everything blessed, plus some, our room is pretty much the holiest place around now.  I got to see the Pope twice this week, and I came within inches of him.  It might have been the most amazing moment of my life, it's hard to even explain how humbling it was.  My goal for next semester is to shake his hand.  You should have seen all of the nuns and other people who were crying and all the kids getting blessed and everything.  The Pope is pretty much a superstar over here.

Well I don't really have much to update you on, I should be studying, but I am too good at procrastination, which might be why I have read three full length novels in the past week.  We all got out suitcases out of storage today which almost started the waterworks for several girls, I have a feeling the Christmas Banquet is going to be messy haha. I have Philosophy and Art History tomorrow, so I really should at least look at my notes.  Only 5 more days!

Ciao for now.

Allie

The Final Countdown!

So, I only have four sessions in each class, five finals, and 12 days left until I am home! It's crazy.  This semester flew by so quickly.  I have been so busy lately with school and Carly visiting that I have not had time to post on here, but now I am, so please forgive how long it took me.  Some of you have probably talked to Carly since she returned home, but I will sum up her week quickly.  She got here on Sunday, her plane was obviously late, because I arrived at the airport on time.  It always goes like that. So I waited at the airport for ages, and she finally showed up with more bags that I brought over. Haha. I guess that is partially my fault. (Thanks by the way to everyone who sent me food! Caitlin, the toffee was amazing it was the first thing I opened up when Carly unloaded all of my stuff.  Ms. Thill, everyone absolutely loved your chocolate chip cookies.  Ruth, the pumpkin bread was awesome!)  So by noon we were back at the hotel and settled in.  We wen out and grabbed some lunch and walked around for a bit before coming back to the hotel and taking four hour naps, which were great.  After our long naps, it was already getting dark outside, so we went and looked at the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain and got some gelato.  

Ok this summary is not as short as I was hoping, so I am going to make it shorter...

We went to the Colosseum, the Forum, and all of the other major tourist attractions in Rome, ate a lot of gelato, and did quite a bit of shopping.  I introduced Carly to the staff at Pascucci's and she ate some of her meals there.  She also met some of the hotel staff.  She attended the Thanksgiving Banquet and got to meet all of the people in the program as well as my RA and the Program Director.  I am pretty sure every single person she talked to asked her if she was going to St. Mary's, well at least all of the ones that didn't think she was already in college did.  

After the banquet, I had to go on a walking tour of some of the churches here, so Carly explored with my roommate Liz.  The next morning we departed for Venice extremely early in the morning.  We made it there in a little over four hours.  We took a water bus down the Grand Canal, and we EVENTUALLY found our hostel and started exploring Venice.  We got to see St. Mark's Square, where we fed the pigeons; the island of Murano, where we watched people blow glass in a little workshop; Accademia, which was full of paintings and other artwork; and every little shop that existed in Venice.  I bought a sweet gondolier shirt and little scarf tie thing.  Carly bought a lot of stuff too. 

The next morning we were supposed to receive a wake up call at 5 AM, but as we found out the night before, the hostel didn't really have wake up "calls."  The front desk person simply came and knocked on your door at the time you wanted, classy right?  So anyway, we did not get our wake up knock on Saturday morning, so we missed our 6:42 train to Florence. Luckily I woke up around 7:30, and we scrambled to get ready and leave ASAP.  We took a water bus back to the train station and jumped on the next train leaving for Florence.  All was well until we figured out that we had assigned seats on the trains.  We were good for the first couple stops, but at one point two people came up and said we were in their seats, so we got up and moved to two more seats.  To make a long story short, we did this several times, and thank goodness no one checked our tickets, or we would have been kicked off.  Well, we finally made it to Florence and jumped on a bus to Accademia.  This museum is where David is.  We paid the ten euro entrance fee and sat with David for quite awhile.  I managed to snap a few illegal pictures, and we moved on to the rest of the museum.  We also got the see the Duomo (church) in Florence and go inside, it was really really nice, as all the Duomos are.  We shopped for a bit, and then headed back to the train station.

