Roma and Thanksgiving

Well, I know I've been slacking on this but I have a good excuse. I have been really busy at work, what with finals and the replacement of all the computers in the library. This has led to a lot of problems with the printer (which they totally installed wrong on all 12 computers) as well as setting up all of the internet settings and downloading stuff for the kids not to mention wiping all the old computers, etc. We also have a new program that tracks all of the users. Figuring that out has been interesting. The IT guys didn't speak English so everything was translated to me by someone else who doesn't really know very much about computers so I'm still not sure that I have all the info. Still working out the kinks with all of that and also working a lot as I have extended the hours for finals week.

I should give you all a recap of Roma. We left town early on Friday Nov 19th and got to Roma about 3 1/2 hours later. Along the way we stopped at an Italian version of a rest stop, complete with super store peddling tuscan specialty products, pizza, and cafe. It is, by far, the largest store I have been in the past 3 months. It felt totally American, which by now is alien but is also kinda nice to revisit.

Most of the students here are leaving Italy at the end of the semester. Some are moving on to other FSU international campus (London or Valencia, Spain) but most are headed home. The other day, Jenny and I were standing on a street corner here in Firenze, talking about her reintroduction to American food. She's nervous about returning to the world of processed food and is worried that it will make her sick for the first few weeks. She said she's going to try not to eat processed food as much as possible but I told her that it will be really difficult to keep up. Then I said, "Even their Coca-Cola is worse for you than ours" meaning that American coke is far worse than Italian coke products -- as if now I am an Italian rather than an American. Of course, I know that is far from true but the slip surprised me.

Anyway, Roma. Made it into town and right away the vastness of Rome compared to Firenze strikes you. The bus swung around a couple of corners and there was Trajan's Column. Trajan's. Freakin'. Column. Beyond that, the Colosseum. I have visited the full size copy in the V&A Museum in London twice and have been dying to see the original. Who doesn't dream of ROMA?! We swung around another corner and caught sight of bits of the Roman Forum. I've died and gone to heaven.

We stopped at the hotel. I got a cute little single complete with balcony! The balcony only overlooked an alley but it was nice to have anyway. The room came stocked with a toiletry kit including a razor, soap, shampoo, etc, which promptly went into my backpack along with 2 rolls of toilet paper. Yes, I am now that guy that steals toilet paper from hotels. A bunch of us found a salad place and I ate a giant salad that was awesome. Then the group met up to head to the Colosseum and Forum by way of Trajan's Column. God. I guess I hadn't prepared myself to be so struck by these things. We wandered around the Colosseum for a while with a professor who brought along a little book like the one Kristen gave me with the transparency reconstructions of all the sites of Roma! Kristen you were there with me that day! Here I was standing in the Colosseum -- still can't believe it. I'm still waiting for my new camera so no pics. I had everyone else take a bunch of me but haven't gotten them yet.

From there we walked to the Roman Forum which was amazing. The layers and layers of history are positively astounding and interesting. There was one church built inside the ruins of an old temple built atop the foundation of a pagan ruin. Crazy. I have been reading a lot of English literature about British or Germans traveling in Italy and especially Rome during the 18th century. Many of the books included engravings and it is really interesting to compare the present-day excavation and reconstruction to these old images. We lucked out and the rain cleared for the afternoon while we were walking around. We stopped on a little landing above the Forum where a little fountain bubbled water. I stuck my hand in a took a drink -- the water was super cold and tasted so good! There is a short story by Edith Wharton called Roman Fever -- couldn't help but think of it here -- great story.

From there, we walked to the cat sanctuary which is really a city blocks worth of Roman ruins that they let stray cats run around in. There were only about 10 cats around when we walked by, but it was cool to see them sitting on the broken fragments of columns, etc. Next, we walked to the Pantheon and visited Bernini's Elephant statue that is crowned with an ancient Egyptian obelisk. It is so interesting to see these things all over Roma, treasures stolen form Egypt during antiquity, still standing now. Sue (the Program Director) introduced us to a coffee shop in the piazza that sells granita di caffe laced with whipped cream -- so good.

We had a little break before dinner and a few of the girls and I skulked around the narrow streets around our hotel. Needless to say, in light of the mugging, I am still wary of Italy by night. A man stopped us and asked us in broken English if we could help locate the address he was looking for. I immediately said no and pointed him to a news stand a few feet away. Normally I would have hauled out my map and attempted to help him but I really have no tolerance for men I don't know anymore -- which is sad but I feel as if it's necessary. He barely approached the news stand then a few minutes later we saw him sitting on a bench a few feet away. There was something strange about it but nothing ever came of it. I'm not sure why I'm mentioning it now.

