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.

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!

Spin Cycle

Being here for a month so far, you can see how I could have run out of clothes by now. Well this week I hit that milestone, and had the pleasure of doing laundry in Rome for the first time.

This isn't exactly the first time. I did a few items in the sink in the hotel, which ended with taking over two days to dry, so I have opted in for a more practical solution. We had heard there was a laundromat around town nearby, so we ventured out to find it.

What we found is was a small hole in the wall storefront that doubled as laundromat and internet access point. Surf the web while your clothes get clean? Sounds like a sales pitch to me.

So in we went, with clothes in hand. I won't describe the process, it's the same as in America, except instead of picking warm, cold, hot, you pick the actual temperature. 30 minutes in a washer and 30 in a dryer, about 10 euro later and we were on our way back to the hotel with clean clothes. The washing machines were tiny, while the dryers were enormous. 3 or 4 loads of wash would fit in one dryer.

The bottom line is, I was able to make it a month without having to do laundry. Lets give credit to good packing for that. By that calculation I should only have to do laundry once more. Pretty good if you ask me (I know you didn't but I get to decide what you ask and what you don't ask).

I had a really good day at St. Paul's today, more on that soon, once I have something to show for my work.

Edit: We've been a little short on questions lately, anyone want to pick it up and start asking? Ask them in the comments! or shoot me an email, ramlax13(at)gmail.com (replace the (at) with @. Never post your email on a website fully, there are computer programs that search through websites for email addresses to send spam to. That's a whole other topic though...)

A month ago...

I was trying to come up with an interesting topic for my post tonight, but with being in full swing at the Vatican and with classes and traveling, I was only able to really focus on one topic tonight. I've been here exactly a month now. 30 days ago I landed in Rome, my first time in a foreign country, surrounded by a language I had no comprehension of, and not sure what to expect for the next three months.

A month later it is hard to put myself back in that position. The time has been flying by, and yet with my comfort level it feels as though I've been here for a year (I would hope however that my Italian would be better had I actually been here a year already).

So lets look back at the last 30 days...shall we? (You know you don't have a choice, like it or not I'm going to do this):

For the first time I took an international flight, by myself nonetheless. I used my passport for the first time in a Foreign Country. I've begun to learn another foreign language. I am enrolled in an all girls school. I am living in a hotel in the center of historic Rome. I experienced the Italian Christmas season. I am interning at the Vatican. I had exclusive access to private areas of St. Peter's Basilica. I've had my first real gelato, and have tried lots of new foods. I've acquired a taste for espresso and cappuccino. I take daily walks, just because. I wear a suit every day. I've been to my first real soccer game. I've seen more smart cars and mopeds than I ever thought existed. I learned how to haggle in Italian. I've toured most of Rome's famous monuments and attractions. I've written 28 blog posts. I've survived without internet and TV. I've traveled for a weekend to Barcelona. I've stayed in my first hostel and I've made a lot of new friends along the way.

So that's one third of my trip, my experience. So what's to come?

How about a trip to Paris this weekend, multiple visits from family and friends (4 separate visits and counting...), a weekend in Florence, a 5 day trip to northern Italy, a pilgrimage, a day trip to siena, a weekend in southern Italy, a video project for St. Paul Outside-The-Walls, learning more Italian, a Dave Matthews Band concert in Rome, at least one more soccer match, a couple final exams, and to wrap it up, a trip to London, with short trips to Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna, Ireland,(maybe more?), a State Radio concert, and by my estimation, about another 60 of these blog posts, all before heading back home on April 10th.

Are you up for the challenge? You keep reading and commenting and I'll keep posting. Hold on tight, I'm just warming up...

Blast from the past

Today we had some unexpected visitors to the office. Two Villanova graduates, who had participated in the Vatican internship program in the fall of 2006, Gloria and Chris, stopped by because they were in Rome. We had a really nice conversation with them at work and decided we should get together tonight to talk about our experiences.

