Arrivederci Roma

Brace yourselves, this could get sappy, corny and emotional.

Today is my last full day in Rome. 88 days have come and gone, and I cannot believe that the program is over.

First I want to thank you all for taking this journey with me. It has been an incredible experience to have an audience, and I’m really glad you kept reading as I kept writing. 72 Blog posts in 88 days, and you keep coming back for more.

That said, I’m not done writing yet! I’ll continue to blog until my feet hit the ground in Newark Airport. My posts may not be daily because of lack of internet, but I promise I’ll do my best to keep on top of it.

So lets start with yesterday. Yesterday I did a bunch of running around to get ready to travel. I stopped off at St. Paul’s Outside The Walls for the last time, and had one last walk around the church I’ve been in for the past 2 months or so.

While doing laundry I brought my guitar and sat in Campo Di Fiori while it was in the machine. I have always wanted to sit on the street and perform, and see how much I could make if I just threw a hat out there with a couple coins in it. So I started playing, and a group of American high school students were standing behind me. I heard one say that I was playing for money, and I turned and told him I was just playing for fun, but that I wanted to play a song for all of them. Thinking quick, I played the “Rap medley” that my bandmate and good friend Kevin Tymon wrote, and I had the kids laughing and dancing. Then they started putting money in the hat. I played for about 5 minutes, going through all of the crazy songs that Kevin sings and adding a few of my own, all the while the kids were taking video of me on their cameras (I hope to come across myself on youtube someday). When I finished, they all clapped and then were on their way for more touring. Nate and I sized up my hat, and found that I had made over 10 Euro (and a coca cola), with just one song. Why haven’t I been doing that all semester???

Later that night one of the girls showed a slideshow of pictures from the past year in Rome, which was nice to see from start to finish where we had been.

We then all left together and went down to a restaurant called Mickey’s (short for Miscellanea). We are all big fans of the food there, and since we’re pretty loyal customers, with some girls going there every Sunday night, Mickey decided to throw an end of semester party for us. Free pasta, wine and dessert for all of us, which I believe totaled 40 people or so. It is incredible to think that 86 nights ago a large group of us were sitting at the same table, having one of our first dinners in Rome.

From there we went to Abbey Theater, where I performed again. We got a room to ourselves in the back and I played a few songs, including one Backstreet Boys song with a SMC girl Angela singing with me. We had a lot of fun, and so many people came I was asked by the people at Abbey to walk out to the bar and play an encore out there for all the people who couldn’t get in the back room. Way to inflate my ego St. Mary’s girls, and thank you so much for coming.

Today we had our banquet, a final wrap up lunch for the semester. The banquet was held at the hotel in the dining room we always eat at. Everyone got dressed up and we went down to a candle-lit 4 course meal. The food was incredible, some of the best I’ve had while being in Rome. The Staff did an excellent job with everything, and it was nice to have this sort of banquet.

Now I’m going to reflect on what Dr. Prebys, the head of the program, said when making her final speech. She asked us to sit and think, “What does Rome mean to you”. So here is my answer to that question:

Rome to me is where I’ve spent the past 3 months of my life, but a place that will be in my thoughts and heart forever. The people I’ve met, the friendships formed, the experiences throughout Rome on a daily basis, just being able to walk around the town and down to the Vatican on a daily basis, that to me is a lifelong memory, one that I will tell friends and family about for the rest of my life.

I wanted to reflect on the entire 3 months, so I’ve come up with a couple of lists. The first will be posted today, which I am going to miss about Rome. Later this week I’ll post my second one, which is everything that I’ve experienced, and my third will be a list of what I’m looking forward to when I get back to the States.

Okay, What I Will Miss about Rome:

The food…of course. The pasta, pizza, gelato, and everything in between, it has been some incredible food in Rome, and I would never get sick of this great Italian food.

The Coffee – I didn’t drink much coffee before I came to Rome. Now I drink at least 2 a day. It is going to be a hard transition back to the states, where I’ll have to find the equivalent of Italian coffee.

The Vatican- I will miss going to the Vatican on a daily basis, and even more so the ability to walk into such a spectacular church such as St. Peter’s and explore every inch of its enormity.

Speaking Italian- Yes I will miss speaking Italian. At times it is very stressful and inconvenient, and can become tiring, but when you succeed in speaking the language to get through an entire meal, or give directions even, it is the most satisfying feeling ever. Being able to blend in and be a true part of the Roman society is something I was set on doing when I came over here. I didn’t want to be looked at as a tourist for 3 months. Yes, there were times when I was a tourist, but on a daily basis I tried my best to blend in.

The Hotel Tiziano- Staying in a four star hotel in Rome is special. Living in a four star hotel in Rome is unheard of. The staff of the hotel are the best. They’re always eager to help us or just to say Ciao when we walk in and out past the desk. They cleaned our rooms and made us food, which made it feel like one big happy family.

The Girls of SMC – For a group of 65 girls from the same college to take in 4 strangers from Villanova and make us feel at home from day one, especially being one of 2 guys in the entire program, that was something I didn’t ever imagine. Since the first few minutes in the airport when we got here until the banquet tonight, they have always been friendly, helpful, and all around great people to be with for 3 months in a foreign country. I’ve made some really good friends here, and I am so happy for that.

Rome- I am going to miss Rome, in its entirety. The city has proven to be an incredible home for 3 months. After all of my traveling and experiences, I cannot see myself studying abroad anywhere else other than this city.

So thank you St. Mary’s for giving me this opportunity to be part of your program, and thank you Rome for being so open to my exploration and discovery of a great city.

I will surely be back again, hopefully sooner than later.

Summer Vacation

At 10:37am today (4:37am East Coast time), after studying for a long time, and losing an hour due to daylight savings, I finished my last exam in Rome, thus beginning, believe it or not, my summer vacation.

Yesterday when I updated, I said that there were too many days left. What I meant to say was that there are too few days left (I've fixed it in the post from yesterday, I don't like leaving tracks of my mistakes, like when I use their instead of they're, which seems to really bother some people who read the blog everyday...you know who you are).

So I have a few free days now to take in Rome as much as possible. I met up with my visitors, Jen and Alan, and we got some pizza for lunch and walked around some of the Piazzas. We then made our way back to St. Peter's Basilica. I've been in St. Peter's a lot of times these past few months, but each time I find or notice someting new and different about it. Today we had the opportunity to climb the Cupola. About halfway up you are inside the Basilica and can walk around the circumference of the dome, looking down at all of the people in the church. As we were doing this, a group of priests were processing in for mass in the main Apse. I stood for as long as I could, head against the metal caging that keeps you from falling from the balcony, and watched the procession. To be able to walk down the street any day of the week and go into St. Peters, that is something special. Out of all of the churches and monuments, museums and buildings I've seen, St. Peters is undoubtedly my favorite that I have experienced.

One of the reasons I like going into it with all of my past visitors is that I get to share my (somewhat limited) knowledge of the Basilica, and I want to share with them the same overwhelming experience I feel every time I walk through those doors. To quote Taylor Carson, a great musician I've had the pleasure of sharing a stage with, "I'm so lucky to be alive". Yes I know, I'm sure many people could be quoted as saying that, but I've been listening to his music a lot over the past three months as I travel and when I'm just walking around Rome, and find myself singing his songs out loud when the sun is shining and I take a second to stop and realize where I am and what an exciting experience this has been. (Even listening right now as I write this post)

The view from the top of the cupola was equally impressive, one of the best views of Rome I've seen. The view of St. Peter's square is incredible from up there as well.

Down the stairs (320 to the elevator) and out to Piazza del Popollo and then up to Villa Borghese, to the spanish steps and back down to my hotel. I think it was a good workout for all of us.

For dinner, It's hard to imagine I still hadn't tried Bafetto yet, so we decided to go there to try it out. Food was really good, but I've come to expect that in Rome at this point. We did a mini gelato crawl afterward, Giolitti and San Crispino. I'm not sure which Jen and Alan liked best, but I still think I'm a Giolitti fan, even after the side-by-side comparison.

Another stop at the Trevi for Jen and Alan to throw coins in, which seems to have worked the first time they both came to Rome a few years ago.

Tomorrow involves tying up a lot of loose ends, and even, dare I say it, a bit of packing to do, with Wednesday quickly approaching.

And if you're looking for some great music, please do take a look at Taylor Carson's webpage: www.taylorcarson.com

I promise, you'll like what you hear.

