Italia

We are now back on the ship and heading to Greece. We boarded last night in Dubrovnik, Croatia and will be arriving in Greece in two days. I haven’t posted anything about Italy yet, because I have been so busy with school! We have had two class days and they have been very busy with homework and papers due on things that we saw in Spain and Italy. I’ll get to Croatia eventually too, after I finish blogging about Italy! Since we were there so long, I am just going to break it up day by day, so read on!

Day 1: I already talked about this day a little bit, so I won’t say much more. I woke up in Naples feeling awful, and ended up having a stomach virus. I stayed on the ship all day, and after seeing the doctor and getting some medicine, I felt a little better. When my friends got back from Sorrento, I joined them for dinner in Naples. We walked around for awhile until we found a restaurant that looked good. The city is definitely nothing to exciting, and I don’t have intentions on ever going back to Naples, but it wasn’t actually as bad as I thought it would be. I heard from numerous people that Naples was disgusting, and they hated it, but I don’t think I would use quite as strong of words. It wasn’t anything extremely exciting, but I enjoyed the day and half I was there! After going to dinner (and not eating, in fear of getting sick again), we went in search of gelato. We found a great place that had delicious looking gelato, so I decided to try eating that. Thankfully I didn’t feel sick after it, and it was wonderful! Italy definitely knows how to make their gelato. Afterwards, we all headed back to the ship and I went to bed, in hopes that I’d wake up feeling much better in the morning!

Day 2: I woke up early that morning feeling so much better. Still not quite 100%, but definitely a huge improvement. I got up and got packed, and then we headed into town to find some lunch. After lunch, we hopped on a bus to the train station. Somehow we ended up at the wrong station, but we eventually found our way and got to the main train station in Naples. This was our first ticket-buying experience, so we all weren’t quite sure what we needed to do, but it ended up being pretty easy. After we got our tickets, we found some snacks and gelato, and then got on the train toward Rome! We thought we were doing just wonderful until the conductor came by and asked for our tickets. He told us in broken English that we hadn’t gotten them stamped, and we could get fined for it. We all started to freak out a little bit because we had paid only 15 euros for each ticket, and the fine could be up to 50 euros! Thankfully, he never ended up coming back, so we got away with it, and definitely learned our lesson! Once we arrived in Rome, we went in search of our apartment. There were 8 of us total (Tiffany, Rene, Cassidy, Megan, Serkon, Ally, and Andrew). Our apartment was only supposed to have 6, so while the girls checked in, the boys hid around the corner! The apartment was tiny but very cute! After getting settled, we went in search of a restaurant to have dinner at. We quickly found out that Italian men are very forward and flirty, and that you just have to kind of smile and act like you don’t hear them! Walking by all the restaurants was so funny because they have waiters outside trying to get you to eat there at every single one! We finally found a place that looked good, and sat down. I had my first Italian meal, lasagna, with a glass of the restaurants house wine. It was so good! There is definitely a big different when you get pasta in Italy verses the U.S.! After dinner, we started walking around and just exploring Rome a little bit. We found some building that looked like it should be some sort of monument or something important, but in fact wasn’t! Its amazing how every single building in Italy is so beautiful and unique and people would go crazy over it here in the U.S. After taking pictures at the not-so-famous but very cool building, we went in search of a bar or club where we could dance! We never found exactly what we were looking for, but we found a little place that we hung out at for the rest of the night. Around 3 am, we headed back to our apartment to get some sleep and get ready to see Rome the next day!

Day 3:  Happy 4th of July! We had a great day exploring Rome and seeing all the touristy sites. We got on a hop on hop off bus in the morning, and headed to the city center. Our first stop was this amazing building called the Monument of Victor Emmanuel II. It was really amazing, and from a terrace off of the building we could see over the entire city. We got some great pictures that I will put up soon! After that, we headed to the Pantheon. It was really awesome to see that, and after taking pictures there we went in search of Paninis. We found a great little café that had really good food, and I had my first real Italian panini. Such good food in Italy! After lunch, we hopped back on the bus and went to see the Coliseum. We had to wait in line to get in, but it was well worth it. Knowing that we were standing inside something that had been build over 2000 years ago was just incredible. It’s so hard to believe that people were capable of constructing something that amazing so long ago, but being there made it real! While we were there, we saw some kids who snuck down to the bottom area (where the gladiators would fight) and were skateboarding! They actually didn’t get caught for awhile and it was pretty funny to watch them down there. But needless to say, once they were spotted, they were kicked right out of the Coliseum. But hey, not too many people could say they have skateboarded on the ground that gladiators fought on 2000 years ago! After the Coliseum, we got back on the bus and went to see the Trevi Fountain. It was so, so beautiful. While we were there, a couple who had just been married and was still in their clothes from their wedding showed up, and had their first dance in front of the fountain. It was so cool to see that! They were so happy and in love; and what a romantic place to have your first dance! After gawking at the newlyweds, we wandered around until we found some gelato. It was amazing as always (I probably had gelato about 15 times while we were in Italy)! We then hopped back on our little tour bus and went back to our apartment. I packed my stuff up and then went over to stay with three girls I made friends with on the ship (Tina, Danielle, and Andy) at their hotel near the Pantheon. We found a cute little place to have dinner, and then went to Campo dei Fiori for some 4th of July festivities! Tina goes to UCLA and had a friend there who is from Rome, so we met up with him and his Italian friends and hung out with them all night. So much fun!

