My Italy Post
Italy was amazing. There wasn't one single day or incident that clearly defines how awesome it was because I loved every day of it. We spent 2 nights in Assisi, 2 in Florence, a day in Siena, & 4 nights in Rome.
Assisi was definitely my favorite city. Maybe it was just the fact that it was my first time being in a foreign country and everything about it was so scary and new, but I had the best time just walking around the city by myself. On the first morning, Mr. Arensberg led a group up to the top of the mountain to see a castle. I missed the group by a minute, so the dude at the front desk gave me directions (in Italian) so I could catch up. Of course I never found them and ended up spending the morning with myself. It was the coolest feeling in the world: being in a foreign country, likely to get lost, not knowing a soul, having no number to call in case I did get lost, not knowing the language, and having blonde hair with blue eyes, an easy target for Italian men. I meandered through the narrow streets, visited one of the churches, bought some postcards, & took random pictures. Probably the funniest thing that happened in Assisi was the following morning at 6am when there was a knock on our door(I roomed with Emily Otto, Ashley Courtney, and Sarah Nelson). When we opened it, the only person out there was a little old man in a bellhop uniform singing "AMERICA AMERICA AMERICA!" For some reason, this scared the crap out of us and we all ran back in bed. But I forgot to lock the door, and when there was a 2nd knock I hid under the covers and made Emily answer it. The bellhop was still out there (so weird), but Cindi was the one who knocked. She wanted to go for a hike... at 6 in the morning. Emily & I said to hell with it, so we went for a walk. That was pretty cool. No one else was up yet, so we had the whole city to ourselves. We took our own little tour and played on the playground. God, I want to be a kid forever. That day we hiked down the mountain, visited another church, and got attacked by goats.
Spent the next 2 nights in Florence. It was kind of funny (funny= ANNOYING) how much Flo-town was exactly like America. Sometimes I couldn't even tell I was in a different country. Most of the people spoke english, half of the advertisements were in english, and we got hit on everywhere we went by street vendors. I could have been in New York and wouldn't have known the difference. One of the main things I wanted to buy was a button with the Italian flag on it. But the only ones they sold were American flags! Why the hell did I come all the way to Europe to be in America? After 2 days there, I was ready to leave. It wasn't all bad though. We went to a leather shop where they did a demonstration about gold and leather (leather originated in Florence). Then we had a fashion show. One would think that the guys would scoff at this, but some of them really got into it. Especially Reynolds. I ended up buying the jacket I modeled. It was 80 euro marked down from 300 euro. I can't pass up a good sale. A bunch of us got our picture taken with Dean, the hot guy that worked there (he was british I think.) We also saw Michaelangelo's David and toured the Duomo. Cindi, Lizzie, Lauren, and I climbed an insane amount of stairs to get to the top of the dome, but it was worth it. It was painted with a depiction of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. Having read The Inferno made us feel extra specially smart. More stairs up and we were on the outside where you could see the entire city. Florence looked so beautiful from so high up where all the vendors and hobos couldn't get their dirty hands on our euros.
We took a day trip to Siena on our way to Rome. Siena reminded me of Assisi because it was all narrow cobblestone streets with little shops and people who didn't speak English. I loved it. We saw Catherine of Siena's head and finger. She smiled at me.
