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.

so i've officially been in italy for a month. it's flying! this past week has been pretty busy with quite a workload and 3 of my best girls from saint mary's came to visit on their fall break. tuesday we walked to the vatican museums to see the sistine chapel which was pretty awesome. yesterday i went for a run along the tiber, which i thoroughly enjoyed even though i was violently attacked by a massive flock of birds. the weather here has been unreal - only 3 light rains and it has been sunny and high 70s every day. i'm even conquering the art of walking on the cobblestone streets in heels, oh, except for that one time where i faceplanted in front of the tiz and now look like i just fought in a boxing match. but no biggy.

if anybody's looking for some last minute christmas gift ideas, i have one...

A NEW IMMUNE SYSTEM!
sounds great, thanks!

mi scrivi!

while in rome there is nothing better than getting snail mail!
write me:

Tiziano Hotel
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 110 - 00186
Rome, Italy

access DENIED

i love sundays in rome. there's not many people who can call saint peter's their place of worship for an extended period as i do. not many people can confess they were denied access to the basilica either. again i say, i was. the plan yesterday was to go to mass at 5:30 following a long day exploring the sunday market and finishing up homework. so, a group of us embarked for the vatican in our sunday best. so i, modestly dressed as always, was absolutely stunned when a jerk of an italian man aggressively refused me from entering due to my dress being "troppo corto." after several attempts to get me to leave ("vai! vai"), and even more sad attempts to improvise with scarves around my knees, etc., another saint peter's wardrobe enforcer, this one a charmer, kindly allowed my entrance. and then we entered only to find that mass was at 4. it was 5, and right on time for vesper's. nice one. we then proceeded to l'insalata ricca, where the wine was a little too robust for a merlot, but then again i'm partial to the soft of california grape.

oh, and for the tenth time in the past 2 weeks, yesterday and today i was approached by foreign men who asked, "sei spagnola?"

tarquinian tombs, tyrhennian sea, john legend and scary men

today was such a long day, but got to go to the beach in between the tombraiding and to see john legend in concert in the city! there's nothing quite like a massive stage in all its glory aside the basilica of san giovanni. sooo cool. i also learned a very valuable lesson - one. when 3 italian men surround you and creepily exclaim "bionda! bionda!"...relocate. and when another man follows you through the piazza yelling, "vieni! vieni! sono molto tranquilo!" ...RUN! mamma mia. maybe i should look into a new hair color.

so, yesterday i, along with 2 other saint mary's girls, had the privilege of attending an ordination at Saint Peter's basilica for the NAC. it was awesome, and never in my life have i been surrounded by so many collars! it was also a really big treat to be in the company of all english speaking americans - it was a much needed little piece of home. today i had class until 10 and then had to walk alllll the way across roma with the group to an art museum. tomorrow we are being brutally awoken at SIX AM to go on what is referred to as an "all day excursion" to a place by the name of tarquinia. not to say i'm not looking forward to it, but after 3 weeks of being constantly on the go, i'm completely burnt out and can't seem to shake the sickness that has plagued me since arriving in europa, or the jet lag. ah geez. the weather here has been bizarre for october (nearly 80 and sunny), but i'm not complaining!

oh, and good news: dierdre is absolutely taking the modeling industry by storm! in the 2 weeks she's been in nyc, she's shot with seventeen and kohl's and has quite an impressive list of go-sees underway!

i like it when you call me big PAPA, throw yo hands up in the air YEAH P. BENNY yo yo

went to mass at saint peter's this morning and received a blessing from benny himself afterward. soooo cool! i loved how diverse the congregation was and being able to exchange the sign of peace with people from who knows where!

the collosseum: TYRA WAS HERE!!!

had class yesterday until 7, went out for dinner in piazza navona (discovered my previously unbeknownst taste for chianti), got kicked out of my hotel room for excessive noise, reinstated 3 minutes later, and finally out around town to a few bars etc. one of which was of spanish decent and i almost scored drinks free of charge for looking spanish. hmm. today we toured the forum and the collosseum. it absolutely rained cats and dogs. most people were amazed by the ancient-ness of these monuments and the like, but i was more intrigued by the fact that tyra banks and her top model clan from a recent season shot an episode in the collosseum!

