The End...

I've arrived back in Rome, which I have to say, flying over the city as we were landing was bittersweet. For one, I get to speak some Italian again! Just as I thought I wouldn't be able to practice anymore, I get to use it a little bit more. The sad part is that I am so close to the city, yet will not be spending any time in it. Even with a 10 hour layover, it wouldn't make sense to go to Rome late at night. So I'm sitting at my gate, the first flight being mine at 9:50am, collecting my thoughts about this final blog.

A quick note on my flight, I know I ranted about Alitalia in the last post, and I was pleasantly surprised to board a pretty new and nice plane after I hit "publish post". It was an Airbus A320 "Enhanced" which I guess means it is newer and has enhanced technology like TV's in the headrests (all my other alitalia flights had TV's like coach buses that pop down from the ceiling every 10 rows or so), but they were never turned on. Even if they had been, there was a credit card swiper also attached to the back of the head rest right next to the tiny screen, so I'm guessing nothing is complimentary. On my flight from Newark to Rome, they played 1 movie over an entire 8 hour flight. Lets hope I get an "enhanced" plane in the morning.

I've thought a lot about writing this last post. Ever since I wrote the first post in Rome actually, I've thought about what I would talk about, how to finish off the blog, etc. Sitting in an empty terminal in Rome, well I knew that was coming, but the complete quiet is really something completely different than any airport experience in the past 3 months.

So I guess let me start off with the list I promised, the one that is basically a brief recap of my experiences.

I flew by myself for the first time
...to my first foreign country
...where they don't speak English
...and I didn't speak the language
I attended an all girls college
...with 1 other guy
...and some really great girls
...who never made it awkward for us two guys
I lived in a 4 star hotel
... In the Center of Rome
... Right down the street from the Pantheon
I worked at the Vatican
...in the internet office
...and wore a suit every day
...at 8am every morning
I got to help make Virtual Tours for the Vatican
...had full photography rights to St. Peter's Basilica
...and St. Mary Major
...and especially St. Paul's Outside the Walls
I went Inside the Walls
...twice
...and saw infrastructures of the Vatican that few have ever seen
I went on the Scavi tours
...and saw the tomb of St. Peter
I met one of the Pope's security guards
...and he gave us VIP treatment while photographing
I learned a new language in 3 months
...enough to survive in the country
...and not stress every time I had to speak Italian
...to the point I actually enjoyed using it
I have a new love for Italian food
...Pasta
...Pizza
...Gelato
...and will never be able to eat Italian food without comparing it to its counterpart in Italy
I traveled Italy pretty extensively
...Rome
...Florence
...Mantua
...Ferrara
...Padua
...Bologna
...Ravenna
...Venice
...Naples
...Pompei
...Capri
I traveled Europe a good amount as well
...Barcelona
...Paris
...Nice
...London
...Amsterdam
...Brussels
...Bruges
...Dublin
I became a frequent flyer
...7 flights in my last 11 days
...14 flights total
...with lots of buses, trains, trams, trolleys, boats, taxis and every other form of transportation in-between
I walked, and walked, and walked all around Europe
I celebrated a birthday in Rome
...and of all birthdays, my 21st
I had 4 groups of visitors
...14 people total
...and met up with other friends in-between
I went to two concerts
...Dave Matthews Band
...John Butler Trio
I performed twice in Rome
...and was asked to play my first encore to a packed back room
I went to a European soccer game
...and survived to tell the tale
I lived in Europe for 98 days
...wrote 79 blog posts
...which had 6,440 views
...from 342 visitors
...18 countries
...24 different states in the U.S.
...and 176 U.S. Cities
and had an amazing time sharing my experiences at the Vatican, Living in Rome, Traveling Europe, and everything else that came my way...

I hope you've enjoyed the ride. Breathe easy, we've made it.

So what's next?

Well I'm going to Quebec in 3 days with BRMS, which should be an awesome experience, first time in Canada. I figured why stop traveling now?

There are also some preliminary plans for a documentary about Haiti that I would work on, which we would travel to Haiti for 3 weeks to film over the summer. Very preliminary plans, nothing solid yet as far as I know, so I'll keep you all updated about it.

