Day and Night

Today I finished up my project for my history class… that means my time here is rapidly coming to a close. Its hard to believe how fast it is all going by. In 12 days I leave for Switzerland, and in 16 I will be landing in JFK. CRAZY! Anyhow, I wanted to share an area that has become pretty dear to me during the course of the last few weeks. This project I mentioned was on an urban space in Rome (I will spare you the boring details), and it involved multiple site visits to Piazza Farnese (Palazzo Farnese was the topic I chose).

Have you ever noticed how the character of a place can change completely when it changes from day to night? Its amazing to me how during the day, the piazza looked like this:

And at night it switches to this:

The energy is completely different.

Since I was in the neighborhood anyways for the Farnese project, I thought I would also check out Campo de Fiori. Its one of my FAVORITE markets in Rome. They have everything. Including sweet potatoes. Can you believe it’s the only place in Rome I could find those? During the day the market sells everything from flowers (Fiori) to souvenirs, to produce, to gourmet foods.

And at night all of the vendors clear out and the restaurants around the piazza are FULL of people.

Just “down the street” (and by that I mean down several winding streets that only make up a short walk) is Piazza Navona, Home of the Pamphili Palazzi and Bernini’s Four Rivers Fountain. I can’t decide what lighting I like better…

Also in the neighborhood is the Pantheon. Its such an impressive sight no matter when you see it. Its hard to believe that it has been standing since the second century AD. Maybe its just in my own head, but to me it seem so much more ancient and mysterious when it is all lit up at night.

London Calling!

Hope you had an excellent Thanksgiving! I personally love Thanksgiving, it is one of my favorite holidays. Nothing beats having my family come over to our house and sharing the day with us... but since this year, that wasn’t an option, I guess London was a pretty good alternative J

It was so wonderful going there this time of year! Everything is all decked out for Christmas

We even found a Christmas carnival

Because the airline messed up our flight reservations, we only really had a day and a half in London, so we CRAMMED everything into our trip.

Kensington Gardens

Harrod's

Holy Trinity Church

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

London Eye

Don't let the name fool you. It was my Thanksgiving Sandwich: Turkey and Cranberry Sauce on Cranberry Wheat Bread. 

Millenium Bridge

London Bridge

Thank God for Starbucks… their free wifi and a place to sit was our savior. I don’t think I have ever gone to Starbucks so frequently in my life… literally. We went there 5 times in the course of 2 days.

I absolutely loved London, and got to see a ton of things, but I kind of feel like the trip was missing something. There was not a whole lot of time to wander around and explore. We mostly sprinted from site to site when google maps was NOT leading us in the completely wrong direction. Guess I’ll have to call London back some other time…