Sicily

(I started this before I left but I figured I would leave the beginning, even though I am no longer there :( )
Ciao Ciao mi Amici! I am currently giving myself a break from my papers that I haven't worked on in a few days to give more updates. I am rather behind but I hope to have everything done by the time I go home. IN 16 DAYS. It's so strange to think about that. I haven't seen my dog in 4 and a half months. Not to mention my car. Which I have tried not to think about sine Anne is learning to drive. Yobs. I'm sure shes doing great. In the van. Nonetheless, a couple weeks ago, I went on a class trip to Palermo Sicily to learn about the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia!
So we took the most absurd flight there. The landing strip of the Palermo airport is on the edge of the island and it was the rockiest most turbulent descent EVER. like not fun in the slightest. fortunately we all landed in one piece and the 26 of us plus 4 teachers got on the bus that took us to Palermo itself. On our way into Palermo, we drove past the place where Giovanni Falcone and 4 other people were blown up.
The Sicilian Mafia is one of the most famous mafias that almost everyone knows of. And everyone knows of Corleone because of the Godfather, which is based off of this mafia family. So at the height of its power, under Salvatore 'Toto' Riina, people were being killed in the streets and no one was willing to stand up to them because they were going to be killed, like everyone else. People were forced to pay the 'pizzo' which is extortion money. If you asked these people they would say that the mafia wasn't real. There were 2 men that were willing to stand up to the Cosa Nostra, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. They were 2 judges that were able to put 474 mafia on trial starting in 1986. This included Toto Riina, among others who were tried in absentia because they were on the run. Anyway, thanks to Tommaso Buscetta, a former mafia, 360 were charged. Riina had ordered the 2 judges to be murdered and both of them were blown up in car bombs and he was then found guilty and is still sitting in jail today. Another mafioso stepped up from second in command and then led the mafia in a Pax Mafiosi campaign, or the peaceful mafia, his name was Provenzano. He was recently arrested and now also sits in jail. He was so good at hiding that he hadnt been seen since he was a young man and the only way that they found him was because he insisted that his wife did his laundry, so the police were able to track him down following his bag of laundry. Current day, the mafia is still a strong presence in Palermo adn Sicily though not as a obvious as they were. We spent alot of time learning about the same sorta things but it was pretty cool. (I actually ended up writing a paper comparing the Cosa Nostra to the Death Eaters of Harry Potter. I got a 96 on it. Let me know if you want to read it hahah :) ). The La Cosa Nostra of the U.S. is not the exact same but they are related. They are the ones that came to America in the late 1800's and  late 1900's. They were the connections to Sicily during prohibition and theres suspicion that they were used contact their family in the WWII to make it an easy landing for the allies to take Italy from the Germans (Mussolini had a strong campaign against the mafias because they provided an alternate form of protection and threatened unity throughout Italy). There's a whole lot I could talk about with this but I'll move on.
When we got into Palermo we went to this place for lunch that has publicly stated that they do not pay the pizzo and stand up against the mafia. It was actually really freaking good. We had these little appetizers and one of them was this like patty kinda thing i guess but it looked like a egg thing that you get on your McDonalds breakfast sandwich. You know flat, thin, yellow. Well this was mashed chick peas with tons of spices and salt. Phenom. On my list of things to try and learn to make. After we had Pasta alla Norma, which is a red sauce with ricotta over pasta with cooked eggplant. it was so so so good. (I'm making it for dinner tonight, I found a recipe online so I can only hope its as good.) After lunch we were given a presentation from Libera, which is the anti-mafia organization that was hosting our trip basically. They work with the government to help and support people who no longer want to pay the mafia. They also take land and buildings that have been confiscated from arrested mafia. Pretty legit.
After we finished lunch we went to one of their main buildings near by, with a quick interlude to get a cannolo. Soo good. I didn't really cannolis before but when in Rome (Palermo). Cannolo is the singular version, cannoli is multiple. I only had one at this time. So we went to Libera, 2 doors over and it used to be a headquarters for the Cosa Nostra and was a men's dress shop as the front. The mafia use different businesess as fronts for laundering money and places to meet. We talked with one of the Libera members and she kinda just told us stuff that we had been told before (before we left we had a 3 hour presentation by 2 of the teachers and a class in our culture class about all the mafias of Italy, but she focused more on the other ones). At this point, at the end it was time to head back but not before we walked around a little  adn then got stranded waiting for the bus in a massive rain storm. like freak down pour. Whatever. It was funny. We went to our hostile and had dinner there because dinner was included in our stay. It wasn't good. It was the same pasta that we had at lunch but worse. And then some like chicken fried steak or something. Not good we weren't allowed to order our own meals. Boo.
Later that night everyone that was there, including 2 of the teachers, went out to the balcony off one of the rooms and we had a little group party it was super fun. Massive bonding.
The next morning we met with a prosecutor in Palermo who has taken the lead against the Cosa Nostra. We sat on top of I guess the equivalent of the district court building which had the most amazing view of Palermo:

