Ciao Bella!! Fall Break in Italy Part Three

Thursday October 20

“Rome”

Another train ride and we were in Rome.  Our hotel was 2 blocks from the main train station Termini which was very convenient.  We got to our hotel and wasted no time.  We did another Hop on Hop off tour of Rome.  We “hopped off” at the Trevi Fountain; I am in love with this fountain.  I could sit there all day.  It was absolutely amazing.  We got back on the bus and just kind of familiarized ourselves with the area.  We saw all the major sites on the bus and planned to get off the bus to do more sightseeing on Friday.

Thursday night we did a pub crawl which was so much fun!!  It was 15 Euro for open bar for the first hour and a half. You also got a free t-shirt!! If you know me well; you know my love for t shirts…so excited.  It was tons of fun and all of the people on the pub crawl were Americans which was cool.  Most were studying in Rome and then there were a bunch of boys from the US Air Force that were on vacation in Italy who happened to be stationed in London, one boy was from North Reading, MA….small world.

Friday October 21

“Sightseeing”

We bought this thing called the Roma Pass which is good for three days and it gets you free use of public transportation and entrance to 2 museums for FREE.  SO worth it, if you ever go to Rome get it, only 25 Euro. 

Arielle and I went to the Capitoline museum.  It is the museum that houses the famous She Wolf statue.  It was a really cool museum; there were so many outdoor courtyards, and hidden hallways and rooms to go in.  The other statue that Arielle was happy to see was of Marcus Aurelius on his horse.  The statue was originally all Gold.  The legend is that once all of the Gold chips off the statue…Rome will fall.  So they moved the original into the museum, and where it used to be in center entrance, there is now a replica.  The original has minimal amounts of Gold left, but I am pretty sure Rome will be around even if it chips.

We were then off to the Colosseum .  It was closed to go inside which was unfortunate, but it was still amazing to look at from the outside.  There were so many men dressed as Trojans it was really funny.  We took a bunch of pictures and then went back to my favorite place….the Trevi Fountain.  We grabbed lunch and then headed back to the capital building.   We ended up back in front of the capital building and we went and looked at the sunset over the Roman ruins which were really pretty.  Then it was time for our adventure….we didn’t know which bus to take so we kind of rode a bunch of buses until we got to where wanted to be. 

We stayed in Friday night because we had a big day Saturday. 

Saturday October 22

“Vatican City”

We signed up for a full day tour of the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica.  Our tour guides name was Stefano.  He was very intelligent; he had his PhD in Art History.  He was extremely informative and really nice.  The Vatican museums were filled with amazing sculptures, paintings, tapestries etc.  It was kind of overwhelming, yet completely amazing at the same time.  It is said that if you want to stop and look at every single piece of art in the Vatican it would take you a full 8 months.  Everything was art, the floor was all marble mosaics, and the ceilings were painted with the prettiest pictures I have ever seen.

Stefano likes to say the Recycling began in Rome because a majority of the floors were recycled marble from ancient Roman homes and palaces.  The museums were great, but the thing that Arielle, Andrea and I were most excited about was the Sistine Chapel.  Words cannot even describe it, and pictures do not do it justice.  I still can’t believe I had the amazing opportunity to see it.  There were guards making sure no one was taking pictures, which didn’t stop people.  And if it got to loud they would tell people to be quiet, it is still an active place of worship for the Pope.  We were in there for a good half hour while Stefano pointed out important parts of the masterpiece.  Arielle, Andrea, and I want to go back with beach chairs and just lay and look up at it for a whole day.  Our necks started to hurt, there is just so much to see! It is so amazing.

After the chapel we went to St. Peter’s Basilica.  Another gorgeous site, the marble was so pretty.  The altar was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen.  Clearly I have seen a lot of pretty things this trip haha.  We then went outside where we got a great view of the Pope’s Palace.  Stefano pointed out which room was his bedroom.  We also saw the chimney that blows the smoke when they are electing a new Pope. 

My trip to the Vatican was definitely one of the highlights in my life never mind this semester.  We were dead tired by the end of the tour.  It was a total of about 6 hours and 4 miles.  It was amazing, still in shock.

That night we had planned to go to the Hard Rock Café but it was too long of a wait so we went this cute little place called Pepperoni’s.  We happened to be only a few blocks from the Trevi Fountain.  I was SO excited….we went and ate gelato by the fountain when it was all lit up.  Gelato and the Trevi Fountain was a fabulous way to end a fabulous week.     

I have a new love for art after traveling with art history lovers all week.  It was one of the best vacations of my life.  The food, the people, the history, and all the sights…simply amazing.

Off to Paris this weekend….rough life right?

More adventures coming soon! (:

Liz*

Duomo de Milano

468 steps up to see the amazing view of Florence

Gelato=Heaven in your mouth

Just hanging out at the Colosseum

In front of St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican Courtyard

Trevi Fountain by night

In front of the Trevi Fountain

Ciao Bella!! Fall Break in Italy Part Three

Ciao Bella!! Fall Break in Italy Part Two

Tuesday October 18
"Florence"

We took the train from Milan to Florence.  All 3 of us were super excited because we all have heard how beautiful it is.  Well we heard right.  From the moment we walked out of the train station we had smiles, all the buildings and restaurants were SO cute and pretty.  The hotel was only about a ten minute walk from the train station.  Our hotel was so fabulous.  The concierge man was a gem.  He was so welcoming and gave us directions and sights to see in Florence right when we got there and he booked us two musesum visits within 20 minutes of being there. We made reservations at the Academia Gallery and the Ufizzi.  Reserving tickets is much easier...skipping the lines was fabulous.  We had a lot of time to kill before we went the Academia Gallery so we decided to climb the dome of the Duomo in Florence. 

