Letti inclinati e albicocche

2006-12-17T23:06:00.000-08:00

Mike Goes to Venice

November 29-30 I decided to take a quick trip to Venice. Unfortunately, this turned out to be the last trip I took, since exams and seeing everything in Milan one more time took up more of my time than I thought. I really liked Venice, though. Since I went so late in the year, it wasn't very crowded, which was nice. It really seems like the kind of city that would be more enjoyable with company, though, so maybe I'll make it back someday.

Canals look cool at night

During the day they're cool, too

The ruler of Venice used to be called the Doge. This is a picture of the courtyard of his palace (now a museum). I spent a lot of time here, because the museum is huge.

I could be a doge...

This covered bridge leads from the Doge's Palace to the prison. It's called "The Bridge of Sighs" because, apparently, as criminals crossed it on their way to prison they got one last look at Venice, and would sigh with sadness.

Gondolas are too expensive for me to ride, but taking pictures is free.

This is what Venice looks like at night (if you're looking through a decorated shop window at a Christmas scene inside).

A lot of the buildings along the main canal need renovation. so when they put scaffolding up, companies pay to have pictures of the building's facade printed on the scaffolding. It really makes the city look better.

The breakfast room of my hostel in Venice

Some steps in my hostel

Me on a waterbus on the Grand Canal

Me in front of St. Mark's. This trip marked the first time I used the tripod Tim brought with him from home. I don't think Tim used it at all.

St. Mark's again

San Giorgio Maggiore. It was closed when I tried to visit, but it still looks cool.

These masks were too expensive to buy, so I just took a picture.

I did lots of other stuff in Venice too, but I really need to study for an exam now. I'll show you more pictures when I get home.

2006-12-11T19:11:00.000-08:00

Absolut Icebar

The other day Tim and I went with Nisha and Stephanie to the Absolut Icebar, which is a bar made of ice. It was cool. We just chilled out for awhile. Then Nisha shot me an icy look (sending shivers down my spine) and said crisply that if I made one more pun she'd cold-cock me. Benumbed, I froze.

This is where you get drinks

You get a big coat when you pay the cover charge

We had to bring our own lightsabers, though

2006-12-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

Parents in Italy: Venice, Assisi, Rome

Mike and Mom and Dad sampling a high-quality Milanese meal of Pizza Guy pizza and Turkish doner kebaps... blog post on food soon to come.

My parents came to visit from Nov 3-Nov 14 and we had a wonderful time. Mike and I even visited some sites we hadn't been, like the Duomo roof.

Impressive, huh? This was done a few hundred years ago, and I'd take it over most any modern "art" any day.

View of the piazza below

Unfortunately, the rest of the entry won't have pictures since Mike caught me trying to steal his camera.

After Milan we took a 2.5 hour train to Venice. It was pretty much what I expected it to be: unique. There's nothing like it. But I wouldn't want to live there. Apparently there are more tourists each day than residents, and the effects of this are obvious: you have to look really hard to find a shop that doesn't cater to tourists as its main target, and this means ignoring countless Venetian mask and trinket stores while spending extra long trying to find what a quality meal. That being said, many of the restaurants offer a tourist menu of three courses for a reasonable-for-Italy price of about $15-20 each. If you go to a normal Italian restaurant and order three courses, you're looking at about another $10 each.

Anyway, St. Mark's was awesome. It's a beautifully golden-mosaic'ed Basilica, large enough to impress from the outside but structured so as to remain intimate inside. Probably my favorite church in Italy so far, and by no coincidence it houses St. Mark, my Confirmation saint. Also, Don ("Father" in Italian) Giuseppe led me through the sacristy to a small chapel in the back for 8:00 am daily Mass. How many people get to do that? Yet another benefit of going to daily Mass. (And thanks to Fr. Bill and Fr. Gareth for emphasizing the main points back in freshman year at the UMD Catholic Student Center.)

Assisi was next on the list. All three of us were captivated by the time-travelled medieval aura almost as soon as we arrived. There were very few people around, which isn't a surprise given that this mountain-top city's population is only about 30,000. The few lights enhanced the feeling as we walked through narrow stone alleys gazing at buildings probably dating 200-1000 years old.

During the day, Assisi retains its charm but can't hide the touristy shops that keep the town financially afloat. It's easy to forgive their presence, though, since the Basilica of St. Francis is open only during the day. The massive church houses Giotto's famous frescos comparing the lives of St. Francis and Jesus, along with St. Francis' body in a lower-level tomb.

If you go to Italy, go to Assisi.

Rome was last, and although I had seen much of it already, was still enjoyable as every visit is an opportunity for prayer, education, and graces for saying hi to the many saints buried here. We also had a great tour of Palatine Hill, the original foundation of the Eternal City, which was fortunate because the first tour I had a few months ago left me wondering why the site was even on the map. It's hit or miss with the Colosseum-Palatine combo tours in English.

A few points on studying abroad and parents: it's very easy to get frustrated, restless, and complacent as the study abroad period comes to a close, especially when you haven't had much time to study the language and therefore really get to know the native people and culture. But sometimes you're reminded of the practical side of things-- the experience should be fun, educational, and in every way valuable, but often has to be made, not merely expected-- by those on the outside. In this case my parents are to be thanked.

