THURSDAY: The most important part of today was going to the ballet. Kristie, Ari and I got dressed in our ballet best and went out to a lovely dinner before. We went to the pizzeria down the street from us and split some pizzas. I actually knew what I was ordering this time. Of course I was getting anxious about time (it was already 8:00pm and the ballet started at 8:30) so I just wanted il conto (the check). However, our waitress surprised us with "a present" of biscotti and Drambuie.
I learned that I absolutely LOVE Drambuie - it tasted similar to apple juice ... delicious. We booked it to the ballet, found our seats after completing a maze through the theatre, and watched a Midsummer Night's Dream.
I'm not sure if it was the company performing or if Italian ballet is always like this, but this ballet was not exactly classical ballet. In fact, it was very contemporary, which I actually enjoyed more. I had never read Billy's play, but the dancers were amazing and I fell in love with Puck. He was so quirky. After the ballet, Ari, Allie, and I booked our trip to....LONDON!!! For those that know me well, London has never been on the top of my Euro list. However, it seems as though Morocco and now Istanbul are crossed off of the list (for obvious reasons) so I'm up for London and seeing a show! So stay tuned for that.
FRIDAY: Up bright and early for our Chianti trip, most of the roomies headed to the train station to split into groups. The bus ride to Chianti was windy, but after an hour we made it. Wow. The countryside is absolutely gorgeous. Plus the fact we were going on a school field trip to a wine tasting was the best thing ever. I love school over here. We went and toured a winery owned by the Pazzo Family, which "pazzo" in Italian means "crazy." The family apparently were the ones who plotted to kill off the Medici Family so they could be the wealthiest. Crazy story. Anyway, the castle was gorgeous. A family currently resides there and I am immensely jealous of them (minus the fact they don't have heating, so ha!). We met the 87-year-old grounds keeper who doesn't speak any English but likes taking pictures with girls.
Delicious! I don't even really know what I was eating but it was something like: salami/cheese, pasta with tuna, & cristini with tomato paste and olive oil. Whatever it was, I'd eat it again. Then we learned the Three S's of wine tasting etiquette. Swirl, Sniff, Sip. Something like that...am I right? We tried two different types, both delicious.
Afterwards, we went to the gift shop, scouted for some goodies, and even found wine in a bag! Anyone who thinks Franzia isn't classy obviously hasn't been to Chianti, where even they sell wine in a bag. Finally, we took a lovely stroll into the countryside. Why? Simply for photo ops. So we stood aimlessly for about 20 minutes waiting to hear some insight into wine, chianti, anything relevant but nope. We did get some cool pictures though.
After getting home from the trip, we all immediately packed and got ready for Roma! Our train was a half hour late, but we made it and prepared ourselves for our first real Eurotrip. A bunch of people were heading to Rome from our program, so it wasn't really scary at all. Sad to say, there weren't any gypsies on this train.
We successfully found our hostel, The Yellow, which was only a few blocks from Roma Termini. We checked into our room, not of course without some issues. So the 8 of us roomies traveled to Rome together and they separated us 6 people in a bedroom, and then 2 in a bedroom (with 4 randoms). That wasn't going to happen so we switched things around and it ended up 5 and 3. Not much better, so we just figured we'd bunk together and sleep all 8 in five beds. At least we'd all be together. That left an empty bed in our room for a random and a random we got. Nicholas (Nico for short) from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He was 21, very nice, and backpacking throughout Europe. I think it's absolutely fascinating that individuals from most countries, once you graduate University, go backpacking across the world. I wish it was customary to the U.S. We met a lot of Australians in our hostel that were packing, too.
So we went to dinner right next to our hostel, literally. We had melon and prosciutto for appetizer then I had gnocchi for dinner. Wonderful. There was a rowdy bunch of Italian boys behind our table, which made for some akward/entertaining dining. We got back, met Nico, and went out for our first night in Rome. This night actually was a complete and epic fail, besides the fact we found where we aimed to go and we learned to use Rome's subway system. The subway is incredibly easy, simply because there's only 2 lines. Regardless, I'm proud.
So we took the subway to Spagna, which allowed us to stumble upon the Spanish Steps. They're so massive (we later had to climb up them to get home) but gorgeous. After a little mapping, we met up with the boys and found our way to a club, Gilda. We realized how expensive and ritzy a big city like Rome is when they told us drinks were 10 Euro each. So we just invaded the dance floor and danced the night away.
That was serious. It was a fun time, we made some friends from Notre Dame that have been studying there since September. It was a good night. On the way home, Emily and I had to get pizza that looked too good to pass up. And it was. I got French fries & ham on mine.
SATURDAY: We woke up early and grabbed breakfast to go. We took the subway to the Colosseum and learned that Vatican City pretty much closes on Sundays so instead, we turned right around and took the subway to the Vatican. We traveled around the Vatican Museum, which is absolutely amazing.
It is HUGE. We wandered through the various museums simply to get to the Sistine Chapel. The most amazing part of these old European buildings are often the ceilings.
Walking through, it is a complete 360-degree experience, with beautiful decor from the ceilings to the floor. So the Sistine Chapel. Incredible. I don't know how else to describe it, but luckily for everyone I snuck a picture.
