Rising junior defenseman Bella Sutton is heading to Rome, Italy, to study abroad for the next few weeks and she will be sharing her experiences via blog posts on GoPSUsports.com.
Third Post (Tuesday, June 14):
Wow, I can't believe three weeks went by so fast!! I just finished my last day of class here in Rome today, June 11th. However, this is not the end of my journey as I will be traveling to explore Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence, and London in the next nine days!! I am extremely excited about this opportunity, but I am sad to see most of my classmates travel home to the United States tomorrow as I reflect on yet another unforgettable week spent with them in Pompeii, Sorrento, and Meta (just north of Sorrento)!
This past Monday we woke up bright and early to catch a train to Naples. Once we arrived we jumped on a train to Meta, where our hotel (Panorama Palace) was located on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. Before getting on the sardine packed train, we were warned about pickpockets being especially tricky here in Naples. Luckily no one got anything stolen, but one of our professors did catch a man attempting to steal from one of my classmates and he yelled "Oh no, stop right there, I know who you are! I've seen the movies!!" Lol I'm not sure if he knew what our professor was screaming or not but it sure scared him away!! Also, I'm pretty sure he remembered that incident because when we got on the train again to visit Pompeii our teacher recognized the same man and made sure to say "Bonjurno!!" to him, making the man immediately squeeze out of our car into a different compartment.
Anyways, upon arriving to our hotel we soon realized why it received its name, Panorama Palace, because right out front of our hotel was a breathtaking view of Sorrento to our left and high cliffs to our right with the blue sea beneath us (the latter which we took advantage of almost right after checking in). This view was particularly beautiful at sunset. The next morning, Tuesday, we went to Pompeii to visit the ruins of the town that was extremely well preserved due to the ashes of Mount Vesuvius preceding its eruption. It was so cool to get a better idea of what an ancient Roman town would have looked like along with homes of the wealthy. In these homes we were able to see baths, frescos, and mosaics still in place!! We also saw the plaster casted bodies of a few victims of Vesuvius putting into perspective how quickly the eruption took the lives of many living there.
Watching the sun set over the islands of Naples in Meta was a highlight of my trip!
Wednesday, we traveled to Naples to visit the National Archeological Museum where we saw the statue of Hercules at Rest as well as the Farnese Bull and then, after indulging in delicious pizza for lunch, we went to Herculaneum! Herculaneum is a small town that was also very well preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, however, because it was closer to the mountain than Pompeii was, there is even still ancient wood that remains intact! Being right on the ancient coast, when Vesuvius erupted, the people of Herculaneum fled for the water, unfortunately, that's where they found most of the bodies when excavating. I'm curious to know if anyone did escape Vesuvius' grasp.
Thursday, we took a bus a little further south to the ancient town of Paestum. Here we saw a giant temple of Athena, the goddess of war, as well as two temples dedicated to Hera. Walking around this Roman colony south of Naples helped to give me an idea of how large the Roman Empire truly was! After viewing the museum here in Paestum and shopping a bit, we got on our train back to Rome. I was surprised that when arriving back in Rome I felt that I was back "home" because we had only been there for a week or so before this. I guess that goes to show how a place you visit can leave an impact on you no matter how long your stay.
Our whole group in front of the Temple of Athena in Paestum!
The next day we visited the Mausoleum of Augustus, Augustus' alter of peace, and Hadrian's Mausoleum (which is now the St. Angelo Castle). It was cool to see all the intricate designs and work put in to make these massive structures. At the top of the Castle there was a great view! However, the view wasn't as amazing as the view from the top of St. Peter's Basilica which I visited after class. After viewing the church itself and the catacombs, a few classmates and I climbed to the top of the dome. Though there were a way too many steps, the view at the top was incredible!
I really enjoyed the view from the top of the Vatican! It was worth all the stairs we climbed to get up!!
