"Many lessons learned"

This morning, we got to relax and wake up a little later than normal AND had a decently American breakfast with eggs and bacon in addition to the many carb options they usually offer. It was a good morning. In the late morning, a few of us went window shopping (because it's Milan and you just multiply the "normal" prices by 100 here). We ended up finding the cutest little store that was basically a giant Target dollar spot! I could've redecorated my entire apartment in there and it would've been under $100, so we spent some time in there! If only I had the suitcase room to actually do that...It was fun to look around at things that were somewhat familiar with an Italian culture twist! My favorite thing was a plastic collapsible wine glass for 3 euro! I'm hoping that makes its way to the US soon!
Then we left to meet back up with the group, stopping for some fresh peaches on the way! Once we were all together, we headed to the train/metro station to visit the Bovisa Campus of Politecnico Milano, a technical university in Italy ranked #21 in the world for engineering! Our visit started with a basic presentation and some free gifts where they explained their international exchange program and what degrees they offer. All their masters degree courses are offered in English to attract a wide variety of international students. The craziest part was that their tuition, even for a graduate program, was 3500 euro per year! On a bad day, that's like $6000. My jaw actually dropped and the presenter started laughing saying, "Yes different from United States!" Maybe if I decide I need more schooling after my 5.5 years in undergrad (not likely), I'll just come over here!
Then we had a presentation from an assistant professor who worked on the Rosetta mission, where they attempted to send a piece of equipment to analyze the comet and its components. After four gravity assists (three from earth and one from mars) and ten years, the equipment made it to the comet's orbit in 2014. The next challenge was hitting a 100m target on a rotating comet from 20km away...and to make things more interesting, the comet was a completely different shape than what they expected. They ended up missing their target by a hair which caused the lander to bounce twice and settle over a "cave" type terrain. This was a problem for two reasons: there wasn't enough consistent sunlight at this point to recharge the lander's batteries and it wasn't centered over terrain, so it could not drill down to get a sample of the comet. Due to certain trade offs, the lander wasn't mobile so the mission was a bust. Since the batteries have died, they've made contact with the lander one time mid 2015, but haven't reached it since. Obviously this is the summary of what happened because the presentation was an hour long, but it was really interesting to hear from someone so invested in the project tell us about its failure. He had a wonderful attitude about it and kept saying, "There are many lessons learned from this." Because of their failed expedition, two more missions are now able to make contingency plans in case that were to happen on their expedition. That's one of the things I love about science and engineering - even in failure, there are many successes.
The third portion of the visit included a visit to the wind tunnel, which PoliMi (like our CoMo!) uses to test all sorts of specific aerodynamics - for sports wear, bridges, trains, planes, stadiums...so many things! They've even tested an airplane that takes off like a helicopter and then rotates its wings to fly like a plane! The future is here people. The wind tunnel uses scale models with equivalent strengths of materials to figure out the effects of wind speed, angles, and directions. A lot goes into making a model before the actual testing happens!
Finally, we got to talk to current graduate students at PoliMi and hear about what their studying. I talked to the electrical engineer about his work in the power industry where the systems can be reworked so that if people fail to pay their electric bills, their power can be cut off remotely instead of sending a person to physically do it. The U.S. and Italy have both done this, but many countries have not and its much more costly to pay a person for what a computer system can do now. He was very passionate about electrical engineering so he was interesting to listen to, even though I'm not sure I'm specifically interested in what he's studying.
I took a break after the visit to rest a little bit, and then went out for dinner. I wasn't super hungry so I ended up having bruschetta and limone schweppes. I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of it before scarfing it down (I know, my priorities were totally messed up) but it was so good! The fresh ingredients here continue to impress me every day. Just another day in Italy! Tomorrow we're off to Florence - our last city! I can't wait to see yet another amazing city in this beautiful country!
We didn't see a whole lot of picturesque things today so there are only a few pictures.

Some cool free stuff!