A quick update before studying

One exam down, one to go. At 11am tomorrow I will be a free man, in the sense that I'll be free from studying and taking tests, free to roam Rome for the last few days I have here (far too few as far as I'm concerned)

I did want to give a little update though to all of you to let you know that my final guests of the semester have arrived safely in Rome, and had a fun first day. They were able to get out and see a lot of stuff while I was studying and taking my exam this afternoon, and I met up with them afterward to walk around a bit, and then go to dinner. I took to them to, of course, my favorite restaurant, which all of my guests have been taken to ( I think I've been there maybe 4 or 5 times now?) and I think they really enjoyed the food. By the end of dinner I could tell they were getting very tired from traveling and being up for such a long time, plus all of the walking I made them do today (I forget sometimes that people aren't used to walking for miles the second they get off a plane) so we made it an early night so I can get some studying in as well.

Daylights savings tonight in Rome, so I lose an hour of sleep (or studying, not sure which I'll apply it to yet). 11am tomorrow,(5am East Coast Time), 12 hours from now, I will be done.

I also just realized that tonight was probably the last time I will go to Fraschetta, my favorite restaurant here in Rome. That thought just hit home pretty hard, more-so than knowing I leave in a few days. I am excited to travel, and yes even to come back to the States and see everyone and everything I've been away from, but it is small things like that, a favorite restaurant, that I are the hardest to leave.

Being a good student

This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, I have finals for my two classes through St. Mary's. So instead of writing a blog for tonight, and maybe tomorrow night, in order to study (cram) for my exams.

Saturday I have my Religion exam, and Sunday is my Mythology exam. I also have some visitors, the last ones I'll have, coming tomorrow morning, so I'm going to be incredibly busy. Come Sunday at 11am, I am done, and though I'm not ready to be done with Rome, I'm ready to be done with studying.

We've had some of the most beautiful weather in Rome, and I've had to enjoy it inside a library and my room, so I'm ready to have a few free days to enjoy the weather and take in as much of the city as I can before I leave it again.

Okay, I'm procrastinating, back to the books...

Internet office goodbye

This week has been full of "Lasts" for me, so why kill the streak and talk about something different?

Today was our last day of work, in the Internet office of the Holy See. Nate and I went in at 10 for work(since we didn't have Italian we got to sleep a bit!) and worked on finishing up at our computers. We mostly were backing up files, and prepping the computers for the next set of interns. It's hard to believe my work is done at the office, even though I still have some work with my St. Paul's video to finish up Stateside. Writing a note to the new interns to take our place brought back a lot of good memories from when we walked into the office the first time, and how it took us a half hour to figure out all the different passwords for the computers. They were all different, and had wacky hints from past interns to try and tell us what they were.

I took a minute to contemplate the change over the past six months or so from: "I am going to intern at the Vatican" to "I am interning at the Vatican" and now finally: "I interned at the Vatican". With each of those three statements comes to mind very distinct memories and thoughts. The first, telling everyone about my internship to come, and the mystery of it all, which at times made me nervous. Then came the present, where I was involved in the office and my project at St. Paul's, and now finally, I will talk about it in the past, as I share my experiences and stories with family and friends, and most likely some potential employers (who hopefully turn into simply "employers"). I know I will remember my experiences forever, but I'm also glad I took the chance to document them with you all on the blog.

We said our final goodbyes to everyone in the office as well. The people we work with have been great. They were always willing to try and involve us in conversation, even though we sometimes couldn't understand them, or them us. We used our Italian as best we could, and they tried out english just for us. I want to thank them for allowing us to join their office life for the past 3 months.

We stayed a little late today in the office. We got caught up writing our notes to the new interns. Or maybe it was just something in our subconscious, telling us to stay as long as we could, just a little while longer, to prolong having to walk out of our office, down down the stairs, and out the giant Green doors, looking left and seeing St. Peter's just at the end of the street, before turning right and heading across the bridge, back to our hotel.

A Home Cooked Roman Meal

Tonight, as a celebration of the end of our Italian lessons, we were invited by Carlotta to her house for a home-cooked Italian meal.

When I say for a home-cooked meal, I mean genuine, home-made everything. The food was fantastic, and gave us a great idea of what a traditional home-cooked meal is like here in Rome, considering our experience is only with eating out. The dinner included not only us four Villanova Students, but also Gloria who has been mentioned in the blog before as one of the Villanova interns from a few years ago, and also Carlotta's sister-in-law Alessandra who is our age and speaks english very well.

Carlotta made home-made bread, a variety of kinds, my favorite being the bread with olives in it which was fantastic. The Pane was our Anti-Pasti and our Primi was home-made pasta in a great tomato sauce with capers and olives. The pasta was some of the best I've had while I've been here. She also let us try some Ro Olio, which is olive oil that her family grows and sells at their house by the shore (I'll use the Jersey terminology here). Our Secondi was fresh cut prosciutto and turkey, two different kinds of fresh mozzarella, and a Zucchini quiche without any sort of crust to it. Everything was so fresh. Dessert, ciambella's (donuts) that Gloria brought from a bakery which reminded me, as always, of Miss Ob Co's down the Jersey shore, and a home-made apricot pie that Carlotta made. She also offered us chocolates and caffe to end our meal (she used the Espresso machine that she always talks about with us, which is endorsed in Italy by George Clooney, a George-Foreman'esque product if you will, but just like a Foreman it works really well) .

We sat at the table eating and talking for a good 4 hours, not even noticing it was midnight when we called for a cab. The conversation switched back and forth between English and Italian, which I thought was really cool. Sometimes mid-story those more fluent in both languages (Gloria, Alessandra, and of course Carlotta) would switch from one language to another. It was fun to have this mixed conversation, and really showed how far I've come learning Italian when I realized I understood more than I ever expected to when coming to Rome 3 months ago.

And of course, one of the highlights of the night was finally meeting Carlotta's bambino (little boy) Giorgio. He was loving all the attention, showing us how he walks and throws a ball, and even posed for a couple pictures that Gloria took of him.

I've said it a thousand times, but I can't thanks Carlotta enough for all she's done for us. We've become like family with her over the past three months, and I know whenever I come back to Rome (notice it's not if, but when) she will be the first person I call to catch up with.

Last Day of Class

Today was my last day of classes in my Saint Mary's program. I ended with a final class in Mythology, and on Monday I had my final class in Religion.

Tomorrow will be our last day of Italian class and our last day working for the Vatican. It has been an amazing experience in both.

Taking classes in Rome was pretty cool. A lot of the subjects and curriculum of the classes is tied into Italian culture or Rome, so it was nice to be learning about what we are experiencing in our day to day life. Obviously for Religion this relates to the Vatican, where Mythology was focused largely on Roman Mythology. We learned about myths of Roman foundation and of different places in Italy, and seeing the ancient paintings and sculptures of these mythological characters was always a nice way of bring what we're learning into a visual medium, something that makes it much easier for me to learn.

I am most sad to have to end my Italian classes. Carlotta has been the best person to go to for anything while we are over here, so it was much more than just learning the language but also learning the culture and day to day life of Romans through her. She was always open to talk about anything and to answer questions that we had about certain things in Italy, and I think this really gave us a unique appreciation for the culture. We all bonded very closely in our Italian classes. You would think that 2 hours a day would get pretty taxing, especially since we have to wake up to go to class at 8 every morning, but the two hours went by quickly every day, and I found myself looking forward to each class. We did have homework and writing assignments, even a midterm and final, but she kept what we were learning interesting and most importantly it was relevant Italian for us to live in Italy for 3 months. Anything we learned in class was immediately put to use in our daily lives, and I've been more passionate about Italian than I ever was for learning French (sorry to anyone who taught me French over the years, it's hard not to be favorable to Italian in my given situation).

Work has been incredible. I know I talked about it mostly yesterday, and I will still reflect on it in the coming days as everything comes to a close.

To think that this was a full college semester for me is incredible. It is surely the semester I will remember the most.

A Trip Inside the Walls

As you might have noticed, my blog is formally titled "Inside the Wall" followed by what I consider a pretty catchy subtitle that explains what the blog is about ("A blog of my experiences interning at the vatican, living in Rome, traveling Europe, and whatever else happens to come my way..."). As it turns out, my office is right outside the walls of the Vatican. Through a series of events and the Internet office of the Vatican switching from being under the Pope to being under the Vatican City State, we are one the only offices outside the walls that is under the jurisdiction of the Vatican City State. I consider that a cool little fun fact.
Seeing as our office is outside the walls, it isn't often that we have the opportunity to go inside the walls. Today, I made my second trip past the Swiss guards and Vatican Police security to visit inside the walls.

