Torna a Surriento...

Well, I am back from Sorrento now (somewhat against my will, actually. I would be lying if I said we hadn’t tried to come up with some illness that would prevent us being moved from this bit of paradise for at least another week…). This was the view from the terrace of our hotel… Can you blame us? (yes, that’s Mt. Vesuvius in the background)

Sorrento is just one of my favorite places in the world… sigh… And our hotel this time was INCREDIBLE! The pictures simply don’t do it justice.

It’s built into the side of the cliff, so first you take one elevator up to the main reception area and terrace (also see view above).

On this floor is the hotel’s restaurant (which is great), and many little sitting rooms with fabulous views and comfortable couches and chairs where you could relax with one of the many paperbacks they had in stacks around the hotel, ready for public consumption (what a fabulous idea!!).

Also on the main floor is a pretty little Jacuzzi, which even the local cats seemed to enjoy…

Well, we were greeted down at the main entrance by Liberato, the bellhop, who took all of our luggage himself and escorted us up to reception, smiling and laughing the whole way. After we checked in with the wonderfully friendly staff, he led the way up to our room, and after setting our luggage down, moved over to open what we assumed would be a large window. Imagine our surprise and delight when he threw open the shutters to reveal this incredible view from our very own balcony:


Needless to say, I used much of the space on the memory card on my camera taking pictures from our balcony. To save you from having to look at all of them, here’s just one of the town at sunset:

…and one of a really beautiful ship moored right there in the bay:

In a town with only private, pay-each-use beaches/pools, this hotel had it’s own, beautiful pool on the roof of the building, with an incredible view of the Mediterranean in the background.

Before breakfast on Saturday (which was marvelous, I assure you), I walked across the street to call Eli from the pay phone with the best view in the world…

Where else can you call somebody from a public phone and say “Hi, I’m standing on a cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples with Mt. Vesuvius, Ischia and Capri in the distance. Wish you were here!”

Anyway, after breakfast on Saturday, we all split up. Two of our group stayed at the hotel to read by the pool, three went on an excursion to Pompeii, and I walked down to town for some good old fashioned shopping! (Yes, my suitcase was a bit heavier coming back than going…) I met up with the two who had stayed at the hotel for lunch in town, and then we wandered on back to the hotel (after a bit more shopping, of course). There we lounged around the pool, reading in the sun.

That evening, the three girls who had gone to Pompeii and I decided to splurge on dinner, and so, on Chiara’s recommendation (one of the women at the front desk, and heck, that’s my name in Italian, so I have to trust her!) we made reservations at a new, very nice restaurant called “Relais Blu”.

It was about 25 minutes outside of Sorrento, so there was a free “courtesy shuttle” (actually just a guy in his car) that picked us up at our hotel and brought us back afterwards. It was a gorgeous drive right along the cliffside, with the moon over the water and everything…

When we arrived, we were shown on to the terrace, with a view of Capri over the water (the restaurant itself was also on a cliff), and seated on, I kid you not, a couch while we had aperitifs and such.

I had a glass of Prosecco in celebration, which was very nice. They brought us a plate of lovely appetizers, compliments of the chef. Unfortunately, however, as it was evening and very windy, we were getting quite chilled. Then, they brought out the menus for dinner, which we couldn’t read because it was quite dark, and we were somehow missing a candle at our table. We were then moved to a table inside (which was much nicer and warmer), where we realized the menus really were just illegible, as some brilliant person had made the font a light grey color on a cream background…

Well, anyway, the food was fabulous. After yet another little appetizer of mussels on a bed of cannelloni puree (yes, I did eat one of the mussels, despite my aversion to shellfish), compliments of the chef (I like this chef…), I had a “Trilogy of Lamb”. I think I ordered purely for the name, because we really couldn’t figure out what a “trilogy” of a lamb would be, and were curious…

Here’s Tiffany and I at the table:


The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel, at this table:

I was very loathe to leave it, needless to say… But, as I told Antonietta, the proprietress who was so very kind to me, I will be back, multiple times in years to come.

I can’t wait to look out the window and see this again:

Ah, Sorrento….



Well, I suppose I should also mention that I went to Ostia Antica to see the ruins on Friday morning before we left for Sorrento. It really is a very beautiful and interesting place that I highly recommend, maybe even more than Pompeii. I’m sorry it’s been overshadowed by Sorrento, and isn’t really getting the write-up it deserves, but here’s some pictures of it anyway.