Also, on this the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a shout out to Mary, Mother of God and the Church, who always brings us to her son. Happy ~2025th Immaculate Conception Day!

2006-12-06T01:54:00.000-08:00

The End of Our Irish Adventure

On one of our journeys we had to switch buses in Limerick. As far as I know, the only thing famous in this town is its name, but we wanted to have a look around anyway.

"Down at the Red Rose Cafe..."

In the church here we found a statue and prayer to Our Lady of Limerick. Much to my disappointment, it doesn't even rhyme...

We eventually made our way to Dublin, the last stop on our multi-city tour. It's a big city, so we did a lot of stuff. There are some notable highlights, however:

There were Carroll's Irish Gifts stores all over the place. They have a lot of stuff here. If you get an Irish Christmas present from one of us this year, thank Carroll's Irish Gifts.

Because my last name is Carroll, I was allowed to have anything I wanted in the store, free of charge. Just don't tell the real owners, please. It's...um...a secret.

Naturally, we had to take a tour of the Guinness Brewery. The first part of the tour explains how Guinness is made, and is a lot like a museum. It was pretty impressive. A lot of work goes into producing the bajillion pints of Guinness the world consumes every year.

A copper has a 600 barrel capacity.

There was also an exhibit on Guinness advertising. My favorite ads were the "Guinness is good for you!" ads, especially the ones with testimonies written by doctors. Who knew beer was a health drink? We also watched a video about cask making, which is something I've always been curious about (seriously!). After watching the video, I realized how much people today take their mass-produced containers for granted. I bet if everyone had to be an apprentice for six years before spending all day making a barrel, they'd be a lot less likely to just throw the thing away when it's empty. Barrels look way cooler than plastic tubs or aluminum kegs, too.

At the end of the tour, you go to a bar at the top of the brewery for a free pint of Guinness and a view of the city. Dublin's skyline isn't anything special, but did I mention the free beer you get for looking at it?

The woman holding the camera for us hadn't had anything to drink, so there's no beer-goggle effect going on. We really just look that good.

Not wanting to play favorites, we felt obligated to take a tour of the Old Jameson Distillery as well. At the end of this tour you get a free drink also (we were in Ireland, duh!). Tim got extra lucky, though, and was chosen to participate in a whiskey tasting session. Tim apparently forgot where we were, because he didn't pick Jameson as his favorite from the group of Irish whiskeys. To make matters worse, he then chose Scotch whisky as his overall favorite. The tour guide was so angry...

Whiskey tasting

While in Dublin we stopped in a few different pubs, but our favorite was The Brazen Head Inn. The earliest recorded drinking on the spot happened in 1198, easily making it the oldest pub in Ireland. The Trinitarian order, which eventually founded DeMatha High School, was also founded in 1198. It was a good year. For information purposes only, and not as part of any agenda of my own, I should point out that the Jesuits were doing nothing at this time, since they didn't even exist, and no one had even heard of a "Linganore."

Inside The Brazen Head Inn, oldest pub in Ireland

Outside The Brazen Head Inn, oldest pub in Ireland
Some travel TV show was filming at The Brazen Head Inn the night we were there. The guy being filmed stood right next to our table, so we definitely got on TV. It wasn't quite as exciting as the Cicada Cook-off, but I'll take any fame I can get.

We also stopped by Trinity College in Dublin, to see an exhibit of illuminated (aka illustrated) manuscripts of the Gospels. We couldn't take pictures, but believe me, they were pretty cool. I watched a video about book-binding while there, so now I want to try that.

At the end of the exhibit, I decided to wait outside while Tim looked around the gift shop. As soon as I got outside this girl approached me and said something I couldn't understand. I asked her to repeat it, which she did, but I still didn't understand. I guessed that she said "Are you from the States?" But I wasn't sure. I answered, "Yes." Then she asked me about a bank or something (I can't really remember), and I realized that what she had probably said was, "Are you a student [here at Trinity College]?" That's why she was asking me where the bank was, or whatever. Well, I told her I didn't know, she looked like she was leaving with a group, so figured that'd be the end of it, and went to sit down on a bench to wait for Tim.

I figured wrong. She came over and sat on the bench and started talking to me again. I wasn't feeling 100%, and I really just wanted to read the Irish ghost stories book I'd just bought, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try to be polite. After all, Tim would be out in a minute, and then we could go. The conversation was weird, and I couldn't really follow it. She seemed to jump around a lot, maybe she was nervous. I did, however, understand her when she asked if I had a girlfriend (I said no), and when she said she didn't have a boyfriend. I also understood when she asked if the friend I was waiting for had a wife (Tim doesn't). She also asked me about church (I told her I go, she clued me in that she does also).

Tim, I was noticing about this time, was taking forever in the gift shop.

We talked for awhile longer, about school, our majors, our hobbies, how I like the U.S. (she's Irish, but I think she said she'd been to the U.S., or at least wanted to. It was awhile ago, I forget.) Her parents were visiting Trinity College at the time, she said, and were currently at her apartment. That's why she was waiting on the bench outside the library - she didn't want to go back until her parents had left. At some point during this conversation, Tim came out of the gift shop, looked around for me, and saw me on a bench talking to a girl. Being the stand-up guy that he is, he thought, "Oh, Mike met a girl. I'll go look around the shop a few more minutes to give him some time to woo her with his amazing wit and charm." Normally that'd be the right course of action, but in this case I wish he has just come straight over.