When Gloria and Chris were here, they were not part of the Saint Mary’s Program. The program was very new at that point and many of the kinks were still being worked out. Regardless, they still found their experiences in Rome to be so influential that they have both come back to Rome multiple times since their study abroad program 4 years ago.

It was awesome to hear their stories and see the love they have for the Vatican program and for Rome. When they came into the office they were welcomed as if they were long lost relatives, with hugs and kisses, everyone happy to see them.

We decided to go to dinner tonight and we invited our Italian teacher who had also been their teacher, Carlotta, to join us. We went to dinner on Roman time, so 9pm, and Carlotta recommended a restaurant to us in Trastevere, a very nice neighborhood full of restaurants and shops. It was by no means a tourist restaurant, and it helped that we had Gloria and Carlotta with us, Gloria who speaks fluent Italian, and Carlotta being a Roman native, who not only understands the language but the culture behind it all.

Our food was fantastic. Home made pastas and pizza at a great price. The tiramisu though was the highlight of the night. Though it did not look anything like your normal tiramisu, it was probably the best I’ve ever had (Chris agreed, he has refused to eat tiramisu since the last time he had been at the restaurant).

It was a special night for all of us, and one that will forever be in my most prized memories of my time here. The experiences that Gloria and Chris shared and their connection with Rome formed while they were studying here makes me certain I will be back to visit many times throughout my life. Their friendship with Carlotta is still strong after all these years. I can only hope I can come back and have dinner with future Villanova Vatian internship students, share my experiences with them, and have the same impact that Gloria and Chris had on me tonight.

zoom zoom...

I've wanted to talk about the transportation in Rome for a while, and seeing as I've had a few questions about it lately, I'm going to do just that.

I'm going to leave public transportation for another post, because I want to do a bit more research (aka using it more) before I do that post. Even though I haven't used the transportation I'm going to talk about, meaning private modes of transportation, I think I've learned enough to write a solid post.

Private transportation consists of cars and mopeds/scooters/motorcycles. Lets talk about each because they are both equally interesting.

Cars first? A car in Rome is not a car in the United States. Cars in Rome are all what we label "smart cars". Many of them actually are the Smart brand, but they're all the same premise: a very compact car that gets great gas mileage and can be parked just about anywhere. These things can be parked parallel, sideways, backwards, probably even upside-down and they fit into just about any space available. The reason they are so common is because of this ease of parking. Most cars are parked on the side of the streets here in Rome. Since many of the roads are narrow cobblestone side streets, using these tiny cars makes it possible to park on pretty much any street.

The next mode of transportation, and probably Rome's favorite, is the scooter/moped. They are all over, and by all over I mean there are I'd say 5-10 scooters for every car on the road. We have 2 wheeled motorcycles in the US, so what's the big deal? The big deal is how the people drive these things. They are some of the most impatient drivers I have ever seen. When a scooter pulls up to a light, they weave their way to the front of the pack, so to right in front of light. So at every light there is a group of scooters at the front, ready to jump ahead of the cars they just cut off. When the light changes, they take off in a frenzy of high pitched acceleration. As they catch up to the next pack of cars on the road, they weave right through them as well. They will do whatever it takes to keep moving. If it means driving on the wrong side of the road, even on a busy road like the one in front of our hotel, they will do it. Red lights for scooters seem to only be a suggestion, as I have seen more than a few scooters not even hesitate at a red light. The light wasn't just turning red, it had been red for 30 seconds, and the scooters showed no sign of stopping.

