A Guide to ... Rome

Roma! The capital of Italy, and the city with the BEST ice cream, (or gelato) I have ever tasted. Yes, the very first shop you should visit is straight to the corner shop for a tasty treat. Well, apart from the gelato there is still plenty to see and do. I stayed in Rome for four nights and five days. They were jam packed but what else is there to do whilst you are on holiday... sleep? I think not.

Of course there are the normal sights to see that every tourist must see as well as the ice cream. In my opinion the very best sight to see is the Trevi Fountain. It is without a doubt the most perfect place in the entire world. Even when it is crowded with hundreds of people it is still very serene and quiet. If you follow the path from Termini Central, I will show you what you will find along your way to The Vatican. It is a perfect tourist route that wont make the walk feel too long. I did it in 40 degree heat so I know you can.

Your first stop along my route is The Trevi Fountain, but it is a hard spot to find. We found only one sign to it down a tiny back alley. Before I went to Rome I had seen the Trevi Fountain in many films and shows and had always assumed that it was a large fountain in a large square. This assumption meant I was looking out for a large open area. Be warned the Trevi Fountain is a very magnificent fountain in a very small back alley. When looking for it, make sure you go under the road, through the huge tunnel and then turn left.

After Fontana di Trevi you will come across the Pantheon. This is a huge basilica with a dome that baffles architects today. The structure stands very tall but the walls support the huge dome above easily, which should not happen. The dome should collapse because the walls are not big enough but it is still standing. If you go inside you will notice that the design in the dome has also been copied to one of the domes in the Vatican.

After the Pantheon is Piazza Navona. It is a large piazza with three large fountains. These fountains are gorgeous and I suggest visiting early in the morning so you can see the whole piazza in all its glory. After about 11am it gets very busy, mostly people selling art. If you start my trip at about 9.30am you should reach everything along my path without too many tourists there.

Next up is The Vatican. This place is huge! Seriously, much larger than I expected. To give you an idea, there are numbers and words written across the top of the Vatican and each one is 8 feet high. This is a theme in Rome, everything is ten times bigger than you think it will be. Especially standing right up next to it. I was not sure if I would like the Vatican because I am not sure what I really believe in and I know that the Catholics have a very checkered past as well as present. I went with two friends who both had a lot of opinions on the Vatican and Catholics but when we got there it was not too overly in your face about religion. It was mostly about art, the Romans and the Popes.

Thankfully, we were approached by someone that was selling tours to groups of English tourists. It was 40 euros each for The Vatican, The Sistine Chapel and the The Vatican Art Museum. I highly recommend this as it worth every penny. Other guided tours are not, I will mention which ones later. 25,000 people a day visit the Vatican so this gives you an idea of just how busy it is. There were queues everywhere. This alarmed us slightly as we really did not want to be out in the heat for hours. This was our first bonus to having the guided tour, no queues, at all. We were first given a history of the Vatican and the Popes, I found this really interesting but we had to listen though headphones that were annoying. You get to used to them and they are must so you can hear the guide when it is busy.

Once we were on our way we started with the art museum. I expected art that I had never heard of before but there were statues, art and tapestry's everywhere that I had definitely heard of and that all had interesting stories behind. Michelangelo is the most prominent name in the Vatican. This is because he painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and wall as well as doing many sculptures for the Pope. Apart from the Sistine Chapel the most interesting story is behind a sculpture called The Laocoon.

As soon as you enter the museum you will see a full sculpture of the Laocoon and notice the way in which the priests arm is. It is shot out, holding a disc of some kind. This is not the real sculpture. This is an imitation with the arm on. When the sculpture was originally found the arm was missing. The Pope asked Michelangelo to make a new sculpture with the arm in the correct position. Michelangelo felt he could not do the sculpture justice so asked all his assistants to draw a picture of how they thought the arm should be. There were hundreds of drawings. The drawing that averaged the most was with the arm shot out, almost saluting; so this is what was made. A few years later the rest of the arm was found. It turned out that the arm was bending backwards, behind Laocoon's head. The one and only artist to draw the correct sculpture was Michelangelo. He understood the human body, the muscles, the bones so well that he was the only one to study and draw the correct arm in the correct position.

