Forza Ravenna Calcio Srl

On Saturday, I decided to go to Ravenna. I knew Ravenna had all the cool mosaics Byzantine style so I was excited to go there. I had to take the bullet train to Bologna, but it was standing room only. So I sat on the steps near the exit for the 37 minute journey. Then it was an hour 20 train to Ravenna from Bologna on the regional train. The first thing I did when I got to Ravenna was go to tourist office so I could get a map of the city. Than I went straight to the main monuments, the Basilica di San Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. The Basilica was huge and had some very impressive art, the Mausoleum is about tiny as our living room, but the art there is also amazing. I learned about these places from art history, so seeing them in person was awesome. A combination ticket for 8.50 euro gets you into 5 of these Unesco World Heritage sites, and it was completely worth it. The St. Lawrence burning his books was probably my favorite image from that art history lesson so seeing it in person, was outstanding. I then decided to walk to see the Ancient Home of the Stone Carpets which is this underground archaeological site that shows the remains of the floor mosaics from a former Byzantine palace. This was pretty neat and only costed 3 euros because of a student discount. After this I walked over to the Baptistery Neoniano. It's the oldest of the buildings and has been there since 430 AD. It shows John the Baptist baptizing Jesus and the twelve apostles. Right next to it was the Museo Arcivescovile which houses The very tiny Archbishop's Chapel dedicated to Saint Andrew. They didn't allow pictures but it had some very cool mosaics in the chapel. The museum also had an ivory throne carved for Archbishop Maximian. The artwork on this ivory throne was absolutely outstanding. They also had a cross with 2 pieces from the Crown of Thorns in it, so I guess this has to make up for me missing the crown of thorns inside the Notre Dame. I then went to the real tomb of Dante Aligheri, since he was exiled and died in Ravenna. It's a cool little shrine off the beaten path which houses his tomb. It's funny that every year, the Florentine mayor writes a letter asking for the remains and the Ravenna mayor tells them you didn't appreciate him in life, you don't deserve to appreciate him in death. After this I went to no.5 on the combo ticket which is the Sant' Apollinare Nuovo. It's a huge church but it has awesome mosaics with Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. After this, I went to the free but not as well known Arian Baptistery. There is another mosaic of the baptism of Jesus Christ at this location. Then I decided to walk all the to Theodoric's Mausoleum across the train tracks. On the way there you walk by the old fortress or city gates of Ravenna, so it was cool seeing what used to be moat, a drawbridge, etc. He was King of the Ostrogoths and reigned right after the fall of the Western Roman empire. His tomb wasn't there, but it's the outside of the Mausoleum that is cool. Rather than a catch the bus to Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe, I decided to eat Mcdonalds at the train station and catch the next train to Florence. The train ride to Florence was interesting because instead of going to Bologna and going back down to Florence, we went through Tuscany. I had zero idea where I was, going through all these small train stations. Some weren't even train stations, some were just roads, without a platform. Anyways, half way through, the door on our train car wouldn't shut so we were delayed somewhere in Tuscany. It was neat seeing all the hills, homes on hills, farm area, that you think of when you think of Tuscany. I finally made it home to Florence, 25 minutes ish after our scheduled arrival, but I finished reading the book we had to read for this week's class all on my time spent on the train yesterday. Ravenna was completely worth it, and I was glad to see all these Unesco heritage sites.

I had a voucher dinner, and p.s. mom, I'm willingly ordering and eating Bruschetta. I don't know if I'll eat tomatoes back home, but I'm not minding eating them here.

a Florentine week

In class this week we talked a lot about art and censorship. It was interesting how the lecture showed Pompeii then turned into the sexual art displayed in the well preserved frescoes. We talked about what is vulgar, the issue of free speech and art. I like Justice Harlan's "one man's vulgarity is another man's lyric" over the issue of indecent speech. In the Roth vs United States case, I don't really get what makes an object "prurient." I don't agree with how communities establish what is obscene, and how another city can have a different meaning over what obscene is. We saw pictures of Serrano's "Piss Christ" which kind of looked neat with the sunlight in the urine. But apparently it's offensive because its a crucifix inside urine. Diego Rivera's "Man at the Crossroads" is not offensive at all, regardless of Vladimir Lenin's appearance in the mural. I wasn't offended by Robert Mapplethorpe's photos either, I could actually see the artistic value in the photos even though they were sexual in nature. Marilyn Manson also wrote a nice essay in response to not being the artist responsible for the Columbine murders. The other class we watched a documentary on the film "Deep Throat." It's crazy how they wanted to prosecute the actor in the film, and not the star or the director. I also didn't know how much the Mafia was involved with the distribution of the film. It seemed that when the government tried to censor or take down the film, it just made it's appeal even stronger to viewers. We talked a lot about John Paul II in the other class, when discussing Italy and the Church. It's interesting how many Italians claim to be Catholic, but don't practice it at all. Except for the major things like baptism and all that. We learned that crucifixes hang inside the courtrooms.