We spent our last 4 nights in Rome. (My favorite memory about arriving in Rome: *Mr. Arensberg on the speaker pointing out all the churches & statues & sights to see* Ashley Courtney: "WHY are we here?!" *I applaud you*) There were plenty of Americans around, but there were also Hispanics and Germans and Japanese and Swedish and Canadians and a million others. I finally felt like I was in a different country. I wish we could have spent more time in Rome. There was entirely too much to look at that 4 days wasn't enough to see it all. On Wednesday, Augusta, Emily, Paige, Cindi, and I got good seats in St. Peter's Square right next to the barricade. We were probably only 10 ft. away from the popemobile when JPII passed by. But he wasn't the only celebrity we saw that day. Some people claimed they saw Drew Carey. The only celebrity I saw was Michael Skinner. He was there with his family. It was kind of funny that he was one of those people I figured I'd never see again after graduation... then I saw him in ROME. I guess that proves that goodbye will never be goodbye for good. St. Peter's Basillica was probably THE coolest thing I saw the entire time. I can't explain how awesome it was or how proud I was to be Catholic at that moment. Next we took the Scavi tour. Most people don't realize what a huge deal this was. Only 120 people a day get to take this tour. Reservations have to be made months and months in advance. Ms. Haley told some guy that we took the Scavi tour and he flipped out because he said it was IMPOSSIBLE to get tickets for it. I'm glad Mr. Arensberg has those kinds of connections. The tour took us under St. Peter's to where the original church was and we saw the tomb of St. Peter. It was so cool being one of the few people in the world that got to see it all. We also took a tour of the Roman ruins and the Coliseum. We visited a lot of other churches, but I won't bore you with their names... partly because I really don't want to bore you and partly because I honestly don't remember their names. But I do remember seeing the table used in the Last Supper ("Hey, did y'all see the table of the First Dinner? It was awesome!" - Alex Johnson) and praying up the Holy Stairs. That was an interesting experience. People come from all over the world to climb these, the stairs that Jesus walked up when He was condemned to die. You're supposed to climb up on your knees and say a prayer on each step. Personally, I didn't mind climbing up those 28(?) hard wooden stairs. My knees hurt like hell, but that's the point. It's supposed to be a sacrifice. The people around me didn't see it this way. They kept pushing us to go faster as they grunted and groaned and rolled their eyes (as if it was an incredibly tough thing to do). Well! I apologize that you think it was too much to ask that the rest of us show a little respect for the church and not make it a race up the stairs! But just so you know, there were 3 other flights of stairs you could have WALKED up! Adults can be so immature.
Emily Otto & I stayed in an apartment with the Arensbergs because there weren't enough rooms in the hotel. Those walls weren't soundproof. I wonder if they could hear all the things we talked about or all the boys we brought in our room. Emily, do you think they heard us during our underwear party? That would be funny.
Everywhere I went in Italy I wanted to run. But no one would run with me. I ran alone in Florence. I got lost, but an Italian stoner could tell I was a stupid American tourist and he helped me out. My favorite run was in Rome. I woke up early to run to the hotel to wake Justin up to run with me. It was the coolest thing to be able to jog down the street and suddenly be in the Vatican, then run in the opposite direction and suddenly be at the Colisseum. How many people do you know that can say they ran around the Colisseum? Best run of my life. Even better than that time it started thundering and lightning at Florida and Haley started confessing her sins to me because she needed to "Repent! For the End is near!" It was an interesting run. I had a tough time running on the sidewalks because every cop in town was standing on each streetcorner in preparation for Dubya's arrival. God Bless America.
I cheated on our last day in Italy. I ate McDonald's. I confessed it to Emily at dinner that night. She didn't speak to me the rest of the meal. I don't regret it though. It was everything I knew it would be. I just wish those Italians hadn't been in there badmouthing America in front of us. Italians aren't very fond of Dubya. They like Americans though. Elise & I were walking down the street & one Italian busboy who was trying to persuade people to come into their restaurant saw us, put on his phoniest American accent, and said, "Hey, girls! Would you like some pizza & beer or gel-ato?" I laughed at him all the way down the street.
That night we ate at the fanciest restaurant we'd seen yet, Mr. Arensberg cut off our supply of wine after 2 bottles, & Emily and Logan took crotch pictures. We walked to the Trevi Fountain so we could throw a coin in and wish to one day return to Rome. Justin bought us roses. After gelato, most of us just went back to our rooms (where Emily & I did something we've always wanted to do). Some people got sloppy seconds from Sloppy Sam, though. They got in trouble. Such is life.
I was glad to be going home. I spent 11 hours on a plane with Elise & Lizzie. They slept most of the way. I didn't even put my head down. My favorite part was when Lizzie tried to reach for her lunch tray and ended up putting her entire hand in her cake. Then she ever so slowly moved her hand up to her mouth to lick the icing off. She ate her chicken with her eyes closed. A couple times I caught her stabbing at her food with her fork, returning empty-handed, but nevertheless putting her fork in her mouth. Ever. So. Slowly. Man, she was so doped up! A few hours later, she asked me what we had for lunch. Priceless. During our 4-hour layover in Atlanta, everyone tried to eat the most non-Italian food they could find. Chinese. Justin & I walked around for a long time. The highlight was riding the moving sidewalks. Even in America, I'm a tourist.
We rejoiced when we arrived in Mobile. Then we started walking down the terminal. Then we saw our parents in the distance. Then we wanted to turn and RUN back to Italy. The trip had ended. Now we had to return to the real world.
Everything is started to hit me now. I wasn't really all that upset about graduating because I knew I still had Italy to see a lot of people. Now Italy's over. I've seen maybe 5 people from the trip since then. Unless I make an effort, there's no reason to see a lot of them ever again. High school is officially over for good. (Hooray!)
