Sorry! The last few days have been so packed. I'll update this as soon as I can.
Friday, September 29, 2017
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Italia: Florence
It's day five. This puts us about halfway through our trip. It doesn't upset us, though. In 5 days, we have seen and done so much. We know that there is much more to come. For day 5, we chose Florence. What could be a better start to a day than a trip to AutoGrill? Oh, AutoGrill... How I've missed you. We went to one, but it wasn't a really big one. Before this trip is over, were going to a huge one.
Wanting to be able to explore Florence and the surrounding area both today and tomorrow, we decided that a one-night stay nearby would be a good idea. We booked a room at a "hotel" outside of the main city, about a 15 min bus ride. When we got to the hotel, we met some friends and got acquainted with our room.
The woman to check us in wasn't there when we arrived. In fact, we couldn't find anyone when we arrived. After yelling out, "Hello!" a few times, a woman eventually came out to help us. She was able to get in touch with the woman we need to see. That woman showed up about 20-30 min later. After some time, we were checked in and heading for Florence. A late start, but that's okay. The only issue was lunch. We were starving!
At this time of day, most restaurants are closed, and the ones we found, at first, were right by the river and wanted more than 20 Euro per plate. So we kept looking until we found a small sandwich shop. It was good enough to get us happy again.
We first went by the river. We wanted to see Ponte Vecchio, the first and oldest bridge in Florence to cross the river; the only one that was not destroyed completely by the Germans in WWII. Like most of Florence, this bridge is covered with high-end shops filled with things that we can't afford, haha. We had a nice view of both sides of Florence.
As we walked, we came across the most impressive building to me yet. In the Piazza del Duomo sits the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, a duomo so big, that there is no camera that can capture how immense it is. Truly incredible to see. The dome of this building was the largest of it's time. It was an architectural marvel. Today, the dome is beaten in size only by the one in St Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican City. We walked around the building, being impressed by every view.
We also saw this street sweeper thing. Almost as impressive.
We went to the Piazza di Santa Croce. In it is the basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze. In this church, you can see the tomb of Michelangelo.
Florence was a cool city. We tried to explore as much as we could. It was also crowded, which made getting anywhere difficult. The other issue was our available time. Getting a late start, we had to use our time wisely.
One highlight of Florence was our stop for gelato. We went to Gelateria dei Neri. So creamy, so much flavor. I got the Crema, Meg got the salted caramel and dark chocolate. I want to go back. I also got a double espresso, which was delicious.
We ended the night with another walk by the river. We wanted to see it at night. It was a great ending. Tomorrow, we go back to see more of Florence. After that, we're gonna do something special...
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Italai: Rome
Today was a Rome day. Time to see all the classic sites. The Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Forum. We only have one day to do it, so let’s get started.
We took the train into Rome today. It’s about 2.5 hrs from where we are staying, and we didn’t want to make the whole drive there in the early morning, and we didn’t want to get to Rome late. The train got us there around 9a, and we took the Metro from there to the stop for the Colosseum. By the time we got to the Coliseum, it was 9:30a and the Colosseum was already filled with people. I could only imagine what it would have been like if we got there later.
But, even with all of the crowd and the pushing and cramped hallways, we still love that we got to go. While its sad to look at this world famous, magnificent arena in the state that it’s currently in, it’s filled with amazing history and importance. Along with it comes thinking about what used to happen here. Standing inside, imagining the games and fights that occurred, picturing the Emperor of Rome watching from his podium, visualizing where all the tens-of-thousands marble seats used to be, with them filled with cheering fans. Even as it looks now, walking in on the second floor from the outer halls into the arena seating feels like you’re about to see it all. As we read and learned about how it was built in less than 10 years by the greatest architects and builders of its time as a gift for the people of Rome, symbolizing the end of the harsh rule by Nero, our appreciation for the Colosseum only grew. We were able to see how advanced and vast the entire Colosseum’s system was, expanding below the ground to nearby buildings. Really, most of it can be read about, but seeing it in person adds so much weight to the information. This was our favorite part of the day.
After leaving the Colosseum, we wanted to eat, of course. Meg and I wanted to find a pizza place that my family had gone to the first time we came to Italy in 2007. We didn’t know where it is or what it’s name is. All we knew was that is had some sort of view of the Colosseum and that there was a picture of Albert Einstein on the menu. We looked and looked. Eventually, we did find it. We got arugula pizza and it was really good. Worth looking for. We also found a beer that Dad highly recommended in the nearby grocery store.
We then spent the day seeing the Forum, the Capitoline Hill, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and the Vatican City. We were happy to get them all into one day, but it required a lot of walking. We climbed the Spanish Steps and were constantly harassed by people who tried to give Megan flowers and made kissing faces at us for Meg and I to kiss. All they wanted was money, of course, and they got pushy and mad if you didn’t play along. That was nice.
We went to the Vatican city hoping to see the Sistine Chapel and see all of the paintings that fill the ceiling and walls of the building. Unfortunately, we had gotten there later than we should have. By the time we figured out how it all worked and where we needed to go, it was close to 4. Ticket sales stop at 4, because you can only see it through the Vatican Museum. It can take up to 2 hrs to get through the museum, and we wanted to make sure we made it back for our return train in time. So we didn’t see it. We considered seeing St. Peter’s Basilica, but the line was huge and we didn’t have a huge desire to see it. So we headed back, looking for dinner.
