I have spent the better part of the last two weeks exploring Italy, and now I'm going to try to play catch up. This is going to be a lot of work, but it has to be done. Click here to see my pictures from my wonderful trip.
Thursday, October 18th
Woke up at about 7am, and was at the Tube station by about 8. Took the Tube to Baker Street and waited for my easyBus shuttle, which was 30 minutes late and the driver was quite rude and obnoxious. There was a good amount of traffic on the way to Stansted Airport, so we arrived about 45 minutes late, but luckily I've learned that when you depend on the unreliable Tube and easyBus you have to plan to be at the airport about three hours in advance. I waited in line at check-in with a mass of fifty or so horribly annoying British high school students with one chaperone. So I spent about an hour in that check-in line because of hiccups with passports, baggage and what have you. When I finally got my boarding pass I had less than an hour to get to my gate. You also have to realize that RyanAir (the amazingly cheap airline that I fly on over here) has first come first serve seating, so I figured that I would now be sitting next to a crying baby and an obese Irishman that is deathly afraid of flying - which is what happened on my flight home from Ireland. But surprisingly, I was lucky enough to get an Emergency Exit row seat, which meant that I didn't have to spend the next two hours with my knees digging into the back of the seat ahead of me, and I figured that was a good start to the trip. The flight was comfortable and uneventful, and passport control at Rome Ciampino Airport was laughable. The girls (Jenny, Lisa, and Stephanie) booked another flight, so I spent the next five hours sitting in the cramped arrivals section reading, watching Italians drink espresso shot after espresso shot, talking to a girl from South Africa, and finally caving for a 7 euro panini after 30 hours of no food.
The girls' flight was delayed 30 minutes, and once they finally arrived we hopped on the bus to Rome. Thunder and lightning welcomed us to Italy, and run-down buildings and graffiti streets welcomed us to Rome. The bus dropped us off at the train station, where we found a pay phone and called Jenny's sister's friend's friend Jeanette who gave us directions to her flat. We hailed a taxi and the driver tried to charge us fifty euro for a two mile ride because we were obviously tourists, but we turned him down and he cursed in Italian as he drove off. We found another taxi that only charged us 10 euro. The taxi ride was what I expected: fast, reckless, and slightly scary - there were no lanes or traffic rules for that matter. We arrived at the apartment at about 10pm. The apartment was wonderful, it wasn't particularly nice or in a good location, but it was free. Our three hostesses were fantastic, and so hospitable. Jeanette was an American in her mid-20s, fluent in Italian, and taught English across town. Emily was an American in her mid-20s as well, she spoke Italian with a horrible southern accent, and seemed to be ranting about how horrible and chauvinistic Italian men were whenever I talked to her. Delphine was in her mid-20s and was from Belgium, she was fluent in five languages and working on another one, and she had a voice as deep as mine. Jeanette and Delphine showed us where a wonderful pizza place was down the street, and ran to catch the bus. We walked in the door probably looking a bit odd and a bit American. We sat at the table and opened our menus, there was one problem, everything was in Italian. And I think at that point our combined knowledge of the Italian language was limited to as many actual Italian words as you'd find on an Olive Garden menu - which is about nine or ten. Our waitress walked over with a sweet "buona sera" and that was the last word we understood. She was this lovely young Italian woman who couldn't speak English, and when we asked her what "rosse" was, she struggled for a bit and said "toe...may...toe..." and when we all smiled and nodded, she sighed and wiped her brow with a smile - she was absolutely wonderful. We slowly but surely figured out what pizzas we wanted, I ordered the Napoli because it sounded the best. They served us four enormous pizzas the same diameter as a steering wheel. What I didn't realize was that the Napoli pizza was an anchovy pizza, but what I also didn't realize was that I actually like anchovies. So after each of us were defeated by half of our pizzas, we boxed them up and headed back to the apartment on the somewhat scary streets at midnight. I was the only guy in the group, so I was relegated to sleeping on the cold tile floor with a small blanket all three nights that we were there.
Friday, October 19th
Okay, today was easily one of my favorite days of the trip.
