VENICE

After our last final on Friday, I came straight home, blared some Michael Jackson, and packed. I was shocked that I was able to fit everything into the same bags I brought because I was leaving with a LOT more than I came with. After packing, we had some of our classmates over to drink wine, listen to music, and reminisce. We had dinner reservations at our favorite restaurant, Al Sportivi (which we nicknamed Checkerboard), at 6:00. On our way there, we saw an awesome street artist who was drawing the Mona Lisa on the ground with chalk. It was really impressive. Almost everyone from our program came to dinner. It was delicious as usual and a lot of fun!

The whole group then headed to Madigan's to wind down our final night in Venice. Jacapo (one of the Italian students who was helping out with our program) came, so that was fun. I think Fabio, our favorite bartender there, was a little sad when I told him we were leaving the next day.

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning because we had to turn in our keys by 9:00. Annie and I grabbed our stuff and headed for the train station. I would say it was hard to leave our little place, but it was in need of a deep cleaning, so I was ok with it. Our train from Venice to Milan left at 11:00. It was a miserable train ride. No air conditioning and we were slightly hungover. I was also cursing myself for packing too much because my hands blistered almost immediately. We made it to Milan and got some McDonald's (of course). Our train from Milan to Paris left around 4:00. This train was a little better because it was air conditioned, but it was absolutely disgusting. They clearly didn't clean the train from the last trip. I decided to finish reading “The Reader” on the way, and if you've read it you know it can get pretty sad. I started sobbing on the train and everyone around me looked really concerned. They couldn't ask me if I was ok, though, because they were Italian, German and French. It was pretty humorous.

Annie and I got into Paris around midnight. Although it was dark and we were exhausted, Paris still made me really happy. It's such an awesome city. We grabbed a cab (which was a good call) and headed to our hotel. Our hotel was less than cushy, but considering that we were only in it for approximately four hours, it was fine. We showered and slept for a couple of hours then had to head to the airport. We grabbed coffee and a pan au chocolat (so glad I got one more of those) and caught our flight from Paris to Manchester. When we got to Manchester we went through a really bizarre customs/security experience. We had a bus pick us up from one terminal, take us to another to go through customs, and then take us right back to the terminal we initially arrived in. Let's just say the Manchester airport is a little backwards.

We had about a two hour layover, so Annie and I headed to the bar to get beer (Coors light!) and pasta salad. We had been up for about six hours at this point after all. Our flight from Manchester to Atlanta went really well. I read a new Twilight book and watched some movies. Landing in Atlanta was SUCH a good feeling. We finally made it to baggage claim where I met up with my mother and sister. They had flowers and peanut m&ms waiting for me. They are the best. We grabbed the car and headed back to Huntsville, stopping at Cracker Barrel on the way. It was delicious!

So it's been awesome being home. Here are some of the things I missed the most: freezing cold air conditioning, Sonic, pedicures, Target, American outlets, clothes dryers, my car, businesses that take credit cards, etc. I've just been hanging out in Huntsville and Nashville for the past week. I start work tomorrow, so wish me luck!

This is going to be my last blog entry. Thank you all so much for following along with my travels. I hope my entries have been informative and entertaining. Europe was an incredible experience, and I will treasure it forever!

I want to leave you with one final picture of the confusing, interesting, frustrating, and beautiful city I lived in for the past six weeks:

Love love-Ally

We (Harding, Gene, and I) left Venice around 2:30 on Friday and got into Florence by 5:30 (short train rides are always appreciated). They had a McCafe right outside the train station so I got an awesomely huge cappuccino (large coffees are hard to come by in Italy). We checked into our hostel which was an interesting process since the owners spoke absolutely zero English. We were pleasantly surprised that we got a private room with attached private bathroom. Not bad for our last hostel experience.

After we got cleaned up, we headed out to find a dinner spot. We went to a standard Italian restaurant and there was a street band playing Greek music right next to us, so that was nice. I had some of the best bruschetta ever. Afterwards, we decided to put together our own version of a Florence pub crawl. We first went to the Old Stove Duoma (right next to the Duomo, hence the name) and had pitchers of sangria.

We then went to Yellow Bar, which came highly recommended by friends. We got caraffes of wine and french fries (always a good call).

Then we headed towards a bar that had a band playing Michael Jackson (in tribute of course). Harding and I got up and impressed the whole bar with our dancing skills. I'm pretty sure we received a round of applause. The mojitos at the bar were as amazing as the music.

