All Roads Lead To Rome

Honestly, I don't remember too many huge events that happened between our Cinque Terre trip and our trip to Rome. Except we did have an Italian band come up the villa and put on a concert for us. The band was Passogigante, and they were a really entertaining funk band. They got the audience involved a lot, and I ended up with 3 other guys up front singing a high falsetto "Lets Groove" by Earth, Wind, and Fire. It was a lot of fun.

One of the best parts of the summer was the trip to Rome. I have visited Rome once before, but barely scratched the surface on things to see and do there. The way they organized this trip is they gave each student taking the full Humanities course a certain location or monument to learn about, and when we visited the location they would be our on-site teacher. It was a fun, interesting way to learn about all the places in Rome, and I didn't have to present anything since I am taking the smaller version of the class. We visited TONS of sites across Rome, which I found really fun and educational. I'll try and limit myself to talk about the main highlights.

A block from our hotel was a cluster of ruins from old temples. This wouldn't be terribly interesting except for the fact that one of those temples was where Julius Caesar was murdered. I slept less than 100 yards from that spot. Pretty cool.

I have always enjoyed St. Paul Outside The Wall, which is a large dedicated to... well I'm sure you can guess. The portrait of every pope that ever lived is on the wall lining the church, and there is a spotlight on the portrait of the current pope. However, much more interesting than any pope related thing was the main attraction and purpose of the church: the burial place of Paul. Yes, THE Paul. The writer of the majority of the New Testament himself. I always find that to be a humbling and interesting experience.

You can't mention Rome without discussing the Colosseum. I love that amphitheater, and enjoyed learning about it and going inside. However, it is also important to think about the number of people that were persecuted and executed for sport there, including hundreds of Christians. Something to think about.

We also got to go to a crypt where many Christians of the day were buried. The crypt was 8 miles long and had over 60,000 bodies (when occupied). It was pretty cool to visit (not to mention get out of the sun and underground in the cool area.

Just to mention some of the other famous monuments visited, I also went to the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon (which I love), and Piazza Navona. In Piazza Navona, there are a lot of artists that set up and paint and sell their art. I love that modern artists can still find a place in the Italian culture, and I supported them by buying a couple pieces.

I also have to mention going to Hard Rock Cafe. I always love eating there, mainly because it is the ideal American restaurant. This is also the second time I have gotten a free meal at Hard Rock while overseas. The first was in Paris thanks to the Moon family, and this time thanks to the Waugh family who got to go along with us to Rome while they were visiting Europe. It was great to see them again and I am really thankful for their kindness.

We also visited the Vatican Museum, which is one of the most important museums in the world. I actually enjoyed going through and learning about so many of the important works of art. But of course, even cooler than the museum was the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. I cannot begin to describe to you how large St. Peter's church is. Not only is it the largest church in Christendom, but they also have lines on the floor showing where the next several largest churches would fit INSIDE of this church. Pretty incredible. It is vastly ornate, and you can't help but realize how small you are and reach your vision to the heavens. However, I do question what Peter's reaction would be if he saw how much money was spent creating a monument of this size for him....

We also went to the museum in Villa Borghese (the Borghese were an important papal family that were great collectors of art, much like the Medici of Florence). I wasn't expecting much, but I thoroughly enjoyed the museum. It still had a Caravaggio exhibit on display from earlier, which I loved. If you get a chance, look up some of the art Caravaggio has done. It is really incredible how realistic his depictions are and how unique the lighting (much like stage lighting) is used. Also in this museum were some of Bernini's most important sculptures, which were fascinating.

Finally, I want to mention one of my favorite parts of the trip. Throughout our 4 days in Rome, I went to several site on the "Path of Illumination." This is from the book 'Angels and Demons' by Dan Brown (author of the Da Vinci Code). In it he tells a story of how an underground society killed the pope and the 4 main cardinals at various monuments across Rome, which was deemed the "Path of Illumination." I found every single location, and got to see a few churches and monuments that no one else on the trip went to. I found it a lot of fun, and it helped me better depict in my mind the action from the fictional novel.

Rome is such a wonderful city, and I loved every bit of travelling there. I certainly hope to go back one day.

Ciao!

Taylor

Pisa & Cinque Terre

Well, this sure is embarrassing. Its been close to a month since my last post? Its unbelievable how quickly the time goes. I guess that's just a small illustration of how quickly this last portion of the trip has seemed to go. I will do my best to give an adequate (albeit brief) overview of the main happenings of July.