We woke up with the sunrise, I had anchovy pizza for breakfast, and then we caught the bus to the Colloseo/Flavian Ampitheatre/Colosseum after using our phrase book to buy a ticket. The Colosseum was as amazing as I had expected, especially in the early morning with a lack of tourists. It was actually quite cold, I guess it dropped 20 degrees from the day before, the weather would serve to be a preview for the rest of the trip. We spent about two or three hours exploring the Colosseum, and I surprised by how interesting it was - the audioguide went beyond just talking about how gladiators fought there and actually got into the interesting history of it. For instance, it was originally called the Flavian Ampitheatre. But Nero put an enormous statue of himself near its entrance that was nicknamed the Collosos, thus the name Colloseo/Colosseum. The low point of the day was running into the high schoolers that I was stuck in line with at the airport in London, not surprisingly they were acting like the loud and obnoxious teenagers that they were again, I'm just glad that was the last time I had to see them.
After the Colosseum we went to Palatine Hill, which was beautiful and so...Roman. The trees, the ruins, the scenery, the fountains, everything. I could have spent five hours exploring everything there, but we had to cut it short in order to fit in everything else. We went to lunch at this touristy patio restaurant where everyone spoke English (which was a bit of a relief). Our waiter was very friendly and would sing in Italian whenever he was walking between tables. The restaurant was filled with American tourists, the bad kind, the kind that said "I don't want any of your pasta, I just want some ribs". It's in situations like that in which you are embarrassed by your American accent. I had a pizza because it was the cheapest thing on the menu, and it was wonderful, as was the wine that we ordered - after all, it was Italy. After lunch we decided to head over to the Pantheon (I was the only one that wanted to go there, but I convinced them) but our plans were delayed by all of the fantastic sights along the way. We walked along some ruins that captivated us for twenty or so minutes and then stumbled upon the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, which was the most overwhelming and enormous monument I will probably ever see. Looking up at it gave you vertigo; and the sculptures, architecture, and the view from the top were breathtaking. I was literally brought to tears by the view of Rome framed by Italian flags and beautiful cathedral domes, it felt like a homecoming.
After having our jaws in the dropped position for about half an hour we headed off for the Pantheon. I will say that I was a fantastic navigator in Rome, I only needed one look at the map and I could navigate my way anywhere. If I believed in the idea of past lives, I would be pretty sure that I spent the majority of them living in Rome. The Pantheon was everything that I had expected. I had studied it in a few art history classes and was captivated by it. For a quick history lesson, it was built as a temple to the gods in the second century by Hadrian, and was later converted to a Christian church. It is the only intact building from the Roman Empire in Rome. The story goes that when the Goths invaded and burned Rome they walked into the Pantheon and were so amazed by its beauty that they walked right out. It was just such a privilege to stand in a beautiful building (now a church) that is 1900 years old, how often do you get to say that? From the Pantheon we walked to Trevi Fountain, which is clogged with tourists and is essentially one of those places that you go to just to say that you went there - which I'm not a big fan of. This is in keeping with the travel philosophies of a lot of the kids in my program, those who tried to see how many countries they could fit into their Fall break. Travel isn't a collection of pins in a map or souvenirs, it's not where you've been, it's what you've experienced - that is my travel philosophy in one sentence. It just irks me when people go into it with that pins-in-a-map with their daddy's credit card approach and neglect the culture entirely. That's why I'm glad we stayed in Italy for 12 days, we got a good sense of the culture, I may now be broke, but I feel as if I have a greater understanding of Italy and its people. Well that's enough of a digression, back to Trevi Fountain. It is a beautiful fountain, don't get me wrong, it's grandiose in Renaissance style and somewhat unbelievable that human hands were able to sculpt so much stone and marble in such a fashion.
From the Trevi Fountain we went to sit and rest on the famous Spanish Steps. The sun was setting between the buildings, and it was quite a beautiful sight - aside from the thousands of tourists scrambling for photographs. We then backtracked a bit and walked to Piazza Navona to eat dinner, well, the girls ate dinner, I didn't have the money so I just ate a few pieces of "free" bread. Needless to say, our waiter hated me, but I threw in a euro for tip to ease my conscience. After eating dinner and exploring the piazza a little more (I particularly enjoyed the guitarist playing Pink Floyd and Beatles) we bought bus tickets and hopped on the 84 to go back to the girls' apartment. We didn't know that it took a different route than the 84 we took to the Colloseo, so we ended up missing our stop and riding the bus to the station, where we just hopped on another bus and finally found our way back.