We were told this week we have to make use of our Florence museum pass, which isn't a problem at all. I climbed the top of the Duomo this week, and you get one of the best views of Florence by far. You can see pretty much all of the historic center of Florence and it's amazing. Giorgio Vasari's last judgement mural in the Cupola was pretty amazing to look at. I can see why it took them almost 11 years to complete it, I think it competes with the Sistine Chapel almost in terms of epicness. The ascent up the stairs wasn't too bad, but I saw some old ladies huffing and puffing their way up to the top. It only sucks that once you get to the top, there is only one set of stairs that goes up or down, so it creates a logjam. We also visited the Santa Croce church after class. Our life and culture teacher is a great tour guide, but man she spews information like she is reading it straight off wikipedia. It drones off after a while. It sucks that Donatello's Crucifix is kind of locked up behind a chapel, or that Cimabue/Giotto's artwork is kind of fading near the altar of the church. Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Dante, Galileo all have tombs in the church. Michelangelo and Galileo have impressive tombs. I also went to Fiesole this week, the little Roman/Etruscan town up in the hills. You get an awesome view of Florence from up there, and you get the vibe that really rich people live up there. They have an ancient amphitheatre, remains of Roman baths, remains of an Etruscan temple, and an Archaeological museum which houses a bunch of Etruscan ruins. It's a neat little area up there, and its cool to see. We also went and saw the Medici Chapel since it's on the Museum Pass. This place is really impressive. The tombs dedicated to Cosimo/Ferdinand were huge, and maybe 1/4 the size of Napoleon's tomb. What was really neat was the ginormous and gorgeous crowns on top of the tombs. They have a whole room dedicated to relics. They also have a whole other area where like Lorenzo Medici was buried. Michelangelo Dawn and Dusk statues were there. It sucks that there is no pictures allowed in there, because it is probably the most underrated place to visit in Florence. On Friday, it was the city holiday known as San Giovanni. I missed the parade and stuff, but we watched the Calcio Storico game on tv. It sucked that the tickets were sold out, but watching it on tv, I still had no idea what the hell goes on the entire game. You score by throwing it over the walls or something into a net, but you're allowed to wrestle opponents to the ground. But the teams show like zero attacking ambition, and it's backpass after backpass. It's like watching New Zealand play soccer, it's boring as hell. Playing not to lose, instead of playing to score. But it was cool seeing the different neighborhood, whites vs blues chant at each other. It sucked that our street was like the entrance to the stadium or something, so the cops shut down our street. They wouldn't let me leave, and told me I couldn't get back on my street until 20 o clock. It was frustrating, it's also frustrating they use military time. What the hell has Italy's military done in the last 100 years? Flip flop in WWI, lose to Ethiopia, get destroyed in Africa in WW2, complain about the hundreds of troops in Afghanistan? Anyways, they had a firework show at 10 pm, we watched from the bridge to the right of the Ponte Vecchio since all the guidebooks said too. It was packed as hell. Their fireworks show lasted 45 minutes, but Disneyland's fireworks show is still way better.

Allez Paris Saint-Germain

Monday we talked about the criminal justice in Italy. It's interesting that their is so many police agencies there. They have similar things in their criminal justice system to the US system. It's interesting how the prosecutor can only recommend a plea bargain deal to the judge, but the judge has the final say over the details of the plea bargain. It was also interesting how plea bargain deals are only allowed with 2 years of penalties or less. The youth's at 14 are still treated under the juvenile system. It's interesting that they have 20 year time limits for punishing some people for a crime that requires 24 years or more of prison. It's interesting how there is no different murder classes, just murder for anyone who kills anyone. I like how it's three years of prison for theft, that should deter people from stealing if they get caught. It's also interesting how their prison system is aimed at actually rehabilitating people, and not like the U.S. prison system that leads to terrible behaviors. After serving 26 years, people are eligible to be released from prison. It's also interesting they have 45 days off their prison sentence for every 6 months served. We learned about the history of Italian politics in the other classes. They have a parliamentarian system in Italy, much like the rest of Europe. We talked about this Poly Sci 330. It's interesting how Berlusconi has been elected three times but not consecutively. It's crazy how they have 1,000 representatives in Italy, and their is only 435+100 in the USA. Their supreme court is elected 1/3rd each by the Prime Minister, Parliament, and the ordinary supreme court. They have a politician named Giulio Andreotti who has served since the republican form of government in 1946. It's crazy that one of the Prime Minister's Aldo Moro was kidnapped and killed in 1946. I love how the Forza Italia! party's goal is an anti-communist party. Berlusconi seems liked a corrupt guy who uses the power of the courts to get out of trouble and his Rubygate scandal was interesting. Berlusconi says some pretty dumb things like calling Obama "tan," compares himself to Jesus Christ, makes comments about the beauty of female politicians from the left. I can't see him being elected anymore.

