Italy… Finito!

Well, OK SOOO … ROME…  Well our first day in Rome was a bit hectic, you know: not having a place to stay, (we had a place to stay the three following nights, just not the first) wandering around lost-ish in the train station trying to find the Tourist Information centre only to find out we were in the wrong train station all together (the tourist info. Ctr was at the station downtown) soo we finally went to the right train station (a couple stops on the metro) aaaaanndd we were lost again. We asked two officials where the Tourist information office was and they told us ‘platform 24’ …we went to platform 24 each time and STILL couldn’t find it. THEN, as I am sitting on my bag with my head in my hands and arms on my legs and Ted, slouched, READY to give up or scream… an angel appeared with a name tag that says “tourist information”. So he asked “can I help you find anything…like a hostle perhaps?” WOO HOO!!!!  YES YES YES… so he called around, then said he was going to talk to his co-worker. When he came back, he informed us that all of their hostel contacts are full. BAAAAHHH so he told us to check with the Tourist Information desk and they might have more contacts there. Again, he sent us off to platform 24 and we STILL couldn’t find it… I was beginning to think that I had to run through the wall between platform 24 and 25 so I could find this magical ‘tourist land’.   Or perhaps this was all just a big Roman joke on tourists….Aaaanndd  I wasn’t too far from the foremost thought. You see, I decided to walk through these random, unlabeled sliding doors from platform 24 that lead me to another room that led to another door and ALAS, the tourist information desk. So the result, after aaaaaalll that: they were unable to help us… so we built up a bit more energy and walked outside and found an internet café. YAY hostleworld.com came to our rescue and we found a place to stay. So after a nice long nap we ventured off to the Pantheon.
            HOLY CRAP I WAS IN THE PANTHEON!!! IT WAS SSOOOO COOL! Apparently it is one of the best preserved ancient sites because it was turned into a basilica (from a pagan temple for ‘all gods’) when people complained that they were afraid of getting possessed by demons while walking by it. Sssoooo POOF it became a basilica and thus was ridded of all its ‘evil’ spirits… … …whatever…

Anyways… it was really cool, for those of you who don’t know what it is, it is the dome basilica with the hole in the top (the only light source), an architectural brilliance really. We also sat on the Spanish steps where the ‘pretty people’ used to go to get ‘noticed’ and become artist’s models.  And no, sadly I was not ‘found’ in beauty and glory…nowadays it is just a cool hang out and a place to meet for the ‘pub crawl’ (an actual event that we ALMOST did) and a good place for people to sell stupid dollar store style items.

            The next day we saw the Colosseum and went up the Palatine Hill and wandered the ancient forum. The colosseum was really  cool, although a lot of it has collapsed (earthquake) there is still a LOT of it remaining… the coolest part is the underground maze it’s the series of corridors leading to the stage of the colosseum that they used to guide the animals used in the fights. CRAZY to actually be there and imagine the death matches they had. NUTSO! And sad too. Palatine Hill was pretty neat too… and had a good view. It is pretty much where Rome was founded ( one of the seven hills) where the emperors built their palaces. Our guide gave us a tour of where some of the rooms were in one of the palaces like the bath house: the men from ancient times would go to these ‘bath houses’ (just like a spa) and they would sit after a long days work of around six hours (finished by NOON) in the baths and chat. Other things they did were in rooms like the banquet hall where they would lie in a mountain of pillows and a huge mound of food in front of them and  GORGE… then their tummies would get sore so they would use the feather by their pillow to tickle the back of their throats and VOMIT in the bucket beside them and REPEAT. Mmmmm the origin of bulimia. And as for the Ancient forum… it was pretty cool… my footsies were getting pretty tired though so we blew through it… we got a good look of it while on palatine hill. We saw Cesar’s grave and some giant church (not much remains… mainly just a wall) that Michelangelo used to sit in and gaze at the city as he contemplated his art. And also some other church with it’s original bronze doors… the doors have no stairs leading to it though haha there is a reason but I can’t remember why…oops… meh

            The following day we went to Vatican city. COOL!!! OH MY GOD!!! I WAS IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL!!!! It was sooo… indescribable … just to even THINK of how many years he spent upside-down, holding a candle while painting that masterpiece…WOW (it was four years btw) and then to follow it up with the last judgment …another SEVEN years… I’d go mental!

SSSOoooo I took some illegal picture lol. DON’T WORRY I didn’t use flash. The rest of the Vatican museum was pretty cool too… but let’s face it… I wasn’t thinking of much more than the Sistine chapel. After that we went to Saint Peter’s Basilica. HHHUUUUGGGGEEEEE and the artwork in there was also amazing and what blew my mind even more was THEY WERE ALL MOSIACS!! (see my photo’s…if I ever get to putting descriptions… I took a close-up of a foot to show the mosaic) and of course Mikey’s Pieta was incredibly detailed and beautiful. We also go to see the altar under which St. Peter is believed to be buried.

            Unfortunately, Popey was not around(he was at his vacation house)and apparently the next morning he did come home to make a speech from his window DAMN  missed him by a day. I’ll catch him next time. But there are these cool white columns in St. Peter’s Square that are in three rows… if you stand on this white circle in the square, all the columns line up and look like it’s one row of columns… ok so it doesn’t sound cool but it was a neat architectural touch.

            The next day we went to the Mamertine prison where St. Peter and St. Paul were held in captivity by the Romans. From there they were led to be executed (martyred). It was ssooo tiny and only one small hole of light (well now there are more holes and light.)

            As for Rome in general… COOL sights… but busy & dirty city.

THEN FLORENCE aaaaahhhhhh ssssoooo NICE!!! I LOVE IT. It reminded me a lot of Venice with all its narrow cobblestone streets and small-town feel. We went to the Academia Gallery where we saw Michelangelo’s David. HUGE!!! And sooo … wow… HUGE haha. Really though, it was incredible. Little tid-bit: David was made disproportionately. His legs are not proportionate to his torso… lower body is smaller. This was because Michelangelo knew people would be looking up at it and by making David gradually get bigger, it’d appear proportionate to the viewer below him. Neat eh?

            The next day we went to the Uffizi where I finally got to see Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’… WOW  oh that alone made my trip. It is one of my favorite paintings of all time and I got to see it up close. SO close I saw his brush strokes. Oh man I wish I could go back again  and see it after taking a day to absorb it. Baah

            Obviously there are many more wonderful things we did and saw in Florence like standing on the hill across the lake and seeing the whole town or the little mask-making store we walked into while they were making some masks and the guitar bar we went to for some drinks … and I loved to just walk around and wander… such a beautiful city…even their clay-shingled roofs were gorgeous. Our hostel ‘Albergo Paola’ was AWESOME… Clara, the ‘hostess with the mostess’ she was sssssoooooo awesome. Sweet yet ballsey, young and fun. She would make us breakfast and sometimes dinner… CLEAN and pretty…everything was Ikea haha and we met some really great people in our dorm room too! So needless to say, it made our trip even more unforgettable.

            Anywhoo, I am currently writing this as we are on our way to the cinque terra  and hope to find a place to send it (I’m on Ted’s lap top… I may end up getting him to send it when he gets back to Athens). I am really excited for the rest of the trip but will be sad to see Ted go and to be alone. But I am sure I’ll be a bit excited for the independence.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!… well most of you anyways haha

xoxo