Ciao!

For this blog post, I figured I would let you all in on the exciting European travels I have been able to take part in so far!

The first trip I took was to Dublin, Ireland in order to explore my Irish heritage a bit. I went with my friend Nick and we had a pretty open agenda for the weekend aside from our Jameson Whiskey and Guiness tours we signed up for. My first thought after stepping off the plane was…cold. We were certainly not in Italy anymore. We first met our Airbnb host’s girlfriend at her café to retrieve our key to the home and then set off to explore the city centre a bit. The first thing we did was indulge in a big, meaty burger and hearty pint of Irish beer. I figured my ancestors would expect nothing less. Italian cuisine is great and all, but all they eat are carbs and starches for every meal. Following this, we walked along the river and took in our surroundings. Ireland was a great change in pace and scenery from Rome. Overall, things were just much more casual and I loved that. The timing of our visit happened to be during what seemed to be the equivalent of the World Cup. The pubs were packed with fans. We found ourselves caught up in the excitement of it all as we visited different pubs and listened the Irish music playing in the background. It was an absolute blast. We finished our day by meeting up with three of my close friends from high school who are all studying abroad in Maynooth, a city just outside of Dublin. The next day was our tours. We first walked through the expansive Phoenix Park before making our way to Jameson. Nothing like a little whiskey at 11:30 in the morning to get your day going. We followed the Jameson tour with the Guinness tour, which proved to be a great time as well. We learned the process that goes into making the beer, how to properly taste the beer and finally how to pour the perfect pint. I am proud to say that I passed out of the Guinness Academy and can now craft the “Perfect Pint”. The remainder of the day included more delicious Irish food and beverages, a walk through Temple University and a stroll around Dublin Castle.

The next trip I took was to Budapest, Hungary with seven friends. Our first stop en route to the apartment was Starbucks! Now don’t get me wrong, Italian coffee is some of the best around, but this American gold card member missed the mermaid a bit. Hungary operates on the forint as opposed to the euro, and it is essentially monopoly money. What I mean by this is that my grande Starbucks latte came out to around 1,100 forint. When we would get our checks for meals, they would be upwards of 10,000 forint. Although it seems like a staggering amount, food and drinks were quite cheap there. You could get a main dish, side and a beer for about the equivalent of $7.00. My bank account liked this trip. One of the first things we noticed was that the Hungarians didn’t really seem too fond of us Americans. Some of the employees at the stores and restaurants would be totally rude to us and then completely different to the Hungarian behind us in line, so that was interesting. The nightlife in Budapest was so much fun though! Our first night we went to these bars and clubs that were created in old, bombed out buildings from war activity that had taken place there. The following day we woke up, grabbed some Subway (we missed our American food, okay?) and headed to a free walking tour of the city. The tour took us to some of the prettiest lookouts in Budapest, all the while teaching us some really interesting facts on the history and current state of the city and country. The next day we went to one of the largest thermal baths in Budapest. Thermal baths are essentially massive hot tubs, and Budapest is very famous for them. This particular complex had two large out door ones in addition to several smaller ones indoors. It might seem a little gross, but it was actually so relaxing and all of us really enjoyed ourselves there. Following this, I visited the House of Terror, which is a museum with exhibits related to the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes that existed in Hungary during the 20th century. The basement of the building has the cells where victims of the regimes were held, interrogated, tortured or killed. It was a very eye-opening and informative experience.

My next trip took me to the beautiful city of Amsterdam, Netherlands with six friends. This was one of my favorite trips up to that point. This trip also happened to be my first time staying in a hostel and it was…interesting. Okay, so it wasn’t bad by any means, but it is definitely different sharing a room with 19 other people. After getting settled in at our hostel, we set out to go venture through the city. One of the first places we stopped at was the iconic bench from the movie “The Fault in our Stars”. We then grabbed some dinner and prepared to take on the night. For those who are not aware, Amsterdam is a city where a lot is legal including marijuana and prostitution. One of the famous neighborhoods of Amsterdam is the Red Light District where you can find rows and rows of scantily clad women standing behind glass doors, tapping on their windows if they like you and trying to get you to make a deal with them. Rest assured, I did not take part in any dealings but it was still an interesting visit. That night ended with some fresh churros sprinkled with powdered sugar and drizzled in Nutella. The best desserts ever can be found in Amsterdam. We woke up early the next morning to get in line for the Anne Frank House. This was probably my favorite thing I have visited since being abroad. You got to walk through the annex where they lived in hiding for over two years. The original bookcase that hid the entrance was still there, the pictures Anne cut out from magazines and stuck to her wall were still hanging up, you could see up into the attic where her and Peter would sometimes go and look out the window when it was safe to do so and at the end you got to see the original diary Anne wrote in. It was a very moving and emotionally draining experience. I got chills every time I walked into a new room. After this, we walked down the street to indulge in the best pancakes ever. The remainder of that day included walking through an Amsterdam market, taking a canal boat tour and getting some waffles with ice cream and Nutella on them (these desserts though…). Our final day in Amsterdam took us to the area of the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum (we didn’t go in either because we were broke. The desserts didn’t come cheap) where the famous giant metal iamsterdam sign is located. We took some pictures there, walked through a nice park and headed back to Rome.

