Early September in Italy

First full day of Orientation 8-26-09

After a really hot and humid night of sleep I woke up around 8 to get to breakfast. After breakfast we filled out more paperwork and went over our class schedules and stuff. Then we all loaded up on buses and went into Rome. They unloaded us at the Capitoline hill where we split off in our small groups to walk the city. I was placed in Dr Hatlie's group and he showed us the Roman Forum and walked around the city with us explaining how to use the buses and metro's and where to find good restaurants and gelato. He let us spend some time at the Trevi fountain which was really neat. So I threw the coin behind my head into the fountain proclaiming my return to Rome in the future. Dr. Hatlie showed us how to properly drink from the fountains that surround the city by plugging the bottom so that the water shoots out the top of the pipe to drink from. From the Trevi fountain we walked over to the Spanish steps and then from their we took the bus to the Vatican. The Vatican was an amazing structure. We had the privilege to celebrate mass in the Vatican and then explore the inside. I stayed near the Monsignor Fuginaro and listened to his insight in of the Vatican and its history and secrets. After that we took the buses back to campus and enjoyed a nice dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening preparing for classes the next day. That night I had the chance to talk to my dad but had trouble with the internet connection so skype didn't work very well and he ended up calling my room. It was nice to hear about home and Annie's successful arrival to Franciscan.

The rest of Orientation 8-27>8-30

The rest of Orientation was full of paper work and logistics. I pretty much went into Rome every night after our meetings every day. We started classes on Thursday the 27th. I was really pleased with how they turned out and excited to see how the rest of my classes turned out the next day. On Tuesday Thursdays I have Theology, ands Western Civilization. Each professor has something unique to offer in each class. My Western Civilization class is great to be studying in the heart of where most of the history we are studying took place. My professor is planning on finishing all of our history of Greece to line up with our ten day in Greece. I normally dread a history class but this experience here makes me really excited for what is to come. My Western Theology class is also going to be great. My professor opened the class with intriguing questions about faith and the church. He also has assigned us to write on a list of churches he provided us and told us to visit. I love how each class here is taking advantage of the location we are and using the vast history and culture of Rome and Italy in each class. My Second Set of classes are just as great. I am taking Philosophy of man, Literary Tradition III, and Art and Architecture. In Philosophy we are reading a lot of great works of the great philosophers and searching into the depths of our selves and our place in the world. My professor for Lit Trad is very eccentric and great to listen too. We are covering most of the great plays of ancient time and reading a lot of Shakespeare. Again this type of class is usually dreading, but being given the chance to visit and see the places written about makes this class more fulfilling. And Last but not least (for sure) is Art and Architecture. I am most excited for this class because we are actually having classes at the locations we are studying about. We are going to learn about the reason why Michelangelo and other great artists and architects painted and built the things they did. We are learning the history behind so many sites and are going to be able to describe what things mean throughout the great sites in Italy. I have never been so excited to be taking classes before my time here.

The first night off I went into Rome with Grace and showed her all the sites Dr Hatlie showed me on our walking tour. We enjoyed Italian gelato and walked around the city and had a great time looking at great monuments, fountains, churches, sculptors and everything Rome has to offer. We finished off the night splitting a pizza in a piazza near our metro stop before we headed home. The Next day after classes and meetings Grace me and a few others went into Albano, which is the city further up the road from us for the evening. We ended up finding a local festival with a jazz quartet playing. We had a great evening socializing while listening to nice music and enjoying the Italian culture. The next day was Saturday and we had a mandatory scavenger hunt. I was a little skeptical about this but was pleasantly surprised by the end of it. We were put into teams of seven and were given a sign. They gave us a list of sights to find in Rome and we had to take pictures with us and our sign in it. We started off in the Vatican

and traveled site by site all the way to St. Mary's Basilica near the Colosseum. We had a great day became more familiar with the city and saw some amazing sites. Rome slowly but surly is becoming more of our own, more like a home-town to each of us (which is really awesome). At the end of the day we headed back to campus and the Monsignor put on a wine tasting in the vineyard for us. It was a really great experience we tried 4 different kinds of wines and we were taught how to find the flavors and distinguish between each of the wines. After the wine and orderves we ate outside and had a really nice dinner and hung out the rest of the night to conclude our orientation to the Rome program.

