An Open Appology

I wish to apologize to everyone who read my blog. I have started going back through my blog. I am sorry that I subjected you all to poor grammar and spelling. Since I was trying to write these as quickly as possible I never edited them, but I had thought they turned out well until I went through them again. I'm so sorry! lol

Yay Italy!

Wow! So I am on a very long plane ride from Munich to Los Angeles while writing this. Sorry I couldn't write this any earlier but I only had a few minutes of internet access over the last 3 days. We drove north to Florence a few days ago. This trip was mostly for shopping. We got a tour of a leather working factory that had been famous for making leather boxes without stitches, nails, or glue since the 16th century. I have been in desperate need of a wallet ever since mine quite literally exploded a month or two ago. The city of Florence set the economy of mainland Europe since they began minting coins in gold for the first time since Charlemagne in the 8th century. In a lot of ways the city has remained a major place for trading (I.e. Shopping). However, it also is home for perhaps the most famous museum of art in the world, the Uffizi. We spent hours wandering around the confusing halls picking out the one's we would take home with us. But my favorite museum was the Dante museum. Other than the fact that I thought the Inferno is a brilliant work, and the museum gave me a new perspective on it, I have no explanation for why I thought it was cooler than the Uffizi. It just was. After swearing I wouldn't buy anything else, I ended up getting an awesome sweatshirt from the University of Florence!

The next day was filled mostly with driving to Milan. I am absolutely shocked at the size of Italy! I had severely underestimated it. It took five hours, and we had the most amazing bus driver, Nico Magnifico. We got there at about 1 pm and were allowed free time to go and explore the city. I have been complaining about my legs being in pain for most of the trip, but I think with all of the exercise has caused me to lose 7 pounds or so. But by this point in the trip I was starting to determine what I wanted to do by whether or not my legs could take me there and whether a lack of money was an issue –by this point I had exactly 5.20 Euro to my name. We saw the beautiful Cathedral of Milan, which has won out over St. Stephen's in Vienna. It is enormous and has enough spires to make it look like an ornate pincushion. The place is significant for a few reason: The edict of Milan issued in 313 which legalized the practice of Christianity, the baptism of St. Augustine the most influential Christian author of his era, and the establishment of Church supremacy over that of the State which was pushed by Ambrose the bishop of Milan. The city of Milan does not preserve any significant ancient sites, and is now known as one of the world capitols of fashion. As if tourists like us were not easy enough to spot, the difference was made even greater by how well the Milanese dressed. Men who were not conducting business were still dressed in suits. As would be expected, the prices of the shops here were outrageous, and since I didn't have any money left it was rather dull place. Next time I should remember to save a 100 euro or so.

The morning we left, we got to sleep in extra late. I needed that so bad! We got to the airport and tried to check in but we were told that our plane was still in Munich with “technical problems.” Not a very reassuring statement to be sure but it ended up only being about 30 minutes late. Right now I am sitting on an Airbus (ICK!!!) somewhere over between Greenland and the Ungava Bay at 36000 feet (that's a little under seven miles... INSANE!!). It is currently 59 degrees Fahrenheit below zero with zero chance of rain. Our ground-speed velocity is hanging at around 597 mph (once again... INSANE!!). Our seating situation really worked out well. My buddy Aaron and I got the center aisle of four seats all to ourselves! I really can't wait to get home and take a real shower.

Last Day in Rome

Well today was our last day in Rome. Sad day. We say a bone crypt today. Franciscan monks of this church decided to bury there brothers in a very odd way, by decorating the alters of there chapels with the bones of their brothers. They used tail bones and vertebrae to make floral designs and the like. It was both interesting and nauseating. Very few of the brothers had the honor of being buried whole and some full skeletons were incorporated into the decorations in standing positions wearing their original brown cloaks. It was like a creepy scene from an Indiana Jones film. The rest of our day was spent in free time. We went to a few more cool temples and a finished off gift buying for my friends. Tomorrow morning we leave for Florence. There is supposed to be a cool leather factory up there that we can tour, a huge change from the archaeological touring we have been doing. I am not sure if I will have internet access the rest of the trip, so I may have to post the remainder of the blog once I get home. We are leaving Italy on Thursday at 11 am and arrive in LA 7 hours later, figure that out! :)

Hunting Bears With Landmines

So... I'm really sorry about not keeping this blog up to date, but there was really nothing I could do. I didn't end up with enough time on Thursday and on Friday night we spent the night in Sorento. Thursday was the strangest day I think I have ever experienced. Our day began perfectly normal, besides being unusually cool. We traveled to Ostia, the ancient port city of Rome, saw some amazingly cool stuff like the ancient fast food joints. But once we had reached one of the temples at the far side of the site, it started to rain. It wasn't bad at first but eventually it got back enough for us to need to take cover under the one of the archways. Then it started to pour! Lightning struck about a thousand yards off with a loud KABOOM! Hail bounced off the ground, and we were 1.5 miles from the bus with nothing else to get us us there but our feet. So my friend and I ran... fast. By the time we reached the bus I was completely soaked, squishy shoes and all. Needless to say our beach trip was canceled. We got back to the hotel and I spent the better part of an hour blow-drying my shoes. Later that after dinner, one of my buddies wanted to show my an Irish pub he had found. We started out in a plaza and followed one of my other friends who took us in the wrong direction and thought we needed to cross the Tiber. I heard them say that it was close to the Colosseum so I led the group along what I thought would be the quickest route. We soon discovered that we had to walk all the way around the Paletine Hill and when we got to the Colosseum they told me that it was actually closer to the Victorio Emmanuel Monument. We arrived at the Pub about an hour later, it was about 300 meters from the plaza where we had started, and it was closed. I couldn't go back empty handed so I stopped off at a Gellateria, picked out a cone, and was charged 13 dollars. So yeah! But when you add everything up and grade on a very steep curve we actually did alright.

