random dream- that obviously involves lil wayne.

last night i had a dream that i was at graduation (like 2025- because i feel like i will never graduate), and oddly enough i think auburn was holding their ceremony at the football field. i guess i was channeling HS graduation. and someone got up to make a speech (in my dream) that we were going to have a 'guest appearance/performance.' who jumps on the stage? lil wayne. he said that he read my blog and really liked it, and wanted to come perform (yeaaaahhhhh right - but i can dream!). so he did a little impromptu show that was really cool. so that was my dream...and lil wayne if you are reading this my projected graduation date is august 2011 at auburn university, ill send you an invitation :)

who? best rapper alive.
lil coco loves you too!

gelato diaries 2.24.2010

ya know, its time for an update of....(drum roll)...gelato!

sunday night (2.21.2010) we went out to dinner and then went to the cafe across the street. they had a limited selection, but a combination of flavors i had never had. walnut and berry. the walnut was GOOOOOD. very nutty and a similar taste to an actual walnut. the berry would have made a great addition, but had chunks of frozen berries together making it difficult to eat. if i had the chance i would try the walnut with...chocolate (duh- chocolate makes everything better) or maybe banana? you win some, you lose some.

mine is on the left. lil coco's is on the right.
she's likes to smother her gelato in cream...

monday (2.22.2010) we stopped at 'bambi' (the nickname we have given to the gelato shop that has no name. the only form of identification is the giant 'gelato'-cone outside the door and the weird murals of disney charcters on the inside) which is about 1/2 way up the hill to the grocery store. i guess stopping for gelato kind of cancels the 'kim kardashian' benefits... i was set on trying the coconut and dark chocolate. i am not that big of a coconut fan but the gelato looked so smooth, creamy, and ultimately DELICIOUS! the combination of the 2 is almost better than the dark chocolate and yogurt confection. basically if you have the chance to mix dark chocolate and coconut gelato together....RUN WITH IT. i plan on ordering it again when i run out of flavors and combinations to try during the 'off season.'

once again mine is one the left. and my gelato partner in crime

(aka lil coco) is on the right...

THE holy state

2.23.2010 was field trip day and resulted in an impromptu trip...to...THE VATICAN. our previous destination has had too much rain precipitation, which was resulting in land/mud slides.

first we toured the vatican museum. a quick tour with susanna (one of the prof. from school) through an extensive collection of art. the museum housed many beautiful pieces of artwork dating back to the byzantine era. byzantine art is my ABSOLUTE favorite. i love the simplicity and the use of metallic (because it is common knowledge that i am a complete sucker for anything metallic). the backgrounds of the pieces all have metallic gold backgrounds.

LOVE IT.

A room full of restored (and moved) frescoes. these pieces of art were all relocated to the vatican from their previous location. the thought of moving a wall mural, BLOWS MY MIND. after learning about the installation of frescoes (definition- technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, fresh, lime mortar or plaster) in my high school spanish class i honestly can not comprehend how this form of art could be 'picked up' and moved. hopefully we will be visiting a person who does art restoration this semester and he can answer my questions.

frescoes!

example of medieval gothic art.

medieval art (or 3-D gothic art) was the next stop on our tour. Now art was being expressed with relief. originating from french gothic architecture, this three dimensional art form was becoming popular with artists.

vaticano gatti! found him in the courtyard.

also found this in the courtyard.

a famous statue at the vatican.

a room that was made to look like the pantheon.
doesn't it look familiar?

one corridor of the museum housed GIGANTIC tapestry's of christ. handcrafted in belgium (been there done that) - a looonnnngggg time ago? i can't remember the exact years. no flash was allowed - which explains why the picture is so dark.

the first christmas...literally.

intense ceiling.

believe it or not that this entire ceiling has HAND PAINTED details to look like architectural elements. everything looked real and tangible (if i was a bazillion feet tall...). crazy.

small modern art gallery we walked though on the way to the sistine chapel. don't get too excited. you are not allowed to take pictures (even without the flash) in the chapel.

my favorite piece.

found a bunch of cool tombs on display in st. peters. some people said that they were stone statues made to look like the saints and some thought they were the 'real thing,' just covered in wax. but the verdict is still out on the authenticity...

st. jerome.

chigi pope tomb. (check out how large it actually is-
using that little lady in the black jacket as a scale figure)

the text at the top of the wall is 6' tall.
too make sure it is legible to the people below.

