sotto il sole romano

Diving Adventures

The last month has been incredibly hectic between work, school, and preparing for graduation but even though I’ve been busy and my poor blog has suffered, I have managed to go on some awesome diving adventures! Here’s the recap:

April 12th & 13th: Andy went to Malta for a few weeks to do some speciality training and I caught up with him towards the end of his trip for just a quick two days filled with dives. Malta’s the best.

The Azure Window

Swimming through tunnels at the Inland Sea

The Blue Hole!

Follow me!

Before the dives we stopped for some nice pictures, sans salty hair and sunburned faces!

April 21st: Scuba show! At the Olympic Stadium just down the river there was a weekend-long scuba exposition. We wandered around for a bit and when somebody asked us if we wanted to try out a full face mask with communication technology underwater, we couldn’t say no! It was super cool, but also a bit concerning seeing as what we’re wearing costs about €800!

May 4th: Yesterday, we took the train up north to Porto Ercole to catch up with some friends that were already up there working on their Advanced Open Water courses. We weren’t overly impressed with the dives themselves but it was still a lot of fun and we did see some cool creatures. Besides, any day of bad diving is better than a day of no diving at all! 

Lots of little fishies on the reef

Starfish

Barracuda 

Me!

Scuba Diving in the Bay of Naples

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to experience the combination of two of my favorite things, one of which I’ve been in love with since my parents first took us to Pompeii (that’s a whole different story!), the second of which was much more recent and still has quite the learning curve attached to it: Roman archaeology & scuba diving.

As many of my close friends have already heard, the dive shop we went through was not the best and the chances of me ever working with them again (without my own set of kit) is slim but that’s not the point of the blog. The point is, WE WENT SCUBA DIVING IN AN ANCIENT ROMAN VILLA. I mean really, what did you guys do this weekend? ;)

The first dive was a bit disappointing. It wasn’t organized very well and it wasn’t very clear exactly what we were doing or where we were going. All we knew was that we were going to swim around a Roman column and see some of the hot beds on the sea floor. The “column” was a huge 12m high building foundation, not exactly what I was imagining but still pretty cool. The hot beds were bizarre and distinguishable by their yellow and sulfur coloring in the ground - they are rushes of hot water that zoom upwards in columns of bubbles and are really warm! They’re like a mini underwater jacuzzi!

The second dive was way more interesting. We swam around Claudius’ Nymphaeum and saw plenty of statues and original flooring. The statues weren’t actually original, the originals have been moved to safety at a museum looking over the bay but copies replace the statues underwater. We swam along the statues of the nymphs, saw a statue of Odysseus, followed the old road that led to the nymphaeum, found an ancient sewage cover, saw some of the original terracotta decoration that ornamented the floors, and looked at a doorway arch that had broken and fallen down.

One of the underwater maps of the site:

One of the Nymphs:

Odysseus (sans head!) and his jar of wine he used to blind the Cyclops:

Me filming as we swam along the road:

Terra cotta floors:

Me & Andy!

While we weren’t overly thrilled with the service at the dive shop I don’t think anyone could argue how cool that dive site was. Sure visibility was poor, silt and sand were easily kicked up, and some of our fellow divers were less than aware of their surroundings but it’s still one of the coolest dives I’ve ever done (and probably will ever do). Definitely one for the books!

A Below Freezing Spring Break

For my last spring break as an undergraduate student ever I travelled north to see one of my best friends that I’ve known since we lived in Naples in 2004. Since she’s studying in Germany for the year we decided we had to catch up at some point and since Copenhagen made both of our “To Travel” lists we decided to go for a few days! 

First of all, it was absolutely freezing. The high every day was 0°C (32°F) but, the wind chill brought it way, way down. I honestly don’t even want to know how cold it really was but I will say - the wind was physically painful to be in at points so naturally, we became regulars at a few of the local coffee shops!

