Last week was our winter break and I spent the week in Italy with my friends! It was absolutely amazing!!!!
Traveling is always kind of a hassle over here because to get anywhere we have to take the 2 hour train from Nantes to Paris and then take a bus from the train station to the airport just to be able to fly to wherever we’re going. While I was waiting in the airport in Paris, I found out from Ellis and Martha that I was flying into the Rome airport that was about 45 minutes outside the city, not the one close to city. Thank heavens for blackberries though because I was able to find out about the bus that takes you into the city. I boarded the plane and knew it was going to be the longest plane ride of my life--I cannot explain how excited I was to not only be going to Italy but to spend the week with friends. I hadn’t seen Martha and Ellis since the beginning of January and was truly ecstatic to see them! The Rome airport that I landed in was one long runway and a two room building (it made Columbia airport look HUGE…) and then I took the train into the city. I wish I could explain how excited I was—my hands were literally shaking! I was one of the first ones off the bus and as I got off Martha and Ellis turned the corner. We literally started freaking out!! There were all these homeless people around us sleeping and after we did our best to calm down and wipe away our tears of joy (yeah we actually cried we were so happy,) we realized we had woken them all up and they were sitting up and staring at us. To say the least, we didn’t care. Being the great friends they are, they welcomed me to Rome with two tall-boy Heineken beers—it was amazing! There we were in Rome, just drinking beer. I don’t think we stopped smiling once that night!
We went back to their apartment to cook dinner. Luckily they have a futon in their apartment and I was able to stay on it for the weekend. It was so great because we were all right there together. That night we cooked the BEST meal—garlic chicken, pesto pasta, spinach, and of course some wine. I didn’t get in until later and we were so happy to just be together that we completely lost track of time and just stayed in that night.
We started our day off Saturday with possibly the best pizza I have ever had in my entire life. It was from a restaurant called Dar Poeta and had marinara sauce, garlic, basil, oregano, and olive old. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! After that we walked down the Tiber River past the Castle St. Angelo to the Vatican. It is so hard to describe all of these incredible monuments, but to say the least it took my breath away. We decided not to go in because we knew we would be back the next weekend with all of our friends. After the Vatican we walked to the Spanish steps and the Trevi Fountain. We bought some gelato and just sat at the Trevi Fountain for a while and throw every coin we had in our wallets into the fountain (gotta wish for love...) It was so incredible and so great being there with such good friends. When we went to leave we noticed a woman selling artwork. As we were looking through it Ellis and Martha realized it was drawings of their neighborhood, Trastevere. We all ended up buying one because they were absolutely beautiful. The woman was so great and signed and stamped each of our paintings. We can’t wait to hang them in our apartments next year at Wofford!!
After the Trevi Fountain we walked over to the Piazzo Novona. It was so beautiful and we loved looking at all the artists. Thankfully we all liked the paintings we had just bought better! We headed back to their apartment to freshen up for dinner. After having some wine and hors d’ouevurs of bread dipped in olive oil (yum) we went and ate dinner at this incredible pasta restaurant. My pasta had garlic, hot peppers, and olive oil on it. After dinner we grabbed some wine and took it to drink at the Trevi Fountain. It was gorgeous at night and we had the best time sitting there together!
Sunday we went and grabbed some pizza from a restaurant near their house. We headed back to their house to try to figure out directions to the Fountain of Truth. But it was raining and we were having so much fun just being together that time kind of slipped away from us and before we knew it, it was late afternoon. We decided to cook again at their apartment and then went out and grabbed some gelato.
Martha and Ellis had class Monday morning, so I just slept in and then enjoyed showering and getting ready peacefully and without a host family around. It was SO relaxing! After their classes, we met back at Dar Poeta for that delicious Marinara pizza before going to meet Claire at the train station. We took the bus to the train station and little did we know it was going to be the ride of our lives…
I had packed for the entire in ONE book bag, I’m not even joking. Ten days, one book bag. To say the least it was stuffed to the brim and stuck out so far off my back. When we got on the bus it was so crowded that a woman’s face was literally smashed against the window…like cheek against the window and smashed—she couldn’t move. So we of course thought it was absolutely hilarious. Then the bus started and it was literally like a roller coaster. We were falling all over the place because we couldn’t hold onto anything because the bus was so full we were just in the middle of a crowd of people. At one point, when the bus turned, my book bag took out a Nun (oops) while my face landed directly on the stomach of some random man. Some man kept trying to feel Ellis’ butt, and Martha was pressed up against the nun for part of the time, and the other part of the time to the woman smashed against the window. To say the least, we were literally dying of laughter when we finally got off that bus.
We met Claire in the train station so she and I could go to Florence for a few days to visit Virginia who is studying there for the semester. We bought a ticket and realized we had 10 minutes to get to the very last platform of the train station. After literally sprinting there, we sat down in what we thought were our seats, and realized it was the wrong train. We jumped off the train and started running back to the other side of the station by jumping the tracks. We think that may have been illegal but we had to catch that train. Welp, we missed the train. So after buying another ticket we were finally on our way to Florence. Traveling is a lot harder than it seems.
