Still alive ;)

One week already since my last entry!! One week since Mark is gone, and it really is hard living here alone after being used to having someone special around. Luckily there are some new interns at IDLO which are really nice, and I've even been out a few times!
On the last days when Mark was here, we still went to visit Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the 4 most important churches of Rome. But most of the inside was covered in scaffolding, so there wasn't that much to see.
Since then, I read a lot, work a bit more and plan the last week-end of my stay here, when my mom will come and we'll go visit Pompei and some other ruins, before returning together to Switzerland.
I've also been writing a lot to law firms, getting appointments to work after I finish university... if that is ever going to happen. Today I got the news that the paper I had written in June in german didn't get accepted, so I need to write a new one, and I will miss the deadline to be able to do my exams in February.. so postponed to June... I just want to finish quick, but it seems I won't have it my way this time. So now I have to review all my plans and find some jobs till then, and for the summer after. And more important right now, I need to write that paper again! Wish me luck...


Santa Maria Maggiore


Inside Santa Maria Maggiore

Firenze Day 3

After a huge thunderstorm during the night, Sunday morning the sun was shining and getting us in a great mood already :) Of course we had a late breakfast and then left for the Uffizi, the main art museum of Florence (and therefore of Europe some say :)). The problem was, we weren't the only ones, and we had to figure out that if you want a chance to get in, you have to make reservations for a specific time slot. The poor ones without a reservation (like us) have to queue in a non-moving queue (they let people enter every 20mn) which would have taken us over 2 hours to get in. So we gave up after almost an hour and instead went to take pictures of the many statues nearby. The originals (except for the bronze statues) are all kept in museums, but for amateurs like me it doesnt show.


Michelangelo's David (from David and Goliath)


Perseus with Medusa's head

After that we did some more walking in the streets, before getting back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and head to the train station. But before that, and instead of lunch, we got ourselves two huge ice-creams which were soooo good it was just... heaven.



Getting to the train station the dark clouds started gathering and we didnt escape some very heavy (but short) rain, but still managed to catch a bit of sunlight to take this picture of Santa Maria Novella.



All in all, the week-end was great, Florence is a beautiful city which is great for romantic getaways, the food was great, and it really felt like being on vacation...
Now I'm back in Rome, and Mark left this afternoon to get back to university in Hungary... those 2+ months with him passed so quick, and I'm already missing him! Szeretlek Mark...

Firenze Day 2

After a looong morning in bed, still recovering from the heavy dinner of the night before, we decided to do a bit of exercising by walking all the way up to the Piazza Michelangelo from which you have the best view of the city. Lots of married couples come there to have their pictures done as well, we saw two asian couples and a pregnant italian bride.





From there, we went a tiny bit more up to San Miniato, a beautiful wooden church with an amazing cemetery in the back. Most of the family chapels, which contain several tombs, were more like small churches and must have cost a fortune. Inside the church there was a wedding going on, but we could still enter.


San Miniato al Monte


San Minianto al Monte from the back with a part of the cemetary (the one without the huge tombs)

On the way down we went to the other side of the Arno and visited the Santa Croce church. It wasn't that impressive (somehow after all the churches in Rome you just get a bit bored...) but had several tombs of famous people (mainly Michelangelo and Galileo) and monuments dedicated to other famous ones (like Dante who refused to have his body moved backed to Florence once dead). We felt a bit cheated on when noticing on the inside that the whole altar part of the church was under renovation and we couldn't see anything, but the inner court of the cloister was nice. All that for 4€.


Grave of Michelangelo

For lunch, we discovered that the cheapest solution to eat in Florence, except of course the supermarket, is the MacDonalds. We did not go to the Macdonals but to some kind of similar fastfood right next to it, with pizza instead of a burger. And that was the main surprise: it was actually very good. For 5.55 € you got a drink, half a pizza and a big glass of fresh fruit salad.
After this late lunch it started raining again so we went back to the hotel, bought a picnic for the evening in the supermarket and later on just cruised our neighbourhood (with some more churches). And of course a gelato :)

Firenze, Day 1

Last week-end, being the last one Mark would spend in Italy, the two of us decided to leave the gray every-days behind (as grey as they get in Rome anyway) and escape for a romantic week-end trip to the cultural capital of old Italy, the city of the Medici, to Florence, or Firenze.

The 2h30 train ride proved rather uneventful, except for the 40mn delay of the train (which isn’t an event at all by Italian standards) and the non stop rain following us from Rome. All the way to Florence to welcome us outside the train station J

Once in Florence, just outside the train station we found 2 very interesting things. One, the local McDonald’s (after 4 pm buy one get one free action!) and one of the city’s amazing churches, the Santa Maria Novella, with an amazing arched inner-court and frescos from the middle-ages.