Finally, for our last day of class we took a bus to Hadrian's Villa about 45 minutes outside of Rome. Here, we met an archeologist who toured us around and showed us a recent excavation site! Next, we went to Palestrina to see a temple of Fortuna Primigenia and yet another incredible view!! That night we had our closing banquet at an authentic (by authentic I mean family owned with Grandma Nana who came out and gave us all hugs when we were done) Italian restaurant that was the best food by far! Our now tight knit group talked about the trip, our jokes, and how we are going to hang out once we are all back in State College! After this I conned a few of them to get Frigidarium Gelato for the last time. It was a really great way to end the trip! This group will always hold a special spot in my heart; they made this trip, walking 13 miles each day, and a lot of museums more interesting and much brighter!!
A photo of the Nymphatorium at Hadrians Villa!
Haleigh (one of my good friends I made on the trip) and I at the top of the Temple of Fortuna.
I hope everyone has enjoyed my blog in relation to studying abroad! I would love for you to check back next week to hear where my journey takes me!
Ciao Roma!
WE ARE!!!
Second Post (Tuesday, June 7):
Ciao!
I'm glad you decided to check back in on my adventures abroad! As I mentioned in my last post, I was headed to the Vatican and then after that, the beach, on my past free day. We attended a mass at the Vatican in the morning and despite not understanding the Italian and Latin languages spoken, when everyone turned to their neighbor's, shook hands, and maybe gave them a hug, a light bulb went off and we all turned to each other and said "PEACE" acting as if we knew what was going on the whole time. It was a really cool experience being there, receiving communion, and attending mass in St. Peter's Square. After the outdoor mass, we were a bit concerned because we were barricaded into St. Peter's Square. However, we soon realized that the Pope was going to come through the crowd!!!
At the beautiful St. Peter's Square!
Soon enough he came whizzing by on a car-like automobile with an open top, standing, smiling, and waving to all throughout the square as we stood on plastic chairs to see who could get the best video. Once we returned back to our hotel after this, we rounded up the rest of our group and hopped a train to a small city about an hour south of Rome called Sperlonga.
The Pope wheeling through and blessing the crowd!
The cute little town of Sperlonga :)
After a questionable cab ride later we arrived at the beach where we swam in the Mediterranean. They said it'd be pretty cold, but after swimming in the Minnesota lakes in mid-May prior to this trip, it wasn't bad at all, actually it was quite refreshing! We then watched the sunset and had dinner on the beach. For dessert I took a break from gelato (mainly from Frigidarium) and I had the BEST tiramisu for dessert. This was just last week, but oddly enough it feels like it was both yesterday and a month ago at the same time! Class keeps us pretty busy during the days with different city tours each day, my classmates are awesome and this city is amazing!
The BEST gelato ever! - Frigidarium
My tiramisu from Sperlonga, which I want to go back for!!
This week during class we visited the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Arch of Titus, the Roman Forum, the Capitoline Hill, the Palestine Hill, and the Pantheon to name a few! It's crazy to me how much history is here and how well preserved some of these sites are after all these years. I am definitely learning a lot!
The Roman Forum!
After class each day we have time to explore Rome! This week we went to a restaurant with karaoke, which was a LOT of fun! My teammates (and I'm sure most of you know if you've seen the pregame video) I enjoy singing/dancing in the locker room before games. Well, luckily, or unluckily for those in the restaurant, one of my classmates here in Rome shares the love of the song Fergalicious and the restaurant had that available for karaoke. So, needless to say we crushed it.
Another night we went to a Jazz club to hear live music. The musicians were so so good! If only I had played clarinet for longer than a year I maybe could've joined them! ;) Some of the group also spent one afternoon shopping on Via Cola di Rienzo to look for gifts for friends, family, and ourselves! Side note: The few guys that came along soon regretted their decision after realizing this wasn't an area of souvenir shops, but instead clothing, leather purse, and shoe shops...We may have forgotten to mention that...Whoops!
This past Saturday, June 4th, we had our second free day! We were planning on, and actually made it to Cinque Terre, which if you Google will see just how beautiful it is. Anyways, we got there and the weather was not 75 and sunny like we have been experiencing in Rome for the past week and they told us that if we tried to take the train to the first of the five cities we wanted to visit, we may get stuck there for the night due to the rain. So, we decided we better be safe, make it to class, and instead go to the Leaning Tower of Pisa!!
Leaning tower of Pisa!