I had to plan a trip to Paris in 2 hours from 2-4 am on Wednesday, then got up 3 hours later, catching the train to Pisa at the very last call whistle. The train ride took like a hour. Carrying my bag though to the Field of Miracles was a pain in the shoulder blade. But once you get there it’s cool. The leaning tower, the baptistery, and the Duomo. We bought tickets for the Duomo/Baptistery for 6 euros and it was cool to look at. The duomo had some famous Pisa people buried there, while in the Baptistery some tour guide lady tested the acoustics which was really cool. Then we went to Mcdonalds. I saw trains from the airport were arriving every 15 minutes or so, so I thought we could catch one right after the 1:55 when. Next shuttle wasn’t till 238, and our boarding pass said last gate closes at 3:50. We rush to Ryanair terminal only to find a huge line. When we get towards the front, we realize there is a visa check only line, because we weren’t checking any bags. My bag weighed more than 10 KG so I was scared to weigh it, but nobody stopped me at all. Getting through security wasn’t bad since I had all small toiletries. Then we had to wait forever for the plane to come, then going to get my ticket scanned I thought I was going to be asked to weigh my bag but nope, people had bigger bags than me. Then on the flight which is first come, first serve. Our plane’s steps wouldn’t close or something so were delayed another 10-15 minutes, then the flight to Paris It was a pretty quick flight, read the Ryanair magazine, slept a short time and then we were descending to Paris Beauvais on the bumpiest landing ever. The shuttle to Paris was kind of tiring (hour 15) and when I woke up I see kids practicing American football in a little caged field. We got dropped off in the middle of Paris with zero clue how to get to our hotel. At first the subway station was confusing as hell since we didn’t have maps that told us how to transfer and stuff. Then we asked for directions from a nice hotel doorman, which was very straight forward. We got off our train station and tried to hail a taxi, but the guy said we were so close, and we were on the wrong side of traffic and he gave us walking directions. Our room at the hotel is kind of a joke. But we have one of the biggest rooms here. It’s a double bed and a single and a moldy bathroom with a toilet and shower where you have to shower yourself by holding up the head. We found a Japanese restaurant open at 11 at night and ate there. I was confused on whether to say Arrigato or Merci half the time we were there. I had four kebabs, 2 chicken, 2 beef, one had cheese in it. The miso soup was excellent.

