Chapp-italia!: February 2006

Rome in Pictures

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

3 Days in Rome...

...then 2 days in Sorrento

I´ll be gone for the next five nights, so I don´t think I´m going to be posting much untill the next Monday (so nobody worry...I´ll still be alive!)

We´re planning our spring break right now! The first part of the trip we´re winging it and not planning anything yet. We´ll just hop on a ferry and see where it takes us. The second part we´re staying on the island of Mykonos which is beautiful. (¨us¨ consists of me, Sarah, Matt, and Alex) We´re getting an awsome deal b/c we're going in the low season.

So now I'm off to get ready for Rome. Should be an overwhelming few days. I think I need about a month there to see everything I want to.

Torino

Enrique with his fuzzy hat outside of the train station in Torino...with this hat, it looks like he actually has hair on top of his head!

Me, Tara, and Laura waiting in line for tickets to an olympic event...which one? not sure yet.

The craziest dutch I've ever seen! Apparently dressing as a pimp in orange velvet and lepord is a way to support speed skating....

My first glimpse of the Olympic torch, waaaaaay in the distance. From here it looks really tall, but its not.

Waiting in line (we did alot of that!) to go see our Olympic Hockey game! Sweden vs. Latvia! Nobody knew where Latvia is, so we cheered for Sweden. (Me, Dan, Miles, and Jose)

Sweden is in the yellow, and the Latvians (?) are in the red. The Latvian fan were crazy!

The torch at night from closer up, isn't it pretty?

Me, Kristina, and Marissa. Marissa is Kristina's Aunt's cousin and lives in Torino. She knew quite a bit of English and was an EXCELLENT tour guide! She stayed up untill four in the morning walking us around and showing off her city! Very take charge. She was very good at cutting in front of people in cafes so we could get seats.

Torino had some amazing light displays over the people packed streets. (there were soooo many people on the streets!) This one of the constallations was my favorite. You can sorta see the crowds in the bottom of the picture. Marissa said that the population of Torino DOUBLED during the olympics, and I believer her.

The warm water display...the warmed the water in brick channels and placed red lights underneath of them. The warm water created a whole bunch of steam.

Another lights display. See all of the people? It was like that EVERYWHERE!

This is over the Po River. The church is lit up along with the other building below. The Po was really cold though, and foggy. Whenever I was close to the river, I could feel it becuase is was 5 degrees cooler.

Me falling asleep at the train station. It was out of the cold and I was soooo tired!

Baisic Itenerary:

got in at 2 pm.

caught a train to the olympic village stuff

went to a hockey game

walked all the way downtown

at dinner around 10

walked around Torino untill 6:30 am

some people wussed out and left for home at 7:30 am

8 of us slept on the floor of the train station for two hours (the only time in my life I will ever do that. There were at least 50 other people doing the exact same thing who were obviousely not homeless.)

went to the Olympic souvounier shop

got lunch

went shopping (I couldn't find Olympics postcards anywhere! So I settled for Torino cards)

left for home at 5:05

got back to Santa Chiara around 2 am.

crashed into my bed after a long hot shower

Now I leave tomarrow (Tuesday) for three days in Rome and three days in Sorrento! I just hope I have enough clean clothes.

Ravenna

Ravenna is definately a picturesque city. It's so much quieter than Florence b/c more people ride bikes instead of Vespas. And the colors are prettier too. The buildings are more pinks and yellows like they are in Tuscany. The drive was LOOONG though. Three hours over the mountains. We left at 7 in the morning which sucks, but the drive was pretty, the parts I was awake for anyways.

I leave for Torino in TWO DAYS! I'm excited. I just have a project due Monday. Today and Friday are going to be so much fun. Whole days devoted to studio.

Boots

Here's my boots! And Kristina's too. We bought them together. That's the little hallway right before our rooms.

Last night Sarah, Lyns, and I dressed up and went out to eat in town for Valentine's Day. It turned out to be a great idea! We ate TONS of food and even had leftovers. (yum! pizza for breakfast!)

The school is going to Ravenna today. We leave on a bus at SEVEN AM!! And let it be noted that as I'm writing this blog, it's 6:03 am. Somehow, I can wake up early in Italy.

So tomarrow, pictures of Ravenna.

Carnevale

Carnevale was so much fun! Little kids dress up like halloween. Everyone gets into confetti and silly string fights whether you know each other or not. People, tons of people, cram into the tiny medeviel streets to watch 40 foot tall floats go by. Confetti gets EVERYWHERE! I had to brush it out of my hairs. The streets look as though they're covered in snow there's so much of it. I took way too many pictures.

Here's some of the San Antonio kids that I'm going to Torino with.