We had a group meal at a little restaurant, clad in ivy, a short walk from the hotel. We were treated to a pasta course followed by salad, fritti misti (assorted fried items) and veal saltimbocca alla Romana -- which apparently means "jumps in the mouth roman style" named so because it is so delicious. It's a thinly pounded veal steak topped with prosciutto in a butter, Marsala, and sage sauce. I liked it but the fritti misti was probably the crowning glory of that meal. The platter had mozzarella, whole fresh artichoke hearts, potato dumplings, little balls of rice mixed with marinara (or meat sauce - not sure) and mozzarella, zucchini strings, and zucchini flowers stuffed with cheese and anchovies -- all fried to golden perfection. I accidentally took a bite of zucchini flower not knowing it had anchovies in it until too late. Thankfully, I swallowed it whole and chugged enough wine to get rid of the taste. Fish crisis averted. To finish we had berry tiramisu which was ok. All and all another great group meal.

Following dinner, we walked the short distance to the The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or "Fountain of the Four Rivers" and Trevi Fountain. I threw in my three coins -- supposedly for love, marriage, and to ensure return to Rome. Not really sure about the marriage part but the other two sound good to me. Everything was beautiful at night and we stayed at Trevi for a while. Unfortunately, the usual hustlers that bother everyone with in sight around major tourists areas in Italy were out in full force, offering to take pictures or sell roses, trinkets, etc. The rose guys are the most annoying. They hand you a rose and even if you refuse it they keep insisting until you take it just to get them away from you. Then they wait until you start walking away then block your way and get way too close to you demanding money. They especially do this to children thinking that the child will throw a fit when their parent try to take the rose away from them insuring that the parent will then in turn just pay for the rose to shut everyone up. One of the guys kept bothering this couple with two small children and Kate and I stood watching the whole interaction shaking our heads. The couple eventually got the roses away from the children and gave them back to the man after a 5 minute battle during which the guy noticed us shaking our head at the annoyance. Then the rose guy came over to us and told us that we were interfering in his business (how we can do that from a distance of 20 feet is news to me). Then he made a little lunging gesture and offered to fight Kate! It was totally ridiculous and annoying. The fountain would have been so much nicer if these guys would have just left everyone alone instead of making everyone on edge, clutching their purses, etc. Oh well, it was still nice.

The next morning, we headed out the Vatican. I brought my rain boots with me but I knew that I would be inside all day, so I figured as long as I can get into the museum before the rain starts I should be fine. Well, just as the bus containing said rain boots pulled away from the curb it started pouring. Then we walked around the corner to find the line which we then stood in for two hours. In the rain. Without rain boots. It was pretty cold but we all made an umbrella roof and huddled together and it ended up being fun. We finally got into the Vatican Museum to find that it was absolutely PACKED to the hilt. I can't even imagine how it must be during the tourist season. We joined the one way flow of traffic and saw all the sculptures, map room, etc and ended our tour in the Sistine Chapel! It was pretty incredible. Smaller than I had pictured but I had attended an art history lecture a few days before about the chapel which made the experience even better. Toward the back of the chapel we tried to take the exit leading to St. Peter's Basilica only to find it blocked. Apparently, a bunch of cardinals were being sworn in or crowned or whatever (sorry Grammie but I don't know these things) in the piazza. This also meant that the basilica itself was closed! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo! I wanted to see the Pieta! Oh well, I am going to Roma again in January and again this summer so I will see it eventually. The rain persisted but we headed out to get pizza. We had about 2 hrs to kill before the were supposed to meet the group to head home. We shopped around a little bit trying to kill time and get out of the cold and rain (which by this point was a complete and utter deluge) but eventually we walked back to the Piazza and hung out under the loggia for the remainder of the time. About 2 minutes before we were scheduled to meet the group, the rain completely stopped and the sun came out -- go figure. We were all soaked but climbed onto the warm bus and changed clothes. I finally got to put on my rain boots -- but it didn't rain for the rest of the day.

Back on the bus, we headed to the Roman Catacombs just outside the old walls of the city. At about 60 feet underground we snaked through tunnels that at one time contained the bodies of ancient Romans. These people were so small! A few of the tombs still had their engraved grave markers and other had small frescoes. It was pretty cool but to be honest I got a little freaked out being in there. I was extremely dark and there were about a thousand different ways to get lost and die a slow death.

It was a great trip! Excited to back again in January and see some of the things I missed.

