A bad day in Rome... is still a day in ROME!

A bad day in Rome… is still a day in Rome!

It’s been a month! Officially, it was a month I can’t believe time has gone so quickly, and yet it seems like I have been here so much longer than 4 weeks! Don’t worry about my title, because besides the next few sentences, explaining my troubles here in Rome, I promise this blog will be action-packed and full of fun! Despite the joys of being in Rome, transportation in Rome can be… a little tricky. There are forever bus strikes, and therefore buses running late, and buses absolutely loaded with people. It seems that the past week transportation problems have been following me around the plague, culminating in a train station in Rome when the machine at 10 euros and caused me to miss the train I was trying to catch.

Such hiccups are just part of being abroad I guess! Now on to the good stuff! Last weekend I went on two small day trips from Rome, the first to Villa d’este in Tivoli. It’s a Renaissance age Villa with a garden that beautifuly winds down the side of a hill, if the view isn’t enough to make this a cool getaway, everywhere you turned in the garden seemed to be full of fountains. Any Lizzie Mcguire fans out there? In the movie, when she goes on a date with Paolo and is running along side of fountains- that’s in Villa d’este (which of course means my roommate and I needed to take a video of ourselves running alongside the fountain!). One of the fountains, is even a water organ, and we were lucky enough to arrive just in time to hear it play!

On Saturday, some of my other roommates and headed into the Region of Umbria, to spend a day in the little town of Orvieto in the Region of Umbria. I was really excited to go here because my friends Sarah, who had visited her sister in Rome last summer had told me that it was a wonderful place, and because one of my roommates, on an earlier trip to Italy had had “the best meal of her life here” and we were planning on eating there as well! I am happy to report that my visit to Orvieto was everything I expected. The cathedral in the town “el duomo” was absolutely beautiful, we visited their nice little Etruscan museum, the town was quaint, the view was amazing and drumroll please… the food at the restaurant was DELICIOUS!

On my weekly Thursday museum excursion with Shaily we headed to Villa Borghese (Rome’s central Park) and its Galleria Borghese- home to a couple Caravaggios and a ton of Bernini’s. I have never really considered myself a big fan of statuary previously, but Bernini has convinced me with his genius. Two of his more famous works- The Rape of Persephone and Apollo and Daphne were absolutely breath-taking.

This past Saturday I and two of my roommates Mary and Divia headed back out to Tivoli to check out Hadrian’s Villa.  The emperor Hadrian is known for vast building programs, consolidating the empire, and traveling throughout it (you may remember him for the famous wall he built in N. England), and his Villa reflects these characteristics, using Egyptian and Greek architectural elements along with roman. The grounds were expansive and we head fun walking around and imagining what it would like to be at court with Hadrian. We also took a lot of fun pictures and saw a pretty sunset- hope you enjoy!  

One last little addendum: Carnevale is coming!! The whole of Italy seems to be getting ready to this food filled and Halloween like occasion! Children everywhere I go seem to be dressed up and throwing confetti as they head to/from parties, and there are even more treats all over Rome then ever! Not only does this generally just make me happy but it increases my anticipation for my own Carnevale extravaganza in Venice in two weeks!