Tuesday May 29

After our short stay in Florence, the group traveled via high-speed train to Venice on Tuesday. While the term “high-speed” would tend to indicate a quick trip, our train ride on Tuesday was anything but a short ride. Our ride began with an on-time departure followed by about 30 minutes of normal travel. However, after moving at a good pace for a while the train came to a sudden stop and proceeded to travel slowly or stop completely for the next hour or so. As it turned out, and many have now seen on the news, a large earthquake had taken place in northern Italy with an epicenter fairly close to Bologna. Our train from Florence to Venice actually went through the town of Bologna which was the reason our train either slowed or stopped as we traveled through the earthquake-rattled region. Our train ended up arriving in Venice about an hour and fifteen minutes late but fortunately the group made it safe to warm and sunny Venice. 

One of Venice's many canals

After being spoiled with posh hotel rooms in Rome, the group was brought down to earth with our accommodations in Venice. Three other students and I are sharing a room with three beds, no air conditioning, no television, and no internet in our room. While most of these items are luxuries rather than necessities, I’m glad that we are busy enough that our hotel room is only used to catch a few hours of sleep at night rather than a place to relax.

After arriving in Venice and dropping our bags off at the worst hotel I have stayed at since a Civil War Battlefield trip with my Dad, grandfather, and uncles, the group was famished so we all split up to grab some lunch. While Venice is definitely a beautiful city, you realize that you pay for its beauty at such things as lodging and meals. Once a few of us decided on a place to grab a bite to eat and sat down, I was shocked at the prices on the menu. There wasn’t a drink on the menu, water included, that was less than 4 Euros, and the cheapest item was a pizza the size of a bagel for 5 Euros. Not wanting to blow a decent amount of cash on a small lunch, I decided to get the 5 Euro fist-sized pizza and with nothing to drink. As soon as we finished up our tiny, but expensive meals, we decided to walk around and tour the city. It’s actually very easy to get lost in Venice because, unlike most cities, Venice is not laid out on a grid system and has walkways leading to dead ends or circles at any turn. We had to stop a few times to grasp our bearings, but overall we navigated the city well. As we were walking, I saw a tiny pizza shop with massive slices of pizza for 2 Euros each. Still starving from the tiny lunch, I grabbed a slice and shook my head as I ate probably triple the amount of food for half the cost I had paid earlier in the day. If I learned nothing else from our walk around Venice, I learned that it pays to be patient and search out fair prices for food.

View from St. Mark's Square

After walking around most of the afternoon taking in the sites, the group as a whole met up at 8 PM to walk to St. Mark’s Square as the sun was setting. St. Mark’s square is the main public square in Venice for both pigeons and tourists and is filled with shops, restaurants, as well as St. Mark’s Basilica. While it was very pretty to walk as the sun was setting over the canals, it was also nice that the darker skies provided some cooler weather. Afterwards we walked around for a bit longer checking out some massive yachts docked close to St. Mark’s Square before making the trek home for the evening. While the travel was longer than expected and the hotel grungier than expected, I’m glad we made it to Venice to see the beautiful city for a few days.  

Monday May 28th

View of the ceiling of the Duomo

Monday began bright and early as the group enjoyed the hotel’s free breakfast before departing for the Duomo. I was worried that the rain had followed us from Rome as we left our hotel, but fortunately the rain stopped as we made the short trip to the Duomo. The Duomo, also known as the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, is a Roman Catholic cathedral that was completed in 1436. We actually learned about the construction of the church, as well as its architect, through one of our required readings for our trip.  Because we have visited the naves of so many churches on our trip so far, we decided to only buy the pass that allowed us to ascend the tiny stairwells to the top of the massive dome. This plan actually turned out well because there were periodic viewing, also functioning as breath-catching, platforms as we made our way to the top that allowed us to see the worshipping space in the church after all. Once we finally arrived at the top, the view of the entire city of Florence was incredible. It was neat to look down and see the entire city below us in addition to the lack of any buildings even close to approaching our height. We were also fortunate that the rain clouds had for the most part burned off, allowing us to take some great pictures to remember our trip to the top of the Duomo.

View of Florence from the top of the Duomo

Following our descent from the Duomo, we were scheduled to visit the Medici Palace. For some reason that I am not sure of, the Palace happened to be closed on Monday so we were not able to visit the Palace. Since our professors had planned on finishing our day after our visit to the Medici Palace we were released for the day to tour on our own throughout the city. Still on a bit of an art-overload from the day prior, two guys and I decided to pass on checking out any more museums and simply walk around the city and see the sites. Our journey took us from various shops across the Arno River, to a combination farmer’s market and shopping market. After looking around at various Italian leather products we actually ended up eating a fairly cheap lunch at the farmer’s market portion of the large setup. We passed the rest of the day’s time by again walking around with no real destination in mind, but seeing a lot of interesting sites along the way. Even though it would have been interesting to visit the Medici Palace, it was nice to pick our own destinations for the day. 

Monday wrapped up our short stay in Florence. While we didn’t stay in Florence for very long, it was nice to see a less-hectic and smaller Italian city after Rome. One thing I noticed about Florence during my brief stay was the abundance of Americans in Florence. During our long walk around the city, we couldn’t go more than a few feet without hearing someone speaking English. After the huge presence of foreign languages in Barcelona and Rome it was almost comforting to hear a few American voices again other than our own. Tuesday morning we will be taking the train to Venice, perhaps one of the most anticipated stops on our trip in my mind.

Sunday May 27th

After our traveling on our own for our free days, the group met at noon outside our hotel in Florence on Sunday to begin the second half of our trip. Because check-in wasn’t until 2 we decided to drop our bags off at the hotel and begin the day’s sightseeing.

Duomo as seen walking by

Our first stop of the warm Sunday afternoon was the Uffizi Gallery. Originally constructed for the use as office space for Florentine magistrates in 1581, the Uffizi Gallery stands today as one of the most famous art museums in the world. Once we arrived at the museum and we all went our separate ways to check out as much of the art as we could. Similar to the Vatican Museum, the Uffizi Gallery simply has too much art for one to see all at once so I did my best to see all I could in the few hours we spent at the museum. Unfortunately the Gallery doesn’t allow cameras, so I don’t have any pictures of the incredible pieces of art I saw during my visit. I was most impressed with the ages of many of the pieces, as I saw original works of art more than 400 years old from various famous artists. However, seeing that much art at one time tended to make the many different works of art blend together by the time we left.

After the Uffizi Gallery, the group walked over to the Accademia Gallery. Most famous for housing Michelangelo’s original David statue, the Accademia Gallery is tiny compared to the Uffizi Gallery. However, this lack of size did not inhibit the Accademia Gallery from having some very famous and interesting works. In addition to the massive David, the Accademia also has a few other notable Michelangelo statues ranging from four meant for Pope Julius II’s tomb to a statue of Saint Matthew. Overall, I came away very impressed by the Accademia’s prominent, albeit small, collection of art.

View from Ponte Vechio

To wrap up our busy afternoon, we visited the Ponte Vechio, or Old Bridge, that spans the Arno River. When I heard that we were visiting a bridge, I envisioned the standard arching bridge crossing a river. However, the Ponte Vechio is different from most bridges because multiple stories of shops line both sides of the bridge. Most of these shops looked to be expensive jewelry and gold stores. The bridge itself actually has been rebuilt multiple times since its original construction due to the destruction from floods and World War II. I enjoyed looking out both sides of the bridge to see the Florentine buildings lining the Arno River.

To finish the day, a couple of us grabbed a cheap kabob from a market close to our hotel. While Italy has been incredible food-wise, the meals tend to be a bit expensive so I try to eat cheap a few times a week to make up for the more expensive meals. Overall, it was a great first full day in Florence.

