Spain by Mia

We arrived in Spain a week ago and have been kept very busy trying to get our life straight. So far we have replaced the stolen laptop with an iPad (I did not see that one coming!! I never thought I would see the day when my dad bought and iPad! He thinks they are quite pointless!!), signed a contract for a rental house in Churriana de la Vega on the outskirts of Granada, and started school. We are also planning a trip to Portugal over Easter Break. Zander and I (mostly I) have been closely involved in everything becuase we can translate Spanish for our parents, which is extremely tiring.

The first thing we translated for was when we were searching for a good prepaid phone plan for daddy´s iPhone. That was rough, and they ended up just using googe translate.That was on the way from Madrid to Cordoba. We stayed in Cordoba for a few nights, in a 5 star hotel where daddy booked a hotel room for TWO PEOPLE!!! It was a really nice room, with a huge shower and everything, but only one king sized bed. Sarah ended up sleeping on the cusion that she took off the baby changing table, Zander on a sheet on the floor, and Kayley, me, and my parents sharing the bed. That was a bit unconfortable becuase Kayley thrashes in her sleep so we got kicked off the bed for the next night. Instead we brought up the airmatress that we had bought in Italy for camping  (and only used twice). That got popped when we were setting it up and Kayley and I did our best to patch it up with Tyvek tape. That sort of worked, but there must have been a leak because we woke up in the middle of the night on the floor. That entire time we were looking for rentals in Córdoba. That was not going well, because there were barely any in town and most of them were full because Easter is coming. We ended up just driveing on out of there.

We spent a few hours at the beach in Málaga and then drove to Granada. We did a bit of touristing there and visited Alhambra Palace, but mostly we were looking for rentals. We changed our focus from just rentals to holiday rentals becuase every one else was unwilling to rent to us for less than six months. We found a lot more that way, and I was searching in Spanish instead of English. When we really started going we were lining them up three a day. The day we found ours, we had three lined up (thanks to a ton of phone calls with people in Spainsh by ME). The one in the morning was in an adorable little town about 45 minutes from Granada. They were kind of a dump, and the one we wanted wasn´t complete yet. The next one was in Monachil, an outskirt of Granada. The apartment was cute, but really small, and the guy who showed it to us was Scottish. It was much better than the last one we had seen, but not perfect.

The last one we looked at every one had a good feeling about, because the places had been getting better all day. It was an actual house instead of an apartment, and had the perfect amount of beding for everyone. Three bedrooms, two had two twin beds each, and the master had a queen. There was a little back patio with one of those little charcoal grills. It was the landlady´s acutal house, so it was clean and tastefully furnished. The one little drawback was the fact that  the landlady didn´t speak any English. None at all. She was really nice though, and the combined force of Zanders and my Spanish skills got us an apointment the next day to sign a contract. She also told us where the schools were and stuff. That evening we hit a pastry shop for celebration (the one fault of you little town is that is doens´t have a single ice cream shop open in the spring time).

Next day we visited the schools where we got us all in the next day, and then went off to get the contract signed. This time the landlady had her iPad out with google translate so Zander and I were only needed a little. After the contract was signed we went school shopping at the monster Carrefour Planet mall, which was "the most constructive" shopping trip daddy had ever had been on. There was still a strict list and stuff, which was dumb, and we were constrained to the half hour before daddy exploded but we still mananged to get stuff done.

The next moring we got out or our beds (oh wait, just kidding, not beds, sleeping bags on the floor) really early and went to school. Zander and I were dropped off first at the "Instituto de Educación Secundaria F.G.L." (Institute of Secundary Education -- so clinical!! Like they are going to preform scientific procedures to fill our brains with knowledge). It is perhaps the most ugly building that ever existed, the outside is stone and there is not a blade of grass in sight. The inside is echoy, with tiles on the walls (like a bathroom) and nasty purple doors. Gross. There is a fence with a locked gate surrounding the entire thing. The people inside though, are normal high schoolers, and of course, the "no electronics in school" rule is entirely unenforcable. I have no idea how anyone expects to enforce that one without having a secutity system equivalent to airports. The day was great though, and the kids try a lot harder to speak English to me than the adults do (even though they sound really funny, and I could probably understand them better when they speak Spanish).

After school was out we were all really happy, especially Kayley, who´s school is giving here a little laptop to do homework on. (lucky!!). We went back to our little two person hotel room in Granada and then the kids were sent to the mall for like 3 hours becuase we were apparently too happy. The next day was national strike day so there wasn´t any school. We went for a nice hike in Monachil instead, and it was really cool because everyone was just lazing around, and not doing anything. It was like a Sunday afternoon! Spain is turning out to be pretty good, and I really hope I come out of this fluent in Spanish, becuase that would be really cool!

Effort of Government Workers in Different Countries by MIa

We have been to a lot of places during this trip and they all have been pretty different. There have been different languages, coloring, climates, and things like that, obviously, but in many of the countries the people have had consistantly different personalities. For example, the Italians were a bit snooty, the Egyptians tried to scam us, and the Spanish are pretty nice. Of course, that is not true about everyone, only most of the people we met. Also, because of the different governments, the government workers (police, military, city council people, etc) have been different. In many of the countries the effort levels and behaviour of the government workers has been noticably different.

Singapore is a really noticable example of this. In Singapore the laws are actually inforced, which is something we haven´t really seen anywhere else. The government obviously puts a lot of effort into enforcing their many laws, posting undercover officers at traffic lights and sidewalks adn things like that. It deffinitley works, though, they hand out $50 fines for jaywalking all the time. Noelle has already been caught twice! She was actually stopped by a guy wearing normal clothes who pulled out a badge and wrote her up a ticket. She thought it was a joke at first, but unfortunately it was legit. This shows the extreme efficency of the Singaporian government. They make laws like not spitting, and no durians on subways, and are able to enforce them. They also make smoking, drinking, and gum really expensive (but not illegal, becuase that would have caused an open rebellion) so people don´t trash the streets with gum or kill themselves with too much poison. The government in Singapore are efficiantly running the place, and the people who work for them actually do things.

