I'm back! 5 weeks really flew by, but I am very glad to be back in the US of A. I missed my connecting flight in London to Atlanta, and the only flight they had back to the States yesterday was to JFK, so my loving parents had to drive 3 and some hours from HBG to get me at JFK. I'm still super sick (it's been about a week), so having to wait another day to get home woulda been awful. The airport workers in London were really nice though (minus the security people who had to thoroughly search and x-ray my bag just in case my under 100 mL estee lauder facial lotion was a security threat, and therefore caused me to miss my flight) and gave me a ticket for some free food and even blocked out the seat next to me on the plane so I could have my own row. I also got to have my first Starbucks chai tea latte w/ soy milk in over a month at Heathrow Airport, and it was AWESOME.
Italy was amazing and I'm very grateful for the opportunity. However, being back in the USA is a really great feeling too. I will definitely miss Europe and I'm sure I'll be back one day soon. Up next: last rotation in Pittsburgh, and then...GRADUATION BABY!!!!!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Postcards
OH so apologies to everyone who I promised postcards to. You'll get them, but instead they're going to be mailed from the States when I get back. In my defense, I tried 3 times to mail them. Twice they didn't have the right size stamp (they were too big, AND I waited in line for about 30 minutes each time)...and then when I tried to go to the main post office the line was outrageous. The lines are always insane, actually, at any time at any post office. The workers take their time and I have no idea how anyone gets anything mailed out in Italy. Although, I did read that Italy is known for its incredibly slow mail service. So apologies again, but at least I did write them while in Italy! It just won't have an Italian stamp on it...mi dispiace!
Monday, March 12, 2012
Venezia: The Floating City
Our last big trip before heading back to the States was Venice this past weekend. Fun facts: Venice used to be very famous for its navy. It was a huge center for artistic movements during the Renaissance. AND it's the birthplace of Vivaldi! So anyway, we had perfect weather, which was great because I was told it was rainy and windy in Palermo all weekend. We took a bus from the airport to Venice, and then had to take a water bus to our hotel from the bus station. Venice is completely built on water, so to get anywhere you either take the water bus/water taxi or you just walk. It is impossible to get off of Venice by foot. Taking the water bus was a really cool experience, but it does take a while because of all the stops.
I had read that it's pretty much a guarantee that you will get lost in Venice. HOWEVER, we totally managed to get to our hotel without getting lost!! But that was the only time we didn't get lost...we made up for it multiple times throughout the weekend. There are so many streets and alleys in Venice that all of them are not even marked on maps. There are many dead end streets as well, but the good thing is that Venice is a pretty safe city. It's mostly all tourist-inhabited, so walking around at night we only encountered other tourists or restaurant workers. It's a very strange feeling, because I kept expecting something out of the ordinary to happen at night, but it really is like a ghost town at night. Even if you get lost in Venice, if you keep walking eventually you will hit a landmark/piazza, and you can locate that on a map. You really can't go to Venezia without trying to find your way through its labyrinth!
On Saturday we explored the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), which is just a huge plaza with many shops and restaurants, and of course Basilica di San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica), Torre dell'Orologico (the Clock Tower), and Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) among others. This is all located right along the water, so it's absolutely beautiful. Across the water you can see other islands with churches and museums, and you can literally arrive at the doorstep of a building right after getting off of a water bus. You're not allowed to take photos in most of the museums and churches, but I managed to sneak a few non-flash pictures. Basilica di San Marco was nice, but I think I got spoiled after seeing Basilica di San Pietro in Roma. We didn't get in the line for the Clock Tower because it was quite long, but we did go in Palazzo Ducale and I got an audio guide.
Palazzo Ducale was pretty impressive. It was huge, with many rooms and secret passageways. Many of the rooms didn't even have a specific purpose because the palace is so big. Oh and what's a doge? He was the highest authoritative figure in the Republic of Venice, but he actually didn't have that much power. The power actually belonged to the Council and Senate. When Napoleon conquered Venice, the position of the doge ceased to exist and Venice lost its independence.
