Day 6: Our first day in Roma

...we finally arrived at Roma Termini.

It was like a large airport.  There were a ton of people, stores, restaurants and it was kind of hard to find our way out of there.  We took a cab to our hotel called Hotel Barberini.  Its our least favorite of the three, but it is still ok.  The room is about as big as the room in Venice but the bathroom is much bigger.  The air didn't come on until June 15th in Venice but it did work in both Florence and Rome.  The room in Rome was pretty ugly.  The comforter, curtains and even the walls all have matching material with a horrific pattern all over them.

We decided to go do our own bit of exploring of Rome despite having our full day tour the next day.  We ended up coming across the president of Italy's home.  Its the equivalent of the White House for us.  We didn't realize that until the guard we asked for directions told us that's where we were.  We were pretty impressed.

The president's home

We did some more exploring and came across some amazing buildings/ruins.  We didn't exactly know what we were looking at.  I had my Italy book with me and we found out what we were looking at and then found it in the book.  There was a massive monument erected in the early 1900's in honor of the first King of Italy, Emmanuel II.

King Emmanuel II monument

This building is absolutely massive.  Statues decorate the top of the building and courtyard.  There are many steps leading to the top as well.  They have a memorial for an unknown soldier at the top of the first set of stairs that has soldiers guarding it.  The gate was closed that day, so we weren't able to go in.  The locals have called the building "the wedding cake" or the "typewriter" because its so big and gaudy.  But it really is beautiful.  Especially now because a year ago it was cleaned - before it was black and dirty.

We were going to wait to see the Colosseum until the next day but we couldn't help ourselves.  It took us by surprise because we were so close to it.  We started walking down a street towards it and all of a sudden we saw it!  This building was truly monumental.  It was exactly what we pictured.  We took some pictures of us in front of it and then some of us touching it!  We were so impressed!

When we saw the Colosseum in the distance

It was huge!!!

We had to put our bare feet on the steps of the Colosseum

One of my favorite pictures of the trip

Before we walked down to see these buildings we walked down the streets and were so impressed by the prices of certain items compared to what we had seen in other towns.  We came across one store that had the Italian beer we found we both like, called Moretti, for only 2Euro.  However, I found that I liked a different one called Peroni better.  We found some gifts for the nieces and nephews for 1Euro each and they were really neat.  They are little miniature models of buildings and statues that we've seen here in Rome.  We also found some awesome artists along the way down the road.  There was this one guy making unique paintings using spray paint.  Then we found a guy selling some really nice water-color paintings.  We ended up getting three because we really wanted to get some actual art pictures while in Italy.  However, upon examining the painting, we think it could possibly have been printed but its hard to tell.  So we're just going to go with them being the real-deal.

Apparently this guy didn't know half of his butt was hanging out...  This is the artist that used spray paint

This is what most of the streets looked like...many vendors.  Mostly selling the same thing. 

We have found really neat places to eat along the way too.  They call everything a bar or pizzeria around here.  Everyone sells pizza.  There's also a lot of gelato around too.  Another thing about Rome and Florence is there are a TON of scooters!!  They are absolutely everywhere and they are all crazy.  There's also such a variety of people here.  You walk around and hear people talking in all sorts of languages.  Mostly Italian but there are others too because this is such a tourist infested city.  There seemed to be a lot more Americans in Florence than in Venice and in Rome it seemed to be the easiest to communicate with the locals because they all speak pretty good English (for the most part).

After sitting and staring at the Colosseum we finally decided to head back.

Oh I forgot to mention seeing the Trevi Fountain.  This was the second thing we saw (after seeing the president's house).  This is one of the most famous fountains in the world.  Its been in several movies like "Le Dulci Vita," and "Roman Holiday."  It was built in the 1700's and is actually water from the only aqueduct that was reconstructed after the fall of Rome and the destruction of all the aqueducts by the Germans.

The Trevi Fountain

 It is a whimsical rendition of mythical sea creatures amid cascades of splashing water.  Legend has it that you can ensure your return to Rome by tossing a coin into the fountain.  Of course, Nate and I threw some in.