The exact opposite of that is true in Itally, where they don´t really work at all. When our laptop was stolen in Pisa and daddy called the police, the guy told him to go to the police station. That is really weird because usually if you call the police they come to you because you may not be able to drive all the way over to them. We drove around for a little while looking for it, and when we finally found it, we were told to go to a different station. When we finally got there we talked to a guy at a little window who didn´t even try to speak English, even though he could speak Spanish and French as well as Italian. We stood there in the cold for a really long time, and even filled out the little bit of paperwork standing up. He was really snooty and took his time copying our passports and we had to ask him to actually stamp the form. There was no pretense that they were actually going to try to find the laptop, and they didn´t even go look for clues or anything. It was really dumb. The only reason anyone would ever bother them would be so they could possibly get insurance for it. Italy´s police system was a typical lazy bureaucracy, and all the workers just did as little work as possible, passing on the work to the next guy.

Spain´s government is another example of a lazy bureaucracy. Today Daddy went to the city council to get a certifacate of residence, and, as you can imagine, that did not go well. He went in there at about 9 am and asked for the certificate. The guy, who wasn´t even going to try to speak English, told him to come back at
2 pm to pick it up. He did, and when he asked another guy about it, he was told to wait another half hour until 2:30. At 2:30, he was told he needed a utility bill to get one and that there was nothing to do now becuase they closed soon. It turns out that you actually need a certificate of residency to recieve a utility bill! The guy obviously didn´t think daddy was telling the truth about living here, and thought that he was just a tourist on vacation who was trying to get extra benefits. Daddy was pretty pissed off and probably would have punched they guy if someone hadn´t calmed him down. That would not have gone down well because the council building is next door to the police station. Not an accident, I think. On his way out daddy caught a gilmpse of the police station and observed that the police weren´t even letting the people talk to them. They were actually shooing them away! In Spain the government workers are pretty horrible, and lazy at work.

Egyptian government people were very keen on keeping the remenants of their tourists, so they helped them out as much as possible (in most cases). There were tourist police hanging out at every big attraction to help you out if any locals were bothering you, and the tour buses were moved around in military convoys. In fact, there was actually too much military presence. Armed guards every where and all that. There was also the fact that they guards at the temple and pyramids would try and take picture for you or with you and ask for money afterwards. That is really annoying, but pretty much all of the Egyptians do it. The Egyptian military tries to protect the tourists as much as possible so they aren´t scared away entirely by the violence.

India had a huge military and police presence. You would see tanks and armed guards everywhere, just hanging out in imposing groups with their big guns.The Republic Day parade (where they paraded around in colorful clothing playing music from the tops of camels and stuff like that) was pretty much just a big show of their size. They paraded all through the city tossing their swords and carrying their big guns and wearing their weird costumes. In Shimla there were military parades every single day, and they blocked off half the city for their marching. The military in India was huge, adn every one had manditory service, even the girls. There is a ton of emphasis put on the military in India, and the effect is almost threatening.

In many of the countries we have been to there has been a noticable difference in government workings. Italy and Spain are lazy idiots, Egypt and India flash their military, and Singapore is extra efficient and effective. Even though the government people are usually mean, the people in the countries have been quite different. We have met nice and rude people in every country, even thought the ratios of nice to rude have been a bit different everywhere. The Italians, Egyptians, and Indians have been mostly quite rude, while the rest have been, for the most part, very nice. Evey country has a mix of personalities, and you can´t really judge everyone on a lazy government worker or a grouchy old lady in a supermarket who yells at you for holding the cheese too long (true story!!).

The Odyssey and The Tourist by Sarah

We watched "The Odyssey" and "The Tourist". They are totally different books and movies. We watched the movie "The Tourist" and we watched and read "The Odyssey" and they have totally diffident stories.
One thing that is totally different is that "The &" is in Venice, Italy and "The Odyssey" is in Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. In "The Tourist", I can see that it is very recent and the movie is new. "The Odyssey" was written by Homer in the 11th century BC after the Trojan War.

The second thing was that the point when the Tourist, Frank some thing ( Alexander Pierce ) is running from cops and bad guys in Venice because he stole money from the bad rich people. In "The Odyssey" Odysseus, is traveling back from the Trojan War. On his way, Odysseus has lots of adventures on the on the way home from Turkey. On his way back to Greece, he gets lost and stops in Egypt on the way. That is a difference of the plot.

The last reason that makes the two stories so different is because, I think, "The Odyssey" really happened because the Trojan War really happened. "The Tourist" was fake because Alexander Pierce did not exist. If he did exist, ''Alexander Pierce'' wouldn't have made a movie on himself stealing the money. The movie made him look bad.

I think "The Tourist" is so different from "The Odyssey" for so many reason's that I just told you. Those reason's are the time, place, and the plot.

SARAH LOR ROLPH!!!!!

Summary of Italy by Sarah

In Italy, a lot of things happened, including getting our computer stolen in Pisa when we were at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In Italy, we went to almost 11 city's and towns, driving to most of them.
In our travels around Italy, we walked in Venice. We did a hike going through lots of towns and started and ended at city's, but we only walked through some of them. In all the city's we went to, we stayed longest in Rome because Rome was were we landed. We stayed in Rome for a week to see its sites, and to plan our trip around the rest of Italy. We stayed in an apartment in St. Peters right in the center of Rome by all the sites and the Vatican.

The towns and city's we went to we're all in the middle of Italy, and most of the towns we're on hills and were very cute. The farthest south we went was to Pompei, but I don't know why. In Italy there are 2 wonders of the world, but I did not enjoy them as much as a basilica in Venice. There was a place at the back of the basilica with something stolen from the Hagia Sofia with lots of precious stones put in gold.

