Rome and Florence

Our first full day in Rome started with a 9am breakfast at the hotel. Jose, Ally, Kelsey and I enjoyed croissants, cakes, ham, salami, cheese, cereal, coffee and orange juice before we started our long day. Breakfast was included in the price of our room so you better believe we took full advantage of it. After taking a bus and metro into the center of the city we went straight to work. Our first stop was Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri whic h is situated right in front of the Roma Termini metro and train station. The Basilica is amazingly spacious and the organ player was a great touch to the amazing feel of the place. After a few minutes of walking and ducking into a few other smaller churches we arrived at the Basilica Papale Santa Maria Maggiore.  This basilica was huge. With giant pillars lining either sides of the pews and the decorated ceilings, we were more than astonished. We tried to see all the chapels but had to try and keep to our schedule if we wanted to make it to everything we had planned for that day.

      While inside the basilica Kelsey thought of the Illuminati. If you have read the book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown it is about a secret group of scholars who planted messages in famous works of art all around Rome. The sign of the Illuminati is an eye and usually seen inside of a triangle (like on the dollar bill above the pyramid.)

While in the basilica Kelsey was reminded of the book and the "path of illumination" which Robert Langdon has to follow in Angels and Demons to solve the mystery. We quickly stopped at an Internet shack and printed out the cheat sheet of how to find the path of Illumination that would take us all through Rome. We found a few things but didn't finish it all.  This would be a very cool thing to do if I ever go back to Rome any time.

Anyways, as we were "Roaming" around we kept talking about how amazing it is that all of the ruins and Coliseum is still there.

 We didn't go into the Coliseum because it cost a bit more than we were willing to spend and we wanted to see more things. As we walked towards the Trevi Fountain the four of us had a discussion that really sparked my interest. I asked the group, "At what point did somebody start charging money to see history?" Some time ago, somebody decided it would be a good idea to make money from people coming to see the Coliseum and Forum in Rome. I completely understand why they made that decision (to make money obviously) and I'm jealous I wasn't there to come up with the idea before them. This also happens in the U.S. I thought to myself. When did somebody decide to buy a whole mountain in Colorado and charge people money so they could strap some wood to their feet and ski down it all day long?

These are just things I think about while I've been traveling over here. My friends and I call this game "have you ever thought about" and we've been playing it all semester. Some good ones we've had recently are...

        Have you ever thought about how many steps you've taken in your life?

        Have you ever thought about how much time you've wasted in your life?

             

Have you ever thought about how many different faces you've seen in your whole life? Have you ever seen that person twice and not known it? How many people are on this planet and how little you've actually seen?

Ok sorry about the tangent. Anyways, we walked to the Coliseum, didn't go inside but walked around it and tried to avoid the 1,000 people selling umbrellas. It was raining on and off for a little while but nothing the Florida weather hadn't taught me before. Ally and Kelsey had two small umbrellas and Jose and I had our rain jackets so we were all perfectly dry, but that didn't deter the stubborn salesmen. Every 20 feet was another man with his hands full of umbrellas telling us we should buy one or two. Every time we told them no and still more came up ahead. We thought to ourselves, "if we wanted umbrellas then we would approach you and ask to buy them."  So our walk to the Trevi Fountain was full of saying no to umbrellas and laughing at different ways to tell them no. Ally really liked my idea of just frowning at them and giving them a stern "no" if they approached.

When we got to the Trevi Fountain I told the group about how you are supposed to throw a coin into the fountain in hopes that you will one day come back to Rome.

When I previously came to Rome with my family we all threw our coins in the fountain and I guess mine was the lucky coin because I got to come back first! Also when I was here with my mom, dad and brother we went to a gelato place near the Trevi Fountain a few times. It is called San Crispino and is an amazing treat. They have about 20 flavors that are all delicious. (They don't even offer samples because they know you'll love whatever you pick.) I decided on coffee and dark chocolate while Kelsey picked honey and cinnamon ginger flavor. Outside of the shop the 4 of us ended up sharing all of our gelatos because we all wanted to try the different flavors and they were all so good. Definitely find San Crispinos if you make it to Rome and don't eat it too fast, it's a sad feeling when your gelato cup is empty.

After our gelato break we walked to the Spanish steps.

We made sure to get some pictures of us "Spaniards" on the steps and then we walked all the way up them. At the top were more people selling umbrellas and some men selling roses. One man saw Kelsey and I holding hands and he immediately came for us. He held a rose in her face and was telling her "que bella, bellisima" and plenty of other compliments in Italian. We knew the trick that if she had take the rose then we would have to pay for it, and we would rather spend our money elsewhere. So he moved on to Ally and Jose but was turned down by them too.

Dodging more umbrella and rose sellers we eventually made it to the Piazza Novona where the 4 Rivers statue is. This is a piece by Bernini and is one of the checkpoints on the "Path of Illumination."

