Italy

Italy exceeded all my expectations! Venice, Florence, Rome, Verona, and Pisa were absolutely incredible. I can’t believe how fast the past six days have passed!

My trip tour guide affectionately known as “Mama Anna” was a true Italian. She walked, talked and breathed Italy. She was the best tour guide I have ever had! Her knowledge of Italy was incredible and she always had a smile on her face no matter how many times she was forced to count our group of 43!!! Our whole tour group known as the gems became very close very fast. I made some great new lifelong friends. Now every time we see each other we scream “SEMESTER!” and “STICK LIKE GLUE” in our Mama Anna accents! It’s always funny.

Here is an overview of the past six days.

Day 1: Woke up at 7am to shower, finish packing, and grab some breakfast. I met up with 42 other students including Drew, Emily, and Alex in the union to start the Gems of Italy tour. I managed to fit 6 days worth of clothing into my backpack! Job well done! Lots of other students had full rolling duffle bags, which def. was a hassle. After a short Naples city bus tour (Yes, Naples was dirty) I arrived at the train station and headed out on a train to Rome. Around 2 hours later I switched trains and headed to Venice. A total of 8 hours of travel later….I arrived at the hotel in Mestra and went to bed early to prepare for a full day in VENICE!

Day 2: Visited the Islands of Torchello, Burano, Murano, and the main island of Venice. Torchello, which had an old church built out of stones and adorned with tiny pure gold mosaics was stunning. The island itself was picturesque Italian countryside with few houses and beautiful stone bridges. Burano, and old fishing village, had brightly painted houses of every color. The houses served as a way for fisherman to be able to view their house from the water. Murano was a tourist’s paradise! It is famous for Murano glass, only produced on this one island and sold all over the world. I toured a glass factory and watched a craftsman make a vase and stunning glass horse figurine. After Murano, I took a tour of the main island, enjoyed a group dinner of pasta and veal, and ended the day with a gondola ride. As the group took our private boat back from Venice, we watched the sunset across the lagoon. A perfect ending to a perfect day!

Day 3: After another early morning wakeup call I took a 90 minute bus ride to Verona, home of the two star crossed lovers: Romeo and Juliet. I visited Juliet’s iconic balcony and attempted to find Romeo’s door…but no luck. The night before reaching Verona my roommate Emily and I watched Letter’s to Juliet. In the movie multiple women are seen taping notes to the wall underneath Juliet’s balcony with questions about love. After seeing this, we both decided to write our own letters. Unfortunately, the whole letter business was only in the movie and you had to walk in a random door to drop off your letter. Graffiti and locks were placed all throughout the courtyard in front of the balcony. The guide explained that the locks were couples declaring their love for one another. After a few hours in Verona, I made it to Florence. After a group dinner everyone hit the town for a concert.

Day 4: Started the day with a tour of the Academia and saw the famous statue of David by Michelangelo. I was a whole lot bigger than I expected….it’s 16 feet tall! Then our tour guide gave the group a total of 20 minutes in the famous Florence leather market, which didn’t even come close to enough time. I could’ve spent hours there! The market was full of jackets, purses, bags, belts, shoes, and scarves. EVERYTHING. After purchasing three bags, I cut myself off and got back to the meeting point just in time to take a walking tour of Florence. After the walking tour I hopped on another bus to Pisa and took the classic tourist photo holding up the leaning tower of Pisa. Finally around 11pm the bus pulled up to the hotel in Rome. I was absolutely speechless when I stepped off the bus and saw the dome of the St. Peter Basilica lit up only three blocks away!

Day 5: A full day of Rome! I had an early morning tour of the Coliseum and Roman Forum. I was most surprised by all the roman ruins right in the heart of Rome. It was so exciting to be able to actually see all the ruins I had been learning about in my Global Studies course. Around the Coliseum and Roman Forum there were REAL AUTHENTIC pieces of marble columns and stones/bricks that people were able to sit on. I can’t believe they would place such ancient artifacts on the ground for people to sit on. It still blows my mind. For lunch our group stopped at an AMAZING pizza place for margherita pizza and wine YUM! Best wood fire pizza of my life.  I also had a guided tour of the Vatican and St. Peters Bisilica, which was overly crowded. After a couple hours of free time I had a group dinner which was in a back alley and country-ish. It was very cute. I also had a walking tour at night of the Trevvi Fountain, Pantheon, and a couple squares.

