Brace yourselves-this post is going to be a long one. I need to cover my 2 week spring break in Italy! On this adventure, I was joined by Kristley and Christelle who are friends of mine from Boston Latin. On this journey I actually kept a very detailed journal to help me as I write this blog. If you want more detail on any part of this trip I can show the journal when I get back, because if I included every detail in the journal, this post would never end.
Naples
Kristely and I flew into Naples on Thursday, April 7. It was already dark when we get there, so all we did was grab some pizza at a restaurant at Gino's, which is famous for their pizza. Actually, Naples in general is famous for the pizza, since it is said that's where pizza was born. The founder of Gino's had 21 children, and therefore there are 21 types of pizza you can order, each named after one of the kids. My favorite, and the most common, is Margharita. It's basically plain cheese pizza. When I saw that the pizza was 3 euro, I said sure, I'll get a slice for 3euro. Instead what came out was a pizza so large that it was overflowing from the plate. And this was the best pizza I've had in my life. This was the ultimate thin crust pizza. Indeed, the crust in the center was more like a crepe than pizza crust.
After the first of many wonderful culinary experiences on this trip, we headed back to the hostel. Let me say a few words about this hostel. You were basically staying in this guy's house named Giovanni. It was like having a parent around. He forbade us to go outside with purses, lectured us, and then made lunch one day, and made us feel guilty for not coming back to the hostel to eat it. a) you didn't tell anyone you were making lunch and b) Excuse me for sightseeing all day! Ugh if you want to hear more about Giovanni, I've got some stories. But that's for another time. Needless to say, that night I got the worst night of sleep I've had since I got to Europe thanks to an OLD overweight German woman sleeping in the bunk beneath me, and snoring LOUDLY. C'mon, you're like 60 years old. This is a YOUTH hostel!
So on our first full day in Naples, we actually didn't spend much of it in Naples! We met a traveller in the hostel, Donal, who came along with us that day. Our first stop: climbing Mt. Vesuvius! We had to buy bus tickets to get us from the train station to (close to) the top, and these buses were actually tiny little vans that sped up the roads of the volcano, causing some people to get carsick. I loved it!
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| Mt. Vesuvius |
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| Ruins at Herculaneum |
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| Sorrento |
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| Cliffs of Sorrento |
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| Sun setting on our way back to Naples |
The following day we dedicated to seeing Naples. A typical scene in Naples is a family of 4 riding on a moped, or seeing a responsible parent holding onto a small infant (no helmet) with one hand while driving the thing. Also, there is trash everywhere. But despite this, there were a lot of great things to see and do in Naples. We went into a mausoleum, the Archaeological Museum, and then to the Duomo: a famous basilica in Naples. They actually didn't allow me to go in wearing a tank top, so I had to put on my jacket. I wondered if they just didn't let people in in the summertime. Then we did one of the coolest things I did on the trip: Napoli Sutteraneo. It's an underground tour of an ancient theater that Nero himself performed in, and then you get to see underground wells and aqueducts. At one point during the tour, it was so dark so they gave us candles as we walked through the extremely narrow walls. I wondered how they told someone they were too fat to participate. We had a great tour guide, and it was just so fun to be underground. It was like we had entered the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin! An interesting fact about Naples that I learned on that tour: Christianity actually came there 300 years before Constantine. That probably explains why their way of worship is a little different and there are shrines everywhere.