Assisi was definitely my favorite city. Maybe it was just the fact that it was my first time being in a foreign country and everything about it was so scary and new, but I had the best time just walking around the city by myself. On the first morning, Mr. Arensberg led a group up to the top of the mountain to see a castle. I missed the group by a minute, so the dude at the front desk gave me directions (in Italian) so I could catch up. Of course I never found them and ended up spending the morning with myself. It was the coolest feeling in the world: being in a foreign country, likely to get lost, not knowing a soul, having no number to call in case I did get lost, not knowing the language, and having blonde hair with blue eyes, an easy target for Italian men. I meandered through the narrow streets, visited one of the churches, bought some postcards, & took random pictures. Probably the funniest thing that happened in Assisi was the following morning at 6am when there was a knock on our door(I roomed with Emily Otto, Ashley Courtney, and Sarah Nelson). When we opened it, the only person out there was a little old man in a bellhop uniform singing "AMERICA AMERICA AMERICA!" For some reason, this scared the crap out of us and we all ran back in bed. But I forgot to lock the door, and when there was a 2nd knock I hid under the covers and made Emily answer it. The bellhop was still out there (so weird), but Cindi was the one who knocked. She wanted to go for a hike... at 6 in the morning. Emily & I said to hell with it, so we went for a walk. That was pretty cool. No one else was up yet, so we had the whole city to ourselves. We took our own little tour and played on the playground. God, I want to be a kid forever. That day we hiked down the mountain, visited another church, and got attacked by goats.
Spent the next 2 nights in Florence. It was kind of funny (funny= ANNOYING) how much Flo-town was exactly like America. Sometimes I couldn't even tell I was in a different country. Most of the people spoke english, half of the advertisements were in english, and we got hit on everywhere we went by street vendors. I could have been in New York and wouldn't have known the difference. One of the main things I wanted to buy was a button with the Italian flag on it. But the only ones they sold were American flags! Why the hell did I come all the way to Europe to be in America? After 2 days there, I was ready to leave. It wasn't all bad though. We went to a leather shop where they did a demonstration about gold and leather (leather originated in Florence). Then we had a fashion show. One would think that the guys would scoff at this, but some of them really got into it. Especially Reynolds. I ended up buying the jacket I modeled. It was 80 euro marked down from 300 euro. I can't pass up a good sale. A bunch of us got our picture taken with Dean, the hot guy that worked there (he was british I think.) We also saw Michaelangelo's David and toured the Duomo. Cindi, Lizzie, Lauren, and I climbed an insane amount of stairs to get to the top of the dome, but it was worth it. It was painted with a depiction of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. Having read The Inferno made us feel extra specially smart. More stairs up and we were on the outside where you could see the entire city. Florence looked so beautiful from so high up where all the vendors and hobos couldn't get their dirty hands on our euros.
We took a day trip to Siena on our way to Rome. Siena reminded me of Assisi because it was all narrow cobblestone streets with little shops and people who didn't speak English. I loved it. We saw Catherine of Siena's head and finger. She smiled at me.
We spent our last 4 nights in Rome. (My favorite memory about arriving in Rome: *Mr. Arensberg on the speaker pointing out all the churches & statues & sights to see* Ashley Courtney: "WHY are we here?!" *I applaud you*) There were plenty of Americans around, but there were also Hispanics and Germans and Japanese and Swedish and Canadians and a million others. I finally felt like I was in a different country. I wish we could have spent more time in Rome. There was entirely too much to look at that 4 days wasn't enough to see it all. On Wednesday, Augusta, Emily, Paige, Cindi, and I got good seats in St. Peter's Square right next to the barricade. We were probably only 10 ft. away from the popemobile when JPII passed by. But he wasn't the only celebrity we saw that day. Some people claimed they saw Drew Carey. The only celebrity I saw was Michael Skinner. He was there with his family. It was kind of funny that he was one of those people I figured I'd never see again after graduation... then I saw him in ROME. I guess that proves that goodbye will never be goodbye for good. St. Peter's Basillica was probably THE coolest thing I saw the entire time. I can't explain how awesome it was or how proud I was to be Catholic at that moment. Next we took the Scavi tour. Most people don't realize what a huge deal this was. Only 120 people a day get to take this tour. Reservations have to be made months and months in advance. Ms. Haley told some guy that we took the Scavi tour and he flipped out because he said it was IMPOSSIBLE to get tickets for it. I'm glad Mr. Arensberg has those kinds of connections. The tour took us under St. Peter's to where the original church was and we saw the tomb of St. Peter. It was so cool being one of the few people in the world that got to see it all. We also took a tour of the Roman ruins and the Coliseum. We visited a lot of other churches, but I won't bore you with their names... partly because I really don't want to bore you and partly because I honestly don't remember their names. But I do remember seeing the table used in the Last Supper ("Hey, did y'all see the table of the First Dinner? It was awesome!" - Alex Johnson) and praying up the Holy Stairs. That was an interesting experience. People come from all over the world to climb these, the stairs that Jesus walked up when He was condemned to die. You're supposed to climb up on your knees and say a prayer on each step. Personally, I didn't mind climbing up those 28(?) hard wooden stairs. My knees hurt like hell, but that's the point. It's supposed to be a sacrifice. The people around me didn't see it this way. They kept pushing us to go faster as they grunted and groaned and rolled their eyes (as if it was an incredibly tough thing to do). Well! I apologize that you think it was too much to ask that the rest of us show a little respect for the church and not make it a race up the stairs! But just so you know, there were 3 other flights of stairs you could have WALKED up! Adults can be so immature.
