Vacations That Change Your Life: Day 6

Wednesday: Rome was the huge haul and after that, Florence would come in second for most things to get done and to see. So today, I am happy to say, was a pretty relaxed day, and I also had the first of my two favorite meals in Italy (they're tied for first) on this day! We started off the day by getting up around 9a and being out by 10a. We were able to leave our bags at the hostel for free and would be charged 1.50 euros per bag per hour after 2p. We were pretty hungry when we left the hostel but it was also pretty late for breakfast. Plus, we didn't really know where the good food spots were in the city and we weren't sure just how far away the one thing we really wanted to see in Pisa was (the grounds of the Tower). So we just started walking in that general direction with the intention of stopping if we saw a good place to eat. On our way we passed through a little open air market and Rosie and Joe bought a couple of little knick-knacks and scarves.

Welcome to Pisa!

At this point, we were starving! We agreed on no more stopping until we at least figured out where we should be heading. We walked maybe 10 more minutes and we suddenly knew it exactly where we were heading: STRAIGHT!

Yep, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was suddenly just at the end of the street. As hungry as we were, it was going to have to wait. It's not like you can see one of the most famous landmarks in the world, know that it is within your reach, and say "later; I need to eat first." Oh no; no, you don't do that. 

The cathedral 

=)

And after we had at least wetted our tastes, we could allow ourselves to feel famished again and go look for lunch. We eventually found a restaurant nearby that had a reasonable menu and then we commenced to enjoying my first of two favorite meals in Italy: pesto gnocchi for me (various other pastas enjoyed by the others) and two pizzas- a chicken and a mushroom- to be enjoyed communally. What fun!

The ristorante!

Yes, you should be jealous right now. I'm jealous that I ate this and I no longer have it in front of me!

Chicken on the left, mushroom on the right. Oh so SO good

And because lunch isn't complete without dessert, we decided to enhance our now other-worldy Coolness Level by buying gelato and walking with it to eat in front of the Tower. I got a scoop of pistachio and a scoop of hazelnut. Sweet, creamy, dense, and natural- you bet your boyfriend it was amazing! haha But I'm sure anything tastes better while sitting on Italian grass, in the sunshine, looking at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. :)

Yes, my eyes are rolling back into my head in this picture. What? It was good!

Friends <3

We spent about 15 minutes enjoying this simple pastime of sitting and enjoying, and then we headed into the cathedral to see the interior of the dome and the famous pulpit by Giovanni Pisano. It was incredible! We also took pictures of the Baptistery that is directly across from the cathedral but it cost to go inside and we didn't want to pay. I'll do it another day in my life. :)

The outside

Inside the cathedral

Giovanni Pisano's pulpit

The dome

Baptistery

Once done marveling at the interior of the cathedral and the rest of the grounds, we went outside to look through some of the kiosks that were near the Baptistery and then start heading back to the hostel. We made it back after 2p so we had to pay a little for our bags, but it wasn't much. After that, we walked ourselves over to the train station and got ready to go to.... Florence!

On the walk back to the hostel :)

We bought our [very cheap] train tickets to Florence, hopped on the train, had a little chill time, and then got off before the sun was even half-way done setting in Tuscany. 

Welcome to Florence!

Even though we felt like there were a few good hours left in the day to do things in Florence, we were a little late for seeing touristy cites this evening. We had to put our Florence list on hold for the next day, but that was alright- we had plenty of time to enjoy a fabulous Tuscan meal tonight. Side note, it also turned out that we were early for checking in at the hostel: our beds weren't all made when we got there but the guy at the front desk was nice enough to let us go in there and relax until dinner; he made the rest of the beds when we went out. While we were waiting for dinner time to roll around, Roshanna used the one computer in the hostel to do some work on a website she writes for, Joseph and Selene entertained themselves by using the internet on their iPhones, and Chantalle and I made a list for the next day. We went through one of my tour books and wrote down everything of interest (cathedrals, museums, piazzas, etc), operating hours, and prices. After a solid hour and a half of these simple distractions, we were all very happy and ready to head out to dinner. Joseph has a friend who visited Italy once before and recommended a restaurant to him. He didn't know the name but he did know what street it was on and the sign that was on the door. Well, he was the only one with an idea for dinner so we were very willing to go searching for this place. On our way, we got a glimpse of the famous and breathtaking Florence Cathedral and were able to cross the Ponte Vecchio! I took a few pictures but none of them really came out; it was too dark at this point. Not to worry, both of those will come tomorrow!

