high fashion and not so much

soooo another blog post for today because i absolutely had to post about the valentino exhibit at the ara pacis... mostly just because it was beautiful and the dresses were amazing... i got to see the Julia Roberts dress from when she won the oscar, a dress worn by reese witherspoon, and one by halle berry... as well as about 100 other gorgeous dresses that i would have loved to wear... soooo pretty... although the mannequins were pretty awkward and had really long necks... some examples:

julia roberts dress

later today we had family dinner... during which mike decided to show us some high fashion of his own... witness the mom jeans, camp dudley polo, and boat shoes:wow mike... lookin good! ;-)

hilltowns trip

sooo, after 5 days of traveling and almost a day of recouperating, im ready to post about the hilltowns...
early monday morning, we began at 7am on the bus on our way to montepulciano... which turned out to a be a VERY SMALL town that had like 10 churches and not much else, as most of these towns do. what it did have is some spectacular views... a few of us all ended up in the same spot for lunch, sitting on a wall at the top of a hill, looking out over the countryside, which became a pretty regular event for us on this trip... we were also able to go to the top of one of the buildings and take a few pictures... which was pretty cool... after about 4 hours there, we loaded back onto the bus
about a half hour on the bus landed us in pienza, the renaissance utopia town... even smaller than montepulciano... theres literally one piazza thats about the size of my apartment in rome... and in the 4 hours we spent there, most of us were able to do several laps of the town... upon suggestion by our professors, a few of us bought some wine and cheese and sat on a wall with a view consuming these goods until it was time to leave... very good idea... i recommend doing this whenever you have some free time in italy
that night we got to siena... pretty town, nasty hotel... we were tired that night, so we found some dinner and headed back to the hotel pretty quickly... early the next morning, we climbed our way to the top of the Torre al Mangia... which is a ridiculously high tower with ridiculously steep narrow stairs going all the way to the top... besides being totally out of breath by the time i got to the top, it was worth it... the view was beautiful! the rest of the day was spent shopping, i found a pair of beautiful leather scrunchy boots with a low heel... a little more expensive than i planned, but pretty awesome anyway, look for them in pictures to come... that night we went to the Taverna del Cecco, which was right across the way from our nasty hotel but ended up being a really nice place with good food... and we also went out for coffee with amy's sister alicia and her fiance alfredo... theyre getting married in about a month and we saw pictures of her dress... its really beautiful
wayyyy too early the next morning we visited San Galgano, an abandoned abbey somewhere out in the middle of nowhere... it was soooooo cold... once i put on a few layers it was much better, and i was able to sit still long enough to do a pretty decent sketch... after a few hours there, it was time to move along once again
Arezzo was the next stop on our whirlwind tour, and we spent a few hours there looking at the churches (really thats all arezzo has)... but i have no pictures... because my camera battery died... oh well
later that evening we checked into the most beautiful hotel we've stayed in so far, in urbino... we went to a restaurant called Morgana for dinner (because the name was obviously irresistable) and it was delicious! We spent the whole next day in urbino... we visited the ducal palace... i actually stood in the middle window between the towers! it was really pretty, and there were some amazing works of art, one was "The Mute" by Raphael!! It was pretty awesome... later on, after lunch, we walked around the edge of the city and landed in a park with a nice spot to sit and enjoy the view, which we did... all afternoon... after another fabulous dinner in urbino it was time to get some rest and gear up for the last day of our trip!
finally, we got to assisi... as in st francis of assisi! the church is in 2 parts... the tomb, the upper church and the lower church and it is covered in the most amazing frescos depicting scenes from the bible and from the life of saint francis... besides the church, the rest of the town was pretty hilly... but if you climbed all the way up the hill, not only did you get another great view, there was a castle!! yes, a castle at the top of the hill... it was a very nice way to spend the last afternoon of our trip
we arrived around 7 last night back in rome, where i unpacked, showered, and went to bed... the hilltowns were fabulous, but its good to be back

the end of another week in roma

So, this week went from bad, to a bit better, to wayyyy worse, but now has ended very nicely. To recap, Sunday i was feeling the cabin fever of studio, missing home and friends and everyone. Luckily, Monday and Tuesday mornings landed our history class at the Vatican (i've posted pictures) and its pretty much the most amazing, most beautiful place i have ever seen... St Peter's is absolutely HUMONGOUS! Along the floor it compares the sizes of other famous basilicas, and St Patricks in NYC could fit inside it twice, with room to spare... and its just amazingly decorated and i could never describe just how beautiful it is if you've never been there yourself... so put it on your "life to do" list, go to the vatican, see St Peters, it might change your life. The next 2 nights resulted in little or no sleep but lots of scripting and diagramming for our review on thursday, which went ok but not great... we were one of the last groups to go and we got barely any time to present. But whatever... its over now... me and Brian dont have to work together anymore... which is fab. Yesterday was a day of relaxing and sleeping and loafing around and taking long showers... thats literally what everyone did... and last night instead of going out, we projected Gladiator on the wall of our apartment, which was an awesome movie to watch while in Rome, because hey, thats where the movie takes place! it was pretty good, i've never seen Gladiator before (gasp!) and i think between Cinderella Man and Gladiator, i am now totally in love with russel crowe... hes pretty awesome. Today was another day of relaxing and enjoying Rome... me and mike walked around in the drizzle for a few hours (it never really rains here) and then we had a big family dinner (andrew made lamb and joanne made apple pie... mmmmmmm) and then we had cake for rachele's bday! So all in all, it ended up being a great week... thank you everyone who's been reading and posting comments and posting on my facebook wall... i miss you all and it means so much to me that you miss me too!!!
Next week i'll be away on the hilltowns trip, so im not sure how much internet access i will have, but ill try to update during the week while im gone and of course i will update when i return.

