SB Discovery #4 - Gondaliers know so much about Venice that you might feel like an idiot in their presence

Quite possibly our favorite city so far, Venice, was a really, really fun place. Many people say that Venice is dirty and smells and is not worth seeing, but we loved it. We had an amazing Bed and Breakfast in Venice which I have left to the next SB discovery. Upon arrival by train we began walking to our B&B and after dropping our stuff, we began to explore.

First we stopped in St. Mark’s Square where we decided that we had to
feed the pigeons. It was really fun. I’m sure that they were dirty and most did not seem to need food, but we enjoyed it anyway. After buying a 1 euro packet of seed we walked to an open spot and began to toss some seed out. The pigeons recognize the food packet and actually start to swarm you before you even open it up! Emilie and Ellen went together first while Elizabeth and I took photos of them and then we switched roles. We enjoyed walking around some more after this. We had a great meal with some tasty sea food of course. On our first day it became pretty cold and rainy so we did not stay out too late. Ellen and I took a nice night-time stroll when the rain had stopped though.

The next day we explored a bit and then took a Gondalier ride. Our Gondalier was a real pro and he told us all about the city. There are some 100 churces and some 300 bridges in Venice. We passed by Marco Polo's house and would have been totally unaware if Emiliano hadn't told us. His boat was named for his sister, Veronica. We loved our ride.

After we got off we explored some more. We traversed the Rialto Bridge several times and did some shopping. Then we went to the

grocery store to get dinner. We cooked in our room! It's in the next blog!

SB Discovery #3 - Galileo's middle finger might seem like a good idea at the time but...

Before leaving for Pisa, we explored a bit of Florence. We went inside the cathedral (duomo) and then went outside to get in line to climb to the top of the cathedral’s dome. The line was pretty long and we noticed people at the top of the adjacent tower. The bell tower right next to the cathedral is also open to tourists to go to the top. There was no line and it was the same price. We thought it’d be nice to see the cathedral in our view of the city anyway so we began the climb up the tower. The staircases were very narrow and difficult. At one of the break points we were resting when the bell began to ring. We could see it just above us and it was enourmous. It was pretty scary to see such a huge, heavy bell swinging so much. Everyone initially jumped because it was so startling but then we just froze. Ellen and I had to sit down for a minute until it was over. I felt like the whole tower would just fall over with so much noise, ha! The view from the top of the tower was awesome. It was great to see the dome in our view of the city. After climbing back down we decided to make our way to Pisa and when we returned we walked around a bit at night and enjoyed a kebab.

The next day we really explored Florence. We walked all over the city. We went to the Science Museum where we were fortunate enough to view Galileo’s middle finger! Haha! There was some interesting stuff in the museum mostly about cartography and astronomy. We were a little disappointed, though, especially when we realized that we did not make it in time to the Ufizzi mueum containing the most famous works of Italian artists… oops! We went to see Michaelangelo’s David in the Accademia. The statue is very large, bigger than we expected. No pictures were allowed in this museum unfortunately. We learned that David actually has a broken arm. There are a few cracks that developed while the statue was outside. Ellen read that for years the statue was outdoors but then was damaged and later moved indoors. We could hardly tell that there was a crack because the statue is so big, but close-up photos in the books in the gift shop show it. We also decided that David’s right hand is disproportionately large. It’s too big. Masterpiece? We think not! Ha, just joking of course. We were actually rather astounded by it and stared for a long, long time.

In between our museum adventures we shopped. We also visited Ponte Vecchio and traversed this bridge and a few others that span the river. For lunch we found this great place recommended by our Rick Steve’s guidebook. It was a little, family-run restaurant with a cheap menu and awesome food. We got desert too… the cake we had was chocolate with strawberries which was great. The cheese Emilie ordered was only half-good. We got two kinds and one was good but no one cared for the other except for Emilie. It was hard and dry and like most French cheeses but Elizabeth decided that it tasted like Elephants’ feet. At night we found a gelateria that was recommended to us. Tivoli’s had amazing gelato and a nice atmosphere. It was inexpensive too!

