Le temps en France : Il tempo in Italia

Recap: Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri

Tojo — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:25:31 +0000

So here’s a recap on the past few days…

Tuesday: Visited the ruins of the ancient Roman city, Ostia.

Wednesday: Visted three churches, St. Cecilia, Santa Maria, and the Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio.

It was an amazing opportunity to see the actual spot where the apostle Peter was martyred, crucified upside down to give glory to Jesus fulfilling John 21:18

The exact spot where Peter was crucified.

A frieze which illustrates the story.

Thursday: we visited the Catacombs of Priscillia: A maze of underground tunnels filled with grave compartments lining the walls and paintings which illustrated several significant stories of the bible and the character of Christ. It was where the Christians in Rome would bury their dead. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures which is a shame because they were awesome.

Campo de Fiori (view from our studio) This is what we see every evening from our apartment window. (It usually gets really crowded on weekends)

Friday: Took a bus out to Orvieto. The AC wasn’t working so we were all sweaty and tired getting out there.

The Sacred Grove of Bomarzo: Monster park filled with sculptures of heads and mythical beasts derived from Italian medievial and renaissance poetry.

The Wrestling Colossi

This building is actually leaning backwards like the tower of Pisa, didn’t really capture that in this shot though.

The Dragon Fighting a Pair of Lion

Lauren escaping the mouth of Hell!

We took a railway trolley up to the city of Orvieto.

Duomo Cathedral: Hands down the most magnificant church I’ve seen so far and in such a small town. I was completely blown away by how seemingly every inch of this cathedral is carefully ornamented with mosaics, sculptures, and stained glass.

Just a snippet of the side to show some of the intricacy.

Orvieto is located on a plateau: Here’s a view looking down from the city.

Apologies, I guess this is a bit disturbing, but life isn’t always a cup of gilato.

Got to sample the most delicious bruschetta and olive oil EVER in this little town called Civita(below).

We hiked up to the hilltown of Civita. beautiful city with a population of 14.

Friendly old Italian lady who let us check out her garden.

great colors.

08.28.08

Tojo — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:18:36 +0000

1:10am I’m going to bed earlier tonight (yes 1 in the morning is pretty early for me) so I’ll make a post about Wednesday tomorrow.

I did create a new page called Italian Food Night which can be accessed under the Our Group Section in the 3rd column. The pictures are from Tuesday night when half of our group got together at Chris’ apartment to make delicious Italian food. Also, I am continuing to update the Meet the Party page whenever I get a fun picture of someone. Just added the Susans and Naomi

Ciao!

Early Christian Churches

Tojo — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:01:11 +0000

08.26.08 Yesterday we visited three of the Earliest Christian Churches, Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Pressede and San Pudenziana. Here a few pictures from the day. I’d write stuff, but it’s 3am and I should be sleeping.

Goodnight. (err morning…)

08.22.08

Tojo — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:40:36 +0000

Musei Capitolini

Marketplace…

Tojo — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:19:46 +0000

Rome | just a few…

Tojo — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 11:59:03 +0000

Sunday 08.17 11:09am Flew into Rome via Ryanair with Erin, experiencing an unexpected ovation from the italians onboard for a successful landing. Spent my first night at the Yellow, a pretty hip youth hostel with lots of students from around the world.

Paris | Les premières…

Tojo — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:44:15 +0000

So I started this blog about a week after leaving France so this is actually a new/old update. Flew into Paris the morning of Monday August 12th and basically spent that day sleeping most of the time due to jetlag. Uncle Jerome and Aunt Pascaline and my little cousin Anael were there waiting for me at Charles de Gaulle airport. They are a great blessing, extremely hospitable and selfless in taking care of me, showing me around, providing meals, and giving me tips on being smart in Paris. I’m just so grateful for how sacrificial my family is.

Paris is beautiful. The weather is pretty much the same as the pacific northwest. I love the diversity of people, from West Africans to Arabics, to Asians it’s truly a delightful blend of colors.

The following Tuesday I visited the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph among other things. Then thanks to Couchsurfing.com I ended up on a night cruise on the Seine River and got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. Lots of tourists were on board and I met a lot of fun people.

La Tour d’Eiffel

La Tour d’Eiffel dans la nuit

Bateaux sur la Seine

Thursday I met up with Joey at the Montparnasse train station where we caught a train to Rennes. Called up my uncle Etienne who lives there, but he was out of town. From Rennes, we caught a train to St. Malo, a beautiful coastal city where a lot of elderly go to retire. Glenn from couchsurfing picked us up at the train station and provided us with a room with 2 comfy beds. That evening we headed out to La Route du Rock to see Sigur Ros perform which was amazing. Great mix of songs from all their albums though I wish they played Glosoli and more songs from the “( )” CD. In the morning Glenn provided a breakfast of french bread, pastries and sweet cheese. Delicious. Such a nice guy. Then we checked out the beach and caught a train back to Rennes and then another to Paris. Our Eurorail tickets were definitely handy. The scenery on the train ride was amazing too, like stuff you see in paintings.

St Malo

Joey and I in St. Malo