A ride through the sinking city.

As I haven’t had internet (or rather I refuse to pay 3 euro for 1 hour of Wi-Fi at our small hotels for a week and a half) I realize you readers  get to read all of these posts at once, which I personally don’t find fair, but I shall give you a taste of my adventure just the same.

After a 3 hour train ride from Milan, we gathered our belongings, and our wits, and set out to find the front of the train station. Even though we had passed over a good chunk of ocean on a long bridge before the train station, the fact that we were in Venice hadn’t truly kicked in until I got my first glimpse of the Grand Canal. The excitement I felt to finally be in Venice was indescribable. Granted, when you are hot, sweaty and trying to carry everything you own with you down a large staircase… the excitement is a little less visible. But all said and done, it felt amazing to see the water. After a good 20 minute mass “stroll” through the streets of Venice with everyone dragging at least 70 lbs of luggage with them, we arrived at our hotel.

To be honest Venice was my favorite place we have visited so far. I really didn’t like Italy a whole lot until we came to Venice. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful!, but I wouldn’t have been sad if I never saw it again. After spending two days in the sinking city, I am almost positive I could live there for the rest of my life. The sea gives it such character with its changing moods and tides, and the lack of street traffic is a definite plus. Although Venice does not have cars and trucks, it does have all the same modes of transportation, just in boat form! 

They have buses, taxis, cars(peoples personal boats), bikes(gondolas), delivery trucks, refrigerated delivery trucks, ambulances, construction trucks… its really amazing to see all the different boats and how they work. I got to ride several as we traveled in between islands. While in Venice we visited St Mark’s Cathedral and square, as well as the Doge’s(Duke’s) Palace, the prison, Murano(famous for the glass blowing), and Burano(famous for the lace makers). It is truly a LOT bigger than people think!

I mostly just loved being on the water, watching the gondoliers, and soaking it all in, but let me tell you my two most favorite parts. 

The first was my first, and probably last, gondola ride through the inner canals of Venice. We all got in groups on our second day to split the cost of the most amazing memory ever.

I never caught our gondoliers name, but he took us to see all the famous palaces, Marco Polo’s house, and the bridge of sighs(where prisoners would get their last sight of Venice before they were executed). 

We asked him lots of questions while he explained the ins and outs of Venice to us. Apparently there are only 425 gondola licenses for all of Venice. Training is different for everyone, but it can take up to 3 years, where you have to know 3 to 4 languages as well as many other things. He told us that out of several hundred applicants every year, only about 2 or 3 are chosen. When you are chosen a gondola is custom made for you according to your height and weight. You see the gondolas are not made symmetrically, because the gondolier always stands on the same side of the boat, and it must be balanced perfectly. All the gondolas are made identically by gondola makers, and they cost around 35,000euro($50,000). That is one nice boat! The ride was incredibly relaxing, because although the canals are very narrow, our gondolier was so skillful that we never hit a single corner. 

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed our time on the water, and was very grateful to the kind man that gave us such a wonderful memory.

My second favorite memory happened early on the last morning of our stay. I got this crazy idea to get up super early and take pictures of Venice while it slept in its watery grave. Thankfully my friend Meredith was willing to accompany me, and we set out at 6:15am to see what we could see. I had been hoping to find some fish markets to photograph, but what I found was probably much better to frame in the future. We wandered into the Jewish Ghetto taking pictures as we found the occasion to. The perfectly still, quiet waters stirred something inside me, and I soaked in every second of silence I could. As we wandered, more and more people got up and got ready for work, hurrying by us and disturbing the calm quiet streets. After about an hour we headed back, but I have not lost that amazing quiet rest that I soaked out of the reflective waters and bobbing boats. What a wonderful way to spend the last morning of my stay. 

I have been using my time on the Austrian trains well, and I have completely finished another blog! We arrive in Salzburg in about 30 minutes, and we will be spending 2 nights and 1 day there. Next on the list is the Sound of Music Tour and Mozart’s house! I will be back in the states in 4 weeks exactly!

Blessings from the train!

Gelato, gelato, and more gelato.

