So I’m on the train back to Florence from Venice with my mom sitting across from me enjoying the last sights of the Grande Canale. It’s been a whirlwind of a time with constant travelling, hopping from Italian city to city but it was so nice to show Mom all I’ve learned about Italian culture. We saw so many famous and ancient sights and ate a LOT of rich, delicious Italian food. I’m sad to see her go (my little taste of home), but I will be home in three weeks (I can’t believe it’s so soon!) and I’m happy to recount everything on the blog.
ROMA:
For months now, my mom has been saving and planning a ten day trip to Italy to visit me! I’ve been so excited for her to get here, especially after watching all my friends’ parents come and go, and envying their opportunity to show them all the Italian sights that have become our home. The night before I had to leave for Roma, I was futzing around on Facebook and saw that there was a scheduled train strike for the day I needed to get from Firenze to Roma! I started freaking out because Mom had already boarded her plane and I had no way to contact her. I would have to delay my trip and leave her stranded in Rome for the day until I could catch the train the next day. In Italy, there are constantly train strikes. I don’t know if it’s cause I’m not a native Italian or what but after living here for three months, I still don’t know what they hell the workers are striking for or why they keep screwing with our travel plans. Anyway, there was really nothing I could do about the strike, so I decided to go to sleep, wake up early and deal with it in the morning. So I woke up at 8 (hear that, Mom? EIGHT IN THE MORNING, just to see you!) and made my way to the station. I quickly found out that most of the trains were cancelled so I bought the first ticket available to Roma Termini and hopped on one of the only trains going. (I found out later that they need to have emergency trains running even during the train strikes, so I guess I just happened upon one of those). Despite all the supposed bad luck, this strike actually ended up working in my favor! I got to Mom’s hotel only about an hour after she did and we were able to start or Roma touring right away!
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| Coliseum! |
Since our hotel was in a more residential area, we decided it would be best to find a tour bus to take for the weekend. We did this in Paris and if you’re smart about using it, you can really get your money’s worth. The tour bus doesn’t only get you around the city (so you can avoid learning and experiencing public transportation or paying billlllls for taxis), but it points out all the major sites (some of which you might have completely forgotten about) and gives you an audio tour, so you can get a historical account as well as a visual one. Since it was a bit overcast the first day and we were both a bit tired, we decided to just ride around the city, listening to the audio tour and taking in the city. After one full loop, we got off at the Coliseum and went for a tour. I know this sounds so stupid, but I was completely enamored with the Coliseum.
Mom thought it was a bit creepy and it definitely wasn’t like the grandiose, luxurious monuments that are sprinkled throughout the ancient city- but I was in awe. I have obviously studied volumes about it and realized that it was probably the most ancient place I have ever been to. Not only was it MASSIVE and still intact, for the most part, but also the history was everywhere, literally almost whispering through the stone walls. I had read that the Romans were so advanced that they had devised pulley systems to pull canvases across the whole top of the massive structure to protect spectators from rain or the fierce sunlight. I had also read (and could clearly picture after being there) that it was so enormous that the Romans used to fill the center with water like a huge basin and host battleship wars. On opening day, the Coliseum hosted over 500,000 Romans (seated in order of social class, richest on the bottom, women in the nosebleeds) and slaughtered more than 5,000 animals (“beasts”) as well as I’m sure hundreds of thousands of gladiators and martyrs. I actually learned while I was in Rome that scholars have determined that the martyrs were most likely sacrificed at a different location, but who really knows the truth.
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| Vatican! |
We also got to see the location were Caesar was assassinated by his comrades. The tour bus informed us that Brutus (you know, “Et tu, Brute?”) was not only Caesar’s friend but also his adopted son! I thought that was amazing. After bussing around the city for a few hours and stopping for Mom’s first real Italian pizza (Quattro Fromaggi), we were both pretty tired and decided to call it an early night.
The next morning, we woke up early and fully energized, ready to really tour the city by foot. We hopped on the tour bus and passed by Palazzo Venezia (probably my favorite plaza and took the bus all the way down to the Vatican. I’ve always known that the Catholic Church was loaded and since this was the motherland of all Catholicism, I expected it to be gorgeous and I was not disappointed. We meandered around St. Peter’s Basilica and walked around the Vaticano Musei but the sun was shining and we wanted to get back on the bus and see more of the Roma sites. We did mail some postcards from the infamous Poste Vaticano. Since the Vatican is an independent state within Rome, it has it’s own postal system and everything. All the postcards had pictures of the Pope and very religious symbols- it was pretty hilarious.
