I've been saying that every weekend that I've been in Italy so far, but seriously, what a weekend.
It all began Friday morning when we got up way too early to be at the train station at 7:45 a.m. for our fast train to Rome. We met as a big group of CCI and architecture majors - led by our one and only Petra - for our first of three school-sponsored weekend trips outside of Florence.
The train ride was super fast and we arrived in the Rome train station just before 10 a.m. A bus picked up our group at the train station and took us to Hotel Navona, about 40 minutes away. We had just enough time at the hotel to check in, get cappuccinos from the best cafe in Rome (a believable title after drinking these amazing coffees) and meet Petra in the lobby for our tour of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.
We walked to the Forum and Colosseum, only about twenty minutes from the hotel, stopping along the way for Petra and Erica (another professor) to point out places of interest. We spent some time standing outside Benito Mussolini's palace (known as "the wedding cake" by local Romans who have always despised this building), taking pictures and learning some history of the palace and the surrounding square (Piazza Venezia).
After that, we headed to the Forum where we ran into an unexpected problem. The Forum was closed due to a transportation strike. Apparently, the price of public transportation across Italy recently went up dramatically, so workers at the Forum were protesting by not showing up for work. We were still able to look down into the Forum via an overlook on the sidewalk, but we had to save our tickets for later and make our way down the street to the Colosseum.
Now, I'd been psyching myself out all week about the Colosseum because I just couldn't process the fact that I was actually going to THE Colosseum. That is, THE ANCIENT ROMAN COLOSSEUM. I hope you can tell, this was kind of a big deal.
So we're walking down the road, and all of a sudden, I look up and I see it, straight ahead in the distance. I literally stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and my stomach dropped like I was at the top of a roller coaster. I kid you not, I instantly had goosebumps all over because I was looking at the real Colosseum. The one I've seen pictures of and spent months in elementary school and high school talking about. THE Colosseum.
I can't get over it.
I did finally manage to start walking again and calm down enough for my heart to stop beating so painfully in my throat. I only took about fifty photos in the last length of street between the spot were I nearly had a meltdown and the Colosseum. Petra and Erica stopped us to talk about maps carved on a wall and depicting the Roman Empire at about four or five different points in history. All I really got out of this lecture was "Blah blah Rome blah blah ... Let's get in line for the Colosseum."
I kind of hop skipped and jumped my way down to the Colosseum and through the line because I was so ready to fight a lion. For real, that's all I could think about. I kept playing this video in my mind that I can only best describe as Lion King Fight Club. It would take place in the Colosseum and be the most badass movie ever made. And I want this to actually happen (ball's in your court, Mike Cooknick).
Of course, since we're Kent State and we're awesome (and we already paid for it) we got to line jump everyone and get in ahead of about 300 other people who were stuck waiting in line. It was a great moment.
Which meant that we had until 2:00 to explore the Colosseum and do whatever else we wanted. I've never been to Disney World, but this was probably better, considering my aversions to crowds, dehydration, touching anything with germs, standing in lines, spinning in circles, and the smell of pennies.
I teamed up with Lydia just like I did in Pisa to help her recreate her mom's photos. Thirty years ago, Lydia's mom and her mom's best friend backpacked through Europe and Lydia is trying to go to all the places the pair went to retake some of her mom's best photos. It's a pretty awesome project, and since it's like a giant Italian scavenger hunt, I've been having fun helping out with it.
It took us a few hours, but we were able to get most of Lydia's photos, as well as way too many of our own (I took about 300 photos in two and a half days).
After we saw every inch of the Colosseum we could get into, including the "museum" areas where they stored artifacts discarded in the Colosseum by its original audiences occupants (helmets, jewelry, coins, carvings, etc) and model of what the Colosseum would have looked back in the day, or of the pulley system used to bring animals up from the menagerie below, we called it a day and headed to the Forum, our meeting point for a walk to the Pantheon.
Lydia and I stopped for gelato (I got butterscotch and Nutella - delicious), then met the rest of the group. It was only about a ten or fifteen minute walk to the Pantheon. It's really bizarre walking through Rome because you move from ancient structures, to modern buildings and back with no formal separation or distinction.
