Semana Santa Part 2: Sicily - More ruins, more gelato and more adventures

Congratulations to those of you who made it through Semana Santa Part 1. It was a behemoth. This one should be a little more tolerable.

The 2nd half of our vacation was spent on the beautiful island of Sicily. Our decision to go to Sicily didn't have much reason to it. It wasn't really somewhere that I'd always wanted to go, nor is it really a popular tourist destination for most Americans. We just knew, that after a few days in Rome, we would want to relax, have nice weather, and go to the beach. It is spring break after all. So, since we were already going to Italy, we just kind of picked the most southern point that our airline flew to, and decided to go there. Now, we did do a little research, to make sure there would be things to do and there would actually be other vacationers there, BUT, upon arrival, we definitely did not get what we were expecting. It was colder than Madrid, and really not any warmer than Rome, with an average high of about 65. This is still kind of shocking to me. I mean this is the southern most point in Italy we're talking about. I don't know why it wasn't warmer in mid-April, but it just wasn't. Our plans to go to the beach were pretty much scrapped and we had to find other things to do. Now let the post begin.

We arrived in the Palermo airport around 1pm on Wednesday, after a pretty hectic flying experience. I hate flying enough as it is, and the budget airlines are really just awful. There's no organization or reason to any of the seating, so you have to shove your way into the plane, and people start lining up an hour before you've even supposed to start boarding. It is not enjoyable. But fortunately, the flight was short so we didn't lose our entire day in transit. We had to take a bus about an hour to get to the city center, and our hostel was conveniently located about a 5 minute walk from the train station. The hostel staff were very helpful, giving us a map and circling all the sites we should see, including restaurant suggestions and places to be wary of. There was also a ton of information on places to take day trips too. They also invited us to join them for the hostel-wide Sangria party that night. Fun times to come.

So, after getting settled in, we headed out to get a feel for the area. We stopped to grab some pizza which was only 2.50. Definitely not in Rome anymore. The sites in Palermo are limited. There are a few nice plazas, a Cathedral, an Old Royal Palace which is now a government building so you can't actually visit it, and the Catacombs, which we were saving for another day. After walking around for a couple hours, we had seen pretty much everything that had been circled on the map. At this point, we were a little worried with what we were going to do for the next couple days, since the weather was not right for lounging on the beach. We went on a ridiculous trek to find an actual supermarket. There were "markets" in the city, as in conglomerations of street carts, but we were looking for sandwich food and us Americans are not equipped to deal with street vendors. We need supermarkets, which there are not very many of in Palermo. We finally found one and got all the lunch stuff and snackagge we would need. It didn't take us long to figure out that people were going to be rude to us pretty much everywhere we went. It was frustrating. I mean I understand that it's obnoxious when we don't speak the language, but we at least tried and I mean COME ON SOUTHERN ITALY. Your economy is in the toilet, the least you could do is show a little respect to some tourists who are spending their money there. I will never understand the perception that Americans are rude, when I try so hard to be polite and most people in Europe are just pushy and disrespectful. That's for another post though.

When we got back to the hostel, it was bustling with people, which was a good sign. It was a good mix of Americans, Italians, Spaniards, and other Europeans. It was nice to know we weren't the only ones who had decided to come there. We even met two Americans who were also studying in Madrid and were from Boston. It's such a small world. They had spent the entirety of their break on Sicily. We also met a Danish girl, studying in Milan, who had also been there for the past 9 days. It was definitely encouraging. The hostel ordered pizza for everyone who wanted, and we all sat down and ate together. We met 2 guys who had just finished medical school, and had spent the last week biking from Rome to Sicily. CRAZY. They had great stories. There were also some Spanish girls, so Kelly and I did a good deal of translating, although everyone spoke English pretty well. Everyone was really interesting to talk to, and it seemed that we had a good group of people at the hostel. After we finished the pizza, the Sangria Party started. I don't know if we should be proud of this or not, but America is definitely the King of card games (both drinking and non-drinking). We taught them a variety of games and had a really great time hanging out with everyone. At midnight, the hostel had to remain quiet, as to respect the people who wanted to sleep and the neighbors, so some of us went out to check out the Palermo nightlife, which is actually quite extensive. The people who had been there for the whole week knew exactly where to go, and we had a really great time.

The next morning, waking up early was not an easy task, but we had already decided to hit the Catacombs in the morning so that we could daytrip to Cefalu in the afternoon. The Catacombs were actually quite impressive. They stopped burials there in 1920, but everything was very well preserved, and in all honesty, it put the Paris catacombs to shame, in my opinion at least. Granted, it was creepy, as Catacombs inherently are. We only spent about an hour there, then we headed back to the hostel to grab our lunches and head to the train station.

Cefalu is supposed to be one of the most beautiful villages in Italy and it was only an hour away by train. We wanted to take the 1:08 train, but after some confusion at the ticket counter, we sadly missed it by mere seconds, watching it pull away. There was an hour before the next one, so we did what any respectable American would: go for ice cream. There was a place recommended by the hostel that was near the train station, and they told us to get it in the brioche and ask for fresh cream on top. This place was AMAZING. It had over 79 flavors to choose from. This situation is literally where the expression "like a kid in a candy shop" came from. I think we spent a solid 15 minutes just trying to choose flavors. I finally decided on Cappucino, Kinder Cake (kinder is a really popular Spanish candy bar), and Bacio (a combination of Chocolate and Hazelnut). They put these 3 enormous scoops into a Brioche (a rich French bread) and topped it off with fresh whipped cream. The kicker: it was only 1.70. Definitely not in Rome anymore. I paid 2 euro in Rome just for one scoop. I know that I'm talking about this more than I should, but it was simply amazing. Bread and ice cream may not sound like the best combination, but IT IS! I was almost happy that we missed the train, otherwise we may not have gone!

