all photos taken throughout my semester in europe can be seen here

arrivederci, roma

last friday marked the close of my roman semester and my return home. i've absolutely loved being home, yet i miss rome so terribly! it was difficult to say goodbye to all the things that became familiar to me in italia, but this is only the beginning of what portia prebys deems as a lifelong romance with the eternal city. these past 3 months proved to be the best of my life so far and i found so much good in europe. i came a long way from my first days in italy when i had been dropped out of the sky into a foreign land with limited communication to those across the sea and an uncertainty as to anything that would soon unfold. the highlights of my experience include waking up to the picturesque italian farmland on the flight over, seeing john legend in concert by san giovanni, capri and the amalfi coast, harrod's and seeing wicked in london, all of paris - especially seeing the eiffel sparkle at night, purchasing my louis speedy 30 on the champs-elysees and finding the original chanel boutique which is home to lagerfeld's offices at 31 rue cambon, seeing all of rome from massimo's vespa, conquering the roman cobblestone streets in stilettos, meeting papa benny, experiencing the scavi tour the the views of rome from the cupola, all my time at saint peter's, walks up the gianicolo hill, lunching with inge, the north american college christmas concert, the trainride to florence through tuscany, climbing the holy stairs, via condotti, the sunday morning market, evening runs along the tiber, surviving napoli, living in the tiziano, visiting the art gallery of maria grazia, mario and massimo, sparkling vino, santa maria maggiore, the pope mobile, speaking in only italiano with natives, and returning home with 47 new friendships with wonderful young people whom i shared such a lifechanging and extraordinarily special experience with. in europe i found adventure, romance, faith, much happiness and some fabulous shopping! most of all, i have gained such a broadened perspective on the world and of myself and a love for rome that will only continue to grow throughout my life. grazie, roma e a prossimo!
xx

papa benny uses creme de la mer

the past few weeks have flown and i've done so much! the streets of rome have been packed as the christmas shopping season officially began here december 8 (funny, i thought it began september 23). i finally was able to do the scavi tour which was probably one of my favorite things i have done so far. it took us through the excavations of the necropolis that once was below saint peter's, and at the end we were shown the very bones of saint peter himself. i have to say, i like saint peter - he's a pretty cool dude. our campus ministers had mass for the saint mary's girls in saint peter's last week as well, and that was awesome as well.

last weekend, a few friends and i went for dinner in front of the pantheon at a ristorante completely decked out for christmas. we had been pestered by the filipino host, dingoy, to dine there for some time now, so we finally caved. it was definitely worth it, because the owner was so impressed with us that he served us complimentary vino. we were serenaded by the roman opera singer, antonio over dinner. it was just a great, classic roman evening. i met a really nice guy (and nice looking, for sure) by the name of mario who offered to take me on his vespa through rome. he was from catania, sicily, which is where my italian background is rooted. but, i can only juggle so many ragazzi, so i had to pass.

also last week i went to lunch with inge, who has led all of our tours and excursions while in italy. she's originally from denmark, attended university in scotland, and has lived in italy for 10 years. her accent is very unique, and she is just so delightful.

this week we finished up classes - finally - and now i'm rotting in the library studying for these fabulous final exams. in art history, the most ridiculous class i have ever taken, our professor, harula is a crazy woman. she's absolutely stunning and really reminds me of senora santiago, but there are no words for this lady. our midterm consisted of identifying 5 pieces of artwork, yet she insisted we memorize all 128. for the final, we have to memorize just as many, and also, as she suggests: "if i were you, i'd memorize the whole glossary." sure, harula, sure. and then, as she reviewed, she responded to the class's lack of knowledge of a sculpture by saying, "this is hadrian, from the 2nd century. if you don't know this already, there's the window!"

rome is not always so accepting of public forms of exercise, and it's difficult to find a place where it's not so crowded. since the beginning, i've enjoyed running along the tiber river. but my new favorite place to walk/run to is the gianicolo hill. rome is built upon 7 hills, and this one has the supposed best view of rome. as i went up there, i passed the north american college where a few of my favorite priests entered the seminary. it definitely does have an incredible view! and on the way back, with the sidewalks slick from the rain and leaves, i faceplanted!

it's been rainy every day for the past 2 weeks. with the first sign of a raindrop, out come the indians peddling their umbrelle. they are pretty annoying, but i've developed friendships with them as i've learned we share very similarly ridiculous senses of humor. last weekend i even danced to their banjo playing in piazza navona - they loved it!

yesterday, there was a university student mass and audience with the pope at saint peter's. my friends wanted to get as close to the altar as possible, but i decided to do my own thing and sit near the aisle as i had anticipated papa to make his way down at some point. turns out, i was right, and during his exit he walked right up to me, looked me in the eye, smiled, and shook my hand! i was speechless and basically high on life at that point. his hands were incredibly soft, and he is such an adorable man. it was a priceless experience!