A model of an Italian stadium used for wind tunnel testing

Model of a bridge yet to be actually built

"We're basically just turtles going through Italy"

Our day started off moving again! We hauled our luggage the 0.7 miles back to the train station (which isn't that far but when you're a pack mule, it seems long!). We were moving fairly slowly (stopping a lot, re-situating our luggage, going up stairs and bridges) and one of the guys says to me, "We're basically just turtles going through Italy." I don't know why it struck me as so funny but it's so fitting! Our group is a good size so getting places seems to take three times as long as it would by ourselves. We all have about ten times the luggage that a European native has, which greatly slows us down in every city. We get lost almost every time we try to go somewhere, although sometimes GPS helps. We're slow, we carry everything we have around with us, and we usually can't all cross the road before the light changes again. I think we really are turtles just trying to make it in Italy. Against all odds, we made it though and had time to spare! A few girls and I went into KIKO, a make-up store based in Milan that had really cute, decently priced make-up. I only brought my bright red lipstick accidentally so I got a cute neutral while I was there. Then, it was onto the train to Milano!

It took about 2.5 hours to get to Milan, and we had a coach bus waiting to take us to Lake Como, which is about an hour outside of Milan. We got of the bus to a warm, beautiful day and picturesque view of the lake. Allie and I sat down at a restaurant right by the water to people watch, eat some lunch, and enjoy the incredible view! I got a pizza called Bufalo which had tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, and basil. It was pretty similar to pizzas back home because it was actually covered in cheese! It was so yummy. So some background - there are pigeons everywhere here. Literally every city has had them outside, wandering around restaurants, swarming in the squares...it's disgusting. I also don't love birds near me though so I'm biased. Anyway, we're sitting there after we've finished and this tiny (kind of cute) bird flies onto my plate, takes a piece of cheese, and is just chilling there eating my cheese. I'm frozen in my seat thinking "ew ew ew get off get off get off!" Luckily Dr. Weisbrook was sitting at the next table and shooed it away! I think I would've just taken off running had she not been there. I think the only thing I won't miss from Italy are the many many birds.

The rest of the group went to go swimming, but unfortunately learned that there's no beach swimming there, only swimming in the middle of the lake after being taken by boat. Pro tip: don't expect beaches or swimming. The entire coast (at least what we could see) was an endless dock. It was fun to see boats come and go, look at people's cute boating outfits and even see some little ducklings! Afterwards, we walked passed the duomo (church) and got some gelato on our way. I tried something different this time - limone and fragola (lemon and strawberry). It tasted like a strawberry lemonade Italian ice! It was the perfect refreshing finish to our lunch.

Then we headed back to Milan. By the time we checked in and got settled, it was around 7pm and we were ready to eat again! We walked around Milan at dusk and saw the duomo here, beautifully surrounded by a grand square. It was the first cathedral I've seen that had stained glass windows, so that was neat.

We wandered back the way we came to find a place to eat and ended up getting really lucky! I found a menu that seemed to be within everyone's price range (10 euro can get you a decent meal here). The lucky part was happy hour! After we ordered drinks, our waitress came with potato chips, peanuts, rolls, ciabatta bread, and olive oil. In Europe, they have what's called a service charge here which can be anywhere from 2-5 euro depending on the place, and it usually includes the bread or chips before your meal when you order drinks. Some places advertise "no cover charge" or "no service charge" to say that you simply pay for what you eat. I was looking at this spread thinking that we were racking up our service charge and even though the entrees were reasonable, this could make all of that irrelevant. We had already ordered our meal though and not speaking the language hardly at all, most dinners are kind of a crap shoot anyway.

Tonight, I had spaghetti pomodoro which is just spaghetti and tomato sauce. Classic. I tried someone else's pasta carbonara and it was delicious! I think I'll try that next time. We all ate our fill of the spread and our meal, and the waitress came over and asked if we wanted separate checks! (This literally never happens. You usually just pay for what you had off the one check and hope that you have the correct change to cover it). That made things much easier and after the first person paid, she came over and told everyone there was no service charge!! We actually got all of that food complimentary because it was happy hour. Great surprise! I'm sure the waitress had told us that but she barely spoke English and we barely speak Italian so most of our communication was body language and pointing. I spoke Italian to her first so she kept coming over to me to speak in Italian thinking I could translate for the group. She was wrong...maybe someday! I have to admit though, if I don't know how to say something, I go for the Spanish version and it usually works. That's made things a little bit easier.

