Wrote this yesterday :) :

When I last wrote, I mentioned that Jeremy was coming to visit, and we had
an awesome time! He arrived on Tuesday night, so Wednesday he came on my
class´s visit to the Treasury for the Duomo in Orvieto, and then even to class
with me. The treasury was pretty cool...there were so many objects in there that
have been removed from the Duomo for restoration and such, and some of them as
so beautiful. My favorite was a huge painting of Mary Magdelene....she was
portrayed so beautifully and real by the artist.
Thursday we went down to Rome, and I finally made it to the Colosseum! We
paid to do a tour, and got admission into Palantine Hill with a tour ther e as
well, so it was worth it. The Colosseum is really cool....I tried to imagine
the whole place covered in marble, and standing even taller than it does today,
but it was a little difficult. They rebuilt part of the wooden floor that covers
the bottom area (long since deteriorated), so that visitors can see what the
colosseum would have looked like without all the area where the kept the
animals and gladiators exposed. Palantine Hill was really cool....more ruins of
palaces! But it was really nice to have an awesome birds-eye view of the Roman
Forum and the surrounding area. We walked through the Forum, then off to more
churches, where I saw the chains that held St. Peter, a statue by Michelangelo,
and more awesome Caravaggio paintings. We ran around to some other sites that I
have already seen and described, but I wanted Jeremy to see as much of Rome in
one day as he could.
Friday we left for Cinque Terre, a set of 5 towns right on the coast,
literally! Some of the towns are built right into the mountainside that drops
right off into the ocean. I was amazed by the beautiful turquoise water, and
took advantage of the warm weather by swimming and laying out. That night I
ordered "Black Pasta and Fish" for dinner, and received two large WHOLE
crayfish in a sea of pasta!! Jeremy took a really funny picture of my
reaction, that I wish I could attach. Saturday morning we got up and did the
hike along the coast that goes through the 5 towns, stopping to explore and
admire the absolutely gorgeous scenery! Just outside the 3rd town we stopped
at a beach to swim and cool off....lo and behold, it was a nudist beach!!
There were all these naked Italian men, but only about 3 women....I felt so
awkward!! (don´t look down, don´t look down...) Needlesss to say, I did not
remove my swimsuit, but I still had a really fun time. Jeremy had his off for a
total of about 3 minutes (and was laughed at because of his white butt) and then
the trunks were back on! The experience was extremely funny. After completing
the hike, we returned to Monterosa to shower, then we to the 2nd town and my
favorite, Vernazza, to eat an awesome dinner at a nice restaurant right on the
water. I think I had the most amazing pesto that I have ever had!
We left Sunday morning, and stopped in Pisa to see the Leaning Tower....it
leans. That is about all there is in Pisa, so we went on to Florence and
waited for our overnight train to Paris. After being delayed 3 hours thanks to
some guy having a heart attack on the train or something, we finally left and
arrived in Paris on Monday morning. From there, Jeremy had to take off for
Angers to start school, so I stayed a couple days there and ran around seeing
the sights alone. I LOVE THE LOUVRE! I could spend days there....I desperately
want to go back!
Wednesday morning I took off for Barcelona and I am prese ntly here. I met
up with some friends from Orvieto and we are having a good time. We saw one of
the most awesome cathedrals yesterday...it looks like it was made of wax and is
melting or something! It could be something you would see in a fantasy
flick....like Lord of the Rings or something. It is called Sagrada
Familia....look it up, or if you are ever in Barcelona, you MUST go see it. It
is really amazing.
Ok!! About as short as I could make it! I will finish out the week in
Barcelona and return to Orvieto on Sunday. This week break from school was
nice, even if it is a little early in the semester...I wish they had put it
more in the middle, when we might actually need a break!  To the AZ people, I just heard about Polkey yesterday....That is so sad!! I remember meeting her on those pep bands trips and stuff. If anyone went to the memorial, let me know how it was.

Ciao!

