Hooray! Family/Spring Break week was absolutely fantastic. Not only did I get free meals and a few prizes, but I spent the week with my awesome mamma, sister, aunt, and cousin showing them around the beautiful city of Rome and a short trip to Venice. Here's how it went...
Saturday I had gotten up early to do some dishes and clean a bit before my family got here. All of a sudden, we heard our doorbell ring, and since we weren't expecting anyone at all at to come to our apartment that day we ignored it. Then, we heard someone banging on our door, so I figured I should check it out. I opened the door and there was my mom! It turned out they didn't have the address to their hotel, but they had my address so they had the taxi drop them off here! After we reunited and I changed out of my pajamas, we went to the hotel to drop off their stuff. Then we did a nice walk around St. Peter's Square, up to the Castel Sant'Angelo, walking, talking, laughing, and window shopping a bit. After a while, we got tired so we all took close to a 3 hour nap, then freshened up. We walked then to Piazza del Popolo (the People's Square), then to the Spanish Steps, around to the Trevi Fountain, and found a very cute restaurant with a view of the fountain down the street. We had delicious food, great wine, and talked all while eating our yummy yummy food. They all were happy with the great Italian food they ate. We got gelato to end the great night and slept well.
Mama, Emily and Kathleen wishing on the Trevi.
The plan for Sunday was to to to mass in St. Peter's at 10:30am, but there was no way to cross the street to even get to the square because there was a marathon taking place! So many runners were whizzing by past the Vatican, with just as many people cheering on the sidelines. It was unfortunate that we missed mass in the morning, but cool to see the runners throughout the entire city during the day. So, we went for breakfast, and walked to Piazza del Popolo, and saw the marathon there as well as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Winnie the Pooh! It was almost as if we were in Disney again! We took the trek up to Villa Borghese park, which overlooks Piazza del Popolo and almost all of Rome. Our main objective was to get to the actual villa to see the art exhibit, but we took our time meandering through the beautiful, lively park. There were people riding bikes, children playing in the grass, guitar players, and couples having picnics throughout the park. By the time we got there, the ticket person told us we couldn't get in, and had to pre-pay for tickets Wednesday (that was the second strike-out for the day). We walked through and found our way out of the park, walked to the Metro and made it to mass at the Vatican at 5:30pm.
Racing around the Vatican.
Mass was a very interesting experience (good-interesting). Were we sat was cool enough, right next to and almost underneath Bernini's Canopy. It seemed like a very long mass, especially because it was all in Italian, but it was fantastic to sit there, in St. Peter's, with so many different people, speaking many languages, from different backgrounds. There was also beautiful music sung by a group of young singers, making the place full of beautiful music.
After mass, we took the metro to the Re di Roma stop, and found a quaint little family-owned restaurant, and at the BEST Italian food I had had to that day; Fettuccine with grilled salmon, wine, everything so delicious. The dinner wasn't just spectacular tasting, but all 5 of us laughed and talked about the family vacations we took together, including Mexico, Florida keys, Disney, Michigan, Scotland, Ireland, and mom and Carol talked about Bass Lake. It was so funny just sitting here all talking and laughing. After that great meal, we went to the infamous POMPI! Mom, Emily, Carol and Kathleen were very impressed by the fantastic tiramisu and coffee, and we all tried the different variations that were ordered (strawberry, classic, and banana and Nutella). Great way to end the night. We taxi-ed it back, and my mom commented on how terrifying it was that they were all depending on me to get around, and how weird that it was that i was the youngest of us all and apparently "directionally challenged", even though I am not. I had to sit in the front seat of the cab as well, because I also apparently "speak Italian", if you count the few words I know.
After mass, we took the metro to the Re di Roma stop, and found a quaint little family-owned restaurant, and at the BEST Italian food I had had to that day; Fettuccine with grilled salmon, wine, everything so delicious. The dinner wasn't just spectacular tasting, but all 5 of us laughed and talked about the family vacations we took together, including Mexico, Florida keys, Disney, Michigan, Scotland, Ireland, and mom and Carol talked about Bass Lake. It was so funny just sitting here all talking and laughing. After that great meal, we went to the infamous POMPI! Mom, Emily, Carol and Kathleen were very impressed by the fantastic tiramisu and coffee, and we all tried the different variations that were ordered (strawberry, classic, and banana and Nutella). Great way to end the night. We taxi-ed it back, and my mom commented on how terrifying it was that they were all depending on me to get around, and how weird that it was that i was the youngest of us all and apparently "directionally challenged", even though I am not. I had to sit in the front seat of the cab as well, because I also apparently "speak Italian", if you count the few words I know.
The three daughters at POMPI.
All of our delicious desserts! Yummmm.
Monday was such a busy day, starting at the Colosseum. Even though I've been there once before, it was still awe-inspiring to see the gigantic structure and think about its history. After a while spent in the Colosseum, we made our way to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, which were cool, even if everything is in ruins it was interesting to see it for yourself after learning about it in school. After a quick lunch, we made our way to the Pantheon, and picked up University of Rome sweatshirts because it got sooo chilly really quick. The Pantheon is also amazing to go to multiple times, because you always are still surprised at how big and ingenious it is. This is where Rafael's tomb is, Vittorio Emanuele (first king of Italy who also unified all of Italy), and his son and daughter-in-law (Margherita, who was the inspiration for pizza Margherita). Afterwards, we all made our way to St Louis of the French church where paintings by Caravaggio are on the walls, as well as to Piazza Navona, where there are artists everywhere displaying their beautiful talents.
Near the Colosseum (or Roman Forum?)