Angel statue in the ancient cemetery:

Tile mosaic in the ancient “gym”:

Columns on the ancient Roman road:

Ruins of the city:

More ruins:

Well, until next time! Arrivederci!

La Fine d'Agosto

Buongiorno a tutti!

I’m sorry for not updating sooner –this first week has been pazzo!! I never knew there was this much work involved in planning, coordinating, and facilitating a study abroad program that’s only a month long… Silly me, right?

Anywho, Roma is as gorgeous as ever. The weather has actually been pretty pleasant here –not too hot. And when it is hot, there are always fountains like this one throughout the city to take a quick dip in. Well, not really. But they are certainly nice to look at!

As for living quarters, my apartment is simply fabulous. I really couldn’t have asked for a better situation. It’s right behind the Trajan Forum (which is across the street from the Roman Forum. Actually, it used to be all one before Mussolini decided to build a huge street right through the middle of it so he could march triumphantly through the city…). The apartment is quite spacious, and has been recently redone, and the furniture seems to be mainly comprised of IKEA (I’m not kidding). I live with two of the students on the program, who are lovely roommates and very fun to be around. We did have another who was supposed to live with us, but she left the program right before it began. So… we have three of us living in a five person apartment, which translates to… SPACE! (a rare commodity in Italy) We have two bedrooms -1 with 3 beds, 1 with 2-, two bathrooms (WOOHOO!), a pretty kitchen, and a very spacious living room (you can see part of the kitchen in the background).

We also have air-conditioning in most rooms, and beautiful hardwood floors… I really don’t know how we got this lucky! Frankly, I don’t think I could afford this apartment if it was in Seattle!

Here’s a pic of the street we live on (Via Baccina):


That’s pretty enough –BUT if you look the opposite direction, you get a real “behind the scenes” look at the Trajan Forum. (look closely at the end of the road -this was taken from our front door!!)


And if you look through the arch in the middle of this pic, you’ll see the end of our street!

If you’ve forgotten who Trajan is, here’s a pic of the famous “Trajan Column” he had built to commemorate the story of his great battle victory (you can see the pictoral story wrapping around the column, all the way to the top.) It’s quite impressive in person.


Well, I’d better get back to work –just wanted to update y’all!

Tomorrow, we take a short trip to Ostia Antica, then several of the students and myself will head down to Sorrento for the weekend! (limoncello… mmmmm….) If you want to see pics of where we are staying, I’ve added the link for the hotel’s website. We got a GREAT deal on this place, otherwise we’d have never been able to afford it…

Well, to tide you over till next time, here’s an image of the two basic Italian foodgroups (eaten consecutively, not concurrently... unless you're very brave or very strange):


Really, what else do you need? (besides gelato of course. But I can never stop eating that for long enough to take a picture of it… Speaking of which... Well, the gelato is calling!)

Tanti Baci,
Kiera

Nel Cuore della Citta` Eterna...

Ahh Roma, the eternal city...

I am sitting in the faculty room in the Palazzo Pio (which houses the UW Rome Center), trying to stop sweating like a farm animal (it's the evening so it's not terribly hot -just HUMID), and growing hungrier as I smell wonderful things wafting in through the large open windows.... Soon I will head down to Sabrina's apartment for dinner with her, an LSJ student and the little girl that Sabrina is babysitting for another professor. Mmmm, I can just taste the pasta con burro, parmigiano e spinaci right now...

Well, it's been quite the adventure to get here, though things went more than well, travel-wise this go 'round.

Yesterday morning, I was wisked away from home at O Dark O'Clock (i.e., 3:30am. Yes. AM.) by the friendly Shuttle Express driver. I got to the airport at 4:20am for my 7:10am flight, thinking things would be dead and I'd breeze through everything.... hahaha. ha.

At this lively hour of the morning, the line from the American Airlines International Check-In counter stretched through their cordons, around the corner, and down all the way to the beginning of the security line, which, granted, was considerably shorter.

Anyway, once I was checked in, things went swimmingly. The flight left on time, and on the leg to Chicago, I chatted to the girl next to me. It turns out she was flying to Rome as well, but then on to home: Israel.

