Day 85 May 20th 2009 Rome, Italy

Early morning wake up call to jump on the shuttle to the airport. Cara, mom and I all met Andrew as he walked through the arrivals gate then I said goodbye to the family and jumped a train back to the Holiday Inn to hang for awhile before Katie headed off to Fiumicino and back to United States of D’Americas for reinstating to regular existence. For yours truly, I would stay in the fantasy world burning funds and eating montecarlo pizzas for a bit while longer. I showed Andrew the famous eatery on little via Savelli lane and he agreed on the time-tested fact that montecarlo is bomb food for piddles prices. Dinner adjourned we met up with Peter “Goofy Pete” Edwards who so happened to be in Rome for Penn State’s architecture program and was living over piazza Navona. We wandered over to Abbey Theatre for a round of Irish luck or two. Then we parted ways with Mr. Goof and Andrew and I made our way back to the Chianti hostel near Termini to take on some bunk-bed sleepin’.

Day 79 May 14th 2009 Rome, Italy

Mama and Cara arrived this morning at Fiumicino airport and I was there to grab them and bring them back into Rome! After dropping the luggage at the hotel I took them for a cappuccino before scurrying over to the Vatican because we had made a reservation to go on the Scavi underground tour. This is a very cool tour if you ever get the chance. The Vatican only allows about 250 people to take the tour every day because the history contained under St. Peter’s Basilica is just too priceless to open up to all public. A full 2000 years of history is layered under the giant basilica and at the end of the tour you are standing 8 feet away from the purported bones of St. Peter. You have to send an email to the scavi office in the vatican to make the reservation. After the tour Mom and Cara were very tired so I dropped them off at the Mercure hotel near the Colosseum and headed over to my school, Lorenzo de’Medici for an end of school party. We taught our school administrators how to play American-style flip cup and opened up quite a few bottles of bubbly. I returned to the hotel and picked up a refreshed family to cruise down Via del Corso and show them the super-shopping street. Via del Corso and the perpendicular Via dei Condotti are the biggest name shopping streets in Rome, containing everything from giant department stores to small vendors to Dior, Versace and Armani stores. Didn’t buy anything but we had to exchange some American dollars to euros so we walked over to the American Express office to complete the exchange. Damn weak dollar right now! We jumped in a cab after to head out to the Ciampino airport to pick up Katie who was arriving from Dublin after touring the country with her mom. The end of the year LDM school dinner was that night so we took a taxi again from the Ciampino airport towards the city. Here’s where things got a little interesting and stressful. The cab driver did not exactly know the address I gave her for the restaurant we were going to at first, so she typed it into her GPS. But the GPS didn’t have the exact address I had either so we were kind of driving on a prayer. Well the prayer didn’t help too much because we got very lost looking for this place. To compound the problem, I called Davide, the administrator of our school to get the name of the restaurant because the address wasn’t working. But all he could say was the restaurant was called ristorante! That’s Italian for restaurant! So without the name and without the exact address working we somehow after 20 minutes found the place. Now here it gets even better. The place we were eating was a traditional Roman restaurant, meaning they only serve what Romans ate 2000 years ago. To make a long story short Katie, after telling the chef she could not eat wheat, was served a boiled squid and some sort of mashed polenta. You, reader, can imagine the results. I did end up eating a tentacle which tasted sort of fishy and rubbery but in the end the squid got hidden under the remaining food and sent back. On the flip side the red wine mixed with honey was very delicious and the soup was quite good. A ride back into the city to drop off Mama and Cara and Katie and I went back to the apartment in Trastevere.

Days 67 - 69 March 31st to April 2nd Rome, Italy

Started up the new week of class by not going very much because of big change ups in the schedule. Every class was at a different time thus causing me to have to miss one class while attending another. All in all only made 2 classes out of 5 this week... sigh...

