Italia Parte Due: Firenze e Roma!

Getting to Florence was a little hectic. We had to get a train from Corniglia to La Spezzia, where our train to Florence left from, but our train to La Spezzia was late…go figure. We were REALLY pushing it close on time. I think we were supposed to have like five minutes before our Florence train was scheduled to leave, but we really go into La Spezzia with about two minutes. We BOOKED it to our train, praying it hadn’t left yet! Thankfully, trains in Italy do not run on time, so we had no issue making our train to Florence, which was also late. In fact, the train hadn’t even arrived at the station by the time it was supposed to have left. Whew! Close call. When we got on our train, I pulled out my book to do a little reading. The woman sitting next to me was apparently very interested in The Rock Warrior’s Way, because as soon as I pulled it out, she did a double take and practically crawled into my chair with me to read it. I think she was more interested in the fact that I spoke English, because she proceeded to try to have a conversation with me—half of which I could NOT understand.

It was strange because she was on her phone a lot and speaking a mix of Italian, English, and French. Confused much? Anyway, we finally made it to Florence and Sebastiano, another of Sadie’s mom’s friends, picked us up at the station to take us to his house in Ugnano, just outside of Florence. The weather was completely amazing and the views of the surrounding hills were perfect! We met Sebastiano’s wife Lucia, and one year old son Valerio. We enjoyed an amazing lunch with all of them, and had fun playing with Valerio. He is so completely adorable! After lunch, we went into Florence to meet Mark on the Ponte Vecchio, which crosses the Arno River. It’s a medieval bridge that is home to dozens of jewelry shops. We stopped for some amazing gelato, then headed to the Uffizi to try to get tickets for the next day, but we missed the closing by only a few minutes. We took a brief walk through the Piazza della Signoria, where the city hall and a bunch of copies of famous statues are, before going up to the Piazza Michelangelo, which has amazing views of Florence. We watched most of the sunset, then headed back down for dinner. Mark’s hostel had recommended a place called Kitsch, that had a tapas buffet and drink special. For a buffet, it was surprisingly delicious. I think those deals are the best bang for your buck in Florence. We went back to Sebastiano’s after dinner to catch some Z’s because we were exhausted!

The next day, we had to wake up early to go to the Uffizi, which is like the Louvre of Italy. Mark was SO kind and waited in line for us, as we were late getting into Florence. Sadie and I basically skipped the hour and a half long line and walked right in. We didn’t have much time, so Sadie and I were pretty much just trying to see the highlights. I honestly don’t remember much, but I do remember my two favorite paintings: Birth of Venus and Primavera, both Botticelli. I also really liked the unfinished DaVinci painting. It’s kind of amazing that that guy was so good that he got his rough draft put in one of the best art museums in the world. I kind of was getting overloaded by art at this point—especially since Classical and Renaissance art is not high on my list of favorite things ever. After the Uffizi, we went back to Ugnano to have lunch with Sebastiano and his family. We had some issues with the bus…which never seemed to come when we wanted it to, but we made it after Sebastiano picked us up from the stop. Our lunch was a delicious artichoke risotto. Sebastiano was telling us that they try to eat locally, so the artichokes were from their garden, and the wine we had was from a farmer that Lucia’s dad is friends with. Knowing that your food is local makes lunch that much more delicious! We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and playing with Valerio, before heading back to Florence to meet Mark for dinner. We went to another buffet, called La Pirata. The food at this one was seriously delicious. I had some of the most amazing porchetta I had ever had. Man I missed that stuff!! After dinner, we said goodbye to Mark (for a couple days) and went back to Ugnano, where we talked with Sebastiano for a while and then went to bed.

On Monday, we were supposed to go to Pisa, but we decided to skip it to see more of Florence. We got to sleep in a bit, then were about to head to the bus stop, but Lucia’s mom intercepted us to give us breakfast. We had some breakfast cookies, then she offered us coffee. I, of course, accepted. Then, she told us she was going downstairs to check on Valerio and that if the coffee finished, I should turn the burner off; however, it was more difficult than it sounds because we were trying to communicate through my broken Italian and her broken English. We figured it out eventually, though. Apparently, though, she was very confused after we left because the moka pot was still on the stove, but empty—I had taken the coffee and then left it on a different burner to cool off—and she was worried that she had forgotten to turn it on and was upset that she hadn’t made coffee for us! It was pretty funny once everyone figured out what was going on. Anyway, Sadie and I first went to Santa Croce, which is a church that contains the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machivelli, and Rossini. Wow! It’s pretty humbling to be hanging around the tombs of some of the most important people in history. After Santa Croce, we went to Il Duomo—the main sight of Florence. The basilica, which was designed by Brunelleschi, was built without any supports, which is amazing considering the size of the dome. We went up to the cupola, which was SUPER worth it. The views of Tuscany were absolutely spectacular! When we came back down, we went inside, which was not quite as thrilling. The dome is definitely the highlight of the basilica. We also went to the Baptistery next door, where Dante was baptized. There was some kind of odd art project going on because students were spread over half the floor tracing the mosaics on the floor.

We just sat inside and took in the amazing ceiling mosaics. When we came out, we were starving because we hadn’t eaten anything since our gelato snack while waiting in line for the cupola. We found a pretty cheap pizza place, and went in. We were a little wary because the place was absolutely deserted, but we figured out why when we looked at the time…it was 3:30. After lunch, we walked to the Palazzo Pitti, where we spent basically all of our time wandering around the Boboli gardens. They were enormous and gorgeous, so it was kind of a relaxing way to end our day. We went back home for some Tuscan Barbeque…wow. I’ve never had anything like it. We had salad, bread, sausages, and steaks that were just seared on the outside. Delicious food and great company! When you’re traveling, I think the best place to get authentic regional food is at someone’s house. It was a perfect way to end our three days in Florence!

