When in Rome!

This is my last post about Italy!  If you guys have not read about Florence and Cinque Terre, go to the older posts first because Rome was actually our last stop!!


Day 1

We arrived in Rome early that night so we decided to fit some stuff in since we only had 2 days to explore the whole city!  That night we chose to go to walk down the main commercial street in Rome, Via del Corso.  We went first to the Piazza del Popolo, which we really knew nothing about other than that it was a big thing on tourist map...so we gave it a shot!

We walked down that street and went to the Trevi Fountain!  And yes, I threw 2 coins into the fountain for good luck and so I'll at some point go back to Rome :-)

A restaurant was suggested to us by some friends and it was in the 'Jewish Ghetto' which I promise is safer than it sounds!  We walked through the Piazza Venecia and saw a really pretty monument, again, I don't really know what it was for but it was pretty!  Unfortunately, the restaurant required reservations so we had to walk all the way back to the other side of the city pretty much, but we did get to walk past the Colosseum at night which was pretty cool!

Day 2

We woke up incredibly early this day to get to the Vatican Museum!  We found a line and just assumed it was to get into the Vatican Museums but unfortunately, we were mistaken.  On the bright side, it wasn't a long wait.  It was actually going to St. Peters Basilica because as it turns out, it was Pope Day!  Unfortunately, someone told us he was speaking at 1, when in reality it was at 10.  So we had already left for the Vatican Museum line and ended up missing the Pope speaking, which would have been fun!  But, oh well!  We ended up only waiting about 45 minutes to get into the museums which is pretty much unheard of.  In total we spent about 3 hours exploring the Vatican Museum.  It was really fun to see all of the art, especially the Sistine Chapel.  You weren't technically allowed to take photos of it, but I snuck a photo because my camera doesn't have a flash and I didn't think it was going to hurt anyone.  To be honest, the Sistine Chapel was very beautiful, but so was every other ceiling in the Vatican.  I guess I just had very high expectations going into it.  Either way, it was still a cool thing to see, and I can cross it off my bucket list :-)

Afterwards, we went, a second time to St. Peters Basilica.  This time, we actually got to go inside of it!  One of the prettiest churches I've ever seen by far!

We were literally exhausted by the time we were done with all of the touring and walking so we went back to our hostel and slept for about 3 hours!  We went out for dinner that night and ate some of the BEST pizza I've ever had.  It was recommended to us by our friends and we ended up waiting for 45 minutes but it was definitely worth the wait!  We even decided, since it was our last dinner in Italy, to buy a calzone-type desert that was filled with Nutella.  It was pure heaven on earth!  A great way to spend our last night in Italy :-)

Day 3

Thursday was our last day in Italy!  We left the Colosseum for Thursday morning since it was something we would only want to spend a few hours at.  Unfortunately, the metro was INCREDIBLY packed on the way there.  Britt had a leather backpack that was cinched closed and buckled and someone still managed to steal her wallet!  I have no idea how no one even noticed it going on, but needless to say it definitely put a damper on our morning.  We didn't notice until we were going to pay for our tour through the Colosseum.  She wanted to go back to the hostel and call to cancel her debit card but we convinced her that she would regret not doing the tour so we paid for her to go on it and successfully put the incident out of our minds for a few hours.  So we took a guided tour of the Colosseum and then went back to the hostel and got it all taken care of!  

So, my adventures in Italy came to a close!  We went out for one last lunch...which actually turned out to be really delicious even though we just randomly picked a restaurant!  We left for the airport and fortunately, all the flights went as planned!  Apparently we were really lucky because there were bad storms in Madrid that kept a lot of our friends there over night!

Hope you all have had a wonderful week!!  Have a happy Easter!  It's definitely going to be weird to not be with my grandparents and family,  I'll be thinking of you all :-)  Less than 5 weeks until I'm home, which sounds crazy to me, but I can't wait to see everyone!

Florence, Italy

My Italy trip is being done in 3 posts, so if you haven't read about Cinque Terre yet, look for that one below this one!!

Day 1

            Britt, Nina and I arrived in Florence on Sunday at around 7pm.  We made our way to our AMAZING hostel and settled in.  As we finally had Internet, Nina was able to contact her friend who had studied in Florence the past semester and she gave us a ton of inside tips. 

            That first night we went with one of her ideas and went to a restaurant Napoleone.  We made our way to the Piazza (plaza) where it was and ended up looking around for a half hour, when in reality the restaurant was literally right in front of our face.  A classic Lydia move.  It was a very nice restaurant that had great food and great ambiance.  I got a delicious plate of Fettuccine Bolognese.  Even though I was incredibly full from that, I had to go for gelato #2 after dinner.  I ended up getting a larger size than I had expected but I got to test out chocolate, coffee and pistachio gelato.  My favorite by far was the pistachio, which oddly enough was the one I expected to like the least.  This gelato restaurant was definitely leaps and bounds better than the first one I ate at. Worth way more than 2.50 euro J