My most recent trip was easily one of my favorites, Spring Break with the family. My dad, brother, cousin and uncle came to visit and do some Italian travels. We spent our first few days in Rome doing the Scavi Tour (contains the tomb of Saint Peter), a tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, visiting St. Peter’s Basilica, walking by the Colosseum, visiting the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon, and wandering into the many churches in Rome. Our next stop was Positano in the Amalfi Coast. We did a private tour that took us to some of the prettiest lookouts of Amalfi and the surrounding areas. Our villa was located towards the top of Positano, which made for a pretty lookout from our rooftop terrace, but a terrible walk back up from the beach-front restaurants at night. It is still considered low season for these touristy areas so we had the town primarily to ourselves. After spending two nights here, we made our way to the beautiful city of Florence. We spent some time haggling in the leather market, climbing to the top of the Duomo and Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, visiting some of the Jersey Shore season 4 sites (they filmed that season in Florence and my reality TV junkie self was dying), walking across the Ponte Vecchio and looking at the many sculptures scattered throughout the city. Our last stop took us to the town of Monterosso, one of the five towns that are a part of Cinque Terre. We were blessed with a beautiful day for doing some hiking. Cinque Terre consists of five towns and the thing to do is hike to and explore each of the towns. Because we only had one shortened day, we only hiked to the neighboring town of Vernazza. Once our tired and sweaty selves made it, we grabbed some pizza and a cold drink and sat by the water to take in the view. I can’t say that I am Mr. Outdoorsy by any means, but the hike was incredible. (And I only took a huge fall in front of people once! Yeah, coordination isn’t necessarily my strong suit either…) The next day we took the train back to Rome and I had to say goodbye to my dad and brother after an amazing week filled with so many laughs and memories that I will cherish forever. I am so grateful to both of my parents who have allowed me to embark on this crazy semester-long journey! I’m so glad I was able to give my dad and brother a small glimpse into what I have been fortunate to be living in for the past two months.

Italian Fun Fact: Italy is not a tipping culture. The price you see is the price you pay at the end of a meal or service.

Until next time,
Nick

Ciao!

Week three already??

As I mentioned before on my last blog post, I don’t have any classes on Mondays, so I took advantage of this and explored downtown Rome with my friend Alanna. We started our day in a great shopping district doing some window-shopping and looking at all of the deals. (No mom, I didn’t cave in and buy anything. I hope you are proud of me.) After strolling for a bit, we sat at the bar of a café and ordered ourselves a cappuccino. The cappuccinos here are incredible and at €1-€2, you can’t go wrong. Not sure how I’m supposed to return to Starbucks and their prices after this… Following our cappuccinos and some more walking, we went to my favorite geloterria yet, Giolitti. I got fragola (strawberry), caramel, and Oreo cookie. Each flavor was soooo good. We took the gelato to go and ate it outside of the Pantheon while people watching and listening to some street performers. After walking through the Pantheon, we made our way to another café and each picked ourselves up a panino to eat outside in the sun by the Spanish steps.

Tuesday was another day of classes and another night at Scholars for some karaoke. I sang some killer renditions of “Party in the U.S.A.” and “Ignition (Remix)” with friends. Both were a smashing success.

LILY UPDATE: For anyone who tuned into the blog last week, you might remember the girl Lily who I had met at Scholars last time and who bought me shots because she thought I was Jack, a son of one of her mom’s co-workers. Well, the night was going great and just as we were walking out the door I hear a, “Hey! You told me your name Jack!” Uh-oh… With the help of my friends, we were able to convince her that my name was ALSO Jack Moorev (convenient, right?) and I also knew a Lillian that was in Rome. Her and all three of her friends bought it. Hopefully this will be the end of Lily updates for a while.