Don’t get me wrong though, Copenhagen was lovely. To be honest I think it’s more of a city to live in than a city to tour in. That could just be because it was so cold but the sad reality is, if it’s that cold in March I don’t even want to think about how cold it is the rest of the year! I’m sure May-July is awesome though. During our first day there we were both a bit tired from travelling and decided to just wander with the ultimate goal of finding the Little Mermaid statue. We took a few wrong turns, found some of the random statues pictured in the post below, braced ourselves through a few “wind tunnels” that were the canals, but we did find her! She’s nothing amazing but it was really cool to finally see the statue that everyone talks about.

The next day was a bit more structured - We made our own walking tour aimed around visiting (warm!) churches, seeing some of the more picturesque bits of Copenhagen, and finding food when we got so cold we needed to thaw out our toes.

The canals of Nyhavn…

We walked around the famous Tivoli amusement park but unfortunately it (and many other places in the city!) was under construction and plans to reopen in April. No roller coasters for us!

The last day we were in Copenhagen we woke up to quite a bit of snow, snow that didn’t stop falling almost all day. There was a lovely park really close to the apartment we were staying at so we decided to see what it was like covered in snow. 

This is a statue of Hans Christian Andersen in the park on the second day, the picture after is when we got all the snow! 

The park was just beautiful, albeit cold, but beautiful.

With all this snow we obviously had to take refuge where we could. Quite often refuge came in the form of coffee shops. Luckily, this cold led us to one of our best discoveries of the trip: hot chocolate made with real chocolate…on a stick!

The last time Connie and I saw each other was summer 2008 when I flew to Seattle to see her, before then was summer 2007 when she came to visit me in Honolulu, and before then we were roaming around Europe together with our swim team in 2004. During one of our swim adventures in the winter of 2004 in Munich, we were set free on our own to get ourselves from the pool to the hotel. Being the rebels that we were, we made a pitstop at a Burger King to get milkshakes….even though the snow was falling. Nine years later, the tradition still stands.

Milkshakes in Copenhagen!

Best Field Trip Ever.

Warning: This post is all about food so even if you’re not hungry, grab something to munch on because after writing this, I’m starving!

This past weekend was spent touring around the northern Italian city of Torino for a 1-credit course in food and food culture. Torino’s considered to be Italy’s “food” capital and it definitely did not disappoint. Although, Torino or not, I would have probably gone on any class trip that offered me credit for a weekend of travelling, eating, and drinking!

We started the trip at a vineyard in La Morra…

An antipasto of walnuts, celery, and soft cheese that paired perfectly with their white wine….

Our second antipasto: Carne cruda on bread, aka, raw sausage meat. I know what you’re thinking and I don’t care. It was probably one of the most delicious things I have ever had! (It’s also very traditional of the region.)

Our primo was handmade ravioli filled with meats. I used to think pasta was pasta was pasta. I have never been more wrong in my life. These fresh little pieces of heaven were amazing. 

Each of the above dishes was paired with a different wine made in house at the vineyard. Their prized wine that we enjoyed at the end of the pasta course was this 2007 Barolo. Who knew that there were only 11 vineyards in Italy (and therefore IN THE WORLD) that could produce a DOCG quality Barolo? Delicious.

There was a lot of wine involved in this meal but we did learn a lot too. We learned how to properly taste wine and check it for color and alcohol content and analyze through smell and taste. The restaurant also had helpful boards situated around the room including this one featuring the life cycle of wine grapes.

The next day was our trip to one of the best outdoor markets I have ever been to called Porta Palazzo. The market is situated in an area that traditionally houses immigrants and therefore features not only food from around Italy but from around the world.  I’ll just leave a few photos here, I know I took way too many!

Yes, that is a stingray. No, I did not know you could eat it!

I thought of my Dad when we came upon this stand. It was an entire stand full of “love!”

Goose eggs, anyone?

Tis the seasons for….pumpkins? Actually it is! Who knew!

