Rome-ing around Italy

Man I've been busy lately...school is really starting to get intense in it's final two weeks, so I have just now found the time to blog about my Italy trip of last weekend. I had a class on Thursday morning that I couldn't miss, so I would have to meet Carly and Martha in Rome.

The first awesome thing about it was before I was even in Italy. I was asleep on the plane before it left the airport in Paris, but I woke up mid-flight to see the French Alps bathing in mist tinted pink by the setting sun. That was really cool...and then it got dark and I went back to sleep.

Once at the airport in Rome, I had to get to the city center which is like 1/2 hour away. I found out the best way to do this was to take the train, so I had to figure that out by myself in a country whose language I don't know. It was fine though, and I got to Roma Termini train station in the middle of the city about a half hour later. I then had to find our hostel, which thankfully was only a 5-10 minute walk from the station.

To my delight, not only was I greeted by Carly and Martha in the hostel, but also free pasta (cooked nightly by the hostel staff). It was actually really good too! This was the only hostel I've ever been in that included breakfast and dinner! Unheard of.

After resting my feet at the hostel for a few minutes, we strolled around Rome. It's similar to any big European city actually. We did see the Colosseum, which is stunning. It's real name, by the way, is the Flavian Amphitheatre. Although even the Italians just call it "Coloseo". It was getting late though, and it was drizzling, so we booked it back to the hostel. Not without stopping for gelato though, which I would have no less than 5 times in the 4.5 days I spent in Italy.



So we got up the next day and hopped on the metro over to the Vatican. We snagged one of the MANY tours that are advertised right outside the metro stop. Our tour guide was an American girl, so it was very easy to understand her. She took us into the Vatican, through a gate in the protective walls. She took us through the Vatican museum, which is full of Renaissance and Greek/Roman sculpture. There are also many frescoes by Raphael in the museum, including the famous "School of Athens". That was pretty cool - one of those things that you see all the time in books, and then it's amazing when you see it in person (many more of those to come in Italy).

The Vatican owns some absurd amount (like 78% or something) of all of a certain type of red marble. It looks really nice, and it's really valuable because there is not much of it around. One piece in the museum is an enormous bowl (like diameter of 8-10 feet, depth of a few) made entirely of this red marble. An object like this is priceless, and some emporer used it to take his baths in. I think he may have done more than just clean himself in there though...

The next stop was the Sistine Chapel. It was actually completely different from what I was expecting. I thought it was like, one big mural on the ceiling, and that it was all floating people and angels and stuff. Instead, I saw many different panels of art, each self-contained. The ones down the middle tell the story of the creation of the world. Michaelangelo painted the ceiling, and it was actually his first attempt at painting (he was a master sculptor and didn't like to paint). To everyone's surprise, it turned out great, even better than Raphael, the celebrity painter of the day, could have hoped to do. Michaelangelo however, didn't like the Pope he was working for, so he put numerous insults into the artwork. For instance, God is mooning the doorway where the Pope would enter the room. Things like that.

When we emerged from the museum, we were just outside St. Peter's Basilica with that famous square - I was like "whoa!". After some pictures there, we took a stroll through the crypt with the tombs of all the popes, and then visited the interior of St. Peter's. It's very different from a Frech gothic cathedral like Notre Dame. It was very impressive though, beautifully decorated with marble and sculptures covered in gold polychrome.

I sent a postcard from the Vatican because it's technically a different country. They have their own stamps/postal service, radio, utilities, everything a country should have.

We took the metro back to central Rome and walked around a little. We passed the Roman Forum, which is a large, realatively undisturbed site of ruins: the center of ancient Rome.

We visited the Pantheon, which is really cool. It's got a huge dome and massive pillars out front, all of which were taken from Egypt. It was dark by this time, and Rome is really cool at night. We went to see the Trevi Fountain, which is probably the coolest fountain I've ever seen...no definitely the coolest one. Then we went to the Spanish Steps and climbed up. I watched The Talented Mr. Ripley a couple night's ago, and they were right in front of the Spanish Steps many times, I recognized the area perfectly.

Then we went back to the hostel and rested for a bit before going out. We hit a few bars near our hostel. They were okay, but nothing amazing. At about 1:30 or so, we got back to the hostel and rested up.

On our last day in Rome, we saw the interior of the Colosseum. It's so cool! What's really surprising is that the setup is pretty much identical to a modern sports arena. It's a tingly atmosphere - you know that the ruins are so old, and you can't help but think of the crazy fights that took place there. We had plenty of time to appreciate it before catching our train to Florence.