The towns and cities are called Rome, Pisa, Lucca, Siena, Bologna, Venice, Florence, Verona, Vicense, Pompeii, and Padova. Our computer got stolen in Pisa when we were at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In Rome, we went to the Coloseum, but nothing went wrong and we were in luck. In Italy, there are two wonders of the world but they are not my favorite buildings in Italy. My favorite building is a basilica in Venice. That church is my favorite building because the ceiling is almost covered in gold mosaics and the other parts are mosaics of Jesus and Mary. The cathedral is called St Marks Basilica and is in a square where you can´t picnic.

When we went to eleven cities and towns, we walked along them and saw lots of amazing squares that we enjoyed. We went to Rome first, and stayed a week in an apartment. Then, we went to a town called Pompeii with a ruined old town called Pompeii too. Then we went to Siena where we saw lots of museums and churches. Then we went to Florence where Da Vinchi´s Duomo is, then we went to Venice because it is famous. Then we went to Verona and Verona is where Romeo and Juliet is. We also went to Vicenza to look at Palladio's perfect proportioned buildings. Then we went to Bologna and a cute village in the hills near Bologna to see friends. Next place was Lucca with its Renaisance walls and after that, Pisa for the Leaning Tower. I don´t see why it´s so famous because it´s just like all the towers in Venice, except that it had some serious settlement issues. After our confusion in Pisa, we drove to Cinque Terre to do a hike mamma wanted to do along the rugged coast to some nice villages built in the hillsides. Then we went back to Rome to fly to Spain.

These eleven cities and towns were a good choice to go to because they were all different in some way, but all Italy. If you go to Italy, remember to keep your valubles with you where ever you go because there are lots of theives who want your stuff.

I HAVE LOTS OF PICTURES BUT CAN'T get them on this blog because the IPad doesn't do that and our laptop is gone.

Brunaleskis dome by Zander

Brunaleskies dome in Florence Italy was a major achievement in arcatectual history. He built a 42 meter dome with out using any temporary scaffolding. He couldn't use scaffolding because the church was built before the dome, so if he used scaffolding because it would ruin the interior scaffolding. So for the scaffolding, he used stone ribs that met at the center of the dome. Brunaleski made a great church even greater with his great dome.


In Italy, there are some amazing churches. El Duomo was built in Florence to show how rich the city was. Brunaleski made an attempt to designed the whole church, but he got rejected by the church in 1401. He also planned the baptistry. When an architect plans a dome, he has to take certain things into account. For instance, the hoop stress. Brunaleskies way of conquering that was building a big stone hoop that goes all the way around the dome. What most architect would do is build really thick walls all around the dome. Brunaleskies workers met with a problem. Their bricks would fall off before the mortar dried, so he divised a plan to have the bricks criss cross so that they held each other up. But since the walls were already built, he couldn't use that method. Brunaleski did a great architectural achievement, but he had to overcome some things before he could build the dome.


Brunaleski was the first person to construct a dome without using any temporary scaffolding. The original architect didn't know how he was supposed to build the dome. When the dome was finished, he didn't want the church to cover up his brick patterns, but they did. Brunakeski made one of my favorite churches in Italy. If you go to Italy, you have to see the church.



Can't add pictures because the computer got stollen sorry!!!!!!!

Public Realationships in Italy by Zander

Italy has some really amazing sights, but it is hard to keep all your belongings safe while seeing them. Italy has the great roman empire, the Vatican, and the pope. Every town has some masterpiece, or a nice church. With all the amazing things Italy should be safe to travel in, but they need to be more friendly and more open to touarised.

In Italy the Italians make it really hard to be a tourist in there country. When we rented a car, we found out on the first street that they don't have any rules, or at least they don't follow them. The cops don't cair about the streets. The hotels like to add extra prices to their rooms, after we stayed in them. My most memorable experience was when we had just pulled into a toll booth. My dad had to make a u turn, the man in the booth wanted to charge us for both ways. My dad got really mad, he turned off his car and just hated there. The guy in the booth shut down. He closed the window and walked away. We waited for a little wile,then went to another booth. I was happy because my dad had gotten his anger out. It is hard to have a constructive conversation with Italians because they don't like the tourist.

Italy is the first place that we have gotten something stolen from us. We were at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and we had left the laptop bag, with the laptop in it. We had left the car with some sketchy parking people. When we got back form the tower one of our car windows had been punched in. Our laptop was gone. None of the guys that were helping us park were there. We looked all around sand there wasn't a trace. My dad thought that the car park people scoped out the good cars, and then told there friend take what was valuable in the cars. When we went to the police station,the police didn't cair, they had us fill out a form and then the probably thought it in the trash. There have been other situations where we have been almost pick pocket but they didn't take anything. Most of these attempts have been on the subway. There is a general dislike towards tourist, i think that is because they have to many already.

Italy is known for some really nice people. But they aren't nice to the tourist. When we were with the withers in the country people were really nice. They offers to have us spend the night with them and we didn't even know them. I think that it helps to have a locale with us, then the people will be really nice. I think that the Italians are really nice, but only with each other.

I can't publish pictures because I domt have a computer at the moment sorry!!!!!!!!

Pompeii by Kayley Rolph

         Last week, my family and I walked around the ancient abandoned town of  Pompeii. I thought that Pompeii was amazingly well presuved in volcanic ash.  Pompey was buried in ash because Mt. Vesuvious erupted in 79 Ad adn covered the city in ash and lava.



That´s Sarah and I by some mosaices and frescos.

          The buildings in Pompeii were very well presuved considering their age. Most of the building´s roofs caved in under the wieght of the volcanic ash. But, thankfuly, many things inside the buildings survived. It was a bit of a surprise for me that the frescos on the walls of the big houses are still there. The frescos on the walls looked easy to paint because the patternes were simple.  

The mosaics on the floor were also simple patterns.surprisingly,the fountains in the courtyards are still in good condition.