My first Sunday on Campus 8-31-09

Sunday morning I woke up around 9 to meet up with about 9 of my friends to go to mass at Castel Gandalfo (the Pope's summer residence!). So we hiked up the hill to Castel Gandalfo which took about 30 min and gave us a great view of the countryside and of Rome. We made it for the 10 am mass and after mass waited in a large crowed to go into a courtyard inside Castel Gandalfo to say an Angelus prayer with the pope. So about a thousand people from around the world were there to pray with Pope Benedict. It was amazing- So around 12 Benedict came out to his balcony and we prayed with him and he gave a few words to everyone in a ton of different languages and blessed everyone. It was a really special intimate experience with the Holy father that was truly memorable. After the pope left the courtyard we caught the Cotral bus back to campus. Grace and I had not had the chance to eat any food so we walked down the road to the local grocery store and bought some salami, bread and cheese and had a nice lunch back at campus. We did some homework and started our plans for our first weekends off for travel.

Theology Class in the Vatican, and pizza with monsignor Fuginaro 9-03-09

On Tuesday morning I got up and had breakfast and went to my first class in the morning. After that I got ready for my theology class in St. Peter's Basilica. The mensa ladies gave us sack lunches and we split up onto two busses split alphabetically in the middle. I was in the second group so I had some time to kill in Rome before going into the church. So I found my way right outside the Vatican to a gelato spot called Old Bridge. They have home made gelato for pretty cheap. It was amazing! I got 3 giant scoops of different flavors for 2 euro. It was probably the best I have ever had. After that I still had a lot of time to kill so I decided to get through the security line of the Vatican a little early and do some exploring of my own. So my friend Stephen and me went through the line and explored St. Peters. We went into the side entrance and found ourselves near the tombs of a lot of popes. It was a long hallway in a U shape. Each pope had a different kind of casket and had little descriptions of what their main accomplishments were. About half way through there was a large crowed of people around a specific tomb and there was a large sign that said no pictures allowed. I took a closer look and it was the tomb of Pope John Paul II. His tomb was very

humble, it was a simple flat stone with his name inscribed with a cross on the tomb. After JPII was the tomb of St. Peter! I'm signed up for a scavi tour later in the semester so I was only able to look through the glass door. The room had a lot of dark marble and gold. It a really special place to be next to the tomb of one of the fathers of the catholic church. After the tombs the hallway lead us around the basilica to the front of the church steps where Stephen and I met up with our class. Dr. Vasques lead us through the Vatican telling us the history of the church. As we walked through St Peter's he told us all about the architecture and the symbolism of each of the statues and paintings. After our theology class a bunch of us met at the obelisk in the middle of St Peter's square with monsignor Fuginaro to celebrate mass with him. He lead us to the house of the sisters of charity where we met some of the sisters and celebrated mass. After mass monsignor took all of us to a really great pizza place near the Capitoline hill. We had a great time and some great Italian pizza. After dinner we got on the metro and headed home.

First Travel Weekend September 4-6

The first weekend of travel started off leisurely. As a class we ate breakfast and had a couple classes in the morning after classes we all got on buses to go north towards Cervetury to have an art and arch class at an archeological site with Etruscan tombs. When we arrived at the site Dr Flusche gave us a lecture on the Etruscans and their influence on Roman culture. After the lecture we were free to explore the site and look at the ancient tombs of the Etruscans. It was a lot of fun going through the different tombs. They had different kinds of tombs depending on how wealthy the family was and at what time period it was made in. After exploring the realms of ancient Tuscany they served us our sack lunches then took us to the train station where we had the choice to go back to Rome or go somewhere for the rest of the weekend. We wanted to go to Cinque Terra but the ticket machine wasn't working properly so we decided just go on the train and explain it to the conductor. So there were about 30 people at the station interested in going to

Cinque Terra and about half of those people were not willing to risk the penalties for not having a ticket. So when we talked with the conductor on the train he was totally understanding and helpful. After a few more hours of travel we made it. At the La Spezia station we got on a smaller train/metro that takes you across the five towns of Cinque

Terra along the cliff side.It was about the time of the

sunset and it was absolutely beautiful riding along the cliff. We got off at the last town which is called Monterosso and walked around the town a little bit, then went down to the beach. After playing in the water and running around we spent some time looking for a place to sleep for the night. We ended up finding a secluded beach a little bit outside of the town and set up camp. The beaches in northern Italy are mostly covered in rocks so to get comfortable we spread the rocks out and made a nice space to lay in. Grace and I opened up a bottle of wine and passed it around to everyone while singing lords day songs under a full moon on the beach. It was a really nice time. Most of us wanted to get up for the sun set so we all laid down to go to sleep around 11. After a night of sleeping under the stars we watched the sun pierce through the mountain peeks as we got ready for the day. We packed up our stuff and walked back over to the town. We passed by a church that said that there was mass at 9:00 so we hung around a little while got some fruit for breakfast and waited until mass. 9:00 roles around and there was no sign of anyone… so we took a closer look at the mass times and the name of the church was different than on the sign. So we ran across the town and found the other church. After mass a lady asked us where we were from because the priest talked about us