With that, we headed down to Rome the next morning. Our train took a bit longer than expected—four hours, so we didn’t have much time to do stuff. We got to our hostel, where we dropped off our bags and met up with Sadie’s friend, Sarah. First stop of the afternoon: the Coliseum and Roman Forum. Okay, so when we went to Morocco, I thought Volubilis was cool. This was Volubilis on STEROIDS! So amazing! The Coliseum was first, and I thought it was super interesting. I had no idea that it was used as a public forum for capital punishment. I guess it has a pretty gruesome history. It was a little weird walking through it, because I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was walking through a really old baseball stadium. After the Coliseum, we went up to Palatine Hill, where Romulus killed Remus, and where Caesar Augustus’ former house was located. When we got through the gardens and looked out over the Roman Forum, I’m pretty sure all of our jaws dropped. Walking around, you could picture the Ancient Romans walking around, going in and out of all of the buildings. It’s amazing that everything is so well preserved! I also randomly met a guy there who had graduated from Brookfield East. Small world, hey? When we left the Roman Forum and finally tracked down Lukas and Mark, we decided to get some gelato before dinner. I had some really delicious chocolate with orange flavor variety. I wish I had written down more of the flavors I sampled, because I like to try new ones and I ate a LOT of gelato ( 1+ times per day), but my samplings have melted together in my mind into one big delicious mess. We went to find some dinner after our gelato, where I had bucatini all'amatriciana (a traditional roman pasta made with tomato, bacon, and onion), and sampled my first limoncello. When I was in Italy last, I was too afraid to try it. It’s a digestivo—an after dinner drink that is supposed to cap off the meal and aid in digestion—that is made with lemon flavored liquor. It was actually really good! Not too sweet, not too sour, and not to liquor-y. We went back to our hostel after dinner, and I crashed. I was exhausted from our long day of travel and tourism!

On our last day in Italy, we packed in a lot of Roman sightseeing—what Lukas would call “Nazi Tourism”. This was our Vatican day, so we first when to St. Peter’s Square. The basilica was temporarily closed, because the Pope was scheduled to appear in St. Peter’s Square to offer a blessing, which he does every Wednesday. Lukas and I weren’t too keen on waiting around forever to see the Pope, so we decided to head over to the Musei Vaticani to beat the lines there. It was nice to take it pretty leisurely. First, we went through the Egyptian rooms, which were pretty awesome. There was one fully intact mummy that was quite amazing to see. Next, we went through a bunch of rooms of Roman statues. For about half an hour it was really interesting. Then I lost focus and it just became a major overdose. Lukas and I spent a while just waiting for the others to get there, and when they finally did, we had to go back though everything again with them. I’m glad they got to see everything, but I was getting really tired, hungry, and crabby. By this point, all I wanted was to see the Sistine Chapel and get out of there! Unfortunately, I really wasn’t prepared for how big the museum is, and we had to walk though literally everything to get to the chapel. It really wasn’t I was expecting at all. It’s very large for a chapel and there is really nothing to it besides the Michelangelo paintings. Sadie told me something really interesting though—Michelangelo worked from back to front in his work, but the story of Genesis works from front to back. Also, the famous Creation of Adam is no larger than any other panel and is not even in the center. It kind of makes you wonder why that one is the famous one? I guess and art historian could probably tell me why, but it’s something interesting to ponder. We tried to get out of there after the Sistine Chapel, but once again, easier said than done. Still took FOREVER. Once we reached open air, I think we were all hungry and a little edgy. We got pasta and were ready to go back to hit St. Peter’s Basilica. Even though I had seen it before, it was still incredible. I don’t know what it is, but going in that place makes you feel different. I got to enjoy it more because I spent more time just walking around instead of racing up to the cupola.

We also went down to the crypt, which was insane. Not only did we see what is supposedly Peter’s tomb, which is what the Vatican is built over, but Pope John Paul II’s tomb. That really hit home because I remember his death so clearly—he wasn’t just another dead guy. It was the first time I’ve seen the tomb of someone famous and felt like they were a real person—that might sound weird, but it’s true. After we were done at the Vatican, we ran around to Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and the Spanish Steps. We stopped near the Pantheon for a cappuccino at a place Lukas and Mark recommended—best cup of coffee I’ve had in Europe. Once we met back up with the boys at the Spanish Steps, we went up to Piazza Bonaparte I for a pretty sweet view of Rome at night. We met up with some of Lukas’s IESEG friends for dinner. I was getting really confused at first because I had been speaking in English all day, was trying to order in Italian, and was now conversing in French. My brain cannot handle three languages at once! It was really fun though and Lukas’s friends were very nice. Actually, Stephanie is friends with Noémie, who lives in Global Village back at MU. Once again…small world, hey? After we all got dinner together, we went to see the Trevi Fountain, which was so cool! I was glad I got to see all of the big things I missed on my first time in Rome. We spent quite a while hanging out there, and I was once again exhausted by the time I got back to the hostel. Only difference was that this time, I had to catch an early bus to the airport in the morning! General thoughts on my Italy trip: I LOVE Italy! I could go back a million and three times and never be tired of it. What a beautiful country with friendly people and ridiculous amounts of history and art to see! Amazing. Can’t wait to go back!

If you didn't see them already, more photos here.