TWO weeks ago....finally posted it though:

     Last week went by extremely fast.  After regular classes on Monday
and Tuesday, we went on a field trip to Tivoli, about 20-30 minutes outside of
Rome.  Emperor Hadrian from the 2nd century Roman Empire built himself a
crazy villa here that he made his permanent residence.  Most emperors only
built vacation villas, but this one was purposely built to be its own city
basically, so that the emperor could have everything that he could have in Rome.
Hadrian's Villa is HUGE....I think something like 14 acres.  It was amazing to see all the ruins.  Some things, like the Baths, were still fairly well in tact, and there are beautiful pools everywhere on the property. Myfavorite area, however, was the Pecile.  It's an area with a long pool and beautiful marble statues along it, with a half dome at the end.  The
Emperor would have his outdoor banquets here.  
    After we roamed around the villa, we went into the town of Tivoli
and had lunch.  We then visited the Villa d'Este, a villa that was built in the
Renaissance, but was inspired by beautiful gardens of Hadrian's Villa.
The building itself used to be a monastary, but when the governor of Tivoli
(a cardinal who was mad that he was overlooked for Pope) was appointed, he
took it to make it his own Eden.  The house is magnificent and HUGE....I mean,
it used to hold hundreds of monks.  What is so spectacular about the Villa is
the amazing gardens and the beautiful fountains that are spread throughout
the property.  There is one fountain that they called the organ fountain...a fountain built in front of a large outdoor altar that is so large and with so many spouts, it is supposed to resemble an organ. 
    Friday, we went on a field trip to see the vacation villa of Emperor
Tiberius.  This villa is in the town of Sperlonga, past Rome between
Rome and Naples, and is literally ON the water.  In fact, a lot of the Villa has
been lost to the sea, and what we have left is just a fraction of its former
glory. The banquet hall of this villa is actually a cave, or grotto, that has a
large pool in the middle, and the banqueters would sit around it.  The grotto
had large sculptures depicting the adventures of Odysseus (a greek hero, if
you may recall, but apparently Tiberius really liked him), and there was a huge
archaealogical find here in the 1950's.  When they were building a road
past the ruins, they began to find pieces of marble, and when they excavated,
found thousands!  They pieced many together to get the statues they have
today, and they are preserved in the museum we visited right next to the ruins.  I
wanted to take pictures of those, but we weren't allowed.  Attached are a
couple pics of the ruins, however.  It isn't quite as spectacular, but cool all the
same!
After the villa and the museum, we got to go to the beach and relax and
swim again.....AHHHH....life is truly sweet in Italy!  The water was amazing,
and the sand on the beach incredibly fine and soft.
    Saturday, we visited some of the churches around Orvieto for my
Roman Architecture class.  This was fun, since many of the churches in Orvieto
date back that far!  We even studied the Duomo a little bit, even though it
was built in the 13th century.
    Sunday, a group of friends and I woke up bright and early and took
the train down to Rome.  The pope speaks at noon every Sunday from his
balcony, and the Vatican is FREE the last sunday of every month.  Perfect, right?
WRONG!  The crowds were crazy, even though we got there by 8:30.  We went straight
into St. Peter's to see the basilica, which made the trip entirely worth it! I
cannot even find the words to express how beautiful this place is....but I
included a picture!! (and one of me inside by the altar in the back of St.
Peter's). We stayed for the 10 am mass, then went to see the tomb of John
Paul....people were actually crying at it....I guess I never realized what an impact he
had on his people.  The awesome thing about the mass though was that it was
Music Day or something, and they had bands from all around Italy playing in a
parade into the cathedral, then sit and play all together in the
mass.  I got a real kick out of seeing the Italian "marching" bands and
their uniforms and hearing them play.  I took some pictures of them, but the
strangest thing was the guy that I saw smoking a cigarette and playing a
clarinet at the same time!!  THAT guy I got on video! hahaha! We went
outside and grabbed PRIMO seats for the Pope to come out, and lo and
behold, he was out of town!! They did a live feed from wherever he was into the
square, but it just was not the same.  We were soooo disappointed.  The masses
of people that showed up were probably all very disappointed as well.
    We then ran all around Rome to the Pantheon, to
Piazza Navona, the SpanishSteps, the Trevi Fountain, a bunch of
churches....especially one that I got tosee three Caravaggio paintings, even one "The Calling of St. Matthew," that Ihave studied in class!  It was amazing to see it hanging
there on the wall andnot in a textbook!  It began raining again which wasn't
very much fun, and thenhad to run all the way to the train station to catch our train....which pulledaway right as we got there!  We got on the next one, and ended up gettingcaught with the wrong tickets and had to pay the difference in fares, cause the later one was more expensive. Oh well, a good time had by all anyway!
      I still don't get to express to you all how I truly feel when I get to see
all of these things.  It is a good thing that I am keeping a journal so that I
don't forget all of these beautiful sites.   Jeremy comes for a
visit tomorrow, and will be here a few day s before he has to go up to France
for his study abroad program, so it will be fun to see him and show him
around...someone from home!