Saturday, October 20th
We woke up rather late because we were waiting for Jenny's friend Danny to arrive from Bari, which is a 6-hour train ride from Rome. He came up for the day to show us around Rome, which was wonderful because he knew Italian so we didn't have to awkwardly use our phrase books. He was an amazing person as well, I told him that if I ever write a book, he will be a character. Danny wore a soiled Denver Broncos visor, had a ponytail, a neck beard, and wore a sweatshirt that had "All American" stamped across the front of it. His appearance would lead you to believe that he was an ignorant American, but you should have seen the looks on Italian faces when he would walk up to them and speak to them impeccably in their own language. He teaches English to Italian students in Bari, and told us about how he is usually the brunt of weekly anti-Americanism from his English and Scottish colleagues. And jokes such as, "What is the difference between the USA and yogurt?" "After fifty years yogurt forms a culture." I laughed, and found myself partially agreeing with this idea, probably because it is frowned upon to particularly like America. But Danny talked of his rebuttal in which he simply stated that the US has the most emulated culture in modern history, turn on Italian television and you will see American MTV and dubbed American sitcoms, walk around the corner and you will see a McDonald's packed with Italians, and then he said if he ever has to fend off anti-Americanism in a hurry, he just says World War Two. I don't know, it was just so refreshing to meet someone that was one of the most culturally intelligent people I've known and also loved his country, because I didn't think that that was possible.
We took the Metro (their Underground) to San Pietro, grabbed a snack from a cafe and went to stand in line at the Musei di Vatican. The Museum itself had some pretty impressive pieces of artwork, I was particularly drawn to The Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Caravaggio. His use of light and darkness while conveying the human emotion involved in the scene was sincerely moving.
After touring the art gallery and seeing many of the paintings I have studied in art history classes we walked through the ornate Hall of Maps and on to the Sistine Chapel. It was an odd experience, I still don't quite know how I felt about it. The artwork was amazing, and seeing one of Michelangelo's masterpieces was wonderful. We were shuffled in like cattle, and the chapel was packed from wall to wall with people talking loudly and taking pictures and video. And every thirty seconds the security guards would yell "No photos!" and somehow managed to yell "Shhhh" as well. It was all quite distracting for me. I just wish I could spend an hour in there alone lying on the floor, because I walked out after half an hour with a sore neck and slight frustration. Upon exiting we were lucky enough to see a pack of illegal street vendors (counterfeit hand bags and watches, etc.) pack up as fast as possible and run from the Polizia. We then walked about a mile to this wonderful restaurant that Danny was telling us about, Navona Notte. I had an amazing gnocchi con bolognese dish that will live on in my dreams. After this we walked back to Saint Peter's Basilica and went inside. Words or pictures cannot do it justice, to rely on the superlative, it was the most awe-inspiring structure I have ever seen. Michelangelo's Pieta was displayed at the foot of a cross to the right of the entrance, and I felt very privileged to be able to see such a moving work of art. We happened to be visiting the Basilica during mass, and the combination of the art, architecture, and Latin hymn would be an poignant experience even for the most ardent of atheists.
We then took the Metro to Piazza del Popolo to get hustled by vendors of useless and overpriced trinkets, and then we ran up flights of stairs and a hill path to see the Roman sunset, and it was absolutely beautiful. From there we headed to Danny's favorite restaurant Al Balestrari where I had the best pizza I will ever have, writing about it makes my mouth water. After dinner we retraced our steps and saw the Trevi fountain at night, which was much more impressive than during the day (and there were about half the amount of tourists) and Danny and I were hustled by street vendors while the girls shopped for overpriced clothing. Then we walked Saint Peter's Basilica, which was one of the highlights of my trip. It was a crisp night and Saint Peter's was nearly deserted, we sat at the base of a fountain where we sat on the cold stone and had our own respective moments of reflection at the foot of one of the world's greatest churches illuminated by spotlight and moonlight. It will be a memory that I will surely cherish.
Upon our arrival back to the girls' apartment we said goodnight and goodbye to Danny and our wonderful hosts, because we were leaving for Florence before the sunrise the next day. Stephanie was going back to London, but Jenny, Lisa and I still had over a week of Italy to look forward to. I need to split these up because my memory needs a break, in the next post I will talk about Florence and perhaps our five days in Cinque Terre.