These tours tell you as much as possible about the art on show, I do not study art and I enjoyed everything I was being told about. This may be too much for some people but you can always leave the tour at any point. As I said, I went in August and the whole of Rome was very busy, especially the Vatican. We were going round the museum about midday and it was almost intolerable. There were no windows open because of the nature and age of the art and there were easily about 600-700 people in each room. This made in unbearable at time but what kept me going was that at the end of all this was the Sistine Chapel. I have always been interested in the Chapel and the painting on the ceiling and of the Last Judgement. I have also seen many photos of it but nothing compares to the real thing. If you see only one thing in Rome, make sure it is the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo never classed himself as a painter, he was a sculptor. This meant that the painting was even harder for him. The next point that made it harder still was the fact that he was painting a fresco. This is when you paint with and on to plaster. It has to be wet when you are painting and if it goes dry before you finish you have to start again. The last painful point was the Michelangelo painted standing up tilting his head backwards to the ceiling. He never laid down on the scaffolding which people normally assume. His first part of the ceiling he did was Noah's Ark with PEOPLE going in to the Ark two-by-two not animals. This first panel took him one month to paint, the last panel took him one day. He took a six month break after 28 months work and finished the ceiling in four years. There were a lot of set backs and the work itself was not your typical fresco. He had to make the people he painted look 'normal' but on a vaulted curved ceiling. Not only did he paint the panels for the depicition of Genesis but he also painted prophets, shields and the pendentives to name a few.

You may think that after reading my blog you do not need to visit the museum or learn any of the art history but you really do have to see it all for yourself, in person and I have only touched on some of the history, barely even scratched the surface. This finishes your tour to the Vatican as we have reached the end. Do not re-trace your footsteps home because getting lost in Rome means you will discover something new and beautiful. There is literally something to be photographed down every street.

The Coliseum is a must see. You will be surprised constantly how close everything is to each other. It is a short walk away from our hotel and literally down a little side street. This is another place for you to expect queues. To give you an idea, the queue literally went three quarters around the outside of the coliseum; this is a large queue. We again had people approach us to give us a tour and because of the length of the queue we took them up on their offer of 30 euros. This was including student discount so if you have a student card take it with you because they do offer discounts in some places. After our amazing Vatican tour we thought that the Coliseum tour would be just as good if not better. We were severely disappointed. The ticket to get in to the Coliseum is only five euros, I advise get there early and queue. This is much better than paying more and being time constricted. The tour was for about 20 minutes in the Coliseum, we then had 20 minutes to explore before we had to meet the tour group outside. You probably do not need much more than 20 minutes to explore but I would say about 30/40 minutes would be good. As I have said the Coliseum is huge and it has such a deep and long history that you want as much time as you can have to explore it.

The tour continued across the road to The Roman Forum. This was included in the tour and we did start it but the heat was too much. Anyone that has done a module in Romans at school will all ready know pretty much everything they talk about during the tour. I would not recommend this but again there is a queue before you go in and our tour did skip the queue. It is a very pretty place but not worth the 35 euros and shortened time in the Coliseum.

Lastly, Pompeii. This day trip was 60 euros and completely worth it. You can get more expensive day trips that stop at Naples but from what I have heard about it, it is not normally worth it. We got to the coach station, which was very close to the Central Terminal for trains, and very close to our hotel, only about a ten minute walk. The coach trip is about three hours but it really felt a lot shorter. They have one stop half way though too. We had a tour guide on the bus who told us about Pompeii and meeting times etc. She did not carry on with us in Pompeii though.

Again, once in Pompeii we had, yet another queue. This one was not as long as the others but took longer time wise. We got half way through before we were offered another special trip. I think it was about 10 euros plus our entry ticket and we skipped the queue and had a tour guide for Pompeii. This is a tour I would definitely suggest. Pompeii is huge, much larger than just a couple of rocks in the ground. Our guide was really nice and although he walked fast he did make sure we were all OK and spoke to us in the shade. He also answered all of our questions and made sure people were out of the way for our pictures. Once we finished the tour we were able to look around by ourselves. There is a bookshop and a restaurant here too. Just outside are little stalls selling tourist souvenirs so these may be a cheap way of getting something from Pompeii.

If you can afford it and are in Rome for long enough I would really recommend going to Pompeii. We pre-booked so we knew we definitely had a trip and the payment was done; it did not take anything from our spending money.

I stayed in Hotel Ariston for four nights in the first week of August for £300. This was a nice, modern hotel in perfectly situated part of Rome. It was close to the trains, and had plenty of places to eat around it; cheap, middle of the road and for the more expensive taste. There were cheaper hotels but this was the cheapest four-star we could find. Definitely take a map too, they had some in our lobby which really came in handy. Have fun and remember to explore, do not stick to the main roads, you will find something beautiful.