       School started last Monday with some Orientation meetings and a short tour of
Orvieto. Classes began on Tuesday, and it is interesting so far.  Im taking 3
classes: Roman Art and Archaeology, Etruscan Civilization, and The Classical
Ideal.  They are all taught by Italian professors, which I wasnt expecting.  I
thought they would be American professors, but the Political Science professor
is the only one from UA.  It is ok, but the accents get a little hard to
understand, and my Roman Art teacher speaks incredibly fast.  We all had a
really hard time trying to understand what she was saying.  Wednesday we got to
go on a tour of the Duomo here.  It is absolutely gorgeous, and about 50 feet
from our school!  The facade is so amazing, with a pinkish rock and gold
everywhere that shines in the sun.  The sculptures on the outside depict the
different books of the Bible, including the Last Judgement, with some really
scary and graphic looking demons!  The Duomo itself dates back to the 12th
century, with the front completed about the 14th century.  It also looks almost
like a zebra, with the whole bulding (except the front), striped with white and
black stone.  The inside has unfortunately lost a lot of the paintings, but one
of the side altar rooms is still glorious, apparently more so after they
finished the restoration a while ago.  You have to pay to go into this section,
of course, but it is worth it.  The thing that I loved about the church was the
huge organ that was mounted in the 15th-16th century.  It is massive and very
colorfully decorated, and apparently they have organ concerts in the church
every once in a while.  I wish I was an organist and had the opportunity to
play it!  We then went on a tour of the Orvieto underground, where there are
caves and tunnels all underneath the city!  The Etruscans used the underground
to survive by digging down to water and having pigeon farms to eat them while
the Romans were camped at the base of the town for 2 years trying to conquer
it!  Now many restaurant owners use the underground to store ther wine and
stuff they need to keep cool.
     Friday we took our first field trip to the town of Tarquinia, right on
the Mediteranean.  We got to go explore the Etruscan tombs just outside the
city that are brilliantly painted inside.  Some of the paintings I had even
seen depicted in some art books, so it was really amazing to see them in
person.  The Etruscans built their tombs in the ground and marked them with a
huge mound of dirt on top.  You have to take a flight of stairs to get down
into the tombs, but for the preservation of the paintings, they have the actual
rooms sealed off to people.  I got some really great pictures however, despite
the low lighting.  After the tombs we went to a museum in the town where they
have many artifacts from the tombs and from the area.  I got to see Attic
vases, the first known TRUMPET (I wanted to try to play it!), lots of pots and
other artifacts, but the most amazing thing was a beautiful clay sculpture of
two winged horses that are actually very famous and have just been displayed
again after their restoration.  They are beautiful, but the reason why they are
so famous is not just for their beauty and excellent details, but the fact that
no one knows for sure how the Etruscans were able to make them!  They are so
large, they would have had to have built a special room to have them fired, but
why did the clay not explode?  They would have had to poke holes in the clay,
but there are none.  It is very strange :). I desperately wanted to take a
picture, but we were not allowed.
     After the museums, we grabbed a bite to eat in the town and went to the
beach!!  Such hard work, I know.... we got to swim and lay out, and the weather
was absolutely perfect.  The Meditteranean is very salty too, and it wasnt hard
to stay afloat.  We took the scenic route back to Orvieto, and got to see our
town perched on the cliffs right at sunset, and I realized that I am so lucky
to be living in such a beautiful place.
     Adjusting to Italian life has been interesting.  Here are some quick
observations so far.  Their food does not have the same preservatives, so we
have to eat everything alot sooner or it will go bad.  No microwaves makes
reheating leftovers a lot more difficult! Laundry is 3 Euros to wash only, and
there are no dryers....everything has to be hung.  They dont seem to like
Americans very much (we have been mocked at 3 times by teenagers in the street)
and yet they are obsessed with our culture: clothes, music, celebrities.  The
men all wear little speedos on the beach and the women dont shave their arm
pits.  The mosquitos are rampant, and in is completely normal to have a million
flies around your house and even in your restaurant where people are eating.
(yuck)  I know I seem like I am complaining....it is just that there are a lot
of things that I have to get used to! hahaha...
   Anyway, thats all for now.  Thanks for the emails for those who have sent them.  I like hearing from you!  

Ciao!