After dinner, we wandered some more and found an awesome fountain with a (probably important and meaningful) beautiful state building behind it! We actually got a group picture with those of us there - it's one of the few any of us have. We're working on getting a few more before the end of the trip, which is in four days! The days have been packed and I'm exhausted but the trip has gone by so fast!

Bufalo pizza! Which might just be American margherita pizza

Lake Como

Duomo in Milan

Spaghetti pomodoro with bread (carbs carbs carbs)

Selfie with a pretty building and fountain we saw

"Treat yo self...and your friends!"

Today we had a free day in Venice! At first, it seemed daunting to try to fill an entire day in a city we'd never been to, but it ended up being the perfect break. Most of the group went to Mass at St. Mark's Basilica this morning and then we all broke up and did our own thing with little groups afterwards.

St. Mark's was absolutely beautiful inside! The entire ceiling was made of gold with mosaics (I think) of different saints, the twelve apostles, Mary, and Jesus. It was absolutely stunning. The Mass was entirely in Latin so I really had no idea what was going on although I managed to pick up on the Catholic aerobics cues (when to sit and stand haha). The music was exactly what I think of when I think traditional Catholic basilica choir - grand, almost opera-like and perfectly harmonized. It was just beautiful and when you're standing in a majestic cathedral and the music is perfectly echoing through the vestibule and people are there from all different places and cultures together worshiping the same Lord, it's quite surreal. I loved every minute.

After Mass, we took our time going back to the hotel, stopping in stores and window shopping until we finally got back to change into something more casual. It ended up being a girls' "treat yo self" day in Venice! We basically spent our entire day shopping, both for ourselves and for friends and family back home. Our first stop was a crepery where I had a crepe filled with nutella, topped with vanilla gelato, strawberries and whipped cream. It was a dream in a dish and the best part was that I could walk around to shop and eat it at the same time! That's the way to do it, lemme tell ya. Over the course of the day, we saw beautiful, original pieces of work made in Italy, sometime exclusively in Venice. They included Murano glass jewelry and home pieces, cameo jewelry, wax seal stamps, marble paper notebooks, resin protected food decorated kitchenware and of course, delicious Venetian food! Several of us bought most of our souvenirs for ourselves and friends here so shout out to Venice for the bomb shopping!

We also stopped at one point to get pizza, and I chose salame piccante (Italian pepperoni) that was good! It was thick crust so it was more like the pizza I'm used to. The pepperoni was more like salame so it was different but I liked it! Right next to the pizza place was this gourmet chocolate and food shop that had free samples! Obviously we stopped. We ended up trying these amazing lightly flavored cookies with the icing in the center rather than on the outside! We also tried chocolate covered candied orange peel, limoncello drops, cappuccino almonds and dessert spreads. They also had savory cooking spreads but by this point I was ready to buy everything I had just tasted so my wallet stopped me from going to that section.

The craziest part is that I feel like we barely made a dent in everything that Venice has to offer, and we spent ALL day looking at things. I was constantly amazed by the beauty in Venice and family dedication to different art crafts. It seemed that everyone had a story to tell about their shop or their products, and we felt so welcome throughout the day!

I also loved that most of Venice is walking paths so everything is easily accessible and usually you don't have to walk too far to find what you're looking for. I think Venice may be my favorite city in Italy...but the jury's still out! Tomorrow we head to Milan (which I've heard might have some good shopping too). Stay tuned!

Inside St. Mark's Basilica - look at the ceilings

Outside St. Mark's

There's a crepe in there somewhere...

Le salame piccante pizze

One of the many canals here!

