Miles to go before we sleep...

We had one day left with Kelly before she met a friend to tour around Italy for a couple of days, so I was eager to get some good places in. We started at Bomarzo (which you have seen in previous posts) which is the Parco del Mostri. I figured this is the exact place Kelly and my Mom would like to visit while in town. 

Here is Kelly "posing" with one of the sculptures. 

Here are Kelly and I in the slanted house. I was playing like I was dead.

Mom and Kelly coming out of the slanted house.

I thought this urn looked very Harry Potter like with the red writing.

Kelly and I in front of a big acorn. 

After the Park of the Monsters, we got on the road to head to Pienza. Oh the sunflower fields!! They were all looking the other way, but they are still beautiful!

There is Pienza on the hillside in the distance.

Pienza a little closer.

In Pienza!

The view.

The Ogden ladies and the view. Pienza is a bit more touristy than Amelia, so they have lots of shops around the city center. TONS of cheese shops. We got some pasta, sauce, wine and cheese.

After we dropped Kelly off with her friend, Mom and I headed back with Connie and Chrissy. Connie likes to pull over on the side of the road so we can take good pictures. :-) 

In the distance is Montepulciano. AKA Twilight New Moon town for all my Twilight friends. 

We saw the dog herding the sheep so we stopped the car and got out to see them close up.

A sign to prove I was almost there. We were all too tired to tackle another town. I know it's still sunny, but it was 8:30pm. The sun is very deceiving in Italy.

Then we went to Porcelli's for pizza. This picture is for my cousin Jim's wife Heather. :-) Mom and I thought you would like to see the restaurant named after your family. 

That was all for Sunday. Quite the busy Sunday. I got a trucker tan on the left side of my body because we were in the car so long. (a trucker tan (for those of you that don't know the reference) is when you get a sunburn on the side of your body that the car window was on.

Ciao Ciao!

From Roma to Amelia

I could not allow my family to leave Rome without seeing The Pantheon or the Piazza Navona. So on the day that we were scheduled to head out to my beloved Amelia, we squeezed these two in.

The Piazza Navona. Absolutely gorgeous in person. In ancient times they used to flood the entire square to use it to stage maritime fights. I wish I had seen that!

To the right is the Church of St. Agnes in Agony (why was she in Agony? They cut off her head). In the center is the famous Bernini sculpture of the four rivers.

Upclose. Some of you may recognize this from Angels and Demons. :-)

The Church.

The fountain and the church.

Still playing catch up on the blogs. More to come soon!

Ciao ciao!

The Holy See

No self respecting Catholic can visit Rome without going to the Vatican. I would argue that no self respecting person could go to Rome without visiting the Vatican, but that is your own call. The Vatican is one of the most amazing places I have ever been, and every time I go I seem to find something new that I am in awe of. 

This is a picture of the Dome at St. Peter's, and a new modern sculpture by some guy named Arnaldo Pomodoro (which means Arnold Tomato, something our lovely tour guide pointed out). Our tour guide was hilarious, it was by far one of the best tours I have ever been on. This is supposed to show a link between the past (the dome) and the present (the sphere).

This is one of the many Papal seals that adorn multiple rooms in the Vatican. Typically, if the following room was "remodeled" by a certain Pope, then his seal or some form of identification will be on the entrance to that room. 

I particularly find the sculptures that have fig leaves where other objects should have been/used to be very entertaining. 

This sculpture is funny for two reasons. 1) the fig leaf. 2) This is a perfect example of a horrible restoration. This is a woman's head on a man's body. 

Another mixed sculpture. This one is particularly funny because it is a sleeping woman's head on a mans body. (Close up below)

Really??? You mean to tell us that there were NO other heads?? No other heads with eyes open that they could have used? A sleeping figure standing up fully engaged?? Very funny.

There is a map room in the Vatican. The maps are amazingly accurate, particularly because there was no way to see these things from above. So the artist created these by walking around. You can see Amelia, it is actually listed as Ameria. (It is sorta center top... a little to the left)

This is the hallway that the Popes walk to get to the Basilica.

The Basilica.

It is impossible to grasp the enormity or the beauty of this place with my camera. I suggest everyone get on a plane and come over and see it for yourselves. :-)

My sister, Mother and I in the Basilica.

The ceilings... so beautiful!

After the Vatican we had a wonderful dinner in Travestere the "restaurant" district of Rome. Our family friends Connie and Chrissy Wendlek were with us, but I can't find any group pictures! 

After dinner we walked around a bit on our way back to the hotel. Here are some Roman scenes at night. This is the National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II. It is the most remarkable memorial I have ever seen, which got me wondering, who was Victor Emmanuel II? Well, Victor Emmanuel II was the first King of unified Italy. The monument was designed in 1895, inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1935. The monument also holds Italy's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame. (so there's some history for you)

Another one of those fantastic situations you stumble onto while in Italy. When walking around we saw this, Julius Caesar the play being performed at the ruins of Caesar's Forum.. so where the original murder actually occurred (I think). Very surreal.

The Colosseum at night. 

Kelly's tongue and me in front of the Colosseum.

Quite the busy day. Incredibly hot, and tiring, but memorable and fantastic!

Ciao, ciao!

Family Times in Roma

On July 16th my mom and Kelly arrived in Rome ready for an Italian tour! We met at the hotel at 10am and then started a tour on foot. While walking around I left them to get my hair done and then met them at the Column of Trajan, which happens to be right next to this restaurant which is where they had their first Italian meal.