468 steps later we made it to the top.  It was so worth the pain in our legs and feet though; the view was breath taking.  You could see all of Florence all the way up to the mountains.  We sat up there for about 45 minutes just taking it all in, admiring the view and taking pictures.  When were making our way to the stairs to leave the funny/scariest thing happened.  There was a line to go down the stairs because people are coming up so its basically the patient game; waiting until theres a break in people to head down.  This little boy had to be about 6 or 7 comes up the stairs and sees the view  at the top step and just screams "THIS IS AWESOME!"  His parents were still at the bottom, all of us around him were laughing hysterically it was so funny.  THEN he goes to like climb the poles that are seperating the dome platform from the roof.  10 people must have screamed stop because we all thought he was going to go right over the fence and plunge to his death.  His parents came running up and he still had the biggest smile on his face. 

After we made the climb down the stairs our legs were shaking a little bit.  Then we made our way over to the Academia Gallery.  The museum was really cool, the ultimate reason we went there was to see the famous Michel Angelo's Statue of David.  It is HUGE in real life, I didn't realize how big it actually was.  Arielle and Andrea both have taken art history courses so they were in heaven. I thought Arielle was going to faint.  It was a pretty amazing sculpture though, I would definitely go back and see it again. 

That night we went to dinner and once again had amazing food.  I don't think it is possible to have a bad meal in Italy seriously.  After that we went to this bar called Astor.  It is the bar where they filmed Jersey Shore.  It was 2 for 1 Tuesdays which was fabulous.  The drinks were good and so was the music.  It was a great way to end our first night in Florence. 

Wednesday October 19
"Festival de Gelato"

Wednesday we walked all around the city. Florence is fairly small so you can get to almost everywhere by foot.  We went to these really pretty gardens where there sculptures, and statues all over the place.  It was really pretty; there were a lot of students there with sketch books drawing.  The view from the upper part of the gardens was also really pretty.  My knees were throbbing still from the hike up the 468 stairs.  The girls went in to the Ufizzi museum and I opted out and sat by the model of the sculpture of David and people watched.  It was very entertaining actually.  We headed back to the hotel to rest before we went to dinner.  After dinner we went to the Festival de Gelato, it was just a Gelato place but it had every flavor known to man.  It was SO good, I could eat it all day long.

Florence was a gorgeous city.  There were a lot of Americans there too.  The University of Florence is a big study abroad destination, we saw several American college students.  I loved Florence I would go back in a heartbeat.  It was so much fun and there was so many things to see and do. 

Our next and final stop was Rome...   

Ciao Bella!! Fall Break in Italy Part One

Sunday October 16

"Milan"

Waking up was a struggle but I slowly but surely got my stuff together and caught a 3:30AM bus to the airport. After waiting in the airport for a few hours, boarded my flight to Milan.  I slept most of the way, until this baby woke up the whole plane and would not stop crying (there should be an age limit for kids on flights, just saying.)  Landed in Milan and waited for Andrea and Arielle for about 3 hours, they were coming from Prauge.  We took the bus from the airport to the train station, where we then got a taxi to our hotel. 

I was beyond tired so I took a nap when we got to our hotel.  The rooms in European hotels are so different than in the states.  A double room is two twin beds.  However the beds in Milan were the most comfortable out of all three cities.  They were more comfortable than my bed in my dorm at Regents in London. That night we went down town to get dinner; all of the restaurants along this one strip had a really cool concept.  You buy one drink whether its alcohol or soda and it's 8 Euro...then there is this huge buffet set up and you can get all the food you want.  But the way it was set up was like you were at a cookout. There were paper plates, plastic utensils etc.  Then at 10:00pm they start charging you for meals and the buffet is taken away.  It was cool, and the food was really good.

Monday October 17
"Hop on Hop off Milano" 

We didn't really know what was in Milan, us being typical girls just knew that it was the Fashion Capital of the world.  We decided to do a Hop on Hop Off tour; you get on the bus and listen to headphones about the history and sites about the city.  You can then get on and off at any stops you want to.  We got off at the Duomo de Milan; it was this absolutely gorgeous cathedral.  It was so big, and the architecture was amazing.  Inside was just as pretty.  Outside of the Duomo was this big open area with a bunch of people and pigeons.  Literally there were so many pigeons, these men were walking around with bird seed in their hands asking if we wanted to feed them! Ummm no? It was so gross...little kids would take the bird seed and have literally 2 pigeons on each arm, who would let their kid do that?  Then there were these other guys giving away little string bracelets.  They look like friendship bracelets, and they are supposed to bring you luck.  The men that were giving them out were from Africa and asked where we were from and when we said the US they would High Five us and say OBAMA!  It was so funny.  Then they would ask you for a donation.  The bracelets are cute though, I got two but didn't donate....sorry.

After doing the bus tour all day we went back to our hotel and relaxed a bit before grabbing a late dinner.  We went to this small place by our hotel, literally had the best pizza EVER.  The best sauce and cheese omg I am hungry just thinking about it as I write this.  Overall Milan was good, there was graffiti all over the city though, more than the typical amount you would expect to see.  It was really dirty and I don't know if I would plan a trip back there.  I mean it was nice but Florence and Rome were so much better.

I am breaking this into 3 parts...1 for each city (: