syo tour- italia 2007
I’m back from Italy!! It was the first time I had been overseas, and it was such an amazing experience. I was gone from june 12-june 22. here are some highlights:
June 12
Left Chicago at around 3:30 pm
June 13
Arrived in Rome at 8 am! We immediately started sightseeing because the hotels weren’t ready for us yet. Rome is such a crazy city. It’s full of tourists, so it’s also full of gypsies and pickpockets. Unfortunately during our trip, one of the dads had his wallet stolen and during one of the nights, thieves climbed through the windows of the hotel and stole money from three ppl (and michelle’s cell phone and class ring L). Anna and paula’s cell phone got stolen too. But we tried our best to be safe, and our trip was still enjoyable. Our bus driver (Pasquale) drove us through Rome and our tour guide (Isabella) led us around the Spanish steps, Piazza Novona, and Trevi Fountain. The cars are so tiny because the city is extremely overcrowded. For example, if you buy something to eat at a bar (they’re just like cafeterias) you’re charged an extra service fee if you want to sit down and eat.
June 14
Colosseum! It was really interesting to learn about its history, but it was so sad to see how dirty and polluted it was. I wanted to just scrub it with a toothbrush! Rome itself is a mess of history and modernization. I wish that these monuments could be preserved in a better way. Almost every monument was under restoration or cleaning. We also saw Palatine Hill, Foro Romano, and Caesar’s tomb (which is basically considered a cat sanctuary now). We kinda got lost during our 5 hours of free time, but it was nice to explore all the winding alleys. After dinner we attended an evening concert at St. Paul’s. The Nova Amadeus Orchestra performed Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” but we were all sooooo tired. I felt bad because we were all desperately trying to stay awake!
June 15
Pomepii! The excavations were really interesting and really hot!! (there were a lot of stray dogs roaming around). It was scary to think about it all and to see Mt. Vesuvius. But we had our first Italian spaghetti! YUMMY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
June 16
Vatican!! Of all the places we went, Vatican City was my favorite. It was so gorgeous and inspiring. We were lucky because we were in a large group with a reservation. Otherwise, we would have had to wait for hours in a line that stretched for miles under the scorching sun. the Sistine Chapel was breathtaking. I could spend an entire day just staring at the ceiling and at all of the art on the walls. It reminded me of that project we did in fourth grade where we laid under our desks and painted something as if we were Michelangelo (even though our tour guide told us that it’s highly unlikely that Michelangelo painted like that because all of the dust and paint would have gotten in his face. Stupid Mrs. Wooden..heehee). St. Peter’s Basilica was just as amazing. I wish we could have spent more time here, but we had to rehearse and prepare for our concert that night. We performed inside a church (Chiesa Valdese) and several paid musicians from Rome joined us because we had missing parts that needed to be covered.
June 17
Left Rome and traveled to Florence. We stoped in Sienna and San Gimignano! This was a really fun day because the tiny medieval towns were so cute! I liked the absence of insane traffic. We saw St. Catherine’s head in Sienna (when she died, her head fell off from her body which represented how she was divided between Rome and Sienna. So her head is preserved in Sienna and her body is buried in Rome). I was surprise because I didn’t think that they would have her head on display for the public. When we were in San Gimignano, they had a little parade to honor the saints (we went on the perfect day because they only do it once a year!). they were all dressed in medieval attire ahhh so cute!
June 18
Pisa! We saw the leaning tower and the Pisa Baptistry which is also sinking. Then we went to Lucca for a little bit to eat lunch and go on more tours. This was one of our more restful days
June 19
Florence! Oh my goodness, it was soo hot! We went to the Academy of Fine Arts and saw Michelangelo’s “David” which is breathtaking to say the least. It was kinda sad though because we waited a while to see it and then after we saw it, we just left. I would have liked to stay for a bit more to admire it and look at the other sections of the museum like the museum of musical instruments. But nooo…but it was ok because we visited the Florence Cathedral. After that we went to a leather shop and jewelry store for demonstrations and time to shop around (at a discounted rate!). That night we performed at Gambrinus Montecatini Terme, a well known performance venue in the center of Montecatini. I enjoyed this performance the most because it was outdoors and we attracted a large, enthusiastic audience (I heard that there was even a couple dancing to our music aww).
June 20
Padua! We got caught in traffic, but we still had enough time to visit Basilica San Antonio. Like St. Catherine’s head, St. Anthony’s tongue and jaw bone was preserved and on display. It was pretty surreal to see it in front of my eyes. It’s really amazing how Italians have perfected the ability to preserve relics. But by this time, many of the young ladies in our group were tired of visiting basilicas and having their shoulders and knees covered. They were pretty rude and openly announced that they weren’t impressed by any of it. It’s so sad that people are so easy to completely disregard art and history nowadays.
June 21
Venice! We departed by boat to the city and enjoyed a gondola ride!! But I was stupid and accidentally left my purse on the gondola (I was too preoccupied with getting off the gondola without tipping it over!). fortunately, our tour guide spoke to the main guy in Italian and he contacted our gondolier with his cell phone. But my mom still got mad at me haha. We got a tour of the Doge’s Palace but I didn’t really listen because I was sweating like there was no tomorrow. And I was kinda tired of all of our tours by now. But then we went into a nice, air-conditioned store that made and sold the famous Venetian glass (Venice is also famous for its lace). It was BEAUTIFUL but EXPENSIVE! We performed for the last time at night in Treviso at Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore.
June 22
Drove for 10 hours from Mestre to Rome, then had our farewell dinner at a restaurant in Rome (Nautilius Restaurant). Our hotel was nice, but we only got to enjoy it for one night because….
June 23
…Home sweet home!!!