This is the prosecutor. I don't remember his name. 

I dont know how long we sat up there but I think listening to him was the most interesting part of the trip. He was clearly really passionate about what he does. Hes done some really good things recently too; apparently he was a part of the group that busted this drug ring about 2 blocks from the courthouse. They figured it out because the guys would use an email account but never send the emails just save them in the draft box. interesting. 

After lunch we went up the mountain-side to this town called Monreale. It was so pretty! We went in this church and after the ones in Ravenna, they were the most beautiful mosaics I've seen. These were all gold unlike the ones in Ravenna, which were blue and green. 

Pretty wild. There was also this amazing view of Palermo behind the church. You could see the shore and everything. I also had a pretty good cannolo, though the first one was still the best.

Palermo!

Me and Francesca!

Palermo is behind us on the left but you can't see it, just fyi.

We got lucky that it didn't rain that much when we were up there, just kinda on and off. Afterwards they said that they were going to take us to the "best gelato in Sicily, which means the best gelato in Italy". Sicilian gelato is supposed to be the best gelato in Italy. My favorite gelato in Rome is a Sicilian place called CuriCuri. It is to DIE for. I prefer it over Giolitti's which is also supposed to be the best gelato in Rome. However. I like CuriCuri. I always get the cannolo and tiramisu. Anyway, this place that they  were taking us was supposed to be the best in Sicily, and I was highly disappointed. I think we all were. Boo. Fail. we walked across the street to this big park and there were big rocks that were in the water that you could climb on. The closest we got to a beach in Sicily. Upsetting. I was really pulling for a nice beach experience. We hung out for a little and then a few of us walked home with the teachers which we thought was going to be like a 15 min walk. Well it wasnt. I think all in all it was a little over an hour. Which was fine I guess; they showed us the neighborhood where Falcone e Borsellino were born and grew up together. We went to a market that had fresh fruit and seafood and they got us strawberries and these little orange things. we had to peel the skin off and it was alot of work for not alot of fruit adn they left your mouth feeling dry. they were strange. I stuck to the strawbs. Our dinner was really not that good again and we were all so tired from excessive bonding and walking so much that everyone went to bed pretty early.

On our way to Corleone!

Our last day, Sunday we got on our bus again but this time to go to Corleone! It is a real place and it was super cute. It's small little town up on the side of one of the many mountains and the views were so pretty the whole drive. We went to a building and met with this guy that told us even more about Toto Riina and more details about the level of corruption and death that happened because of him. He showed us pictures after people were killed in the streets and of key players on both sides. It was really interesting. This is where I was inspired to write my paper relating them to the Death Eaters :). Riina's sons actually still live in Corleone but are productive members of society, not like their dad. We walked around the town a little bit before we got back on the bus adn drove for about 10 min before we literally stopped on the side of the road. There was a little house that was down in the valley which is where we were going to have lunch. Its owned by Libera and it used to be Toto Riina's safe house. Like there were people that were tortured there. And we ate lunch there. Like wildddddddd.

Corleone 

That little house on the left of the picture that's where we ate. It was a little bit of a walk...

This is about 2/3 of the way down...

Lunch was phenomenal. It was the same pasta alla norma but there were great things including the chick pea thing for apertivos and it was just all so good. They gave us red wine with lunch and it was so so good. we all took a bunch of pictures afterwards  as a chance to let the massive lunch settle before we hiked back up to the top. It was quite a walk thats for sure. I liked walking down the best. 

