"Italy Journal" by Sara Hogan

            Spending my Spring Break in Italy, Wow; what more can I say.  This was my first thought when I learned about the trip and signed up.  I was extremely excited, but yet very nervous at the same time.  I was excited, because it was my first time leaving the United States.  I was nervous, because Italy is far from home and it was only my second time flying.

            While in class, we read some books to get us ready for the trip.  My favorite part of the class was getting to know everybody, before we went on the trip.  I only knew one person that was going on the trip, so I was glad to meet others during class.  When we were reading Daisy Miller, I could picture a building that I thought was the colosseum, but I wasn’t sure.  I would find out later when I was in Rome, if what I pictured was right.

            At the time when class started in January I thought it was going to be forever before I would go to Italy.  I didn’t think the time would ever come.  Well it did.

We were down to three weeks before we left.  We got our roommate assignments.  I knew who my roommate was going to be.

            On March 5^th, 2004 is the day I was leaving for Italy.  I was worried that our flight was going to be cancelled because there was a bad snow storm.  Normally on a good day, it only takes just over an hour to get to the airport, but the snow storm slowed traffic way down.  It took my parents over 2 hours to get me to the airport.  I was afraid that the trip was going to be cancelled.

            I finally made it to the airport, but I had no idea where to go.  My parents and I got on an elevator and then we got off.  There was a tram that people were getting on, but I didn’t know I had to go on that.  I saw an airplane pilot, so I went up to him and asked him where I was suppose to go.  I knew that I was to meet in the group area.  He told me to ride the next tram with him and he would show me where to go.  I then gave my parents a hug goodbye.  My parents told me, “to have fun be safe, and be careful.”  My mom was shedding a few tears when they left. 

            I found the meeting area what a relief!  I was the third person there.  The representative from Seminar International told us that we could check-in if we wanted to. Jessica and I went and received our boarding pass and then got our luggage tagged.  When I went to put my luggage up, the work wouldn’t let me, because my suitcase wasn’t tagged.  I said, “I thought she tagged it,” I was just there.  I had to go and wait in line again.  Jessica and I went upstairs and waited in line to go through Security.  I left my jacket on, the worker told me I had to take my jacket off, so I did.  Then I walked through the metal detector and it went off.  I had on leather shoes on, so I took them off and I was fine.

            Our flight was delayed a little, and then we took off.  We were on a smaller plane, and I didn’t like that.  The turbulence was bad do to the weather.  When we landed in Chicago, I was not feeling good.  I was about to call my brother and tell him to take me home, because I thought if the turbulence was that bad for all the trips I wasn’t going to like it.  I also didn’t like the landing either.

            By the time we were to board the plane, almost everybody was sick of planes.  We all just wanted to get to Rome.

            “Welcome to Rome, Italy,” the pilot said. Wow, this is actually true, I am in Rome. I couldn’t believe it I was in another country, on my Spring Break.  After everybody got their belongings, we boarded a bus to take us to our hotel.

            The buss driver and tour guide were very nice, and wanted to show us around Rome, but everyone was tired.  I was shocked when we went pass a car dealership, and it was the make of my car.  I have a Daewoo, and was surprised to see that in Italy.  I was also amazed that there was a McDonalds in Italy.

            My first impressions of Rome, was that it was a dirty city.  I thought it was going to be a very beautiful place.  Maybe it wasn’t dirty, but it is a very old city.  I pictured Rome in having big beautiful buildings, lot of grass, and flowers.  I was wrong.

            Hotel Palatino, what a place we all were excited to see.  That was the name of our Hotel.  When Joe handed out the room keys and told us what time to be at breakfast in the morning, all went to their room.  Christina and I were on the 3^rd floor.  We went into our room, got situated and, then we both decided that we needed to lay down for a while we were really tired.  The both of us fell a sleep really fast.  I only slept for a couple of hours, but I woke up all of a sudden.  I thought I slept all night, and that I missed breakfast.  I was worried that I would get into trouble because we didn’t make it for breakfast or the group tour.  I woke up Christina and ask her what time it was, and she said, “It’s 9:00 am at home” I said ok and she fell back to sleep.  That didn’t help me much, because I didn’t know what time it was in Italy.  I then went and lay on our couch.  When Christina woke up, she thought I was gone, because she didn’t see me lying on the couch.

