city of lucca

It was a morning of people rolling out of bed slowly one at a time. Around 12:30, Lucca was graced with our presence. We all split up into a little groups and it was naoh, Daniel and I today. We wandered through looking for the flea market and all the churches that were open. At the foot of one of the churches was this absolutely fabulous book seller who had books from the 1800’s for only 1 and 2 euro. I found some letters addressed to Giuseppe Spadoni, circa 1908-1932. The paper is so old that it almost falls apart when you touch it. It was a rush to find something so personal and so fragile in such great shape for me to have!! The three of us found a restaurant right by the church that had excellent pizza for 4 euro each. I was FULL. It was getting close to our scheduled meet up time back at the car so we started heading towards the wall that encompasses the whole city (we parked just on the outside of the wall). There were steps the went to the top of the wall and you could walk around the entire city up there. We just walked a partial way and ran into everyone relaxing on a bench atop the wall. After congregating, it was back to the villa for dinner, wine and dancing. Both nights so far have gotten pretty rowdy and I only see it getting crazier. It’s a day off tomorrow so I’m thinking there will be lots of hangovers and laying around..

-L dawg

train to florence, lucca

I’m feeling a bit more like a human being today. I think the sickness is finally fading and I’m on the road to recovery. YAY! We took another train from Venice today, up and over to Lucca. We had one transfer in Florence and once we got to Lucca, the majority of us visited the gelatoria. Horia and Bill had to rent some vehicles for transportation around Tuscany, so that took a little time. We all piled into the cars, with a few seats being shared by more than one person, and drove to the villa just outside Lucca. The house is huge and everyone has made their nest in their rooms. A couple of us went to the market to get groceries for the week since we will be cooking dinner everynight. No more eating out!!! I got all my own stuff to cook my delicious vegan meals and everyone else chipped in to a larger pot to get all the Italian meats and cheeses famous in this region. Dinner was wonderful and the attitude was exciting. Everyone seemed to be a bit looser out in the slower, quieter parts of italy. This is going to be a fun week. I MISS JESSE! Only 9 more days…

-lyyyyyyndsey

biennale day 2...AWFUL sickness

I think this is it. I’m pretty sure this is the closest to death I’ve felt in awhile. I have the cold sweats and everything around is really far away one minute and then super close-up. I made it a really short day at the biennale, a quick walk through of everything just so I could see the exhibitions, and then think about them at a later point when I wasn’t dying. I saw purple spots and had crazy vertigo when I got onto the ferry to come back over to the other island. It was scary. Rest, sleep and more rest now.

-yucky lyndsey

biennale di venezia

So I have a fever and I can’t breath out of my face. It feels like a ton of bricks in my head and someone pounding on my chest. I went and got some flu tea from the farmacia and a couple other remedies suggested to me. I want this thing to go away, no ruining my trip dammit! We snuck onto the ferry that took us across the canal to san marco. We walked along the canal on our way to the biennale and ran into an exhibit on the way. Im pretty sure I will have to start a whole other blog for the happenings at the biennale so I wont get into specifics. There were a lot of interesting and very political things at this biennale, almost an overload. We were there for about 5 or 6 hours, and then we headed back to the other side. Bill, Horia, Dave and I ran into a great discount market where huge bottles of water were 12 cents and I bought 3 days worth of food for 6 euro. We had a picnic out by one of the canals at sunset and talked. I had pickled asparagus and basil olive oil artichokes on top of a rosemary foccacia bread, some fresh tomatoes and roasted red and yellow peppers. It was delicious and the sky was beautiful. Its time for some rest so I don’t feel like crap tomorrow.

-sick girl

train ride to venice

It was supposed to be an early morning, but there is always someone who holds us up. It’s the worst when we are held up long enough to miss the buss, leading to the whole group missing the train to Venice. Oh well. We all sucked it up and caught the next crowded bus, squeezing everyone in and making it on time for the next fast train. Va bena!! Lots of hungover faces and dizzy eyes filing onto the train and settling in for the 4.5 hour ride north. We played 20 questions, cards, wrote in journals, listened to music and napped. Ciao Venezia!! The weather is so dramatically different from hot rome. Its 70 degrees and sunny, with a very slight cool breeze. It almost feels like fall compared to down south. We got the next ferry bus along the canal to giurdini, the island we were staying on. Of course we got of on the wrong stop and ended up walking a bit, but it was nice out and who is going to complain about getting lost in VENICE?! We all did our own thing for dinner, which was the market for me, fresh veggies and peanuts! I met up with some people at the closest café/bar and we had some wine together and talked about the current happenings. All in all, it was a simple day of travel and settling. Im starting to feel sick, lets hope its not going to manifest!

