Day Two - Religion Day!

After our continental breakfast at the hotel, Marcy and I headed over to the Vatican for our tour. Before we left, I had decided to book an official tour through the Vatican because first and foremost I wanted to skip the line, but I also wanted an accurate description of what I was looking at. I figured the tours sanctioned by the establishment would be the best. It was also reasonably priced for what it promised (basically a two hour tour through the Vatican museums).

Since Stacey was not with us, we took a route along the Tiber to the Vatican City, which probably made the journey a little longer than it had to be (Stacey obviously knows the back streets through Trastevere). When we checked the route with the concierge, he was visibly surprised that we would even consider walking there in the first place. Sure, it was on the longer side to walk, but all in all it took us about a half hour. I guess the surprise came from the fact that a bunch of Americans wanted to walk somewhere...

Along the final stretch of the walk to St. Peter’s, we stopped for some water at one of the fountains. I never 100% believed Stacey when she said you could drink from them, but I put my skepticism aside and tried it. Apparently it flows down from the Alps! Turns out it was great water and it saved us quite a few euro over our time there.

We struggled a bit to find exactly where we had to go in order to meet our tour. The ticket I had printed out from the web was in all Italian and I had not remembered that the entrance was all the way around to the side. It ended up being quite a hike from the square, but luckily we were running ahead of schedule. There were also quite a number of cons/inquiries as to if I spoke English along the way. I had read about that, so I kind of knew to expect it, but found it no less surprising. I didn’t remember that from my first trip there, and found it kind of sad when I thought about the people that actually fall for them. Seems kind of hypocritical especially taking place outside the Vatican walls.

As we fought our way to the entrance, I started to get a little nervous that we would miss our tour. As I had mentioned, the ticket was in all Italian so we had no idea where to go. We asked security guards along the way who just kind of pointed, but eventually we found our way to an empty line and skipped all the people. We found our way inside, picked up our headsets and met our tour guide. Since this was a Vatican sanctioned tour, I personally expected a lot, and this little old lady delivered. She also had this incredible knack for fighting her way through the crowds, which there was a lot of. The museum was uncomfortably crowded, but we kept up with her as best we could. The tour guide commented on all the major/important things, but the crowds really made it hard to enjoy 100%. There were times I struggled to even hear her because tours of Spanish teenagers were yelling. Perhaps her best moment was her description of the frescos in Pope Julius II’s apartments painted by Raphael. I enjoyed her interpretation of the contrast between the School of Athens and the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament. She left us at the entrance to the Sistine Chapel, where we were on our own. It was insanely crowded. Security guards further ruined the peace by yelling at people to stop taking pictures, in addition to an automated voice recording reminding people that pictures were forbidden. Kind of made me forget it was a place of worship…

Eventually we had had enough and made our way over to St. Peter’s. We entered through the crypt, which was partially interesting because I got to see the tomb of Pope John Paul II. It was quite beautiful actually and illuminated for all to see. St. Peter’s Basilica itself was as grandiose as I remembered it. My cousin made a comment that it was kind of “gaudy” which at second thought is exactly what it is. It’s a giant monument to the power and wealth of the Vatican. My cousin’s recent travels to Israel made for an interesting dichotomy in her mind I am sure, and seeing it from her perspective was actually interesting. Especially since we followed the Vatican with a trio to the Ghetto and how little there really is to represent this neighborhood and culture. But I suppose that adds to the fact at how oppressed and confined the Jews were for so long.

We didn’t eat lunch in the Ghetto (we had stopped along the way in the Camp de’ Fiori for an incredible Panini), but we did stop for a snack. As we walked down via d’Ottavia, we found this little hole in the wall bakery that had already converted over for Passover. They had two options – biscotti and macaroons. The biscotti were “eh”, but that was the best damn macaroon I have ever had. It was warm and gooey in the middle and for the 75 cents I spent on it, it was WELL spent.

It was later in the afternoon by then, so we headed back to the hotel for a brief siesta (when in Rome!). We met back up with Stacey for dinner and she took us to this out of the way pizzeria in Trastevere that is supposed to be one of the best in Rome. Dar Poeta did NOT disappoint. One of the things I loved about it was that it was impossible to find! But again, I think that speaks to the charm of Rome. You have to do a little digging to find the real gems. The night was crisp, so we sat outside and enjoyed the scene. We shared an ensalata mista (corn, black olives, and mini mozzarella), and then had our own individual pizzas. Nowhere besides Italy is it ok to eat an entire pizza by yourself. I had one with prosciutto, mushrooms, and potatoes. It may have easily been the best pizza I had ever had and I easily finished the whole thing. We then topped things off with a nutella and ricotta pizza for dessert. Delish!

