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Published: June 15th 2012
Italy is a beautiful mix of culture, art, religion and history!!! I really wanted to go to Egypt, and Victor really wanted to go all around Europe. We ended up flying to Rome and spending a few days there, then cruising around the Mediterranean sea which gave us a chance to visit other European countries and Egypt too. This is a very easy and laid back way to get around, and more cost efficient then flying to each place individually and it's ideal for those who don't like the hassle of figuring out how to reach places on their own. I personally perfer spending a couple days in each city I'm visiting, but this was something we had never tried before and we found it to be a very relaxing experience.
To prepare for our first trip to Italy, I did my best to learn the Italian language. I love Italian movies, one of my favorites is "L'ultimo Bacio" (Translation: "The Last Kiss".) I watched instructive Youtube videos on how to speak Italian, and because I am fluent in Spainsh it wasn't hard to follow. I learned enough to communicate with the cab driver that picked us up from the
Leonardo Da Vinci airport in Rome, as he didn't know any English at all. So it actually helped that I tried to learn! This was our conversation at the end of the cab ride; Jennifer: "
Quanto?" (How much?) Cab driver: "
Il costo totale e quarantacinque euro" (The total cost is 45 Euros.) Jennifer: "
Molte grazie signore, Chao!" (Thank you sir, goodbye!)
We arrived early in Rome Oct 24th 2011. The first thing we wanted to do was freshen up after our long flight. We were dropped off at Hotel Santa Prisca to change and get ready. Let me just take a minute to rave about this hotel. I’m very proud of finding this gem in Rome after all my research. It's not a fancy 5 star hotel, but in many ways it's even better. It's a modest hotel with a charming Italian atmosphere and the most wonderful hotel staff I've ever had the pleasure of meeting! Ask them anything and they will go out of there way to help you, and in 12 different languages if you need it! It also has beautiful views from every window, free breakfast every morning, and it's only a 10-15 minute walk from
the Coloseum. And as if it couldn't get better, the prices to stay per night are a bargain compared to the other places I researched within close proximity to the historical areas. I definitely recommend Hotel Santa Prisca!
We took a nice stroll from the hotel to the Coloseum. We took our time because we were still a little jet lagged from the 7 hour time difference. As soon as the Colosseum came into view I got really giddy! This is the first time I see anything so historical and so ancient. Seeing it was enough to shake us out of our jet-lagg! You also couldn't miss the Roman Forum to the left and the triumphal arch on the way there. We got in line to go inside, and it was a crazy 1 hour wait. People were cutting us in line and pushing and you couldn't tell them to stop because you couldn't speak Russian or Swedish or whatever different languages they were speaking! When we finally bought our tickets and got cleared to go in, it was like we went back in time...72 AD to be exact. Every corner is like a museum with statues and historical
details. I brought my book "Rick Steve's Mediterranean Ports" by Avalon Travel which gave us a lot of information about everything we were seeing on this trip. We really took our time here to admire the old structure and take it all in. I thought about all those gruesome gladiator fights, and the awful things that must have happened there... and also thinking about how this place shaped Italy and its people.
The Coloseum must really work up your appetite because we were starving by the end of our tour! I had a list of things I wanted to eat in Italy, the first one I picked was SPAGHETTI!! We made it our goal to get away from the crowded tourist areas to eat because those restaurants are really pricey. We found a little restaurant called Demo, and chose it to eat. The interesting part is that they sat us next to a British lady and her son. Is it normal to have guests share their tables in Rome? It only took us 1 minute to start a great conversation with them, so it turned out to be a good experience after all. I loved eating my pasta and
drinking my wine and sharing lovely stories with these new friends in Rome.
Refueled and ready, we took to the streets looking for all the other places on the must see list. There's the Trevi Fountain of course, with its beautiful sculptures. We tossed a couple coins in the water the "proper way" to "ensure a return trip to Rome". Then we saw the Victor Emmanuel Monument which the Italians call the "type writer" because of its shape. We visited the Pantheon which is a famous dome and Rome's best preserved monument. You go inside and see the only light source is coming from a sky light hole at the top of the dome. Engineers are still at odds at figuring out how this dome is so mathematically perfect, especially since they had none of the resources and building materials we have today. Roman kings as well as the famous painter Raphael lay inside. All of these places we saw are free of charge so we hardly needed to use our money.
