Our short day in Venice

We started out our day on 6/11 by being bused from Florence to Venice, which was quite a long drive from what I remember. After we got to a dock on the mainland/industrial part of Venice we all got on a boat to take us to the town center. The boat let us off a few blocks from Piazza San Marco, so we had to walk along the sea for a little while before we got to the main square. Along the way our guide, Isabella, pointed out a tower in the background that was leaning and she called it the leaning tower of Venice. Once we arrived in the square we had some time to get some money and grab a quick lunch before our tour of the palace and church in Piazza San Marco.

We met back at the entrance of the palace in Piazza San Marco around 2 pm for the tour inside and the church attached to the palace. I had been to Venice previously when I went in high school, however we never attached went inside this palace or church so it was a first for me. The palace was interesting to see the court rooms, golden hallways and to learn about the Venetian Empire. After this tour we had a couple hours to roam around Venice and shop before we had to head back on the water taxi. Our first stop was a glass company in the center of Venice which we got a short demonstration of glass blowing and later got to see all the products you can buy. Along the way we went to the Rialto for a quick photo-op over the Grand Canal. As soon as we got there we pretty much had to turn around and head back to Piazza San Marco to catch our boat back to the dock where our bus left us earlier.

When we arrived at the dock we were expecting to hop right on our bus and head to Verona, however our driver had left and was late in returning to pick us up so we had to stand there for about 15 minutes before he came back. Once he arrived we drove to Verona and got dropped off at our hotel to check in. We had dinner at the hotel and for once we stayed in that night and caught up on some sleep.

Where we got dropped off on the boat

Gondolas in a small canal


The courtyard inside the Palace in Piazza San Marco

Our glass making demonstration

Just a small amount of the glass products you could purchase


View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto

Florence Day 2

6/10 started out like all days, meeting in the hotel lobby to head out on our scheduled tours/sight-seeing. The first stop of our day was an antique pharmacy museum near the center of Florence which was the pharmacy for Santa Maria Novella. As soon as we walked in the first thing that hit us were the many fragrances. The first room had many perfumes and it was extremely strong once you were in the room, so much so that my head started to hurt after being in there for a couple minutes. It was funny because one of the Professors we were with said, these smells are suppose to be becoming to men, right now they make my head hurt and want to leave. I definitely agreed with that. After we moved from that room we saw some old pharmacy tools of the trade and some frescoes that had been painted in the building. After the tour of the pharmacy museum we actually had the rest of the day to ourselves.

We decided to climb the cupola of the Duomo to get a view of Florence. The views were pretty amazing and I don't know if this is true or not, but I felt like this dome was higher than the St. Peters dome and I didn't like walking on the narrow pathways completely open around the dome inside the basilica. After our climb up and the view we climbed down and got some lunch before basically shopping the rest of the day. We shopped until like 6 or 7 and I bought some gifts for the family and myself. Along the way we stopped on the Ponte Vecchio, the bridge with all the jelwery shops.

After a day of shopping and seeing Florence our bus took us out into the countryside of Florence for a dinner at a place that made its own wine and olive oil. The dinner was really good and there was live music throughout the night. After dinner we went out back to the place along the river, however near this place was a small sandy area with some Tiki hut things that we hung out in and drank some wine. Although we didn't have a lot planned for the day we still had a fun day.

Some of the Pharmacy antiques

A wall of Frescoes in the museum

View from the top of il Duomo

Another view from the top of il Duomo


Ponte Vecchio

Firenze: Florence

On 6/9 we started our morning by loading all of our luggage onto our bus for our ride over to Florence. We were told to be on time because we had reservations at the Galleria dell' Accademia, the museum where David is located. So we took off on the bus and we were making decent time when we ran into a traffic jam. The traffic didn't move for the longest time due to a multiple car accident. While we were on the bus our tour guide was frantically calling to try and change our time of our reservation so that we could still get in. We missed our original time, but were still able to get in an hour later than what our ticket said. Before we entered again we got radios with headphones for another tour of the museum and a little bit around Florence. While in the museum we saw David and some of the unfinished sculptures of Michelangelo, but that is all we looked at before moving on. We stopped at il Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio and Santa Croce along the way, but never went into the two churches I just named. After our tour we went out to have some lunch before meeting back up to go to another hospital.