We walked around looking for Joe's restaurant for about 20 minutes and finally found the sign we were looking for: a wine glass with a halo on top. The menu was a little pricey but it smelled terrific inside and hey, we were in Tuscany! Were else in the world should one splurge on dinner? Unfortunately, though, we walked into the restaurant to find that it was actually a wine bar that also serves small snack plates. There were a lot of tables inside but they were the tiny 2-maybe-3-seater tables and they were all full. I think Joe was a little bummed that we couldn't eat here but he seemed to brush it off just fine. So, we stepped back out into the chilly Florentine night air to find a real restaurant. It wasn't hard to do this, thank goodness... we were starving after all of that walking! We found a very charming, rustic place where the restaurant was downstairs, below the street. The menus were taped onto wood planks and had beautiful things written on them like "Tuscan Sausage" and "Pizza Bread." We split some wine and bread, I had a Tuscan bean soup (incredible!), a tomato/cheese pizza bread, and Joe and I split Tiramisu for dessert. Happy happy happy happy happy.....

My soup

My pizza bread

My dessert!

When we were done eating, Roshanna went up to the counter to get our receipt and an older Italian man commenced to chatting her up for the next half an hour. We were fine to enjoy ourselves just sitting in this beautiful, Tuscan atmosphere, but when we heard Rosie burst out into opera, we knew it was time to go. haha On our way out we realized that we were actually probably holding up the staff too, because we were definitely the last customers in the restaurant and some of the lights had already been put out. Oh well; we had enjoyed it!

We had an interesting walk back to the hostel: Roshanna wasn't feeling too well and actually got sick on the way. Joe and I waited with her while Chantalle and Selene went on ahead. When the three of us [finally] made it back to the hostel, the other two were no where to be found. This wasn't a big deal, except for one tiny detail... they had the key to our room!!   >:(  To make another long story short: we killed time on the internet until these two goofballs eventually showed up. It was annoying but we just brushed it off- there was no use in creating issues between people in our group. Once in our room, I got my things ready and claimed the bathroom before anyone else could to take a shower. I eventually got into bed pretty late but I was feeling good: we had eaten an unforgettable lunch in Pisa, seen one of the world's most famous landmarks, had a fabulous dinner in Florence, and we had a great plan created for the next day. Not to mention we had safely made it from Rome to two foreign Italian cities within the past 24 hours. :)

Thank you for continuing to follow my adventures!! I love and miss you all <3

Vacations That Change Your Life: Day 5

Tuesday: We got ourselves up around 9a today, got ready and dressed, and then re-packed our bags because it was our last day in Rome. I was one of the first ones down to breakfast again and took my time enjoying what had become my favorite breakfast in Italy for the third time; but today I had a tall macchiato instead of caffé latté. At breakfast we made our plan of what we wanted to still see and do in Rome. When we were finally all done eating we checked out, stowed our bags in a luggage room, and stepped out into the beautiful Roman sunshine. The first thing we saw was Rome's opera theater for Roshanna. If I haven't yet told you, she is a music student and loves to sing opera (she's actually really good too!). Unfortunately we weren't able to go all the way inside but we did get pics of Roshanna in front of it, and that is what mattered to her. Next time we'll have to buy tickets to a show! ;)

Breakfast

The restaurant by our hostel

Opera theatre!

After taking pics in front of the theatre, we started walking in the direction of the Colosseum to see it one last time and to get up close and personal with Constantine's Arch. On the way, I bought a cheap black leather bag that I am very happy about and I was designated the new map-reader. I got us there fine and that really boosted my spirits, because I can be very bad with directions. 

Pretty museum

Wow. It doesn't get old

Arch of Constantine

Ruins

More ruins

After spending a little time on the grounds of the Colosseum, it was on to the next stop: the Pantheon! The Pantheon is now a basilica so it was free to go in. What I know about the Pantheon is a very limited amount: it is a perfectly balanced shape because the height from floor to center of dome is equal to its diameter, it is the most well-preserved, ancient Roman structure that exists today, the construction of the dome is baffling- how was it possible to construct a concrete dome like this, without supports, 39 feet off of the ground, in the first century?-, and the occulus in the center of the dome is truly open to the elements but the slight slant towards the hole doesn't really allow for rain and snow to enter.

The Pantheon!