Full and happy, we got on the 2:08 train to Cefalu and both passed out from exhaustion/sugar overload until we arrived. The little beach side town was quite beautiful, and only could've been better if the weather were nicer. We were both so exhuasted from the night before, that we pretty much immediately headed down to the beach and just laid in the sand for a few hours, fully clothed. There were actually people in their swimsuits. Crazies. There is a small mountain overlooking the city, which a lot of tourists climb to get a nice view, but that was just not happening that day, so after wandering around a little more and seeing the Cathedral, we decided to catch the 6:20 bus back to Palermo. Upon arriving at the hostel, we were immediatley goaded by our companions to go out again. NO THANK YOU! I never wanted to see Sangria again. We were both still pretty full from the Gelato (yes, 7 hours later), but we went just to grab a slice of pizza and then headed to bed nice and early.

The next day, we wanted to do another day trip. Originally, we head really wanted to go to the Zingaro Nature Preserve, which is 7 kilometers of unspoiled coast line about 70 km from Palermo which sounded absolutely amazing. After being in cities for so long, I really would've loved to get into nature a little bit. However, we soon discovered that the Preserve was really difficult to reach in the non-summer months, since there aren't a lot of tourists. We could've done it, but it would've taken a long time and probably been really confusing. Plus it would've been expensive, so we sadly decided against it (Note to self: When I'm rich, I will go to Sicily, rent a car, and go to Zingaro). Instead, we decided to take the bus to the popular town of Agrigento, which is on the Southern coast of Sicily. It is famous for being home to the ruins of some Greek Temples.

YAY more ruins!!!

Yes it's true, we were a bit ruined out, but since we were there, we figured we should go. You're only in Sicily once, right? We researched it and everyone said that it was a must-see when on Sicily, and that it's the best way to see Greece without actually going to Greece. The bus ride took us across the island (since Palermo's on the Northern coast) and the Sicilian countryside was breathtaking. Upon arriving in Agrigento, we caught another bus to take us to the Valley of the Temples.

In all honestly, the Temples were quite spectacular. They're very well preserved, and even though it's called the Valley of the Temples, they are actually elevated above everything else so you get some great views. There were substantial remains for 4 temples: Concorida, Juno, Herakles, and Castor and Pollux. We probably didn't enjoy it as much as we should've since the entry fee was a stifling 11 euros. But we had fun and it was nice to see another town on the island. After spending a few hours there, we headed back to Palermo and got in around 6:30. We had big plans for our last night which involved basically nothing but eating.

The day before, our hostel manager, who was just wonderful, gave us a list of foods we had to try before leaving Sicily. This seemed important (obviously, I am a Cole, after all), and I wanted to get as many as possible. One of these was a 7 layer chocolate cake, and another was an Arancini. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but an Arancini was described as being a ball of rice and meat, deep fried. Sounds excellent, if you ask me. So, with the knowledge that we were going to eat all of that later that night, we stopped a the gelato place again. Best decision ever. Seriously, it was so good, I couldn't not go back. Then we headed to the bakery, to pick up a couple slices of cake to save for later (at least we saved them for later). Despite our desire to eat ourselves into comas, go to bed early, and be rested for our flight the next day, we succumbed to peer pressure and decided to go out with the rest of the group.

We all went to the restaurant that the hostel guy recommended for Arancini, which we later found out is apparently run by the mafia. Well, if that's true, the mafia makes one mean Arancini. This thing was amazing. It literally was just a giant ball of rice, meat and cheese, covered in batter and fried. America couldn't have done it any better. I know that you are probably disgusted by my gluttony right now, but hey, WHEN IN ITALY. It's like our hostel manager told us: "When you come to Sicily, you gain 3 kilos." Oh well, the 10 pounds that I likely gained in the past week were totally worth it. Then we went out for a while, but came back much earlier than the other night because we had to fly the next day and flying after a night of partying cannot possibly be enjoyable. We enjoyed our cake before bed and it was delicious as well. There were a list of other foods and restaurants that we were recommended, but we were on a budget and only had so much time. I seriously had some of the best food I've ever had there though. I even had to get another Arancini in the airport the next day just because it was soooo good. Ugh. My diet starts tomorrow.

So that pretty much concludes the trip to Sicily. Our day of returning to Madrid was very long. We flew back to Rome, and then had a 5 hour layover before our flight to Madrid. This was made worse by the fact that crappy budget airlines don't check your bags or check you in all the way through, so we had to check in and do the whole security deal twice. Security in Europe is a joke though. In Rome, I went through and set the alarm off. He made me go again. I set it off again. He told me to just go. So safe. Also, as they checked in a colleague they were all laughing and making what I'm pretty sure were bomb jokes. I know I don't speak, Italian, but I'm really not sure what other context you can use "explosivo" in. I'm pretty sure if a TSA worker says "explosive" in any context, he gets fired and probably sent to Guantanamo (jokes, but you get my drift). I'm pretty used to airport layovers by this point though, so it wasn't too bad. The flight from Palermo was uncomfortably turbulent and so I was not doing very well. You'd think I'd be better at this whole flying thing by now, but it still horrifies me. After that experience, I decided to zonk myself out with a couple benadryl for the flight back to Madrid. We got in around 10:30, both exhausted, full and ready to be back in our own beds.

Overall, I'd say it was a very successful trip. Although Sicily wasn't what we expected, we had a really good time, met a lot of interesting people, and ate a lot of delicious food. Also, I'm really learning to enjoy the more "off the beaten path" kind of traveling. It's interesting to see and do things that not everybody has done and that you haven't been seeing pictures of for your entire life.

