Once again, we had to stop at a rest area on the way to Rome. And once again, there were no toilet seats on the toilets. That really is annoying! We got to our hotel in Rome around 5 and got right into our rooms to drop our stuff off. Then a big group of us went across the street to the train station to get our Roma Passes, which are passes that get you three days of free public transportation and into your first two museums/archaeological sites free and a discounted ticket at most other ones (excluding the Vatican Museum). Christine and Mike had already bought their tickets online, so we eventually lost them as they tried to find where they had to go to get them. So though I highly recommend buying the Roma Pass, I don't recommend buying them ahead of time! Our group then split further as we disagreed over where to go for dinner. My part of the group (6 of us) went to a little fast pizza place and got some pretty good pizza. Then we hopped on the metro and headed over to the Spanish Steps, which were absolutely beautiful. There were all these flowers! Gorgeous. And I made everyone climb all the way to the top of course. It was really cool. Then we walked over to the Trevi Fountain and threw some coins into it and took pictures. We were actually there when the lights came on! It's really pretty all light up like that. We got some gelato (chocolate) which was really good and took the metro back to the hotel.
The next day Christine, Mike, Rachel, Rachel's friend Abigail, and I headed over to the Colosseum to start our day. We were really far up in line so we got right in before it got crowded and were able to get some good pictures without lots of people in them. It was really cool to see the Colosseum and walk around on it and see the underground area where all the slaves and gladiators and animals were kept before being led up to the arena! Probably my second favorite thing that we did in Rome. Right next to the Colosseum is a big arch that we stopped and took pictures of. I know it has some significance, but I don't remember what Mike said about it. Then we headed right across the way to the Roman Forum, which is absolutely massive! We spent a good long while walking around in there. It was really cool to see, especially when Mike or Rachel (who have studied it) told us the simple version of what things were. Plus they kept looking at the ground for pottery and licking it to see if it was pottery or just dirt/clay. Apparently it's something that you do a lot at a dig site. We split up after the Forum, Rachel and Abigail leaving to do something else, while Christine, Mike and I stayed together. We just ate something from one of the vendors, which wasn't very good, quickly before heading off to try to find Trajan's Market/Forum/Column. It was pretty cool to see, Mike explained some stuff to us and we got some cool pictures. After that we headed to Circus Maximus, which is where they used to do the chariot racing. It's just green-space now. We did see some Harlaxton independent travelers though, which was fun to sit for a bit and talk with them about what we had all done. We then walked to the Bocca della Verita (The Mouth of Truth). It's featured in (I think I have the movie right) Roman Holiday. The legend is that if you stick your hand in the mouth and it's chopped off or whatever you're a liar. We're all ok! Then we walked to the Caracalla Baths, which were absolutely massive! So incredibly tall! And I really liked walking around them. After that we took the metro back to the hotel and I grabbed some food from a market and went back to the room while the two of them went to find another bath that Mike wanted to see. When Christine came back, we turned on the TV for a bit and watched infomercials and took a nap before going out to dinner. We went to this cafeteria place down the road, which was alright, but it took forever to get the check!
