These are a few of my favorite things: Weekends in Rome and Austria

Andree has finally found time to sit down and blog about her past two weeks! Sorry for the delay in posting last week just flew by and I never had the time or felt motivated enough to blog so now I am gonna repay you and tell you everything and more you would ever want to know about these past two weeks. Its a long one, just warning you!

Rewind to last weekend...

Last weekend after much deliberation and back and forth about where and if we wanted to travel my friends and I decided it would be in our best interest and our bank accounts best interest to stay here and enjoy our city that we have been living in for the past two months. It took a while to accept the fact that yes indeed there is much of Rome that we have not yet seen but it takes a while to get off of our traveling highs after coming off of wonderful weekends in Switzerland and various other countries. Also before last weekend, since I have been here every Saturday has been filled with either day trips with lectures and tours or traveling and so we decided that we should spend some time with Rome and explore some more of its not so touristy attractions. Here are some of the highlights of our weekend in our home city Roma..

Thursday morning after I was done with class two friends and I went on an adventure to try and find the keyhole to the Vatican! This is not your typical tourist destination (at least I dont think so ) because the only way we were able to find it was by spotting two women who were looking through it holding cameras but other than that is it unmarked and so easy to miss. This keyhole is one of Rome's hidden treasures and a treasure it is indeed. The hole you look through is little and placed in the middle of a large door that leads to a garden. When you look through the hole you can see the Vatican is plain sight perfectly outlined by the bushes that seemed to be trimmed just to frame around the Vatican. Of course no iPhone or camera could capture the secret view but that is the purpose of a hidden treasure right? 

Thursday night (or should I say morning) after we had dinner and went out to a nearby bar me and three others decided it would be a perfect night to stay up late and go to the Trevi Fountain at 3am. One must understand that to visit the Trevi Fountain and be completely alone with you and the splendor that lies in front of you, you must go sometime between 3 and 5am. We decided that this was something that we needed to do before we left so at 3am we headed over in the slight drizzle. It was totally worth everything. We took pictures and enjoyed listening to the grand sound of the water as it filled the whole area..there was only one police car (to watch for crazy people that have tendencies to dive in) and one lone man in sight. We had the Trevi to ourselves for about twenty minutes and for that twenty minutes the Trevi was much more than a tourist attraction, it was a historically significant part of Rome, calming and mystical. Its not typical for a tourist visiting Rome to say they are going to stay up and visit the Trevi at 3am so one of the advantages of living here for three months is that we are able to visit these signifiant parts of Rome's history and experience it in its undisturbed, most compelling state.  

Colleen and I visit the Trevi at 3am

On Friday morning after sleeping in a bit we made our way to the Vatican and waited in line for Saint Peter's Basilica. After about a half hour we made it inside and I was taken back by how totally overwhelming the inside of the basilica was. It was magnificent and delicate and the space seemed to stretch infinitely. Saint Peter's Basilica is so huge that I found it hard to be able to take it all in at once, the statue like the famous La Pieta that was placed behind a glass wall and illuminated by lights and the different mosaics that lined the walls as well as the side sections and divisions of the basilica made it seem more like a museum than a church. I am often drawn to the intimacy of churches and the unity that it has although small and I just did not feel that intimacy with the Vatican but it was a great visit and I am glad we went to see it. After the basilica we went up to the cupola (or the dome) at the very top of the Vatican. To get up there we had to climb an endless set of spiral staircases and we got to experience a sort of fun house effect as the walls slanted inwards the farther up the dome we got. Once we got to the top and caught our breath we enjoyed the views of Saint Peter's Basilica and Rome. The day was gloomy and overcast and the rain held out for us for most of the day so we lucked out. Our visit to Vatican City was very successful!

View of Saint Peter's Square from the top of the Dome

After our long morning we decided to stop at a nearby caffe/bookstore that is on the road on our way back to the hotel that we take multiple times a week. This was the first time that we actually went into this cafe and we have been back multiple times since. For all of you South Benders reading this who remember Lula's Cafe, well this cafe was kind of similar to that in terms of atmosphere and unique/antique feel to it. This cafe is also not your typical tourist sit down spot and so we felt very proud that we happened this place, must attest to the simple fact that we are no longer tourists :) Two months into our time here and we are beginning to stray away from the typical hangouts, now we have experience and can compare and look for different more out of the way cafes and things to do. Sure sign that we are apart of Rome and we have found our place here in this city. In the evening four of us treated ourselves to Miscellanea, the restaurant that serves four courses plus unlimited white and red wine and their famous "Sexy wine" for dessert. Needless to say we spent three hours there with wonderful conversation and wine.... the wine just kept coming so what we were supposed to do, stare at it!? It was a good night indeed.