Nate and I had a meeting with our Adviser for the Internship who works Inside the Walls at the Telecommunication department office. We first had a tour of the telecommunications facilities, which for a technology nerd like myself, was awesome. We saw the facilities for the phone services, internet, and television, which are all their own functioning systems, meaning they don't rely on Italian companies to operate. They are all maintained in-house (or in-vatican I guess you could say). There is even a switchboard for an information phone number to the vatican that is operated by a group of Nuns from around the world. They operate on computers now through a digital interface, but the fact that they still answer each call is pretty incredible.

After the tour we met with our Adviser and Padre Fernando, who is the head of telecommunications. He thanked us for our work at the Internet office, and presented us with certificates for our work this semester. He also gave to us a very special gift: Rosary beads from the Pope. They have Pope Benedict's coat-of-arms on them and come in a brown case that has the coat-of-arms as well. It was very nice of them to do this for us, and the opportunity to work for the Vatican was alone enough of a gift (but I'll still take the Rosary beads too).

Pompei, Napoli, Capri

This weekend I made my first trip south of Rome in Italy. Hard to believe since it is the end of my time here, but I’d say it was the perfect time to do so. The weather is getting warmer, and down in Naples and Capri it sure felt like Spring, if not Summer.

Pompei on Friday:

I jumped on a train around eleven in Rome towards Naples. Coincidentally (okay it was planned) it was the same train that Becky and her friends were on coming from Florence. They had a great time in Northern Italy, and we are all looking forward to some warm weather on the coast.

We got to Naples around noon and headed to our hostel. The area around the train station is not necessarily the nicest area I’ve seen, though Naples in general didn’t impress me (more on that later). After we checked in we headed to the bus station to take us to Pompei. About an hour later, and only getting mixed up on the bus once (overshot the stop for the Pompei excavations, who knew Pompei was more than ruins?) we were at the Pompei scavi site. Walking through the ruins was pretty incredible, you can just imagine what it was like before it was completely drowned out by a volcanic eruption. The preservation and excavations are pretty impressive. We stayed for a couple hours, until the park was closing, and then headed back towards Naples to find some dinner. Dinner tonight was at a restaurant called Il pomodorino, which has some awesome Napolean style pizza.

Pizza in Naples:

Pizza in Naples is much different than the Roman pizza I’ve become accustomed to. To explain it easiest, Pizza in Naples is similar to Pizza in New Jersey, in that it is round, has a thick crust on the outside, with thin base for the rest of the pizza. That’s where the similarities end. The pizza has a distinct fresh taste, and it was consistently good. I had a couple different types, including a Calzone style with prosuito inside it, which was fantastic.

Saturday in Capri:

We woke up early Satuday to catch a Ferry to Capri. The ferry takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get to the Island, and once we were close the view was breathtaking. When we docked, we just sat on the beach right there and took it in for a while. The Island of Capri has two major areas of population: Capri town and Anacapri. Both are at higher elevations above sea level, so you have to take a bus or cable car to either. Anacapri was further away, so we opted for Capri town. The cable car up the hill was a nice 5 minute ride, and we were in the center of the town. The view from the main street down upon the beach and cliff houses was incredible. We walked the street snapping photos of every single angle we came upon. We got more pizza, some gelato, and were on our way up to a peak of Capri town.



This is what we saw when we got to the top of the peak, which looked the opposite direction of the port and Naples. From here, we headed down a long winding path through the Augustine Gardens, and then back up the hill to the town. It was a slow, relaxing walk down and then back up, with many stops to take photos and just enjoy where we were.

I could have spent another couple of days exploring Capri and would have loved to have gotten to Anacapri, but with the ferries running on a tight schedule we had to head back to Naples sooner than I think any of us really wanted to, even though we were there for a good 11 hours or so.

Sunday in Napoli:

Oh Naples, what an interesting little city. Our hostel was very nice, and the concierge was very helpful in showing us where to go and what we should see, and maybe it was just that we were spoiled by Capri, but other than the food, I wasn’t all that impressed by Naples. Don’t get me wrong, it had its moments, like when I played soccer with a 4 year old local boy in Piazza del Plebiscito, which was full of local kids kicking around soccer balls and playing. It’s easy to see why countries like Italy have such incredible soccer players, since they all use their feet to kick a ball by the time they can walk, instead of always trying to throw it or just pick it up. I’ve wanted to kick a soccer ball around with locals since I got to Italy, and this was my chance to. The little boy I kicked around with was about the same skill level as me (kidding, but in 4 years he’ll be the next Pele), and we ran around kicking the ball back and forth until we were both exhausted.

Afterwards we walked around Naples a bit more, found a really good pizza place (go figure) and then headed back to the hostel to grab our bags and head our separate ways, Becky and her friends back to London town, and myself back to Roma.

The Final Countdown:

10 days. That’s what I have left in Rome. Even as I type it I can’t believe it. It’s like the feeling you have the last week of summer, as you are getting ready to go back to school, back to college, and back to the real world. In this case I’m actually going home to summer, not school, but it is really something I can’t quite grasp yet. I need to stop sleeping so I can fit as much in as I possibly can for the next 240 hours.

Pictures from the Weekend:

One last trip in Italy...

So this is my final open weekend in Rome, so I will be making a final trip within Italy for it.
Traveling Italy has been incredible. If there is one country you can travel to multiple cities and never get bored, it is, from my experience, Italy. I’ve been to so many different small cities and each one has its own unique feel and culture to it. Being that Italy was and has always been very much segregated by region, they still hold their own regional cultural values and traditions in high regard. It’s definitely a pride thing for the Italians.

It seems that many people agree with the above statement. For their spring break, Becky and her friends decided to travel Italy, visiting Rome first, then going north to Florence with a couple side trips up there, and now down to Naples, with side trips to Capri and Pompei. I’ve decided to join them on their journey south.

This is my first time going south, and I have to say I’m quite excited for it. I’ve heard so many cool things about Capri and Pompei, and of course Naples has its own unique qualities.
I’ll be getting on a train tomorrow to head down to Naples, where we will stay. It’s only an hour and ten minute ride from Rome, which is nice to be able to get somewhere so quickly and not have to deal with the airport security and all of the minor hassles that come with flying.

Seeing as it is my final trip, I’ll be sure to take tons of pictures (just reminded myself to charge my camera battery, that would be pretty terrible if I didn’t), and will of course be back online Sunday night or Monday to blog about the entire thing, as I have with all my other trips.
I’ll leave you now with a gallery of pictures I call, “My days with the Pope” which are a compilation of the three different days over the past three weeks that I saw the Pope (2 Angelus’, one Audience) and also my visit to the Vatican Museum, and another visit to St. Peter’s.

St. Patty's day with the Pope

As you may have guessed from my picture I tweeted earlier today, I went to my first Papal Audience today. I’ve been to two Angelus’ in the past two weeks, but this was my first Audience for the trip. Through our intern program, we were able to get some pretty incredible seats. We sat in a reserved section on the side of the stage, two rows back from the barricade. We didn’t even have to go through security like all the others sitting in the reserved section of the Audience, but were taken past the Swiss guards around the back to our seats. You can’t help but feel privileged doing something like that, and in fact we are pretty privileged in the fact that we even get to do things like this.

The pope came out in true fashion, and drove around in his pope-mobile through the crowd in the square. This is the first audience of the year that was held outside in the square so it was a pretty cool experience. They then drove the pope up to the stage and let him out, where he commenced telling his message. In his message in English to the English speaking countries, he gave special recognition to the Irish and St. Patrick’s day:

Speaking of St. Patty’s day, we celebrated in true Irish fashion (I suppose) by going to an Irish pub here in Rome (Scholars) for dinner. The atmosphere was lively, there was an Irish band playing music all night, and the food was great. I had the full Irish Breakfast, for dinner, which included eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, and beans. I must say, it’s one of the biggest/best breakfasts I’ve had since being in Rome, even if it was for dinner. ( I tried to order Irish Stew first, but they didn’t have any tonight)

While we sat and ate, I heard the band play lots of Irish songs that I recognized. Instantly reminisced about home, because their the songs I hear playing throughout our house on St. Patrick’s day, coming from the 6 CD changer in the Family Room playing on Shuffle(It’s one of the only times we ever use the 6 CD changer, and sometimes we go a whole year leaving the Irish music in there, so when the next St. Patty’s day comes along, we don’t even have to switch the CD’s). That’s exactly what it felt like in Scholars tonight, and I couldn’t help but sing along and take in the music and atmosphere.

Both events today were very memorable experiences that, as this program comes to a close (how many times am I going to say that?!) I will always cherish and remember. My first audience with the pope, where he blessed my rosary beads (not personally, he blesses all items at the end) and my St. Patrick’s day in Italy.

