When in Rome… (And Florence)
Hello! The past few days have been quite busy and filled with exciting places and activities! Since my last post we did a day trip to Lucca, went to the Uffizi Gallery and the Academia and took a quick 1 night trip to Rome. We are now on our way to Positano! The famous beautiful Amalfi coast! I’m very excited for some rest and relaxation on a beach after constantly being on the go for the last little while.
I’ll start with Lucca! It’s a small city just outside of Florence with a city wall wrapped around it that you can bike along. We rented bikes for a surprisingly cheap price and rode around for about 2 hours and then headed back to Florence. It was a quick little trip but the town was beautiful and the biking was a great workout for us, especially with all the pizza and pasta that is being consumed on the regular. And gelato. Italian food is just the best, but the worst for the waistline. It’s a struggle but I think I can justify it because of all the walking we do… We do a lot of walking.
The next day, our last day in Florence, we visited the Uffizi Gallery and the Academia, where we saw Michelangelo’s David! This was amazing and I was thoroughly impressed as soon as we walked into the room. I’m not usually a huge art person but David is a must-see and I totally understand why. He is a cool guy.
The next day we were off to Rome, sadly only for one night. I loved Rome. It may even be my favourite place so far. At least one of my favourites for sure! It’s so beautiful and historic; everywhere you look there is something incredible to see. With all the impressive ancient buildings and the ruins, you just couldn’t be bored in a place like that.
We walked to the Colosseum and I tried so hard to really wrap my head around what happened there and all the history that stood before me. It’s difficult to fully grasp the fact that thousands of years ago people would come to this very place to watch the gladiators and public executions. There are a lot of times on this trip that I am taken aback and can’t believe I am really standing in a place that I’ve seen so many photos of before and have heard so much about, and this was definitely one of them.
We also visited the Pantheon and, to our utmost dismay, found the Trevi fountain to be under construction… Yup, there was no water in it and it was all covered up. All you could do was walk over it on a little boardwalk type thing. It was so sad. We had all been preparing our wishes on the way there and felt the deepest disappointment when we arrived to see it drained and inaccessible. That is the signature thing to do in Rome and we couldn’t do it. With heavy hearts and our unheard wishes, we left the fountain and continued on our way.
That night, we decided to go out for a casual dinner. You know, just get some pizza and some wine and then go back to our hostel just like any other night. After our waiter gave us a free bottle of wine, (you know us, can’t say no to free alcohol let alone a whole bottle) we knew we were in trouble. The wine kept on coming and coming, and then came the limoncello shots, and the grappa, and before you know it all 4 of us were long gone. None of us noticed every other person in the restaurant leaving until it was 11 o’clock and we finally looked around and realized the once busy restaurant had become a ghost town. Oops! We probably scared them away. Really, though, we might have with our obnoxiously loud conversations about god knows what and clearly high level of intoxication.
We stumbled into our hostel, laughing and screaming and crying and the whole shebang, just for most of us to end up hugging the toilet for the remainder of the night. Not the classiest of moments, I’m aware. When in Rome, right?!
The next morning we all talked about the nights events and laughed and laughed and laughed. Since we all had forgotten a good majority of it, the stories that were told brought us all into hysterical fits of laughter. I found out that I apparently SLEPT through the tiramisu, which is very unlike me because I am an avid dessert lover and would never pass up the opportunity to shove my face with cake. Also, how does one sleep in a restaurant?! I can’t say I remember that one but I’m disappointed in myself for not experiencing some real Italian tiramisu. To be fair, the ones who did get to eat it said they didn’t even remember what it tasted like. So maybe I didn’t miss out on much, just some extra calories I didn’t need… My health was obviously a priority in my mind that night.
We then went next door for some breakfast which was great for the tummy after a drunken night and then it was time to hit up the Vatican City! Yes, I visited the home of the Pope while experiencing one of the worst hangovers of my life, just another classy moment in Rome. We really didn’t plan on things getting so out of hand, but you can’t say no to anything when in Rome… It would just be wrong!
The Vatican was quite cool to see, even though we were only there for about 10 minutes. The lines to get into anything were about a 3 hour wait and we didn’t have time for that, nor would we have wanted to wait in that line if we could. We went, we saw, we took it in, we took some pictures, and we left. Been there, done that! Onto the next adventure!
And that brings us up to now, sitting on the train on the way to the Amalfi coast. We are all tired and very ready to relax in a beautiful oceanside town. Talk to you soon!
Tal