Italy: Rome and Florence

The Colosseum!

Today is my last day in Italy, so I figured I better write about it before I leave and become overwhelmed with other countries.

I met Hilary and arrived in Rome on May 6. We got there in the evening, so we just kind of wandered around and had a late (or normal time for Italians?) dinner (delicious mushroom pizza) at a very cute restaurant. From the very beginning all of my interactions with Italian people have been pleasant, starting with the adorable waiter at our first restaurant who kept bringing us free things (like sorbet!!), serenading us with random Top 25 pop songs, and telling us we couldn't leave because "our beauty made the restaurant beautiful." Oh yeah.

May 7 we went to see the Colosseum. It was just as impressive as I thought it would be, though sort of cheapened by the gobs of men dressed up as Roman warriors saying "Photo? Want a photo with me??". We didn't tour the inside because we're cheap, but we spent a long time wandering around the ancient area, looking at Palatine Hill, etc. It was ridiculously pretty and just felt so old (surprise)--I would take a picture, walk two steps and take another picture. At one point we walked into someone's spectacular garden--she had opened it for the public, and when we wanted to be let out she came, opened the door, and thanked US for looking at her house. Strange. We also went into a random free museum, but all of the exhibits were explained in Italian so we didn't stay too long.

May 8 I made the spectacular decision to have us walk to Vatican City (which was literally on the other side of Rome from our hostel). On the way there we saw the Pantheon (there's a huge hold in the ceiling and the first king of Italy is buried there!), Fontana di Trevi (yes we threw in two coins...but I didn't fall in love in Rome) and...another plaza.... When we actually got to Vatican City we saw St. Peter's Basilica first, which looks almost like a museum or some type of governmental building from the outside but is (obviously) a huge, ornate church on the inside. We stopped to have lunch after that, then went to see the Vatican museums. The museums were extensive, impressive, laden with all types of art and overall overwhelming. At the very end you walk into the Sistine Chapel, which is crowded with loads of tourists all staring at the ceiling...and at that point I think my brain exploded. The "Creation of Adam" is dead center in the ceiling, so a lot of people (me included) stood there with their necks at all sorts of interesting angles for a long time. Overall Vatican City was impressive, but walking around I just kept thinking of money and power...not religion. At all.
On the way back (at this point sort of braindead) we saw the Spanish steps. Spanish steps in Italy...and they were a gift from the French? I don't know.

View of Florence and mountains

May 9 we took the train to Florence (Italian countryside=GORGEOUS TRAIN RIDE) and have been taking things slow. Our hostel has a terrace with a great view of the city. We've spent a lot of time walking around checking out the bridges, the Duomo (dome), sculptures, etc. and doing lots of miming and making sound effects because we don't know Italian (though many people know English and even if they don't, they're incredibly friendly and laid back about everything). Of course we went into the Accademia gallery (which looks like a plain, ugly building from the outside) and saw Michelangelo's sculpture of "David," the perfect specimen of a man (or something like that). He was pretty impressive, and much bigger than life size!! The detail was also incredible--from muscles to veins to tiny little bones. We also took in the Boboli gardens, which were almost like a hedge maze. And, of course, we've been eating lots of gelato. Gelato is spectacular. I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

Tomorrow we take the train back to Rome, then fly from Rome to Athens!! We have two full days in Athens (everyone has said you only need two days to see everything), then we take a ferry to Crete, which will hopefully be a much slower paced place.

Click here for pictures of Rome--pictures of Florence coming soon!