Oh The Places We’ll Go

Thomas and I have had a great stay in Florence so far and we’re almost sad to be leaving tomorrow.  The city here is our kind of style- small and quaint, but still has a lot of heart and soul.  It may not be the biggest city in Italy, but to us Florence has a lot more of the Italian spectacle and magic than Rome ever had.

Yesterday, after we had a chance to sit down yesterday and just relax after our long walk and expedition trying to find out hostel, Thomas and I made it over to the Uffizi art gallery to check out the different works of art in Florence’s most famous Italian art gallery.  The most famous work at the Uffizi Gallery, ‘The Birth of Venus’, is an absolute spectacle and is absolutely breathtaking to see in person.  Besides that, though, we found the Uffizi gallery to be a bit of a disappointment.  Other than the ‘Birth of Venus’ most of the other art in the gallery is medieval religious art from around the 1400’s, which after a while all starts to blend together and can be a bit of a bore.

Our adventures today, however, were much more exciting.  After sleeping for what must have been 12 hours last night, we got on and walking around Florence around 10:30 this morning before making reservations on a train to Venice tomorrow.  After we took care of the reservations, we made our way to the Accademia, which is most famous for Michelangelo’s ‘David’.  The line, while it was long, moved pretty quickly and before we knew it we were inside the museum staring up at one of the most famous sculptures in the world.

‘David’ is absolutely breathtaking.  You would think you’d be prepared for it, but the sight of it exceeds all expectations.  The sculpture itself is absolutely humongous.  It is probably about twice of my own height, and is on a pedestal which makes it even taller.  The details to the sculpture are what make it so incredible.  All of the veins, the muscles, the details of the hair and the features are all perfectly done so that even though you know it isn’t real, the attention to detail almost makes it seem as though it is.

After seeing ‘David’ we made it back to the hostel, hung out for a little while, and headed over to a little bar called Friends to watch the Community Shield match between Manchester United and Portsmouth.  Manchester United won on penalties, of course, but the fun part of watching the match was being around other football fans watching the match instead of it being just us watching the match at 4 in the morning in our PJ’s in Rocklin.  After a pint of Guinness, we met a family of Portsmouth fans from England who were here on vacation in Florence, so they bought us a pint of Harp while talking about Las Vegas, what people in Scotland are like, and other random things.

Typing right now, post-bar, is a little difficult.  After a couple of pints of beer, and a Long Island Iced Tea (which I’m sure has been the death of me), I’m probably what you would call drunk, so while I’m having a pretty good time writing this, getting the right keys in order has been a lot more difficult than it usually would be.

Tomorrow the plan is to get in to Venice and explore, since we’ll be there until the morning of the 13th before we move on to Milan.  I think we’ll both miss how beautiful and quaint Florence is, but hopefully Venice will be just as amazing. 

I’ll write more when I have the chance to update how life is in Venice.  I probably, after tonight, need to remind myself to lay off of the Guinness post-Manchester United victory but you’re only in Italy once, right?  I’m sure it will be a lot worse once I get to Scotland.  I’ve been warned that the Scottish drink like tanks so I’m in for a rude awakening.

Until next time- Ciao

We made it to Florence this morning after spending our last night hanging out with the British girls in Rome.  I must’ve woken up at like, 5 o’clock this morning before laying back down for another hour or so to relax before getting up and moving around, packing up our stuff and planning out the rest of our day.  We checked out of our hostel this morning around 9, put on our packs and made our last trip on the Metro in Rome to the Termini, where we waited around, had a McMuffin, and boarded our Eurostar train to Florence, which they call ‘Firenze’ here in Italy.  We sat next to these two old Italian people headed to Milan on the train, who understood NO english but we could tell they were friendly, nice people.

The ride to Florence is absolutely beautiful.  THIS is where the beauty in Italy comes from: the small towns, the fields, the little old houses in the middle of vineyards and rolling hills throughout the country.  No graffiti, no nonsense- just pure beauty.  The train ride lasted a little over an hour and a half into Florence, so after the train stopped Thomas and I got off and tried figuring out how to make it to our new hostel.  This hostel was a lot more difficult to find than our last one, especially since Florence doesn’t have a metro system since it’s much smaller than Rome.  We got on a bus like our hostel directions said, but even after we asked the bus driver if the stop we needed was on his line, he never told us WHAT stop we had to get off on.  So, after getting lost, Thomas and I walked with our packs on in the heat for well over 20 minutes before we found our hostel.

