Venice or La Serenissima

In Venice we had absolutely no trouble at all finding our hostel from the train station, we took this as a good sign of our ability to find our way there (but, as you will find out later, we were proven quite wrong). The hostel was pretty basic, we had a room of eight there, but it had an pretty entrance (a green door with a private bridge).

We went out for dinner only a little after our arrival, to a place called Trattoria Bar Pontini. We each ordered a pasta dish and split it, I got pasta with scallops and mushrooms, and Maddy ordered the spaghetti with cuttlefish in black sauce (which is a particularly Venetian dish, and pretty good, if a little unnerving). We headed back to the hostel for the night, and socialized with some of our roommates (two of whom were also American study abroad students studying at Exeter).

Our first stop the next morning was the Campo di San Marco to attend the sung mass at the Basilica di San Marco. The mass was beautiful, as was the basilica, every time the chorus sang (from their balcony to the side of the alter) the space swelled with sound. I do wish, however, that I had been more able to follow along. Every now and then we would come to a point that I would recognize, and I could pick out what was being said, but other times I would completely lose track of the train of the service until they came around to  the familiar again. 

The basilica is absolutely amazing to look at, the inside of every dome and the underside of every archway (and really across the entirety of the ceiling it seems) was covered in gold and mosaics (and the occasional fresco). I defy anyone to enter the chapel without a gasp of amazement at the sight.

After mass we walked along the grand channel and took in the sights, including: the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Giglio, and the Chiesa di San Vidal, as well as many other beautiful sights. 

We eventually settled on the Campo di Santa Margherita at the cafe Margaret Duchamp, where we ordered Bellinis (a delicious combination of peach puree and prosseco) and bruschette. 

We continued our leisurely stroll around the city before resting inthe Giardino Papadopoli to read for awhile. Afterwards we walked past several more churches, and inside a few before stopping for pastries at Nobile Pasticerria and then for Latte Macchiatos and people watching at a cafe a little further down.

We headed back to the hostel for some rest and phone recharging before heading back out in search of a restaurant. The one we were looking for was not where Google said it would be unfortunately, so we found one that looked good nearer to our hostel. There we tried chichetos (the Venetian version of tapas). We had prosciutto sandwiches, bruschette with tuna, and bread with cucumber and some kind of sauce. It was all pretty delicious, even the tuna of which I was slightly suspicious.

We walked for a bit longer before making our second pastry stop of the day, where we got to fruit tarts which turned out to be heavier than expected and filled with candied fruit. They were incredibly sweet, and I could not quite finish mine.

Afterwards we ended up making another complete loop around Venice, somewhat by accident as Venice is extremely labyrinthine and we got a little lost. 

The next morning we went out for breakfast at the cafe Santa Sofia, where I had some more delicious hot chocolate with a croissant. The we headed along the long and winding rout to Campo di San Marco, in search of jewelry and venetian masks. We eventually found our way to two of the mask shops that I had heard were mong the best, Ca del Sol Maschere and Atelier Magera. I looked through several masks before finding one that was pretty enough to display, comfortable enough to wear, and not so elaborate that I would worry about it getting damaged.

On the way back towards San Marco we walked past another one the churches on my list, among many others that we saw on our walks through the city, the Chiesa di San Zaccaria (dedicated to the father of St. John the Baptist).

By that point it was time for lunch, so we decided to head back o Margaret Duchamp. We walked along the Grand Canal for a bit, taking pictures in front of the canal and in front of the Bridge of Sighs. Luckily this time we managed to find Campo di Santa Margherita without getting lost. Along with lunch we decided to try a cocktail that had been invented in Venice, the Spritz. Unfortunately it was far too bitter for my tastes, although the olive and the slice of orange in the drink were both delicious. Then we required coffee in order to continue to function, so I ordered another Latte Macchiato and sat and talked in the shade for a bit longer. 

