GELATO...Italy's greatest contribution...

I wanted to make a little post in the middle on GELATO. Basically the best thing in the world. It was our mission to eat our ways through Italy and Greece (especially to try every flavor we could - and its awesome because on small cones you get to try 2 flavors!) and I think that we accomplished it...Here are some of the photos to prove it...

My favorite gelato place in all of Italy (Il Gelatone in Rome)

3rd stop...Rome...

So we leave from Florence and take a train to Rome. Clayton went to find out where the local train left from to go to the other train station to then get our other train to Rome. He came back yelling, “Let’s go it leaves in 1 minute!!” We then just started running through the station looking like idiots because we really could have caught the next one…in 10 minutes. We made in time and then took the train to Rome. We had to arrive at the hostel by 6 and our train got in at 5, so we were in a hurry. Thank goodness our hostel was only like 10 minutes walking from the station and we found it really easily. It’s kind of like the Florence one, just looks ghetto from the outside (a little door with a doorbell) and we walked up the stairs not knowing where to go, by this time we are getting pretty good at this though. They led us to our room – 3 flights of stairs and this one has 6 beds in it (4 bunks and 2 singles). We thought, oh good this bathroom looks better than the other one…that’s what we thought right! So we were pretty exhausted by this point, but we then went to go get dinner that the hostel recommended – they said to ask for Mario…haha. He was there and he gave us free bruschetta!! It was really delicious and I love Italian food. After dinner we went to the internet place which also does laundry and spent around an hour on the computers. we just came back and then showered – that felt much better. But what the “funny” thing is – our toilet doesn’t flush. We go to tell them and they say they can’t do anything until the next day. Greatttttt.



So we start looking in the travel books to see the best way to tackle the Vatican City. We decide that the game plan will be to get up early and try to beat the crowds. (You also have to remember that this is right during Karwoche - Holy Week...). So we take the subway, get off, and do the logical thing....FOLLOW THE NUNS! haha.





The nuns that we were following. :)



We wanted to go into St. Peter's Basilica first since it opened before everything else. There was a huge line already outside and we weren't really sure where we were supposed to go. Well we stand in line for the church and realize that most people have red tickets. I then asked a girl what line we were really standing in and she said you had to have them to go to the mass that day….hmmm. We ditched that plan and asked a guard, he said that no, you can still go in and look around – it’s all in the same line. Oh well we already had gotten out of line, so headed to the Vatican Museums because we realized it opened at 8:45. We got into line there and waited probably around 30 or 45 minutes – a couple from Wales was in front of us so we talked to them for a while. We finally got to the front of the line and bought our tickets to get in – we got student tickets – it went from 14 to 8 euros so that is good! We had to run to the restroom because we were all about to pee our pants since our toilet didn’t obviously work in the morning.



There was a ton of things to see inside the museums but we kind of just strolled through and got to the Sistine Chapel to gaze all around. No pictures allowed. :( There were tons of guards yelling no pictures at people who tried – they also shooshed people a lot too. The front wall of the depiction of heaven and hell was awesome, but the famous part of God’s hand almost touching man’s wasn’t as big or spectacular as what I thought. It was a small piece in the middle amongst everything else. We got a snack and finished looking around there for a while. Once we left, the line was RIDICULOUS! We were smiling so big for how it had turned out that we went early and straight there because it would have taken hours for us to get in. So we then decided that we were going to go to St. Peter’s finally, and then it started pouring rain. We get to the end of the line, what now? Hail.





Me in front of St. Peter's Basilica





I'm obviously have the world in my arms





The ceiling of one of the halls in the Vatican Museum







Outside St. Peter's



We wait through the line and it actually didn't take that long and we were glad to get in from the bad weather. The breath was literally taken out of me when I saw the inside. It wasn't as ornate with gold like the one at Melk Abbey, it was just absolutely beautiful and hugeeeee. Obviously, its the biggest in the world but still. There were basically like "little" churches within the church I felt like. We spent a while in there and it was amazing.

