Wow... time sure does fly

Its hard to believe that my last post was May 9th - I really haven't been keeping up! In my defense, I have been incredibly busy. After my last post I was headed to Rome and Cavriglia Italy for 7 days, then immediately came back to Freiburg for final exams, then paper writing, them Model EU, then my parents arrived and I started travelling with them (hitting Amsterdam and Paris so far). So obviously I've had a lot on my plate. Rather than try and give anyone a day by day for the last 3 weeks - which I'm sure would turn into a novel - I'll give a brief rundown of the key points and impressions of the things and places I saw. I'll do a separate post for the "end of semester" impressions and recollections, as that is vastly more important to me.
In the interest of time (and my sanity) I'll avoid posting pictures from everywhere in this blog post, but If you'd like to view all the pictures of my visits please visit my Picasa album at http://picasaweb.google.com/ekaverman.

OK - overview:
I headed to Rome on April 30 and arrived in the early afternoon after getting myself to Basel to catch my plane and skipping my classes that Friday. Once I arrived I headed to the "campground" I was staying in - more on that later. After check in I headed over to Ostia, and old Roman port city (now about 2 km inland, showing how things have moved in the last 1000 years.). The ruins were real cool as it was the complete remains of a whole city and had houses, shops, plazas etc. which you don't see much of in Rome. I headed to the beach near there in the evening. The beaches near Rome are oddly underdeveloped. In the US every square inch of property within a mile of the beach would be hotels, condos and resorts. In Rome the beach is "owned" by clubs that you usually have to pay to access, though there are some free ones. Other than that the area around the beaches are pretty sparse, with mostly low income housing and a few minor shops. There were almost no tourists.
I headed back to my bungalow in Club Castelfusano, which was a "camping" area about 40 minutes commute from Rome. The area was quiet, as it was not yet high season but the cabin I stayed in was fine and I slept comfortably the nights I was there. The area also had swimming pools (closed) a market (sporadic hours) and a restaurant serving decent pizza.
The next day was literally a marathon. In order - I did: Palatine Hill, The Roman Forum, Capital Hill, The Coliseum (including a cool gladiator exhibit), The Parthenon, many piazzas (Navona, Popolo), Trastevere, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and a ton of walking. It was a really great day in Rome and I'm glad I got to see so much as the weather was great and I was dogged tired by the end of the day. It was interesting to learn the history of all the places I visited and see some of the places up close. This day was also one of my first full days of travelling completely alone and on my own time frame and I learned a few things. 1. Travelling alone is well... lonely. I found myself wanting to exclaim some random thought I had but realized nobody was there to listen to me. 2. I can see what I want to see, when I want to see it, stay as long as I want, and stop when I'm tired. Takes stress of working with other's schedules out of the deal. 3. Its amazing how far I can push myself and what I can see in just one day.
I was out to see the Vatican Museums the next morning - but they were closed (whoops) - so I headed to St. Peter's and spent hours seeing the inside, the crypts, and of course, climbing the Dome. The view from the top was outstanding and it felt really cool to look out over all of Rome. Other things I did: laugh at Swiss Guard uniforms, get blessed by the Pope (via giant television screen), wonder what happens when they run out of space on the pope list, ate gelato, and naturally - walk more than was really reasonable. I also headed over to the Castel St. Angelo, which was the pope's palace in days of old. I didn't go inside ($$$) but had to see it for the sake of 'Angels and Demons.' The evening was rainy so I headed back to the Bungalow and read my book while drinking beer.
Next day was Vatican Museum time. I managed to sneak in toward the front of the line (probably a sin) since I was alone and on a limited time schedule. I meandered through tons of artwork, easily the most extensive collection I've ever seen. I then proceeded to sneak some pictures of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (also probably a sin), and pay too much for coffee.
That afternoon I hopped on a train to Montevarchi, a small town about 50km south of Florence. I hung out in Montevarchi for a few hours and then Tanya came and picked me up! My parents and I met Tanya and Silvano Falcioni on a cruise in 2000. They now live in Cavriglia Italy, in Tuscany. They own a house above the town part of which they rent out for vacationers. They also have a thriving olive orchard.
I decided that relaxing in Tuscany wouldn't be a bad way to spend a few days leading up to final exams. Unlucky for me the weather didn't really cooperate and it rained the whole time I was there, making for lousy sunbathing weather. I did however get to spend a lot of time with Tanya and the kids (Lorenzo, 8, and Letizia, 6). It was nice to have a bit of 'family time' with my Italian family and enjoy some home cooking.
I headed back to Freiburg on Thursday May 6, founding out a nice week long trip to Italy. To get home I ended up taking 3 trains, 1 bus, 1 airplane, and 2 trams - ah the glory of European public transit.

Sorry once again I haven't posted in forever. I'll write a post about the end of the semester and one about general impressions of the semester in coming days. I'll also try to get a least one more post about my parent's visit before I leave my computer behind and travel on my own for 6 weeks.