*don't expect a blog about the the thursday field trip (2.25.10) i was sick and missed the BEST field trip of the entire semester. st. fancis of assisi and deruta (this awesome pottery place- everyone brought tons of cool stuff).

week 3 field trips

overview: 4 places in 2 days. intense history.

1st stop. ostia antica.

hardcore masonry skills.
i doubt any of the brick buildings now could last 2000 + years....

right outside of rome, it was once a thriving port community. situated on the tibre river this city was once full of people who were THOUSANDS of years ahead in their 'lifestyle,' but suddenly abandoned (due to neglect and poor upkeep the aquaducts 'ran out' of water).

hunter boots take ostia antica!

the first refrigerators (i told you these people were ahead of their time)
they would bury pots in the ground and keep perishables in them.

they had also mastered a 'restaurant.'
here cinzia and tommy pretend they are ancient etruscans at mcdonalds.

2nd stop. etruscan tombs.

'hobbit house' tombs from the outside.

the etruscans are 'ancient romans.' the made these unique 'hobbit house' tombs for the deceased. this tour was RAINY. this caused me to have a 'mshap' when i entered one of the tombs. i was straddling a mud puddle and walking the edges of it, because in my mind that seemed like a totally logical solution for getting into the tomb (i would be crazy to walk through a 2" deep mud puddle with my wellies. the thought is simply ludicrous). obviously the area surrounding the miniature pool of water was slippery. i some how managed to lose the balance on one foot (it began sliding away - preparing my body for a split), and that's when the wave of dirty water struck the innocent bystanders. in the process of regaining my 'footing,' i pulled the other leg closer to the leg (which i was loosing control of) and that is when i managed to create the tidal wave of dirt. just call me grace.

the inside.

3rd stop. montecassino.


monastery covered in mosaics. the pictures can not even capture the grandeur. interior design students- think 2nd year spring square project...times 1,000,000,000. RE-DIC. founded by st. benedict in 529 AD, choosing to live a life of solitude in the elaborate surroundings (he was born into noble family and obviously accustomed to the 'finer things in life.') of the abbey. he lived there from construction (of the building) until his death. he was buried in the basilica in the same tomb as his sister. around 577 the monastery encountered it's first attack and was destroyed. after nearly a century (thankfully not of consecutive building - the monks were 'hiding' in rome) the monastery was rebuilt with mosaics and gold ornamentation. destruction struck again in 1349 thanks to a natural disaster (an earthquake). during WWII, caught between two feuding (and fighting) enemies the holy building gave refuge to innocent civilians.

the passage where the cassino residents escaped
from the fighting during WWII.

mosaic.

detail of a moasic.
(i know my ID girls will appreciate this after tackling
the 'square project' last year)

4th stop. (saving the best for last) POMPEI!


august 24th 79 AD - the time capsule we know as pompei. the buried city. mt. vesuvius. we have all heard the terms before, but do you really KNOW pompei? the people of pompei were not nearly as primitive as i initially (and ignorantly) believed. buried in 20 feet of pumice and volcanic ash and nearly 36 feet of dirt/dust/debris for thousands of years, until it was accidentally discovered in the mid 1700's, created the 'perfect time capsule.'

genius.
they placed small white stones (marble) on the roads to provide
a 'reflecting' surface to help people navigate at night.

taking abbey road - beatles style.
the larger stones were used when the streets were flooded,
because the people of pompei wore sandals and didn't want to get their feet wet.

addition fun fact about their civil engineering skills:
the roads were a bent 'U' shape to help water drain to either side
of the road and flow down the street without any bother the
sandal wear-ers.

pompei dogs.
a clan of stray dogs that you (yes, even people outside of italy)
can adopt. what a great souvenir :)

all of the really great pottery is in the archeology museum in naples or traveling the world in exhibits. i was surprised that this much was deemed 'not that great,' and the actual display of pottery was probably 5 times the amount you can see in this single picture.

even auto grill survived the raining pumice stone.

some ruins from a gym.
they were very concerned about their body and physical appearance.
it was not uncommon for them (men and women) to go to the gym.