The altar area of the church

We then wanted to walk to the top, so we waited in line...again....and bought a ticket to go to the cupola. It was 551 steps, but SO worth it. I really don't think that anyone should skip this ever in their life if they go. You go up around half way or so, then it opens into the middle of the dome inside the church and you can see down.

Picture from inside the dome. There were fences around, so I tried to get it through one of the holes. You can see the little people in the aisles below.

You then go outside, but can't really see down then continue up the stairs. Some parts were so narrow and the walls were actually slanted at some points too. Not for the faint of heart....haha. But the view then was again....one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Look below.

Rome/Vatican City from atop St. Peter's - absolutely breathtaking

After that we were so exhausted....basically the whole trip but once again for a good reason, so we got some food at this one little restaurant that Caitlin's travel book recommended. It was hilarious because he couldn't speak English, but we understood some words he was saying. We would order something and he would say he didn't have it. He then listed three things that he did have. As soon as I tried to order, he was like...NO NO NO , you need the lemon chicken...I was like...umm ok? Then Clayton and Caitlin ordered too and he told them no and told them what they "should" order. Mind you...all this is in Italian. We were just laughing and thought...oh well, we'll get something! It turned out to be pretty good after all, even if its not what we wanted! We went to the hostel since we had been up since like 6 or so and didn't get back until like 5. LONG DAY. Of course when we got back we wanted to know if our toilet was fixed...it was...kind of. The flushing just wasn't exactly good. So then we all want to take hot showers because it had been a long day, we walk into the bathroom and the showerhead is on the toilet seat. It was one of those kinds that has the long metal rope and then the showerhead is kind of big. So now all of us get to shower basically with a waterhose - having to hold it with one hand the entire time. COOL.

The next day (Good Friday) we decided to dedicate it to the Colosseum. We woke up and went somewhat early - did the whole Roman Forum, Palantine Hill thing. It's so weird to see these ancient ruins right in the middle of a huge city, but still cool nonetheless! Here's some pics...

Roman Colosseum from a distance
Huge archway next to the Colosseum

Me sitting ON a huge Roman ruin


All of us

Me with a background of the Colosseum

Awesomeness
Inside the magnificent world wonder! So if you are confused, there used to be covering over all that stuff on the ground. You can kind of see what it looked like with a floor in the corner. Underneath it was where the people (gladiators, etc), animals, and other things were kept. The funny thing is that they used to fill it with water and have mock sea battles. Who would have known!

All I'm thinking of now is the movie Gladiator and how I want to watch it.

Me in front of the Trevi Fountain. You are supposed to throw your coin in over your shoulder and if you throw 1 its said that you will visit Rome again if you throw 2 in you are said to find love in Rome. I also learned that around 3,000 Euros are thrown in everyday...they are making a killing.

We get home once again to see if it's fixed...it is...once again or so we thought. Emily was taking a shower we hear a scream followed by laughter- turns up that the shower head just broke off. They "fixed" it by basically trying to screw it back on - which was impossible in the first place. Here were are again...with a hose.

The rest of the time in Rome was basically exploring, trying to find a market, eating, etc. all while it was pouring the whole week. I also went to a Good Friday service and Easter Sunday service just down the street from us in one of the Vatican City Basilica's - what an experience. People tease Lutherans for having long services....ok no. It was like 2.5 hours and all in Italian/Latin? I just a little missed getting to sing "Jesus Christ has Risen Today" since it only comes once a year, but still it was an experience I won't forget!

2nd stop...Florence...

So we arrived in Florence on the 16th and Emily's friend who is studying abroad there picked us up at the train station and we headed to find our hostel. (Let's just say that the roads are cobblestone everywhere and my luggage wheel is starting to bend because I've pulled this thing everywhere). We had written down to stop at a café and someone will be there to meet us. So we find this café and tell them that we are here for the hostel and he calls someone on his cell phone to tell them that we are there. Hmmmm…kind of weird. He says 5 minutes but it was more like 20 and then a woman shows up to walk us to our hostel down the street. We get to this small door and then see the stairs….crap. I have to lug up my like 50 pound suitcase and 30 pound backpack up the smallest and steepest stairwell 3 flights. I was about to die. haha. It’s a little bit sketchy but we got a whole entire room with like 7 beds – we share a bathroom with another room next to us…which I didn’t really know until I heard other people talking right outside our door. But we put our stuff down and then went to go see some sights. We did kind of a walking tour with Catherine and went up to this place – St. Michelangelo’s? and it had an awesome view of the entire city. Of course we ate gelato up on the hill/lookout. We then took our time walking down another way – not the 200 stair way.

