Returning Home

I have been home now for about 2 weeks and I have never missed a period of my life more than I miss my time in Viterbo, Italy. In just that short amount of time on my own in another country, I have become more confident and comfortable.

The night before I left for the States, I got maybe two hours of sleep because I didn't want that time to pass. Instead, I stayed up talking to my friends and family until about 3 AM, having to wake up at 4:30 AM...it was rough! We took a very crowded bus to the Rome airport and boarded our plane for an 11 hour flight home. Once we landed in Chicago, we hustled our way through customs and security in order to make it onto our respective flights home. Once we were through security, I was headed for the G gates while everyone else in my group was headed to gates J-M; these were of course split up so I had to walk to G alone while everyone else could savor their last few minutes or hours together. I hugged everyone goodbye and practically ran to my Dayton-bound flight. When I made it to the gate, there was already a line to start boarding! I was so stressed. I landed and made my way to baggage claim to see my family for the first time in 6 weeks. They were very excited...I only kind of was! I was happy to see them, but I did not want to be home. We then went home and ate Chinese food (THANK GOD), I handed out their souvenirs, and then I went to bed, MY bed!!!

Reflecting back on this trip, I consider how stupid it was to be so nervous about not knowing anyone or the language. This was the best experience I have ever had! I would definitely encourage everyone to take the opportunity to study abroad if ever given the chance. It may cost more than you want to spend, but it WILL be worth it; I now have friends all over the country and stories to last a lifetime. I can't stop reminiscing. In fact, yesterday was my birthday, and in honor of my trip to Zinzinnati's sister city Munich, my family went to the Hofbrauhaus Cincinnati. More sausage and potatoes!

Travel Bucket List:
Italy
Germany
ALL OTHER COUNTRIES

Munich

Last weekend I went to Munich, Germany with Maggie and Holly; our first and only trip outside of Italy! It was amazing, to say the least. When we got there, we checked into our hostel - The Tent Munich -  which was a fantastic experience in itself. It is just an oversized circus tent with dozens of bunk beds scattered all around inside, a separate building for bathrooms, and an office. We met so many people from various countries here! After checking in here, we went to the English Gardens to watch the river surfers and just hang out for once. There were signs everywhere that told people not to jump into the river, yet all kinds of people were jumping in to ride the tide; Maggie and Holly decided to jump in and swear it was an amazing experience....though it was too cold for me! We had lunch in the biergarten there (sausage and potatoes) then The Tent had a cookout that night that we attended (more sausage and potatoes and cheese). We ate and sat around the bonfire there and met some awesome Irish guys, a British guy, and some Australian people. It was an amazing experience.

The next day, we went to the concentration camp in Dachau, which I feel like I should not even try to describe here. It was amazing. If you ever consider going, please spring for the audio tour! I cried like a baby for 3 solid hours. Afterward, Maggie and I decided to go to a pub and cheer ourselves up with some meat and potatoes.

We also visited Nymphenburg Palace and walked around the city center. Unfortunately, we waited until Sunday to buy our souvenirs and everything was closed! We bought some things in the Hofbrauhaus gift shop and in the train station. And by "some things" I of course mean steins! Because what is a trip to Germany without purchasing your own stein?

It was an amazing weekend and a great break from the heat.

I am going to miss Europe so badly. I leave for the States in just a few hours and cannot imagine how awful parting this country, these people, and this food will be. Oh well, I'll update once I'm back...

Catching Up

Since my last post, I have seen many new cities and towns, including the lake town Bolsena, Rome, Cortona, Caprarola, etc. All the town have been beautiful and so interesting to see. 

