03 December 2007:
So, this was one of the days I had been waiting for for a long time. Got up bright and early, sunshine, and Kaity, Jordan and I met up with Ruth and Jill, another girl from the hostel we were in. She had been in Rome a few more days than we had been and wanted to show us around our next location, which we were totally fine with. So, we all boarded the Metro and took it to... whatever stop we went to. It was in Italian, and I think it started with an "O". Whatever. We got off and had to walk a little bit... OK, we had to walk a long way, but that was okay. On the way, met some interesting characters... like the guy who groped one of our own. Not fun, but anyway - that's the italian for ya. Anyway, kept walking and finally happened upon our next location, and it was exciting :-) Check it out:
*Think you can pinpoint this spot?
*How about now? Look familiar yet?
Yep, that's The Vatican!
See the middle window on the top row? That's the Pope's window! He comes out of that window and speaks to the people on Sundays. Unfortunately, I hadn't known that the previous day, otherwise I would have shown up. This is as close to the Pope as I'm probably ever going to get, so look! The window! (and the light was on)
So, we walked around the Vatican for a little bit and then decided we wanted to explore something a little more...colorful. So we went around the back (because that's where you're supposed to go in order to get where we were headed), paid our 8 Euro admission fee and started our walk through many, many little museums. It probably took about 2 hours to get through all of the little museums. Saw some really cool paintings, and statues, like this one: (2)
*I hope you recognize this one at first glance. It's The Thinker statue and it's really small. Maybe 2 feet tall, but no bigger. And to think that I almost missed it!
So, kept walking through the museums, saw a sign (and a line) for this: (Sorry it's blurry)
And walked inside. And this is what it looked like:
Ready for a better picture?
*The world-reknowned painting of The Creation of Adam. Isn't it pretty?!?
Everything is covered in paintings, except the floor. It was breath-taking. I almost cried, but knowing how much of a softie I am, are you really surprised?
Isn't this staircase COOL!! It's the one I had to go down to get out of the Sistine Chapel. I like this picture :-)
After the Chapel, Jill, Ruth, and I went one way, and Kaity and Jordan went their own way. The three of us took the metro to another stop and went to Triton's fountain, built by the Romans (of course) way back before Jesus.
*Me at Triton's Fountain
It's really cool being in a city where a lot of what you see is ancient. It really puts into perspective how young our country is and how NOT old 200 years is. Anyway, got a picture with the fountain and then continued on. Hard to believe, but we forgot to go to St. Paul's Cathedral... makes me a little sad, but I can always go back :-)
So, from Triton's fountain, we walked all the way back to the hostel. We passed this guy. He's real!
Our hostel was clear across the center of Rome and it's not small. On our way, we passed Trevi fountain, again (yay!) and then made our way to the Pantheon. You know, that building in Rome with the big hole in the ceiling?
*But first we took pictures outside with the massive columns. See?
Yeah, that one.
It's pretty cool inside. See? Hole in the ceiling, lots of space, huge and heavy doors, and it's free. That's the best kind of attraction. I don't mean the bottom of my chin...I'm sure people would NOT flock thousands of miles to see that...
After exploring the Pantheon and seeing some really cool old graves, we left the Pantheon (there's only so much you can see) and walked across and down the street to St. Edward II Museum. Ruth and I didn't go in but Jill did. But while Ruth and I were waiting, we saw a Bishop in Hot Pink (no lie)
(like so)
and lots of nuns,
*Look! Nuns!
all following the Bishop to the robe store just down the alley from where we were. We watched them go in, and then we walked to the store and looked in the window. It was actually pretty cool to see up close what the Catholic high-peeps wear with their robes. It was all pretty and you get to pick your colour. Isn't that funny?! Leaves one to wonder why the Bishop picked hot pink...
Moving on! We kept walking and finally I saw the Colosseum again.
Like so... Ain't it purdy?!
It was pretty with the lights shining on it and the sun going down. *sigh* Good times. I like the old stone sphere. Too bad it's falling down...
