Arrived in Florence!

Hello all!

I hope to make an actual blog soon and copy and paste into here, but right now I don't have much time :)

Just wanted to let you all know that Yuri and I arrived safely in Florence yesterday, Sunday, and we met our Bel Canto Institute collegues and leaders last night at 5:00! Before that though, we went to our host home and met the host lady, Barbara, and her nephew and his finance who also lives there :) Barbara then helped us find where we were supposed to go downtown, as we have to take a bus to get there! I believe Yuri and I are the furthest ones away from the various schools, but that's ok. It's either a 40 minute walk, or a 10 minute bus and about 7 minute walk, so we opted for the latter today. Yuri and I now feel like local commuters with our July bus passes, lol. I will probably walk it a few time, but with my 2-hour Italian class starting at 8:30 in the morning, it's very tempting to get on a bus ;)

Well, I am typing on an apple computer with a foreign keyboard, but hey, at least it's free! The language school has 6 free computers with internet access to use, which is very convienient. The only thing is, you gotta give it up if someone has signed up for a slot!

I can post some of my second day in Rome, however, so I will do that!

Saturday was pretty relaxed and chill, with fun moments interspersed :) We left the hostel pretty late, around 10:30 or 11, and headed straight to the Vatican via the metro (mastered yet another subway, lol). Fortunately, since we got there later, so there wasn't any line! I had also read in our guide book about cheaper tickets for students, so we both showed our Colorado student IDs and got in for 8 euro instead of 13! Yippee :)

We started with the picture gallery, home to Raphael’s last painting, The Transfiguration, along with some pretty neat other paintings. Apparently, the Vatican Museum is the richest museum in the world. Period. So, with that said, there was a bunch to take in, and I’m sure I didn’t even come close to fully appreciated all the art I was walking by too fast ;) You could be there for 8 hours and still not see everything, so we picked and chose. We got to go to the Octagonal Courtyard and see some beautiful marble statues, and also to the Gallery of the Maps and the Hall of Constantine where the original painting stands of Constantine declaring Christianity legal. On the way to the famed Sistine Chapel, we also got to go through the Raphael rooms and see both the School of Athens and the Liberation of St. Peter. It’s too bad that these are just “on the way” as the path lays out, because people are just rushing past them trying to get to the Sistine chapel. Yuri's legs got some muscle, and now she knows how to walk with a good pace, yay! I had to wonder where she was going so fast today, lol!

Ok, back to the museum… So then we finally got to see the Sistine Chapel, and it was gorgeous just as the first time I saw it. It wasn’t nearly as crowded though as last time, and I actually got to sit down on the side where there are benches for at least 15 minutes while Yuri did her rosary (she’s Catholic) and I marveled at the paintings and enormity of it all.

After that we went and stood in line for St. Peter’s Basilica, yet another engineering and artistic wonder. The first thing I went to was La Pieta, Mary holding Jesus’ body after he was taken down on the cross. I am still moved every time I see this statue by Michelangelo, and stood there for a little while taking it all in. Whenever I see the statue, I am moved by the moment of Jesus’ death and lifeless body.

After that, I had decided that I wanted to do something I hadn’t done before, and that was to go to the TOP of St. Peter’s Basilica’s Dome!! Whoa… not really sure how high up it was, but let’s just say that I counted 498 steps on the way back down! Yep, Heather climbed up and down at least 1096 steps today, and hardly broke a sweat, actually :) You could either pay 5 euro to take stairs the whole way, or 6 euro to take a lift part of the way. Well, of course stairs!

So, up I went, in my sundress and backpack and jacket no less (can’t show shoulders in the church!). The first opening was only about 160 stairs up, and that was up at the top of the inside of the dome, looking down into the church. Well, I didn’t know that wasn’t the top, so I marveled a little and thought it was cool. Then I stepped back out and saw people going up more stairs… ok, guess I will follow. OH Boy! Yes, there were more stairs, lol. And they got narrower and narrower as you went up them! The last bit was about a 18 inch wide spiral staircase, with no railing and just a vertical rope to steady yourself as you climbed! But the view was so worth it :) I took a video and pictures, and actually the bells of the church were ringing in 5:00 as I was videoing, so that was pretty neat! I stayed up there for about 10 minutes, cooling off, and taking it all in… then came the climb down. By the end, my leg would shake if I even put a little pressure on the front part of my foot, lol.

Well, after finding Yuri out in St. Peter’s square, we took the metro back to the hostel, got out our music to study, and took the metro to a beautiful park and the Piazza del Popolo up north. We got Burger King for dinner and took it to the Piazza to eat! Then we walked and found a beautiful pool inside the park, and stayed there for about 1.5 hours, watching the sunset, barely missing a thunderstorm, and listening to and memorizing our music. It was very relaxing. Then, we came back to the hostel, and I wrote some emails and went to bed!

