A Brief Update

Day 45 here in Italy - let me recap the last two weeks.

Since being back from our trip to Southern Italy, we've all been incredibly busy with school work! Its pretty crazy when you think about it. We all jumped head first into project two with our groups and put a lot of time into getting it all finished. Not only that, but five of us gave our history presentations on the first Wednesday of being back. That weekend, Megan McDonough came to Rome to visit and we had a good time - at least I did. And this week was followed by yet another week of lots of homework and things to do.

Friday night, Maureen and I decided that it was time to have a taste of home. We went in search of a movie theater in the afternoon that was playing "versione originale" of L'Amore Non Va in Vacanza ("Love Doesn't Go on Vacation" - or as we Americans know it "The Holiday). We walked all the way to the end of Via del Corso and found our theater! It was so exciting to go back that night and hear English for two hours that wasn't our classmates or professors - so wonderful!

Saturday night (last night), a group of us went out to dinner with Dave and Maureen then went to a posh (expensive) bar called Femme. It was fun and different - it feels like we hardly ever go out when you would think that we should.

So, you are currently all caught up now. Not much has happened within the last two weeks to really report! What's coming up? Spring break in Belgium and London! Incredibly exciting! Hope that you are having as great a time as I am wherever you may be!

Ciao!
-Victoria

Cefalu

The whole experience at Cefalu was amazing. Getting to spend 6 days and 5 nights there was a great way to try to learn about the city and gather information for our projects. Day one was our arrival and we spent a little more time in Palermo before catching the bus into Cefalu. We spent time at the Cathedral again and we met a few local teenage girls who seemed to fall in love with Spiro rather quickly. Needless to say, their infatuation with him was pretty funny.

We had lunch at a local market - cow spleen sandwiches...and yes, I actually ate it. I was surprised by how good it was - tasted like roast beef. Did some shopping, then hung out in the park next to our hotel waiting for the bus.

The funny girls outside of the Cathedral with the guys.

Right after Marco told them that they could keep him.

Cow spleen lunch...YUMMY!

Waiting for the bus to Cefalu.

Arrival in Cefalu was amazing. We got to drive through the newer sections of the expansion and see the Rock and old town in the background. Our hotel was...not as nice as the ones in Naples and Palermo, but we did fine with what we had. You can't really complain when you are right on the beach. We walked down into the center of the old town and took many pictures along the way.

The view of the old city and "La Rocca" from right outside our hotel.

Pretty flowers I liked along the walk into the old city.

Amy, myself, and Maureen on the rocks.

Chris, Maureen, and I on the peninsula.


Amy and Matt being Amy and Matt...silly!


That's me and the newer part of the city behind me with the water.

Our walk was followed by another Prosecco night before our group dinner. It was a lot of fun to get together and since the hotel was pretty much deserted, we had the restaurant all to ourselves!

Wednesday was spent having meetings, doing research, and climbing the mountain. Below are a few pictures I took during the morning.

Niko the historian giving us a lesson outside of the Cathedral.

The wall of the city.

Another boyband picture! Haha...

Me on one of the walls.

Maureen in the tiny pass through in the old city.

After our walking tour with the Historian Niko, Maureen, Chris, Duffy and I (team History) climbed to the very top of the mountain that is a staple to the city life. We all felt a huge sense of accomplishment when we made it too the top - especially with my complaining and worrying about getting back down. We managed just fine, which was awesome.

View from about 1/3 of the way up the "La Rocca"


Me on top of "La Rocca"

The Port of Cefalu from the top of the rock.

The new city

Duffy and I at the wall on the rock by the Temple of Diana.

Maureen and I at the top of the rock.

Thursday we got into our studio space and were given the opportunity to try to get some work done. As the history group, we had to do a bit of research in the museum library which was incredibly difficult because of the fact that none of us can read Italian very well. Seemed to do fine. So Thursday and Friday were spent getting work done. Friday night was a group dinner with the mayor. It was supposed to be the "best restaurant in Cefalu" and I can see why. All of the food was really very delicious - but I think my favorite was the risotto and shrimp. YUMMY!

Saturday morning I went to do some on site sketching in the city by the water. We had the morning to work and the afternoon to do whatever it was that we wanted. A group of us decided to tackle the mountain, and for a few of us, it was our second time. Saturday night we went back to our favorite place in Cefalu for dinner - it was a small restaurant but they had delicious pasta and a dish called meat and potatoes. We went there three nights of the 5 - the three we didn't have group dinners set up. Shows you that once you find a place you like, its hard to break away from it and try other places.