Our evening came to an end and we had called the front desk for a wake-up call at 7:45 a.m.  We had to meet our tour guide in the lobby of our hotel at 9:00 a.m.  We got a call at 6 something and it only beeped and there was no one on the other line.  So I called back and told them our wake up call was suppose to be at 7:45.  So the man apologized and Nate and I went back to sleep.  The next thing we know, I'm waking up and I ask Nate what time it is and his watch says 8:40!!  We were soooo mad!  We both needed showers and we were planning on having breakfast.  Nate called down to the front desk and expressed his anger and asked what the heck happened.  They apologized and weren't sure.  We ended up getting down there in time (without showers or breakfast) but we were not happy campers.

Day 5: Hiking through Cinque Terre

May 30, 2010

We just got on our train to Rome.  Its pretty fancy!  Seats are really comfortable.  They even recline!  We got up around 8 am and had some breakfast and packed our bags and started walking towards the train station in Florence.  The walk was pretty exhausting...  We did not want to get up this morning at all because we had a very long day in Cinque Terre.

Yesterday morning we got up at 5:00 am and headed to the train station to leave at 6:10 a.m. We had a train connection in Le Spezia.  We had to wait there for about an hour.  Our next train finally arrived and we boarded it heading to Riomaggiore (the first of five towns of Cinque Terre we came to).  Upon approaching the town we went through tunnel after tunnel and it seemed like we would never get out of them and then finally there was a break in the mountain!  We had our first glimpse of the Mediterranean!  It was beautiful!  We knew then that we were almost there!  After nearly four hours on the trains we finally arrived at 10:00 am.  We got off the train and immediately started taking pictures.  It was gorgeous!

We discovered quickly that we had to pay five euro a piece to hike the trail.  That was sort of annoying to find out.  We began up the steps and started off the trail with a gorgeous view.  The trail between Riomaggiore and the Manorola is called Via dell'Amore ("Lover's Lane").  This was a great start to the trail because it was not steep and had spectacular views.

We took many pictures...it was beautiful.

The trail went through each of the five towns of Cinque Terre.  Each segment had its own uniqueness.  If we wanted to take a break at each town we could.  We decided not to stop until we got to the town called Vernazza.  This was the fourth of five towns.  The trail was closed between the last two towns of Vernazza and Monterosso.  We were told that this was the most challenging of the trails too.  It was closed because of a landslide.  They had gotten a lot of rain that May.

There were vineyards on the sides of the mountains and gorgeous flowers throughout the entire trail.  I can't describe how beautiful this all was.  It left me speechless.  I'll put up some pictures of the hike before we got to Vernazza here...

The buildings were built right into the rock side!  Crazy!

Do you see the bee?

Notice the ladders to get to the next level of the vineyard...literally straight up!

We take this flag with us on all of our hiking trips.  We write the date, name of the trail and how many miles it was on the flag

It was pretty neat to come to Vernazza.  The trail was mostly downhill with a LOT of steps.  I felt bad for all the people coming up the steps just starting the trail because it was pretty demanding and they had quite a bit to go!  Nate and I were both pretty impressed by some of the older folks that were just trucking along like it was nothing!  We saw people like this all over the trail.

The town you see here is Vernazza.  The town in the distance that the boat is headed is Monterosso.

When we finally made it down the steps into the town of Vernazza there was a pizzeria right in front of us.  We were both thinking the same thing.  We chugged some water and had some great pizza for lunch.  We then tried to find Nate some swim trunks and that went badly.  We found some nice trunks but they wouldn't let him try them on.  They were his size but when he put them on in the next town (after we took the water ferry across the water way) they did not fit at all.  They were incredibly tight.  And he had paid quite a bit for them... We were both extremely mad about this.

When we were in Vernazza we sat out on some rocks and watched the waves crash against the rocks.  There were people climbing up onto the tall rocks and jumping off into the water.  Maybe 15-20 feet up.

Notice the girl jumping off the rock

We bought a ferry ticket and fought the crowd to get on the boat.  It was really neat to use each of the three only ways to travel between town to town - train, hike and ferry.