How will I keep you updated? Clearly I'm not Inside the walls anymore, and this post is called The End?!!

Due to the success of the blog, and how much fun I've had with it, I've decided to start another blog, "After The Walls" which will let me to continue writing a blog. Mind you, this will not be an every day thing. Maybe not even a weekly thing. But when I feel like it, or when I'm on a trip like in Haiti, I will be sure to blog like I did in Rome. I will setup an email notification system on that blog so that you can receive emails whenever I update so you don't have to check constantly for new posts when there are none. The URL is: ramlax13.blogspot.com

I will also be posting pictures into the posts that don't have pictures, so be sure to check back within the next few days for the final versions of all of those posts.

It's 7am here, just about 2 hours until the plane boards, and I'm ready to get going.

What am I looking forward to at home? Here's the final list.

Seeing my friends and family
Living in a house, not a dorm or hotel room
Summer Vacation
...The Jersey Shore (Silverton, not Seaside)
Visiting Villanova, and celebrating Matt going to Villanova next year
All my musical equipment, Guitars, drums, you name it
Playing with my band again (They've been hard at work, name change, roster update and all, wildmonicaband.com)
Working on more films
Speaking English, American English, not British English
Driving (not the paying for gas part)
And in 5 months, the start to Senior year at Villanova

Thank you all again for your support and continuing to read as I posted every day. I plan on having this blog printed into a hardcover book sometime over the summer, comments included, so if you haven't left your name in a comment yet, or you have commented and just want to make one last comment, please, please, everyone and anyone, comment in this last post so that I can have your comments printed in the book, as a record of people who read and enjoyed this blog. I'm going to leave the blog up, hopefully as a source of information for people who will be traveling to Italy or are just interested in the topics I talked about, so feel free to come back and visit anytime.

Sincerely, and with an overwhelming appreciation for all of the readers,
Ryan Mahoney

24 hours to go...

In 24 hours I will be in Newark airport, arriving home after over
three months of being in Europe. Even though I'm sitting in London
heathrow airport beginning this 24 hours of waiting, and flying, and
waiting and flying, I still can't fully realize that concept.

I have a nice 2 and a half hour flight to Rome at 8pm London time,
arriving in Rome at 11:30pm Rome time. Then I have a 9:50am flight
from Rome to Newark.

10 hours in FCO airport? I'm going to get to know that airport pretty
darn well.

And of course I am flying my absolute favorite airline, alitalia. If
there is one tip I would give to anyone ever studying abroad in Italy,
or traveling to Italy on vacation, it would not be to see something or
go somewhere or eat at a certain restaurant. No it would be to never,
ever, fly alitalia. I cannot even begin to tell you how horrible this
airline is (they filed for bankruptcy, how's that for a start?). They
are like the ryanair "regular" airlines. No, they are worse,
considering at least I get what I pay for with Ryanair. Their planes
are old, service is terrible, and they are always in the furthest gate
from the security check in. I just walked halfway to Rome to get to
the gate, and will probably have to take a bus to the plane.

I hope I have Internet in Rome so I can do one last final post, or
several since I have so much time. If not I will write the last post
and put it up when I arrive home. Just sit tight, could be a wild (or
extremely boring) last 24 hours.

When Irish Eyes are Smiling

Sorry for not posting last night, but I'll make up for it by covering our entire Ireland trip in this post.

So we arrived to the Emerald Isle early in the morning after an always interesting RyanAir flight (got to love that people clap when the plane touches down). We checked into our hostel and then went for a walk along the river and towards city hall to get our bearings. We also had plans to go on the free tour in Dublin run by the same company as the one in Amsterdam, (Sandeman tours, or New Europe is what their called for anyone interested) so we had some time to kill before the 1pm tour.

The Luck of the Irish

As we walked down the street from city hall towards the Temple Bar area, we passed a venue called the Olympia theatre. Old charming theatre look on the outside, looked like a really cool place. Well as it turns out in the window there was two large posters advertising an upcoming show for the John Butler Trio, a band I've been listening to for the past year or so but have not seen live. Further investigation (reading the poster, of course) we realized the show was that night, April 8th, 2010. Shocked, surprised, and frantic, I went into the ticket office and asked if they had any tickets left for the show. They said they did, but they were obstructed view tickets, in other words a column was in the way of the view. Becky hesitated about that, but before she could contest I had already bought the tickets. 8 hours until show time.

