Get comfy, because I’m about to
recount our entire Italy trip. I had intended to update as we went, but it
turns out that our internet connections were more limited/expensive than we
were expecting, so it’s all gonna have to happen at once. That’s why at several
different points, I say that I’m on a train going somewhere and they’re never
the same; it’s all chronological though. So bear with me, and enjoying reading
about our adventures J
We left the apartment on the 19th
after dealing with our landlord and the checkout process. It was surprisingly
easy; we just handed over the keys and she gave us back our full deposit. We
all took one last picture in the chateau, took Peter (we named our elevator)
down to the ground floor, and said goodbye to 25 Eduardo Dato, Apartment 2A
forever. Then we hopped in a taxi and Ally, Trevor and I had to say goodbye to
Chuck and Jodi, which was hard. But people that know me know that frequently, things
don’t hit me until they’ve already happened and it’s too late. That’s why I’m
so bad with goodbyes. I never feel like I’m actually saying goodbye and by the
time I realize that it could be a very long time before I see them again, I’m
on a plane headed towards Rome.
When we got to the train station,
we still had a mission; sell an extra ticket that we acquired thanks to a
special promotion. We’d already gotten a discount on our tickets, so any money
that we made off of the extra ticket was 100% profit. The trick was finding
someone to sell it to. We asked people as they walked into the station and
every person in line if they needed a ticket to Madrid at 11:45. We received a
lot of judgmental rejections and had a lot of uncomfortable moments before one
guy ended up needing it and not snubbing us off. An AVE ticket to Madrid is
full-price 83 euros and we sold it to him for 50 euros, saving him 33 euros and
giving me, Ally and Trevor each 17 euros. It also happened that he was super
friendly and spoke English. For the entire 2 and a half hour train ride, we
flipped through Ally’s book of Spanish idioms with Jose telling us which ones
were actually used by people in real life and discussing the differences between
the expressions in Spanish and English. For example, the Spanish equivelant of
the expression “When pigs fly” in English is “Cuando las ranas creen pelo” (“When frogs grow hair”) Needless to say,
it was a very amusing train ride.
When we got to Madrid, we met up
with Jose, Ally’s friend that lives in Granada but was studying at the
University of Florida last semester and will also be there next semester. He is
possibly the most efficient person I’ve ever met and is great to travel with. I
like the dynamic that has developed out of this trip. It’s kind of turned into
a couple’s trip, but not in a weird way. We all have a really great time
together and I’m really glad that things worked out the way that they did. Ally
and Jose are leaving to go back to Madrid on the 27th, and Trevor
and I will be continuing on our own to the Amalfi coast. We are definitely
going to miss traveling with them! It will be sad to see them go.
We caught our delayed flight with RyanAir
(last RyanAir flight of the trip!!) and made it to Rome later that evening. We
got some pizza from a little place near the hotel that, even though it was a
little hole in the wall, was still a wonderful first meal in Italy. The next
day, we went out into Rome and did all the necessary things to do in Rome. It
was very strange for me since I was just in Rome last summer because I could
recognize certain parts of the city. But it was all random things, like a café
with delicious crepes near the Vatican, some churches and statues and a few
metro stops. It was nice to go back, but Rome is just so overwhelmingly large
and chaotic that I’m glad that we started in the big city and are working our
way to the smaller ones. In comparison to Florence (and I’m hoping that the
other cities will be like that as well), I feel like Rome isn’t as authentically
Italian as some of the other places we’ve been. Everything is a tourist trap
and it’s hard to distinguish which things are genuinely Italian. The Coliseum
was genuinely Italian before it was overtaken by box offices and men standing
in the plaza out front dressed in gladiator uniforms taking pictures with
tourists for tips. The Trevi Fountain’s magic is decreased by the sea of people
that you have to push through to throw your coin for good luck. Of course,
every major city has an element of that, but I feel like Rome has it the worst.
On the other hand, there are plenty of
genuinely Italian things in Rome that we didn’t have time to see. As a tourist,
I am of course biased because I encounter all the tourist traps. But even when
I was there for 10 days last summer, I still felt overwhelmed by all the things
that there were to see and to pay for. Overall, Rome is just to much for me;
there’s so much to do and see that are the touristy checkpoints, that even if
you spent weeks and weeks doing those, then you’ll never see it all and then
you’ll never being able to experience all the authentically Italian parts that
don’t require a Roma Pass and a wad of cash.
