Rome and Pisa!

Hey everyone!

So, this is me attempting to catch up on my blogging! I'm currently in Krakow, Poland and having a blast, but I'll tell you about that in my next blog :) But for now, here are my Italian adventures!

Claire and I left Nice on Sunday evening and boarded a train headed for Italy! Our first stop was just across the border in Italy. This was confusing, considering that our tickets told us the Italian name of the city, while the train broadcasted the French name! We had a minor heart attack before realizing that they were just two different names for the same city. We took another train to Genova, Italy. We were really excited about this train, because it had compartments, just like the trains in Harry Potter! It even had a little snack trolley that came down the hallway! When we got to Genova, we waited around in the train station for 2 hours before getting on our night train to Rome. We got on the train around midnight, and found our compartment without too much difficulty. When we opened the door, we found 4 people asleep in our 6 person compartment. Two men were in the seats that we were supposed to be sitting in. One of the men got up and left the compartment, and the other one just switched seats. Soon, two more people came in and the other man had to get up and leave. I'm assuming that he didn't have a ticket, because he stood outside our compartment for the rest of the ride. Sleeping on this particular train was not an easy task. No one was sure where to put their feet, and my knees kept knocking against everyone else's. I woke up a lot, and didn't get a very good night's sleep before we arrived in Rome at 5:50 the next morning.

When we got off the train, Claire and I set off to find our hostel. Our directions were fairly straight forward, and despite our lack of sleep, we made it to the hostel without too much difficulty. It was still dark outside, so when we got inside, we asked if we could hang out in the hostel until it got light enough to do something productive. The guy behind the desk was grumpy and rolled his eyes at us before telling us that we had to bring two chairs into the lobby and sit there. He glared at us the rest of the time we were in there. Claire and I watched youtube videos until 7:30 when the hostel restaurant opened for breakfast. We quickly chowed down and stored our luggage before setting off for the day.

We walked back to the train station, where we looked for a tour bus that we could buy tickets for. We ran into a man who was part of one such company and he led us to the company office a few blocks away. We were a little worried about following him, so we cautiously followed at a distance until we reached the office. We met a nice English couple there, and immediately felt our worries about the legitimacy of the company melt away. We got on the tour bus, which took us around Rome. The company had multiple buses running at once, so we could hop off wherever we wanted and just hop back on the next bus when it came around. Claire and I saw the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and a ton of other landmarks. By the time we had finished our bus tour, we were exhausted and it was time to check into the hostel. We headed back and checked in before moving into our room. We stayed in a 12 person dorm room, which was separated into two- 6 person rooms.  In our room were Claire, myself, a girl from New Zeland named Jo, a guy from Australia named Dane, a girl from Mississippi named Tori, and some random guy who didn't talk to us. We got along really well with everyone! We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging around the hostel and talking to our new friends.

That night, we all went to bed fairly early. I slept well enough until I was woken up around 3 by snoring that was coming from the nameless guy. I have never heard anyone snore that bad. Ever. After everyone yelling at him (it didn't help in the slightest), I turned my iPod on and listened to music in order to fall asleep again. The next morning, snoring boy had left the hostel, but he was the topic of conversation for  the rest of us!

Claire and I headed out for Vatican City, which was absolutely beautiful! We climbed to the top of the Cupola (The big domed roof) in St. Peter's Basilica. We decided to be adventurous (and save 3 euros) and take the stairs. Adventurous doesn't even begin to describe it. There were SO MANY STAIRS! Toward the top, the walls began to go sideways because of the shape of the dome, so we had to bend sideways in order to walk. But, all the hard work was totally worth it when we made it to the top and got to see the whole of Rome. The walk back down was almost as painful as the walk to the top. I didn't really realize how out of shape my shin muscles were until I had to walk down 550 stairs! With shaky legs, we finally got to the bottom and went inside the chapel. It was gorgeous. Paintings, tapestries, and statues were everywhere we looked, and they were all amazing! We stopped and ate lunch in the square in front of Vatican City (we had brought apples and crackers with us), then began the walk to the Vatican Museum. The main thing I wanted to see there was the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo painted the entire ceiling. After being pushed through the rest of the museum by the throng of people surrounding us, Claire and I finally made it to the Sistine Chapel! At the entrance, there were two security guards that were telling everyone that we weren't allowed to take pictures and to be quiet. Of course, no one was listening to them, but it was enough to make me be really cautious when I took out my camera to snap a picture of Adam and God almost touching hands, which was the painting I really wanted to see! After taking my illegal picture, I quickly put my camera away before anyone caught me, and continued to look around myself in awe. When we left the chapel, we looked around the other exhibits in the museum, then headed back out.

At this point in the afternoon, it was roasting hot, so we stopped at a little corner gelato shop. For 1.50, we got a cone with three different flavours of gelato with whipped cream on top. It was seriously the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. We took our ice cream to a little grassy area in the middle of the street, and ate our ice cream while watching everyone else pass by and soaking up the sun. We had a pretty relaxed afternoon and evening, which was just what the doctor ordered, considering the fact that we hadn't had a decent night's sleep in two nights. We went to a little Italian place next door to our hostel, which we soon started calling "our Italian restaurant," since for the rest of our stay in Rome, one of the waiters would always greet us every time we walked by.