The remaining of the people that were in the Pompeii when the volcano erupted were covered in ash and probably died. The ash fell before the volcano erupted so all of the bodies were holding their mouths and noses to try not to breath in the ash. But the bodies were covered in ash any way. The bodies became like statues, volcanic ash statues that are shaped like people wearing togas laying on the ground or hugging their knees. The real bodies in side the statues are probably disintegrated through time. But the shell still stands. The thing that I found very weird about the statues is that none of the statues have hair. Maybe the hair burned but then the clothes would have burned too. Anyway I thought that the bodies or statues or what ever you call it are quite interesting.

Pompeii has three amphitheaters. One of the amphitheaters is called the Amphitheater and is the biggest of the three. The amphitheater is missing about 3/4ths of the of the marble seats that make up the huge arena. On The other two theaters there are only 2/3rd of of a circle of stone seats. The marble seats are wrapped around a circular stone stage. One of the two theaters is bigger than the other this one is called the great theater . The great theater can fit 5,000 spectators the round stands. The other theater is called the is called the small theater. The small theater was probably used for musical performances and poetry readings. All of the theaters were in very good condition.

There were many narrow street in Pompeii the big ones were made out of a very dark grey colored stone. The stone was worn smooth from all the thousands of feet walking on the streets for century's. Also there were cart wheel ruts or tracks in the stone that were quite deep and the side walks were nice and wide. Branching of the main road were small alley ways were surprisingly not dusty, but made out of dirt. The dirt sloped in to the middle of the alley like a ravine. But surprisingly the alleys didn't look all eroded and hade rivers flowing through the middle.

Pompeii was a really nice but ancient town to walk around in. It's nice because it's easy to imagine how it looked and felt before the volcano erupted. Also the roads are nice.

By Kayley S. Rolph

Michelangelo by Mia

Michelangelo´s 'Pieta' at St Peter´s Basilica

Michelangelo is one of the most famous names around. He was the ultimate Renaissance man; a master of many different art forms. Michelangelo was a renowned painter, sculptor, poet and architect. His masterpieces are world famous, especially his statue, 'David', and the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel (which we saw in the Vatican). Although those are the most famous, they are far from the only works he did. His 89 year long life was full of art and is documented extremely well.

Michelangelo Di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born on the 6th of March, 1475 in Caprese, Florence (modern day Tuscany, Italy). At age six, his mother died, and he went to live with a stone cutter and his wife in Settignano, where his father owned a marble quarry and a small farm. Living there near the quarry no doubt helped his skill in sculpture. As a young boy, his father sent him to study grammar with Francesco da Urbino in Florence. However, he had little interest in his schooling and preferred to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of painters. At thirteen, he dropped out and became apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, where he was one of the painter´s best pupils. Then, in 1490, Michelangelo attended the Humanist academy (founded by the Medicis) where he studied sculpture and was exposed to some of the most prominent writers and philosophers of the day, which influenced both his outlook and his art. There he sculpted the reliefs of 'Madonna on the Steps' and 'Battle of the Centaurs' (which was commissioned by Lorenze de Medici).

St Marks Cathedral in Venice. Not really related to Michelangelo,
but it´s nice.

In 1495 Michelangelo went to Florence where he carved two miniature figures: 'St John the Baptist' and 'Sleeping Cupid'. Then he returned to Rome and stayed there for the next five years, carving 'Bacchus' and his famous 'Pieta'. When he returned to Florence in 1501, business really started booming. He was contracted to carve the Piccolomini Altar, and then commissioned to carve 'David', his most famous work which secured his status as an incredible sculptor. By 1504, he had finished 'David' and was promptly commissioned to paint the 'Battle so Cascina', though he considered himself a sculptor and not a painter. Then, just the next year he was commisioned to make the tomb of Pope Julius II. For the next forty years he worked on the Pope´s tomb, moving between Rome and Florence, and completing many other works as well. During that time he carved 'Moses', 'Rebelious and Dying Slaves', 'Rachel', and 'Leah'.

He also frescoed the ceiling and altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. The ceiling has an interesting story. He was commissioned by Pope Julius II to only paint the 12 Apostales against a starry sky, but he lobbied for a different, more complex scene. It ended up containing over 300 figures. Among the most famous paintings on the ceiling are The Creation of Adam, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood, the Prophet Isaiah and the Cumaean Sibyl. The Pope was not entirely happy with the new plans, and Michelangelo was not really cooperating with him. In fact, at one point it got so intense that the Pope punched Michelangelo in the face. He also painted The Last Judgement on the colossal altar wall. Then, in 1546, he was appointed Cheif Architect at St Peter´s Basilica as a replacement to Antonio da Sangalla the Younger. He designed only the dome, as the rest of the building had been finished by the previous architect. Becasue he was 74 at the time, people feared that Michelangelo would die before it was completed, but once the bottom part, the supporting ring, was finished, it was inevitable that the design would be completed.

On the 18th of Febuary, 1564, Michelangelo died at age 88 (3 weeks before his 89th birthday), in the Palpal States in Rome. He was remembered as the best artist of his time, and remains one of the best of all time. His most famous works completed before his 30th birthday, he was truely a born artist and a bit of a prodigy. The sheer volume of documents he left, sketches, notes, and poems, makes him the best documented artist ot he 16th century. He was also one of the only people of his time to have a biography published before his death. Nothing like some other artists who didn´t become famous until after their death. Michelangelo was an undesputed master of the arts, in his time as well as the present, and probably the future.