(Pictures to come, tomorrow most likely)

Johnson & Johnson to the rescue...

This isn’t a topic I exactly wanted to ever have to write about while over here, but since I’m going through the wonderful experience, why not share it with you.

I came over to Rome back in January on the last week of a 3 week prescription of antibiotics. I had a bit of bronchitis in the fall, and only got rid of it finally when I took that medicine and got over here. I’ve felt pretty good ever since, but I guess I was due for another cold. I tend to get sick pretty often at school, at least once a semester I seem to come down with something, so I was hoping I could make it through my Study Abroad program without getting sick again. I was wrong I suppose.

We can blame it on the crazy weather, or at least I’m going to. The fact that it has been going from 65 and sunny to 30 and rainy for the past two weeks every 24 hours or so has thrown my immune system off, or so I believe. So the past few days I’ve developed a head cold. Pretty standard stuff. I normally travel prepared for this situation, since I’m used to having allergy and sinus headaches and colds, but it seems I forgot to bring a medicine for at night. I’ve got the daytime stuff covered with Tylenol cold and sinus day, and my favorite ColdEeze cough drops (I swear by them, I think they reduce the severity/length of a cold, google ColdEeze and see what you find) but I didn’t have any Nyquil or other night-time medicines.

So off to the pharmacy I went today, to see what I could find. I walked in and took a look around. The pharmacies in Rome are tiny, unlike a CVS or RiteAid you would find back home. As it turns out lots of the medicine has to be asked for at the counter, since it is kept in a storage closet.

Healthcare is public in Italy, and that’s what makes this interesting. You can actually go into a Pharmacy and just buy antibiotics over the counter, though you have to ask for exactly which you would like. Antibiotics are a prescription in America, so I found this pretty interesting. There are also signs up around Italy campaigning against the use/abuse of antibiotics. Turns out since their so easy to get here, people take them whenever they feel sick because they think that will stop anything. Clearly this is not the case, and since I wasn’t interested in buying any antibiotics, that’s the end of my knowledge on them in Italy vs. America, though I thought you might find that interesting.

As it turns out, though it is easier to get different medicines here, you have to ask for just about anything at the counter. They don’t just have Tylenol or asprin even lined up on the shelves, but they are all behind the counter. I asked the pharmacist for an Antihistimine, and she said, in Italy, we have this. She then handed me over a very plain looking box, with the name “ACTIfed” on it. I took the box and looked at the labels. There were none. It didn’t have any real information on the outside of the box, other than that it was made by Johnson and Johnson. That was familiar to me, so I figured it was worth a try.

When I got back to my room and opened the box, I found a pamphlet with all the information I was looking for. As it turns out, this “ACTIFed” is actually Pseudoephedrine, or “Sudafed” as we more commonly know it. Sudafed though in the United States doesn’t contain Pseudoephedrine anymore due to restrictions, but is still available by request at a pharmacy if you ask for “original Sudafed” to a pharmacist. A quick google search showed me that what I have is the exact same formula that the “original Sudafed” is.

Now if there are any medical/medicine buffs out there, you know that pseudoephedrine isn’t an antihistamine but a decongestant. The original Sudafed though, and the ACTIFed that I purchased today, contains triprolidine HCl which is an antihistamine, and a more effective one than what is in Sudafed today, according to my quick google/Wikipedia search.

So why can I get the original Sudafed so easily in Rome and not in the USA, when it is believed that the original Sudafed is more effective? …No I don’t have an answer to that, feel free to answer or leave it as a rhetorical question, up to you. (maybe it has something to do with the different healthcare systems? Discuss…) (Update: Upon further research, you can still get the original Sudafed from a Pharmacy in the U.S. by going to the counter and asking for it, just like I did in Rome. But why is it that you have to ask at the counter and not just pick it up off a shelf, and why in Rome do they not sell the "alternative" Sudafed, or Sudafed PE? Do the Italians know something we don't know? Are we being taken by J&J by buying a lesser product? Or are we just that advanced and aren't willing to share our new findings with Europe?)

And also, why can’t J&J just make it easier and call it Sudafed in Italy? Why did I have to go through all that trouble to find out that’s what it is? I’m pretty sure there is some legality with other companies using “Sudafed” in the states, because that is trademarked by J&J, but why not carry the name over into Europe? (Again, feel free to answer, or to leave it…maybe a lawyer with this area of expertise can answer that?)

St. Paul's update

We had another beautiful day here in Rome. The weather is making it harder and harder to think about leaving in 3 weeks...

So I figured I'd take today to give you a bit of an update on my project at St. Paul's! I have finished the majority of the shooting at St. Paul's. For the past week I have been going through my footage and pictures to make sure I have everything covered that I've shot so far. There are still a few different possible locations that I haven't shot yet, but I have to look at the script compared to the VR footage I already have and decide if I need any additional content for those sections.

Looking at the script is no easy task. It is written in Italian, and I have no translation of it whatsoever. Chances are somewhere down the line it will be translated so they can have the voiceover's in different languages or put subtitles, but for me, it's a lot of searching for words I understand, piecing together, and google translate.

Speaking of the script, I did what I hope is the final recording of the voice-over today with one of my co-workers in the Internet Office today. Anna was kind enough to lend her voice for the project and I think it is going to sound great.

I only have 2 weeks left, but I feel like I can get all of the shooting and recording done before I head home, and then edit together a nice piece for St. Paul's Basilica when I'm back Stateside.

So there's my quick update for the day. I'm planning on doing another Q&A again this week, so please post questions in the comments, as always, and I'll be sure to answer. Not sure if this will be the last Q&A or if there will be one final wrap-up one, but don't let any rock go un-turned.

Happy Birthday to Me...

Yesterday I took the day off from blogging to act as a tour guide for Becky and her friends…oh, and I also took the time off to celebrate my birthday.

The big TwoOne
So what’s it like to be 21? The same as being 20 and 364 days old I suppose. I woke up and felt the same as I have every other day I’ve been in Rome. And that’s my point exactly, that it may not have felt different for me to wake up and be 21, but the fact of the matter is that I celebrated my 21st birthday in Rome.

Not many people can say that. Well okay, tons of people can say that, I forget there are thousands of 21 year old Romans, so, not many Americans can say they have. Okay so again, yes this is probably not extremely rare with thousands of American students studying abroad in Rome every year I suppose. But how many can say that they turned 21 while studying abroad in Rome and Interning at the Vatican?

What? That’s cheating because nobody else really has the chance to say that due to my special and unique situation through Villanova’s special Internship program at the Vatican? My point exactly.

Yesterday I showed becky and her friends around the Vatican. We went to the Vatican museum and I saw the Sistine Chapel for the first time since I’ve been here. I stood in the center of the chapel, taking it all in, and realized how lucky I was. I had a connection with the chapel, because sometime in the near future a virtual tour of it will be going up, which was produced by Villanova Students and Faculty the semesters before me.

We then went to St. Peter’s Basilica. I stood there, for probably the 6th or 7th time, and still was able to find new things to look at. I have an even stronger connection with this, because when that virtual tour goes up, I will be able to look at it and know exactly where I was standing the second every one of those pictures was taken.

And that to me is the best birthday gift of all. This experience is a gift. So I want to take a second to thank everyone who has made this possible, for me to be in Rome on my birthday, standing in St. Peter’s Basilica.

(Here's my academy award-esque blog post of thank you's on my birthday)

Thanks to my parents, who have raised me these past 21 years. For always supporting me, especially in my endeavors in College and in all of the other crazy dreams I chase.

Thanks to Villanova, The Communication Department, and Mr. Waterhouse who have setup and funded such an amazing program. For them to realize the potential this could have to change a student’s life, I thank them for going through everything to keep this program going strong.

Thanks to my friends and family who have come to visit me here, and for letting me share my experiences with them. And for those new friends I’ve made along the way, the St. Mary’s students who have been so open to including us Villanova guys into their experiences.

And of course, thanks to all you readers. I’m normally not one for journaling or writing in general. My hand writing is horrendous (A 1st graders penmanship is better), so for me to have this blog is a new thing for me. It’s actually the only way I can see myself having ever written about this trip, but since the first blog post I’ve been hooked to write as much as I can, and to share my pictures with you all. I know I’ve thanked you before, but I can’t thank you enough for giving me the opportunity to really open up my mind and explore my experiences deeper in order to share them with you. I’ve learned a lot from just the writing and reflection.
And thank you for all of the birthday wishes. The cards, emails, phone calls, and of course comments on the blog. Yesterday brought the most traffic to the blog to date, I’m sorry to have not posted anything. Thanks for checking though, I hope you keep coming back for more.