Day 2-Euro Disney. Getting to the information booth at the metro station, some crazy lady kept changing her mind in front of us and took forever. It was a bitch. Then the lady neatly explained how to catch the train and transfer to the Euro Disney line. Once we got there, it wasn’t so bad. Just when we bought tickets, I found out that Space Mountain Mission Impossible 2 was closed, the main attraction for me in Euro Disney. Main Square USA, is extremely tiny, it’s funny. The pink castle also dedicated to Cinderella was kind of small, but they have a dragon in chains at the lair of it. We first rode the Phantom Manor when a light drizzle, and the only reason I bought a umbrella came upon us. It stopped within 30 minutes or less. The long hallway queue is less scary with a French guy speaking French to us. Then you exit the elevator and the hallway is similar to Disneylands. However in this ride you follow a Bride again. There is the bridge singing in the dining room. After this bride story, typically where the attic for Disneyland Anaheim is, instead of going to a grave yard you go to the Wild West. I shit you not, this made absolute zero sense. My mind is still trying to get around how we went from following a bride to going to the wild west to ending with the bride. I don’t get the French obsession with the wild west. Indiana Jones was a neat little coaster. The line was very short, took like 10 minutes. The coaster has some loops, some drops, some quick turns, and is a neat coaster. I wish it incorporated more Indiana Jones stuff and it would be a better ride than the one in Anaheim. Then we got fast passes for Thunder Mountain, tried to find a place to eat, and ended up at Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s like an attack on the Spanish fortress, the first part of the ride is different and you feel like you’re in the Caribbean and the attack on the fort scene is cool. Except the pirates are speaking French so it’s funny. It’s also weird because you do the ending scene with like the jail and dogs, the pirates singing yo ho, the don’t be chicken carlos, the pirates selling brides, the women chasing pirates scene, the drunk pirate with pigs all first, then you see the dead pirates with their treasure in the captain’s room, bar, etc. It’s like backwards. Then we went to finally eat in fantasyland which is planned eerily similar to Disneyland. Toilets on the far right, then a place that sells burgers right next to us. 12 euros got me a coke, a burger, fries, and a ice cream/nut/caramel sandwich. Was a pretty feeling meal. We rode Pinocchio’s Daring Journey which is exactly the same as the US one without the really crappy birds by the whale, and the fact that its in French and Gimmany Cricket sounds retarded. We then rode it’s a small world, which was smaller and had less characters than the USA one. Tea Cups felt like we couldn’t spin it as much as at Disneyland, then we rode Peter Pan where we had our first bad experience with French people. First thing middle school age cock nuggets cut in front of us while we walked through the queue fully. Then the little kids who we had to walk around were completely little shits. And their parents did not care at all. It was so annoying. Then the ride broke down, and the kids were annoying still. Peter Pan is exactly the same again, except we swung dangerously close to other ships. Then off to Thunder Mountain. It should be Thunder Island since it’s on its own island. The fast pass is needed for this ride. Cut the queue from 45 to 5 minutes. We would’ve been in the front except some Chinese group of 3 didn’t realize they were supposed to squeeze in one spot and the kid got left behind and ended up with the front seat. Bastard. Thunder Mountain was ok, the drops weren’t that big, the speed was fairly slow since we’re in the front, and they set up for big drops only for them to small drops into turns. But it’s a huge space. We then went to Discoveryland, not Tomorrow Land and saw a cool Wall-E and Eve statue. Then we got fast passes for Buzz Lightyear, which is still a similar ride, except it was impossible to hit Zurg in his chest. Then we rode Star Tours, which is old Star Tours, which sucks if you rode the new star tours. Then we left since the best ride in the park, Space Mountain Mission 2 was getting refurbished until Saturday. Then we went shopping in on Main Street, and I’m disappointed in the amount of D-Land Paris stuff they had. I expected tons of shit, not just like 4 different shirt designs. But the Disneyland bonbons are amazing. We then took the subway and made some transfers to the Eiffel Tower. It’s pretty amazing I have to say. The only negative experience is the African/Indian people trying to sell you little Eiffel Tower models. They ruin your pictures almost on purpose it seems. It’s like piss off you turd. But when you tell them non, they understand and they leave. The douchebags in Rome were persistent sons of bitches who didn’t understand No. They leave India with perfect scores in Math for this crap? I can’t get over how sunny it is in Paris until like 10 Pm. Then bam, the sun goes down like crazy fast and its dark. Don’t get it at the 44^th parallel, or wherever we are. We then ate dinner at a little café halfway between the sub and the Eiffel tower, and I had a ham and cheese baguette sandwich which was great! We then went to the Arc de Triomphe which the subway station puts you right there. That was cool, especially in the middle of the street where you can take your picture with it in the background. Thursdays in Paris are apparently dead nights.

Day Three-Woke up a little later than I wanted too. Our dick hostel owner wouldn’t let our friend store her bag in our room, so we had to sort this problem out. We made a wrong turn trying to find the nearest metro station and we ended up at Gare du Nord. The main train station in Paris which was huge. We got on the RER C train line to Versailles Palace. We bought our museum passes then went to the Versailles Palace. When you get there is a huge golden gate to the entrance. That was impressive. The line looks long, but took like maybe 15 minutes at most. Then we got inside, got our free audio guided tours and went to the palace. The King had a crazy awesome chapel, it was huge, and gold plated everywhere. The tour of the palace was alright, we only probably did 1/3 of the palace. We saw the king’s room, queen’s room, Napoleon’s throne, etc. The Hall of Mirrors is obviously impressive, as is the room dedicated to murals of French battle history from Charlemagne to Napoleon. It started raining when we out to the gardens. The gardens are fucking huge. The whole property is probably the size of Central Park, and 2/3 of that is probably dedicated to the Grand Canal. We didn’t go to Marie Antoinette’s estate because it was raining too hard. We then went to McDonalds and that was ok. I’ve only had McDonalds three times in Europe, but all in the span of one week. Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, and I get chicken nuggets every time since I like my burgers plain. We then took the train to the Musee D’Orsee. We got in right when they started to close the museum off to new visitors. We didn’t even get our tickets checked, that was strange. The Manet exhibit cost 2 euros so we didn’t go, so we walked around. They had cool works from Van Gogh like his portrait, some Monet’s, some Degas, some other famous paintings. Then they had a random room dedicated to furniture which was apparently art. After we left we ended up going back to the hotel. We our pretty much master’s of the metro station, but I think we are going to the wrong station. I had a crepe with strawberries for dinner. Then we were supposed to go the Rue Moufetard street, which never existed. We then ended up asking some waiter from NY for directions to good bars and he showed us a place with 3 euro Amstel Light pints. Then it took forever to get my phone to work and we met our classmates at the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is pretty cool at night since it lights up at the hour. It was freezing so I got a hot dog fromage from a nearby stand. I haven’t ate a Parisian restaurant with Paris cuisine yet. Then I caught one of the last metro’s home.