Ok, on to Thanksgiving. The Study Center set up a group meal at the nearby Palazzo Borghese, an absolutely stunning baroque old palace. I had to sit at the grown-up's table with the rest of the faculty members which was totally boring. By now everyone has heard how I got mugged and I had to answer a bunch of questions about it for the women and all the men just apologized to me repeatedly on behalf of their sex. After describing the incident (for about the millionth time) the general consensus at the table is that it definitely could not have been an Italian man because an Italian man would never treat a woman like that -- then they all commenced to speak about it in Italian - most of which I didn't catch. For the rest of the meal, they all tried for a while to speak in English to be polite because I was sitting there but after a while they gave up entirely which I didn't really mind. It's fun for me to try to figure out what they are saying.

As for the meal, which I'm sure you are dying to hear about, we had salad (with canned corn on it, of course), farro soup (a barley-ish grain), turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce (canned), mashed potatoes, peas, and pie. The turkey and soup were very good but the stuffing was borderline terrible. They put basil in the gravy as decoration or something and it made everything taste like pizza. It was by far the worst food I have had in Italy, but I think that is only because they were trying to imitate something that they don't quite understand - the protein, butter, and carbohydrate-laden delicious mess that is American food. Don't get me wrong, the food was certainly edible but any American from New York to LA would tell you it just didn't taste right. Plus they were stingy with the gravy which is arguably the most important part of Thanksgiving. The pumpkin pie, however, was a dream come true.

The rest of the weekend was devoted to movie watching, reading and baking cookies with some of the girls at my house. It was fun. I introduced them to the 90's classic movie called "Singles". I'm not sure any of them actually understood any of the pop culture references that were made in the movie but they all recognized how fashion has come full circle. It was pretty funny. Oh and on Sunday I went out for pizza and ran into someone I know from Orlando who now lives in New York. The world is so tiny.

Most of the students are gearing up to head home. I'm really going to miss a few of them. I can't believe how quickly this semester has flown by! Mom and Dad are flying in on the last day of the semester which I am super looking forward to! This weekend maybe heading to Arezzo and Cortona weather permitting. My last weekend with some of my girls. At this point, I am hoping beyond hope that I don't cry at the farewell dinner next week. So sappy. Luckily, I'll have Mom and Dad here to make up for it.

Boring

So this weekend.... it rained and I worked and stayed inside. I am waiting for my parents to bring my new camera in December, so no new pics. The scrapes on my knees suck. Every time I shower they get juicy. Currently, they are welded to the inside of my leggings and I am looking forward to having to rip them off later which will be awesome. Going to Rome this weekend so hopefully I will have something to report next week. Missing America and friends and family, despite all the wonderful people I have with me here. Trying to get Poland trip together. Miss and love everyone at home!

San Gimignano

This weekend visited San Gimignano with Kate. We took the train but got to the station a little late. I bought my ticket with only two minutes to spare to make it to the platform so we started running. That's right readers: I, Alexis Weimer, ran for two whole minutes! And I didn't die! Right before we got on, Kate remembered that I hadn't validated my ticket but seeing as we were so late and that they often don't check our tickets on the train, we just kept running. Anyway, we jumped on the train at the very last second and it started to move as soon as we got on. We got into our seats and talked for about 10 minutes before the conductor showed up and asked for our tickets. I presented mine thinking he would barely look at it, punch a hole in it and move on like usual. Um, I was wrong. He freaked out and started yelling at me because the ticket wasn't validated. I lied and told him that I had put it into the yellow machine (the validation stamp machine) and that nothing must have happened or that I didn't put the ticket in far enough (I can't even tell you how many times that's happened). So he just looks at me, lets out a little sarcastic laugh, and yells "40 euro!". Of course, I protested "are you serious? I have a ticket...blah blah blah" but he held his ground. So long story short, Kate and I had derailed our plans for Bologna because the train tickets would have cost about 40 euro but now because of the fine I ended up paying 50 euro to get to San Gimignano. I will NEVER forget to validate my ticket again.

Also, 4 other Americans sitting near us also forgot to validate their tickets and he charged them as well... but he only charged them 40 euro all together whereas he charged me 40 euro just for me. I can't even talk about it. I am still so pissed. The guy was a jerk. Clearly, I am a tourist and he should have let me go with a warning.

Anyway, so San Gimignano is called the "medieval Manhattan"

I started this post yesterday and sorry but I don't feel like finishing it. A few hours after I started this, I was mugged right in front of the Uffizzi at about midnight. I was walking home alone after going to the opera with the students. I'm not trying to be dramatic by posting this here but I would rather just say this once and get it over with.