Rain, rain, go away...

This must be my third blog post about the weather, but so far it's one of the only things I haven't been impressed by here in Rome. Well actually, I take that back. I've been impressed by the fact that it can be beautiful and sixty, without a cloud in the sky in the morning, and by noon it is pouring rain with no sign of letting up. I know I've heard about London being this way, but Rome?

Actually, my visitors from London told me today that it isn't even like that in London.

So far on my trip: First snowfall in 25 years in Rome? Check. Rain 5 days a week at least for an hour? I'd say that ones a check too. Ranging from 60 to 30 within one week for the past month? You got it. Global warming affecting Rome? Al Gore would most certainly say so.

This rain keeps putting kinks in my plans as a tour guide. Another kink came in the form of a public transportation strike today. All buses and metro in Rome were on strike today. Striking seems to be a pretty common thing these past two months in Europe as well, especially in the Transportation sector. Lufthansa had a strike the day after my parents flew home on one of their flights. EasyJet had a strike that delayed becky's arrival to Nice, and messed with a lot of my classmates travel plans. British Airways is planning a strike as well for the near future. Public Transportation I believe has been on strike twice since I've been in Rome. I'm pretty sure I've seen some other protests and strikes recently in the news in Europe as well?

So what's going on that all these groups of people are so unhappy? I'm living here and I couldn't be happier. But I guess the grass is always greener on the other side, and in my case I get to frolic in those greener fields for a couple months.


Sorry for no post last night, I went to post and realized I had no more internet left and didn't want to have to wake the night clerk to buy more.

The Changing of the Guests

It feels like the Jamie duo just got here a day or two ago, yet they've been here just short of a week and they are on their way back to the states tomorrow morning. I'm really glad that they came, and I hope they had a lot of fun on their spring break. I tried to keep them busy with all of the cool stuff I've found over the past two months, suggesting things for them to do when I was in class and at work. They were just getting the hang of navigating the city, using the buses to get two and from their hostel to where I am and to other sites in the city, learning some pretty basic phrases in Italian (They had a lot of fun with that) and now it's time for them to head home, back to New Jersey and back to class on Monday. They did a really good job keeping up with my fast pace and lots of walking, I know they were sore after the first two days of so much walking, but they really toughed it out to see everything I had to show them. I'll let them speak for themselves, but I think they enjoyed the food the most. I crammed my favorite places to eat from 2 months of experimenting within 6 days. That's a lot of gelato, pizza, pasta and desserts. We had a final dinner at Fraschetta, which is my absolute favorite restaurant in Rome. I think they might agree. I'm looking forward to seeing some guest blogging from them after they get back and have time to put their thoughts into a post for me.

My week of playing tour guide is not quite over yet though. I have about 12 hours of recouping before my next set of visitors gets here. The Jamies will literally be passing Becky and her friends mid-air tomorrow, who touch down at noon. Tired yes, but I couldn't be happier to show everyone the same things all over again. Maybe I'll switch up the itinerary a bit, I did try a lot of new things with the Jamies, so I've got a lot more on my list to pick from. And I only have 3 or 4 days with Becky and her friends, so I hope their up for the challenge. And yes, I will be going back to Fraschetta with this group in the next couple of days.

So here's to my guests of the week, thank you for letting me share my life for the past two months with you. I hope its not overkill while you're all here.

And on that note, off to prep for tour group #2!

Internal compass vs External GPS

I would like to think that over the past couple of months I have been able to get a firm grasp on navigating Rome. And in fact I would say this is true for the most visited areas around me. Want to get to one of the famous piazzas or monuments? Then I'm your guy. But as it turns out Rome has more than its fair share of side streets and small cobblestone roads. This makes finding more obscure places much more difficult.

Enter my internal compass. I think I have a pretty good internal compass. Star me off at a place, walk me down all different streets in all different directions, and more likely than not I can get us back to the starting point. Maybe I just have really good recall of a route, but generally I feel as though during the course of an experiment like this I would always be able to point in the general direction of the original starting place. This is a pretty valuable asset even when I'm not in Rome, and sometimes it is extremely valuable when I'm in a foreign city and am not as comfortable/familiar with the area.

I think I have talked about this internal compass a little bit in the past, but what I haven't talked about is my secret aid in case of emergency.

One of the really valuable things with having a "smartphone" (Thanks Tim for lending it to me!) is that I have GPS built in through Google maps on my phone. The GPS on this phone can calculate my position by using information to the cell towers the phone is contacting. Because it knows I am connected to a certain cell tower, and within range of two others, it can triangulate my position from this information, something that a phone is always doing in the background, tracking your location for better service and a stronger signal, and putting it to more use for the user. It then uses my internet signal though 3G to download the maps from google maps. The result is pretty incredible. On a normal basis I can get the GPS to locate me to within a hundred meters of where I'm standing. Sometimes it is more accurate and others it has a wider range of my location. The phone puts a pinpoint on the map as to where it thinks I am, and then places a radius around that blip based on the accuracy of the calculations at that point. This can range from 50 meters to 500 meters, which is a wide difference, especially when you're talking about narrow side streets that all intersect and run very close to each other.

It is a good emergency tool, and paired together with my internal compass it tends to be pretty efficient. I'm not one to use maps often, and using the GPS feels like cheating every once and a while, but most of the time it is justified because of the setup of Rome. Sure, streets have names here, but sometimes the names are harder to figure out than in the States. Finding a street sign is one issue, which are normally not signs but plaques built into the sides of buildings on corners. Normally one corner out of 4 at minimum will have the sign for that street. When you can find a street sign though, sometimes you'll find that a street has several names. One may be the official name, while others could be local or historical names for the street. It is normally the official name of the street on the plaque, but not always the same name that end up on maps, in tour books, or in other listings of a place, say for example a restaurant. When we were trying to find Tony's restaurant the other night, we had problems trying to figure out what the cross streets were. It turns out we were standing in a Piazza, unnamed on a map, which overrode the individual street names with labeling them on the plaques. After a combination of GPS and my internal sense of direction, we were able to find the restaurant. I feel like this is the perfect blend of external and internal instincts. The GPS couldn't help tell me where to go, because street names were all different and it only had a rough sense of where I was located, but it was able to tell me about where I was, for example how close to the river we were, and using this and my sense of direction, knowing where the restaurant should be in relation to everything else, we were able to find it in no time.

So yes, GPS systems are very useful, and being an endorser of all things technology, I find them to be vital instrument in our lives and in the future, but lets not forget or lose our sense of internal direction. A GPS can only get you so far.

Live at Abbey Theater...

Tonight I got to do something that I cherish in the U.S., but in Italy. I haven't played music on stage in about three months, probably since December when I played an acoustic show with a friend of mine Dave Eisner. Tonight I had the chance to play on stage again, and boy was it fun to shake the cobwebs off.

I'm not going to sugar coat it, my performance didn't go exactly as planned. When I say that I mean that I always have in my head the exact way I see a night going, and while that didn't necessarily happen, it wasn't all bad, I promise.

I had talked to someone via Email about playing at Abbey theater, and they let me know they were starting open mics in March. They wanted me to confirm being able to play, to make sure they had people there, so I gladly said yes. Early in my trip here I bought a guitar, a $40 classical guitar from a bookstore, right handed, so I had to take the strings off and restring it for my funky lefty playing. It's been good to me, but at the end of the day it's still a cheap, pretty much plastic, acoustic guitar. I haven't used it for much other than fooling around in my room, so when I found out I was going to play I started putting it through a rigorous practice schedule this past week.

I was told three songs, though I could have gotten away with more as the night turned out, but I prepped to play three songs. I always struggle with song selection with the band, I have so many different songs in my head I want to play and in different orders for a setlist. I overthink it sometimes, but it's better than going in unprepared.

Song selection for this one was particularly tough because I was playing a Solo act, my first time ever playing out solo. Normally when we play small shows I play with at least one other person, normally my bandmate for the past three years and great friend, Kevin Tymon. He's a great guy to play with, and I could have used him tonight to back me up through all three songs.