This hostel, the Soggiorno Pitti, is MUCH nicer than the one in Rome.  They have TV, which I said a ‘Halleilujah’ for, and we have our own room and bathroom in the hostel.  Turns out we have to share a bed, which is… whatever, it is what it is, we came from the same place so it’s not a big deal.  We got a chance to catch a little bit of the Olympics finally, since we haven’t seen any of it yet, so we watched a couple of swimming heats before getting our room.  We have a TV in our room, but it only has like, 10 channels and all of them (of course) are in Italian.  After settling in, we watched a little bit of MTV Italia, and their version of TRL was on.  It was pretty funny since all of the music videos for the Italian artists are SO BAD, but they still have at least a couple of American and British music videos on their countdown.  Randomly, the top 2 songs on their playlist were ‘Killing Me Softly’ by The Fugees and ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ by Michael Bolton.  Random?  We thought so.

So our plan for tomorrow is to explore Florence since we’ve only got 1 day here to really look around, so I think we’re going to go and see the Galleria dell’Accademia where Michaelangelo’s David is, and the Uffizi Art Gallery where a lot of famous pieces of art are.  It’s going to be a busy busy day with a lot of walking but Florence is a small town so I doubt it’ll be too strenuous, especially since we don’t have to wear our packs everywhere.

I haven’t been able to put our pictures up on the internet yet, but when I have the chance I’ll try and show everyone what our travels have been like.

Ciao

So Thomas and I are posting again from an internet cafe in Rome.  It’s our last day here, since we’re going to Florence and Pisa tomorrow to explore until we move onto Venice in a couple of days.  Since we posted last, we made it back to the Colusseum to take a couple of pictures as well as have dinner at a little cafe near the Colusseum.  The food hasn’t been much of a transition for either of us.  A lot of pizza, a lot of spaghetti, bread, etc.  Not much of a stretch for people who eat pizza and spaghetti on a frequent basis, although the quality (especially of the spaghetti) is way better than in America.

Yesterday was probably our most social day here since we met our two dormmates in our hostel, Sophie and Nancy, with whom we spent well over 2 hours discussing American stereotypes, British stereotypes, having a good laugh along the way.  It was pretty funny, they were both REALLY interested in how high school is in America since it’s pretty different in England.  They are both on their gap year, which is basically a break in between graduating from school and going to university.  Nancy introduced herself to us and goes ‘Nancy, that’s a pretty American name, right?’ and Thomas and I just look at each other and go ‘Umm… I guess?  Not really’.  Haha. 

We got to talking about, among other things, football, where to go in England, what Scottish people are like (dirty and rugged, sound funny apparently), and what people in America are like.  I guess being from California makes us really cool, especially since we are both from different parts of the state (Santa Barbara and near San Francisco).  We explained baseball and basketball to them, learned about rounders (?) and netball, and got to hear their best American accent impressions. 

We made our reservations on the train to Florence today, so we leave tomorrow at 10:30 to Florence and after checking into our hostel we are going to try and make the day trip out to Pisa to see the leaning tower. 

So far today we’ve seen the Trevi Fountain, the four rivers fountain, and the Pantheon.  The Trevi Fountan is absolutely gorgeous.  Huge, amazing, a spectacular sight.  We both threw coins over our backs and made a wish before moving on to the Pantheon.  The dome inside the Pantheon is what makes it the most impressive.  The four rivers fountain is in the middle of being restored, which kind of sucks, but it is still beautiful.

We’re off to see more sights in Rome before we leave so we’ll update more when we get our bearings in Florence.

Ciao!

Ahhh…

We finally made it to Italy.  All 14 hours later on a plane, from San Francisco to Rome, we’re finally here.  We left Rocklin at about 3 in the morning and drove to San Francisco International Airport to leave on our Delta flight to JFK airport in New York.  Turns out the confirmation code we needed to get our passes to get through security didn’t work so luckily we were able to find a lady who could help us and printed them out for us.  Then the fun began.  I had forgotten, but I guess when you use the passes my mom had given us for the discounted flights, your ticket is ‘flagged’ and you have to go through the all-on wave down by the security officers at the airport.  Thomas and I were both flagged, had to be wanded and our ENTIRE backpacks had to be wiped with these special cloths so that they could make sure we weren’t terrorists and were bringing bombs to the airport.  Unfortunately for the TSA guy, my bag has a LOTTT of pockets, so he had to go through every single one and wipe it down.  It didn’t take too long but it was still funny.