The whole gang

Sunday we spent the morning in Cefalu documenting our sites and then headed to Castelbuono - another mountain town in Sicily, but we were all so tired it was hard to be enthusiastic. Plus, we knew that we had to get on the ship to Naples before getting back to Rome and everyone just wanted to be back in the familiar city that we currently call home. The boat ride was - rocky at best. We watched Garden State in our room, wandered to the lovely piano bar, and then headed back to bed.

We wound up getting into Naples so early that we had to wait about 4 and a half hours for our train back to Rome. I don't think any of us have been more relieved to be in Rome once we got there. Waiting for the train, I wrote out the few postcards I hadn't finished yet and then caved and ate McDonald's. I know, I know...that's horrible - but it was comfort food and SOOOO good. Ah well...what's done is done.

So - I've now caught you all up on what happened while we were away! I'm up to speed! YES!

Palermo, Monreale, Segesta, and Erice

I'll start with our arrival in Palermo: my first impressions were made by a cranky tired 21 year old girl. I wasn't too impressed with the city at all. Then again, it was only about 7 in the morning and we were lugging our bags from the boat to the hotel and weren't even sure if we'd be able to leave them there. It was tiring just thinking about having to carry that heavy pack all over God's creation. Thankfully, we were met with the wonderful fact that we would be able to leave our bags in one of the hotel rooms that we would be occupying! THANK THE LORD!

Just images of us leaving the boat - I was relieved because I wasn't feeling so hot on the ship.

We had about an hour to get some coffee and "breakfast" (meaning a cornetto or something of the like) before our day of sketching and sight seeing would begin. Most of us hung out in the park outside of our hotel waiting for the bus and our professors to give us the go ahead.

The first day trip was to Monreale. We saw the Basilica of Monreale and they were having some kind of nursing conference/pilgrimage while we sat in the back and did some perspective sketching and wandered taking pictures. It was a really cool church - the images of Adam and Eve that circled overhead and the intricate tiles gave the basilica a lot of character. We looked at the Cloisters next and did more section sketching as well as detail sketching. The space was a garden space - very beautiful, outlined by a covered pathway and beautiful columns. It was peaceful there - quiet. Sometimes its hard to go out and sketch where there are so many people walking in and out of the scene - I get caught up in watching tourists and such. But here, here we were able to just sketch - few interruptions and great weather. Our lunch break was incredible before heading back to the bus. We found the perfect spot to take pictures and see out over Palermo and to the water that surrounds Sicily.

We stayed there for a good ten minutes before grabbing potato pizza and window shopping. Adam, as you can tell from the picture below was very tired...

Then, once back in Palermo, we were given the afternoon off. Having known that we were all exhausted, and most likely feeling the same, our professors gave us the option of catching up on some shut eye or going to explore the city. Amy, Maureen, Matt, Chris, Adam, and I decided to venture down to find a beach.

What we found instead of a beach was this:

In Palermo, they have a very long promenade that sits between the city and the water. We walked a long ways to get there and were greeted by these...platforms I guess you would call them...that people can lay on and get their sun tans or the like. It was crowded with local pre-teens and teenagers playing soccer and hanging out. It was neat in its own way - no beach, but cool none-the-less. We did come across a very tiny patch of sand, and did some sea glass searching and found quite a few good pieces.

We then headed back to find a place for dinner, only to learn that in Palermo, nothing is open until at least 6:30 - and even that is incredibly early. SO, we continued to wander as our famished stomachs ached for food. Once finding dinner, we headed back to the hotel to just enjoy the rest of the evening there and catch up on the sleep we had been lacking.

Sunday was day 4 and we spent the day in the city. We went to the Cathedral of Palermo and did...you guessed it...MORE SKETCHING!

This was just a picture of Maureen, Connie, Amy, and I outside of the Cathedral.

It was a busy Sunday morning with a lot of time at the Cathedral and then a lot of walking and wandering to study the surrounding piazzas and palazzos and gardens throughout the city.We stopped at a beautiful garden where you can find the largest trees in Italy. The only way that I can describe them is that they were massive tree trunks and roots that sprouted out from the ground - multiple trunks for one single tree. We had fun goofing around, climbing and hanging from the vines before we were told that we had to do more sketches.

When night fell, we got together in one of the hotel rooms and had a little "happy hour" with our new found favorite Prosecco (its a lot like champagne but its some kind of wine) before finding one of the best restaurants I've ever been to, Primi Piatti Ristoranti! The food was incredible - if I'm not mistaken, I got the Spaghetti Carbonara - DELICIOUS - and the best tiramisu I've ever had. Plus, we had a lot of time which helped greatly.

Monday we went to Segesta and Erice...Segesta first.