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| Grimy Naples |
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| Maybe it's not so bad. |
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| Sunset on our way to Capri |
Capri
That afternoon we hopped on our ferry to Capri! It was the biggest boat I've ever been on; even trucks could fit on it. We saw the most beautiful sunset over the mediterranean. Finding our hotel was a little bit of a challenge, but it was so nice-it was totally worth it! The next day we expected the weather to be sunny and perfect, but it was cold and overcast. That didn't stop us though. We climbed to the top of the island and say Villa Jovis-ruins from a villa that Roman Emperor Tiberius used. It was so foggy that you could hardly see, which just added to the eeriness of it all. On the hike back down, we passed by a restaurant where Jay-Z, Beyonce, Mariah Carey and other celebrities had their pictures taken in front of. After grabbing gelato at a place that makes the cones right in front of you, we went into the Gardens of Augustus, which offered breathtaking views of the island. Even though it was only 2pm, there wasn't too much more to see besides the Grotto that we were saving for the next day, so we headed back to the hotel, taking our time. I bought a beautiful dress! Once back at the hotel, we just relaxed. We met some other Americans travelling, Rob and Ryan, and we ended up getting dinner with them that night. Really annoying thing: Pretty much from Capri on, we found out that restaurants in Italy have a "cover charge" of at least 1 euro per person. We spent a lot of energy trying to find places without a cover charge for the rest of the trip. So where we went out to eat was the 1st time we expereinced it, but we were on an island-not much you can do about it. The portions were actually pretty small in Italy. I thought they'd be huge! After dinner, we played cards. I tought everyone how to play Fantan and King's Corners! The next morning We got up early and went to experiecne the Blue Grotto. What an experience that was. The 3 of us got into a small row boat and were instructed to lay down. The rower had to lie down too and pull us through a tiny hole in the rocks using chains until we were inside the grotto. It's actually the rocks that cause a beautiful blue light to be reflected off of them. After that, we had to get on a ferry back to smelly Naples (ew), and hop on our train to Florence!
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| Someone's home in Cpari |
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| Villa Jovis and all the fog |
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| Cliffs of Cpari |
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| View of Capri as we went up to our hotel. |
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| Inside the blue Grotto! |
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| Ciao Capri! |
From the moment we got here, we loved it. There were actually pedestrian crossways, and no trash on the streets! We stayed in a hotel with a lot of character that was in a great location. One of the happiest moments on the trip for me was that night when we were out to eat in a beautiful piazza with lanterns everywhere. The food and ambiance was so good-this was what Italy was supposed to feel like. Quote from my journal: "Florence reminded us of Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam yet something about it was completely different."
There are so many things to do in Florence, we didn't know where to begin the next morning. However, because it was Italy's 150th birthday, all the museums were free that week! So we went into a Medici Castle that seemed pretty bare until you looked up: the ceilings there were unbelieveable. The next stop was the Ufizi museum which holds many masterpieces including The Birth of Benus by Boticelli, and things by DaVinci, Caravaggio, Van Der Goes, and Rafaello. Then after lunch with amazing lasagna and chicken we went inside the Duomo. It was not quite as impressive as the outside. Then we went inside another Medici home and took a nap in their beautiful gardens.
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| Medici Castle |
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| Carnival Masks |
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| Duomo |
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| On the river banks |
The next day we got up early to hopefully avoid the lines at the Galleria della Academia: home of Michaelangelo's David. Unfortunately we still had to wait 45 minutes. David was just beautiful, so I guess it was worth it. Feeling like we had seen most of Florence, we hopped on a commuter train to Pisa. We pretty much got there, found the leaning tower, took our pictures, and left. There's just not much else to do there! But the pictures were worth it. Venice
The next morning we were on our early morning train into Venice. As soon as we got there we could see the pretty clear green water. We had to get on a watertaxi to our hostel which cost 6.50!!! What a ripoff. Our first stop was St. Marcus Square. It reminded me of Plaza Mayor in Madrid. We went inside there, and by this point I felt like I was sick of seeing European churches. After grabbing a coffee in a square and taking it all in, we headed into the Galleria della Academia in Venice, which was free. We found a place with no cover charge where we could eat for dinner, and sure enough we returned there. After dinner we bought some beautiful candles!
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| What Venice looks like around every street corner. |
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| Candles we bought! |
The next day we met up with some people from the BU Pamplona program, and pretty much did nothing since apparently 2 nights in Venice is way too much time.