Day 4-Today we woke up and went to the Louvre. We walked right in off the subway, no line, and bam we’re in the Louvre. We started off with the Egyptian art wing, there is so much Egyptian art it’s not even funny. I’ve been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the Louvre destroys it entirely on many levels. We saw all the famous art stuff from the Venus de Milo, the stele of Hammurabi’s Code, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Michelangelo’s Captive, the Mona Lisa, etc. We were worn out of the art stuff by 12, 3 hours after we’ve been there. I can only imagine how crazy the British Natural History Museum is. I also couldn’t believe how so many tourists used flash to take pictures of the Venus and the Mona Lisa, and the staff doesn’t even care to go after them. After that we wandered near the Musee D’Orsee only to see a bigger line than the Louvre, but we passed on going again. Then we walked by the Assembly Nationale, and found a café near the Invalides. It was full of French locals, and like 3 British tourists. I decided to try 3 cheese and bread slices. It was too cheesy, moldy, and disgusting for me. I almost hurled after I learned I was eating mold. One of the cheeses tasted like a sweaty gym sock. It started dumping and we walked to the Hotel Invalides which has like 5 museums in it. We went to the Arms museum, from medieval to 1700s ish weapons/armor. Then saw their World War I-World War 2 museum. One funny sign talked about how France tried their hardest in WW2. We then went to Napoleon’s tomb. Talk about the Napoleon complex. His tomb is the biggest tomb I have ever seen before, his casket thing is like 30 by 30 feet, if not more. That was pretty amazing, then we went over the Sainte-Chapelle. I knew about it from Art History so I was excited. The line to get in was long, but the security guy saw our museum passes and let us cut the line. That was pretty exciting. The lower chapel isn’t very impressive, just cool stained glass windows, but the upper chapel was amazing. Since it was a king’s former chapel, it is the only remaining structure from the oldest palace in Paris. It had fleur-des-lies on the roof. Then had beautiful stained glass windows depicting stories of the bible. The statues of the apostles were from the 1300s or something. That chapel was pretty amazing. The only part that sucked is the Cathedral of Notre Dame took the relics that used to be here, in the Crown of Thorns and the piece of the True Cross. We went inside the Notre Dame which was impressive, but the façade on the outside is more nice looking than inside. I wish we went to the treasury room now to see the relics. Had a cheeseburger from a Café near the Louvre for dinner, and the burger was actually really good. We walked around the Champs-Élysées for late night, but it was insanely overpriced and filled with asshole locals looking to harass Americans.

Day 5-We woke up and checked out and went straight to the Catacombs. The line for it was pretty long at 10:45, then we found only, they only allow 200 people in the crypt at a time. It was built after a former rock quarry which was cool, but you get that urge the bones are coming. There is over 6 million dead Parisians’ bones in the Catacombs, so that was crazy. They are stacked so neatly, they form designs, patterns, it was really impressive. After that, we went to the same Japanese restaurant near the hotel and then took the subway to nearby metro station. The bus back to the airport sucked because the first one was full, the second one wasn’t as bad. Then getting through the airport wasn’t bad, my bag was over 10 kg for sure, but they didn’t really check. We got into Pisa around the time expected, it’s just Ryanair takes their sweet ass time to load the plane up. I then took the train to Pisa Centrale then to Florence Santa Maria Novella with these other Americans who go to Penn State.