Emily Otto & I stayed in an apartment with the Arensbergs because there weren't enough rooms in the hotel. Those walls weren't soundproof. I wonder if they could hear all the things we talked about or all the boys we brought in our room. Emily, do you think they heard us during our underwear party? That would be funny.
Everywhere I went in Italy I wanted to run. But no one would run with me. I ran alone in Florence. I got lost, but an Italian stoner could tell I was a stupid American tourist and he helped me out. My favorite run was in Rome. I woke up early to run to the hotel to wake Justin up to run with me. It was the coolest thing to be able to jog down the street and suddenly be in the Vatican, then run in the opposite direction and suddenly be at the Colisseum. How many people do you know that can say they ran around the Colisseum? Best run of my life. Even better than that time it started thundering and lightning at Florida and Haley started confessing her sins to me because she needed to "Repent! For the End is near!" It was an interesting run. I had a tough time running on the sidewalks because every cop in town was standing on each streetcorner in preparation for Dubya's arrival. God Bless America.
I cheated on our last day in Italy. I ate McDonald's. I confessed it to Emily at dinner that night. She didn't speak to me the rest of the meal. I don't regret it though. It was everything I knew it would be. I just wish those Italians hadn't been in there badmouthing America in front of us. Italians aren't very fond of Dubya. They like Americans though. Elise & I were walking down the street & one Italian busboy who was trying to persuade people to come into their restaurant saw us, put on his phoniest American accent, and said, "Hey, girls! Would you like some pizza & beer or gel-ato?" I laughed at him all the way down the street.
That night we ate at the fanciest restaurant we'd seen yet, Mr. Arensberg cut off our supply of wine after 2 bottles, & Emily and Logan took crotch pictures. We walked to the Trevi Fountain so we could throw a coin in and wish to one day return to Rome. Justin bought us roses. After gelato, most of us just went back to our rooms (where Emily & I did something we've always wanted to do). Some people got sloppy seconds from Sloppy Sam, though. They got in trouble. Such is life.
I was glad to be going home. I spent 11 hours on a plane with Elise & Lizzie. They slept most of the way. I didn't even put my head down. My favorite part was when Lizzie tried to reach for her lunch tray and ended up putting her entire hand in her cake. Then she ever so slowly moved her hand up to her mouth to lick the icing off. She ate her chicken with her eyes closed. A couple times I caught her stabbing at her food with her fork, returning empty-handed, but nevertheless putting her fork in her mouth. Ever. So. Slowly. Man, she was so doped up! A few hours later, she asked me what we had for lunch. Priceless. During our 4-hour layover in Atlanta, everyone tried to eat the most non-Italian food they could find. Chinese. Justin & I walked around for a long time. The highlight was riding the moving sidewalks. Even in America, I'm a tourist.
We rejoiced when we arrived in Mobile. Then we started walking down the terminal. Then we saw our parents in the distance. Then we wanted to turn and RUN back to Italy. The trip had ended. Now we had to return to the real world.
Everything is started to hit me now. I wasn't really all that upset about graduating because I knew I still had Italy to see a lot of people. Now Italy's over. I've seen maybe 5 people from the trip since then. Unless I make an effort, there's no reason to see a lot of them ever again. High school is officially over for good. (Hooray!)