Venice by Mia

Tiny alleyway

After a long night sleeping in the car at a campsite just across the water from Venice, we went across the bridge and parked inside the largest parking structure in Europe. They have it all set up for tourists, on the outskirts there are various parking areas and several different forms of public transportation to get people into the city once they have dropped off their cars. These outskirts are pretty ugly and modern compared to the actual city. Venice is like an amusement park because it looks really nice, but it there is no longer an actual town there, just the tourists and the people who profit from them. Never the less, it is a really amazing place! It’s in the middle of a lagoon, and when you are on the bridge over, it’s a bit hard to tell where the lagoon ends and the city begins, because the water keeps going. There are several canals, the biggest one is the main canal, and it has several little ones branching off of it. There are also lots of streets and alleys of various sizes (some nice and wide, others only wide enough for two people walking side by side). Everything seems to be adorably crooked and old, with faded stucco crumbling off revealing bricks underneath. The entire city oozes charm out its ears!

After we dropped our car off at the biggest parking structure in Europe we took a short tram ride to the city. Then we headed off towards St Marc’s Cathedral and Square, but we didn’t actually find it until the afternoon. Instead we ended up wandering around the city for a few hours going into any churches that looked cool and soaking in the Venice-ness. We went into St. Stefano that had a cool wood frame roof that was a different shape on the inside than on the outside. It was the first church we had seen like that, and it was really cool. Then we wandered around some more, through several piazzas and into a few more churches. We walked through the maze of alleyways, one of which ended into a canal, no guardrail! Daddy almost walked into it. I wonder how many people on bikes have fallen in there.

Picnic on a little dock

Piazza San Marco is a big square that is surrounded by porticos, the Basilica St Marco is the main thing, but off to the side there is some palace, the old mint, and two old pillars in between which they used to execute people. There is also a tall, slightly leaning, tower off to the right. It’s a really nice square, and the combined effect of the porticos, the tower, and the basilica, makes you pause when you first see it.  When we finally found our way to the piazza, it was lunch time and we were pretty starved because no one had had much of a breakfast. We looked around for a supermarket but they hide those pretty well in Venice, so we settled on some sandwiches and leftover cheese and bread. Once we were fed, we went back to the piazza to see the basilica.

Golden mosaic inside St Marcs.

The interior of the basilica is covered in golden mosaics, kind of like the ones that used to be in the Haghia Sophia. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they stole the tiles from Istanbul! They stole the statues on the roof from the Hippodrome, and the golden altar inside from the Haghia Sophia itself. The entire basilica is also designed to look like the Haghia Sophia, but much smaller of course. The floor of the basilica is tiled in mosaics, but not as much as the ceiling. We walked through once and then came back a little while later for a second round, that time paying a few euros to see the golden altar in the back. It is really golden and it is covered in all sorts of jewels and precious things, stolen from the Haghia Sophia. After that we went over to a cafe and sat there sipping coffee and hot chocolate for a few hours. The hot chocolate was amazing! It was like they had melted a bar of chocolate into the cup because it started to harden if it got too cool. Then we went back outside to resume the search for a grocery store. Daddy found some on his gps and we went out to search for it, getting a tad lost, and eventually found it next to a gelateria. That was really convenient and we got some gelato and some salad and bread and stuff for dinner. We ate it on the end of a tiny dock which was probably for the taxis. We were totally in the way but no one told us to move, which was nice of them.

After dinner we headed back toward the car. We stopped a lot to take pictures of random things like leaning towered and cute canals with gondolas in them , things that were undeniably Venice like and we would not see anywhere else in the world. When you reach the dull modern outskirts, it is just as abrupt as stepping out of a ride in Disney Land. Suddenly there are cars and sleek tram tracks and ugly block buildings instead of crooked towers, canals, and rustic buildings. It was amazing in Venice and I really want to come back some day.

Leaning Tower of Pisa by Zander

When people go to Italy, they always go to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. They always see the tower. That creates a problem. If all the tourists are there,then it is hard to enjoy the sight when the place is packed with tourist that are trying to do the same thing that we were. It is also a perfect place for theft. There are tons of tourist that will pay people for helping them park their car, or anything else, even if they don't want what the locals are trying to sell them. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is really famous, but is it famous for the right reason?

El Duomo with the leaning tower in the background.  See how it is leaning at the base more then at the top.

Mia posing at the base of the tower

If The Leaning Tower of Pisa had been built correctly, then it wouldn't have been famous. It would have been like every other bell tower in Italy. The architect who was in charge of building it noticed the lean once he built the first few story's of the tower. But he was convinced to keep building to save money. So to fix the problem he propped up the next story's. So as he was building up, the tower was leaning at a increasing angle with every story. Eventually they had to stop building because the tower was not righting itself. After he died, other architects tried to fix it. They failed and they stopped building it at its 10th story. Another reason why it is famous is because Galileo dropped different sized canon balls off the tower and discovered that gravity is the same on every thing. The leaning tower of Pisa is famous for what people did on it, but the actual tower isn't that



The Baptistry that is in the same complex and the tower.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is famous because of a architect that didn't fix his tower the right way and tried to save money. I think that if he did the right thing then he wouldn't be famous. The tower would look like all the other towers in Italy. When I went to the tower, I was expecting a bit more. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is pretty cool, but if I had to choose between it and the Colosseum, then it would definitely be the Colosseum.


Alexander the Great by Zander

A painting of the Battle of Issus.

            Alexander the Great was one of the most well known war lords.  His empire was one of the biggest in the world. When he was 16, he became king after his father was assassinated. Before he was king, he was a general in his father’s army.  He was already famous for victory in some battles.  His father Philip II made Macedonia great.  He conquered all of Greece and made Macedonia a threat. Alexander the Great ruled for just 13 years.  In that time, he made one of the greatest empires on the planet with is cunning strategies and vast armies.

The Karnak Temple, when Alexander the Great
became a pharo, he had to add on to it.