We walked through San Marcos on the way back to the hostel, once again forgetting the way we had come and taking yet another new route (it's a miracle we ever found anything we were looking for). The walk back was also lovely, and we looked in a few more shops on the way, but we didn't end up getting anything.

Later we headed out to dinner at the Ristorante da Rafaelle, which had a gorgeous view of the canals and from which were could watch the gondolas. We shared a Caprese appetizer, Risotto with asparagus and shrimp, and a bottle of Fruilano wine. It was a wonderful last dinner in Italy, with good food and good wine.

It was definitely an interesting last day, and actually fairly relaxing. I think that, as much as I enjoy traveling, I could not have traveled for longer. By that point I was a bit exhausted and ready for a break.

The streets were practically empty on our last morning in Venice, understandable as it was still before even 6:30 as we walked towards the train station, and very few shops were open. Venice looked a bit strange and unnerving with all of the crowds absent from its streets.

We were at the airport and through security by eight, and our flight didn't depart until 9:50, so suffice to say we were there in plenty of time. The Treviso Sant'Angelo airport was tiny, only 10 gates and a couple of small stores. We browsed the few shops that were there while we waited, and I debated the merits of bringing home a bottle of Bellini (although I ultimately decided against it).

The view from our plane as we were coming into London was beautiful, so I once again took some pictures from the window. I have to admit that coming back to Exeter felt like coming home, it's hard to believe that it was a completely new place only about three months ago.

Florence/Firenze

Our train from Rome only took about an hour and a half, so we arrived in Florence at 5:30, giving us time to check in at our hostel before heading out in search of food. The views from the train were wonderful; there were rolling green hills, farmland with mountains in the distance, and many red-roofed Mediterranean houses. I would certainly have taken pictures if possible, but such is life.

We found Dany House with only a little trouble (we walked around a nearby piazza a couple of times before finding our turn), but as we arrived earlier than we had originally planned there was no one to let us inside for nearly twenty minutes. After Ella (one of the owners, along with her husband Jonathon) let us in she gave us a very helpful map with several suggestions of things to do and places to eat, and was generally very enthusiastic. The hostel was quite small, with only three rooms for guests, along with Ella and Jonathon's private room.

At Ella's suggestion we ate at a nearby restaurant, Il Cipiglio, and tried the well-known Florentine Steak (a super rare steak which is apparantly a traditional Tuscan dish). It was alright, but not particularly to my taste, although I am glad that I tried it anyway. On our short walk back we had a lovely view of the city and the Duomo, which was therefor the subject of my first picture in Florence (at least my first that was not of food).

The next morning we got up at about nine and had breakfast at the hostel, which consisted of several kinds of pastries and tea, before heading out. It was fairly raining that morning, so we decided to try to spend our morning in the Galleria dell'Accademia, one of the famous art museums of Florence and the one which houses the original Michelangelo's David. We waited in line for about an hour, taking advantage of the fact that we could read (I on my iPad and Maddy on her Kindle), while two guys behind us were very vocal in their displeasure with waiting.


The museum was incredible, especially David (which was much larger than I had pictured in my head). There were also some beautiful statues by Lorenzo Bartolini and paintings by Alessandro Allori. One of my favorites was the copy of Andrea del Sarto's Madonna del Sacco by Irene Parenti Duclos, which is apparently the only painting by a woman on permanent display.

Afterwards we headed back towads the Duomo, by which point the sky had cleared up at least a little, so we got some better pictures this time. The inside was much more austere than the churches we had seen in Rome (especially Santa Maria Maggiore), but the paintings on the inside of the dome more than made up for the simplicity elsewhere. I certainly understand why it is considered one of the more beautiful churches.

It was almost one by then, so we went looking for lunch. On the way we passed the Palazzo Vecchio (where we saw a replica of David) and the Loggia dei Lanzi (where we saw some statues of which we had seen the plaster models in the Galleria). We had a quick lunch of paninis at a pizzeria before making our way to the next long line at the Galleria degli Uffizi.