Well we have hit the ground running about as fast as we can, and we have been having grand experiences one after the other. We left Scandicci around 6am and headed for Milan. In Milan is a huge city about equal to our New York City, so it was harder to find our way around. Even though it was technically one of our “free days” to do whatever we wanted, we decided to take our favorite tour guide, Dr. G. We caught an old fashioned trolley and our first stop was, of course, a cathedral. On the way to the church we found the midnight oil(a hipster coffee shop in Searcy where we go to school) of all gelato shops and we just had to try some. The shop was a small chocolate shop, but had caught our eye because of the delectable chocolate fountain calling to us in the window. 

Inside we waited in line to order cones of gelato that they would fill with melted chocolate before they filled them with gelato. 

After our bellies were full of sweets we visited the church and then headed to La Scala, which is an opera house that anyone who is anyone in Italy, performs in. We visited the Museum for the Opera House, and I wasn’t really sure what we would get to see. Once inside we got to look out from a few of the boxes of the opera house. Everything was made with gold and red velvet. Very royal. The walls were made up of boxes in a horseshoe around the floor seating in front of the orchestra pit and stage. In the center of the ceiling was a ginormous chandelier that reminded me of nothing other than the Phantom of the Opera. I didn’t want to leave the crammed box to let others soak in that grand experience, but eventually I had to. The rest of the museum was not as great as those few minutes I got to peak into the theatre, but we did get to see Franz Liszt’s piano and some really ornate costumes from Aida. Several of us visited the Home for Retired Musicians dedicated by Verdi, which is also where Verdi and his wife are buried. It looked like a pretty grand place to live, but you have to be a famous Italian musician… so I suppose it’s out of the question. All in all, it was a good day in Milan. Up next… a visit to the sinking city: Venice!

A day in the life.

So before I tell you about our awesome trip to Assisi in my next blog, I will answer some questions I have been getting. I know you have been taking awesome trips every few days, but you are studying right? Yes, I have actually been working my tail off. On our trip we have been studying Music History and Hymnology(which is like church history through music) and actually we are taking 2 semesters of music history! We finished the first semester of music history today, and we will be taking the final next Sunday while we are in Vienna. An average day for me begins at 7am with getting up and getting ready for breakfast at around 8. I don't have the very first class, so I get to relax until 10am when we have music history. Lunch is usually around 12:30 with Hymnology beginning at 2 and my last general class at 3:30. We have tests every few days (we had three just this week) and we definitely work really hard while we're here. Classes with Dr G are always a blast. We gather around crowded tables in the Bible School's small classroom and listen while he tells us everything there is to know about Gregorian chant, the Thirty Years War, and Handel's church music. He mostly just lectures on one topic for about 15 minutes and then he'll remember something else that was going on at the same time in history and he'll say his famous phrase, "Meanwhile...back at the ranch.." Of course we all know there were no ranches in 17th century Venice, so we all crack up while he pretends not to notice. Although some are getting bored of music history, or pass the time in class on facebook, I find his classes incredibly interesting and I'm glad we've finally made it to composers that I have heard of!
Within a few days we will be hitting the ground running our last four and a half weeks traveling across 4 more countries before we make the long trek home. I miss my family a lot and although this summer is amazing, I will be happy to see them again and tell them of all my adventures. 

The horror of one thousand shrieking ring wraiths..

Last Thursday we all got up early and boarded the slow train to visit Pisa and Lucca. It is called the "slow train" because it stops at every stop, and is slightly less classy than the fast trains. Something else we quickly found out is that the breaks on these trains are far from quiet or calming. When applied to slow the speed of a thundering train, they sound like shrieking ring wraiths(for my fellow Lord of the Ring lovers) or like one million small children screaming simultaneously on a tall roller coaster. Seriously. It is one of the most blood curdling sounds I've heard in a long time.(And thats saying a lot, because I've listened to my share of terrible beginner clarinet and oboe players.)
Once on the train we had about an hour long trip to Pisa where we saw the famous leaning tower(which is actually a bell tower, I never knew that) and the cathedral that goes along with it. 

We wandered around and took goofy pictures for a while before we got the real experience. You see, they still let people climb it and explore all around the top. The hallway around the inside is narrow and gets narrower as you get closer to the top, but that wasn't the weirdest part. It's a super weird sensation to be climbing a spiral staircase and to feel your angle change the further you climb. At one point the wall to your right will be pushing into you and in a few steps the whole building will shift to the left. I should probably also mention that the ancient stone steps we took to the top were worn down in the middle at least 3 or 4 inches, so not only were the walls "moving", but you couldn't decide were to place your feet either! 

