Hills, Gelato and Condoms

Ok, so after the death of my laptop, I frantically emailed my roommate, Kim and was able to get her, in conjunction with my mom, to get a package expressed to Ascoli Piceno, at my hotel, with all the discs I needed to do a complete system restore and re-download all of my major programs back onto my computer. No pictures were lost, they were all (thank goodness) on my flash drive, and not my hard drive. Anyway, so after that, we hit the road, and started traveling through the south of Italy, and we lost all hopes of an internet connection, so the blog hasn't been updated (obviously). So, two days ago, we reached Rome, our final destination for the trip, and I have unlimited, undying internet connection, a working laptop, and my sanity. Now I can update you on the past 3 weeks, sorry it will be quite a few entries!

This is one of the major hills of Ascoli Piceno that we went up everyday to get to the school of architecture. My calves are killer right now. Chuck Norris, I am your new competition.

That same hill, a view from the top...or somewhere near the top, I don't remember, it might have kept going.

In the Piazza del Popolo, the main square of town, we would often eat gelato and people watch. Here is a old guy riding a bike, quaint, really.

Maiko, one of my team partners for our Ascoli Piceno project, we were regulars at the gelato shop in this tiny little ally off of Piazza del Popolo. The old woman who ran the shop thought we were insane for getting gelato so often in the 50/60 degree weather.

My (American) project partners, Nick and Maiko. We stopped at this strange dispensing machine on the street to find that is was a condom dispenser. Italians are very interesting...

Boring Study Day in AP

So, stayed inside all day to work on stuff, altough it was beautiful and sunny outside. Then at around 5, we (my architecture group of 3) walked down to the Piazza to meet up with our Italian half of our group at 6. It seems that people in Italy take life a lot slower, and on thier own schedule, its nice that they never seem to be in a rush. Although, we waited in the Piazza for 45 minutes and didn't find them, so we turned around and hiked back to our hotel. Then we got an email saying that they were there (at 7) and couldn't find us so we will meet up at the school of architecture tomorrow. Oh well. Anyway, while we were waiting in the Piazza, the bell in the church tower started ringing, and it was amazing, so I took some video (see below).

Saturday in the City (AP)

Not too exciting of a day, but I took some more photos of the city...

This is part of the 20 minute walk to the new part of the city (instead of the historic center), the walk from our hotel is downhill all the way into the city, and uphill all the way back.

A fountain in a piazza on the edge of the historic center. This is the Roman interpretation of a "sea horse" or so we think.

A beautiful garden that Lindsey and I stopped by to sketch yesterday. While we were sitting on the ground sketching people were walking in and out of this courtyard, and some were watching us draw, it was fun. By the way, I look super out of place here with my red hair.

The hike back up to our hotel, not as fun as the walk down.

Lindsey playing Vanna White, presenting Hotel Pennile as the Wheel of Fortune grand prize vacation spot!

That night, our usual spot for dinner was booked, so we headed out into the city for a nice meal. Delicios0! By the way, we've had 9 hours of Italian class so far, and I still can't make a complete sentence, but I'm working on it.

So, if you leave comments on the end of the blog, I do receive them and appreciate the feedback! Thanks!

The Day We Went to Ancona

After meeting the Italian architecture students, we got into groups of 5 or 6 to do our design project in Ascoli, which is a art display installation in the city of Ancona, right on the Adriatic coast.

At the Hotel Pennile, we get breakfast every morning, which consists of rolls, various cream and chocolate filled pastries, pie, blood orange juice and some red kind of juice, and a variety of mineral waters. For the rolls, there are many kinds of jelly and cheese spreads, along with Nutella, Kendrae's favorite (pictured here).

After about an hour on the road, we arrive in Ancona to see the airport, the site of our project. Its very small, and was just recently built.

After seeing the airport, we had a few hours to explore the city. Here, Trevor and I are near a nifty archway on the coast.

The Adriatic sea! There aren't any beaches in this area, it is mostly cargo ships and ferries in this particular bay.

This is what I made a sketch of that day for my Travel Log.

Ancona Gelato is amazing, as they all are. My flavors this day were Nutella and Tiramisu!

Trevor pretending to be Lady Liberty with his Gelato.

Lindsey and I love shopping in the market, here in a piazza in Ancona, we spotted one across the square. We bought some...interesting things in Ancona...

Exploring Ascoli Piceno

The next day, we explored, as a giant group, to get a sense of the city. Ascoli Piceno is a very hilly town, with a new part and an old part. The new part is good for food shopping (the Euro Spin), getting money at a bank, and for various shops and pizzerias. The old part is up in the hills and has churches, piazzas, very good caffes and restaurants, and the school of architecture, which happens to be an old convent.

Hanging out/exploring Piazza del Popolo for the first time.

Lindsey and I stop for gelato...as usual. This is the first one we got in Ascoli Piceno, mine was Pistaccio and Fragole (strawberry)

The school of architecture in Ascoli, like I said, was a former convent. There is a chapel inside the school, so their idea of separation of church and state is a little different than our own.

After we hiked the hill to get to school, this is the view of the city.