After we checked in at the desk and were given our seats, imagine our surprise when we were both given ‘zone 1′ tickets.  Huh? Zone 1?  Is that… first class??  Why yes, yes it is first class.  Cushy seats, our own butler, complimentary drinks.  Let me just say, first class is the way to go.  And… we didn’t have to pay for it.  As my Uncle Scott likes to say, it was all my favorite ‘f’ word’- ‘free’.  We got into JFK around 3:30 east coast time, which is 12:30 California time, and waited around until 5:30 when we boarded our flight to Rome.  At first, our seat assignments were in zone 9, which we were both fine with since hey, we are going to Rome… why complain?  Then, just as we were boarding, our nice desk attendant check in lady told us to sit in seats 4 a and b.  We got onto the plane and realized both seats were in International First Class.  Comforters on the seats, pillows fluffed, champagne at the ready.  Thomas and I looked at each other and laughed because it felt so bizarre, sitting in first class with all of these old italian people.  The flight went by really quickly.  I wasn’t able to fall asleep until the last 2 hours or so of the flight, so I spent my time watching episodes of Sex and the City and Entourage on the seatback TV’s and watching the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. 

After we landed, we tried calling home to give the heads up that we made it, but turns out… the phones in Italy are WEIRD and we couldn’t figure out for the life of us how to use them.  I lost my sunglasses on the way to the train station across the street from the airport, which sucked, but I’m going to get some cheap new ones soon.  We got to the train station and found out where to go pretty easily.  There are a lot of signs that are written in 2 languages in Italy: Italian and English.  That helps out a lot.  We took a train from the airport to the Roma Termini, which is like Grand Central Station, and took a Metro one stop up to the station that our hostel was at.  Found the hostel really easily, but our beds weren’t ready yet so we went off to explore the city. 

First impressions of Rome: It’s hot.  Very very very hot here, with a lot of humidity, so Thomas and I are both sweating like dogs out here.  We decided since we needed to kill a couple hours before our room would be ready we should go see the Colusseum, which is only 1 stop up from our hostel.  We got to the Colusseum, waited in line for an hour and a half or so and made our way inside the Colusseum.  The location itself is a little crazy- there’s this massive, historical ruin you see in all of these pictures in the middle of an urban area with restaurants and apartments and everything.  It has definitely become very touristy.  We walked around the Colusseum SWEATING and made our way to a little cafe to have some lunch.  Pizza, of course.  Oh, and beer.  Which I bought.  Myself.  Thought that was funny. 

We were both exhausted so we made our way back to our hostel and waited a couple minutes before going into our rooms and PASSING OUT.  We slept from around 4 in the afternoon here to about 7 this morning.  It has definitely helped with the jetlag, and Thomas and I were both ready and rested to tackle Vatican City today.

So today was our Vatican City day, and after waking up and showering (as well as locking myself in the bathroom… woops) we made our way to the holiest place on earth for Catholics, Vatican City.  Let me just say the entire place is awe inspiring, even moreso than the Colusseum.  It is breathtakingly beautiful; the courtyard, the statues, the buildings.  It is all absolutely incredible.  We waited in line to go and see the basilica, which has the canopy inside of it and a lot of famous statues.  We also saw the papal tombs inside of the basilica, where a lot of people were, rosaries in hand, paying their respects to John Paul II.  Afterwards we made our way to the Vatican Museums, which is around the corner, and saw a lot more statues, paintings, and tapestries before walking into the Sistine Chapel.  Now, let me just say, I have seen many many famous and beautiful things in my life, but never before have I been AWE STRUCK by something.  I can’t even describe how beautiful the Sistine Chapel is, it was that amazing.  First off, the ceilings are huge.  You can’t take pictures inside or talk loudly, but why would you want to? All you can do inside is look up and stare.  Thomas and I both look at each other are were like, I’m set.  If this whole trip ends right now, I’m absolutely set.