Then we found ourselves in front of the Vatican. For not being a super-religious individual, I fell in love. Just from the outside, the buildings are beautiful and enormous.
Then, once inside, the basilica was even grander. I think that the Vatican was my favorite part of Italy. (BABCI: I know you're reading this and I wish you had been traveling with me. All I could think of was your story when you went to mass in the Vatican. But don't worry, surprises for you when I get home in May!) So just wandering around the Vatican was amazing. It is so massive inside that I felt like I was constantly discovering new crooks and places I hadn't previously walked through. If you've never been there, add it to your bucket list...NOW!
So after being awed by the Pope's place, we accidentally stumbled into a fashion show. We saw the fancy cars, the fancy clothes, and the fancy people. It was actually really cool. Onward. We had lunch with the boys at a little ristorante and then found our way to the Pantheon. It wasn't my favorite place we visited in Rome, but amazing none-the-less. How did the Romans build all of these magnificent places? I have no idea, but they're incredible.
A long day filled with walking, walking, and even more walking made for some tired, hungry babies. We all went back to our room, said our hellos to Nico, and got ready for the night. We had our wine and pizza in our room and the Jaime and Ann visited for a bit to help Nico open his corked wine bottle.
What a fabulous beginning to a crazy night. We took the subway to find the Notre Dame boys at a bar called Scholars. After a lot of mayhem (because that's the only word to describe what occured), Emily, Ari and I made it to the pub. We hung out with the Notre Dame guys, Andy & Andy, and eventually Jaime, Kaila, and Ann found us too. We danced, sang, and were merry for almost all of the night. Andy was gracious enough to send us home in a taxi and we met the rest of the rigazze! I fell right asleep :)
SUNDAY: We had planned on attending mass at the Vatican but with 8 people you can't plan times. So we all woke up, packed, racapped the ridiculous-ness of the previous night, and checked out of the hostel. Good-bye Yellow! Good-bye bedroom with pretend gunshots all of the wall. Good-bye man-smell. It was a very welcome goodbye.
So the day was filled with the Colosseum and a 4-hour walking tour (from Guide Emily, of course) of the Roman Forum. The Colosseum was actually really cool inside.
I just can't imagine what it was like hundreds of years ago, but the fact that it is still standing is amazing. After a million pictures (that all look the same) we ventured to the Roman Forum, where a bunch of ruins remain.
This was incredible to see what the city structure was like and the various structures located in the city. One of the more interesting places was called House of Vestals, where virgins would sign a 30-year contract. They lived in this house and if any man entered they would immediately be killed. Very cool place.
After the walking tour, we took the subway to the Trevi Fountain and wow! It is beautiful. Even before visually seeing it, we could hear it from down the street. Of course a tourist attraction, there were tons of people there and I even ran into Emily M. I grabbed a coin of of my wallet (making sure not to get gypsied, of course) and did my cliche pictures in front of the Trevi. I made my wish and bam! Now I'm waiting. The fountain is actually very beathtaking in it's entirety, I wasn't expecting it to be as big as it is. So all eight of us made our wishes and we grabbed dinner. I don't know where to begin about the fiasco that was our dinner. We walked into a tiny cafe/mart-type thing and sat down and ordered the spaghetti carbonera, because it was only 5 Euro and that's extremely cheap for anything Rome. We wait awhile for our meals, tight with time and trains to get back home. So eventually, we see a waitress (from another restaurant) deliver 3 plastic delivery bags to our waiter. We're all thinking, "OMG, he ordered our food from somewhere....this is unreal" and yes! Not even a minute later, he begins serving our spaghetti to us. It was slightly infuriating, slightly humorous, and slightly humiliating. Oh well, we're cracking up now. We made the slow train home to Florence, which takes 4 hours but is only a third of the regular price. Worth it. We napped, we laughed, we ate, we cried (maybe). We got back home around 11pm, completely exhausted. It was definitely a memorable weekend with the girls. We even made some new friends. Success.
Anyways, Rome. Checked it off the list. I'm not sure I'd go back there again, though. It was a great city, but mainly because of the Roman ruins and structures. Vatican City was incredible, as well as the Colosseum area. However, as for Rome as a city itself, it was dirty, scattered, and overpriced. I prefer Florence any day over Rome. So I am extremely thankful to be studying in a wonderful city such as Florence, where I don't see cars getting broken into, where a drink costs 2 Euro, and where I can walk everywhere and anywhere. Rome, maybe you were meant to stay in history.
TODAY: Finally, I'm updated to the present. I know I missed a bunch of great things about the past week, but oh well, my memory only lasts so long. Today was a struggle to get up for class. My feet, I'm almost positive, we're swollen from all of the walking we did this past weekend. Soc class was interesting. We spent the first 45 minutes attempting to take the class picture, which we successfully did outside of the school. Then Italian. Love it. Now for the past 12 hours, I've been the biggest waste. Hopefully we're booking trips as soon as my roomies finish competitively singing Disney songs. Currently playing: "Be A Man."
I'll try to keep updating as much as possible. Until then, buonanotte!
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