We got on our scheduled train this time and made our way to Pisa.  We went and saw the Leaning tower and took pictures and perused the little stands for cool souvenirs before we grabbed some dinner and headed back to Rome.  We made it in the room at about eleven and started packing for Carly's return flight.  She had a lot of extra space so I sent a bunch of clothes home.  That will be nice when I try to bring back all the stuff I have bought here.  

Well, I hope that is enough about her visit to appease everyone for now, I am sure you will get to hear it all again at Christmas.  I need to get some homework done now, like I said only four more of each class left.  And then I have finals, which I guess I should study for.  I am going to the Papal Audience this coming week, so if you sent something with Carly it is for sure getting blessed this time.  When Carly was here it was extremely unfortunate that the Audience was inside, and I requested tickets but did not get them.  So we could not get in at all.  Usually it is in the Square at St. Peter's, so even if you don't have a seat, you are still right there.  I guess she will just have to come back to see B XVI.

Hope all is well! See everyone in less than two weeks!

Ciao for now.

Allie 

Noteworthy Events/Announcements

As many of you are probably aware, Carly will be coming to visit me over Thanksgiving Break. She will be leaving the States on Sunday the 23rd and returning home the following Sunday, so keep her in your prayers at church and throughout the week. 

I requested two Scavi Tour tickets, and yesterday I received my confirmation e-mail! We will get to go under St. Peter's Basilica and visit the necropolis there! It should be an amazing tour, so I am pretty excited.  

As of now, I am in the process of requesting Papal Audience tickets, with any luck we will get to go to that too. SO, if you have anything that you want blessed by B XVI himself, I am sure Carly would be happy to bring it over, space providing.

While Carly is here we are going to visit Venice, Florence, and Pisa.  If any of those places manufacture something you would love to have, for example Venetian glass or lace, now is the time to make that known.  I probably won't make it back to any of these places this semester.  Note: I am not by any means offering to buy things for people, sorry! I am simply extending the offer to purchase something you have always wanted to own...with your money...that you send with Carly. Capite? Bene!

Last but certainly not least, if anyone is feeling the urge to send me baked goods now is the time to send them for free! Simply bake me up whatever delicious treats I am unable to purchase over here because of the Italians weird shunning of things like cookies, brownies, etc. and take them over to the house for Carly to pack up. She can forgo packing a coat and such if need be :)  

Items that are of particular interest:

Chocolate chip cookies

Brownies with mint or caramel

Pumpkin Bread

Toffee

Anything else, I guess I am not actually that picky

Well have a wonderful Wednesday.  I will be home before you know it!

Ciao for now!

Allie

  

 

Southern Italy!

I know this update took forever! I am sorry! I had midterms this past week, and it's just been a hectic few days here.  Last Tuesday we embarked on our Southern Italy trip!  We left the Tiziano at 6 A.M. sharp and booked it to Pompeii.  We got there in less than four hours and set off on tours the minute we unloaded the buses.  Pompeii is an amazing city.  I was under the impression that not much was left after the eruption in 79 AD, but I was mistaken.  There were houses and streets and all kinds of other structures that survived.  I had to give an oral presentation for my Archaeology class at one of the houses.  It was a little unreal to be standing in the garden at this house explaining that it was built around the 2nd century BC!  A lot of the frescos were extremely well preserved, and you could even see electoral slogans painted on some of the walls throughout the city.

After touring Pompeii for hours upon hours, we boarded the bus and went to our hotel in Naples.  I had a quick dinner and then I think I fell asleep around 7 or 8 in the evening and slept all the way through the night.  The next morning we all had 5 o'clock wake up calls, and we ate breakfast at the Prati Hotel, our new residence for the next four nights.  We left the hotel and headed in the direction of Amalfi.  We got to take the famous Amalfi Drive.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We were pretty much driving along the edge of a cliff the entire time, and thank goodness Ricardo is such an amazing bus driver.  We made it to Amalfi after about four or 5 hours on the bus and had around two hours to tour Amalfi on our own.  Ann-Marie, Caroline, Hank, Sam, and I  headed for the Duomo and took a tour of that before grabbing pizza and some Limoncello, produced right there in Amalfi! If you want to see Pompeii, the Amalfi Drive, and Amalfi click HERE!

