When In Rome...

I haven't posted in about a week, so I figured it was a good time to change that. The days in Bologna are becoming a little boring because there is not much to do, we have school, and the weather makes it unbearable to be outside for any prolonged amount of time. This week alone we're supposed to get 4-5 days where the temperature will be hitting the 100° mark. I've never complained about it being too hot...but that is just too hot. Nothing really new has been happening in Bologna, but it was a different story this past weekend when Maddie, Brooks, and I decided to visit Mariaisabella Portorico (Isa)...the other practicum teacher from Holy Cross that Brooks and Maddie both had this past year. We left for Rome early Saturday morning and were there by 10:00 AM. Isa met us at the train station and we made our way to the apartment that she is staying in with 4 other people. They were out of town for the weekend, allowing us to take advantage of the spare rooms. The apartment was located in a part of the city where when you walked out onto the balcony and looked down the street to the left, you could see Castel Sant'Angello, and when you looked to your right, you could see the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica. Amazing sights! We spent the rest of the day walking all over Rome. We saw the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Piazza di Venezia, the Roman Forum, Circus Maximus, and of course the Colosseum. Every single one of those locations was absolutely amazing to finally see in person...especially the Colosseum. It was an amazing day! We came back in the evening to get cleaned up and refreshed, and then headed out to dinner. We walked around the city after our meal for a while to walk along the Tiber River and to see the Castel at night as well as Saint Peter's Square, which was closed off to the public, but was still a beautiful sight. The next day we decided to hit a few more spots that we weren't able to see on Saturday. We started off the morning with Saint Peter's Square and Basilica. The Basilica was absolutely breathtaking! The massive size and architecture of the Basilica are unimaginable until you are there in person. After spending time in Vatican City, we went on a tour of one of the many catacombs in Rome. That was another eye-opening experience. The tunnels were just barely wider than me shoulder to shoulder, and the ceiling in some places was maybe a foot overhead...if that. It was pretty spooky thinking that at one point in time there were thousands of bodies buried in the exact location I was walking through. We went out for a nice dinner and called it a night because we were all exhausted from two long days of walking. The next day Isa had to go to work, and the three of us decided to just make Monday a relaxing day. We caught a train back to Bologna at 7:30 PM and were in the door by 11:15. Looking back it was quite the adventure. I will definitely have to go back again because there is still so much more I want to see that I just simply did not have the time to this past weekend. Places like the Sistine Chapel and the Mausoleum of Augustus are places that I want to see before I leave Italy. It was a great trip all around. Included in this post you will find some pictures of the many places I saw...

Brooks, Maddie and I sitting in front of the Colosseum

Piazza di Venezia

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

Inside of Saint Peter's

The Catacombs

Saint Peter's at night

Castel Sant' Angello at Night

Swiss Guards!

Beach Trip

The weekend was pretty uneventful. The three of us basically explored the city more Saturday and Sunday finding places to eat and shop. We had off Monday because it was a holiday, so we decided to take a day trip to Rimini with Roberto (a Brazilian student who was living at the same house as Maddie), his sister Lorena, and Megumi (a Japanese girl who is also living at Maddie's house). Rimini was only about an hour and 45 minutes away on the train and was a beautiful coastal city on the Adriatic side of Italy. The beach was beautiful. The sand was very fine and it took a good 5 minutes to walk from where the beach began to get to the water (yes...the beach was that big). The water was nice and warm and the coolest part was that you could walk 150-200 yards out into the water before it got too deep to stand. Much different than the beaches I've visited in the States. The coolest part of Rimini was the marina that was located right on the other side of the beach from where we were sitting. I spent the majority of the afternoon just walking around checking out all of the sailboats. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the beach...sorry. We caught the train back in the early evening and had dinner at Maddie's house with her host mother and the other students. The next day, Roberto and Lorena left to go home to Brazil. They were both so nice, and Roberto, in particular, was very knowledgable since he has been living in Bologna for about 6 months. As I said, it was a pretty uneventful weekend, but we still have the rest of the weekend ahead of us. Ciao!