The train ride to Florence was very relaxing and calming. I studied music, slept, and wrote :)

Then, we got into Florence via the train, got money from the ATM and a taxi, and he took us to our host family!!

OK, I will have to end there. Thanks for journeying with me, and I will hope to find a way to get pictures up soon!

Heather (which is a very hard name to say in Italian...)

Hello from Rome!

I have written this blog in MSWord, and hope it will copy over well to the internet blog when I am on the internet! Unlike America, where you can practically steal someone else’s unsecured wireless from just about anywhere, that isn’t the case of here :) BUT, in my new hostel in Rome, they give you ½ hour free, and then just a Euro an hour after that, which really isn’t at all that bad…

Back to the beginning! Yuri and I took off on Monday morning, after fretful packing and rethinking of what to bring the weekend prior. I myslef was able to take most of Sunday off, which was nice, and spend the day with my boyfriend Matt :) He was very kind and understanding of my frantic and scattered brain, and we had a great time at church, hiking, motorcycle ride, and then out to dinner and a movie back in Boulder – he treats me well!


The next morning, Yuri’s mom drove both of us to the airport, and it was goodbye America, hello Canada!! Wait, say what? Canada? Well, yes… our lovely 3-legged flight to London first dropped us off in Montreal (where we had to go through customs and fortunately the officer told me that if we didn’t change our own luggage over, it wouldn’t make it to London! Fortunately, he was right, and the lady in Denver who told us it would check through all the way was wrong… we got it on and it is all safe!) So, we had lunch in Montreal, and then caught our flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I’m sure it was pretty there, but we got there just before dark, and waited in the airport (free internet!) playing around and checking in with people until our 11:45 p.m. flight to London.


I was planning on trying to sleep the whole 6 hours, but that was near impossible in coach with the flight attendants feeding us both an hour after takeoff and 1.5 hours before landing. I think I got a little sleep, an hour at a time. Needless to say, by the time Yuri and I got to London, we were DONE with flying, and ready for walking! We caught the underground (tube) Picadilly line, and went to Kings Cross station in London. After a bit of lost walking around, I realized via our map that we had walked too far west and not far enough south, traced back, and found our hostel! Since it was about 1:30, and we couldn’t check in until 3:00, we were able to leave our luggage in a locked room, and took off to explore and walk out our leg cramps. With an all-day pass for the London underground, we were free to do what we liked! So, we went first to Hyde Park, where we saw beautiful flowers (including my namesake), the Serpintine River, geese, and of course had to stop for some ice cream :)



We then wandered over to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, where we were able to see many pictures and paintings. The ones by Monet, Van Gogh, and another person who came as a surprise to me were among my favorites. I will have to research those and let you know who it was!

We then traveled to Trafalgar Square (sorry if I spelt that wrong!) and then on to Covent Garden. It was there that we saw a fun street performer, the apple market, and also the Royal Opera House! We couldn’t go in much past the gift shop in the opera house, but we did get pictures. That was enough for one jet-lagged day, so we headed back to the hostel (which was a converted courthouse!) and settled in for the night. It was an ok night of sleeping, though our window faced the main street and had to stay open (no air conditioning), so it was a little loud. But we took our time waking up, and after a lot of rest, headed out for another big day in London!

This day, June 24th, was Yuri’s 21st birthday!!! I’m sure not many of her friends could say that they spent their 21st birthday in London, haha. We had a lot of fun, starting with the very touristy sights of Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Houses of Parliament, and the London Eye. We got to be there when Big Ben struck 12:00 noon! It was very exciting, and we enjoyed seeing everything from the outside. They charge huge amounts for going into Westminster Abby and the London Eye, so we admired from a distance. After some more ice cream and some good chatting and lunch, we headed back on the tube for The Tower of London. I had not seen this on my last trip to London, so this was exciting for me :) However, the tube was experiencing some backups from some electrical fires earlier in the morning, so instead of going the short way around the Circle Line, we had to go the long way around! It was a welcome for our tired feet, but still ate up a bunch of time. Nevertheless, we got to the tower and walked around it and got a picture in front of Tower Bridge as well, which was beautiful.



We got back on the tube, and went to St. Paul’s Cathedral! It was another beautiful church, and the weather was nice and cool on that side of town. It was more in the business district, so it was neat to see all the people dressed up fancy and business-like. The people in London dress very professionally, and yet with style, and it is easy to appreciate their taste ;) Although, there is a trend over there that I am wondering when it will come to the US: Girls/women wearing shorter skirts and shorts, yet wearing full length dark black stockings/hose underneath! Not sure how this trend got started, but who knows, U.S.A. could be next! Next in my musings is how much I liked being around people from all over the world! I decided I really love the multiple ethnic groups seen both at the hostel and all over London, and am enjoying hearing the many different languages from all over the world. That has motivated me to really try hard to learn the Italian language so that I can start communicating with people at the grocery store and otherwise all over Florence when I get there!