Saturday was admitingly probably our least productive day for many reasons (see when we stay here in Rome we vow to be productive and see places and get out and experience the city and not stay in our rooms all day, we are pretty good about it usually but Saturday not particularly). It was rainy all day and we were all tired and didn't feel like doing much so we took a little walk around and went to the Jewish Ghetto but it was Saturday and everything was closed (duh) then we ended up back at the hotel. Nothing else significant happened that day.

Sunday we went to the Vatican for mass because it was the last Sunday of the Year of Faith (last Sunday in ordinary time) and also because they brought out the bones of Saint Peter, something that has never been done before. The presentation of the bones was definitely less of a show than we thought and we were kinda confused as to why they didn't make a bigger deal out of it but we saw them through the video screens in their special little box displayed up on the altar and so that was pretty nifty. We also got to see Pope Francis make his round on his Pope Mobile after mass which is always a treat (its our favorite part we just don't admit it). It was my third mass at the Vatican and third time seeing the pope whisk by as he smiles from ear to ear and waves at all the people and children hanging on the railings. I took no pictures the whole time I was there. Yes, no pictures therefore no longer a tourist.  Later that day we made a trip to Castel Sant'Angelo which long ago was the emperor Hadrian's mausoleum and later served as a fortress for the Pope but now it is a museum and is the spot for one of the best views of the city. We looked through the museum for a little while but spent most of our time at the top overlooking Rome and Vatican City as the sun set. We probably spent a good half hour just gazing over the edge marveling at the city, it was pretty great.

View of the Vatican from Castel Sant'Angelo

Sunday even ended with our dinner at Abbey theater and we were back in our hotel ready to begin another week of class. With the weekend wrapping up we were fully aware that November was coming to an end and that we only had three more weekends left in Rome. Cue constant talk about how we cannot believe we have only four weeks left and how we don't know how we are going to leave and go back to South Bend and school at Saint Mary's (even thought we love SB Saint Mary's) and how are biggest concern is how nobody back at school is going to understand us and our Roman/Italian ways of doing things or talking about things....the struggle of us study abroad students.

Successful weekend in Rome if I do say so myself. 

Now a novel about this past weekend...

Ok so now that I have caught you up on last weekend I can tell you about my all too wonderful weekend in the land of Austria aka the land of cider, Christmas, Sound of Music, cold air, music and another place that I will be returning to on my "I miss everything about Europe" trip after I graduate.

Since this weekend was Thanksgiving weekend in the States the Rome Program was generous enough to give us Thursday and Friday off from classes so we took advantage and planned a long weekend trip to Austria. On Thursday morning me and ten other girls flew from Rome FCO (the airport where it all began for me) to Vienna, Austria! The flight to Vienna was very lovely. We flew with AirBerlin on the Niki flight and November 28th happened to be the 10th anniversary of the first Niki flight and so us passengers got to have chocolate mousse and drinks and we all received a certificate that said "thanks for flying with us on our 10th anniversary", we love free things. Thank you Niki! Once we landed in Vienna we literally spent five minutes running from one of the airport to the other (without looking to culturally unacceptable because apparently Austrians are much more calm and less hurried than Italians so of course we looked just like we shouldn't have running through that airport). Culturally acceptable or not we had a train to catch in t minus 45 minutes and to get to that train we needed to take a taxi which could take anywhere from 20 to that terrible 45 minute number. We hopped on our taxi and told the driver we were in a hurry. Every red light was our worst enemy and at one point I swear one of us was going to jump up in that drivers seat and step on that accelerator but thank you to the heavens above we made our train. WE MADE OUR TRAIN with three minutes to spare... and we only made our train because it was delayed by five minutes. I have never hopped off a taxi, read a train schedule screen and hopped on a train car faster than we did that day. I will never be annoyed about a delay in transportation again. Once we were in our seats and once the train started rolling we were able to breath, take off all our layers that we wore (Austria is cold and it was snowing when we arrived... yes snowing and I wasn't even able dance with joy like I usually do because we were in sucha hurry) and smile because we were on our way to Salzburg, Austria and life was darn good.

