A trip across the sea

Spring Break! Fabulous, wonderful, delicious spring break. We hit the halfway mark in the program (already!) and were given a week + of freedom to explore. I hopped on a bus, a ferry, and a train and made my way to Rome to meet up with my grandparents. After that we bopped over to Athens and Aegina, and then the break was over in the blink of an eye!

That was the short version. There are many more details provided below, feel free to skim!

It all began Thursday, May 1. Katie, Ben, CJ and I went to the Cycloptic Walls--built on the island in the time of Odysseus, but of rocks so large that purportedly only a Cyclops could have moved them! We walked and climbed all the way, and then took a nap in the shade of a thousand-year-old olive tree at the top. Since we were laying on rocks, it wasn't exactly a deep sleep, but the buzz of bees and distant clanging of goat bells was quite hypnotic.

The next day began the trek of public transportation. Peter and I took a bus to the other side of the island, killed time by stashing our stuff and hiking a mountain, then came back for food and the ferry. Strangely enough, the ferry had to dock twice. Must've been a student driver. Anyways, once we knew it was actually docked we walked right over, but despite arriving within four minutes were blasted for "delaying the ferry!" Seriously???
After a 12-hour trip in airplane seats we arrived in Brindisi, Italy. Hooray! Not much to see there, but delicious gelato, and being in Brindisi all day allowed us the opportunity of eating it twice. MMM. And then I took the train to Roma! And then, because we're not done with the public transport yet, I took the Metro to the airport.

I wasn't leaving Rome, but picking up my Grandparents (Mom's side). When I was first considering coming to Greece with the AHA program I joked to them that they should come and visit me for spring break--and they did! Pretty awesome, huh? We chose Rome because they'd never been there before, and it is, after the Eternal City! One of my favorite places.

Throughout the week we did oodles of cool things, starting off by eating pizza. A huge, Napoli pizza probably baked in a clay oven. Then we did other cool things like visit St. Peter's Square, gape at the parades of Pentecost-celebrators ("We should have known it was Pentecost, they were speaking in tongues," --Grandma), take a double-decker bus tour of the city, and climb down the Spanish Steps to find a back street full of an art fair--pretty neat!

The next day started with a leisurely breakfast provided by our B&B host, Fabio. Yes, Fabio. How could he be named anything else? Great host though, I highly recommend the B&B Federici. It was basically on top of a metro station *ideal* and within walking distance of what turned out to be our favorite restaurant and the Vatican. But ach, we're getting bogged down with details! You're tired of reading already, aren't you? And I'm only on Monday *dun dun dun*.

So then we went to the Coliseum and Roman Forum, where I got to show off my art history I skills. A rainstorm sent us in to St. Peter in Chains church, home of a monumental sculpture of Moses by Michelangelo. If you pay 50 cents they even turn on the lights around it for a whole minute!

Tuesday was the Borghese Gallery day. The Borghese Gallery is my favorite art museum in the world. Period dot com. Most of the works, some of the best in the world from Carravagio, Bernini, Canova, and even Titian were collected by a ruthless cardinal of the Catholic church who would do anything, including jailing and threatening lives to build his collection. It turned out pretty well for him! The museum, housed in the Cardinal's villa, is so popular that you MUST get advanced reservations! I did that back in April. My favorite sculpture is a Bernini--Apollo and Daphne. The white marble is carved in such a delicate way that it has been described as being "more air than stone," depicting the moment when Apollo first catches Daphne and she begins to turn into an oak tree. The leaves sprouting from her fingertips are so fine that when tapped they ring like crystal.

Also that day was the Trevi Fountain. Next day: Catacombs. Back in the day when Christians were persecuted one of Caesar's sisters converted and donated quite a bit of land before she was executed. The Christians used this land to dig tens of miles of underground burial chambers and a few chapels. Grave robbers destroyed most of the graves and sold the bones as relics *look, John the Bapist's hand!*, but we could see some remaining oil lamps and frescoes.

Later we saw the E.U.R. district, an area planned by Mussolini in the 20's/30's and completed in the 50's. It's gridlike and chock full of Modernist and International Style architecture. Interesting.

Next day: the Vatican, St. Peter's, and the Sistine Chapel. What a day! Without intending to, we spent five hours in the Vatican museums. Raphael Rooms, Julius Caesar the orator, hundreds of busts, etc. Pretty overwhelming, and I've even been there before. I'm amazed my grandparents were able to keep taking it in! The Sistine Chapel is just amazing. Michelangelo spent years of his life just lying on his back painting these frescoes, and they are magnificent. Later that night at the B&B we read all of the information the audio guide didn't have time to tell us and studied the little postcard I bought with great intensity. Michelangelo sure knew his scriptures. He was a pretty big deal (you may have heard of him?), as he also did the main design for St. Peter's and the ever-famous Pieta. The Pieta is actually housed behind bullet-proof glass! Apparently a loony with an axe tried to go at it once, and they're not taking any more chances.

That day, Thursday, was the last of our time in Rome and Friday morning we flew out to Athens!

But shall we leave that for another post? Yes, let's!

P.S. Today I hiked for eight hourse and it is now near 12:30 a..m. I claim no responsability for typoes, etc... ;)