            Since we were tired from traveling, and too full to put anything else in our stomachs, we passed on going out for drinks that night and just headed back to the hostel.  I found a deal online through this hostel so we had our own room and our own bathroom for very cheap.  I will never again underestimate how important it is to have a space to go to be with just the people you’re traveling with.  It’s just so much more convenient and comfortable.  I will say that it is now my goal to come back to Europe and be able to stay places that are considered hotels instead of hostels.  Sorry, no pictures of this night due to a dead camera :-(

Day 2

            We got a nice early start on Monday, partly due to the early breakfast hours at the hostel and partly due to the free walking tours offered by the hostel that left at 10am.  Since the tour was offered and we weren’t sure what we really wanted to do in Florence, we decided to join in on it.  Luckily, the one they offered that day was a tour of historical Florence, which is pretty much the city center.  The tour lasted until 12 and we actually managed to make some friends on the tour that we spent the rest of the day with.  From the tour we found TONS of museums we wanted to visit, places we wanted to explore more, etc.  It was definitely worth the time!  Plus, the tour guide stopped for a gelato break and I, obviously, had to partake.  This time I got raspberry and lemon because I thought it was a little too early for really heavy flavors like chocolate or tiramisu, etc.  Below are some pictures from the tour:

This door is on the building next to the Duomo, it's called 'Heaven's Door' and features stories from the Old Testament:

            Where the tour ended was where we decided to start our exploration.  It was a church called the Basilica de Santa Croce.  This church held numerous fresco paintings but more importantly was the resting place of many notable Italians; such as, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo, Aligherio, etc.  It was a beautiful church in general and it was really amazing to see the graves of these amazing Renaissance men.  Michelangelo’s grave is located in the corner of the church that faces the Duomo (The main Cathedral in Florence…Duomo means Cathedral in Italian).  He apparently chose this spot specifically so that when Judgment Day comes and the walls of the church fall, he would have a view of the Duomo.  Talk about thinking ahead!

The first 2 photos are of Michelangelo's tomb:

 Aligherio's Tomb:

 Machiavelli's Tomb:

 Outside of the Basilica:

 Inside the Basilica:

 Nina, Britt and I outside of the Basilica:

            After that we went out to lunch and got pizza, which was good, but not as good as my first pizza in Cinque Terre.  Side note:  A lot of restaurants in Italy charge ‘cupertos’ or service charges and at this one it was 3 euro which was pretty high and somewhat annoying!  Anyways, to make up for the only ‘good’ pizza at lunch I went for some really delicious gelato…I can’t help myself!  I ended up convincing everyone else to get it as well even though they had originally claimed to be to full.  Here began the somewhat comedy of errors.  First, Britt dropped her spoon with chocolate gelato on her tan dress.  She was trying to wipe it off while walking and it wasn’t successful so we decided to stop.  One of the girls we met there tried to help her pour some water on it and while doing so, dropped her cone.  Then the 3^rd girl ended up spilling some from her cone on her shoes.  And as that was ending, I, being the classy person that I am, was trying to lick the inside of my gelato dish and ended up spilling my ‘Opera Italiano’ (mixture of pistachio/hazelnut/vanilla, yumminess) all down the front of my dress.  Needless to say, we looked like a bunch of sloppy American girls!! 

            We made our way to the Duomo, which is the main Cathedral in Florence.  You’ll recognize it by the rather large dome on top!  One fun fact about the Duomo is that on the front of it Jesus is featured with all 12 disciples.  This is odd because usually Judas isn't included as a disciple in many works of art, but they wanted it to be symmetrical so they included him, but his head is covered and looks down in shame:

 Judas is the one in the middle:

As it turns out they built the entire Duomo and left the ceiling open for a dome to be built over it, but realized after they had built it that no one had ever created a dome that large.  So they started taking ideas from people as to how to complete it.  Filippo Brunelleschi ended up winning with his idea of using small bricks to create it, as well as having a dome within it for support.  The creation was obviously successful, but the problem is that Brunelleschi never told anyone how he actually completed the construction, so, to this day the dome is an architectural mystery!  We managed to climb up to the top of it, which I believe was about 426 steps…or somewhere around there.  I would not recommend it to those who are claustrophobic or get dizzy easily when climbing spiral staircases!  But, once you get up there, it is definitely worth the effort!

            That night, we decided to go to the Piazza de Michelangelo to watch the sunset over Florence because Nina’s friend said it was one thing you absolutely had to do while there.  I would completely agree with her.  We grabbed some wine, headed to the plaza, and sat on the steps with hundreds of other people watching the gorgeous sun set over Florence.  A truly breathtaking moment that makes you step back and seriously question…is this real life?

Day 3

            This day was somewhat anticlimactic for us.  We had planned to go see the statue of David and go the Uffizi Art Museum.  We started out at the Uffizi and waited in line for an hour only to realize that we still had an additional 2-hours to wait.  I went to check out the line to see David and that was even longer!  After waiting for that long at the Uffizi and barely moving we decided to cut our losses and just go and enjoy our last day in Florence walking around.  We did a little shopping, found an outdoor market, and I got another gelato.  In case you were wondering, yes, I think I am actually gaining weight from all the gelato…and it’s worth every pound! 

            We left for Rome that afternoon and ended up taking a direct train that only took about an hour and a half.  So, a summary of Florence: gorgeous city, great food, all-in-all an excellent city to visit J