Things I Miss When I'm Not In Roma

Hello world I'm back! I just looked at my last post and it was on March 8th-I can't believe I haven't updated you all on my life since then, but life has been busy! That seems like forever ago and I really cant believe its almost April already. I don't know where the time goes but in the past few weeks I sure have gone my fair share of places so I want to tell you a little about the different countries and cities I have seen. More importantly I realized some of the things I miss about Rome when I'm not here. In the middle of March I went on a 10 day extravaganza during my Spring Break. We went to Prague (Czech Republic) Berlin (Germany) Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Paris (France)....and it was most definitely nothing short of an extravaganza. I think I have almost recovered from it.

Our first stop was Prague and it was cold and and a little dreary, just as northern Europe would be in the middle of March. Nonetheless I loved Prague, which is unusual since I am pretty much a sun goddess. It was basically a fairytale city. Everything is perfectly preserved (history lesson-its the only European city that was untouched during World War II because Hitler wanted to use the entire city as a museum of the Jewish people after the war) so it looks fake pretty much. The money is so weird because its like 23 Czech Crowns to a U.S dollar so everything costs like 200 or 300 crowns which is strange to see when you just got a beer and some potato pancakes for dinner.

Some live music in the middle of the main square at a festival

Doesn't everything look fake?

Anyways, we explored the city, the beer(which they are known for apparently), the history, the food and then we went to an awesome 80's/90's video music club. They played Jackson 5, The Friends theme song which was my favorite, Michael Jackson, Twist and Shout and tons of other songs we all knew but would never listen to on our own. It was one of my favorite nights. A little birdie told me that The Grove plays this kind of music... I might need to try to sneak in there this summer. But while I was in Prague, I realized that I was really missing the mild weather of my beloved Roma. I could handle the cold for a couple days, but I wouldn't trade the Mediterranean for Northern Europe at all.

Next we moved on to Berlin which was basically a futuristic city compared to Prague since everything was absolutely destroyed in the war and the Berlin Wall and all. Everything here was super modern and really urban and grungy kind of but there's obviously a ton of history so the inner nerd in my really loved that. 

The top picture is at the East Side Gallery which is a a part of the Berlin wall were artists just paint pretty much whatever they want and the second is in this music festival/market that we went to. It was all outdoors and people were just playing music and sitting around doing art-really urban. But at this point in the trip I started to have my second realization about Rome. It was that I love red wine, fresh fruit and vegetables. I was sick of having beer, schnitzel and sauerkraut and couldn't wait to get back to my apartment and grill up some vegetables and fresh pasta.

We then moved on to Amsterdam and that was probably one of the most ridiculous places I have ever seen. Everything is legal in Amsterdam. After the WWII liberation they decided they wanted freedom of the people and it's by far the most free place I have ever seen. We will leave it at that for now just to keep it PG but use your imagination.... Aside from that the weather was beautiful, we saw the inside of a brewery and how they make beer, Anne Frank's actual house, all the canals and I had all you can eat Sushi (35 courses!!) for the first time and loved it.

 

 

Lastly, we went to Paris which was of course beautiful. The weather was gorgeous and the city is pretty amazing. I thought I wasn't going to like it at all because I imagined it being somewhat like a European version of New York City but it was really different than I expected. This last city really made me miss Rome. Its a big city and all I wanted was to know how the transportation works and what everyone was saying. Granted my  Italian is rough at best, normally I can catch the drift of a conversation. In France, I had no idea what one single person was saying and the French people don't really care to explain it to you because they don't really care about you basically. I knew I loved my sweet old Italian ladies for a reason. Regardless we saw all the major sights like Notre Dame, Sacre-Couer (I think that's how you spell it), The Mona Lisa and the rest of The Louvre Museum, Versailles and got to watch the Eiffel tower light up at night. 

But here are a couple pictures from Paris, although they don't even compare to how amazing these things are in real life. 

 

I know this one has been a bit lengthy and definitely way past due so I will try to do a little better at that! I hope everyone is doing well back at home and at school. The weathers finally starting to warm up over here so I hope it does the same back in the States. I am spending the weekend in Rome and we are hoping to do a lot of things... maybe a soccer game, the beach, or bike riding to take advantage of the weather so I hope each of your weekends is looking as good as mine!