A Guide To... Putting an image on to the Vision Mixer

As I said in my last blog, we had a problem with all of our green screens being deleted in some way. In this blog I will tell you how to put an image on to the SD card for the Vision Mixer and I also have the pctures of our backgrounds on here so you can take them from here whenever you need to. Lastly, we now have no backrground for WINOL Life so a new one will have to be made if you carry on with it next year. You may want to make a new background for everything so that they all link. These are not perfect, especially the WINOL bulletin background as that is only a captured image but it was OK for our last bulletin as we had no time to make anything else.

"So, my only idea for making sure that we had a background for the following day would be to look though all our tapes of WINOL to find a spot where there was no-one being filmed and just an empty room with our background. It took five tapes but I finally found a tiny spot, about three seconds long that had no-one and nothing in. I captured this, grabbed it, then saved it to the desktop.

To get the picture on to the SD card you have to open it in photoshop. You then have to change the image size to 720x576 pixels. You then need to save this as 24 bit.bit map or 24 BMP. Put in the SD card and move the background in to the file marked, 'images' and you're done. When it is put into the vision mixer it should download properly. My next blog will have the Sportsweek and WINOL backgrounds in for any future use, best to back everything up."

Hope that is OK. Here are the pictures of the backgrounds for WINOL and Sportsweek but please keep in mind you may not be able to drag them straight on to the SD card, you may have to go through the above process. Also there is no photoshop on the computers in Tab9 but there are in the MMC if you can nab a computer.

A Guide To ... Los Angeles

As there was no Law lecture this week I thought that I would indulge in a little travel writing. I love to travel and although i have all ready travelled quite a bit for someone of my age there are still many places I would still like to experience.

I have travelled most of England and a few places in Europe but by far my favourite holiday destinations are Los Angeles, New York and Egypt. I have all ready written a guide to Egypt and New York which you can find linked to their names.

Los Angeles, home of Hollywood, Venice Beach and The Dodgers. I stayed on Venice beach at a hostel owned by Britney Spears father, Jamie. It is called Cotel and was my first hostel I have ever stayed in. I am a girl that loves her creature comforts, good food, a bell boy to carry my suitcase to my room and a comfortable bed. I am not made of money but I do prefer to spend most of my money on my hotel. So... imagine my horror when I first arrived, three flights of stairs, an 18KG suitcase and no bell boy.

Cotel is right on the beach, you walk out of the front door and you are there. There is a huge atmosphere on the beach with people cycling, jogging, rollerblading and even people on Segways. One side of the street is lined with restaurants, hire stores, books stores and the normal beach shops with spades, buckets and bikinis. The other side is lined with little stalls with people from every background on. They sell henna, face painting, food, spices, paintings, anything you can imagine.

The homeless people even have style on Venice beach with sarcastic signs about what they will do with your money and how they deserve it too. This is one of the only bad points of Los Angeles, the line between rich and poor is very fine. At one end of Venice Beach is Santa Monica Pier which caters for the standard family with their amusements and the other end is Muscle beach where ripped men work out all day. However, in between these two ends of the beach it is lined with homeless people in doorways, slumped against lamps and sleeping on a cloth on the floor.

Whilst I was there I saw a phone commercial filmed for AT&T, on the street of our hostel. This was exciting and just what I wanted to see in LA. I also visited Universal and Paramount studios in which I saw a film being filmed. I am not sure what the film was but it was outside with a typical New York cab. These are must see places to visit in LA. You can not visit the land of the rich and famous without popping in to a studio for a tour. I am a huge fan of films and television shows and being on the set of some of them was amazing.

I visited the Farmers Market which I was told was where I would find many celebrities doing their shopping but this was not for me. It was smelly, cramped and very big. I made a de-tour from the smelly stalls of foreign food and came across a little place called, The Grove; and I loved it. I can only describe it as a mini disney land. The streets are lined with designer boutiques, music in the perfect flower beds and trams that you can hop on and off. I walked around here with my friends on an early evening and it really felt very surreal.

The Hollywood sign was a huge disappointment, we could not get very close to it and so only saw it on the streets of Hollywood and it was teeny tiny. i did feel a little warm nuzzle in my heart that I was seeing one of the worlds most famous landmarks but it was a disappointment. Be warned of this when visiting.