Claire had picked up a pamphlet for Vespa (motor scooter) tours, so the next day, we thought we would check them out. Sadly, the man at the counter told us that it would cost us 150 euros each to take a tour, which was completely out of our price range, so we set out to find "the time elevator," an attraction that was advertised on the map that our hostel gave us. Basically, it was a movie with moving seats that told us about the history of Rome. Sounds lame, I know, but it was actually pretty cool, considering that we had been doing most of our touring on our own and hadn't gotten much history. After that, we went looking for the Monks' Crypt that my friend Megan had told me about. After many wrong turns and lots of sweating, we found the place only to realize that there was a dress code. Both of our shoulders and knees had to be covered, and as I was wearing a tank top and Claire was wearing shorts, we couldn't go inside. We headed back to the hostel for a nap, before heading back out with Jo, the girl from New Zeland.

The three of us went to watch the sunset in this little piazza. It was off the beaten path, but Jo's Lonely Planet book said that it was the best place to watch the sunset. Indeed it was. We hung around there for a while, just admiring the sunset, before going off to find food. We had dinner at this little Italian place and had AMAZING pizza and a liter of house wine between the three of us. We sat for an hour or two just talking, and then headed to see the Trevvi fountain at night. We took a ton of pictures, and just sat talking again after a while. Out of nowhere, a little Indian man came up to us and sat next to me. He asked where we were from and we told him, and then he asked our names. I told him my name and he said "I'm German." I immediately said "no you're not" because he was OBVIOUSLY not from Germany. He kept repeating it over and over while I denied it every time. Eventually I figured out that his NAME was German. Oops. He then proceeded to kiss my hand multiple times and offer to buy me a drink. When I said no, he just kept at it until Claire finally said "well, we have to go!" Thank God. We walked back to the hostel and ordered Champagne from the bar just in time to celebrate my 21st birthday at midnight!

The next morning, we woke up and meandered around Rome a little more, making sure to stop off at our gelato place before Claire had to leave that afternoon. I took her to the train station, then headed back to the hostel where I spent the evening answering all the happy birthday posts on my facebook. I'm glad I had that night free, because there were a LOT of them! I got pretty homesick that night, considering that it was my 21st birthday, and I didn't get to see my family or friends, but I made it through.

The next morning, I set off for Pisa. After an uneventful 4 hour train ride, I arrived in Pisa. I wasn't so lucky with the directions to my hostel this time. I walked down the street they told me to walk down, and came to a roundabout. The directions told me to go straight, but there were two streets on the opposite side of the roundabout, neither of them straight ahead of me.  I walked back to the train station and asked for directions from a man that worked there. I ended up on a big shopping street with tons of people all around me. My hostel was upstairs above some stores, and the entrance was a HUGE medieval looking door. I was buzzed inside  and came to a big gate that I had to open, before hiking up about 5 flights of stairs. The hostel was alright. I shared my room with two French-Canadian girls, who seemed nice.

After getting settled in, I set out to find the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was nice to wander around the streets of Pisa by myself, and I got to the tower without too much trouble. After snapping a few pictures of the tower, I figured out how to use the auto timer setting on my camera to get some pictures of myself with the tower too! I spent the rest of the afternoon just sitting on a lawn next to the tower and people watching. When I got bored, I started walking towards my hostel and found a little pizza place where I stopped for dinner. No one spoke English there, so ordering my pizza involved a lot of pointing and gesturing, but eventually we did it. I sat outside and watched people pass by. By the time I was finished with dinner, it was getting dark, so I decided to head back towards my hostel. Unfortunately for me, I made a few wrong turns and ended up walking around in circles for about 30 minutes, before completely going the wrong direction. When I deemed myself lost beyond repair, I walked into a restaurant and asked for directions. Between the three people in the restaurant, they had enough English to tell me how to get back, and after that I didn't have a problem getting back to my hostel. I slept well that night, and the next morning, I checked out of my hostel and set out for the airport on my way to POLAND!

Standing in front of the Arch of Constantine

The Colosseum!

Claire, and our first Italian pizza!

In front of Vatican City!

Random art on the ground in Vatican City

View from the top of the Cupola of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City

Me and the view from the top of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City!

The Cupola of St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City! We climbed 550 stairs to get to the top!

There are fountains like this all over the city! Filtered water, so you can drink it :)

My illegal picture of the roof of the Sistine Chapel ;)

Our Gelato Shop!

Our Gelato! SOOOOOO GOOD!!!

The sunset over Rome :)

Me in front of the Trevvi Fountain at night!

The Trevvi Fountain

Just turned 21!! First drink: Prosecco (an Italian sparkling wine)!

Restaurant in Pisa

Leaning Tower!

Holding it up!

Top of the Tower

Keeping it up with my feet!

Sunset

Things I'm Loving: Genuine Italian food, GELATO, how easy the public transportation system is, Italy in general.

Things I'm Not Loving So Much: Not getting to see my family on my birthday, how exhausting traveling is, snoring roommates.

Things I'm Learning: I really have NO sense of direction, how fun it is to just people-watch, that I really do look Italian (!).

Well, I'm enjoying Poland right now, so when I leave Krakow I'll post another blog! I love and miss you all!
Love,
Jenn