Day 55 March 19th 2009 En route to Brussels, Belgium then Amsterdam, Netherlands

Very early flight today from Ciampino airport to Brussels Charleroi airport. Katie was arriving 3 hours after me in Brussels so I had some time to burn until she arrived. I ended up finding a grassy spot outside the airport in the sun and took a nice nap against my backpack. I thought about asking to test drive some of the rental cars as a way to spend some of the time but decided against that. Did I mention that Brussels is French? Or they speak French at least. But I wasn’t expecting that, come to think of it I’m not sure what I expected in Belgium except waffles. So Katie arrived and we caught a train onwards to Amsterdam which ended up being quite humorous and a bit worrisome because we couldn’t figure out for the life of us whether we needed to change trains somewhere to get to Amsterdam or just stay on the train we were on all the way there. The conductor of the train didn’t seem to know either because one voice came on saying there was a change needed then 5 minutes later another voice came on and said this train is direct to Amsterdam. So we just literally hung on to our seats and hoped when the train stopped we would be in Amsterdam. Well we did have to switch trains eventually and finally made it to Amsterdam Centraal Station (2 a’s in Dutch). We jumped a cabbie and made it to the Hotel de Paris, a fine 3 star hotel establishment right next to the hub of Amsterdam, Leidseplein Square. We hopped over for dinner at the Satellite Bar and Grill where the TV screens are endlessly playing all sorts of sports from Irish rugby to the NCAA March Madness which I appreciated greatly as the Nova Wildcats were making a run to the final four. A burger and Heineken later and it was travel weary sleep time.

Days 52 - 54 March 16th- 18th 2009 Rome, Italy

Strong concentration required these three days to hammer out 5 midterms. I actually like when midterms are packed closely together because then I can stay in a study mindset for those days then emerge victorious. If the exams are spaced out too much I tend to wander and not study as much. St. Patty’s day interrupted this study mindset on Tuesday shortly. A few Irish carbombs and then back to the notebooks. Wednesday night I packed up my super hiking backpack like Tetris level 35 to make sure I had all that I needed for my upcoming 4 country/ 5 city 11 day Spring Break travel-a-thon.

Day 51 - March 15th 2009 Rome, Italy

Another seriously slow day. Remained in the apartment for almost the whole day, except for a short excursion outside to walk through the Porta Portese open air flea market, which is the biggest in Italy, then took a stroll over to “Blockbuster” (so called because of its blue banner background with yellow writing on the front) pizza and picked up a delicious kabab. Read, studied for mid-terms this week, talked to my parents over skype, which you should do too! (c paganelli or frozentimestudios username).

Days 44 - 48- March 8th - March 12th 2009 Rome, Italy

Gonna have to use the 1, 2 skip a few trick here seeing as I’ve gotten a little behind on the blog writing.

Day 43 - March 7th 2009 Rome, Italy

Today was tourista day for the LdM folks. We cruised over to the Roman forum, palatine hill, and coliseum to be “gapers” with our cameras. Ryan and I were also the only men in Rome wearing shorts, even though it was probably 65 degrees and sunny. Warning: start of another Italian culture rant by Chris. Alright so here’s my observation from today: NOBODY in Rome pays attention to what the weather is ACTUALLY doing. I walked out the door in shorts and a windbreaker and was rather hot all day. Everyone else around me? Wearing full overcoats with scarves! Man did we get some looks, couldn’t have looked more foreigner American.

Day 40 - March 4th 2009 Rome, Italy

Marched through European history today with our favorite teacher Fabio. Fabio is an all around interesting guy, he is about 26, speaks excellent english and italian, and recites his 2 and half hour lectures completely from memory. It’s quite amazing to sit and listen to. He also gives us all our insider Rome tips about nightspots and the best restaurants and so on. After history comes wine class, this week we sampled 4 different red wines and one Moscasti D’Asti sparkling sweet white. The reds included a Barbaresco 2004 which is from the Piedmonte region of Italy. This easily had the most complex and interesting structure and body of all the wines we have tasted so far. The Moscato was everyone’s favorite because after so many tastings of reds the class was thankful for a sweet passito wine. After wine class it was on to La Montecarlo for a bite and back home for the usual reading writing and arithmetic.

Day 39 - March 3rd 2009 Rome, Italy

Took the ride into school this morning on the tram then the autobus. Chomped through Italian class then went on a search for a new lunch locale, ending up on Via Tritone leading to Piazza Barberini. A pork panini and supplì later the belly was quenched and walked back to class at 3. Made some delicious handmade hamburgers to fry up on the stove (man I miss grilling) then proceeded to read some and write out this crazy blog and also some European history homework.

Day 32 - February 24th 2009 Rome, Italy

Italian class, lunch break wandering around Piazza di Spagna looking for the last book I needed for classes. Another engaging session of Art History. You know the drill.