The Vino

So I have been trying to keep my blogs somewhat entertaining so I don't bore you all to death. I know I have had some requests for the "Hot Italian Men" blog ( I also know each of you is probably thinking you're the only one who's asked me about the men but trust me-you're not!) and I promise it will come eventually but I just do not have enough photographic evidence at the moment. So I think I will have to save that one for a final compilation closer to the end of the semester...sorry to disappoint!
On the other hand, I do want to tell a little bit about last week because I feel like I kind of neglect my weeks in Rome when I take weekend trips and only talk about the weekends in my blog. And I need to tell you about this weekend also because it was pretty much the picturesque weekend of the title of my blog- "Vino e Vistas"
But last week despite the rain it was a pretty great week. On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to get a spot on a tour underneath St. Peter's Basilica in the Necropolis which basically means underground village. It was one of the coolest things I have done here and I wish I had pictures of it but unfortunately since everything down there is pretty much actually 2000 years old (not an exaggeration) we couldn't take pictures :( Anyways I got to see St. Peter's tomb and his actual bones which are underneath the Vatican! So like the tour guide told us at the end, that now gives new meaning to the catholic church being built on St. Peter, the rock of the church....like literally. I was back to school in time to go to class and later that day we decided we needed to go out. A local pub does karaoke on Tuesdays so my roommate Nicole and I went there and met a bunch of kids from school, because lets face it- life's too short to not sing karaoke on a Tuesday night. I never really realized why I was so exhausted all the time until I read what I just wrote and figured out it's probably because I do and see more things in a week in Rome than some months at home!
But the rest of the week followed this same kind of pattern, touring different parts of the city and hanging out with friends until Fridya came along which is where the Vino e Vistas comes in. I went to Florence and Tuscany for the weekend and it was absolutely beautiful. It's basically the most picturesque place in Italy that I have been so far. Tuscany was just as I imagined it. So on Friday we saw the leaning tower of Pisa....and yes it was leaning that's for sure. They told us we could pay to go to the top but I decided that it was looking a little too leaning for me so I stayed on the ground and enjoyed it just fine... I didn't want it to fall over while I was on my way up or anything.

Look at it leaning!

Anyways that's about all there is in Pisa. And they like it that way. But on Saturday we went to Florence which was amazing because of the San Lorenzo leather market. Basically I was in love. And I also got to see my friend Ali (from Maryland) who is studying in Florence and hang out with her. We climbed to the top of the Duomo, which is like 463 steps or something like that so that was interesting but I think the view was worth it.

We could see all of Florence and more.

But, the real highlight of the weekend was Sunday when we went wine tasting in the little Tuscan town of Trequanda. OH MY GOD IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I almost feel bad showing pictures because they don't even do it justice.

But this was the view from the top of the winery. We took a tour of the whole place and then got to make fresh pasta! Then we did wine tasting. Now, since I have been in Italy I have learned to like my wine. But as far as tasting goes...I still taste red and white and bad and good and that's about it. I was really trying to become a wine expert but the tour guide said I just have to keep practicing until I get the hang of it so I guess that's what I'll do this summer. Needless to say the wine was better than great, probably the best I have had since I have been here.

In the old wine cellar

Our view from lunch.

 

It was just such a typical Italian day and I loved it. Despite this fairytale Tuscan weekend, Monday still rolled around and I had to go to class. I have midterms next week (I thought they didn't believe in these kind of things over here but I guess I was wrong) so I have actual and homework and studying to do which is why I had to keep this one simple.... just Vino e Vistas. Ciao!!