After the Vatican we really walked ALL over Rome. We saw the Trevi Fountain (la Fontana di Trevi) and tossed coins in to ensure our return to Rome. I learned that the fountain gets so many tourists (and I guess so many people want to make sure they’ll get back to Rome that the workers clear out between 25,000 and 50,000 euro a DAY from the wishers. If you think about it, Mom and I only tossed in about 20 cents combined and I’m sure that most people don’t throw more than a euro in- that’s so many tourists! I think this is astounding and good to mention because Rome was insanely crowded and was kind of a turn off despite its beauty.
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| Trevi Fountain |
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| Spanish Steps |
After the fountain, we walked down the famous shopping street, Via del Corso and went to see the Spanish Steps. They were equally as packed and my bright idea of picnicking there was quickly nipped in the bud after we spent about 15 minutes navigating between tourists to get to the top. Since it’s officially spring in Italy, the steps were lavishly decorated with hundreds of Azalea flowers and were really stunning. We then walked all the way to Piazza del Popolo, which is now the home of many of the ancient monuments and sculptures and people watched there for a while. We made our way back to the hotel afterwards and ate dinner at an adorable Trattoria near the hotel. The next morning, Palm Sunday, we hopped back on the bus to Piazza Venezia and walked around until we found the Pantheon. We collected palms there, which looked completely different than the palms at home; they were more like a stick covered in a dozen little leaves as opposed to one long stalk. We walked back to Piazza Venezia and found ourselves in the midst of a traditional Roman parade. There were probably about 500 Romans dressed up in all different costumes (holy clergy, gypsies, gladiators, royalty) parading around the square and it was really quite lucky we got to see it all! We had our final lunch at a small café near the train station and jumped on the fast train back to Firenze.
FIRENZE:
We arrived in Florence around 6:30 pm and after our walk to my apartment and then Mom’s hotel we weren’t even really hungry for dinner, just tired. I took my mom down the River Arno and showed her the Ponte Vecchio all lit up at night and we got gelato at Gelateria dei Neri (my favorite gelato place!). Mom was skeptical but I ordered my favorite flavors for her – Ciccolata and Ricotte e Fichi (dark chocolate and ricotta something, haha) and she was officially transformed into a gelato lover! I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t be? I dropped her off at the hotel and went back to sleep in my apartment, awaiting another day of touring.
The next morning, the weather was amazing. We woke early and crossed the Ponte Vecchio to head to the Palazzo Pitti (Pitti Palace, where the famous Medici family of Florence lived) and the lovely Boboli Gardens. We spent a good three hours walking around the gardens, which had a million different secret passageways and hidden trails, all just coming into bloom. After our relaxing morning, we made our way back across the river to Piazza Signoria and had cappuccinos at Rivorie while enjoying the sunlight. I brought Mom back to her hotel and went to class for the afternoon. But after class, Mom and I went out to eat at the first restaurant I had ever eaten at in Florence- Gato e Volpe! It turns out that the man who owns La Rotisseria in Guilford (one of our favorite Italian take-away places) is from Florence and knew the owner of Gato! Smallll world, but anyway when Mom mentioned she was coming to visit me here, he gave her his card and told her to tell the owners of Gato that we were friends with him! So of course we did, and we got free dessert and wine because of it! Naturally, I wasn’t disappointed with my Gato meal- I got baked gnocchi in gorgonzola, UGH SO GOOD. And Mom had veal. We also decided to be adventurous and try an appetizer we had never heard of- Crostini Toscani, which ended up being this pate spread over warm bread, absolutely mouth watering. We ended up staying at the restaurant for about three hours and afterwards were so full and tired we went to bed shortly after.  |
| Happy Family. Mom, Bro & Sis, haha <3 |