So three songs... First is a no brainer, I played "Fighter" which is an original I play with the band. It's one of the only songs I play guitar on/sing lead. Yes, not only was I shaking off 3 month old cobwebs, but I also rarely play guitar/sing lead at shows, that's normally up to Kevin in the band, or whoever else I'm playing with if its a duo act with me and another person. So I didn't even practice Fighter really for this show, it's stuck in my mind forever. A reflex to play almost. How about the next two songs? Well I decided to do covers, over much debate on what to play. Normally I have someone to discuss setlists with, but this time I was alone to my own opinion. I was back and forth between playing "The General" by Dispatch, and a Dave Matthews Band song, which was bound to be a crowd pleaser. Trouble was, I didn't know how to play any DMB songs fully through/sing with them, and I surely had never played one live. I settled on playing "Grey Street" if I was going to do a DMB song, and taught it to myself a couple hours before the show.

For the third song I must give credit to the above-mentioned Kevin Tymon. Back when the band was young, Kevin wrote an awesome medley of Rap songs set to a comical acoustic tune.It's been 3 years and we've played it at every show thus far. I decided to keep up the tradition, along with adding some newer songs to the end of the medley (You can download an old copy from 5pointmusic.com and click on downloads, then on the World Cafe Live Show, or if you're feeling generous, search 5point on iTunes and buy the "Rap Medley" from there). I know it gets a little old sometimes, but I absolutely love this song.

So tonight finally came, and me, as prepared as I was going to be, was ready to take the stage. I was honored first off to see so many of my classmates and friends come to the show tonight, even though I told them I would only be playing a couple of songs. There were well over twenty Saint Mary's program students there tonight, and I hope they all had as much fun as I did. The Jamie duo was also there, and I thank them for their attendance as well, putting up with my crazy antics on their trip.

The setup for the show couldn't have been more awkward. A stool, with a microphone for vocals on a mic stand. To mic the guitar, we had to place a Mic in a beer pitcher and prop it up so that it was pointed at our guitars. There were 4 of us that played tonight, and I went on second.

So here I am, with this crazy rig to play into, and I start my first song, "Fighter". Trouble was, my volumes were completely off, and I'm pretty sure you couldn't hear my guitar. Well I couldn't hear anything, which led to me struggling with playing. There is nothing worse than not being able to hear what you're playing and singing, but I'll keep the complaining to a minimum.

I got through the first song, and decided to go with the DMB song after asking the audience what they would prefer. As it turns out, ( I probably was breaking some cardinal rule of playing live music) a couple hours worth of learning a song is not sufficient for playing it live. I struggled through the first minute of the song, and when I got to the chorus completely blanked on the chord sequence, so without missing a beat I transitioned into one of the songs I know best, "The General" by Dispatch. I played the song with ease, only having to switch my singing style and volume because I still couldn't hear myself. Song over and I was just getting into a groove. The third song was a crowd pleaser though, and I'm confident I ended on a strong note. Going from song to song in the medley I could feel the crowd getting more and more into it. I really started loosening up and having some fun with it, and by the end, my last part of the song being "I got a Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, I think everyone was having a good time (or "night").

Overall I had an amazing time playing for everyone, and I sure hope that they enjoyed it as well. Having played my fair share of shows to empty houses, I couldn't have been happier with the crowd that showed up tonight. I took the opportunity to do something I've been wanting to do all semester: I had all of my friends and classmates sign my cheapo guitar that I bought here in Italy. It will forever be a souvenir I will cherish ( I just have to figure out how to get it home!)



(Someday when they are all rich and famous this guitar is really going to be worth a lot...)

Just another Sunday...

So I've now realized two posts in one day is pretty hard, especially when it's not part of a series on a place I visited. So I'm just going to do a brief overview of my day today, some of which was covered in the last post, some of which was not.

We woke up early to go see the Pope say the Angelus this morning. It was like a Rock Concert. The square was packed and rocking, waiting for him to come out. When he finally did, everyone went crazy. It's always good to see the Pope, who I've come to realize is a pretty small guy (looks even smaller from a window several stories up). Afterward we quickly beat the crowds into St. Peter's Basilica.

Inside we went to mass in the main Apse, which was really nice. I saw our security guard from the Villanova photography project, Manuelle, and talked to him for a bit. I was happy to find that he remembered exactly who I was, and felt like he still gave us some sort of special privilege. Even though anyone who wants to go to mass can go through the security where he was standing, when he let us through it felt like we had some sort of special privilege. Maybe it was the smile and handshake after the five minute conversation we had, but something about it was different than how he let other people who asked him to allow them through for mass felt.

Afterwards we headed to the Vatican Museum, having not done our homework we found it closed on Sundays. From here Jamie and Jaime went to the Coliseum, this weekend being free entrance for women to national monuments, and I headed back to my hotel to do some Blogging. We both took a siesta after that, I think they were pretty tired of walking, then met up for dinner. We had dinner at another first, a place known by locals as "Tony's" Though it is formally called Hosteria del Moro. The food was fantastic. We had mixed bruschetta for the table, and the portions of our meals were the largest I've seen in Rome, while the prices were right on par with what we normally spend. The desserts were excellent as well, and it was nice to be able to sit and make room after our enormous meals for dessert. Good Italian restaurants rush to get your order and your food to you, but once they do that they don't expect you to leave anytime soon. Even after asking for the check it takes twenty minutes for it to come. In the U.S. if you ask for a check, and don't get it right away, well that's normally an annoyance. Here, I enjoy the fact that I don't feel like I'm being rushed at all, and that if I wanted to order more food, or just sit for hours, I could. It's less of a structured meal than in the States.

Tomorrow it's back to work for me, and my two visitors will be doing the Vatican Museum and then just getting lost in Rome (by that I mean just strolling and exploring, not physically getting lost. They could get on basically any bus and get back to their hostel which is right by the train station, it's pretty foolproof if you ask me).

Always something new

I apologize for not having this post up last night. It seems the internet in the hotel is waging an all out war against me, and last night it won. Knowing the tech nerd I am, I will not stand for this, and I'll make sure the hotel internet doesn't keep me from posting ever again. That said, you'll be happy to know I will post two posts today to keep up with my normal quota.


So over the past few days I've been showing my guests around Rome. I've hit all the usual places, but as it turns out their visit has given me an excuse to see lots of things I haven't already done. It's weird to think that after being here for so long I haven't done everything yet, but I've learned there is still much for me to see and do, even in the area right around me.

Navonna Notte:

For dinner their first night we went to Navonna Notte. This is a local restaurant in Piazza Navonna that is really well known for their great food, fun atmosphere and cheap prices. Students go there all the time from my program, and so I figured it was about time to go. I'm very happy we did. We actually had to wait five minutes for a table, something that rarely happens in Rome, so when you come across a place you have to wait for a table at, you know it is good. The food was fantastic, and the atmosphere was lively and happy. Birthdays being celebrated, friends meeting up, mostly locals which gave it an authentic feel as if the food wasn't authentic enough. I'd place it in my top 5 favorite restaurants, and I'd say that's a pretty bold move for all the places I've raved about in the past.

Villa Bourghese:
Yesterday (Saturday) was a beautiful day, so we went up to Villa bourghese, a large and beautiful park in Rome. I hadn't been up there yet, though I believe my parents went through it when they were visiting. We rented a 3 person bike/cart vehicle, which was in fact very hard to pedal (We believe we got ripped off, some of the other carts had motors that assisted the pedaling) but it was still a lot of fun. We then walked through the park and down to the Spanish steps.


Churches:
There are over 900 churches in Rome, so it's not hard to find a new church to go into, but some of the ones we have gone into the past few days are right in my "backyard" so to speak. The church in Piazza Navonna was open on thursday (this was without the jamies) so I went in it while waiting for my friend Steve to show up with his friends for dinner. It was a beautiful church but mass was going on so I wasn't able to walk around it much.

Another church we went into is right on the main road my hotel is on, and I walk past it every day on my way to and from the Vatican, yet I had never been in it. My Aunt Nancy had gone in while she was visiting and recommended I go see it, so I finally did, and I wasn't disappointed. It was much larger than it looked from the outside and also held the body of an incorruptible, though I'm not exactly sure who it is.

When we were at the spanish steps we visited the church at the top, and this was also another different and beautiful church. The marble-work on the altar was incredible.

Castel Sant Angelo:
Now this is something I've wanted to go into for a long time. I walk past the Castle every day, which was once used as a Papal fortress but is now a museum. We went in last night around sunset, and had the most incredible view from the top of the sun setting behind Saint Peter's Basilica. The Castle itself was also really impressive, but the view was worth the price of admission (though the girls got in free, this weekend all women get into national monuments for free, lucky them).

Angelus:

Today (Sunday) we went and saw the Pope say the Angelus from his balcony. The square was packed, and when he came out it was like Bruce Springsteen had come out on stage in Giants Stadium. It is also the first time I have ever heard the Pope speak english, which was really cool. He says his message about the Sunday readings in multiple languages, and when he announces what language it is the people of that language all cheer.

