Roma

I'm getting worse at keeping my blog updated so here's my attempt to catch everyone up. I haven't taken many trips since my last posting and I have quite a few group projects keeping me busy at school. Yes, I am going to classes and studying while I'm here to all of you who have been asking me :) Last weekend I tagged along with a friend of mine and her family and we went to Rome. It was the weekend of the Maratona di Roma, and we had planned a while ago to do a Fun Run that was associated with the marathon. It was a great city, TONS to see, and it has so much history. I've taken a few college courses on the history of Rome and the Empire so it was amazing seeing all the actual ruins and buildings. We did a "hop-on-hop-off" bus tour that went around to the major sightseeing places and was a convenient way to get a little history/background on the bus, and then be able to explore and see it ourselves. We even managed to hop borders and go into another country during the weekend - the smallest country in the world which is???? Vatican City! We climbed an incredible amount of stairs to the top of St. Peter's Basilica, saw where the Pope gives his speeches, and wandered around a bit. The run was on Sunday morning and that in itself was an incredible experience as well. There were so many different nationalities there. We started right next to the Colosseum, ran 2.5 miles through the cobblestone streets and other ruins (ALOT uphill!) and then ended on a hill next to the Colosseum agian. Afterwards I watched the first runners from the Marathon come in. The first probably 25 runners were all from Kenya, and there was a large gap then between the rest. The first woman was also Kenyan, but the first Caucasian person was actually a woman! Here I've been enjoying the sun and pleasant weather. Nothing extreme, but it's been pretty steady in the mid-60's. It's fairly humorous because give us 65 degree weather in WI and everyone's already breaking out the shorts, but here everyone still has their large coats on. Anyways, it's my last day of classes today before we have mid-term break from until April 14. Lucky for me I don't have any midterms :) So I'm spending my time traveling and enjoying my visitors. My boyfriend, Andrew, gets here on Friday and we're doing Paris, Venice, and Cinque Terre. I'll try me best to keep you all updated! Hope all is well back in the States and you're all enjoying the spring weather!

Como & AC Milan

Last weekend I took a day trip to Como and then went to an AC Milan game on Sunday afternoon. When we were in Como it was incredibly windy which made it a little chilly but didn't take away from us sightseeing, or even buying some gelato:) We took a tram/trolley cart up the mountain to a smaller village where we could see the entire layout of Como from above. Naturally, as we got higher it just seemed to get windier so we didn't stay too long up there before heading back down to Como. Sometimes in these smaller cities, like Como, just seeing the scenery and the landscape is enough to make a trip worthwhile. And I could have sworn I saw George Clooney in disguise with his sunglasses and hat on taking a stroll from his home on Lake Como...ok not really but I kept my eyes open!

Then on Sunday afternoon, back in Milan at this point, we headed for the west side of the city to where Stadio San Siro is located. AC Milan, one of the city's soccer/football, teams plays here. It was AC Milan vs. Atalanta. I had on red and black, which are the teams' colors, but before heading into the stadium I stopped at a small little stand and bought my very own David Beckham jersey!!:) He's been playing for Milan for a while and a lot of the talk here in Milan is whether or not L.A. will let him stay here. I can see why he likes playing here so much - the people are CRAZY about this sport! Anyways, the stadium wasn't full, but it holds about 85,000. The atmosphere was incredible. Cheers,flags,crazy Italians yelling things -to be honest, the section where we were seated reminded me a lot of being in the student section at a Badger game...except these people were of all ages here. AC Milan ended of winning 3-0 and all the goals were scored by the player Inzaghi. Great experience - everyone should attend a European football game!

Weekend in Switzerland

I have just gotten back from spending my weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland. Another beautiful small town that should be on everyone's travel list! It's a fairly small town in the Alps that pretty much runs on people coming through to either go skiing, hiking, paragliding, skydiving, and tons of other extreme sports. I unfortunately didn't do anything that extreme, but maybe next time? We took a train up to Switzerland(about a 3 hour ride)on Friday morning and then spent the day there going into little shops and took a hike out to one of the surrounding lakes. At our hostel, there were 2 guys from Ireland in our room so we ended up going out for dinner with them. Over the course of the meal we learned from them what an "American" accent sounds like...but we were sure to return the favor and gave them a taste of their own "toppa the morning to ya" accents as well.
Saturday morning, one of my friends headed out skiing with our Irish friends, while another friend and I signed up for a snowshoeing trek in the mountains. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough to make a whole group so we decided to rent some hiking boots and make our own little excursion. I know what many of you are probably saying, "How can you go to Switzerland, the Alps, and not go skiing?" Well I have actually never been downhill skiing before. I didn't want to be miserable and have my first time in the Alps. My one friend who has skiied a few times and went this weekend had a blast, but said it was a lot harder than she was expecting. I'll go back someday and ski:) Anyways, we took a train up into the mountains and got dropped off in a small town called Wengen. We took off from there onto some hiking trails and made it to some great picturesque views in the Alps. At some point we went off road a bit and climbed up to a ledge where there was a small railing between us and a complete drop off! Then we made our way up to a skiing hill and enjoyed a few more pictures and views up there. The ironic thing about being in the mountains was that we were surrounded by very deep snow, yet it was beautiful out and sunny to the point where we didn't even need jackets most of the time. On the ski hill there are even deck chairs for people to lay out on and just from being up there I got some color. Who needs beaches, just go to the Alps!
I bought my first and very own bright pink Swiss army knife and indulged in some famous and delicious Swiss chocolate (how could I not?) Again, an amazing trip. It's hard to think I'm already over a month done with my abroad experience and still there's so much more I want to see. Just to give you guys a preview, here are some of the things I have planned for this month: AC Milan soccer game this next weekend(David Beckham will hopefully be playing), possible day trip to Bologna, Italy, a trip to Rome to see the Rome Marathon and do the Marathon's 4K "fun run" through the ruins, and then I'll be ending the month with a trip to Paris. I'm also looking forward to visits from my boyfriend at the end of the month and my lovely parents in April. Anyone else want to come for a visit? :)