Day One - Getting the lay of the land

Our flight into Fiumicino was pretty uneventful. On the plane I opted for the the lasagna at dinner which I later regretted. I couldn't wait a couple of more hours for the real thing? When we landed, we managed to get into the fastest moving (and when I say fastest, I mean moving at actual snail pace in comparison to the other lines which weren't moving at all) line at passport control, but our momentum was quickly thwarted when we arrived at the baggage carousel. It took an absurdly long amount of time to retrieve our baggage. But then I breathed and remembered we were in Italy, and poof! The bags appeared!

Once of the services our hotel provided, which I actually considered pretty convenient, was the ability to book a car service from the airport to the hotel for a flat rate of 50 euro. From what I had read, cabs from the airport would have run us about 40 euro, but would also come with the anticipation of "are they going to rip us off?", and "are we going the right way", etc. Better safe than sorry, and figuring on our state of mind after an overnight flight of 8 hours, I went with the extravagance of the car service. And once we completely cleared customs, our car service was waiting with a sign that said "Yuliana Wurzburger". Close enough! Andiamo!

We arrived at the hotel at around 9:30, and were told that not only could we still partake in the continental breakfast, but our room was ready! Excitedly, and rather famished, we dropped our bags off in the room and ran back downstairs for breakfast. There was a definite Italian barrier that I had stupidly forgotten to anticipate and when the waitress asked what kind of coffee I wanted, I managed to get across that I wanted a cappuccino. At least that was a word I knew she would know. The rest of my first Italian breakfast consisted of a piece of rustic Italian bread, a slice of salami, cheese, and an egg. Yummmmmm...




After breakfast we headed back upstairs to get cleaned up and we headed out to meet up with my cousin. For lack of a better plan at that exact moment, we decided to find a money exchange so that I could change some of my dollars to euros. The closest one was by the Pantheon, so we headed over.

Our hotel was pretty much around the corner from my cousin's apartment, and both were in Trastevere. Trastevere was a part of Rome that I had not toured on my previous visit, and I must say, it is now my favorite part of Rome. Trastevere sits on the left bank of the Tiber, so it had a very local feel to it. There were practically no tourists, and was chock full of little trattorias and cafes. Around every corner and down every alley was a new surprise just waiting to be found if you knew where to look. That was what I liked about Trastevere. It wasn't all out there for someone to skim over and absorb in 5 minutes. You had to really walk the cobblestone streets and visit the little shops and cafes to really get the flavor the the neighborhood. You had to make the time.

Case in point, we stopped into a neighborhood deli on the way back from exchanging money. They had all sorts of delicacies, but we stuck with the pizza on the first try. As we were sitting there enjoying the pizza, we noticed a couple of men walk into the establishment. One of the men had an ear piece, and the other was definitely packing heat. The other was an extremely old man. Since they were all in plain clothes, we kind of shrugged everything off until one of the owners started making quite a fuss. We made Stacey ask what the ruckus was all about and it turns out the old man was a previous president of Italy, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. At the time we had no idea who he was, but turns out he is the oldest living Italian president. Pretty cool!

Since Trastevere is not as centrally located as other neighborhoods in Rome, public transportation quickly becomes your friend. And its also quite easy to cheat the system as we came to find. Usually when you take public transportation in Rome, you have to visit one of the Tabacchi stores to get a ticket/pass and then you validate it on the bus or tram by swiping it through the machine, only... no one ever checks if you actually swipe. Not the most ethical thing to do, but it definitely helped save a couple of euro here and there! After our pizza lunch, we decided to utilize the fine free public transportation, and headed over to the Villa Borghese where we heard you could rent bicycles and ride around the park. Maybe some endorphins would keep us going!
This turned out to be a great idea as it was a relatively cheap activity (4 euro for an hour), and the park surrounding the villa was quite beautiful and rather peaceful.




We even got some cardio worked in! No doubt we were tired by the end of things, but it definitely made room for our pasta dinner at a local place back in Trastevere. After a plate of Pasta Carbonara, and a glass of the house red, it was sweet dreams for us as we had made it through our first day!

Italy - A preamble if you will...

It has been quite a while since I have blogged. I can make a brevity of excuses as to why I haven't, but it mostly comes down to time and inspiration.

I very recently embarked on a Roman Holiday. I have been to Italy before (at the beginning of my sophomore year of high school), so from a base perspective a lot of what I saw wasn't "new". But how I saw it was drastically different. The country really surprised me, in multiple ways to say the least. So suffice it to say, my previous inspiration excuse really doesn't hold. And since I have some time over the next couple of days to document my thoughts... I really have no reason not to share them!

Just to preface, on my previous trip to Italy I was 15, missing what was initially supposed to be the first three weeks of school, and going with my grandfather. At the time, I very much appreciated the experience my grandfather was providing for me, but retrospectively and almost 15 years later, I have realized that I was lacking a certain amount of maturity to really understand what I was experiencing. I just had too much going on hormonally! But I think a lot of what enables us to understand our experiences as adults comes from just living life. And while I was anything but a sheltered 15 year old, I still hadn't yet done enough living.

So what will follow here are some highlights and thoughts on my time in Italy over the past week and a half. Enjoy!