Excited about our ticket purchase we grabbed a burger down the street and then made our way to our tour.

The tour was once again really awesome, our tour guide kept it interesting and the weather was really nice (unlike Amsterdam) so I didn't mind walking around the city. We heard some pretty interesting stories and saw most of the major sites in the historical parts of Dublin, and on our short visit, fitting it all in quickly is always a plus.

After the tour we walked along the River Liffey and all of the different bridges that cross it. There are some really cool foot bridges that go across the river, but the river itself, not so pretty (probably as ugly as the Tiber in Rome).

We headed to a pub to get dinner early before the show. I got some great beef stew (can always count on the Irish for a good meal I suppose) and we were on our way to the show.

Music is the best Medicine

Around the time we were entering the Olympia theatre, I seemed to have developed a nice little fever (don't tell my mom!). I've been sick as I've mentioned before, and I seem not so be at the peak of my sickness. I thoroughly enjoyed the opening band, Mama Kin, but I was feeling pretty miserable in the headcold department. Then John Butler Trio came on. About an hour into my set, right as John finished playing a solo version of his instrumental song "Ocean", my fever had broken. I'm pretty sure that song did it to me too, because it is about 15 minutes of the craziest acoustic playing you've ever heard (I have video, I'll post eventually). The band absolutely blew me away, and rocked the theater for almost 3 hours. And that "obscured view" that we had? Yeah it was a pillar about 7 rows in front of us and the only thing that it obscured was my view of the far right stage which was completely empty. Luck strikes again.

Today we did some shopping on the main streets and in the Temple Bar area. I say area because Temple bar (for Lord Temple who owned the Barr land of the River Liffey, hence the name "Temple Bar"). It's a nice neighborhood of pubs and shops, and with a big rugby match later tonight it was alive with fans wearing lots of (sometimes ridiculous) yellow and blue outfits. Lunch was a bowl of chicken soup which was really good, and a chicken panini, which was so-so.

We then went to the "most visited tourist attraction in Dublin". Any genius guesses? The answer would be the Guinness factory. This tour was much different from the Bruge brewery tour we went on. It was self guided, much larger, and not in the actual factory but more of a fake setup (much like chocolate world in Hershey Park, even though the Guinness "storehouse" as they call it was actually exactly that, the Storehouse where the beer fermented up until the 90's when they stopped using it). The information and displays they had were equally as interesting and impressive as the Bruge tour, and given the uniqueness of Guinness its no wonder the factory is one of the most visited places in Dublin.

After the factory tour we picked up our bags from the hostel (which was awesome by the way, top 2 I've stayed in, tied with the Barcelona hostel I used) and headed to the airport to catch another Ryan Air flight.

It's too bad we didn't get to stay in Ireland longer and go to another place besides Dublin, but we had an awesome time, fit as much touring in as we could, and even had a nice surprise last night with the concert.

An early post today, well at least I am typing it early (2:34pm my time, which is about 10 hours before I normally post) I'm not sure how that time difference and when I post works for the readers. I normally post around midnight or later, so for the east coast that is around dinner time. When does even read the blog anyway? Late at night after dinner? At work during the day? In the morning? Or do yo do like I do when I'm waiting for a website to update, like when concert tickets are going on sale, and mash the refresh button as quickly and often as you can until finally the update finally shows up? I hope that doesn't happen, I guess i Should have implemented an email subscription system which would email you when I posted a new blog. Oh well too late now...

An early post today, well at least I am typing it early (2:34pm my
time, which is about 10 hours before I normally post) I'm not sure how
that time difference and when I post works for the readers. I normally
post around midnight or later, so for the east coast that is around
dinner time. When does even read the blog anyway? Late at night after
dinner? At work during the day? In the morning? Or do yo do like I do
when I'm waiting for a website to update, like when concert tickets
are going on sale, and mash the refresh button as quickly and often as
you can until finally the update finally shows up? I hope that doesn't
happen, I guess i Should have implemented an email subscription system
which would email you when I posted a new blog. Oh well too late now...

