Made is safely back to the United States!
I think over the next week or so we'll be filling in the details from the end of our trip, but for now we are hanging out relaxing in Jacksonville with Andy's family. I'll be back up north for Christmas and Andy will be up there after New Years.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Barcelona + Valencia
BARCELONA
We ended up spending five nights in Barcelona. This is more than we planned but at this point, we are getting tired. We aren't necessarily up for the jam-packed sightseeing days that we have been having quite often on this trip, but we did want to see a lot of this city. After we leave a city, we are in the habit of evaluating it. Would we reccommend it for vacation? How was their intercity transportation? Could we live here? Barcelona gets the highest reviews for places that we would actually want to live (with Amsterdam also in the running). I was immediatly excited to be here because I no longer felt out of place wearing my bright purple tights (coming from Italy, where the majority of the populace is dressed in black, or dark brown leather). Although Barcelona doesn't come to mind when you hear the word "fashion," the city has a style of its own, and it is bright, vibrant, and happy. Even their mannequins are happier than anywhere we've been (seiously- they are grinning insanely). There is also a great mix of people here- those who were born and raised here, and speak Catalan, those who transplanted from elsewhere in Spain, speaking traditional Spanish, plenty of European students doing an exchange from their home colleges called Erasmus, a lot of Americans, living here to teach English, and a myriad of ofter transplants from all over the world.
Many of the sights here center around Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi, whose unique architectual design comes off as something between Dr. Suess imagery, Salvadore Dali paintings, and those muddy "castles" kids create on beaches by letting soggy sand drip from their hands. It was refreshing to see his contemory architecture that defied conventional rules. There are several houses around the city that he designed, as well as a architectual conrtibutions to a beautiful public park, and La Segrada Familia, a church that has been under construction for over ____ years, and is scheduled for completion not until 2026. Unfortunately, we were not able to tour the interior of the houses or La Sagrada Familia as they were incredible expensive (17 euro to tour a house!- about $23!), but they were very impressive from the outside and we admired them for free. We were able to walk around the (free) park that he designed, which we would highly reccommend. Throughout the park musicians played their instruments, playing everything from raw, emotional blues on a banjo to dreamy "eastern" music on an instrument that I couldn't name, to soothing, seductive Spanish guitar. It would not be hard to spend many afternoons in this unique habitat.
One of the more fascinating places for a foodie, is La Boqueria - an immense market, open daily. Dizzying amounts of food of every variety are to be found as far as you can see. The quarters are tight and this place is always busy, and the buzz of people whizzing by is endless. For every variety of ingestible things, there are at least ten differents stands - produce, poulty, fish, beef, pork, cheeses, nuts/dried fruits, olives, baked goods as well as a few stands where one can sit down within the market and watch his or her meal prepared before them. Everything was immaculate: the fish was practically still swimming, not a bruise to be found on any fruit, everything neatly separated and artfully displayed to send your salvatory glands into overdrive; quite litereally a feast for the eyes. We made a lunch of a deep magenta colored cactus flower, a few fresh rolls, a variety of olives, mixed nuts, mixed meats, and a custard dessert, all for about 12 Euro total.
We took a nice walk up Montjuic, visiting the Olympic Park that hosted the '92 Olympics. Atop the hill, we climed a castle that once guared the harbor and enjoyed spectacular views of the city. Later, we made our way to a Picasso museum and, due to a change in exhibitions, enjoyed only a limitied quantity of his works, but at a greatly reduced admission fee. It was still great to see many of his works from his "blue period" and also collections from other periods in his life, centering around brothels, pigeons, and even interpretations of other painters' works. Other highlights from Barcelona include drinking sangria while eating tapas (of course), getting lost in an enormous flea market, and Andy catching a pickpocket in his jacket on the Subway. We also attended a few different couchsurfing meetups while in Barcelona, meeting several locals as well as people from Estonia, Greece, Romania, Germany, and the US.