I was asked about the price of a gallon of gas in Rome. When I read the question it really stumped me. I realized I had not seen a gas station in my entire time in Rome. Living in the center of the historical part of Rome, there seems to be no gas stations. This is probably because the cars and mopeds get such great gas mileage (or kilomerage? maybe?). So I went searching for a gas station and made an interesting find. First off, gas stations here are are not like gas stations in the States. They are not large structures with multiple pumps, convenience stores attached, but are instead 1 or 2 small pumps on the side of the road. Second, the measurement for buying gas is per liter, considering they don't use the gallon. There are roughly 4 liters in a gallon, and a liter of gas here is from 1 euro to 1.20 euro. Quick conversion makes that about 4 euros a gallon. So you must be feeling pretty good about gas prices? Well consider that these small cars get somewhere between 35 and 55 miles per gallon. The scooters? They average about 70 miles per gallon. Gas Guzzling SUV's are unheard of here. They just aren't practical for the city, though they're not practical for any city including US ones, yet I still see plenty of GMC SUV's in New York and Philly every time. These cars are also much less expensive than cars in the US. Maybe it's their size, or that they aren't being shipped overseas, or a bit of both. Mopeds are even cheaper, a couple thousand euro will get you a shiny new moped.

Virtual Reality day 1

Today was a very cool day. This week the Villanova Professors are here visiting us and most importantly working on the virtual reality tours for the Vatican. Today we had the opportunity to help do some of the VR for St. Mary Major. 5 different VR tours in fact.

If you haven't seen what the VR tours look like, go look at them on the Vatican site (click basilicas on the bottom left hand corner of the main page).

The virtual reality tours are created through a series of photographs being stitched together to create the 360 degree panorama. This means taking somewhere between 60 to 250 pictures, depending on the place being created, and linking them all together so they look like you are actually there.

This is all done by a computer/robotic rig that when set up properly, takes pictures at consistent intervals so they can be stitched together easily, and so that no corner goes missed when photographing it. Cue drum roll for a short (little shaky) video of the rig:




See that? It rotates around on its own to get the pictures taken (It was taking pictures of the ceiling in that clip, which are awesome).

So while the rig is busy taking pictures (5 minutes for the small rig which takes 63 pictures, 20 minutes or so for the big rig that takes 240 pictures) our job is to make sure no one steps directly in front of the camera, which would block part of the church. The camera rotates, so it makes it tricky seeing as how one minute its facing towards the altar, and the next it's facing towards the back of the church, so we move people around accordingly, using our broken Italian to shuffle them aside.

The Church is normally dark during visiting hours, but for this special occasion they turned all the lights on in the church for us. Every single one. It was incredible to see it lit up, the gold detail in the ceiling and artwork glimmering. I have some pictures of it, and you can compare between my last visit to the church and this time.

Tomorrow is Saint Peters. It will be my first time there and I am extremely excited. You can expect a longer blog post about the Virtual Reality tours tomorrow, I'll label this one as a teaser.

Some wires

A while ago I posted a long blog post about being "unwired". One of the major points of that blog was the lack of a cell phone. Well, I caved, and now have an Italian cell phone number.

(I do warn you that this may be a very techy post, so bear with me if it's not your thing and I'll try and explain it clearly)

For the first two weeks I was attempting to buy the skype phone offered by the mobile carrier 3(tre). What I found though is that the service provider 3 is not very good in Italy. I'm a tech junkie. When I go to get a new piece of technology I do my research. I had been researching cell phones abroad for months before I left. So when I went into the 3 store, I knew what I wanted and that they offered it. The salesperson disagreed with me. I was told even though it is advertised all over their website that I could not only not purchase the skypephone, but I could not get a pay as you go plan from them at all unless I signed a 24 month contract. After a frustrating argument, with the sales person speaking broken english and myself speaking very, very broken Italian, I left empty handed only to walk a block down to the TIM store, where I purchased a SIM card (I already had the phone from a friend, thanks Tim!(not TIM the cell company, Tim the person, confusing I know))