So, got back to the hostel and waited on Kaity and Jordan. It took them about 2 hours to get back. It was good to sit and relax. Ate dinner and then decided that I wanted to go to bed. The only problem was that we had new visitors in our room that night. There were 2 guys and they were Spanish - like from Spain, not Mexican Spanish-speaking. Spanish-speaking Spaniards... and not attractive. Oh well. So, I was getting ready for bed and one of the guys beckoned me over (it was pitch black) and asked me if I spoke English. I said yes. He asked me about myself (where I was from, why I was in Italy, etc.) He then asked me if I knew of anything to do in the area bar-wise. I, of course, had NO idea since I was not in Rome for the bars. He also asked if I thought he had time to go find one. I said he probably did. Then, he wanted to know what I was doing. I told him I was going to bed (alone, of course) and he said "okay". Then he left. 30 minutes later, he came back and I was lying in bed almost asleep. He came over, poked me (and I could smell alcohol on his breath, so I figured he had found his bar), and wanted to keep talking. He asked me when I was leaving and I told him the next morning. He sounded disappointed but I didn't care. He was a bit creepy...
Then I went to sleep because I couldn't wait for the next train ride.
04 December 2007:
Woke up about 6:30 in the morning, took a shower, and ate breakfast at 7. It was awesome! It was the first time I had had the hostel's breakfast since we had been there. It really got me up and going. Kaity and Jordan woke up and we packed and left for the train station. Sadly, Kaity left her awesome umbrella at one of the cafe's at the station. She was so sad... It was such a cute umbrella. Boarded the train at 10:20 because the time kept getting pushed back (the first of two that day) and headed off to our next exciting location. About 2 hours later, we arrived. Unfortunately, where we wanted to go was NOT near the train station at all. So we walked because we didn't feel like paying for a cab, lugging all of our stuff behind us because we didn't want to pay to have it sit at the train station. Penny-pinchers, aren't we? Yeah, we're college students :-) Anywho, walked, and walked, and, just for kicks, we took a wrong turn and walked some more down cobblestone streets with rolling luggage. Yeah, we got looks, but we were so used to it by then, it didn't really matter. Then, all of the sudden, we saw this:
*Yeah, that's the leaning Tower of Pisa.
*And here's a better one...or few
*Kaity and my's artsy pictures
*Another artsy Pisa pic
Yes, we were in Pisa! for only about 4 hours or so, but long enough to cross it off the list of cities to visit in Europe. Isn't it cool?! Kaity and Jordan decided that they didn't feel like spending the 15 Euros to go to the top of the Tower, so I went alone. Let me tell ya, it's really weird walking up that thing because one second you're walking uphill, and just like that, you're going downhill, over and over and over again. 286 small long steps to the top. Nothing that would put you into cardiac arrest. Got to the top of the Tower and had a look-see around, took some pictures, like these: (pictures)
*The Cathedral and the Baptistry from the Tower
*From the top - pretty!
*One of the huge bells on the top
and continued on up to the very top level. It was pretty and the sun was setting (remember, it took us about an hour or so to get from the train station to the Tower, even though Pisa is VERY small). Then they kicked me off the top because the next group was waiting to come up. I have no idea what the guard told me (because he spoke in Italian), but I'm pretty sure he said something like "You crazy American! Leave because more people are coming up." He didn't look happy at all and I didn't want to anger him even more, so I did what I thought he was telling me to do and got lost. An expensive, short visit, but worth it. Who knows if I'll ever get to see it again.
Then went and walked into some of the surrounding shops and explored the Cathedral that was right there next to the Tower. It was pretty, but a very typical church. Nothing we hadn't seen before. We tried to get into the cool baptistry, but it was closing, so we decided that it was time for us to leave. So, we walked back to the train station... and saw this on the way back:
*This is a hang drum, ladies and gentlemen. (it's a little blurry...sorry)
Look up "Hang Drum" on YouTube and you can listen to it. Links are not working at the moment, sorry
It's cool. I took this picture for Coleman because he wants one. After hearing it, I kind of want one too... Anyone have 2000 Euro you want to bestow upon a poor kid???
It took us forever to find out where we were going, but eventually, because Kaity is smart, we got to the right platform and were boarding the train for our next city. I'll give you a clue - in a picture:
*Take a whack at it.
A) What statue is this?
B) In what city does is this famous statue housed?
Did you get it?
