Roberto Capucci

I fell in love with Roberto Capucci on Thursday afternoon. That is right. I fell in love with an 80-year-old man that I do not know and will probably never meet.

For those who are probably very concerned about me right now, do not worry. My Inside Italian Design class took a trip to see the Roberto Capucci fashion exhibit at the Odescalchi Castle in Bacciano Thursday afternoon.

Roberto Capucci is an Italian designer that created his own fashion house around 1950. In the 1980s, he withdrew from the fashion world and began creating one line per year each to be presented in a different city. The exhibit was a collection of Capucci's "sculpture" chosen specifically by the designer.

We were not supposed take pictures inside the castle or of the exhibit. I had already been reprimanded at the beginning of the tour for taking pictures, so I was scared to take pictures during the majority of the procession through the exhibit. Each collection was presented in one room of the castle. The wedding dress collection was presented in an armory room, as was the red collection. He had chosen an earthy collection and a gold collection as well.


By the time we had reached the last room filled with dresses, I decided I was going to be too angry with myself afterward for not taking pictures to not attempt using my camera. There may have been some 007 moves (minus the suit) in the process of getting the photos. I was able to get pictures of most of my favorite dresses in the last room.

Even if I had been kicked out of the castle, taking the pictures was completely worth it. New life goal: Have Roberto Capucci design a dress I cannot move in, while looking a little bit like Lady Gaga..

Photograph I Love

I just wanted to post this photograph that I took a while ago. Enjoy!

The Rome Metro System= The Philadelphia Subway System

I have come to the decision that Rome's metro system is the equivalent to Philadelphia's subway system. Both the metro in Rome and the subway in Philly each have two lines: Rome has Line A and Line B, while Philadelphia has the Orange/Broad Street Line and the Blue/Market Street Line.

The A Line is relatively similar to the Market Line in Philadelphia. It is cleaner, there is less graffiti and it is more modern. The B Line is covered in graffiti and dirtier just like the Broad Street Line.

In general, the Rome metro system is much more efficient and modern than the Philadelphia subway system. The metro is not broken up into cars as it is in Philadelphia and it is much more crowded. Personal space on the metro does not exist.

Although we have been told that Italians stare, I am still attempting to get used to being stared at on the metro. I am not sure if it is the English or that we look like Americans that causes the Italians to stare. Either way, I have never been comfortable with people staring directly at me!

I started taking the metro on a regular basis when my classes began the on-site visits during the week. I was not originally going to buy the monthly metro pass. After I realized that I needed to take the metro multiple times a day for on-site classes, I decided that I would buy the monthly metro pass for February. That is number one on my "To Do" list for tomorrow.

Fingers crossed for not getting pick-pocketed!

Walking Around the Aurelian Walls

The Temple Program participated in a walk that normal Romans would never even consider. About 115 students met at the basilica at the San Giovanni metro stop at 8:30 a.m. An infamous professor, Professor Gadeyne, took us on an eight hour, 12.3 mile walk around the Aurelian Walls of Rome. These walls mostly circle the entire city.

I am glad I did not go out the night before and got a solid eight hours of sleep. Otherwise, I would not have been able to make it through the entire walk. We stopped at key locations along the Aurelian Walls to learn about the history of the walls and the important stops.

Half-way through the walk we came upon a bunch of children dressed up in costumes throwing confetti. I am not entirely sure what they were celebrating, but they were adorable! I got a picture of a little kid right before he threw a handful of confetti at Matt. Best picture of the entire day.

We stopped for lunch at the monument of Giuseppe Garibaldi. We had a view of the entire city, ate lunch and watched children running around throwing confetti.

Tyler was recruited by Gadeyne to hold up a map of the city with another guy who isn't "vertically challenged" to show our progress. Since he was in Gadeyne's good graces now, he started selling out the people he knew arriving at locations later than others. There- he'll be happy he made my blog now.

Gadeyne took us down along the Tiber. Unfortunately, the last half of the staircase down to the river banks was completely covered in mud. We had to jump or slide down the side in order to get down the stairs. I think Gadeyne took some twisted pleasure in watching 100 or so students struggling to get down the stairs. Kelsey seemed to enjoy sliding down the stairs on her butt.