For all the non-techy readers, cell phone contracts work a little differently in Europe than in the States. You do not normally sign your freedom away to a service provider for 2 years. You instead buy a phone(cheaper than in the U.S I may add), and then buy a SIM card from one of the providers here. A SIM card is universal and can go into any phone. It is assigned your number so any phone you put your card in automatically gets connected with your number and service provider. Pretty cool huh? Well it gets better: As I mentioned, contracts don't really exist. Instead you pay-as-you-go. You put 10 euro or however much on your phone. You have an agreement with your service provider that you will pay x amount of money per minute for all calls you make. In my case, this is 10 cents a minute for every call I make. Notice how I said every call you make, because receiving calls is totally free. When you run out, you put more money on your account, either online or buying a prepaid recharge card from any "tobacco store" (tabacchi in Italian, basically a convenience store).

Now lets compare this to the American system of cell contracts. We will ignore exchange rates because for natives of the respective countries that's not important, and I'm going to refer to all currencies as dollars or $. Right now Verizon Wireless' cheapest individual plan is $40 for 450 minutes per month. That includes no text messaging, just 450 minutes of using your cell phone's main function, talking (I know hard to believe that's what they were made for, right?). I'm sure that includes free nights and weekends, but to me that doesn't really factor in, what matters is the ability to call someone at any time.

Take that same $40 and apply it to my rate. That's 400 minutes if you pay 10 cents a minute. Very similar isn't it. In fact, Verizon might even look more appealing at first glance. I think not. Those 400 minutes I have from the $40 I placed on my account, they don't disappear at the end of the month. I'm not restricted per month. Okay, so AT&T has rollover minutes don't they? So if you only use 200 minutes one month you get to keep the extra 200 minutes (we've all seen the commercials, "those minutes are still good!") Yes you get those minutes, but you are still paying $40 again that 2nd month for another 400 minutes. Now why do you need another 400 minutes if you just rolled over 200? See what I'm getting at?

$40 dollars prepaid. It lasts for as long as I need it. If I use 400 minutes a month, poof they're gone when I've used them all. If I only need 200 minutes a month, well then look at that I really only paid $20 a month. Busy month? Lots of gossip? Simply put more money into your account, for the same rate you've been paying all along. Verizon charges 45 cents per every minute you go over your monthly allowance. I might be beating a dead horse but lets do a little math. 600 minutes in a month? If you're using my prepaid service that will cost you $60. Verizon's 450 minute contract? $40 for the first 450 minutes, + $0.45 x 150 = $107.50. In other words, for less than it costs to pay for those 150 extra minutes, you could have 600 minutes on prepaid. Not to mention you don't pay for any calls received! (Sticking with the math theme: Free incoming calls > Free nights and weekends)

Phone break? Not happy with the one you have? Just want to upgrade? Sure, pick which one you want, buy it, and put your SIM card in, none of this waiting 2 years to get a new phone.

Anyone feel ripped off by their U.S. cell contract? I sure do. I'm not going to even get into the whole data/internet on phones argument, this post is already borderline rant, but for those interested one line of stats:

On ANY phone: Verizon: $15 per month for 25mb of data over the entire month, TIM: $10 a month for 50mb of data a day (You see where the rant would come in?)

The phones are better, the plans and pricing is better, and the coverage from what I've seen is the same if not better. All those ready to switch to the European system raise your hand...

Lets answer some questions!

So I'm making this my first of many "interactive" posts. By that I mean I would really like to take some questions from the comment sections of my posts and answer them. I have been waiting for a good day to do this, and seeing as my 6 year old cousin has just posed some questions she would like answered, I figured it would be a perfect day to finally dedicate a post to this.

So to answer your questions Carly...

Q: What Kind of Instruments do they Play in Italy:
A: Great question, and it's right up my alley. One of the fun things about Rome I have found is the street performers throughout the area. Public performances in piazza's (squares) seem to be legal, even if they get pretty loud. Musicians play sorts of stringed and wind instruments, such as violins, saxophones, trumpets, and my favorite, guitars. Some even plug into speakers, their music filling up the surrounding streets. I am trying to get my hands on a guitar so I can try this out for a day, go sit in a piazza and see how much I can make off of tips (could be an interesting blog post). I haven't seen any unique instruments so far, but I'll keep my eye out for any good ones.