The next morning we got up early and left on the cheap, long, train to Venice…

SB Discovery #2 - Pisa

Ellen and I went to Pisa after arriving in Florence. There's a lot more to offer than just the leaning tower. We didn't go up it; however, Em and Liz did..30 euros later! The tower is definitely the highlight but we enjoyed walking around the other parts of Pisa as well. It's a small, quaint little town and we liked getting away from the city for a day.
People biked like crazy in Pisa. It was amazing. There is a whole network of streets designated only for walking and biking where cars are not allowed! We saw a lot of little shops and restaurants lining the streets. We wandered a lot but Ellen was really sick so we had to cut our time in Pisa short. Interestingly enough, on a main walkway of Pisa, we found condom dispensers! So much for sexual privacy and abstinence! Could you imagine the outcry in America if that was placed in a town like McHenry? Surely, surburban moms would panic. Ha!

Overall we really enjoyed our day-trip to Pisa. After hopping on a train, we arrived back in Florence at night.

Spring Break Discovery #1 - PASSPORTS

While more than half of the John Felice Rome Center travelled through Africa*jealous squinty eyes*, we explored more of Italy. Emilie (Ellen's sister) and Elizabeth (Emilie's friend) accompanied us throughout our whole trip to Florence, Pisa, Venice, Lake Como and Milan! Along our journey, we made several discoveries-discoveries that we would like to share with you all.

NUMBER ONE: When Emilie and Elizabeth were staying in Rome for a few days, Nick served as their tour guide. He possesses a copious amount of knowledge from his on-site topography class and he was generous enough to reveal his learnings to us. He'll make an excellent professor someday. Anyway, after touring Rome for a bit, we decided to go to Emilie's hostel. We sat around and drank some wine with their roommates from Portugal and Spain. Then, Emilie out of nowhere asks us, "Are your passports ultra patriotic?" We replied, "No, they are just regular. Blue and plain. I guess there's an American eagle on the cover but that's it." Then, Elizabeth whips out her passport. The cover looked the same but we had no idea what lay behind that hard blue cover. Ellen took it in her hands compassionately, opening it with delicacy. As she fingered through the pages, she trembled. Nick leaned over and thought, "My, the world has changed." So, here it is. New passports.



This is just one of the many patriotic scenes that are now in passports. Mount Rushmore, could you lend us anymore national pride?



This shot is just above the
head shot. Whoa. Eagle.







If you can read that, it says, "This document contains sensitive electronics. For best performance, do not bend, perforate, or expose to extreme temperatures" What are these special electronics? A tracking device? Maybe we're just paranoid but Big Brother is definitely watching us.




Perhaps, one day we'll take our passports to space? I can't wait to get my stamp on the moon!






New Passports. What a discovery. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Sociology of (Italian) Graffiti

"on the metro"

Graffiti in Italy takes on another name and it's "artistic expression." Here, it's not looked down upon but often encouraged! Whoa. It's everywhere. Even on monuments. The content of the graffiti varies. I've seen just as many political messages and I see..."Ti Amo.." Suprisingly, I've seen a lot of Anti-gay and Anti-God graffiti. "God is Gay"
Sometimes, I'll walk down the street and see a penis as big as a person's head. As for politics, they spray paint communist signs a lot. I wasn't so shocked by that. Although Italy as been under a democratic-pro capitalist conservative (DC) party since 1948, their communist party as had a lot of support and almost beat out the DC when the Italians elected the type of government that would replace fascism. Anyway, here are some pictures of graffiti in my lovely neighborhood. Check it.



"fuck the gays" "communism"

Il Vaticano: Che maraviglioso!

Buon giorno. First, we'd like to apoligize for the exreme delay in updating the blog. We've been busy with school work. Now we are on Spring Break, but the last few weeks we have both had a lot of projects, papers, and then midterms in almost every class. So, we haven't been doing a whole lot around the city and what we have done, we've neglected to blog about because we've been so preoccupied. We have quite a bit to say now, though! Ellen and I heard that everyone was getting upset that we haven't added anything new... sorry to disappoint guys, I suppose everyone is living vicaiously though us. Anyway, to the good stuff.