'beware of dog' mosaic.
took up the entire foyer - they must of had a very scary dog.

WARNING: graphic material. parental supervision.
romans completely supported pleasure and entertainment, so use your imagination and combine the two. and what do you get? BROTHELS. because pompei was a port city they thrived in the area of...um...er..prostitution. in the 160+ acres of the city that has been excavated they have found numerous brothels. many of the brothel's displayed a 'menu' (remember that i said it was a port city, they had lonely sailors coming from all over the world and unable to speak their native tongue. obviously color frescoes provided the customer with 'options') for the clients.

that is exactly what you think it is.

yes and this too...

stone beds were used for acoustical and sanitation purposes.
lovely.

signs that would 'point' in the direction
of the brothel.

INDS ROCKS POMPEI.
too cloudy to see mt. Vesuvius in the background.
but it is there i promise!

the remaining 'area' of pompei will go un-excavated in our lifetime (it is estimated that only 2/3 is available now). the plan is for it to remain in its 'time capsule' for future generations to appreciate. the ruins and buildings that are currently exposed are deteriorating due to acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer and other various human/natural 'side effects.' so let's all reduce. reuse. and recycle - for the sake of pompei!

turin loves lady gaga

departure-

leaving rome on friday in the afternoon was great- finally got to sleep in! but i was woken up before my alarm to weather that sounded similar to a hurricane (lots of blowing wind and very loud rain). i lay in bed thinking 'great- we have to travel today,' although i was glad to getting the VIP treatment with a taxi to the airport :) no schlepping to the train station in the neighboring town (easily a 20 minute walk). by the time we left the weather had cleared and the sun was attempting to shine. getting to the airport was easy (duh- we had a taxi driver), once we got in the airport was when the complications began. walked across the entire lobby (of THE rome airport) looking for the check-in for 'blue-panorama,' no luck. after a 15 minute search we found the correct counter, made it through security and soon we were headed to turin! navigating after landing was an even crazier experince. the directions for our hostel told us we would take a shuttle. first we couldn't find where you buy the tickets, then we couldn't figure out where to get on the bus (we followed a family - they were holding bus tickets- all the way to their car in LONG TERM parking on the outskirts of the airport). once we were on the bus, we thought 'yay! we are home freeeee!' nope. even though we were equipped with 'general location' directions (to get to the hostel), we didn't know where we were going. after a few failed attmepts of 'i think it might be this way,' and multiple stops at hotels (and even a pizza vendor) we made it to the hostel.


out of body experience- yes. the mexican food in turin was that good.

lil coco utilized her blackberry - and located a great local 'tex-mex' restaurant withing walking distance from the hostel. living off pasta and pizza for almost a month was getting old and no one hesitated about eating dinner there. after walking in i knew my prayers (for authentic mexican food - like my all time FAVORITE restaurant, bone garden) had been answered. we sat down and immediately ordered a 1/2 L of frozen sangria and margaritas, and then our server brought us some chips and dip!