In honor of it being Thanksgiving we all pulled out our grocery store/airport snacks which included cookies, juice boxes (another free item from flight Niki), popcorn, Pringles and pretzels. A lunch of champs! The train ride was about three hours and around 18:00 we arrived in Salzburg! Once off the train and through the station we were off to find our hostel.

We found it with no difficulty (thanks to one of the girls who was so prepared and had printed off a map before hand, we are smart travelers) and found our rooms and dropped our stuff off before we were headed out to experience the best of Salzburg, the Christmas Markets! All of us were bundled in the warmest things that we brought abroad with us. For me that included the long sleeve shirt I was wearing, a scarf, my NorthFace (which my mom does not approve of as a good winter coat), and some wimpy gloves. It was cold yes but I am from South Bend and so I could manage. We walked down towards the main shopping area and were immediately welcomed by an abundance of Christmas spirit. There were Christmas lights strung above the street and lining the street all the way down and a different feeling to the mood in this town, this was a town that knew how to handle the Christmas season. Up until this point I was real disappointed by the lack of holiday spirit in Europe (Rome specifically) so this trip to Austria rekindled in me the hope that there are places in Europe that do have Christmas spirit. Thumbs up Austria! We made our way across the bridge and to the main square where the Christkindl-Markt (Christmas Markets) were set up. It was aahhhhmazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole square was filled with small booths and tents that were lit up from the array of Christmas lights that were strung above all of the stations. These booths sold everything Christmas from wreaths and ornaments and decorations to mangers and stuffed animals, slippers and hats, suspenders and toys. For food they had authentic Austrian specialities including huge soft pretzels and brats, baked potatoes and fries and more greasy fried food sprinkled with powered sugar that will appeal to anybody that is human. The smell in the air was of cinnamon and spiced wine, of cider and sugar and maple syrup. The sounds were of Christmas music, constant laughter, conversation, and the clinking of cider mugs and wine glasses. The Christmas Markets set the town of Salzburg in a bubble of light where people flocked from all over and it was unbelievable. The market area was a globe of happiness and frivolity for the holiday season for times with family and friends and of buying gifts and eating the best kinda  food you can find and once you left the markets that happiness stayed with you as you made your trek home..... obviously the Christmas Markets were the highlight of that night. For dinner we found a nice quiet Austrian restaurant and we ate our "Thanksgiving meal" of sausage and dumplings, it was delicious.

Christmas Markets in Salzburg!

We got up early on Friday morning and after a hearty hostel breakfast we headed up to the castle in Salzburg which has incredible views and an Advent market. Oh yeah thats right we are in Advent after all folks...kinda forget about that with the Christmas Markets taking control oops. Up in the castle we walked around the Advent markets and got some of the famous hot spiced wine in souvenir mugs and tried some delicious breads and dips that were set out to sample. There was also a significant amount of snow up in the areas surrounding the castle and so we had an impromptu snowball fight with this random dude who started it by chucking a snow ball at one of us and we also built a little snowman. Maybe a little childish but I miss snow so much so I thought it was perfectly acceptable. We walked over to the side of the ledge and looked out at the land before us which once again was too beautiful for words. Calm and crisp, white snowy mountains and a little town that stretched out before us. As if our day wasn't perfect enough already we still had The Sound of Music tour to look forward to at 2 and so we headed back down towards the town to our meeting place for our tour!

SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!