Friday we went to Pompeii. Really an awesome place with incredible artwork. I was so tired, and sore from the previous night that I didn't really do a whole lot there. We did see all the classic stuff there and I took tons of pictures. We also got our trip delayed by the Giro- Italia, a popular bike race. Supposedly Lance Armstrong was in the group, but I couldn't see him while I was filming. It was pretty cool. The group of about 60 riders flew around the corner at 40 MPH. I had no idea they went so fast.

Today we went to Herculaneum. I thought it was a much better place than Pompeii. There was less people, cooler stuff, and I wasn't dying of exhaustion. We also got to hike Mt. Vesuvius the infamous volcano. The volcano is still active and is predicted to erupt again. That may be a huge problem for the area of Naples around it, which is the most densely populated area in all of Europe. Why are people still living here?!

We have one final day in Rome tomorrow and then we start to work our way north on our way home!

Crawling through Catacombs

We went to the catacombs today! It was awesome. I had left my hat and sunglasses in the lobby of our hotel, so it was really nice to begin our day underground, and being there got us out of the heat and into the cold cold ground, YES!!! The tour guide brought up a really cool insight into early Christianity I had never known before. It is known that the early Christians held some of their meetings and ceremonies in these catacombs, but one of these was the celebration of death (stay with me). Apparently the families of a deceased person would remember the date of their loved one's death and celebrate it, not as the anniversary of their death but rather as their birthday and anniversary of their entrance into heaven.

We ended up in the Circus Maximus where we decided to have a little bit of fun and race around the track. We got some awesome pictures including one with me holding a stick with a huge caterpillar crawling along. In retrospect the race was a bad idea. I forgot to stretch and ended up with really tight muscles and sweating through my clothes. Fortunately it was a really nice day with a cool breeze blowing :).

After this we went back to the things we had skipped over in the forum for the sake of time, and because the tour-guide told us to. This time we actually got to go into the Curia, the Senate House. Marshall and Pam had been to Rome about four times each and neither of them had been there when the Curia was opened to the public. (Warning, nerd moment) Places like this where really famous people like Cicero and Augustus gave famous speeches and made important proclamations are really exciting for me.

All this time I had been without my hat and sunglasses, and since I am paranoid about being sunburned, I was loading up on sunscreen fully expecting it not to work and being unable to move tomorrow. But I survived!

Tonight is the European Soccer Finals between Manchester United and Barcelona here in Rome. We had seen a lot of crazy fans throughout the day chanting and singing team songs, and we were all planing on going out to be in the crowd of 20,000 fans standing outside of the stadium. We completely disregarded the danger of soccer riots, since 20,000 drunk soccer fans can be quite rowdy, but I think we were all sobered by the story the bus driver told us. Apparently a few years back an American was stabbed because he was mistaken for a Brit. I decided to watch the game on the TV in my hotel room. Hopefully there won't be too much going down tonight but was saw the Militare roll in earlier today just in case.

Arrivederci

YAY, Ara Pacis!

Before we left for Italy, we were all required to write a 7-10 page paper on one of the many sites in Rome. I had no idea which topic to pick, but I was reading a book and doing research for my senior project and found my answer, the Ara Pacis, the Altar of Peace. The altar was raised during the consulship of the guy I am researching (I will try not to nerd it up too much). It is incredible in every way and I don't have enough time to tell anything about it. All I will say is that I believe this monument to be the single best monument in Rome. Well worth it.

We also went to the Etruscan Museum. What an incredible civilization! The craftsmanship of everything they made is just incredible! Apparently they developed a technique for soldering by blowing a flame through a thin tube and using it as a torch.

It is so incredibly hot here! I thought I was getting a break from Fresno's death rays, but Italy adds the extra element of humidity to the mix. Enjoy Italy as you sweat through your clothes the very second you put them on.

I will say that after a few days in Italy, and two years of Latin, I can read almost anything in Italian with some help from a dictionary. It is really remarkable how close these two languages are. The hard part is speaking it in real time, and being laughed at by mean Italians.

I miss everyone, and I miss the feeling in my feet! But this trip is so much fun!

Vatican City

Today was the big Vatican day. We woke up bright and early and stood in line with everybody else in the world to get inside the museum. What an incredible place! We had to skip so much on the guided tour for time's sake that I need to go back to the beginning to fully appreciate all of the pieces in their Ancient collection. About 3/4 of the way through I was on people overload, with everyone cramming their way to the same place. It was somewhat relieving to have ditched the group and go off and do my own thing.

St. Peter's Basilica was way better than I remember it. Unlike most of the basilicas of the world which have every square inch decorated in paintings, St. Peter's was relatively plain. It may just be that it is so big that an attempt to decorate every part of it would be exhausting. We also got to go into the crypt where some of the popes are entombed, another morbid but awesome moment.

The highlight of the day has to be the purchase of our souvenir bottle openers. These were decorated with the head of the current pope in the form of a gold plated coin. We call them... "popeners" LOL :D.