Day 31 - February 23rd 2009 Rome, Italy

Today was Italian club slowdown day at the Lorenzo de’Medici school. What this means is that the LdM school, already very environmentally conscious and does everything to conserve energy and paper etc., turned off its computers and electronic devices and had a day of “slowing down life’s pace.” I could not follow this completely because I brought in my laptop to watch a film by Federico Fellini for my Italian cinema class. But lunch was served by the chef hired by LdM and later that evening traditional Tarantella dancers came and put on a dance and musical presentation. The music was fabulous but I didn’t stay long because I was feeling sick and needed to go home and eat and go to bed. Which I promptly did.

Day 30 - February 22nd 2009 Florence, Italy

A bit of cornflakes and coffee for breakfast before checking out of the hotel. Christina pointed us in the wrong direction however, and we ended up missing putting our bags on the bus for storage and had to truck back to the hotel and leave our bags there. Joined up with the big group and split off again to tour Europe’s oldest pharmacy. The pharmacy contains all sorts of old beakers and decanters for muddling and mixing every sort of ingredient thought to cure illness. From the pharmacy we traveled up a steep hill to the Capucci Fashion museum overlooking Florence. The museum exhibits a variety of dresses that were designed and shown by Roberto Capucci for fashion shows around the world. In my opinion these crazy dresses were nice to look at and obviously took a long time to build, but... who cares about dresses that you can’t wear? Maybe its because I don’t wear dresses and lack finer taste in fashion.... The view from the terrace overlooking the city was very cool though. After coming down from the hill I met up once again with Katie to go on a search for a leather shop that does gold letter imprinting on the leather. I got my brother a present stamped with his initials in 18k gold leaf after quite a search around Santa Croce. Back in front of the Duomo a parade was going on for celebration of Carnevale and there were people dressed up in clothes from periods of old and dancers and acrobats. It was quite a spectacle. Said goodbye to Katie and headed to the buses to return back to Roma. Everyone was quite tired and ready for a good nights rest.

Day 29 - February 21st 2009 Florence, Italy

Arose early this mattina to hop over to the front of the Duomo for a trip to the Galleria dell’Accademia to take in the David and other stunning art that surrounds him. Seeing the partially finished Michaelangelo sculptures again was very interesting, the statued figures trying to break free of their Carrara marble cages. After the Galleria I met up with Katie and we jaunted over the San Lorenzo markets to do a little leather browsing. Returned the hotel to rest for a bit and get ready to go over to the cooking school to make a meal of gnocchi, eggplant, and tiramisù from scratch. The chefs teaching us were great and it was so much fun to create a full meal all together. Katie and I then took a stroll over to the lounge called Slowly to sit and enjoy a chilled delight.

Day 28 - February 20th 2009 En route to Florence, Italy

Met the entire cast and crew of the API study abroad group, numbering about 87 strong, at Piazza Trilussa in Trastevere. Boarded one of the two premier buses hired to cart all of us up north. Fiddled with the iPod touch, read some Warren Buffet and just generally passed the time until we made a rest stop at an AutoGrill off of the highway. Ate my brown bag lunch of pita with salame Milano and Emmental cheese and mustard. Back on the bus for the rest of the trip. Our group is too big for one hotel so we split into the Hotel Bigallo where the LdM crew was staying. The hotel looks right out at the Duomo so in terms of location this place has it in spades. Excellent staff and rooms as well. We took off from the hotel to have a guided tour of the main tourist sites of the town. Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, etc. After the tour I met up with Florentine native Katie Suomineno and the crew + us went over to the Mexican eatery Tiauana for a bit of a change of flavors from the pizza and pasta. Dinner was tasty tacos and tortillas with margaritas and having paid the bill, Katie and I went forth the her favorite lounge Loch Ness for a glass of wine and beer with her bartender friend Mark. The lounge is right next to the dance club Twice and we proceeded over there for a bit of lights and music fun. Katie grabbed a cab and I sauntered home to the hotel.

Day 27 - February 19th 2009 Rome, Italy

Restful day at the apartment reading and eating popcorn. Cooked dinner with the crew and packed up my travel backpack to be ready for tomorrow morning’s departure to Firenze.