Our next stop was Red Garter, which also came highly recommended. The front part was covered with sand, I'm assuming they were attempting a beach theme. The back had karaoke and guess what people were singing?? MJ of course!

Our final stop of the evening was called the Blob Club. It was Venice's version of Piccolo Mondo, and it rumored to be run by the Italian mob. Needless to say, we got out of there pretty quickly. It was such a fun night!

On Satuday we woke up at 11:00 (we did go to bed around 4:00 afterall) and went to get lunch. Afterwards, we went to the Uffizi gallery, one of Florence's best museums. Luckily we had made reservations, so we didn't have to wait in the ridiculously long line. Uffizi wasn't my favorite museum ever, it didn't have air conditioning and it was just a lot of religious artwork (which gets old after a while). However, the Uffizi houses the Birth of Venus, which is even more beautiful in person. I'm really glad I got to see it. There was also a great view of the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge from the second floor. At this point, Harding and I decided we needed a nap so we walked home (in the rain, yuck). On the way, we stopped for yummy gelato and passed the famous Doors of Paradise.

After a very long nap, we headed out for our final meal in Florence. The gnocchi I ordered was delicious. We were still pretty tired from the night before, so we headed back to our hostel, drank wine, and played cards. I would like to point out that I kicked butt in Hearts, my new favorite card game.

On Sunday morning, we got up bright and early to head to the Accademia gallery, famous for housing the statue of David (the real one, not the copy). It was probably one of the most impressive piece of arts I've ever seen. I could've stared at it for hours. Pictures were strictly forbidden, but I managed to sneak one.

After we left the Accademia (which also had an awesome photography exhibit by Robert Maplethorpe), Harding and I caught a train to Pisa to see the famous leaning tower. We were slightly annoyed that when we got there we had to walk thirty minutes across town in order to see it. When we finally arrived, we took the requisite cheesy pictures and then had to hurry back to the train station to get back to Florence. We finally made it into Venice by about 5:30. It was a really fun weekend, and I absolutely loved Florence.

On Monday, we got to take a tour of the famous Fenice Opera House (our last field trip!). It was beautiful, but the best part was our tour guide. He was a little old man, and loved telling us funny stories. His best one was when he got to help zip up Salma Hayek's wedding dress (she recently got married at the Fenice).

On Tuesday, Harding and I went to Biennale. Biennale is the world famous modern art exhibit that takes place in Venice every two years. Every major country sends it's famous artists to Venice to represent them. Each country has their own pavilion and the artists set up their works in it. They had some of the craziest and most elaborate arts installations I've ever seen. I'm SO glad we went, it was definitely the coolest thing we've done in Venice. Here are some of my favorite pieces:

So my time in Europe is almost over! We had one final yesterday and have one more tomorrow. I leave for Paris on Saturday and fly out of CDG on Sunday morning. I will post one last time when I get back to the states. Please pray for me to have happy and safe travels!

Love-Allison

P.S. I forgot to mention that we went to Hard Rock Venice last week. It is the smallest Hard Rock in Europe, but it brought me lots of joy. I didn't realize how much I missed ranch dressing!

P.P.S. Harding refers to Allison Harding, my roommate, just to clarify any confusion.

Staying in Venice for a weekend turned out to be an excellent idea. It was so nice to get out of class on Friday and not have to run off to the train station. After relaxing all afternoon Friday (hint: wine and naps), we got ready for our dinner reservations. One of our professors suggested a restaurant that he took his wife to for their anniversary. It's called La Zucca, and it turned out to be fantastic. The food was delicious and it was actually very inexpensive. If you've never had pumpkin flan, you haven't fully experienced life. After dinner, we headed to Madigan's of course. It decided to monsoon, so we had to move inside and then bolt for home when it let up a little bit. It was . . . fun.

On Saturday, we slept in for once (which was awesome) and then headed out to the St. Mark's area. The line to get into the St. Mark's basilica was outrageous, so we decided to go to the Doge's Palace instead. The Palace is where the Doge lived in ancient Venice times. It was really neat to see the inside, it reminded me of Versailles. The artwork and craftmanship was amazing. The palace was originally linked to the Venice jail, so we got to see that as well. We walked over the famous “Bridge of Sighs” on our way. They call it that because it was the last time prisoners got to see sunlight, so it was rumored that they sighed as they crossed it. A little depressing, actually. And let me tell you, jail in ancient Venice times was not cushy. After spending a couple of hours at the Palace, Annie and I went shopping. There are lots of fancy stores around St. Mark's, but we also walked down to the open air market by the Rialto bridge. It was fun and we got some cool stuff.