The guy approached me and reached for my bag and I fought with him for some length of time. I don't know how long it was but it was probably only a about a minute or something. It ended with him knocking me to the ground, grabbing me by the hair and slamming his palm against my forehead to hit my head on the ground. Then I let go of the purse. I got up and started chasing him and screaming, "police, help, fire" and a couple of cars stopped and I saw the guy wrestling with someone else then break away and run again. I ran towards it and then I saw another guy walking toward me with my wallet. I went into attack mode and rushed him to get it out of his hand. The guy smiled and handed it to me. He had been the person I saw wrestling with the thief and somehow while wrestling, my purse dumped out and the good guy managed to get my wallet and my ipod. I just kept hugging him and saying thank you -- he only spoke Italian. I didn't even get his name but he totally saved me. All of my cash/credit cards/ID were still inside the wallet. My ipod doesn't even have a scratch. Everything else is gone including my sunglasses, camera, expensive favorite purse, and all of my makeup among other random things like chapstick ALL of my work keys and favorite bracelets.

Curiously, about 10 minutes before I was mugged I found a 20 euro bill on the ground. I was thrilled, thinking it was good karma after the 40 euro train violation. I actually said "thanks Florence, I love you!" out loud to myself then took my house keys out of my purse and put them in my pocket. Somehow, even though I was rolling around on the ground and getting punched in the face by a stranger I managed to hold on to that 20 euro bill and keep my keys in my pocket.

Just after getting my wallet and ipod from the good guy, I asked someone standing outside the Hotel Bernini (the place that I suggested my parents stay when they come to visit just yesterday) if he saw which way the guy went. Another man on a moped stopped and offered to look around for him. The guy at the Bernini turned out to be British (thank god - I needed to speak English). He was staying at the hotel and recommended that I go inside and call the police. He stayed with me, trying to get me to stop shaking for the next 20 minutes. Thank you universe for these friendly bystanders. The hotel refused to let me use the phone but did call me a cab. Luckily, I hadn't lost my house keys in the struggle so I took the cab to my house and went upstairs to call Sue (the Director of the study center). It wasn't until she answered the phone that I finally started sobbing. We talked for a while. I wanted to call my parents but I knew I would be hysterical and would just scare them. By this time it was after 1:00 am. So I spent a sleepless night on the couch replaying what happened and what I would have done differently until 8am.

Today I have some major bruises and busted knees. I am ok. I'm just scared. I'm just afraid that I'm going to be afraid to walk around by myself now. I feel like Florence has betrayed me and I don't trust her anymore. I have to go to the police station to file a report now.

Random Florence Photo

Was out for a walk last week and stopped to eat my gelato on the steps of the Duomo where I came across this lovely sunset! I would like to take a moment to thank my gelato addiction for making my life better and more full as usual.

Thank you gelato!

Orvieto

This week was considerably less crazy than the last month. Everyone had a five day weekend but me, so most everyone traveled leaving me alone to my own devices.

Did make it to the Bargello and Pitti Palace last Tuesday for the free event. Both were wonderful and nearly empty which was fabulous. The Caravaggio exhibit at the palace was awesome and the household items exhibit at the Bargello was so interesting. Combined they are better the Uffizzi.

Thursday night, about 7 or 8 of us decided to go to aperitivo and then out on the town. As usual, aperitivo was a stunning array of awesomeness. I had a margarita that was borderline terrible but terrifically alcoholic and ate a crazy amount of appetizers. Appetizers are one of my favorite food groups, so aperitivo and I get along very nicely. We were there for about 2 hours stuffing our faces with meatballs, mini calzones, focaccia sandwiches, pasta dishes, caprese, olives, and some kind of mashed potato casserole and we got a huge cocktail for only 10 euro. We went to Goldenview again which has a lovely view of the Arno and Ponte Vecchio.

From there, Kate and I went to Via Romana (the student housing) to freshen up and then met everyone at the Lion's Fountain near school. It's an Irish pub that I've mentioned before and the only reason I continue to go there is because they give us unbelievable drink specials. Later on we decided to leave and try a couple of bars by my house only to find them completely empty and expensive, so back to Lion's. Here's Joey doing some very impressive Karaoke. Notice the Halloween decorations, which are not uncommon around Firenze. All of the dollar stores are full of cheap costumes and decorations which surprised me. I couldn't figure out how the kids would actually trick or treat considering that all the apartment buildings are guarded by locked doors. Turns out the little darlings simply run from building to building mashing on ALL the buzzers until some poor soul comes down at least 2 flights of stairs to give them candy -- which, I gather, doesn't actually happen that often. They also hit every open business they can find. I think the restaurant I was in gave out cookies or biscotti or something in lieu of candy.

It is decidedly Fall here and I've turned on the heat in my apartment. If we had any trees in Firenze there would be Fall leaves -- I have had the pleasure of seeing them in other places. The rainy season is also officially upon us. It rained most of this weekend which kept me indoors probably more so than the past two months combined.

