Day Seven and Eight: Rome

We woke up Friday morning with plans to catch the train from Vernazza back to La Spezia and then on to Rome. Wouldn't you know that the one day we have to depend on the train for transportation there's a train strike in Italy? Seriously. Luckily for us it didn't affect either of our routes, so we were fine.

The trains over there are really nice! It was a very peaceful three hour ride to Rome. I napped most of the way while Derek studied the guidebook for tips on touring Rome. We did most of our research for the Country-Coastal-City tour of Italy just before we got to each stop. That's what happens when you only have two weeks to plan an international trip, I suppose. It worked though.

WARNING: This will be a long post with lots and lots of pics. Just be patient. This is the last one, I promise. :)

We arrived in Rome around 4:30 on Friday afternoon. We took a cab from the Termini train station to our hotel, Hotel Boccaccio, which was in the Barberini area of Rome. The first thing we learned was HOW BIG Rome is. It's huge. We dropped off our luggage, picked up a city map, and set out to see what we could while it was still daylight. We were only going to be in Rome for a day and a half, so we had a lot to see in a short amount of time.

First stop: the Trevi Fountain. This was only a couple of blocks from our hotel, so we figured it would be easy to visit. WRONG. It was easy to find, but so incredibly packed with tourists you could barely see the fountain. We took a few pictures and Derek made his way through the massive crowd to throw in some coins (to ensure we'll one day return to Rome, of course) backwards, then we were done. Beautiful sight, but entirely too crowded.

Second stop: the Pantheon. This place was cool. We couldn't go inside because it was reserved for prayer time, but the piazza in front of the building was full of street performers and tourists. It was neat just to step back and realize exactly how old a building like this is. And then to realize exactly how old this city is. It was a pretty overwhelming feeling of pure awe.
Third stop: the Colosseum. I told you we were on a mission to see all that we could in the short time we were there. We kept walking and walking and walking and when we finally found where we were on the map, we realized we were nowhere near the Colosseum. We had been walking in the wrong direction. And then it started to rain. So... we gave up, grabbed a bite to eat and took a cab back to the hotel. Our blockbuster sight-seeing plan was on hold for now.

After regrouping, getting showered and getting a little more advice from Rick Steves, we were back at it just as the sun was setting. We took the suggested "night tour of Rome" starting at the Spanish Steps then on to the Villa Borghese Gardens and the Piazza di Popolo. Most of the night photos didn't turn out so well because of the flash, but trust me when I say it was beautiful, even in the misty rain.

Here's the Spanish Steps and Derek reading our trusty city map...

It was a lovely evening walk through the streets of Rome, and when we made it back to the hotel for the night, we were ready for a good night's sleep and another full day of sight-seeing.

Saturday morning we hit the Colosseum bright and early, hoping to beat most of the crowds. We got lucky in the fact that it was National Heritage Day so our tickets into the Colosseum were free. We actually only waited in line like 10 minutes. This was one of my favorite things to see in Rome. It was absolutely breathtaking to see how big and historic this structure was, and you could really feel the history of all the gladiator battles fought here years ago. It was amazing.

After the Colosseum we walked around Ancient Rome for a little while before catching the Metro subway back towards our hotel (we mastered the Roman subway system - be proud) and then on to the Vatican. The subway was actually very easy. I would definitely recommend it.

We actually made museum reservations at the Vatican because we didn't want to miss out on anything there. With it being the day before Palm Sunday, we figured it would be packed.

It took us nearly three hours to walk through all four miles of this magnificent museum. It was incredible. Just hallway after hallway of sculptures, tapestries, paintings, maps, ANY kind of classic artwork you could imagine. Here are a few pics...

When we finally made it into the Sistine Chapel, it was just unbelievable. Not a single inch of the walls or ceiling wasn't painted with some intricate design. It was just gorgeous. We even snuck a quick photo before making our exit even though we weren't supposed to do it. We couldn't help it. Derek just pointed the camera up not really knowing what he was shooting and look at the scene we ended up with in the center of the pic. Amazing.

After the Vatican Museum we headed to St. Peter's Square. This square was totally packed with workers setting up for the Palm Sunday service the next morning and devout Catholic tourists hoping for a glimpse of the Pope. No Pope-sightings, but it was still really cool to actually be there the day before such a religious celebration.

We made it back to the Barberini area of Rome just in time to catch the last 15 open minutes of the Cappucin Crypt. We couldn't take any photos, but this crypt was exquisitely decorated with the skeletons and bones of 4,000 Franciscan friars. There were even chandeliers made out of bones. Very interesting to see, but you wouldn't catch me in there after dark. Creepy for sure.