Saturday night we were planning on going to the beach party on Lido (thanks to all of you who prayed for good weather!). We were so tired, that we just ended up going to the boys place to drink wine and play cards. I learned how to play Hearts for the first time, and although it's not as good as Spades, I'm down with it.

Sunday morning we got up early and took the vaperetto to Murano. Murano is an island right off of Venice and is world famous for its glass. We got to see a glass-blowing demonstration which was really cool. It's amazing what the artists can do in such a short amount of time. We also walked through the Murano glass museum, and I was impressed that such delicate pieces of glass have survived such a long time. After lunch, we spent hours shopping because there are about a million shops on the island.

On Monday, we had another school-sponsored field trip. It was a day long adventure to the town of Padua. We first went to the Padua courthouse and meet with a lawyer and judge. The lawyer had actually done his LLM at Vanderbilt. It was really interesting to learn about their legal system. Parts of it are very similar but parts are very different (judges don't have to go to law school!). After getting a tour of the courthouse, we set off for a private tour of the Scrovegni chapel. I wasn't necessarily looking forward to touring another old church, but I'm SO glad we went. It was incredible. The Last Judgment fresco covering one whole wall of the church was one of the most impressive pieces of art I've seen since being in Europe. If you're ever in this part of the world, it's a must-see.

After the tour, we went to have lunch at a sort of Italian version of cafeteria style eating. Something pretty funny happened: I went through the drink line and the manager asked if I would like a beer. So I said sure, why not. He asked what kind and I said something light. After a few sips, I was informed that the man had given me a nonalcoholic beer. Do I look like an alcoholic or something?!?!?!

This week has been uneventful so far. We are headed to Florence in about 10 minutes. I've heard it's the best city in Italy, so I'm excited!

Loves-Ally

P.S. I have one week left in Europe! Crazy!

After finishing our finals last week (one was take home, one was in-class, they were both lame), we really needed a relaxing weekend and we got one! Monaco is incredible. Anything you've ever heard is true and more.

We left at the miserable time of 7:00 am on Friday. Six of us went, three girls and three boys. We had an hour and a half “layover” in Milan. Sometimes when you're in Europe, everything will be going really well . . . it's beautiful, the food is great, etc. However, there are moments where frustration sets in and you feel like the world is working against you. I had one of those moments in the Milan train station. First, I tried to order coffee to-go and the woman yelled at me in Italian and said I had to drink it there. Then, I tried to get cash out of an ATM and accidentally set off the bank alarm. So I walked 20 minutes to find another ATM only to find out that it was broken. I gave up and went to McDonald's thinking I could actually get coffee to-go there and they wouldn't take my credit card. I wanted to scream. As if that wasn't bad enough, we had a train of death part 2 experience on our train from Milan to Monaco. We were in a cabin with four other Italian women (one of whom had a two year old on her lap) and no air conditioning. The woman decided to spank her child and what do you know, it started screaming. Highly inappropriate and super annoying.

However, Monaco makes everything better. We called a cab when we got to the train station, and in typical Monaco style, a brand new Mercedes pulls up with leather seats, and TV screens in the headrests. It was a quick five minute drive to our hotel. The scenery is just beautiful. Monaco is basically situated on a cliff in the southern most part of France, bordering the Mediterranean sea. Our hotel was gorgeous. The staff was so friendly. We checked into our room and immediately laid down on the super big, super soft beds. I believe at one point, I laid on the floor in bliss because there was carpet. I miss carpet. Our minibar was stocked and they had lots of fun snacks for us. They even had peanut m&ms – its like they knew I was going to be there! Our private balcony had a peaceful view of the hotel gardens. I stole a picture of our room from the hotel website because I forgot to take some.

After getting settled, we changed into our suits and headed to the rooftop pool. We sat down and were served with fluffy towels and Mai Tais. I was basically in heaven. The views from the pool were out of this world.