One of my favorite days of this entire trip was when we went to the lake at Bolsena. We had tried to go another day but watched the bus pull away as we were buying our tickets, so when we finally had our chance to go, we really enjoyed every minute. We took about a 30 minute bus and then a 10 minute walk to the actual lake, which is not bad at all. Maggie had gotten very, very badly sunburnt the day before so we found a spot with shade, applied our sunscreen, braced ourselves, and ran across the hot sand to the lake. Wow, was that beautiful! The water felt amazing and it was a much needed break from the heat and humidity. After a few hours we decided it was time to head back. As we were packing up our things, thunder started up so we hurried up packing up and walked into town trying to beat the rain. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped dramatically. It felt so amazing! The whole time we have been in Italy it has been about 90-100 degrees every day due to some sort of heat wave coming from Africa; this storm was such a sweet relief! We went back to Bolsena later in the week for the Santa Cristina festival where people from the city reenact the miracles performed by Santa Cristina. It was super cool and crowded! Here are some photos from that day:

Rome was amazing. There honestly isn't much to say about Rome that Andy Williams or Lizzie McGuire can't tell you, but I can try! We saw the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain (under construction, of course!), and the Vatican. They were all amazing, even the construction on the Trevi Fountain. When we went into the Sistine Chapel, Maggie looked over at me and asked, "Traci, are you okay?" When I entered, I instantly felt my lungs shrink, my tear-ducts fill up, and my heart racing. It was so amazing to be able to see such a beautiful and famous set of paintings. We also watched a man be escorted out for taking photos inside the chapel, which you cannot do. So let that be a lesson for you!

I also went to Florence with Holly, mostly to see the art scene there: David and Venus. When we got there, we immediately went to Accademia to wait in line to see David. We waited only about 2-2.5 hours, which was significantly less than we expected! David was so worth the wait too. He was amazing. The next day we went to Uffizi to see the Birth of Venus. That painting is so cool; her hair glows like there is a light behind it and her posture is beyond possibility. After both of these endeavors, Holly and I went to an organic gelato shop and ate some of the best gelato we have had in our few weeks here (and we eat gelato everyday, so we are essentially gelato masters). We also had the experience of walking through the markets of Florence, which I definitely recommend NOT doing...it was intimidating because everyone is very pushy and forceful. There are no boundaries in the Florence markets. Beware! But overall, Florence was absolutely gorgeous and different from any Italian city we had seen so far. Our hostel was a camping hostel that overlooked the city of Florence, so it was beautiful at nighttime. The next day we took an hour long train to Pisa, naturally! Here are some photos:

Cortona was beautiful and I would love to go back some day. Caprarola holds a gorgeous palace that overlooks the entire city from its balcony. And so many other cities have many other beautiful things! My experience in Italy has been so gorgeous overall; I can't think about how disappointing Cincinnati will look after this, and Cincinnati is gorgeous itself! Only time will tell...

Adventuring Outside of Viterbo

A lot of updates coming up…

Let's start by telling you about my first week or so of classes:

I'm taking Italian Renaissance Arts where we discuss art, literature, and so on. We've taken a couple field trips to museums, which are always interesting, and our professor knows just about everything there is to know about the Renaissance.

I am also taking Travel Photography, where we learn how to best convey why the viewer should visit a certain place. Our first assignment was to take photos on one of our field trips with 2 categories in mind; my categories were Architecture and Faithful, since our field trip was to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis. This class is interesting and I'm learning a lot about my camera so far. 

Now I'll tell you about our field trip to Assisi and Perugia:

We arrived in Assisi in the morning by bus and were given some free time to get breakfast or a drink (I got a healthy snack: water and cannoli). Then we met in one of the piazzas to get a guided tour of the town. After our tour, we were encouraged to get some interesting photos for our class, eat lunch, and buy souvenirs, which we did of course. When we went back to the established meeting place, we were transported to Perugia where a jazz festival was being held. A group of us could not go on the guided tour because we had to catch our train to Venice and there were timing issues. Instead we walked around the town for a bit and had the chance to hear some of the jazz festival, which sounded awesome and we all wish we could have stayed there longer. But we had to get to Venice!

Our train to Venice was pretty smooth, despite having two transfers to make. We got to Venice late and found a van taxi that could take us all to our camping hostel (Camping Jolly!); once we got there, we were greeted by a huge poolside party with music, drinks, and a huge crowd of people. Instead of joining in the fun, we all went straight to bed because we had had a very long day. We got to our cabin and it was awesome! Two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Huge showers (very small compared to American showers, but huge here).