Rome

What an experience Rome is. Probably the most historical city I will ever go to in my lifetime. Rome lived up to all my expectations. The train ride on the bullet train wasn't bad, and it took less than 2 hours which was nice. I fell asleep then woke up, and voila, we were at the Rome Train station. The Hotel Madison just down across the train station, was pretty awful. You get one key, we had to put all our bags in this sketchy room. The room itself was pretty small. The bedding sucked, felt like the worst blanket ever. The TV had satellite or cable or something, but all of the stations were down. And the shower lol, it didn't have a covering or curtains or whatever its called. Pretty much the floor next to the shower, got drenched. Other than that, the only good thing about the Hotel's location was it's proximity to the metro station in the train station. Because everything in Rome is pretty much on scale with the map, if it looks long, its long. Unlike Florence, where what looks like a far walk is fairly close. Now I thought the The Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna was amazing, but the Vatican blew it out of the water. On the way there, there is an annoying amount of people trying to sell unofficial tours/tickets to the Vatican Museum. It got annoying after a while, and one Australia wanker snapped at us and called us "****ing ignorant Americans" Well screw that guy, we're obviously being led by a guide in front of the group, he's the ignorant moron who clearly wasn't paying attention. Once you get in the Vatican Museum, its pretty overwhelming. I've been to the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Vatican's art collection triumphs it by a lot. There was so many things to look at, that our tour guide started skipping rooms left and right, and showed us whatever he felt like showing us. Which isn't bad, because our tour guide knows his stuff, but we didn't even stop at the real Laocoön and His Sons piece of art, its something I've obviously heard of from Art History, but it's probably one of the most famous statues there. I felt kind of cheated that we didn't go on many other buildings in the Vatican museum like the Borgia Apartment, the Raphael Rooms, the Prima Porta Augustus, etc. But having a tour guide is nice, when he explained images and sculptures that he knew about. The Sistine Chapel is absolutely mind blowing. It's not as big as expected, but its decorated beyond belief. It pretty much destroys any one art room in any museum ever. From the Last Judgement to Michelangelo's series of stories from the book of Genesis, it's amazing. It's also annoying how all the security guards do here is harass people to turn off and put away their cameras, and keep making shush noises. St. Peter's Basilica is pretty mind blowing as well. I was shocked you could take pictures with flash. From all the different tombs of the Popes, to seeing the grotto from pretty far away, to Michelangelo's Pieta. It's mind blowing how amazing this church was to go see. From there we saw the out in St. Peter's square, seeing the famous obelisk, the balcony where the Pope speaks. We walked by the outside of Castel Sant'Angelo, to see this famous Illuminati lair from Angels and Demons. The statue of the Archangel Michael is amazing. From there we walked to the Piazza Navona. Where you could see the Fountain of the Four Rivers, all the cafes that stereotype Rome, and Neptune's Fountain. After that we had water from one of the many public fountains in Rome, and that water was simply amazing and fresh from the aqueduct. Then we went to the Pantheon, which was also pretty amazing. The sunlight hole, the tomb of Vittorio Emanuel and King Umberto. And the main thing, Raphael Santi tomb. It's amazing that they destroyed all the former Roman pagan statues. Can't imagine what they look like. Then we had some dinner, and went to the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain was very amazing to look at, I threw my coins in the water so I guess it means I am destined to go to Rome again. We ended the night at the Spanish Steps, which was cool enough. It just got annoying because their was an American cheerleader squad, like probably u-17's or something who wouldn't stop cheering. And those Indian douchebags trying to sell roses, beer cans, stupid laser pointers were persistent and wouldn't leave our large group alone. Saturday morning started off at the Coliseum/Roman forum. The forum was pretty amazing to walk, there is original road still there. There are many ruins there, and the Arch of Septimius Severus was pretty neat. They had some exhibitions on the crazy emperor Nero. The Arch of Titus was also nice to look at. Then we walked the way to the Coliseum. Skipping the huge lines. Went upstairs and saw an awesome view of the Coliseum. I'm kind of amazed/annoyed people didn't know about the maze on the ground floors, where they kept animals and gladiators caged and stuff. Maybe I know too much Roman history haha. After we left, we walked by the Palatine Hill, and then to Circus Maximus. Nobody knew what Circus Maximus was, it's the original horse race track. There was also a Lady Gaga concert stage there or something. We walked by Tiber Island, and saw one of the oldest hospitals that still is operating. Then I found an AS Roma store, I was in heaven there. Then we got duff beer on the way to the Pantheon, and did a little monument drinking in the sun light. We walked by the Trevi Fountain again, and then walked to the Santa Maria della Vittoria church, which has the Ecstasy of the Saint Theresa. That was pretty awesome to look at. There was the huge gay pride parade in the Piazza del Repubblica, so we had to walk by that to get to our hotel. Then we went to the San Pietro in Vincoli, and saw Michelangelo's Moses, the relic chains of Saint Peter. After that, we had dinner and I had a Bucatini all'amatriciana, a speciality of Rome. A delicious spaghetti with pecorino cheese, tomato, and the best part, Guanciale, cured pork cheek. We did some monument drinking that night, which was fun. Sunday, everybody wanted to go to Mass or whatever at St. Peter's Basilica, but I got to explore Rome at my pace, and my time. I started off at Piazza del Popolo because the Santa Maria del Popolo church houses the Capella Chigi which was in Angels and Demons. Unfornuately, they are doing construction on it, so I could only see pictures of the piece. Then I walked to the Mausoleum of Augustus, they're doing construction or something, or its just fenced off. Anyways, I was like the only tourist taking pictures of it and realized what it was. Other tourists would look at me, like wtf am I taking a photo of. I then went inside the Castel Sant'Angelo, and saw the old fortress for all its glory. You get a great view of the Vatican, and a great view of the Statue of Archangel Michael. I then walked to the Pantheon, because there is a great church there called the Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which has Michelangelo's Christ the Redeemer, again from Angels and Demons. And also, it houses the actual body of Saint Catherine of Siena. Then I walked over to the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, which had some amazing statues. I can't believe we never took time to look at all the statues. Then I saw the Column of Trajan. That was pretty amazing to look at. Then I went to the Musei Capitolini, which houses a bunch of art I know from Art History. From Commodus posing as Hercules, to the largest statue of Constantine. And the two most famous, the statue of the shewolf and Romulus and Remus. And the Statue of Marcus Aurelius. This Museum was amazing, and is second to the Vatican in terms of art. It was completely worth the 12 euros. Then I walked the road to the Coliseum again, and took the metro to the Spanish steps to see the Palazzetto Zuccari which was pretty cool to look at. I rushed back to the Train Station, got some Mcdonalds, and made it in time for our 3:30 meeting time. Rome was amazing, there is so much I need to there still. There is just too much artwork and history I got to see. I can't wait to plan a new trip there and attack it at my pace where you see lots of sights without random stopping. I seriously might take another trip to Rome.

