la tortuga
June 20th, 2004, 02:45 AM
After the drama of my first few days home, I've come to tell about my awesome trip to Italy and stuff and stuff! Whoo!
Day 1: I had to be at the airport at 4 am to catch my flight to Cincinatti, which then took me to New York, then to Geneva, and finally to Rome. It was about 24 hours of travelling. I somehow managed to cut myself with a plastic butter knife again like I did last year. Something with international flights, I guess. Then we just walked around Rome. The view of the Flavian Amphitheater was great at night, I'll be sure to include the great picture I took of that when I get the pictures uploaded to this computer.
Day 2: We took an extensive tour of the Flavian Amphitheater and around the surrounding area which consisted of the Arches of Constantine and Tidus (I think...), and Roman Forum (complete with what is left of Julius Caesar's tomb decorated with flowers) , and Domitian's Palace (that place was huge!) We did a whole lot of walking that day and I got very tired.
Day 3: The Capitoline Musem. :-D We went to go see the She-Wolf, pieces of the statue of Constantine, and the apocalyptic horse. Now, the most interesting was the apocalyptic horse. It's a statue with gold plating of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (sp?) riding a horse. There's the legend about the horse that's about when the last flake of gold falls off of the statue, the horse's mouth will open and it will prophecise the apocalypse. More interesting was the dream/nightmare I had about it later.Well, the last flake of gold had just fallen off and I was there and the horse was doing his thing and blah, blah blah. Well, after that he somehow turned to me and said "So, anyone up for a pop?" and I was just freaking out and somehow disco lights came on and disco music was playing and I was still freaking out and the horse starts dancing and he somehow got the emperor off of his back so there I was, sitting with the statue of the Emperor and he tells me "He does this every time" and I'm just sitting there thinking 'Wait... every time?'. It was scary and meanwhile the horse was going crazy on the dancefloor and I said "If they apocalypse is coming, why are you dancing?" and the horse just says to me "Well, why not have fun if you're about to die, anyways? I mean it's not like you can change your soul in 15 minutes." And then I woke up to my roommate smacking me on the head with a shoe.
***Later: Ostia. We went to the port-city of Ostia. Not the modern one, the ruins of the ancient one. We had this tourguide with a VERY thick accent, so I just gave up on listening to her altogether, I just couldn't understand. It was like she was still speaking Italian or something. The only think I could really understand her saying the entire time was "Come, I will show you the toilets now." After this statement, she lead us to an ancient roman toilet. I mean, I should be respectful and be marveling and worshiping how advanced the Romans were, but come on? A toilet? That's just creepy. I took a picture, anyways, though. It seemed as if this place was made for my phobia of stairs. They were all over the place, and then my friend Sam made us climb all the way to the top of the theatre to take a picture. I was sure I wanted to kill someone by the time I looked back on all of the stairs I had to go back down, I was about ready to cry. That was about it for that day, I think. Oh, no, we saw a laundry place. Interesting fact: Ancient Romans bleached their clothing with urine.
Day 4: The Vatican. The most horrifying day of my life, as far as my feet were concerned. I wanted to just fall over and die or something. St. Peter's basilica is so huge that it scared me, even though I've already been there. The entire Pantheon can fit into it! What freaked me out the most was all of the Pagan statues there. Kind of amusing, really, considering the Catholic church tried to wipe everything Pagan out once it began to rule. We went to a Sting concert after that. Yeah... I learned three things at that concert: 1. Italians are party animals, especially at free concerts; 2. Don't ever wear kakhi shorts when you're sitting on a grassy hill; 3. I don't particularily like Sting. Oh, and that portable bathrooms in America are way better than the ones in Europe. Can't forget that.
Day 5: On the road again. We went to Hadrian's Villa. WOW! It was completely surrounded by nature. There were ponds and all sorts of trees. It just makes me wonder what it would have been like when it was in its glory with all of the marble on the buildings and everything. It was huge, too. It looked more like a city and only 1/3 of it has been excavated! O.o I wish my house was that big. Then again, if it was, it would probably be plotted on the world map all by itself. It'd say "The Almighty House of Trollness" if it were plotted, that is. Then we went on to Vico Equense. I really hope I spelled that right. We went swimming! Whoo! Considering I hadn't gone swimming in years, it was quite an experience. The hotel was nice, and it was a small city so we got to walk around a lot and explore our little hearts out.