As luck would have it, Laurent was in Florence visiting his family the same week! So we met up with him the next morning on the Ponte Vecchio. Mom wanted to do some leather shopping and I’m always up for shopping, so I brought her to the San Lorenzo leather market and we spent some time perusing the stalls. Laurent had wanted to go see the museum next to the market so we went inside and saw a plethora of relics and sculptures, with some by Michelangelo and sketchings by Da Vinci all along the walls. It was definitely cool. Afterwards we went to my third favorite piazza (after Santa Croce and Signoria), Piazza Reppublicca and had a brief lunch. Of course, I had to go to class, so Mom and Laurent went to the Bargello and across the river to see some of the sites of Florence. I met up with them for drinks at the hotel later and when Laurent got back on the bus back to his aunt’s house, Mom and I went to a restaurant I had heard was the best restaurant in all of Florence- Acqua al’Due, right behind my apartment. Not only was the décor really trendy and modern, but also the food was ABSOLUTELY amazing. It was probably the best food I’ve had in all of Italy, but it was expensive and I’m happy Mom was there to share it with me J. Florence’s famous cuisine is the beefsteak and I had heard that Acqua al’Due does it best. I ordered the Balsamic Steak and Mom ordered the Blueberry Steak. Both were amazing and I have honestly dreamt about them since then. We also got the desert platter and sampled all their famous dessert (it was the only time I had actually enjoyed Tiramisu!). After Mom went back to her hotel, I went out to celebrate Nathalie’s 21st birthday and ended up staying out a littttle to late but I still managed to make it to my 8:15 AM field trip to an art restoration lab 30 minutes away from my apartment the next morning. Since I had a full day of class (literally from 8:15 AM until 7:15 PM that day, with a quiz in between), Mom and Laurent spend the day at the Uffizi Museum and at Galleria del’Accademia (where the David is). Meg arrived from Rome the same night, so after I picked her up from the station, the four of us went out to dinner! That night was the Italian TRL awards in Santa Croce, so after we dropped Mom off at her hotel, we went out and attempted to traverse the streets but they were JAMPACKED with hundreds of Italians so we didn’t end up staying out too late.
VENEZIA:
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| In cognito with my cappucino |
We caught an early train to Venice the next morning and arrived at Stazione Ferrovia at around noon on Thursday. We hopped on the waterbus and made our way down the Grande Canale to our hotel by San Marco Square. We were a bit too early for check in, so we sat outside on the river and had a delicious (and healthy) lunch. We have been eating SO much pizza and pasta that my stomach has been constantly churning, so I ordered a simple Caprese salad (Angie- Caprese salad and Venice, could I think of you more in one afternoon?). After lunch we checked into the hotel and wandered around Venice. We saw San Marco square and wandered around the backstreets shopping and exploring. I was surprised cause I had already been to Venice and I was able to find my way around almost naturally. I bought a hilarious white fedora hat to protect my face from the sun (it was so strong that I got sunburnt just eating lunch!). I sent a picture to Brendan and he said I looked like an Italian gangster.. haha.
We ended up at the Rialto Bridge and continued wandering for a few hours. I was getting tired from my jumbled sleeping schedule so we headed back to the hotel for a little siesta. After I woke up, we went to this adorable Venetian restaurant. Since Venice is famous for its seafood, I mean it is an island- I ordered spaghetti with clams (I really wanted to get the Spaghetti al le mare, aka all different types of seafood) but I’m always nervous to communicate that I can’t have scallops, so I try to play it safe. Mom ordered their fish of the day, Grilled Sea Bass. It was so traditional that they brought the fish out and deboned it right at our table! Definitely delicious! And they were so nice, the waiters called us “Bella” about a dozen times and we ate in this garden under romantic lights, ahaha romantic dinner with my mommy in Venice!
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| The Rialto |
The next morning, we hopped on the waterbus and went to Murano Island, where they make the famous Murano glass. It was about a 30-minute ride from San Zaccaria, so we got to enjoy the river a little bit. Murano was lovely; it wasn’t too touristy and very scenic. We wandered around all the shops and bought some beautiful jewelry. We ended up having lunch at a small bistro on the river. Mom finally got spaghetti with clam sauce and I got homemade tagliatelle with pesto and shrimp. It was awesome, but I hadn’t realized it was going to be black pasta, which has always upset my stomach, even in Providence. I didn’t know if it was the pasta or the constant transitioning from city to city, or if I am just getting sick, but I after I got us back to the hotel, I slept for the rest of the day and night. Mom wandered around the markets and San Marco but also decided to call it an early night. We woke up early this morning and decided to save some money and utilize my navigation skills to walk us to the station. Luckily I didn’t fail us and managed to get us there about an hour early. We sat out on the steps like regular Italians and soaked up the sunshine. Now we’re on the train back to Florence, going to go get some last pizza at Yellow Bar and maybe one last gelato before Mom hops a taxi to the airport! Love ya Ma, thanks for coming!!
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| San Marco Square! |
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