Ciao Ciao Italy!

Ciao USA!

 

Woo! So it's been a while since I've been able to blog so I hope I can get it all in tonight :) Ok! I just sent the one I was able to type up for my first port of Naples in Italy :) I did that one on the 4th of July! Soooo... Now on to my adventures while in the Civitavecchia, Italy port! Boy I had so much!! :D

 

My first day I took my travels slow and relaxing :) I had never been to Civitavecchia before and decided to hang out there for a day to explore it while most others headed straight for Rome.  This was also a great idea because I really needed to save money for my future trip (it's coming>). This town was very different from what I was expecting Italy to be like.  It seemed like a plain city and there was the same old city things to do so I walked around and window shopped with Ashley (from the Teachers at Sea program) then took a day to catch up on some sleep and reading.  After laying out with Caitlyn (in my SeaHort) we enjoyed a great discussion over dinner with Paul (another Living Learning Coordinator :). He helped me to remember to take time to soak in these special moments while in these unique ports! He is such a great co-worker! ...So great that I will still have pictures of the rest of my trip because he and his wife have lent me a camera!!! The rest of the day was utilized for the planning of my trip to Venice!!!

 

The second day in port was FILLED with adventure! I headed out with a group trip to see the highlights of Rome in the morning.  They bussed us around the historic city pointing out well known sites before we got of to explore the roman coliseum! It was fantastic to see where all the gladiators used to battle and to hear about all the history behind it! Then they took us to go see the beautiful Vatican City!!! There was Sooooo much art and history there that you couldn't help but feel the glory of god there! It was magnificent!! Fair warning to everyone... it is PACKED!  Our tour guide zoomed in and I almost got lost looking at all the well known statues and paintings... I was just in AW... I felt so lucky!! 

 

Instead of returning to the group back to Civitavecchia, I grabbed my OL backpack (with my travel gear) and found my way to the closest Metro station (which by now, I find my self a pro at) for my own quick tour of Rome... my own highlights included seeing the Spanish Steps (you know, the ones in Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn :) and the Trevi fountain!!! I of course made a couple of wishes... but I'm not telling you ;D Then I took another Metro to the train station where I waited in line to purchase my ticket to Venice!

 

I was happy to see one Semester at Sea student, who I chatted with you briefly before being introduced to a new friend from Canada! Her name was Samantha and she was a photographer traveling Europe for some great shots and looking for work :D She was great company for the wait in line and I was happy to have her help me find the way to my train... I kept looking at my ticket for my platform (yip ima do it), and I did look for a platform 9 and 3/4... but it wasn't at this station :D I looked for a safe place on the train (apparently I was not assigned a seat)... I got onto a cart filled with a group of high school kids and their professor from Austria... I felt that that would be pretty safe... and I think it was :) Since most of the kids sat together I hung out in the walkway and found an English speaking companion for the trip! He was a physics teacher name was Juan Carlos and he was from Columbia! He did help me to practice a bit of Spanish which I was happy to do! We had fantastic conversations about traveling!  6 hours latter we landed in the station right outside of Venice at 1 am and made our way to the bus stop. We had excellent luck because apparently they had run out of tickets and we didn't have to pay :)

 

We arrived shortly after in Venice and we were just elated! It was soo beautiful even in the dark of the night!  We were very shocked ot find that at nearly 2am... no one was around. It was as if no one lived there.  Which made it wonderful to explore! We walked around they city for about 2 hours before we found a beautiful spot overlooking the water.  We decided to sit on the benches and watch the sun rise! It was beautiful! I felt so at peace (and sleepy) that I decided to snuggle up on my bench for a quick nap :) Never fear though! Again, there was absolutely no one around and I did not feel threatened at all!  It was really nice to feel that kind of secure! I woke up to the sound of the newspaper boats slowly stroll by as they dropped them off at the local stores. Then I was on a hunt to find WiFi... at this point, Juan Carlos headed out for his own exploration of the city.  It look me a while to find internet and when I did I contacted a few people to figure out where some of the other graduate students were staying.  About an hour of hunting for my friends and exploring the city I discovered their hotel and was soooo happy to find their happy faces behind door number 1 (room number).  I was able to take an amazing shower before we headed out to rome around the city!  We had an AMAZING lunch (lasagna) and latter they convinced me to hop on board for a ride on a gondola and it was wonderful :) We spent a good time in San Marco square (I was pretty happy to bee in a San Marvelous again) then headed back to the train station.  The girls took a sleeping cabin... but I could not pay for it. So, I found myself in the 2nd class train again :) An of course I found a new friend from Australia! He was an architecture major at a university in Florence and his name was Tom.  He actually had a 1st class ticket... but didn't have anyone to travel with either so stayed and hung out with me!  He showed me pictures of his travels and I showed him my pictures of Spain and Italy :D I was terribly tired by the time he left so I found a seat in the cabins and took a nap... but I didn't want to miss my station so I stayed awake for the remainder.  When I finally got home in the morning, I crashed hard!! I woke up to head back out for one last gelato and came back to help with Gangway (helping with the search process as the students boarded the ship). 

 

These past 2 days have simply been classes and work again :) ...oh and planning for Croatia. I believe I am wanting to add another country to my list for the summer... Montenegro :D OH and we also had our Harry Potter 7 (part 1) movie showing in the union yesterday and that got me all hyped for the release this week in Croatia :) Hopefully I will make that happen too! Ok! It's really late now so I'm go to bed! Have a fantastic day!

 

Sea ya latter!

~Jenni