Forza Rossoblù

Today, we explored Bologna, the Capital of the Emilia-Romagna province. We had been talking up a storm all week about taking a random train in Italy to a random location. We pulled to the Santa Maria Novella Station, and waited in line to buy train tickets and looking at the Departures screen. We were going to a place called Foligno originally, but it would have taken 3 hours on the slow train. We then saw Bologna, saw it wasn't very far away, and saw we could take a bullet train there in 37 minutes. I pulled out my Fodor's Book of Italy, and looked up what we could do in Bologna. We pulled into the Bologna Centrale Stazione, lost, and confused about which direction to even go. We bought a little picture guide book, and headed south walking towards the historical center. The walk to the historical center was very nice because apparently the ruler of Bologna, a long time ago demanded every building has arches for shade, so it was a nice walk. I could've used that to avoid the rain in Florence yesterday, 6-08-11. There were lots of shops with American insignia, and then we ended up in the historical center after a 10 minute walk. We didn't know what to do, and one of my roommates was starving, and we tried going to a location in the Fodor's book but it was closed so we ended up at a Roberto's cafe. I read that cured meats and cheese, and tortellini's are a big thing from the Emilio-Romagna province, so I decided to eat that. It was delicious.
After that we decided to climb the Torre degli Asinelli. One of the two towers cited in Dante's Inferno. It is 500 very narrow wooden steps, and you ascend 320 feet. You get an excellent view of Bologna and can see the grid of how the city was laid, and you can see the new modern part of the city on the other side. After this, we went to the Basilica di San Petronio, and saw the main cathedral in Bologna. The art was absolute awe inspiring, and I imagine Rome is going to blow it out of the water. After this, I had to use the bathroom so bad so we ended up at McDonald's to use the toilette. After this we ended up rushing to the San Domenico church, which is dedicated to St. Dominic. The art here was amazing as well. After it closed, we ended up back in the Piazza Maggiore. Where there was a referendum speech in front of the Palazzo Re Enzo, where King Enzo of Sardinia was imprisoned. After this we walked towards where the University of Bologna is, which I later found out on Wikipedia, is the oldest University in the World, founded in 1088. And people such as Dante, Copernicus have studied there. We then walked back to the train station, and went back to Florence satisfied. This one was an awesome day-trip that started out of nothing. It was way less touristy, not many signs were in English, but maps in Italy tend to be straight forward.

In class this week, we have been talking about ethnography, and understanding how people are living in their worlds. I watched as disappointed tourists walked by the closed Uffizi, how those guys selling umbrellas appeared out of a car as soon as the rain came. You can see how tourists take a picture of a statue, then go along to the next statue in the Piazza della Signoria. I'm one of those tourists too though, haha. I watched as locals pretty much just watch everything going on, probably annoyed of the tourist, but proud as their city has so much history. It's just interesting people watching, and looking at lost tourists with maps to hurried locals trying to get out of the crowded places as quick as possible. We never got do any picture taking on Wednesday's class, because as soon as we got to the Baptistery, it started dumping like crazy on us. Me and Chris were absolutely drenched, and had to change before we went to the class room. We learned about different perspectives of taking pictures, and it makes me want to take a better picture that gives me a better understanding of what I am looking at. In our wine tasting class, I was tired and kinda dozed off during the lecture, and during the tasting, wine just takes like wine too me. We talked about regionalism and Campanilismo, loyalty to the bell tower that each Italian has. Italians connect to their city/region, rather to Italy itself. Florentine's speak the closest thing to modern Italian, since Dante was a big proponent of the Florentine dialect. We also learned about how much the northern provinces hate the South, and wish to form their own thing called the Lega Nord. We also talked about how much people identify with their local soccer clubs, and hate people who wear opposing club's colors. ACF Fiorentina is the viola. The two teams I like the most in Italy, Inter Milan are the "Nerazzurri, the black and light blue ones." And AS Roma, the " Giallorossi (The Yellow-Reds)." It's interesting how just wearing clothing these colors, regardless of what is it, from a plain hat to plain t-shirt, identifies you with the club. I would probably confuse the hell out of the Italians, because I come from a support my favorite players, rather than clubs approach, and don't have this deep connection to the teams.
We go to Rome today, and I'm sure it will be whole blog of epic-ness. Arrivederci