After a brief look however, we decided, also thanks to the very determined rain, to rather find our hotel first, with the rather naïve hope, that the rain might give up in the meantime, and almost as a symbolic start of a nice week-end it actually stopped raining later that evening, the sky cleared up, even the sun paid a short visit, and it remained just as nice as that for more or less all of the week-end.

After crossing the Arno, the river dividing the city into two, we eventually arrived to our cute little hotel (www.relaisilcestello.it), almost on the bank of the river, and even though our window only overlooked some more rooftops, the location of the hotel was really impressive, in the heart of the city, not further than a nice walk away from anywhere.

Our hotel is on the right of the church

In the afternoon, armed with our umbrellas, we started exploring the city. Many small streets, very nice old buildings, ice-cream shops everywhere and lots of churches. We started with the most famous of all: the Duomo, so called because of its praised dome, the first one of its kind built without scaffolding. There’s a small queue because of security check, but the inside is rather empty as most disappointed tourists get out fast to look for the next church on their list. The access to the dome, the campanile (tower outside the church belonging to the church) and the crypt will each cost you several euros, thus effectively keeping poor students away.

Deciding that our battle against the rain was a lost case, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the nice big room for an afternoon nap before the restaurant booked for the evening.

Luckily by this time it really stopped raining and we could get to the restaurant all dry. The restaurant itself was very nice, with a romantic atmosphere thanks to the Christmas type lights on the ceiling, the very nice and helpful waitresses and the chef who was constantly cruising amongst the tables, asking all the guests if everything was all right. The chef, who was the founder and the boss of the restaurant in one person, belongs with his sons to one of the remaining descendents of the Habsburg dynasty, serving food specialties from all over Europe. The restaurant is also a Mecca for wine lovers from all over the world, every 5 minutes you could see the chef being asked to open a new bottle of wine for some of the guests, with the movements of a true expert and also with the overwhelming love of a father to his son. And what matters maybe even more in the end: the food was… just wow and very filling. From the many antipasti, to the pasta and the “Sissi” desert, we could barely walk home at the end… and fell into a deep sleep.

Coming tomorrow: the adventures of the second amazing day in Firenze, also with more picturesJ

Me in front of the Ponte Vecchio

StPeter's dome and the StMaria del Popolo church

Church hopping was the main activity of these last days. Well, yes we only got to see 2 churches, but it was only because the heavy rain yesterday stopped us from seeing more.
So on Friday we visited the Dome of StPeter's basilica. You are faced with a great dilemma at the entrance: pay 7€ and take the elevator till half way, or pay 4€ and walk all the stairs (in total over 500) till the very top? Well of course being young and in a good day (meaning not too lazy day), we thought we'd rather walk up, and with the money saved buy some good ice-cream afterwards.
The walk up was long and hot, and the second part has very narrow passages and winding staircases which I don't like at all. You first get inside the dome, and can see all the visitors down by the altar, it's very impressive. That's when you realize the inside of the dome is actually not painted but all made of mosaics. Then you go on up, inside the roof, following the curing structure of the dome, meaning the walls aren't straight and you better not be too wide.
Once you arrive on top, all of this is forgotten, as in any tower-climbing. The view is definitely the best of Rome and worth it, you can see all the main buildings of the town and by clear wather the mountains in the very far back.
The church we visited yesterday, StMaria del Popolo, is a medium sized church (well for Rome, but it's actually not that small) with the particularity of having lots of old tombs on the pavement, worn off by centuries of people walking on it. It also is, for those who read Angels and Demons, the church where one of the cardinal gets murdered (earth). That's the picture with the angel pointing to the next clue.


Inside the StMaria del Popolo church, Chigi chapel


Inside the StMaria del Popolo church, skeleton


At the foot of the dome (half-ways down), a souvenir shop


The statues overlooking StPeter's square


The Vatican gardens


StPeter's square seen from the Dome

EU vs Italy, for a good laugh

The week-end has been rather quiet, still managed to climb up all the way of the Dome of StPeters basilica, and get some of Elton John's free concert. Pictures and detailed account coming later.
In the meantime, if you want to have a good laugh, and believe me it's all true, here is this very funny flash animation about Italians and EU people (rather northern EU I'd say, like Germany).
http://www.infonegocio.com/xeron/bruno/italy.html
Really check it out!

Rain and sun

Not much happened since Monday... there was the biggest rain I've seen for a long time, pouring so hard it got my clothes wet within 2 mn... and I even had an umbrella... and of course it was raining the most when i was doing the 5mn walk from work to the metro, but at least in the metro it was real empty :)
Other than that, just being lazy, went for a drink here, a dinner there... and planning our week-end in Florence!
Tonight we'll go to a dinner organized by the participants of a law course taking place at the IDLO headquarters here in Rome. They're all from Mauritania, and i'm really looking forward to trying their food...
Tomorrow we'll probably try to go to the mega free concert of Elton John outside the Colosseo, although I don't have great hope that we'll get close enough to see anything.. at last year's free concert of Simon and Garfunkel there were over 500'000 people present...