Valencia
Our host, Salva, lived outside the city, but was just a short metro ride away from the train station/city center. Our first day was rainy and dismal, but we managed to eat some delicious paella, check out some of the old architecture in the city, and La Catedral de Santa Maria. It was here where we found the Holy Grail! We're a little confused as to why the search is still going on, when it has been in a church in Valencia this whole time... Mainly we just wandered around, looking at all of the different buildings. That night we, for some reason, decided to eat at a Chinese restaurant. The menu was translated into English, but when the item listed was "Rice three delicious," it didn't really help. Despite being the only customers other than a lone guy quietly smoking a few tables away, our qualms were quickly put to easy when the food arrived, in generous, delicious portions. Our second day in the city it was much nicer mainly because the weather cleared up, and decided to start the day with a visit to a botanical garden. We leisurely strolled up and down the aisles of vegetation, a pleasant break from the jungle of metropolitan life outside the walls. There were strange species of cacti, palm trees, and some fruits and vegetables growing that we couldn't recognize. After spending about an hour and a half here, we took advantage of the persistant beautiful weather and walked through another park. This was one of the more unique parks that we have visited. According to Salva, the Rio Turia running through Valencia flooded badly about ten to fifteen years ago. Apparently it had been a problem in the past, and they decided to finally do something about it. They diverted the entrie river to go around the city (Providence, anyone?)* and made the former route into a park, weaving through the entire city filled with sports fields, walking and biking paths, and playgrounds. We walked through the entire park to the end, where we found "the city of arts and sciences," a large park with some stunning modern architecture (think Jetsons arcitecture) housing a science museum and an imax theater, as well as other buildings that housed arts and science exhibitions. Although it certainly was not typically Valencian or even typically Spanish, we spent about 3 hours in the science museum. It was quite fascinating, and we explored exhibits centering on memory/perception, sound, energy, light, and design - most of them interactive. One exhibit consisted of about 30 chicken eggs, ready to hatch in incubators. It's funny how captivating a chick pecking its way out of a shell can be for people of any age (translation: we watched for about 40 minutes before tearing ourselves away, staying longer than the children). We decided that watching a live baby chick birth is so much cuter than a live human birth. The museum closed before we had a chance to visit the rest of the floor that we started on, let alone the next two above us. We blame the chickens. Later, we met Salva at a bar for a beer where he took us to a going away party for someone that he had just met a few weeks ago. Yet again, because of couchsurfing, we found ourselves at some improbable social event that we had no direct connection with. We noted a funny observation. When we arrived, we were certain that Salva and ourselves we the only three in an apartment of 30 that could speak English. However, the more this crowd drank, the more English speakers we found. Soon, we were sipping wine while chowing on finger food and cake with lots of friendly, interesting people eager to share travel stories and cultural differences. We left the next day, with a few mandarin oranges in our packs, picked by Salva the previous day from his families orange groves.
*The river in Providence's river was re-directed for aesthetic pupose in the mid nineties.
We ended up spending five nights in Barcelona. This is more than we planned but at this point, we are getting tired. We aren't necessarily up for the jam-packed sightseeing days that we have been having quite often on this trip, but we did want to see a lot of this city. After we leave a city, we are in the habit of evaluating it. Would we reccommend it for vacation? How was their intercity transportation? Could we live here? Barcelona gets the highest reviews for places that we would actually want to live (with Amsterdam also in the running). I was immediatly excited to be here because I no longer felt out of place wearing my bright purple tights (coming from Italy, where the majority of the populace is dressed in black, or dark brown leather). Although Barcelona doesn't come to mind when you hear the word "fashion," the city has a style of its own, and it is bright, vibrant, and happy. Even their mannequins are happier than anywhere we've been (seiously- they are grinning insanely). There is also a great mix of people here- those who were born and raised here, and speak Catalan, those who transplanted from elsewhere in Spain, speaking traditional Spanish, plenty of European students doing an exchange from their home colleges called Erasmus, a lot of Americans, living here to teach English, and a myriad of ofter transplants from all over the world.
Many of the sights here center around Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi, whose unique architectual design comes off as something between Dr. Suess imagery, Salvadore Dali paintings, and those muddy "castles" kids create on beaches by letting soggy sand drip from their hands. It was refreshing to see his contemory architecture that defied conventional rules. There are several houses around the city that he designed, as well as a architectual conrtibutions to a beautiful public park, and La Segrada Familia, a church that has been under construction for over ____ years, and is scheduled for completion not until 2026. Unfortunately, we were not able to tour the interior of the houses or La Sagrada Familia as they were incredible expensive (17 euro to tour a house!- about $23!), but they were very impressive from the outside and we admired them for free. We were able to walk around the (free) park that he designed, which we would highly reccommend. Throughout the park musicians played their instruments, playing everything from raw, emotional blues on a banjo to dreamy "eastern" music on an instrument that I couldn't name, to soothing, seductive Spanish guitar. It would not be hard to spend many afternoons in this unique habitat.