SALSA and CHIPS!! YUM.

marg and sangria. norton and i liked the margs better, and cyd and lil coco liked the sangria better.

lil coco put her sangria in her marg glass. she's a special one :)

too many options on the menu! with a limited taco selection i decided on another favorite -QUESADILLA. for appetizers we ordered a plate of nachos (someone thought it might be like 'cheese dip' that you get in america), a mountain of corn chips covered in cheese and then sprinkled with fresh tomatoes and jalapenos (somehow a few pieces of onion ended up in the mix too). obviously once it was brought to our table we ordered another app, cheese and chorizo dip. sadly their was no chorizo, but they did bring flour tortillas for cyd to dip into the cheese.

the nachos were gone so fast (or maybe i was too busy eating) to get a picture,
here we can see the amazing cheese dip.
note: the hand sanitizer- germs are bad

quesadilla dinner. 3 quesadillas (2 italian meats, and 1 jalapeno) with black beans and rice! :)

when our server was cleaning the table he asked us if if we spoke english. yes. and then if we would like a treat/surprise. sure, why not. he brought 4 SHOTS. asked who would go first (i was nominated - lucky me), grabbed one of the shot glasses with a dish rag in his hand POUNDED it on the table (at what time it began to fiz) and then placed it in front of me. i took it - surprisingly smooth. i lied to the other 3 when they asked if it was tequila - we didn't have anything on the table for a chaser so the next 60 seconds got really interesting.

post 'tequila bomb'
trying to find some sort of chaser on our table - good luck.

after i was done laughing watching lil coco spit on the table after she tried eating salt to mask the after taste, cyd's attempt to turn air into water (she grabbed every single glass on the table searching for some sort of liquid), and norton hold her nose we decided we had enough mexican for one night and headed for dessert!

if you ever travel to turin, YOU MUST EAT HERE!

mine is the chocolate thing on the left.
it was not what i expected...it had apple custard stuff in it. but the chocolate was good.

history lesson-

saturday we woke up early and headed to 'museo egizio di torino,' or the largest egyptian museum outside of egypt. had many amazing artifacts, and facts in general.

one of the oldest egyptian linen paintings. the picture showed egyptians 'rowing' a boat.


the egyptians were placed on their side (in their coffin),
and a pair of painted eyes on the side their eyes faced providing a way
for the deceased to 'see' in the afterlife.

amazing little wooden sculptures found in a tomb.

egyptians love cats, which means that i love egyptians!

amazing hieroglyphs.

MUMMY!
yes, that is preserved ancient egyptian face. cool.

who knew that a coffin had so many 'lids' back in the day. also note my unbelievable photography skills of the human ghost behind the case.
creepy.

carob! found in an excavated tomb- were egyptians vegan? (random fact- carob is still used today and tastes similar to chocolate and a popular substitute for vegans. check out carob covered almonds (i prefer unsweet) at your local health food store.)

picture (which was said to be an accurate depiction)
of an egyptian woman...
exercising.

te amo gatti!

after an educational experience we set out to find a 'castle.' while we were walking a local man informed us (because i know he was smart enough to realize we were not local) that we should go to the cinema museum, and ride the elevator to top 'deck' for and amazing view of the city.

this view is no joke.

the ride through the museum was straight out of the original 'willy wonka and the chocolate factory.' the elevator was all glass and in the middle of this museum (which kind of reminded me of a church) and you actually felt like you were 'floating' up the panoramic deck.

we eventually found a palace that had remained occupied by some italian family (im really bad with names....) until the mid 1900's. while we were walking through the rooms it was crazy to think that less than 100 years ago a prince and princess occupied the rooms, and entertained here. the palace was BEAUTIFUL. i am gettingvery excited about visiting versailles in a few weeks :)

by this time we were all STARVING. my italian 'breakfast,' a cappuccino and a smuggled kashi bar, from the united states, did not hold me over as long as my typical american breakfast would (egg sandwich). we quickly decided on a 'hole-in-the wall' on a side street. great choice. they had well priced pizza. not as good as the pizza in venice (i am determined that all bread is better in venice- maybe they have a special mineral in their water...) but a VERY close second.

mozzarella, Gorgonzola and prosciutto! :) :) :) add a well seasoned sauce and a great 'crust' and you have success!

the rest of the day was spent wandering the streets in search of the infamous 'fashion outlets' - which i have decided italy has a totally different word for outlet, no one knew what we were talking about when we would ask where they were.

