Italian Adventures (Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice)

Week 20 – Italy!

Saturday, December 27^th - Rome

                After seeing off Joan, Bradley, and Mitchell we made our way over to a different airport than them. We got into Rome early afternoon – early enough to take a nap! We then took a quick tour around our hotel’s neighborhood which included the Spanish Steps, Plaza di Spagna, and Trevi Fountain. It was a little rainy and dark by the time we saw everything (so we saw them again later this week). Not to mention – the Trevi Fountain was all boarded up with scaffolding and barricades due to cleaning and restoration. We also stopped for some gelato and pizza of course! The restaurant we went to (San Marco) was a really nice and a new trendy looking place near our hotel. Definitely a good first Italian pizza experience!

Sunday, December 28^th   - Rome

                We got up nice and early, had a free breakfast at the hotel’s terrace restaurant (thanks Santa!) then made our way to Vatican City! The line was EXTREMELY long for the museums due to the last Sunday of the month being free entrance into the museums. We made it in eventually and walked through the conglomeration of museums which ended with the Sistine Chapel. Not really a religious experience with a thousand tourists crammed in there and a loud speaker reminded everyone to be silent.

                After the museums we got some lunch just outside the City and met a nice couple from Massachusetts. Carl and Lorraine are retirees who gave all their possessions to charity and are currently traveling the world spending a month in a city at a time.

                After lunch we made our way over to Castel Sant’Angelo or the Mausoleum of Hadrian. It’s a very impressive fortress now with a museum in it. We didn’t have time to do the museum but we got some nice pictures of the castle. We hustled back into Vatican City (after some gelato of course) to wait in another huge line to get into Saint Peter’s Basilica. We made it just in time to celebrate mass in the Vatican! There were so many beautiful decorations around the church it was very difficult to try and translate the homily from Italian to Spanish to English. After mass we saw a bunch (~20) Cardinals go to Vespers that evening, which was very cool to be so close to the Cardinals.

                We also saw the treasury of the Basilica which held a lot of relics of different saints and the list of all the Popes since Peter.

                After that we made our way back to the hotel area to get some dinner then rest up for the next day in Rome!

Monday, December 29^th   - Rome

                [Spoiler alert – this was probably Stuart and my most favorite part of our trip.] We got up early and headed to the Roman Forum to avoid the Colosseum lines as one ticket gets you into all the ruins. We were able to see the old Forum and Palatine Hill where all the high and mighties of ancient Rome ruled and lived – including Romulus. There were A LOT of old rocks here. We saw some old temples to the gods, the place where Caesar was cremated, the old stadium, etc. There was also a small museum describing Palatine Hill that we went into.

                After that (don’t be mislead – that took a couple of hours to explore all the ancient ruins) we went over to the Colosseum. We got in very quickly and skipped the line thanks to our tickets and the hotel’s advice.  The Colosseum was very cool and neat to see, but very crowded for the end of December.

                After the ruins we got a quick touristy lunch then checked out the Pantheon, which has the tomb of Rafael in it (Stuart wants you to know this is the famous renaissance painter, not the ninja turtle). We then walked over to Piazza Navona to just wander around. We got some gelato right off the plaza, but then we found a place with 150 flavors! (We didn’t get a second gelato, but we would highly recommend the second place over the first!)   

                As it was an incredibly beautiful day, we made our way over to the Trevi Fountain to actually see it in the daylight. There was a small line of people to walk across the scaffolding bridge that Rome set up for tourists to see the fountain, even thought it was covered with scaffolding, machinery, and guys cleaning it.

                After the Trevi Fountain, we went back down (and up) the Spanish Steps and enjoyed its cute Italian Nativity Scene in the daylight. We then took the long way back to the hotel through the park Villa Borghese. It was a really pretty park, about the size of Madrid’s Retiro, but with hills and bike/golf cart rentals.

                When we got back to the hotel, it was time to Skype family to wish my mom (Stevie’s mom) a happy birthday! Then we made our way to a cute little pizzeria around the corner from the hotel.