The next morning my two travel buddies headed off to Rome, and I stayed in Venice-alone! I really wanted to do a day trip to Verona (which in retrospect we could've done the day before). So I can say I tried the whole travelling alone thing. As I was walking to the train station to get to Verona, I felt very chipper. But 2 hours later, once I got to Verona, I realized I HATE travelling by myself. I had no idea what to do once I got there, but I got on a bus heading into town. I came across Roman ruins of an amphitheater, and wandered around a bit. The only good thing that came out of Verona was the best gelato I had on the trip! Since Verona is wehre Romeo and Juliet took place, I got the Romeo and Juliet flavours of gelato. They went so well together! Then I found "Juliet's house" (yes I realize she's a fictional character, but there's not much else to Verona), and coughed up the 4.50 to go inside. It wasn't really worth it, but I left my friends' letters to Juliet in there. And that's it: I headed back to the train for a 2 hour ride to Venice. When I got back to the hostel, I made friends with a lot of the people there, and for 5 euro the hostel cooks you a 3 course meal, so we all stayed in and did that.
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| Best gelato in Italy! |
Needless to say, by the next morning I was ready to continue my travels to Rome and meet back up with Kris and Chris! We met at Platform 9 3/4 in Rome Termini Station, then headed out to the Sheraton Rome where I would be spending the night with them. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. At least there was a shuttle bus that takes you to downtown Rome, and it least I spent only one night there. We immediately headed into the center of Rome. When I was walking down this road that leads to the Colosseum with ancient ruins on either side of the road, it was such a great feeling. Forget about the ruins at Herculaneum-this was awesome! They had musicians playing on the street, and this time I really felt like I had traveled back in time. Being the Latin scholar that I am, I knew already that Rome was my favorite city I've visited in Italy! We entered the Colosseum (which was free!) and walked all along it. At one point we were all just speechless and paused for several minutes just so we could take it in. I couldn't imagine how many gruesome deaths happened there. I could just see the gladiators and hear the crowd roaring. From there we saw the Arch of Constantine. I couldn't believe I was looking at something that the Constantine built.
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| Me and my travel buddies in the Colosseum! |
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| Trevi Fountain! |
As we were walking back up this road admiring the ruins, something funny happened. Kristely saw a guy wearing a Boston t-shirt and struck up a conversation with him. He was from Weymouth, and it turns out he knew our friends Rob and Ryan that we made in Capri-they were roommates in their hostel! So typical. Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain, which is beautiful. We each threw the 3 coins behind our backs, and started looking for a place to eat dinner (without a cover charge of course). I got fettucini alfredo, and realized that my Dad makes it much better than they do in Italy. Then we headed back to the hotel via the shuttle that was jam packed full of people, and I called Alex and made plans to meet up with her the following morning. It was sad to leave my travel buddies!
I met up with Alex just as planned, grateful to be staying for free in the apartment they had rented out! We all headed to Campo di Fiore, a wonderful marketplace where you can buy jewelry, pasta, vegetables, honey-anything the heart desires. Then we all did one of those bus tours with the open roof. It was a lovely day, and it was great to see so many sights in Rome. We drove right by St. Peter's basilica, Circus Maximus, the Tiber River, and other sights. We had lunch at Pizza Magi where they cut the pizza up with scissors and serve it to you. So yummy! Then for dinner we ate at supposedly the best pizza place in Rome. I got to meet Alex's boyfriend, and it's funny how much he and I have in common.
The next day we all visited the Spanish Steps and ate lunch there. Next we did some shopping : ) That night it was Alex's birthday dinner at a really cute restaurant with her friends from school and her family. Afterwards we went to the bar so we could all be together at midnight for her birthday. It was a really fun night. The next day was dedicated entirely to getting ready for Alex's birthday party that would take place at the apartment that night. We got the cake, decorations, everything. It was a fabulous birthday party, and I wish I was spending my 21st in Europe! The next day I had my flight back to Madrid, and I just took a cab to the airport. I wasn't worried about not seeing everything there is in Rome because I love it so much I know I want to come back!
I had a wonderful spring break, but it's good to be back in Madrid, and I know it'll feel even better once I'm back in the states :)
PS-check back for photo updates! I'm waiting for Alex and Kristely to put up photos, and when they do I'll update the blog.
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