I found out that Pisa has more to offer than the leaning tower, and it took my breath away!
Traveling doesn't always work out the way you planned, but I was happy our group just rolled with it and had a great day eating pizza in Pisa!!
Finally, on Sunday June 5th, we took a short train ride to Ostia, one of the major Roman Ports where the entire city of ruins is well preserved! Despite being made fun of for my Minnesotan accent on the way there, having to repeat the words dragon, about, boat, and one Coach Dawes and Ben (our equipment manager) love to tease me about, bag, the train ride was fairly quick!
Thought of my little friend Sophie (who skates with me after games) because there were many cats hanging around Campus Martius
In Ostia, we explored the ancient ruins of the old and extremely important port city and in doing so, turned the ruins into our own jungle gym! We climbed up the stairs and to the roof of every building they allowed us, into every little crevice we could squeeze into, and probably went a little past that in order to get a better feel for the ruins as well as (obviously) some really great photos (one of which as we were stepping across a small ditch a boy in my class ripped his pants!! Let me tell you after hearing about my accent on the way there I did not hold back my laughter when, after being in the sun for a while after the fact, he said, "oh, this breeze is nice" LOL) !!
My jungle gym for the day: Ancient Ostia
Next week I will talk about our class trip to Sorrento and Pompeii! I hope everyone had a great weekend!!
WE ARE!!
First Post (Tuesday, May 31):
I left May 24th in the afternoon, my mom dropped me off at the MSP airport in Minnesota and I was off!! ... Or I thought I was... The flight delay provided me with some time to work on my presentation I had to give later on in the week, however, I was worried I wasn't going to have enough time to catch my next flight out of Boston to Rome. By the time I landed and got off the plane I had 25 minutes to get to my gate. Let me just start by apologizing to anyone if they happened to see me sprinting (or running as fast as I could run with a backpack on) not only through the airport, but to another terminal where I had to go through another security line (special thanks to everyone for letting me jump the line, much appreciated)!! As I was running through the airport I couldn't help but thinking a few things, first, am I going to make this connection!? And what happens if I don't? Next, I was thinking I for sure can do this, this is what KJ (our strength coach) prepared me for. Thirdly, I was thinking, hopefully these new bright coral tennis shoes make me look fast haha. Luckily, I made the flight and made it to Rome, and so my journey begins!
I arrived on the 25th, but most of my class arrived the following day so on the 26th some of us ventured out to the Trevi Fountain! Surprised we didn't get lost and/or hit by a car because the drivers are crazy! You just cross the street whenever and cars swerve around you...If you don't cross you may lose the group! We then had our opening class "banquet" dinner at a small Italian restaurant.
The following day we visited the Baths of Diocletian, which I performed my 10-15 minute speech on and went into the Basilica of Santa Maria which was very cool! We saw the Imperial forums, Trajan's market, and Trajan's column, all for class! Later that night we went to the Vatican museum and even got to enter the Sistine chapel, which was beautiful.
Saturday May 28th, we spent most of our day at the Capitoline Hill museum and exploring underground, excavated temples!
Sunday we have our first day off and I think we will be headed to the Vatican and then the beach for some swimming and relaxing on the beach! Loving my experiences thus far in the Eternal City! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer adventures!! Check back next week for another blog post from Roma! We Are!!!
A great view of the Roman Forum from the Capitoline Hill museum
Trying to be like Lizzie McGuire at the Trevi Fountain
At this point you can tell I like panoramic shots. This one shows a great view of the city and puts into perspective the number of churches here!
Introduction Post:
Well I can inform you it's been an eventful first few days of traveling overseas, navigating Rome, and meeting my classmates for the next three weeks! Before I get in to all of that, I suppose I should introduce myself.
Hi everyone, my name is Bella Sutton and I am a defenseman on the Penn State women's ice hockey team, #11. I just finished my sophomore year at PSU less than a month ago. I can't believe I'm already considered a junior!?! Anyways, these next few weeks I will be studying ancient Roman history by traveling around Italy. I will be sharing with you some of my experiences, what I've seen, done, and knowing me, some bad jokes or puns will be included so bear with me remembering I always encourage a good courtesy laugh :)