Only one trip is left for the rest of the semester - Barcelona, this coming weekend, so I'll write about that aftewards. More updates on Madrid to come soon as well. Here are some pictures, but you know the drill:

Palermo!


Cathedral


Most amazing thing ever

Seriously


Cefalu!


Beach - try to imagine it without the haze


La Roca. Which we didn't climb. That probably would've resulted in us dying.


Cefalu Cathedral


Agrigento!


Temple of Herakles


I'm so cool.


Temple of Juno


View from the Temples


The Sicilian countryside is gorgeous


Weeee!


ARANCINI!


Nam nam nam!

Semana Santa Part 1: Rome - Ruins, Statues, Overpriced Gelato and More

This is going to be a long one. The last week has been filled with more ruins, statues, trivia on ancient Rome, pizza and gelato than anyone probably needs in a lifetime. That's why I decided to split it into 2 blogs - one about Rome and one about Sicily. I just got back last night, but I wanted to write it now while it's still all fresh in my mind.

I think it goes without saying that I had been looking forward to this break for a long time. Living the cushy lifestyle of a college student means that going from January to April with no break seems like an eternity. All my friends in Boston had their spring break a month ago, and they're finished with classes in 2-3 weeks, while I still have another 6 weeks here. The break from classes was much needed, but it feels a little surreal now that it's actually over. Fortunately, now I am refreshed and ready to get back to life in Madrid. This break was also kind of strange in that it was certainly not a typical Spring Break. Last year, I spent a week in Florida with my two best friends, and most of my friends this year traveled to some beach-like location to spend a week of doing nothing but sitting in the sand and sleeping until noon everyday. My break was busy, somewhat hectic, and I don't think I slept past 8 more than once. Hm.

Ok so, with that preface, my break started last Friday when I flew to Rome. My friend Kelly had the week before off as well so she was already in Venice and took a train down to meet me. I got into the Rome Fiumicino Airport around 7 and promptly realized that the Rome Fiumicino airport is actually really freaking far from Rome. I begrudgingly paid 8 dollars to take a bus into the city center (the cheapest option) and grumbled about how a city with a metro should ALWAYS have the metro attached to the airport. I had brought a sufficient amount of cash with me and I was DETERMINED to not spend anymore than what I had brought, so this first blow was not very promising. This was the first of many instances which would further solidify my conviction that Rome is one giant tourist trap. So after the hour bus ride to Termini train station, I attempted to get to my hostel. The directions the hostel gave from the train station said that there was some kind of trolley. I found no signage for said trolley, nor did I see a trolley, nor is the train station equipped with any kind of tourist information counter. Kind of a paradox- despite being a tourist trap, Rome is actually HORRIBLE with giving tourists any kind of guidance. I also knew that the hostel was easily accessible by metro, so I headed down, only to be accosted my some gypsies trying to get me to give them money for telling me that the line I needed was closed. Yep. Rome has 2 metro lines, and one of them closes at 9pm. Genius. One of the metro security guards told me that I could take the bus, but said that it didn't matter which direction I took it. WRONG. Neither of the buses he told me were going to the place I needed. Frustrations were mounting by this point. I knew that the hostel was supposed to be within walking distance of the train station, but walking alone, with all my luggage, in the dark, in a strange city where I don't speak the language didn't exactly sound like a genius idea. My desire for frugality is exceeded only by my desire to not be attacked in some creepy dark alleyway. So, I sucked it up and took a cab. I think that the taxi driver sensed my frustrations, so he was nice and didn't charge my all the weird extra fees they tack on to rob the tourists, and I ended up paying only 10 euro, instead of the 20 I was told it would be. That made up for the situation a little. I finally made it to the hostel around 10:30 and Kelly was there waiting for me. She had eaten on the train down from Venice but I was starving, so we were told by the hostel staff that we should be able to find something around the Coliseum. No big deal. Our hostel was in a great location - only about a 10 minute walk from there. So, my first night in Rome, I took a casual stroll by the amazing lit up Coliseum, which was pretty awesome. We shared a Margherita Pizza and each got some gelato (the first of many to come), and headed back to plan the days ahead and get some sleep.

So, for those of you who have been to Rome, you know that it's a behemoth of sites and attractions. Kelly and I both had it as one of our number one destinations to visit, so we had agreed to only do 2 cities over Spring Break so that we could spend 4 days there. Other groups that we knew were going all out and doing 4 or 5 cities in the week off, which I'm really glad we didn't. Having a lot of time in Rome was great, and even with 4 days, planning our time was still an overwhelming task.

The first day, we wanted to hit the Coliseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill. Those are all right next to each other, centered around Constantine's arch, and all pretty time consuming so we thought it would be good to just knock them out all at once. Sadly, when we arrived at the Coliseum, we found a line which would have ended in us losing our entire day. So, we decided to go over to the Forum and Palatine first, where the line was much shorter. Once we reached the front of the line, we realized something amazing. It was culture week, meaning that all the national landmarks, museums, monuments etc. were FREE! YES!!!! It was over on Sunday, so we had 2 days to do as much as possible to save money. We were thrilled to skip the 12 euro fee to enter the Palatine and happy that for once we could get the audioguide, since we hadn't spent any money to get in. We spent 3 hours seeing all the ruins of the Forum and the Palatine and it was very interesting. Kelly is a huge Classics nerd so she was constantly rattling off facts about Roman emperors and society. The Forum also contains the alleged exact spot where Julius Caesar died, which is covered in flowers and postcards. Apparently people are still mourning his death. There also seems to be a current obsession with Nero, despite the fact that all he really did was go crazy and kill a bunch of people, including his own mother. Funny how those are the guys who get remembered.

