Do As the Romans Do

What are the Romans actually known for 'doing'? Aside from barbaric gladiators, power-thirsty rulers, and a politically-hungry government known for conquering half of Europe? I mean I know they have a lot of checked-off items on their long list on their "Personal Goals & Achievements", but I guess I just do not understand the saying: When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I'm sorry but my two days in Rome, I was unable to do any 'Roman' things. I pictured the gladiators below the stage of the colosseum awaiting what could be their last battle, the prisoners locked up in the cells of the Roman Forum, the crowds entering the Pantheon for service, and masses of people in the Vatican City; but I didn't physically do any of these things. I, however, did Rome in the very 'touristy' way following our two group leaders through lines of people. They don't make things particularly easy in Rome. For example, you can't just go see the Sistine Chapel. You have to go through the entire museum, wrap around each corner, shuffle through each room leading up to the infamous ceiling you break your neck to admire. The Vatican Museum could probably fit the entire state of Rhode Island in it, and just the entire building covered in ancient works of art. They say that you need six days to at least step foot in each store of the Mall of America, well I would say you would need at least six months to glance at every piece in the Vatican Museum for no more than ten seconds. And we had three hours. So you can imagine our disappointment while being rushed through these rooms with sculptures done by Donatello and pieces done by Raphael, without so much as a picture.

Overall, Vatican city was very impressive. We opted to not wait in the four-hour line to enter St. Peters Basilica. I'll just have to go back someday. And I apparently will since I threw my coin over my shoulder into the Trevi Fountain. Romans say that if you throw your coin correctly than this signifies your return to Rome someday, just like rubbing the pigs nose in Florence. I threw in a couple coins to ensure I got the best picture, so it looks like I will be returning to Rome a couple of times!

Since we only had two days, which is not nearly enough time to do Rome.. we hit up the major tourist attractions. We kept picturing everything out of the Lizzie McGuire Movie.. but we decided that she didn't have her concert in the actual Colosseum. Vatican, check. Colosseum, check. Trevi, check. Spanish.. still had to get to the Spanish steps and had less than 3 hours. After realizing we had been looking for the only attraction on our map that was listed in spanish (I had figured was a good place to start), we were corrected by one of the Presidents guards that we were in fact going opposite direction of the Spanish steps. I'm not sure what gave us away.. maybe being 106% American tourists idiotically assuming the Spanish embassy was where the Spanish steps were?! So thanks to this very generous guard, he led us to the steps which were jam-packed with people.

Oh and did I mention that there were strikes happening?! Really funny actually, because even though Italians are nonchalant about the essence of time they happen to be very organized in some respects. Such as riots and strikes. Protests have a very strict schedule and this instance was 2 in the afternoon to 6 in the evening. Hundreds of thousands of people marching the streets, and they were not as friendly as the one singing, flag waving one Florence I got caught in. Streets were being blockaded by swarms of police and swat in their gas masks with their shields. They unfortunately did not stop at their deadline and the riots with the tear gas and bombs continued into the night.. kind of put a damper on our evening plans. We got to see some of the destruction in the morning. TONS of graffiti on almost every reachable surface, but I of course had no idea what any of it meant because it was in Italian. I'm assuming something regarding the Italian government?? But I just found out the other day from my great Guatemalan friend that there is a list of schedule days for strikes. As in they have an organized calendar with times too! Maybe they are trying to make a statement and show the Italian government how timed schedules actually work- the bus system could definitely learn a thing or two.

Word Vomit and the Effects of Homesickness

Word Vomit= an uncontrolled spilling of words out of your mouth. 

Thanks urbandictionary. In this case, it is an uncontrolled spilling of words coming from my keyboard. A completely disorganized spilling of words. I have a lot of ground to cover since I haven't posted in over two weeks (minus the "Seriously?!" I posted ten minutes ago but had saved at least 3 weeks ago). I dedicate this post to my nagging family members... enjoy!
 

