Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Tiramisu for Breakfast and Gondolas before Lunch

Let me just start off by saying, I was really stressed out going into this weekend. I had planned and coordinated the bookings for our travel arrangements and our stay in Venice by myself and I was quite unsure how things were going to work out. I can breathe a sigh of relief and say that (almost) everything went off without a hitch and that I am incredibly impressed with myself, but I sadly, I think the job of a travel agent is a bit more stress than I can handle.

On Wednesday we ventured out to the closest part of the coast to Rome. On our way to the site, we took a train and a really strange woman with a karaoke machine got on our train, sang for us, and then demanded money—that was just odd and had to be shared. Anyways, the city we went to is known as Ostia and has some of the most well preserved (and not built over) examples of Roman city structure and a wealth of cultural knowledge. The mosaics on the floors of the baths were amazing, I got to sit inside an amphitheater, and I saw an actual archaeological excavation in progress. The dig was probably the most interesting part of the trip for me. I was standing inside the oldest known Jewish Synagogue in all of Europe. I think going on a dig for four weeks would be a lot of fun. Dr. White who was leading the dig is a professor at UT and I am definitely entertaining the option of joining him next year. Each of his grad students had a trench and the one who had just finished his PhD (Under Dr. White and KG) found an Antonian coin! How cool would that be!? I know it’s a lot of hours in the sun (please, I was in marching band) and you’d have to be really patient, but I feel you could really learn a lot. The day was adventurous and exhausting, but definitely worth the experience.

Ostia!
Bath Mosaics of Neptune
In an Amphitheater
Giant Adam about to eat the Amphitheater
Elephant Mosaic--this one's for you Mom
David with a flower (+ Alex)
At the Ostian version of Cain & Abels!
Is this a mosaic of someone pooping?
Real archaeologists hard at work
The Menorah at the Synagogue (oldest one in Europe!)
Following the Godfather--we look like the Von Trapp family

Thursday was all over the place. In the morning, we got special permission to enter the Augustan Forum! We were standing in the Forum of Augustus—not many people are allowed there! That was epically cool. The forum was quite a bit larger from the inside than it looks like on the outside. I am still in amazement at the architectural prowess of the Romans, seriously amazing. After our short trip into the forum, we went to the Ara Pacis museum, followed by Castel San Angelo (Hadrian’s mausoleum that was converted into a papal fortress) after lunch. For lunch we got to relax at Dr. Galinsky’s swanky apartment by the Spanish Steps. Daniel gave a great presentation at the Castel and I learned something I thought was really cool: the origin of the Swiss Guard. One day when the pope was under attack, every member of his one-time multinational guard fled except for the Swiss who literally fought to the death. Ever since then, the Swiss were the only ones who have been given the honor of protecting the pope till their death. For dinner that night, we took the crew to the place with a 100 pasta sauces and had a blast. We had three (3) Plan II/Mechanical engineers in the dining area at one time, how crazy is that?! Paolo (a fellow Texas Blazer) and his friend Adam had come for a visit, so they joined us here. We did the tiramisu again (amazing!) and this time I tried a pasta sauce called SPQR. It was definitely different—it was an onion based sauce, but still delicious. We had to be home early that night because we were off to VENICE the next morning.

Walking in an underground passageway to the Augustan forum!

The Augustan Forum from Ground Zero
Myspace Pic in the Forum
Eating a Meal at MALTA--happy now, Hui?
People taking a break in the Ara Pacis Fountain--which is apparently forbidden
The Ara Pacis Museum
Plan II Meets Roman Portrait Busts
Castel San Angelo
The view from on top of the Castel
From here you can see the rotunda of the Pantheon (Left) and the Victor Emmanuel Monument (Right)
100 Sauces Place with the crew!

So we called the taxi company the night before to reserve 2 taxis for the airport. Unknown to us Apoorva’s phone was the phone to which the confirmation was going to come to—and her phone was on vibrate. We got ourselves up and went downstairs at 4:50 am (!!!!) and filled up one taxi. Bhargav and I waited for Apoorva, who after ringing their bell a couple of times just woke up because of our bell ringing. Let me tell you, our taxi driver was not a happy camper. But seriously, who else needs a taxi at 4:50 in the morning? Anyways we made it to the airport, caught our plane, and then took a bus from the airport to Piazzale Roma in Venice. Okay so Venice is set up like so: mainland (which is not really important) and the island through which the grand canal runs and no cars exist (real Venice). From the mainland, the connector to the island is Piazzale Roma (which is where all the buses come, all the cars park, etc.) and the other big attraction in Venice is St. Marks square. So the signs in Venice point to either St. Mark’s or Piazzale Roma. This is the part where the trip gets fun. We had no map, and Rick Steve (and he’s like a God, so we trusted him) said the best way to appreciate Venice is to get lost—so we did. And boy oh boy, it was amazing. The signs never make any sense (sometimes the arrows for the same place point in two different directions), but you follow them anyways—eventually you’ll get there. The streets have no cars for you to look out for like you have to in Rome and there is a bridge over some minor or major canal at every turn you take. It’s totally different than any place I’ve ever been.