It took a good 5 or 6 minutes to climb to the "top", and by the time we made it up 8 stories, the wind had picked up into full blown gusts. That day I just happened to be wearing my longest, flowy-est, billowiest skirt. Bad news bears. I held on to my camera with one hand and my skirt with the other so Marilyn Monroe could keep the skirt blowing award. The views from up there were great, and I tried to just soak it all in. 

After walking almost all the way around the tower, we entered a small opening in the tower and I realized...we weren't all the way to the top yet. Yikes! We climbed another story or two to where the church bells were kept and where I definitely gave ol' Marilyn a run for her money.(Lets just say that by the time I got back down, my hand was pretty cramped.) The views from this point were even more breathtaking, and the bells were amazing as well. I'll never forget one of my friends whispering in my ear, "Can you imagine running up here every time the bells had to be rung?" I definitely cannot. It was quite the hike, let me tell you!

After we got all the heights and sights we could take, we caught the next train to Lucca were we visited the home of Giacomo Puccini, who was the composer of many a great opera. After visiting his apartment, we tasted our first Italian hot chocolate before we crowded onto our last train of the day that would take us back to Florence.

Wherever you are, be all there. - Jim Eliot

The past week has been absolutely insane with all the day trips we took. In between all those trips we were in class, taking tests, and studying. Thankfully this week are going absolutely nowhere and having 6 straight days of classes. I would have never thought I'd think of that as a blessing, but having a minute to write down my thoughts is wonderful.
Last Monday we took a bus to Sangimignano which is a small ancient tower city in the middle of the beautiful Tuscan countryside.

 We stopped to look at the cathedral there which has some very graphic depictions of hell in the frescos on the walls and ceiling. After some leisurely shopping we all loaded back on the bus to head for Sienna.  Sienna is famous for the horse races it holds in its city square, and although they weren’t going on, we got to see where they take place. Sienna also boasts a very large cathedral that was built in the medieval ages. What’s so neat about this building is that even though the church is huge, there are large pillars where they planned to expand to allow for growth in the future. Unfortunately before the actual additions could be completed, the Black Death hit and the work was never finished. Again it’s so awesome to look at something like this and feel like part of that corner of history.

After more shopping we crowded our tired bodies back onto the bus for a quick Memorial Day ceremony before heading back to Scandicci. We went to one of the many American Cemeteries in Italy that are dedicated to the American soldiers that fought and died in Italy. The one we went to was specifically for WWII soldiers, and I think I felt the biggest part of history here, as I walked around thinking about all the brave men and women who fought for our freedoms in America. Traveling overseas has taught me that God’s children live everywhere, and that Americans have a very “American mindset” and that we should really get out of our bubbles to appreciate the world, but there is something to be said for fighting for God and country. I can’t help but feel pride when I remember all the people who have fought to give me the life I now live today. As we rode home I remembered the words of Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address so long ago.
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The blessing of being lost.

So after that long post the other day about needing peaceful, quiet surroundings as opposed to the bustling business of Florence and Rome, God sent me a little present on Thursday morning.
We had a busy day planned with a lot of places to visit all over Rome, and we left on the bus at 8:15am. The first place we were scheduled to stop at was the home of the Borghese, which has now been turned into an art gallery. The one small problem was that our bus driver spoke very little English, and Dr. G spoke very little Italian. The bus driver dropped us off in the middle of the vast front lawns of the Villa Borghese.

I never thought walking through soft mud and wet leaves could feel so calming. As it had just rained the night before, all the trees and grass glowed with life as the sun rose higher in the sky. We had a good 10 minute walk through the immense lawns until we reached the mansion at the top of the hill, but I would have been perfectly fine with getting lost in the park all day long.
During the rest of the day we visited several churches, the ruins of the Roman Forum, and my personal favorite, the Colosseum.