After leaving the Forum, we went over to the Coliseum again and the line was MUCH shorter, but that was only because it was closing at 2 that day. Whoops. We were a little worried about having to do it another day, but that's the advantage of giving yourself enough time in one place. We scrapped plan A, and decided to move on to some stuff we had planned for the next day to make room for the Coliseum. We stopped for some lunch at a cart and paid an absurd 7 euros for a slice of pizza and a water bottle. Tourist trap. You should never have to pay 7 FREAKING EUROS for lunch from a cart That was the only time I paid for water the whole trip since after that I started carrying around my reusable, despite how ridiculous it makes me look. We walked past the Forum of Caesar, Augustus, Trajan and Nerva. All of these make sense except for Nerva because NOBODY has ever heard of him, including us. This was where our enormous list of things to google when we got back to the hostel began. These are all mostly just ruins, except for Trajan's column, which is very well preserved. Then we came across this enormous, white marble monument and neither of us had any idea what it was. We checked our map and saw that it is Vittorio Emanuelle II's monument. This didn't really help because we had no idea who he was - add it to the google list. We were now on one of the main drags of Rome, Plaza Cavour, and decided to head to the Trevi Fountain. It was a nightmare. I don't know if Rome was just so busy because it was the beginning of Holy Week, or because it was culture week, or just because it's always like that, but we had to fight our way to the front to get our tourist pics and make our wishes. We also then realized that neither of us really knew why the Trevi Fountain was famous - another thing to google. Next, we headed up to the Spanish steps, which you really couldn't' see because they were also covered in people. Check that off the list. Then we continued on the the Piazza de Popolo, which I still don't really know the significance of, but it was quite pretty and there was some kind of Jesus Superstar presentation going on, which was interesting. We sat for a while and contemplated the fountain, statues and obelisk, and then both realized that we were dying for a mid-afternoon coffee. The curse of being accustomed to the Spanish lifestyle. So we went on a hunt for reasonably priced coffee - not an easy task. We managed to find a little shop on a side street and paid only 1.50 - still not cheap, but better than the 4 euro most places were asking for. Ridiculous. After this we headed south again toward the Ara Pacis - yay for culture week and getting in for free. The Ara Pacis (Altar of Augustan Peace) was commissioned by the Roman Senate in 13 BC after Augustus' return from conquering Hispania and Gaul (present day Spain and France), as this was the beginning of Pax Augusta. It's covered in various friezes depicting Augustus's family and the power of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. This was a piece that I studied extensively in Art History, so it was really cool to see it in real life. After this, we were wandering and we ran into Kelly's friend from Venice and her boyfriend, who was visiting for break. She and Kelly had ridden the train down together and we were supposed to be meeting them for dinner later that night. We agreed to meet in one hour, so Kelly and I ran over to the Pantheon to squeeze in one more thing for the day. Pantheon actually means "to all Gods" and was commissioned in 126 by Emperor Hadrian as a temple to all the Gods of ancient Rome. It has since been converted into a Catholic Church. It was quite impressive, but I wish we had gone when it was lighter out to get the whole dome effect.

After we were satisfied with our pictures, we headed back to Cavour to find Scholar's, the place we were meeting Emily and Jason. Emily knew of Scholar's because her sister studied in Rome a few years ago and it was her favorite place. That being said, it's an Irish Pub. So very Italian of us. But the food was good and the atmosphere was nice. All the waiter's spoke English, which is usually a plus. After eating, we left to get some gelato near the Pantheon, and Emily and Jason decided to turn in for the night. Kelly and I were torn between our desire to go out, and the knowledge that we had to get up early the next day to beat the lines at the Coliseum. The college students in us won that battle and we headed back to Scholar's, where the Real Madrid and Barcelona game was on, so it was a zoo. It was a lot of fun though and we ended up meeting a bunch of not only Spanish people, but people from all over who had congregated to watch the game. Yay for not paying for a single drink all night. We ended up not going home until around 2, but meeting people from different countries is one of the best parts of traveling, so I'd say the next day's exhaustion was worth it.

The Coliseum opens at 8:30, so our goal was to get up at 7:30 and be there a little before it opened and hopefully avoid an enormous line. Given our decisions the night before, it's not hard to guess that, that didn't actually happen. We woke up at 8:30, which was still pretty impressive, got to the Coliseum a little after 9, only to find another enormous line. Oh the curses of culture week. Fortunately for us, we found a loophole. The tickets we had bought at the Forum the day before, we also valid for entry to the Coliseum. We showed the guards that we already had the tickets and the let us surpass the line and go right in. SCORE! From then on, we told everyone we met to go the Forum first, because it seriously saves your entire day. After getting inside the Coliseum, we got an audioguide and began the tour. It actually took us a lot less time than I had expected. Of course, it is impressive and awe-inspiring, but there's not really much to do other than walk around and get a good look at it. We spent about an hour and half inside before we felt we had had our fill.

After this, we walked over the the National Museum. This is filled with artifacts, mostly from ancient Rome, ranging from Roman coins, to sarcophagi, to some of the most famous ancient Roman statues, including the Seated Boxer, the Via Labicana Statue of Augustus and the Discobolus. Once again, these were a lot of things I had studied in art history, so it was great to seem them. The coin exhibits were also really interesting. The Romans were really into their propaganda. The sarcophagi are always impressive as well. You can only look at statues for so long though. Eventually, we ended up imitating all the statues we saw and taking pictures of said imitations. Go America. We spent about 2 hours here, until we were ready for lunch.

