Hello everyone! I promise I am not ignoring my blog. I've been wanting to tell y'all about my spring break travels but this first week back in Orvieto has been very busy so far. I got home from SB late Friday night and enjoyed one day home alone to unwind and do a mountain of laundry and then went to the train station to pick up mom and dad Saturday evening!!
I've been playing tour guide in Orvieto and they've been busy traveling to different cities in Italy. So between classes, trying to figure out my after semester travels, getting all settled back into the apartment, and hanging out with mom and dad I've had little time to blog. It's been so fun to hang out with mom and dad these past few days and we still have a lot of fun things planned to do until they leave on Monday!
Here is a teaser for the monster blog that I hope to post sometime next week.
Our schedule...
Verona, Vicenza, Venice with the whole group
Paris, Barcelona with Katie Gallagher and Ashley Simpson
Ferry boat to Rome, Home to Orvieto By myself
Well I was going to post some pictures, but the internet is running slow and it's bed time. I will try again tomorrow after our field trip to Villa Lante!
Sorry this is such a lame post.
Ciao, Katy
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
North Trip and Spring Break Itenerary
These next two weeks are going to be AWESOME!! If you are one to get jealous you might not want to keep reading :)
The first week is the North Trip with the whole class:
Monday 12: Verona
Tuesday 13: Verona and Vicenza
Wednesday 14: Vicenza and Venice
Thursday 15: Venice
Friday 16: Venice and Paris
Flight to Paris is at 5:30pm with RyanAir
This week I am spending with two lovely ladies, Katie Gallagher and Ashely Simpson.
Saturday 17: Paris
Sunday 18: Paris
Monday 19: Paris and Barcelona
Flight to Barcelona is at 10:25am with RyanAir
Tuesday 20: Barcelona
Wednesday 21: Barcelona
Thrusday 22: Barcelona and Ferry to Rome!
The ferry is to Civitavecchia, the port outside Rome. I will leave Barcelona at 10:15pm by myself (Katie
and Ashely are going on to Madrid)
Friday 23: Ferry and Orvieto
I will get to Civitavecchia at 6:45pm Friday then take a 30min train to Rome and then an hour long train
to Orvieto and bus up the hill and fall like a sack of potatoes into my bed!
Saturday 24: Orvieto
MOM AND DAD COME!!! They get here at 8:45pm
I would like to note that I packed for this two week trip in my backpack...that's it. Dang RyanAir has awesomely cheap flights, but really strict carry-on rules and steep penalties if your bag is too big (55cmx40cmx20cm). I'm good with the 55x40, but the 20cm is going to be close. If worse comes to worse I will be wearing leggings under my jeans and like 7 tank tops on the plane haha.
WISH ME LUCK! I will try to blog at least once while I'm gone and keep your eyes out on facebook because it's easy to post pictures from my phone directly to facebook.
CIAO, Katy
The first week is the North Trip with the whole class:
Monday 12: Verona
Tuesday 13: Verona and Vicenza
Wednesday 14: Vicenza and Venice
Thursday 15: Venice
Friday 16: Venice and Paris
Flight to Paris is at 5:30pm with RyanAir
This week I am spending with two lovely ladies, Katie Gallagher and Ashely Simpson.
Saturday 17: Paris
Sunday 18: Paris
Monday 19: Paris and Barcelona
Flight to Barcelona is at 10:25am with RyanAir
Tuesday 20: Barcelona
Wednesday 21: Barcelona
Thrusday 22: Barcelona and Ferry to Rome!
The ferry is to Civitavecchia, the port outside Rome. I will leave Barcelona at 10:15pm by myself (Katie
and Ashely are going on to Madrid)
Friday 23: Ferry and Orvieto
I will get to Civitavecchia at 6:45pm Friday then take a 30min train to Rome and then an hour long train
to Orvieto and bus up the hill and fall like a sack of potatoes into my bed!
Saturday 24: Orvieto
MOM AND DAD COME!!! They get here at 8:45pm
I would like to note that I packed for this two week trip in my backpack...that's it. Dang RyanAir has awesomely cheap flights, but really strict carry-on rules and steep penalties if your bag is too big (55cmx40cmx20cm). I'm good with the 55x40, but the 20cm is going to be close. If worse comes to worse I will be wearing leggings under my jeans and like 7 tank tops on the plane haha.
WISH ME LUCK! I will try to blog at least once while I'm gone and keep your eyes out on facebook because it's easy to post pictures from my phone directly to facebook.
CIAO, Katy
Me and my lovely ladies in Pompeii! Katie, Katy and Ashley
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Here's The Photos I Promised!
ASSISI
Rose window of the lower church of St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral
Me in front of the upper church of the Cathedral.