The Uffizi was both much larger and much more impressive than the Galleria, unfortunately with a much longer wait of more than two hours. We saw many amazing paintings and sculptures in the Uffizi, among my favorites were: Boticelli's Venus, reliefs from the Augustan Altar of Peace (or Ara Pacis), the Medici Sleeping Ariadne (a Hadrianic version of which is housed in the Vatican Museums), Albertinelli's Visitation, and Michelangelo's The Holy Family (the only painting by Michelangelo in Florence).

When we finally got out of the museum, at about five, our feet were killing us. So we found a cafe in which to take a break, and get a snack. I tried panna cotta with creme caramel and an Italian hot chocolate (which is much thicker than hot chocolate at home, and came with sugar to sweeten it). We walked around the river a bit afterwards, we even saw the Ponte Vecchio (a bridge with shops jutting out from the sides, the shops actually used to be people's houses, I think living on a bridge might make me a bit nervous).

For dinner we went to La Prosciuterria, where we had a platter of meets and cheeses, a bowl of bread, and a glass of chianti. It was actually one of the best meals I've had in Italy so far, along with Piccolo Arancio. We actually each bought a set of their wine glasses as souvenirs.

The walk home was lovely, I took a few more pictures of Florence at night on our way back to the hostel (the Duomo was almost prettier in the dark). When we got back we hung out in the common area with some of the other hostel guests for a bit (there was a girl from Peru, one from Mexico, a guy from Texas and his friend from New Mexico, a guy from New Jersey who we'd met the night before, and a girl from Connecticut).

The first thing on our list the next day was to get our train tickets to Venice, which would take us closer to two hours even on a high speed train (I wonder how long a regular train would have taken?). Then we walked through the historical center of town and crossed the Ponte Veccho. It was complete chaos, the bridge was incredibly packed with people and, as cool as the bridge (and the many beautiful jewelry shops lining it) was, I would not do it again.

After crossing the river we made the exhausting trek uphill to the Piazza di Michelangelo, which provided us with a spectacular panoramic view of Florence and the surround area (it also provided us with yet another replica of David, someone sure is popular). While my feet were definitely killing me after all those stairs, the view was worth it.

We headed back into town and grabbed some food at a pizzeria across from the Basilica di San Lorenzo, before heading into the leather market the street over. We looked at a few of the stalls and accidentally haggled a purse down from €70 to €30.

We walked back to Dany House to pick up our bags and went to catch our train. On the way we made a stop at a pasticerria, Forno, to pick up an assortment of Italian cookies to eat on the train (which were delicious by the way, and I'll definitely have to learn to make some).

When In Rome

So, if you weren't already aware, I spent the last nine days in Italy (really only seven, as two were for travel) and let me tell you, it totally deserves it's reputation as amazing.

Our bus from Exeter left at about 4:45 am last Monday (March 31st), and I was so stressed/excited the night before that I had hardly any sleep. We actually switched to another bus at the London Victoria Station before finally arriving at the Stansted airport. We were a bit worried that we would be running, but we got through security pretty quickly and ended up having to wait another half an hour before we could actually got to our gate. The flight was actaully pretty decent, considering that it was RyanAir, and I even managed to get a bit of sleep on the trip. 

When we arrived at the Rome Ciampino Airport we immediately got our tickets for the bus into the city, unfortunately it took longer than we expected to arrive (with a couple of false alarms with all the other buses arriving) and we didn't end up actually getting to our hostel in Rome until 7:30. By this point we were starving, so we checked in and basically went to eat at the first restaurant we found. Not necessarily the best choice we could have made, but it almost would have been a waste to go somewhere amazing, because I had definitely hit the point where anything would have tasted great.

La Controra was definitely a good choice for a hostel, we were in a four person room (which was mixed gender, so the first night we shared with two boys) and we had a fairly sizeable private bathroom. The next morning we got up pretty early, at about 7:30, I had gotten a pretty good sleep so I was ready for the day we had planned.

