Una vacación a Italia

The morning my Dad left for the U.S. I left for Italy with a group of friends from Providence College who are also studying in Sevilla.  We had experienced La Feria, and wanted to make the most out of our week of vacation.  We were headed for Rome on the second earliest flight out of Sevilla (the earliest to Italy).  Even though it was tough to wake up and get myself to the airport, I was excited to be spending time with some fun people from PC and to be visiting Rome and Florence!

We landed bright and early just as the city was waking up with the entire day ahead of us.  We dropped our bags off at our hostel and headed out determined to see all of Rome before dinner, leaving us with the whole next day to explore Vatican City.

We headed from our hostel to the Trevi Fountain, welcomed by a mass of tourists.  We snuck our way down to the water so that we could make our wishes and take some photos.  The sculptures were phenomenal, from the details I can only imagine how much time and effort was put dedicated to each figure.  

We then headed to see the Spanish Steps and find somewhere to eat lunch.  We found a small restaurant nearby with a good selection of pastas at a decent price.  I ordered the spaghetti bolognaise, which tasted vastly like my grandma’s recipe that my mom uses all the time.  It must be true, then, that the best food doesn’t always come from a restaurant. 

After lunch we headed to the Pantheon, initially built as a temple to the Ancient Roman gods but later converted to a Catholic.  The Pantheon is almost two-thousand years old and still stands in great condition.  It is the largest unreinforced dome in the world and serves as the burial place of the First and Second Kings of Italy.

From there we headed to Piazza Navona, one of the most famous Piazza’s in all of Italy.  We learned a lot about Rome at each of our stops thanks to my friend, Sean, who is a Political Science major and has a great memory for history; I definitely had more appreciation for what we were seeing because of it.

We then headed to the historic center of the city to see Altarre della Patria (“Altar of the Fatherland”), better known by the “wedding cake” or the “typewriter” for its appearance.  Even though the architecture is of classical style, the monument, dedicated to Victor Emmanuel II, is only around one-hundred years old.

The building sits next to the ancient roman ruins and the Colosseum, where we ended our full day of touring.  The inside was breathtaking and I enjoyed the audio tour we had bought because it provided a lot about the history behind the building.  The stories hidden inside the walls of the Colosseum are actually very tragic.  Even though gladiators are portrayed as strong and honorable, many of them died unfair, tragic deaths.  They were forced to fight jungle animals like lions and sometimes even forced to fight each other to the death.  The Colosseum was equipped with trap doors to trick the gladiators and make the games more interesting for the crowd.  To be honest, the whole ordeal reminds me too much of The Hunger Games.

After a quick rest at the hostel, I met up with three of my friends from high school for dinner.  Becca, Greg and Mike have spent the semester studying in Rome and I was glad to be going to one of their favorite restaurants.  For dinner, Becca ordered me her favorite pasta dish, which was absolutely delicious, and for dessert she ordered me homemade tiramisu.  Mmmm good!  It was great to catch up with some old friends I haven’t seen in a long time.  I still can’t believe that four classmates from lil ol’ Holliston were all eating dinner together at a restaurant in Italy.

After dinner Greg and Mike took me to one of their favorite hang-outs in the city where I tried my first Peroni (an Italian beer) and met a few of their friends.  From there we headed to a chocolate bar!  It was probably the coolest.  The best part was that we were able to eat the shot glasses because they were made out of chocolate!

The next morning we headed to Vatican City bright and early.  We lucked out as far as lines go and only had to wait for the security check to enter Saint Peter’s Basilica.  There was no line for the Vatican Museums or the Sistine Chapel.  The detail inside Saint Peter’s was incredible.  There is so much to see, I could have spent hours taking it all in.  On our walk to the museums, we stopped at a Gelateria called Old Bridge, famous for, well, its gelato! 

That night we headed to Florence, our second destination, where we were greeted by another group of PC kids who graciously took us in for three nights.  The girls were very welcoming and even though finals were approaching, they dedicated a lot of their time to showing us around the city that they now call home.

Florence is a gorgeous city and the ambiance reminds me a lot of Sevilla.  The city circles around the Duomo much like Sevilla circles around the Cathedral.  The most popular form of transportation is walking and on most streets, bikes are more popular than cars.

Our first day in Florence our friend, Cate, took us around the city.  We saw Michelangelo’s David and walked across el Ponte Vecchio before lunch at Pino’s, one of the girls’ favorite sandwich shops in Florence.  After a delicious lunch, we visited the leather market and then, of course, stopped for gelato!

Porcellino, the good luck boar in Florence!

We met up with even more girls from PC for dinner and I tried my first gnocchi!  I loved it! 

On Sunday we were off to Cinque Terre for a day of hiking along the coast.  Despite the rain that we had been wishing would not come, we were excited visit the coastline of Italy.  Cinque Terre is a National Park made up of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.  Unfortunately, the area has experienced some bad floods and a lot of the land is destroyed and unsafe to hike.  We still made the most of it, and enjoyed the parts we were able to see.  The views were absolutely gorgeous.  I definitely want to go back someday when I am older.

On Monday we climbed the Duomo and then ate lunch at Gusta Pizza, one of the most famous pizza restaurants in the whole city.  Absolutely delicious.  Highly, HIGHLY recommended.  After lunch Sean, Celeste and I toured the famous Santa Croce, which happened to be just down the street from Colleen’s apartment, where we were staying.  The Basilica is filled with tombs that house some of the most famous Italians including Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli.

After Santa Croce we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.  That night we celebrated “White Night”, an annual festival in Florence that started only a year ago.  For the celebration, all restaurants and bars stay open throughout the night to promote business.  We had a lot of fun walking through the streets-it was so crowded!  I felt like I was at Carnival again, just without the costumes.  I saw so many people from PC, at one point we had a very big group together.  It was so much fun and a great way to end our vacation to Italy!

Courtney waiting for a sandwich from All'antico Vinato-best sandwiches I have ever had!

Celeste, Colleen, Courtney, Sean and Cate at Pino's