After the pool, we took showers in our fully marbled bathroom and got ready for dinner. Harding and I had reservations at Pacific, a spot frequented by Bono. We didn't get to see him, but we had an incredible meal. I ordered truffled mashed potatoes and they were divine. For desert, they brought us a box with a steamed chocolate cake in it. We were slightly annoyed when the waiter took it away before we'd gotten a chance to lick the plate. After a lovely meal, we walked back to the hotel and had a drink at the bar, Saphir. I had a tasty champagne and strawberry liquer mixture in a jewel encrusted martini glass. We were exhausted at this point, so we called it a night.

On Saturday morning, we woke up and headed up to the hotel's rooftop restaurant, Le Horizon, for brunch. It was awesome, a very impressive spread. I finally got my nutella crepes! Karen, it reminded me of Club Med and it made me miss you!!

Afterwards, Harding and I decided to explore Monte-Carlo a little bit. We walked down Princess Grace avenue which is right next to the ocean. Unfortunately, all the stores were closed because it was Sunday, but we did some serious window shopping. It was probably a good thing because my bank account probably couldn't have handled it. The mall we went into looked like a palace. It was a little strange because every single store we walked by had a framed picture of Prince Albert on prominent display. Even the lingerie store! We also walked by several car dealerships and it was ridiculous. There were 500,000 Euro cars just hanging out . . . a Mercedes McLaren, Rolls Royce Phantom, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, you name it.

After lusting over Prada and Chanel, we wanted to dip our feet in the ocean. The beach is really weird in Monaco, its really just small rocks. Needless to say, we got in the Mediterranean for about two seconds and then left. We then stopped at the Japanese gardens (random, I know). They were really cool. The best part was watching some little kids feed the koi. The fish were going nuts! Literally jumping over each other and out of the water in order to get food. No wonder they were so big!

Before heading back to our hotel, we walked over to see the outside of the famous Monte Carlo casino. The architecture is gorgeous.

When we got back to the hotel, we took a nap and then did what else . . . headed to the pool. We got some drinks and snacks and stayed for a couple of hours before it was time to get ready. Since we had such a good experience at Le Horizon in the morning, we went back for dinner. I had the best tomato and mozzarella salad ever and my risotto wasn't too shabby. The views from the restaurant at night are to die for. We had the nicest waiter ever, Dietre. After we ordered and finished two desserts, Dietre decided to bring us another one on him (strawberry mousse, yum). We were SO full at this point, but we finished it to be polite. So then what happens? Diedre brings us another one! That's what you get for being cute American girls I guess.

After dinner, we had the rest of the crew over for wine in our room. We walked over to the famous casino, but it was 1:00 in the morning at this point and the only people left were the serious gamblers. We walked right back out and went to the casino in the bottom floor of our hotel. It was a really nice place, and the boys played roulette while I hit the video poker machines. I actually ended up making about $10 which I was pretty excited about. Everyone who put money into roulette ended up quadrupling theirs!

On Sunday, we woke up and couldn't resist going to the breakfast buffet again. Our train left around 10:00 and we got back to Venice around 6:00. It was such a wonderful weekend.

On Tuesday we started our new classes! This three weeks we have Comparative Copyright and Emerging Economies. Copyright is turning out to be much more interesting than I originally thought. We get to read cases about Indiana Jones and Seinfeld, fun stuff.

Wednesday we went to the town of Vicenza for our field trip of the week. We got a guided tour around the city which was nice. We went to an old theater circa 1500s that was pretty impressive. We also stopped for an impromptu prosecco tasting. College students always appreciate free wine. We may or may not have stopped to get bottles of wine to bring on the train ride back with us. When we got back to Venice we celebrated my roommate Meredith's birthday. We surprised her with delicious cake (decorated with matches because we couldn't find candles).

So the week has gone well. A bunch of us are staying in town this weekend to relax and do some Venice touristy things. Please pray for good weather because it's supposed to rain and we have a beach party to attend Saturday night!

Loves-Allison

P.S. Sorry my blog postings are coming later and later . . . laziness is setting in.

Starting on Wednesday of last week I started getting the sick feeling. I put my usual plan of attack into effect (airborne) and hoped it would make everything better (as it does about 90% of the time). On Friday we left Venice around 2:45 and arrived in Rome at 7:15. After a quick 10 minute walk, we arrived at our hostel. It was called Night and Day and it was really just an apartment converted into a hostel. We had the whole place to ourselves because there were 10 of us. I would recommend you stay there if you're ever in Rome, but then you'd have to deal with . . . Monica. Monica is the lady who runs the place and she is a talker. Her English is limited, so when she could tell I was clearly annoyed by her (give me a break, I was sick and tired, literally) she kept saying “you hate me, don't you, you hate me.” I would then have to reassure her that no, I didn't hate a woman I'd only met five minutes earlier.