Anyway, Tim did eventually come over. I introduced him to the girl, and then we had to be on our way. Afterward, though, I felt kind of bad. I was worried I'd been rude to the girl, or made her think she was boring to talk to. Hopefully not. In reality, I was just confused from the very beginning.

2006-12-06T01:15:00.000-08:00

The Rock

...of Cashell is just a short cab-ride away from Tipperary. This natural formation (on which, obviously, a castle was built) was where St. Patrick explained the Trinity using a shamrock back in the day. Who said it's a difficult concept?

The Rock of Cashell

St. Patrick's Cross

Mike's note: Tim took like 100 pictures of this thing. Kept saying it looked like him, like maybe whoever carved it used someone in his family as a model. I knew that was bogus, but I went along with it. After all, I couldn't blame him for being a little jealous. The name "Carroll" could be seen all over Ireland; but we didn't see "Daniel" anywhere. I say if it makes him happy, let him think what he wants.

Inside the chapel at the Rock of Cashel

A familiar face at the Rock of Cashell graveyard. Travelling emphasizes the meaning of Catholic: universal, the way Christ said it would be.

2006-12-06T01:02:00.000-08:00

"It's a Long Way to Tipperary"

So goes the song, and it's true-- it took Mike 22.5 years to make it to the county of his Irish origins: Tipperary. There were no tourist sites in small Tipperary Town, 3 hours southwest of Dublin. So, after finding a bed and breakfast at a great price, we did the first thing any true Tipperarite would: bought some Chinese food and Belgian beer.

We watched The Simpsons, too

Later that night, we chose a small but lively bar for a nice drink to wash down the classic Irish tunes played by a live, local band. I think this is a picture of it, but I suppose it could be from Killarney. It's a win-win for you viewers, though. We look just as cool in any pub in any town.

It's not that Mike was tired of beer, he just thought he'd expand his horizons

The next day we went to claim Mike's inheritance.

Mike's mini-motorcycle shop

Mike's ambiguous Irish shop

For history's sake, we left the shops where we found them. (Mike's note: Unfortunately we were there on a Sunday, so even though I saw many, many "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" stickers and such in store windows, I couldn't buy any.) (Mike's second note: Check out that cool new hat, which I bought in Ireland.)

2006-12-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

Ireland: Kissin' some Blarney before Killarney

Our flight from the UK arrived in Dublin early in the day so we took the first available bus to Cork. From here, it was only a short (30 min) bus ride to Blarney, the site of a castle and a small stone slab reputed to grant life-long eloquence to all who give it a kiss.

Tastes like stone soup.

Don't fall down the hole!

Nice view from the top

The gardens were also quite impressive, like the illustrations you'd find accompanying a fairy tale.

Who's that?

Where'd he come from?

Notice how green these Irish pictures are compared to those of Italy.

We then made our way to Killarney, a small city on the west coast of Ireland and very close to the Ring of Kerry, supposedly one of the country's prettiest sites. Unfortunately, we never got as far as the Ring, but did find a national park and Ross Castle nearby.

Dinner

Good to have a third person take a picture everyone now and then.

Next: the search for Mike's Irish roots!

2006-11-24T06:50:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving in Milan

Despite some setbacks early in the evening, Thanksgiving in Milan actually turned out quite well. At the last minute Tim and I decided to try our hands at making stuffing from scratch (which turned out surprisingly well), and our rotisserie chickens really stepped up to the plate as convincing (though small) turkeys. Tim and I also made sweet potatoes, corn, and peas. Nisha and Stephanie added asparagus, mashed potatoes, carrots, and dessert. Everything tasted great. This was Stephanie's first Thanksgiving (since she's from England) and, given the circumstances, I think we did a good job. Especially with no oven, and almost no planning.

Turkey with "Tim and Mike's World Famous Old-fashioned Home-made Stuffing"

It might not look like much, but there were only four of us. And we had leftovers of almost everything.

The whole gang

As dinner music, it was suggested we play the Team America soundtrack through my iPod speakers. "It's an American Holiday," we thought. "Why not some America-loving music?" We thought better of it, though, and just played a Chopin/Bach/Mozart playlist in the background.

2006-11-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

In Praise of The Catholic Daughters

Sure I've made fun of them in the past, but let's face it, they're great girls. You know one of the things I like best about them? You can count on them for food.

Today is Thanksgiving, and Tim and I were planning on having dinner with some of the other Americans at Bocconi University. We don't have an oven, so we initially thought turkey might be hard to have. But, a friend of a friend offered to bring a turkey, and stuffing. Hooray! It's Thanksgiving!

But.

At 6:30 p.m. she called and said transporting a cooked turkey is too difficult. So she and her friends aren't coming. Now we're left with more vegetables than we can eat but no turkey and no stuffing. That's a vegan holiday, and we're no vegans. A holiday isn't a holiday without some dead animal to eat. Luckily, I stopped by the grocery store today and bought some dwarf turkeys (i.e. chickens), so we'll have something. But still.

So that's what made me think of the Catholic Daughters. If they said they'd bring me a turkey, I'd know for sure I'd be getting a turkey. They like cooking, and like having people eat the food.

