Under the Tuscan Sun

What do you think of when you think of Italy?  Probably what you have seen in the movies--the Trevi Fountain or the Colosseum.  When I think of Italy, I think of the hill towns.  Beautiful untouched landscapes.  Thats Tuscany!  Last weekend was another major adventure here in Italia!  We took one of our mandatory class trips to Tuscany.  This trip may have been "mandatory," but it was an amazing trip and well worth the long bus rides on winding roads!  

Saturday morning was an early wake up to be on the bus ready to leave promptly at 8:00.  We left around 8:15 and were off to the Toscana region of Italy.  Here's a little confession: before coming to Italy I thought Tuscany was a town in Italy, but in reality it's a region!  Good to know!  Our first stop in Tuscany was Siena.  Siena was such an amazing town.  We got off the bus and headed into the center of the town.  Our first stop was St. Dominic's Church.  The coolest part about St. Dominic's was that it was the home parish to St. Catherine of Siena and the relic of her head is there!  it was an amazing faithful experience!  After St. Dominic's we went to a museum and than had some free time to explore.  Rylee and I headed out to find some lunch and stumbled upon a pizzeria/bakery.  We ate pizza and had some incredible cookies!  After lunch we went shopping!  Tuscany is known for their ceramics and their sunflowers, so during our shopping we went into so many beautiful ceramics stores.  In many of them there were people painting the ceramics.  In honor of the trip to Tuscany I bought a beautiful ceramic wine topper with a sunflower painted on top!  Also, during our free time we were walking around and saw Guy Fieri from the Food Network!  Awesome!!  

After shopping we went over to the Duomo to meet Dr. Dawson.  Duomo may not be exactly what it sounds like.  You probably think it sounds like dome, but a duomo is actually a cathedral.  Most cathedrals have domes, so that is where the name came from.  We went into the duomo of Siena and like all of the churches in Italy it was beautiful.  After the duomo we walked to the home of St. Catherine.  It was so amazing to see her home and the place where many of her miracles happened!  This concluded out trip to Siena, so we got back on the bus and headed to Arezzo!  Arezzo is another small hill town in Tuscany about an hour away from Siena.   There we checked into our hotel and went to dinner.  Dinner was a combo of Rigatoni Bolognese and Pork.  Anytime we can get meat at dinner it makes for a great meal!  The bread in Tuscany is different than any other bread I have had before, they don't put any salt in their bread, so it was really sweet--not my favorite.  After dinner Dr. Dawson took us to the center of town in Arezzo where we had grapa--a strong liquor made from raisins.  It was interesting to say the least!

On Sunday we spent the day in Arezzo.  Ever seen the movie La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful)?  Well it was filmed in Arezzo.  We went to many churches and saw some of the oldest fresco paintings in Italy.  My favorite part of Arezzo was the view.  Rylee, Maggie, Danielle, Caroline, and I went up to a park to see this amazing view.  It was so breathtaking.  If you have been keeping up with my blog I also said this about Cinque Terre, but Tuscany is a different kind of breathtaking beauty.  I don't know how to describe it, but it was amazing!  Later we had some delicious pizza and gelato and went to meet the bus for our next activity!

This was definitely the best part of the whole trip!  We went to Castello del Trebbio, (http://www.vinoturismo.it/) a winery near Florence for a wine tasting!  We took a tour of the castle and saw where they house the wine and the olive oil they make.  After we went for our wine tasting.  We had four different types of wine.  We learned the tricks to the color of wine, how to properly hold a glass, the swirling and "legs" to tell the alcohol content, and smelled it for its flavor.  Then we got to do the tasting!  We had a light white wine, a sweeter red wine, a dry red wine (my favorite), and a dessert wine.  The dessert wine was paired with biscotto and we dipped our cookies into the wine.  It was good until I accidentally spilled it on me.  Whoops!  The castle had an amazing view as well!  It was so beautiful!  After the tasting we had a traditional Tuscan meal with risotto, pork, and of course some of the wine we tasted! Delicious!  After dinner we took the long winding roads back to the hotel for the night.

On Monday, our last day we went to two other towns.  First we went to Pienza.  Pienza was possibly my favorite of all the towns we visited.  It was so simple in its beauty.  The shops were precious, the cheese smelled amazing (they are know for their Pecorino), and the view was incredible!  Unfortunately we only had about 45 minutes there.  I would have loved to had some more time to explore.  Our last stop of the trip was Orvieto in the Umbria region of Italy to take a tour of the duomo and have some free time to explore!  A long bus ride later we were finally in Orvieto!  The town was so neat.  It is literally on top of a hill!  We had to take a tram to get up there!  We first went to the duomo.  This duomo is home to the Corpus Christi, the corporal that the Eucharist bled on.  Amazing!!!  After the duomo we had the next 2 hours to ourselves.  Rylee, Danielle, Caroline, and I explored and found a cute little place for lunch.  I had gnocchi with truffles and porcini mushrooms and local dish!  It was so good! We shared wine and had such a great time together!  After lunch scoped out the town and found the church where St. Thomas Aquinas studied.  Another awesome experience!  After that we went to the bus and were headed back to Rome!  It was great to have a weekend out of the city and it was truly an amazing time!!