Day 6: Pompeii. It was really hot. The most interesting experience was probably the ancient prostitution house, because of all of the buildings to still have the frescos intact, it HAD to be THAT one! See, where things were sold, they just had pictures so people could point to what they want, because there was a language barrier for most people travelling there. It was quite possibly one of the most horrifying experiences I've ever had, walking into that building and just so happening to glance at the walls. What was also very interesting was that they had stepping stones across the streets. I just thought that was cool, I guess.
Day 7: Mt. Vesuvius. I had to walk up a bit more than I would have liked and there really was little reward for me. My cameral was acting up and I couldn't take any pictures and my friend Lucia wouldn't let me get close enough to the edge to get a real view. It was fun walking down, though, and trying to convince the teacher that it'd be okay to just roll down. That didn't really work, though.
Day 8: Capri! Yay! We had to walk a lot, and it was uphill most of the time :(, but it was fun because we got to see an ancient Villa, I forgot whose it was but I'm sure I'll remember later. Then we got to take a ski lift to the highest peak of Capri. It was literally A Walk In The Clouds (For all of you who haven't seen that movie... uh, go rent it!). It was very fun. Luckily my camera WAS working, so I got a picture of what it's like to stand in a cloud. :lol:
Day 9: On the road back to Rome. Then we went shopping. I got a henna tattoo of a pentacle on my arm, but I told the guy not to fill in the star on the inside but he did it anyways, so it's just hiding underneath my sleeve as I just wait for it to wash off, ten euros down the drain. On a happier note, I got my first tarot card deck. It's mostly in Italian, but that just makes it a little more fun! :lol:
Day 10: Just like Day 1, but in reverse order and we went to Atlanta instead of Cincinatti. Oh, and the Atlanta airport smelled bad :(
That was my trip, and I'll upload pictures, I promise. I can't be sure when that will happen or if you'll even remember what all of this is about when it does happen, but it will, and hopefull you'll remember, too.
Day 1: I had to be at the airport at 4 am to catch my flight to Cincinatti, which then took me to New York, then to Geneva, and finally to Rome. It was about 24 hours of travelling. I somehow managed to cut myself with a plastic butter knife again like I did last year. Something with international flights, I guess. Then we just walked around Rome. The view of the Flavian Amphitheater was great at night, I'll be sure to include the great picture I took of that when I get the pictures uploaded to this computer.
Day 2: We took an extensive tour of the Flavian Amphitheater and around the surrounding area which consisted of the Arches of Constantine and Tidus (I think...), and Roman Forum (complete with what is left of Julius Caesar's tomb decorated with flowers) , and Domitian's Palace (that place was huge!) We did a whole lot of walking that day and I got very tired.
Day 3: The Capitoline Musem. :-D We went to go see the She-Wolf, pieces of the statue of Constantine, and the apocalyptic horse. Now, the most interesting was the apocalyptic horse. It's a statue with gold plating of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (sp?) riding a horse. There's the legend about the horse that's about when the last flake of gold falls off of the statue, the horse's mouth will open and it will prophecise the apocalypse. More interesting was the dream/nightmare I had about it later.Well, the last flake of gold had just fallen off and I was there and the horse was doing his thing and blah, blah blah. Well, after that he somehow turned to me and said "So, anyone up for a pop?" and I was just freaking out and somehow disco lights came on and disco music was playing and I was still freaking out and the horse starts dancing and he somehow got the emperor off of his back so there I was, sitting with the statue of the Emperor and he tells me "He does this every time" and I'm just sitting there thinking 'Wait... every time?'. It was scary and meanwhile the horse was going crazy on the dancefloor and I said "If they apocalypse is coming, why are you dancing?" and the horse just says to me "Well, why not have fun if you're about to die, anyways? I mean it's not like you can change your soul in 15 minutes." And then I woke up to my roommate smacking me on the head with a shoe.