Update: Thanksgiving ended up going very well, after all. Details tomorrow...

2006-11-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

Cymru

That's what it's called in Welsh. At least, that's what we were told - we never actually heard anything but English on our trip to see Fr. Gareth.

Before we get to the content of this post, I'd like to apologize for the delay in updating the blog. Tim has been very busy studying lately, and I've been very busy reading other blogs (um...for tips...to improve this one). But I told Tim yesterday that if I didn't post something today, I'd give him five euros (that's what people here use since they can't get their hands on dollars, a.k.a. "real money"). So: "There we are."

Unfortunately we didn't take too many pictures in Wales, since most of the time we were being chauffeured around by Fr. Gareth or one of his parishioners and didn't always have the camera. The pictures we did take, though, are priceless.

Fr. Gareth met us at the train station the afternoon we arrived in Wales. He took us on a short tour of Cardiff, where we saw the new Senedd (like our Senate) building, the opera house, and the docks. He also bought Tim and me each a Brains (the name of the brewer) beer, which we gathered is popular in Wales. Then we drove about an hour north to his rectory, where we had dinner and watched an episode of Brideshead Revisited. Interesting fact: Fr. Gareth has two parishes, because of how few priests there are in Wales. More interesting fact: his parish in Tredega is technically in Dukestown, just a bit over the Tredega / Dukestown line, because when the church was built the parish wasn't allowed to build a Catholic Church in Tredega (Catholics in Wales haven't always been treated very well).

Anyway, our first field trip was chaperoned by Mike, one of Fr. Gareth's loyal parishioners. He took us to Big Pit, an old coal mine (one of many in the area). He also drove us past Rhomney Iron Works, one of the oldest (if not the oldest) iron works in the world. Here we are posing outside Big Pit, since cameras aren't allowed inside.

Mike, Mike, Tim

We also took a trip into Cardiff one of the days in Wales. Fr. Gareth's mother drove us into down while Father ran errands, and we eventually met up at "the club" for lunch. Tim and I were very underdressed, and I'm sure lacked sufficient table manners, but our hosts were too polite to mention it. Here's a picture of Tim and me in front of Cardiff Castle.

It was nice to travel with a third person, so more than just our heads would be in the picture.

Fr. Gareth, as you'd expect, is a very good host. Simply putting up with us is all most people are willing to deal with, but he really went the extra mile...I mean, the extra 1.6 kilometers. No matter how busy he was working on his dissertation, he'd always stop to make us breakfast.

"The Best Breakfast in Tredega" (I assume, because, well, there's really no other place to eat)

Many of you have, in comments or in emails, suggested that Tim and I have been neglecting our studies while abroad. I'd like to offer you some undisputable proof that that is not the case. Look at Tim, studying hard in the sitting room / my bedroom / Brideshead Revisited viewing room.

See? That's a textbook if ever I saw one...

One of the places we traveled with Fr. Gareth was an old Catholic Church (called St. Issui's or Patricio Church) that was stolen and is currently used by Protestants. In this church is the oldest known picture of Death / the Grim Reaper / etc.

Death

Mike, Fr. Gareth, and Tim in Patricio Church

Fr. Gareth also took us to the ruins of an old abbey, as evidenced by the following pictures. By the way, please notice that Wales is one of the relatively few places that manages to still be beautiful in rainy weather (which is lucky, since it rains pretty much all the time).

We also went to an abbey that still has monks living there.

Tim, at the abbey that still has monks

Since most of you probably haven't been to Fr. Gareth's parish, I thought it'd be nice to include a couple pictures of his church, Immaculate Conception.

Unfortunately, we did eventually have to leave. Realizing that we didn't have many pictures with Fr. Gareth, we decided to snap one more before leaving for the airport.

As we were leaving, I thought to myself, "I don't think I've ever seen Fr. Gareth's smile so big."

And because I know you love them, here's a self-portrait of Tim and me eating while waiting for a bus, or a train, or something.

2006-11-19T13:16:00.000-08:00

A night in London: Tasty Pasties, Chess, Japanese Ocean Views, and Stonehenge. No Messin'!

Our next stop was London for its famous cornish pasties (pronounced "past" as in "past tense"). If you are unfortunate enough not to have eaten a cornish pasty, book the next flight. These flakey baked pies are filled with meat and vegetables, and are worth the trip. (If you can't afford the ticket / don't have the time, don't worry...they're practically the same thing as pot pies - Mike) (No they're not. They're essentially different, perhaps opposed - Tim)

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

But we did do some other stuff, the best of which was at the British Museum. We saw:

The funny little Lewis Chessmen, made in the 12th century and found in the 18th

Hokusai's famous print, The Breaking Wave Off Kanagawa

A day trip to Stonehenge

And a funny sign (in the Underground)

2006-11-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

Studying too much...

Is not the reason for the lack of updates for the past month. That could, however, be the reason for the next few weeks since we've been out of town quite a bit.

First, we spent a night in Paris. After making friends with a Japanese guy at our hostel, we took a stroll and ended up at a small bar, where we met Patrick. Patrick was an interesting character. Somewhat inebriated and a passionate fan of American rock bands, Patrick bought us two rounds of Leffe beers (add to the good list) as we tried to understand who SiMongArfUnkl and Creeznseclerwaterrefifal were. Somehow this "conversation" lasted over an hour.