during his homily. He thought we were from the eastern right or something because we were really reverent as opposed to the beach apparel of everyone else. After all of that we were on a mission to find a place to get some food. We couldn't find what we were looking for so we decided to continue on with out day. Some of the people in our group decided to take the train back to school but we decided to take the hike along the cliff side across the towns of Cinque Terra. On the hike we were right along the coast the whole way. The trail went up and down the cliff through vine yards with fields of grapes and other crops above the water, it was really beautiful. After about an hour and a half we made it to Vernazza, the ne

xt town. Vernazza is really neat. It's a lot smaller than Monterosso and really cool. Each of the buildings were different colors and the beach was a deep rich blue. We were all starving so we found a shop were we picked up some bread then found our way to a butcher shop and got a thing of salami and cheese. We sat by a church and made our sandwiches and relaxed a little while. We decided instead of hiking the rest of the towns to get on our bathing suits and swim at the beach. So we

walked back through the town and used the train station's bathroom to put on our bathing suits. On our way back to the beach we picked up a bottle of some lemon chello, which is made locally their, to split between all of us. We sat by the water and enjoyed our drinks and went swimming in the water. After a good time on the beautiful beach we got on the train heading back to campus. We stopped in Pisa for about an hour and ran from the train station to the tower to take some pictures. On our way back we picked up some food and got on the only train left to Rome. We happened to buy the wrong kind of ticket, we were on a high-speed train and we only paid for a normal train. The conductor gave us a break olny because there happened to be a train strike that day in Tuscany and everything was chaotic.

As we got closer to Rome we looked at our clocks and realized we might not make the last bus to campus! If we don’t make the last bus we would have to pay for a 40 euro taxi ride. Once the train hit the platform we sprinted off of the train and ran straight for the metro. We made it on the metro and counted down the minutes before the last bus. We made it to our stop with one minute left before the bus was supposed to depart. We had our friend Caleb run as fast as he could to catch the bus while the rest of us ran behind with all the bags. We made it! Caleb caught the bus and we all got on. When we got back to campus we exchanged stories with all our friends and their weekends. About a half hour later we saw Kevin and Teresa who were also at Cinque Terra, we just got separated early on when we got to the town. It turns out they were on the same train we were on and did not make the last bus connection. They had to fork over money for the taxi. It was announced later that classes were canceled the next day because it was time to harvest the grapes. So after a great weekend in northern Italy we got great news that topped off a great weekend.I signed up for the early shift of harvesting so

I could sleep the rest of the day if I needed to. It turns out I slept through my alarm and missed the first half of my shift. I ran out there and got started. So I picked up a pair of pliers got a crate and started picking. Going through the rows listening to Peter Kennedy sing and harvesting grapes for the school's wine was a great time. After our shift w

as over they drove around and picked up all the crates full of grapes and dumped them in the bed of the truck. They selected a few students to go in and stomp them with their feet in order to start the process. It was a lot of fun. After my shift was over I got some lunch and decided to take a swim after lunch. A bunch of us started a game of water polo and had a great time. We didn't waist our day off haha. While we were in the pool we all decided to see if we could reserve the forno (the pizza oven/ full kitchen accessible to students by reservation) for the next day. We got permission and picked up ingredients for pizza and got some bread and wine for the rest of dinner. We stored it in the forno for the next day, and finished up our homework for the next day. After classes the next day Grace and I had to run into Rome to go visit some churched for our theology class. We are required to have two one page write ups for churches every week. So we got to Rome reviewed St. John Laterine, and Mary Magore and made it back to campus by 5 to start our dinner at the forno. Peter Kennedy and I fired up the brick oven while Andrew, Sam and Grace prepared the food. After much trial and error we ended up with about 4 pizza's and got better cooking them each time. It was difficult getting use to the brick oven but we got the hang of it by the end and had some great pizza.

Sept 11-14, Second travel Weekend: Pompeii & Capri

Today we got up in the morning and had breakfast and got ready to leave for our class trip to Pompeii. This weekend we have a lot planned for us. Our first stop was at Paestum where we had an Art and Arch class near some ancient Greek temples. These temples were from early Greek immigrants who set up a colony. There were three temples on site; Hera I, Hera II, and Athena. They are the biggest well preserved temple's found. During our class our professor explained the names of the different parts of the temple and what they were used for. It was so fascinating to be learning about these things on site! After about an hour of lecture we had the chance to explore the site at Paestum. I got the chance to look all around the temples and look at all the ruins around. There was a small coliseum, a bunch of broken pillars, and a cool small temple that was under the ground that was said to be a temple to some sort of underworld god. After exploring we all got back on the bus and stopped at a beach. Some people went swimming, some built a huge pyramid sand castle, and others just relaxed in the lawn chairs. After