We managed to find a restaurant that didn't charge you for seating, which seemed like a miracle, so we ate and ended up spending around 10 euro each, including dessert. Then, we went on a little excursion to a small church called Santa Maria della Vittora, which I wanted to visit because it houses the famous statue "The Ectasy of Saint Teresa." For those of you who don't know the story behind this, it's sort of awkward to explain, so I'll let you go to google for that one. Just know that it's a High Roman Baroque, done by Bernini, so it's legit and that's why I wanted to see it. After that little excursion, we went to the nearby baths of Diocletian, which are basically just ruins at this point. Back in the day (306 AD), they were the most extravagant public baths ever, with an area of 120,000 square meters and the capacity to hold about 3,000 people. Sounds super hygienic. After Rome collapsed everyone started bulding through them and in 1562, Pope Pius IV decided to build a Basilica right on top of them. Great plan. We still spent a lot of time there, looking at the ruins and reading about the history, plus there's a museum attached which houses a bunch of old artifacts. We also found a coffee machine with 35 cent cappuccino and we stayed long enough just so we could have 2.

By the time we left the Baths, the day was pretty much over and we were losing daylight. We started heading back to the hostel and stopped at a little cheapy looking restaurant for some dinner, which we fortunately only spent 7 euros on. By the time we got back to the hostel, we were wiped so we headed to bed pretty much immediately.

Day 3 (yes, we're only on day 3) was another big one - the Vatican. We decided to let ourselves sleep in and take a little piece of advice from our favorite travel writer Rick Steves, who said that if you go around noon, the lines will have died down. Spoiler alert: he was wrong. We woke up around 9:30, had our free hostel breakfast, and decided to run to the store. After spending way too much money on food, we wanted to go buy some sandwich supplies for our lunches for the next 2 days. 9 euro for everything we needed including fruit and cookies. Win. During breakfast, we had been chatting with an American girl who had just arrived at the hostel. She was studying in Chester, England, but on 3 week break for their reading period. She was in Rome for 3 days and traveling by herself, so we invited her to join us.

Upon arriving at the Vatican, we sadly discovered that Rick Steves was wrong. The line for the Vatican Museum was a monstrosity, so we headed over to St. Peter's first. I'm not sure how to describe St. Peter's to you, other than to say that it was as incredible as it's made out to be. From the outside in St. Peter's Square, you don't recognize it right away because the dome is sort of hidden in the background. They were also preparing for Easter so the plaza was a zoo, with rows of chairs all lined up. The inside is absolutely breathtaking though and the dome is even more massive then you would imagine. I wanted to see the Papal Tombs, but the line was really long and we knew we were going to have a long wait to get into the museum, so we skipped it. I guess that's the drawback of coming to Rome during Holy Week.

The line for the museum was still long, but we really didn't have a choice. We weren't going to come back the next day, and the Vatican was the only thing on the agenda for that day, so we waited. For 2 hours. They need those signs, like at Disneyland. It really wasn't too bad though. Since we had just met Michelle, we spent a lot of time getting to know each other and swapping stories about being a foreigner in Europe. Her impression of England was basically that a lot of the people were very closed off and hard to get to know. She had been to Cinque Terre before coming to Rome, so we talked about that since I was just there. Also, turns out she's going to be in Barcelona the same weekend that Kelly and I are going, so maybe we'll even see her again. Meeting people while traveling is always so interesting. We continued sharing our experiences, ate our sandwiches, and eventually made it to the front of the line.

The Vatican Museum, like the line to get into it, is a monster. I had no idea how much was in there. It houses everything from ancient Roman artifacts, to tapestries from the Middle Ages, to Renaissance masterpieces. Of course, the main reasons everyone goes are for the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Stanze. But the Vatican, in all its wisdom, put these at the very back, so you have to look at everything else before you get to them. It was extremely crowded, and not really that pleasant of an experience, but it was worth it to see some of the world's most prized works of art. Despite the fact that I have no creative or artistic ability, I still appreciate it and I love learning the history behind it all.

The Raphael Stanze was commissioned by Popo Julius II in 1508 for his private library in the Vatican Palace. Julius died in 1513, but the work was continued under the direction of the Medici Pope Leo X. The Stanze is a series of frescoes on the walls of 4 rooms. Many of them are tributes to Constantine, as he was the one who converted the Roman Empire to Christianity. These include the Baptism of Constantine, the Vision of the Cross and the Donation of Constantine. There are also many which depict bible stories. Arguably the most famous of the frescoes is the School of Athens, which is a tribute to the intellectual fervor of the Renaissance, and is supposed to portray the acquisition of truth through reason. It was supposed to go over the philosophy section of the Pope's library. This work includes portraits of Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid and Raphael himself, among other innovative thinkers. Ok, I will stop sounding like a text book now.

Next, we came to the Sistine Chapel. For those of you who haven't been there, pictures don't even do it justice. The sheer size of it, not to mention the detail of all the individual paintings, makes it seem impossible that it took Michelangelo a mere 4 years to complete. It was also commissioned by Julius II, and completed from 1508-1512. We sat for a while, just observing the frescoes, and ended up getting into some interesting conversations about what it all meant. One of the most famous paintings, The Creation of Adam, is thought by many historians to actually portray the human brain. If you look at the shape of the huddle in which God is flying, you can't really deny that it looks like a brain. Studies have shown that the different figures actually represent different parts of the brain as well. Interesting. Also, many historians believe that in another image, which portrays the Pope, a nearby baby is giving him the Medieval equivalent of the finger. Seeing as how Julius II was openly called "Papa Terrible," "the "Warrior Pope" and was generally disliked, maybe Michelangelo was just letting out some frustration. God only knows how many secret images are in there (hehe). It was pretty incredible though. After sitting for a while, we had to leave because the museum was closing.

After the Vatican, we walked across the Tiber River to Piazza Navona and sat for a little while. There are way too many plazas in Rome, Then, we wandered over to see some ruins that Kelly wanted to look at, Area Sacra di Torre Argentina, where 4 Roman temples and a theater used to stand. It is also currently a no-kill shelter for homeless cats. Adorable. By now, we were pretty hungry, so we walked over to Campo de Fiori, and popular bar/restaurant area, and stopped for some dinner. This was the only time we really ate a real restaurant. I had pasta with mushrooms and cream sauce - it was pretty good, but not worth the 11 euros I spent on it. Not really interested in spending another night out in Rome, we headed back to the hostel after dinner, stopping for some gelato along the way.