We passed a lot of cool archways and ancient columns and churches on the way to the Pantheon, but my favorite thing we passed was the Roman Cat Sanctuary. Seriously. There's a sunken ruin in the city dedicated to sheltering and feeding stray cats. It's such a popular tourist destination that I was able to purchase a "Gatti di Roma" (Cats of Rome) calendar at a Euro store. Best purchase of the trip so far.
The Pantheon was smaller than I expected, but still very impressive. Like most of the ancient buildings we've visited, it was incredibly detailed and ornate inside. I was amazed to hear that the Pantheon still functions as a Catholic church with mass held every Sunday morning. Can you imagine belonging to that congregation? Unreal.
We wrapped up our Pantheon tour around 6 p.m. and were free for the rest of the evening. At least most of us went back to the hotel to rest before dinner. Bethany, Erika and I got a private suite together, so our room was really nice. All three of us crashed as soon as we got into the hotel and napped for about two hours before Lydia came to wake us up to go for a walk. A small group of us wandered around Rome, enjoying how busy and beautiful this city is, and especially enjoying these lights.
We found a cute little restaurant on a side street that was featuring three course dinners for only €16. So we feasted on wine, bruschetta, our choice of pasta or meat (I chose spaghetti alla carbonara), and some kind of super delicious bread dessert topped with hot fudge and sweet cream (see Italian Eats). We followed a dinner with a stop at the local Irish pub for a little bit of dancing and a little bit of hanging out with the rest of the group before going home and going back to bed in preparation of another early morning.
Saturday morning we met Petra and Rocky in the lobby at 9 to walk to Vatican City. Now, obviously I'm not Catholic, so this didn't have quite the same significance for me as for other members of our group, but coming from a family of Catholics and being Christian myself, I was very excited for this trip. And it didn't disappoint.
Our first stop upon entering Vatican City, was the Vatican Museums. Considering the only angle I've ever seen of the Vatican is the one of the Pope presiding over St. Peter's Square, I did not expect this museum to come out of nowhere, but that's essentially what happened. We turned a corner and walked right into a museum (well, not right into... security is tight).
And the Vatican Museums are beyond incredible. Rocky told us that each pope tries to outdo his predecessors by adding grander and grander additions or works of art to the museum, and that certainly showed. Room after room was filled with gorgeous and thought-provoking paintings, sculptures, and tapestries (each of those wall rugs costs enough to pay off the Italian national debt several times over... not sure how I feel about that in a church). But the artwork was amazing, and of course made even better by Rocky's deep knowledge of his subject.
The last leg of our art explorations was a stop in the Sistine Chapel. Yeah, the Sistine Chapel. It's just as good as you imagine and then some. Security was really tight, so we couldn't get pictures (I'm sure I could have snuck a few, but I was too busy staring with my eyes popping out of my head to think about that). One guard kept yelling, "Silence!" and "Silencio!" every few minutes since it's a sacred space.
Rocky told us that Michelangelo didn't paint the Chapel lying on his back like many people think, but standing on scaffolding, looking up at the ceiling. At the time Mike painted the Chapel, he was a nobody whom everyone believed was destined to fail the project. I bet they felt stupid four years later when Mike stepped back and was like, "You guys have anything more challenging in this city?" But Rocky also said that supposedly Michelangelo messed up his eyes so badly working on the ceiling, that from then on the only way he could read was by holding the book or paper directly above his head and looking up at it. Who knows if that's true, but I'm surprised he wasn't crippled doing those murals.
Another fun fact: In Michelangelo's original design, all of the figures were painted in the nude. The higher-ups in the Church at the time disapproved of this and hired a guy to paint robes on everyone. Even though the guy was a painter himself and trying to get his name out there with all his own original creations, he became known as "the underwear guy" for painting underwear on Michelangelo's work. And he never moved past that. How unfortunate. I can imagine him going to art shows and fighting to prove that he was good for something other than covering nether-regions.
Another fun fact: Michelangelo really hated the pope he worked for, so he painted him into the Sistine Chapel disguised as a demon and never got in trouble for it. Obviously Michelangelo was an artist with balls. Take that as you will.
After the Sistine Chapel, we went to St. Peter's Basilica which is also incredible. I know I keep recycling the same words (Wow! Neat-o!), but the architecture/art in Italy is mind-blowing. We spent a long time in St. Peter's too because it's St. Peter's. Let's be real here. We looked at every inch of the main floor, we went downstairs, we went upstairs, and then, Lydia and I climbed the Duomo.