The next day we took the metro to the Vatican and waited in line for the Vatican Museum. We spent hours inside the museum! It was awesome! My favorite thing in Rome! There was so much stuff! And paintings everywhere! We got to see the Sistine Chapel too, which was cool. We were really hungry by the time we finished the permanent collection in the museum, so even though we would've liked to see the Fabergé eggs and the Aboriginal collection, we left the museum and went across the street to a restaurant for lunch. The fettuccine alfredo was absolutely amazing! We then proceeded to circumnavigate Vatican City when we went the wrong way to find the plaza that everyone knows as the Vatican. We eventually found it and took plenty of pictures of it and all the things out for the Beatification of Pope John Paul II, which was going to take place on May 1, hence the 3 million Polish people that were arriving in Rome while we were there. We got in line to go into St. Peter's Basilica and Mike and I got into a fight with a Spanish guy when he cut us in line and proceeded to let 20 kids in front of him. The basilica is absolutely amazing. Once we walked in there, we instantly understood why people hate Catholics. It is so elaborate and the wealth is so evident! We spent a fair bit of time walking around in there and looking at everything. By then, we were pretty Vatican-ed out, so we left and started walking to the next set of Roman spots on Mike's list. The first was the castle that houses Hadrian's Tomb. We didn't go in, just walked past it and took some pictures. We then crossed the river and walked to the glass building that houses the Ara Pacis (Arch of Peace) and took pictures of it through the windows. Then it was a walk down to the Pantheon, which we did go inside. It's a basilica now, so the inside looks different than it originally did. But it was really cool to see nonetheless! The hole in the top is really neat. We then walked to Piazza Navona to see the Fountain of the Four Rivers (and the Egyptian obelisk located in it). Mike wanted to see it because of the obelisk. I wanted to see it because the fountain features in Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, which was exciting! We then walked to the Spanish Steps, in part because they hadn't seen them yet, and partly because that's where the nearest metro station was. We took the metro back to the hotel for a rest. Christine and I watched MTV in Italian. We went out to dinner at a restaurant near the Trevi Fountain. I had some really good 4-cheese gnocchi and we had a bottle of white wine. We were about to ask for the check because we had finished the wine and water off when the waiter brought an opened bottle of wine over and poured us each another glass! We're guessing they just needed to get rid of it, because he didn't charge us for it! We left him an extra tip because he was really nice. We ended up having to walk all the way back to the hotel because the metro line stopped running at 9. Good thing we had a map!
Our last day in Rome, we attempted to go out to Tivoli to this villa and gardens that Christine really wanted to see. So we took the metro out to one of the last stops and got on a bus to Tivoli. After we were on the bus for awhile, another set of tourists asked us if we knew where to get off, and we didn't exactly and an old Italian man behind us heard our conversation and told us to get off at the next stop. So we did and walked a mile or so to where we though we were supposed to go. Once we got inside we realized that it wasn't where we wanted to go, but Hadrian's Villa instead. The old guy had apparently misunderstood where we had wanted to go. Although a little disappointed, we stayed there anyways. I didn't really care, so I still thoroughly enjoyed it there! It was really cool because it was really big and we actually were able to walk on some of the ruins, which you don't always get to do. And Mike was able to tell us stories about Hadrian and his Greek lover boy, which was interesting. We had to walk over a mile back to the main road and find a bus stop and wait for the bus. The bus eventually took us to a metro station and we got to get on that and go back to our hotel stop. We immediately went across the street to a restaurant and got pizza (which was really good!) and gelato (chocolate and yummy) because it was 2 and we were starving! Then we walked back to the hotel and sat in the lobby and watched the highlights of the Royal Wedding, laughing every time they showed a good shot of William's bald spot. Around 5 we got all of our luggage and headed out to where the coach was going to pick us up. We had to wait a bit, then we got on the coach and headed to the airport. The plane was awesome! For some reason we had really roomy seats and we could just not get over this fact! Our plane got into Heathrow around 10 and we finally got through customs, got our bags, and made the transfer to terminal 3 around 11. Our luggage from Harlaxton arrived around 11:30 and we formed a line to get if off the van faster. Then Alana, Anna, and I shared a van to the hotel that we were all staying at and I checked in and got some much needed sleep before my flight back to the States the next morning. And gelato count for Rome=3, Italy=14. Definitely got a lot of that stuff! And since Hogwarts looks like ruins to Muggles, I wonder how many of those Roman ruins that I visited were actually wizarding schools!
