Italia

Buon giorno tutti! Just wanted to send out a quick email before I go to sleep - the overnight bus last night was comfortable but I still didn't sleep very much, and tomorrow is my first day working at the English Bubble Day Care Center with the 3-8 year old French children! I'll do a quick 10 day recap:

Day 1 - Saturday

Arrived in Rome around 8pm. My close friends Brett and Adam (taking a semester abroad from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh) met me at the train station. It was lovely to walk through the eternal city at night with old friends. The boys cooked pasta for me at their apartment in the Trastevere. That night we went out for drinks. Our favorite was rum & pear: a shot of rum chased with a shot of pureed pear. The weather was gorgeous! Then, sleep.

Day 2 - Sunday

My girl friends arrived at noon and together we checked into the Ivanhoe Hostel on via Urbana. The staff were friendly and easygoing and the clientele very international. We met plenty of backpackers and student travelers like ourselves from Belgium, Poland, England, Bulgaria, and Italy. Adam had been persuaded to act as our tour guide and he did a fantastic job. We decided to start in the historical center of the city, at the Colusseum. There was a parade that day and the street, or via, leading to the Colusseum was shut off to cars. That was amazing, as a tourist, to have the entire city center transformed into a pedestrian area; the roads were flooded with children in costumes and families out for a picnic or a stroll. We walked past the Roman Forum and Mussolini's Memorial. [Benito Mussolini was Italy's fascist dictator from the 1920s through WWII. In an effort to promote Italian nationalism, he built a road right through the middle of the Roman Forum - knocking down ancient buildings - to build a huge white monument. It is pretty; however I am told that most Italians resent it.]

Skip, Jenny, Brittany, Allison, me, and Bogus in front of the Colusseum. Most of the holes in the exterior are from the iron bars that were used to mount giant pieces of marble onto the outer wall.

Next, we were led through winding streets to throw coins into the Trevi fountain. I won't tell you my wish, but I can tell you that it came true. The Pantheon was a short distance away, but we all needed a rest before we went inside. Around the corner was a gelateria where rich gelato and bitter espresso refreshed us. For the remainder of the afternoon we wandered into some beautiful churches. 

Making wishes at the Trevi fountain! Supposedly, it's one coin for luck, two for love.

The girls and I went back to the hostel to cook dinner where we made friends with two Belgian girls. We had a very interesting conversation about the differences between a Belgian and an American high school education. When Brett and Adam came back later our new friends accompanied us to an Irish pub where the boys could watch a rugby match. During a commercial break, a couple of Irish guys randomly started dancing just like Riverdance! It was a flawless performance. When they came around asking for tips afterwards they told us that they planned to be in Rome for two weeks, and dancing when they went out was their way of earning extra cash. 

Day 3 - Monday

On Monday the weather was drizzly and dreary. The girls and I went to Vatican City for the afternoon, where we walked around Saint Peter's Basilica. That night, we ate dinner in the Trastevere.

In Vatican city, posing with Brittany. Behind us is Saint Peter's Basilica

Day 4 - Tuesday

Went on a tour of the Colusseum and the Roman Forum. It was inexpensive and very informative. Although the weather was overcast and drizzly, it was absolutely worth it. We learned so much, like how the games were free, the exotic animals involved were all killed and cooked for spectators, and where the emperor would sit... In the movie Gladiator, the emperor chose whether Maximus would live, which he would signal with thumbs up or down. However, in ancient Rome, thumbs down meant kill, but a fist with the thumb inside meant the gladiator would live. That night was Mardi Gras - the girls and I bought masks and went to the Spanish steps to go out on a pub crawl.

Day 5 - Wednesday

Checked out of the hostel at 11, ate a slice of pizza with aubergine, and caught the train to Florence. Florence, or Firenze, is an extremely popular study abroad destination. Case in point: Brittany had two close friends from Colorado State studying in Florence - Caitlin and Brooke - and I had three friends from Pitt - Sarah, Sarah, and Cara. That first day in Florence we went out to dinner with Caitlin and her roommates, and afterwards I met Sarah and her roommates at their apartment and we went to some of their favorite clubs. 