And now we’re here, sitting in a little internet cafe around the corner from Vatican City getting ready to go and see the Trevi Fountain and hit up a little Scottish pub that should be around the corner here somewhere.  We have to make it back over to the Colusseum tonight to take pictures since, woops, we forgot our cameras before so we have to make it up by seeing it at night.  As far as tomorrow is concerned, it is most likely a museum-filled day, to the Borghese Gallery and a couple others before resting and heading to Pisa and ending in Florence on Saturday.

The language barrier hasnt been a huge problem so far, and everyone for the most part is really helpful.  There is a LOT of graffiti here, and a lot of football merchandise, espeically for the Italian national team.  People here really love their football.  We both got a little homesick last night, and a little into the ‘what have we gotten ourselves into’ mindset in the middle of the night last night, but I think with Vatican City, we are both sure of why we are here.  As much as we miss Rocklin and California (not to mention non-sweaty weather) we know that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we should savor things like seeing the Sistine Chapel while we still can.

I’ll be sure to post more once we make it to another internet cafe, most likely tomorrow afternoon to kill some time, and try to call home once we figure out how to use the phones! 

-catherine

It’s finally here.

It’s funny, you’d think that after months upon months of planning and speculating about where we’re going to go, what we’re going to do, we’d be prepared. But even now, mere hours away from when we’re driving to San Francisco and flying to New York before we go to Rome, I don’t think either of us feel 100% ready. It’s all such a foreign feeling: the backpack, the cubes, the new shoes, clothes. Brand new and untouched. Not for long, I guess. By the time we get going, maybe it won’t all feel so weird. Until then, I feel like I’m playing dress-up for Halloween.

Our first week plans take us on a flight from San Francisco to JFK in New York City, and from JFK to Rome, where we’ll be arriving on Wednesday morning. We’ll be in Rome until Saturday and from there we’re going to Pisa and Florence. We reserved our hostel in Rome not even an hour ago, so I doubt we’ll know the specifics of the plans for Pisa and Florence until our last days in Rome. We’re ready and armed with 300 Euros, which converts roughly into $525 US Dollars (what a great conversion rate, eh? Haha.), which if no one reading this has ever seen a Euro before it almost looks like Monopoly money. Pink 10’s, purple 20’s and blue 5’s, which are smaller than the other bills. Oh, and no dead people on European money. They stay classy- landmarks on their money.

So what am I going to miss? I guess for Thomas the obvious answer is his friends and the girlfriend, but I don’t really feel bad for him- he’s going to be back here in a month or so. For me? I’ve got almost a year until I get to come back in the house, hang out with the dogs and suffer in the sweltering Rocklin sun. The biggest thing I will miss (and the most obvious) is the family. The ‘rents (parents), Thomas and Alicia, the dogs, Uncle Scott, Grandpa, and everyone else around here. Not to mention school friends, random friends from random places. It’s not like I get to text any of them while I’m bored in class anymore. What am I going to do with myself? Pay attention? … I don’t think so.

Aside from the obvious, I’m most DEFINITELY going to miss Mexican food. I know that probably sounds really stupid, but I absolutely love Mexican food. Scottish people? Doubt they eat many tacos, enchiladas, nachos, or burritos. What is Scottish food anyway? Haggis? I’m afraid. The other BIG thing I’m going to miss is my sports. Baseball most definitely. I won’t be missing much of this season, since the Giants are obviously not going to be playing past September in the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to miss Kruk and Kuiper, Jon Miller, Dave Flemming. Maybe if I’m up really late I can listen to The Razor and Mr. T on the internet. Maybe. I’m going to be missing the ENTIRE Warriors season and 49ers season. That sucks. I’m not expecting that I’ll be missing much, but at least the Brits get the Superbowl broadcast live as of this last year. Score. I’m holding onto a hope that they watch American hockey in the UK since there’s so many Europeans that play hockey. Cross your fingers.

There’s one guaranteed sport that I won’t be missing, though, which makes me happy: football. European football (otherwise known as REAL football, the kind you play with your foot). I’m looking forward to Sundays watching Celtic and Rangers in Scotland, and following the trials and tribulations of Cristiano Ronaldo with Manchester United. We’ll see how that goes. Maybe I’ll actually start understanding all the rules instead of just erratically screaming at the TV for the things that I do understand: block, goal, red card, yellow card, etc.

For now that’s all I’ve got. I’ll post more when Thomas and I get into Rome and have a look around.

-catherine