Texas aint got nothing on Rome...

When in Rome... The immense size of the city pretty much made up for all the tourists and we had an awesome time! Our first day there we took a free walking tour which showed us a lot of the sights in the same part of the city as the Trevi Fountain and The Spanish Steps. I officially love free walking tours! They give you a foundation of the city and then really let you explore the parts that you like a little more without having to pay anything :)

This is Italy's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Yea... I think its a little bit bigger and a little more impressive than the one in the US... or France... or England... or Canada (I think thats all the ones I've seen...) Like we took to saying: Texas aint got nothing on Rome... everything is truly bigger in Rome! For a few days we didn't know what this big building was though so we just called it that big white thing.

On our free tour we went by the Trevi Fountain. I had never imagined it to be so immense! The history of everything in Rome is so interesting. Everything was basically built by the Romans or a pope. The Trevi Fountain was built by one of the popes yet it still has a Roman god: Oceanous standing front and center. It was packed. It would have taken forever to try to get up to the water to throw a coin in so we decided to come back later that night when hopefully there would be less people.
The Pantheon (and no thats not the Parthenon) is now a church and a really cool one at that! The dome is gigantic! It is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. Yea... those ancient Romans knew how to do things! Inside is the tomb of Raphael and two of Italy's kings among other famous and important Romans.
I thought the fact that it was open at the top of the dome was really cool. Even though it wasn't built originally as a church, it is fitting that it is one in my opinion. Because it can obviously rain in there are drains (ancient Roman drains not new ones) and the floor both tilts gently to those drains and towards the door so that if there was a lot of rain it could be let out the door. While our tour was really good and informative I learned a little too much about the different styles of architecture for my liking. What was very interesting however was all of the Egyptian obelisks all over the city. During the Roman empire they stole hundreds of these and placed them around their city with statues or symbols of their gods ontop. Then when the catholic church gained power they replaced some of the statues with crosses or statues of saints. The mixtures of the three very diffferent cultures and religions was very interesting.

And the Colosseum! I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting but this wasn't it. Maybe it was the fact that it was just seemed to be stuck in the middle of a city and it was hard to get the angle shown in all the books but either way it wasn't disappointing.

After a dinner of pasta (Erin and I got spaghetti and lasagna and went half and half) we wandered around Rome at night. I have decided that it is at night that I like the cities the best. Most of the tourists have retired to their hotel rooms and the ones that rest seem to be the tourists most like us: more interested in culture and beauty than cramming in as many touristy things as possible. We both got a pastry, looked over the city from the Spanish steps and met some very interesting Californians... A little before midnight we made our way to the Trevi Fountain where there were far less people than before. I made my wish.

Day 2 in Rome: The Vatican

We had tickets for a tour at the Vatican museum at 2 that day but we started out early because we had heard how long the line can get. Turns out we had no problem with the line (10 minutes) and got into St. Peters Basilica in no time.

St Peters Basilica was breathtaking. It was enormous and I do not use that word lightly at all. It is the biggest Catholic church in the world but the archetecture doesn't make it seem so big. There are two "rows" of statues around the church, one above the other. From the ground they look to be the same size but apparently the top ones are 10 feet taller to make them appear to be the same size. The alter is something like 7 stories high... everything was on massive scale but seemed so intimate at the same time. We spent hours just walking around (we took another Rick Steves tour) and sat for a while in a little chapel off the main church. Being there was so powerful. It is a church that Christians around the world (Catholic or not) look to as the center of their religion. The emotion that has taken place there, the powerfulness, it was awesome.

I have always thought the Swiss guards were really cool :) Being part Swiss I joked that I was going to go up to them and start calling them my cousins... but they wouldn't let anyone get close to take a picture with them :( I feel kind of bad for them having to wear those uniforms though... apparently Michelangelo designed them. I dont know about you but personally I dont think he had much of a hand at being a clothing designer. Chanel you have new competition... the Michelangelo line is vying for the position of the top clothing company.

After our very expensive tour of the Vatican museum on which I learned that some people really should not be tour guides (ours was so bad that by the end we had "lost" seven out of the 30 or so on the tour) we ended at the Sistine Chapel. Wow. It was covered in paintings! I spent so long just looking at the picture of God giving life to David my neck started hurting.

Day 3 in Roma

Again we got up early to try to beat the lines at the Coliseum which ended up being a whole 10 minutes again. It was cool to see something I had learned so much about back when we studied ancient Roman history in 6th grade (you would be proud of me Mr. Jeager) but it really was the kind of thing I would be fine doing once in my life time. We took another Rick Steves tour but there were so many people around us that I dont think I really enjoyed it as much as I could have. After the Coliseum we went to the Roman forum which is right across the street. Its basically a huge concentration of a bunch of ruins and even after Athens was pretty cool. We then decided that we had enough of tourist attractions for one day and crossed the river to a part of town called the Trastevere where we had heard there were less tourists. The less tourists was right... but there were still plenty. We found pizza and gelato however and sat by a statue to people watch. I had half nutella and half coconut gelato... oh my gosh amazing!

Day 4 in Roma

We wandered to a the city park to get some sun and just have a rather relaxing day. With all the walking we had been doing our feet were getting really sore. The park was so cool though! There were people riding bikes, on boats, performing rollerblading shows and just walking leisurely around.

Our hostel in Rome offered free dinners to people staying there (pasta and bread) but only for weekday nights so for our last night in Rome (a saturday) we decided to go out to a restaurant and splurge a little bit on some good pasta. I had cheese tortellini with ham in a cream sauce and it was soooo good! I was a little thrown off by there being ice in my coke though... apparently the Italians actually put ice in things unlike the French.

The Romans kept their tradition of almost worshiping water like their ancestors of the Roman Empire did. There are these little "fountains" all around the city and the water is perfectly safe to drink. Once I bought a water bottle there was no need to buy another one which was really nice.

Overall I loved Rome. I could have done without all the tourists but it was really cool to see all the things I have learned so much about. I had fun trying to picture Rome in its glory. Erin and I both would like to invent a time traveling device so we could travel to a time in history and really see it even if we could not interact with the people. Rome would definitely be a city I would return to given the chance.

No cars allowed... Venice, Italy (and pictures from Florence)

Here are pictures from Florence...

The Duomo with its white, pink and green marble. This church became my favorite but didn't stay my favorite for long. to the church (cut off from the picture) is the tower. Erin and I went up the tower instead of the dome because the dome was closed for the Easter weekend.

The inside of the church. Compared to the outside it was actually rather plain

On the free tour of the city we took they showed us a few gelato shops with homemade gelato and it was AMAZING!!! The first day I had chocolate fudge then the second I had half strawberry (so flavorful) and cheesecake (one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten). We ate gelato almost once a day :)

Erin and I eating our gelato

Me and the pont de vecchio

The view from the top of the tower. I love cities from above, especially european cities.

Santa Croche, one of the other churches in Florence and apparently where a bunch of famous people are buried like Michelangelo and Galileo.

A tripe sandwich :) it was actually pretty good! Tripe sandwiches of Lamprodatos are a Florantinian specialty.

The flag throwers Easter morning

All the people in front of the church Easter morning.

The cart from which they set off fireworks

The colored smoke.

A sampling of the fireworks

The inside of the gorgeous dome!

And on to Venice!

I have had such an idealized image of Venice for nearly my entire life (or at least since I read The Thief Lord about a dozen times). It seemed like a city that existed in a parallel universe, a city where cars didn't exist. Everything happened by water or walking and I thought that was so cool. The charm of a city so confusing one could get lost extremely easily somehow appealed to me. Anyways, because of this extremely idealized view Venice was both a city that must be on my travel list but was also in high danger of not living up to my extreme expectations. However it took the same amount of time as it took to mount the first bridge over the Grand Canal for me to fall in love with the city itself and not the literary renditions of it. Yes I know its touristy, yes I know it is a dying city (it looses 1000 inhabitants a year) but it has charm. It is different. We soon decided we needed an actual map to find our hostel and with that didn't have too much trouble. We were staying in an old palace on the Grand Canal (though on the other side of the building) and while it was rather run down it was easy to imagine the elegance that once existed there.
There wern't too many street performers in Venice but this guy was awesome! He was playing actually recognizable songs on crystal glasses near our hostel.

