Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tivoli-Hadrians Villa and Villa D'Este
Tivoli was amazing too. Hadrians Villa was amazing I cant imagine having a place like that as a summer home. Its a huge palace with lush gardens and fountains. Villa d'este had one of the most amazing fountain systems ive ever seen.
Southern Italy
Paris!
Monday, March 1, 2010
the day trip to assissi was amazing, it was one of the best times ive had in rome. There were five of us who went, we got up early, at 645 to catch a supposed 745 train, which in reality didnt leave until about 8. The trip to assisi was also quite nice, we passed by the city of Narni which is what cs lewis based narnia in the chronicles of narnia after. When we finally got to the city, it was amazing, so beautiful! It was a nice day, so we decided to walk to assissi from the train station. heres what we saw.
We got into the city and the church was moving. The church of Saint Francis Assissi, ive never seen a church have 2 beautiful churches stacked on top of eachother like this church was. After going to the church, we decided to heat to the castle in assissi. It was like any other typical castle in rome, awesome. We were able to get a 360 view of assissi and beyond, it was incredible. I have never seen a place as beautiful as assissi is since ive been to Italy. We moved from the castle to our hour and a half or so long hike up a mountain to find the cave of assissi, the palce where he did much of his prayer and ministry. We found a sweet little structure along the way that appeared to be a well and water source, it was completely dark and actually contained a small sleeping bat inside:-D. So we moved on from there, trecking higher and higher, we thought we couldn’t get better views of assisi, and then we would walk for another 20 minutes and bam, we could see more and more of the land. Finally, after a 1.5 L bottle of water, we were at the monastery and the cave. It was so peaceful. The way the architecture blended in with the side of the mountain was perfect. One could feel the harmony between nature and manmade. As we prayed in the chapel which overlooked the mountain, the sun was setting, as it hit a point of about 40 degrees in the sky, thus creating a golden glow to the west facing chapel, one could hear the beards chirping and trees rustling. Serene is the only word to describe the feeling one gets when in prayer in that chapel. As we left, tired and relaxed, we knew it was getting darker, but luckily we had a downhill treck the whole way, thank God. As we approached the bottom of the hill, we looked back up at the mountain as the a full moon ecplised the mountain. Assissi, one of the most beautfil places ive been to, will always be in my mind for years to come.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
These are some photos from the nine day tri