"Someday a man will look at me like I look at cannolis"

Today was mostly a travel day from Modena to Venice! Besides being the large group of Americans lugging hundreds of pounds of stuff behind us, it was fairly uneventful. No train line standoffs this time! The hardest part of the trip was walking from the train station to our hotel in Venice. There isn't enough room for cars to drive on roads here, so most of the transportation is by foot (or water if you want to pay a water taxi. But even that only gets you so far). Our group hauled all of our luggage 0.8 miles in Venice to our hotel through narrow and uneven streets. My arms sure got a workout! It took us about 30 minutes to get to the hotel, so once we arrived, we were so excited it has air conditioning! It's the little things.
We got a short break before heading out again, this time to see the Murano Glass Production Factory. Murano is the name of a series of islands in the larger city of Venice and is known for their glass making. If you want to be wowed by handmade glass chandeliers, I highly suggest looking them up! Seriously it's amazing. I found it really interesting that to make colored glass, you add different components to it. You use amethyst to make purple, cobalt to make blue, and liquid gold to make red! The demonstration was fairly short but really cool! Then we had the opportunity to shop their official merchandise and I ended up getting a couple of really cool things from there!
From there, we found a nice restaurant to eat dinner. They're big on seafood here, and I'm really not but luckily it's Italy so pasta is always an option! I tried something different tonight - risotto primavera (vegetable risotto). It was decently good, but probably not the best thing I've had here. It was good to get some veggies in my diet (do Italians know about vegetables? They're so hard to find here!) I had a peach bellini to drink which is peach puree and Prosecco so it's light and fruity! It was really fun to try some new things and find a great drink!
After dinner, we walked around and found St. Mark's Basilica, the famous basilica in Venice! We're planning on going there for mass tomorrow if it works out. Afterwards, we found sicilian cannolis! They're basically a standard cannoli with a chocolate coating on the inside of the shell and a ricotta cream filling with chocolate chips. IT WAS SO GOOD!!! Allie pointed out that I was smiling and staring longingly at it while I was eating so I laughed and said, "someday a man will look at me like I look at cannolis." It's every Italian girls' dream. I broke the gelato-every-day trend today, but the cannoli more than made up for it. Here's to more delicious food for the last half of my trip!

Found my perfect travel outfit today

One of the many Murano glass chandeliers 

Peach bellini

Risotto primavera

St. Mark's Basilica

The best cannoli in the world

"You cannot say no to wine and food"