Cheers!
Thursday, October 18th
Woke up at about 7am, and was at the Tube station by about 8. Took the Tube to Baker Street and waited for my easyBus shuttle, which was 30 minutes late and the driver was quite rude and obnoxious. There was a good amount of traffic on the way to Stansted Airport, so we arrived about 45 minutes late, but luckily I've learned that when you depend on the unreliable Tube and easyBus you have to plan to be at the airport about three hours in advance. I waited in line at check-in with a mass of fifty or so horribly annoying British high school students with one chaperone. So I spent about an hour in that check-in line because of hiccups with passports, baggage and what have you. When I finally got my boarding pass I had less than an hour to get to my gate. You also have to realize that RyanAir (the amazingly cheap airline that I fly on over here) has first come first serve seating, so I figured that I would now be sitting next to a crying baby and an obese Irishman that is deathly afraid of flying - which is what happened on my flight home from Ireland. But surprisingly, I was lucky enough to get an Emergency Exit row seat, which meant that I didn't have to spend the next two hours with my knees digging into the back of the seat ahead of me, and I figured that was a good start to the trip. The flight was comfortable and uneventful, and passport control at Rome Ciampino Airport was laughable. The girls (Jenny, Lisa, and Stephanie) booked another flight, so I spent the next five hours sitting in the cramped arrivals section reading, watching Italians drink espresso shot after espresso shot, talking to a girl from South Africa, and finally caving for a 7 euro panini after 30 hours of no food.
The girls' flight was delayed 30 minutes, and once they finally arrived we hopped on the bus to Rome. Thunder and lightning welcomed us to Italy, and run-down buildings and graffiti streets welcomed us to Rome. The bus dropped us off at the train station, where we found a pay phone and called Jenny's sister's friend's friend Jeanette who gave us directions to her flat. We hailed a taxi and the driver tried to charge us fifty euro for a two mile ride because we were obviously tourists, but we turned him down and he cursed in Italian as he drove off. We found another taxi that only charged us 10 euro. The taxi ride was what I expected: fast, reckless, and slightly scary - there were no lanes or traffic rules for that matter. We arrived at the apartment at about 10pm. The apartment was wonderful, it wasn't particularly nice or in a good location, but it was free. Our three hostesses were fantastic, and so hospitable. Jeanette was an American in her mid-20s, fluent in Italian, and taught English across town. Emily was an American in her mid-20s as well, she spoke Italian with a horrible southern accent, and seemed to be ranting about how horrible and chauvinistic Italian men were whenever I talked to her. Delphine was in her mid-20s and was from Belgium, she was fluent in five languages and working on another one, and she had a voice as deep as mine. Jeanette and Delphine showed us where a wonderful pizza place was down the street, and ran to catch the bus. We walked in the door probably looking a bit odd and a bit American. We sat at the table and opened our menus, there was one problem, everything was in Italian. And I think at that point our combined knowledge of the Italian language was limited to as many actual Italian words as you'd find on an Olive Garden menu - which is about nine or ten. Our waitress walked over with a sweet "buona sera" and that was the last word we understood. She was this lovely young Italian woman who couldn't speak English, and when we asked her what "rosse" was, she struggled for a bit and said "toe...may...toe..." and when we all smiled and nodded, she sighed and wiped her brow with a smile - she was absolutely wonderful. We slowly but surely figured out what pizzas we wanted, I ordered the Napoli because it sounded the best. They served us four enormous pizzas the same diameter as a steering wheel. What I didn't realize was that the Napoli pizza was an anchovy pizza, but what I also didn't realize was that I actually like anchovies. So after each of us were defeated by half of our pizzas, we boxed them up and headed back to the apartment on the somewhat scary streets at midnight. I was the only guy in the group, so I was relegated to sleeping on the cold tile floor with a small blanket all three nights that we were there.
Friday, October 19th
Okay, today was easily one of my favorite days of the trip.