***Later: Ostia. We went to the port-city of Ostia. Not the modern one, the ruins of the ancient one. We had this tourguide with a VERY thick accent, so I just gave up on listening to her altogether, I just couldn't understand. It was like she was still speaking Italian or something. The only think I could really understand her saying the entire time was "Come, I will show you the toilets now." After this statement, she lead us to an ancient roman toilet. I mean, I should be respectful and be marveling and worshiping how advanced the Romans were, but come on? A toilet? That's just creepy. I took a picture, anyways, though. It seemed as if this place was made for my phobia of stairs. They were all over the place, and then my friend Sam made us climb all the way to the top of the theatre to take a picture. I was sure I wanted to kill someone by the time I looked back on all of the stairs I had to go back down, I was about ready to cry. That was about it for that day, I think. Oh, no, we saw a laundry place. Interesting fact: Ancient Romans bleached their clothing with urine.
Day 4: The Vatican. The most horrifying day of my life, as far as my feet were concerned. I wanted to just fall over and die or something. St. Peter's basilica is so huge that it scared me, even though I've already been there. The entire Pantheon can fit into it! What freaked me out the most was all of the Pagan statues there. Kind of amusing, really, considering the Catholic church tried to wipe everything Pagan out once it began to rule. We went to a Sting concert after that. Yeah... I learned three things at that concert: 1. Italians are party animals, especially at free concerts; 2. Don't ever wear kakhi shorts when you're sitting on a grassy hill; 3. I don't particularily like Sting. Oh, and that portable bathrooms in America are way better than the ones in Europe. Can't forget that.
Day 5: On the road again. We went to Hadrian's Villa. WOW! It was completely surrounded by nature. There were ponds and all sorts of trees. It just makes me wonder what it would have been like when it was in its glory with all of the marble on the buildings and everything. It was huge, too. It looked more like a city and only 1/3 of it has been excavated! O.o I wish my house was that big. Then again, if it was, it would probably be plotted on the world map all by itself. It'd say "The Almighty House of Trollness" if it were plotted, that is. Then we went on to Vico Equense. I really hope I spelled that right. We went swimming! Whoo! Considering I hadn't gone swimming in years, it was quite an experience. The hotel was nice, and it was a small city so we got to walk around a lot and explore our little hearts out.
Day 6: Pompeii. It was really hot. The most interesting experience was probably the ancient prostitution house, because of all of the buildings to still have the frescos intact, it HAD to be THAT one! See, where things were sold, they just had pictures so people could point to what they want, because there was a language barrier for most people travelling there. It was quite possibly one of the most horrifying experiences I've ever had, walking into that building and just so happening to glance at the walls. What was also very interesting was that they had stepping stones across the streets. I just thought that was cool, I guess.
Day 7: Mt. Vesuvius. I had to walk up a bit more than I would have liked and there really was little reward for me. My cameral was acting up and I couldn't take any pictures and my friend Lucia wouldn't let me get close enough to the edge to get a real view. It was fun walking down, though, and trying to convince the teacher that it'd be okay to just roll down. That didn't really work, though.
Day 8: Capri! Yay! We had to walk a lot, and it was uphill most of the time :(, but it was fun because we got to see an ancient Villa, I forgot whose it was but I'm sure I'll remember later. Then we got to take a ski lift to the highest peak of Capri. It was literally A Walk In The Clouds (For all of you who haven't seen that movie... uh, go rent it!). It was very fun. Luckily my camera WAS working, so I got a picture of what it's like to stand in a cloud. :lol:
Day 9: On the road back to Rome. Then we went shopping. I got a henna tattoo of a pentacle on my arm, but I told the guy not to fill in the star on the inside but he did it anyways, so it's just hiding underneath my sleeve as I just wait for it to wash off, ten euros down the drain. On a happier note, I got my first tarot card deck. It's mostly in Italian, but that just makes it a little more fun! :lol:
Day 10: Just like Day 1, but in reverse order and we went to Atlanta instead of Cincinatti. Oh, and the Atlanta airport smelled bad :(
That was my trip, and I'll upload pictures, I promise. I can't be sure when that will happen or if you'll even remember what all of this is about when it does happen, but it will, and hopefull you'll remember, too.