I'll start with our 3 day trip to Pisa and Cinque Terre. We first went to Pisa to see, well I'm sure you can guess at least one of the attractions. Yes, the leaning tower of Pisa. It was there, and it sure was leaning. Evidently they have done enough corrections to where it will not continue to lean closer to falling, but they left it leaning since it is obviously the largest source of income for the city of Pisa.

Also while in Pisa, we saw the main Cathedral and the Baptistery. The Baptistery was surprisingly cool because it had phenomenal acoustics. They did a demonstration, and a woman stood in the center and would sing a series of long notes, and the sound continued to long that it sounded as if there were multiple people singing harmony. Pretty cool.

About 6 of us decided to make our trip to Pisa even cooler by renting Segways. (If you are unaware, Segways are those devices that have two wheels that automatically corrects your balance, and you operate it by leaning forward of backwards). For 20 euros, we got to tour around the city of Pisa for an hour. It was a great way to see the entire city of the main beaten path, and plus the Segways were just plain cool.

After Pisa, we took a train to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a series of 5 (cinque) towns along the cost that are all placed right on the edge of mountains and cliffs (terre means earth). There is a single trail that connects the five towns, and they are very small, colorful, and picturesque. We stayed in the fourth town, Vernazza. On the second day, we hopped on a quick train to the first town and hiked our way all the way down the trail back to Vernazza. Afterwards, most of us jumped back on another train to the fifth town, Monterosso, to go to the beach (Monterosso is the only town that really has a beachfront).

On our last day, there was a train strike which messed up our plans for travelling home. Instead of hoping on whatever train we wanted, we had to wait for a ferry at 4 to take us to a place we could catch a charter bus. I took advantage of this extra time, and decided to hike the final part of the trail: from Vernazza to Monterosso (which I had to hike back to Vernazza too since the trains weren't running). This proved to be one of the best things I did all week. The view from the trail was stunning and it was a beautiful, fun, challenging trail. In the middle was this nice little waterfall and brook in the shade, which I relaxed in going both ways.

I decided to listen to worship music on my iPod while hiking, and had some great moments basking in the wonderful creation of the Creative Creator. I should also mention that both nights we spent in Cinque Terre, there was a group of us that went down to the dock and sang praise songs for a long time under the stars.

It proved to be a great, fun, upifting, and relaxing three days.

(More to come soon, I PROMISE).

Ciao!
Taylor

il Palio

On Friday, I had to opportunity to take a step back in time and experience a rich piece of Italian history. I went with several of my friends to the city of Siena to experience one of the oldest horse races in the world, which has been taking place since medieval times. It is a huge ordeal, and it occurs twice a year: once in July and again in August.

The city of Siena is divided into 17 districts, or contrade, which are city neighborhoods originally formed as battalions for the city's defense. Each race, only 10 of the contrade compete, and the other 7 will get a chance the next race, with 3 from the first race returning (determined from the drawing from a hat).

The entire city bustles for days before the event, and is an explosion of activity the day of the race. Each contrade parades through their district during the day leading up to the race. The main square (or piazza) in the center of the city, known as il Campo, is where the race takes place. Thousands of people will pack into the center of the piazza, and the horse track surrounds the crowd. We showed up around 4:00 are somehow were able to grab a spot near the rail. We talked to a guy next to us from Italy who had been by the rail since 10:30 that morning in order to have a good spot.

Around 5:30, the parades started around the track. Everyone was dressed in their original medieval garb, and there were displays of the medieval weapons, armor, and all that sort of cool stuff. It was very interesting to see. Each contrade does the same routine, but with 17 of them, it takes a long time. There are drummers, flag bearers, a guy in full armor, the race horse from the district, and others for each contrade.

After 2 hours of continuous parading, the race horses finally came out. Let me a take a moment to try and describe how bizarre and unique this race is. They race the opposite direction of most horse races, the jockeys all ride bareback, they are encouraged to use their whips and canes on the OTHER drivers, bribing and sabotage are fully expected, alliances and agreements form between groups, there are political motives behind each transaction, it is one of the biggest gambling events in the world, and the race itself often lasts no more than 60 seconds (since it is only 3 laps around the piazza).

