You made it, Italy lovers! I have reached our final destination
on our whirlwind Italian vacation.
Tuesday morning Julie and I took
a train to Rome, which is one-and-a-half hours from Florence. I love to look out the window at the
countryside and hate to miss anything, but I was so sleepy on this particular
ride that I kept dozing off. Sunny +
warm = zzzzzzz.
We arrived at our hotel
just before Noon. We got lost again trying
to find the hotel. I went into another
hotel to ask directions and the man was on the phone so had to wait several
minutes. Julie was waiting on the street
and thought someone had abducted me.
We finally made it to Discover
Roma. The hotel manager was waiting for
us and was incredibly nice. He marked up
a map to show us all the places to go.
He also told us where not to
go after dark. Our room was ok. There was no breakfast included or available
at the hotel so we grabbed stuff on the street (I think I ate Cliff Bars for
breakfast). Not too exciting. We also were given a key to get in and out of
the building on our own. I had the man’s
telephone number (he told us to take a photo of it with our cell phones) so we
had it in case of emergency.
We took off wandering but had to
be at the Colosseum by 2 p.m. for a three-hour tour, which included the
Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, Piazza Novella and the Pantheon. We walked the streets for a while and kept
wondering, “Where is all the old stuff?”
We finally saw it. Holy cow! The Colosseum is enormous!
Our tour guide was great – and looked like a
young Billy Crystal.
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| You look mahvelous! |
We rested our tired feet while having dinner right outside the Pantheon.
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| Pantheon roof - made of concrete. The hole in the ceiling is the only source of light. |
Later that night we had a free tour of just the Pantheon. It was interesting to get a different perspective.
Wednesday morning we rode a bus
to Vatican City. Later we found out
right after we got off the bus, the bus system went on strike. Apparently they do this sometimes. We’d just made it! Luckily their strikes don’t last long and we
were fine going back.
We decided to tour the Vatican
Wednesday. The pope usually has his
audience on Wednesday mornings so we figured we’d avoid the rush in the Vatican
Museum. I happened to see on Facebook
that a friend of mine was in Rome at the same time and was seeing the pope the
same day. Neither Julie nor I are
Catholic so we didn’t feel a strong urge to spend the time to see him. We caught another tour to see the museum, St.
Peter’s Basilica and Sistine Chapel. Our
guide, Debra, was great!
Side story – throughout our trip,
in each city, we would see what appeared to be old ladies with headscarves and
long skirts (I would call them gypsys) on the streets. Most would be almost prostrate, with their
faces bent toward the ground so you couldn’t see them. They looked so uncomfortable. I don’t usually give out money to those on
the streets in the States, so did not in Italy.
As we walked along in Vatican City, we passed one of these gypsys on the
tour. After we passed her, Debra stopped
and gave us some advice, telling us that when we see these women, “They walk
like this” and she bent over, walking like a feeble old woman. Then she wagged her finger and added, “No,
they walk like this” and she
proceeded to walk upright. She warned us
to never give money to them. Heck, they
may be around 25 years old for all we know!
Once inside, we mostly saw the museum grounds
and some of the inner gardens.
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| Cortile della Pigna (courtyard of the pine cone) |
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| Sphere in Cortile della Pigna |
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| Laocoon and his sons in the Cortile Ottagano |
We were
more concerned with seeing the Sistine Chapel so didn’t take time to see the
rest of the museum on our own. We waited
by the doors thinking we had to wait another hour or so, but they opened and
there we were! It was amazing! I regret that I had forgotten my binoculars
back in the room. (I brought them just
for this!) The Sistine Chapel is
small-ish but incredible. We stood there
for a long time bending our heads back looking up at the ceiling. Even though photos are not allowed, we did
see a few people sneaking photos when the guards weren’t looking. I respected the rules and drank it all
in. Photos wouldn’t do it justice
anyway.
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| This was outside the chapel on the grounds |
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| The hallway leading to the chapel with ancient maps on the walls |
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| To the left, to the left... |
While the chapel is fairly small
and simple, the basilica is huge and ornate.
We checked out the downstairs area where some cardinals and popes are
buried, and stepped into the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
Later that evening we did Rick
Steves’ “Heart of Rome Walk” from Campodi Fiore to the Spanish Steps. Again, the night perspective was nice and
less crowded. We saw the Trevi Fountain,
which was under construction. We were
very disappointed as it was covered with scaffolding. They had a metal walkway so you could walk
out over the actual fountain (with no water).
They reserved a small area of water where you could toss your coin over
your shoulder. It wasn’t the same.
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| Linda making her wish. "I wish the Trevi Fountain was not covered in scaffolding!" |
The rain started just as we walked across the
Trevi walkway and they closed it right after we were done. Good timing again! The rain increased to a downpour so we decided
it was time for dinner. We were
entertained by the other tourists outside the window that were drenched. After the rain let up we continued our walk
to finish at the Spanish Steps. Due to
the rain the area was mostly empty and quiet.
We had a nice view of the Fontana della Barcaccia, (the fountain of the
ugly boat) at the base of the steps.
The next day we walked by the steps and found it much more crowded.
During our night walk we noticed several Madonnas on the street corners. Who knows how old they are? They fascinate me. I am intrigued not only by the religious meaning, but how beautiful and ornate they are. I feel like she is watching over everyone walking the streets of Rome.