On Wednesday, I attended the mass of the Holy Spirit at one of the most beautiful churches in Rome with numerous classmates. This is a JFRC tradition that sort of signifies the end of orientation and the official beginning of our semester. This church was beautiful. I truly wish there was a way I could even begin to describe it. Following mass we went out for an Italian meal. The four-course meal had two standout parts for me. The first would be the pear pasta that we were served. Pear pasta you say? Yes, you read that correctly. It was these noodles stuffed with some sort of pear puree and doused in a pear infused alfredo sauce. It was incredible. My other favorite part of the meal was the gelato we were served for dessert. They described it as a sort of truffle gelato. The outside was covered with espresso bean powder, and then a chocolate layer and inside of that was a vanilla layer. So so good.

Thursday was my first on-site class. The JFRC offers several partially on-site classes, meaning we go to various sites within Rome or even further away in order to compliment our in-class lectures. On this particular morning, I traveled to Ara Coeli, another one of the many beautiful churches in Rome, for my Writing Fiction in Rome class. This particular church hosted the Santo Bambino, a wood carving of the baby Jesus all dressed in jewels. People from all over the world will write letters to the Santo Bambino. He is especially prayed to for healthy pregnancies. After this we walked around the neighborhood we were in. That night I booked another trip. I will be Barcelona bound in April! I am so excited for the opportunity to explore yet another beautiful city and country while abroad.

This particular weekend was everybody’s first real chance to travel. However, some friends and myself were the minority that remained on campus. This gave us a great opportunity to catch up on sleep, get ahead on homework and explore the beautiful city of Rome even more. We went downtown, had some McDonalds (the menus here are different and SO much better… America needs to step up its game), ate gelato and finally made it to the Trevi Fountain. Throwing a coin in your right hand over your left shoulder and into the fountain ensures that you will return to Rome again in the future. Let’s hope! We also booked two more trips over the weekend. I will be heading to Dublin this weekend and Amsterdam later in the month.

Until next time,

Nick

Ciao!

 

My love for Italy continues to grow daily! Now where did I leave off….

 

Day five. We took our first day trip as an entire school. We were bussed over to the beautiful Lazio countryside of Tuscia. While there, we received guided tours of Villa Farnese, a mansion designed and constructed for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III. The building was truly a sight to behold with its ornate, hand-painted walls and grand architecture. After the tour concluded, we traveled to a restaurant in the woods for lunch. We were served another mouth-watering meal complete with lasagna, chicken, cake and of course some red and white wine. I think we underestimated the power of altitude and a few glasses of Italian wine… This was easily the best meal I had up to that point. As much as I love my carbs and starches, I swear that is just about all we eat for every meal. Finally being served some protein made us all just about die of happiness. During our drive home, we got to witness an incredible sunset over the mountains.

Classes began the next day. Luckily for me, I am only in class Tuesday-Thursday so I had the opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep. That night, a small group of us decided to check out the nightlife in the areas of Piazza Navona and Campo di Fiori. Our first stop of the night was at an Irish pub where we were treated to a free shot and drinks after making some company with the bartender. Following this, we checked out Scholars, a JFRC favorite. Just when we decided to call it a night, we ran into a club promoter on the street who sent us to her club with a coupon for a round of free shots. Once we walked in, I realized they had KARAOKE. I am a huge sucker for some good karaoke. Some guy was singing Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” and he offered up the microphone when he saw the crazy American dancing and singing away to the song (I am referring to myself). After realizing that I clearly stole the spotlight, he took the microphone back and (unsuccessfully) attempted to regain the attention. And with that, we called it a night. This was our first time successfully making it to our destination and home via public transportation. You could say we were just a little bit proud of ourselves.

Tuesday began my schooling for the Spring 2016 semester. My courses are as follows: Comparative Politics, Interpreting Literature, Writing Fiction in Rome and Comparing Art & Science. The instructors here are exceptional and so knowledgeable and distinguished in their respective fields. I have not been this enthused for a semester of school in quite some time. That evening, roughly 80 students from the JFRC went out to Scholars for karaoke night. Seeing as I had just been there the night before, a friend and myself led about 35 of the students there. The bar was packed, but it was so fun getting to meet with some other classmates and students at other universities in Rome.