This tour was the main attraction for many of us planning this trip to Austria (this was before we knew about the Christmas markets in Austria) so we were all so excited and had been preparing by watching the movie late at night in our rooms. Such dedication :) Our tour was given by an older man who was very nice but had an odd sense of humor, he gave a very good tour and he even wore a hat that reminded me exactly of Captain von Trapp, I appreciated that. For the tour we rode in a Sound of Music motor bus that took us to a variety of different locations where scenes from the movie were shot and then we took about a half hour tour through the country side where we got to stop for an incredible photo shoot of a winter paradise. During the tour through the grey wintery countryside the bus played The Sound of Music soundtrack and some of us sang along as the bus tooled along and we thought of our favorite things. It was perfect. Some of the locations and places that we saw from the movie were the Nonnberg Abbey, the two different locations that were used for scenes at the Von Trapp family mansion (the yellow mansion was only used for front of house scenes every other scene that was shot in the back yard/porch area was a totally different house), we also saw the lake that the famous canoe tipping scene was filmed which they had to film twice and the second time Gretel almost drowned, the all too famous "16 going on 17" gazebo which was only used for outside scenes (the inside scenes were shot on set in Hollywood...totally disappointing!), and St. Michaels the church where the wedding scene was shot (so so beautiful and mystical). St. Michael's church was located in a small town called Mondsee about a half hour from Salzburg so we got to spend a good hour there looking in the church and walking around the town and at the shops. We got apple strudel and sat by one of the many fire pits that were situated all around in the little market area. The stop in Mondsee ended our four hour tour and we were back in Salzburg in the evening. Apparently the Sound of Music is not a popular movie with the Austrians because the movie was only released in German 17 years ago so those Austrians just do not appreciate the movie as much as we all do! Of course after the tour we headed back to the Christmas market and bought some Christmas gifts and ate some wonderfully delicious Christmas Market food for dinner. The day couldn't have been better.  

 Winter paradise and friends

Colleen and I in front of the gazebo

Saturday we really didn't have much planned so we got up and headed to the Mirabell Gardens, the site of many of the scenes in The Sound of Music. The tour didn't take us to this location so we wanted to see it on our own. We spent a good hour in these gardens reenacting different scenes from the movie including the "Do-Re-Mi" fountain, stairs and ivy walkway scenes and we found two statues that were in the movie and totally did an awesome reenactment of that scene as well. We shot lotsa pictures and took tons of VideoStars to make everybody jealous of our obviously fantastic acting and impersonating abilities. After the gardens we walked around Salzburg for about an hour and visited the home of Mozart! Around noon we headed to the train station and hopped on our train which took us back to Vienna. The train ride was actually very wonderful. The early afternoon sun was shining though the windows, we had Pitch Perfect playing on an iPad and the beautiful Austrian scenery was passing us by as we rested and as others blogged about their trip so far. Train rides are much more enjoyable than flights because you can actually see the scenery and environments that pass and change as you move from countryside to city and from city to town. At this point in the trip I was tired and the train put me in such a relaxed sleepy state which was not good because as soon as we were off the train in Vienna we had to walk about a half hour to our second hostel and it was cold and the city was huge and I had a big backpack to carry and I was just tired. Traveling is tiring folks and traveling requires attention, millions of different kinds of transportation and constant environment changing and stimulation everywhere....WHEW.

SMICKS reenact the "Do-Re-Mi" stair scene

Well we successfully made it to our hostel after a lot of walking (but pssh walking is second nature for us Roma people now so it was no biggie really). Our hostel was huge but it was wonderful. They had a cute lounge area with computers and couches and pillows and they played Christmas music and were very welcoming. After putting our stuff in our rooms we consulted the large ever helpful info board that posted everything a youth at a hostel could want to know about the surrounding area and things to do. None of us really planned ahead of time things to do in Vienna because we were only gonna be in Vienna for a short amount of time but we knew we wanted to try and do something cultural like seeing a ballet or a concert or something of that nature. Well what four of us ended up doing was so spontaneous but so perfect and will forever go down in my memory as a proud study abroad moment. 

We walked to the Opera House in Vienna which was really close to the hostel and waited in line for standing room only tickets to Mozart's Magic Flute opera. After about 45 minutes the five of us each had a ticket to Mozart's Opera in Vienna and we each spent three euro on our ticket. THREE EURO for an opera in Austria. Please applaud while I take a bow. We were so psyched and shocked that we actually were able to get these tickets. The opera started at 7 and we had about an hour to find some quick food from a vendor on the street and that we did. Fries and Bosna (brat with cumin and onions, spicy mustard and cilantro) that we scarfed down in about 15 minutes. The following events were pretty funny to say the least. The five of us walked into the Opera House in our traveling clothes (aka jeans, boots and NorthFace jackets) and smelling fantastically of onions and brats and of students that have been staying at hostels for the past two nights. We tried to collect ourselves a little but the situation was just too funny and so we proceeded to walk towards the usher to ask how to get to our section. Meanwhile ladies in their mint colored and black evening gowns with fur coats passed, and young teenagers in classy black dresses, heels and red lipstick posed with their friends for photos. This night was evidently very special for most of the people attending and they showed it, but heck it was even more special for us because we planned to see this opera in like 20 minutes and got in for three euro each.

