So. Italy. I don't even know where to start. Maybe with the part where I saw the Pope? Or the time when my phone got stolen on the metro… maybe eating gelato everyday? and spending a day with one of my best friends in Rome? Or maybe when the polcia in Florence decided to give us a fine for not validating our bus tickets? This one might be a little long...
As you can see the stories and memories are endless and incredible in the best ways and the worst.
I will start with getting my phone stolen because that happened with in the first 20 minutes of being in Rome. So it wasn't the best start to Italy! I was a little sour as might be expected towards Rome but I got over it quickly with some healthy doses of gelato and pasta. So my phone. My friends and I took a night train from Milan which was interesting to say the least. There was a baby in our carriage.. Enough said. We got off the train and went to find where to get on the metro and lugging all our stuff around too. We bought our metro tickets and attempted to squeeze onto the metro with a million other Italians. We were squeezed into the car literally as tight as possible, I don't think I've ever been in a more trapped position. My phone was in my purse inside another bag that was over my shoulder. I honestly didn't think twice about it. Maybe I was just distracted and tired and confused about taking the metro for the first time but when we got off at our first stop and reached for my phone it was not there. I had a sinking feeling and I knew right away that it was gone. Too angry and sad and tired for words, I followed my friends onto the next metro like a zombie.
Our first event of the day was to go to the Vatican to see the Pope. As excited as I was for this, I am sad that I was so distracted from losing my phone and thinking about that because I think it distracted me from having a more moving experience of seeing the Pope. I am not a practicing catholic, but I attend a catholic school and appreciate the catholic religion and I really enjoy Pope Francis and what he has made of the church in his time of being Pope. All of that said, I did my best to take in the moment and enjoy the ceremony. He holds a free ceremony for the public every wednesday where he will drive around the crowd in his popemobile and then say a few words in front of the crowd. It was very cool because he greeted each different nationality and you could hear the cheers from each different country as he greeted them. Everything he said was also said in a translation of many different languages. It was cool to be somewhere with so many different cultures and nationalities but all there for the same purpose.
After the ceremony was over, we met up with a friend of Megan and Tierney who was hosting us while we were there. We headed to her place to drop our bags and relax a little. The first thing we did was get pizza. I was ok with that. We eventually made it over to the Pantheon and to a large piazza next to it that I can't seem to remember the name of. We were able to explore a bit of that side of the city and then find a place for dinner (pasta and bread) and then go to a place for gelato that our host suggested to us. Even though the day started out the worst way possible, I found myself really enjoying what Rome has to offer.
The second day I planned to meet up with my friend Sarah, who I know from Trout (she also visited me in Cork). She has been studying in Rome this semester so it was really fun to hang out with her and have her show me around a bit. She also happened to have an extra camera that she let me borrow for the rest of the trip. Soo grateful for that. We met at the Vatican (casual) and roamed around the city for awhile. She took me to the Spanish Steps and an overlook of a nice piazza and the Trevi fountain. She impressed me with her very fluent spanish and broken italian when talking to all of the Italians cause I felt like an idiot when trying to order anything try to talk to anyone! She also showed me where she lives and one of her favorite places in Rome, which is another overlook, where we got some gelato :) We finished the day with the best meal I had in Italy at a family owned restaurant in her neighborhood. The pasta, pizza, bruschetta and house wine were all absolutely amazing. AND to share it with the best date was so much fun. Sarah, you're awesome.
Our last full day in Rome was the Colosseum and Roman Forum. This day is one of the highlights from my whole trip. It was just such a good overall day! The sun was shining, we were seeing some really cool Roman ish things, we ate really good pastries, pizza, bruschetta, prosciutto and wine. And of course gelato :) This day is when it finally hit me that I was actually in Italy. At the end of the night I threw my coin into the Trevi and said arrivederci (goodbye) to Rome (for now!).
Pope Francis (Photo by Tierney Chlan)
Sarah and I at the Spanish Steps
Spanish Steps. Look at that bluuuee sky!
This pasta was sooo good….
Colosseum
My travel mates: Me, Tierney, Megan and Cameron
Best gelato in the world
Trevi fountain at night
We headed to Florence the next day after indulging one last time on our favorite bakery's pastries. We took the train and it was actually a really nice train and the scenery that we went through was classic tuscan countryside. It was so beautiful with the tall skinny trees and colors and hills and mountains in the distance. It made me want to take a trip to Tuscany and go to a vineyard and take cooking classes someday!