Today, we were in Modena! We started our itinerary at the BioHombre Cheese Farm. They are famous for making Parmagiano-Reggiano and have perfected the craft for generations. The farm makes about fifteen 100kg wheels of cheese each day, which turns out to be about 4,000 per year. They place the newly curdled cheese in a circular mold to push the excess water out before putting it in a salt water brine solution. Then they age the cheese for at least 12 months, and then longer for a more flavorful cheese. They've found most people enjoy 12-36 month aged Parmagiano-Reggiano. We got to sample the 24-month aged cheese, and it was really good! It tasted like Parmesan but was fairly mild. You could really taste the "freshness" (It was two years old but it didn't have preservatives so what do you call that?). Then on the same tour, we got to see the farm owners' Masarati car collection! I want to say he had about 30 cars and 30 motorcycles/bikes/mopeds! I mean we just walked around millions and millions of dollars worth of cars. I'm thinking about moving here and starting my own cheese farm...the dreams continue.
Our next stop was a balsamic vinegar farm(?)...It was basically a family run business that had been making balsamic vinegar for over 150 years! And forget everything you've every known about balsamic vinegar. We've been lied to over in the US and Modena knows the secret. Apparently the only ingredient in true balsamic vinegar is grape must or acidified grape must (the two are interchangeable). Check your bottle at home! It most likely has wine vinegar, grape juice, thickening agents, and colorings. We got to try the real stuff and it was so interesting! It did have a little acidic flavor to it but it was much more complex. Each one is aged for at least ten years, and then an additional amount to produce different flavors. One batch has been aging for the ten years plus 150 years! Our tour guide explained that you make balsamic vinegar to work for the next generation, not your own. How differently I tend to think...We got to try several different ages, a standard 5 year, 16 year in cherry barrels, 16 year in juniper, and the 100 year. The standard 5 year is good for daily use on veggies, salad, meats, etc. The cherry aged is good on ice cream and cheesecake! (And yes it actually would be good on those. Real balsamic vinegar blew my mind.) The juniper has a sharpness to it perfect for meats, and the 100 year doesn't go with anything. A spoonful is a pleasure. We also got a complimentary lunch afterwards with different foods to try with balsamic vinegar including sliced meats, salad, pizza, cheese, and bread. As our tour guide said "One rule in Italy: You cannot say no to wine and food!" She just gets me. I ended up buying a 16 year cherry vinegar and 10 year for daily use. I guess I'm ruined for American balsamic vinegar now, because there's no way I could go back now.  Well I could, but I just don't really want to! The real stuff is just too good! My wallet may tell me otherwise though. To be continued.
Our final stop of the tour day was the Ferrari museum. I will admit I'm not really into cars so I don't know much about the amazing engineering feats that Ferrari was able to accomplish with their engines and why it hadn't been done before. I can say that the cars were SO COOL! I wanted to just hop in one and drive away. Some of them could go up to 300mph! So while I don't know exactly how the engines work, I can say that something is special about them. My favorite room in the museum was the race display room. At least a hundred trophies lined the walls and each racing model was displayed in a circle around the room. They even had championship music playing in the background to give you the full effect of a win in a legendary Ferrari. It was awesome.
After heading back to the hotel, we went out again for dinner. It's not that Modena is small (although it definitely is compared to Rome), but it's much different than Rome. We could walk down the block and pass four restaurants, and here we have to search a bit more. Also, the people here know much less English, which should not be expected of them, but definitely makes our lives a little more confusing. Our first stop was a little restaurant that seemed cute enough. Our group of 12 sat down outside and when the waitress came over, she realized how little Italian we spoke, even combined. She was also not a fan of our putting tables together so we got the stink eye. Then she told us that they only had about one of each entree left (and there were six...). We weren't up for rationing our food so some of us left to go find another restaurant (we again go the stink eye. I'm kind of getting used to it now, since it seems to be the most common look I get here!). If we could speak Italian, we would've explained that we wanted more food and so were going to just go somewhere else but since we didn't, we probably seemed rude for just getting up and walking out. Oh well, the price you pay to eat sometimes. We ended up finding the cutest little restaurant with fun colored glasses and a more modern feel than the typical ristorante. I got a Margherita pizza which was a bit too saucy for me this time, but I'm glad I tried it. The basil was much more evenly spread this time! It was interesting to see how different the same thing was in two different cities. We also tried a frizzante vino bianco (fizzy white wine) that was pretty tasty! The name was something like Pigmentto Frizzante but I can't remember exactly. I also got to try a bite of someone's cheese tortellini with parmesan and balsamic vingear. I can't say I loved it right off the bat because the balsamic really threw me off with the cheesy pasta but as I kept eating, it was surprisingly delicious! We of course finished the night with some creamy gelato - I got stracciatella (because I can't not) and cannoli. There were literally bits of cannoli sheel and mini chocolate chips in a sweet ricotta gelato. It was so yummy! It's the first time I've seen that flavor in Europe but I want to have it again! Here's hoping Venice has some too.
My day in pictures:

CHEESE

The view of cars from the balcony of Mr. Panini's Masarati collection

Aging balsamic vinegar

Ferrari museum

My new favorite food - stracciatella and cannoli gelato

"Everyone is so friendly here!"