Ok. Last day in Rome. Since we felt that we had pretty much exhausted all of our Roman sites, we decided to take a little day trip up to Tivoli to see Hadrian's Villa and Michelle joined us again. The bus ride was only about an hour, and finding the Villa was somewhat challenging (once again, poor tourist infrastructure) BUT it was definitely worth it. It may have actually been my favorite part of Rome. It was constructed during Hadrian's reign, in the 2nd century AD as a getaway for the emperor. Although it is mostly ruins now, the unique thing about this site is that you actually get to walk around and interact with the ruins, rather than just seeing them from behind a gate. Many parts of it are still well preserved, like the baths, the theater and the water gardens. The complex is absolutely enormous and has beautiful views of Tivoli and the countryside surrounding the area. Although there was more in Rome that we could've done, I'm really glad we took that trip because the Villa was well worth it. We stopped for some gelato (again) on our way back to the bus, and headed back to the city. After getting back into Rome, we decided to run to the market and buy some pasta to cook - another good money saver. It was actually really delicious. Although our flight didn't leave until 12 the next day, getting to the airport is an ordeal, and you can never be too careful with the budget airlines, so we had to get up pretty early anyway. After an exhausting 4 days, we were looking forward to spending some time in the much less site-intensive Sicily.

So that pretty much concludes the Rome portion of the trip. Sorry it was so long haha. Rome is somewhere that I've always wanted to go, and I'm glad that I was able to have the experience. Now that I've done it though, I'm not sure if I would ever do it again. It's hectic, busy, crowded, expensive and pretty much a giant tourist trap. But there's so many amazing things to see, it's worth it to deal with all of that, but probably just once.

Note - Google Search Results:
Nerva: Nerva was emperor from 96-98, only 15 months, which is probably why nobody has heard of him. He was 65 when he became emperor, after a lifetime of service to Nero. Poor guy.

Vittorio Emmanuelle II: The King of Italy from 1861-1878, during the wars of Italian Unification. He is so important because he is regarded as the person who successfully united Sardinia, Savoy, Piedmont, and other feuding regions into one.

Trevi Fountain: The site of the fountain used to be the terminal point of the city's aqueduct and the actual fountain was constructed beginning in 1730 under the commission of Pope Clement XII. I guess it's just famous because it's awesome. An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day.

Yay for learning!

Here are some pictures, but check out facebook to see everything:

Coliseum


Woohoo!


Constantine's Arch


Chilling on Palatine Hill. Pretty sweet view.


The Forum


Yay tourist pics


Trajan's Forum and Column


Make a wish!


Spanish Steps


And I present...the Pantheon!


We finally made it inside!


:)


Seated Boxer


Museum Delirium is now setting in


Site of the Baths of Diocletian


St. Peter's Square


Sistine Chapel


Tiber River


Hadrian's Villa


Ruins ruins ruins


I'd live there

36 Hours in Cinque Terre, Italy

Well I guess it was actually more like 48 hours, but let me assure you I traveled very far for those 48 hours. Also, let me assure you, it was well worth it. When Katie found out that she was going to be in Milan for work this spring, we knew that we had to work out some kind of trip. After our adventure in Paris last year, how could we resist the opportunity for another European, sister getaway? So, after examining our options, we decided on the fabulously rugged and beautiful coastal region known as Cinque Terre (5 lands). This area is made up of 5 towns, Monterosso al Mar, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manorola and Riomaggiore in the Ligueria region of Italy on the Italian Riviera. It's famous for its natural beauty, gorgeous Mediterranean weather, and delicious food (it is the birthplace of pesto). Conveniently, there was a NYT article which we were able to model our trip after, and it was quite helpful:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/travel/05hours.html

Katie was already in Milan, so she only had a 3 hour train ride - my journey was much more taxing. I flew RyanAir for only 45 euros (for those of you not familiar, it's a horribly abysmal budget airline) and my flight left Madrid at 6:00 am. Since this was a Saturday morning flight, I made the excellent decision of just not sleeping since I eat out on Fridays and wasn't going to be home until after midnight anyway. Yay for going 36 hours without sleep. So after eating dinner and packing, I headed to the airport around 4 am. This is only the beginning of the journey. The catch to the 45 euros flight was that RyanAir doesn't actually fly to Milan Malapensa airport, it flies to Bergamo, a city about an hour outside of Milan. So I booked a 15 euro coach (still making the journey cheaper than it would've been on any other airline) and arrived in Milan's Central Station around 9:30 am. Katie showed up about an hour later, in typical Katie fashion, and I, in typical Allie fashion, had all of our tickets printed out and was ready to go. We grabbed some coffee and bought a few chocolates for the road and headed to our train!

Now, there's a small back story on the trains. I had quite the nightmare trying to book our train tickets. The website is just completely unnavigable and so confusing. I ended up just leaving it in Italian because I could make more sense of that than the awful English translations. After fighting with it for well over an hour, I finally got our trains booked into Riomaggiore, the town which we chose to stay in, but we had to change trains twice on the way there. I really enjoyed taking the train though, and the views through the countryside were amazing. We finally arrived at our hotel around 3 on Saturday. The hotel was adorable and had a little balcony overlooking the main street. After 11 hours in transit I was exhausted, but since we had limited time there, we had to get on the move immediately! We pretty much followed the NYT article word for word, with a few exceptions (at first we couldn't figure out the introductory hike that he suggested, so we saved that for the last day in place of paying 16 euros to sit in a pretty chair - no thank you).