Our next destination was Careggi hospital where we got another quick tour of the place and got a lecture, which was quite long, of the healthcare at the hospital. After the hospital visit we were finally able to go to our hotel to drop our bags off and get settled in to our new rooms. After resting for a bit we headed out to dinner and then I think for the first time everyone went out that night. We walked around Florence at night for a bit before asking were to go for some good nightlife from some people and they pointed us to the direction of the Arno River and probably a 30 minute walk to find where a lot of locals hand out. The place was just to little buildings that served drinks along the river which was pretty cool. We hung out there for a bit before we couldn't handle getting eaten alive by the bugs anymore, plus we were all kinda tired from our day. So we headed back to the hotel after that.

Golden doors of the Baptistry near il Duomo


il Duomo


Some of the sculptures in Palazzo Vecchio, I believe they are all copies
More sculptures in the Palazzo and the copy of David on the left.


Streets of Florence

Santa Croce

Ponte Vecchio at night

Perugia Day 2

Our second day in Perugia, on 6/8, we started our day off by meeting up with a girl from England that was a student at the University of Perugia who was to show us around a little bit before meeting up with Dean Rossi, the Dean of the Pharmacy School at the University. On our little tour she told us about the University of Perugia and also told us about the University for Foreigners where you can take classes to learn Italian. Along the way we walked over the aqueduct in the city and then into a building of the University which had walls covered in excavated Etruscan carvings.

After our quick tour we meet up with Dean Rossi and he brought us into a lecture room there in the Pharmacy School where he and a couple professors presented some information about the Italian pharmacy school requirements and what the University offers as well as giving us some information about pharmacy in Italian healthcare. After the presentations some of us asked questions to the professors and dean that we had. When our time was up there they presented each of us with a bag with some keepsakes in them. From there our professors went up with the Dean to finalize and sign a pharmacy rotation Duquesne students could do at the University of Perugia and vice versa, while us the students went around with Stefano another professor and a friend of Paolo and he showed us some of the labs and talked to us about the school and exams and such.

From here we were treated to a lunch from the Dean at a restaurant near the school which was very good. After lunch we were taken to a local pharmacy where the pharmacist showed us around and presented some information to us about his pharmacy. There we were again treated to some food and gather more information. One thing we found pretty shocking was that pharmacies in Italy do not put any type of labels on the drugs they give out to patients. That means no patient name, no directions, nothing, they just hand them the box of drugs they were prescribed.

At this point of the day it's pretty late and we are ending this part of our day extremely behind schedule. We went back to the hotel for a bit, but then were bused to Dean Rossi's house for a dinner provided by him. Well little did we know we were going to a mansion in the hills of Perugia that had an amazing view and an even more impressive spread with 3 waiters. I think we were all in awe when we saw it and didn't feel worthy to be a part of this party he had. There was a famous artist from Canada I believe was where she was from and all the professors were there and then us the Duquesne students. But the night was amazing and really good food as well. After dinner we went back to the hotel and some of us ventured out again with Paolo for our last night in Perugia.

I don't have many pictures from this day due to the fact we were basically doing school work the whole day, but I have a couple pictures of the view from Dean Rossi's house.