Patrick in his signature pose surprising our Japanese friend with a smack on the cheek

We then made our way up the Eiffel Tower.

Notre Dame was quite impressive. Attending Mass in French made me realize how much I understand in Italian, little as it is.

The day ended, appropriately, with crepes.

Chicken and cheese for me, like Mom makes, and ham, cheese, and mushrooms for Mike.

And, in our tradition of cutting flights and trains entirely too close, we managed to almost miss our plane to London: our luggage, with boarding confirmation slips inside, was locked, and the key was nowhere to be found. Luckily, Mike managed to untwist and cut the cord holding the lock using scissors borrowed from the lady at the nearby desk.

Next posts include a night in London (we made it), five days in Wales, and four in Ireland. No, really.

2006-10-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

The Eternal City!

On Monday, October 9 Tim and I left our apartment to catch the 10:07 p.m. train from Milan to Rome. We left a little late, and the metro was slow, so we were very worried about the train leaving without us. We got to the train station with a few minutes to spare, but still had to figure out where to find the machine to print our tickets, and then how to use that machine. Oh yeah, we also had no idea which platform our train was on. So, we ran around frantically for a few minutes, until I found the machine. Then I started working out that puzzle, and Tim asked Only Other Person Around which platform to go to. Finally, tickets in hand, we ran as fast as we could. "Tim, if you fall down these stairs, break an arm, not a leg...that way we can still make it to the train," I said. We got to the platform at 10:05, out of breath but with enough energy left to high-five each other in congratulations for our good luck.

After changing trains in Bologna around midnight, we finally arrived in Milan at five-something Tuesday morning. We hung around the train station for awhile, then ate breakfast (i.e. granola, yogurt-like stuff, and boiled eggs from home; milk we bought at the train station). Next we rode the metro to the station closest to our hostel, a short walk north from Vatican City. Since we couldn't check in yet, and couldn't pick up our tickets to the Papal Audience yet, we headed towards St. Peter's, where we went to Mass and looked around.

We felt it appropriate to start our visit to Rome with a visit to the first pope, St. Peter

The tomb of Pope (soon to be saint) John Paul II

Self portrait in St. Peter's

After leaving St. Peter's, while trying to decide what to do next, we saw a familiar face:

GiNR aka Caitlin! We ran into her by coincidence in St. Peter's Square

So we prayed Morning Prayer with her (she seems to show up right before Liturgy of the Hours).

After walking around Rome with Caitlin some, Tim and I decided to go check into the hostel. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but it was decent. Relatively clean, nice enough people. Not too exciting a story. Then we went to pick up our Papal Audience tickets. At first no one could find our tickets, but when we just happened to accidentally by chance inadvertently mention the name of the rector of the seminary, someone luckily found us two tickets. Really good ones, too. Check out these pictures:

That chair is where Pope Benedict XVI sits

The Papal Jeep

"Hey Mike, good to see you! Thanks for coming. Tim...who gave you a ticket?"

B16 greets pilgrims after the audience

I just thought this picture was cool, because you can see him on the video camera.

Later while wondering around the city we saw this:

Trinitarian Crosses in Rome. DeMatha is #1 (7-0 so far this season in football).

Meals are an important part of any day. Although this meal wasn't really anything special, the two guys eating it are:

Dinner

Since we didn't want to spend too much money, at night we mostly just walked around. The following two distractions are the only ones exciting enough to mention:

Trevi Fountain, a cool place to hang out at night

This was done with spray paint by a street artist in Rome. Tim and I watched for probably 20 minutes, it was amazing. The picture is about 18 inches wide, for reference.

Again, meals are important. Before heading out for a day of seeing the sights, we needed piles of granola bars, bananas, yogurt, milk, etc.

Self portrait: "Mike and Tim at Breakfast"

I also discovered canned tuna with chickpeas and tomatoes mixed in. I didn't have it for breakfast, but it tasted good at lunch.

We were lucky enough to see a lot of the major sights in Rome. We went to:
St. Mary Major, where we saw pieces of the manger in which Jesus was born;

and St. Peter in Chains, where they keep the chains that held St. Peter.

We also had the chance to take a tour of the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill. This is me at Constantine's Basilica.

We met up with Jacob (from MD, but studying in Rome) for the Roman ruins tour. Tim and Jacob are posing at the sports arena in Domitian's Palace. According to our tour guide, there would be a lot more to see there if those mean ol' popes from the Renaissance hadn't taken all the marble to build their churches. Tim and I are of the opinion that the stuff looks better in Churches. And besides, why shouldn't they use that marble? The Romans weren't using it. Recycling saves the planet. Just think: if some organization found a way to take and reuse all the rubble left after a baseball stadium was torn down, they'd be praised for their environmentally responsible policies. The same tour guide offers tours of the Vatican Museums, but since we didn't like her attitude, we decided not to go (plus it cost like thirty euros).

On Friday we decided to go to St. Paul Outside the Walls in the morning. We also went to St. John Lateran. There we met Caitlin and took a bus outside Rome to see the catacombs, where at one point over 500,000 Christians were buried, including something like 16 popes.