The Palazzo Ducale is filled with Gothic artwork and sculptures. There is also a lot of stucco walls and the stairwell visitors use is the Scala d'Oro (Golden Staircase), due to its gold paintings and stucco design in the ceilings above the staircase. The most impressive room was the Chamber of the Great Council. It reminded me a lot of the Sistine Chapel, but it's much bigger. There are paintings that cover the entire room. The walls are paintings of Venice's history, while the ceiling has paintings of examples of Venetian heroism. The Palazzo Ducale also has many paintings that show the importance of the sea to Venice. Many paintings show Venice as a woman hidden in shadows and emphasize the sea surrounding the people in the paintings. We also got to check out the prisons which were built in the attics and ground floors of the Palazzo. Pretty creepy...apparently at one point they tried to build better prisons (because the previous conditions in which prisoners lived was considered pretty inhumane) but it didn't turn out as hoped.
So Venice is HUGE on art. So many art galleries filled with artwork of really famous artists. We visited The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which is a collection of all kinds of artwork by Peggy Guggenheim (who was actually married to Max Ernst!). There were original paintings by Jackson Pollock, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Picasso, Man Ray, Dali, and Marc Chagall, among many others. It was incredible how much art she was able to collect from such amazing artists. Again, no photos were permitted but I sneaked a few...I just had to!
Outside in the garden, the ashes of Peggy Guggenheim are memorialized near an olive tree that was donated by Yoko Ono. You are supposed to write a wish on a piece of paper and attach it to the tree, which I did! I wished the same thing at the Trevi Fountain, so it'd better come true! (Are you allowed to wish the same thing twice?)
Saturday night we ate at the Hard Rock Café...I know, I should be ashamed. BUT I didn't want to eat more pasta, and it's really hard to come by a good salad in Italy so it worked out well. I did order a Spritz though, so I did get to experience something very Venetian after all. A Spritz is made with Prosecco wine and a bit of Aperol topped off with sparkling mineral water and an orange wedge. Pretty good! After dinner I wanted to stop by Harry's Bar, which is famous for creating the Bellini and for being the place where Ernest Hemingway used to sit and write. It's a very small little place and they seem to serve some very classy dinners. We just stopped by so I could try a Bellini. So the Bellini's I've had in the states are nothing compared to Harry's Bellini's. A real Bellini consists of fresh peach purée and Prosecco wine...it's not very big but tastes amazing! The bartenders and waiters wear white suit jackets with white shirts and black dress pants...the bartender was really good at pouring the Bellini's (there's a certain way you do it, you don't just pour half peach purée and half Prosecco and mix), so I asked him if he ever spills when making the Bellini's and he just laughed. So I'm assuming that's a no.
Our last big stop before leaving Venice was of course the Rialto bridge. There are many bridges in Venice, but this is the major one. The bridge is actually very wide and the view is awesome.
Also, of course there are a lot of gondoliers everywhere. We didn't take a gondola ride because they're not cheap, and it wouldn't be very romantic with 2 girls anyway!
Lots of good shopping in Venice...lots of shops claiming to sell real Murano glass (there are even signs that say 'not made in China'), but you can kind of distinguish what's real Venetian glass and what's not according to price. 3£ for a 'real Murano glass' bracelet? Probably not real. There's also a lot of Italian leather shops with gorgeous leather gloves and bags, as well as the famous brand stores like Chanel, Ferragamo, LV, Prada, etc etc.
Venice was beautiful, and it's apparently the #1 place to propose! Return trip in the not-so-near future? I hope so!!
I had read that it's pretty much a guarantee that you will get lost in Venice. HOWEVER, we totally managed to get to our hotel without getting lost!! But that was the only time we didn't get lost...we made up for it multiple times throughout the weekend. There are so many streets and alleys in Venice that all of them are not even marked on maps. There are many dead end streets as well, but the good thing is that Venice is a pretty safe city. It's mostly all tourist-inhabited, so walking around at night we only encountered other tourists or restaurant workers. It's a very strange feeling, because I kept expecting something out of the ordinary to happen at night, but it really is like a ghost town at night. Even if you get lost in Venice, if you keep walking eventually you will hit a landmark/piazza, and you can locate that on a map. You really can't go to Venezia without trying to find your way through its labyrinth!