Q: Do you understand the Language?
A: This is where my Italian tutor comes in. Carlotta has been great in helping us all learn pretty quickly how to manage around the city with Italian. After only 5 days of 3 hour classes I feel much more confident with the language. Understanding it tends to be much easier than speaking it. Some words are familiar to the English translation, others to a word in French I somehow remember, and even more are somewhat recognizable in the context of who it is that is talking, and where I am. If I go into the cafe and try and order a sandwich, and the person behind the counter asks whether I want it for here or to go, I can understand what they are asking and answer them. If I have to ask for directions though, it is a bit harder to have an actual conversation with someone, and to initiate the conversation. Both my understanding and ability to speak Italian has gotten much better every day, and I've come a long way from trying to order regular tap water on the airplane on the way over here (I was given seltzer water twice out of three tries). Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be able to hold a real conversation in Italian!

If you have any questions that you'd like to be answered, post them in the comments of this post and I'll be sure to answer them. If they are short answers, I'll just edit this post and add them on, if it's something I think would make for a good post then I may hold off and use it for another full post like this one.

Thanks for the questions Carly!

A virtual tour to come

Sunday was an optional tour for the program, but seeing the Basilica of St. Mary Major was definitely on my list of things to do. If some of you aren't aware, part of the program Villanova has with the Vatican is to create these awesome 360 degree virtual tours of some of the most spectacular Churches in Rome.

Currently the virtual tour of St. Paul Outside-The-Walls is up on the Vatican's website (I'll link at the bottom), and St. Mary Major is another that has been captured by the Villanova crews over the past semesters to be put online.

Knowing this, I was eager to see it in person, and I'm glad I went along for the tour. It really is an incredible Basilica, so as what seems to be an easy way for me to keep these blog posts short, I'll leave you with some pictures I took, but look forward to the virtual tour soon, because it's sure to out-do my pictures.

Saint Paul Outside The Walls Link (click on Virtual Tour): http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_paolo/index_en.html

It's a beautiful day

Finally a truly beautiful day in Rome. I'm glad to see that the rain held off for 3 days and we had blue skies and warm weather for our tours today. The Pantheon, Jewish Ghetto, and a couple of other places in-between, which made for some cool pictures. So here they are:



Link for Gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/ramlax13/ToursOfPantheonPiazzasJewishGhetto

balloons

A bunch of us were out enjoying the beautiful weather tonight, walking through the Piazza Navona, gelato in hand, when we saw a group of people in the center of the piazza. They had 4 or 5 of these miniature hot air balloons, which looked like plastic bags with a large votive in them, and were setting them off one by one. Every time one launched successfully they all cheered and clapped, then set up the next balloon. Watching the balloons was a spectacle. They would just barely make it above a crowd of people, and would then quickly start to rise in the air. They all followed the same path, leaving a trail of lights over the piazza. It seemed like they would get miles away within minutes of being let go, their light still visible high in the sky. It was hard to take my eyes off of the lights, hoping to watch them travel on until they were no longer visible. A feeling of realizing where I was at that moment, being in Rome, working at the Vatican, hanging out with some really awesome people, all hit me at that moment.
These next three months are a fleeting moment. They will pass me by as quickly as the balloon takes to get out of sight. It just made me realize I have to take it all in and take notice of every little detail until it is gone.

By the way, if anyone knows of any significance of the balloons, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. For those who don't know how to comment, right below this post it will say "comments". Click on that, then type your comment and either sign into one of the existing types of accounts, or if you don't have one click Anonymous and just make sure to leave your name in the comment!

