Athena Blogs

Hello Rome! So this morning we had to get up at 4 a.m. Tara and I didn't get much sleep last night because we were up until 12:30 working on assignments, so we were pretty exhausted at the start of our journey. We drove on a double decker bus for four hours on our way to Rome. Our first stop was Vatican city. We had a three-hour guided tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. My favorite part of the Sistine Chapel was seeing the spark of life where God was reaching out to give Adam his "sparkle," as our tour guide put it. We also saw the School of Athens painting and Perugino's Christ Handing Over the Keys. Saint Peter's Basilica was huge and gorgeous. Our tour guide told us, however, that it is no longer the largest church because there was just one recently built in Africa that tops its size!

Ciao!

The turn around between Paris and Barcelona was far too quick. I was gone in Barcelona for three days, home for two and a half, and then we left for Paris for about five days. I am definitely ready for a break after this week of traveling.

Ciao!

We just returned from our one week fall break tour of the UK: London, Dublin and Edinburgh! We had a lot of nerves of both anxiousness and nervousness in the beginning, but we survived and had a wonderful time traveling and exploring these new countries.

Ciao!

I've spent many of my blogs talking about all of the classes and traveling that I have been doing, but I think that studying abroad encompasses a lot more that just those. Yes, it is about seeing and doing and learning as much as you can, but it is also about living to your greatest extent. You have the opportunity to start making yourself into exactly the person you want to be and this can be both challenging and exhilarating.

Ciao!

This past weekend, Tara and I went to Venice! We woke up at 4:45 on Saturday morning and arrived at the train station at what we thought was early, only to find that the train we wanted had already left! We had finally missed our first train! It was bound to happen and at least it was a weekend where we had the flexibility to move our travel day. The next day, we repeated our early morning ritual and thankfully were able to get on the 6:30 train to Venice! The first train took us one stop down to the next station where we had to catch the train to Bologna. We were a little worried about this train ticket because it had assigned seating, and we weren't sure if we could use it for a different day. Needless to say, we went anyway's and we were fine! We were so anxious about getting on the train that we jumped on without validating our tickets. So not only did we have a ticket for the wrong day, but we had no validation. Perfect.

Ciao!

This weekend we spent two days in Milan and Lake Como. I've heard a lot of bad reviews of Milan, but I actually quite liked it! The train station was really neat, and yes, even though it did make me feel "small," I loved the architecture. We grabbed our tickets for Milan to Como, after we finally found a machine that would take cash, and then wandered around until we found the entrance for the underground metro. My "Let's Go Europe" book told us to take the M3 to the Duomo, so we bought our tickets and then hopped on! It was so exciting and I wish we had transportation like this in California!

Ciao!

Saturday morning, Hannah, Marci and I woke up at 5:30 am to go catch the sunrise! We ran through the dark, empty streets of Florence and followed the scents of fresh bread preparing for morning shoppers. We found one bakery that had its doors cracked open slightly, but the sky was slowly getting lighter, so we decided that our bread could wait! We danced through our piazzas, skipped through the "lines" of the Uffizi and dashed across the Arno just fast enough catch the sun's glow reflecting on the still water. The sun was almost coming! We passed the large fortress on the right and then went up the never-ending staircase to the Piazza Michelangelo. The view was breathtaking and the monuments were still glowing from their evening lights. We spent the next hour reveling in our beautiful city and realizing how lucky we are to be living in FLORENCE! As we got our fill of picture taking and bird chasing, we decided to continue our adventure into the hills behind the piazza. And guess what we found....trees!!! We were very excited. Some were green, but some were changing into gorgeous shades of orange and yellow. I love fall!!

Ciao!

Cortona is by far my favorite Tuscan city! We took an hour and a half train ride to the bottom of the city and then we had to find a way to get a bus ticket to the top.

Ciao!

This weekend was a travel extravaganza! On Friday, my roommates and I took a bus up to Siena, which is a beautiful town in the tuscan region. The city was more quaint than Florence, and it was nice to be able to meander through the streets without having to dodge masses of tourists. For lunch, we treated ourselves to a nicer restaurant where I had some of the best Italian food to date. I ordered tomato and olive pasta with bread crumbs. This kind of food that I am going to miss when I return home!

Buon Giorno!

My name is Kristen Thies and I am blogging to you from Florence, Italy! I have been here for about a week now and my roommates and I have been spending these past few days exploring Florence, getting settled into our apartment and adjusting to a new culture. It still seems so surreal that I am in Italy and I often find myself forgetting that I truly am in a different country. Yet, every time I step out onto the narrow cobblestone path, veer out of the way of a racing vespa and hear the melody of the surrounding "ciaos" and "buon giornos," I am warmly reminded that this renaissance city is not a dream.