My highs of my holiday were: playing volleyball and cycling/rollerblading on Venice Beach, sitting in the audience of the Jay Leno Show and sitting on the couch in Central Perk, (FRIENDS).

I had the most amazing eight days in Los Angeles and I think the fact that I went with a huge group of friends really added to my enjoyment of my time there. We could literally hang loose and do whatever we wanted. The bus is only one dollar so we could go wherever we wanted too. The fact that I stayed in a hostel has actually made me see that I do not need to spend an absolute fortune on my room for the length of my stay. The hostel was clean, friendly and safe. I guess that is all the really matters and I do not need a four star hotel to make my holiday.

A Guide to... Setting up the Tricaster and the OB Kit

This is just something to refer back to as there are so many wires for each of them and it can get very confusing.

OB Kit:

For this you will need 1 x Black Cable

2x White Cable

1x Blue Cable

1x Audio box from the OB kit

1x Audio box

1x Orange extension lead

Talk Back, grey wire. In the front of the OB kit.

Microphone, in little black pouch.

1. "Audio Tie 1" links with the black cable to the microphone cable.

2. The left green wire from the cupboard links to one audio box. Then plug the headphones in to the same audio box.

3. The right green wire links with the blue cable and is plugged in to the second audio box. Plug the talk back in to this box too.

4. "Video to Studio" links with one of the white cables and goes in to the yellow hole on the camera.

5. "PGM Out" links with the other white cable and goes in to the TV box. You need to also plug this TV box in to the mains with the plug.

6. Make sure all the plugs are turned on around the cupboard. You may not always need the extension lead.

7. Turn the camera on and check the microphone and the talk back are working. You will now be fully connected with the studio.

Tricaster:

For this you will need 1x Tricaster

1x Tricaster screen

1x Internet cable

2x Plugs

1x Blue ended cable

1x Audio cable from the power tower in the gallery

1x Camera cable from the power tower in the gallery

1x Mouse linked to the tricaster through a USB lead.

1. Get all the wires out, the screen and the tricaster.

2. Plug in the tricaster and the screen with the power cables.

3. Link the screen and the tricaster together with the blue ended cable. One end goes in to the blue slot on the back of the screen and the other end goes on to the blue plug in slot at the bottom of the tricaster.

4. Plug in the Internet cable to the slot on the tricaster and to the wall in the studio.

5. From the Power tower get the camera cable and the two audio cables. Put the camera cable on to the "Y Composite" on the front of the tricaster and put the audio cable in to the top two slots on the front of the tricaster.

6. Turn the tricaster on at the back and the round button at the front of the tricaster.

7. No need to press ANYTHING else until it is fully loaded, and the gallery screen comes up.

To link the Tricaster to ustream to broadcast live or to record you need to go on to ustream.tv and login. You need to do this on another laptop. Do not do it on the tricaster and do not use the compter in the gallery because your recording from the tape deck will have the voices out of sync.

The login details are, username: WINCHESTERJOURNALISM

password: WINCHESTER1

All in capitals. Then click on the tricaster to record/stream. Click on ustream to stream and allow all options. Only click this just before you are ready to start recording or you will have a black screen for some times before your showing starts.

When saving this make sure you write something in every box as this is the only way it will save. You will then find it under, "my videos".

Good Luck.

A Guide To... Egypt

There are many guides, all over the Internet about what you should take, how you should act and horror stories about the food, people and illnesses. After spending two gloriously hot weeks in Egypt earlier this year I thought I would give a first hand account of what to look out for and take with you.

Before You Leave:

- Inoculations. If you are staying in Sharm El Sheik there is no need for malaria jabs as there is only one, tiny section in the middle of Egypt across the Nile that is a hot spot for malaria. Just make sure you take repellent spray and try to have it included in your sun lotion too. Everyone needs to have Hepatitis A and B and Typhoid. Most people that have already been abroad will only need a booster of Hepatitis A or B or not need them at all. There is no cure for Rabies so don't touch any animals whilst your out there.

-Hotels. I stayed in The Sierra Hotel which is an English 4/5 star Hotel. In Egypt there ratings are about 1 or 2 stars less than our rating. Which means that if a hotel is rated 3 stars in Egypt it is about a 1 star in an English equivalent. I definitely recommend going all inclusive as there aren't many places to buy food in Sharm, just make sure you go for a high star hotel.