One of the more fascinating places for a foodie, is La Boqueria - an immense market, open daily. Dizzying amounts of food of every variety are to be found as far as you can see. The quarters are tight and this place is always busy, and the buzz of people whizzing by is endless. For every variety of ingestible things, there are at least ten differents stands - produce, poulty, fish, beef, pork, cheeses, nuts/dried fruits, olives, baked goods as well as a few stands where one can sit down within the market and watch his or her meal prepared before them. Everything was immaculate: the fish was practically still swimming, not a bruise to be found on any fruit, everything neatly separated and artfully displayed to send your salvatory glands into overdrive; quite litereally a feast for the eyes. We made a lunch of a deep magenta colored cactus flower, a few fresh rolls, a variety of olives, mixed nuts, mixed meats, and a custard dessert, all for about 12 Euro total.
We took a nice walk up Montjuic, visiting the Olympic Park that hosted the '92 Olympics. Atop the hill, we climed a castle that once guared the harbor and enjoyed spectacular views of the city. Later, we made our way to a Picasso museum and, due to a change in exhibitions, enjoyed only a limitied quantity of his works, but at a greatly reduced admission fee. It was still great to see many of his works from his "blue period" and also collections from other periods in his life, centering around brothels, pigeons, and even interpretations of other painters' works. Other highlights from Barcelona include drinking sangria while eating tapas (of course), getting lost in an enormous flea market, and Andy catching a pickpocket in his jacket on the Subway. We also attended a few different couchsurfing meetups while in Barcelona, meeting several locals as well as people from Estonia, Greece, Romania, Germany, and the US.
Valencia
Our host, Salva, lived outside the city, but was just a short metro ride away from the train station/city center. Our first day was rainy and dismal, but we managed to eat some delicious paella, check out some of the old architecture in the city, and La Catedral de Santa Maria. It was here where we found the Holy Grail! We're a little confused as to why the search is still going on, when it has been in a church in Valencia this whole time... Mainly we just wandered around, looking at all of the different buildings. That night we, for some reason, decided to eat at a Chinese restaurant. The menu was translated into English, but when the item listed was "Rice three delicious," it didn't really help. Despite being the only customers other than a lone guy quietly smoking a few tables away, our qualms were quickly put to easy when the food arrived, in generous, delicious portions. Our second day in the city it was much nicer mainly because the weather cleared up, and decided to start the day with a visit to a botanical garden. We leisurely strolled up and down the aisles of vegetation, a pleasant break from the jungle of metropolitan life outside the walls. There were strange species of cacti, palm trees, and some fruits and vegetables growing that we couldn't recognize. After spending about an hour and a half here, we took advantage of the persistant beautiful weather and walked through another park. This was one of the more unique parks that we have visited. According to Salva, the Rio Turia running through Valencia flooded badly about ten to fifteen years ago. Apparently it had been a problem in the past, and they decided to finally do something about it. They diverted the entrie river to go around the city (Providence, anyone?)* and made the former route into a park, weaving through the entire city filled with sports fields, walking and biking paths, and playgrounds. We walked through the entire park to the end, where we found "the city of arts and sciences," a large park with some stunning modern architecture (think Jetsons arcitecture) housing a science museum and an imax theater, as well as other buildings that housed arts and science exhibitions. Although it certainly was not typically Valencian or even typically Spanish, we spent about 3 hours in the science museum. It was quite fascinating, and we explored exhibits centering on memory/perception, sound, energy, light, and design - most of them interactive. One exhibit consisted of about 30 chicken eggs, ready to hatch in incubators. It's funny how captivating a chick pecking its way out of a shell can be for people of any age (translation: we watched for about 40 minutes before tearing ourselves away, staying longer than the children). We decided that watching a live baby chick birth is so much cuter than a live human birth. The museum closed before we had a chance to visit the rest of the floor that we started on, let alone the next two above us. We blame the chickens. Later, we met Salva at a bar for a beer where he took us to a going away party for someone that he had just met a few weeks ago. Yet again, because of couchsurfing, we found ourselves at some improbable social event that we had no direct connection with. We noted a funny observation. When we arrived, we were certain that Salva and ourselves we the only three in an apartment of 30 that could speak English. However, the more this crowd drank, the more English speakers we found. Soon, we were sipping wine while chowing on finger food and cake with lots of friendly, interesting people eager to share travel stories and cultural differences. We left the next day, with a few mandarin oranges in our packs, picked by Salva the previous day from his families orange groves.