-lg

vatican museum and the sistine chapel

We stood in line for a good hour and a half to two hours this morning just to enter the museum. Once we were inside, it was a maze through all the rooms and halls of the enormous building that once housed some of the most famous artists in history, and the daily quarters of former popes. Every wall was covered in fresco or oil painting of some dramatic religious scene, putting pictures to the words that so many have lived by. We were all separated from the group a few times, but all found each other in front of the school of Athens painting. BRILLIANT!!! Such an amazing piece of work, only to be followed by walking into the Sistine chapel. I think we all needed a neck brace after that since everything is on the ceiling. There it was, creation of man, and so many other panels right above my head. Its hard to look at anything else after a day full of famous, classic pieces of art. We relaxed for a bit around the hotel for a couple hours and slowly wandered our way through tiny walkways and hidden alleys to the pantheon. I had seen so many pictures of the Pantheon before and studied it so much in history classes, famous for being the largest self-supporting dome, pretty much in the entire world, but I could never describe how cool it was to stand inside and hear the effects that take place with the sound, or acoustics. A quiet breathy whistle would echo for seconds after you stop. The only light inside was from the huge hole in the ceiling which was made to be permanently open, and the sun coming through the hole throughout the day would illuminate the statues lined up around the walls. As I gawked at the elaborate tomb for the one and only Raphael, a group of singers began an angelic performance of a short song that made everyone stop in their tracks to listen. Highs and lows, louder and soft, everyone had chills when they were through. Another short walk wandering through the streets at dusk, we were heading BACK to the pizza place for our last night in Roma. Wine, grappa, limoncello…..the usual. SLEEP…

-lyndsey

the Vatican

Banana, orange juice and an apple for breakfast and off to the Vatican church first thing in the morning. The line was already starting to wrap around the circle, but it was moving quickly, filing the tourists like sheep into the church. Its Sunday so mass was going on and the priests were singing, their voices reverberating off the 360 foot ceilings made of gold and the marble inlay floors soaked in 1600 years of religious and political history. Frescos and mosaics decorate every wall and beautiful sculptures of a saint or a former pope sit comfortably looming over you. Everything inside was on such a large scale that it made me and everyone else in there feel very small. I proceeded to the underground tombs of dead popes and the religious royalty from neighboring countries. It smelled cold and there was definitely an aura of death all throughout the room of tombs. There were 2 guards standing by Pope John Paul II and shushed people as they walked by, “silenzio.” We all met outside around 1pm and decided to split up, eat, then meet at the Capitoline (huge museum with a ton of famous pieces by Caravaggio, Tintiorelli and more) sometime later. The smaller palace had mostly Greek and Roman sculptures, we didn’t spend too much time on this side of the museum. The other part of the museum, Palazzo dei Conservatori, was covered with colorful frescos and had masterpieces of huge sculpture of Constantine, Bernini's Medusa and incredible paintings by Veronese, Tintoretto, Caravaggio and Van Dyck. There were so many paintings and sculptures in this museum that I had studied in several art history classes over the years and it was very cool to be so close as to breath on them. I could see the textures and really visualize the process of making the pieces. What a great experience. We walked along the tiberina river, all the way back to our hotel Emmaus. OFF my soar feet and screaming legs for about an hour before we decided to go back to the same restaurant for dinner since last night was so great. We were greeted with 3 free pizzas and 2 liters of free wine, just as a starter. The meal continued like this, surprises of free things and the waiter was getting friendlier with us as each liter disappeared. The night developed into a rowdy one of partying in the grassy knoll in the middle of the street outside the hotel. FUN night. Maybe more tomorrow…

-Lyndsey

meeting up with the group

I packed my stuff up and left the hostel at about 8 a.m. I walked to the tabacchi and bought my bus ticket to the Vatican, which is just on the other side of town. I could’ve easily walked but my bag is heavier than I am. So I’m waiting at the bus stop, looking for the number 64 and a man walks up to me. He asked me if I was waiting for the bus, and obviously I was since I was at the bus stop with my ticket in hand. He continues to tell me that the bus drivers are on strike and its very good that he ran into me or I would be waiting there all day. He grabbed my wrist and started dragging me down towards piazza republica where a bunch of vans were parked, rambling on about the strike in rome and not to worry because he has saved me the waiting time and will now drive me wherever I want to go. I was wondering what exactly this guy was getting out of this and started to ask how much this service cost. He avoided the question and that’s when I turned around and started walking back to the station. He was chasing after me telling me I was making a big mistake and grabbing at me. I used some bad words and I think I scared him off with my gestures. Immediately after, I hopped on the next bus, which was the 64. The buses weren’t on strike after all. I took the bus all the way to the end of the line and made my way down to the Vatican. I ran into Horia, my professor, and noah on the via fornacci. I put my stuff in the storage room of the hotel Emmaus and wandered out towards the Vatican to catch a glimpse for the first time. It was beautiful. Overwhelming and intricate in every detail. The statues of all the saints lined up around the circle, staring at me as I spun in circles of awe. I caught a glimpse of a beard and there was Daniel! We went and got a cup of espresso by the hotel and waited for more people to show up. At 11am we were allowed to check in, so we did. I brought my things up to the room and headed out in search of another vegan restaurant that was near where we were. A wild goose chase is what it turned out to be, ending in settling for a small deli with a salad that I had to pick the cheese out of. How deceiving of them to cover the cheese with delicious carrots and olives! Jerks. Once everyone had arrived from their different parts of the world, we headed out for a night stroll to the coliseum, and parts of the roman forum. I saw all this stuff yesterday but it was so beautiful and different by nightfall. On our way back, we stopped at a restaurant that had a pizza oven built in 1810. 200 year old pizza was pretty damn good. The waiter was in good spirits, witty and sarcastic which made the dinner that much better. Lots of wine, grappa and full bellies. Time for rest.

-L dawg