Who wouldn't fall in love with that? I especially loved the little bridges that crossed the small canals and the doors that opened directly to the water. They really do use the water to get around too. We saw plenty of actual residents using their boats. There are the gondolas yes but also garbage boats, police boats, delivery boats, mail boats and even UPS boats.

The Grand Canal. This is where most of the activity was. There are water taxis that go up and down the grand canal and also to the other islands. We took one of them down the canal and saw a lot of the sights from the water as they were meant to be seen. Rick Steves (that guy who writes the tour books) also produces a podcast (an audio file) of tours all around Europe and he was our friend on this trip. We took his tour of the Vatican, Florence, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, St. Marks Basilica and the Grand Canal. Its so interesting to listen to him and actually learn things about what you are seeing without having to pay for an actual tour. Some of the palaces along the Grand Canal are so pretty! The amount of wealth that used to be centered here is amazing.

Gondola, gondola, gondola!!! The gondola men kept on trying to get us to take a ride but well... a bit out of our price range. Some of their boats are so decked out its crazy. I loved their costume of the striped shirt and the hat though :)

sitting on the grand canal. I could have sat here for days on end! There was so much going on and well... I'm in love with this city!

St. Marks Square. There were so many tourists it was a bit crazy but it wasn't too hard to look past them all and see the true beauty of the square. There is St. Marks Basilica (which became my favorite church), the campanile (the tower) and the Doge's palace. For as much as they say the lines here are awful we had no problems whatsoever. It took us maybe 10 minutes to get into St. Marks Basilica (the final resting place of St. Mark after crusaders "rescued" his body from Muslims who were about to desecrate it) The inside is COVERED in gold (see next picture) which shows how amazingly rich Venice was at one time. There is also an alter to St. Mark at the front of the church which has so many jewels and gold it is almost gaudy. The tile floors were almost the most interesting (and sad) though because it wasn't flat. They have so many floods here and the ground is moving so much that I dont know how some of the buildings are still standing. Venice may be completely underwater in a hundred years... its sinking. :(

Another view of St. Marks Square. The campanile (the tower) fell about 100 years ago and they re-built it. We decided not to go up it because we were having so much fun just wondering around the city. The first day we attempted to get lost but ended up finding us again! It was easier to get lost when we were trying to find where we were going than when we were trying to get lost.

So many gondolas!!!

Can you see why I love this city?

While we didn't go on a real gondola ride we did go on what tourists like to call the "poor man's gondola" Basically it is an oversized gondola which ferries people back and forth across the canal.

This palace was across the canal from the palace we were staying in... and it was where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were staying because she is shooting a movie in Venice. Cool right?

So overall take on Venice: it exceeded my expectations. We had so much fun just wandering the streets seeing all the little canals and getting lost in the tiny streets. We took a water taxi to Melano to see the glass blowers and walk around and that was so pretty! After our two nights there we really didn't want to leave but I suppose when Rome is the next city its not too bad...

Buona Pasqua (Happy Easter in Italian)

So its raining in Florence right now, we have some awesome internet access and we pretty much saw all of the city (besides a buch of museums which we really dont feel like paying 6 or more euros to enter) so Im going to take this opportunity to truly update my blog.

Overally France has been getting better and better. I can feel my language skills improving (thought not nearly as fast as I thopught they would originally...) I feel like I am actually meeting more French people and on top of that the weather is getting gorgeous! The trees are starting to fully bloom in flowers of all colors and most of the trees are starting to get leaves as well. It is a stunning mix of bright yellow, white, green, blue and pink. France actually has the spring-time I have been without my entire life! As much as you may say Wisconsin has a spring it doesnt. It goes directly from winter to summer with maybe a couple weeks of arguebly springish weather. Aix has that very comfortable temperature hovering just around skirt-weather when the grass really starts to get that light green color so representative of spring. Ok maybe im over-romanticing the city a bit and setting it above my Wisconsin memories in my mind at the moment but it really is beautiful.