We did so much more on that day like eating Gelato, people watching from the side walks, going inside random churches... but eventually we were tired
out. We walked back to our hotel with the last bits of daylight leading us, all we had to do was find the Colosseum and walk down that road to get to our hotel. A very nice hot shower later and we were passed out for sure!
Day Two I wanted to dedicate to places like the Vatican City. We got up before noon and ate breakfast with a nice Italian cappuccino. We asked the hotel staff what was the best way to get to the Vatican and then set out to ride the metro there. The Metro system wasn't complicated at all. It was drizzling a little bit outside, good thing I remembered to pack an umbrella just incase. There was a lot of people walking there too, and I knew why. The Pope was hosting mass that day, and everyone wanted to go inside and see it. Unfortunately this is what prevented us from going inside St. Peters Basilica. It was too packed, with a line going half way around the square. Instead of wasting our time outside in the drizzly weather, we decided to go straight to the Vatican Museum to see the much anticipated Sistine
Chapel by Michelangelo.
The sculptures, the paintings, and the historical artifacts made me feel like this museum should be called the " Vatican Art Museum" instead... everything we saw there was art. I personally enjoy seeing art dedicated to the Catholic religion, as I am Catholic too. We saw paintings of Jesus, the angels, the apostles, and the saints. I've never been in a city like this, I think it makes it truly unique. Then we got to the Sistine Chapel and it was like "wow" is all you could even think or say. It had gotten loud when we entered and everyone was silenced by the guards. You were also being watched because you couldn't take pictures there. Every now and then I'd see someone doing their best to sneak a picture, but it was too hard. I've met someone who had the opposite experience and got to take many pictures of the chapel. So I guess its different for everyone. This is the last place on the Vatican Museum tour, so we walked back to St. Peters square to see the rest of the Vatican.
We hopped on and off the metro to find the Spanish
Steps. There is some history here that has to do with Spain, but the best part is in the spring time when they fill all the steps with blossoming red flowers and I've read its quite a sight to see. It was fall when we went so it looked more ordinary, I think even a passer-by wouldn't have known it was special if they weren't really paying attention.
After seeing The Spanish Steps we were hungry, so what else was on my list of things to eat in Italy? I had eaten pasta, gelato, and drank cappuccinos and wine... so the last thing on my list was PIZZA! We ate at a tiny pizza place across from our hotel, and we found that we like the pizza in America better... big surprise! Just being honest, sorry Italy!
By evening we made our way to the port of Civitavecchia, which is the closest port to Rome where we were going to board the cruise that would take us to Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. We had a very nice and comfortable experience using Norwegian cruise lines and had the best food 24/7 it truly was a great experience. Best of
all you can relax through the night and wake up in a different country! Like I wrote previously, this is an ideal travel option for those of you that want a laid back hassle free experience and getting the quickest summarized idea of a country. It's not ideal for those that want to spend the max amount of time in each country and getting to know the real culture. I honestly prefer spending a couple days in each country, which is why I wouldn't try this travel option for countries I really want to get to know in dept. For example, I wouldn't try the cruise travel option in Asia because for me one day isn't enough to do and see and experience all the culture each Asian city has to offer!
The next day we woke up to a gorgeous sight. We were passing the Messina Strait (the point of the "boot" of Italy) where we saw Sicily. Everyone was on deck to see the beautiful landscapes of these hilly islands. We could see all the beautiful churches and houses. Some time after that we passed a volcano called Stromboli Volcano. It is an extremely active
volcano so it was smoking from the top. It has erupted constantly since the 1930s. When we ate lunch that evening it was funny to have an active volcano staring at you from the restaurant. We relaxed the rest of the day knowing we'd be visiting a new country the next morning, Greece!
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