Day 6: I started out the day with a scavenger hunt that finished atop a small “mountain” which overlooked all of Rome. The hunt took around 3 hours and everyone was ready to fall asleep ASAP…but since we had 4 hours of free time Alex, Emily, Drew and I met up with Karen, Tina and Taylor and grabbed some lunch together. After lunch I got on the bus to meet the ship back in port. I had about 30 minutes to unpack before the same group decided to head out and grab dinner at an amazing pizza place. We walked in and the owner told us he would just bring us a little of everything. And by a little….he meant LOTS. THREE HUGE PIZZAS. So good.

Overall, I fell in love with Italy. The people were friendly and willing to help. The history of all the buildings and towns blew me away. One of the best parts of the trip was driving through Tuscany and seeing all of the small medieval towns on top of hills lit up in the dark. I’ll never forget Italy, and to make sure I threw a coin in the Trevvi fountain so that I will find my way back to Rome.

Tomorrow I plan on going into port with Tina and Drew to find a place with Wi-fi to upload some pictures to the blog…so keep posted!

Italy

Tomorrow we birth in Naples at 0800! As soon as we birth, I’ll be on my way to Venice. The trip takes ~5 hours by train. I’ll be spending the next 2 days in Venice then I’ll move on to Verona, Florence, Pisa, and Rome. When I get back to the ship Thursday July 7th, I’ll have one more day in Civitavecchia, Italy, which is the port right outside Rome…about an hour train ride.

I’m looking forward to all of the historic Roman ruins and huge cathedrals I’ve been learning about in my global studies course. And…of course..I’m overly excited about the food! Brick oven margherita pizza YUM!

I’ll be out of touch the next six days as I navigate my away around Italy!

Barcelona! The City that Never Sleeps.

Barcelona!

Barcelona is a city that never sleeps! Over the past three days I have gotten into the “local” routine: Late dinners past 10pm, late lunches, siestas, and falling asleep around 4am. I LOVE IT.  The food is delicious! Fresh fruits and veggies, TAPAS, freshly squeezed juice, street sandwiches and chocolate.

So here is an overview of what I’ve done the past three days

Day 1:
•       First person of the ship in Barcelona!
•       Drank café leche..DELICIOUS
•       Monserrat! Unfortunately the boys’ choir was already on vacation, so I was unable to hear them sing. The place was absolutely gorgeous! It was on top of a small mountain and it took about one hour to weave our way up.  The pictures are stunning
•       LAS RAMBLAS! Postcards and stamps
•       Quick Siesta ☺
•       Hit the town for dinner around 10pm (TAPAS) with around 18 people
•       Went to a club and walked along the beach

Day 2:
•       Walked to the gothic quarter and took pictures of the beautiful gothic arthitecture.
•       Gaudi Buildings!
•       Stopped at the Chocolate Museum with Emily, Sammy, and Tina. The ticket was a chocolate bar
•       Have a very interesting shopping experience…apparently it was a wholesale store, you had to buy 20 items, there were no dressing rooms, no sizes, and you weren’t able to try anything on. Props to Emily for being able to speak Spanish and translating for everyone
•       Ate an amazing ham and cheese sandwich. The ham is right off the pigs leg and cut so fine you can see through it. In fact, there are pig legs that hang over the bars in most restaurants.
•       Went shopping at cute little shops and department stores
•       Saw the protestors at the end of Las Ramblas (major street in town). The protestors have been staking out for over a month bringing attention to a 20 percent unemployment rate (40 unemployment rate for those under 25) and funding cutes for education and multiple other areas. They built tree houses in the square and some  even have small gardens growing. It’s insane. These people really know how to protest.
•       Got back to the ship for a quick siesta
•       Ate dinner at two great tapas bars
•       Stopped at a super market for some snacks to take back to the ship