*The river in Providence's river was re-directed for aesthetic pupose in the mid nineties.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Amalfi Coast + Sicily
***FYI we posted twice in a row today, so if anyone is interesed in Rome, check out the one below! Also, we are working on one more post to "catch up" which will probably be ready by tomorrow. Or tonight. We've had a lot of trouble finding internet access the past week or so, but it should be okay from here on out.
Next up was the Amalfi Coast. We found a host, Gianfranco, living in a small town called Nocera, a little bit inland. He lived in a small house on a large property. Orange and lemon trees grew in the backyard, and we were surrounded by farms. One night we went out for pizza with his friends, and the next night he cooked us a pesto pasta, and we cooked falafel. He drove us up into the mountains for some beautiful but cloudy views, and then along the coast where we stopped in a few towns along the way: Amalfi, Positano, and . We also visited Pompeii from here. Pompeii is an ancient town that lies at the base of Mount Vesuvius, a volcano near the coast. When the volcano erupted in 79 AD, everyone in the town perished, but because of the rapidity of the eruption, everything was left in tact and it is actually still being excavated today. We seemed to be the only ones there that day, until we got to the "Lupa" (look it up) that is. This building in particular had crowds when the rest of the site was mostly vacant.
Later that day we boarded a night train to Sicily, where we had another host waiting for us. We had a late night connection in Salerno, where we had a couple of hours to kill. We spent most of the time in the waiting room, but decided to head out to the colder seats by the track when a fight between a couple of homeless guys over a blanket nearly broke out in the seat next to me. We finally boarded our train, ready to sleep the night away. The train was very uncomfortable and neither of us were able to get much sleep at all. We arrived at our destination at 6 something in the morning, tired and frustrated. It was just about dawn, but the sun had not risen yet. We walked the 100 yards to the nearest beach, collapsed in the sand, and watched the sun rise. This was nothing short of sublime after the miserable night that we had. We fell asleep moments later, using our backpacks as pillows.
We awoke around 11 to a couple walking on the street not too far away, saying, "good moooorrninggggg," and giggling at the strangely dressed travelers sleeping on the beach. We spent most of the morning here, watching fisherman and skipping stones. We hoped to swim but it was pretty cloudy and not all that warm. In the afternoon we took a bus up a cliff to a town called Taormina. We ate arancini (fried rice balls with various stuffings), and finally enjoyed the sun when it came out. We got to chatting with a couple from the US who had been touring Italy for over 2 months, and they ended up giving us a ride back to the train station so we wouldn't have to walk.
Lucio, our host in Sicily, lived in Lentini, a small town outside of Siricusa. He welcomed us into his home, and happily cooked delicious meals for us two nights in a row. The meals were supplemented with the best olives I have ever tasted (he grew and brined them himself), homemade olive oil and pesto (made from the olives and basil growing in his garden), and accompanied by his homemade merlot (the grapes, also from his garden), which he liberally shared with us.
The one thing that we really wanted to do in Sicily was visit Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. We failed at this for two days in a row. After our first failure, we ended up walking around Catania instead, where we enjoyed some delicious homemade gelato to cheer us up, and found a "beach" to relax on. The beach was covered in trash and had too many flies. We were pretty bummed, but figured we could just do Etna tomorrow. To make matters worse, when we tried to catch a train back to Lentini, we were told that we needed to wait over two hours for the next one. We did find a neat fishing pier to walk out on that killed some time (it took about an hour to get to the end of it).
After Etna fail number two, we hopped on a train to Messina, where we were able to find a beach and some sun. The water was chilly (think Rhode Island beach in early June before it has had the chance to heat up much), but we were able to enjoy it much more than the beach in Catania. Later that day we took a train to the other end of Sicily. We had a very early flight to catch in the morning to Barcelona and had decided to be safe, that we would just sleep in the airport. Getting there was trying; we took a train, a bus, and then walked about two miles before getting a ride the rest of the way (another two miles).
