Ciao, everyone!
I feel like we’ve been Italy for a really long time and I don’t even mind. The past two days in Rome have been pretty amazing. Yesterday I ended up splitting from the group and roaming Rome (teehee!) solo. I was able to find a post office and send out some postcards I’ve been accumulating. Then I got completely and utterly lost trying to find the Colosseum. I later learned that at the time I gave up looking for it, I was right down the street from it haha. It was honestly kind of frustrating because as much as I can appreciate getting lost and exploring the streets, I only had a limited amount of time in Rome so I really wanted to hit the city’s highlights. I walked around for a couple of hours just taking whatever turns I felt like. Rome is the kind of city where once you find a busy street, you can easily find at least 3 landmarks in the area. I loved that because even though I didn’t make it to the Vatican, at least I got to check out the Temple of the Unknown soldier, which was still pretty awesome. There is so much beautiful architecture in the city, and as Christian pointed out, there doesn’t seem to be one ugly building in Rome. They’re all beautiful, especially the churches. Buildings are decorated with sculptures so beautiful, they could stand alone as individual works of art. It really was incredible to see. So over the course of this trip, I’ve done my best to keep an open mind and just see places. Without my opinions tainting the big picture, I want to know what places are like. Before I came here, I barely had any interest in Germany and really only went because so many people have told me how nice it is. My two key countries that I needed to see we’re Italy and Spain. Having seen some of Germany and some of Italy, I’ve realized at I genuinely prefer Italy over Germany and although I plan to travel plenty more in the future, I have no plans to return there. Even though I liked Munich, it doesn’t hold a candle to either Italian city I’ve visited. Italy just has a charm, it’s got so much versatility, the rhythm of the language, the energy of the people it just makes this place everything I’d hoped for. Last night, we all wrapped up our time in Rome by watching the sunset on Gianicolo hill and afterword had dinner in Trastevere, a gorgeous little neighborhood that Jasmine recommended. By the way, thank you Jasmine for all of your awesome recommendations. I made it to the cappuccino place and it really was the best cappuccino I’ve ever had! After stopping at the hostel for a little while, we went to a nearby restaurant and used their wifi and split a bottle of wine. It was a pretty good night I must say!
Today, me and Rusti Anne traveled to Florence (Firenze in Italian) while Christian stayed behind in Rome to hear the Pope speak for mass. The train ride was about 3-4 hours long which was nice because the day before was very hectic and we stayed up pretty late the night before. So naturally, I slept on the train, which was MUCH quieter and more empty than the night train we took a few nights ago. I usually forget bad experiences by the way, but that night train to Rome still exists in my memory as a horrible nightmare brought to life.
Upon arriving to Florence, me and Rusti Anne found the bus station and bought the tickets we needed to get to the campsite. It is HOT here during the day and I was not at all prepared for the heat. To make things worse, there was no air conditioning in neither the train station nor the cafe we squatted in for a couple if hours while waiting for our bus. I tried a dessert called meringhue, which is an egg and sugary swirly pile that looked good but ended up being disgusting. Blehh it was gross. Anyway, once we finally made it onto the bus, we were both incredibly hot and ready for air conditioning. The bus had air vents, which was nice.. but between the winding roads, the driver’s crazy driving, and the still heat in the bus, I was almost positive I was going to barf. So we arrived to the campsite after a 40min bus ride up a beautiful mountainside (which I would have noticed more of had I not had my head down trying to keep it together). So we stayed at a campsite in Venice that was about a 20min commute outside of the city. This place is a but further and on top of that, has a lot of poor qualities.
– I had to kill about 5 mosquitoes in our room to make it liveable
-wifi costs 3 euros to use for one hour. ONE HOUR. No.
-me and RA were both desperate to do laundry, so we ended up spending the 4 euros each to run loads in the washer. This is expensive.
-because of the expense of laundry, we have our clothes hanging on chairs and beds around the room to dry. At the rate the clothes are currently drying, I’ll be wearing a wet outfit tomorrow.
-there is a nice pool here! There’s also a law that requires that you wear a swim cap. Cool. I’m not buying one.
Basically, this place is awful but all I really need to do here is sleep so I shouldn’t complain. Christian and another girl from our study abroad program, Jodie, caught a train together out of Rome and met us here at the camp site ( by the way, this isn’t a tent, it feels more like a large utility closet that they put bunk beds and lockers in. There is a girl around our age and a fairly old couple sharing our room with us. 2 people are snoring right now and I have no clue who it is lol)
So after Jodie and Christian got here, we all went upstairs and shared a couple of bottles of wine at the restaurant/ bar. We talked to the bartender and since no one was coming in, he came and joined us at our table. He was a very nice guy and refused to give us tourist advice because he said we need to learn about Florence on our own and basically see it in our own light. Tomorrow, me and Christian are going to go to Cinque Terra, a small and beautiful town on the coast while Jodie and Rusti Anne explore the city of Florence. I’m really looking forward to Cinque Terra and will take an obscene amount of pictures. Welp, I need sleep! Goodnight! I will post this as soon as I next have Internet access. (Written Sunday night)