Tours this weekend, lets hope for good weather.

out of the loop

On Tuesday a 7.0 earthquake shook Haiti. The aftershocks rattled the country multiple times at around a 5.0 scale, which could very well be considered devastating earth quakes by themselves. The shockwave of the tragedy though, took until today to reach me.

It's not that Italy wasn't aware of what had happened. It's just that reading an Italian newspaper isn't exactly something I'm capable of doing every morning, given the previously mentioned language barrier, and the busy schedule. It was not until this morning that I heard anything about the earthquake, and it makes me realize how out of the loop I am.

Studying abroad is meant to pluck you from your comfort zone and put you into a different worldview. Unfortunately given the circumstances it also disconnects you in some ways from the rest of the world. With no TV and minimal internet accessible to me, I have found myself drifting further and further away from keeping up with the news.

I have a feeling that when I get back in 3 months I will have missed 3 months of pop culture and world news, and will be out of touch with global politics and events.

So instead of writing anymore, I am going to take the next half hour or so to read the front page articles on the New York Times Website, and if you haven't been up on your current events lately, I suggest you do the same with me.

http://www.nytimes.com

Paying by the pound(or Kilogram in this case)

I wanted to touch upon a cool little difference between ordering pizza in the U.S and ordering it here. I'm not going to go into the differences/which is better because that is basically an unfair fight, but I'm going to talk about instead how you buy pizza.

In the states you go out with your friends for a 'slice'. And that's exactly what you order, a slice (or 2 or 3) of pizza. You are charged naturally, by the slice. You can also buy a whole pizza and save by buying in bulk. But why am I telling you something you already know? Here's the part you may not know(and my whole reason for this post).In Italy buying pizza is a bit different. Prices are by the kilogram. 9-14 euro per kilogram is about average around here, depending on where and what type of pizza it is. I know I said I wasn't going to talk about the differences but a pizza here is not round. It has squared off corners, straight edges and is made on long trays. Ordering a slice then, isn't the normal pie slice you're used to. It is a rectangular block of pizza. So how big is a slice? That's up to you actually. Once you order the person behind the counter will ask how big, pointing a knife down at an average size, and it's your job to tell him either smaller or bigger until you have the amount you want. So if each slice is a different size, how do you pay for it? That's where the kilogram prices come in again. Pizza goes on a scale, weight and price are calculated, and it is thrown back in the oven to heat. Average price for a normal slice is 2-3 euro, and you get a nice piece of pizza.

It does seem to make sense doing it this way now that I think of it. When you go to the grocery store and buy deli meat, or other specialty foods, you pay per pound. So why not get exactly how much pizza you want and pay for just that much? All this pizza talk is making me hungry, if only pizza places around here were open as late as they are back home...

Inside the wall, days 1 and 2

I posted my blog last night completely forgetting that I had not even touched upon the fact that I had started my internship at the Vatican.

This first week is what I would call Italian boot-camp. 3 hours of Italian tutoring from 8am to 11am every morning, with our awesome Italian tutor, Carlotta. Going into this I was afraid I wouldn't do well learning another language. My experiences with french classes did not exactly end on a high note, so I had this premonition that learning a language couldn't be fun. I was wrong. Carlotta is engaging and fun. She is able to not only teach us the basics but help us effectively understand the language that we are surrounded by. It's as she called it, "survival Italian", and so far it has been extremely effective. After two days, though I haven't even learned how to speak much Italian, my comprehension and confidence when listening to a native Italian speaker speak Italian to me has significantly gone up. Going into the phone store today to get an Italian phone, I found myself eager to listen in on the representative talking in Italian (though he was speaking in English to me). Carlotta has proven to me that I can understand Italian even though I don't know how to speak it yet, and that is more than half the battle.

The internship part of the experience has been short due to the extended Italian tutoring for the first week, but it has been awesome nonetheless. I've gotten settled into my office and am beginning to learn what I will be doing for the rest of the semester. Being so close to the Vatican and knowing that what I work on will be seen by one of the largest populations of people is motivating me to go above and beyond the jobs assigned to me.