Some of the buildings of the University of Perugia

The view from Dean Rossi's backyard

Our dinner spread

More of what we enjoyed that night

Day Trip to Assisi

On 6/7 our group took a day trip to a small town outside of Perugia on a small mountain called Assisi. We all boarded the bus and took the short drive to Assisi. On the way our bus driver stopped and let us take some pictures of Assisi when we were at the base of the small mountain. After a quick photo-op and the drive up the hill we were dropped off near the lower part of town and had to walk up a couple streets to get to the church we were going to attend that morning. We got there a little bit early and had some time to walk around, but eventually we all headed into the church for mass in Italian. The church we went to was called San Francesco d'Assisi and was completely painted in frescos. The mass was nice, though I didn't understand it, but was able to basically follow along. When mass ended we were going to head out to grab some lunch before our guided tour, however it started to downpour extremely hard and we were trapped in the church. It started to let up a bit so we figured we could walk briskly to the nearest restaurant before getting soaked, but as soon as we stepped foot outside it came down harder and we were soaked. After a wet lunch it stopped raining and we all met up for a tour of the city.

We went on the tour and many of us wanted to stop at the many terrances overlooking the city and go in stores along the way and not go on the tour. So we would sort of just stop whenever we wanted and go into places as we pleased, to the dismay of the guide. I loved the cty, it was small perched up on a hill with narrow streets and picturesque views, but our time there was limited.

We headed back to Perugia that evening for dinner in our hotel again. After dinner we headed back out to the town center with Paolo to play cards and drink wine. Paolo showed us a cool little place where if you whispered in one corner you could hear it perfectly on the other side. He also showed us a tower that did the opposite of what you would expect when you got closer and further away. Normally as you get closer to a building it would get bigger and the further you got the smaller, but this tower did the complete opposite and was pretty neat to see. After another packed day we called it a night.

Our first view of Assisi from the road


San Francesco d'Assisi

The view from one of the roads

A street in Assisi

A neighborhood

Heading to Perugia

On our sixth day of the trip we were to leave Rome and head to Perugia. However, our first stop was at a hospital on the outskirts of Rome. This was our first visit to a hospital in Italy and our first school related event. We toured the hospital and learned some things about pharmacy in Italy that was pretty outrageous, at least to us and what we are use to in the States. For example, pharmacists in Italy have no patient records, nor do they keep any themselves, and they basically just fill what the doctor says and if there is an interaction between medications the pharmacist would have no idea.

After our first hospital visit we headed out to Perugia on our little tour bus to our nicest hotel during our stay in Italy. We dumped our luggage in the hotel and got changed for a quick tour around the city. We followed our tour guide Isabella around the city as she pointed out some Etruscan artifacts along the way, but nothing really stands out in my mind because most of it was just 0ld bricks or an arch here and there. But this ancient civilization was very crucial to the Roman civilization. What I found most interesting was that we had to take like 4 escalators that ended in an old castle basement in order to get to the center of town from our hotel. After our quick tour we were given some free time before dinner to shop around the main street. I stopped in Perugina, along with mostly everyone else, to buy some chocolate. Along the way our ran into a Professor from the University of Perugia,Paolo, who said he could meet up with us after dinner to show us around Perugia.

After shopping for about a half hour we headed back to the hotel for some dinner. After dinner we went up to the lobby to find Paolo waiting for us to take us out in the city. Little did we know that that night would be probably one of the longest, but funnest nights on the trip. Paolo took us to a bar and told us no one is out yet and that we can hang out here until midnight and then head out to the town center. At midnight he took us up to the town center and there were people all over the place. From here he took us to some cool terrances to look over the city and proceeded to take us to two more bars. By this time it was close to 3 in the morning and we headed back to the town center where it was more crowded than it was at midnight, we could hardly move to get through the street. We stopped to grab some kebabs on the way back to silence our hunger and they were extremely good and whenever we were hungry at night again we always wanted kebabs but could never find any places to get them after we left Perugia. I believe we called it a night closer to 4 in the morning and the next day we had to get up to travel to Assissi. Below are some pictures:

The basement of the castle after the escalators

The main street in Perugia (town center)


Side street in Perugia

Etruscan arch

Streets of Perugia at 3 am.

Rome Day 4

On our 5th day on the trip and our 4th day in Rome we started our a little later than normal, but eventually headed out on the Metro and went to Circus Maximus. Here is where the chariot races where held and above the racing area you could see Palantine Hill and the ruins that were on top of the hill. We continued to walk along the road that was parallel to Circus Maximus and headed over to S. Maria in Cosmedin where we took pictures with the Mouth of Truth and looked around the church for a bit. From here we headed over the Capital Hill where we took a couple group pictures in front of the main building and saw Michelangelo's bronze sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, however the one there today is a copy and not the original.