Tim and me at St. Paul Outside the Walls; inset, B16's mosaic (the walls are bordered by mosaics of all the popes)

Tim and me at St. John Lateran

Caitlin and Tim (who, I guess, is happy to have survived the catacombs)

After parting ways with Caitlin, Tim and I decided to ascend the Sacred Steps, the twenty-eight steps Jesus climbed to get to Pontius Pilate (St. Helen, Constantine's mother, brought them to Rome after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land). I don't have a picture of them, but you're only allowed to go up on your knees, so that's what we did. There's a little chapel at the top, but you're not allowed in there.

Later on Friday we met our seminarian friend Justin by St. Peter's on our way to the North American College, where we'd be staying until we left on Monday. After meeting a bunch of people, we hung out on the roof for awhile enjoying the view. On Saturday we were given an excellent tour of the Roman Forum from another seminarian. On Sunday we saw Pope Benedict XVI again, this time at a Canonization Mass, where four new saints (including one American, Mother Theodore Guerin) were canonized. We didn't get to sit as close this time, but it was still enjoyable. I was happy to discover that I remembered enough high school Latin to understand most of the Mass. After lunch we played basketball with some priests and seminarians, which was fun. You'd be surprised at Fr. Mark's wicked J.

After three nights in the hostel, the NAC seemed like Heaven. Our own rooms, real beds (not thin-mattressed bunks), good food, good friends. The class of 1962 was in town for a reunion, so we met quite a few of them. Take it from me: when you're used to seeing priests, monsignors, and bishops in the clerical garb, seeing them walk around the hallway in their undershirts and whatnot is an interesting experience. It also made it hard to greet people in the hallway. You'd think to yourself "How to I address this guy walking towards me? I can't just ignore him. Is he Mr.? Fr.? Msgr.? Your Eminence?"

View from my room at the NAC

View from my room, part 2

My room at the NAC

On Monday morning we woke up in time to make 6:15 Morning Prayer and 6:30 Mass. We had breakfast with a couple of our seminarian friends, then went with them to two of their morning classes, Sacraments and Justice. Around 10:30 we left them and walked to our last tourist destination, a Jesuit Church near the university. Since Tim spent a year in Japan, and since Francis Xavier is a patron saint of Japan, we thought we'd stop by on our way out of town. Francis Xavier's right arm is kept in this church.

Above the alter, the arm of St. Francis Xavier

After we left the church, we headed to the train station to catch the 12:30 train back to Milan. On Thursday we're off on another trip, to Paris, London, Wales, and Ireland, so look for blog posts about that sometime around the beginning of November. Also, if anyone has any questions about the history behind any of the sights we saw, or anything else, please let us know.

2006-10-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

Just Pictures

Since we haven't posted much lately, and since we won't post while we're away, I thought I'd take a few minutes to post some pictures from our earlier travels that haven't made it onto the blog.

The Duomo, unfortunately currently under construction

The very expensive shopping area next to the Duomo in Milan

Tim, showing how far down the mountain we walked in Como

The Carthusian Monastery of Pavia, from outside the train station

A view from the courtyard inside the Carthusian Monastery

Inside the Monastery

Also inside the Monastery

St. Ambrose and two martyrs, in the crypt at St. Ambrose Church in Milan

2006-10-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

Quick Update

This is just a quick post to let everyone know what our plans for the coming weeks are. First, either tomorrow or Tuesday Tim and I will be heading to Rome for about a week. We'll be staying in a hostel for the first few nights, and then for the weekend we'll be guests at the North American College in Rome. Two of our friends from home go to school there, and a priest we know from the Archdiocese of Washington will be around that weekend, too.

We'll get back to Milan on the 16th. On the 19th we're heading to Paris, where we'll spend a night and a day. Then we're off to London for a night and a day, then Wales for 4 or 5 days. We'll leave Wales for Ireland, finally returning to Milan again on October 31. It'll be a busy (and expensive) month, but hey, it'll never be October 2006 again, so we might as well make the most of it.

That about does it for our upcoming travels. Before closing this post, though, I thought I'd post a picture that will be meaningless to most of you, but I think quite amusing to a particular few:

2006-10-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

A Month in Italy! (And a day in Germany)

Me, Tim, Nisha, Connie, and Carly arriving at Oktoberfest

Saturday, September 30, marks one month in Italy for Tim and me. The month went by fast, but I guess we've done a fair amount. It looks like October will be a busy month, with trips to Rome, Wales, and maybe Paris and Ireland. Start getting excited about those blog posts now. But anyway...

We left by bus Friday night to celebrate the annual beer-lover's wedding party, Oktoberfest. Somehow, it took an extra two hours to leave Milan since two students hadn't previously paid the $40 transportation fee. But judging from some other encounters with Italian efficiency, one extra hour per person is actually quite good. (For example, when we showed up to board the bus, they had to check the list to see if we had paid. The list wasn't even in alphabetical order, so looking through the entire thing each time easily doubled or tripled loading time.) More on that in later posts, though.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to sit in here. It looked cool, though.

So, surprisingly half-refreshed we arrived in Munich, Germany, at about 8:30 a.m. and made our way to one of the large beer "tents", and even though it was already full we managed to find a table within the walls outside. Connie, Carly, Nisha, Stephanie, Tim, and I each started the day with a one-liter mug of the tent's beer. You can see that each mug is about the size of any of our heads.

