Florence and Rome Weekend

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Hi Everyone!

So before I move on to the weekend, just wanted to inform everyone that I am going to Morocco now, not Tunisia during our Spring Break. The trip changed because we couldn't get flights going from Valencia to Tunisia for the week that we needed them, so now we are doing basically the same things but in Morocco instead! Morocco will be more of a cultural experience than Tunisia would have been. We would have spent time at the beach in Tunisia, but Morocco will be more in cities, like Fez, and more time in the desert. We are going on a longer camel ride and we will be able to see the sunset. And the coolest thing is that we are going to stay in tents one of the nights on the desert and be able to see the sunrise as well! I am really excited about the trip, the only downside is that we have to take a bus to the tip of Spain then a ferry to Africa. It will be a whole lot of traveling, 10 hours on the bus...but it will be worth it for a week in Morocco! Other than that things here have been pretty normal, going to classes and trying to put up pictures. The weather in Valencia is gorgeous lately, sunny and it even got up to 80 last week!

Thursday evening we left for Florence, I went with 2 friends, Elise and Jena. We got into Florence (after an hour bus ride and some delays) around 11, then met my high school friend Emily (who is studying in Florence) at a bar around the corner. We hung out for a little bit then left so we could get up in the morning for our day of touring around Florence. Emily decided to be our tour guide and she was amazing! She met us at the Academia museum in the morning and we saw Michelangelo's David. There wasn't much else at the museum, it was actually an art school and they had some really good student projects on display, and then David and a bunch of Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures of Prisoners. It was interesting, I really liked David, he is huge! Then we went to the Duomo, which is the 4th largest Cathedral in the world. It was pretty impressive, mostly the huge dome and painting inside the dome. Emily actually volunteers as a tour guide there and she gave us a short version of her schpeel and it was really interesting. Then we went to the Uffizi museum and saw lots of famous Renaissance paintings and sculptures. It was interesting, but I really don't like Renaissance paintings as much as other time periods, too much religious paintings that I do not understand. So after that we went walked around, got some pizza and gelato and saw the Ponte Vecchio (a very old bridge that still had gold shops on it!). It was very cute, then we went up to the Piazza Michelangelo for a beautiful view of Florence. It was absolutely gorgeous! After that we didn't have anything else to do really since we didn't want to go to any more museums and the city is fairly small. So we walked around, it was nice having Emily there to navigate the streets, and we didn't have to use maps! Then for dinner we went to a place for Appertivos, which is a good deal where you buy one drink for $7 and then you get as much food from a buffet as you want! The food wasn't all authentic Italian, but it was really good and almost all vegetarian! Then we went to the train station to catch a train to Rome.

When we arrived in Rome we just went to our hostel and went to bed. The next morning we woke up and went to the Vatican. The line was long like we expected, but we got in eventually. Then it was random because there was a pretty cool Egyptian museum inside, we saw that first, then went towards the Sistine Chapel, but that took like an hour, we were herded through all these gorgeous and elaborate rooms. It was like a huge palace and so we saw the typical beautiful floors, ceilings, walls, everything decorated. Eventually we got to the Sistine Chapel, which was gorgeous, but we were so overstimulated by the very similar rooms before it that the Sistine Chapel itself seemed just the same. And the typical painting of the hands touching wasn't a huge highlight, it was in the center, but did not stick out like we thought it would. After that, we went to the big circular entrance area to the Vatican and saw St. Peter's Basilica. We could go inside for free, and it was extremely elaborate and beautiful...what else could you expect? I thought it was interesting that they supposedly have St. Peter's body under the altar. After that we walked throughout most of the city. Our feet hurt a whole lot, but we would stop and look at things, we had a little itinerary of Piazzas and other small sites to see. We had a great view of the city from the Piazza de Popoli, that was nice. Then I loved the Trevi Fountain, it is the best people watching site ever. We actually went back there the next day with our gelato and just watched the people. We all threw our coins and made wishes and took pictures, and it was fun. Then we kept going, we saw the Pantheon. I was actually pretty disappointed in that since there were Christian paintings and things on the walls, I thought it would be like the Romans would have had it and a place to worship all the gods. But it was still an absolute marvel of ancient Roman architecture, the dome was enormous! After seeing the Pantheon, we headed across the Tiber River and looked for a place to have dinner. We found a place where we could order a first and second course and dessert for only $13. It was a really good deal! The food was decent, not the best, but I love Italian food, so it was good either way. That night we walked back to the Colosseum (which was where we could catch the metro back to our hostel) and we saw a little of the ruins on our way. It was an amazing preview to what we would see the next day.

The next day we did all of ancient Rome! We went first to the Colosseum. Which was amazing, the architecture and history of that building were hard to conceive. I was just so excited to be there and standing where ancient Romans had stood. I had read that there were 200 cats that lived in the Colosseum, I am guessing in the bottom part under the would-be stage. My only disappointment was that I didn't see any cats...but I am not surprised, they probably hate all the tourists. Then we went to the Palatine, which is where all the ancient aristocrats lived. It was a lot like a park, with ruins scattered throughout, pieces of old columns which we could just sit on. Then there were big old houses which were more well-preserved and they were really interesting to see how small the rooms were and guess what they were used for. The downside to the more well-preserved areas was that they were fenced off from visitors, so we could not climb around on them, but that makes sense since all the tourists would ruin them. After the Palatine, we went to the old Roman Forum. This was also really interesting to see the old Temples and government building, the old center of town. I am amazed at how this prime area in Rome has been roped off from development for so long, it is great to see how the ancient civilization is still praised and preserved today. After that, we were exhausted from walking all weekend and so went in search of food, we ended up getting panini and gelato by the Trevi fountain. Then on the way back to catch the bus to the airport we ran into the changing of the guards at a government building (we didn't know which one since we were lost at that point), but it was really interesting! Then we went to the bus and then got on the plane back home.

It was an amazing weekend, I absolutely loved Rome! That is the end of my traveling on my own throughout Europe, next week I am going to Seville on the planned trip through school. It will be nice not to have to plan where we are going and such. And after that will be some weeks off from traveling! Which is exciting, I am missing a lot in Valencia when I am gone every week, I am excited to relax on the beach soon! That is all for now, hope everything is well in the US!

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Photos

Dante statue
Dante was from Florence, this statue was in front of a church.

view of countryside
this is from Michelangelo Square

decaying mummy body
this is in the Egyptian exhibit at the Vatican.

Vatican ceiling
this craziness is normal!

dome
they like domes in the Vatican

Another square in Rome
This stick has hieroglyphics on it.

cute terraces
these are near the top of the Spanish Steps

Comments

[Amy K]

dear robs, glad your having fun and getting cultured! i was just listening to ben folds five and thinking of you... i want you to come home asap so we can play!