Climbing the Duomo was slightly terrifying. It cost €5 Euros, but was worth every Euro penny (not sure if that's what they're called). First you go up about four hundred steps. Then you step out onto a roof that looks like any commercial roof you've ever been on. It's sucks and Lydia and I were about to cry when we realized we were only about a fourth of the way up. We had to cross into another building and continue up into the Duomo.
The first steps were really wide, the second were really narrow, the third spiraled to the point that I wanted to throw up, so Lydia and I stopped to gulp fresh air at a tiny window.
After that, we continued up more spiral stairs, more spiral stairs, slanting spiral stairs (we were in the dome at this point, so you had to curve with the walls), spiral stairs smaller in area than my feet (no exaggeration here) that we tackled on hands and knees, then we climbed a rope ladder and finally reached the top.
The view from the top of the duomo would have taken our breath away had the stairs not done it before we reached the top. We clutched stitches in our sides and stared out over all of Rome.
When we finally got our fill of looking out over Rome, we went back to the bottom in search of lunch, which we found at a really cute little restaurant with delicious, cheap zucchini sandwiches and a very friendly staff.
We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Rome. Our two main stops were at the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.
Lydia and I didn't get back to the hotel until almost 6:40 and our group dinner was at 7. So we had to hurry to get ready in time to meet everyone in the lobby.
We walked to Trattoria da Luigi Restaurante for my first official Italian dinner. Course one was risotto and pancetta rigatoni. Course two was a salad. Course three was steak and potatoes. Course four was tiramisu. Course five was going to the bar with Petra for cocktails.
I was obviously super stuffed at this point, but I decided to go with the flow and order a cocktail to sip as I sat in a heated outdoor patio talking with the other girls and Petra. I figured something with mint would be a safe option, so I opted for a Spiced Mojito at Petra's suggestion. It was a good choice.
We went back to the hotel after this and passed out from the long day. And Sunday was another long day. We got up bright and early for a tour of the Borghese Art Gallery (incredible, but I was dragging at this point) and of several churches.
The Sunday morning tour ended at the Trevi Fountain, where we got gelato to eat on the way back to the hotel.
We loaded up the bus from here, headed to the train station, and got back to Florence around 7 p.m. Bethany and I went to dinner with the guys at a Chinese restaurant on our street. This was the first time any of us had been there even though the guys live directly above it. The food was pretty good, but the service left much to be desired.
The first problem was that our waitress (the only one working) spoke neither Italian nor English. So that was tricky. We managed to order and get the right food, but then came the check-waiting marathon. No matter what we tried, we could not get the message across that we were ready to leave and needed the check. Finally, our waitress brought out a menu and showed it to Kevin. It seemed to us that the waitress was asking what he had ordered, so he pointed it out and asked for the check again. The waitress told him okay and, about twenty minutes later, came back with another plate of the chicken he had already eaten.
So that didn't work out the way we had hoped. We shared the chicken and went up to the register to pay, despite never having gotten the check. The cashier managed to flag down our waitress and figure our how much we all owed, but we weren't able to explain what happened with Kevin and he ended up having to pay for the second plate.
Also, if I go back there, I'm definitely getting take out. It cost €4 for my meal, but the service tax was €2. That's basically a 50% tip for horrible service! Not making that mistake there again.
After dinner, I went right to bed, but it was a spectacular weekend that I know I will remember for the rest of my life.
I feel like I should have a more profound ending to a post about such a profound experience, but I don't know how much more I can type right now, nor how much you can read. So this will be where I leave you for now. Time for dinner and homework...
Love you all!
After that, we headed to the Forum where we ran into an unexpected problem. The Forum was closed due to a transportation strike. Apparently, the price of public transportation across Italy recently went up dramatically, so workers at the Forum were protesting by not showing up for work. We were still able to look down into the Forum via an overlook on the sidewalk, but we had to save our tickets for later and make our way down the street to the Colosseum.
Now, I'd been psyching myself out all week about the Colosseum because I just couldn't process the fact that I was actually going to THE Colosseum. That is, THE ANCIENT ROMAN COLOSSEUM. I hope you can tell, this was kind of a big deal.
 |
| This was a big deal, too. |
I can't get over it.