There is an original Greek temple there that is still preserved to this day. We did more sketching of the structure and got to experience something that dates so far back - I couldn't even imagine something like that existing in the states. In fact, I know that it doesn't.

We only spent about two hours there - if that - before making our way to Erice, a very small town on the peak of one of the mountains in Sicily.

The bus ride there was quiet, a lot of people were still exhausted, but yet again, the surrounding landscapes kept me awake. Upon arrival, it felt as though we had morphed into a town in Ireland - it was straight from a fairytale. The views were amazing and it was so fun to see something like that. It was pretty much a ghost town.

Few people were actually out and about - my guess is that they had left the town to go to work elsewhere - that or there just aren't that many inhabitants. My favorite parts of the trip always involved the more peaceful and quiet atmospheres rather than the craziness of downtown. Not to mention the views from the top of the mountain. It was so amazing!

For dinner, we went back to Primi Piatti and then back to the hotel to sleep. It was a good day all in all, and we were happy with anticipation of our six days in Cefalu that were ahead of us.

Naples...Napoli...Day 1 and 2 of our Southern Italy Trip

Naples was our first stop on the trip. It was exciting on the train on the way there because of the anticipation. A lot of other people fell asleep - and though I took quite a few pictures of the funny positions, I decided to spare them the embarrassment. I'm just that nice. But I didn't understand how everyone could sleep through the beautiful landscapes that we passed by. I spent of the time staring out the window looking at the mountains and the small towns and cities we passed through.

The image above is one of the first glimpses of the city that I got from a slight distance. This was taken from the harbor where Dan and I had gone with Dave to purchase our overnight boat tickets - I'll get to that part of the trip in just a bit.

Upon arrival, we took taxis to the hotel - and driving here in Italy is an experience in and of itself. I'm not sure I like it too much - actually, I know I don't like it. Our hotel rooms were amazing and wonderful!

That's an image of our room. Once done there, we went out to sketch. We did a lot of sketching and this was only day one. We were sent out into the Spanish quarters where we did street sections, showing the interactions from one structure to the next. Balconies were covered with drying clothes, and the streets were so narrow I couldn't even imagine how any car could fit - but they managed to do it!

From there, we moved to the galleria - I have plenty of images, but I'd rather save the space for others. Not that I didn't find the space enjoyable - it was quite nice to feel as though we were outside, but to be in an enclosed space. It was certainly an interesting design. We also got to wander a bit before the opera (yes, I went to see an actual Italian Opera!) Amy, Maureen, Adam(o) and I wandered back down to the port where the Snav (our overnight ship) would leave from to see Mt. Vesuvius and the castle at the top of the mountain behind the city.

Then, it was time for the opera! We went to see Candide - but I can't say I was too impressed with the show. It was certainly amusing! I loved the opera house though! We had our own box and everything - it was great - and only 15 euro. You just can't beat that price!

Following the Opera was dinner at Pizzeria Brandy! All of the food was SO good - and we even had musical entertainment. There was a family in the room next to us who must have been having some kind of party - or maybe it was just dinner. Around here, I suppose that wouldn't be surprising. But they came in and did their best to talk to us in their rough English and us with our even more rough Italian (except for Stanley). Then back to our hotel to get some sleep. We all had high hopes that our Pompeii trip would follow through the next day - that and the fact that we were so beat.

Next morning we had breakfast in the hotel with the still high hopes that Pompeii would not be rained out. The breakfast room was at the top of the hotel and you could see out to Vesuvius. We ventured onto the patio to take some photos - my opportunity to get my picture taken with our fearless leader:

I was going to add the image of Amy, Maureen, and I but Dave beat me to it - that's on the group website, so you can find it there. After breakfast, we were all disappointed to find out that the high percentage of the possibility of rain was preventing us from getting to see Pompeii. Go figure that would have to happen. So, we ventured over to the Archaeological Museum to see the mosaics and models that have been brought over to Naples. It was a shame and we were all pretty upset about it, but the rain did come so it probably was better we didn't make the effort.

This is a picture of the wall mounted model in the museum. Tell me that THAT is considered advanced arts and crafts...

We ended the day with our overnight ship experience. Let me simply say that we all agreed it was a mixture of the Loveboat and Titanic. I slipped outside twice on the stairs of the ship and bruised up my arm a bit - how does one fall twice? Not even 5 minutes apart? We had fun outside before heading back in to see the lovely piano bar (straight out of the early 80s) and have dinner (which was very expensive and not all that wonderful).

Our room

Amy, Maureen, and I before finding the playground!

Maureen in the plastic ship...


the piano bar...