And then, it was on to the next item on our list! We stopped back by the Trevi Fountain to see it in the daylight. :)

After a little time to admire the fountain, we had to part with yet another famous landmark to move onto the next one: the Spanish Steps. What an interesting experience that was! I have some really incredible pictures of myself on the Steps but man was it crowded with people and terribly congested with rude men shoving flowers into your hands and then demanding money. This exact thing happened to me while I was taking a picture of the steps: there was the slightest gap in between my right hand and my camera so this very pushy Indian guy comes up and just slides a rose right in there. Since all six of us were doing the exact same thing, he managed to slide a flower into each one of our hands within 10 seconds. He just went right down the line, slip slip slip! What did he do then? Smile at us and rub is fingers together. We all told him that we didn't have any money, at which his response was something kind of like, "oh it's okay, I only want little coins. No no, it's okay, just little coins." We continued to refuse to give him money, and he would not take back the flowers. I finally told him, "well, if you don't want it back then fine. I told you I don't have any money, so thanks for the flower." Well, he came to take it from me after that. Sheesh!

The Spanish Steps!

=D

I cannot tell you how happy I was with my choice of sweatshirt color today!

After spending a little time at the Steps, we felt like we had done good: we had seen everything that was on our list and we still had a good hour + left for a final great Roman meal. So we walked our satisfied selves to the nearest reasonably-priced place and pigged out! We had some bread with olive oil and a variety of pizzas and pastas. I had a salmon penne pasta in a tomato cream sauce and that was very good. 

When lunch was done it was time to find a métro stop to get ourselves back to the hostel. We made it back safe and sound but were cutting it a little close on time: the sixth person in our group (Michaela, a friend of Chantalle's who was visiting from Minnesota) had to be at the airport within the next hour and half to make her flight to Paris. Joe offered to go with Chantalle to take her there, so Selene, Rosie, and I said bye and then repacked our bags while we waited. Eventually we were bored of sitting in the storage room so we decided just to head to the train station. After all, we were heading to Pisa that evening! The three of us sat there for a good hour waiting and waiting to hear that Michaela was safe on her plane and Chantalle and Joe were going to make it in time for our train, but that isn't the call we got. After an hour and fifteen minutes those three STILL were not even at the airport.... yet alone Michaela through security! I'll make a long story short: we missed our original train, the three of us at the station decided to buy dinner at McDonald's simply to have a fairly comfortable place to sit and wait, Chantalle and Joe showed up quite some time later, got food, assured us that Michaela might have made her plane but might not have, we all ran to catch the next train, and we rode for about 4 hours to Pisa. Phew! (*In hindsight, I can tell you that Michaela did indeed make it safe and sound back to the States. Probably a little travel-worn and stressed but she has fully recovered since then.*) 

The ride to Pisa wasn't too bad, though it was late (I think we finally arrived around 12a). I got to spend most of it talking with Chantalle and getting to know her better. I really enjoyed that because Rosie is the only one of these friends who I see on a regular basis. The others are either in classes together or see each other often at the Residence Hall; I would never give up my privileged living arrangement but I do miss out on a lot of inter-USAC interactions living across town. Anyways, we got to Pisa very late and the city was like a ghost town. And, we didn't have a good map. You can probably tell that we had had a bit of a "give it a whirl" kind of attitude with planning our trip to Pisa. Fortunately, it is also not nearly as big of a city as Rome and we were able to find our hostel without a ton of wandering; plus, it was very close to the train station. The guy at the front desk was a little irritated that we were checking in so late but he didn't give us a ton of trouble. We had a really nice room considering we only paid 8 euros each for it. It was better decorated than The Yellow (our hostel in Rome) and the bathroom was cleaner- a big Yes! for me. My pillow was also much less laughably uncomfortable than the one I had in Rome. Basically, we were happy with where we had landed ourselves. And I was very content to get myself ready for bed and go right to sleep. After all, we had a big day ahead of us.... the Leaning Tower of Pisa and a train to Florence!

Vacations That Change Your Life: Day 4

Monday: I woke up early today but actually got myself ready right away. I was one of the first ones down to breakfast, which was great because I'm a slow eater- which you probably are already aware of. Anyways, I had the same yummy breakfast again: orange juice, french toast with honey and banana slices, and a caffé latté. Unfortunately, not everyone in the group was able to have such a good morning and we ended up waiting on a few to finish their breakfast. When we were finally all ready we left the hostel and hurried to the nearest métro. Our tour guide from last night had told us that he does a Vatican museums/Sistine Chapel tour for a reduced price and that he could meet us at a certain métro stop at 10a to walk together to Vatican City to do the tour. We were all over this because you often have to get to the Vatican museums around 6:30a simply to avoid waiting for 2 to 3 hours; you will always have to wait some amount of time. But with a tour guide you skip the lines and go right in. We definitely didn't want to miss out on this opportunity and we also had had a really good experience with our tour guide so far. So we had to push it to the métro in order to not miss him. We finally got there and ran down stairs, pushed through the crowds of people, stood in line, bought our little one euro tickets, got all six of us through the turnstiles, and just made it in time for the train we needed. It was a human salad inside the train so it was really difficult to read our maps and find out which stop we needed. Fortunately, a woman had been listening to our conversation and picked up on the fact that we wanted to go to the Vatican. She was able to tell us the stop that is closest to the Vatican and we got off there at 9:50a: 10 minutes before Greg (our tour guide) was planning to start walking to the Vatican!