Our first night in Florence we went to a delicious pasta restaurant called ZaZa’s. I had the BEST pesto pasta. Virginia has a huge group of friends in Florence who all came to dinner too. It was so much fun meeting them and they were so nice. After dinner we went to a couple of bars. We were about to call it a night when we decided to go for this “secret bakery” in Florence. Apparently this bakery bakes between 2-5am for a bunch of the bakeries in town. After walking around for a while we thought we had found it—it was on a side street and was just a big metal door. We stood outside for a while and took turns knocking. We had kinda given up hope when all of a sudden this man poked his head out the door. He asked us how many treats we wanted and then shut the door. The next thing we knew, he was opening the door again sliding us all out the most delicious chocolate croissants. They were so warm, and sugary, and just incredible. We felt like the luckiest people in the world. It was like the Wizard had come out in the Wizard of Oz—amazing!
Tuesday morning Virginia had class, but she told Claire and me about a restaurant called “The Diner” that had all this American breakfast food and played old American music. It was so amazing to have an American meal!! Claire and I both got omelets and the diet cokes we ordered even had two cubes of ice in the glasses! After lunch, Claire and I went to see the Duamo, the huge church in the middle of town. It was absolutely breathtaking! The Italian churches are so neat because they were built using marble of different colors. So it looks like it is painted, but when you get close you realize that it isn’t painted, it’s different kinds of marble. After the Duamo, we grabbed a quick class of wine to wait on Virginia to finish her classes for the day.
After we met up with Virginia, the three of us went to the Accademia Museum to see the David. I can’t even put into words how neat the David was. First of all, it is massive! But the detailing of the carving makes it look so real. We could have stared at it for hours. When we left the museum we went to the Ponte Vecchio. This is the bridge full of jewelry stores. The jewelry was all so pretty and we spent so much time just fantasizing about all the beautiful jewelry we were looking at. That night we went to an Italian restaurant that specialized in meats. I wasn’t super hungry so I ended up having this amazing tomato soup. I know it sounds normal, but it was truly so good! Claire and Virginia both got these gigantic steaks. After dinner we went to a famous gelato shop where we had possibly some of the best gelato in the world!
The next day we woke up, grabbed a quick croissant, and did a little shopping around some of the cute boutiques in Florence. After walking around for a little bit we decided to go walk up the Piazzo Michaelangelo, a park at the top of a hill where you can overlook the entire city. The hike was a little steep, but the view from the top was definitely worth it. You could see the whole city of Florence, the mountains surrounding it, and some of the country side around the city. It was breathtaking. We ate lunch afterwards at Gusto Pizza, a delicious family-owned pizza restaurant. They had marina pizza there too—it was so good!! After lunch we went to the Farragamo Shoe Museum. I know it sounds so girly and dumb, but we all really loved it! It was so neat to see the history behind the Ferragamo family and to see the history of all their shoes. They had so many shoes that had been made especially for some many neat celebrities. After spending a few hours in there we were all tempted to buy a pair, but to say the least they were a little out of our price range. Afterwards, we walked over the leather market. It’s a street with a bunch of leather vendors, but it was so nice walking through because the vendors were not pushy at all for you to buy something! Even when you stopped to look at something at their place they didn’t push you to buy it. Claire bought a leather across the body pocketbook, and I bought a leather clutch. We went to dinner that night with some of Virginia’s friends to a pasta restaurant where we ordered this incredible bruschetta appetizer and then split 3 different kinds of pasta. They were all so good!
Thursday, before we took the train back to Rome, we ate lunch at the Oil Shoppe, a hole in the wall restaurant where I had possibly the best sandwich of my entire life. It was on ciabatta bread, and had turkey, lettuce, sundried tomato, pesto, and olive oil. It was delicious.
We took the train back to Rome to meet Martha and Ellis, and then Sara and Charlotte also came for the weekend. We were so lucky because there was a really cheap hotel right under Ellis and Martha’s apartment, so we all stayed there for the weekend. Once again, we were all so happy to just be together that we just stayed in and cooked at their apartment Thursday night. Friday, Ellis and Martha had class, so we explored Rome by ourselves. We went to Piazzo Novona and the Pantheon before eating lunch at a pizza place. Charlotte flew in Friday afternoon so we went and met her before meeting Ellis and Martha after class. That night we went to a great pasta place. Our friends Ruthie and Marion who are also studying in Rome met us there for dinner. It was so great to see them!
Saturday we went back to Dar Poeta for the good marina pizza! We went to Colosseum after lunch. It was so amazing. While we were there we probably laughed harder than we have in a long time. It started when we asked one person to take our picture, and they didn’t even have the colosseum in the background. Then we asked this French woman and she ended up taking a video of us. Then while were laughing at them these Asians came up and asked Martha if they could take her picture (because of her super blond hair.) Then we thought we saw our Asian friends again and Ellis asked them to take our picture, but it wasn’t the same Asians. I can’t really describe how funny it was but we were all crying we were laughing so hard. I’m sure everyone in the Colosseum knew there was a group of American girls in it that day. After the Colosseum we went to the Trevi Fountain and the Vatican. The inside of the Vatican was truly the most incredible thing I think I have seen—it was gorgeous. We were also lucky because there was a service at 4:30 so we got to see the priests walking out. That night we cooked dinner again at Martha and Ellis’ apartment. Then we went to the chocolate bar to take these amazing chocolate shots. They make a shot glass out of chocolate, and then put whatever kind of liquor you want inside, and whip cream on the top. You take it by putting the entire thing in your mouth. It was SO good. After that we grabbed some bottles of wine and went to sit by the Trevi Fountain.
Leaving Rome on Sunday was really hard. It was truly such an amazing week and so incredible to spend it with such good friends!