So, obviously, I am now back in the States. And I am glad to be home! I absolutely loved my semester at Harlaxton College and would recommend it to anybody and everybody. Studying abroad is an amazing experience and I think everyone should try to find a way to do it, if not for a semester, then at least for a summer. As I am home now, this is my last post. I hope you all enjoyed sharing my experiences abroad! I certainly enjoyed sharing them with you!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Italy, Part 2 (Florence): These Men Were Wizards
Picking up where my last post on Venice left off, the next morning we all checked out of the hotel and walked back to the bus station, across the bridge. Once there we waited for nearly half an hour before Ian figured out that the coach that we were waiting for had been there the whole time! (In case I haven’t mentioned, Ian was my Marketing professor this semester and he and his wife were our trip couriers, the best couriers ever!!) Apparently the coach didn’t look like the one the company had told Ian to look for and neither he nor the coach driver thought anything of a coach sitting there empty for that long/a huge group of people just standing on the sidewalk for that long. Ah well, we got on the coach eventually! Then it was just a 3 hourish drive to Florence, in Tuscany. We had to stop halfway through at a rest stop, which are way more intense than ours in the States! They have toilets and a café and a place to buy food and it’s all huge! For some reason though, they decided that we don’t need toilet seats in the restrooms in order to go to the bathroom. That’s always interesting to try to work out. It seemed to be like this at half of the places I went to in Italy. Really annoying! We eventually got to the hotel, which was the nicest one of the trip and at first they told us that the rooms weren’t ready for us. About 5 minutes later though they told us that they were and we got to go put our stuff in our rooms rather than have it chilling in a lobby area in the hotel. Although a nice room, it was really funny because there were three of us staying in there and the beds were almost pushed all the way together because there almost wasn’t enough room for all the beds! But they were all singles so we were fine. =) After dropping all of our stuff off, 8 of us headed out together and got some lunch at a restaurant that’s on the way to the center of town. I had some good pasta, but I was so hungry that it didn’t fill me all the way up! After lunch Christine and Mike headed off because they had a date with David and the rest of us headed off to the Duomo. The Duomo is a huge basilica made with beautiful white, green, and redish pink marble, with lots of mosaics. There’s a baptistery in front of it and a huge bell tower to the side. We waited in the fast-moving line to go inside and it was just as cool on the inside as on the outside. And it was Catholic, so I actually really knew what everything was in there and what it was used for and all of that, which was nice after being in England for so long, where most churches are Anglican, but they were originally Catholic, so they just look confusing! After leaving the Duomo, we all got gelato, because I mean, we’re in Italy and we’re hungry, so of course we’re going to get gelato! I got chocolate, which is decidedly my favorite. The guys all headed back to the hotel after that, but Rachel and I chose to walk through the markets surrounding the Duomo and look around. I really wish I had a 100+ euro to spare so I could’ve gotten a leather jacket! Some of them were beautiful! I did buy my first scarf though! It’s cream and really pretty and should look good with lots of stuff. We got our fill of the markets for the day and headed back to the hotel and took advantage of the free internet in the hotel (which is when I wrote the Venice post). Later, Christine, Mike, Rachel, Tim, and I went out to get some dinner and found a nice restaurant. I got a good margarita pizza and we shared the white house wine, which was really good! Probably one of my favorites in Italy. We got gelato on the way back, cookies this time. Thought I’d go for something different. It was quite good. =)
The next day was Easter Sunday, so after breakfast Rachel and I headed back to the Duomo to get good spots for the traditional Explosion of the Cart. It started with a procession of people dressed in medieval clothing, from guards in suits of armour to pages and drummers to nobility. Then the cart came in, pulled by oxen (I think, something of that sort at least). The cart is massive! Then came a random little cart pulled by a donkey and a cart pulled by two women in more peasant-type clothing full of flowers, which they passed out to the crowds. We had to wait awhile while they finished setting up the cart, but entertainment was provided by the drums and trumpets and the flags, who twirled their flags much like guards, but it was really cool! Finally, the cart was ready. A dove on fire (paper of course) flew out of the open doors of the Duomo and ran into the cart, starting the explosion, which went on for a good 15 minutes or so. It was really cool because everything was timed! They went off in layers around the cart (firecrackers and fireworks). Sometimes it literally sounded like a battle was raging, with the screaming fireworks and the staccato-fire ones, which was a bit unnerving (probably because I spend most of my time studying wars!) but overall the Explosion of the Cart was really cool and definitely worth going to see! The guys who orchestrated it were wizards, getting everything to go off when it was supposed to and not before! After the explosions were over, Rachel and I grabbed some pizza at a shop on the piazza, then walked over to the plaza where the fake David is located. We had fun taking pictures of all the statues located in that plaza and got a little happy with all of the lions there (well, they were our mascot at Harlaxton!). Then we walked over to the Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge with shops along either side and another bridge on top of the shops for the Vecchio family could walk from their palace across the river to wherever they were going without being seen by the commoners. (If you remember, I think I mentioned in my Bath blog that they had a bridge that was modeled after the Ponte Vecchio, just without the second bridge on top of the shop one). Now, the shops on the bridge are all expensive jewelery stores, but it was still fun to walk across it. I did grab some gelato on one end of the bridge (chocolate again, and yes, I was using the I have a cold and the gelato helps my sore throat excuse.) We walked back across the bridge and through the markets around the Duomo again. I bought Allison an awesome gift there. We stopped at the train station and bought tickets for Pisa for the next day, then headed back to the hotel. Christine and Mike were in the room when we got back, so Christine and I watched The Lizzie MacGuire Movie, because we had to watch it before we got to Rome! While Mike and Christine went to mass, I wrote the Venice blog, then Rachel and I went to the Duomo to meet them and go to dinner. Tim and Jim were there too, so all six of us went over to the plaza with the fake David to have dinner on the patio of one of the restaurants there. I had a gnocchi and we split some red house wine, which was all really good! After dinner we walked back to the Duomo and got some gelato at one of the places around there (triple chocolate) and walked back to the hotel.
On Monday, Rachel, Anna, Alana, Betsy, and I took the train to Pisa, where Betsy, Alana, and I were annoyed by some kids the entire way. Once we got to Pisa, we took a bus over to the basilica and bell tower (aka the Leaning Tower of Pisa). The Tower is a lot smaller than we all thought it would be but it was still really cool to see! We spent lots of time taking fun, cheesy, tourist pictures of the tower. We chose not to pay 15 euros to climb it, even though it would have been really cool to do. It was just too much money! They had a little tourist market in the square area, so we walked around that a bit, and some people bought some stuff, then we took the bus back to the train station. We just got some quick food and ate it on some benches outside the station, sitting in the sun. And we took the next train back to Florence. Once back in Florence, Rachel and I went to go to the Archaeology Museum, but once we got there, we found out that it was closed on Mondays! With that option out, we walked back to the wine store I had found by the Duomo on the first day and I bought some wine I had liked and shipped it home (it should be here soon!). We got some gelato (chocolate again) and walked back to the hotel (we didn't really have anything else to do.) At the hotel, we looked up things to do in Rome and how much things cost and when they were open. So it was pretty productive. We went back to the fake David plaza for dinner and I had a really nice gnocchi for dinner. We got more gelato on the way back (stratechella), we sure do love that stuff! and headed back to the hotel. The Italy 1 group was in the hotel that night as well, so I went over and hung out with Lyndsey, Gretchen, Sarah, and Jordan for a bit, which was a lot of fun. And it was nice to see them all one last time before we all went home. (they all live in Wisconsin.) I then had the joy of completely repacking my suitcase, as we were leaving the next afternoon for Rome.
This last day is going to be split into two posts, since I was in two different cities this day. In the morning, Rachel and I stored our stuff in the hotel and headed over to the Archaeology Museum, because it was open today! It was a really cool place! There were tons of Greek, Etruscan (where the word Tuscany comes from, as Mike told us many times), Roman, and Egyptian (mummies!!!!) stuff. Everything from pots to armour to dead people (my morbidity comes out when I say the dead people were my favorite. =] ) We had extra time after we left the museum, so we sat on the Duomo steps for awhile, just watching people, before starting to meander back to the hotel, stopping in Accesorize (definitely love that store!) for a while and browsing and finding a cafe to eat lunch at. The chicken sandwich was really good! We had to wait a bit for the coach to get to the hotel, but once it was there, we got ourselves and all our stuff on it and we were off to Roma! (Roma=Rome, Firenze=Florence, Vinezia=Venice) Oh, gelato count=6 for Florence, 11 for Italy.