Day 4: After a late night out with the Italians we met, we were all exhausted! We woke up in Rome to find that it was pouring rain outside. Our Global Studies professor had told us that when it rains, the water comes through the dome at the top of the Pantheon, and its amazing to see it. So, taking his advice, we decided to run barefoot in the rain all the way to the Pantheon so we could experience it! But when we got there, we ran inside to find that there was some sort of glass on it, and rain didn’t come through! So disappointing! Regardless, it was fun running there in the rain and getting stares from all the locals we passed by, probably thinking about what crazy Americans we were. After that, we all showered to warm up, and then got ready to go to the train station and head to Florence! The train ride to Florence was beautiful; we saw miles and miles of sunflower fields and vineyards. I think I may have enjoyed the scenery on the way there almost as much as the actual city. From the train, we could see these little cities built on hilltops that were just so charming. Once we arrived in Florence, we had to go in search of a place to sleep. We had just decided to wing it, and hadn’t booked a hotel…bad idea! We searched for at least 2 hours, before finally arriving at a hotel on the outskirts of town where we begged the man at the front to let us stay there. They told us they had no room, but then, feeling bad for us, told us they would see what they could do. He came back to tell us they had a room in the back of the hotel that was very small, but we could have it if we wanted to. Relieved and exhausted, we happily took the room he offered us. Once we got settled, we decided to go out and explore a little bit and find a place to have dinner. We found this cute little hole in the wall that had great food. After dinner, we walked around for awhile until it was late, and then headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.

Day 5: We woke up in the morning and had a great breakfast at the hotel. They had homemade cappuccinos for us, as well as pastries, cereal, fruit, and many other things. After breakfast, we got ready and then headed to the city center to see the sites of Florence! They city was extremely busy with tourists everywhere. We first went to the Duomo, and then to this beautiful bridge (I can’t remember what its called!) and took some great pictures there. After that, we went to this vintage market we had heard about that happens only twice a year, and spent a couple hours looking at all of these wonderful vintage things, like vintage Gucci bags, very old Channel jewelry, vintage dresses, shoes, and so many other really fun things. I really wanted to get a vintage purse, but opted not to because of the exchange rate with the euro (everything is so much more expensive for us Americans!) After the market, we had lunch at this great little place on a side street. They had the best Balsamic vinegar, and I had a delicious salad and bread with it. We spent the rest of the day just wandering around the city, shopping, eating gelato, and enjoying Florence, before heading back to the train station. We were all just exhausted, and decided to go back to the ship for the night and catch up on some sleep before going back to Rome the following day.

Day 6: I woke up feeling great and ready to head back into Rome and do some more exploring! We took a train into the city, and headed straight to the Vatican. Unfortunately we didn’t have a tour booked, so we knew it would take hours to get into the city. We decided to just visit St. Peter’s Basilica, which is a part of the Vatican you can get into for free without waiting in long lines. It was absolutely amazing to see that, and so beautiful inside. I got some wonderful pictures that are on my Facebook, and I will put some up here eventually too. After that, went back to the Trevi fountain, just to see it again. Then we explored the city a little more, did some shopping and then we went back over to Campo dei Fiori, where we had a great dinner at this lovely Italian restaurant right in the main square. I had a very traditional Italian meal: Spaghetti and tomato and basil along with a glass of Italian wine. It was definitely the best pasta I have ever had. Such good flavor! After dinner, we went across the plaza to a restaurant and bar called Sloppy’s, where we hung out for a few hours. Afterwards, we went back out to the center of the square and found a ton of other Semester at Sea kids there, so we hung out with them for the rest of the evening. We had intended to go back to the ship on a late train that night, so we hadn’t booked a hotel. But, being the silly Americans that we are, we didn’t think about the fact that the trains may not run all night, and we missed the last train to Civitavecchia. After all of us had a mini panic attack, we finally ran into two friends of Tina’s from UCLA who was studying abroad in Rome, and offered to let us stay in their apartment for the night. We graciously accepted and headed to their apartment and slept for a few hours before taking the 7 am train back to the ship. We were all, once again, absolutely exhausted, and I went straight to my room to sleep when we got back!

Day 7: Slept all day!

Sorry that was so long, I hope I didn’t bore anybody! I just don’t want to leave anything out! Lets just say that Italy was amazing. It was probably most amazing to me because of the history. It was just incredible to think that so many of the things we saw had been there for 1000-2000 years. What a beautiful country!