My guess, judging by when people post comments, is that you read after
dinner mostly, maybe because you're accustomed to that being the time
it normally gets updated.

How did I get off on that tangent? Oh right, writing mid day for a
change. Well I hate to say that a day in Europe is waste, but if there
was one this would be it. I'm not going to say it's a waste though so
don't quote me as saying such. Let's call it more of a limbo day,
shall we? Okay, so why a limbo day you might ask? Well I'd be happy to
tell you!

Long version or short? Long? Okay. (is it bad i'm talking to myself?
I'll answer that, no!) So the original plan was for me to return to
London with Becky on Monday night. But then after the plans were made,
about two weeks ago Nate decided he was going to meet us in Amsterdam,
and he didn't have any plans until the 7th, today. He had plans to go
to nice on the 7th, originally from Rome. So we both adjusted our
flights so that we could stay in Brussels for an extra couple days and
then continue on with our previous plans, he to Nice and me to Ireland
with Becky. So I pushed my flight off until the 7th and he switched
his to fly out of Brussels. But with these changes and the cheapest
way to do it for both of it, he left at 9am this morning with my
flight at 9pm tonight. So here I am in Brussels, sitting on a main
shopping road, listening to some Belgian butcher some American classics.

The day hasn't been all that bad though. I've been on a hunt to find a
store with an ipad, (so I can see it not buy it) and have been walking
around the streets just enjoying the culture and trying out a little
French.

Dublin tomorrow, leave at 8am(I'm just living in airports at this
point) and sadly was only able to fit one night in, so we have to plan
well to get it all in. Still have a head cold and cough, this needs to
go away asap.

A Belgem

Today Nate and I took a day trip to Bruges. What a pleasant surprise
it was when we got there.

The train took only an hour from Brussels, so we slept in a bit, and
when we got to Bruges it was sunny and warm, quite a change from the
weather so far this week.

I got a Belgian waffle in the station in Bruges with chocolate on top
that was so good I'm not even sure how to describe.

We then made our way to center city where we got our bearings for the
day and went into the church with michaelangelo's Madonna with child.
This is one of the only michaelangelo pieces outside of Italy, and was
as always amazing to see.

From here we went on a brewery tour of the last running brewery in
Bruges. The amount of breweries in Belgium has dropped dramatically in
the last 80 years or so, from 3000 to under 400 I believe was the
statistic. Bruges itself used to have a modest double digit amount of
them, but now only has the one, which is still family owned and run.

It's amazing to hear how much goes into making a beer, and how
passionate these Belgians are about it. They argue that everything
from ingedients used to how it is bottled to how it is served and even
what type of glass it is served in makes a difference for each beer.
And they say it with such conviction that you can't help but believe
you understand what they're talking about, and can actually tell the
difference when they let you taste some of their beer at the end.

After this we did a lot more walking around, a little shopping in gift
shops and chocolate stores, grabbed a light dinner at a pub and headed
back on the train for Brussels.

The city had such an old world feel, and it feels like that on
purpose. We were told while standing on top of the brewery that
nothing can be more than 4 stories tall, and new age "ugly" things are
not allowed to be visible from ground level, like satelite dishes for
tv. There are some canals that provide for really scenic photos, a
couple awesome belltowers, and lots of small quaint side streets that
are frequented by horse drawn carriages. Seriously, the horse drawn
carriages outnumber the automobiles on the streets.

I love day trips that aren't well researched and turn out to be one of
the coolest places you've seen.

Also, hope the title didn't confuse anyone. I know quite well how to
spell Belgium (and even if I didn't spellcheck would correct me) but
it is another one of my poor attempts at a play on words.

Bus tours and Johnny Depp

Just a real brief update. Today was the last day that Becky and her
roommates were with us in Brussels, so we went tourist-style and got
on a tour bus for Brussels. It's the first tour bus I've done in
Europe, a bit expensive personally, and felt a little lacking, but
with the status of the weather up in the air (literally) it was a safe
bet to guarantee seeing all the sites, getting some info on each, and
not getting stuck in rain.