I did finally manage to start walking again and calm down enough for my heart to stop beating so painfully in my throat. I only took about fifty photos in the last length of street between the spot were I nearly had a meltdown and the Colosseum. Petra and Erica stopped us to talk about maps carved on a wall and depicting the Roman Empire at about four or five different points in history. All I really got out of this lecture was "Blah blah Rome blah blah ... Let's get in line for the Colosseum."
 |
| This is precisely where I nearly peed myself from excitement. |
Of course, since we're Kent State and we're awesome (and we already paid for it) we got to line jump everyone and get in ahead of about 300 other people who were stuck waiting in line. It was a great moment.
Which meant that we had until 2:00 to explore the Colosseum and do whatever else we wanted. I've never been to Disney World, but this was probably better, considering my aversions to crowds, dehydration, touching anything with germs, standing in lines, spinning in circles, and the smell of pennies.
I teamed up with Lydia just like I did in Pisa to help her recreate her mom's photos. Thirty years ago, Lydia's mom and her mom's best friend backpacked through Europe and Lydia is trying to go to all the places the pair went to retake some of her mom's best photos. It's a pretty awesome project, and since it's like a giant Italian scavenger hunt, I've been having fun helping out with it.
It took us a few hours, but we were able to get most of Lydia's photos, as well as way too many of our own (I took about 300 photos in two and a half days).
 |
| Lydia and me with Maria and Jamie (from Italy and England, respectively) recreating one of Mama Coutre's photos. |
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| Two thumbs up. You live another day, Colosseum. |
Lydia and I stopped for gelato (I got butterscotch and Nutella - delicious), then met the rest of the group. It was only about a ten or fifteen minute walk to the Pantheon. It's really bizarre walking through Rome because you move from ancient structures, to modern buildings and back with no formal separation or distinction.
We passed a lot of cool archways and ancient columns and churches on the way to the Pantheon, but my favorite thing we passed was the Roman Cat Sanctuary. Seriously. There's a sunken ruin in the city dedicated to sheltering and feeding stray cats. It's such a popular tourist destination that I was able to purchase a "Gatti di Roma" (Cats of Rome) calendar at a Euro store. Best purchase of the trip so far.
The Pantheon was smaller than I expected, but still very impressive. Like most of the ancient buildings we've visited, it was incredibly detailed and ornate inside. I was amazed to hear that the Pantheon still functions as a Catholic church with mass held every Sunday morning. Can you imagine belonging to that congregation? Unreal.
 |
| I need Ron Hoellein to stand here and preach to the masses. |
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| Pittsburgh better top this when I get home. |
Saturday morning we met Petra and Rocky in the lobby at 9 to walk to Vatican City. Now, obviously I'm not Catholic, so this didn't have quite the same significance for me as for other members of our group, but coming from a family of Catholics and being Christian myself, I was very excited for this trip. And it didn't disappoint.
Our first stop upon entering Vatican City, was the Vatican Museums. Considering the only angle I've ever seen of the Vatican is the one of the Pope presiding over St. Peter's Square, I did not expect this museum to come out of nowhere, but that's essentially what happened. We turned a corner and walked right into a museum (well, not right into... security is tight).
And the Vatican Museums are beyond incredible. Rocky told us that each pope tries to outdo his predecessors by adding grander and grander additions or works of art to the museum, and that certainly showed. Room after room was filled with gorgeous and thought-provoking paintings, sculptures, and tapestries (each of those wall rugs costs enough to pay off the Italian national debt several times over... not sure how I feel about that in a church). But the artwork was amazing, and of course made even better by Rocky's deep knowledge of his subject.
The last leg of our art explorations was a stop in the Sistine Chapel. Yeah, the Sistine Chapel. It's just as good as you imagine and then some. Security was really tight, so we couldn't get pictures (I'm sure I could have snuck a few, but I was too busy staring with my eyes popping out of my head to think about that). One guard kept yelling, "Silence!" and "Silencio!" every few minutes since it's a sacred space.