We made it up to our section of the Opera House and were pleasantly surrounded by people that were more on our level, students and people wearing jeans. Whew. The standing room only section was actually already full by the time we got there and so we got to stand behind the people in the very last row. The opera started and we listened and it was magnificent. We couldn't very well see anything but really listening was all I cared about at that point. Actually just being able to see inside the Opera House was enough for me to be satisfied with my three euro spending. We weren't planning on staying through the whole opera but we did. Three and a half hours. After intermission we were able to actually go up to the railing because some of the people left and so we were able to read the little screens in front of us that had the opera in english and the spot had a slightly better view of the stage. I didn't understand what was going on the opera but I was just in awe the whole time. The voices, the costumes, the Opera House, and the people I was surrounded by made the experience so memorable.

View of the inside of the Opera House

Sunday morning we ate breakfast, checked out of our hostel and a few of us decided to go to the cemetery where Beethoven and Mozart's graves are. It was on the way to the airport so it was perfect. We hopped off at the proper location and walked around the perimeter of the huge cemetery and walked for about ten minutes in the cemetery before coming to the neighborhood of composer graves. Beethoven, Mozart, and Strauss were among the graves that we saw and it only seemed fitting to put a cap on our musical adventures in Vienna by visiting the graves of these famous composers. On our way out of the grave we walked through the oldest part of the cemetery and spotted graves that dated back to 1834. Shrubs and ivy were overgrown on these graves and the writing was illegible on most of them. Ravens flew in and out of the trees and the grass that we plodded through was overgrown. If the day was October 31st I would have been pretty spooked but it was very cool to wander through such a huge and historically significant cemetery. We got on the train and said good bye to Austria as we headed to the airport. Waiting at the airport for our flight back to Rome is always the hardest part of our weekend travels. We always fall in love with the countries that we visit and the countries we have visited are always so different from Rome and so it is difficult to prepare ourselves for returning to Rome. But we do it each time, and it takes a while but once we are back in Rome we are happy once we get food in our stomaches, take a nice warm shower and climb into our wonderfully familiar albergo home beds and breathe a huge sigh of thanks for another safe and successful traveling weekend.

Austria was such a wonderful, fully packed trip that provided many exceptional experiences and feelings. I am coming back for yeah Salzburg and Vienna.

Well it just turned 2am here in Rome (it took me two evenings to write this blog because I had too much to tell you all). Today was a normal Monday. Class, a little bit of paper writing and studying, eating with the group and a gelato run at 10:00 (we stopped at the Christmas markets that have been setup in Piazza Navona and they are disappointing. Its like I stepped into a Six Flags or a 4H fair ground surrounded by fair games and large stuffed animals in the middle of Piazza Navona, I couldn't believe it. I wont be going back, nope not gonna happen). Rome has its share of Christmas lights up and in a few shops and restaurants there are subtle references to the approaching holiday season but its not soaking in. I am listening to Christmas music as I write this blog but thats about as close to the Christmas spirit that I am gonna get here in Rome. It's ok, this is Rome and Christmas is just a totally different thing in the States so I do what I can to survive without Christmas stimulation for the rest of my time here. I here that South Bend will most likely be greeting me with plenty of white stuff and cold weather to instantly put me in the Christmas mood so I am looking forward to that.

Today is Tuesday December 3rd. I leave Rome December 20th. That means I have 18 days left with Rome (actually more like 16 because I am traveling for the last time this weekend). That means only 16 more evening gelato stops, 16 more nights in my albergo home, 16 more Pascucci cornetti, 16 more days to see the Pantheon and the Trevi, 16 more days to indulge in Italian food that my body loves and hates at the same time, 16 more days of euros, 16 more walks around the city, and 16 more days to show my unconditional, perpetual love for this city that has shown me more about life and myself then I ever thought possible.

This school week brings a lot of studying and beginning the preparation for finals (ha finals right) and a trip to the cinema to see La Ragazza di Fuoco (Catching Fire) on Wednesday! On Friday we leave for the last of our abroad travels for Barcelona!

Have I mentioned how incredibly blessed I am? I have but I need to mention it over and over. 

Happy December! Enjoy your week :)

Andreina