Thursday May 24th to Saturday May 26th

Rapallo's Harbor

After roughly 2 weeks of following a regimented daily routine, the free travel days were a welcomed opportunity for our entire group. Seven other group members and I decided to travel to the Cinque Terre region of Italy after a few days of deliberations. Cinque Terre literally means “five lands” because Cinque Terre is comprised of five different cities spaced fairly close together. We actually chose to stay in Rapallo, a small city on the northern outskirts of Cinque Terre on the western Italian coast.

View from the kayak approaching Vernazza

While Cinque Terre is a very remote area, our travel was actually extremely easy. We utilized the Eurail passes included with our trip to take an approximately five hour train ride directly to Rapallo. Our hotel was perfectly situated across the road from the beach and a ten minute walk from the train station. Since we didn’t arrive until about 2 Thursday afternoon, we decided to grab lunch in town and relax on one of Rapallo’s beaches for the rest of the day. Wanting to enjoy a few Italian beers while relaxing on the beach, we stopped by the town’s supermarket on the way to the beach. Unfortunately, as has been common in a few places we have been in Europe, the market did not stock cold beer or ice. Being resourceful, I decided to buy a few bags of frozen French fries to lay on top of the beer to cool it down. While it definitely was not the coldest beer I have ever tasted, I was pretty proud of myself for devising a plan to remedy our problem. After a few hours on the beach we made a quick stop at the hotel for showers and then walked to a restaurant on the beach for dinner. We timed our dinner perfectly, eating our meal as the sun was setting over the Mediterranean. 

Waterfall on the Mediterranean

Friday started early with the group taking the 8:30 train from Rapallo to the small Cinque Terre town of Monterosso. After the hour long train ride, we walked around town for a little while before making our way down to the beach. A soon as we descended the stairs to the beach we saw exactly what we needed to explore the area; kayaks. After a member of our group haggled with the vendor for a few minutes, we agreed to rent the kayaks for the day for 15 Euros each. The ensuing hours were filled with some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. As the pictures show, the coast is mostly comprised of steep hillsides and rocky faces rather than actual beaches. It was incredibly refreshing to look around and only see water and steep mountains rather than tourists and cars blazing past us. We stopped a few times as we paddled both to rest and explore a few caves and a waterfall. We eventually paddled to the next town south of Monterosso, Vernazza, and ate a quick lunch before paddling back to return the kayaks. I’m not sure of the actual distance we paddled Friday, but my arms were definitely sore the next day. We finished the day by heading back to Rapallo to eat a delicious Italian dinner and get some rest after a long day.

We slept in a little later Saturday morning to regain our energy after the previous day. After eating a quick breakfast, we walked to the train station and boarded our train to Florence. Because the whole group was not scheduled to meet up until noon on Sunday, we booked our own hotel and took in a few sites to round out our Saturday.

Vernazza

 Looking back on my free travel days, I am still in awe of the beauty of Cinque Terre. This region of the Italian coast definitely had some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. More than anything, it was really nice to leave the hustle and bustle of the big cities we have been visiting and simply relax. While I enjoyed our days off, I’m glad we’re about to see even more sites on the second half of our trip abroad.

Wednesday May 23rd

Wednesday brought an end to the rain and ushered in some much needed warm, sunny weather. Today was considered a free day where the members of our group were allowed to either begin their free travel or cruise around Rome for an extra day. With the hotel already booked Wednesday night, a group of us decided to stay in Rome to save money on getting a hotel wherever we intended to travel. 

I slept in until about 9 this morning and met up with the five other students who I am traveling with to Cinque Terre. As I alluded to previously, our group has free travel days from Thursday until we are scheduled to meet at noon in Florence on Sunday. The six of us decided to travel to the western Italian coastal region of Cinque Terre, known for its scenic hillsides and beaches. We will be staying in Cinque Terre Thursday and Friday night, then arriving in Florence Saturday night. Back to this morning, the six of us went to the train station to activate our Eurail passes and reserve our tickets for our Thursday morning train. Even with the language barrier, the process was pretty simple and not too much of a hassle.