with only one week left in rome, i have a long list of things i have yet to do. aside from finals and packing, i plan to tie up the loose ends on shopping, visit my favorite monuments one last time, take one last vespa spin through rome with massimo, and just soak up my last days in rome. i can't believe how quickly these 3 months have gone - hard to believe! i am excited to get home for the holidays. if i had to go back to september to do it all over again, i wouldn't. paris, london, capri, rome, florence, saint peter's, vespas, shopping and fashion and papa and vino - it's been perfect and i wouldn't change a thing!

pareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

after a lifetime spent dreaming of paris, i finally got there thanksgiving morning. though i had to sacrifice sleep to get there, it was beyond worth it. while in paris, i saw first and foremost the eiffel, l'arc de triomphe, notre dame, the louvre, musee d'orsay, monet's waterlillies, picasso museum, the pompidou, the bastille, san chapelle, moulin rouge, and probably the most cultural experience - the paris metro. on saturday i spent the entire day exploring paris on my own time, navigating the metro system alone and accomplishing what i had yet to do. i found elite, so i got to see where dierdre may be based in the future, and hopefully my future workplace! i saw all the great top fashion houses on rue de faubourg saint-honore, which of course was atop my to do list in paris. i finally purchased LOUISE at the louis vuitton mothership on champs-elysees, which might i add is unarguably the most amazing street in the history of all streets. seeing the eiffel sparkle at night was quite chilling, and all i could think about were french fashion legends and the scene from the devil wears prada. profound, i know. paris is my most favorite place i've ever been. j'adore!

firenze

yesterday frannie and i took the train into florence for the day. it was a quick trip but i managed to have a successful shopping day and florence is great. i still prefer rome, but it was interesting to see florence as very much a city atmosphere, but is cleaner and definitely more peaceful than rome. found the roberto cavalli cafe, which of course was right up my alley with walls plastered with past RC campaigns and the best cappuccino in town. can't beat that!
this morning i bit the bullet and awoke in time to walk to saint peter's for mass, and afterwords saw pope benny give his blessings to the masses.
this week shouldn't be too bad with only 2 1/2 days of classes and then pariiiiiiiiiis!

vespas and dierdre

how could i have forgotten two important points of interest? a few weeks ago i had the privilege of seeing rome from the vespa of my italian boy, massimo. nothing quite like getting a comprehensive tour of the city of rome from a real italian. definitely an experience of a lifetime! my only complaint was that a helmet is mandatory - i certainly would not want to go without one, but my hair just wasn't looking too good! his last words to me as he dropped me off at the tiz were, "and next week i take you to chanel!" i'd say he knows me well. not that i need shown around via condotti and its surrounding areas!

also, dierdre shot with italian vanity fair and again with seventeen, and solo this time! she also shot for - drumroll please - teen vogue! that was her dream job, and i am overly excited myself. she had recent castings with versace (donatella's my idol) and stella mccartney as well which is, you know, NO BIG DEAL. she's headed to tokyo for 6 weeks in january to build her book!

CIAO xx

southern italy and london

finally got my blog to work after a few technical difficulties. anyways, where to start? the past few weeks have been quite busy with midterms, a week in southern italy and a weekend in london. in southern italy we visited naples, pompeii, amalfi, cuma, paestum, a few museums, and my absolute favorite, capri. naples was the youngstown of italy if you will, so yeah it was basically a craphole filled with a bunch of creeps. it was just one big trash receptacle. not much else to say. our "hydrofoil" to capri caused numerous issues involving seasickness among the group which was just ever so pleasant! but it was well worth it because it was by far the most beautiful place i've ever seen. i even stepped above my fear of heights and took the chairlift to anacapri where the views were absolutely breathtaking (i figured if jackie o could survive it, so could i!) upon our return in home sweet rome, room 405 became filled with holiday spirit as november 1st begins the christmas season for us. christmas music, elf, and christmas vacation are the only things to get us through the stress of midterms!

this weekend we flew to london for the weekend. we, against my complaints, stayed in a hostel. i knew i'd hate it. it was in an awesome area, the best shopping was just a few blocks away. but i am not too peachy keen on sharing a room with 4 foreign men and a south african cat dog. accommodations aside, i loved london. it was fabulous to be speaking english again and get a break from the constant harassment of italian men. the weather was really chilly, but i couldn't complain considering it's been almost 70 still in rome and that doesn't encourage holiday spirit! not much of a harry pothead fan, but we found platform 9 3/4 which was pretty neato. probably the highlight of the weekend (aside from holiday starbucks!) was getting to see wicked which absolutely knocked my socks off.