Side story: Thanks to my Grandpa Bob and my dad, I have successfully mastered the art of BS’ing. When I was over dancing in some corner that night, a girl came up to me and was like, “OHMYGOD! What are you doing here?!” After clearly sensing my confusion she goes, “You are Jack, right? It’s Lily!” Now, I had never seen this girl in my life, but I just decided to go with it for fun. So I say, “YES! I totally forgot you were going to be in Rome at this time too! I can’t believe we ran into each other!” Turns out Jack and Lily’s parents work together. She offered to do tequila shots with me, so of course I couldn’t say no. As soon as she took a picture with me and sent it to her mom saying she was with Jack, I knew I had to get out of there before she got a response back notifying her that she was indeed not with Jack. Jack was going to be getting a Facebook message that next day from Lily to go out again for drinks. So to whomever you are Jack, I’m sorry about that.

Wednesday was another normal day of classes, but that evening a group of us booked our first European excursion. In mid-February eight of us will be traveling to Budapest! I will be making the trip with friends both old and new, so it should be an exciting time.

After classes on Thursday, I traveled with two friends from the JFRC to visit our friend Mia who is also studying abroad in Rome. We ventured into the area of Trastevere and tried out a new restaurant that we happened to stumble upon. We split a bottle of red wine and each ordered ourselves a pizza. Pizzas here are rather large, but they are super thin, so you rarely have an issue finishing a whole one to yourself. Following dinner, we walked around the area for a bit and ended up in a bar that was essentially in a cave. There are always so many new and unique hidden gems to try out here.

On Friday morning, our entire class departed for the Amalfi Coast for a weekend trip together. We were blessed with some great weather the entire time we were there. After a stop for some lunch at a restaurant on the beach, we attended our first guided tour of Paestum, which was an old Greek village. Although a large majority of the village is still underground, three massive temples stood on the grounds in addition to lots of ruins. Each of these temples was dedicated to a different god and was where sacrifices and activities would take place. I’ve said it before, but the history that has occurred within the borders of this country never fails to amaze me. After the tour, we traveled to our very nice hotel for some dinner and sleep.

We left our hotel early Saturday morning to begin a full day of tours and visits. Our first stop was a vineyard in the countryside. After learning about the production of the wines and olives on the land, we were able to do some tasting of the finished products. The wine was quite good, but the oil and bread they gave us was the real winner. The bread they have here in Italy…to die for. Our next stop was a buffalo mozzarella cheese farm. We all thought this was going to be a rather mediocre tour, but we were all pleasantly surprised at just how interesting it actually was. The farm housed hundreds of naturally raised buffalo along with six bulls to keep up with reproduction (our tour guide informed us that the bulls stay veryyy busy). The buffalo were incredibly tame. In the morning the farm plays classical music for them, and at night they have special lighting in the barns for the buffalo to keep them in this manner. Because they were so calm, we were able to walk up to where they eat and pet them. Yes, even this city boy walked up and pet several of the buffalo. At the conclusion of the tour, we got to sample some of the mozzarella and gelato that they produce with the buffalo milk. Both were on point. After spending some time watching the sunset in one of the towns on the coast, we departed for our hotel. As we were all finishing up dinner at the hotel, music started playing. In walked a 6-piece male Mediterranean band complete with two female dancers. They were sooo much fun and had us all up and dancing. I couldn’t help myself from getting in the middle of the dancing circle a couple of times and busting out a few moves. One of our priests on campus now constantly refers to me as “the dancer”.

We made one last stop on our way home Sunday morning for a tour of the Montecassino Abbey. The Abbey was located above the clouds at the top of Monte Cassino. Saint Benedict had chosen this spot to construct the monastery in 529. Since then it had been destroyed and rebuilt on four different occasions. We were led through the cloisters, the room of Saint Benedict and the Basilica at Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica’s (his twin sister) grave. The whole place was absolutely breathtaking. The cathedral of Montecassino was beautiful with its incredible frescoes, mosaics and detailed interior. It was a great way to end a weekend full of memories and good times as a class.

 

I will wrap up this post with something I wrote in my Writing Fiction in Rome class. We were allowed to select a prompt and write whatever came to our minds.

The prompt I selected: “I (you/he/she) never thought Rome was/would be…”

A part of my response: “He never thought that Rome would be a foreign land that could feel so familiar. A place with chaotic traffic patterns that seemed perfectly synchronized. A place where the inconvenience of so many specialty stores seemed almost convenient. He never thought that Rome would be a place he could learn to love so quickly, but it was.”