            Our first day was fine.  We mainly stayed in our hotel room.  For dinner, we walked around Rome, didn’t find anything, so we ate at the Hotel.  It was a good experience. A very formal dinner.

            On Sunday, we had a group tour.  We went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.  I was very disappointed with the tour, because it was raining.  I did like seeing the Coloseum and the Roman forum.  During the tour I was trying to picture it, like it was stated in Daisy Miller.  I was curious how they would go into the basement without anyone seeing them.  We went and saw Trevi fountain, that was neat.  At the end of the day we went back to the hotel, and did our own thing.  I was surprised to see all most everything is closed on Sundays.

            Monday was my favorite day.  I was looking forward to touring the Vatican City before we even left for the trip.  I enjoyed the group tour, and I am glad that Christina and I stayed longer in the day and did more looking around.  During the group tour, I couldn’t believe all of the people that were there.  I was annoyed by people when we were in the Sistine Chapel, because they were so noisy and you couldn’t even think.  I was amazed at the artwork on the walls in the Sistine Chapel; I couldn’t imagine spending all that time doing the artwork.  Then when we left the Sistine Chapel and went into the Basilica of St. Peter, I was stunned by how beautiful it was.  A person can see what the Basilica of St. Peter or the Sistine Chapel looks like in books, and they think it is beautiful, but when you see it in person, it takes your breath away.  Even though we didn’t get to see the Pope when we were there, it was still very nice to tour the place and see how beautiful it was.  I remember when I was in Junior high and we were studying Michelangelo's work, I was wishing I could go and see the Sistine Chapel.  Now I finally got to and I am glad that I did.

            After Sandro, said that the group was done with the tour, Christina and I went and ate lunch, then we went shopping in the gift store.  We spent a lot of time in the Gift store.  We then went out side and sat down and filled out post cards, and then we mailed them from Vatican City.  We then took more pictures of the beautiful city.  On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the stores and did more shopping.  We were having a good time.   On our walk back to the hotel, we walked along the Tiber River.  We then said that we wanted to go to the Colosseum at night time to take pictures.  We were taking our time walking back and enjoying the sites.  It was getting darker and we were getting hungry.  I also had to go to the bathroom really bad, and we were not close to anything.  Then we found a place to sit down and eat, so we took a rest.  By the time we made it to the Colosseum it was dark.  Trying to find our way to the hotel was a great joy, because we had no idea where we were.  We got back to the hotel at 10:00 p.m. that night.  We made a day of it.

            Tuesday we decided to sleep in, because we were exhausted from our long day on Monday.  We were glad that we did make a day of it on Monday.  We went out on Tuesday around lunch time.  We walked to the Spanish Steps and then to the Pantheon.  I was a little disappointed in the Spanish Steps, because I saw pictures with all the nice flowers on the steps.  There were no flowers on the steps, because we were there at the wrong time.  I bought a calendar of Rome, so I can look at that and see the beautiful flowers.  We did a lot of walking again on Tuesday.  When we were walking back to the hotel, we didn’t know if we were going the right way, and we both were getting frustrated, so we stopped and looked at the map. A taxi then pulled up, so I went and asked them for directions.  Christina and I decided that it would be a lot easier if we would just let the taxi take us to the hotel. 

            Wednesday, our alarm never went off.  We woke up and were suppose to be at breakfast.  We hurried to breakfast and then went back to the room, to get our things, because we were headed for Sorrento.  While on the train to Naples, we were trying to sleep, and this guy opened our door and threw bread at the three of us, and then asked fruta or coffee.  I said fruta, not knowing what I was really doing, because he startled me.  Then this guy said 4 euros to Michelle and I and he charged Christina 2 euros for hers.  The reason Michelle and I got charged more was we had the fruta.  I was very upset at this guy for opening our curtain and then just throwing us the food and charging us for it.  When we reached Naples, I didn’t feel safe at all.  I thought the city was very unpleasant.  I didn’t like it when the girl played the according and then put her hand in our faces.  I just wanted to leave the city.  We had a nice tour at the Museum.  I liked that we had a group lunch that was a lot of fun.  I am glad that we ate before we continued on to Sorrento.  I thought Geuspie did a nice job on the bus showing us different things, but most of us were really tired and feel a sleep.  I thought the bus ride to Sorrento was never going to end, it took a long time.