St. Peter's




I've been in Saint Peter's Basilica many times, but this was the first time I attended mass in the main apse of the Church. When the Pope says mass he says it on the altar that is above St. Peter's tomb, but today mass was held in the Apse behind it, which is normally closed off to the public (Though I was in it for the photography work in St. Peter's). It was nice to sit in that space again and take it all in while mass was going on, trying to piece together the Italian words I understood in the Priests homily.

That's all for now, another post tonight is promised!

Having Visitors...

So I wrote a post about this same topic last night, but I came back from dinner to find the internet not working at all in the Hotel. Tonight I've totally re-written the post, so you can consider this the Thursday and Friday post.

Also, there may be some special guest bloggers this week, so hopefully you'll get some good stuff from them. More on that later.

So lets start with Thursday. I got to meet up with a good friend who was visiting Rome. This wasn't just any friend though, and it goes to show that being abroad actually makes it easier in some cases to see people. This friend I'm talking about is Steve Schaller. From 4th to 7th grade our dads coached in-town basketball together, and over those years Steve and I became really close friends. In seventh grade he moved away to Albany, NY, but we tried to stay in touch as much as we could. Back then he would come visit once or twice every year for a weekend, and we'd get together with old friends and talk about what was the same and what has changed. When it came time for College, Steve chose to go to his childhood favorite, Syracuse. And as it turns out Becky went there as well, and they became good friends at school. Whenever I go up to visit Becky I make sure to see Steve, and we reminisce about the good old days, particularly our dominance of recreation basketball (Steve was always a great basketball player, playing all through High School, while my basketball career along with my height, peaked at about 5th grade).

So when it turned out that Steve was coming to Rome to visit some Syracuse friends, I of course got together with him. It's an interesting thing, meeting up with a childhood friend in a completely different country. Our lives have taken us in two different directions, two different places, but when they intersect it is always a great time. Dinner with him and his friends was great, and I wish I had known he was in Rome earlier.

Now today, Friday, brings along another visitor. My Cousin Jamie, and her friend Jaime are on their spring break and decided to come to Rome. Good choice. They arrived early this morning and after getting a ride from the airport we met up to spend the day together.

I really enjoy "showing off" the city to people who come to visit. After being here for two months I am proud to know it pretty well, but am proud to be able to show them the cool places to see, and even better, the places to eat.

I'm excited for their week here, I think they are already having a great time, if even for the food alone. Just today we got some of the best gelato (San Crispinos) my favorite pizza (Forno) and went to one of my now top three favorite restaurants (Navonna Notte) which was also my first time. We walked around a lot, and by the end of the night I think I had tired them out enough for a good nights sleep, and hopefully they'll be ready for another full day tomorrow.

Over the next few weeks I will be having lots of visitors, and I'm extremely excited by it. My passion for being a "tour guide" of Rome feels similar to that of showing off Villanova to anyone who comes to visit the campus. I'm eager to show them all the wonderful food and sites I've experienced so far, so they can get some idea of my experience here. It's the reason I write the blog to begin with, to share some part of my experience with you.

Even though my time left is winding down, I know I'll be busy with everything going on, and I'm glad I have so many people who are interested in coming to experience a little bit of Rome with me. For those of you who were looking for a blog post last night and didn't see one, I apologize, and thanks for wanting so much to be a part of my experience.

Q & A #3

I did a Q&A just a week ago, but I've received some questions over the past few posts in the comments, so I wanted to take tonight's blog post to cover them. Plus it is getting harder and harder to come up with topics for these posts, though I have a few good ones still up my sleeve...

First...How was has my French/Italian been lately?

Good Question, I meant to touch upon this in the Nice posts but somehow forgot to. My Italian has been getting progressively better, (I think/hope, ask my Italian teacher).

French this weekend was interesting. I understood most of it, just like Paris, but this time I made more of an effort to speak French and not Italian. I did much better than in Paris with speaking French, but this led to problems when I got back to Italy again, saing Merci instead of Grazie and oui instead of si. It took me another 24 hours or so to get back into Italian. French speaking though, as I said, was much much better than in Paris. I just had to think about what I wanted to say. French vocab always hurts/helps me in Italian. Sometimes words are very similar, so it is easy to come up with the Italian knowing the French, but other times I flat out say the French word thinking it is Italian which doesn't work so well.

Second question...This has been asked by a couple people...Where else am I traveling?

Good question, again. This weekend I have no travel plans, My cousin Jamie and her friend will be visiting for the weekend/most of the week next week, so we will be in Rome for this weekend. Maybe a day trip somewhere? I haven't really planned anything out yet for that.

The next weekend (ahem) is my birthday, and Becky and her friends will be visiting Rome. On the 12th I will be going to Siena for a day trip with my program.

The next weekend, the 19th, I plan on meeting Becky and her friends in Naples, a finale to all of the places I've been in Italy. We may also do Capri that weekend.

The weekend after I have exams, and my cousin Jen and her boyfriend Allen will be visiting Rome, but regardless, two finals on the weekend, so no traveling.

On March 31st, my program ends. I will be heading to London to visit Becky. From there we plan on going to do a bit of traveling until Monday, and then I will continue to travel with St. Mary's people and Villanova people that are still around Europe for that first week in April Tentatively we are thinking Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna with Becky, but that may be too much to do in that time frame. I am going to fit as much traveling in as I possibly can in a week. I'll return to London on Wednesday or Thursday, and I head back to Rome on Saturday, April 10th, and fly back to New Jersey on April 11th. I would very much like to go to Ireland, so that may be good to do Wednesday/Thursday with Becky, or earlier in the week depending on other people's schedules.

I still feel like there is still so much to do, and I only have 27 days left in Rome, then another 10 days or so of traveling in Europe. Lots to do, lots to do.

And for the comment about the boats, I saw several boston whalers in the port in Nice, so I guess their an international phenomenon, and some of the yachts even had whalers onboard, not to mention jetskis.

That's all for now,

Nice is Nice! (part 2 of 2)

So last I left you I had just explored the port of Nice, and was waiting for Becky to arrive. (Part 1 is Updated with Photos! Go check it out, click on Part Nice is Nice part 1 on the right navigation bar!)

Becky's flight got in around 1pm, so by the time she got off the plane it was more like 2pm. I met her at the airport and she hit the ground running, us exploring Nice immediately. I took her through some of the side streets I had already explored to get her up to par so to speak, and then we made our way to parts I hadn't already seen.

Cafes:

Along the way, we stopped at multiple Cafes. Whether it be on a small side street, or the boardwalk of the beach, they are always a nice place to get a snack and just rest your feet for a while. We made several stops over our weekend, and each complimented the laid back culture of the French. People would have a coffee and sit for hours just talking and people watching, so we did as the French do and experienced that part of the culture.

For Saturday night we were not very adventurous, and opted for an Irish Pub. We figured we had experienced French culture enough at the Cafe's so we opted in for some more familiar food to us. Becky was happy to get some real food (the food situation can be tough in London, their not exactly known for their cuisine). Of course I've had good food my whole trip, but I'd consider this some good food for the soul, with a long day coming to a close and another right around the corner.

Sunday:



We headed out early to church at Our Lady of Immaculate Conception as I mentioned in my last post, then walked the port and up the side of the beach. From here we were able to walk up a hill/mountain which is home to the ruins of one of the original establishments of Nice, a Castle that sat on the hill above the port. It was a beautiful day, and the view from each level of the hill was incredible. I took way too many pictures of the same view, but they all varied slightly in what you could see, so I found it justified for me to be clicking away so much.

At the top of the hill was a park for children, a really fantastic looking jungle-gym that had the kid in me wanting to swing and slide. There was also a large waterfall that we had seen from the bottom. On the back side of the hill we found a cafe and then made our way down the stairs towards a series of churches.

Churches:



A funny thing about Nice churches, though they all have Sunday masses, immediately after mass they close up for the day. This would have been nice to know, considering we planned on doing most of our church visits on, you guessed it, Sunday. Half way down the hill was a cemetery with a beautiful chapel, from the outside of course. The doors were sealed up with no signs of getting in. Down to a small Chapel of the visitation, with a beautiful worn wooden door only to find it closed. Then to the Church of St. Augustine, a church I found again hitting close to home considering the connection between Villanova and the Augustinians. Another small chapel of St. Croix, closed for Sunday. We were striking out left and right. Down to the church of Jesus, all closed. The outsides of each church were all very different and unique in their own regard, and there was a lot of interesting info on plaques outside the churches, but it would have been nice to get in some of them.