After a short break form walking up to the Capital Hill we made our way down some stairs to see the Roman Forum. However, to my dissapointment we actually did not walk through the Forum, but rather just along the outside of it to take a few pictures here and there. As we walked by the Forum we found a building where St. Peter and Paul were imprisoned, which the professor's nor I knew was there until we happened upon it and they translated what was written on the building. From here we continued to walk by the Forum and to the Colosseum where the rest of the group wanted a picture with the guys posing as gladitors, which Josh, Ashley, and I wanted no part of. From here the adults went off and left us to go into the Colosseum ourselves and explore the area around it before lunch. We walked around the Colosseum for probably a half hour before people wanted to leave, which I wasn't too happy about but I have been inside before and wasn't being cheated out of the experience.

For lunch we headed over to where the adults were eating at a place called The Gladiator. We ate some pizzas and our Dean started singing a song, which I caught on video. From there we hopped back on the metro and headed back to the Trevi Fountain during the daytime and we had more free time to shop around the area. Josh and I headed back early after shopping with the girls for more than 4 hours to rest before dinner.

After another amazing dinner, the group decided we wanted to head over to Campo de Fiori for the night, but this never happened. Instead we bought a couple bottles of wine from the restaurant and headed over to Piazza Navona. Here we saw a man singing opera, another playing electric guitar that was really good and another doing spray paint art which was amazing to watch him do. In the piazza we sat, drank wine and played cards for a bit before we went to a bar. Here are some pictures from that day:

Circus Maximus and the Palatine Hill in the background


Us at the Mouth of Truth

Michelangelo's Marcus Aurelius (copy)

Roman Forum

Inside the Colosseum


Trevi Fountain

Rome day 3

Our third day in Rome we started out our day by meeting up with a guide outside the Vatican for a tour inside the museums. I have been inside the Vatican twice and I was thinking I would not gain much more from this visit then I already had. However, our guide was extremely passionate about the art that he showed us and I actually took away from that visit more then I had known from my previous visits combined. While in the Vatican we saw the Geography hall and various other halls on the way to the Sistine Chapel, as well as the Raphael paintings and a modern Christianity art section before entering the Chapel. After walking through the Sistine Chapel the guide gave us a tour of St. Peter's. The tour we were on lasted the whole morning and part of the afternoon and everyone was pretty hungry and tired of walking around. So once we were done with the tour we took a break for lunch and then met up again to climb to the top of St. Peters.

We all met up again to climb the cupola, or the top of the dome for a view of the city. We opted for a ticket where we would take and elevator up 200 stairs and then still have to climb about 350 stairs on our own. After having the adventure of climbing up to the top and squeezing through tight stairways we got a beautiful view of the city and square. After staying at the top for awhile we climbed back down and waited for the professors to meet up with us. To make a long story short we mixed up where to meet and we ended up waiting for almost an hour before meeting up to continue our day.

After we finally met up we continued our walk to Campo de Fiori and then visited the Pantheon before heading back to the hotel for a bit before dinner. After dinner the students headed off to explore some of the city on our own, however it didn't work out exactly the way we wanted. We tried to visit some of the park that is in Rome, but we went the wrong way and by the time we figured out the right way to go locals told us we shouldn't be heading there at night. So with this information we decided not to visit the park and just go to Piazza de Popolo. We hung out at the Piazza for awhile before heading back for the night.


School of Athens by Raphael

Pieta by Michelangelo in St. Peter's

View from the cupola of St. Peter's

The Pantheon

Rome Day 2

Our second day in Rome we all started the day off by visiting St. Peter's Square to go to the papal audience. We arrived at the square a little bit early for the event, however the square filled up pretty quickly. During the audience some of us stayed til the end to see if we could get closer and get a better picture of the pope as he left, however he never left they way we expected he would. From here we had a little bit of free time and stopped in a market in the city and saw some of the home grown produce. After wandering around a bit, we all met up again to visit more sights in the city.