This morning, we woke up to a hectic day. After getting ready modestly (knees and shoulders covered), eating breakfast, and packing up my many bags, we were out the door and headed to the Vatican by 8am!
Our tour there started with the art and sculpture museums. I wish I could convey the beauty of the intricate ceilings and beautiful paintings with words, but I'd never do it justice. Check out the pictures to get a glimpse of the beauty that I could fit in a small rectangle. One thing that amazed me was the Gallery of Maps. It had paintings of many Italian cities as well as the Renaissance Italy and modern Italy. I even found my last name on one of the city maps! Not only that, but the ceiling had tons of realism paintings decorated with gold plating and sculptured frames. Again, I can't do it justice, so just take a look at the pictures!
After visiting the museums, we went to the Sistine Chapel. Oh how I wish I could've taken pictures to remember that beautiful chapel. (I actually tried but then got yelled at in Italian. Oops.) The details were striking! I can't believe Michelangelo painted it upside down, only in candle light. I loved that it told the whole story of the Bible, from creation to the Final Judgement, in a way that appealed to any person - Christian or not. It was breathtaking to say the least and what an honor it was to be able to witness it in person.
Then, it was onto St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square. The Basilica was massive! If something wasn't made out of marble, it was made out of gold. The altar had a beautiful canopy type structure over it with several gold tabernacles behind it. Large sculptures surrounded each vestibule. There was nothing I didn't want to take a picture of! Out in St. Peter's Square, I got to see the massiveness of the Basilica and Vatican from the outside. I loved seeing the obelisk and statues on top of the columns out in the square. It looked like a town center, except everything around it was statues and chapels.
After visiting the Vatican, we picked up our luggage at the hotel and walked four blocks to the train station to head to Modena. Luckily we figured out the train station in time to eat lunch and make our train. We committed an Italian faux pas on the train where we waited until the train stopped to get our luggage down from the overhead bins and then started to exit (like on an airplane). This apparently was not the correct way to do it. We ended up having a standoff with a line of Italians trying to get on the train as we were trying to get off, and no one was moving. Finally, between our very broken Italian and his English skills, the Italian man in front of the stand off line told all the others in Italian to move out of the way so we could get off. This whole situation probably only lasted 60 seconds but staring down a line of confused and frustrated Italians made it feel like an hour. Anyway, we made it off and onto our next train without much of a problem. This time we stopped, we were prepared five minutes early at the door with all of our luggage! At least we try to be quick learners...
We finally made it to Modena and wow, what a different city it is from Rome! Rome was every man for himself, getting run over in the middle of the sidewalk by people trying to get places, and was just so crowded. It's a big city, so it wasn't a surprise but Modena is a quaint town with more bicyclists than drivers and locally owned boutiques than corporate chains. People stop and wave at us on the streets even though we clearly don't belong. It's just a friendly, calm atmosphere where wine and friendship are plenty. We even met a young couple, the man from Sicily and woman from New Orleans! We talked with them for about 15 minutes just on our way to dinner. We walked away talking about how everyone is just so friendly here in Modena!
We went to a small restaurant in a plaza square with great outdoor seating for the perfect cool night we had! It reminded me of Kirkwood, only less crowded. I ordered a sweet, sparkling red wine, gnocco (a puff pastry) and meat platter for an appetizer, tagliatelle (basically flat spaghetti) with bolognese sauce, and tiramisu for dessert. We hadn't had a solid meal all day, so I made up for it at dinner. Everything was perfectly portioned, and made with such fresh ingredients. I have not had a bad meal here yet, and I'm not sure I will! It was the perfect relaxing night after a long day of hauling everything I own around the streets of Italy.

The gallery of maps ceiling of paintings

Close-up of the ceiling!

My name on a map!

St. Peter's Basilica alter

Overlooking St. Peter's square (left side) from the Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica from St. Peter's square

Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro (Sweet sparkling red wine)

Meat platter and puff pastries - you rip the pastry in half and put the meat in the pastry. So good! 

Fancy  spaghetti 

Tiramisu

"There's no reason to rush"

This morning, I woke up to a fairly traditional European breakfast of pastries, bread, and croissants with a cappuccino and some water. After my fill of carbs, we walked to the Colosseum for our tour. Our tour guide (who's name I forgot...oops) was fantastic! She told us all about the history of the Colosseum which was so fascinating!
Here are some fun facts:
- It was made entirely of travertine, a type of limestone found about 25 miles outside the city of Rome. Reconstruction is done in brick so that the original structure is apparent while they restore it.
- The shows were all free, but people sat according to their socioeconomic status. Kings and royalty at the very bottom, aristocrats at the second level, priests and priestesses at the third level, merchants and middle class citizens at the fourth level, and the poor and women at the fifth level.
- The wooden stage was covered with sand during the shows, and sand in Latin is "arena." That's how we began calling stadiums "arenas."
- Iron clamps held the many blocks of travertine together as they built the structure from 72-82 A.D. Once the Colosseum was abandoned by the sixth century, every single iron clamp was stolen, which totaled about 300 tons of iron!
-It's estimated that the Colosseum could hold about 70,000 people in its prime and could be emptied in ten minutes. Still waiting for our modern stadiums to take the hint.
- Although a few people volunteered to be gladiators, many were slaves or prisoners who had nothing to lose and basically signed an agreement with the Roman administration saying, "If I survive as a gladiator for ____ amount of time, I will get my freedom."