Florence

After a really beautiful train ride, we arrive in Florence and found our hostel. After checking in, we left to go walk around - the best thing to do in a new city. We quickly and inadvertantly found the duomo (the dome) which is iconic of Florence. It was incomplete for a while until Brunelleschi said he could complete it, and did, during the renaissance. We checked out one of Florence's museums, the Uffizi, which is home to some famous artwork. Most notably, the Birth of Venus is there (that one with the pasty naked chick with yellow hair standing in a seashell). So that was cool. After that, we walked to the Ponte Vecchio, a really old bridge that has always been the home of the jeweler's guild in Florence. So the bridge has shops all along it's sides, and they're almost all jewelery stores.

We ate dinner at a great little restaurant called the Porcupine. I had Tortelini Carbonara, and it was amazing. We shared some wine, too. We were in the Chianti region so I think all the wine we drank there was probably Chianti. We were talking with our waiter, and he is like the first person in Europe unhappy about Barack! He was kind of a crazy right winger though. But he was nice. That night, we just split some wine in our hostel room and took it easy.

Day two in Florence - time to see the duomo up close. We couldn't go in because it was a sunday I think, but we went up into the tower that is next to the church (sort of a part of the church). The view is really great of the duomo and the surrounds. Florence is nestled amidst many small mountain-hill things. It's a really pretty landscape.

After the tower view, we went to Florence's other really important museum, the Accademia. It is important because it has the infamous Michaelangelo's David. You weren't allowed to take pictures. I did anyway, until I got caught. That was fine though. The guy said it to about 20 people while we were there. I thought it would be funny to stand, with your hands neatly clasped in front of you, and make digital camera "snap" noises when he wasn't looking. Just to mess with him. You could even look at the person next to you after you do it as if to say, "um, excuse me, pictures aren't allowed." We had fun with that...

Anyway, the David is amazing. It is probably my favorite piece of art aside from the "Winged Victory of Samothrace" in the Louvre. There are two things that make the David really really cool. 1) There is so much detail - veins in his arms and neck the realistically portrude as if underneath skin, precise facial features, completely realistic torso muscles, everything. It looks realistic. 2) It's 17 feet tall! I didn't know it would be that big. It's really impressive though.

Then we had lunch at a restaurant close to the central square in Florence. I had the Pizza Margherita (Mozzerella, Tomatoes, Basil for the 3 colors in the Italian flag). It was the best cheese pizza I've ever had. It just tasted different! The cheese had this oven-baked, rich, almost smoky flavor. We also had the Caprese Salad (Fresh tomatoes and mozzerella) and the cheese was amazing! It was in these perfectly round balls quite a bit bigger than golf balls, and had a consistency like dough.

After more wandering around Florence (past the Palazzo Vecchio and a nice little square with a church and music) we went out of the main part of the city and up onto one of the surrounding hills to see a bit what the quieter parts are like. They were very quaint, and very...quiet. It was really peaceful though outside the noise of the city.

On our way back, we got Canoli. I did this because of you Dad, because you're always telling me to try it and that line in whatever movie it is, "Don't forget the Canoli!" Well I got it, and it was fantastic. Delicious. I have no words for it.

At the restaurant we went to that night, I had the Veal Florentine (seemed appropriate). It was really good. It was a nice cut of veal in a rustic, hearty tomato based sauce the was the consistency of salsa. Of course, we had a good deal of Chianti with dinner, and the Tiramisu (sp?) for dessert. Tiramisu was really good too. Everything to eat in Italy is good. It's crazy!

Afterwards, we went to an Irish bar and played darts. I just needed a side of Ireland with my Italy.

The next morning was the beginning of our last day in Italy. Sad! We went to see the inside of the duomo, which is a big big mural. There's so much going on though that it's kind of numbing, but it was nice. We got on our train to Pisa which cost like 1.50, and used our few hours in Pisa to admire the leaning tower and, along with everyone else, take pictures of ourselves holding it up, pushing it over, kicking it, licking it...

The tower was cooler than I thought actually. It actually does lean a lot! Someone had told me it didn't lean that much. It does.

Pisa is a nice little town. Very small, but nice. We flew with EasyJet out of Pisa back to Paris. Couldn't see much because it was dark already. But I got a nice nap on the plane, and in an hour and a half or so I was back in Paris. Home sweet home!