Tuesday, December 30^th - Florence

                After a rocky start to the day (showing up at the wrong train station for our high speed train to Florence), we made it to Florence on time. We put our luggage in the (very nice) hotel room (thanks Santa!) then wandered the city.

                We stopped by to see Ponte Vecchio (an old bridge that Cosimo 1 de’Medici had a corridor built above to connect the town hall to the Palazzo Pitti). We then got some really nice sandwiches, or paninos, at a local natural cute little sandwich shop that Lonely Planet suggested. Stuart had humongous pieces of mozzarella on his sandwich and I had some sun dried tomatoes and tapenade on mine (olive paste).

                We walked through the Palazzo Vecchio after lunch and saw the old Florence town hall, the supposed death mask of Dante Alighieri, and a lot of cool old palace things. After the palace museum we up the bell tower of the palace. It was a really cool medieval tower that had a great view of the Florence cathedral and church bell tower.  

                After the palace we got some gelato (really good gelato! Chocolate orange and chocolate hazelnut). We made our way to the cathedral or the Duomo of the city. We walked around the Duomo, which has the most beautifully painted domed ceiling by a lot of different artists. We got tickets to all the sites of the cathedral and started with the ruins of the old church under the cathedral. After that we waited in a line to get to the top of the dome. We made it just after sunset so the sky was very pretty and the lights of the city were coming on.

                After the dome we saw the baptistery across the plaza from the Cathedral. This was the baptistery where Dante was baptized (along with a lot of others too!). The ceiling of the baptistery was just as beautiful as the cathedral’s dome. (NOTE: the outside of the cathedral, bell tower, and baptistery of Florence are just as beautiful as the inside of the buildings with red and green marble!)

                We then moseyed back to our hotel after walking up and down the Ponte Vecchio. Since this bridge had a corridor for the important people of medieval Florence, the bridge still has only jewelry shops along it. Then we stumbled a long a little osteria near our hotel. We got a really nice dinner of pasta carbonara and pear and gorgonzola tortellini here.

Wednesday, December 31^st   - Florence

                We got up early to make it to the Uffizi art gallery (one of the most well known galleries in the world). We stopped for a quick breakfast at a bakery on the way – where I, Stevie, got a really awesome nutella filled croissant. We only had to wait an hour in line, which was pretty good reading that you could wait in line for up to 5 hours for this museum. The museum had a lot of really good renaissance paintings and some from Michelangelo including Medusa on a wooden shield.

                After the museum we went across the bridge to see the Palazzo Pitti and get some lunch. Stuart got another pizza and I got the traditional Florence vegetable and bread soup (Ribollita).

                After lunch we got some gelato (really really good caramel gelato – pretty much caramel fudge). Then we went back to the cathedral square to go up the bell tower. It was about as tall as the dome and we got to see the city in the daylight. Then we headed back to the hotel for a quick clean up for mass that night.

                We went to mass early and ended up going to vespers led by Cardinal Arcivescovo, which was really neat! We then got dinner on Piazza della Signoria. There was supposed to be classical music played there for New Year’s, but they weren’t out yet so we went back to the hotel to rest before midnight. We also got a huge size of gelato on the way to the hotel…hey, it was a holiday!

                After a few hour nap/rest, we dressed warmly and headed out to Plaza del Carmine near our hotel for free jazz music and New Year’s celebration. The jazz was pretty good and the square wasn’t too crowded. There were a lot of characters out and everyone brought their own bottle of champagne to pop at midnight. We didn’t know it was midnight until some woman on stage started counting down from her phone from 10 seconds to midnight. Champagne was popped all over the square and fireworks were lit from any free patch of street all over the city. We made our way back over the bridge to find more random fireworks going off in various parts of the city. People were also setting off fireworks off the side of the river and OUT OF THEIR APARTMENT WINDOWS! It was really fun to celebrate New Year’s in a different country to see their traditions.

Thursday, December 1^st   - Pisa

                We made it to the train station and bought our tickets to Pisa and had a quick café breakfast. We thought we would have to wait in line (again) for the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but we actually got there quite easily and bought tickets and walked up the tower very quickly. Pisa is a tiny city just an hour outside of Florence. It’s also a University city where Galileo used to teach.