One of Alexander’s most famous conquests was Persia. Alexander's army crossed the Cilician Gates in 333 BC and defeated the main Persian army under the command of Darius III at the Battle of Issus in November.  When he crossed, he led an army of 48,100 infantry, 6,100 Calvary, and 120 war ships. Darius fled the battle, causing his army to collapse, and left behind his wife, his two daughters, his mother Sisygambis, and a fabulous treasure. He offered a peace treaty that included the lands he had already lost and a ransom of 10,000 talents for his family. Alexander replied that since he was now king of Asia, it was he alone who decided territorial divisions. I think that he had the right to say that he was the king of Asia, but he could have made a compromise. In  332 BC, he was forced to attack Tyre.  He captured after a long and difficult siege. Alexander massacred the men of military age and sold the women and children into slavery. I don’t think that he made a good choice. He should have let them live and join his army.  I think that people shouldn’t be able to enslave woman and children.  All they were doing was trying to stay alive. Concurring Persia in 10 years is a great feet and made it possible for Alexander to spread his border all the way to India.

Alexander the Great having trouble with his Chariot. 
That is actually me!!!

  Alexander the Great's most notable achievement was contouring India.  But he would have spread more, if he had not met some unexpected difficulties.  Alexander the Great had to defile some of the hill clans that lived in Kunar and Guraeus Valley. He got wounded by a crossbow bolt in the shoulder, but he kept on fighting. What is different about how armies fight now as opposed to then, was that the kings and Generals, led the charge. So they died alot more than now. In India, Alexander's army fought with King Porus of Punjab.  They fought so fiercely in Hydaspes in 326 BC, that Alexander made the king an alley, because they fought so well.  At Hyphasis River, Alexander’s army mended.  They said that they didn’t want to fight any more.  So Alexander was forced to stop his plan forward and take the land to the south. Alexander the Great conquered so much, that he finally had to stop, because he was getting spread too thin.

A picture of how the Macedonian millitary fought.

 There is allot of mystery as to how Alexander the Great died. But for sure, he died in the Palace of Hebuahadnezzer in June 323 BC. Some of the contributing factors are that a few months before his best friend died. He could have died of small pox, or Typhoid, or he could have been assassinated. One of the mythical ploys was that he was drinking and that his son, who was filling his glass, slipped poison into it. Another mystery was where was his tomb?  It is said to have traveled to Alexandria.  But when archeologists excavated the tomb at the supposed location, they found someone else's body there, not Alexander's. When Alexander died, the Macedonian empire stopped growing.  He was one of the greatest military strategists and led one of the greatest empires in the world.          

Alexander the Greats death marks the end of the Macedonian Empire. He conquered all the way from Greece to India.   When he died, it all fell. His favorite general and his son had to fight over the throne. That made some civiler wars in which both of them died.  After the civil wars destroyed Macedonia, the Romans started there empire and took over most of the territory and had there time.

Leonardo Da Vinchi by Kayley Rolph



This is a picture of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinchi.

   

              I’ve been seeing lots of Renaissance art on the chapels, churches and museums we have been visiting over the last few days in Rome, Italy. I find the Renaissance paintings  really colorful but melancholy.  Leonardo Da Vinchi was a Renaissance artist and he was a good one too!  He is really famous even now. We saw a copy of Da Vinchi’s the Last Supper in a tapestry in the Vatican museum in Rome.  I saw the Mona Lisa and the Vitruvian Man on the internet and I’d like to see the real paintings and drawings of the two works of art in the future.    



I'm in front of a gory Renaissance battle scene.

 Leonardo Da Vinchi was born on the 15th of April 1452 in Vinci Italy (near Florence Italy). Da Vinchi died May 2^nd, 1519  in Amboise, France, he was 67 years old .  My question is, "How did Da Vinchi  die?" but the answer is unknown, at least on the internet. Some say that his death was caused by natural causes, but I think it might have been something to do with his profession, painting and sculpting.  I think he might have died from his work because Michelangelo got blinded from the paint he used.  He was working with paint that dripped into his eyes when he was painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in Rome. Da Vinchi might have fallen off the scaffolding when he was painting or eaten some paint like Van Gogh.  



We're inside of the dome after a long climb up Saint Peter's Basilica.

            Leonardo Da Vinchi was educated in the Florentine painter ,Verrocchio’s, studio. He did his early work with Ludovico Il Moro in Milan. Da Vinchi later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. Da Vinchi  specialized in arts like painting, sculpting, music, and writing. Also he specialized in sciences like engineering, anatomy, geology, architecture, and  was  a cartographer. Da Vinchi painted Renaissance painting, Renaissance art is darkish religious paintings or sculptures that depict lots of wars, pain, and lots of naked men and children and, occasionally, naked woman. The woman in the painting are usually half naked, entirly naked with fabric that drapes over their shoulders, or mostly covered up.  The Renaissance art is usually painted on walls and ceilings. There were lots of mosaics on the ceilings and insides of domes like in saint Peter’s Basilica. There also were lots of statues and sculptures too, but not as much as the paintings and mosaics.

            Leonardo Da Vinchi’s greatest works are the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and the Vitruvian Man. The Mona Lisa now resides in the Musee du Louvre in Paris, France. The Last Supper is now in Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.  I couldn’t find where the Vitruvian Man is now, but I think it might be in one of the museums in Italy.  

There's a happy example of Reniassance art. 

My favorite of Leonardo’s paintings is either the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper. The Last Supper is one of my favorites, because it’s very colorful, but all the figures in the painting look really sad especially Jesus. I really like the Mona Lisa because the background changes color. The woman is really life like and her expression is weird.  Her mouth is half smiling, but her eyes are sad. I’d like to see Leonardo Da Vinchi’s master pieces some day. Leonardo's life was probably an inspired life full with  art and science(my two favorite subjects). Leonardo's life was longish and filled with painting for needy popes and studying science.

I’m sure Leonardo died a peaceful death in France and his name still remembered and probably will live on because of his work.

BY KAYLEY S. ROLPH

There were some rocks in the mosaics that had some cool colors in them.