So before I left DU, they had these mandatory pre-departure sessions we had to attend one gorgeous, spring, weekend afternoon. They gave us a bunch of information that was quite overwhelming at the time, but one thing that stuck was the diagram of the cycles of the abroad "feelings/emotions". There was the initial culture shock, then the crazed "I love Europe slash being on my own" phase, and then the inevitable home sick phase. They call it the emotional rollercoaster. Me, being so independent and adventurous thought "no way will I be getting homesick. I've never been homesick before in my life, why would I be homesick when I'm in one of the coolest cities in the world?!" Well, guess what. For the first time in my life I am homesick for Maine. I'm beginning to think just America in general because all these emails I get from Delta Zeta, Daniels (the Business school) and HRTM (my hospitality school) with invites to career fairs, workshops, formals, homecoming events and other campus updates are really getting to me. I almost cried when I found out that Garbanzos and Spicy Pickle had closed on campus. I suppose I forgot that the rest of the world keeps spinning while I'm gone. I was really missing the fall season, the green grass, the orange and red leaves, the Columbus Day tourney at Shaws Field with hot cocoa, being able to wear a light sweatshirt and jeans, apple picking season, apple cider, the pumpkin patch, pumpkin donuts, I could go on but will stop to avoid further homesickness. The big one though is the greenery. Florence is a city of stone. Ancient, historical, full of culture, beautiful stone. But, nonetheless, stone. Majorly lacking in the vegetation department. Guess I took the gazillions of trees in Maine for granted. (Maine- share the love and send some over to Florence). 

So having this strange, unfamiliar feeling of homesick come over me, I decide to research cheap overnights in the countryside in Tuscany. I managed to find the one hotel with the most gardens, and brightest, greenest pictures. This was Tuesday night. Having sensible friends, they decided it wasn't worth it financially. Fast forward to Thursday morning. Before school. At my desk. Ready to walk to class, with my bag and shoes on. I decide to check my email real quick to see if I have a response from my Danish relatives. Nope. However, I do have a "Booking Confirmation". What? Oh, wow look at that, I have a booking for... tonight! Booking already went through on my credit card. Nice. Looks like we are going to... (still don't know what city we were in). So it was one not so cheap night in a city that only god knows about, but with some of the prettiest gardens I have been in (of course not including Nani's) . It was the perfect garden-getaway I needed. And provided me with the best meal I have yet to eat in Florence. The meal alone was worth it in my book. 

And then obviously chocolate helps everything. The International Chocolate Festival in Perugia was sure to help with my homesickness. Sure did. After eating double my weight at the chocolate lover's haven, I felt much happier. They had miles of tents selling everything you could ever possibly imagine doused in chocolate. The original chocolate truffles and bars in every crazy flavor you could think of, chocolate hot chocolate (which is just melted hot fudge), chocolate pasta, chocolate absynth. Chocolate absynth! As in the alcohol that I get a buzz off of by just sniffing it. I responsibly refrained from that sample. Also wimped out on my pear-flavored chocolate juice box- which I gave to a friend as a gift :) 

I guess I will leave Rome for its own post..

Seriously?!

Okay remember my blog where I discussed my professor who happens to be a Count of Florence (with a family code of arms and everything), well he took us on a field trip to Chianti in Tuscany for the day. Extra sweet because we got to miss Italian as an excused absence!! Well anyway, we got off the bus and had this amazing lunch. Whenever we go out with the Count (every class he takes us somewhere for wine or chocolate- and yes, I am getting credit for this!) everyone seems to know him, so they end up treating us with a little something like bread. This particular time was a great treat. An appetizer of pâté and this squash concoction. I of course had to try the pâté even though I already knew what it was, and have already had it AND already knew I wasn't a huge fan. But no one else "dug-in" (aka everyone looked disgusted and left their hands in their laps). Alex felt bad so she tried a little piece, and then we told her what pâté is and she nearly vommed right there. Good timing, because our pasta came right out. I ordered the ravioli with wild boar sauce which was scrumptious and Alex had the gnocci with pesto, which was also delicious. And then they brought out a sampling platter of desserts which were yet again delicious! And to finish up our lunch the Count ordered us all cappuccinos just to top off the perfect lunch in Tuscany. And wait for it, the Count took the whole bill! I asked in a you-didn't-have-to-do-that tone "Did you really just pay for all of us?!" And he responded "Miss McGehee, have you not learned anything with me? Chivalry, my dear. Men pay for everything." I can definitely get used to chivalry. Pay attention American men, because this is how it's done. 