Day 6 - Thursday

Explored the city on foot. This was my third time visiting Florence, and I enjoyed an occasional sense of familiarity, especially when we passed the Duomo and in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, where the sight of the Grand Hotel Minerva brought back wonderful memories.**


**My first trip to Europe was a 10-day vacation with my mother and grandmother in 2005. Before arriving in Florence, we had spent four days in Venice - our hotel, the Hotel Colombina, was minutes from the Piazza San Marco. We listened to the musicians there at night as we sipped cappuccinos. We visited the handblown glass workshops on the island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon. We bought Carnival masks, walked through the Bridge of Sighs, climbed the Campanile bell tower, toured St. Mark's Basilica, and glided down the canals in a gondola. After Venice, or Venezia, we visited San Gimignano and Siena and then continued on to Florence. We stayed in the Grand Hotel Minerva in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella. That trip will always be incredibly special to me. My grandmother passed away in 2008, and it was very emotional for me to see the hotel again.**


After a full day of exploring the city, we went back to Caitlin's apartment to relax. That evening a priest named Father Bruno arrived at the apartment to cook dinner for the thirty or so students in Caitlin's program. I was lucky enough to chat with him as we prepared the spaghetti carbonara. Father Bruno put us to work mixing olive oil, balsemic vinegar, salt, pepper, fresh basil, onion, and diced cherry tomatoes to make a traditional dip for the bread. The dip must have salt in it because Tuscan bread is made without. It was delicious. And so was the wine from Chianti, which arrived in gallon jugs with another student. I met Brooke that night, who is learning how to make wine. She is a biochemistry major and takes only wine classes in Florence. Brooke met the number one sommelier in Italy the other day at a wine tasting, and went to Salvatore Ferragamo's estate because her teacher is a friend of his. Lucky girl! One day, she took us into a famous wine cellar and taked to us about wine for a little bit, and I have to say I was very impressed.

Day 7 - Friday

I haven't mentioned yet that we were staying at the Hostel Veronique on the via Porta Russa near Il Porcellino, the statue of a wild boar in the Mercato Nuovo. The location was great and the room was clean if sparsely furnished. We began our day a few blocks from the hostel at the Mercato Centrale, where we bought ten Tuscan blood oranges for only 2 euro, and some delicious dried fruit. My favorites were the apricots (abicocce, I think). We walked around, further than the previous day, stopping at the Ponte Vecchio, Santa Croce, and finally the Rex Cafe on via Fiesolana (where they had great decor and a fantastic deal on aperitivos - one drink and all you can eat appetizers for 2 hours, all for just 6 euro!)

Day 8 - Saturday

Spent several hours at the Uffizi admiring Botticelli's paintings, which I have always loved. That night, we went to an amazing chocolate cafe called Hemingway hidden in the streets across the river Arno. I tried the Montezuma, which is a thick and decadent mixture of pure chocolate, cayenne pepper, and brandy. The pepper made the drink so spicy I could barely swallow it, but it warms you up in more ways than one. Sadly, Brittany and Jenny caught their bus back to France that night. Allison and I moved our luggage from the hostel to my friend Sarah's apartment. She has five fantastic suite mates who generously offered us their couches so that Allison and I could stay two extra days.

Day 9 - Sunday

Allison finally succumbed to a sinus infection that had been plaguing her for days. I decided to go on a day trip with Sarah and her roommates to Pisa and a village named Lucca. We caught the 9am train to Pisa where we all posed for the tourist photo. There didn't seem to be very much else that interested us in Pisa on a Sunday so we caught a bus to Lucca. The ride was short and the walled city of Lucca charmed us all. The antique market was bustling and we perused the stalls for an hour or so. The only thing you absolutely must do in Lucca is walk along the top of the wall around the city - the path is about 2 1/2 miles long and the views are gorgeous! Pisa is only an hour-long train ride from Florence, and I was happy that I had the chance to see more of Italy than I had planned. We got home around 630pm and cooked dinner for ourselves.

Day 10 - Monday

Allison and I were directed to the best sandwich shop EVER this morning, called Il Fraternelli - I got a fresh sausage and eggplant sandwich with truffle oil, and I can't even describe how good it was. Then we hiked along the river Arno and climbed up to the Piazzolo Michelangelo (a lookout over the entire city of Firenze). There are two fake David statues in Florence, and the lookout is the location of the second, cast in bronze. The real David is in the Galleria dell'Accademia. Allison and I sat on the steps of the lookout with gelato for two hours (obviously the gelato was gone in thirty seconds but the view was too good for us to move). 

Behind us to the right is Il Duomo - a great end to our trip!

I'm so happy that I had the chance to do this trip to Italy - I saw Roma, Firenze, Pisa, and Lucca in ten days, ate delicious food, drank incredible wine, and learned so much about the culture. It does feel good to be back in Aix though. I appreciate bring able to speak the language again. I'm more confident with my French now that I have used it to navigate an airport and chat for hours with Belgian girls. Thank you all so much for encouraging me to jump into adventurous trips to foreign countries and for helping me get there! Ciao for now~