Kelsey

Currently Reading Under the Tuscan Sun By Frances Mayes see related

Hello All!!
   I have arrived in Orvieto, Italy, and let me say that is is simply like
taking a walk back through time!  It is absolutely gorgeous, with the narrow cobblestone streets, the high stone buildings, the plazas that you suddenly emerge into, and the giant Duomo that our school is right next to!  The Duomo is HUGE and elaborately decorated, and shines bright with gold in the sun.  It is so surreal to be here....I still have to pinch myself!
   Getting here over the past few days was no easy task.  The flight wasnt that bad, as I got to watch a movie and eat a pretty decent dinner before sleeping almost the remainder of the flight.  The plane was a brand new Boeing 777, so I was really excited to ride in it....surprisingly comfortable.  I had about a 6 hr layover in London where it is a complete fashion show.  There is a Burberry, a Hugo Boss, a Harrods, and only stores in the airport alone, and since Europeans dont have to fly very far, they were all super dressed up...or maybe they were Eurotrash, I dont know.  I have seen some very interesting
fashions....and to let you know, the mullet is back in full force!!
    After arriving at the Rome airport, I met a couple American boys from Wisconsin and we rode the train into the city.  They knew nothing about Rome or the train, so I basically had to take them by the hand and lead them around (and Dad was worried about me!)  We parted ways, them trying to find their hostel that had a curfew in 5 minutes, and me with a very rude tani driver who didnt speak English and tried to cheat me in change. The hotel was nice, and it was wonderful waking up to church bells in the morning.  THe Santa Maria Maggoire
was right around the corner from my hotel, so I went there in the morning and was floored by the architecture and beautiful sculptures and painting inside. There is a famous bascilica inside as well that I took a million pictures of, as well as Berninis tomb and a relic: the manger that Jesus was born in, encased in gold!  There were so many pilgrims there, it was crazy.
   After transfering hotels, I met Jeanie who is also my roommate at my house here in Orvieto, and she and I went to the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, and to some other areas.  Unfortunately, it was absolutely pouring, and regardless of umbrellas, we got soaked to the bone and ended up going back to the hotel to rest a little and dry off.  We literally could not have seen anything anyway as the rain was so heavy, and were simply miserable.  Later that night we got some dinner, but went to bed fairly early to go to Orvieto in the morning.  The Termini station was already packed when we got there Saturday morning, and the train we got was really full.  The Italians on the train were pissed off at us because of all our luggage, and were literally chewing us out
to our faces and yelling to everyone else.  It was really horrible because we didnàt know what they were saying (although we had a pretty good idea) and they got alot of people in on complaining about us and Americans.  I was really angry, but there was nothing I could do but take it....they would not have been able to understand me either.
   My house, Casa Selita, is actually a bed and breakfast.  It is a beautiful
house and has an amazing view of the hills and the fields around us.  It is
quite a trek to town, and I am a little dismayed about having to do it every
day, but that is the price to pay to live in heaven I guess!
   I have had a couple run ins with Italian men acting like pigs, which has not
been very much fun, but I feel that I have put them in their place.  In
general, less people speak English here than I thought, and I have found that
hand signals and using the little Spanish and French that I know has come in
handy.  It has not been easy, but I am hoping that I will be able to pick up a
little Italian here and there to make the communication barrier break down a
little more.
   School starts tomorrow with some Orientation meetings and a tour of the city,
so Jeanie and I are eager to start.  We have become fast friends, and are
looking forward to meeting the other students in the program.  We have met some
around town here and there already, but there are more hiding around here
somewhere!
   I love you all and hope to hear from you about what is going on stateside as
well!  We do not have a phone or TV, and limited access to Internet.

Ciao!

Kelsey

Off to Italy today!  I'm excited....but I'm really dreading the plane ride!  3 hrs to Chicago, 3 hr layover, 10 hours to London, 6 hr layover, 4 hrs to Rome..... not to mention getting my bags, taking the train into Rome, getting a taxi, and FINALLY ending up in my closet of a hotel room!  I'm not sure if it will be a closet or not, but it is a single for 65 Euro, which is just about the cheapest thing in Rome unless you want to stay in a dump hostel.  I had too many bags to even consider a hostel....they only offer you one locker to put all your stuff in, and that just would not have worked. 

Good luck to everyone this semester....I'll be taking pictures and writing emails, so if you want to receive them, let me know.  I already have a laundry list of people who want to know how Italy is, so it would not be hard to add to it!  My email is Kelsey@email.arizona.edu still, and that is the easiest way to get ahold of me. 

Ciao!! :)

Currently Reading Under the Tuscan Sun By Frances Mayes see related