When I start working on specific projects I will be sure to keep you all updated. I hope to have some video up soon of experiences in Rome or of working in the Vatican.

Just Around the Corner

You never know what you're going to find just around the corner here in Rome. That's something I've come to accept this past week or so. It's been just over a week since I got here and I've seen a lot, and sure feel like I know where I'm going when I walk around the city.

A few of us went for a walk tonight to get out and explore yet again. Maybe we all have K.I.A instincts (Know it All) like myself, but we've been stubborn not to use a map to find where we are headed. That or we head out with no real bearing and just pick a road to see where it takes us.

The Spanish Steps had been until tonight eluding us, and seeing as their a gigantic set of steps, we felt they couldn't be that hard to miss. We started off going in a general direction we believed them to be in, past the Pantheon to Via del Corso. All the way up Via Del Corso and then to the right, (so we thought). What we found was instead a large piazza with fountains and statues (Piazza del Popolo), with a hill behind it which had an amazing view it all. From there we went back down a main street that ran adjacent to Via del Corso. And what do you know, the Spanish steps were at the end of that road. Up the steps, just in time to see a 10 minute display of fireworks (all green).

Feeling adventurous, we continued from the top of the steps down the mainstreet, up a large hill and then down a side street to another Piazza (Piazza del Quirinale) heading down the hill as we knew we needed to go down in elevation to get to anywhere familiar. Out of pretty much sheer luck we happened to stumble upon the Trevi fountain.

All in all about 5km, an hour and a half with stopping. It definitely wasn't the most direct route to any of our points of interest, but we found it ourselves, and I guess that's what counts.


Our route mapped out on google maps (try streetview out by dragging the little man above the zoom bar to any one of our stops!):

http://bit.ly/7jmV3R

Living 'unwired'

This should be no surprise to anyone, and given that I'm keeping a daily blog of my experience here, it should be even more obvious that I am an avid user of the internet. My life at College has been one of connectedness: Emails, Text messages, cell phone calls, Skye and AIM, not to mention constantly checking the web. At all times at school I have with me my cell phone and a way to get my email/internet, whether that be my ipod touch or my laptop. I cannot even tell you how many times a day I check my email not to mention when I'm sitting at my computer and it is just up in the background waiting for a new message to come in. I average enough text messages to fill a short novel every month, with plenty of call minutes used in-between. I keep my calendars, tasks, contacts, and just about everything else for day to day life on the 'cloud' that is the internet.

Coming to Europe is like kicking the habit.

Since I've been here I have used the Internet for exactly 24 hours. I know that because I am required to buy Internet in 24 hour increments of usage from the hotel, and my first 24 ran out just before I started writing this post. 24 hours mind you is not much at all for me. Just enough to check my emails, update the blog, talk to some people on skype, and read my favorite website, Gizmodo. This also includes a couple times I forgot to logout of the internet system here and lost a couple precious hours due to my negligence.

Speaking of Gizmodo, they are covering CES this past week, an event for all things electronics and techy, and normally I follow it online pretty closely. I normally check gizmodo about 15 times a day, but I found myself today catching up on 4 days worth of old news and articles in my favorite world of technology.

I have still not purchased a cell phone, and am almost enjoying holding out getting one. It's nice sometimes to not be so constantly connected. For the first three days my mind kept playing tricks on me, making me habitually reach for my front left pocket, thinking that my cell phone was vibrating and that I needed to answer a text or a call. To check the time I now have to look at my wrist instead of reaching into my pocket, and let me tell you, reading an analog clock has felt almost foreign (as it should I guess). No longer am I walking around with headphones constantly around my neck or on my ears, all at the same time checking twitter feeds or facebook from my ipod while I'm walking to and from class.

