A Rainy Monday

Monday March 16^th

Today we had the next of our student-led tours! Brandi, Mark, and Zak brought us on a wonderful tour of San Giovanni in Laterano and the surrounding area. It was a great tour and a beautiful area, however the weather in Rome today didn’t exactly feel the same way. It was a very dreary and rainy day, which was a little disappointing because we had to be out walking in it so much, but I really shouldn’t be complaining, because it was really only the second bad-weather day we have had this whole trip! (Sorry for my complaining, those of you back in Ohio!)

We went to the Basilica of San Giovanni, which was definitely on my Rome “bucket list” so I was very excited to finally see it! The Holy Door, the statues of the 12 Apostles, the multiple papal tombs, and the Holy Steps, were all a part of the tour and it was truly an amazing experience.

  

After the tour was over, we made the trek all the way to San Callisto to take a guided-tour of the Catacombs of Rome. It was really an interesting experience to get to walk through the catacombs, and surprisingly not as creepy as it sounds! Other than getting a little claustrophobic at times, I thought it was really interesting to learn about the history of the catacombs. It was also really awesome to consider how many people had been there, dead or alive I suppose, but there all the same. I feel like the catacombs are one of the more forgotten, or at least overshadowed, gems of Roman history simply because they cannot be seen in the way that things like the Colliseum or the Pantheon can be. They are literally like the hidden gem below the surface of the ground.

It was a great, rainy Monday day out in Rome, but tonight will be filled with all of us writing our blogs and midterm papers!

A Weekend in Barcelona!

Friday March 13^th – Sunday March 15^th

After a crazy busy Thursday, we made it even crazier and left Italy for our second free weekend! We had ended up at Rome Termini after our group site visit, so from there it was on us to get ourselves to Fuimicino airport in time for our flights. Luckily though, they were late ones, and with a little guidance from our professor, we found an awesome bus company called Terrivision that could take us all the way to the airport.

We made it to the airport in plenty of time, and we joked that something was bound to go very, very wrong later on because everything had gone so smoothly so far. But in all honesty, the worst thing that happened was that our flight got a little delayed. Our first night couldn’t have gone smoother! We arrived in Barcelona around midnight, took a bus to Plaza Catalyuna, and then walked the rest of the way to the Rodamon hostel, which, I might add, turned out to be far better than we could have ever expected. We got to the hostel and literally all crawled right into bed and fell asleep… We were exhausted!

It was interesting to wake up the next morning and then have it hit me that I was in a whole new country!! It was hard to believe that with just a two-and-a-half hour flight we were really in Spain! After the initial shock wore off, we went to the common area of our hostel and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast and had to step outside and into the Barcelona sunshine on our rooftop terrace! (Let me just say, it was one fabulous way to start the mornings).

On Friday, we mainly did some exploring of the city. We figured out the metro (which, contrary to what we had heard, was easy to figure out and we all felt very safe!) We went down to the coast because, and let’s be honest, it was 65 degrees and sunny, so who wouldn’t have wanted to be on the beach? It was truly one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen. The water was a little cold because it’s only March, but I really enjoyed walking along the water and looking at the beautiful stones that washed up onto the shore. They were almost like the seashells we are used to seeing on the Atlantic coast!

We found a delicious seafood restaurant along the shore and we got to sit outside and enjoy our meal. I’m pretty sure I ate some of the best cod and calamari I have ever eaten, and we got to try flan, a traditional Spanish dessert pudding. How delicious!!

Friday night we got to experience the crazy nightlife of Barcelona! And while we were definitely excited to have a fun night, I’m pretty sure the night clubs were what the boys in our group had been looking forward to the most! Ironically enough, we started our night out at McDonalds… and the boys convinced me to eat my first ever McDonalds hamburger. I thought it was rather funny that my first one was in Spain of all places, but I digress. After our snack, we made our way down to the shoreline again and basically just followed the crowds of people and the sound of music all the way to the main strip of bars and nightclubs. We started at a place called Ice BARcelona. While this place wasn’t very busy, it was definitely and awesome experience!! (It was already about 11pm, however people in Barcelona don’t really even start going out until 1 or 2 in the morning!!!) The bar was made completely out of ice and kept at a temperature of about 5 degrees Celsius. They gave everyone little parkas and gloves and literally let us brave the cold! And let me just clarify, when I say everything was made of ice, I literally mean EVERYTHING: the chairs, the tables, the bar itself, and even the glasses were all carved out of ice! After reluctantly leaving the Ice Bar, we walked the whole strip of clubs and made our way into about half, drinking and dancing the night away, and before we knew it, it was going on 4am and we had to call it a night! Those Barcelonans sure know how to party!!

After our late night, we all slept in a little and decided to go to the world-renowned aquarium on Saturday afternoon. We had such a great time and especially enjoyed walking through the tunnels that go through the largest tank. After leaving the aquarium, we got ourselves some lunch (and some Nutella crepes!) and went check out Parc Guell. Parc Guell was absolutely amazing, and words cannot even begin to describe how incredible it was to get to see the whole city from a birds-eye-view. We also got to see the world’s longest bench and we did a little hiking before heading back for the evening.