Our first step was to explore the town a little and get a feel for things. We grabbed some crepes for a quick lunch and then headed up to the famous Lover's Walk, which connects Riomaggiore and the next village, Manarola. This path actually extends through all the 5 villages and is a fairly rigorous 5 hour hike, but the part which we did was tourist friendly and only took about half an hour. The views it boasts of the ocean are unbeatable. The weather was very nice - in the mid 60s and sunny. We then explored Manarola a little bit, which was remarkably similar to Riomaggiore. All the towns are somewhat alike and have a very antiquated feeling to them. They are not accessible by car and they're just so small and adorable that you feel like you've been transported back 200 years. After walking by a million delicious looking little stores filled with focaccia bread and pesto, we decided to stop for a while and have some wine to kill time before dinner (this trip was largely centered around eating). We shared a bottle of the unique Cinque Terre wine made with a blend of sweet white grapes (clearly, I am a wine expert now). We watched the sunset over the ocean and had really good catch-up sesh, since seeing each other at the wedding didn't really count because it was go-go-go wedding stuff the entire time!

When it was finally an acceptable time to eat dinner, we headed to the NYT restaurant suggestion Trattorio dal Billy. This restaurant was nestled up in the hills and had an amazing view! After convincing the waiters that we would eat quickly and be out of the way in time for the 9:00 reservation, they seated us. Here's where the fun begins. We started off with a Caprese salad and a new bottle of wine, this time red (don't worry, I'm still weirded out by the fact that I can legally order a drink too). Then we decided to just order a couple things and split them - we settled on the spaghetti with pesto and stuffed mussels. Both of these dishes were AMAZING. The pesto in Cinque Terre is to die for, as Ligueria is in fact the home of Pesto. The stuffed mussels were, however, my favorite food of the entire trip. At the time, I didn't even really know what I was eating, I just knew it was delicious. They're probably something similar to this or this, but in a really yummy tomato sauce. I'm determined to try and make them someday. So good. At this point, we were stuffed and our bill was rapidly growing - but who can say no to dessert (the amount of wine we had consumed by this point probably wasn't helping us make rational decisions, either)? I managed to talk Katie into the panna cotta, even though it doesn't explicitly have chocolate. However, by a twist of fate, it had a nice chocolate drizzle on it. Everybody wins! It was phenomenal. Then our waiter served us the traditional after dinner servings of limoncino, an Italian liqueur, along with glasses of some disgusting alcoholic concoction, which our water persistently insisted was Coca Cola Lite. Good one, garcon. We later discovered that it was probably either Grappa or Sciacchetra. Whatever it was, I don't reccomend it. Other than that, the meal was absolutely amazing. We almost wanted to go back there the 2nd night just because it was so delicious. Although we spent a lot of money on that meal, we definitely got some bang for our buck. After dinner, I was utterly exhausted, and we were both sufficiently wined- out, so we headed back to the room early and crashed (not like there's much nightlife in Cinque Terre anyway).

We woke up the next morning around 9 and made the observation of how nice it was that cars can't access the village so you only hear happy sounds in the morning. We were excited to head out for our first and only full day in the area! We stopped at the little restaurant outside our hotel for breakfast and had a delicious Cinque Terre omelet - pesto, basil and Parmesan cheese. Nom nom nom. Then we hopped on the regional train to the middle town, Corniglia. Here, the NYT article describes a path to a secret beach. After disembarking from the train, we avoided climbing the 300+ step staircase into the town, and instead searched for this secret path - it was not easy, and we're not really sure if we were successful. We walked along a coastal wall, which sported some beautiful views, and we walked by some cute little houses until we realized we were lost. We tried back the other direction, and found what it seemed the article was describing - and industrial tunnel with a metal gate - but unfortunately there was absolutely no way through this gate and the tunnel was visibly full of obstructions. Our thought was that maybe they closed it off since all the tourists started trying to come after reading that article - kudos to them. Either way, this trek defintiely wasn't a waste. There was a little staircase going straight down to the water and we sat for a little while on the very rocky beach (which could have been the secret beach - we'll probably never know). I'll take this opportunity to say that Cinque Terre isn't what you probably typically think of as coastal. Although all 5 villages have access to the water for swimming, Monterosso al Mar is the only one that has real beaches. The coast is very rocky and it's more of a hiker's paradise than a beach goer's. Either way, it wasn't very sunny yet and it was too cold to lay out at that point so not finding the secret beach was no big loss. I stuck my feet in and the water was quite cold, so we decided to move on to the next village for lunch.

Vernazza is probably one of the most popular villages in the area. It seemed a lot busier, and it has a little sandy patch of beach that plenty of people were laying out on. The restaurant NYT recommended was a little too pricey for us so we stopped in a little pizza joint and has some pesto pizza. Yum. We walked around the town a little and went into the Church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia, which was built starting in 1318 (gotta have a little history on all my trips). After this, we climbed up a pretty intense staircase to get a good view of the area, and then, fortunately, we could justify getting some gelato.

After I had procured my delicious gelato cone of dark chocolate, coffee, and stracciatella, tragedy struck. We wanted to find a good place on the rocks to relax for a while since the sun had come out, and as you can probably predict after reading the first 10 words of this sentence, rocks + water + ice cream cone = Allie falling. Yep. I did a total cartoon style slip, and slid on my butt into some mud. So sad. I almost managed to save the cone, but the slippery mud was not allowing it and my perfectly flavor balanced gelato became a casualty of this horrible incident. Perhaps the universe is trying to send me a sign that I should eat less ice cream. Hmm. Anyway, my dress was completely covered in mud and I had secured a cut on my foot that was bleeding (don't worry, the wound was shallow at best). Fortunately, we had optimistically worn our bathing suits that morning! Katie cleaned off my dress in a waterfall as I went down into the frigid water to try and get all the mud off of me. It really couldn't have worked out any better, given the circumstances. Katie even shared the rest of her ice cream cone with me! I'm sure all the other tourists enjoyed observing this comical scene. So, we were pretty much bound to sitting in the sun waiting for my dress to dry until we had to leave at 5:50 to catch the last ferry to Monterosso. We took in a little sun and I think I might have actually gotten some color! By 5:30, my dress was as good as new, and we hopped on the ferry.