Week #1 in Bologna

     The rest of this week has been filled with little learning experiences sprinkled here and there. We followed a regular schedule of going to class every morning at the same, followed by lunch, then a nap at either our house (Brooks and I) or Maddie's house, and then we'd go for walks around the city to explore. There were many lessons learned, but most of them are minor and not really worth mentioning. We learned at the beginning of the week that there are skinks (tiny lizards) all throughout the city. One day we were walking along the street and we noticed this little thing scurrying along the sidewalk where the sidewalk met the wall of the building we were walking along. We tried catching it, but they are wicked fast and hard to grab. When we finally catch one (which is inevitable) I will make sure to take a picture and post it here on the blog. I finally had an Italian gelato this week as well. It was so delicious! I got pistachio gelato and fell in love with it right away. I don't know if I'll ever be able to eat American ice cream again haha. The three of us also learned about something called aperitivo. Aperitivo is essentially the least expensive way of getting a good dinner. It occurs every night from about 7:00-9:00 PM. The bars (café) put out an all you can eat buffet of small foods. The way you gain access to the food is by purchasing any type of drink. In a nutshell, you get an all you can eat dinner and a drink for around€ 5-7 ($8-10). The food, like it is everywhere here, is fantastic. They have everything from small sandwiches to pasta and everything in between. That was probably our greatest lesson because now we know how to eat a big meal and save money when we want. 
     On Wednesday after class, Brooks and I decided we wanted to Il Torre degli Asinelli...the taller of the two towers in the center of Bologna. These two towers are icons of the city and were built under the patronage of two families in the city as a way to express their power (obviously the family that built the taller of the two towers, the Asinelli family, was wealthier). The interesting thing about Il Torre degli Garisenda (the other tower) is that it is actually leaning quite noticeably from most likely a failure of the foundation. All of these pictures are views from the top of the tower looking out in all directions as well as one that is looking down upon the smaller tower and another that is looking down through a knot hole in the floorboards of one of the landings looking down the interior of the tower.

Brooks and I counted our steps on the way down the tower, and we ended up counting 498 steps to get from top to bottom. It was quite the workout to say the least. In some of the pictures you will notice huge hills outside the city. This weekend we plan find a way to get to the top of the hills because there are two churches up there that we want to see as well as seeing the city from that vantage point. It should make for some more good stories and pictures. Ciao!

First Day of Language Classes

Today was our first day of language classes at Cultura Italiana, a school located in the heart of the city that specializes in introducing people who aren't from Bologna to the language, culture, and history of the city. Sitting there in class today I met people who were from places like New York and Maine, to Oxford, Munich, Amsterdam, and Florence. The interesting thing about most of the people today were that they were mostly there on vacation for a short amount of time (the common time period was two weeks). There weren't any other study abroad students. Most of these people seemed to have signed up for the language school just for the chance to learn another language and culture, which would seem quite foreign to people from the United States who usually go on a vacation to relax, not go to school. Brooks, Maddie and I had no clue what to expect as we made our way to class. We come to this large, old building with a huge black, wooden door. We ring the doorbell and we hear the lock click open. We go inside and the building was just as impressive on the inside as it was from the outside. We find the door inside for Cultura Italiana and were greeted by Silvia Grimandi, the director of course. Every teacher there was extremely nice. We sit down for a little introduction with about 10 other people, and one by one were called in for a little interview. They sat us down and asked us questions (all in Italian of course) ranging from what our name was, to why we wanted to come to Italy to study. After the interviews we had classe from 9:00-11:00 and 11:20-12:40. It was very nervy because it seemed that most of the other people that were in class with Maddie and I (Brooks was put in a different class for today) had studied Italian for much longer or at least were fresher than they were with their speaking. We got a little intimidated when our teacher asked us to answer questions using grammatical rules that we had never learned before. We struggled a little bit, but managed to get ourselves through the exercises. We have this class every day at the same time for the first month of our stay. The hope is that we will pick the language up as quickly as possible with schooling like this every day of the week. Later today we are going back to Cultura Italiana to meet Silvia and other students for a walk around the city so that Silvia can show us the best places to go to eat, shop for food, and many other things that will make our stay in Bologna that much easier.