There are two issues with getting dinner around 5p in Rome: 1) Like in most of Italy, restaurants are usually closed until 6:30-7:30p for dinner hours. 2) The only places that are open are so touristy and cheesy that we couldn’t get ourselves to eat at them. Seeing a restaurant with English writing all over the restaurant and people working there who are obviously not Italian is kind of a turn off when you compare it to what you’re capable of finding in Italy.
So we hunted. We decided that side streets are our best bet in finding something that is, at least, a little authentic. We found a place called My-Ale. It’s a very small sandwich place that prides itself in its many beer choices and prosciutto. Funny, the name emphasizes “ale” because of the beer, but maiale, which is pronounced similarly to how you would read My-Ale, means pig in Italian for the prosciutto. This place was great. Much more Italian and a nice, cheap but tasty meal.
We used the app, MyTaxi, to call ourselves a cab back to the train station, which saved us a lot of walking and got us there on time (FYI: if you’re gonna use the app, especially for a longer taxi ride, consider putting your credit card into the app and paying through it. We paid 12 Euro in cash to the driver, like the meter said. After we got out, my app notified me that the ride was finished and it cost 9 Euro. We lost 3 Euro). We bought our return tickets, got on the train, and we went back to the hotel, but not before stopping for some delicious ciocccolato gelato.
We took the train into Rome today. It’s about 2.5 hrs from where we are staying, and we didn’t want to make the whole drive there in the early morning, and we didn’t want to get to Rome late. The train got us there around 9a, and we took the Metro from there to the stop for the Colosseum. By the time we got to the Coliseum, it was 9:30a and the Colosseum was already filled with people. I could only imagine what it would have been like if we got there later.
But, even with all of the crowd and the pushing and cramped hallways, we still love that we got to go. While its sad to look at this world famous, magnificent arena in the state that it’s currently in, it’s filled with amazing history and importance. Along with it comes thinking about what used to happen here. Standing inside, imagining the games and fights that occurred, picturing the Emperor of Rome watching from his podium, visualizing where all the tens-of-thousands marble seats used to be, with them filled with cheering fans. Even as it looks now, walking in on the second floor from the outer halls into the arena seating feels like you’re about to see it all. As we read and learned about how it was built in less than 10 years by the greatest architects and builders of its time as a gift for the people of Rome, symbolizing the end of the harsh rule by Nero, our appreciation for the Colosseum only grew. We were able to see how advanced and vast the entire Colosseum’s system was, expanding below the ground to nearby buildings. Really, most of it can be read about, but seeing it in person adds so much weight to the information. This was our favorite part of the day.
After leaving the Colosseum, we wanted to eat, of course. Meg and I wanted to find a pizza place that my family had gone to the first time we came to Italy in 2007. We didn’t know where it is or what it’s name is. All we knew was that is had some sort of view of the Colosseum and that there was a picture of Albert Einstein on the menu. We looked and looked. Eventually, we did find it. We got arugula pizza and it was really good. Worth looking for. We also found a beer that Dad highly recommended in the nearby grocery store.
We then spent the day seeing the Forum, the Capitoline Hill, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and the Vatican City. We were happy to get them all into one day, but it required a lot of walking. We climbed the Spanish Steps and were constantly harassed by people who tried to give Megan flowers and made kissing faces at us for Meg and I to kiss. All they wanted was money, of course, and they got pushy and mad if you didn’t play along. That was nice.
We went to the Vatican city hoping to see the Sistine Chapel and see all of the paintings that fill the ceiling and walls of the building. Unfortunately, we had gotten there later than we should have. By the time we figured out how it all worked and where we needed to go, it was close to 4. Ticket sales stop at 4, because you can only see it through the Vatican Museum. It can take up to 2 hrs to get through the museum, and we wanted to make sure we made it back for our return train in time. So we didn’t see it. We considered seeing St. Peter’s Basilica, but the line was huge and we didn’t have a huge desire to see it. So we headed back, looking for dinner.
There are two issues with getting dinner around 5p in Rome: 1) Like in most of Italy, restaurants are usually closed until 6:30-7:30p for dinner hours. 2) The only places that are open are so touristy and cheesy that we couldn’t get ourselves to eat at them. Seeing a restaurant with English writing all over the restaurant and people working there who are obviously not Italian is kind of a turn off when you compare it to what you’re capable of finding in Italy.
So we hunted. We decided that side streets are our best bet in finding something that is, at least, a little authentic. We found a place called My-Ale. It’s a very small sandwich place that prides itself in its many beer choices and prosciutto. Funny, the name emphasizes “ale” because of the beer, but maiale, which is pronounced similarly to how you would read My-Ale, means pig in Italian for the prosciutto. This place was great. Much more Italian and a nice, cheap but tasty meal.
We used the app, MyTaxi, to call ourselves a cab back to the train station, which saved us a lot of walking and got us there on time (FYI: if you’re gonna use the app, especially for a longer taxi ride, consider putting your credit card into the app and paying through it. We paid 12 Euro in cash to the driver, like the meter said. After we got out, my app notified me that the ride was finished and it cost 9 Euro. We lost 3 Euro). We bought our return tickets, got on the train, and we went back to the hotel, but not before stopping for some delicious ciocccolato gelato.
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