The Piazza is lined with cafes and restaurants that jut out into the street with tables and terraces. On the inside of the Piazza were artists selling "original paintings" and lots of tourists like us taking pictures of the amazing architecture and beautiful atmosphere. When Jose and I were satisfied with all the pictures we got the 4 of us followed the Tripadvisor.com guide to a great restaurant where we enjoyed a nice meal of....pizza and pasta as you may have guessed. Dinner was great and talking with friends about this trip was a lot of fun. We've already accumulated so many stories and it's always great to laugh and relive the experiences we have gone through. The following story is one that became the running joke of the entire trip. We like to call it "The struggle bus."

After finishing dinner we had to get back to the Roma Termini metro station and get to the bus station. From there we would catch a bus that would leave us at a stop right next to our hotel. Sounds easy enough right? Well we lost track of time while we enjoying our dinner and storytelling so we had to hustle to the metro before it closed at 11:30pm. We got to the bus station and quickly wondered around trying to find the right bus that would get us home. Jose found out that the "n1" was the bus we needed and we were about to take the last one of the night because it stopped running at midnight. We walked to where the n1 was going to stop and stood at the platform along with about 100 other people who looked just as stressed as we did. After standing there and watching a few buses go through the platform we realized that we wouldn't have to pay for the bus. When a bus pulls in to the stop it opens 3 doors on the side, one in the front, middle and back. You are supposed to pay at the front where the driver is but everyone just runs to the back and gets on the bus there without paying.

So 10 minutes of waiting and watching buses go through we see the (now haunting) letters lit up on the front of a bus that say "n1." As it turns the corner we see that it is already packed to capacity. Kelsey said she saw someone literally pressed up against the window. The 4 of us looked it each other with astonished faces and all I said was, "well, here we go." When the bus stopped most people already on the bus were trying to get out but had the swarm of people trying to get on the bus. We all locked arms and pushed our way into the already crowded bus. Kelsey and I remained together but somehow Ally and Jose were cutoff from our group. Ally was only 5 people behind us and Jose was still trying to push his way into the doors. All we could do was watch and hope that he could find space on the bus and eventually we would all get off at our hotel. Unfortunately Jose could not fit in the space he was in and was blocking the doors from closing so he ran out of the bus and around to the middle doors. In the middle of the bus he found enough space to fit between a few people. Everyone was crammed tight and all we could do was laugh about it once we were all on the bus. It was around 30 minutes of standing pressed up against people and constantly turning to talk to Ally or Jose who were having their own problems. We finally got to the hotel and agreed to repress that memory for the rest of the trip and never saying "n1" ever again.

The next day we woke up and had a hearty breakfast before leaving the hotel and taking a bus into the city. We went to the Pantheon and Kelsey, Ally and I came up with a new game that's called "Where's Jose?" (similar to "Where's Waldo") When we got to the plaza where the Pantheon is located Jose immediately went off to take pictures of the amazing building.

The 3 of us were talking about what we would be doing later that day and looking at a map and before we knew it Jose was gone. We spent 5-10 minutes scanning the plaza looking for Jose before we decided to go into the Pantheon and look for him there. Kelsey was the first to spot him and was awarded 1 point for finding him. He was peacefully taking pictures as usual and happy to see that we found our way over to him.

When we saw as much of the Pantheon as we wanted to we started walking towards Vatican City. Ally was determined to see the Vatican before leaving Rome and we were happy to see it too. As we approach St. Peter's Square we see the line is almost wrapped around the entire plaza.

We find the end of the line and talk about if we have time to wait in line and still make it in before our train leaves for Florence.

       (Diversion so you can understand some stress we had that day)

The day we went to see the Vatican we were also getting on our train to Florence. Unfortunately for Kelsey and I the train company (Trenitalia) did not send us confirmation emails when we bought our train tickets a few weeks earlier.  We bought 5 separate train tickets that would be taking us to Florence, Venice, Milan, Amalfi and then back to Rome during our whole trip. We were worried that we were charged for buying the tickets but hadn't received emails confirming our purchases. We emailed Trenitalia and looked online about people who had similar problems but eventually just left it up to chance. In the morning we had to check out of the hotel and carry our luggage to Roma Termini, where we would be boarding the train later that day. Jose and Ally put our luggage into storage while Kelsey and I went up the stairs to talk to Trenitalia about our ticket problems. After a few minutes of telling the lady at the customer care desk that we had nothing to show that we were on the train later that day she told us what we had to do. She said that we can show up to the train 1 hour before it leaves and the she will be able to see the passenger list for the train. From there she could look up our names, we would show our passports and she'd give us our seat assignments.  So now the 4 of us have our luggage in storage, Kelsey and I have to get back to the train station an hour before our train and Jose and Ally have their own separate train to catch after ours.

