Roma 2012

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Before I start talking about this trip I just wanted to say thank you to Zach, Andrew, and Amanda for visiting! We've had a great time walking around the city, eating lots of italian food, and spending time together half way around the world!

I'm going to skip a few places I've visited, since you will all see the pictures when I get home anyway. This will be my last post, it was my favorite place to visit. Capri is an island off of the Amalfi coast of Italy, it is known for the very expensive designer shops, extremely expensive housing, and of course the views and landscape. We stayed in a 4 star hotel and were treated (compared to what is normal here) a kings and queens. I had a porch off of my room with a beautiful view, beach chairs and the works. The orange house that you will see in the pictures is called "Casa Malaparte" it was originally build by a famous italian writer. The current owner of the house doesn't let anyone visit the property (including Tom Cruise) aside from CUA, because of one of our professor's relationship with them. The water wasn't too cold, we ended up swimming a couple times but usually not for too long because of all the jelly fish. We wanted to take a boat tour around the island, but we didn't want to go with a huge group of people. We found a local with a small boat that was willing to take me and a couple of friends around the island and into the caves. That's enough for now, I'll tell you more about it when I get home. Enjoy the pictures!

boat ride to Capri

Marina Grande

shoreline

from Carpi City center

typical coastline

one of a few islands around the main island

Casa Malaparte

one of 3 beaches at the hotel

sailor sculpture from the boat

Casa Malaparte from the boat

Marina Picola and our hotel

Sunday, April 15, 2012

This post will only be Florence, But on this trip I visited Florence, Sienna, and Bologna (I'll post another with Sienna and Bologna). Florence was very similar to Rome in the way the city is laid out, there were definitely more people speaking english there than in Rome. I got to walk on the inside of Il Duomo domes and climb to the top (this was an unreal experience). visited a bunch of buildings by Michelangelo and some other famous architects. There were a lot of opportunities to see the entire city from above. Florence is know for this special soup they call "Ribollita" its essentially a vegetable soup with bread in it, I don't know what else they put in it but it is very good.

Before beginning the accent inside the dome

The inside of the Duomo (the painted figures are about 15 feet tall)

Il Duomo is very very large inside

and from the outside

Climbing inside the dome

There wasn't much stopping you from falling off

Typical Florentine Style Church

Ponte Vecchio

Florence from Michelangelo's Piazza

Florentine Sunset

View from atop the Duomo

There are going to be a couple of posts today, since I'm so far behind. The first is Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was a beautiful city, and has a lot more to offer than what its reputation portrays. There's an old as well as modern part of town. There aren't too many cars because of the canal system; it isn't as intricate as venice but most people get around by boat or bike. I went to see the Ann Frank house, Dam Square, and a bunch of architecture things I wanted to see. Enjoy the pictures (These were taken by a friend, I forgot to charge my camera before the trip)!

Typical Street/ Canal in Old Towm

Built over a Highway that runs under the water

Developing Amsterdam

Famous Music Building

Monday, March 19, 2012

These next couple of postings aren't going to be in order but they are from the last couple of trips I've done

This one is of my trip over spring break. A couple of my friends and I went to Berlin and Prague. We rented bikes in Berlin so we were able to see a lot of the city. Because of WWII a lot of the buildings were destroyed during the war, so the city is very modern and new. I am sure you will recognize a few of these spots. I didn't have a chance to see a lot of Prague because I was sick, but we had an apartment right on the river next to a very famous building, so at least I had something nice to look at. I did get to explore Prague a little the first day so there are also pictures from that.

Berlin:

With V8 Chevy engine

Berlin Wall

Jewish Memorial

Statue of Victory

Brandenburg Gate

Reichstag Building

Checkpoint Charlie

Jewish Museum

Prague:

Frank and Ginger- view from Appt.

Cathedral of St. Vitus

Intense Stained Glass in the cathedral

View of Prague from Above

Astrological Clock

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Since the last time I posted I've been really busy. I went to spend some time in Bordeaux, visited some friends in Barcelona, and went to Pompeii and Napoli. Bordeaux was amazing; they were having a huge carnival around town and the city was very lively, the people were very very nice, and it was a beautiful city. Barcelona was kind of crazy, that city never sleeps. The waterfront was beautiful. We did a lot of walking and saw a ton of buildings and areas. Napoli was really dirty and kind of not my favorite, but the pizza there was awesome (definitely giving alex pizza a run for its money) but Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius were mind blowing. All of these pictures are a combination of the three trips.

In two weeks we will be spending a week in Tuscany, and the following week I have tickets to Berlin and Prague for spring break. The following weekend I have a ticket to Amsterdam. Two weeks after that we will be visiting northern Italy and Slovenia for a week, and I have decided to stay in Rome (or close to Rome) for Easter. That pretty much sums up the rest of my traveling until after the semester.

Enjoy the pictures!

Bordeaux: