So I wrote a post about this same topic last night, but I came back from dinner to find the internet not working at all in the Hotel. Tonight I've totally re-written the post, so you can consider this the Thursday and Friday post.
Also, there may be some special guest bloggers this week, so hopefully you'll get some good stuff from them. More on that later.
So lets start with Thursday. I got to meet up with a good friend who was visiting Rome. This wasn't just any friend though, and it goes to show that being abroad actually makes it easier in some cases to see people. This friend I'm talking about is Steve Schaller. From 4th to 7th grade our dads coached in-town basketball together, and over those years Steve and I became really close friends. In seventh grade he moved away to Albany, NY, but we tried to stay in touch as much as we could. Back then he would come visit once or twice every year for a weekend, and we'd get together with old friends and talk about what was the same and what has changed. When it came time for College, Steve chose to go to his childhood favorite, Syracuse. And as it turns out Becky went there as well, and they became good friends at school. Whenever I go up to visit Becky I make sure to see Steve, and we reminisce about the good old days, particularly our dominance of recreation basketball (Steve was always a great basketball player, playing all through High School, while my basketball career along with my height, peaked at about 5th grade).
So when it turned out that Steve was coming to Rome to visit some Syracuse friends, I of course got together with him. It's an interesting thing, meeting up with a childhood friend in a completely different country. Our lives have taken us in two different directions, two different places, but when they intersect it is always a great time. Dinner with him and his friends was great, and I wish I had known he was in Rome earlier.
Now today, Friday, brings along another visitor. My Cousin Jamie, and her friend Jaime are on their spring break and decided to come to Rome. Good choice. They arrived early this morning and after getting a ride from the airport we met up to spend the day together.
I really enjoy "showing off" the city to people who come to visit. After being here for two months I am proud to know it pretty well, but am proud to be able to show them the cool places to see, and even better, the places to eat.
I'm excited for their week here, I think they are already having a great time, if even for the food alone. Just today we got some of the best gelato (San Crispinos) my favorite pizza (Forno) and went to one of my now top three favorite restaurants (Navonna Notte) which was also my first time. We walked around a lot, and by the end of the night I think I had tired them out enough for a good nights sleep, and hopefully they'll be ready for another full day tomorrow.
Over the next few weeks I will be having lots of visitors, and I'm extremely excited by it. My passion for being a "tour guide" of Rome feels similar to that of showing off Villanova to anyone who comes to visit the campus. I'm eager to show them all the wonderful food and sites I've experienced so far, so they can get some idea of my experience here. It's the reason I write the blog to begin with, to share some part of my experience with you.
Even though my time left is winding down, I know I'll be busy with everything going on, and I'm glad I have so many people who are interested in coming to experience a little bit of Rome with me. For those of you who were looking for a blog post last night and didn't see one, I apologize, and thanks for wanting so much to be a part of my experience.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Q & A #3
I did a Q&A just a week ago, but I've received some questions over the past few posts in the comments, so I wanted to take tonight's blog post to cover them. Plus it is getting harder and harder to come up with topics for these posts, though I have a few good ones still up my sleeve...
First...How was has my French/Italian been lately?
Good Question, I meant to touch upon this in the Nice posts but somehow forgot to. My Italian has been getting progressively better, (I think/hope, ask my Italian teacher).
French this weekend was interesting. I understood most of it, just like Paris, but this time I made more of an effort to speak French and not Italian. I did much better than in Paris with speaking French, but this led to problems when I got back to Italy again, saing Merci instead of Grazie and oui instead of si. It took me another 24 hours or so to get back into Italian. French speaking though, as I said, was much much better than in Paris. I just had to think about what I wanted to say. French vocab always hurts/helps me in Italian. Sometimes words are very similar, so it is easy to come up with the Italian knowing the French, but other times I flat out say the French word thinking it is Italian which doesn't work so well.
Second question...This has been asked by a couple people...Where else am I traveling?
Good question, again. This weekend I have no travel plans, My cousin Jamie and her friend will be visiting for the weekend/most of the week next week, so we will be in Rome for this weekend. Maybe a day trip somewhere? I haven't really planned anything out yet for that.
The next weekend (ahem) is my birthday, and Becky and her friends will be visiting Rome. On the 12th I will be going to Siena for a day trip with my program.
The next weekend, the 19th, I plan on meeting Becky and her friends in Naples, a finale to all of the places I've been in Italy. We may also do Capri that weekend.
The weekend after I have exams, and my cousin Jen and her boyfriend Allen will be visiting Rome, but regardless, two finals on the weekend, so no traveling.
On March 31st, my program ends. I will be heading to London to visit Becky. From there we plan on going to do a bit of traveling until Monday, and then I will continue to travel with St. Mary's people and Villanova people that are still around Europe for that first week in April Tentatively we are thinking Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna with Becky, but that may be too much to do in that time frame. I am going to fit as much traveling in as I possibly can in a week. I'll return to London on Wednesday or Thursday, and I head back to Rome on Saturday, April 10th, and fly back to New Jersey on April 11th. I would very much like to go to Ireland, so that may be good to do Wednesday/Thursday with Becky, or earlier in the week depending on other people's schedules.
I still feel like there is still so much to do, and I only have 27 days left in Rome, then another 10 days or so of traveling in Europe. Lots to do, lots to do.
And for the comment about the boats, I saw several boston whalers in the port in Nice, so I guess their an international phenomenon, and some of the yachts even had whalers onboard, not to mention jetskis.
That's all for now,
First...How was has my French/Italian been lately?
Good Question, I meant to touch upon this in the Nice posts but somehow forgot to. My Italian has been getting progressively better, (I think/hope, ask my Italian teacher).
French this weekend was interesting. I understood most of it, just like Paris, but this time I made more of an effort to speak French and not Italian. I did much better than in Paris with speaking French, but this led to problems when I got back to Italy again, saing Merci instead of Grazie and oui instead of si. It took me another 24 hours or so to get back into Italian. French speaking though, as I said, was much much better than in Paris. I just had to think about what I wanted to say. French vocab always hurts/helps me in Italian. Sometimes words are very similar, so it is easy to come up with the Italian knowing the French, but other times I flat out say the French word thinking it is Italian which doesn't work so well.
Second question...This has been asked by a couple people...Where else am I traveling?
Good question, again. This weekend I have no travel plans, My cousin Jamie and her friend will be visiting for the weekend/most of the week next week, so we will be in Rome for this weekend. Maybe a day trip somewhere? I haven't really planned anything out yet for that.
The next weekend (ahem) is my birthday, and Becky and her friends will be visiting Rome. On the 12th I will be going to Siena for a day trip with my program.
The next weekend, the 19th, I plan on meeting Becky and her friends in Naples, a finale to all of the places I've been in Italy. We may also do Capri that weekend.
The weekend after I have exams, and my cousin Jen and her boyfriend Allen will be visiting Rome, but regardless, two finals on the weekend, so no traveling.
On March 31st, my program ends. I will be heading to London to visit Becky. From there we plan on going to do a bit of traveling until Monday, and then I will continue to travel with St. Mary's people and Villanova people that are still around Europe for that first week in April Tentatively we are thinking Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna with Becky, but that may be too much to do in that time frame. I am going to fit as much traveling in as I possibly can in a week. I'll return to London on Wednesday or Thursday, and I head back to Rome on Saturday, April 10th, and fly back to New Jersey on April 11th. I would very much like to go to Ireland, so that may be good to do Wednesday/Thursday with Becky, or earlier in the week depending on other people's schedules.
I still feel like there is still so much to do, and I only have 27 days left in Rome, then another 10 days or so of traveling in Europe. Lots to do, lots to do.
And for the comment about the boats, I saw several boston whalers in the port in Nice, so I guess their an international phenomenon, and some of the yachts even had whalers onboard, not to mention jetskis.
That's all for now,
Nice is Nice! (part 2 of 2)
So last I left you I had just explored the port of Nice, and was waiting for Becky to arrive. (Part 1 is Updated with Photos! Go check it out, click on Part Nice is Nice part 1 on the right navigation bar!)
Becky's flight got in around 1pm, so by the time she got off the plane it was more like 2pm. I met her at the airport and she hit the ground running, us exploring Nice immediately. I took her through some of the side streets I had already explored to get her up to par so to speak, and then we made our way to parts I hadn't already seen.
Cafes:
Along the way, we stopped at multiple Cafes. Whether it be on a small side street, or the boardwalk of the beach, they are always a nice place to get a snack and just rest your feet for a while. We made several stops over our weekend, and each complimented the laid back culture of the French. People would have a coffee and sit for hours just talking and people watching, so we did as the French do and experienced that part of the culture.
For Saturday night we were not very adventurous, and opted for an Irish Pub. We figured we had experienced French culture enough at the Cafe's so we opted in for some more familiar food to us. Becky was happy to get some real food (the food situation can be tough in London, their not exactly known for their cuisine). Of course I've had good food my whole trip, but I'd consider this some good food for the soul, with a long day coming to a close and another right around the corner.
Sunday:
We headed out early to church at Our Lady of Immaculate Conception as I mentioned in my last post, then walked the port and up the side of the beach. From here we were able to walk up a hill/mountain which is home to the ruins of one of the original establishments of Nice, a Castle that sat on the hill above the port. It was a beautiful day, and the view from each level of the hill was incredible. I took way too many pictures of the same view, but they all varied slightly in what you could see, so I found it justified for me to be clicking away so much.