Our tour lasted about three hours, and our tour guide consistently reminded us, "there's no reason to rush" as we approached steep stairs or were wandering around trying to find the next thing to look at. That seems to be a theme here. People walk slowly on sidewalks, they're somewhat slow to serve you, and you'll never get a check at a restaurant without asking. They're living the Slow Life (it's a thing if you want to look it up) and they are perfectly happy doing it! I'm not totally used to it yet, but I love the idea. I'm hoping I can still be a little productive when I get back home, though.

Not only was the tour interesting, the Colosseum was grand and beautiful and well-designed. I would've loved to talk to one of the architects who designed the Colosseum  - who builds something entirely in limestone that meets every arena's needs for 500 years the first time?! A team I want to meet, that's who. I could've stayed there for an entire day, but unfortunately the tour ended and lunch was calling.

We ended up at a small Italian restaurant on a street corner, as they all are, and sat down for some much needed food. I ended up having my first Italian margherita pizza with a lemon soda! The crust was much thinner than I was expecting but still slightly fluffy and light. The cheese was amazingly fresh but the one basil leaf surprised me. In typical obnoxious American fashion, I ripped my single basil leaf to try to sprinkle each piece with a bit. Maybe Italians just eat the basil leaf in one bite? I still haven't figured that out yet.

After lunch, Allie and I broke off from the group to find a straightener and curling iron. It's HOT here so my natural hair lasts a solid twenty minutes before getting frizzy. If you don't know, the voltage here is twice the voltage of American outlets, so American straightener plates basically "melt" off the straightener. It's pretty crazy. On our way back to the hotel, we obviously stopped for gelato and I relived my glory days with some Stracciatella! It's basically hard shell chocolate chip with vanilla gelato and when it's done right, it's the best ice cream type dessert I've ever had! This one was perfect.

Then we had a very chill afternoon. Still coming off of jet lag, naps were much needed. Then, it was off to our group dinner! We started off with lasagna (like as an appetizer. A giant piece of lasagna was our appetizer). Then came an interesting pork/prosciutto dish which was alright...I think I'll stick with the pasta. Finally, we had a dessert. I'm pretty sure it was custard with a type of berry jelly on top, but a more accurate description we came up with was "cheese jello" or "gelatinous ricotta." It wasn't the worst thing I've ever had, but again, I'm going to stick with the classic gelato.

To end the night, almost the entire group went to an ice bar! It was literally a bar entirely made of ice. The walls and rooms, every shelf and seat, the bar and everything in between was made of ice! Even the drinks were served in ice cone cups. We had to wear these coat poncho things to keep warm, which unfortunately didn't cover my feet in sandals...don't judge me, it's hot here! I was so excited to be cold for just a little while. I got the Cristal Gold - limoncello and sprite and it was pretty good! On our way home, we stopped for gelato again! Because you can never have too much gelato, and I only have nine more days to eat my fill!

Outside the Colosseum

Me casually standing inside the Colosseum

The rooms underneath what would've been the stage. For gladiators and animals - think of it like our backstage.

Margherita pizza with a single basil leaf

Stracciatella! My fave

Giant piece of lasagna appetizer

Cheese jello

Wearing the ice bar coat poncho

Stracciatella and Nutella gelato

"Do You See God's Beauty?"