At this point I think we were both about to collapse from exhaustion, so we decided it was time for our last real dinner in Italy. Guess where we ate? The Hard Rock Cafe Rome. Don't judge. After a full seven days of authentic Italian food, we wanted some nachos, hamburgers and sweet tea. Delish.

But if you're disappointed in us, it should make you feel better that we did stop in at a corner restaurant on our way back to the hotel for some cappucino and tiramisu for dessert. So THAT, my friends, was technically the last thing we ate in Italy.

We were in the bed at 9:00 with blisters on our feet and achy muscles, but it was totally worth the pain. We successfully completed our Country-Coastal-City tour of Italy, which we planned in 16 days. It was amazing.

We said "arrivederci" to Rome at 6:45 the next morning as we left for the airport for our nearly 11-hour flight back to Atlanta.

It was truly the trip of a lifetime. I apologize if I bored you silly, but I really want to remember every little detail. And if, by chance, you're still interested in more details, there are plenty more pics on Facebook or feel free to drop by for a look at our scrapbook. :)

Ciao.

Day Six: Rainy Day in the Cinque Terre

On Thursday we woke up to rain, which was absolutely fine with us. We had done all of our Cinque Terre sight-seeing the day before, Derek was sore from his hike, I was sunburned, we drank too much wine the night before, and we were just worn out.

We slept in and listened to the rain outside our window, then got ready and took the train to Town #5, Monteroso. It was on the beach and bigger than the other four towns. It was so pretty, but unfortunately with the overcast skies we couldn't get really pretty views with the camera.

We wandered around the town for a little while as the rain held off, then made our way back "home" to Vernazza in the early afternoon. We did a little souvenir shopping until the rain came back with a vengeance, and with nothing else to do we settled in at our little bar, the Blue Marlin, for some bruschetta and a half liter of wine.

As the rain came down, that half liter of wine turned into two, then three, then a few Italian beers thrown in. By this point they were playing Jack Johnson over the speakers, so we were pretty much committed to staying all afternoon. Nothing else to do on a lazy, rainy afternoon. It was great. It actually forced us to slow down, take it easy and just enjoy being there.

Thursday night we went to dinner at Il Pirata at the top of the town. It was a teeny tiny little restaurant with about four other tables, all of which were full of Americans that night. We had so much fun talking with everyone. And the craziest part was that we talked about "The Help" and being extras in the movie. They had all read the book and were so excited to see the movie! It was pretty funny. Here we are with our fellow American diners at Il Pirata (which had THE BEST lasagna ever, by the way - probably our best meal of the trip)...
After dinner we made our way back to (surprise, surprise) the Blue Marlin. Ben (the doctor) and Trey from the night before met us there for some wine and strawberry mojitos. We were having a lot of fun - can you tell? :)

When the bar closed, we decided to move our after-party to "the cave." We read about this little cave under the church in the harbor in Rick Steves' book. It's a cool little cave right on the water where people go to hang out after the bars close. We laughed when we read it, thinking we would never actually go there to hang out, but after all the Italian wine and beer we consumed that day, it was the perfect time for a little late-night cave-sitting. Ha! Here's me in the harbor on the way to the cave.

Ben and Trey went upstairs and grabbed an Ipod, and we sat in the cave and jammed out to The Black Keys. It. Was. Awesome. SUCH a fun experience!

I would have to say our rainy day in the Cinque Terre was probably my favorite day of the whole trip. We relaxed, soaked in Vernazza in all its Italian Riviera glory, and just enjoyed being there. It was fantastic and totally worth the next day's hangover. Ugh...

Day Five: Hiking the Cinque Terre

Wednesday morning we woke up to an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day, a perfect day for hiking the trails through all the five villages. We took the train to Riomaggiore, Town #1, and explored the town for a little bit before starting on the Via dell'Amore, the "Walk of Love" between Riomaggiore and Manarola.

The story behind this trail is that after World War II when the original train track was blasted, a trail was left connecting the two villages and making it a rendezvous spot for young lovers to meet in secret when they were forbidden to marry outside their village. The walk was absolutely gorgeous and right along the cliff over the water. Here are a few pics...

Legend has it that if you attach a lock to the bridge you'll forever "seal your love." Of course we had to do it... :)
It was just so gorgeous. This whole area of Italy is gorgeous. The Via dell'Amore was the only cliff-side trail that was open, and knowing the rest of the trails up through the mountains would be way more rigorous than I was willing to handle, once we finished the first walk I took the train back from Manarola to Vernazza to let Derek enjoy the beauty of nature by himself. Here are a few pics from his hike. This doesn't even do it justice, but here's a taste nonetheless...