Zucchini flowers! I never even knew these existed before moving to Italy. They’re so yummy, I wonder when they’ll catch on in the States!

The following afternoon was spent visiting a very small chocolate factory in the heart of the city. It was family owned and opperated by two brothers whose grandfather started the business. I had no idea how much work went into the production of chocolate! It takes way more time than I thought to crush the cacao beans, melt them down, add milk and sugar, cool it properly, and make it into a mold. The best part of the tour though were certainly the taste tests!

After our long day of shopping and eating chocolate we were all in need of a pick-me-up before heading off to our next stop. This is a traditional drink from Turin known as a bicherin, it’s coffee, chocolate, sugar, and whipped cream. What’s not to love?

(Humpty Dumpty was at the café too!)

Our last stop of the trip was Eataly. Eataly is a relatively new concept in Italy and is a Wegman’s/Whole Foods type grocery store. It boasts organically grown food, food from every region of Italy, and supports the Slow Food movement that aims to save traditional methods and recipes from getting lost in the growing popularity of grab & go fast food.

Pasta gragnano, mozzarella di buffala, and tomatos….yum!

All in all? Good weekend with great food and even better friends!

Learning Rome: Mussolini Version

As a Roman archaeology major living in Rome I know a lot about ancient Rome and as a result can pretty much point to anything old in the city and tell you something about it. What I cannot do is walk past buildings that appear more modern and tell you the who-what-when-where-why on them. This semester, I decided to try to fix that gap in my knowledge by taking a course entitled “Mussolini’s Rome” and it is incredible! I am shocked at the amount of fascist buildings, symbols, engravings, art work, and inscriptions still present in the city. Unlike Germany who tried to eradicate anything and everything that even hinted towards Hitler or their Nazi roots after the war, Italy did not  (and could not) do this when it came to Mussolini and the fascists. In the case of Italy, it’s quite difficult to get rid of something when that something is essentially the entire city. Long story short, while in power Mussolini revamped the city: He laid out new plans, built new and functional government buildings, made bigger roads, and glorified Rome’s ancient history. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well it kind of is! Until you throw in that whole “dictator” bit!

Thanks to this on-site course, I’ve seen a lot of places in Rome I have never been to before. The photo above is of the main library at La Sapienza University – Italy’s leading university. It was moved and rebuilt by Mussolini in the 1930s and it is incredibly evident on campus. The front of the library even features the three pillars of fascism. The statue out front pictured above is of Athena – Mussolini was going a little bit more towards the “fight to win” mentality than what the Catholic church would have preferred and when the campus was inaugurated, Mussolini stood on those steps to give his speech. Today on the campus their is a small church however it certainly wasn’t there when Mussolini put this all together. He was supreme ruler in his mind.

One of the sites that really struck me the most though was that of “Il Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura,” or rather, Rome’s Judiciary Council.

The building, built and embellished by Mussolini of course, embodies the war mentality and it was a constant reminder that not only should the fascist citizen fight, Mussolini’s fascist government was watching over you.

The building is a bit daunting, especially when you look closer at the individual windows…

 If you’re thinking “Hey, that face is a bit reminiscent of Mussolini!” then you’re right! It’s no coincidence that his face is plastered up there in the illusion of an eager yet austere soldier. Mussolini was watching, always watching. Oh, and never mind the fascist eagles situated below – they were the symbol of Imperial Rome. Mussolini did everything for a reason, that’s for sure!

While walking to this on-sight class the other morning I had to walk past a much more modern addition to Rome, a statue of Pope John Paul II.

When this statue was put up in the city everyone screamed that his face looked much too like the former dictator and the artist was essentially forced to change the statue. I’m having bad luck at finding a good photo of the statue before it was changed but if you ask me, it’s still a little bit weird - doesn’t look very warm and inviting!

All I can say is, Rome sure is an interesting place! I definitely don’t get bored learning about this city!