homesick

So i know im in a beautiful city, and its an amazing experience, and i love rome... but today i feel a little bit homesick... for a variety of reasons... im totally sick of studio, i want to go out and explore the city, i want my freedom back and i dont want to have the pressure of trying to figure everything out in english and translate to italian, its no fun... and i miss my friends at school... seeing the same 20 people every day is getting old, and im just started to get aggravated about stupid things that i wouldnt get aggravated about if i had some time with other people... and i want to watch a movie, any movie, even a bad tv rerun would be nice... i havent watched tv in over a month, and even tho it doesnt usually govern my life, i miss it... i miss being able to talk to my family every day, phone calls are expensive and with the time difference its hard to coordinate... i miss friday night getting ready to go out to parties, or for sushi, or to just sit around and drink beer and talk about stupid things with friends... i miss cheap bars, i even miss the ruck... i could really go for some french fries right about now, or some wings... i missed all of fall rush, the barbeques, the parties, meeting all the new pledges... i miss my sisters and our beautiful new house... i want to meet our new girls, especially my little little, erzie... i miss dani, i miss fall 04, i miss megan and lj and amanda and jan and lexie, i miss lazy saturdays in my pajamas... every day here is crazy, its non stop... and if you stop for too long its like youre wasting all those precious minutes that youll never get back... i just want to take a nap... my bed is so tiny here, i want my big bed back... i need to go lay down in dani's bed for a while and hide from the world... i miss greg, i miss all the things we used to do, i miss texting all day long, i miss constant contact... i miss room 12, playing cards on the bar, mug chugs, beer pong with real red cups, i miss all the boys... theres only 7 boys in our group, and its not enough... i miss having time to dry my hair, i miss sitting on the sage coin between classes, i miss wearing letters on campus... i miss chef joe, and only having to cook when i wanted to, and being on a meal plan... i miss ramen and easy mac and cookies... i miss drinking tea every night before bed, the tea here is not the same as at home... i miss making nachos with all my sisters in the middle of the night because nobody wants to do work and we'd all rather be fatties... i miss all my shoes, i miss borrowing clothes from sisters, i even miss sisters borrowing clothes from me... i miss greene and being able to visit all my sisters when i needed a break from doing work... and now that ive gotten all this out, i think i feel a little better... so when you read this, dont think im sad... just know that i miss you, and all the things we do together or apart... and i love rome, but its just not the same as home or even troy... and i love my time here, but sometimes it just gets to me that im really far away from all the people and places and things that i love... but i have some good friends here, and theyre taking care of me... and hopefully im taking care of them too... and im going to try to keep myself busy and distracted so i can enjoy every second that im here, but also so it doesnt feel like so long until im back with all of you again.

ps... if you would like to call me or send me something wonderful, let me know and i'll tell you how

mom jeans

Hey Amy! Looking sexy in those mom jeans. You're like a mom model. Where did you get those jeans? Oh they're Mikes? How nice that they have pleats for your front butt. I should borrow them sometime. Bellissima!

one month in Roma

after one month in Roma, I have:
-walked past the pantheon about 30 times, and remained in awe of it
-been abused by crazy Jan, my history professor
-bought 1 new pair of Birkenstock sandals from 2 very cute old men
-broken 1 white glass ring from Verona by playing the cup game at joes
-had a wire toe ring made ON MY FOOT for free
-finished my own bottle of wine in one night
-found muji
-taken pictures of the Vatican at night
-not watched any tv
-created BAM
-spent an entire day walking miles and checking a half dozen stores only to find a hairdryer in the store around the corner
-learned to take a VERY FAST shower
-learned to live without privacy
-become part of a family
-lived without internet for an extended period of time
-learned to order sliced lunchmeat in italian
-learned to think in euro
-done laundry once
-not done enough sketching
-written a bunch of post cards, but not sent any out
-missed everyone lots and lots
-gotten really excited about all our new alpha gams at RPI
-fallen in love with this city

i <3 fridays in Roma

So I’ve decided that even though every day in Roma is wonderful, Fridays quite possibly are the best…

Friday began with Italian, which is always hilarious. Paolo is our teacher and he’s pretty much ridiculous. He was asking us about our plans for the weekend and Andrew told him "mangio il pane con Il Gesu"… which means literally "i'm eating bread with Jesus" lol. Paolo thought that was pretty ridiculous, and he laughed his very strange Paolo laugh and all was good.

After Italian class I went to la Rinascente to buy this cool bag I saw the other day. It’s a tote with Andy Warhol designs on it, and it was originally 60 euro but I got it on sale for 34, which I don’t really think is too bad. I’ve totally stopped thinking in dollars; it’s just not worth it because everything is so expensive here anyway. But it’s a cool bag and its got pockets on the inside and a little clip thing for my keys so I don’t lose them in the bottom of the bag because that’s the most annoying thing ever.

After lunch I decided that I really wanted to go get another crazy ring. There’s an older man that sits at a table across the campo and he makes beautiful jewelry out of silver wire and there’s these rings that are just like a birds nest of coiled wire and I really wanted one. So me and Morgan ventured over to see if we could find some good ones, and the guy started talking to us about the rings and telling us that he’s not going to make the birds next ones because they use too much wire and its expensive and not worth it for him to make. We paid him for the rings, but he motioned for us to come over because he had something special for us. He proceeded to MAKE TOE RINGS ON OUR FEET!!! Yes, he made me put my foot up on his knee so that he could literally make the toe ring around my toe, just for me. He did the same for Morgan and now we have beautiful matching, but different, toe rings. Only in Roma.