First stop on the Italian adventure -Rome! (after a flight delay for two hours; nothing starts a nine hour plane ride off right like adding a couple extra hours!) There was a "minor maintenance issue" which seemed less and less minor as the time went on, but when they finally announced we were cleared for take-off, I was stoked! I barely slept for various reasons - the excitement, the fact that I was sitting straight up, and because my body thought it was 6pm (not exactly my normal bedtime). Nonetheless, we made it to Rome, even if a couple hours behind schedule. Luckily we still had enough time to check into Hotel Repubblica on the Piazza del Repubblica and wash off the "I-slept-on-a-plane" smell before venturing out into the beautiful city of Rome.

We had a wonderful walking tour guide named Roberto who took us all over Rome with an emphasis on the Baroque period. This took place in the 17th century as art and literature became more detail and emotion oriented and is when the famous Raphael and Michelangelo thrived! Our first stop was a beautiful Roman Catholic church called Chiesa di Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, where we saw our first gold plated ceiling of many! Roberto said "Do you see God's beauty?" as we were standing in the middle of the church taking every possible picture. I loved that he so casually mentioned it to bring me back to the reason the architects and designers intricately decorated the ceiling and walls - to show God's glory and beauty! What an honor it was to stand in His gorgeous house. 

Next, we headed to the famous Trevi Fountain! We actually got to walk down to the edge of the fountain base and make a wish by throwing a coin over your shoulder. Don't ask what my wish was...I still want it to come true. Also on our walking tour, we got to see the Pantheon, a temple to the ancient Roman gods that was (and still is) an engineering marvel. The entire dome on top of the structure was carved out of ONE piece of marble. That's right, the ceiling was made of just one huge piece of marble! While this in itself is pretty remarkable, let's not forget that the Pantheon was built over 2000 years ago - without cranes, heavy machinery, or really much structural engineering knowledge at all. The fact is, no one knows how those ancient geniuses actually got the dome on top of the Pantheon. One theory suggests that the builders rose the dome by basically shoving sand underneath it to make it rise higher and higher. I think the 0 A.D. Romans could teach our class a thing or two about engineering creativity and building something to last. Finally, we went to the Piazza Novena to see another beautiful church and fountain on the spot where Romans would play the Olympic games!

To cap the night off, we went to a cute little Italian restaurant to get our long awaited pasta fix! I ordered Fettucine alla Bolognese and WOAH. First, the pasta was clearly homemade so each noodle was tender but not mushy, cooked perfectly al dente, and clearly hadn't been sitting around long in the kitchen. It was perfectly complemented with a homemade bolognese sauce - each flavor was present but not overbearing and there was the perfect sauce to noodle ratio. I may actually fall asleep tonight dreaming of eating it forever, it was that good. We're wrapping the night up somewhat early because we haven't slept in a long time! And I'm too tired to figure out exactly how long it's been. I've posted some pictures below from my day, so hopefully you get a taste of what I've been up to during my twelve hours in Rome so far!

Inside the Chiesa di Sant'Andrea al Quirinale 

The Trevi Fountain in its popular glory

Allie, Me, and Kristen at Trevi fountaion!

First gelato in Italy! Tiramisu and Chocolate combo

The unforgettable spaghetri (fettuchini)

Life as a Wannabe Travel Blogger

Hello friends!
I'm back after (almost) a year to post about a few things I find interesting - details about the wonderful country of Italia! Actually, I'm assuming it's wonderful because I don't get there until tomorrow! But that's where architecture, wine, and carbs meet a beautiful romance language, so I don't know what could be wrong with that combination. For the next two weeks, I'll be posting every day about what I've been doing in Italy including but not limited to seeing beautiful architectural phenomenons, drinking cappuccinos until it's acceptable to drink wine, eating as many carbs as possible, and some inevitable Italian faux pas the loud, obnoxious American (me) will commit.

I'm technically blogging for my class credit (think of this as a two week field trip to Italy) but I also dream of being a travel blogger as I'm falling asleep after studying electromagnetic fields and embedded computing all day...oh I dream...anyway, for two weeks I get to be that travel blogger as 13 engineering students and I visit five major cities in Italy! We'll be going to Rome, Modena, Venice, Milan, and Florence in that order. I won't tell you the rest of my itinerary to keep the surprise alive but I can tell you it's going to be AWESOME!
On that note, I'll see you in Italy! Ciao!