The Transportation

Buongiorno regazzi! (Hello/good morning everyone)...The great thing about that is that its totally acceptable to say good morning until four o'clock in the afternoon. Its pouring here today and its supposed to rain all week I am pretty sure so I thought today would be a really great time to talk about the Italian transportation since I won't be walking anywhere in this weather. I think I might have mentioned it before but there is much more to tell about the transportation here. I would call it a system but I don't exactly know if it qualifies as a system. Now here in Rome, they have extensive transportation meaning an under ground metro, an above ground tram, a whole fleet of buses as well as taxis that can shuttle you to any one of the four train stations or airports. Now, this would all be super great if the transportation was an actual system. But that's not really the case. It's more of an organized chaos and if you don't know the rules than you might as well count yourself out and just walk to wherever your going.
Now that I have been here a little over a month I pretty much have Romes transportation chaos down pat. The general rules are always leave early because sometimes the buses go on strike randomly and the under paid bus drivers refuse to do anything. But if you do happen to be able to catch the bus you still have to leave early....because if your catching the bus at a Desposito which is basically a parking lot where tons of busses leave from then that means your at the beginning or the end of a route and therefore the bus driver is gonna get off and have a 15 minute smoke break before he takes you anywhere. So then you think to yourself, Okay well I'll take the tram. 
Now the tram is pretty useful and I like it far more then the bus...except these two run on their own time especially when its raining ( like today) or the buses are on strike because then the trams are entirely over crowded. All this seems kind of inconvenient I'm sure but I am really not complaining. Being late is kind of the cool thing to do in Italy so it's totally acceptable to be late or sometimes even absent from class because of the bus system.Which works perfect for me because I normally run late anyways and I am kind of enjoying waiting around all the time for buses. Sometimes I try to talk to the locals and they normally humor me and correct my still not so great Italian.
As far as the trains go....everyone says "oh travel in Europe is so easy and cheap just hop on a train!" 
Well, I think that has some truth in it but its definitely not all true. I have taken the train outside of Rome twice now since I have been here. When I took it for a day trip to Naples a couple weeks ago it was not as bad as I imagined it would be. We went to the station early but only because we knew the bus taking us there would probably be running late but the train left right on time and traveling second class to save some money wasn't so bad. This past weekend I took a train to Venice for Carnevale which was absolutely amazing! First of all, because Venice is easily one of the most beautiful cities that I have ever seen.

My first sight when I walked out of the train station.

Second because the costumes where absolutely outrageous.

Even some little kids had on the most elaborate costumes.

 Third because wine actually comes out of the water fountains here....

Gives new meaning to Italians drink wine like its water...

And fourth, because the transportation is even funnier than Romes organized chaos.

Yes, I rode in a Gondola! 

The Gondola ride was incredible even though half the time I thought we were gonna tip because the boats are so skinny. The nice Italian man was definitely trying to overcharge us so I had to use my amazing bartering skills to get the price down. It ended up working out.  Our gondolier told us a lot of history on the ride and even sang in Italian it was great.  But you can imagine this is just another form of transportation that runs on its own time clock because it is certainly no speed boat...and sometimes they even crash which I thought was just so funny.  We also saw how they hand make glass, St. Mark's Basilica and museum, and some random little side street performances as well as an Italian jazz band. It was an incredible weekend overall and then we caught a night train home late Saturday night (early Sunday morning). Needless to say, this train ride was not nearly as fun as my gondola ride. In typical Italian transportation fashion, the train was overbooked so people just stood jammed up against each other in the corridors. And since it was Carnevale, everyone was covered in glitter and confetti and wine so it was basically just a continuation of the party that we had just left in St.Mark's Square. After a while I am thinking to myself 'well we will be at the next stop soon so all these people will get off'. But obviously the train stopped in the middle of nowhere for a good half hour to forty five minutes while people just tramped all over each other trying to steal a seat or find out what was going on. It was late by the time the train started moving again and I had never appreciated American transportation and its efficiency more than when I walked into my apartment and looked at a clock only to see that it was after 8 am. It was a long day (or night?) but totally worth it. And if anyone's going to be trapped on a train leave it to a bunch of college kids to make it fun. 
I hope everyone at home is doing good. I really wish you all could have seen Venice on Carnevale....it's more crazy than St.Patrick's Day at Station Square and Carson Street. It might be as great as a Superbowl or Stanley Cup Parade but I don't know about that. That's pretty tough competition. That's all for now. XOXO. Arrivederci!