Once in the airport we attemped to sleep. Despite the SWARMING flies and intensive vaccuuming going on, Marisa was able to wrap her head in a scarf and catch a few hours of sleep. Andy was not so lucky. In any case, we made our flight in the morning, but not before having to lose 4 kg (8.8 pounds) from Andy's luggage weight. And by "lose," I definitely mean fill our pockets with guidebooks, electronics equipment, and pebbles from the Cinque Terre, as well as wear several shirts and jackets each. Eventually, we boarded the plane.
Next up was the Amalfi Coast. We found a host, Gianfranco, living in a small town called Nocera, a little bit inland. He lived in a small house on a large property. Orange and lemon trees grew in the backyard, and we were surrounded by farms. One night we went out for pizza with his friends, and the next night he cooked us a pesto pasta, and we cooked falafel. He drove us up into the mountains for some beautiful but cloudy views, and then along the coast where we stopped in a few towns along the way: Amalfi, Positano, and . We also visited Pompeii from here. Pompeii is an ancient town that lies at the base of Mount Vesuvius, a volcano near the coast. When the volcano erupted in 79 AD, everyone in the town perished, but because of the rapidity of the eruption, everything was left in tact and it is actually still being excavated today. We seemed to be the only ones there that day, until we got to the "Lupa" (look it up) that is. This building in particular had crowds when the rest of the site was mostly vacant.
Later that day we boarded a night train to Sicily, where we had another host waiting for us. We had a late night connection in Salerno, where we had a couple of hours to kill. We spent most of the time in the waiting room, but decided to head out to the colder seats by the track when a fight between a couple of homeless guys over a blanket nearly broke out in the seat next to me. We finally boarded our train, ready to sleep the night away. The train was very uncomfortable and neither of us were able to get much sleep at all. We arrived at our destination at 6 something in the morning, tired and frustrated. It was just about dawn, but the sun had not risen yet. We walked the 100 yards to the nearest beach, collapsed in the sand, and watched the sun rise. This was nothing short of sublime after the miserable night that we had. We fell asleep moments later, using our backpacks as pillows.
We awoke around 11 to a couple walking on the street not too far away, saying, "good moooorrninggggg," and giggling at the strangely dressed travelers sleeping on the beach. We spent most of the morning here, watching fisherman and skipping stones. We hoped to swim but it was pretty cloudy and not all that warm. In the afternoon we took a bus up a cliff to a town called Taormina. We ate arancini (fried rice balls with various stuffings), and finally enjoyed the sun when it came out. We got to chatting with a couple from the US who had been touring Italy for over 2 months, and they ended up giving us a ride back to the train station so we wouldn't have to walk.
Lucio, our host in Sicily, lived in Lentini, a small town outside of Siricusa. He welcomed us into his home, and happily cooked delicious meals for us two nights in a row. The meals were supplemented with the best olives I have ever tasted (he grew and brined them himself), homemade olive oil and pesto (made from the olives and basil growing in his garden), and accompanied by his homemade merlot (the grapes, also from his garden), which he liberally shared with us.
The one thing that we really wanted to do in Sicily was visit Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. We failed at this for two days in a row. After our first failure, we ended up walking around Catania instead, where we enjoyed some delicious homemade gelato to cheer us up, and found a "beach" to relax on. The beach was covered in trash and had too many flies. We were pretty bummed, but figured we could just do Etna tomorrow. To make matters worse, when we tried to catch a train back to Lentini, we were told that we needed to wait over two hours for the next one. We did find a neat fishing pier to walk out on that killed some time (it took about an hour to get to the end of it).
After Etna fail number two, we hopped on a train to Messina, where we were able to find a beach and some sun. The water was chilly (think Rhode Island beach in early June before it has had the chance to heat up much), but we were able to enjoy it much more than the beach in Catania. Later that day we took a train to the other end of Sicily. We had a very early flight to catch in the morning to Barcelona and had decided to be safe, that we would just sleep in the airport. Getting there was trying; we took a train, a bus, and then walked about two miles before getting a ride the rest of the way (another two miles).