However, when we got to the top of the stairs leaving the métro, we took one look around and realized he was not there. We walked up and down the street a little, crossed the street to the métro that goes the opposite direction, and had no luck. We had no idea where he was and we were running out of time; he had promised to wait for up to 10 minutes extra because he knows that the métro can be difficult, but how were we supposed to locate him?! We suddenly felt like idiots for not getting his phone number. We decided to split into two groups of three; one would get back on the métro and take it farther down and the other (the one I was in) would [power] walk to the next métro stop. Well, we did that and no luck. We had a minor epiphany on the way, though, that we had indeed gotten off at the wrong stop. However, by then it was 10:20a and we knew there was no way he was still waiting around, wherever he was. I'm bummed to say that we never saw Greg again; hopefully he wasn't waiting for us very long.

We met back up at our original métro stop after that and just shook it off- there was no point in getting frustrated about what had happened. So, we walked ourselves to Vatican City and hoped that we would be able to find another tour guide with prices as good as Greg's. At least the tour guides at the big attractions in Rome aren't hard to find; they find you. We had been standing outside of Vatican City for no more than 10 seconds before a guy came up to us rattling off all of the perks of his company's tours. It was five euros more than Greg's but we decided to go for it, thinking we wouldn't be able to find better prices when we were buying the tour on the grounds of the site. A little I.D. check, money exchange, and 10 minute introduction, and before we knew it, we were in line to go inside... VATICAN CITY IN ROME, ITALY! WHAT?!!!

That's Vatican City behind that wall!!

=D

Waiting to go in!

OMG!!!!!!

The last step before becoming one of the coolest people ever: GO UP!

The grounds of Vatican City!

The first phase of the tour was to walk through the main museums. The Vatican has one of the richest collections of art in the world, and it certainly is the richest country in the world. Gosh this was such an elegant place to spend a little time today.

Some of the art we saw in the museums:

The first of many breathtaking ceilings

;)

Believe me, from where we finished our tour, this is nothing

;)

So we were walking through all of this glorious, Ancient and Renaissance era art and listening to our tour guide through little walkie-talkies when we arrived in a tiny, circular room. There wasn't much to it; mostly it had a really pretty ceiling, and my friends captured a good pic of me appreciating it.

 There were benches in the room so it was almost like a rest stop where you can decide if you want to head back through any of the museums or go over to Saint Peter's basilica. But then..... you see a small sign across the way. It looks like every other sign you've seen in the museums so far; it's the same in every way... except for the name:             CAPPELLA SISTINA

We were there. I couldn't breathe. My heart started pounding. I felt like I was either about to get married to a man I've never met, birth my first child, or land a plane full of children in the middle of the ocean. "I don't think I can do it," is all I could say to myself. But you know what? I did. I did it and I am truly a changed person because of it.

MASTERPIECES OF THE SITINE CHAPEL, BY MICHELANGELO:

"Original Sin and Banishment from the Garden of Eden," "Creation of Eve," "Creation of Adam," "Separation of Land from Sea," "Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants," "Separation of Light from Darkness,"

and ME beneath them

"The Last Judgement" (credit for picture goes to Chantalle)

"Creation of Adam" (thanks again to Chantalle)

Game over. Vacation done. I had seen enough. Honestly, what more was there to see? I had just been inside the most famous room in the world, staring with my own two eyes at the most famous frescoes in our history. Me, Samantha; Samantha Christensen from Modesto, California; she has looked at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel that was decorated by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. I still can't get my head around this new reality. 

Fortunately, though, I did not follow my thought process that there was no more to see, because it ended up not being so... Saint Peter's Basilica is, categorically, something to see. But I'm getting ahead of myself-

After the Sistine Chapel, we walked slowly through a few more of the Vatican Museums. They had all become massively unimpressive by now, but this is beside the point. We strolled through a museum of Ancient Egyptian art that was pretty cool, and we also were able to go into a museum that was dedicated solely to the works of Raphaël. Raphaël was a very important artist during the Renaissance and I recognized at least one of the paintings in his gallery from my art history class. I found this to also be a theme throughout my entire week in Italy and it enhanced my experience ten-fold. It is so the coolest thing ever when you walk into a museum and recognize the works in there. It is even cooler when you can remember specific things you've learned about them and can share them with others.