Whilst You're Out There:

-Food. I was warned not to eat ice cream, don't have ice in my drinks, don't have fruit or salad that hasn't been washed etc but after three days I did all of those things and felt fine. No matter what you eat or drink in Egypt you will have a jippy stomach. Everyone will go through it and it should last more than a day. True you wont have too good a day but you can still lie by the pool, just make sure you're close to a bathroom or your room. Also there is a miracle pill that I swore by. Its a little yellow packet that will cost you 5 Egyptian Pounds. Of course this will be after haggling as it can be as much as 80 or 90 Egyptian Pounds which is about 15 English Pounds.

-Haggling. I tried this once. I haggled a bottle of sand down to 300 LE from 1500LE. I thought I had done extremely well. That was until I walked away and realised that I had just spent £40 on a tiny bottle of sand. If you're going to haggle make sure you know the exchange rate and what is a fair price of what you are going to buy. Always think about your purchase before you go ahead and enter into a haggling war.

-Natives. They're all very friendly, some a tad over friendly. They will all try and shake your hand, give you a hug. Maybe even a kiss or two but just be careful. When we went to Naama Bay we were frequently being hassled and shouted at to come in to shops, to stop and talk and this left me with an angry feeling, of which meant we never went back to Naama Bay but I'm told that if you go in groups you should be fine.

-Trips. We did a few trips whilst out there and I recommend them all. The Ultimate Desert Experience was amazing. Quad biking through the desert, camel riding as the sun went down and then a Bedouin dinner before returning to base in the dark, in the desert on our quad bikes. There was also Cairo. You can travel there by coach or by plane. We went by plane and by 5pm we were shattered with all the travelling which was nothing compared to the people that went by coach. We visited The Citadel, The Pyramids of Giza, The Sphinx, The Egyptian Museum and T.G.I. Fridays. The Museum was amazing, holding Tutankhamen and many other spectacular, historical pieces of Egyptian History. You're tour guide will be with you from the minute you arrive in Cairo until the minute you leave at the airport. Ours was called Wally and snaps to him for making the day memorable, funny and informational.

Overall, an amazing holiday, an amazing country and amazing people. I will definitely be going again and I recommend to everyone that you should see the Pyramids at least once in your life.

A Guide To ... New York, New York!

Whether you know the State as: "The Big Apple," "The City," "Gotham" or "The Media City," everybody knows of the place and has seen its many defining features a thousand times or more. The City is home to over 8.4 million people of many different backgrounds from all over the world, and walking the streets this is very apparent. Whether you're in Manhattan, The Bronx or Queens you still have the warm fuzzy feeling that you are in the City where everything happens at any time of the day. The City that literally never sleeps, being able to get an Oreo cheesecake at three in the morning and a cab at four. Being able to walk the streets at any point of the day or night and never being alone. This is the feeling of living in the Empire State that the Business, Fashion and Media world revolves around.

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be able to visit Gotham and walk the skyscraper lined streets that hummed with; sights, smells and noise for every minute of the day and night. A City that I had only ever been able to watch in soap operas and films was now lying beneath my feet. Recognising buildings and streets from my favourite programs. The Russian Tea Room from Gossip Girl and Central Park from Sex and the City. Of course there were many sights that had to be seen before I returned to simple Southampton, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, The Chrysler Building, Central Park, Fifth Avenue and of course hailing a ride or two in a yellow cab.

The sounds of the City never stopped, after 24 hours the sounds became normal and faded into the background. The sirens ringing down the streets and the smells of the underground through the steam grates started to become known as home. As I walked the streets back to my hotel, The Wellington, Times Square started to become the mile stone of us nearly being back in our hotel room. Times Square felt like home, walking through it, knowing the shops, the streets and the vendors on the corner made me feel like a true New Yorker. Storming down the streets as if I knew exactly where I was and where I was going melted me in to the crowd and fade past as an American, not an English tourist.

Knowing that every building, street and park was steeped in history made me want to know more and gather as much information and pictures as I possibly could. I wanted to document every minute of the day so as not to forget how amazing the City is. Also to make sure that this wasn't a dream, that I had actually lived in New York, if only for four days. I am sure to return and would love to live there one day. To work in the skyscrapers and live in a tiny, dingy, smelly six foot square apartment for at least six months. Just to say that I once lived in the City that never sleeps, and that nowehere else I know will ever be as amazing as that one State in America.