Una settimana

My first week in Italy was full of awesome adventures. From the airport in Paris to finding the Stadio Artemio Franchi. In class we have talked about the White Privilege and how Americans are less educated, or aware of the world compared to Third World nationalities. I don't agree with a couple of the points discussed by Peggy McIntosh in the White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack article. Many of the points she claims like dressing in second hand clothes, not answering letters are things that white people don't get looked down upon. I don't agree with it, and I think race has no role to play in showing decent "class." She makes an interesting point that all white people never have to speak for their entire race. It kind of makes me ponder about how black leaders like the Reverend Jesse Jackson claims to speak for all African-Americans. Something interesting about different races here is that pretty much all the Hindi or people of Middle Eastern descent run either a Kebab restaurant, or a small mini-mart. It's seriously like all the 7-11's back in Orange County, it's pretty hilarious, if not stereotypical. It's also interesting that it's pretty much all Senegalese or Ghanian immigrants who try to sell counterfeit goods on the streets like those African-American people who stand outside sporting events trying to hock tickets or cheaply made souvenir t-shirts. When learning about the American privilege, I tend to agree with lots of the points. Most people in foreign countries do know a lot about our country's government, and it's sad that many Americans don't give two sh*ts about the government. I've been reading the news for about 5 years now, so I'm pretty aware of everything that's going on and I hope I don't get the typical "ignorant American" snide remarks at me. Also I do agree that men enjoy privileges of being in the dominant group, from one night of clubbing in Italy, I learned that Italian men try to hump any women on the dance floor. And if you're a girl there not trying to get grinded on, "good luck, with that."

I do agree that U.S. foreign policy affects third world countries, but after discussing unilateralism in POSC 200 this past semester, I think in that way. What benefits the U.S. is good for me, and I don't feel sorry for the third world people. We also learned about ethnography and how the local people live in their world. From exploring Florence I have already learned a few things about Florence. Outside the historical "touristy" center, people speak less English, but honestly seem more friendly to us Americans. We walked around by the Stadium, and found the ACF Fiorentina's fan group's supporters bar, and the bar tender was very nice. We got great beer for €4 , and she made us bowls of peanuts and chips that I doubt we'll get at any bar around here. To really experience Florence, you have to get outside the historical part of the city and see the locals in their neighborhoods. Getting lost in Florence has led to good things like the best local gelateria near the stadium, and another one two bridges to the right of the Ponte Vecchio. It led us to find some great foods, like the best local sandwich shop for €2.50 that all the locals are in line for. The only part that sucks is it's like 4 shops down from where the Jersey Shore cast works and their a**hole security guards who stand guard outside. I have already found my places to eat for cheap, and I found all the nearby supermarkets/mini-marts. The Billa Supermarket experience was intense, having to pack your own groceries in a bag so you don't get charged 10 cents per bag, I felt so slow trying to pack my groceries. I ate the worst burrito ever, it might as well have been a quesadilla, and that is probably the last time I try to eat Mexican food in Italy. I also had a great "not beef" sandwich at some van, we just call it the horse meat sandwich. I have never drunk so much alcohol before in one week, and I'm surprised I haven't thrown up yet, maybe I'm building a tolerance, haha. But Birra Moretti is my drink, and I'm glad that my dad recommended it to me before I came here. Other than that, I wish I wouldn't have to pay for water at dinner, but I guess it's a fair trade-off we don't have to tip our servers. We always eat in large parties, and it's a real pain in the butt sometimes because they try to give all our food at once, people who walked in 20 minutes after you get their food and are done with it by the time we even get our food. The Uffizi was pretty awesome to look at, because I have already studied some of those artworks in Art History last year, The statue of Laocoön and His Sons, the Birth of Venus, and the Madonna and Child Enthroned by Cimabue and Giotto. I haven't been to the Accademia yet to see the David, but it's on my list of things to do. I ate the greatest steak I've ever had before in Siena, the Fiorentina steak, a special of Tuscany. I only wish I had more time to explore Siena, rather than see everything from the exterior. I am being bitten like crazy by mosquitoes, its like worst than Hawai'i. Other than that, I've just found out where bars show American sports like the NBA finals and the MLB, and I can't wait to get out there at ungodly hours supporting my teams. Arrivederci.