I started volunteering at a day-care here (the french do daycare a bit differently as it is all run by the state) and the kids are so cute! What I originally thought I would be doing is tutoring middle school kids with their english homework and from there that morphed into teaching an american culture class to a group of middle schoolers and that morphed into playing with 2-5 year olds and trying to weave a few english words and american culture. I love it! For my first week I took a small group of kids into another room and told them to draw a fruit and then I would tell them the name of the fruit in english. However at that age they dont have too much patience for that kind of thing so they ended up all over me playing with my hair and asking me to read them a book. I successfully taught them one word however: to tickle (in french it is gilli gilli). They loved it! I wouldnt tickle them unless they said the english word so they learned it pretty fast and soon I had a group of 4 and 5 year olds surrounding me screaming tickle tickle tickle! So cute! I left that day in such a good mood because I had missed playing with little kids so much. When I returned the following week the first thing one of the little girls said to me was tickle tickle! She especially has a great memory for english. I am so surprised! I can tell her a word once and she will remember it when I ask for it again a little later and she is only 4! So my second time I went a little early because the group was going on a field trip to a park and a planetarium. We took the city bus which was very interesting with a group of 27 little pre-schoolers but it was fine. We arrived at the park and started playing. Yes, I had about 20 preschoolers chasing after me trying to catch me. After quite a bit of chase I got way too tired so I sat down on the grass and just talked to a few of the littler ones. I must have gotten nearly 100 flowers shoved in my hands (pour toi!- for you!) I put some in my hair and some in my jacket button holes but they all fell out eventually. Then we went to the planetarium where a lady talked about the solarsystem and the constelations. They all listened very well I was so surprised! Well, all except one little boy. It was his first day without a nap and I was attempting to keep him awake to listen to the talk but he was just far too tired so I let him sleep in my arms for a while. However, when we moved from the classroom style room into the true planitarium he woke up and stayed completly awake despite it being so dark. While waiting for the bus that would take us back to the center the kids were getting restless so I sang them a few songs like "row row row your boat" "if you want to be a badger" and the ABCs. Their favorite however was "head shoulders knees and toes" which they had me sing time and time again progressively faster motions and everything in plain view of everyone... oh well :) Im so sad I was only able to start volunteering there so late in the semester but everything in France moves so slowly. It is both nice and annoying at the same time. I live with it however because there is nothing else I can do. For example we only just got our official "you are a legal temporary french immigrant" a few weeks ago-- almost half way through our stay.

What else... as you can see from my pictures I went to Paris for a weekend with Jess. It wasnt too much of a cultural experience as Ive been there before and we didnt come across too many French as Jess couldnt exactly talk to them. We saw basically everything. We went on a free tour throughout the city (the same one I took a month ago so I knew all the answers to the questions) I am a little upset by the conflicting information I have been getting from that tour and my france history/culture class however. There were a few things that wernt completly correct but I guess he got the main message across. I realized that weekend though how much I actually have learned in my french history/culture class because (as Jess can testify) I told her so much about the different periods, the different governments and the buildings. Sorry but when I come back Ill probably talk your ears off about it too hehe. I saw a few things for the first time like the Basillica of St. Dennis, the moulin rouge, sacre coeur (which was my favorite church for a very short time until I arrive in Florence), up the arc de triomphe and parts of the Louvre. So first time in the montmartre area and I fell in love. It really is true what our tour guide said earlier that day: Montmarter is the real Paris. Its the only part of Paris that wasnt re-done during Napolean and Haussmann so it has the small windy streets with so much culture. It reminded me so much of Aix and im not going to lie made me a little homesick for my beautiful city :) Sacre coeur is too hard to give justice through words however. It is a giant completly white church in such a different style than most of the gothic churches throughout France. It has a really pretty mosic and is just gorgeous. Im so glad we went up the Arc de Triomphe at night as well. The view of the Eiffel Tower sparkling was incredible! We saw it from 5 places around the city: by the tulleries gardens, underneath it, sacre coeur, on the arc de triomphe and from the metro. LOVE IT! This city truly is the city of lights and seeing it sparkling in the Seine river is even more gorgeous. As much as I love Paris however it truly is a place to visit and I am so glad I choose Aix to study in instead of Paris.