Another view of the city from the school

Ascoli Piceno A-hoy!

(Tues March 25th)

We left Rome today (all 32 of us from Ohio State) and hopped on a charter bus to take us to Ascoli Piceno. Becuase of some snow and blockage of roads, instead of the 3 hour trip we were expecting, we had to take another route, making the journey about 4 hours. But, every kilometer (i can't say miles anymore) was beautiful.

"the hills are alive with the sound of music!" (yeah, i know thats Austria, but I am applying it here)

A mountain so tall that you couldn't see the top through the clouds. We were in a tunnel going through it for about 10 minutes.

Rome is on the Western side of Italy, and Ascoli Piceno on the Eastern side, so when we made it across the country, we finally got to see the Adriatic Sea.

Beautiful Seaside cities.

We finally made it to Ascoli, and our Hotel (Hotel Pennile) is beautiful! We are in rooms with 3 twin beds each, and each room had a patio and a bathroom (complete with urinal). Its a gigantico upgrade from our hostel in Rome. Thank goodness. Check out thier website for more pictures! http://www.hotelpennile.it/ yes, it is in Italian...

Last Day in Roma

On our first night in Rome, after our superlong naps, we woke up to find the rest of the people who were staying in our room (there were 8 beds), and 4 of them happened to be guys. Two people were a foreign couple (Spain or Portugal we think), and the other 3 were British guys who were studying/working in Rome for 11 days. So, on the second night, the 6 of us (not the couple) decided to go out for a bite to eat, and our food of choice was Chinese. Yes, we were in Roma, eating Chinese food, and it was delicious. Then the six of us walked around the city, and over to the Colosseum before heading back to the hostel. The next day, we packed up and headed to our meeting point on the other side of Rome to find our 27 other classmates and advisors.

Brandi, packing up to leave our last hostel (we were not that upset).

The aged/peeling ceiling at our Roman hostel, the bathrooms were lovely too (kidding).

Smiling because we get to leave, and maybe becuase our Spring Break was amazing, and there will never be one like it again. (Thanks Mom/Dad/Pop-o/Grandma J!)

Au Revior Paris, Bounjorno Roma!

(Easter Sunday) We had to wake up at 4 in the morning, pack, check out of the Hotel, get to the Metro (:30) to take us to the bus to take us to the airport (1 hour) to take us to Roma (2 hours by plane), where we hopped on a bus (:20) to take us to Termini station, where we had to walk to our next hostel (:20). It was a long day.

Our "Hotel" in Paris...note the lovely water spots on the ceiling, and chipping paint on the walls!

My bed for 2 nights, the curtain matched one bed spread, but not the other, so we were convinced that they made them out of the sheets.

Kendrae opening up our "Bonjour" window. We called it this because in the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast everyone is singing "bonjour" out of their windows that looked like this.

We arrive in Roma, parched, and stop at this adorabel cafe and get sandwiches and salads, and our first official ITALIAN gelato!

Kendrae found the Blockbuster, haha.

So, we didn't make it to the Vatican on Easter, we were exhausted, but we did stop by the Baths of the Diocletian for a second because Brandi, Kendrae and I are researching it for later in the quarter.

After this, we got back to our hostel, showered and passed out for the rest of the day. Typical college girls, I know. But, we will be in Roma for 6 weeks, so these were our two days of rest, besides, the entire city was shut down because of the holiday.

Cramming Paris into one last day

Hello to all, here is our last official day in Paris, so we tried to hit all the spots we missed previously. There were a lot of church visits on this day as well, but once you've seen one basillica, esp. Notre Dame, they seem to get repetitive, so I'm not going to post all of those pictures. After seeing so many historical sites in Paris, we did some modern sight seeing, because we try to be well-rounded people.

The Pompedeiu, essentially a building turned inside out. So, all of the piping, plumbing, escalators and elevators are on the outside.

Going up the escalators of Pompedeiu

A room/cave thing that was very interesting

I'm not sure how to describe this piece...wicked sweet maybe?

Cool wall thing...very modern.

Giant red rhino in the Pompedieu

Le Mime! This is the one thing I wanted to see before leaving Paris, and we just so ran into one!

The Picasso Museum! Very fun for us modern art lovers.

So, when you say you want an ice cream sandwich in Paris, you might get this.

A really cool (architecturally) mall in Paris that we happened upon

Street Musicians in cool outfits

Public Toilets, very urban

The Paris Opera

View of the Seine from a bridge near the Opera, beautiful!

A bunch of hipster/emo teens were hanging outside on the Opera steps smoking, and this one had a pink cigarette...too cool for school.

Waiting for our Metro at Bastille

One last stop to Arch de Triomphe during the day, Kendrae and Brandi hadn't seen it yet, I saw it on the first night before they arrived.

View of the city from the top of Arch de Triomphe.

On our Metro ride back to our shady hotel, there was a jar of green olives sitting on the ledge...awkward!

Then, we headed back to our Hotel for one last night, before heading off to Roma. That's it for our adventures in Paris, coming soon to a computer near you...ROMA!