     Yesterday was basically another day to explore the city. We woke up early and made our way to one of the many bars. So there is no confusion for the people who don't know this little fact, bars in Italy are the equivalent to cafés in the United States. The serve pastries, coffee, and other types of breakfast foods/treats. The Italian version of what many people know as a bar is a pub. That being said, we ordered coffees (which again differ from coffee in the United States because they are simply shots of espresso that have about as much of a kick as a large coffee in the States) and were off on our way exploring the city. We explored the area around the actual University of Bologna as well as the Piazza Maggiore, which is the main square located at the very center of the city. Again, we saw beautiful building after beautiful building as well as the famous Fontana del Netuno (Fountain of Neptune) which I will upload a picture of in a later post once I take a picture of it later today or tomorrow. The weather has been absolutely beautiful every single day we have been here so far. Each day it has been sunny and the temperature has ranged from 30-33℃ (roughly 85-92℉) and there is usually a nice breeze. We have been using Italian everywhere we go and can get what we want to say out, but most of the locals can obviously tell that we are foreigners and that Italian is our first language, but being a university city that is used to accommodating students from all over the world, they are usually very helpful and understanding. Attached is a little video showing Piazza Maggiore from my point of view as well as a picture to give you all an idea of what the streets are like in il centro storico. I will take plenty of more pictures to share with you all over the coming days as well as tonight during the walk around the city. If there is anything in particular you want to see or know about please feel free to comment on the post, contact via Facebook, or shoot me an email (my email address can be found in my profile). A better version of the video can be found in the comments section with a link to youtube. The video can be viewed in every format up to 1080p HD. A presto!

Officially In Bologna

Well...Brooks, Maddie and I are finally in Bologna! After the 7 hour flight from Boston to Zurich, the hour long layover in Zurich, the hour flight to Milan, then spending 2 hours in the train station waiting for our 2 hour long train ride to Bologna, we're settled into the house. We were greeted by Margaux (the daughter) and her boyfriend Paolo. We sat down around 8:30 (Italy Time) for a nice dinner with the two of them and they want to take the three of us to Il Centro Storico, which is the old part of the city. They want to take us around so that we can get our bearings. It's hard to believe that I'm actually here and that I will be spending a significant amount of time in another country. I haven't seen the city at all yet, but there is a fairly nice view from the window of the room that I am staying in (See above). There isn't much to see in this picture, but it's a nice view from the building. The flat that I'll be staying in is located right above a restaurant so I don't have to worry about food...ever! Not only will I be staying with the Griffi family, which is comprised of Gianna (the mother), Margaux (the daughter), and the son whom we haven't met yet, but also a cat named Cleo and a dog named Lamoux (not really sure how it is spelled). Both animals are very friendly and that will definitely make the stay more entertaining. We haven't been here that long, so there isn't much more to write about right now, but I'm sure there will be plenty to come!

Last Night Home

This is the last night of being in my own home. Tomorrow I will be getting up around 4:00 AM and leaving for 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to catch a 5:15 train to Boston. The rest of my day will be spent in Scituate, MA with Brooks, Maddie and eventually Grace McNally (the best girlfriend for getting the night off from working at camp to come to dinner and spend the evening with us). This is so surreal! I'm packing everything up to travel to another country for 10 months...or at least trying to pack everything up. Epic fail! I have stared at my suitcase all day and have failed to actually put anything in my suitcase. It's going to be a hectic night haha. I'll get it done though...eventually. Thank god for the long train ride tomorrow. That will allow me to get any of the sleep that I don't get tonight during the ride. On top of all the packing craziness, we also received an email today asking for us to send back our placement tests by tomorrow...the placement tests that we never received. That led to even more confusion and nervousness for about an hour and a half today. After a quick call to the Study Abroad office, our fears were quelled because we were told to simply email Britain Smith and then not worry about. We'll see what happens with that though. There is just so much going on that I can't keep anything straight at the moment. Saying goodbye to friends and family is making things just that much more hectic because I'm trying to see as many people as possible before leaving. Especially Sean Craner who asked for a special shout out in this post. He's sad that I won't be going to work everyday for my dad with him to do the most boring tasks in the world while listening to a senile old plumber and decrepit carpenter banter back and forth in caveman gibberish all day. Oh how I'll miss early mornings when I wake up to that...

2 Week Countdown

Well...here I am 2 weeks out. I don't know what to expect or how I'll feel about leaving the US for 10 months. 10 months away from friends, family, people I love, and everything else that I'm used to having in my life on a day-to-day basis. I am excited, yet part of me wants to stay here in the States. I'll be with my friends Brooks Wait and Maddie Coticchia, but there is so much here at home that I'll miss. This is just another adventure in my life, but one thing is for sure...nobody here at home will be forgotten and not a day will go by when my mind isn't focused on the people in my life here at home. Tempo al tempo (All in good time).