When the announcer finally declares the starting line up (since there is money exchanging to decide who starts where), the crowd is completely silent. Once the lineup is announced, the jockeys attempt to line up, but at the same time get an advantage over the other horses. Some try and start standing sideways, there is tons of shoving, hitting, and pushing around, and often times they just pull back and start the lineup all over again. It took about 30 minutes for the jockeys to finally get lined up. Once the last rider decides he likes the looks of the lineup, he will come charging in from behind and the race begins. It is one of the most suspenseful and exciting starts to a race or sports event I have ever experienced.

(I will try and post some videos I took from the day... Until then here is a link to a video of the race taken by the professionals. I was next to the rail on the padded corner of the race.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cqNmPK-U94

Oh yea, I forgot to mention that after the race the winner contrade and his rival contrade fight. There is lots of fighting in the streets, and honestly it is a little scary place to be. We followed a trail of blood up one of the streets when we trying to get back to the train station.

Overall, it was an incredible experience, and I can say I've been packed in with thousands of people at one of the biggest and oldest sporting events in the world. Pretty cool.

Ciao!
Taylor

Free Travel: Paris and beyond

Well, turns out we didn't have any more internet opportunities once we left Barcelona. So I will do my best to provide an adequate update with the highlights of the rest of the trip without rambling on an on...

First of all, after my last post we had one more full day in Barcelona. We visited La Sagrada Famiglia, which was really fascinating. It is this huge church, started in the 1800s, that is still being built. The original architect is Gaudi, and his work is all over Barcelona, which we got to see a lot of while walking around the city. After a full final day in Barcelona, our group split in 2: five people in our group spent more to get another night in the hostel, while the other 5 of us went to the airport to spend the night. We got one of the very last trains and metro lines out there, and after a few miracles made it to the airport safely. Once we were there, we grabbed a corner of one of the terminals and just played cards, laughed, and enjoyed ourselves all night. It was a lot of fun, and saved us a good bit of money.

The next morning, we caught our plane (which was delayed) to Paris. We finally made it to Paris, and made our way to the guy's hotel. Ethan's dad had a bunch of Hilton points saved up, so he was able to get the guys 2 free rooms in the Hilton that is like a block from the Arc de Triomphe (with access to the Executive Lounge). It was definitely awesome.

We ended up spending 3 nights in Paris. While there, we saw all the big attractions: the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Latin Quarter, Montmarte, and the Louvre. I was much more impressed by the Eiffel tower than I expected to be. It was absolutely enormous! It truly is a must see if you are ever traveling in the area.

Kendall, Ethan, and I all got to climb the Towers of Notre Dame, which was a really cool experience. We got to be within arms reach of all the famous chimeras (not gargoyles) and got a great view of the city of Paris from above. I would also recommend doing that if you have the time (and dont mind climbing a few hundred stairs in a straight, tight vertical spiral.
Honestly, one of my favorite parts was visiting the neighborhood or Montmarte, which is a small town above Paris, which was definitely off the beaten tourist path. We took it easy there, saw some historic windmills, then sat in a park, ate delicious crepes, and enjoyed the park scenery with children playing around us for a few hours. It was quite relaxing.

One of the days we were there, 6 of us took a train north and visited Normandy and the American Cemetery there. It was a wonderful, humbling experience. The museum and memorial there were all free, and it was really well done. There were close to 10,000 graves all overlooking the ocean. We also walked down to Omaha beach, which was pretty, but also crazy to think about the thousands that died at that very spot to defend the rights of others. My only regret is that we didn't have more time to spend there.

We were able to get into the Louvre for free with our Student Visas, so that was pretty awesome. Of course we saw the most famous things there: the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.
Long story short, after the French ended their train strike, all trains leaving Paris to anywhere were full. We spend several hours stressing and trying to figure out how in the world we were going to leave. We were saved by Helena, a worker at the train station nearest our hotel. She spent close to 30 minutes looking for any possible way to leave. Our final path ended up being as follows: Paris -> Lyon -> Geneva -> Bern -> Interlaken, spend 8 hours in Interlaken just to grab a little sleep, then Interlaken -> Spiez -> Milan -> Florence. 7 trains in less than 24 hours. It was crazy, but we were just glad to get home.

We were a little upset we didnt get to truly visit Interlaken and do all the acitivites we had planned, but we are planning on going back there at the end of the semester on our second free travel.

There were a few pretty stressful events, especially when trying to figure out how to get home. But I think our group handled it extremely well and without much complaining at all. We rolled with the punches and remained flexible, which is crucial to a good experience while traveling abroad. I had a great experience, and I will be even more prepared for the second free travel.

Ciao!
Taylor