 

 

Until next time,

Nick

 

Ciao!

I MADE IT! I have been waiting for this moment for what seems like an eternity. I was notified of my acceptance to the John Felice Rome Center (JFRC) back in July and have been counting down the days until my arrival ever since.

Traveling here took about 16 hours, but it was worth every sub-par airplane meal. My initial thoughts of my new surroundings went something like this: watch out for taxi scammers, graffiti is everywhere, culture shock is real, jet-lag is REALLY real, there is no direct way to get anywhere and traffic laws might as well be non-existent.

Our campus and dorms are nothing like the modern Lakeshore and Water Tower Campuses that we Loyola students are used to, but I have come to appreciate the Italian charm that the JFRC provides. The dorm room I was assigned is a bit smaller than other dorm rooms on lower floors, but it does have a little screened in balcony overlooking our beautiful courtyard. Few dorm rooms are able to get WiFi, but the forced detachment from my phone has been one of the best things for me. It has gotten my classmates and me out into this incredible neighborhood and country that surrounds us.

I tasted my first Italian gelato on night one and it was sooo good. My friends and myself got a bit lost attempting to navigate the streets, but this is such a great place to get lost in. We attempt to speak the little Italian we know with the locals. It usually results in a chuckle from them as we stumble our way through piecing together a simple sentence, but they seem to appreciate it. Italians are truly some of the kindest people I know.

Orientation hasn’t been the most fun when you’re still getting over some serious jet-lag, but the faculty and Student Life Assistants (SLAs) try and keep things as interesting and exciting as possible. The energy put forth by our staff is truly contagious. They make me so excited for every adventure and memory that is to come over these next few months.

A group of us attempted to work public transportation on the second night and go down to the area of Trastevere. Well, we utterly failed and ended up about a mile away from our destination. We got off our bus near the Vatican and got a more scenic evening than what we anticipated, but nobody seemed to mind. We eventually made it to Trastevere and it was so neat. It was the Italy I had pictured in my mind complete with narrow streets lined with shops, restaurants and bars (in Italy, “bars” are a place where you get coffee, but I’ll refer to them in the American way on here). Some of the bars in the area were undoubtedly geared toward Americans and the drinking culture we have, (it was €1 Shot “Braindestroyer Night” at one bar) but it was still a great night out in the city with friends. After another failed attempt with the public transportation, we began the forty-five minute walk back home in the rain. We only hit a small bump when the Italian police pulled us over in the vacant St. Peter’s Square to see what five, young Americans were doing there on a Thursday night. After I struggled to speak with them in Italian, a friend and myself ended up talking with them in, of all languages, Spanish. The run-in ended with joking over favorite NFL football teams and a “buonasera” (good evening). Needless to say, navigating the bus system has become a large priority we are all veryy slowly accomplishing.

I attended a neighborhood restaurant visit with about 100 other students on our third night. We were served a four-course meal complete with red wine to drink. The meal was delicious, but I would have to say that the tiramisu we were served for dessert was my favorite part. I can’t say that I am the most adventurous eater by any means, but I have been working on getting out of my comfort zone.

Day number four consisted of a trip to the Colosseum and Roman Forum. The city of Rome is filled with an incredible amount of history and beautiful architecture. To get to experience it daily is remarkable and I feel so blessed. It is crazy just how innovative the people must have been to construct such grand and intricate buildings centuries ago. Here I can hardly put together my niece’s toys even with clear instructions right in front of my face. After touring these two sites, I walked through some of downtown Rome with a few friends and tried my first Italian espresso. We were given a bus ride from campus to the Colosseum, but it was up to us to find our way home. We once again failed tremendously at this test. This was fine at first because we were in the beautiful and bustling downtown (it’s “saldi” (sale) season in the stores), but that was before 30 minutes turned into an hour and finally an hour and a half of being lost. We finally made it back to campus two hours after leaving the cafe. Needless to say, directions are not my thing (and apparently none of my friends’ either). I visited some classmates at The Zone (a hotel about a 15-minute walk away that houses several of our students), for some wine to end my over 13-mile walk of a day.

 

To sum up my journey this far, I would say this: I don’t always know where I’m going, but I feel so lucky to be making the journey.

 

Until next time,

Nick