  

That night, we went out to a fancy restaurant and had yet another amazing meal. I got a lobster risotto with muscles and clams and a delicious dark chocolate truffle for dessert. It doesn’t get much better than that, or so we thought until our walk back to the hostel brought us right past a Starbucks! Yep, that’s right, there are Starbucks coffee shops in Barcelona. We all agreed that we had to go in and get something, and it was surprisingly very similar to home! I joked that you could have turned away from the door and almost forget that we were in Spain. I must admit though, after the amazing coffee we have been spoiled with in Italy, Starbucks really just isn’t the same anymore! (But not to worry, I’m sure I will still enjoy it when I get back home)

On Sunday, Brandi and I were enjoying some coffee out on the terrace and ended up talking to two college students who were life-long friends, studying in Dublin for a semester together, and traveling to Barcelona for their spring break. Before long, we learned that they were also both studying psychology and before we knew it, we were all going to lunch together! We brought them to the restaurant where we had eaten on Friday and enjoyed a great meal with even better company. After lunch, we said our goodbyes to our new friends, returned to the hostel to grab our bags and thank the wonderful staff at Rodamon, and make our way back to El Prat to head back to Rome.

Overall, Barcelona was wonderful. The weather was gorgeous, there was something to please everyone, and the food was exquisite. The thing I appreciated most about Barcelona was that it was truly a multidimensional city. There was literally something for everybody – a calm road with bakeries and clothing shops was just a few blocks away from the wild nightlife strip, which was really just a step away from the beach, and you were never more than a few minutes away from a really good restaurant. I definitely see myself wanting to visit Barcelona again in the future, and we were very sad to leave, however, as usual, it is always nice to come back to our own beds at our Rome Home.

Some Other Museum Adventures!

Wednesday, March 11th – Thursday, March 12th

Well, the past two days turned out to be just about as busy as Tuesday! It has been an exciting few days with so much packed in that I swear I  have been falling asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow every night. But that’s a good thing! Busy days mean lots of adventures and lots of memories!

 

The awesome bridge leading to Castel Sant'Angelo

On Wednesday we again took the early train into Rome and headed off to Sapienza to the Museum of History of Medicine. When we got to the museum we sat in the classroom area and had our Global Healthcare class for the day, which was rather appropriate considering our location at the time. And after an hour of class we started our tour of the Museum! It was surprisingly small, however absolutely packed with items so it felt like the place was really huge. The museum itself was actually an old hospital so it was neat to see the structure of the building as well. (We were not allowed to take pictures, so here's a link to the museum's website if you want to take a look, I believe it is all in Italian but there are some English translations too: http://www.histmed.it/museo/museo.htm) After that we went to an awesome restaurant called Piada (Which was about a million times better than American "Piada" I might add…)

The Vatican from afar... Can't wait to go!!

Thursday we got to sleep in a little, which all of us appreciated because of our busy week, and had Italian class in Castel Gandolfo at 10. For class Danilo challenged us with going out and talking to native Italians! We learned to order at a restaurant, how to ask how much something costs, and how to pay the bill. It was a little intimidating, but everyone in Castel Gandolfo is super kind and encouraging when it comes to us Americans trying to learn their language.

After Italian class, we took the train into Rome and went all the way to Museo Delle Mente in Monte Mario. We had a really great experience here and learned a lot about the Italian history of psychiatric hospitals. (Again, we were not able to take any pictures inside, so here’s the link to the museum website: http://www.museodellamente.it/en/where-we-are.html)

If that wasn’t crazy enough for one day, once we got back to Termini after our tour, 9 of us were leaving for the airport to go on our free weekend trips! We left right from Termini and headed to the airport, 7 of us were catching a late flight to Barcelona and the other 2 were going to Budapest! Getting to the airport on time was a little stressful, but everything went shockingly smooth! Here’s to a great weekend in Barcelona!!!

A Trip to the Capitoline Museum!

Tuesday, March 10th

Today was the start of a very busy next few days, but it was an awesome start! We took the early train into the city because we were going to have class in the city along with a tour at the Capitoline Museum. We had quite the adventure on the bus during the 20-minute ride all the way to Capitoline Hill from Termini… We were literally packed like little sardines on this bus! The good part was we ended up next to a family from America so we all had a good laugh about our situation on the bus.

Once we made it to the Capitoline Museum we went inside to meet our tour guide Francesca, an adorable young woman who was more than excited to meet us all and share her knowledge about the museum. The highlight of the museum was definitely seeing the famous bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius. We also got to see an awesome view of the Roman Forum for the balcony of the museum!

We stopped at a delicious café for lunch after our tour and then made our way to a park to have class before we finished for the day. It’s always a nice change to have a class in the city, and my guess is that we will get to do so a few more times this week due to our busy schedule! Tonight when we got back Mike introduced us to pinecone bocce... What to play when you have plenty of open space on campus and huge pinecones I guess. 

Our Second Student-Led Tour Day!

Monday, March 9th

I cannot believe this is already the beginning of our third week here in Rome!! It is unreal how fast the time has gone. Today we had class like usual from a Monday morning but afterwards we had the second group tour! This week, the second group (Geri and Dan) led us around Piazza Navona, Piazza della Rotonda and brought us to the Jewish Ghetto for lunch.

We got to learn a lot about the Pantheon, which was truly incredible to see, as well as the obelisk in front of the Pantheon, and the Fontana del Pantheon. When we got to the Piazza Navona we spent some time looking around and learned about Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or The Fountain of the Four Rivers. This fountain contains a large Egyptian obelisk, the base of which is surrounded by four Bernini sculptures. Each of the four sculptures represents one of the four major rivers of the four continents through which the authority of the Pope had spread. These rivers are the Nile for Africa, the Danube for Europe, the Ganges for Asia, and the Rio de la Plata for America.

At the end of our tour, they brought us to grab some lunch and to get gelato at a little shop that is known for having photos of all of the famous people who have come to eat gelato there posted on the walls. A very cool find in a hidden alley off of Via di Santa Maria dell’Anima.

Enjoying our gelato!!

This was definitely an interesting place to visit, however I was a little disappointed in how touristy the area was… I feel like it almost takes away from the history of the place. Overall it was very beautiful and I can mark another “must-see” off my Rome Bucket list because I got to see the Pantheon!