My feet and my shoulder only started to hurt the last hour of the walk. I was relatively impressed that my body held up that long! We returned to San Giovanni around 4:30 p.m. where everyone was offered a free soda from Gadeyne. We signed a paper that confirms we completed the walk and it was hung on the window at school today. A few people left during the middle of the walk. Although it was a rough walk, I can say I am crazier than a Roman and walked around the Aurelian Walls.

Walking Around Vatican City

Last Saturday after we finished our Permit to Stay information, a few of us decided we wanted to walk to Saint Peter's Square to see the nativity scene before it is taken down. Ashley, Kelsey and I walked from school to Saint Peter's Basilica.

At this point, we still did not know our way around the city. We used a map to get from the Temple Rome "campus" to walk to Saint Peter's. I tend to let Kelsey make the decisions about directions regardless if the decisions are right or not. I am directionally impaired and do not want to lead people in the wrong direction. This was one time Kelsey was not right.

Kelsey ended up leading us around almost the entire Vatican City before we got to Saint Peter's Square. It was a hard walk that was up-hill a majority of the time.

On the way around Vatican City, the three of us saw a man and a woman with a great "invention". The woman stood at the bottom of their apartment building and tied their groceries to a long rope. The man stood on their balcony and pulled the groceries up to their apartment on the fourth floor. Creative.

I wanted to lay down by the time we got to Saint Peter's Square. You would think after playing field hockey for 11 years I would be able to get through a walk like that. Stupid Fibromyalgia. We got great pictures of the nativity scene, though.

New Update

I have not updated in a while. I have been caught up in being in Rome. I will do a short update now about what we did today.

A bunch of us signed up for a day trip today along the Via Cassia. It is an ancient road that leads out of Rome and goes toward Florence. We first stopped in a small town- Sutri. We spent a brief time in the amphitheater and then walked around the town.


Then we went to Caprarola and went to the Villa Farnese. We explored the town and had lunch in a trattoria.



Lastly we went to Veterbo to explore another medieval town. It was a very worthwhile trip.

Campo de Fiori

After taking a several-hour walking tour of Rome yesterday with one of the professors, we decided to come back to Campo de Fiori to see what it was like at night. At the time we did not know it was basically a tourist trap, but I am glad we explored it.

We originally wanted to take the Metro, but the Cipro station was closed by the time we arrived there at 11:30 p.m. We walked down Via delle Milizie trying to decided what we wanted to do. We came to a group consensus to hop on a random night bus we found and see where it would take us. It ended up being a bus that would eventually take us to Campo de Fiori. The professors at Temple had made it seem as if the night buses were not a smart idea to take. However, my first experience on the night bus was not bad. Several Italians were very helpful to us when we asked how to get to Campo de Fiori, and one man even led us to the next bus to take from the Termini station.

When we arrived there, it was immediately apparent it was a tourist trap. People were speaking English and there were crowds outside of places named "The Drunken Ship" and "Sloppy Sam's." My goal when coming to Italy was not to act like an American but to explore the Italian way of life. I did not want to spend the night among other Americans at an American bar. We decided to get a drink at a smaller place that was not crowded.

I ordered my glass of white wine in Italian. It is cheesy, but I am very proud of myself. We were able to sit down and enjoy a drink like the Italians.

I should also mention that on the walk to Campo de Fioro, I had my first experience with the "touchiness" of Italian men. We walked by a discoteca and a man I had not even seen kissed his hand and touched my cheek as I walked by. I was too startled to even react, but I found it funny a minute later.

All worthwhile experiences.

Goal One

I think I would feel more at ease in Rome if I knew more Italian. Even though I took Italian 1 freshman year of college, I do not remember much from the class. It becomes awkward when I have to buy something or order food because I do not know what to say in Italian. I am currently signed up for Italian 2, and I was unsure whether or not I wanted to stay in the class. If I do not remember anything from my first Italian class, how will I pass Italian 2? I figured that the only way to learn Italian, though, is to stay in the class and stick it out.

So, one of my goals this semester is to learn enough Italian to sustain myself living in Rome. There seem to be a lot of students that have a basic grasp of Italian. I probably will not learn enough until the end of April when I have to leave and it will be pointless, but it will make living here easier.