We woke up with the sunrise, I had anchovy pizza for breakfast, and then we caught the bus to the Colloseo/Flavian Ampitheatre/Colosseum after using our phrase book to buy a ticket. The Colosseum was as amazing as I had expected, especially in the early morning with a lack of tourists. It was actually quite cold, I guess it dropped 20 degrees from the day before, the weather would serve to be a preview for the rest of the trip. We spent about two or three hours exploring the Colosseum, and I surprised by how interesting it was - the audioguide went beyond just talking about how gladiators fought there and actually got into the interesting history of it. For instance, it was originally called the Flavian Ampitheatre. But Nero put an enormous statue of himself near its entrance that was nicknamed the Collosos, thus the name Colloseo/Colosseum. The low point of the day was running into the high schoolers that I was stuck in line with at the airport in London, not surprisingly they were acting like the loud and obnoxious teenagers that they were again, I'm just glad that was the last time I had to see them.
After the Colosseum we went to Palatine Hill, which was beautiful and so...Roman. The trees, the ruins, the scenery, the fountains, everything. I could have spent five hours exploring everything there, but we had to cut it short in order to fit in everything else. We went to lunch at this touristy patio restaurant where everyone spoke English (which was a bit of a relief). Our waiter was very friendly and would sing in Italian whenever he was walking between tables. The restaurant was filled with American tourists, the bad kind, the kind that said "I don't want any of your pasta, I just want some ribs". It's in situations like that in which you are embarrassed by your American accent. I had a pizza because it was the cheapest thing on the menu, and it was wonderful, as was the wine that we ordered - after all, it was Italy. After lunch we decided to head over to the Pantheon (I was the only one that wanted to go there, but I convinced them) but our plans were delayed by all of the fantastic sights along the way. We walked along some ruins that captivated us for twenty or so minutes and then stumbled upon the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, which was the most overwhelming and enormous monument I will probably ever see. Looking up at it gave you vertigo; and the sculptures, architecture, and the view from the top were breathtaking. I was literally brought to tears by the view of Rome framed by Italian flags and beautiful cathedral domes, it felt like a homecoming.
After having our jaws in the dropped position for about half an hour we headed off for the Pantheon. I will say that I was a fantastic navigator in Rome, I only needed one look at the map and I could navigate my way anywhere. If I believed in the idea of past lives, I would be pretty sure that I spent the majority of them living in Rome. The Pantheon was everything that I had expected. I had studied it in a few art history classes and was captivated by it. For a quick history lesson, it was built as a temple to the gods in the second century by Hadrian, and was later converted to a Christian church. It is the only intact building from the Roman Empire in Rome. The story goes that when the Goths invaded and burned Rome they walked into the Pantheon and were so amazed by its beauty that they walked right out. It was just such a privilege to stand in a beautiful building (now a church) that is 1900 years old, how often do you get to say that? From the Pantheon we walked to Trevi Fountain, which is clogged with tourists and is essentially one of those places that you go to just to say that you went there - which I'm not a big fan of. This is in keeping with the travel philosophies of a lot of the kids in my program, those who tried to see how many countries they could fit into their Fall break. Travel isn't a collection of pins in a map or souvenirs, it's not where you've been, it's what you've experienced - that is my travel philosophy in one sentence. It just irks me when people go into it with that pins-in-a-map with their daddy's credit card approach and neglect the culture entirely. That's why I'm glad we stayed in Italy for 12 days, we got a good sense of the culture, I may now be broke, but I feel as if I have a greater understanding of Italy and its people. Well that's enough of a digression, back to Trevi Fountain. It is a beautiful fountain, don't get me wrong, it's grandiose in Renaissance style and somewhat unbelievable that human hands were able to sculpt so much stone and marble in such a fashion.
From the Trevi Fountain we went to sit and rest on the famous Spanish Steps. The sun was setting between the buildings, and it was quite a beautiful sight - aside from the thousands of tourists scrambling for photographs. We then backtracked a bit and walked to Piazza Navona to eat dinner, well, the girls ate dinner, I didn't have the money so I just ate a few pieces of "free" bread. Needless to say, our waiter hated me, but I threw in a euro for tip to ease my conscience. After eating dinner and exploring the piazza a little more (I particularly enjoyed the guitarist playing Pink Floyd and Beatles) we bought bus tickets and hopped on the 84 to go back to the girls' apartment. We didn't know that it took a different route than the 84 we took to the Colloseo, so we ended up missing our stop and riding the bus to the station, where we just hopped on another bus and finally found our way back.