                The tower was neat to see all the scared tourists walking up the slanted tower. The tower was actually renovated in the 90s so it’s now structurally sound to walk up. You can see the level and the pendulum they use monitor the tower’s tilt.

                It was a beautiful day to explore Pisa for a couple hours. After the tower (which was supposed to be the bell tower for the city’s Cathedral) we checked out the cathedral. We also went in the city’s baptistery, which wasn’t as nearly elaborate as Florence’s. After seeing everything we wandered the city along the river and also happened to walk through Piazza del Cavalieri near the University of Pisa. We then found a nice little Italian deli thing for lunch. We then got gelato, of course.

                We sat in the sun for a little bit near the Baptistery in the Piazza dei Miracoli of the church and tower then made our way back to Florence then on to Venice where we had to take the water bus to our hotel.

Friday, December 2^nd   - Venice

                Waking up early in Venice was beautiful to see the sunrise over the water at our hotel! We got a quick breakfast in hotel (thanks Santa!) then took the first boat over to the main island of Venice. We immediately got into the Duke’s Palace or Palazzo Ducale to check out the place. It was a nice museum kind of like Versailles, but with less stuff in it. We also got a tour of the bridge of Sighs or Ponte dei Sposiri and prison attached to the palace too.

                We then went next door to the palace to St. Mark’s Basilica (which was originally supposed to be a chapel for the Duke). We walked through the extremely golden and detailed church then walked up through the altar area to see the golden altar piece or Pala d’Oro which was covered in gems and gold! We also saw the tomb of St. Mark (the evangelist!!) under the altar. We then went through the tiny treasury that had a TON of relics of various saints. We also went through the museum and terrace of the church too.

                We got a quick pizza lunch off of a square on our way to the Rialto bridge and food market. There were some fresh fruit and veggie stands at the market but it was closing by the time we got there, so we got some gelato.

                We went back to St. Mark’s square to go up the bell tower. The bell tower actually collapsed randomly in July 1902. The only casualty was a cat. We went up the reconstructed bell tower and had a great view of the city. You can’t actually see any canals from the top of the bell tower.

                After that we hopped on the hotel shuttle boat to go back and enjoy our free access to the hotel spa (thanks Santa!) and a nice Venetian dinner at the hotel.

Saturday, December 3^rd   - Venice

                We got to sleep in a little today then made it over to the main island after a nice breakfast. We walked from one side of the island over to the other and saw the Gallery of Accademia and the Peggy Guggenheim collection buildings.

                We then walked to the tourist office and booked our group gondola tour. We then went through the other three museums that our Duke Palace tour ticket had gotten us. We saw the Museum Correr, the National Archeology museum, and the old Marciana library rooms. Museum Correr was an old palace turned museum so it looked like Versailles again without as much stuff in it. The archeology museum was cool because it had stuff from 2 BC!!

                After the museum we wandered around towards the Castello district and got a quick slice of pizza and gelato. We then went on our group shared gondola. There were 6 people on the gondola including us, but it was still a lot of fun! The driver showed us some important buildings, like where Shakespeare, Hemingway, and Mozart stayed. He also sang a little to us.

                After that we walked around and saw the Chiesa della Salute (or Saint Mary of Health), which is a small basilica in Venice, but looks like one of the biggest churches there. FYI – Venice has 140 churches on it...This church is named that as a sign of gratitude for deliverance from the plague.

                We then tried to find somewhere open for dinner early and had a nice warm dinner.  We then wandered around after dinner and walked into a church converted to a music museum, which was pretty neat. It had really old instruments and an instrument making school replica there.  After wandering some more we made it to mass at St. Mark’s then got a quick gelato and hopped on the boat back to the hotel. We celebrated our last night in Italy with a drink on the rooftop terrace of the hotel (a Venetian Spritz for Stevie).

Sunday, December 4^th    

                We took the airport water bus to the airport dock early in the morning and made it to Paris by early afternoon to recuperate from the past week.

What a great two weeks!!!

Next on the agenda: London and Harry Potter Studio Tour!

Grosse bise (big kiss!),
Stevie and Stuart