The Vatican by Mia

The piazza in front of the Basilica

On the tenth-eleventh (it to us two days to get through) we went to the Vatican, which was absolutely incredible. There is just so many amazing things there that you have to take your time and let it all sink in! There are detailed scenes fresco-ed everywhere, every single ceiling is unique and excessively gilded and decorated, and everything is really big and grand. A bit rich for people who have taken a vow of poverty. Of course, it all belongs to the church, but the Pope just gets to use it! Anyway, its all very nice to look at if you don't think about where all that money comes from (everyone else's pockets).

'The Nile'

The first place we went to see was the Vatican museum. It is one of the largest in the world and it is full of lots of really nice stuff. It's also famous and popular for exactly those reasons, so there were thousands of people there even though it's the off season! There was a line that went all the way down the block! We waited in line for a while saying no to all the people who were selling tours, before finally coming in sight of the museum and squeezing through the spinny glass doors. The crowds did not get better from there, they got worse. We were in a big room that was comparable to security at an airport only more crowded and less efficient (I know, it was bad!). When we finally got through that giant crowd at the entrance, we went into another one on a really long escalator before the walkway forked a bit and it started to clear up. It was still pretty crowded though and we were swept through a tapastry gallery and a sculpture gallery before we were able to walk properly. Each new gallery we went through had a different decorative ceiling, though they were all very golden. We saw maps, paintings and books before going through Rafael's rooms which are a series of rooms painted entirely by Rafael. They are covered in frescoes and they are really nice, albeit overwhelming. My neck got really tired from staring up at the ceilings, which were really pretty.

The museum

Then we went through a contemporary art gallery to the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is the Pope's private chapel and it was painted entirely by Michelangelo. It is a really big room, and it must have taken ages. There are really famous paintings in there though, and the room was packed. We scored some seats by the wall and just sat there looking at the walls and ceiling. We sat there for a while and then went over to the cafeteria for some food. We got some really good pizza for lunch, the peices were about twice the size of normal ones! Mine had, like, a Cesear salad on top of it! Sooooo good! After lunch we went outside and then saw a few hallways full of statues including one that is supposed to be the Nile. Its a big naked guy covered in little naked babies with grapes and fruit and stuff. Weird. After that we were all feeling quite done, but there was more! We went though a few galleries of really good paintings, some quite gruesome, some pretty happy, and all were religious. There was one of a guy having his intestine pulled out while he was still alive!!! Gross! After all that we were extra done.

One of Rafael's Rooms

We got the heck out of there and went to the piazza in front of St Peter's Basilica to eat a snack. We really meant to do the entire Vatican in one day, but that oviously was not going to happen. There was still the huge Basilica to do and we probably couldn't walk, let along brave the line that stretched half way around the square and then look at more beautiful frescoes and gold leaf. So we just sat in the middle of the square shooing away pigeons and eating our snack and some much needed emergency chocolate. It was a really nice square, with a big portico going around it and the Basilica right there. It wasn't exactly empty either! I really wonder how they fit all the people who come here when it actually tourist season. It must be horrible...

Museum

After lunch number two we walked back to the apartment, not even stopping for gelato. It was the first day without gelato we have had so far in Italy! We just dragged home and promptly fell on to the couch and spent the rest of the day being lazy. Thank gosh! I don't know what mommy was thinking when she planned the entire Vatican for one day!

The next day we finished the Vatican. We waited in the insanely long line and got inside. My first though when we got right underneath it was, whoa it's big! My thought when we got inside the actual basilica is lost in translation. It was huge, and intirely too much to take in! Insane amounts of gold leaf, lots of frescoes, lots of pretty granite and lots of statues. It was incredible! Behind a glass window to the right of the door was Michelangelo's famous sculpture, Pietra. We had seen a fake plaster model in the museum, but the one there was definitly not fake. The sheer size and outright boasting of richness of it was capable of ruining it for you, but I don't think about that stuff. Anything that can make a person's jaw drop as the walk in the door is amazing, no matter who's money was used to build it.

St. Peter's Basilica. One of the little domes.

After walking around and gaping at the interior we walked up the several hundred stairs to the top of the cupola, stopping at the base of the dome. From up there you can get a feel for the size of it, seeing the people below you looking like little ants. Then we walked up an increasingly tight staircase the went up to the roof and then started to wind up the dome. It was inside the dome, so it was curved like the dome, which was really cool, but sorta tight. After the bent staircase there was a small spiral one and then another, smaller spiral one before getting up to the very tippy top of the Basilica. We could see the entire city from up there! We spotted our apartment and the Pantheon to name a few. After walking all the way around the cupola, we headed down and stopped for a snack on the roof behind the statues of Jesus and some saints. Then we walked all the way down, gaped at the inside of the basilica some more, and then headed over to the next place.

Michelangelo's Pietra in the Basilica

The last thing we needed to see was St Angelo's Castle. It was slightly boring compared to what we had just seen, and we all just wanted to get it over with. We were all super tired from climbing the basilica. The coolest part was some past pope's rooms, complete with his bed and dresser. Like most of the rooms that are for the pope, they were all covered in frescoes. When we got out of there we went back to the apartment stopping at a really nice park in front of some government building and, or course getting some gelato.

Friday the 9th by Mia

Ruins in the Ghetto

Yesterday we ate horrifying amounts of nutella crepes for breakfast and then hopped on the metro to the area we were going to explore. The metro ride was painful and claustrophobic because we had to transfer at Termini which is the hub for absolutely all public transportation in Rome. Worse, the train we had to catch only came every 5 minutes instead of like 2 minutes so there was a huge build up of people on the platform and another huge buildup of people on the train. Zander kept complaining about feeling claustrophobic and faint. When we finally got off we headed to the Circo Massimo for some lunch because it was already around 1 pm. It had taken a while to get out of the house.