Answers:
A) David by Michaelangelo
B) Florence, Italy
It was dark by the time we got to Florence, so we had to navigate at very strange city in the dark, again lugging all our luggage with us for a long way. It took us a while to find the hostel, and, after asking for directions several times and crossing several really busy streets, we found our next home away from home. It was at the very top of a 7 story building with a 100 year-old elevator that only took passengers down (because it was so old). So we had to walk up about 82 stairs with 30 lbs. of stuff on us. It didn't help that we were exhausted from traveling all day. But the hostel was nice. We met some Australian guys there (oh man, were they CUTE!) and they told us some of the highlights of the city, gave us a map, and circled everything he thought we would be interested in. It was cool. I made myself a cuppa, ate dinner (which consisted of crackers, bread, and nutella) and decided to go to bed. But before that, I had some homework to do for my Environmental Science class, so I finished the class, and then crashed. It was awesome.
05 December 2007:
This was the morning of the glorious shower. The hostel we were staying in was really nice, so there were really nice bathrooms with REALLY hot water. I took the longest shower I had taken all semester. It was FABULOUS! Got ready to go and left the hostel at 9 a.m. to get in everything we wanted to do that day. The first thing we wanted to do was to see the awesomeness that is Michaelangelo. So, we headed over to the Galleria dell Accademia to see the wonderfulness. Jordan decided he didn't want to go in because it was 10 Euros just to get into the door. So Kaity and I went in and studied the statues that Michaelangelo had started and had never completed for the Pope because the Pope had died before they were finished. There were 14 of them and they were all really cool. Then, we turned around and saw the wonderful nakedness of Mike's most famous statue, David. He's perfectly proportioned. It's a feat that no one else has been able to achieve. David is 16 feet tall, and about 8 feet of the ground. It's illegal to take pictures of it, and having cameras ALL around it makes it really hard to attempt... so I didn't get one - of the full statue. I got from the neck down, but I'm happy with that. Then we walked into the next room and saw a painting by Raphael that looked EXACTLY like Daniel Wade (went to high school and college with him). It was scary.
Left there, met up with Jordan, and walked to the Duomo. The Duomo is the largest (as in widest) roof in Italy, if not in the world. I can't remember. It's been 6 months, give me a break. But it looks like this:
*The Duomo
And this time I forgoed the 6.50 Euro to climb to the top. Instead, I walked around and explored the streets of Florence. Happened upon several markets and walked into a few stores and just enjoyed the pretty Florence afternoon. It took about an hour for Kaity and Jordan to get all the way through the ceiling, but afterwards, we met up and kept walking/exploring the city. We happened upon one of the markets I had walked through and just browsed. It was called the San Lorenzo Market. It just happened that it was about lunchtime, so we pulled out our Nutella and crackers and had a feast.... or not. But we did feed the birds with our crumbs and shooed away the gypsies because all they're looking for are rich Americans who feel sorry for them to give them money. Poor college kids have no money, therefore, we ignored her and she went away. That's all you can do for gypsies. Shoo them or ignore them. Continuing...
Left after lunch and just walked around the markets for the rest of the day. Since we're poor, we didn't buy anything, but it was fun to see all the places selling aprons and boxer shorts with David's...um, yeah...plastered on the front. After a while, I found it not so funny. The problem is that it was EVERYWHERE, on every street corner, etc. You can definitely tell the tourist sections from the non-tourist sections...
After we explored that for a while, we went to the Piazza del Republica that was right next to the river. There is a mock statue of David here and we got pictures with it. It was funny. We walked along the river and headed back to the hostel for dinner and some relaxation time. It was much needed, too. By this time, we had almost run out of things to do in Florence. See, Florence is a city about art. And for three people not really that into art, it was hard to find something to do that didn't involve art... So we went back and hung out in the hostel just talking and catching up with blogs and what not. Then, we decided to hit the sheets before our next day.
And, here, I'm going to stop. I think it's long enough. I will catch up another time, when I have time. Maybe after I get back from Scotland, which I leave for on Monday and won't be back until June 30. I'm going to Pre-student teach in Edinburgh for 5 weeks and the head on over to London for 4 days. Yay!
Ciao everyone!