Some words on Food:

I cannot complain at all about the food in Nice. I didn't have one thing that I didn't like. I found it interesting though that there was so much Italian influence on the cuisine. It makes sense when you think about how close it is to Italy, and read about the history of some Italians settling in Nice early on, but I was still surprised to find so much Italian. We had a fantastic dinner on Sunday night, mostly Italian food but with its own unique flare to it. The pizza was pretty authentic to Italian pizza I might add. Gelato was also good, we found a gelato shop with over 86 flavors, and that was also pretty authentic. Street vendors had the famous crepes, nutella and banana being my all time favorite. It's a snack I could eat at any time of the day, no matter how hungry or full I am.

Carnavale:



Much like Venice when we visited, Carnival or Carnavale was in full swing in Nice. In Nice Carnival takes place all of February, and so we happened to be here for the last weekend. This meant festivities were at their peak, and everyone was celebrating the end of the Carnival season so to speak. On saturday and sunday we were treated to parades of all sorts of crazy floats, decorations and costumes. Everyone dresses up in crazy outfits and walks around. It is very much geared towards kids, both day and night, and was refreshing to see the youthful spirit everyone had. Silly string and confetti fights broke out everywhere on the streets, and you couldn't help but join in when they did. What we found interesting was that there was a center piazza blocked off for the celebration, and the only way to get in was by having a ticket. We didn't know where to buy the tickets to begin with, and weren't really there for Carnival, so we enjoyed it from the side streets and main road that held the parade, and continued on our way.

The Finale:



Since it was the last weekend of Carnival, they had a finale in store for us. Earlier in the day while we were in the port, I noticed that there were several barges being loaded up. Upon further inspection (I took a picture of it, see the gallery) I noticed they were loading the barges with fireworks. Later that night when it was nice and dark, there was a fireworks show on the water. We sat down on the stone beach and enjoyed the long and complex fireworks show. It was a great way to end the weekend, one that allowed me to wind down from all of the hustle and bustle of being abroad, and get focused for what is going to be a whirlwind of a final month for me.

We both flew out early Monday afternoon, and I had a nice long wait in the airport between Becky's flight and mine to sit down and start writing my blog and collecting my thoughts. It was an amazing experience, one that I will not soon forget.

I hope you enjoy my pictures, I took over 600 this time, and posted just over 100 (lots of them are the same shot basically, just me changing settings/zoom/focus in each). Please post any questions/comments as always, they are greatly appreciated.



Link to Pictures, click here!

Nice is nice! (part 1 of 2)

(Part 1 updated with Photos!)

See what I did there? That play on words? You read that more than once I bet, didn't you? I apologize, I am in the airport waiting for my flight and I just couldn't help myself. This blog is being written in the airport and maybe a bit on the plane, and then when I get back to Rome and can upload photos and make it all pretty looking I will do that, so if there are no pictures on it you haven't seen the final version! So be sure to check back, unless after reading you are not interested in seeing all of the beautiful pictures I took, in that case you are missing out on half of the experience. (Updated: This is part 1 of a series, like I’ve done for past trips. Be sure to keep checking back tomorrow for additional parts! Internet is at a crawl tonight, so pictures will be up tomorrow as well, so this post and additional posts will be updated with embedded pictures/links to the entire album!)

Okay so, as I mentioned this was my Villanova pilgrimage trip. That means besides getting to visit another amazing city and experiencing the culture, I also had the goal to take some sort of religious or spiritual journey. I'd say I accomplished that.

Becky was nice enough to agree to make the trip with me, though convincing her to come to the cote d'azur wasn't too hard. So let's start from the beginning shall we?

Friday:



I arrived in Nice on Friday around noon. The flight from Rome was only fifty minutes, a hop skip and jump if I do say so myself. When we touched down I woke to see one of the more ironic views I have seen in my life. To my left, literally right off the tip of the wing, the most beautiful water I have seen. As the plane turned into the parking space, I caught site of palm trees on the ground, and in the background the snow covered alps. If I had my camera at hand I would have snapped a picture, but you can imagine the laugh I got out of it.

Becky wasn't supposed to get in until nine or so that night(more on that later) so I checked into the hotel and then headed out to explore. It was a beautiful sixty degrees and not a cloud in the sky.



I headed down the main street to a small winding street full of stores and cafes. Nice is not, at least in February, a touristy city. It has a genuine small town feel and look.



Church number 1:



I happen to come across my first church of the trip. It is right on the small street I am walking down. There was nothing particularly stand-out about it, but it was pretty nonetheless. A Few minutes of contemplation and exploring the church and I was on my way.
As I exited the church Becky called me in a panic. Her flight had been canceled.

Boycott easyjet:
I am making the vow right now to never fly easyjet. They are a "budget " airline with low fares but nickel and dime you on fees and taxes while providing minimal services besides getting you to and from where you are going. I have no problem with that, I pay a lower than normal fare and they fly me there. But when they fail to uphold their end of the promise, well then we have a problem. When six hours before a flight they cancel it wit nothing more than a "sorry!" email, well that to me is a problem. It didn't seem any other airline were having problems with flying to France, yet easyjet was blaming it on France and saying other airlines had similar problems. Luckily Becky acted quick and booked a flight through British airways, but the flight was not until Saturday morning.

Solo in Nice:

This twist in events left me alone in Nice. Still unsure for a while whether she would actually ever make it here, this is where the real pilgrimage began. I visited another church, the church of Jesus, and just sat there for a while, not much running through my head.

The Beach:



From here I made my way down to the beach. The beaches in Nice are all stone. Large stones to be exact. It is a pretty beautiful site and are surprisingly comfortable to sit on. I sat for a long time, my spiritual pilgrimage in full swing, as I contemplated all sorts of stuff. I realized that Monday(today) is march 1st. March 31 marks the end of my program in Rome. That fact took me a while to grasp. While I have done so much, I cannot even imagine what march 31st will be like.

I sat on the beach for a pretty good while, then headed to walk around more. I spent the night getting myself lost and then finding my way again, never once looking at at a map (I had one with me just in case). I called it an early night.

Saturday came and I went back to exploring. I stopped at a French pastry shop and got a chocolate croissant. French breads and pastries never cease to amaze me. They look good and taste even better. I then made my way to the port of Nice.

The port:



This may have been my favorite part of nice. For one, I love boats, and the port had plenty of them. From big yachts to twelve foot row boats, it had it all. The second feature I loved was the church of our lady of the immaculate conception.

Church of our lady of the Immaculate Conception:



This is one of the first churches in Nice and rightfully so is one of the first things sailors ans seamen would see when pulling into the port of Nice. It is located at Right near the water directly inside the port. The outside reminded me of the Pantheon, but was more colorful than it. The inside seemed smaller than it looked from the outside, but had a nice feel. I wasn’t overwhelmed by the size, but it kind of felt just right. Maybe that has to do with the fact that I felt at home because of the name. My parish at home, in New Jersey, is Immaculate Conception Church in Somerville. Yes, I know there are plenty of other churches of the Immaculate Conception, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit at home, even though I am thousands of miles away. We went to mass here on Sunday and I really liked the feel of the mass, even if it was in all French. The interior was very beautiful but unfortunately I feel as though they could use some money to do some restorations of the artwork and inner façade.



In the church was a small shrine to our lady of Lourdes. Though I tried hard to fit a trip to Lourdes into my journey to Nice (train takes ten hours a flight costs a large amount of money) this would be the closest I would get to Lourdes. The shrine had a statue of Mary, and was surrounded by plaques which contained dates, names and a message. By my translation from my limited knowledge of the French Language, these plaques were donated by people who had visited Lourdes or prayed to Our Lady of Lourdes and who had been healed. There was even a bottle of Lourdes water at the base of the statue. It was quite a powerful experience. I lit a candle for those in my life that are sick, praying that they will get better soon. We spent a few more minutes in the church and then headed out.


A word on boats:




As I mentioned before, the port held many boats. Too many for me to take in. I love boats, and to see the size of some of these yachts was incredible. Each was bigger than the next, and I can only imagine how amazing they look on the inside. To the other side of them though were the much smaller boats. The quaint twelve foot boats that have small 10 hp inboard motors, painted in all sorts of bright colors. No matter how spectacular the yachts are, there’s no better satisfaction than jumping in a small boat and just putt-putting around for an hour or so. It’s the simplicity of being of just being on the water sometimes that makes the biggest impact, not the fact that you have 3 bedrooms, air conditioning and a Jacuzzi on your boat.

Okay, that's all for this part, check back tomorrow for pictures and a continuation!