     

The Great Unknown

Sorry for the delay in posting.  Things here are so busy and the weeks are going by faster than I would have ever expected!  I have officially been here for a month.  its unreal how fast time flies.  I am so happy with my decision to study abroad!  I love every minute!

Last Friday was the feast of the exultation of the Holy Cross, so Rylee and I decided to go to daily mass at the Basilica Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.  This church is home to the relics of crowns from the crown of thorns, a nail from Jesus' crucifixion, the plaque that hung on the cross, St. Thomas' finger, and a piece of the holy cross!  It was hands down the coolest relics I have ever seen and the experience was well worth waking up early and walking through the rain!

Last weekend I went on my first real travel weekend to Cinque Terre.  Cinque Terre literally means 5 lands--its five different towns connected through hiking trails and trains.  It is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  

Cinque Terre is a three and a half hour train ride north of Rome so early Saturday morning, my friends Rylee, Tim, and I got on a train to start our 24 hour adventure in Cinque Terre.  We got into the main train station La Spezia around 11:50 and headed to the first of the five towns, Riomaggiore to get some lunch and check into our hostel.  When we first got off the train in Riomaggiore I was overcome with how beautiful it was.  There was crystal clear water, colorful buildings, and a lively town.  We headed into the center of town and had pizza for lunch.  The four cheese was delicious!  After lunch we set out to get our hostel.  Through an adventure of multiple sets of bad directions, hiking up a hill twice and three times through a tunnel we finally found our hostel.  We got so lucky that our hostel was really clean and we had a private room!  

After checking into our hostel we headed to the last of the five towns, Monterosse to start our hike.  We walked around the cute little town and headed on a hike that we thought would be about 1.5 hours and for intermediate hikers.  Little did we know that the hike would have a million stairs, would take 2.5 hours, and could have easily been described as going to hell, coming back and then going back to hell.  All of that said the view at the end of the hike was completely worth it!  We finally made it to Vernazza and decided to sit on some rocks, go swimming and watch the sunset.  It was an absolutely amazing experience!  The colors are so beautiful and the sunset was incredible!

After watching the sunset we decided to go to Manarola, the second town, for dinner.  Cinque Terre is known for their pesto, its where pesto sauce was created.  Pesto is my absolute favorite, so dinner was easily one of the best pasta meals I have had since I've been in Italy!  We were all completely wiped out after our long day of traveling and hiking, so we decided to walk back to our hostel in Riomaggiore and get some rest for the next day.  

Cinque Terre is known for its trails between the five towns, especially the famous Via Dell'Amore.  We walked that from Manarola back to Riomaggoire and the stars were beautiful!  Since we couldn't see all of the beauty of the trail, we decided to come back in the morning.  When we woke up we had a quick breakfast and headed down to the marina in Riomaggoire.  This town is so adorable and the marina was no different!  Seeing the beautiful colors were a great way to start the morning.  

After going to the marina we headed off to the Via Dell'Amore  The trail did not disappoint!  The view was amazing.  Seriously one of the most beautiful places in the world!  If you come to Italy you must go!  After our walk we went to the third town, Corniglia, which was the only one we had yet to visit.  We grabbed quick panini's and it was back to the train station to head back to Rome.  This 24 hour trip was incredible!  I love Cinque Terre!!! 

P.S. the title of this post is a reference to the song "Keep Your Eyes Open" by Needtobreath.  It seemed to be my motto through hiking!  Check out the song!! 

Meat.

The title of this post is very important to my time here, but we'll get to that later...

It's hard to believe that almost three weeks have passed here.  Time is seriously flying.

Last Friday with my Christology class we went to the Cathedral of Rome, the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran.  This marks the fourth Papal Basilica that I have been there in two weeks, which means I have been to all of them! Awesome!  St. John's is definitely by favorite of all the Papal Basilica's.  The design of the church had a huge emphasis on light, which attracted me to the space.  It was seriously beautiful!  And being a papal basilica there are some pretty cool relics, like a piece of the table from the Last Supper.  On Friday night we had our first spiritual event at the Augustinian house.  It was really great to meet with Fr. Bill.  He took us to their chapel and hands down it is the most beautiful chapel I have ever been in.  The picture does not do it justice!  Then, he took us up to the roof of their house.  The have one of the most incredible views of St. Peter's Basilica.  My pictures were taken with no zoom!  Gorgeous!   

Last weekend we took our first optional class trip to Casteli Romani.  It was a lot of really great things packed into a very short period of time.  We headed out on a bus at 14:00, also known as 2:00 for the Catacombs of St. Sebastian.  We went down into the catacombs with Claudia--who was once a tour guide there, one more thing she does great!  She showed us the tombs, graves, and plaques for the tombs, but the best part was seeing the tomb of St. Sebastian.  At the end of our tour of the catacombs we walking up to a wedding.  We watched the bride walk into the church and headed back on the bus. 