I also joined a soccer team a fact some of you will find extremly surprising, but it is so much fun! Despite the fact that I have not played organized soccer since 6th grade my skill level isn't too far below the average. I'm not technically a part of the team since im only here for a semester but I'm practicing with them every monday for an hour and a half. The number of girls there changes from week to week but they are all really nice and try to include everyone. The rules of the game are a bit different because it is played inside but im starting to get the hang of it. the hardest rule has been the fact that we are not allowed to talk at all no "good job" no "pass over here" I really wish we could talk though because I feel it would be easier to get the know the girls if I can use soccer terms during the game. At my first practice one of the girls fainted because she hadn't eaten breakfast long enough ago. It was really scary and the pompiers (mix between firemen and paramedics) came to make sure she was ok. The french tend to call the ambulance more than americans because it doesn't cost them anything as opposed to our really high costs (thanks to their universal health care). Apart from that team though I have also been going to play pick-up-soccer in the park with a few freinds and that is so much fun! I only really go when one of my other girl friends can go because I dont want to be the only girl but even then its a little weird. Some of the guys playing are really competative and some arn't so much. All of them though seem to get scared playing around girls which is hilarious. I guess its just not normal for them because they keep on appologizing when they so much as slightly bump us. I can deal with that (although annoying) but I can't stand when they get overly excited and congratulate me whenever I make any sort of play. I know I'm not that good... i dont pretend to be but dont make me feel worse by making it seem like such a big deal. Ah well... I love playing with them because its so easy to meet them and start up a bit o0f a conversation. The last time I played our teams goalie was constantly texting and let a bunch of goals by because of it. I started teasing him about it telling him that his phone was awful at saving goals. He told me te was texting his fiance and that she would kill him if he stopped texting for a while. Jeez... some of these french girls. Continuing with the soccer theme Zidane is in town!!!! One of my friends saw him come out of the town hall because he is working with thye city to build a new soccer stadium. I really want to see him!!!! He is still after 4 years of being retired a HUGE celebrity everywhere in france.

Onto spring break! Theres so much more to say about france but I dont have enough time to type it all (nor will i put you through the bordom of reading it) so spring break... I am traveling to Florence, Venice, Rome/the Vatican, Seville and Barcelona in 2 weeks with my friend Erin. We left Thursday night on the overnight bus to Florence and well... thats an experience I want to forget. The seats were tiny, the bus was either far too hot or too cold (depending on where you were sitting-- I was too cold) and because of those two things I couldn't really sleep at all. I think I slept a bit but most of it was spent staring out of the window into the dark listening to music. Because I was awake however I saw the mediterranean by moonlight and noticed the sign that told us we were entering ITALY!!!!!! Finding our hostel from the train staton was no problem whatsoever and we went out right away for breakfast at a cute little cafeteria down the street where we had one really good pastry. That first day we took a walking tour of the city on which we saw Dantes house, San Lorenzo, the Duomo, multiple sculptures and other cool sites. The Duomo is officially my favorite church (sorr Sacre Coeur). I wish I could post a picture of it but they wont let me download pictures on this computer so I can't. Look it up though... it is gorgeous! On the tour we tried gelato... I am now in love with true Italian Gelato... YUM!!!! I had chocolate that first time and then when we got it again the next day I tried strawberry and cheesecake (All AMAZING!) Sorry culvers frozen custard, sorry Babcock icecream I still love you both but have found heaven in the form of a little bowl of deliciousness. An apple a day may keep the doctor away but a bowl of gelato every day will keep me happy indefinitly! The next day we went to the Uffizi galleries early in the morning where I actually recognized a few paintings (quite a feat for me). The birth of venus, Piero della Francesca, a few Madonas and the portrait of Martin Luther King to name a few. There were two Da Vincis as well... I think he is fast becoming my favorite painter not necessarily just for his works of art but for who he was as a person. His attention to the detail of anatomy of the human body is facinating and the fact that he discected bodies despite it being illegal at the time is awesome. We didn't take an organized tour but I had downloaded some podcasts for my ipod by Rick Steves and he gives a very good tour of the museum. We saw quite a few other things as well.

