ITALY. Enough said. But I guess I'll say more. After the stress of exams, a five day break in Italy was a welcome adventure. Six of us went on the greatest vacation ever. We left early Wednesday morning for Rome, where we were based until Sunday. We got to Rome, settled into our hostel, and set out to explore Rome by around 12pm. We got lunch at a restaurant where we tried to convince the waiter we were Canadian- he wasn't buying it. I don't quite know how he could tell, but Americans apparently have some sort of qualities that Canadians don't, hmm. We also met a nice southern American couple sitting next to us where we were given advice about tipping in Italy.
We decided to visit the Colosseum and the Roman Forum first. On our way, we found the Santa Maria del Popolo, which houses the Chigi Chapel, designed by Raphael, and statues by Bernini. Once we got to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, we weren't intending on going in, to save money of course, but we decided to take a tour for 20 Euros where we would get to go into the Colosseum and the Roman Forum (each for 45 minutes) and learn some stuff. It was so cool to walk around such an ancient place. Walking around the city, you stumble upon ruins everywhere. We were told tat the city of Rome has trouble building subway entrances because every time they dig, they come across some underground ruins that were once part of the ancient Roman city. After our tour, we walked around the city, and ended up stumbling upon the Trevi Fountain, which is awesome. Then we ate at a delicious restaurant where we all got amazing pizza and wine before heading to bed.
We woke up early the next morning and got on a train to Florence, which took about 3.5 hours. Florence is absolutely beautiful, and is a bit smaller than Rome, so we walked around the entire city, looking at all the old churches, statues, squares, and so on. Among others, we went to the Duomo- a large and beautiful cathedral by the Gates of Paradise; the San Lorenzo Market- a busy market where we all bought masquerade masks for Halloween, I bought a scarf, and the other girls bought various leather goods; the Piazza della Signoria- full of statues, including a replica of Michelangelo's David, where it used to stand; the Ponte Vecchio- a medieval bridge with a breathtaking view; the Santa Croce- where Galileo, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli (among others) are buried; We had amazing food (we pretty much ran on pizza, bruschetta, and gelato) and found a spot that a friend recommended to me called Piazzale Michelangiolo, which is a little outside the city where we walked up to a high point and saw a breathtaking view of all of Florence and the surrounding mountains. We found a nice spot to sit down and drank wine and ate bread and cheese. It was the perfect winding down from a great day. Once it started getting dark, we slowly made our way back to the train station, stopping for pizza, gelato, some 2 euro bottles of wine, and some night pictures along the way. Once we were back at the hostel, we passed out from our long day.
The next morning, we woke up early again and got on another train for Salerno, from which we then took a 45 minute bus down the winding (and scarily narrow) roads to the town of Amafi on the Amalfi Coast. The Amalfi Coast if the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The Mediterranean Sea is gorgeous and clear-green, and the town of Amalfi is adorable and tiny, working its way through a little dip in the mountains. We laid out on the beach and went for a swim in the sea and had the best bruschetta I have ever tasted and (obviously) more gelato. On the way back to the train in Salerno, we took a 30 minute ferry instead of a bus, and we got to see a lot of the coast. I can't even describe how beautiful it is, you'll have to go and see for yourselves (and maybe take me along). We got back to the hostel and attempted to go out, but failed after being in a bar for 10 minutes and deciding we were too tired.
Saturday was our day to see all the touristy things in Rome. We got up at a reasonable hour and started our day. We saw everything we could pack into one day. I was in charge of the map, because for some reason I have a freaky good sense of direction. First we went to the Trevi Fountain again, this time to see it during the day. It was still cool. Then we headed over to the Pantheon. The Roman Pantheon was the ancient Roman temple of all the gods, built by the magistrate Marcus Agrippa and later reconstructed by the Emperor Hadrian. Now is houses the tombs of various notable people, including Raphael and Vittorio Emmanuel II (the first king of a united Italy). It was worn and old looking on the outside, but once you went in it was beautiful, with its high dome, letting in the sunlight, and ornate walls. Our next stop was the Piazza Navona. The Piazza Navona is a busy, beautiful plaza with an obelisk and a large fountain in the middle called the Fountain of Four Rivers (the Danube, Ganges, Nile, and Rio de la Plata) created by Bernini, and which is full of people selling artwork.
Then it was time for our visit to Vatican City! On the way, we stumbled upon the Castel Sant Angelo and Passetto. The Castel Sant Angelo was built as a tomb for the Emperor Hadrian and the Passetto is the corridor in the wall connecting Sant Angelo to St. Peter's Basilica. After reading Angels and Demons, it was cool to see a building that was a significant part of the book. Once we got to Vatican City, our first stop was the Vatican Museums. We had bought tickets online, so we didn't have to stand in the line that was about a mile long, saving at least an hour and a half of our time. There were so many amazing sculptures and artwork, and the walk through the museum ended in the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo. It was absolutely stunning ad detailed, I can't believe it even exists. After that, we hurriedly went to St. Peter's Basilica, because I really wanted to see the grottoes (the tombs, chapels, etc under the basilica) before they closed. We went in, took pictures of the amazingness that is St. Peter's and asked about the grottoes. Turns out, there was someone important there that day, so the grottos were closed. I was really disappointed, but considering all I got to see in the past couple days, I was just fine. (That whole day I felt like I was in the one of Dan Brown's novels).
After the Vatican, we went to an area recommended to us by our hostel which seemed more authentic and less touristy, although since it's Rome, there's no way to escape being surrounded by tourists. Dinner was amazing (I got ravioli and wine). We headed back to the hostel after dinner and three of us decided that we had to go out for our last night in Rome. We went to Campo di Fiori, a square with a bunch of bars, and also a place I was recommended to go by a friend. On the way, we walked by the Pantheon and decided to get a picture of us in front of it at night. We asked a guy to take our picture, saying "grazie," but he told us he spoke English. Turns out he is studying abroad in Barcelona through Syracuse's program and he was with a bunch of his classmates, and was also headed to Campo dei Fiori. We hung out with them the rest of the night and then headed back to the hostel, where they we also staying.
The next morning was our last day in Rome. We got up and had breakfast in the hostel, where we saw the group we had hung out with the night before. We had one more place we wanted to see before we left, so we made our way there, me with map in hand. The Spanish Steps were our final destination, and they did not fail to impress. They were beautiful, although in Rome even the alleys and run down homes are beautiful, but a little smaller than I expected. After that, we walked around a bit, went to a severely overcrowded market, and then went to eat our last meal in Italy. I got a pizza of course, and this time it had actual chunks of roasted garlic on it- needless to say it was amazing, and it only cost 2 euros. We eventually made it to the airport, after some troubles with a shuttle that never showed up and running to catch the train, and we got on our flight back to London.
Italy is my new favorite place and hopefully I'll go back some day. Wanna come with??
YES!! I wanna come with you the next time!
ReplyDelete-Mom