And just to show you that I clearly made the right decision by foregoing the hard hike and reading my book while sipping my wine in the sun instead, here's a video...

It was just a lovely day to be outside enjoying the incredible Italian Riviera, and at this point a few hours apart didn't hurt us, either. :)

Once Derek returned to our home base, we showered and headed back out to the harbor for dinner, followed by after-dinner drinks with our Utah friends (we learned their names were Amy and Joel) from Tuesday night at the Burgus Wine Bar right next to the 5,000 steps up to our room.

The owners and bartenders of these little Vernazza bars were so cool. When the bar was closing, we were sitting outside with our friends and two new friends from North Carolina, Ben ("the doctor") and Trey. The bartender came out and gave us a bottle of wine on the house and told us to enjoy ourselves and just set our glasses by the door when we were done. So nice!

It was yet another late night, but again so much fun to hang out with some people from the States and share travel adventures. This is the greatest place on Earth, I'm just convinced of it.

Only one more day in pure paradise...

Day Four: Pisa and the Cinque Terre

Tuesday morning we said goodbye to the beautiful hills of Tuscany and drove north towards the "coastal" part of our Country-Coastal-City tour of Italy, the Cinque Terre. It was only a three-hour drive, and we stopped halfway at Pisa for a short visit to the Leaning Tower.

I told Derek it was totally worth the stop JUST to see all the tourists from all over the world pose for pictures while "holding up" the tower. Absolutely hilarious. But of course I had to do it too. :)

After our short two-hour tour of Pisa, we hopped back in the car and continued our journey towards the Cinque Terre. This is an area along the Mediterranean Sea that is made up of five towns. It is absolutely beautiful. I would say this was probably the most fun we had on our trip. It was just a really cool place to relax and spend a few days.

We dropped our rental car off in La Spezia (which took us forever and many a cuss word to find the drop-off location) and took the train to the fourth town on the Cinque Terre, Vernazza. Each of the five Cinque Terre towns has their own unique characteristics, but we so happy we chose to stay in Vernazza. Look at this picturesque little harbor town. Amazing.

We immediately relaxed knowing we'd be without a car for the rest of the trip. We found our hotel, which was one of about six rooms high above one of the harbor restaurants, and got settled. Let me tell you about our room. It took about 250 steps to actually get to it. It was UP THERE. I had to stop halfway up to catch my breath. Poor Derek had to drag my 80-pound suitcase up the steps because I couldn't physically do it. It was tough. Take a look...

After we made sure we were good and ready to leave the room until bedtime, we made the downhill hike back to the harbor and walked around for a while before dinner. We ate at our hotel restaurant, Gianni Franzi, and had some amazingly fresh pasta. Derek had the pesto pasta, which this area is known for, and I had fresh black spaghetti with prawns sauce. If I had known it was made with squid ink at the time, I probably would have ordered differently, but it was so good!


After dinner we made our way over to the Blue Marlin Bar, which we had read about in the Rick Steves guidebook (which apparently, we learned here, was THE guidebook to follow). This was such a cool little bar. The main bartender played the drums on wine bottles and would break out a piano solo every now and then, too.

We met some backpackers from Rhode Island and a couple from Utah who we made friends with for the night. It was so interesting to hear everyone's travel stories and find out where they had been and where they were going. Two bottles of wine and two beers later, we called it a night. We had a big day of hiking ahead of us.

We were already totally in love with this part of Italy, and the best was yet to come!

Day Three: Siena

Monday morning we headed about an hour south to Siena. Here's a little history lesson for you... back in the 12th to 14th centuries Siena was a hot spot for Italian business, in much competition with Florence and Rome. In the mid-1300s the Black Death wiped out the majority of Siena's population, leaving it as more of a red-headed stepchild as Florence and Rome kept flourishing. To visit this city, there's nothing stepchild-like about it. It is beautiful, bustling and to us, even more enjoyable than Florence.

This city was very clean, and there were even escalators that took you from bottom of the outside of the city to the top where the square was.

There was another tall building in the town square, Piazza del Campo, for Derek to climb. It was the tower adjacent to the City Hall, and while not quite as tall as the Campanile in Florence, still equally as nice of a view...