The next day was Easter Sunday, so after breakfast Rachel and I headed back to the Duomo to get good spots for the traditional Explosion of the Cart. It started with a procession of people dressed in medieval clothing, from guards in suits of armour to pages and drummers to nobility. Then the cart came in, pulled by oxen (I think, something of that sort at least). The cart is massive! Then came a random little cart pulled by a donkey and a cart pulled by two women in more peasant-type clothing full of flowers, which they passed out to the crowds. We had to wait awhile while they finished setting up the cart, but entertainment was provided by the drums and trumpets and the flags, who twirled their flags much like guards, but it was really cool! Finally, the cart was ready. A dove on fire (paper of course) flew out of the open doors of the Duomo and ran into the cart, starting the explosion, which went on for a good 15 minutes or so. It was really cool because everything was timed! They went off in layers around the cart (firecrackers and fireworks). Sometimes it literally sounded like a battle was raging, with the screaming fireworks and the staccato-fire ones, which was a bit unnerving (probably because I spend most of my time studying wars!) but overall the Explosion of the Cart was really cool and definitely worth going to see! The guys who orchestrated it were wizards, getting everything to go off when it was supposed to and not before! After the explosions were over, Rachel and I grabbed some pizza at a shop on the piazza, then walked over to the plaza where the fake David is located. We had fun taking pictures of all the statues located in that plaza and got a little happy with all of the lions there (well, they were our mascot at Harlaxton!). Then we walked over to the Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge with shops along either side and another bridge on top of the shops for the Vecchio family could walk from their palace across the river to wherever they were going without being seen by the commoners. (If you remember, I think I mentioned in my Bath blog that they had a bridge that was modeled after the Ponte Vecchio, just without the second bridge on top of the shop one). Now, the shops on the bridge are all expensive jewelery stores, but it was still fun to walk across it. I did grab some gelato on one end of the bridge (chocolate again, and yes, I was using the I have a cold and the gelato helps my sore throat excuse.) We walked back across the bridge and through the markets around the Duomo again. I bought Allison an awesome gift there. We stopped at the train station and bought tickets for Pisa for the next day, then headed back to the hotel. Christine and Mike were in the room when we got back, so Christine and I watched The Lizzie MacGuire Movie, because we had to watch it before we got to Rome! While Mike and Christine went to mass, I wrote the Venice blog, then Rachel and I went to the Duomo to meet them and go to dinner. Tim and Jim were there too, so all six of us went over to the plaza with the fake David to have dinner on the patio of one of the restaurants there. I had a gnocchi and we split some red house wine, which was all really good! After dinner we walked back to the Duomo and got some gelato at one of the places around there (triple chocolate) and walked back to the hotel.
On Monday, Rachel, Anna, Alana, Betsy, and I took the train to Pisa, where Betsy, Alana, and I were annoyed by some kids the entire way. Once we got to Pisa, we took a bus over to the basilica and bell tower (aka the Leaning Tower of Pisa). The Tower is a lot smaller than we all thought it would be but it was still really cool to see! We spent lots of time taking fun, cheesy, tourist pictures of the tower. We chose not to pay 15 euros to climb it, even though it would have been really cool to do. It was just too much money! They had a little tourist market in the square area, so we walked around that a bit, and some people bought some stuff, then we took the bus back to the train station. We just got some quick food and ate it on some benches outside the station, sitting in the sun. And we took the next train back to Florence. Once back in Florence, Rachel and I went to go to the Archaeology Museum, but once we got there, we found out that it was closed on Mondays! With that option out, we walked back to the wine store I had found by the Duomo on the first day and I bought some wine I had liked and shipped it home (it should be here soon!). We got some gelato (chocolate again) and walked back to the hotel (we didn't really have anything else to do.) At the hotel, we looked up things to do in Rome and how much things cost and when they were open. So it was pretty productive. We went back to the fake David plaza for dinner and I had a really nice gnocchi for dinner. We got more gelato on the way back (stratechella), we sure do love that stuff! and headed back to the hotel. The Italy 1 group was in the hotel that night as well, so I went over and hung out with Lyndsey, Gretchen, Sarah, and Jordan for a bit, which was a lot of fun. And it was nice to see them all one last time before we all went home. (they all live in Wisconsin.) I then had the joy of completely repacking my suitcase, as we were leaving the next afternoon for Rome.
This last day is going to be split into two posts, since I was in two different cities this day. In the morning, Rachel and I stored our stuff in the hotel and headed over to the Archaeology Museum, because it was open today! It was a really cool place! There were tons of Greek, Etruscan (where the word Tuscany comes from, as Mike told us many times), Roman, and Egyptian (mummies!!!!) stuff. Everything from pots to armour to dead people (my morbidity comes out when I say the dead people were my favorite. =] ) We had extra time after we left the museum, so we sat on the Duomo steps for awhile, just watching people, before starting to meander back to the hotel, stopping in Accesorize (definitely love that store!) for a while and browsing and finding a cafe to eat lunch at. The chicken sandwich was really good! We had to wait a bit for the coach to get to the hotel, but once it was there, we got ourselves and all our stuff on it and we were off to Roma! (Roma=Rome, Firenze=Florence, Vinezia=Venice) Oh, gelato count=6 for Florence, 11 for Italy.
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