(Back to us in line at the Vatican deciding what to do)

Since Kelsey and I have to get to the train station an hour early and figure out our tickets to Florence, we decided we wouldn't have time to see the Vatican this time. We took two luggage tags that would hopefully match up with our respective luggage and told them we'd hopefully see them at the hotel in Florence. After a quick metro ride to Roma Termini we got our luggage out of storage and paid a few euros for the fee (we ended up getting my bag and Ally's bag instead of Kelsey's but that wasn't a big deal.) We went back upstairs to the customer care desk and told a woman about our ticketless situation. We knew we were on a train from Rome to Florence that was leaving at about 5:45 so that narrowed down her search quite a bit. After working some magic on her smart phone she was able to find Kelsey Fuller and Trevor Brown on the 5:46 train from Rome to Florence. We thanked her so much and Kelsey and I were so relieved that we'd be making it to Florence that night. A train and a bus ride later we were at our hotel in Florence. An hour and a half later Ally and Jose were there too and we were extremely happy that we all made it OK. We exchanged luggage (Kelsey had Ally's bag and Ally ad Kelsey's bag) and got some well-deserved sleep.

Florence

Our first day in Florence started with a big breakfast and some coffee to keep us energized throughout the day. After our 9am breakfast we caught the bus into the city and Jose (who had been to Florence before) led us to the Piazza where the Duomo is located. (if I haven't previously said it, Duomo is Italian for Cathedral) The Duomo in Florence as like nothing I had seen before. It is decorated with white and green walls on the inside and just beautiful architecture all around.

On the inside is the cupola or dome, which is painted all around. The sheer size of the Duomo was absolutely impressive and the work that went into painting the inside of the cupola bewildered us.

After a half hour of walking around the Duomo whispering about how amazing everything was, we got in line to go to the top of the cupola.

This dome in Florence is the famous one constructed by Brunelleschi. It was the biggest dome built at the time and was achieved by building a smaller dome as the foundation and support for the bigger one. We climbed the many steps leading to the inner dome and got a closer look at the painting inside the cupola. Kelsey got a little nervous when she saw the huge cracks in the structure of the walls running the entire wall up the sides. We eventually made it around the inside and kept following the stairs that led us to the outside dome. The view from the outside took my breath away. We were in the middle of Florence, higher up than anything in the city and could see everything from the top of the cupola.

After taking a lot of pictures of the city and some pictures of Ally and Jose we all descended the stairs back down to solid ground.

All the climbing made us work up an appetite so we stopped and grabbed some lunch before continuing on our adventure through Florence. The streets of Florence were lined with shops selling clothes, shoes, art and jewelry. We walked by the Rolex store on a main street in the city and I had to stop and take a picture of what I saw. There was a watch in the window that grabbed my attention because of the price tag.

10,160 euros. Yep, ten thousand euros for a watch. Thats about $13,000 US dollars if you're wondering what the conversion rate was at the time. It cracks me up that we were being stingy about a restaurant that charged 9 euros for a pizza and someone will buy a watch worth that much money.

So after I stopped gawking at the outrageous prices of some more jewelry we followed Jose up to a vista where he said we could get the best view of Florence. He was not wrong at all. We sat at this place for about an hour just taking in how amazing the city looked from this view. Along with about 100 other people who made the hike up to this place we watched the sun go down over the beautiful city and then walked back down towards the Duomo. The trip advisor app came in handy once again and we all shared some pizza pasta and wine before heading back to the hotel.

The next day the 4 of us decided to take a day trip to Pisa. We went to the train station and bought our 7 euro tickets to get to Pisa. Once there we headed straight to the leaning tower and were amazed by the tourists there taking the typical leaning tower pictures.

They were aligning themselves in the picture to make it look like they were holding the tower up or pushing it down. The 4 of us tried to do something a little more unique. Kelsey made it look like she was karate kicking the tower down and she and I posed for a one of a kind picture.

 After our pictures we went to get lunch and then bought some train tickets back into Florence. Kelsey took a short nap and I couldn't help but get a beautiful picture with her on the train.

When we got back to Florence again we tried to go see the statue of David. On our way there we learned that it costs 11 euros to get in to the museum and you can't take pictures of anything. Instead of waiting in a long line and seeing the statue of David, Kelsey and I decided to spend the 3 hours before our train to Venice walking around the city of Florence and get a little lost. After some more window shopping and walking by the river we met back up with Ally and Jose and boarded our train. This time we got to be on the same train and we sat together and talked about David, the city of Florence and what we can expect from Venice.

Since this blog post is already incredibly long I'll leave Venice for the next update. Also sorry that these haven't had pictures going along with them. The hotel internet isn't quite up to speed and uploading pictures is proving difficult. I will add the pictures to the blog when I get back to the states so make sure to check these pages again in about a week.  I'll start working on the post about Venice and check in soon. Ciao!