The next day we went in to the city to see St. Mark's (San Marco) basilica, which had a huge line and we decided not to go in. We saw the Rialto bridge as well. We mostly just walked around and explored the city, which I think is the best way to experience a city and its culture. After our necessary gondola ride, we ended the day by watching the sunset from a park far from the city. The next day we started by visiting the Guggenheim museum, which houses Picassos, Kandinskys, and Dalis. I was in awe. Then we continued our day the same way we had the previous day: wandering around and getting lost.

We had to catch a midnight train back to Viterbo, so we just went straight to the station to wait for the train. There were some complications on the train and we ended up arriving a little later than expected, but we made it! Venice was beautiful and probably my favorite city I have visited so far. 

Just a couple day later, we went on our first Rome adventure! We had a tour of the Forum/ruins, the Musei Capitolini, and the Colosseum. It was amazing and I cannot wait to go back for a whole weekend. 

Now for the fun part: here are some pictures!

Getting Here

I'm finally in Italy!

I left Cincinnati to head to the Dayton airport to catch my flight to Chicago then straight to Rome. There were some delay issues, but nothing that couldn't be sorted out with ease! Upon arrival, we were given a small orientation where we met our USAC team leaders and had a city tour of Viterbo. I'm so excited about getting to know this town. The city is set inside walls and is from Medieval times. 

It is gorgeous; my apartment is in an old palace with a bright blue front door. 

This is not the side with the bright blue door, obviously

After we saw our apartments and met the town, we left for 5 days in the south of Italy, staying in Sorrento. 

The first day we went to Naples (Napoli) and explored the city and its underground water systems and theatres. We also visited the amazing Archeological Museum. It seemed like a really great city, but I wish we would have had more time to explore it in depth. We had pizza, a Napoli classic, which was amazing and a nice welcome to the city. Walking through the streets filled with vendors reminded me a bit of New York City and New Orleans combined, but there were many more languages to hear and better smelling food.

Next up was the most interesting day so far, perhaps: Pompeii! We walked through the ruins for a few hours and saw a couple of the plaster cast bodies. I really regret not seeing the traveling Pompeii exhibit now! I learned so much on our tour of the ruins from one of the USAC professors. For example, Pompeii was more affected by the ashes of the eruption than the lava itself. Also during the time of Pompeii, rather than reading tarot cards or palms, people would study the flight of birds or the innards of dead animals for fortune and knowledge. Salt was a form of wealth and power during this time as well, causing wars and conflicts. I could go on like this for a while...

The next day was a free day for us and we had several options to choose from for our day trip; my group chose Capri! We had to take a ferry to the island and when we arrived we were approached by someone asking if we wanted to rent a private boat to take us around the island. We took them up on this offer and it was the best decision thus far! Our driver took us around the island, including to the Blue Grotto, a major attraction on Capri. He played music for us and told us facts about the island, and made the day super fun. Then he let us off at a beach to swim, which was interesting because the beach was all rocks instead of sand. Painful, but so worth it. A great day.

Day four was on the Amalfi coast. An interesting fact we learned about Amalfi is that they make their own paper! I bought some local paper and it feels amazingly beautiful. We visited a beautiful duomo (cathedral) here named for St. Andrew. There was an amazing courtyard area called Chiostro del Paradiso (cloister of paradise). After our tour here, we were on our own, so we went to the beach again. The beach was SO HOT because the rocks had been soaking in the sun's heat all day, but once we reached the water we were in heaven! After some gelato here, we made our way back to Sorrento for the night.

On our way back to Viterbo, we stopped in at Caserta's palace. This thing was huge and gorgeous! It was built in 1751/2 and took 22 years to complete. There were so many rooms to see and we only visited a small corner of them. There were no hallways included in architecture at this time, so everything was very much walking through rooms to get to another room, requiring a very strategic flow. I loved the super gorgeous ceilings and paintings throughout this palace! After lunch, we were free to roam the 3+ km long park in the back of the building, where the high-class ranked people of the town would gather. Awesome day.

Once we came back to Viterbo, we have just been exploring the town to get to know our home for the next 5 weeks. Tomorrow is our school orientation and first day of classes! I am very interested to see how everything goes! I'll keep you posted!