We did the Rialto Bridge then made our way to the actual square. We did the Basilica, climbed the bell tower to get an aerial view of the city, the Correr Museum, and the Doge’s palace. While we were in the bell tower it definitely chimed for noon and it was the loudest and longest moment of my life thus far. The student discount for Venice is awesome—for 5 museums we got a ticket for 7.50 euro. The museums here aren’t boring either—they have their art, gigantic globes, and gun and sword collections. The Doge’s palace had a prison too. And the coolest thing ever: a gun-sword. It’s a gun and a sword in one!

We also took a Gondola ride (yes, I KNOW!!!) We’d heard how pricey it got and because there were seven of us, it was hard to find anyone to take us—the maximum is 6. But then we ran into Stefano. He said, he’d take the back canals and not get caught by any cops. It was unbelievable! He was funny and gave us all sorts of advice on where to eat, etc.

[Ok side story about our trip. I checked the weather channel the night before: 70% chance of rain on Friday and 80% on Saturday. I was devastated. But let me tell you, it rained once while we were there and it was during the night while we were all fast asleep! The weather Gods love us—a similar thing happened to us in Florence.]

In the afternoon we went to Venice’s only park and played on the swing and took naps. Following this, I took a trip to the Academia to see Giorgione’s the Tempest: twas magnificent. At the end of our day, we had to head back to the mainland to get to our Hostel. Haha, funny story—our hostel was part of a campsite (and in a sketch part of town, we had to walk under some random bridge to get there) and we lived in a trailer home for a night. But it was comfortable and really nice (better than Florence) for the cost. We were sketched out at first, but we warmed up to it.

The next morning we went to the Island of Murano on the Venetian version of the metro—their waterbus. So cool (and so unique)! Murano is famous for its glass and the museum was quite cool. We all got some of the murano glass and I can’t wait to show my mom what I got her! Plus we found a really cheap café on this island and we all got tiramisu (Venetian style) for breakfast. This stuff was soooooooooo good—better than the one from the100 sauces place. I am officially a tiramisu elitist now. The rest of the day was spent roaming around the random streets and eating pastries and gelato. I found a new favorite Panini type food: Fagoitano. It’s a toasted sandwich with ricotta and spinach in between and it tastes amazing. That afternoon we also discovered that Venice is magical. No joke, this city has pretty much granted all my wishes when I asked for them. Examples: We were walking and thinking out loud amongst ourselves “Where’s the Rialto” and a lady out of nowhere points us in the right direction. Also it was bit overcast on Saturday and Apu asked for some sun—within 10 minutes the sun was out. Also we were wandering around some random canal trying to find something and I said, “we should have asked Stefano”—two minutes later there he was trying to get people to take a Gondola ride and he was able to point us in the right direction. CRAZY.

One thing that was very refreshing about Venice was how nice the people were. Nowhere else in Italy have they been this nice. You have to pay for the public restrooms in Venice, but when we went into a café, even without any intention to purchase anything they are completely okay with you using their restroom. Also where else can you pay with a 20 euro bill for something that is 80 euro cents—not in Rome, that’s for sure!

A Venetian Street (sidewalk + canal)

The seven of us on the Rialto Bridge
The modes of transport:
1.) Gondola
2.) Water Bus (equivalent of the Metro)
3.) Water Taxi
St. Mark's Cathedral
St. Mark's Bell Tower--this is what we climbed up
The Doge's palace from the belltower
The bell chiming for noon, while we were there
The view from the tower!
The Cathedral from the Tower
The Doge's Palace from the GONDOLA!
Me and Stefano
Myspace Pic--Come on, I did a good job; all 7 of us are in it
Cute street/canal
I'm on a Gondola!
Group Pic
We really really love Stefano
The courtyard inside the Doge's Palace
A Tintoretto piece inside the palace (Senate room, I believe?)
In the prisons, Daniel is trying to murder me.
Academia--Illegal picture of the Tempest!
Oh, Venezia!
This is when it started flooding...
Our sketchy 'hostel'
On a water bus
Tiramisu, Venetian Style
Inside the glass museum
Murano Glass as a backdrop (The three Seniors: Me+Apoorva+Stephen)
DNA Glass
Bye, Bye Venice--this is the view from the plane. The large hole splitting the island into unequal halves is the Grand Canal

We arrived home safely later that day. Success of the trip—no one got any pigeon poop on them!

Sunday was a day to shop. I bought a fountain pen, a couple of new shirts, and some cologne and then I started on my last 2 papers for the trip!

I’ll update you on my last week in Rome either before or after this weekend. Arrividerci.

Coming Up this weekend: Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, Naples, Sorrento, and Capri!