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!