Day 4: Our First Field Trip

I woke up on day 4 with a long-awaited burst of energy. I am thinking that my second rock-solid night of sleep (Advil PM induced) did me right in adjusting to the time change. Is it sad that I woke up and all I could think about was breakfast? I was so excited to try my Greek yogurt with Museli and honey. It didn't' disappoint. My first home-made Italian breakfast was goooood. But you know what completed it? A short trip over to the Bar to get our morning Cappucino. That got us up and ready for our all-day-long excursion.

Here's a picture of our room

This is what we see when we walk out the front door of the Palace. Pretty, huh?

We loaded our fancy blue bus and made our first stop at . This involved us hiking down a cobblestone trail that Ancient Romans also walked on. Historic! Are you sensing a redundant trend in Ancient Roman History? Once again, the green-nes of the area was breathtaking. Also, the air was incredibly clean and fresh -- not an ounce of humidity or pollution.

This is the view of Lake Nemi and Lake Albano (called the Eyes of Jupiter)

Our trail... how pretty?

Praying chapel (and me attempting to be artsy with my camera...)

A rock that looks like an ape's face. Not very historic, but its funny.

The bus and our driver Enrico!

Our second stop was the town of Frescati--a town that I think I am going to revisit multiple times this summer. It was what I thought an Italian city would look like! And also we scored some gorgeous weather, so it was the perfect temperature to walk around and take pictures. After stopping in the Farmacia to get Kasi car sickness medicine (they gave her Travel Gum for her nausea. It helped her instantaneously--I'm thinking this is something America needs to jump on board with), we stopped at a sidewalk restaurant to try Frescasti white wine. We all ordered a glass and sat outside until we had to head back to the bus.

This is Becca giving her "Expert of the Day" spill on Frescati

Beautiful building in the middle of the town's square

What if this was your villa/apartment? I'm in love with all of the plants on the balconies here!

Our tray of Frescati white wine :)

Me and Katelyn at the sidewalk restaurant in Frescati. Wine = delicioso!

Becca's first taste of an olive!

In Italy they don't give you separate checks, so you should see us all trying to divide and pay our part of the check. You wouldn't believe we were juniors in college.

A few girls in our group on some beautiful steps in Frescati!

Me, once again, trying to be artsy. I need the "artsy book for dummies"

We visited a Monastery. But sadly, we didn't see a monk.

Becca looking artsy with her big camera. Trying to win the "picture of the day contest"

Kasi and Katelyn outside the Monastery.

After the Monastery we drove through Marino--a town known for wine (I'm beginning to think they say that about every town in Italy). There is a wine festival where they fill their water fountains with wine for a day and pass it out all over the city. And last year the people hooked up the wrong pipe and instead of the wine coming out of the fountain it came our of people's faucets in their houses. How would you like to wake up to a Pinot Grigio bubble bath?

Our next, and maybe my favorite, stop was the town of Nemi. Nemi is known for its strawberries and so everywhere we looked there were strawberry stands, strawberry desserts and strawberry fields. The town was so precious--alot of cobblestone roads with little bars and restaurants and stores.

Katelyn giving here "Expert of the Day" spill on Nemi

Cobblestone, cobblestone, cobblestone. No wonder Italian women don't wear heels.

Want to jump on a vespa? Possibly....

We took Cinzia's recommendation and the whole group ate at this restaurant that looked over the Lake Nemi. It was my first real Italian dish--ravioli with butter and sage. Absolutely divine! I was a happy plate eater. This is the same place where our waiter thought he was Elvis. I would've encouraged this and quizzed him on his Graceland knowledge, but Cinzia said he's been known to take the friendliness a bit too far with the study abroad girls, so I definitely resisted. And after this feast, I still found room to indulge in a strawberry torte. "When in Rome" I thought!

I found Elvis in Nemi.

Ravioli with butter and sage before Sara Kate got ahold of it...

And after... devoured. YUMMM!

Our "Elvis" waiter on his vespa. He loved us and he sketched us out.

Anna Curl found her Pocket Coffee! SO small. SO cute. SO needed at this point in our excursion

We then ventured to our last stop, Castel Gondalfo. This is the Pope's summer residence and that's pretty legit if you ask me. The place didn't really strike my fancy, but I'm thinking that it must not get too hoppin' until the summer. We did take some cute pictures though...

I just thought this picture was perfect.

Looking along the coast of Lake Castle Gondalfo

The door to the Pope's residence (This is for you Dad. Thought you'd enjoy it!)

Where the Pope lives during the summer!

The holes in the side of this building are bullet holes from WW2.

In Italy you can drink from some fountains. This is a picture of "Potiable" and "Non Potiable" water. I didn't attempt to drink from it... it looked a little sketch...

Our field trip lasted until about 5 or 6, so we were completely wiped out when we returned to the Palace. Half of us immediately headed straight for our beds and took a nice nap. The good thing about living in a stone building is that it can get black out at any point during the day in our rooms. I'm talking The Holiday, Kate Winslet clap your hands and the black shades come down. Heavennnn for a little afternoon siesta! So we blacked out our room and fell asleep until dinner. We decided to stay in and cook dinner again because we were going to have our "Meet and Greet" in the common room. At the "Meet and Greet" we just introduced ourselves and all that jazz... like middle school church retreat style. After that we attempted to watch Glee on the projector screen, but our tech skills weren't too savvy so we settled for planning our weekend trips for the summer. The night ended around midnight after Becca and I decided to, on a complete whim and spontaneous-induced moment, purchase our plane tickets (which were like 30 Euro) and hostel for London! Frightening! All that planning wore me out so I was ready for bed and good nights sleep. Tomorrow is our first day of "real class" with Marko, so I wanted to make sure I was well rested for that. I'll fill you in tomorrow with all of the class details and more. I'm excited for our first weekend in Italy! Hope you enjoyed the pictures :) I'm loving my Cannon S90 and hopefully my "artsy" skills will get better as the summer progresses! Ciao!