This took up a good part of the day, and then te girls were on their
way to the airport. Nate and I headed to a local movie theater where
we saw Alice in wonderland. It's the first American film I've seen in
3 months, and they played it in English, with French and flemish
subtitles. I was happy to sit in a theater and enjoy the movie. I
thought it was a good movie, with some great visuals and pretty solid
acting. The subtitles were a bit distracting, and I actually found
myself automatically reading along with the French ones. I actually
understood most of it, especially with the English translation being
spoken over them, but in the movie there were some heavy accents and I
actually was able to tell what was being said by looking at the French
subtitles.

Bruges tomorrow for the day, have a bit of a cold, again, so I hope
that doesn't slow us down.

Belgium, where the Easter bunny stocks up

Happy Easter from Brussels everyone.

A (quicker than yesterday) update on my trip.

Woke up this morning to go to Easter mass, in French. Probably my last
foreign language mass before returning to the states. It is giving me
a chance to brush up on my french before Quebec though, so that's good.

I'm not one to get homesick, and I haven't been homesick at all these
past three months. That's not meant to bash being home, I'm excited to
be home again and see everyone, but I don't ever get overly emotional
about wanting to be home. As I was sitting in mass today though, I had
two spells of homesickness.

The first came during the sprinkling of holy water. The music was so
serious, and the look on the priests face stern. I imagined what mass
at immaculate conception would be like today, flowers on the altar
with a pond setup, everyone happy and singing loudly, and for the
sprinkling, I can imagine father alex walking up the aisle, flinging
waves of water at the crowds of people, soaking himself and those in
front of him while the choir sings "we shall draw water joyfully,
singing joyfully... Etc." you know how it goes. A stark difference
from the church I wax in, though it was still very nice.

The second spell of homesickness came while singing the alleuehia
before the gospel. The version they sang is exactly the same used
often at immaculate conception. So of course, to all the Belgians
around me surprise, belted out every note of it.

After church, food, candy, repeat. The weather was spotty so we had
several small meals. Whenever it got bad, we took shelter in a pub or
restaurant. This tactic was not easy on our wallet, as we found
Brussels is not exactly cheap. Multiple Belgian waffles, Belgian
chocolate, and a couple Belgian drinks later, we foud our stomachs
full and wallets the opposite. We visited a couple sites, the peeing
boy, which is a statue of a peeing boy, yes riviting I know, and the
square in front of the grand palace which was stunning.

The chocolate shops here are overwhelming. The streets are lined with
them and they pump out a chocolate smell onto the sidewalks that makes
it hard to resist going in every single one. With bad weather
constantly looming we hopped from one store to the other, with stops
at a pub or restaurant whenever we felt we needed to satisfy our
hunger to keep from buying pounds of chocolate (let's be honest, it
didn't completely stop us).

I think I just repeated myself in those last two paragraphs. Oh well,
bottom line is we ate, a lot. Which is what we would do on Easter
anyway, so there, it was justified.

Tomorrow, less eating, more touring...or just more touring maybe.

P.S in my blog last night I completely forgot to mention that we went
to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. Really a moving visit, always an
incredible story and to walk though it in person brings it to another
reality for me.

Amsterdam the weather

Just arrived in Brussels after a three hour train ride from Amsterdam, so I'm going to keep it short but the hotel here in Brussels has free Internet so I'll post more extensively over the next four days.

Friday can be considered a travel day, all day travel day that is. Our flight was delayed over an hour, leaving us sitting in the airport for a good amount of time. The flight was only an hour long once we finally did board and take off, barely any time in the air with the seatbelt sign off, I think I got through four songs on my iPod before I was told to turn it off again for landing. Once we got to Amsterdam a train took us to center city, then a tram to our hotel, with some confusion thrown in there with which tram to take, causing an unnecessarily long walk to our hotel. Who knew we would ever be so excited to see a holiday inn?

Today we woke up early to eat and then catch a free tour of the city. The tour was great, our (austrailian) tour guide knew the city well and had lots of great stories and history for us, but unfortunately the weather refused to cooperate. It went back and forth from sunny skies to torrential downpours and sometimes both at the same time. It made for wet and uncomfortable touring over three hours, but I never felt bored by the tour. Nate met up with us after the tour, he and I will be traveling together until the 7th, becky and her roommates leave brussels on the 5th. We then found shelter at a restaurant for lunch and waited out the rain. When it cleared up we explored the city canal streets more, seeking shelter whenever and wherever necessary when the rains came.