So then we take a nice walk to a winery where we are going wine tasting. He shows us around this gorgeous estate and we get into the basement where there are hundreds of barrels of wine. However, on every single barrel, "Cont Capponni" was stamped. I think you can probably guess the next question that came out of every single one of our mouths. And his answer was "Yes. This is mine." As in all of these barrels, all these acres of olive trees, this gorgeous 15th century estate, and entire vineyard were his. Just "yes". Yup. 

Wait People are Allowed to Live in Paradise??

The way life should be. And no, sorry, not talking about Maine. Europe's hidden gem. Croatia=drop. dead. gorgeous. perfect. paradise. (too speechless for complete sentences). Honestly can't think of anywhere else on the planet that is more perfect. Food, overly scrumptious. Beaches, mountains, islands, rivers, cute riveria architecture, palm trees, pine trees... it has absolutely everything. The only negative to our Croatia trip was the 12 hour bus ride. Yes, 12 hours. We left Florence Thursday night, theoretically slept on the bus, and arrived in Split, Croatia Friday morning around 9:30 where we checked into our futuristic designed hostel. Our bunks were literally in the wall with little curtains, just like Gaga's eggs. And I of course chose the top bunk thinking it was really cool, but didn't once make it in bed without getting injured, shocker I know. About 25 minutes after dropping our luggage off in our rooms we met downstairs for our white water rafting excursion on the Cetina River. Oh and keep in mind we had just gotten off a 12-hour bus ride. So we got on yet another bus that took us on a nice nauseating-adrenaline-pumping ride through the Dalmatia Mountains to reach our launching spot. 7 miles, approximately 22 rapids, 2 cliff jumps, and a swimming break later we finished our day of rafting. By that time in the day the sun had set behind the mountains so it got quite nippy. Needless to say we purchased some hot cocoa the second we arrived at our hostel (more like a liquidy hot fudge...but delicious nevertheless). We then showered up and got ready for dinner at a local restaurant, Fife: best meal yet in Europe. What I thought they said was roasted whale (me being adventurous), was just roasted veal yet still scrumptious! We missed the traditional "floating island" dessert (which I swear I will make it back for one day) to make it to our pub crawl. 60+ girls and a running total of 4 boys walked the streets of Split in search of our pub crawl, consisting of 3 local pubs and a beach club as the final destination. I'd say it was a successful night as we managed to meet the other 10+ guys at the pubs and they all happened to be from Colorado and get this... lived in the DU neighborhood!

Fast-forward to next morning.. woke up for our island hopping tour (also known as the "booze cruise"). We each got a bottle of what we think was champagne and orange juice. We fully enjoyed our mimosas while cruising along the Adriatic Sea to the islands of Brac and Salta. We only had 45 minutes on Brac, but we only needed 2 minutes to establish that this little island was the definition of paradise. Along the brightest blue-green water I have ever seen, this little town was completely residential- NO tourists!! Didn't know such a town existed in Europe. It had the cutest little park, complete with a swing set which we all played on. As we were walking up a hill we looked back on the view of the mountains, ocean over the red-tile roof tops and decided it wasn't fair that people got to live in paradise. We also decided that we were going to "miss" our boat and stay on that little island forever and ever. It was love. We started thinking of other vacation destinations to explore for the upcoming weekends and found ourselves saying "oh no, we have to go to Rome that weekend". As if going to Rome was an inconvenience. Rome! One of the oldest cities on the planet! I suppose that's what paradise does for you.