That being said, we still enjoyed
our time there. I’m definitely glad that we started with the big city and are
working our way to the smaller ones, but we still had a great time in Rome. One
of the best parts of it was looking for the Path of Illumination. Anyone that
has ever read Angles and Demons by
Dan Brown is familiar with this. Basically, it is the historic path that is
located in Rome, which was the epicenter of the ancient brotherhood of the Illuminati,
that members of the Illuminati would follow to the headquarters of the
organization. The entire things is a giant scavenger hunt. There is a poem to
send you to the first checkpoint, and then 4 checkpoints afterwards, each one
leading to the next and then ultimately ending at the headquarters of the
Illuminati. It’s a real thing and the checkpoints still exist today. I was
annoyed last year because I read Angels
and Demons right after I went to Rome and had wished that I could have
followed the path while I was there. So when I went back, we found some of the
checkpoints and other Illuminati symbols all over Rome. If you’re keeping an
eye out, you’ll find a lot. We didn’t have time to see them all, but it was
really fun to be able to see them up close and in real life. The other thing
that made Rome worth it was our trip to a famous (and famous for a reason!)
gelato place called San Crispino. The flavors are unique (I had a scoop of
honey and scoop of ginger-cinnamon) and made with the highest quality
ingredients. Before San Crispino, I had always just believed that gelato was
gelato and never really tasted the difference. Not anymore! I wish we had more
time in Rome just so we could have gone back again. I wonder if they ship
internationally…
After a long day of walking and
discussion conspiracy theories, we got some delicious (which goes without
saying; we’re in Italy!) dinner and tried to head back to our hotel, only to
discover that the metro was closed. Luckily, or so we thought, there was a
night bus running that would take us right to our stop. Once we finally found
the bus stop and waited for it for about 30 minutes, we were relieved to see a
bus with N1 written on the front. Once the bus got closer, however, we were not
relieved to see that the bus was jam-packed. I mean like people pressed against
windows, rubbing up on strangers, leave needing to take a shower kind of jam
packed. Somehow we made it on the bus (others at the stop were not so lucky)
and settled in for our 40 minute ride to our stop. Jose kept terrifying us
because he had to step off the bus a few times so that other people on the bus
could get off and then quickly get back on. Every time it happened, Trevor,
Ally and I would look at each other with a “what do we do when the bus leaves
without him?” stare. Miraculously,
we all made it to our hotel in one piece, exhausted and ready for another
exciting day in Italy.
Then we got back on the train and headed back to Florence, where
Trevor and I wandered around the city with no particular direction, just taking
whichever street looks most appealing and not even taking out a map once, which
is one of my favorite things to do in an unfamiliar city, especially one as
beautiful and charming as Florence. I loved Florence so much and I’m not quite
sure what to expect from Venice (other than gondolas
and even more amazing cuisine). This trip has just been so wonderful so
far, everything I could have hoped for from an Italian vacation. The food has
been delicious, the company has been enjoyable, the smiles have been constant,
the laughs have been frequent, and the sights have been beautiful. We’ve spent
a little more time in the TrenItalia Customer Care Center than we would like,
thanks to a lack of confirmation emails, having to guess what time our train
is, and then having to arrive at the train station an hour early than our train
to check our seat numbers and ensure that we are on that train, but
fortunately, we have made it to all of our destinations thus far. Cross your
fingers that we make it to the rest of them without any complications! Every
time we confirm that we are a train and get our seat numbers, we make a scene,
exclaiming that we are actually going to insert
city name here. It’s exhilarating, really.
Now we’re on a train from Venice
to Milan. As you can probably guess, train time is about the only chance that
we have any extra time to rest and blog. Venice, like I’ve always imagined it
to be, was amazing. We walked out of the front of the train station on a bright
and warm day, staring at the Grand Canal filled with gondolas and speedboats.
It was unreal. It almost made my heart stop because of how picture-perfect
everything was. And it just got better as we started walking. Ever corner we
turned looked like it could be a painting or a set of a movie. We joked a few
times that it looked like it was a section of theme park; like the doors didn’t
actually open and the boats were on secret tracks under the water. We spent all
Thursday walking around the main island, never getting bored because every
bridge, canal, plaza and street was something new to see. It also has such a
relaxed feel to it. There are no cars or vespas or bicicles, because there are
no roads and there are bridges with stairs everywhere. The only way to get
around is walking or boating, 2 of my favorite things to do. Today (Friday 25th),
we took the water bus (basically like Venice’s version of a metro system) to
the island of Murano, which is known for its beautiful glasswork. Murano was
beautiful and was just like a smaller scale Venice and was really nice place to
spend the afternoon. Even just taking the waterbus to get there was so nice. We
had about a 45 minute boat ride where the entire time, we had a backdrop of
water-front buildings painted warm colors with flowers covering their window
sills, the smell of saltwater and mozzarella cheese, the cloudless sunny skies
and the perfectly temperate ocean breeze. By the time we got to island of Murano,
we were already in a wonderful mood that practically nothing could have ruined.
Even sitting on the train right now looking out the window at wide open plains
with backlit mountains in the background, I can hardly believe that I am
city-hopping around Italy right now, have been for 6 days, and will continue to
for 6 more days.