Fran over looking her motherland

We were suppose to go to 2 different wine tastings after wards before we got on the plane to go back to Rome. However. I fell asleep and we were apparently lost for about 45 min while the bus driver drove in circles. We made it to one of the vineyards which was also on confiscated land from another mafia person. They used to produce wine at the vineyard and they just kept doing so when it was confiscated. We didnt even get to taste any of the wine. Boo again.
Fortunately we did not get lost on the way to airport and we made it there in plenty of time to get on our flight. I learned alot about the mafia which is really the only reason I wanted to go but true to italian organization, there was none.... Whatever. I went to Sicily. Livin the Dream. one weekend at a time.

L'ultimo giorno in Roma

So it is currently 630 am and I leave Rome today. I am not packed in the slightest but that doesn't appear to be a problem because my flight keeps getting delayed. I was supposed to leave at 1150 and it was pushed back to 1250. Now were looking at 225. ugh. At this point. I have said my (tearful) good byes to Rome and it is time to leave. I'm really hoping and praying that it doesnt get pushed back like into the night because I would really like to sleep in my own bed tonight now. WOW WEIRD.
As for packing. my suitcases are going to be over weight. I have bought too many goodies that they just are going to make my luggage heavy. I would say sorry I'm not sorry but I am. mostly because i have to carry them.
I am currently running on an hour of sleep since the other night. Last night we had an apertivo with the program which included free food and wine and it was a lovely chance to all be together one last time and it was super cute. after which there was lots of running around and seeing of monuments. we then all met up at Scholars, a irish bar that american study abroad students frequent (aka always go to). And what did we meet up for? The preakness. which is run in Baltimore. I watched the preakness in Rome and I completely forgot it was yesterday. And what else was playing on another tv? An orioles game. Baltimore threw up on the Scholars tvs. I think it was God's way of telling me that its time to go home. But not yet because my flight keeps getting pushed back..
Gotta go... just because im not packed doesnt mean Im not gonna have to leave.

only 2 weeks left?!!

Is this real life?!?!? I can't believe that I have less then 2 weeks in Europe! Where has the time gone?! Because I don't know. I do have to say that I am so excited to go home and see my family and my friends and my dog but its going to be so hard leaving Rome! I was trying to think about what I'm going to miss the most and it was a unanimous vote for food. It's just so freaking good. I have become addicted to a croissant filled with nutella and a cappuccino. for less then 2 euro. its the best breakfast ever. and all the great pasta. gnocchi. and the naples pizza. but not naples. the gelato. nom nom nom. and not being able to see my friends that ive made here. I didn't see kelsey for 3 whole days and it was very weird. very weird indeed. 

I am looking forward to going home though and mostly for mexican food. and sushi. really all that im concerned with in life is food. hahah. but i am also looking forward to going home and being able to walk down the street in a dress and flip flops in 75 degree weather and not being stared at. jesus. 75 degree weather is not a time for your stupid puffy shiny jackets. 

Gretchen comes this weekend and I;m so excited to see her! It'll be good to the touristy things one last time before leaving. wahhhhhhhhhhh I have so much to do before then! I have one paper/ presentation done but I have a final today, 2 more papers and 3 more finals to do before i leave?! 

Side note: my paper/ presentation was on wait for it wait for it HARRY POTTER. That's right I was able to do a paper comparing the Death Eaters of harry potter to the Sicilian Mafia, the Cosa Nostra. It was pretty freaking great of i do say so myself. not to mention my slideshow was filled with great pictures. And my teacher told me it was the most unique topic idea shes ever had. I was surprised it took this long for me to write a paper on it to be honest. A couple of people in my program have asked me to send it to them. hahah study abroad is not real school. 

Anyway. I will eventually get my other posts up. As to when im not sure yet because I realized after a weekend of mass unproductivity, that there is alot to do this week (2 finals and a paper) that needs to be finished by thursday night. yobs. its almost like finals week last semester... (shout out 309)...not. :)

Brief update

Ciao Friends!

So I have made it back from Greek Week (our spring break trip in Greece!). Kelsey, Amy, Tasha, Erica and I went for 10 days and went to Crete, Mykonos then Athens. It was a greattttt week and a half!! However that will have to wait! I currently am 'working' on my final papers and we have finals starting soon!! SO slowly but surely I will put up posts about Greece and Sicily. ANDD Gretchen is coming to play!! YAYYY We so excited!! She'll be here right at the end of finals so thats the most wonderful thing ever!