At the top of the hill was a park for children, a really fantastic looking jungle-gym that had the kid in me wanting to swing and slide. There was also a large waterfall that we had seen from the bottom. On the back side of the hill we found a cafe and then made our way down the stairs towards a series of churches.
Churches:
A funny thing about Nice churches, though they all have Sunday masses, immediately after mass they close up for the day. This would have been nice to know, considering we planned on doing most of our church visits on, you guessed it, Sunday. Half way down the hill was a cemetery with a beautiful chapel, from the outside of course. The doors were sealed up with no signs of getting in. Down to a small Chapel of the visitation, with a beautiful worn wooden door only to find it closed. Then to the Church of St. Augustine, a church I found again hitting close to home considering the connection between Villanova and the Augustinians. Another small chapel of St. Croix, closed for Sunday. We were striking out left and right. Down to the church of Jesus, all closed. The outsides of each church were all very different and unique in their own regard, and there was a lot of interesting info on plaques outside the churches, but it would have been nice to get in some of them.
Some words on Food:
I cannot complain at all about the food in Nice. I didn't have one thing that I didn't like. I found it interesting though that there was so much Italian influence on the cuisine. It makes sense when you think about how close it is to Italy, and read about the history of some Italians settling in Nice early on, but I was still surprised to find so much Italian. We had a fantastic dinner on Sunday night, mostly Italian food but with its own unique flare to it. The pizza was pretty authentic to Italian pizza I might add. Gelato was also good, we found a gelato shop with over 86 flavors, and that was also pretty authentic. Street vendors had the famous crepes, nutella and banana being my all time favorite. It's a snack I could eat at any time of the day, no matter how hungry or full I am.
Carnavale:
Much like Venice when we visited, Carnival or Carnavale was in full swing in Nice. In Nice Carnival takes place all of February, and so we happened to be here for the last weekend. This meant festivities were at their peak, and everyone was celebrating the end of the Carnival season so to speak. On saturday and sunday we were treated to parades of all sorts of crazy floats, decorations and costumes. Everyone dresses up in crazy outfits and walks around. It is very much geared towards kids, both day and night, and was refreshing to see the youthful spirit everyone had. Silly string and confetti fights broke out everywhere on the streets, and you couldn't help but join in when they did. What we found interesting was that there was a center piazza blocked off for the celebration, and the only way to get in was by having a ticket. We didn't know where to buy the tickets to begin with, and weren't really there for Carnival, so we enjoyed it from the side streets and main road that held the parade, and continued on our way.
The Finale:
Since it was the last weekend of Carnival, they had a finale in store for us. Earlier in the day while we were in the port, I noticed that there were several barges being loaded up. Upon further inspection (I took a picture of it, see the gallery) I noticed they were loading the barges with fireworks. Later that night when it was nice and dark, there was a fireworks show on the water. We sat down on the stone beach and enjoyed the long and complex fireworks show. It was a great way to end the weekend, one that allowed me to wind down from all of the hustle and bustle of being abroad, and get focused for what is going to be a whirlwind of a final month for me.
We both flew out early Monday afternoon, and I had a nice long wait in the airport between Becky's flight and mine to sit down and start writing my blog and collecting my thoughts. It was an amazing experience, one that I will not soon forget.
I hope you enjoy my pictures, I took over 600 this time, and posted just over 100 (lots of them are the same shot basically, just me changing settings/zoom/focus in each). Please post any questions/comments as always, they are greatly appreciated.
Link to Pictures, click here!
Becky's flight got in around 1pm, so by the time she got off the plane it was more like 2pm. I met her at the airport and she hit the ground running, us exploring Nice immediately. I took her through some of the side streets I had already explored to get her up to par so to speak, and then we made our way to parts I hadn't already seen.
Cafes:
Along the way, we stopped at multiple Cafes. Whether it be on a small side street, or the boardwalk of the beach, they are always a nice place to get a snack and just rest your feet for a while. We made several stops over our weekend, and each complimented the laid back culture of the French. People would have a coffee and sit for hours just talking and people watching, so we did as the French do and experienced that part of the culture.
For Saturday night we were not very adventurous, and opted for an Irish Pub. We figured we had experienced French culture enough at the Cafe's so we opted in for some more familiar food to us. Becky was happy to get some real food (the food situation can be tough in London, their not exactly known for their cuisine). Of course I've had good food my whole trip, but I'd consider this some good food for the soul, with a long day coming to a close and another right around the corner.