Big memorial museum thing

The Circo Massimo is just a big bit of grass with a track in it. It used to be a huge stadium for chariot racing that seated about 150,000 people. It had stone stands around an oval track with a stone platform in the middle that had statues and altars and other decoration on it. It must have been really nice, and it was the model  for all the other stadiums around, but it eventually fell into disuse. After people stopped using it everyone raided it for stone to build houses and things. That's why all that is left is a big grass field that is shaped like a stadium. The track part is low down, and the stands were on the sides of the depression. The part in the middle is raised for the platform and to keep people from cutting corners. It wasn't that amazing to look at, but it's size was impressive and it was nice to sit on grass to eat lunch.

Soccer ball fishing

After lunch we walked across a little bridge to the Tiber to Isola Tiberina, a tiny island in the middle of the Tiber. In the little bit of river we walked across there were a bunch of man made waterfall things, and at the bottom of each one was about 15 soccer balls. Daddy tried to fish one out with a stick, but he couldn't get it. Then we went to the Church of St. Bartholomeo, but it was closed so we just had a snack in the square in front of it and then got some of the most amazing gelato ever! It was the cheapest we had had so far, and you clould see them making it in the back. The berry flavor had berries in it and the nutella flavor was full of nuttella! So exciting! After that we walked back across the river to some ruins next to a synaguogue  in the Ghetto. There were armed guards surrounding it and I think you had to get expensive guided tours to get in so we just looked at the outside. Then we walked some more and ended up at Piazza Venezia.

Circo Massimo

The Piazza Venezia is a pretty much just a patch of grass that is surrounded by traffic. What makes it special is all the really cool buildings around it. Up some steps is a little square with some nice statues and fountains and the Musei Capitale. We sat up there for a little while and at another snack (we eat a lot when we walk around). Then we went to the most in your face thing on the square, which is a museum/ memorial/ monument that is absoluely gigantic and grand. Its big and white with Greek architecture and two huge statues of Nike on the roof and another on a column up front. Its so nice, that there are guards that wander around shooing people who want to sit and soak it all in off the stairs so others are able to actually walk down. It also has a nice terrace with an even nicer view of Rome's roof tops that is sprinkled with ornate blueish domes. When we were done looking around daddy decided to settle down in the middle of the staircase and was promptly set right by the guard. We ate our third snack at a nearby park instead.

St Bartolomeo square

After our snack, we found a metro station and went back to the apartment. That was really rough because it was 5 pm, the middle of rush hour. We did a bit of shopping on the way home and got a huge bag of produce that is, of course, nearly gone now. For the rest of the day we hung out at home and made some yummy dinner of tortellinis and cheese. (That's what happens when daddy has any part in meal making-- everything gets covered in cheese, onions, and garlic which he usually has me cut up.) We polished that off easily, which is scary considering the amount food we had already eaten during the day (giant breakfast, big lunch, and three snacks). I guess we needed to keep up our energy-- the Vatican was the next day!

a Day Looking at Famous Squares by Kayley Rolph

That's daddy and me in front of the obelisk at Piazza del Popolo. 

         Yesterday was an interesting day mainly because Zander had to buy his first condom and we saw some really cool sculptures and fountains. We went to Trevi Fountain, Piazza del Popolo, Piazza di Spanga.  Zander had to buy his first condom for health and family living class Daddy is teaching us Zander was NOT happy about having to buy a condom.

Sarah and I by the obelisk.

    All the squares we saw had some things in common. They all had fountains and statues and some times churches. The first square we saw had an Egyptian obelisk in the middle of the square this square is called Piazza del Popolo. On either side of the square were stone scenes of gods.  One was of Poseidon that was above a fountain and another of Athena. We went to another fountain that was really cool because there was a sculpture of Poseidon and water was running down the statue. This fountain is called Trevi Fountain. We all were sitting down on a stone bench people watching when a couple next to us got engaged. It was funny to watch the couple get there picture taken in front of the fountain by this funny little guy with a huge,weird looking camera. I really liked the fountain and squares because they were nice and reallaxing and there was allways some thing or some one to look at.
   

I'm in the room were Keats died.

     Next to the piazza di Spanga (Spanga= Spain, Piazza= square) Mia, Mommy and I saw the Keats and Shelley's Memory House.The Memory House was a museum with bookshelves that covered the walls and touched the ceilings. These bookshelves were full of old poetry books written by famous poets. I learned that Keats died of tuberculous like the rest of his family. Keats died when he was 25 after being sick for a long time. I don't remember how Shelly died but his friends found him very decayed on the beach and burried him in a shallow grave on the beach only to be founed again some time later.all this information was writen on plastic placks next to paintings, letters and open books all in rickety show cases. th emeuseum was really realaxing because ther were famouse books on a long table for people to read and sit in wooden chairs that lined th room. 

Zander after he bought his first condom.

    Also, Daddy made Zander buy a condom for health and family living class. Zander really didn't want to buy a condom, because he thought it was going to be really embarrassing. I thought the whole thing was hillarious. But,Zander got really grumpy and tried to negotiate with daddy so he wouldn't have to buy the condom. But daddy finally threatened to make him do dishes for the rest of his time with us and not buy him gelato. So Zander, determined not to buy the condom said there were no condoms in every pharmacy that we went into. Daddy kept taking us all to more pharmacies and not buying the rest of us gelato. So finally, Daddy said that if Zander didn't buy it in the next pharmacy, he'd make him do the dishes and make him pay for the condom if Daddy found one when he went in. Finally, Zander bought the condom and he wouldn't let Mommy take a picture of him, but Mommy got one anyway. The whole thing I think was really good for Zander and was really funny for us.

      
   Yesterday was a very funny, realaxing, and eventful day. It made us all tired and Zander turned into more of a man. I really liked the meuseums, fountains, and squares we visited. The fountains and squares had some really cool sculptures. The meuseum made me feel like I was walking in a huge library with tons of good stories just waiting to be read. Yesterday was a really realaxing and funny day and I hope we have another on soon.


By Kayley Sienna Rolph    

Mia and I in front of Trevi Fountain.