another unsuccessful trip to zara. although i was lucky enough to score a new kahki backpack (40E longchamp! whoop whoop). yay! dora the explorer can live on in europe...

a day is not complete without gelato! limon and chocolate...would have been better if it was dark chocolate gelato.

dinner the second night was another non-italian eatery. SUSHI. i was so excited. my two favorite food groups (sushi and mexican) in one weekend!!! we saw multiple sushi bars the previous night, and headed in that general direction. the first place we went to was complicated. you had to get 'buzzed' in, and then they were really rude and said you had to have a reservation. 1. the restaurant didn't look that nice and 2. they had a million empty tables at 8:00PM. we pounded the pavement in search of another, and we had much better luck the second time. i ordered a 'rainbow roll' and some other shrimp and avocado roll.

sushi! the rainbow roll was good - but the pieces of fish could have been a little smaller. the bites were quite the mouthful.

legit green tea.
i have missed green and white tea, not that popular here.
this is more breakfast and earl grey territory.

after sushi we decided to head to our favorite cafe for dessert (again). we walked in, and the same people were working! they recognized us instantly. they brought us extra desserts- they were little 'cream' puff, flavored eclair things. they were interesting. lil coco 'impressed' one of the non-english speaking workers, and the language barrier did not stop him - he made his co-worker come translate the conversations.

they really do love us!

lil coco and her non-english speaking and awkward picture taking
italian

favorite cafe in turin (well we only went to one other). must go at night- the staff if much better.

you have to say good bye-
sadly we woke on sunday and had to pack and leave. we headed to the cafe to grab some breakfast (pastries and a cappuccino). we were hoping to see some of our friends - even though we knew it would be a different shift. the morning group was not as friendly as the night shift...we quickly inhaled a cappuccino and sugary sweet delights before heading to catch the shuttle to the airport. we walked across the street, buy our 5.50E shuttle ticket (train tickets are cheaper than that), and wait for the bus. we read the time table and thought the bus was going to come in 10 minutes but we realized we read the WEEKDAY schedule not the WEEKEND. so eventually we got onto the train and were on our way to the airport.

the turin airport is RE-DIC, and traveling on a sunday probably did not help. lines, crowds, swarms of people...the works. crowds that i thought were an 'american' trademark. after getting a late start to our morning i was worried that the security line was going to take ages. oddly enough the security line that wrapped the airport and back out and through the lobby of the airport was only for people traveling to the united kingdom, ireland, russia, and isreal. what a weird assortment. airport security always gets me nervous- im not sure why i have anxiety about it, but it is the most 'stressful' part of flying. i know that in the US, airports have the rule that you can't bring an 'outside' bottle of water on the plane. learned that hard way. this trip through the security line was: deja vu. flying to turin (from rome) i had the bottle in my bag, no signs about 'do not travel with water bottles,' so i thought it was a rule that only the US was crazy about. nope. i chugged 1/2L of water in front of a security guard after i was 'called out and pulled aside' for it showing up on the x-ray. he was gracious enough to pour out a little bit in a random water bottle, but i had to gulp down the rest while i was laughing. thank goodness i love water.

then we make it to our gate with around an hour to wait to board. with no seats available (i am serious the crowds were UNREAL), we set up camp in the corner. soon i was on a quest for gummys! lil coco and i found some weird gummys at a store and went to purchase them. oddly enough you had to have you boarding pass present to buy things (like a random person would want to come in and pay the jacked up prices in an airport shop). finally on the plane and only a quick 50 minutes till we were back in rome! two of the flight attendants (one was a boy and one was a girl) flirted the entire flight home and provided the passengers with ample entertainment. i know they were older than i am, but they were really immature and childish.

now we are back in rome getting ready for another week of school (still havent posted about last weeks field trips...oppppssss). this week's concentration is food. get excited. i know i am :)

*behind the title: every store in turin was always playing a lady gaga song...maybe that's why i liked/LOVE turin soooooo much.