Roma!

Yet again I have literally come close enough to the Coliseum to touch it, but did not enter. Sigh. That's what happens on one-day school trips. Also, failed to see Stone Henge. Again. But that's a different adventure - upcoming Oxford post!














My friend Lauren was the HAPPIEST person I have ever seen be happy in a religious way - she's a devout Catholic and actually got to confess (in English!) in the Vatican! For her, this was literally one of those things on her list of life-goals, and she was so ecstatic. Much like I imagined I would be to see Stone Henge. Hmm... I suspect I'm a little bitter about what happened in Salisbury.







I found it amusing in the Vatican, because I ended up walking around with another friend who wasn't in such religious spasms of happiness, and had a chance to surprise her with Michelangelo's Mary and Christ - and the story of the crazy axe-man who attacked it. Can't see any problem nowadays with Mary's nose, despite the violence she saw... But she is certainly behind some tough glass, and a railing. Also got to point out the decomposing popes in glass tombs to this friend, making her squeal in surprise/disgust. I found them as amusing now as I did when I was 16 - as my dad pointed out, their bodies are incredibly well-preserved, a common side effect of arsenic poisoning. Then again, he's a bit of a disillusioned Catholic, so I don't know how seriously to take that bit of info.







This image was me attempting to take a picture of just how incredibly crowded the underground was, and instead almost got eaten by the escalator. Oops. Saucy girl winking (or closing one eye?) at me is THE fellow Reedie in this program with me :D











Night-time Vatican, shiny. The girl I walked around inside with said it looked like a hotel in Las Vegas. Footnote: she's a Russian Jew. She'd like to see the Vatican stripped of its gold embellishments in order to feed starving children. A touch suspicious about extravagant displays of power and devotion... nah, I can't tell she's a Russian Jew.

Catania!

Last weekend I visited Sean in Catania - it was lovely. Traveling was a bit of a hassle, but fortunately none of my modes of transport were late. Due to the nature of Ryanair, a cheap airline in Europe, I had to fly Pisa to Palermo rather than Florence to Catania. This requires: bus from Florence to Pisa airport, fly to Palermo airport, bus from Palermo airport to Palermo city center, bus from Palermo to Catania. So, a two hour flight turns into ten hours of travel? Well, I made it roundtrip for less than 100 euro, so I think it was worth it.

I gave Sean a list of things I wanted to see/do: Mt. Etna, the Mediterranean, the fish market, limoncello. The only thing I didn’t get to was Mt. Etna, but I certainly saw a lot of it from afar, so I feel pretty satisfied. The night I arrived we checked me in at Bianca B&B and headed to Capoiera at the local kommie community center. I had a lot of fun dancing, but man oh man... we then went out to a nightclub for 80’s night. The rest of the weekend I walked funny, my legs were so sore. Sunday we hung out with some of the people from Capoiera - originally we were waiting for a ride to a practice out in the woods by the ocean, but it turned into us jamming together (I actually played musical instruments!) and eating tasty tasty pasta with pepporicino (sp?). I also saw an old Roman ampitheater that mostly exists under the streets of Catania, but they have one small portion of it excavated and open to the public.

While I was there I met most of the people in Sean’s program, saw Nigel Nicholson, and ate horse meat. There was much drinking and hanging out in the evenings, and much sunshine and wandering around during the day. Catania was almost completely rebuilt after an eruption of Mt. Etna back in the 1600’s, so all the architecture is very similar, and pretty. But, because the city is much more poor nowadays it’s also dirty and filled with stray dogs. People were more prone to riding scooters on the sidewalk, there weren’t any actual crosswalks, and everything was cheaper. I met a mini-pony that goes into coffee bars with its owner.

Sept. 27th Cave di Marmo - Finally!

