Ah, spring break has arrived!! It's so strange to be spending my spring break in ITALY, while all my friends in Texas haven't even begun spring break and will most likely be in the U.S. I feel so incredibly blessed to be traveling to all of these amazing places every weekend, as tiring as it gets! (But I'm not complaining, hehe!) I spent the first half of my spring break in Italy, and what an adventure! I've been to Rome before, but when I was 13, so I can't quite remember any details and I knew it would be an entirely new experience. I was mostly excited for the religious aspect of my trip (being the nerdy Religion major I am,) and wanted to see the Vatican and catch a glimpse of the Pope! (No, I didn't see the Pope, I missed him by a day! &I'm not Catholic, but being a Religion major I can appreciate the beauty of Catholicism!) The trip was packed with travel mishaps, pasta, gelato, and tours of ancient buildings - you could say it was a spring break that I'll never forget.
When we (myself and two friends, Kathy & Kandice,) first arrived in Rome on a Thursday night, it was a challenge to find the "Bed and Breakfast and Hostel." One of our classmates had a family friend in Rome who drove us from the airport to the general location of our hostel, and we realized we were literally 5 minutes walking distance from the Colosseum - score! However we didn't see a sign for the hostel anywhere in sight. When we finally asked a local shop owner, he directed us to a random door in the wall. We walked up several flights of stairs, and saw a small plaque with the words "Bavaria B&B." Since it was locked, I continued to bang on the door for a minute until someone came out...I wasn't going to spend the night in the staircase! Luckily the manager was present and we got all settled in..into the tiny hostel with four rooms and only two bathrooms. Interesting, to say the least. But we barely spent time in the hostel, and the next morning our free breakfast was also a disappointment. A packaged pastry, yogurt, and cereal is what got us through the day. But hey, what do you expect for less than 20 euro a night at a Bed and Breakfast?!
The first day started out great, we hit all the main tourist spots and I loved every minute of my touristy picture taking. The Colosseum, Palantine Hill, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon all lived up to my expectations. I literally took 50 pictures at the Colosseum, and made my friends take several...okay over 20...pictures of me in it! And I got to be the princess of Rome, as shown below(:
We took a free walking tour of Rome at night, and I loved hearing bits of the history of these ancient places. Rome is truly such a historic city, and beautiful with it's Italian lights shining with pride. After the tour, we were wandering the streets looking for some pasta, and came across a shop with this pasta displayed outside...< < <
Okay, not the kind of pasta we were looking for! But one of my friends decided to buy it as a comical souvenir for a friend, and when walking in the store we had no idea what we were in for. It was an alcohol store, normal enough looking with several fancy looking bottles. But the woman working the cash register, Vanessa as we would later come to know, was an absolute joy. She wanted us to try EVERYTHING in the store, and by the end of our time in there we had about 15 samples of different alcohol. Welcome to Rome, Americans! The alcohol was unlike anything I had ever tasted, from strawberry, to pistachio, to viagra....? I ended up buying three little bottles of chocolate liquor, and I'm sure being tipsy convinced me it was a good idea at the time. Vanessa was one good saleswoman! After feeling a little sick from drinking on an empty stomach, I forced my friends to leave the free samples behind and join me in a search for our first Italian dinner. Let's just say Italy will never disappoint with it's pasta!!
Next up - THE VATICAN!!!! I knew the Vatican was a separate city-state, or something of the sort, but it really is a world of it's own. Literally separated by high towering walls, I approached feeling intimidated but excited at being somewhere so important in religious history. It was an amazing experience, but I was definitely overwhelmed at the vastness of the Vatican museum. I was expecting to just walk into the Sistine Chapel, but it took several exhibits to get there. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm not much of an art appreciator, but the Vatican had brilliant art! Nothing quite beats Michaelangelo's work, and I may have been yelled at a few times for taking these pictures...
After an exhausting day of exploring the Vatican, we headed to a little piece of American culture - the Hard Rock Cafe!!! A yummy veggie burger and chocolate/peanut butter dessert later, I was content with a wonderful day and was ready to wake up early the next morning for day trip to Tivoli...
NOT. So we booked a tour to Tivoli through a tour booking agency when we first arrived in Rome. On Sunday morning, we were up WAY too early for comfort, and got lost finding our way to the meeting point of our tour. When we arrived at the offices, we were told the tour was cancelled and they couldn't get ahold of our booking agency to let us know. We would eventually be refunded, but at the time we were very unhappy campers. Well, you win some you lose some, so we made a new plan and attempted to find the biggest flea market in Rome - The Portuese Market. After walking a great deal to find the place, let's just say the BIGGEST market is not an exaggeration. I would say we walked for about a mile, and it was just rows and rows of the same silly items. Clothing, shoes, home appliances, and everything useless to myself. Except I did see a wolf shirt, so tempting! After another somewhat disappointment of a market, we went back to the Trevi fountain to see it during the day time...only to be met with rain! So eating our gelato in the rain by the Trevi fountain, we decided to retire early for the night so we could be up early the next morning and take a spontaneous train to FLORENCE!
Florence, my favorite day of my Italian experience! We arrived florence to a dismal sight of rain, and I knew it would be best to start the day by buying an umbrella. There were guys littering the street selling umbrellas, and I thought 5 euro was a good deal anyway. After less than 2 minutes, my umbrella was turned inside out! And then after anther 2 minutes...it broke in two! If anything, the 5 euro was worth it for the hysterics of laughter the experience caused. So embracing the rain, we walked to the main attraction of Florence - the Duomo. What a grand building to testify praise to God! I was automatically jealous of my TCU friends studying in Florence; this was one of the greatest architecture masterpieces I had laid eyes on in Europe. 463 steps later, I climbed to the top of the masterpiece and was able to see the entirety of Florence! Such a gorgeous site, but an awfully tiring climb to the top. Well worth this view though...
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