            I like Sorrento from the moment we got there.  I thought it was a nice quiet city.  The hotel was very nice.  On Thursday our tour of Pompeii was very interesting.  I wish it didn’t have to rain and be cold that day.  I was shocked that a volcano could take out a whole city.  I really enjoyed touring Pompeii.  I was looking forward to going up the volcano, and then we got as far as the bus could go and the gate was closed, I was disappointed, because that would have been my first time going up a volcano.  When we got back to the hotel, Christina and I went shopping in Sorrento.  I really enjoyed Sorrento.  Christina decided to go to a movie, and I decide that I didn’t want to go, because I didn’t know that much Italian and I didn’t want to  spend my money on that.  I felt safe enough to walk back to the hotel by myself.  While I was walking I saw Michelle sitting at a place by herself eating, so I asked if I could join her.  I ordered a hamburger and fries, this was the first on the trip that I had a hamburger and fries.  I had ketchup with my fries and hamburger, and I did not like it, it was too sweat for me. 

            On Friday I went to Capri Island with Karen, Cheryl, Deb, and Robin.  The day couldn’t’ be any better, so I thought.  It was windy when we were out on the boat to get to the island.  We all were disappointed that the Blue Grotto was closed due to the wind.  The temperature was perfect, it was the nicest day during the trip.  I am glad that it was really nice, because I wanted to be able to tell people that I went on an island.  Once we reached the island we decided to look around.  A taxi driver came up to us and asked if we wanted to have him take us around.  He said a price and kept trying to get us to go with him.  We said that we needed a minute to decide.  The five of us decided to let the taxi take us around, for 15 euros.  I am sure glad that I spent the 15 euros, because we saw a lot for our money.  We went shopping, had lunch, and had GREAT TIME!!!!!!  I am so glad that the four ladies let me join their group for the day, because I enjoyed the whole day.

            Friday night we had our group dinner.  I was thrilled to have a large group dinner.  We went to this nice restaurant.  I couldn’t understand the waiter the best, but I did fine.  I had gnocchi (potato dumplings), and that was really good.  I ordered the fish platter, because I didn’t know what the other two options were.  I was very scared to eat my fish when it came.  There were these brown round things on my plate, and I had no idea what they were.  There was also shrimp, so I was happy, because I like shrimp.  I then saw that there were these little fish on my plate, and I told Christina, “I’m not eating minnows,” and she told me that they weren’t minnows.  I still think they were minnows, because they were the size of minnows and they had the skin on them.  I did not like the brown circle things.  The shrimp was very good.  I decided that I needed to eat the fish, so I sat there and peeled off all of the skin before I ate it.

            Saturday was a very early morning.  It was one of the longest days ever.  We had to ride the bus for hours, and then we were on the airplanes forever.  I was getting sick of the airplane ride from Amsterdam to Minneapolis.  I am glad that they showed movies.  I watched the one movie.  The movie I watched was School of Rock.  I am also glad that we landed an hour before we were scheduled for.  The food on the way home I did not like.

            I would like to end by saying thank you for doing this trip.  I don’t regret one bit of the trip.  I am glad that I went, and I hope to go again sometime.  I can’t believe that I have gone to Italy already.  Also it is neat telling people that  I spent my Spring Break in Italy, and seeing their reactions.  This was also a very special trip for me, because it was my first time leaving the United States, and my first Spring Break that I didn’t work.  This is my fourth year at MSU, and every year I just work on Spring Break.  Once again I would like to say THANK YOU FOR A GREAT TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!