Anyways, Florence gave us a few more adventures. There were three of us now, myself, Tierney and Cameron. We got off the train and figured the best way to get to our rented apartment was to take the bus. So we went and bought bus tickets and went to find our correct bus. We got on and were feeling pretty good for finding the right one, then we see some police officers get on. They came right over to us and asked to see our tickets so I handed them to the officer. She immediately started jabbering away in Italian in an angry voice and we were like uh no italiano! So she brought another guy over who spoke english who pulled out a big legal pad and began telling us that because we didn't validate our tickets right away when we got on the bus we were going to have to pay a 50 euro fine each. Right away we started arguing and saying that we literally just bought the tickets and just got on the bus and we had no idea that you needed to validate your tickets because we didn't see anyone else doing it. That just made him more mad and they got off at our stop with us and began asking for our passports and kept saying that this is the law in Florence. He said 'I give you a deal, you pay now for 2 fines otherwise you pay 3 fines at the box office.' He even pulled out a badge to prove that he was legit. WAH we were so confused and in disbelief and kept arguing which made him more mad and so he goes 'FINE you pay 3 fines at the box office.' We had no idea where the box office was so I said wait, ok we will pay for 2 fines right now and pulled out 100 euro and shoved it into his hand. It was so sketchy and we knew we were definitely targeted with our luggage and probably confused looks.
So. Our first impression of Florence was pretty bad too. After losing my phone though, this was pretty small :) Just really frustrating that we were targeted and they were not understanding that we had no idea to validate our tickets! That evening it also rained on us. So to lift our moods we set off to find one of our friends who was in Florence at the same time, Emily. We sat down with her at a nice restaurant for a few hours and exchanged stories of our travels so far. The food was amazing also. The lasagna, wine and tiramisu that I had… mhmmm. We enjoyed getting to relax and eat good food to make us feel better after losing 33 euros to those mean policia.
The next day was Easter! We began the day with a ceremony that involved an exploding cart. It was in the middle of the main square with the Duomo and there were sooo many people there! The ceremony was in Italian and we couldn't really see what was going on but when the cart started going off it was really cool. There were fireworks and little firecrackers coming from it and it was really an experience I will not forget. The fireworks went on for at least 7 or 8 minutes too. A successful explosion of the cart means good luck for the new year and I would say it was a successful explosion! The afternoon was spent exploring the city and having a picnic in a park. We met up with our friends, Emily and Gina to cook an easter dinner of sorts. It was fun to do something a little more special for the holiday as we were all missing our families and our traditions from home.
We stayed and relaxed for awhile then we went to find an overlook that we had been told about to watch the sunset from. We had a nice walk along the river and thankfully the sun was shining all day and it was a beautiful evening. The sunset is one that I will not forget. The clouds were absolutely stunning when the sun was going behind them and the view of the city from the over look was really nice. Sigh… That was another one of my favorite days from my trip. The sunset was a good reminder of the meaning of the Easter holiday and how the beauty of creation is pretty incredible.
Our last day in Florence was spent wandering some more streets and spending some time (and money..) at the leather market. We really enjoyed just looking at everything and listening to the vendors try to sell us things we didn't want. But of course, when in Italy I guess, buy all of the things and spend all of the moneys… The three of us found ourselves using those phrases more than once and those phrases kinda became a joke for the rest of the trip. We got one last canoli and sat by the river before catching our bus to Pisa.
Exploding Easter cart!
Duomo
Easter sunset. Incredible.
MN nice on the streets of Florence :)
Tierney, myself and Cameron
Yummy canoli by the river
Our hostel in Pisa was kind of like an oasis for us. We walked in and the man who greeted us asked if we wanted some fruit juice while filling out our paperwork. Why yes I would like some FREE fruit juice! There was a really nice lounge area where they also served coffee and dinner on some nights and compared to our apartment in Florence, this was paradise. May I add that the showers in both Florence and Pisa were teeny tiny and barely had curtains and we ended up getting water all over the floor.. oops! Those will be some memorable showers!
Our one day in Pisa and last day in Italy was better than I could have imagined. When people say there isn't much to see in Pisa they were right but I didn't mind! We spent a little time walking around but eventually made our way to the leaning tower. I was impressed by how much it actually does lean! No wonder why it is famous. We had a lazy day napping in a park, picnicking in the square with the leaning tower and ending with our last italian meal. Pizza, pasta, wine and tiramisu to say our goodbyes to Italy was nice to sit and relax and enjoy our last night in Italy. We ended up sitting under the leaning tower after dinner, eating snacks and chatting for a few hours while the sun went down. It was such a great way to end the day and when will I ever be able to say again that I sat looking at the leaning tower for a few hours at sunset?
Classic tourist picture
Sunset while sitting under the leaning tower.
The colors!
As you can see, Italy was truly the best of the best and the worst of the worst for me and my travel mates. BUT as a whole, I absolutely loved it there. The good things most definitely outweighed the bad and yes I will remember those bad things but now they just make for good stories :)
Phew! I hope you enjoyed hearing about my italian adventures as much as I enjoyed the adventuring. For now, arrivederci Italy! I hope to be back someday.
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