Assisi had some of the most beautiful doors I've seen in Italy. The whole town was prestine; the streets were clean, the buildings seemed well cared for, there were potted plants hanging from windows. It made the experience very enjoyable.
Precious. You don't see this very often on a main road in Italy.
Me at the Fortress. The wall in the background is where the tiny tunnel is which leads to that tower which we went up in. If you look closely, the wall is only partially covered. We climed up on the roof for some more photos. Slowly but surely I think I may be conquering my fear of heights!
Beautiful original iron lanterns in one of the main Piazzas
Giant Merangues. They're the size of my head!
Lovely shirne to Mary.
PERUGIA
The big fountain in Piazza San Lorenzo. A great spot for people watching.
The Etruscan Arch. This is the front which is very impressive. As Cammie put it, "Sir Mix Alot would be disappointed" i.e. the backside is pretty lame, you approach it from a narrow, spooky alley and it looks like any arch we've seen a hundred times.
Hotel Iris. Beautiful by day, incredibly spooky by night, especially at night! The inside is really nice too and the beds were super comfy.
Sunset on day one after a little bit of shopping with Katie.
Ohh and back to work. I'm just makin due with the very limited space we have in our little apartment. The kitchen table is occupied so I moved the TV in our room to the floor in the corner, took off the lace table cloth, moved my lamp and stuck it pricariously between the wall and the rocking chair. The perfect set up for some water coloring!
I hope you enjoyed the photos. I might post again before spring break and let you know what my plans are and such for the next two weeks. I'm getting excited!!!
CIAO, Katy
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
A Relaxing Weekend Before a Whirlwind Week....
So it's Tuesday night of the week our studio project is due and I'm till trying to figure out how it's going to get done by Friday....Here's to wishing it wasn't so easy to procrastinate in Italy? haha no!
Anyways, this past weekend was our rescheduled trip to Assisi with Marco and a trip to Perugia. I was not planning on going to Perugia during the first attempt at this field trip, but a spot opened up in a groups hostel so I jumed on it.
Assisi was amazing. Our first stop was the cathedral where we plugged into our whisper units so Marco could whister sweet nothings in our ears about the artwork of the cathedral and history of the Franciscan monks. I tended to tune in and out of his lecture because the atmosphere of the church was surprisingly peaceful and the details of the chapels and frescoes were very distrcating. The tomb (or tomBuh as Marco says) of St. Francis was beautiful. Unlike the ornate cathedral, the simplicity of the underground room which housed the tomb surrounded by stone reflected in the best way possible how St. Francis lived his life. There were two small bouquets of purple orchides on either side of the small alter in the tomb which were a perfect touch. Marco paused his lecture to give us a chance to say a few prayers or sketch in the tomb for a short while which I took advantage of. We continued our tour of the lower and upper churches.
I found the reasoning for the layout of the 'double-decker' churches particularly interesting. You first enter the lower church from the east (life, rising sun) head to the west to the alter where there are multiple frescoes depicting the crucifixion of Jesus (death, setting sun) and then continue to the upper church and head back towards the east (resurection, life, rising sun).
After the tour of the cathedral Marco took us around Assisi, which is where he grew up so he pointed out his old schools and gave some nice antecdotes about growing up there. We also learned that he is not very fond of Italian high shoolers, he calls them Barbarians and Little Devils haha.
When we were done with Marco we got a nice lunch at a pizzaria and then headed to Fortezza Maggiore. This old castle offers amazing views from it's multiple towers. There were tight spiral staircases to climb up and a tiny tunnel to walk through. It was a beautiful day!
Next was a quick train ride to Perugia where we managed to get pretty lost looking for the hostel but with some help from two young ladies at the grocery store we managed to get on a bus which took us right there. We stayed at Hotel Iris which is very creepy looking at night from the outside, but very nice inside. We went out for a quick dinner and then got ready to go out to a discotech which turned out to be very fun. We all really wanted to dance and found a great place with the help of some nice Italian girls we met.
The next day we slept in and then just walked around town. There really wasn't as much to see as I had hoped but we managed to get in some quality people watching at Piazza San Lorenzo, got a delicious Kebab (the closest thing to chipotle we have here. It's a large burrito with lettuce, tomato, onion, french fries, and meat from a one of those big pieces of spinning meat that the guys shaves meat off of) and then took a short nap. For dinner we went to a cute restaurant the lady at the hotel suggested. It was decorated with suits of armor and funny plants and the food was delicious. I got a pasta with a semi-spicy red sauce and thinly sliced veggies and a pear salad. The next day we spent a couple hours walking around town again and then headed home to Orvieto on the train because we wanted to have a little time that afternoon to get caught up/started on studio stuff.