We all piled back onto our tour buses and headed for our last stop of the day, Paestum.  We drove through Salerno and lots of little towns and made it to the excavation site. After splitting into our three groups, we roamed around the excavation and more people gave oral presentation on the temples there.  After the site we all went to the museum and got to see lots of ancient stuff! We saw the Tomb of the Diver, which was pretty awesome because we studied that in a couple of my classes, and it's from around 475-470 BC.  We got back to Naples in time for dinner, and I called it an early night again. For pictures of Paestum and Archaeological Museum click HERE!

Thursday we got up early again, although it was not quite as early as the day before, so that was nice.  We stayed in Naples that morning, so we did not have any long ride.  After about ten minutes on the bus, we arrived at our destination, the Archaeological Museum!  Our morning was spent there, switching from tour guide to tour guide.  The groups each spent an hour with three different people, one showed us paintings, one showed us mosaics and artifacts, and the other showed us statues.  The museum was a really cool place.  After our morning there, we all went out and got lunch in Naples and met back at the bus about an hour later.  Our next stop was Cuma!  On the way to Cuma, I had to give another oral presentation, it was about Virgil's Aeneid, which is an epic poem we read in Mythology.  We passed Lake Avernus, which is in the Aeneid and it was thought to be an entrance to Hades.  When we arrived in Cuma, we visited the Cave of the Sibyll, which is where Aeneas entered the Underworld in the Aeneid.  We climbed a hill near the cave and visited some ruins up there.  We also had a really great view of the sea from the top of the hill.  Towards the end of our time in Cuma, it started raining, so we all hurried to the buses for our journey back to Naples.  

Friday was HALLOWEEN!  This was also the last day we had in the Naples area, and we had yet to visit Mount Vesuvius (Vesuvio), which I found absolutely ridiculous.  On the agenda today was a visit to the Capodimonte Museum, but I was pretty set on making it to the top of Vesuvio, so when we were getting ready to leave for the museum, my friend Ally and I hopped off the bus and went back to our rooms.  We waited for the buses to leave, found the train station, bought our train and bus tickets, and boarded the next train to Pompeii.  We got to Pompeii and took the bus to Mount Vesuvius.  The bus dropped us off quite a ways up the volcano, but we still had a lovely little hike up to the crater.  I am so glad that I am impulsive and made us get of the bus in Naples.  Vesuvio was AMAZING!  The inside is even smoking a little!  I had never seen an active volcano before.  I bought myself a rosary made out of lava, and it is pretty sweet.  Ally and I both tossed pennies into the crater and made wishes, I don't think you are supposed to do that though haha.  We also climbed over the fence so we could stand on the edge of the crater! It was such an awesome trip and it made for a great Halloween.  Sadly, I did not get to go trick-or-treating, the first time in my entire life.  :(

On Saturday, the last day of our trip, we got to visit Capri! We had to pack up all of our stuff from the hotel and take our bags downstairs to load on the buses. Exiting the hotel proved to be a difficult task all in itself.  I took one step outside, rolled my ankle, and collapsed into an Indian style seated position on the ground. (I was later told that I was laughed at from the other bus.) Anyway! We had a short bus ride to where the hydrofoil was waiting.  The inside of this boat looked like an airplane, it was pretty cool.  What wasn't cool or comforting was the attendant passing out barf bags before the trip started.  Needless to say, my bag saw some action.  I felt pretty bad, I was sitting between two of my friends, but at least I pre-apologized.  After I threw up my cheese sandwich from that morning, I stood up to get some fresh air on the back of the boat and immediately fell on this small Asian woman.  She was gripping the chair in front of her and looking completely miserable.  She weakly raised her head to look at me, and I apologized before stumbling the rest of the way outside.  It was pretty embarrassing.  After one torturous hour on the Hydrofoil from Hades, we made it to Capri, a beautiful island.  Annie, Hank, and I took the chairlift up to Anacapri and explored for awhile before sitting down for lunch.  We pretty much just took pictures and took in all the sites.  After lunch Annie and I met up with Sam, Ann-Marie, and Caroline and went shopping in Anacapri and Capri.  After shopping we continued exploring and photo taking and had a pretty quiet afternoon.  We eventually made it down to the beach and stayed there the rest of the afternoon.  It was pretty chilly, but I stepped in the Mediterranean just so I could say I had.  I collected beach glass, and soon the day was over, and it was time to head home.  I was dreading the hydrofoil ride back to Naples, but it was a lot smoother the second time around, so no one got sick.  After getting off the boat, we all got on the bus, and our trip back home to Rome began.  Everyone made it back safely, and the whole Southern Italy trip was a lot of fun!    