One of our last stops of the day was the British Museum – mostly to see the Rosetta Stone on display. After oooooing and ahhhhhing over it (it is actually quite large!), Yuri went and saw the Asian artifacts on display, while I went to the Africa exhibit. It was a small, yet detailed part of the museum, and I enjoyed learning more about this part of the world. I recognized some of the clothes and patterns from when I went to South Africa, and I also saw a great display of large pots that was quite spectacular.



Well, talk about tired feet now!! Yuri had decided that she wanted to go to a restaurant called “Pizza on the Park” for her birthday, so we headed back on the tube to Hyde Park one last time. It was a lovely restaurant, and Yuri had her first public taste of wine, a white wine of the sauvignon blanc class, and I had a “sunrise sauvignon blanc” that was quite nice and refreshing. We had risotto for our appetizer, and then I got a “funghi” pizza (mushrooms!!) and Yuri had a pesto pasta dish. We shared, and were both quite stuffed by the time we were done! But that’s ok, because after dinner we took a long walk down to the royal Buckingham Palace to see it! It was gorgeous and quite ornate, with many guards (both traditionally dressed and non) and a beautiful statue dedicated to Queen Victoria out front. We admired it for a while, and then took a walk through Green Park back to the Picadilly line headed for “home.” We dropped some things off at the hostel, and then went back to McDonalds for free internet!! Hehe. We had discovered that they had free internet there the day before, so we took some time (and our computers) and I got to skype chat with both Matt and my family, yay!! It was wonderful to hear and see them both, and I got a little chocked up doing that :) Although, I was smiling so much, it might have been hard to tell ;)



We then had a bit of a rough night at the hostel trying to sleep, but with girls coming in and out of the room (10-bed girls room), and some packing at 2:30 a.m. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but we had to get up at 6:00 to start our day, so Thursday was a little rough. But, we made the tube to the Victoria bus station to the Stanstead airport! And, since we were flying Ryan Air, a low-cost (read: CHEAP and lots of hidden fees), we were worried that our luggage would be over the 15 kilo (33 pounds) limit for checked baggage. Miraculously, mine was only 14.4, and Yuri’s was a few over, but the guy said it was fine! It probably helped that we were joking with him, and the fact that he was helping Ryan Air as he was actually a Swiss Air operator!

After a bit of a rough flight (we were very tired, and the plane tried to land once, then suddenly pulled up right before we touched down and had to circle back around for another chance, then they couldn’t get the door unlocked and disarmed because there was a loss of power to the plane, lol), we made our way out, got our luggage, got our passports stamped, and were on a bus to Rome’s Termini station! Our hostel was quite close to the station, but were we tired and paid a cab to take us there. Well, he was close, but no cigar. So, after looking around a bit, I spotted it down the road!! So happy :) Whew!! And that is where my blog will have to end for now! This hostel is even better than the last one, and we have 6 very nice roommates, all around the same ages as ourselves.

They also fed us a free dinner of pasta when we got here, and also get a free breakfast in the mornings, yay! I’m all about low-cost meals ;)

Well, I wrote most of this blog on the night of June 25th, and am now posting it the morning of June 26th! Yuri and I have had breakfast, and are ready for the day. We are planning on the Coliseum and the surrounding ruins today, with perhaps the Trevi Fountain and Spanish step as well. Then tomorrow, it’s off to Vatican City first thing in the morning to beat the crowds, in our skirts of course, so we can go into St. Peter’s Basilica :)

Thanks for reading about our trip so far! I hope to update it again once we get to Florence and are settled with our host family and have met the other participants in the program!

~Heather


P.S. I tried to include several pics with this blog, but they weren't uploading! will try again tonight :)

Heather's Itinerary

Hello!

Just wanted to give another update before I leave for Europe in a week!!

Here is my rough itinerary for my trip:

Monday, June 22: leave for London!
Tuesday, June 23: arrive in London and spend this day and the next touring around and seeing the sites :)
Thursday, June 25: leave for Rome and spend this day and the next two touring around and seeing all the history and museums in Rome.
Sunday, June 28: Go to Florence, find host family, and get settled in for the Bel Canto Institute for the next 4 weeks!
June 28-July 26: Study at the Bel Canto Institute with a wonderful voice teacher and vocal coaches and conductors, learning the Italian language and the Bel Canto style of singing through composers Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini!
Sunday, July 26 and Monday, July 27: journey back to the states!!!

I hope you are all well, and stay tuned for more updates and globe trotting :)

~Heather

I'm headed to Europe!

Hello All!

Just wanted to let you know that I am going to actively use this blog this summer to tell you of my adventures in Europe!

The main reason I will be going is to attend the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy from June 28 - July 26. Their website with all the info about this wonderful vocal and Italian language program can be found here : www.belcantoinst.org

I will be posting my itinerary and pictures and stories for your enjoyment and amusement, and hope that you will check back with me often for my latest post!

More to come....

~Heather