My life for so long has strongly incorporated technology to a point where I'm constantly 'wired'. Villanova's #1 most wired campus award back in 2006 was a selling point to me. You could say being connected is my caffeine that gets me through the day, so the next three months has me involuntarily (and in some cases voluntarily) scaling back on my intake. So far I haven't seen any withdrawl symptoms, but we'll see what comes of it over the next three months. I'll just have to switch to another sort of caffeine, Cappuccino anyone?

Colosseum and Roman Forum

Today was our first of many St.Mary's sponsored tours in Rome/Italy. Our day began bright and early at 9am (earliest I've been up so far, waking up for my internship will be a rude awakening) and headed to the Roman forum. Conveniently some of the teachers for the St. Mary's program come along as our tour guides, so no need to wait in any lines. We spent about 3 hours in the forum, and I could have easily filled another couple hours had it not been for a much needed lunch break back at the Hotel, then onto the Colosseum. It was a lot of walking, and a good amount of rain mixed in all day, but I managed to get off some pictures. I'll keep this post short and let you enjoy the visual art (Can I call it that?)

http://picasaweb.google.com/ramlax13/RomanForumAndColosseum?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-K7dL265-GrgE&feat=directlink

The Language Barrier and Blending In

What I have found most difficult about being in a foreign country, if not the only thing I have found difficult while here, is the language barrier. Yes, many, if not most, Italians understand english, and a majority of that population can speak it to some extent as well. But this doesn't mean using only english works in Rome...

Take ordering at Pascucci's (the cafe we get to eat lunch at every day though our program) for example. They are used to English speaking customers, and have been serving St. Mary's students for years. Yet none of staff understand or speak english. Ordering the first time was a mystery, I mumbled something in what I considered Italian, they questioned me, and I just agreed, si si, and whatever I had agreed to was what I was getting for lunch that day (fortunately I got something close to what I wanted to order). From then on I began to push myself to use Italian and understand what I was ordering. Their menu has italian and english on it, so picking isn't hard, but communicating after the initial ordering can be tricky. I can now confidently order a ham sandwich (toast al prosciutto) successfully. Other restaurants cater more towards an english speaking crowd, which makes it nice to eat there. Other times though, you would much rather blend in with the locals, which leads me to my next topic.

Blending in...we all think we can blend in, but truth be told we stick out like a sore thumb in a foreign country. Maybe its the camera around my neck, or my red headed roommate, or something else I don't even pick up on, but whenever we pass a restaurant or touristy place with a person standing outside trying to get us to come in, they are quick to speak to us in english, not italian. I have only successfully blended into the Italian society once since I have been here. I was walking the Via del Corso taking pictures the other day, and I stopped in a sports clothing store to look at soccer jerseys. An employee of the store came up to me with a friendly, "ciao" and cleverly I responded with a "ciao" as well. Normally Italians can tell when a person isn't an Italian speaker just by how they speak Italian. Many times I have greeted someone in Italian only for them to respond to me in english, a real let down when trying to learn Italian and blend in. For some reason this time though, I was able, through some sort of master disguise (a long coat, scarf and hat) convince the sales clerk I was Italian. Big mistake. Instantaneously she went into a quick spurt of Italian, leaving me speechless and staring at her blankly. The question was simple, it is what every sales person asks a customer after they greet them, "can I help you find something?" I stood there silent for a long amount of time, only being able to stutter "English?" after being caught in the embarrassing moment. She too seemed embarrassed, and quickly asked in perfect english, "can I help you find something?" I quickly responded I was just looking and found myself gravitating towards the door, both shocked and confused at what had just happened. It is a story though I share with all of my fellow American students though, because few of us have been able to pull off being mistaken for an Italian.

Via del Corso

Had a day off today, and since it was so nice out I decided to go for a little walk down the Via del Corso, the Time Square of Rome, give or take. The streets were packed with people off for the holiday, but I still managed to get some good shots, hopefully while not sticking out as too much of an American. Check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/ramlax13/ViaDelCorso?feat=directlink