After dealing with Monica (which was about an hour ordeal), we headed out to find a dinner spot. We found a really nice place and they sat us right by the waterfall. It would've been romantic had I been with any cute boys (joking guys). My friend Jared who is working in Rome this summer met up with us, and it was so good to see him! We all walked over to the Spanish steps and got an impromptu concert by an American with a guitar. The Trevi fountain was next. It was really gorgeous and it was nice to see it at night all lit up. There were about a million lovebirds snuggling around it. There is a tradition at the fountain that if you throw coins into it you're ensured a visit back to Rome. Harding and I made our own little tradition by throwing three coins backwards over our left shoulder. I think that means we'll live in Rome some day. We were all pretty tired at that point so we grabbed some gelato and headed home.

When I woke up Saturday morning I realized that Airborne was not going to cure me. I felt terrible. I'm pretty sure I had strep. After having a little breakdown, I pulled myself together because I didn't want to miss seeing all the famous Roman sites. We headed to the train station in order to pick up a Roma pass. The pass is 23 Euro and it gets you free unlimited metro transportation and allows you to skip lines and get into museums, etc. for free. We headed first to the Vatican City museum. The museum is pretty impressive (and so are the gardens), but the main reason people go is to see the Sistine Chapel. The Catholics are smart, though, and they make you walk through the entire museum first. We finally got to the chapel and it was pretty incredible. You could barely walk through it because it was so packed. You aren't allowed to take pictures but my friends managed to sneak some shots.

Next stop: St. Mark's basilica. My friend Shannon made us reservations to go on the Scavi tour. I am SO happy she did, because it was incredible, one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. The Scavi tour allows a maximum of 200 visitors a day to go down and see the excavated area underneath the basilica. The excavations were only recently opened to the public. Short history lesson time: Constantine wanted to build St. Mark's Basilica over the area that held St. Mark's bones. In order to do so, he had to fill a pagan necropolis with dirt and build over it. In 1941, Pope Pius XII approved the excavation in order to possibly locate St. Peter's bones. The excavation took a long time because the pope only allowed hand tools to be used as not to disturb the masses being held in the basilica directly above.

So basically we got to walk on ancient Roman streets through what was once a huge pagan necropolis. It was SO cool. To add to the cool factor a mass was being held while we were down there so the voices of the choir filled the necropolis. Peter's bones were declared found in 1968 and then were lowered back into their original resting spot, so we got to see those too! No pictures were allowed so I can't share any with you (but I do have a picture of the cute Swiss guards!).

After the Scavi tour, we walked into the basilica. It was amazing. It's the biggest church in the entire world. There are markings on the floor of where the other biggest churches in the world would end.

I was completely worn out at this point, so I rested while everyone else climbed to the top of the dome (577 steps, no way was that going to happen for me). We then left Vatican City and I went home to take a nap. I ended up pretty much sleeping until Sunday. I wanted to try and go to dinner with everyone but I was feeling pretty bad at this point so I stayed home.

On Sunday I woke up and was feeling a little better. Monica sets out a pretty substantial breakfast spread in the morning so that was nice. After getting all my hungover friends together, we checked out of our hostel and walked towards the Colosseum. It was awesome, as you can imagine. My favorite part was the huge cross that the pope put up in the 1700s to commemorate all the Christians that were killed there. We walked out and Harding and I took obligatory pictures with the fake gladiators.

After we went to the Colosseum we headed to the Palantine hill which is right next to it. The Palantine hill is historically significant because it was the location of all the royal palaces and where Romulus killed Remus. There was also a great view overlooking the Roman Forum.

By this time, we had to catch our train back. We of course decided to stop at McDonald's for lunch beforehand. We justified this by telling ourselves it was a “really nice Roman McDonald's.”

As soon as I got home, I started taking the antibiotics I brought with me and now I'm feeling a lot better! Yay! We are headed to Monaco this weekend and it should be fabulous (I plan on meeting Bono and Prince Albert while I'm there).

Love you all and hope everyone's doing great!

-Ally

P.S. Our field trip this week was to Treviso, a little town on the mainland. It was a really pretty place but the best part was getting to meet the Treviso mayor. He was quite the character!