I do have a few quick things to tell though! Before Sicily, was culture week in Rome so Kelsey and I took advantage of the free-ish museums to go do some undone sight-seeing. We took Kelsey, Francesca's best friend from school, to Castle Sant' Angelo and then I went to the Capitoline Museums on my own. It was a beautiful day and once in the castle, you have great view of Rome including the Vatican! It's usually 8 euro but we got in fo free! Win. It was lovely going because it's not quite a top hot spot so there weren't to many tourists up there. It was originally built as Emperor Hadrian's mausoleum but was used as a safe place for the popes when the city was in danger like in a fire or under siege. And the statues on the bridge that lead straight up to it are all Berninis.

Afterwards, my Kelsey went back to nap and Francesca's Kelsey went to meet Francesca at the Colosseum and I went on to the Capitoline Museums. They were a gift to the city by a pope a long time ago I can't remember exactly when but I want to say the 1700's. It houses mostly statues that are important to the Roman heritage like those of emperors, gods, goddesses and philosophers. There is also the famous Lupa statue as well. She's the she wolf that it was said saved Romulus and Remus as infants until a farmer came along to raise them. Romulus went on to found the city of Rome in 735 BC.

Constantine

Hall of Statues

Augustus

Hall of the Philosophers

Original Equestrian Marcus Aurelius statue from the courtyard

Hadrian

Lupa

That has basically been all that I have been doing since I haven't been in Rome much in the past 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to my last few weeks here and going to make sure that they are full of the essentials (pizza pasta gelato). Minimal amount of school work ;)

Pizza tour of Naples, funded by Arcadia (aka class trip to Naples)

Follow up from the Ravenna post: I wanted to make a note to all readers as to the proper pronunciation of "Janing".  Jan, the name, is a soft 'j', as most will know from the Anchorman reference when he goes for a jog, also with the soft 'j' use. This however is legitimate in that Jan is Belgian and is actually a soft 'j'. Thus it it janing with a soft 'j'. It adds to the ambiance of the term. Moving on.

Last weekend I went to Naples on another class trip. This time was much better then last time when I was there for a grand total of maybe 4 hours, most of which was spent in the train station. For those that have not been there, it is kinda gross there, especially when you walk out of the train station. It's all clearly illegal immigrants that are selling the knock off stuff left and right and are rather creepy individuals. Anyway. I started out with low expectations even knowing this was going to be better then last time. I was with 4 other students, Kelsey, Jack, Natasha and Alex from my class (there are only 6 of us and our professor but Lily couldn't go). Our professor's name is Alex and he is german and a red head. The man is a gem if there ever was one. He often dresses as if he walked out of a crayola crayon box; He once wore bright yellow pants, a candy apple red sweater with a blue and white striped button-down shirt. If his lectures make us drowsy, his outfits are there to wake us up. When not worn together, there is often one of these fine articles of clothing represented at every class. Anyway, his wardrobe was not the purpose of our trip.

Alex in the flesh. 

We started with a museum, the Naples National Archaeological Museum, which houses part of the Farnese collection (we visited the other half here in Rome) and tons and tons of things they found in Pompeii. They were some pretty cool things, though I think alot of it was closed off because we went through all of it rather fast. They had some cool mosaics though from the floors and walls of Pompeii houses. (They had alot of Roman statues. We all know that I don't get tired of that stuff so I have more pictures of those.. Im getting really good at identifying people without looking at the name plates. Win).

Tash and Kelsey with Hercules

Marcus Aurelius 

This was the cover of one of books for my Ancient Rome class.. WILD

Famous floor that's on the covers of lots of text books

Since there wasn't too much of interest other then typical museum (read: old) things I'll move on to what really matters: pizza. We successfully convinced Alex (our professor. yes it is confusing with Girl Alex in the class and professor Alex, who we just call Alex, as well as another BOY Alex in our program. Fortunately he has a plethora of nick names: Dusty, Jerry, Boy Alex etc) to take us to get pizza for lunch at a famous pizza place that Kelsey and Natasha went when they came earlier in the semester. (I'm sorry that was rather long winded and confusing sentence. I like to use parentheses). It was called Gino Sorbillo's and I think it was the best pizza I've EVER had. I was frazzled when I had to order so I just got a margherita pizza (which is straight tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil). Which is the greatest rush decision ever. I'm pretty sure that there was ricotta cheese on there too and probably some crack as well because it was amazing. And the dough. Its just SO GOOD THERE IS NOTHING BAD ABOUT NAPLES PIZZA. except the location. I have also been informed that the water in Naples is what makes the crust great. (which means there is a high chance that there is crack in it. But i'll save the mafia for an upcoming post :) ) We were all very satisfied with our pizza and very full. So yummy.