I will get more pictures up soon.  Hope all is well.

Ciao for now!  Allie

Orvieto!

On Saturday I went to Orvieto with two of my roommates.  We took a bus to the train station, and then we took the train to Orvieto.  It only took about an hour and a half to get there by train, and we felt pretty accomplished getting there all by ourselves!  The first thing we see pulling up to Orvieto is this huge hill with some sort of ruinous castle looking thing on the top.  

We got off the train, whipped out our cameras in true tourist fashion and started snapping pictures the second our feet hit Orvieto soil.  We made our way out of the train station and decided that whatever was at the top of that mountainous hill was probably what was worth seeing.  So we started the long, tiring journey.  It took us about forty-five minutes to climb the hill, it was pretty steep. It was quite reminiscent of Assisi.  

So we made it to the top of the hill and guess what we found!  We saw a tram running straight up this ridiculous hill directly into the castle thing.  We were in disbelief for a second, but quickly decided that by trekking up the hill we were much more appreciative of the sites.  After entering the walls of the castle we discovered that there was an entire city inside!  We chose a direction and just started walking.  There were so many little shops, a lot of them were ceramics and things like that.  Finally we walked around the corner and saw the coolest looking church ever.  I will put a link up soon so you can be amazed too.  We went inside and listened to the little machine that tells the history of the Duomo.  The inside was really nice so we stayed awhile and then set off to find some food.  We decided on a little restaurant and had a nice lunch.  After that we just wandered around some more, looked in a lot of shops, and walked around a little garden thing we found.  

Finally it was getting late so we decided to walk back down the hill and check train departure times.  The walk down only took about ten or fifteen minutes.  It was a thousand times better than the hike up.  Once we got on the train home, I pretty much passed out and slept until we arrived back in Rome.  We caught a bus back to the Tiziano and that was the end of our day.

I have not done anything too amazing and exciting since then.  I am home this weekend because I have a midterm on Monday and a lot of work to do.  Several of us are staying in Rome, so we just hang out and see the sites.  That is all for now, but we are all going to Southern Italy on Tuesday.  We are staying until Saturday, so I will try and update everyone Sunday or sometime soon after.  Hope all is well!

Ciao for now! 

        Allie  

It's been a long time since I posted so here goes...

Ciao everyone! Sorry it has been such a long time since I posted; I find myself getting busier as my time progresses here. There is so much to do, so I will attempt to update you on all of it.  First off, it's Wednesday! What a wonderful day.  Today is the day our rooms get cleaned each week, and if you didn't know I am not exactly a neat freak, and lucky me, neither are any of my roommates...so the last two Wednesdays have been such amazing days to come back in here after class.  We have to take off all of our sheets before we leave for class, and then they leave us new ones to put on our bed, so needless to say, I am sitting on an unmade bed with nice, clean folded up sheets at the end of it.  The night is still young, it will get made eventually. Now for an update of the last week or so.

We are all beginning to settle in for real now.  I have found several grocery stores close by, the staff at Pascucci's (the little cafe type thing where we eat two out three meals everyday) is getting to know us, and I can navigate around pretty well.  Two of my roommates and I are planning a day trip to Orvieto right now, but more on that when it actually happens.

On Saturday MTV hosted a concert pretty close by, and I obviously went to it, or I wouldn't be blogging about it right now.  It was awesome!  I got to see John Legend and The Cure, and before/in between their performances there were a couple Italian bands. 

 

Oh, I guess I could have mentioned that before this concert we had an excursion to Tarquinia and Cerveteri! We had to be on the bus at 7 a.m., which was not my idea of a fun Saturday morning. But after a lovely journey, we arrived in Tarquinia.  We split into three groups and our guides showed up around the Necropolis.  We visited numerous tombs, but we only got to go down the stairs, and then we had to stand there and look through glass since all of the tombs are painted.  They don't want anyone going in there and ruining everything.  At this point on the trip I was thoroughly ticked off because we were told not to take anything, including our cameras because there would be no need for them and there was no light etc.  BUT once we got there I wished I would have not listened because the tombs were amazing and they lit up when you pushed a button, so I could have gotten pictures pretty easily.  So, I am going to try to get some pictures off of Sam, she was smart and took her camera with her.  After we were done there we hopped back on the bus and drove to a museum.  We got to see the Sarcophagus of Reclining Couple, which was pretty awesome considering we had just learned about it in class a couple days before that.  We also got to see pottery, jewelry, sculptures, and other sarcophagi.  It was pretty amazing; some of the things were so well preserved.  AND we saw a sarcophagus that was made out of a hollowed out log WITH the bones in it.  This skeleton was literally 2500 years old!

After the museum we grabbed a quick lunch (pizza and focaccia bread) and headed to the beach.  We got there in about 30-45 minutes I think, so it wasn't a bad drive.  Some people had brought their bathing suits and swam in the Tyrrhenian Sea!  I just hung out and took pictures, so if you want to see some of them just click HERE! 

Finally, we ended out day in Cerverteri.  We visited another Necropolis, which I didn't explain earlier for those of you that don't know, but it means City of the Dead, so a cemetery.  We visited more tombs, but this time we actually got to go in them since they were not painted.  There was one tomb that was painted, so we had to do the window thing again. But going in the tombs was so unreal.  We were literally climbing into these things and sitting were people were one laid to rest.  A lot of the tombs have the big mound on top of them, and we got to climb one! Veeerrryyy awesome.  

Well, I think that pretty much brings us up to this week, but all I have had is school, so that's not interesting at all.  I am writing a paper, well I guess I am procrastinating on my paper while doing this, but I felt like I needed to update all of my faithful blog followers. So thanks for reading.  Hope all is well in the States! Miss you all, ok well not that much actually haha.  You can't blame me though.  

Ciao for now! Allie

First Tour!

Yay! We all made it through one week of school! All my classes are going well, and I really like everything we are learning about. Today we had our first of many tours around Rome.  We visited the Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum! They were all AMAZING. The walk to get to all three of them was maybe around ten minutes from our hotel.  I honestly can't even begin to explain how crazy it was to be standing where people actually stood thousands of years ago.  So, our first stop, the Forum, was awesome. My art history teacher was our group's guide, and she explained what went on when the Forum was actually in use and what all the buildings (or what was left of them) were used for.  There were so many pieces of stone with engravings on them that were actually from Roman times. It started raining, but we trekked on.  I got some good video of the site, but no one will be able to see any of that until I get home.  We talked about the seven hills that Rome is built on and actually saw three of them today.  We visited Palatine Hill and could see the entire Forum.  

After we finished seeing the Forum, we all went back to the Hotel Tiziano and ate lunch.  We had gnocchi! It was great, just like everything else we get here.  We had a very short break after lunch and then walked to the Colosseum.

The Colosseum, as I think everyone knows, is breathtaking.  We could see it from quite a ways away.  We finally got up to it and went in for our tour.  There was such a long line outside! If you are ever going to see it you better plan in advance and get tickets, or you would probably be waiting a bit.  Our wait was short, and we started our tour talking about the location of the Colosseum since that is apparently pretty important.  We went up to the second level, by elevator (yay!), and had an amazing view of the entire Colosseum.  We walked around almost the entire thing and our guide continued to tell us the history, including several references to Gladiator.  The roof and stage are gone, but everything else was in such good condition considering how old it is.  You can see pictures of it in the same album as above! Check them out! Leave comments, it's nice to hear from everyone!  And to everyone keeping up with my blog, THANKS! I hope it isn't horribly boring. I miss you all!

Ciao. Allie

Click here for more photos!

ROMA!