On Saturday we explored the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square), which is just a huge plaza with many shops and restaurants, and of course Basilica di San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica), Torre dell'Orologico (the Clock Tower), and Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) among others. This is all located right along the water, so it's absolutely beautiful. Across the water you can see other islands with churches and museums, and you can literally arrive at the doorstep of a building right after getting off of a water bus. You're not allowed to take photos in most of the museums and churches, but I managed to sneak a few non-flash pictures. Basilica di San Marco was nice, but I think I got spoiled after seeing Basilica di San Pietro in Roma. We didn't get in the line for the Clock Tower because it was quite long, but we did go in Palazzo Ducale and I got an audio guide.
Basilica di San Marco
Piazza San Marco & Clock Tower
Palazzo Ducale was pretty impressive. It was huge, with many rooms and secret passageways. Many of the rooms didn't even have a specific purpose because the palace is so big. Oh and what's a doge? He was the highest authoritative figure in the Republic of Venice, but he actually didn't have that much power. The power actually belonged to the Council and Senate. When Napoleon conquered Venice, the position of the doge ceased to exist and Venice lost its independence.
The Palazzo Ducale is filled with Gothic artwork and sculptures. There is also a lot of stucco walls and the stairwell visitors use is the Scala d'Oro (Golden Staircase), due to its gold paintings and stucco design in the ceilings above the staircase. The most impressive room was the Chamber of the Great Council. It reminded me a lot of the Sistine Chapel, but it's much bigger. There are paintings that cover the entire room. The walls are paintings of Venice's history, while the ceiling has paintings of examples of Venetian heroism. The Palazzo Ducale also has many paintings that show the importance of the sea to Venice. Many paintings show Venice as a woman hidden in shadows and emphasize the sea surrounding the people in the paintings. We also got to check out the prisons which were built in the attics and ground floors of the Palazzo. Pretty creepy...apparently at one point they tried to build better prisons (because the previous conditions in which prisoners lived was considered pretty inhumane) but it didn't turn out as hoped.
Palazzo Ducale
Shot of the incredible ceiling
Ceiling above the Golden Staircase
Chamber of the Great Council
Neptune and Mars at the top of the staircase in the courtyard
An original Jackson Pollock
An original Picasso
Outside in the garden, the ashes of Peggy Guggenheim are memorialized near an olive tree that was donated by Yoko Ono. You are supposed to write a wish on a piece of paper and attach it to the tree, which I did! I wished the same thing at the Trevi Fountain, so it'd better come true! (Are you allowed to wish the same thing twice?)
Saturday night we ate at the Hard Rock Café...I know, I should be ashamed. BUT I didn't want to eat more pasta, and it's really hard to come by a good salad in Italy so it worked out well. I did order a Spritz though, so I did get to experience something very Venetian after all. A Spritz is made with Prosecco wine and a bit of Aperol topped off with sparkling mineral water and an orange wedge. Pretty good! After dinner I wanted to stop by Harry's Bar, which is famous for creating the Bellini and for being the place where Ernest Hemingway used to sit and write. It's a very small little place and they seem to serve some very classy dinners. We just stopped by so I could try a Bellini. So the Bellini's I've had in the states are nothing compared to Harry's Bellini's. A real Bellini consists of fresh peach purée and Prosecco wine...it's not very big but tastes amazing! The bartenders and waiters wear white suit jackets with white shirts and black dress pants...the bartender was really good at pouring the Bellini's (there's a certain way you do it, you don't just pour half peach purée and half Prosecco and mix), so I asked him if he ever spills when making the Bellini's and he just laughed. So I'm assuming that's a no.
Our last big stop before leaving Venice was of course the Rialto bridge. There are many bridges in Venice, but this is the major one. The bridge is actually very wide and the view is awesome.
Rialto Bridge
Also, of course there are a lot of gondoliers everywhere. We didn't take a gondola ride because they're not cheap, and it wouldn't be very romantic with 2 girls anyway!
Lots of good shopping in Venice...lots of shops claiming to sell real Murano glass (there are even signs that say 'not made in China'), but you can kind of distinguish what's real Venetian glass and what's not according to price. 3£ for a 'real Murano glass' bracelet? Probably not real. There's also a lot of Italian leather shops with gorgeous leather gloves and bags, as well as the famous brand stores like Chanel, Ferragamo, LV, Prada, etc etc.