Don't worry...I'm just holding Tim's beer for him while he takes the picture.

We hung around that table for awhile. Eventually Tim and I got bored and decided to walk around the fairground. Not surprisingly, during this time two Italian guys found the girls and were granted permission to sit at our table and buy the girls beer.

Luckily, the girls never use their feminine wiles to make Tim and me buy them drinks. We're not made of money, you know.

After awhile Tim and I came back and had another beer with the girls and the two Italian guys. That was fun, but eventually we decided to get up and see what else Oktoberfest had to offer.

Most of the rides were pretty standard fair/theme-park rides. Unfortunately, they were very expensive, so we decided to only go on the Wild-n-Wet flume ride. Basically you sit in a circular container and go down a waterslide. It was pretty fun, especially after sitting in the sun for so long, but didn't last long enough. I wish the girls would have found some guys to buy us all more tickets for that.

Me, Tim, and Carly on the Wild-n-Wet

Afterwards we walked around for awhile. Tim and I visited a church in town, which, as I'd heard about German churches, seemed pretty barren inside. We couldn't figure out what time the Vigil Mass was that evening, though, so we eventually headed back to Oktoberfest to re-join our group. After many text messages and much frustrated searching, we finally found the girls waiting to get into another beer tent. At this point Tim decided to go take a nap, so I joined the girls in some disappointing German dinner (Connie and I had what amounted to a pile of sliced bologna with onions and vinegar; the other girls had cheese spread on bread. Connie and Carly both found hairs in their food.) The beer at this tent was good, though, so we left our table inside to go sit around a table outside for awhile.

Eventually we met Tim again, and went to buy souvenirs. As the below photo shows, hats were a popular item. Tim and I also bought shirts, which I guess people will see when we get back.

Connie also had a hat, but for some unfathomable reason wasn't wearing it. Tim did not have a hat.

After leaving Oktoberfest and heading back to the bus around 10:00 p.m., many of the students decided to head into town to see what Munich had to offer in the way of nightlife. Carly, Connie, Nisha, Stephanie, and I decided to go. After walking for about 25 minutes, Stephanie, Connie, and I got bored and went to McDonalds, then back to the hot, crowded, small-seated bus to try to sleep. Eventually Carly and Nisha must have gotten back safely, since I saw them today.

After an uncomfortable bus ride home, Tim and I got dropped off by school around 10:00 a.m. and decided to go to the 10:30 mass on campus. Then we wandered home, showered, rested, and eventually did homework and wrote this blog entry.

Important Note for the unaware: DeMatha's football team is 5-0 so far this season, ranked #1 in the area by The Washington Post and #18 in the nation by USA Today. It's early in the season, though, so I'm sure we'll be ranked higher soon.

2006-09-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

Cinque Terre, Mike's addition

If you haven't read Tim's description of our Cinque Terre trip (immediately below this post), I recommend doing that now.

Since Tim already covered the main points of the trip, I'm going to just toss out some details as I think of them. The first thing that comes to mind is our hostel. The bathroom floor around the toilet, which is never a place that's clean, was the same floor as the shower floor, since the showerhead just stuck out of the wall. That was a little gross.

Notice the showerhead and the toilet, right next to each other. Yes, most of the bathroom gets soaked when you try to take a shower.

The good thing about the hostel, though, was that in order to get to our room we had to pass through someone else's room. On the surface this seemed a little strange, but it turned out well, because while preparing to say Evening Prayer Saturday night, the following conversation took place:

Tim: "Nisha, Mike and I are about to say some prayers that we do every night. So don't think I'm talking to you when I say 'Lord, make haste to help me' or anything like that."
Nisha: with the tone that Tim is a dork "OK"
Girl in next room: "Is that Liturgy of the Hours?"
Mike: in a surprised tone, since practically no one knows what Liturgy of the Hours is "Yes...care to join us?"
G.i.N.R.: "Sure."

So that's how we met Caitlin (aka G.i.N.R.), who goes to school in Minnesota, but is currently studying in Rome. We talked to her for a bit, and she hung out with us some on Sunday. Since we're travelling to Rome in October, Tim gave her our email addresses so we can arrange to go to dinner or something.

That conversation reminds me: no one knows who "Nisha" and "Stephanie" (mentioned in the last post) are. They are roommates who live two floors below us. Nisha is from Texas. Stephanie is from England. We hang out with them quite a bit, since they both agree that Tim and I tell the funniest jokes around, and they tolerate our shenanigans. Along with three girls and two guys from Ireland, they were our travelling companions this weekend.

Mike, Stephanie, and Nisha hiking up a mountain

Speaking of humor, while waiting for the train this weekend:

Mike: (to Tim) "Dangit! I think I forgot my piecost back in Milan!"
Tim: "Oh man. Can you get another one?"
Mike: "I don't know. Stephanie, do you have a piecost I can borrow?"
Stephanie: "What's a pie cost?"
Mike: "About ten euros."
Tim and Mike: "Hahahahahahahaha!"

I should mention that Caitlin also fell for a variation of this joke, but that Nisha messed one up when we tried to do it to her.

(Lyzii and Cheryl: Stephanie and Nisha try to play cards with us fairly often, but they always lose, just like you do.)