Day 26 - February 18th 2009 Rome, Italy

Met Guiza today in the Piazza Farnese for a mezzogiorno coffee and croissant. We spoke in alternating Italian/english and she recommended a few museums that I hadn’t been to yet. I am not sure but I think that I may have witnessed part of Angels and Demons being filmed in the Piazza. They had a big film crew with Panavision cameras on dollies in the Piazza and it looked like serious business. I didn’t get to peer more closely at it because I wanted to chat with Guiza. My double header of class from 3pm to 8:30 went smoothly. In the Wine and Cultures class we had our first tasting in class. We sampled a very tasty white wine from northern Italy then a red from central Italy. The white was very good but the red lacked a little bit in complexity and overall satisfaction. I’m learning so much about viniculture its a bit amazing the complexity of the methods and conventions used in the wine business. After class we went cruising around the town for classmate Toni’s 21st birthday.

Day 25 - February 17th 2009 Rome, Italy

Pretty much same as Monday: class, caffè macchiatos, panini’s, some freestyle dinner cooking. Still nodding off in art history but I swear its still not the class, just the time of day.

Day 24 - February 16th 2009 Rome, Italy

Nothing much to report. A good day of class and running a few errands. Picked up some peanut butter at the international food store because Italians do not use it/ make it here apparently. Went to a wine tasting hosted by LdM at a local wine bar. Sampled 2 whites and 2 reds in which one of the reds was a lambrusco. All quite delicious wines. The only thing wrong was that Ryan and I wanted cheese and all the waiters brought out was this measly cheese and prosciutto hamburger looking thing. So after the tasting we took a walk around the block to our Italian friend Francesco’s family’s restaurant and got some delicious cheese sample plates. Back at base I cooked up some real good vegetable stir fry...I’m becoming quite the freestyle cook partly because I don’t know the names of every ingredient so I just throw everything I find and it seems to work out.

Double WOW Day 22 - February 14th 2009 Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

Another great night’s rest at the venerable Hotel Villa Alpina. Katie and I packed our things and brought down our bags to store in the back room of the hotel while we went skiing that day. Jumped the bus to the base of Ra Valles/ Tofana cable tram and rode upwards into the great beyond that is the Dolomites. After a second tram lift up again we found ourselves with a most spectacular view of the surrounding mountain range and the small Cortina village below. For some reason yesterday it seemed like all we were doing was riding lifts and not doing much skiing but that changed today and we were skiing 15 minute runs down from the top. The snow had been groomed in most places but you could jet off to the sides to get a bit of deeper stuff but it was mostly heavy powder so turning in it was not easy. We met up with Sarah and her relatives at halfday and took a few good runs with all them. Then Katie and I ascended on high once more to have a bite to eat on the top of the world. Did I mention I was slack jawed with my tongue hanging out the whole time I was skiing? This place is surreal! I can’t believe people ACTUALLY live here. If I could wake up every morning with my cup o’ joe and look out the window and witness the high peaks at every angle, I would consider life pretty damn near perfect. (I have started to draft my “Chris to live in Cortina d’Ampezzo for an extended period of time” 5 year contingency plan)....We’ll see how that works out... So the St. Valentines day skiing was spectacular, then things started to go from amazing to sort of humorously interesting. After returning our skis and boots and heading over to grab a taxi up to the Hotel Argentina (the Villa Alpina only had rooms open for thursday and friday sadly.) OK first things first; the front desk man, ya know the guy who greets you and gives you your key and so on, was, excuse my french, an ASSHOLE! This guy had the lowest hanging jowls I have ever seen and man was he a troubled child or something. Gave us nothing but attitude and indignation! Katie and I agreed it must be because we are the only 20’somethings in Cortina and arn’t arriving in a Maserati with full bearskin jackets. Oh well, everybody else that worked there was nice. So this guy was humorously mean. Next up was the bus ride down from the Argentina back to town. I am very certain the driver was Satan’s personal chauffeur. He was driving this bus at 50mph down the most curvy steep road. We were sure we were on the Highway to Hell express. Thankfully, we arrived safely in town and wandered to La Furla, the pizzeria that Sarah and her relatives were eating at. The restaurant was pretty busy so we got put at the same table as a single older lady who did crosswords and ate her dinner. And for some reason everyone around us kept eyeing Katie and I. I don’t know why we are still not wearing Yankee caps and I heart NY t-shirts. After dinner we hustled over to the Olympic ice rink from 1956 olympics and watched the Cortina Squirrels battle the wolves with #45 Martin Wilde at left defense. Sarah graciously drove us back to up the Argentina for the night’s sleep.