Our next stop made us take the metro down a couple stops to end up at San Giovanni Laterano and the Holy Stairs. We entered the church and looked around for a bit and then headed over to the holy stairs and just as we approached they just opened the building where the stairs were. A couple of the students climbed the stairs on their knees, while the others sat in the sun and waited. Next on the list was Santa Maria Maggiore, and also a stop at San Pietro in Vincoli, or St. Peter in chains. Here the later church had a monument for Moses and also in a glass case chains claimed to be woren by St. Peter when he was crucified upside down. On the way back to the hotel the Coloseum was along the route, so we stopped by for a couple minutes to get a photo opt in front of the Colosseo. However, we didn't stay long because we were to come back there on another day and we had one more stop on our list, the Cappuchian Monk Bones. This little place is where they take the bones of dead monks and create patterns/art with them. For example, they had made lights hanging from the ceiling from various bones from their bodies. This was our last stop on our tour before dinner and the group headed back to the hotel.

Me and Josh stopped back at an AS Roma store we had passed on the way to one of the churches before heading back to the hotel to meet up for dinner. Here Josh bought a Roma jersey and I just looked around because I have bought enough jersey's from my previous two visits. After dinner at another restuarant near our hotel we headed out to the Spanish Steps and Fontana di Trevi at night. We climbed the steps as a group and later all threw coins over our shoulders at the Trevi Fountain. After this, it pretty muched rapped our day, here are some pictures from that day.


The Pope at the Papal Audience

San Giovanni Laterano


The chains in St. Pietro in Vincoli


The Coloseum

The Spanish Steps at night


Trevi Fountain

Italy Trip: Rome

So the trip started off in the airport where I met up with everyone and the first thing that was handed to me was a book. Angela hands it to me and says that Dr. Iannarelli, a professor at Bernelli University expects us to have it read by the time we get to Garda. So right then and there I'm thinking we are going to be doing a lot more work then I was hoping this trip. However, we hardly did much until we got to Garda. So on the plane I tried to read some of the book, but found it to be more helpful at putting me to sleep then informative. After we landed in Rome we collected our bags and met up with our tour guide Isabella and she took us to a bus to transport us to our hotel. Isabella told us we wouldn't see her after this commute until we were to go to the hospital in Rome our last day there. Once we got to our hotel and got settled in and went out and had lunch on our own we started touring Rome with Dr. Gianetti.

Our first stop was St. Peter's Square, since we were only a few blocks from its location. We looked around the square and took our first group photo of the trip and then headed toward Castel Sant' Angelo where we went inside to see the view from the top. However, we encoutered a small problem when the man working the ticket booth did not like how we didn't have exact change and yelled at us and the rest of the line to have correct change or he wouldn't give us a ticket. After we all got through that we toured some of the museums inside and climbed to the top to get a view of Rome. After the castle we walked across the Tiber river and to Piazza Navona to see the life there and the Four Rivers Fountain, Fountain of Neptune, and Fountain of the Moor. We also went inside the church in the Piazza called Sant' Agnese in Agone. While in the area we came across the Pittsburgh bar, well that's what we called it, La Boticella and talked to the bar owner for a couple minutes and told him we would be back that night.

After our quick tour of some of the sites we had dinner in the city which was amazing. We had four courses and I cleaned all of my plates except one, but that was the last time I didn't finish every plate. From dinner we went back to St. Peter's Square and Piazza Navona at night to get a different perspective. After this we broke off from the adults and went back to the Pittsburgh bar. We talked to the bar owner and stayed for awhile before heading back to the hotel. Below are some pictures from our first day.


St. Peter's Square

the group in St. Peter's Square

Castel Sant' Angelo


Four Rivers Fountain


Piazza Navona and the painters


Fountain of Neptune


Four Rivers Fountain at night