On our last day in Rome we
explored some of the parks. We noticed
that there is not much green space in the cities we visited. If there is any green space, there are fences
around it preventing anyone from walking on the grass. We stumbled upon the Villa Borghese gardens
and spent quite a bit of time in there.
Beautiful!
Our next stop was Palatine Hill, where we spent a couple of hours, and then the Forum Lots of ruins. It’s cool for a
while and they all start to look the same.
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| Palatine Hill |
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| Forum |
We got
stuck in another downpour and this time ducked into a bar to wait it out. We
had dinner down the street from our hotel at the Historia de Vicenzo. The area is filled with embassies and our
hotel guy recommended it as a good place.
It was. They charge extra for
everything, but I enjoyed the meal and it was very nice inside.
My first impression of Rome,
which didn’t change much during our stay, was of it being a busy, noisy, spread
out city. It’s also more expensive than
the other cities we visited. I’m glad I saw the ruins, but I have to say
that Vatican City was my favorite part.
And as cool as everything is there, I don’t know that I need to go back. For first-timers, the capital city is an
obvious must-see.
The next morning we caught the
train to the Rome airport. We sat next
to two women from Chicago. We enjoyed
chatting with them and listening to their stories. They had been to Paris and Italy for two
weeks.
On the plane we in the middle
section. Thank goodness we had more
legroom on this flight. Julie and I were
on either end, with an Italian man in between us (I later found out his name
was Nino). The in-flight movies were an
X-Men movie (very confusing) and The Monuments Men (very good). Our flight food was chicken, rice and salad
and a roll for lunch, a snack consisting of a Kit Kat bar and cookies, and a
deep dish pizza for dinner. After two
weeks of amazing Italian food, both Julie and I looked at our pizza with
disdain. I ate it of course (I was
hungry!) but it just wasn’t the same.
Back to Nino. I noticed that he kept asking the flight
attendant about the food. I finally
found out that he is allergic to dairy.
He hardly ate anything so I offered him some of my almonds. He is from Salerno, Italy and was traveling
with his daughter, who sat across the aisle from me. They were headed to San Francisco. He has an organic farm and was mainly going
to attend a conference. He attended
college in California and was also visiting the woman who owned the house he
used to live in. He was really nice and
gave me his name and email. He said when
we returned to Italy we could visit him in Salerno.
We stopped in Chicago, did the
customs thing, then had to re-check our bags.
The short flight to Indy had no legroom again. Drat!
We landed at 8:15 p.m. and I was home by 9 p.m. I unpacked a little and then got sucked into
a Sex And The City marathon. I finally
went to bed at 11 p.m. I was up for 24 hours! I woke up at 5 a.m. and thought
it was 5 p.m. since it was dark. I was
very disoriented!
In conclusion, this was an
incredible trip. I was super stressed at
the beginning, hoping everything would go ok, thinking about catching trains,
etc. But everything turned out great. And I have found that some of the hiccups along the way can provide the best experiences and stories. (I'm just really glad my story didn't include losing my bag on a train going the opposite direction!)
I am also thankful that I could take such a trip with one of my bestest friends - Julie! We've known each other since the ninth grade and have traveled to New York and various Final Four cities, but this trip beats all of those hands down. Where shall we go to next JO? :-)
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| LG and JO at the Colosseum |
Some of my observations and tips
for traveling in Europe:
- Everyone wears skinny jeans! Men, women, children, elderly. I felt very self-conscious in Milan but then
got over it. I had only brought boot
cut/flared jeans. Quite honestly, I
don’t like to wear skinny jeans when it’s hot.
My legs get suffocatingly hot.
- Gap and Clarks are
everywhere! Milan, Venice, Florence and
Rome. Who knew! Venice had the best prices on
leather. Some of the purses I looked at
in Venice were 18 euros and they were 25 euros in Florence. Venice had more variety also.
- Public toilets are usually pay toilets that cost around 1.50 euros. We learned to use the toilets on the trains
and in restaurants where we had dined.
- Parking is very scarce and the streets very narrow, therefore many people ride bicycles or scooters. I loved seeing nicely-dressed
people riding around town. Some
ladies even ride in heels.
- We both got AAA Visa cards with chips in them and they worked fine everywhere except the train station ticket machines. Mystery! I did go to an ATM once in Florence and it worked fine.
- I brought a couple long skirts
with me and found that they worked very well.
They were warm for the cool mornings, yet had great airflow during the
hot days. They also protected my legs
from the sun and I didn’t have to wear as much sunscreen. I felt a bit “nerdy” though, as I wore my
walking shoes with my skirts. I brought
one pair of sandals but they were not conducive for walking all day. After I got home, I researched sandals and
found a pair of AEO B.I.O sandals – the Balboa
Neutral.
I got a great deal on them and can’t wait to try them out this
summer. They will definitely accompany
me on any other overseas trip. I will be
set with these and my walking shoes.
- Be prepared to walk. A LOT. Julie wore a Fitbit during our
trip. We averaged 20,355 steps per day,
with 284,970 total steps for two weeks.
Our high day was September 21 – 28,586 steps. This was our day in Milan where we took a
walking tour. Yes, I wore my Clarks
sandals that day. (I had worn one of my
long skirts and wanted to look cute in the fashion capital of the world.) That was the only time I wore those sandals during the day. Lesson learned.
I have enjoyed writing about my travels. I hope you have enjoyed reading it. I also hope that you are able to travel to
wherever it is your heart wants you to go. You
won’t regret it. Happy traveling!