The ferry ride was incredibly short, but it was awesome to see a view of the coast from the water. We arrived at Monterosso al Mar at around 6 and could easily tell that it was much more touristy than the other villages. Like I said, it's the only one with real beaches and it has a much more resort-like feel. We wandered around for a while (this vacation involved a lot of wandering), and stopped in a little beach-side restaurant for an appetizer and pre-dinner drink - mixed bruschetta and Orange Campino. We then checked out the NYT restaurant recommendation, which we again found it a little too pricey. It's up on a hill with awesome views so they seemed to jack up prices. Also, it was dark by this point and we were not dressed appropriately to be seated outside, aka FREEZING, so we went back to the main street to find somewhere a little more casual and preferably indoors. There were a million to choose from, so we settled on one with outdoor heat lamps. We had a very similar meal as the night before, this time with stuffed squid, anchovies and mussels. The stuffed mussels were very similar, and the menu described the stuffing as eggs, cheese and a variety of spices. The anchovies and squid were delicious as well. Then we had some gnocchi pesto. Delish. We wanted to keep this meal cheaper, so we stopped there. It was now around 9, and even though the NYT article claimed that there may be some nightlife in Monterosso since it's more populated, we were freezing and decided to head back to our hotel in Riomaggiore. We stopped at another little restaurant there for dessert and had some yummy almond cream pie. We headed to bed early because we wanted to make the most out of our last day.

We woke up around 8, packed all our stuff, and headed out. After becoming more familliar with the area, we decided to try and figure out the first thing the NYT suggested, which was what seemed to be a little walk up through the vineyard above Riomaggiore to some viewpoint that was supposed to be amazing. We decided to stop quickly for breakfast, even though we knew we'd be eating an early lunch before having to catch the train at 2. This was probably the best decision ever, otherwise we actually may have died later. It ended up not being that quick, thanks to the wonders of European customer service, but nourishment was essential, as we would later learn. So after eating, we began climbing up the streets of Riomaggiore in search of the trail head to Santuario della Madonna di Monternero, and we found it, complete with a map showing us where to go. How great. According to the article, it was about a 15 minute uphill trek, but the viewpoint was well worth the climb. Now, Katie and I are both in reasonably good shape and I think we were both anticipating a nice stroll through some vineyards. This is now how it went down. I don't know what this guy's perception of time is, or if he seriously thinks that that was something that normal American can do, but let me tell you, IT WAS NOT EASY. After about 20 minutes of hiking uphill and having some old Italian man have to direct us from making a wrong turn, we weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into. Although the path was gorgeous, it was rugged, confusing, and essentially straight uphill. We were both winded and sweating. We figured it couldn't be too much further though. Wrong. After about 30 minutes, we passed a main road, and realized that maybe this was his starting point, and it would only be another 15 minutes from there. Wrong. Eventually, we became convinced that we were going the wrong way. There wasn't another soul in site, and at one point arrows pointing in the opposite direction began to appear on the path. Oh dear. After an hour, we were both ready to throw in the towel, until another hiker passed us. Around the same time, we caught a glimpse through the trees of the potentially incredibly view and it rejuvenated us. After another 5 minutes, out of nowhere, like a gleaming beacon of hope, the church finally appeared! What we both though would be a nice stroll, turned into a hike in which we climbed 1100 feet in what would've been about 50 minutes had we not stopped in confusion so many times. Not too shabby. And the views were amazing. You could see the entire 11 mile coastline and each of the villages. I'd say it was well worth being covered in my own sweat for the 11 hour journey home I had ahead of me. Nice visual for you there.

Going down was a lot easier, and took us only about a half an hour. By then, we were starving again and went into a little pizza shop for lunch. I had Margharita pizza and a delicious piece of Pesto Focaccia bread. We also, of course, had to have some gelato before leaving Italy. And that's about it. We hopped on the train and headed back to Milan, from where I had to leave immediately to catch my flight from Bergamo. It was sad to say goodbye again, but I'm pretty sure she's coming to visit in Dublin, so it won't be too long until we are reunited and can have another great sister trip! I got back to Madrid around midnight and crashed as soon as I got home.

As you can probably tell, this vacation was another one which was very leisurely. There weren't a lot of "sights" so we were able to relax and take our time, but I still feel like I did a good job covering the area. You really can't beat the natural beauty and delicious cuisine of Cinque Terre. I would go back there in a heart beat. Katie and I both agreed it would be an excellent honeymoon spot. Also, if I were to go back, I'd want to partake in more outdoorsy activities - the hiking possibilities are endless and it would be incredible to sail there (cough cough, Daddy, cough cough). Anyways, if you like delicious Italian food and beautiful coastal views, then you should consider a trip to the 5 lands.

Check out and mine and Katie's albums on facebook for the full photo experience, but here are a few highlights:

Riomaggiore marina


Enjoying our lover's walk

Surprisingly, there are lots of cactus in Cinque Terre...hm


Sunset view of our restaurant in Manarola


Amazing panna cotta


Detour on secret beach search...would I even fit in this car?


Pesto pizza yuuuum


Vernazza!


Tragic

Happy after my dress had dried


Finally, we made it!


We were a little delirious by now...


Most amazing view ever