Saturday, October 20th
We woke up rather late because we were waiting for Jenny's friend Danny to arrive from Bari, which is a 6-hour train ride from Rome. He came up for the day to show us around Rome, which was wonderful because he knew Italian so we didn't have to awkwardly use our phrase books. He was an amazing person as well, I told him that if I ever write a book, he will be a character. Danny wore a soiled Denver Broncos visor, had a ponytail, a neck beard, and wore a sweatshirt that had "All American" stamped across the front of it. His appearance would lead you to believe that he was an ignorant American, but you should have seen the looks on Italian faces when he would walk up to them and speak to them impeccably in their own language. He teaches English to Italian students in Bari, and told us about how he is usually the brunt of weekly anti-Americanism from his English and Scottish colleagues. And jokes such as, "What is the difference between the USA and yogurt?" "After fifty years yogurt forms a culture." I laughed, and found myself partially agreeing with this idea, probably because it is frowned upon to particularly like America. But Danny talked of his rebuttal in which he simply stated that the US has the most emulated culture in modern history, turn on Italian television and you will see American MTV and dubbed American sitcoms, walk around the corner and you will see a McDonald's packed with Italians, and then he said if he ever has to fend off anti-Americanism in a hurry, he just says World War Two. I don't know, it was just so refreshing to meet someone that was one of the most culturally intelligent people I've known and also loved his country, because I didn't think that that was possible.
We took the Metro (their Underground) to San Pietro, grabbed a snack from a cafe and went to stand in line at the Musei di Vatican. The Museum itself had some pretty impressive pieces of artwork, I was particularly drawn to The Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Caravaggio. His use of light and darkness while conveying the human emotion involved in the scene was sincerely moving.
After touring the art gallery and seeing many of the paintings I have studied in art history classes we walked through the ornate Hall of Maps and on to the Sistine Chapel. It was an odd experience, I still don't quite know how I felt about it. The artwork was amazing, and seeing one of Michelangelo's masterpieces was wonderful. We were shuffled in like cattle, and the chapel was packed from wall to wall with people talking loudly and taking pictures and video. And every thirty seconds the security guards would yell "No photos!" and somehow managed to yell "Shhhh" as well. It was all quite distracting for me. I just wish I could spend an hour in there alone lying on the floor, because I walked out after half an hour with a sore neck and slight frustration. Upon exiting we were lucky enough to see a pack of illegal street vendors (counterfeit hand bags and watches, etc.) pack up as fast as possible and run from the Polizia. We then walked about a mile to this wonderful restaurant that Danny was telling us about, Navona Notte. I had an amazing gnocchi con bolognese dish that will live on in my dreams. After this we walked back to Saint Peter's Basilica and went inside. Words or pictures cannot do it justice, to rely on the superlative, it was the most awe-inspiring structure I have ever seen. Michelangelo's Pieta was displayed at the foot of a cross to the right of the entrance, and I felt very privileged to be able to see such a moving work of art. We happened to be visiting the Basilica during mass, and the combination of the art, architecture, and Latin hymn would be an poignant experience even for the most ardent of atheists.
We then took the Metro to Piazza del Popolo to get hustled by vendors of useless and overpriced trinkets, and then we ran up flights of stairs and a hill path to see the Roman sunset, and it was absolutely beautiful. From there we headed to Danny's favorite restaurant Al Balestrari where I had the best pizza I will ever have, writing about it makes my mouth water. After dinner we retraced our steps and saw the Trevi fountain at night, which was much more impressive than during the day (and there were about half the amount of tourists) and Danny and I were hustled by street vendors while the girls shopped for overpriced clothing. Then we walked Saint Peter's Basilica, which was one of the highlights of my trip. It was a crisp night and Saint Peter's was nearly deserted, we sat at the base of a fountain where we sat on the cold stone and had our own respective moments of reflection at the foot of one of the world's greatest churches illuminated by spotlight and moonlight. It will be a memory that I will surely cherish.
Upon our arrival back to the girls' apartment we said goodnight and goodbye to Danny and our wonderful hosts, because we were leaving for Florence before the sunrise the next day. Stephanie was going back to London, but Jenny, Lisa and I still had over a week of Italy to look forward to. I need to split these up because my memory needs a break, in the next post I will talk about Florence and perhaps our five days in Cinque Terre.
Cheers!