We then took the tram thing they have in Naples to the top of one of the mountains that surrounds Naples, to this monastery that has been turned into a museum. It was pretty cool. The church attached was the most busy I've ever seen, in terms of the decorations. All of the marble was colored marble and thus made it a very chaotic sight. It wasn't bad but it clearly showed how much money they had because the colored marble is rather pricy. You know, as marble goes.... But we walked through the courtyard and took some absurd pictures with skulls that were decorations (....weird) and were only able to see one level of the museum. Side note: This was the beginning of culture week, which I think may be a nationwide thing because this was free as well as most things in Rome this week. So the first floor of the museum was closed because they could because it was also free. I don't get it but I stopped questioning Southern Europe ways of life... They make things much more complicated then need be.

So given that we were on top of the mountain it had fantastic views of Naples and the ocean (its on the western coast, south of Rome, but right on the water). It was lovely. We walked down and it was the same view but obviously slightly different as we went farther down.. Nonetheless, lots of pictures were taken.

the gang

Alex in the Monastery Garden. 

We went back to our hostel since we were out of time to go to the last place we were supposed. This was the biggest difference between this trip and the one with Jan. Jan would not let us talk him into going to get pizza for lunch and taking 2 and half extra hours out of our schedule to go to a famous pizza place. Or walk at our own pace. And god forbid we miss seeing something. Alex walked at our speed, stopped to see things not on our list and obvi stopped for pizza. Anyway, we got back to our hostel and had a chance to rest before going to eat again. Our hostel though was the greatest place ever. It was all neon colors and it was super fun. There was a little bar and a massive flat screen tv with about 200 movies (some in english, some not), a wii, and washer and dryer. It was super!! Our room for the 5 of us (teacher Alex got his own room, which was neon blue and had his own bathroom) was neon green and had a cute little balcony with a pretty sweet view of the city. I'm not a fan of Naples but if you go, go here. It is actually the best thing beside the pizza to have happened that weekend.
http://www.hostelnapoli.com/languages/english/

So. Then it was time to eat again and we went to another famous pizzeria that I can't remember the name of. It started with a T, but I couldn't even begin to guess to google it. It was a little bit of a walk from the hostel, but we were all still pretty full from lunch that walking more was going to make room for more pizza, which is all that matters on a pizza tour of Naples. I got a white margherita, which means that instead of tomato sauce, its fresh cherry tomatoes cut up on top of the cheese, still with basil. Still pretty solid. I couldn't finish mine because I was so full and we had beer but it was wonderful. There was so much bonding at the dinner table. So cute. We came back after and hung out for a little before we went to bed.

The next day we were up somewhat early to get breakfast and go to Pompeii (They had peanut butter and nutella for on toast. good start to the morning)!  We took a bus to Pompeii, where we got a tour guide and Natasha's family joined us (they were visiting so they came down with us for part of it). It was pretty cool. We saw the theaters that they used as well as the places that the gladiators were kept in their little cells. We walked through the streets which was fun and we saw a place that was a bakery and a pizza place. nom nom nom. We couldn't go in the bath complex because it was closed for renovations but there are worse things. It was a beautifullll day; so sunny and not a cloud in the sky and just enough of a breeze. We saw the forum and they also had a display of all the things that they found. They had the plaster casts of the people that were made as well. The way that they made them was when the drilled down and found an empty cavity, they filled it with plaster then took out the mold. The body had long decayed and turned into dust and so they were able to make the casts. wild.

our tour guide

We got gelato at this point. not bad.

We walked to a villa that was just outside the forum and then more outside the city itself to another villa. I don't really know much about it but in the first villa I may or may not have taken another rock. :) Sorry I'm not sorry. We saw the famous frescoes in the villa outside the city which were awesome because they were so vibrant and well preserved.

At this point we had concluded our tour of Pompeii so we all went back to the city to get MORE PIZZA! Teacher Alex claimed he didnt want anymore pizza but he would sit with us. So we went to da Michele! (That's the place that I went the last time I was in Naples, the place where Eat, Pray, Love was filmed). We waited for awhile and were finally seated. Alex got a pizza. Like you could pass up pizza in Naples. That's the only reason I would go back. Ever.