In the Ancient Egypt museum:

statue of Queen Tuya

statue of the cat Goddess Bastet, with the mummy of the animal inside

In the Raphaël room:

"School of Athens" (totally knew this one!)

What an incredible experience! We were thoroughly famished after this very long and very full morning so we headed out to find us some Italian grub afterwards. We found a place that had different varieties of flatbread pizza and different pastas. I decided to be a piggish American and order a bowl of lasagna AND a whole slice of pizza. Naturally, I also had a dessert: my first taste of real Italian gelato, and it was made with Nutella!!

Very, VERY excited for my gelato

We were, at this point, six of the coolest people in the world. But we felt that this wasn't good enough and decided to become saint-like: we walked ourselves over to Saint Peter's Basilica. This is yet another piece of art that I learned about in my art history class, and I'll never forget what my teacher taught us about the shape of the courtyard: there are two curved, columned structures on either side that are meant to resemble the arms of God reaching out in an embrace. What she told us is that the proper way to visit the basilica is by walking straight towards it from the center street. It can easily be reached by walking through the columns on the side but then you miss the effect of being "welcomed" by God to the most luxurious building that has probably ever been created. The basilica is "new" compared to its Ancient Roman counterparts around the city, but it is built almost entirely by old materials. I mentioned to you before that the palace on Palatine Hill doesn't stand anymore because it was torn down to provide materials for the Vatican. This is true for a lot of ancient structures/buildings; anything that was made out of that famous Roman marble was taken apart. The stunning marble floors inside Saint Peter's, the marble walls, the gold details, all of it is technically ancient. And it almost collapsed me to my knees when I walked inside. Surely, it was the first thing in my whole nine weeks here so far to move me all the way to tears.

We can see it but I refused to look more than once; I wanted the proper effect!

Wow. Just... wow.

Sooooooo happy!

I love this picture. You can really see the giganticness of this structure.

The Pope's window

The interior. Believe you me, if you haven't been here yourself, you have never seen anything like it.

Michelangelo's "Pièta." Another thing I studied in my art history class, and the thing that really got me going.

These pictures are pathetic, so you know. This is truly a place that cannot be shared with others by telling them about it or trying to show them it without bringing them to it. It is something that can only be experienced personally by coming to see it for yourself. And I highly recommend you all do just that. It was something, for me, that I would like to bring everyone I love to marvel at someday. By the way, I took a really great 3 minute video of the interior but it's too big to post on here (gallery.me.com/ranthy). I hope you'll watch it because, while the video is also lame compared to the reality of what I was trying to record, I watched it again and it captured very well my impression of the place while I was in it. For one, I feel like you can hear some emotion in my voice while I'm talking. Two, I don't talk for most of it, and that is really because I completely forgot that I was taking a video. I just could focus on nothing; that place truly dazzles the human mind.

After our experiences inside, all six of us unanimously agreed that we were done for the day. It was early evening and was still light out but we had no desire to do anything else. We wanted to go sit down somewhere, enjoy a long dinner, talk, tell stories, and just let the magnificence of what we had done today sink in and be absorbed. We headed back to our hostel after that because it was too early for dinner. But that was okay, we were able to just chill in our room for an hour or so, talking and goofing off and I wrote in my journal for a while. When we were at that point where our silliness was taking over our behavior, we decided it was time for dinner. We headed back to the restaurant that we ate at on our first night in Rome because it was just down the street from our hostel. We had bread in olive oil and vinegar, red wine, and I had spinach and ricotta raviolis in tomato sauce. On top of that, I had a small tart that was nothing more than a shortbread type of crust filled with Nutella. We got to the point that we were floating, and decided that tonight was the night to use our "free welcome drink" cards from the front desk. I went to the bar with a couple of the girls just as the bartender lined up about 20 free shots of tequila for everyone who was present. *He also spilled a line of some sort of alcohol on the counter and lit it on fire and that was really cool. (Can you tell that I'm not 21 yet??)* So we had our free tequila, then I used my ticket and had another free White Russian. I seem to have good luck with that drink- it is very delicious and has been free every time I've ever ordered it. After that we danced a little but mostly just hung out; people weren't really dancing so we looked kind of lame. I used the time to borrow an iPad from the front desk and was able to send an e-mail to my mom that I was having a great time and was available. No sooner than I had sent that, she called my phone through Skype and I got to tell my family all about the things I had seen today and how impressive I found them all to be. We talked for something like 45 minutes and it put me in just that much more of a good mood. When we said bye, I headed up to the room, took a shower, and basically just went right to bed. I think this day might end up going in my collection of "best days of my life."