Rocky told us that Michelangelo didn't paint the Chapel lying on his back like many people think, but standing on scaffolding, looking up at the ceiling. At the time Mike painted the Chapel, he was a nobody whom everyone believed was destined to fail the project. I bet they felt stupid four years later when Mike stepped back and was like, "You guys have anything more challenging in this city?" But Rocky also said that supposedly Michelangelo messed up his eyes so badly working on the ceiling, that from then on the only way he could read was by holding the book or paper directly above his head and looking up at it. Who knows if that's true, but I'm surprised he wasn't crippled doing those murals.
Another fun fact: In Michelangelo's original design, all of the figures were painted in the nude. The higher-ups in the Church at the time disapproved of this and hired a guy to paint robes on everyone. Even though the guy was a painter himself and trying to get his name out there with all his own original creations, he became known as "the underwear guy" for painting underwear on Michelangelo's work. And he never moved past that. How unfortunate. I can imagine him going to art shows and fighting to prove that he was good for something other than covering nether-regions.
Another fun fact: Michelangelo really hated the pope he worked for, so he painted him into the Sistine Chapel disguised as a demon and never got in trouble for it. Obviously Michelangelo was an artist with balls. Take that as you will.
After the Sistine Chapel, we went to St. Peter's Basilica which is also incredible. I know I keep recycling the same words (Wow! Neat-o!), but the architecture/art in Italy is mind-blowing. We spent a long time in St. Peter's too because it's St. Peter's. Let's be real here. We looked at every inch of the main floor, we went downstairs, we went upstairs, and then, Lydia and I climbed the Duomo.
 |
| Looking into the basilica from upstairs. |
The first steps were really wide, the second were really narrow, the third spiraled to the point that I wanted to throw up, so Lydia and I stopped to gulp fresh air at a tiny window.
After that, we continued up more spiral stairs, more spiral stairs, slanting spiral stairs (we were in the dome at this point, so you had to curve with the walls), spiral stairs smaller in area than my feet (no exaggeration here) that we tackled on hands and knees, then we climbed a rope ladder and finally reached the top.
 |
| I wonder if Pisa is this bad inside. |
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| Lydia and me at the top! |
We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Rome. Our two main stops were at the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.
 |
| Me making a wish at Trevi Fountain. |
We walked to Trattoria da Luigi Restaurante for my first official Italian dinner. Course one was risotto and pancetta rigatoni. Course two was a salad. Course three was steak and potatoes. Course four was tiramisu. Course five was going to the bar with Petra for cocktails.
I was obviously super stuffed at this point, but I decided to go with the flow and order a cocktail to sip as I sat in a heated outdoor patio talking with the other girls and Petra. I figured something with mint would be a safe option, so I opted for a Spiced Mojito at Petra's suggestion. It was a good choice.
 |
| Waiting for our drinks: Caitlin, Yelena, Petra, Lydia, me. |
The Sunday morning tour ended at the Trevi Fountain, where we got gelato to eat on the way back to the hotel.
We loaded up the bus from here, headed to the train station, and got back to Florence around 7 p.m. Bethany and I went to dinner with the guys at a Chinese restaurant on our street. This was the first time any of us had been there even though the guys live directly above it. The food was pretty good, but the service left much to be desired.
The first problem was that our waitress (the only one working) spoke neither Italian nor English. So that was tricky. We managed to order and get the right food, but then came the check-waiting marathon. No matter what we tried, we could not get the message across that we were ready to leave and needed the check. Finally, our waitress brought out a menu and showed it to Kevin. It seemed to us that the waitress was asking what he had ordered, so he pointed it out and asked for the check again. The waitress told him okay and, about twenty minutes later, came back with another plate of the chicken he had already eaten.
So that didn't work out the way we had hoped. We shared the chicken and went up to the register to pay, despite never having gotten the check. The cashier managed to flag down our waitress and figure our how much we all owed, but we weren't able to explain what happened with Kevin and he ended up having to pay for the second plate.
Also, if I go back there, I'm definitely getting take out. It cost €4 for my meal, but the service tax was €2. That's basically a 50% tip for horrible service! Not making that mistake there again.
After dinner, I went right to bed, but it was a spectacular weekend that I know I will remember for the rest of my life.
I feel like I should have a more profound ending to a post about such a profound experience, but I don't know how much more I can type right now, nor how much you can read. So this will be where I leave you for now. Time for dinner and homework...
Love you all!
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