the beach we headed for our 'hotel' the Vesuvian institute which was an old monastery that has been converted into a place for students to stay for study. We were staying in Stabile near Naples. Once we got there we had dinner than we had another mandatory lecture on Pompeii we had to listen to. The lecture ended around 11:15! After that I was exhausted and went to bed. The next morning we got up and took the buses to Pompeii. They handed out some head-set receivers and we were split into two groups. I was with Dr. Hatlie and he walked us around the ruin city and explained all the specifics of the life back then and details about what things were in the city. It was so crazy how this first century city was frozen in time. The different house holds and buildings was so fascinating. It was really sobering to see the bodies of the people they excavated out of the city. After about 2 and a half hours walking around with Dr. Hatlie's tour he let us wander the city on our own before we left. Grace and I walked around and were blown away to be at the site we have been hearing all about pretty much our whole lives.

After leaving the city we had a choice to either go back to the hotel or go and hike Vesuvius. It was an easy choice for me. We took the bus up a very small windy path up the mountain to the trail. There was a point when our bus driver took a wrong turn and we had to go in reverse down the mountain for a little while before we got on the right road. Once we got to the trail head I was so excited to go up. The hike ended up being one of the easiest I have ever been on but the view was amazing. They pretty much carved out a path big enough for cars to drive up. The path leads to the top of the volcano (which is still active) and circles around the top. Once we got up there I was looking down the crater of the volcano and there was steam coming out of the rocks in different spots. It was so cool. So after we took a bunch of pictures of the crater and Naples from the top we headed back down to the bus. We took the bus back to the hotel. When we got there Grace, Andrew, Sam, and I went into the city to pick up some food for our trip we planned to Capri the next day. While we were looking for food we were also looking to buy a cork screw because we had a wine bottle we wanted to open later. So when we bought the meat for our meal I had a great conversation with the store clerk who didn't speak a word of English. We were going back and forth pantomiming, butchering each others languages, and speaking Spanish to see if it was close enough to the Italian asking for a cork screw. She ended up understanding me and offered to open it for me there but did not have one to sell. Unfortunately I didn't have the wine with me so we left empty handed. After we picked up all of our food we walked along the board walk where there were a ton of Italians hanging out. We watched kids playing soccer/(football) and people walking there dogs and talking. It was neat to see real Italian life, because Rome is still in tourist season and a lot of the Italians are on vacation so we haven't seen it much yet. Anyways after that we went back to the hotel and had dinner with the class. During dinner the vesuvian institute had some guest researchers there who put on a demonstration of ancient song and dance that was really bazaar. They dressed in togas and played flutes and horns and drums and danced around during different points in our meal. After dinner a bunch of us watch American Football on TV with monsignor Fuginaro, Notre Dame vs Michigan. In the morning we celebrated mass with monsignor then they took us to the Naples architecture museum. We had another class here and looked at a lot of Greek and Roman art, and also a lot of the art that was excavated from Pompeii. Most of the city was stripped of its really cool artifacts and they were put in this museum.

After the museum visit they dropped some of us off at the train station and the rest of us at the port. So Grace, Andrew, Sam and I took the ferry over to Capri. The island was beautiful. We hiked all the way up and over the island to the other side to the marina piccolo where we planned to stay the night. So we parked our selves on the beach and got some margaritas. Sam and Grace went swimming while Andrew and I relaxed by the water. Some other UD'ers were with the Gigante twins who have family on the island came by the same beach and hung out. After the sun went past the hill most of the people left the beach and we watched the fishermen bring up their boats and dock them on shore. We sat there and enjoyed some wine cheese bread and salami while the sun went down. We figured that the spot we were was too obvious a place to stay the night so we looked for a more secluded spot to set up camp. We found a spot which was probably owned by the restaurant above it but we stayed there anyways. So we got ready for bed laid out our sleeping bags and went to sleep. Around 12:30 Andrew says out loud, "guys where did all the stars go!?" Then a huge lightning struck a little ways away from us, and it got really windy. It was about to rain! Luckily I brought the tent we got for Scotland just in case we needed it. So we quickly set it up threw all of our stuff in and jumped in for shelter. About ten minutes later it started to rain hard. Around 5 a.m. I woke everyone up to pack up camp so we could clear out of their before any of the restaurant workers came back for work. We also needed to make the 8 am ferry to get back to school for classes that evening. So we packed up our stuff and hiked back across the island and watched the sun rise while we were heading to the dock. We made it on our ferry and took the train back to Rome from Naples and got back in time for not only class but lunch also. It was another great weekend during the Rome semester.