Luckily, we had a lovely day on Saturday. Andrea and I headed to Orvieto to look around. It is in Umbria, the green heart of Italy and it was, in fact, very green compared to Tuscany and very beautiful. We got on the train around 9am and ended up in Orvieto around noon. For 15 euro we purchased a combined student pass to all of the major sites. We started in the Orvieto Underground. The city sits atop a butte of compressed volcanic ash, not to be confused with volcanic rock. The compressed ash is easy to excavate and the city's inhabitants have been digging tunnels, water shifts, cellars, and escape routes for thousands of years. Orvieto has been inhabited on and off since the Etruscan Era -- the local archeology museum houses many pots, a few murals, and even some armor.
The first underground room we entered acted as an olive oil mill (see mill stone to the left of the first picture) for a couple hundred years, then a wine cellar. The room itself was originally dug out by the Etruscans as a place of worship, then repurposed as needed over the centuries. The other picture shows a room with a bunch of little square holes in the wall. These rooms were plentiful and used to house and farm pigeons. The young birds were a delicacy and apparently pigeon farmers made a tidy profit. The stairs led to the farmers home on top of the butte. A small tunnel opened to the valley below so the pigeons could gather food for their chicks.

It was really interesting and it also gave us some great views of the valley and an ancient monastery-turned-hotel at the bottom of the valley. Since the volcanic ash is so easy to dig into, you can also imagine how unstable it is. Scholars believe that the butte has already lost over 1/3 of its original area. In many places the underground tunnels have caved in, damaging homes above. All around the outside of the butte you can see where layers of the butte have fallen away into the valley exposing old caverns. Apparently, there was also some mining that occured in the 17th century (the ash was used to make concrete) which also compromised the stability of the town above.

From there we explored Orvieto's Duomo, which was truly stunning. The mosaic and marble work outside are exquisite. The back and sites of the church are pleasantly striped, which I can't seem to get enough of. Inside was an interesting chapel housing reliquaries (whole skull!!), another chapel has very interesting frescoes -- the colors are extremely brilliant and the figures are more cartoonish. They seemed very contemporary but were actually painted in the 15th century. One scene shows the horrors of hell, complete with demon carrying the whore of the apocalypse on his back. Whoa.

We stopped for lunch at lovely bistro. There was no sign, it was tucked back on a little street, and it was packed with Italians, so we figured we picked a good place. Andrea had gnocchi with spinach and truffles and I had potato and taleggio ravioli with a zucchini sauce that I could not figure out. It was super good but I have no idea what I was actually eating. The sauce tasted buttery but was also creamy but clearly did not have cream in it. Seemed like the texture of grated onion but it wasn't oniony. I don't know. It was awesome.

We visited the three museums in town and also climbed to the top of the clock tower (240 steps!!). My thighs were burning but I made it and it was well worth the view. 365 degrees of beautiful countryside complete with rolling hills, vineyards, olive groves, and distant mountain views. It was a really beautiful day and we were up there all by ourselves! On the way down the stairs we passed a black lab on his way up with his owners. Italy is ridiculously dog friendly. I've seen them in grocery stores, in bars, wandering around by themselves in shoe stores (don't all dogs instinctually chew shoes?) and now at historical monuments. Piazzas are dog playgrounds. Bring Conifer when you visit, Kristen.

All in all a lovely day. We got back to Firenze around 9. The next morning, I awoke to soaking rain and stayed inside all day. Every time I tried to leave it was absolutely pouring. Around 7, I met Andrea for dinner (still raining). I donned my new rain boots and slogged my way about a mile to the restaurant. The boots are heavy and acted like ankle weights but after a long day laying down I really wanted the exercise. I had amazing meatloaf with a balsamic vinegar/onion reduction and roasted potatoes. Dude. It was so good.

After dinner, we walked around for a while hoping to see some Halloween revelers. I think we were out around 9 and I think we were in between the trick or treaters and the party set because no one was out. We walked the circuit between the Duomo and the Piazza Signoria twice and didn't see much going on -- except for the carabinieri chasing off the guys selling designer knock off bags near Piazza Repubblica per usual.

Despite the rain, it was a great weekend. A big change from all the running around I have been doing. It's good to take a break and slow down a little but really it's also boring. I'm totally used to traveling all the time now and I don't want to stop! Trying now to organize trips for the Winter Break. If anyone is planning on visiting, let me know soon so I'll stay in town! Otherwise, trying to get together trips to Seville, Prague, Amsterdam, and Warsaw. Bologna this weekend!