Around 8 we headed back toward the train station and caught our train for Brussels shortly after. A busy and wet day, but we had a lot of fun and I found Amsterdam to be a pretty cool city.

Welcome to Londontown

I arrived in London yesterday around 3:30 after a somewhat shaky flight over (never, ever take Alitalia, ever) and met Becky in the airport. From here we attempted to take a taxi back to her apartment, but found that it would cost 60 pounds (about 100 US Dollars, if not more) to get there, so we opted for the much more affordable Tube.

The Tube:

Since I've been here, I've had a very good experience with London's well known subway system. The system is pretty comprehensive, clean and overall user friendly. It helps that everything is in English, which has really been a pleasant change from Italy and all of the other places I've visited so far.

Speaking English Again:

I still haven't gotten used to this yet. Even at dinner tonight, when I was given my food I said Grazie and si. It seems to be all of the knee-jerk reaction sayings that still come out in Italian. It messes with my head to go somewhere and be able to ask someone anything I want without having to think about it. Actually, I still do have to think about it because I have to tell myself that I don't have to try and speak a foreign language to ask the question, so I have to think about not thinking about how to ask the question I want to ask. Confusing? It sure is for me.

So on Wednesday after we dropped my luggage (all of it that needs to make it home to the states that is, so 2 carry ons and 2 checked bags) Becky and I went to get some dinner. We walked around looking for a restaurant we wanted to eat at and chose a place called "Bountiful Cow". I realized at that point how much I missed steak. I don't mean to say I didn't have beef in Italy, because I had it on a few occasions and it was very good, but I mean I missed having a real steak. I ordered a 14 ounce T-Bone steak, and ate very last ounce of it (So...yeah all 14, minus the bone, which makes me wonder, is the bone included in the weight of the steak? Because that wouldn't be very fair now would it if they counted the bone towards the weight). It was incredible. Not to mention the first real french fries (or chips as they call it here) I've had besides McDonalds if that counts.

Today involved checking off a couple must-sees on our list for London. First on my list, Krispy Kreme. I love donuts for breakfast, and when I saw a Krispy Kreme yesterday I put it at the top of my list. I wasn't disappointed.

Coffee though, left much to be desired. I'm not used to having such a large cup of liquid when I order a coffee. I ordered a Cappuccino and was confused that I had to specify what size. I had two coffee's today and I already miss the Italian coffee, but I guess I'd have to get used to that at home regardless.

We went to the London Tower after breakfast. The "Tower" is actually basically a park with a bunch of different towers that made up a fortress back in medieval times. Seeing all the different exhibits in the towers was a lot of fun, and it was beautiful weather out.

My favorite exhibit was the weapons and armor exhibit. As a kid, I always loved swords, and this exhibit had tons and tons of swords from different eras and styles. I feel like Becky was getting tired of me stopping to read and look at all the different weapons and armor, but I couldn't help feel my inner-child coming through while looking at the exhibit.

From here we went to the London Eye, where it began to rain, in true London fashion. What would be touring london without a little rain? The eye was really cool, I got some great pictures from the top (to be posted when I can transfer pictures) and it kept us out of the rain for a little bit.

We then made a stop at the Aquarium. It was fun to walk through the different exhibits, and of course to avoid the rain yet again.

We walked over to Big Ben and checked out the area around it, but the rain got harder and it forced us to go underground into the tube to head back to Becky's apartment.

We went for Chinese tonight with Becky's roommates and her roommate Stacey's parents. I've always heard that the best food in london is the different ethnic foods, so I was excited to have Chinese, and this place, called "Noodle Oodle" didn't disappoint. It's always a good sign when you go to a restaurant and see locals eating there. I had some great spring rolls and LaMein (guess the british translation is different).

Overall I've had a great time in London so far. Tomorrow afternoon we head to the airport again to go to Amsterdam and then Brussels, so I'll try and post as soon as I can depending on my internet availability.

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)