We had a really quick breakfast at the hostel before heading out to the Vatican Museums, I was really glad that we decided to use the metro (because otherwise it would have been a nearly forty minute walk). It was also really simple getting into the museums, since we had booked our tickets online the night before, and it saved us what looked like a pretty long line outside.

Once inside the museum we headed directly for the Sistine Chapel (which is actually at the very far end of the museums) because it's pretty small and we wanted to see it before it got too crowded. It was amazing, unsurprisingly considering that Michelangelo painted that ceiling, but it was also a lot darker than I expected (the natural light was fairly limited) and everyone inside was pretty much silent. It lent a slightly uncomfortable feeling to such a beautiful place, because (in my opinion) the silence was less awestruck and more nervous.

Honestly though, the rest of the museum was equally gorgeous, there were so many statues and artifacts, and most of the ceilings were covered in incredible paintings and carvings. Our favorite was the Gallery of Maps, not that we actually looked at any of the maps, for its spectacular ceiling. 

There were also some smaller museums, such as one focused on missionary work, a gallery of tapestries and paintings, and another which housed the papal carriages (and the pope mobile!).

After about two or three hours we left the museum and headed to the Spanish Steps. We got roses pushed at us and were then cornered in an attempt to get some money out of us, when we refused the roses were confiscated. Regardless, we got our pictures on the steps, so it was worth it. 


We walked a few blocks down to find a place for lunch, settling on pizza at a nearby trattoria (which is basically an eating establishment between a casual osteria and a formal ristorante). We sat for a bit, enjoying the weather, and the free wifi, before continuing our journey towards the Trevi Fountain. The fountain was spectacular, another thing which lives up to its reputation, and (despite not having any change to throw) I still made a wish.

Then we went to find our first gelateria of the trip, San Crispino, which turned out to be a good choice. I had a cup with pear sorbet and honey gelato, which was absolutely delicious and which I much preferred to ice cream.

We intended to walk back towards the Spanish Steps to look at some of the shops, but we got a bit turned around and instead happened upon the Pantheon, which seemed to come out of nowhere. We took some pictures, but didn't go inside (although I attempted to stealthily take a few pictures of the inside from the entryway).

Walking a bit farther we found ourselves at the Piazza Navona, which houses the Fontana dei Quattro Fuimi (Fountain of Four Rivers) and the church Sant'Agnese in Agone. We then slowly made our way back to the hostel, on the way we passed the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj (which had a particularly lovely courtyard), the Church of Sant'Ignazio, and the Altar of the Fatherland.

We lounged at the hostel for a bit before picking up our tickets for the Papal General Audience the next morning and heading out for dinner near the Termini Train Station. Dinner was pretty good, but the gelato was still by far my favorite food of the day.

On our way back to the hostel Maddy saw two girls with backpacks walking in the same direction (although we later lost sight of them) and she bet me a gelato that they would be our new roommates (since the two guys from the night before had both checked out). She turned out to be right!

The next morning we woke up really early so we could be out the door by seven. We arrived at the entrance to St. Peter's Square a half an hour late (for a general audience that didn't begin until 10:30) and waited in a mob of people slowly moving through security. We found ourselves some seats not too far from the dais on which Pope Francis would be seated and settled in to wait. The square is so amazing, with all of the statues surrounding it, as well as the obelisk in the center (and did you know they actually moved that obelisk all the way from Egypt?)

At about 9:30 everyone began to cheer, the Pope had arrived! He made several circuits around the square so everyone would get the chance to see him, kissing some babies on the way. I had to stand on my chair to see anything, but I got some good pictures (thanks to my trusty zoom lense). It's amazing to think that he does that every week, and that such an incredible number of people come to see and hear him every time.

There was a reading from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians in several languages before the Pope actually spoke. Despite the fact that he was speaking in Italian, I understood more of what he said than I expected (although it still wasn't as much as I would have liked). He spoke of the importance of fidelity and gratitude in matrimony, and the three magic words: please, thank you, and sorry.