Once in the airport we attemped to sleep. Despite the SWARMING flies and intensive vaccuuming going on, Marisa was able to wrap her head in a scarf and catch a few hours of sleep. Andy was not so lucky. In any case, we made our flight in the morning, but not before having to lose 4 kg (8.8 pounds) from Andy's luggage weight. And by "lose," I definitely mean fill our pockets with guidebooks, electronics equipment, and pebbles from the Cinque Terre, as well as wear several shirts and jackets each. Eventually, we boarded the plane.
Rome
Pulling into Rome was kind of surreal. It's nice that at this point in the trip that we aren't "used to" being in these major iconic cities, each one still takes us by surprise. We still feel overwhelmed and incredibly excited to be in these places- though we can now navigate a subway system like it's nobody's business (knock on wood...). We didn't have a host or anywhere booked, so we used our guidebook to pick a few places close-by and called when we got into the train station. Marisa was slightly disappointed when the first woman told her that a bed in her hostel was 24 euro per person, but when she explained that it was too much for us to pay, the woman wanted to bargain. We ended up getting the room for 15 euro per person that night, and Marisa discovered a hidden skill- one that would be honed and perfected in the coming days. Starving after a day of travel, but in need of a cheap meal after a few days in the Cinque Terre, we turned to our Let's Go book for a suggestion. They reccommended a restaurant right around the corner, whose pizza was apparently "delectable," and wine cheap at 1.10 per quarter liter. Sounds great.
To start, the restaurant is empty and over-lit. The white linen table clothes meet awkwardly with basement foamboard cieling tiles. The pizza is far from delectable- the crust was that of a low-grade frozen pizza, no, the whole thing tasted like a low-grade frozen pizza. The "creamy pasta al forno" turned out to be limp lasagna noodles in a watery meat ragu. Marisa's white wine, though cheap as advertised, was room temperature. Andy's glass of red was colder. We left feeling discouraged, and wondering if maybe we shouldn't be trusting a guidebook written by college students to choose our restaurants for us. The upshot of the night was when Marisa reached into her pocket and found the foil-wrapped block of pecorino cheese left over from the night before. That cheese, we determined, saved the day. On the way home, Marisa bargained her way to a cheap bottle of red wine.
Because there was so much to see in Rome, Marisa carefully plotted our course around the city for the next two days. On day one, we got an early start. We saw the Colloseum, the Roman Forum, and Palantine Hill. It was crazy to be in a large, modern city, and then all of a the Colloseum is right in front of you, or some other unidentifiable structure equally as old. For lunch, we stopped at a pizzeria downtown. We thought it would be a good choice due to the lack of English speaking patrons. We observed for a few minutes before venturing to put our order in. There were about three people behind the counter, each with a pair of giant scissors that they would use to cut the foccacia style pizza into a strip however large or small you desired. It was then weighed, and priced by the 100 g. Our phrasebook Italian didn't fool the good-hearted man behind the counter who laughed when I ordered, and asked me how large I wanted my piece of the pizza with tomatoes, basil, and buffalo mozzarella cheese. It was so good I went back for more- this time with zucchini and cheese. Andy enjoyed pizza too.
That night we attended a couchsurfing event held on the outskirts of town. For 12 euro per person, we could enjoy as much food and wine as we could stuff in ourselves. We had checked out of the hostel that morning, hoping that we might be able to find a host at the dinner. We were in luck. We met a gentelman named Richard before the event started, all three of us wandering around some part of town in search of it. We ended up sitting at the same table and chatted for much of the night. He is from Frankfurt, Germany, and living in Rome for just a few months in order to improve his Italian (we were not able to help with that). When it was time to go, he saw our backpacks and offered us his couch. We very happily accepted. Marisa ate several baby shrimp at the dinner,thinking that they were golden raisins, and we both enjoyed the seemingly endless jugs of wine. Richard was pretty busy during the day, but did manage to show us a few little pastry shops near his house where we picked up some snacks.