Venice was beautiful, and it's apparently the #1 place to propose! Return trip in the not-so-near future? I hope so!!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
A chill weekend in Sicily
This weekend we decided to stay around Palermo. Saturday we took a 2 hour train ride to Agrigento (southern Sicily), which is famous for its Valley of the Temples. The city is built on a plateau and was one of the most richest and major cities of ancient Greece. The Carthaginians eventually sacked the city, and fought with Rome over ownership. I thought it was really neat that there are still remnants of Greek influences here in Sicily. So once we got off the train in Agrigento, we realized we weren't really sure how to get to the Valley. I actually have to say that I'm really proud of myself b/c I managed to ask for directions on how to get there (we were supposed to take a bus) AND I managed to get us 2 way bus tickets all in Italian! Maybe we're not such "dumb Americans" after all.
ANYWAY, The Valle dei Templi spans a lot of land, and there are so many remnants of various Greek temples. They were all built in the Doric style, and there were a few that were insanely well preserved. The main temples were Temple of Hera/Juno, Temple of Zeus, Temple of Hercules, Temple of Concordia, and the Temple of Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux). The Temple of Concordia was the best preserved one, due to it being turned into a Christian church at one time. Each temple also had its own designated olive tree, since olive trees were very important to the Greeks. Along the walls there were also these kind of pits built into the walls, and archaeologists think they were tombs that the Romans built, but the weird thing is that they've never been able to find any bones or any sort of body remnants. Archaeologists also were able to put together a telamon (a sort of sculpture that acted as a sort of pillar for support in a temple), and it's currently in the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento (picture below). It's really huge! Before grabbing the train back to Palermo, we found a place to eat that was off the main road. The big disadvantage of Agrigento is how the streets are built. Everything is uphill, and the side streets are very narrow and uphill. I decided to forgo the typical pasta dish and try some beef...I don't advise trying beef in Sicily. My jaw was so tired of chewing after a while!
ANYWAY, The Valle dei Templi spans a lot of land, and there are so many remnants of various Greek temples. They were all built in the Doric style, and there were a few that were insanely well preserved. The main temples were Temple of Hera/Juno, Temple of Zeus, Temple of Hercules, Temple of Concordia, and the Temple of Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux). The Temple of Concordia was the best preserved one, due to it being turned into a Christian church at one time. Each temple also had its own designated olive tree, since olive trees were very important to the Greeks. Along the walls there were also these kind of pits built into the walls, and archaeologists think they were tombs that the Romans built, but the weird thing is that they've never been able to find any bones or any sort of body remnants. Archaeologists also were able to put together a telamon (a sort of sculpture that acted as a sort of pillar for support in a temple), and it's currently in the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento (picture below). It's really huge! Before grabbing the train back to Palermo, we found a place to eat that was off the main road. The big disadvantage of Agrigento is how the streets are built. Everything is uphill, and the side streets are very narrow and uphill. I decided to forgo the typical pasta dish and try some beef...I don't advise trying beef in Sicily. My jaw was so tired of chewing after a while!
Temple of Concordia
Temple of Juno/Hera
Temple of Hercules
Telamon
Originally, we were going to go to Cefalu on Sunday (today), but the
weather turned out to be less than ideal so we stuck around our hotel.
Turned out to still be a fun Sunday though, because on Sunday mornings
they close down part of the main street in Palermo (Via Roma) and there
are little market stands set up along the street with meats, cheeses,
olives, spreads, jewelry, and pastries. Everyone shouts "prego" at you,
and wants you to try everything.
So two weeks left of this rotation. I guess I should mention my actual rotation, since that's why I'm here in the first place. We actually don't get to do a whole lot at rotation, since pharmacists here don't get to go on rounds anymore due to the way the scheduling works. I was told that they used to be able to do rounds every day. Most days we just work on a project at the computer, so it gets a little monotonous. We have gotten to see some neat things though, such as lung and liver surgeries, how pain management works here, how infectious diseases is controlled, and have gotten to go on a few rounds with the physicians. The people at the hospital are very nice, and I was also told that there used to be American doctors working at ISMETT (since it's partnered with UPMC), but mostly all are gone now so it's all Italian doctors. Someone described ISMETT as a sort of 'oasis' in Sicily, since other hospitals are no where near as developed and well functioning as ISMETT. I think it's pretty great that UPMC was able to start such a great institution for very sick patients in Europe.
Up next: Venice on Friday!!
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