Our next stop was Castel Gandolfo--the summer home of the Pope.  We saw the Pope's villa and walked to see Lake Albano.  The lake was created by a volcano had had the most amazing view!  After taking pictures by the lake we walked about the sweet little villa.  We had some of the best gelato since I've been here and when we were leaving to get back on the bus we saw another wedding.  This couple had the coolest wedding car I have ever seen!  Precious!

Here is where we get to the meat.  We travelled to the town of Ariccia, a country town outside of Rome.  This town was traditionally a town for those traveling outside of Rome to stop and get a meal, so we came there to get a meal.  We had to hike up this huge hill to get to the town, but it was totally worth it.  The view of the sunset was amazing and we saw yet another wedding!  September 8th was a popular day to get married in Rome!  Ariccia is known for its meat, so we had a traditional country meal.  They brought out a huge family style pile of meat.  We had proscuttio, salami, capicolla, and porchetta.  The porchetta was delicious.  In a country where most of the food is carbs having meat was so good!  On top of the meat we had two kinds of pasta, bread, cookies, and lots of vino!  It was a great trip.  

This week has been a busy one for school work, but were preparing for a nice weekend in Cinque Terre! I am so excited!  

St. Peter's Excursion!

It is so hard to describe how incredible of an experience it was to go to St. Peter's Basilica today with my Liturgical Art and Architecture class.  I simply cannot find the words and these pictures do not even come close to doing it justice.  If you have been to St. Peter's before, you know what I'm talking about, if you've never been add it to your bucket list--simply incredible!  P.S. Happy 21st Birthday Tim!

Come ti chiami?

Mi chiamo Amanda.  This first of classes has been so great!  It's so cool that we get to use Rome as a classroom.  Most of my classes take place in the city visiting different churches and exploring the city.  This week has been so much about attempting to learn and speak Italian, drinking wine, going to the beach and visiting churches!  

The Pantheon!

Jeremy and I at the Trevi Fountain

My italian class at Italiaidea has actually been really great.  I am learning so much in a short amount of time.  I have it three times a week for two hours each day.  Everyone in the class is a beginner, so we are all learning together.  Our teacher Letizia only speaks to us in Italian.  At first it was very difficult to understand her, but its become much easier.  We get to play a lot of games, which is helping me learn.  The class is different than any other language class I have ever had.  In most of my classes in middle and high school we learn how to conjugate verbs and talk in different tenses.  At Italiaidea we are learning how to have conversations and to practically use Italian.    

The food has continued to be amazing!!  Everything from veggie pizza to pesto gnocchi (my favorite so far) and prosciutto to nutella.  This week we came to the realization that sometimes it is hard to eat pizza, pasta, and panini's all the time, so we ventured out to have Chinese food.  One of the boys from CUA Jeremy is Filipino and has been craving rice, so he literally eat every bit of his three heaping plates of shrimp fried rice.  The best part of the meal was that it was so cheap!  Only 5 Euro!  Deal!  We have also been having a lot of wine!  I definitely love wine!  At first I wasn't so sure about it, but it make that meal!  

Happy Feast Day St. Monica!

Relic of the manger at Santa Maria Maggiore

My favorite part of being in Rome has been the incredible religious sites and experiences I have had here.  It crazy that I have only been here for a little over a week and I have been to the burial sites of the relics of six saints and relics of the manger from Jesus' birth.  We saw St. Paul last week at St. Paul's Outside the Walls, in my Liturgical Art and Architecture class we went to the Church of the Apostles where Saints Phillip and James relics are buried.  For my Christology class we went to Santa Maria Maggiore were St. Jerome's relics are and where the relics of the manger are.  Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the four Papal basilicas in Rome and it was gorgeous!  We also went to St. Augustine's on the feast day of Saint Monica and celebrated mass there, where here relics are buried.  And finally on Sunday we went to Saint Silvestre where the relic of St. John the Baptist's head is.  It has been a week of Saints on Saints on Saints!  

On Saturday we went to the beach-each (thank Nikki Minaj).  We took a regional train to Santa Marinella about and hour outside of Rome.  It was really cloudy and overcast, but Rylee and I decided to make the best of it and nap on the beach!  The town was so quant, so I'd say it was a success!

Santa Marinella

Ry and I at the beach

This week coming up should be one full of excitement as well!  Tomorrow we are going to St. Peter's Basilica (more saints on saints) for my Liturgy class and its Rylee's boyfriend Tim, who is also study abroad in Rome, birthday!  Happy 21st Tim!!  This weekend we are going to Castelli Romani where the Pope has his summer home!  We also have gotten our tickets and hostel for Cinque Terre in two weeks!  I will keep you updated on our Fall Break plans and Roma!  For more pictures check out my Facebook page!

Much love!