The Crayola color "burnt sienna" is named after this city and all the clay-colored architecture that makes up the cityscape. One of the nicest things about Siena was the Piazza del Campo. It was slightly bowl-shaped, and everyone just sits wherever they want all along the square. It makes for PRIME people-watching, which is one of my favorite hobbies. Here's a short video of our view sitting down on the bricks in the square...

We wandered around, ate lunch, did a little shopping and just relaxed before heading back towards our B&B to watch the sunset. It was our last night in Tuscany, so we wanted to enjoy every minute of it. On the drive back, we passed these giant corks on the side of the road with the Chianti regional logo on it. So of course as true tourists, we had to pull over and take a picture.

Back at the B&B, we climbed up in the treehouse with a couple of bottles of wine to watch the sunset. We were finally "Under the Tuscan Sun" - haha, cheesy, I know, but beautiful. I wanted to cherish every second of it.



After the sun set, we headed back into Panzano for dinner at this GREAT restaurant, Il Vescovino. I had sausage and tomato pasta and Derek had a steak that was absolutely delicious. Then we had to stop in at our little corner bar we found two days before to say goodbye. The bartender even put on some "rock" music (a random mix of Beatles, 3 Doors Down and some Top 40 songs) for us to enjoy. Needless to say, we drank their entire stock of Budweiser beer - they only had six.

Then it was home to bed and time for our next adventure, heading north to the Cinque Terre...

Day Two: Florence

It was hard to schedule which day to take a day trip into Florence and which to Siena. The main tourist sites in Florence were closed half one day, half the other. We just decided to go on Sunday and see what we could in Florence, then do Siena on Monday. Lots of pictures and videos coming up, so be warned.

Florence was only a short 45-minute drive on the crazy Tuscany curves. Speaking of the drive, here's a short little snipit of how it was driving through Tuscany. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL scenery, but the curves made it hard to actually look at the scenery when you were in the car. Especially for the driver, which was always Derek. (Sorry, D.)

Driving into the city of Florence was a little tense. Some of the roads were so narrow you just prayed that it was a one-way street. It wasn't. I swear I don't know how those Italians do it. But we made it there safely and parked in the Piazzale Michaelangelo, which was free and had the absolute best view of the city. The only downside (which I would learn later) was that it was soooooo much higher than the city itself. Walking down was easy. Walking back up later, not so easy. Very very hard. Derek filmed a video of that, too. Don't worry, you will see me in all my glory. But first, our tour of Florence.

The first David statue in Florence in the Piazalla Michaelangelo...

View of the city. Gorgeous...

The Ponte Vecchio, the most famous bridge in Florence lined with shops...

Another David, this one in the Palazzo Vecchio... This was actually where the real statue stood until the early 19th century when he was moved inside the Accademia Museum for protection.

There are three David statues in Florence. We saw two of the three. The real one inside the Accademia we didn't get to see because of the lines (we unfortunately did not follow Rick Steves' advice and reserve our tickets ahead of time - lesson learned). The same went with the Uffizi Gallery with all the classic art. We still saw plenty without touring the two museums though.

The courtyard of the Uffizi was just as interesting with statues of Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Galileo and Dante. They even had a few New Orleans-esque street performers posing as statues. Here I am with Cupid...

Next stop on our tour of Florence was a short walk to the Duomo, Florence's Gothic cathedral, whose claim to fame is its magnificent dome. The dome was actually the beginning of the Architectural Rennaisance and the model for other domes to follow throughout Italy. The Duomo was closed on Sunday, but the Capanile (270-foot bell tower adjacent to the church) was open for visitors, and Derek climed all the way up the 414 steps to the top to see the amazing views. I, on the other hand, sat and read our guidebook while he was up on top of the world.

The tower he climbed...

Little me in the orange being a dilligent student of Italian travel. Ha...




After Derek climbed back down to Earth we walked over to the Piazza della Repubblica, nicknamed the "bellybutton of Florence" because of its one column once served as the main intersection of the two main Roman roads. We decided this would be a great spot for a lunch break.

My sausage pizza. Now THIS was a good pizza... (Yes we were those tourists who took pictures of our food, but aren't you glad?)

Derek's linguine with seafood sauce...

One more photo opp before the looooooong trek back up the hill...

And now, for your viewing pleasure, my unhappiness about climbing the hill. Don't judge. It was tough, I promise...

But then it was all worth it once we got to the top and looked back out over this gorgeous city and witnessed some real life Italian meatheads (think "Jersey Shore") apparently preparing for the new season of that show to be filmed in their fair city. Their little Ford Fiesta was completely tricked out and blaring some Snoop Dogg. Totally made my day.

And thus ends our second day in Italy. The adventure continues...