Easter in Florence was amazing though! We got up pretty early and went to find the easter celebrations. We knew there were two parades which started at different sites in the city at 9 but we didn't know where. We did know however that they both ended at the Duomo so that was where we set out first. When we arrived at the Duomo we heard drums playing down the street at a different plaza so we went to investigate. There were about 30 drummers playing for about 25 flag throwers. All of them were wearing very brightly colord renaissance costumes which included tights. Seeing them made me miss colorguard. Their flags were not the same (smaller portion without a flag) but they had a lot of the same throws. They were really good! They threw the flagts across the group so many times and I didn't see one of them drop a single flag. After watching them a while we met up with one of Erin's friends who is studying in Florence for the semester and staked out a spot at the duomo to watch the main event: the Scoppio del Carro or the explosion of the cart. We got there an hour and a half before 11 when the actual "explosion" takes place and there were already a bunch of people. We got a pretty good spot though and there were cool things to see pretty much the whole time we were there. The two parades arrived (one carrying coals lit with flint aquired from one of the crusades and the other with the wagon). The ceremony dates back to the middle ages (the history is really interesting but ill let you look it up yourself if you want to) and the cart is basically the same one as they used back then. Two white oxen with flowers around their necks pulled the two story cart into the square and the people set to work. There were so many fireworks on that cart I was sure it was going up in flames. A priest came around sprinkling everyone with holy water and other people dressed in renaissance costumes threw olive branches and flowers into the crowd. Nothing could have prepared me though for what hapened at 11. A mechanical dove soared out through the doors of the church (lit by a priest by the alter) and set off a chain reaction of fireworks and colored smoke which lasted at least 15 minutes. It was awesome. They know how to celebrate easter here! Aparently easter is traditionally the start of the new year in this part of Italy so it is their biggest holiday of the year. After the cart the mass of people was crazy. One of friends of Erin's friend (he's from WI) summed it up perfectly: "this reminds me of State street at Freakfest" yep... quite a different situation though. After we made it through the croud of people Erin and I went to mass in the Duomo (one of the largest Catholic buildings in the world). After that we ate some amazing pizza at a restaurant and came back to the hostel because it had started pouring. Overall however Easter in Florence=great!

Well, we are off to Venice tomorrow. Thats the city I'm looking forward to the most so I hope its not too touristy! I dont think Ill have internet access there however so until next time!

Happy Easter everyone!

At least a part of what i need to upload!

Sorry guys, photos took a lot longer than originally thought to upload. I started from the bottom of my list of photos to upload (because thats how blogger works) so I still have quite a few to upload yet from skiing, point du guard and more from Paris. All of my pictures for Paris and some for skiing are online at http://picasaweb.google.com/briecheese1414 if you want to see them otherwise i'll upload them when I get back from Italy and Spain on the 18th!!!!! Well, here starts one crazy, amazing spring break!

There was a service going on in Notre Dame.

Paris at night= amazing
I love the color of the sky in France! I dont know why but the colors are so much more vibrant! Anyone who has any idea why this is please inform me!
The eiffel tower sparkling is one of the most beautiful things in the world. Call it cheesy but I love the city of lights :)
Can I live here... please?
Jess and I walked to the eiffel tower and sat down pretty close to it to watch it sparkle from up close.

Sparkling positions:

1) Next to the Tulleries Gardens

2) Under the Eiffel Tower

3) From Montmartre area

4) From the Arc de Triomphe

5) on the metro

yea... we loved the sparkle

I love this picture!
So these two pictures are switched around... but I saw Sacre Coeur for the first time and loved it! New favorite church (though I'm guessing it wont be for long because im going to Italy and Spain hehe)

I saw the Moulin Rouge for the first time ever. Now I really want to watch that movie
Paris je t'aime!
The top floor of the eiffel tower :)
I also climbed the Arc de Triomphe for the first time because it was closed when I was in Paris 4 years ago. Its was such a pretty view from up there and definitely something to do at night. It was awesome to see all the roads that lead up to the giant round about.