Roaming in Rome

I spent my 22nd birthday in Rome, and I don't think it will ever be topped! Laura, Ellie, Sarah, and I packed in more in two and a half days than I ever could have imagined. We walked all over the city and back several times, but it was absolutely beautiful. The weather was fantastic - sunny and 70 degrees F every day. We ate our fare share of gelato, and we ate pizza or pasta for every meal, including breakfast some days! Wine and cappuccinos were a part of our daily routine as well. The markets were incredible, but the street vendors were pushy and annoying, but once you figured out how to get them to quit pestering you, it was easy to maneuver through them all.

The trip was quite a learning experience. I learned that Italians love to talk. Well, I knew that, but I was hugely underestimating just how much they love it. It is the city of fast talkers and slow walkers. The vendors love to haggle with prices as well. My capabilities improved by leaps and bounds in just 2 days. I managed to get us an incredibly cheap tour of the Vatican!

Sunrise from the sky on the flight to Rome. Our flight was miserably early and we were still stuffed from Thanksgiving, but it was great to land in Rome midday.

The Alps! Sooooooo beautiful.

The movies are not exaggerating the number of scooters in Italy.

The streets of Rome.

HEY! Look what we found!

The Coliseum - Quite the spectacle.



Part of the floor has been reconstructed here to help visualise what it looked like in its peak.


Gelato after the tour.

Palatine Hill - This was the place where the emperors lived.

Courtyard for games in one of the emperor's palaces.

View from the top of Palatine Hill

Nice door next to the Forum

The last three columns from an ancient building in the Forum. The Forum was a gathering place for markets, trading, socializing, etc.


Monument to Vittorio Emanele - AKA: Altar of the Nation

Zucchini Flowers

Pepper bouquets

Radish and lettuce flowers

Birthday brunch next to the Saturday Market.

Caffélátte vienesse - delish!


Vatican Museums - Beautiful, beautiful artwork.

Pay attention to the table in the next 2 pictures.

The end of the table is facing you wherever you stand in front of it! It's such a neat combination of artwork and math!

One of many frescos. Unfortunately, no photos inside the Sistine Chapel.

This isn't a particularly nice photo, but it's a great example of some impressive art. That surface, if turned upside down, would be a completely smooth half pipe that you could skate board on. Crazy, eh?

Climbing to the top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. The camera is straight, the walls are not. There are over 500 stairs to the top, but it was beautiful once you got there!

View from the top of the dome. We could see 2 groups of starlings "dancing" really far off in the distance and it was REALLY cool.

Vatican City from the dome.

Sunset on the dome.

Statue decorating a bridge with a planet (perhaps Venus) in the background.

Castel Sant'Angelo - we didn't have time to go in, but it sure was beautifully lit at night.

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

Clock shop somewhere in the streets of Rome.

Leather boots in a vintage clothing store.

Our last pizza. A couple from North Carolina that we chatted with one day told us about this place. They said to get there early because people line up around the block for the pizza. It's true! There was a line forming before it opened, and for a good reason! Best pizza we had while we were there.

Friendsgiving!

This year was probably my favorite Thanksgiving. I usually find it boring, and I'm not very keen on turkey, so it's not something I usually look forward to. We had the best group of people and everybody brought a family favorite and all the food blew all my expectations out of the water. I think our bird was really fresh as well, because I've never enjoyed turkey so much in my life! Everything was so delicious, and the next morning I was still too full to eat. I flew to Rome early in the morning and couldn't eat until after we landed in Rome! I want to have that dinner over and over again.

The boys, Abe, Rob, and Zach, surprised me with a crocheted hat that they all pitched in to make. It's absolutely beautiful and I was really surprised that they got me something! Then I pulled it out, only to find I'd been Iced. I have to say it was a clever Icing, and I deserved revenge from some previous Ice attacks. I absolutely love the hat and it fits perfectly. Thanks Boys! (You can see it in the picture - the hat on my head is indeed the one they made for me.)

The dinner crew. The majority of us were American, but there was a Canadian, who celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving on the American date, and an Irish gal who was celebrating her first Thanksgiving!


The Spread.

Cork Harbor Field Trip

I'm taking a class called Oceans Past and Present and I absolutely love it. Today, we went out on a ship into Cork Harbor from the city to just beyond the river mouth into the open ocean! It was an absolutely glorious, blue-bird day. The object of the trip was to take sediment samples from the bottom at several different stations and analyze the sediments and the organisms we could see. We also took some water measurements (conductivity, temperature, depth, visibility) and we're going to use all of our data for a lab practical. This is yet another one of the best field trips I've ever been on. UCC is still amazing me!

Big barge on our way out into the harbor.

Blackrock Castle. That bubble on top is an observatory.



Some of our catch! We snagged a whole nest of brittle starfish in one of our grabs.


The 2 guys that helped with all the equipment.

A view from the window in the dining room.

I don't know exactly how this worked, but it's some sort of screw-like piece with lots of grease!

The 1st mate driving the ship. He was a funny guy. He said "We put Hogwarts to shame" when we were talking about mapping and weather forecasting techniques they use to pilot the ship.

Starfish from the dredge.

A velvet swimming crab from the dredge.