Me on top of the hill overlooking Florence

From above looking at the Ponte Vecchio (the bridge)

An amazing gelato place on the Ponte Vecchio

One of the biggest and most well-known sites in the middle of Florence is the Duomo. It’s the 3rd largest church behind St. Peters and St. Pauls. The outside is absolutely gorgeous – words can’t really even express how cool it looks – and it just goes on forever!

Pictures of the Duomo

After that we had reservations to eat at this one restaurant that the AIFS Program in Florence gets food vouchers to – their system is so much cooler and they eat at all the restaurants everyday and get tons more money to eat than we do – anyways, and it was AWESOME! I got the pesto gnocchi (recommendation from Alexis – props to you!), grilled chicken and the house white wine which was great too!!

Pesto gnocchi

I ate some of Caitlin’s spinach and ricotta/mozzarella ravioli with cheese sauce. YUM too. After that Catherine took us to this one bar to get a membership type card – Lockness – for 5 Euro so we could go the next day for St. Patrick’s Day. There was no one – we just got drinks to be nice since we walked in – 2 for 1 special of mixed drinks which was really nice since in Salzburg we NEVER drink mixed drinks. They are way too expensive. After we left, we went home took showers and crashed.

The next days we did lots of stuff too. I'll just try and do an overview - the 17th was obviously St. Patrick's Day so we wore green all day. No one else really was except the Americans, but oh well! Well I guess that that means everyone was because literally Florence was filled with Americans. It was crazy....I heard English all around me which was weird because I'm used to no one speaking English around me but the kids in the program. Anyways, we went inside the Duomo - the outside is much cooler than the inside. We also went to the market all day long basically, but it was awesome. Leather and pashminas (scarves made in Italy) are really popular so I bargained with some and got some nice things!

Mid-day stop at J.J. Cathedral for some green beer

Later that night we went to Lochness to celebrate St. Patty's day - after that some of us then went to Michael Collins. By that time, those of us that were left were exhausted so then we came home.

Catherine and us on St. Patty's day at Lochness

The next day on the 18th we decided that we wanted to see the David by Michelangelo. We stood in line for about an hour and a half, but we still hadn't even moved half way. Ridiculous. We had to meet Catherine then, so we just left. For lunch we ate at Gustapanino which was so delicious! I had turkey, mozzarella, and pesto on mine. :)

Really cool panino shop (panini is plural)

Being in Florence, we knew we had to see the David...so we went back to stand in line again. This time it was shorter, but we made Clayton stand in line while we went back to the market to grab some few last things. By the time we got back we stood there for only around 15 minutes and got in. Let's just say that the statue was much bigger than what I was thinking. It was beautiful as well!!

This is a replica that was outside that I took a picture of since you couldn't take them inside.

We then went to eat again at a different restaurant that night with some of Catherine's friends/other kids on the program. It was really hilarious because 2 of them were from UT. We were doing the whole introduction thing and Caitlin and I said that we go to school there. One of them could not believe it. He asked us if his friends told us to say that and if we were getting paid to....he was shocked when we replied no. It was rather funny considering he could not believe that someone else went there...hello there are 50,000 people...you are bound to meet someone else :)

The next morning we "checked out" (meaning left our key on the table) of our hostel and had some time to spare for our train ride to Rome. We were meeting Catherine by where she lives - Santa Croce - and we find another market!

Santa Croce and the market

We all take turns looking around while others watch our luggage....I find a candy apple making stand!! YUM! I've never had one so I definitely had to get one. It was mighty delicious...if I do say so myself. We basically then just enjoyed the weather then walked back to the train station - back through the cobblestone that tore up my wheel.