Tim, on top of the cliff we walked up / climbed to see what was there (Answer: a lawn chair). I got like ten little splinters trying to pick a fruit off a cactus here. It was the only fruit on this trip I attempted to get but failed. Next time I'll be prepared.

I guess the last thing that I need to mention, since Tim didn't, is that we went swimming in the extremely blue water around Cinque Terre today. The water was pretty cold at first, but was nice after awhile. Unfortunately, Stephanie got stung by some sort of jellyfish or something, so we left. On the bright side, though, that meant no was in the sun long enough to get a sunburn.

We didn't get to swim here, but I wanted to. We'll go back sometime soon.

2006-09-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

Five towns, two yogurts, and a spoon

Glad to be back at La Darsena after a weekend in Cinque Terre, a series of five coastal towns about 200 km/4 hours south of Milan.

To start, the hike from Riomaggiore to Vernazza offered some beautiful views, probably on account of the water's perfect blue-green. We stopped on a few occasions to check out mysterious paths or stairways diverging from the main path, and although you might expect that these led nowhere, they did reinforce our natural, manly desire for adventure and resulted in finding a wild lime and an abandoned house. We also found wild, unripe yet satisfying peaches later on in the hike.

The whole hike took about four hours, including stops in both of the towns within our starting and ending points, and really wasn't too difficult. It's safe to say we might have broken a world record if we completed all five towns, but that would've resulted in false pride, and Vernazza was a good stopping point: we went to 6 p.m. mass in a little chapel by the sea while Nisha and Stephanie went to a local bar for bruschetta and drinks.

Re-enactment (not the real yogurt)

As for food, by the way, we're still trying to figure it out. We still don't know the culturally appropriate way of paying efficiently, but very little seems to be efficient in Italy, but more important is the question how to get two spoons with two cups of yogurt. Sunday morning Mike and I bought some coconut yogurt (mmmm) for post-breakfast dessert, but when I asked if they had any spoons I ended up only receiving one. Then, in my three-week old Italian and in the clerk's Italian-English:

Ehh... hai un altra spoon? ("Do you have an other spoon?" I didn't know the word for spoon, and my feminine-masculine article-noun agreement is incorrect.)
No no. One person.
(Pointing to my yogurt cups) Due ("Two")
No, this yogurt e for one person. (e means "is")

So apparently Italian yogurt, if bought in groups of two, is for only person, and this is nothing you can decide for yourself.

2006-09-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Alan, the Lizard, and the Lake

Our good friend Alan, now "studying" at Harvard, visited us after Fumiaki left. As is the case whenever Alan is around, our experience quadrupled in quality. We spent the first day eating one of his off-the-cuff but delicious dinners, eating aperitivo (happy hour buffet of pasta and finger foods) and drinking Hoegaarden with our Californian neighbors Connie and Carly, and visiting the Duomo (cathedral) for the third time already. Luckily, the Duomo is the third-largest church in the world, so I'm sure we'll discover other reasons (besides Mass) to return before the semester's over.

After a few days of class and Alan's return from his own travels, we spent a day in Como, a small city on the shore of Lake Como about 45 minutes north of Milan. Unfortunately, we forgot our guidebooks, but made the best of the situation by taking a train up the side of a mountain, inspecting a small chapel and mountain-top neighborhood, and walking about 2 hours along the curvy mountain roads back to the city. Mike caught a lizard but we decided to let it go because we weren't as stocked up on lizard food as we normally are.

The Lizard

The neighborly Californian law students (and us)

Hello Milano

2006-09-09T13:57:00.000-07:00

I don't know why these posted here and in that order, but pictures 1, 2, 3, and 5 are our apartment. Number 4 is our hotel room. That guy with Tim is Fumiaki, not Mike.

After about 9 hours in the air and a breakfast of Guinness while laid-over in Dublin, we finally arrived at Linate airport 7 km east of Milan at 11:30 on Wed., Sept. 30. The first order of business, changing our American dollars into a much smaller quantity of euros, went as well as it could have given our lack of any Italian abilities or knowledge of the airport.

The second goal, getting to Milan, was much more difficult: after nearly boarding the wrong bus without paying properly, we managed to piece together some of the half-helpful comments other passengers gave us and bought a ticket for the correct bus. The problem was that the correct bus was less correct than the most correct bus: we found out just before boarding that the Starfly bus would take us even closer to The Best Hotel (its real name), our lodging for the first two nights. Three euros and a ten-feet walk later we were on our way to Estacione Centrale.

Once we got to the train station, we wandered around for a few minutes trying to find a road we recognized from the map. Eventually a helpful passer-by pointed us in the direction of our hotel, and we began the short (but seemingly long, with luggage for 4 months in tow) walk to The Best Hotel.

(Since we've already been here a few weeks, in the interest of just getting the blog online I am going to give the short version.)

The hotel room was very small. I nearly fell asleep during Mass at the Duomo with the Archbishop. We walked around Milan a lot. We ate a good Chinese food place for our first Italian meal. We checked in at the University. We registered as official legal aliens in Italy (this involved a pre-dawn wait of several hours, followed by sitting in a DMV-like set of lines for several more hours). We did another metro ride and walk to our apartment. We checked into our apartment. The apartment is nice, although a little smaller than we expected. Tim's friend Fumiaki from Japan visited. We walked around Milan more.

That covers everything a first post should cover.