On Friday Ellen and I met up with Emilie and Elizabeth (Ellen's sister and her friend who are visiting) to see the Vatican. Ellen and I had not actually been in the Museums or the Basilica yet because we figured we would wait to go with some company from home. So, we arrived at about 9am and already after 15 minutes of being open a line had formed from the entrance to the museum stretching along the Vatican walls about half way around the city. We waited anyway and the line moved quickly. The inside is enourmous. Each section is connected but there are really several museums focusing on different things. We visited the roman art, egyptian artifacts, the halls of paintings, the Sistine Chapel, and some other areas as well. The Sistine Chapel was gorgeous. Everyone stands in a large crowd and just stares in awe at the walls covered in art. You cannot take photos inside so sorry sports fans, no photos here.

We did see a lot of other great things, though. The paintings that stretched huge hallways and large rooms were equally amazing. The museums seemed to never end.

The egyptian museum was very cool and supposedly it is one of the best in the world. We saw a mummified woman with skin and nails still intact. One eye socekt was a larger hole than the other and the information suggested that her brain was probably pulled out through her eye.





The roman art section contained mostly statues. We had a lot of fun looking at these. Many of them had a leaf covering their private parts but a lot of these seemed to be added later. It didn't match at all. We took several fun pictures with the statues.









After walking around the museum for a little over three hours, and still having not seen everything, we decided we should get to the Basilica soon. We walked over to the Piazza di San Pietro, another photo op, and then got in line again to enter here. This line moved quickly too. Once we were in the doorway of the Basilica we decided to wait in another line to go up into the dome (cupola). This took a while and cost 4 euro but was worth every cent. We took the stairs scaling 300-some steps to the first viewpoint. Where the flat ceiling ends and the dome begins there is a ledge inside of the dome around the circumfrence. This is where we walked first. From here you have a better view of the artwork inside the dome and a great view of the Basilica from above. After looking around for a bit, we began to leave and noticed a small staircase. What's this? we wondered and not knowing began to climb up.



After one strait flight of stairs we reached a spiral staircase that was labeled entrata (entrance), and still unsure of what we were doing continued upward... and upward... and upward... and upward. We figured out while ascending that we were climbing up through the dome to it's peak! The stairs became increasingly narrow and switched between straitaways (with the walls curving inward toward you) and spiral steps leading higher with no handrailing. It was actually quite scary. Ellen started to get a little frightened. The climb is long and difficult too. There's no warning about it and it's a one way route. Once you start you have to go all the way up in order to come back down. It would be very difficult to just turn around because the amount of space is so small. You'd really have trouble squeezing two people by through some of the staircases. We eventually came to a spiral staircase with just a rope hanging down the middle and no center pole or rail along the outside. It was 6th grade gym class all over again. I never could climb that rope very well. Like an anxious gym teacher, the Pope started blowing a whistle at us from behind, hands firmly placed on his hips (just joking!). We all thought, why not trust our lives to an old rope dangling from who knows what and just grab ahold as we made our way up some tiny steps. It was fine, of course, and very much so worth it. We got to the top and found ourselves at the top of the main dome of St. Peter's! There is a balcony outside that has amazing views of the city. A rail lines the edges and you can look over to see everything. The floor you are walking on is slightly slanted, though, which is a bit scary. After circling around the walkway, we returned down, back into the dome to get to the bottom.



Then we walked around the Basilica, which was absolutely amazing. I'm having trouble putting to words what we saw. The pictures will do the work. We saw The Pieta as well, which is behind glass and unfortunately you can only view it from the front. It was still beautiful. Lastly we went into the tombs underneath St. Peter's where the Popes and St. Peter are burried. No pictures here either. We didn't have a problem with this rule when we encountered it; it would be disrespectful to be snapping pictures at some things. We finished by about 4:30. That was our Vatican Adventure. Afterwards we were walking to our next destination (Castel San Angelo/Mausoleum of Hadrian) when we came across the filming of a music video on the street. With the Vatican in the background a group of dancers and one male vocalist sang about Jesus' birthday. Keep your eye out for the video because they sang in English. It wasn't our typical birthday song, but the chorus was "Happy Birthday Jesus, Happy Birthday Jesus," over and over and it was stuck in our heads for a while. It was pretty funny to see. In the evening we took our guests to a few other spots that Ellen and I enjoy. I hope you like the pictures.