Awesome Week filled with ADVENTURE!

well really only 1 adventurous thing-but still this past past week was awesome! the week im talking about is the 5th through 11th. my week was great but it really became awesome on thursday.

for art history we visited galleria borghese which is an art gallery. we always go see what we are studying in person which makes this class good, fun, and helpful for me since i am a visual learner. i am really enjoying this class. we saw a lot of renaissance art obviously since that is what the class is focused on. we saw sculptures too. it was great! i love renaissance art and we saw a bernini sculpt

ure that-omg...i wanted to die of how detailed and beautiful it was. just being in this gallery made me want to visit florence even sooner to go to the uffizi. we are going as a depaul group. i have been there before and i loved it. also my favorite painting of all time is there: the birth of venus. i cant wait to

have my breath taken away again....

friday we went to cinecitta which is the main film production company in italy. its basically like warner bros and all that jazz. so i got to walk around! it was pretty cool. we walked on a lot of sets that were in gangs of new york which makes me really want to see the movie now. we also saw props from gladiator, la dolce vita, and others. it was cool. friday night was just awesome in general too. just hang out with a few girls and enjoyed roman nightlife, haha.

saturday was the HIGHLIGHT! my friend leslie calls me and says, "so h

ow do you feel like getting out of rome?" spontaneous and awesome! i took my first train ride ev

er for 1 euro and 90 centessimi (cents) for 30 min. we went to castel gandolfo which is the summer home of the pope. it was really pretty and quaint. it was like one of the towns in cinque terre except maybe a little smaller and more spread out and there was a lake instead of the sea. it was wonderful and beautiful! we just walked around, took pictures, went into little shops...just enjoyed ourselves and the fact that we were there and able to do this-just travel to a smaller town outside of rome! one characteristic i liked about the town was that there was a mosaic studio and they do the majority of shop signs. so you see all these little shop signs above doors that are done in mosaics, so cute! the best part was dinner. we went to this place called arte e vino (art and wine). the theme was rustic cabin in the fall. it reminded me of thanksgiving in oregon

. it was great! i think i liked even more because it didnt remind me of italy-so some place new and it did remind me of home. the food was wonderful and so was the wine. it obviously was warm but it gave that warm feeling like comfort i guess? i dont know how to explain....man, it was great!

sunday was fun as well. got up early to go to porta portese which is this huge open air market-and i mean huge! bought a scarf and a moka for myself. and a gift for someone ;] a moka is the coffee machine here. you use it on the stove and the coffee tastes different and

BETTER. im so excited to use it when i get back. i spend a few hours there and then went home to chill. then of course sunday is giant burger night and i went with the usually girls.

so that was my awesome week/weekend. other news, the weather is finally fall weather and even maybe a little colder. its weird being here in fall, i guess i still cant believe im here and studying i guess, haha. i finally have a down comforter for the weather, no longer just a sheet! its the best! tomorrow im going to this club/bar where there is going to be a cover band of Bee Gee's. im excited, it should be a good night. also saturday i am, haha, 90% sure i am going to eurochocolate 2009 in perugia! yay! also...paris and prague are going to be here so soon!! basically a week!! im sooooo excited but nervous about how expensive everything is going to be especially in paris-and we are staying there the most. havent book hostels yet-i know bad but internet is crappy. hopefully today or early next week. im super excited though. i have stuff planned and...yeah...i love it!

so i obviously am behind in blogging. its hard because of the internet but i will post when i can. pics are of castel gandolfo. my friend is leslie and that is the little nook we sat in. we were inside the restaurant but also outside, how cool is that! also the pic i took is what i could see from the town.