1st stop...Venice...

So to start off...we took an "overnight" train to Venice from Salzburg which lasted about 6 hours. We left at 2 in the morning and arrived around 8am. Let's just say I didn't get much sleep...ha. We finally figured out the bus system and then found our hostel. It was hard to miss...considering it was pink! haha.

Our hostel!

We checked in (the lady only spoke Italian) so we tried to figure out what was going on. She wanted us to come back in an hour when she was done cleaning. We just walked around and found a little bakery. (Our hostel was probably like a 20-25 minute bus ride from the city "center"). It was really cool though because we saw more of what Venice was like and where other people lived besides the main town.

That afternoon we went into the main city and didn't really have a plan. We just wandered all the streets through all the canals which was awesome to see. I learned that there are over 400 bridges and 120 islands composing/in Venice.

Here is me eating my first gelato in ITALIA!

When we were walking around, there were tons of little stores selling Murano glass (which is the famous Venetian glass) as well as other souvenir things. At this one store (pic above) he was melting the glass and creating the plates, animals, etc. right in his store! I got a family of blue elephants for only 1.90!

We made our way to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) to see the awesome building, tower, and of course the pidgeons. Unfortunately, it was late and the pigeons were basically full. haha.

The Square

We then walked around some more, but were still really tired from our train ride. We went home and ordered some pizza from down the street and basically passed out from exhaustion.

The next day we left around 10 and didn't have a plan again. We just walked through the city again but on a different route! (which was easy...considering our guide book said that even locals sometimes get lost). We wanted to go back to the Square to see more pigeons, and we definitely got what we wanted....haha. We bought some seed/corn from a vendor and started making them come toward us. It was a lot of fun - but kind of gross if you think about it...oh well!

Me holding some pidgeons

Me looking at Caitlin in a funny way because one was on her head. I had one on my head after that too. haha.

The girls sitting on the rail

On a bridge in Venice

My spinach and ricotta calzone....YUM (and the entire trip I obsessively took pictures of all the food I ate....haha)

Me in front of the Rialto Bridge!! There were shops all along it on the inside. I wasn't expecting it be like that at all, but it was still awesome!

Venice at night!


Another picture of Venice - and the gondolas!

So overall we had an amazing time in Venice, and I actually liked it a LOT more than what I was thinking. It was good that I got to see it too, because if nothing else is done to help stabilize the islands, they will be underwater in 50-100 years. (Even though that probably won't happen in my lifetime). So yeah...then we got to the train station to head to our next destination...Florence.

Spring Break...

Just an overall note - Spring Break was absolutely the most wonderful trip - seeing (almost) everything that I wanted to in Italy and Greece. But let's just say that I am glad to be back in Salzburg...and not living out of a suitcase for 17 days. 4 train rides, 2 flights, 2 ferries, and many taxi rides later I'm proud to say that nothing went wrong... with our hostels or transportation. We made every flight, nothing was late, we found the hostels, they had our bookings. I of course didn't say this during our trip as to jinx us - but now we are home. haha

I started back to school on Monday and already had homework and readings. boo. I have a quiz in German today too (that class is getting harder and harder...), BUT tomorrow as a group we are going to Innsbruck, so I'm really excited about that. (Not about the waking up at 5am part.) The good news is I got A's on both my tests that I took before I left for the break, so that was a good welcome home present! haha.

Anyways, I am going to try and post pictures/stories as fast as I can from Spring Break, but 17 days of pure fun is going to be hard to do...so I guess I will try to outline the high points and post more pictures than write. I also have trips, homework, and other things in between so I will try to do them when I have extra time.

Oh and April 28th - May 2nd I will going to...........................................BARCELONA!!!! I'm super stoked about that and can't wait to just lay on the beach and get some sun. Although, I will be watching my belongings very closely because a girl on our trip went there and someone ran over to her, grabbed her stuff that was literally touching her leg and ran away. So....yeah. Good note to end on. haha.

As for now, have a great weekend! (Oh and p.s. it was snowing again in Salzburg this morning)