This is the Column of Trajan.

Here I am with the lovely ladies. The view behind us is the view we had during lunch. Our restaurant was directly to the left. It is amazing the views and places that you can go to while in Italy.

These are the ruins of Caesar's Forum.

More ruins at The Forum.

Me tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain.

As seems to be usual in Italy in general, we happened upon a wonderful surprise. While walking around after dinner we heard music and started walking in the direction of the music. When we rounded a corner this is what we saw.

What was most entertaining is that while looking around I saw one of the speakers that came to speak at the Conference that my program held. (He is the Carabinieri in the pictures from the Conference dinner night.) He came over to meet my family and informed us that this is the Carabinieri Orchestra.

He is a fan of pictures, so we were told to wait while he went and got his "two favorite officers" to take a picture with me. I am laughing because of something Kelly said or did, but I don't quite remember it. :-) 

And that, my dear friends, is the Ogden Girl's first day in Rome.

That is a very abridged version of Rome. :-) Many more days to catch up on!

Ciao Ciao!

Il mio Amelia

My goodness. I just started looking at my calendar for August and was faced with the absolute horror that my time in Amelia will be over in a little over a month. I have come to love this town very much and it feels more like home everyday. I certainly hope that one day I can set up some kind of situation that allows me to come back here frequently.

Some of the things I love about Amelia:

1) Tropicana - the amazing Gelateria around the corner from my apartment. 

2) The cobblestone streets. I mean, they can be annoying if you are in heels, but they are so much more beautiful than our asphalt mazes.

3) The views from the Terrace. 

4) The views from the Duomo.

5) Let's be honest, the views from anywhere are breathtaking.

6) The fields of sunflowers in bloom.

7) The cheese shop where each morning they make fresh mozzarella and ricotta. 

8) Truffles

9) Pizza

10) Ok, the food :-) 

11) The wine. Oh the wine. I need to find out how to get this back home. It is so nice here because you just order red or white, and whatever they bring you is absolutely amazing.

12) The random little festivals that require medieval dress.

13) The people. I have not had the opportunity to stay anywhere else in the world like I have here, but I have found Amelians to be among the most warm and welcoming people I have ever met. They encourage us when we use horrific Italian to try to order, and they are all round wonderful.

Ok... that's enough of me going on and on about why I love Amelia. I know that when the summer ends it will be bittersweet. I will be happy to return to my friends and family, but I will be so sad to leave the friends and family I have made here.

Ciao ciao!

Video Fun: Parte Due

I will blog more about this later. This is another one of those amazing things that we stumbled upon while walking around Rome.

Video Fun

This is a video from when Lindsey, Lauren, Patrick, Allan and I trekked up to the top of town. We decided that the day that a HUGE storm was coming was the best day to get up to the Duomo. When we got up there it was so windy I was afraid my camera was going to blow away. Funny enough the Duomo was NOT open.

We have realized that in Amelia if a store is open, go in. I have yet to learn hours for stores, and don't assume the posted hours are the real hours, maybe one day those were the hours they were open, but not anymore.

Ciao, ciao!

Roma

I am sorry for having neglected my blog for such a long period of time!  My mom, sister and a friend of my sister's arrived July 16th, and things have been pretty nonstop since then. So I am going to try to catch you up in a few posts and then I am going to try to stay on top of things for my final month here (I leave on August 29th).

In anticipation of my family's arrival I went to Rome a day early so I would be able to meet them at the hotel at 10am the following morning. Luckily I convinced one of my friends to join me, so we had a pretty fun day. Class got out earlier than expected, so we were able to make it to Rome by 2pm, get some sight seeing in, eat some dinner AND catch a showing of Harry Potter in English. :-) All fun things

Here is the obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo. (The Square of the People) I am in the foreground. 

That night in the elevator Emily and I spotted this sign... what may have made us laugh you ask??

Emily is nice enough to point out that the ad advertises for alcoholics to come to the cocktail hour. Everyone is welcomed in Italy! :-)

and... as a special bonus, by coming up to school alone with no one else on the internet I was able to finally upload a video. This is my last apartment. Next you'll have my walk to school, and then I will get some fun ones in. :-)

It's so hard to say goodbye...

Sadly, with all the fun we had this week there was one black cloud, we had to say goodbye to John and Jane. We figured we may as well make a night of it, so we did it Italian style and went out for a dinner. Here is my dinner, a paddletown salad (weird name right?). It is AMAZING! Romaine, swiss cheese (we think), walnuts, tomatoes, kiwi (you weren't expecting that were you?), pears and I think cucumbers. It is so amazing and yummy!

Michael, Lindsey's boyfriend arrived last Friday. He is hilarious!

Here Emily and I were trying to take a picture on both her camera and mine. First, I looked at my camera, she looked at hers.

Then she looked at my camera and I looked at hers.

Then we found it really funny that we couldn't get it right yet.

Finally we had success!

Isabel is just a blast. I can't exactly remember what she is doing here, but I can guarantee you that it was funny!

At some point during the night we all decided it was fun to take random pictures when no one was expecting them. Here Emily tried to catch us off guard, but I saw her coming.

Jane, John and I.

The group.

I am currently in Rome with Emily where we are hoping to catch a showing of Harry Potter in English. Then tomorrow my family (Mom, Kelly & Luis) arrive. SO EXCITED!!

Ciao Ciao!!