Tuesday was extremely long, because we went through the Vatican Museums, which took about 4 hours. I had been there once before, but this time we got the audio guides, which helped immensely in knowing what was important and in giving interesting background information. We went through the museums, the Sistine Chapel, and were about to drop dead by that time. Before going into the square and the basilica, we ate delicious paninis, and gelato at the famous Old Bridge gelato shop, which definitely hit the spot.
When Mom, Carol and Emily walked around the basilica, Kathleen and I took to the stairs to climb up to the cupola, or the top dome which overlooks so much of Rome at every angle. I love the views from here, so I had an excellent time climbing up, however out of breath we were from taking the stairs the entire way, about 551 stairs all the way to the top. Thank goodness it was cool outside, or we would have roasted in the tiny stairways! It was, once again, an incredible view, and I'd even do it again.
Wednesday morning we woke up super early and made our way to the Villa Borghese art museum, which was larger than I had expected, and a little more boring than I had expected. However, there were some very interesting sculptures and paintings that I enjoyed looking at and learning about. After, the four of them all went to the Leonardo DaVinci Museum, where there are some of his inventions made, which you can touch and move and figure out how it works/moves. I had already gone with my Travel Writing class, so I passed in order to sit in Piazza del Popolo (right by the little museum) to soak up some wonderful sunshine. We tried then to go to the Catacombs, but they were closed on Wednesdays (of course, the day we want to go), so we decided to got to the church of the Cappuchian Monks. This was an experience everyone should have, however creepy it was. Under the church there were the "tombs" of the monks, but it was more of rooms full of bones-literally. The walls, ceilings and floors were decorated with the bones of the dead monks, taken apart to create almost-beautiful designs. You were even lucky enough to see full skeletons of some monks, Yuck. It was cool to see, but very gross and morbid. After that experience, we went shopping, and then tried to find a place for dinner, but couldn't find it (probably it was closed), so we settled on a different one, where some of our food came in the pans they were cooked in.
Beautiful trees in the park.
The Villa in the park Villa Borghese.
Thursday morning was very stressful for me, as we settled on meeting before our train to Venice at ten to 7, but my wonderful family decided to be 30 minutes late, giving us less than 30 minutes to get to the train station and to get on our train, which I thought was almost impossible. We caught a cab, thinking it would be faster, but we hit a few traffic blocks, and made it to the station with 5 minutes to spare before the train left, getting on the train with about a minute and a half to spare. I almost had a heart attack, being so nervous that we would miss it, but I guess it all turned out okay.
We got to Venice and were AMAZED. We found our hotel down a little alleyway, and walked around taking picture after picture of the beautiful water, bridges, gondolas, buildings, everything. Also, we ended up taking our first gondola ride late that afternoon, which was spectacular. Our gondolier took us around through the little waterways, showing us Napolean Bonapart's house, Marco Polo's house, and many other landmarks. I couldn't tell you which pictures were of which houses, but it was beautiful and great to hear about it. We also learned from Fabio that the right side of the gondola is shorter than the left, which makes up for the gondolier's rowing, or however he moves the gondola. Also we learned that there are over 200 churches in Venice, as well as over 400 bridges, connecting all the islands together. The pictures I took were absolutely beautiful, I wish I could share ALL of them with you! Afterwards we had "happy hour with a bottle of Belini (Prosecco [sparkling white wine] and peach juice.. to die for), and went to dinner.
Gondolas by the edge of the canal, what we first saw after arriving.
The "street" (more of an alley-way) to our hotel.
What the window of our hotel room looked out onto.
B-E-A-utiful.
Gondoliers taking a break.
On the gondola!
View from the gondola on the canal.
Friday we were contemplating what we were going to do, and decided against a ton of art museums, because it was absolutely gorgeous the entire time we were there, 65 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. So, we went to the famous St. Mark's square, as well as into the basilica of St. Mark, which was full of beautiful mosaic masterpieces covering the whole of the walls and ceiling, as well as a fantastic view from the balcony overlooking the square. The large bronze horses on top were the fake ones, but they were gigantic to stand next to, and impressive to look up to from the ground. We also made it to Santa Maria Gloriosa di Frari church, which housed the famous alterpiece Assumption of the Virgin by Titian, as well as Madonna and Child with Saint by Bartolomeo Vivarini, among others, also housing the monuments to Titian and Antonio Canova. It was fantastic. That night we also had a wonderful, but expensive, meal. Kathleen had lobster spaghetti, Carol and Emily had shrips, and mom and I had flounder, with Gorgonzola gnocchi = DELICIOUS! It also turned out that our waitress skillfully de-boned the fish right in front of us, with only a fork and a spoon. Delicious!
This is us walking through the "streets" of Venice.
St. Mark's Square from the top of St. Mark's church.
The girls not afraid to whip out a map when we got lost.
Gorgonzola gnocci.
Delicious fish!!
The next day we walked around for an hour before our train back to Venice, and bought last minute souvenirs. Train ride home, they all packed, and got a yummy speghetti meal by the spanish steps, a great way to end a spectacular week!
Emily, Carol and Kathleen left on Sunday, and mom and I went to Via Appia Antica, where the catacombs were located. Our guide was a bit quirky, but he was very informative throughout the tour. It was incredibly interesting to hear that so many people, mostly children, were buried here, the only Christian cemetary. Eventually when Constantine came to power, but so many people before that were buried there. After the tour, mom and I got ourselves pretty lost, got some lunch at a little cafe, and found our way to the bus, meeting 2 couples here from France, communicating interestingly in English, French, and my little Italian, and a family from Arizona with two young girls.
After we got back, we got gelato, yet again, I did my homework, and mom slept here, and I walked her to the train in the morning, where she went to Florence until Wednesday.
xoxo Erica