An important phrase I learned today: vorrei un bicchiere di vino bianco= I would like a glass of white wine.

Now I just have to remember it.

Explanation

I will explain some of my earlier observations. One- I should probably know better than to listen to my parents. Let us just begin with that.

I did not start packing for Rome until 6 p.m. on Sunday because of dealing with other family issues. I threw everything on my bed that I wanted to take with me and did not weed anything out. Since packing was last minute, my mom helped me pack everything into my new suitcases (birthday present). Her advice: do not weigh the bags and just hope they are the right weight. This is where I went wrong.

Kelsey and I arrived at the airport on Monday afternoon to find that I had a 54-pound bag and a 64-pound bag. We had to take my bags off to the side and move everything around between Kelsey's suitcases and mine. Yes, we were those people in the airport. I thoroughly enjoyed the unknown people in the airport being able to see the contents of my luggage. We eventually were able to get all of the bags under 50 pounds.

Moral of the story: Do not listen to my parents.

Two- Since I have a sleeping disorder, my mom gave me Ambien to take on the flight to Rome. I have obviously taken sleeping pills before. However, sleeping pills do not normally make me feel like I did on that flight. I offered Kelsey one of the pills, and I am glad I did so that I was not going crazy by myself. My vision started to become funky and I could barely keep my eyes open. I could not lift my limbs without extreme effort. I vaguely remember telling Kelsey I thought her head was big. We woke up with 45 minutes left in the flight, not remembering falling asleep. I do not remember my dinner or headphones being removed. Although it was trippy at the time, it is a funny story now.

Three: Kelsey losing her passport. This is self-explanatory due to the Ambien.

I will not forget my flight to Rome..or maybe I already have.

Rome

I'm here. I packed too much- 14 pounds too much. I took Ambien on a plane- do not ever do that. I do not remember falling asleep. Kelsey lost her passport for fifteen minutes.

We moved in. We had lunch, but stared blankly at people first. We cannot speak Italian. No excuse for me since I took Italian 1 already. We napped.

We are in Rome.

Dutch

Through a friend, I arranged to sublet my room in Philadelphia to an international student from the Netherlands. Germaine arrived on Tuesday night with three friends and several large suitcases after a cab driver drove around for a while in an attempt to find Temple University. I have spent the past few days being their "tour guide", or as Annelotte described, their mother goose.

You rarely think about the United States from another person's perspective. Introducing four Dutch students to the city of Philadelphia allowed me to see the city through their eyes. The differences between our two cultures range from personality differences to phones to meals.

I have been in more phone stores in the past three days than I have in my entire life, and the girls still need to have their phones unlocked. They were fascinated with the concept of a "doggy bag"- the Dutch are taught that finishing everything on your plate is courteous.

I helped them begin to navigate the city, and as a special request, I brought them to Urban Outfitters. The store I consider as the basis of my wardrobe is a specialty to them. Everyday life for college students, such as beer pong, is a game they have never encountered. My group of friends were more than happy to introduce them to the American college life.

During my walk home last night with Annelotte, she told me about some of the differences she has seen already. Dutch people are more introverted, whereas Americans are more extroverted. She has had to make more of an effort to be more outgoing, which is not an easy feat around my friends who do not stop talking.

I left the group tonight learning the game of "Kings" and headed home to prepare for my own culture shock.

One Week

There is one week left until I leave for Rome next Monday. I am not ready! I have done so much during this past week, and I still have so much left to do.

I spent the beginning of last week visiting my doctors. Who knew you could have so many doctors? I did not even see all of mine, either! (That is probably really sad. I am like an 80-year-old woman.) By the time I returned from Philadelphia on Tuesday, I was exhausted, my hands hurt from driving and my arms were sore from the three shots and two times blood was taken in two days. I am not done, though. After coming to Philadelphia for the majority of this week, I have to return home for another appointment to get the seasonal flu shot. H1N1, Hepatitis A, Tetanus: done. Flu shot: not done. I better be healthy while I am in Roma!

I am officially not fond of insurance companies. Having to get all of my prescriptions for four or five months up front is nearly impossible. I am not selling drugs in Europe, now can I have my medications? Nope. I have to submit proof of that I will be studying abroad to insurance companies before I can get any medications in advance.

Being sickly is complicated.