She was very nice, and we had a very interesting conversation. Actually, she reminded me quite a bit of one of my best friends in middle school, who was from Ukraine. We had a lot of fun being geeky together. Then, while we were both waiting in Chicago, she asked me if I wanted to play a game while we waiting, as our conversation about the differences between the American and Israeli school systems was kind of dying down. I guess her father loves games (sound like anyone I know?), so she had bought one as a gift for him, and figured he wouldn't mind if we broke it in for him.

So we sit down on the floor of the gate lobby, and guess what she pulls out of her bag? Settlers of Catan! What's more, she already knew the game well, and so continued to whip me quite soundly... (Dad, please don't disown me...)

Unfortunately, we were not seated anywhere near each other on the flight to Rome, so I only saw her again briefly a couple of times. But isn't it neat when you meet such fun travel partners?

Anyway, our flight to Rome was uneventful, and we actually arrived nearly 30 mins early! I couldn't believe it! A flight from CHICAGO, to ROME (neither of which are exactly known for the promptness of their flights...) was EARLY... *insert twilight zone music*

I splurged on a car and driver from the airport into Rome, and chatted with him in Italian. He was quite nice and recommended some good Italian music for me. Boy did it feel good to be back in Rome, flying down cobblestone streets by the Vittorio Emmanuele monument and the Palatine hill...

I arrived at the Rome Center bright and early at 8:30 this morning and got my keys. I had a meeting with Sabrina and we went over all sorts of logistical things for the program. We sorted through the calendar, figured out that, despite what the office said, I had not been "rented out" (without my knowledge) by the Design program for three days to translate for them in Pisa and Parma, and discussed general logistics.

Well, I thought I would be able to make it the whole day before I crashed, but alas, twas not to be. By 11 o'clock, all I remember is hearing Sabrina ask me if I wanted to take a nap in her apartment (in the same building as the UWRC, unlike my apartment). As I was feeling rather woozy, I agreed and thanked her profusely. I drank a couple glasses of water and drifted off to the sounds of the market outside the window.

I woke up a couple hours later, about 1:00, and talked to Sabrina, who had tried to get the cellphone I'll be using for the program. Well, to make a long story short, there were complications, and so we decided to put that off till the evening. I gathered my luggage, called a taxi, and headed over to my apartment to meet the landlord.

It ended up being a very quick ride, and I beat him there by about 15min. So I hung out and watched the Italians making their afternoon passagiata. When he showed up, he was very nice and actually carried my heavy suitcase up several flights of stairs for me, despite my protestations.

The apartment is gorgeous! It's right near the Roman Forum and very close to the Colosseum... I will post pictures tomorrow, most likely, so more on that later. But just so you know. It's fabulous. :)

I was still feeling a bit woozy, so I decided to take another nap. Boy did that feel good. After about an hour and a half, I woke up to get ready to come back to the UWRC to meet Sabrina. While I was getting ready, I turned on the telly to see what Rai Tre, an Italian station, was playing.

It took me a second, but then I realized it was "Quantum Leap" dubbed into Italian!! It was truly fabulous, and I wish I could've stayed to watch all of it.

But Roma beckoned... Before I left the apartment, I took out my map to figure out how to walk back to the UWRC. I stared blankly at it for a few minutes, stuffed it back into my purse (just in case), and decided to just wing it, as I knew the general direction I was headed in... And 25 mins later, I arrived at the UWRC.

I met Sabrina, and we went and rented a program cellphone for me (although it did take us a while -across the Tiber and back- to find the place...)

Now I'm back here, listening to a clarinet player in the piazza below play Mack the Knife, and about to go down and have dinner... La vita e` proprio bella, no?

Well, I will update more later, definitely with some pictures, but for now:

Arrivederci!!

T-10 days, 252 hours, 15,142 minutes

Less than two weeks before I leave for bell'Italia once more!

To say I'm excited would be quite the understatement...

Ahhhh... in less than two weeks I'll be sitting in a piazza somewhere, eating nutella gelato, listening to an accordian-man playing "My Way" for the 32nd time that day, and looking at the lights around the Colosseum, remembering when I saw Elton John playing Crocodile Rock right there on the Via Fori Imperiali...sigh...

Soon enough!

Until then, let's just hope that airline security measures ease up before I leave! I would really like to be able to bring my contact lense solution on the flight... Ah well, we'll see!

A dopo!