Sunday:
We headed out early to church at Our Lady of Immaculate Conception as I mentioned in my last post, then walked the port and up the side of the beach. From here we were able to walk up a hill/mountain which is home to the ruins of one of the original establishments of Nice, a Castle that sat on the hill above the port. It was a beautiful day, and the view from each level of the hill was incredible. I took way too many pictures of the same view, but they all varied slightly in what you could see, so I found it justified for me to be clicking away so much.
At the top of the hill was a park for children, a really fantastic looking jungle-gym that had the kid in me wanting to swing and slide. There was also a large waterfall that we had seen from the bottom. On the back side of the hill we found a cafe and then made our way down the stairs towards a series of churches.
Churches:
A funny thing about Nice churches, though they all have Sunday masses, immediately after mass they close up for the day. This would have been nice to know, considering we planned on doing most of our church visits on, you guessed it, Sunday. Half way down the hill was a cemetery with a beautiful chapel, from the outside of course. The doors were sealed up with no signs of getting in. Down to a small Chapel of the visitation, with a beautiful worn wooden door only to find it closed. Then to the Church of St. Augustine, a church I found again hitting close to home considering the connection between Villanova and the Augustinians. Another small chapel of St. Croix, closed for Sunday. We were striking out left and right. Down to the church of Jesus, all closed. The outsides of each church were all very different and unique in their own regard, and there was a lot of interesting info on plaques outside the churches, but it would have been nice to get in some of them.
Some words on Food:
I cannot complain at all about the food in Nice. I didn't have one thing that I didn't like. I found it interesting though that there was so much Italian influence on the cuisine. It makes sense when you think about how close it is to Italy, and read about the history of some Italians settling in Nice early on, but I was still surprised to find so much Italian. We had a fantastic dinner on Sunday night, mostly Italian food but with its own unique flare to it. The pizza was pretty authentic to Italian pizza I might add. Gelato was also good, we found a gelato shop with over 86 flavors, and that was also pretty authentic. Street vendors had the famous crepes, nutella and banana being my all time favorite. It's a snack I could eat at any time of the day, no matter how hungry or full I am.
Carnavale:
Much like Venice when we visited, Carnival or Carnavale was in full swing in Nice. In Nice Carnival takes place all of February, and so we happened to be here for the last weekend. This meant festivities were at their peak, and everyone was celebrating the end of the Carnival season so to speak. On saturday and sunday we were treated to parades of all sorts of crazy floats, decorations and costumes. Everyone dresses up in crazy outfits and walks around. It is very much geared towards kids, both day and night, and was refreshing to see the youthful spirit everyone had. Silly string and confetti fights broke out everywhere on the streets, and you couldn't help but join in when they did. What we found interesting was that there was a center piazza blocked off for the celebration, and the only way to get in was by having a ticket. We didn't know where to buy the tickets to begin with, and weren't really there for Carnival, so we enjoyed it from the side streets and main road that held the parade, and continued on our way.
The Finale:
Since it was the last weekend of Carnival, they had a finale in store for us. Earlier in the day while we were in the port, I noticed that there were several barges being loaded up. Upon further inspection (I took a picture of it, see the gallery) I noticed they were loading the barges with fireworks. Later that night when it was nice and dark, there was a fireworks show on the water. We sat down on the stone beach and enjoyed the long and complex fireworks show. It was a great way to end the weekend, one that allowed me to wind down from all of the hustle and bustle of being abroad, and get focused for what is going to be a whirlwind of a final month for me.
We both flew out early Monday afternoon, and I had a nice long wait in the airport between Becky's flight and mine to sit down and start writing my blog and collecting my thoughts. It was an amazing experience, one that I will not soon forget.
I hope you enjoy my pictures, I took over 600 this time, and posted just over 100 (lots of them are the same shot basically, just me changing settings/zoom/focus in each). Please post any questions/comments as always, they are greatly appreciated.
Link to Pictures, click here!
Monday, March 1, 2010
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!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Off to nice
sorry for the delay of this post, I sometimes use this email posting system to post from my phone and for some reason didn't go through last night. Glad I checked the front page before I left Rome. In the airport now, see the twitter for a funny little side story!
original post:
I know many thought I was a bit harsh on the french the first time
around, so I figured why not give them a second shot? I am going to
Nice on my pilgrimage that Villanova encourages us to take as part of
our experience over here. I will be taking lots of pictures as
always, and will blog if possible while there. Of course I will give
a full report when I get back on Monday. until then, enjoy the snow
on the east coast!
original post:
I know many thought I was a bit harsh on the french the first time
around, so I figured why not give them a second shot? I am going to
Nice on my pilgrimage that Villanova encourages us to take as part of
our experience over here. I will be taking lots of pictures as
always, and will blog if possible while there. Of course I will give
a full report when I get back on Monday. until then, enjoy the snow
on the east coast!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)