"PAPA CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

took a walk to il vaticano ieri sera. what a magnificent place! by the time we left, however, we could've sworn we heard papa benny shouting out his window to get the heck out his yard.

vintage, so adorable

loving life in the city more and more each day! yesterday i went exploring down a quaint little sidestreet full of boutiques and cafes and stumbled upon a few hole-in-the-wall, stinky, smelly but goldmine vintage shops that made me want to shower and sanitize again and again but came across some bona fide treasures (none other than burberry pants and gucci bags). will definitely be checking back there as time progresses! on the downside, after searching high and low all over the city of rome for chewy bars and even contacting quaker myself, i am devastated to hear that europe as a whole is completely void of this necessity. tonight i am planning on walking to the vatican, that is, if the weather holds! buonasera!

life as a blonde spaniard

i am officially never leaving rome! i am in love. i finished classes at 10 am today, so i went for a long walk past the pantheon, the trevi fountain, the spanish steps, and finally down via condotti - aka designer oasis. all i can say is bellissima! i was concerned my blonde hair would be a dead giveaway that i am an american, a naive american, leaving me to be subject to thiefery or other foreign mischief. however, after today i am convinced otherwise after several italians assumed i was a spaniard or an italian. so don't mess with me boys, i'm a spaniard.

roma at last!

ciao roma! arrived in the eternal city yesterday evening into my fabulous hotel room ("dormitory") at the hotel tiziano on the corso vittorio emmanuele fully equipped with an outdoor terrace and marble bathroom. so fantastic. visited the pantheon and trevi fountain at nightfall (just a block away!) prior to turning in for the night. today was the first day of classes,my first was a brutal 8 am and i just finished my last one at 7 pm. yikes! as much as i fully adore this incredibly beautiful city, i am extremely homesick and physically ill as well so it has not been without its challenges. a louis speedy 30 will be the perfect medicinal method to take the edge of my sickness! buonanotte!

PS. this rather unconventional first day of school photo is just for you, mom!

san francesco and hills galore

buongiorno! i'm back in my little cafe. a group of us came here last night after dinner for wine. chatted with an albanian angelina jolie clone and a group of irish priests and seminarians. snaps for english! but i do love the foreigners. we also did our room number lottery and my 2 roomies and i lucked out with number 1! toured the basilica of saint francis this morning which was really neat to see but quite a hike. there are so many hills and sets of stairs here that my legs just may fall off.

such great heights

loving italia so far, but assisi is a bit too B.C. for me! climbed this monstrous mountain this morning to see a castle (not quite genovia, but intriguing nonetheless), and got my schedule a little bit ago. looks like i'm going to be waking up for 8 am classes every. single. DAY! still plagued by some serious jet lag, and really looking forward to settling in roma sunday evening. i made two new italian friends (read: creeps) - francesco and martin, servers at a quaint little cafe. they gave to me complimentary internet service and cheese! kinda strange, but tale e' vita!

ciao ciao italia!

made it! current location: airport in roma with a desperate desire to SHOWERRRR. feels so surreal to be in the land of donatella! leaving for assisi around 1ish, should be interesting! ciao ciao!

pace!

leaving tomorrow at 6 am to catch my flight! which means i should probably get up around 3:30 to allow enough time to be sure my hair cooperates. just finished up packing, and poor daddy gets the grueling task of wheeling both suitcases (probably both weighing in the triple digits each) through the airport. my apologies, james. the thing that really ruffles my feathers is this ridiculous 3 oz. deal. can airline law enforcers please just have a little more compassion for the women who will cease to exist on 3 oz. of hair product for 5 days? hopefully i'll survive the 4-5 days in assisi where i'll be living atop an italian mountain. iiiii am going to be climbing a freaking mountain (but was advised by saint mary herself not to travel in stilettos - geez!), please keep your gasps of astonishment to a minimum. welp, off to bed!
arrivederci, america and ciao ciao italia!

getting ready

considering it is called "study abroad," one may be led to believe that i'd actually be concerned about the studying aspect at this point. nope. i am sufficiently distracted by what i am going to be wearing and carrying while doing this alleged studying. as we know, fashion is not about utility. an accessory is merely a piece of iconography used to express individual identity. so my biggest dilemma here is this packing business. 2 suitcases+my wardrobe+trying to keep up with italian fashionistas(os)=major problem. MAJOR. that's my biggest concern right now, so i guess if it all works out then everything else should be a breeze!

PS. happy golden birthday greta suzette!

dierdre takes on the big apple

dierdre, elite model management's newest it girl fresh from the greenville countryside and my best girlfriend, began her first duties today in the city. she had a few test shoots today to update her book. we're both pretty apprehensive of entering such new and unfamiliar environments, so it's surely a comfort to be able to empathize with each other. i'll miss her terribly while in italia, but i'm hoping she'll perhaps have jobs in milan so we can spend some quality foreign time together! i am so so so elated for her as she begins what is quite the exciting journey!

an article ran in yesterday's newspaper discussing her exciting news in detail, check it out!