Afterwards everyone in the square sang Our Father in Latin and the Pope gave everyone his blessing. It was an amazing experience, that so many people shared in that moment and in that belief. It was a profoundly spiritual experience for me, and an exciting one considereding that the Pope is one of the major religious leaders of the world (and particularly the leader of the religion in which I have been raised).

We dropped by the hostel to lose an extra layer of clothing we had worn for the early morning cold, before heading out for lunch. Il Pinsere Roma was a little pizza place ot far from our hostel with no seating (just some bar shelves attached to the walls) and rows of amazing individual pizzas under the counter. They were definitely just as amazing as they looked.

In the afternoon we bought our train tickets to Florence, before heading to see the Colosseum. The Colosseum was spectacular, it's hard to believe how old it is and to imagine how long it took to build. We walked around its entirety, taking pictures along the way. We saw the nearby Arch of Constantine, the Temple of Venus and Roma, as well as the Arch of Titus up nearer to the Roman Forum.

We grabbed our second gelato at a gelateria not too far from the Colosseum and this time I got blackberry sorbet and strawberry gelato. The metro ride back from the Colosseum was...interesting to say the least. By this point it was rush hour and we waited through four trains before we actually got on one, adn we were still crammed in like sardines.

This time we did a little more research on our restaurant choice for the evening, deciding on Piccolo Arancio near the Trevi Fountain. The walk through the city at night was gorgeous, especially seeing the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain again, as well as another gorgeous piazza (Piazza di San Silvestro). It was a great choice, even if the alleyway on which it was located was a little bit sketchy. 

We got a bit of laughter at  our slightly mangled pronunciation of the Italian dishes, but our orders were successful. We shared an appetizer of zucchini flowers and fired artichoke (a traditional Jewish Roman dish) and we each ordered fettuccine with lamb, as well as tiramasu for dessert. Everything was amazing, and it was definitely our best meal in Rome.

We walked back through the city and took a few more pictures of the city at night, including some dorky pictures with the lions at la Fontana dell'Acqua Felice (or the Fountain of Moses).

Our last morning in Rome was a late start, since it was the first morning we didn't have an early deadline (as with the Vatican Museum and the Papal General Audience). We walked down towards the Villa Borghese, and through the Porta Princiana (the gate of the Aurelian walls into Rome). We settled near one of the fountains in the garden for a little while and read, before walking around a little more and choosing a different location to sit.

After a relaxing morning we went back to Il Pinsere for lunch again, it was just as delicious the second time (although we were a little more adventurous in our pizza selections, one with ham, parmesan, and potato and another with bacon, mozarella, and some kind of sauce).

Our final sight to see in Rome was the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore, which is one of only four major basilica (along with the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and the Archbasilica Papale di San Giovanni in Laterano, which is actually the seat of the Pope as the bishop of Rome). It was spectacular, I think you can definitely see the depth of faith felt by others in works of art like those we saw.

We sat in the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, which is home to the ruins of the Trofei di Mario Fountain and the Porta Alchemica, for a bit afterwards before getting our last gelato at Palazzo del Freddo Giovanni Fassi, which is one of the oldest and largest gelateria in Rome. I had a cranberry and vanilla gelato which was good, but also incredibly sweet.

We went to grab our bags from the hostel and headed towards the train station. On the way we stopped into Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri which was actually built inside the remains of the Baths of Diocletian in 1563 and designed by Michelangelo. It was beautiful on the inside, with an almost cavernous amount of space. The ceilings were incredibly high and the floor space was almost entirely clear, so it felt massive. There were some beautiful paintings on the walls and carvings on the ceiling, and a couple stained glass windows, but compared to our other basilica of the day, it was fairly understated.

We got to the train station about forty minutes early for out 4:05 train to Florence, but it was pretty simple to figure out the train station and soon enough we were on our way to our next destination.