Note: This post is for my birthday, SEPTEMBER 27th. I fail a little at posting it in a reasonable timeframe. But, here at last are pictures of my adventure to the marble quarries :D

So, on my birthday my school took us to see Carrara, the source of white marble in Italy for centuries. Romans chiseled marble out of these mountains, much more slowly than nowadays, but yes, this is probably where the stone for the Ara Pacis came from. Eeek! Anyway, something I certainly didn’t know: there are mountains made of marble. ENTIRE MOUNTAINS. So, it’s possible to have an indoor quarry. This is the quarry we visited.



Here you can see me, the saucy birthday girl (with long hair!) in requisite hard hat in the heart of a mountain of white marble! Equidistant from the top of the mountain to sea level, and one side to the other, this really is the heart of the mountain. Through to the other side (from where I entered) is the actual quarry where Michelangelo chose the marble for his statue of David!

This is a shot of the ceiling of this indoor quarry - the only indoor one in Carrara, possibly Italy - where you can see traces of them cutting the blocks out. The rough stone to the left is part of a giant pillar of marble they are leaving for support of the open air quarry above, but also useless for their work (the irregular texture comes from irregularities in the stone, revealed when they pull away a block). The smooth rock in the background is part of a future HUNK of marble. They will simply cut into the sides, cut out the bottom, slide a giant diamond-studded chain around the back and cut it away from the wall. Then they insert flat metal pillows in the the back cut, fill them with air, and the block falls over!


As a sidenote, there was a lot of graffiti in the caves. I believe this is all graffiti made by the five man crew that cuts marble here, but it was really interesting. There was a giant color tree near the entrance, some cave-painting-like drawings, and a sketch of Michelangelo’s David (how fitting!). There were also inflatable swimming toys in a large pool of water near the Virgin Mary, which I thought was really cute and amusing.



So, yeah, Virgin Mary. This is an instance where, when they pulled a giant block away from the wall, a small irregularity that pulled away with it. This particular one occured on Christmas Eve (Buon Natale), and the workers recognized in the formation an image of the Virgin Mother with child and created this little altar to it. They regard her as the protectoress of the quarry.



When we got out of the caves, we were taken on a tour of the history of marble quarring (what English verb is there for this?), and the tour-guide was really entertaining. He gave the entire tour in Italian, and joyfully pressured one of our teachers into translating, especially joyfully the insults the marble movers used. The horn in this picture? It works. And he had a huge collection of historic tools, including Roman ones.





Before we went up to the quarry itself, we actually visited a studio where they carve the marble. The owner of the studio gave us a personal tour, and I think the little girl was his granddaughter. At any rate, she was crying and tugging on his pants until he picked her up. Note how the little girl has marble dust all over her dress? Marble everywhere! We actually saw people in the process of carving statues, and I probably inhaled quite a bit of this dust... but it was so pretty, and so worth it.

New hair!

Zomg, who knew your hair could feel this light and yet still look long?!

My Room...

One of these is the view FROM my window, in the other you can see my window (far top right). The top floor balconies are off the kitchen to my host families home. :D

Saturday night, generally fun....

So, today I actually called a friend and invited her/myself to dinner, and went out with her and another friend. When I met them at the Duomo, a Moroccan was making them some pretty friendship bracelets, and I ended up with this small hair wrap. I did not pay him half as much as he asked when he was done, but that was because I inadvertently left my wallet at home! Ack! Fortunately, upon returning home, I have located it. But, still, I have this hair-wrap that I did not pay full price for :D

Also, spent the night with several different classmates (buono!) and a chunk with a Moroccan (different from the one who I cheated for my hair wrap) who spoke little English... surprisingly rewarding, talking to him.

That is my Saturday night. As written while still intoxicated by the wine, rum, and more wine. A volte, Firenze e molto bello. A volte, sono da solo. Ma, mi piace esssere qui. E una avventura.

Goldilocks in the Danceclub

The first boy danced too close, and she had trouble sending him away. The second boy danced too far away, and she felt awkward. The third boy danced just close enough, and she stayed out until 3am dancing :D