Picture from Sunday at the Roman Forum

After making our travel arrangements we decided to walk around town with no real destination in mind. All of us wanted to see the town when the weather was perfect, so we stopped by a few sites we had already seen as well as visiting a couple of shops. After eating a quick lunch, the group broke up and went their separate ways for the afternoon. I decided two walk around a little while longer and actually stumbled across a newspaper stand with this past Sunday’s edition of New York Times. Realizing I had a five hour train ride Thursday morning, I thought it would be good to have some reading material along the way. As I went to pick up the newspaper I saw that the price was €12, which equates to approximately $16! I really enjoy the New York Times, but not for that price. 

I ended up heading home shortly after picking up, and quickly putting back down, the most expensive newspaper I have ever seen. I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up some assigned schoolwork, blogging, and packing my bags for our trip. Since the next few days will be “free days” I’m going to take some time off from my blog and will post a trip summary when I arrive in Florence Saturday. Until then, thanks for following my travels throughout Europe.       

Tuesday May 22nd

View of the storms rolling in from the top of the Spanish Steps

Much to the group’s surprise, Tuesday was actually a fairly slow day. The group actually did not even meet up until 4:30 in the afternoon. The reason for our late meeting was the constant downpour of rain throughout the day. I want to see as many sights as the next person while I’m abroad, but I would just assume not be soaked from head to toe while we see the sights. So needless to say, I was alright with having some free time on Tuesday to relax. Unfortunately the weather has been pretty abysmal so far in Rome, mostly cloudy days with rain sprinkled in, but for the most part we have pushed through the rain and kept on schedule.

Once our group met late in the afternoon, we departed to visit the Spanish Steps. The Spanish Steps are actually the widest staircase in Europe, connecting the Trinitia Dei Monti church at the top to a piazza at the bottom. We stayed long enough to climb the massive steps and take a few pictures and moved to our next destination quickly as it was still raining slightly.

Trevi Fountain

Pushing on through the rain, our next stop was Trevi Fountain. Trevi Fountain was commissioned by Pope Clement XII, completed in 1762, and stands today as one of the most famous fountains in the world. While I wasn’t enjoying walking through the rain, I was actually very happy that it was raining when we reached Trevi Fountain. Because the fountain is so popular and well-known there are constantly tourists visiting the fountain. Fortunately for our group, the rain kept away a sizeable amount of tourists so we were able to see the fountain up-close.

Piazza Navona

Our next stop was Piazza Navona. Piazza Navona is a large public square surrounded by Baroque-style buildings as well as housing two large fountains in the actual square. Similar to the Trevi Fountain, this normally popular gathering place was for the most part empty as the rain was beginning to slow for the first time that day. 

We ended our day on the bridge crossing the Tibre River. Our teachers knew of some great places to eat just across the river, so they let us loose for the evening with one caveat; we must look at 5 different menus before we decided on a place to eat dinner. 5 group members and I decided on an Italian restaurant off the beaten path but with a great-looking menu. I assure you, this restaurant did not disappoint. We began the meal with a couple of bottles of wine, followed by prosciutto and cheese plate. While I stayed as far away as possible from the pungent cheeses, I enjoyed the prosciutto on some fresh-baked bread. We followed the first course with a course of fried mozzarella. Although the first plate of cheeses did not look appealing to me, the fried mozzarella was incredible. For our main course, I ordered veal ravioli with a meaty marinara sauce. This entrée was fabulous as well, although I wish the portion had been a bit larger. Overall, this was by far the best meal I have eaten so far this trip. I left the restaurant feeling like I had really experienced an authentic Italian meal.

We ended the night by stopping by the same bar we visited a few nights prior to grab a quick beer before heading home for the evening. While the day started slow and gloomy with all the rainfall, our group made the best of the situation and ended up having a great day.