All in all it was a relaxing weekend which was nice to have before starting this crazy week of studio and internship stuff.
I will post photos tomorrow becuase they take forever to download from my bed which is where I am now. I need to get to bed soon so I can function tomorrow as long as possible because I have A LOT of studio stuff to do!!
P.S. Grandma, I heard you were worried that all I eat is noodles and red sauce, but I wanted to let you know that yesterday I made mini meat loafs and mashed potatoes (which I had for dinner and then lunch today). They were delicious! I didn't know I knew how to make meat loaf or could even stand to make it! Also, I think I'm making an omlete tomorrow too (probably for lunch and dinner haha).
Cliff Hanger: Assisi/Perugia photos tomorrow; Studio due Friday; Getting a few more intership applications sent out; This weekend will be dedicated to figuring out how to pack for two whole weeks of vacation (North trip AND Spring Break to Paris and Barcelona!!!)
Anyways, this past weekend was our rescheduled trip to Assisi with Marco and a trip to Perugia. I was not planning on going to Perugia during the first attempt at this field trip, but a spot opened up in a groups hostel so I jumed on it.
Assisi was amazing. Our first stop was the cathedral where we plugged into our whisper units so Marco could whister sweet nothings in our ears about the artwork of the cathedral and history of the Franciscan monks. I tended to tune in and out of his lecture because the atmosphere of the church was surprisingly peaceful and the details of the chapels and frescoes were very distrcating. The tomb (or tomBuh as Marco says) of St. Francis was beautiful. Unlike the ornate cathedral, the simplicity of the underground room which housed the tomb surrounded by stone reflected in the best way possible how St. Francis lived his life. There were two small bouquets of purple orchides on either side of the small alter in the tomb which were a perfect touch. Marco paused his lecture to give us a chance to say a few prayers or sketch in the tomb for a short while which I took advantage of. We continued our tour of the lower and upper churches.
I found the reasoning for the layout of the 'double-decker' churches particularly interesting. You first enter the lower church from the east (life, rising sun) head to the west to the alter where there are multiple frescoes depicting the crucifixion of Jesus (death, setting sun) and then continue to the upper church and head back towards the east (resurection, life, rising sun).
After the tour of the cathedral Marco took us around Assisi, which is where he grew up so he pointed out his old schools and gave some nice antecdotes about growing up there. We also learned that he is not very fond of Italian high shoolers, he calls them Barbarians and Little Devils haha.
When we were done with Marco we got a nice lunch at a pizzaria and then headed to Fortezza Maggiore. This old castle offers amazing views from it's multiple towers. There were tight spiral staircases to climb up and a tiny tunnel to walk through. It was a beautiful day!
Next was a quick train ride to Perugia where we managed to get pretty lost looking for the hostel but with some help from two young ladies at the grocery store we managed to get on a bus which took us right there. We stayed at Hotel Iris which is very creepy looking at night from the outside, but very nice inside. We went out for a quick dinner and then got ready to go out to a discotech which turned out to be very fun. We all really wanted to dance and found a great place with the help of some nice Italian girls we met.
The next day we slept in and then just walked around town. There really wasn't as much to see as I had hoped but we managed to get in some quality people watching at Piazza San Lorenzo, got a delicious Kebab (the closest thing to chipotle we have here. It's a large burrito with lettuce, tomato, onion, french fries, and meat from a one of those big pieces of spinning meat that the guys shaves meat off of) and then took a short nap. For dinner we went to a cute restaurant the lady at the hotel suggested. It was decorated with suits of armor and funny plants and the food was delicious. I got a pasta with a semi-spicy red sauce and thinly sliced veggies and a pear salad. The next day we spent a couple hours walking around town again and then headed home to Orvieto on the train because we wanted to have a little time that afternoon to get caught up/started on studio stuff.
All in all it was a relaxing weekend which was nice to have before starting this crazy week of studio and internship stuff.
I will post photos tomorrow becuase they take forever to download from my bed which is where I am now. I need to get to bed soon so I can function tomorrow as long as possible because I have A LOT of studio stuff to do!!
P.S. Grandma, I heard you were worried that all I eat is noodles and red sauce, but I wanted to let you know that yesterday I made mini meat loafs and mashed potatoes (which I had for dinner and then lunch today). They were delicious! I didn't know I knew how to make meat loaf or could even stand to make it! Also, I think I'm making an omlete tomorrow too (probably for lunch and dinner haha).
Cliff Hanger: Assisi/Perugia photos tomorrow; Studio due Friday; Getting a few more intership applications sent out; This weekend will be dedicated to figuring out how to pack for two whole weeks of vacation (North trip AND Spring Break to Paris and Barcelona!!!)
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