We just left Milan, where we only
had one day to spend. But for me, that was enough. Going from sweet little picturesque
Venice with no cars or roads to big busy Milan was overwhelming. After we saw
the Duomo (Cathedral), the Galleria (The super fancy and apparently
famous mall) and the old fortress, we had basically seen everything that Milan
had to offer in terms of sightseeing landmarks. Being in the fashion capital of
the world, I thought I would be able to find a lot of little boutiques and do
some shopping, but all the stores were just enormous and ridiculously busy and
expensive chains, like Prada and Louis Vouitton. I’m sure that there are little
original boutiques somewhere, but Milan is a huge city and I had no idea where
to look for them. We found a few while we were walking through the city, just
strolling to kill time, but nothing looked like anything that I couldn’t find
on Park Avenue in Winter Park or the Millenia Mall. We decided to give up on
the shopping and go spend some time in the big park that we found earlier that
day. It was a nice break from the crowded streets. We spent about an hour or
two just sitting in the grass, eating gelato, watching some people slacklining
and other people watching and just letting our feet rest. After walking all day
every day for a week straight, our feet are begging us for a break. So in a
way, this 5 hour train ride is just what we need. Not to mention that the views
of the Italian country-side are lovely.
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| Our relaxing park where we spent the afternoon |
After the park, we started on our
journey to go find dinner. We had a suggestion from Jose that he got from
Lonely Planet, and even though it was a little far out, we decided to go ahead
and make our way over there and check it out. I’m really glad that we did
because the part of town was really cool. There was a little canal and either
side of it was lined with all types of restaurants that were all filled with
people. I was afraid that I was going to leave Milan feeling like it was just an
uncomfortably busy, crowded and expensive city. Everything that we had seen
earlier in the day was just overrun by tourists and the places that weren’t
overrun by tourists (with the exception of the park) wasn’t that nice to look
at and wasn’t very enjoyable. We had never actually witnessed the culture of
Milan until we found this little section of town. There was everything from
little dive bars to upscale restaurants and no matter where they were, people
were talking and having a great time. We ended up going to the restaurant that
Jose suggested, and it was so worth it. We split some crostinis with bruschetta
and parmesan ham and a delicious pasta dish with shrimp and a pistachio sauce
and a dessert with sweet cheese, white chocolate and fresh strawberries. I
think I could actually eat Italian food for the rest of my life and never get
tired of it.
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| The street in Milan where we had dinner |
Now we’re on our 5 and a half hour
long train from Milan to Salerno. From Salerno, we’re going to take a bus to
Amalfi, where we will be spending the rest of our trip until we go back to Rome
to fly home! From all the websites that we’ve been reading about Amalfi, it
sounds like it’s going to be the perfect place to finish up our Italian tour.
It’s a small little city right on the Amalfi coast with lots of access by ferry
to other little nearby islands, caves and beautiful blue waters. It has a high
elevation so there are several nice hikes and bird’s eye views as well.
Trevor’s asleep right now so I don’t have anyone to share my excitement with
(except for the ladies sitting next to me that only speak German, but that could
get complicated) and I’m having trouble containing myself.
Amalfi was the perfect place to
spend our last few days. We were finally able to relax and be in a city where
we didn’t feel like we had a million things to see before we left. Amalfi
itself is a small little town, but there are plenty of other towns along the
coast to visit, some notable ones being Sorrento, Positano, Ravello, and the
island of Capri. I would love to go back one day and spend a few weeks just
going to all the little towns along the Amalfi Coast. As our friend Jennie put
it, “the Amalfi Coast is where Jesus vacations.” After being there for several
days and seeing some of the beautiful sights and charming places and meeting so
many pleasant people, I can absolutely see what she meant. On our first day
there, we arrived just in time for dinner and through our new favorite travel
tool, TripAdvisor, found us a perfect quaint little hotel called the Hotel
Amalfi, that had a balcony overlooking the water and the mountains where we ate
breakfast each morning. It also found us a fantastic restaurant called Donna
Stella on a beautiful rooftop with lemon trees and a perfect view of the
surrounding mountains. I felt so
comfortable and welcomed in Amalfi, and am so glad that we were able to
conclude our trip in such a picturesque tranquil town.
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| Donna Stella |
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| The view from our hotel room |
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| The gardens in Ravello |
Now we’re finally on the plane on
our way to Philadelphia. It’s been a long way coming to this point and it feels
good to be headed home. Even though we had a fantastic time, don’t get any
ideas that I wasn’t missing home the whole time, because I promise you I
definitely was. I am so eager to get home, sleep in my own bed, speak English
and have everyone around me understand me, and hug my dog. Nothing beats a hug
from a big, fat, fluffy dog like Maggie. (Except maybe a hug from by beloved
friends and family of course! ;) )
All in all, I gained a few pounds, some really great friends
and more memories than I could count. Even with all the trouble I went through
to get there and the setbacks that I had while I was there, I can honestly say
that I would do all again in a heartbeat if given the chance.
Sevilla, todavía y siempre, no me ha dejado <3
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