Day 3:
•       Walked to the famous market right off Las Ramblas. This is the best market I have ever seen…fresh fish, meat, fruit, candy, nuts! EVERYTHING. I bought a fresh kiwi and orange smoothie and a chocolate croissant with custard. Then to top it off I had a mixture of pineapples, mangos, kiwi, passion fruit,  and some mysteriously unidentified fruit.
•       Walked with Sammy, Emily, Taylor, and Frannie Everywhere.
•       Finally made it to La Sagrada Familia…the famous church started by Gaudi and set to be completed in 30-40 years. The church is a blend of multiple different eras known as modernism including: gothic, romanesque, and baroque. The pictures I took don’t even begin to do it justice.
•       Walked all the way to Park Guell. The park was designed by Gaudi and was suppose to be a house community/park for the upper class. Now it is a public park and is to the north of the city on a hill/mountain. Great views of the city!
•       Took the metro. WHOOP! So happy to be able to figure out all the transfers
•       Siesta

Tomorrow I have a bike tour of the city from 0730-1100. The ship leaves tomorrow at 2000…it’ll be sad to say goodbye to Barcelona, but even more excited to say hello to Italy two days later.

Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out how to resize some photos and add them to the blog.

Barcelona!

Today was surprising fast paced.  It was taco day at the dining hall, which was a pleasant surprise from the usual meat, fish, and potatoes routine. We had a logistics pre-port and received emergency contact numbers, tips, and ideas of what to do in port. After the pre-port I had just enough time to get to the observation deck to watch the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful! The Mediterranean looked just like a lake…no movement what so ever! And the skies were perfectly clear. STUNNING.

Tomorrow we berth (dock) in Barcelona! Finally the day is here. After eight straight days of classes…it’s time! Tomorrow I’m waking up at 6am to watch the sunrise as we pull into port. Then, after the ship is cleared by customs and I attend the mandatory debriefing session regarding the current protests in Spain, I will be off the ship ☺  It should be somewhere in-between 8-9am. After grabbing some breakfast in town, I’ll have just enough time to make it back to the ship and meet up for my day trip to Monserrat. While there I will be evaluating the impact of pilgrimage and religious tourism on the life of a mountain village for my Italy in the Age of the Renaissance class.

Monserrat, as described by the SAS field office: Located 2,380 feet above sea level, Montserrat, which means “jagged mountain” in Catalan, is known for its religious significance and interesting rock formations.  Begin your visit with a trip to the Santa Maria de Montserrat monastery—a Benedictine Abbey and a 16th-century Basilica, where the
Virgin of Montserrat, a “black Madonna” statue and the patron saint of Catalonia, is venerated.  The monastery, which has hosted pilgrims and visitors since 1025, is home to more than 80 monks who have dedicated their lives to prayer. According to
legend, religious elders of the community found an image of the Virgin Mary in the cave, and from that moment on the site has been known as a holy sanctuary for religious pilgrims.

Rough itinerary for Spain:
Monday: Breakfast in port, Monserrat 1130-1730 (field trip), siesta, and dinner/tapas
Tuesday: Las Ramblas and the market, Sagrada da Familia, and Shopping in the “touristy” areas
Wednesday: Picasso museum and gothic quarter to check out the gothic architecture I’ve been learning about in Global Studies. I’m also going to a concert: Kascade, the #35 Dj in the world
Thursday: 730am Bike tour of the city, some last minute shopping for postcards and such….and more TAPAS! I need to be on the ship by 1800 to avoid dock time, but I plan on arriving a lot earlier. Apparently there is around a 2-3 hour line to get back on the ship at the last minute. Hopefully I can avoid the madness.

After Spain there's only one day before I arrive in Italy. This day is known as Italy global studies day. Which means every student on the ship attends two hours of global studies and then participates in SEA OLYMPICS. Each student on the boat is part of a “sea” and competes in a bunch of activities such as synchronized swimming, basketball, relay races, musical chairs and simon says. The team that wins is first off the ship in BOSTON! Hopefully my sea will kick some serious butt.

Then I’m on my way to Naples, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Verona, and Rome.

SAS Amazing Race Picture!

Here's the picture of our victorious amazing race team! check it out


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Land!

Just spotted North Africa :) Should bunker in an hour.