We made it! Our buses arrived in Rome on Sunday evening. Even the drive into the city was amazing. We were all looking left and right for the entire drive because Dr. Prebys was naming off things to look at one after another. Get this...I am two blocks away from the Pantheon. It's breathtaking. We all went to get pizza, and before we knew it we were walking right by it. Then, we walked a little farther down the road and saw the Trevi Fountain. It's ridiculous.

ATTENZIONE! I have pictures up on facebook from Assisi. If you click here you will be able to see them even if you don't have facebook. It is much easier, and you will be able to see more!

We started classes yesterday. I have Philosophy, Archaeology, Art History, Italian, and Mythology, along with a Lectures and Tours class. All of my professors are pretty awesome, and the classes are going to be really interesting. BUT I have so much reading to do!  

San Francesco

Today we went to the Basilica of Saint Francis. It was quite amazing. We actually saw the tomb of Saint Francis and a lot of the brothers and Poor Clares. I have been taking lots of pictures, but I just found my card reader today, and this internet is not amazing...so, I will be putting up pictures once I get to Rome. Apologies to anyone dying to see stuff.

We had room picks today. I am in a quad with  Liz, Molly, and Meaghan. We have a nice room with a double sink and all. Once again, I will get pictures up...when I get there. We still have a couple days in Assisi. Tomorrow I am going to a couple more churches. We have a brutal walk. Downhill is awesome though. I will probably have some great leg muscles once I leave here. 

Hope all is well in Indiana!

Ciao! Allie

Assisi

      View from our hotel room in Assisi.                                              Sunset.

So, I am in Assisi! We got here after about a three and a half hour bus ride. It wasn't too bad, I drifted off several times. Well, we arrived and then hiked up a mountain. It was crazy. Assisi is built right into a mountain, and all of the streets are super steep. It's been a workout! It an amazing place though. Yesterday we had a great dinner and watched the sun set on Umbria (the region Assisi is in.) Then I think I fell asleep in about ten seconds. We woke up bright and early for breakfast and then had another wonderful hike. We literally went to the topmost point in Assisi, la Rocca Maggiore. I paid four euros to go inside the fortress, and we got a nice view of Assisi and the surrounding area. We finalized our schedules and had some free time. A lot of the girls found a nice little cafe place with internet access, so I have frequented that tonight. We had another awesome dinner, SPAGHETTI! We had bread and wine at every meal (excluding breakfast.) Now, I am back at the cafe updating all of you. That is pretty much it for today, but tomorrow we split up into two groups and explore some more.

            Ridiculous stairs.

Ciao! Allie

Ciao!

Hey everyone! I am in ROME! My flight landed at 8:22 a.m. (3:22 a.m. your time.) Everything has gone smoothly so far. I sat next to a pretty cool lady on the way here, but I didn't get much sleep, so I think I am running solely off adrenaline. I have a three hour bus ride coming up at 1:30, but it's only 9:45. I found some internet access, so I thought I would let you know that all is well. I don't have much to report...my bottle of water was 1 euro and 50 cents. That's uber expensive.

I will add more once I actual set foot somewhere other than the airport. First up is Assisi! 

Ciao!  Allie

My Address and e-mail address

Hello all. The address that you can mail things to is for the hotel that I am staying at. Make sure it has my name on it, and the hotel staff will get it to me. Keep in mind that it takes approximately two weeks for mail to get overseas. So send things before the first week in December, or I won't be there to get them! And I will more than likely send you a postcard or letter back, so that will take awhile to get to you as well. Don't think I forgot about you!

Hotel Tiziano
c/o Allie Hensley (or something like this that says it's for me!)
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 110
00186 Rome, Italy

For a quicker way to contact me...E-mails are amazing too!

ahensl01@saintmarys.edu


If you would like to instant message me on...

MSN Messenger- allie_52@hotmail.com

There's an underscore ^ there

AIM- AllieHensley11

1 More Day!

My flight leaves in 25 hours! Thanks to everyone who came to my going away/birthday party yesterday! I just woke up, and now I am going to pack!

Four Months!

Well, this blog is going to be specifically for my adventure across the ocean to a little city called Rome.  I am not leaving until September 23rd, so I probably won't be updating this very often, but after I leave I will be adding new and exciting news and photos from my journeys.  

Ciao.