The next day we saw a LOT. We started with the Vatican. We ticked off the Vatican Museums (Sistine Chapel) and Saint Peter's Basilica in the morning. St. Peter's was the most ornate of all the churches we have been in. The artwork here was also very impressive- mosaics that I could have sworn were paintings, and massive magnificent sculptures. After the Vatican, we made our way to the Pantheon. Here, I was very confused. As we walked up to the entrance, I turned to Andy and said, "wait, no, this isn't it, this is a church..." Little did I know that the Pantheon (meaning many gods!) was transformed into a Catholic Church. I was expecing ancient ruins, not a well kept ancient structure displaying opulant crosses and other religious symbols. I do realize that it is because of this transformation from pagan house of worship to Catholic church that it is the best kept ancient Roman building, but I can't help but think that it's a little strange and even perverse.
Some food that we enjoyed that is definitely worth mentioning: Jewish style fried artichokes from a little restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto, pasta cacio e pepe and rabbit (guess who had what...) at a restaurat that my mom and dad reccommended in the Trastevere section of town.
Next: Amalfi Coast + Sicily
To start, the restaurant is empty and over-lit. The white linen table clothes meet awkwardly with basement foamboard cieling tiles. The pizza is far from delectable- the crust was that of a low-grade frozen pizza, no, the whole thing tasted like a low-grade frozen pizza. The "creamy pasta al forno" turned out to be limp lasagna noodles in a watery meat ragu. Marisa's white wine, though cheap as advertised, was room temperature. Andy's glass of red was colder. We left feeling discouraged, and wondering if maybe we shouldn't be trusting a guidebook written by college students to choose our restaurants for us. The upshot of the night was when Marisa reached into her pocket and found the foil-wrapped block of pecorino cheese left over from the night before. That cheese, we determined, saved the day. On the way home, Marisa bargained her way to a cheap bottle of red wine.
Because there was so much to see in Rome, Marisa carefully plotted our course around the city for the next two days. On day one, we got an early start. We saw the Colloseum, the Roman Forum, and Palantine Hill. It was crazy to be in a large, modern city, and then all of a the Colloseum is right in front of you, or some other unidentifiable structure equally as old. For lunch, we stopped at a pizzeria downtown. We thought it would be a good choice due to the lack of English speaking patrons. We observed for a few minutes before venturing to put our order in. There were about three people behind the counter, each with a pair of giant scissors that they would use to cut the foccacia style pizza into a strip however large or small you desired. It was then weighed, and priced by the 100 g. Our phrasebook Italian didn't fool the good-hearted man behind the counter who laughed when I ordered, and asked me how large I wanted my piece of the pizza with tomatoes, basil, and buffalo mozzarella cheese. It was so good I went back for more- this time with zucchini and cheese. Andy enjoyed pizza too.
That night we attended a couchsurfing event held on the outskirts of town. For 12 euro per person, we could enjoy as much food and wine as we could stuff in ourselves. We had checked out of the hostel that morning, hoping that we might be able to find a host at the dinner. We were in luck. We met a gentelman named Richard before the event started, all three of us wandering around some part of town in search of it. We ended up sitting at the same table and chatted for much of the night. He is from Frankfurt, Germany, and living in Rome for just a few months in order to improve his Italian (we were not able to help with that). When it was time to go, he saw our backpacks and offered us his couch. We very happily accepted. Marisa ate several baby shrimp at the dinner,thinking that they were golden raisins, and we both enjoyed the seemingly endless jugs of wine. Richard was pretty busy during the day, but did manage to show us a few little pastry shops near his house where we picked up some snacks.
The next day we saw a LOT. We started with the Vatican. We ticked off the Vatican Museums (Sistine Chapel) and Saint Peter's Basilica in the morning. St. Peter's was the most ornate of all the churches we have been in. The artwork here was also very impressive- mosaics that I could have sworn were paintings, and massive magnificent sculptures. After the Vatican, we made our way to the Pantheon. Here, I was very confused. As we walked up to the entrance, I turned to Andy and said, "wait, no, this isn't it, this is a church..." Little did I know that the Pantheon (meaning many gods!) was transformed into a Catholic Church. I was expecing ancient ruins, not a well kept ancient structure displaying opulant crosses and other religious symbols. I do realize that it is because of this transformation from pagan house of worship to Catholic church that it is the best kept ancient Roman building, but I can't help but think that it's a little strange and even perverse.
Some food that we enjoyed that is definitely worth mentioning: Jewish style fried artichokes from a little restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto, pasta cacio e pepe and rabbit (guess who had what...) at a restaurat that my mom and dad reccommended in the Trastevere section of town.
Next: Amalfi Coast + Sicily
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