Just to see such a historic place simply takes your breath away. Just seeing glimpses of it from a distance on the bus made people gasp with excitement. So much of it is still intact, that you can imagine exactly what it would have been like. A plaque somewhere within these walls said that there was no historical account of any Christians being martyred here, but it was just crazy being in a place where it could have happened. I don't have many words for how great it was to just be there and soak it all up, and I wish I could take all my readers back with me, for you to experience it yourself.
After the Colosseum we visited some catacombs outside the city. We weren't allowed to take pictures there, so I don't have any, but I will try to describe it as colorfully as I can. You enter through a garden shed looking thing that is just basically a storm shelter into the ground. Once you are down about a level under the ground your tour guide prepares you for what is about to come next. 35 minutes walking through tight spaces about 2 to 3 stories below ground with open tombs on either side of you (as all the bodies had been removed and placed in a mass grave a few hundred years ago that is at the same site as the catacombs) with almost very little light. Something that probably wouldn't come to mind is its about 50 degrees down there, with about 90% humidity. It feels like you just walked about side after a very cold rain, and its still dark outside. The catacombs weren't stone, but a special kind of dirt that is supple, but as soon as air hits it, it turns hard into stone. The whole experience was really neat, seeing different tombs there. I got kinda creeped out every time we would walk by a big opening that was so dark you couldn't see into it, but then I remembered something. The tomb is empty. Not just the tombs of the hundreds of people in the catacombs around Rome, but Jesus' tomb specifically. Real tombs only have shells of people in them, because their souls and spirits are with God. I pondered these things as I walked through the catacombs and it definitely made my time there richer.
Our last stop in Rome was St John's Basilica where the Pope is a Bishop. He rarely makes an appearance there, but if he was to say Mass at any point, he would do it there. I have stopped taking a lot of pictures in the churches, because to be honest, they all look the same. They are all big, gaudy and full of statues and paintings. Most of the places we have visited have been full of paintings and statues and after about the first 6, you really don't know what to take pictures of. With all of this said, when we visited Vatican city we were able to walk through the Sistine Chapel and see the famous painting of Adam and God touching fingers. Standing there is a mass of people with the guards yelling at people the keep silence and stop using their cameras, you begin to feel something special. Its not the intense pain in your neck from craning it back too long, although that does become an issue, its standing under the same ceiling that Michael Angelo spent so many hours laying under and creating his view of the world. Its almost like you walk into a part of history that has stood still all these years. I got the same feeling when I walked into the Pantheon and the Colosseum. Becoming a part of these small pieces of history has made me come to recognize why people like to travel internationally. You experience the magnitude, the difference, the language, the significance.. and that my friends is definitely worth the adventure.

Things I have learned about myself.

People always told me that when I traveled overseas I would learn more about myself than I ever had before. I believed them, but not to the extent that I do now.
This morning we boarded the 8:05 train to Rome, Italy and for the first time in a week, I was forced to sit and watch the world pass by as I had time to think about life.

As I sat, I watched the country scenery slowly rise with the sun and begin its morning routine. Children went to school, roads became busy, and fog slowly drifted to the top of the mountains. First of all I have to say that traveling by European train is the way to go. It was so smooth, not to mention that the seats were better than flying first class on an overseas flight. But back to all my deep thoughts about life and European travel. All my life I have wanted to travel all over the world, just to be able to pick up and go wherever the wind carried me. Well after a week of doing almost that exact thing, I've realized that its really not for me. Don't get me wrong, it has been really neat and I have loved every adventure that we have gotten ourselves into, but this is not what my heart longs for anymore. The cities are crowded, the buses are crammed, and the rush to get nowhere is exhausting. Now I realize this sounds negative, but its really not. I have just come to the realization that my heart desires the peace and quiet of the woods or an old monastery. Its one of the moments when you think about how you thought you were and it makes you laugh because you are so different than you originally thought. I have told people for years, especially since I've been to Harding, that I am a city girl and I really don't like small towns. But when it comes down to it, I don't mind small towns and I am probably most happy in the wilderness.

With all that said, I am loving this trip and I am learning so much! Today we visited the Pantheon, the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, as well as several churches. It was bright and sunny for the first half of the day, and it poured for the second half, but we have been laid out to drip dry in our rooms for most of the evening and we are ready to tackle the day tomorrow!
Something else I've realized is that I'm not homesick, but I am tired of running around and being so busy all the time. On our next "free day" I am staying in Scandicci ALL DAY and doing nothing but reading and just thinking. It's going to be great!

Blessings from Roma!!!!