The next town had a great beach that we wanted to go to.  We were in for a surprise!  The beach was covered in pebbles!  It was pretty difficult to walk on, and really uncomfortable to lay on.  We also forgot towels so I used my jacket to sit on and back pack to lean against.  Nate wanted to get in the water but when he went to put his feet in he quickly reconsidered.  It was freezing!!!  He finally got the courage to get in when he saw there were elderly women in the water up to their neck.  I finally got the courage to go in myself.  It took me a good while though.  It really was extremely cold.  I stayed in as long as I could but the sun kept getting covered by the clouds and it was getting colder by the minute.  It was also getting close to 5-6 p.m.  I got out at one point because I was so cold and we were having to air dry.  Nate wanted me to get back in the water but I refused.  Finally I thought..."how many times do I get to swim in the Mediterranean with my husband?"  So...I got back in again!!

We finally dried off and relaxed on the beach a bit before changing again and heading up to town for dinner.

 

Some of their vehicles are TINY!!! I just don't understand!  There's no way Nate could fit in this thing

We both had lasagna (which wasn't very impressive) while we sat at this restaurant with spectacular views of the mountains and the sea.  It finally was time for our train to arrive and we departed for Florence again.

We tried so hard not to fall asleep but we did anyway!  We had one connection to make and then it was straight to Florence.  We got back at like 11:00 p.m.  We had a tiring walk back to the hotel from the train station but when we got back to the room we took showers and immediately fell asleep.

We had to get to our train the next morning at 10:00 a.m. to head to Rome.  We did the "duffle shuffle" from our hotel to the train station which pretty much sucked but a taxi would've been 10 Euro so we were ok with it.

We got to our train just fine and it was really nice.  A man sat beside Nate who was with his wife and daughter.  We talked with him for awhile on our ride.  They were from California.  It made our trip go by pretty quickly.  Before we knew it we were at Roma Termini.

Day 4: A nap and some dinner!

After we got back from our tour of Tuscany we ended up taking another nap.  Because of the decongestant I've been taking, its been making me very sleepy.  I fell asleep on Nate every time we got in the car during the tour.  It was funny.  The roads here are pretty horrible and the drivers are even worse!!  But somehow they have a flow that works for them.  Its much different driving than in the US.  And its mostly very very tiny vehicles and scooters!

After our awesome nap we decided to get ready to go to dinner.  We decided to dress up tonight.  I wore Allison's black dress and my heels.  Nate wore his comfy golf pants and black AE polo.  He looked very sharp!  He even did his hair!  He's gotten pretty good at it I must say.

He really wanted to try one of the restaurants directly across the river from our hotel.  We had two to choose from...we decided on "Golden View Open Bar."

While we waited for a table they brought us two glasses of champagne.  We finally got a table and the view was amazing.  We could see where our hotel was and had a great view of Ponte Vecchio.  There was actually a slide projection on the entire bridge.  It was abstract type art/pictures they were projecting.

We ordered a bottle of wine that we had tried that day called Vernacia, when we visited the town of San Gimigiano.  We also got a bottle of still water (its not customary to order tap water over here).

Nate ordered a grilled chicken breast and I had four cheese ravioli.  The cheese sauce on the ravioli was spectacular.  Nate used it to dip his chicken into.  We learned that most wines taste much better after you take a bite of your food.  After dinner we finished our wine while listening to the jazz band playing in the restaurant.  It was an incredible place.  We forgot our camera, so we didnt get any pictures, but we will surely remember this place!

We are waking up at 5 am for our 6:10 am train to Cinque Terre tomorrow.

Day 4: Our tour of Tuscany

Today we met our private tour guide, Christian, in the lobby of our hotel at 9:30 a.m.  Once we were loaded up and ready to go explore Tuscany, he took us to Michelangelo's Square to see one of the most famous views in Florence.

You could see the Synagogue, Ponte Vecchio, il Duomo and our hotel.  Shortly there after we got back on the crazy streets of the Italian drivers and headed to San Gimigiano for some sight seeing of the town.  This town is famous for the towers that the families would build to show how wealthy they were.


We walked around admiring the sights and taking in the views of the town overlooking vineyards and olive groves.  We stopped in the town square and Brittany wanted to get some Gelato from a certain shoppe our guide had shown us.  I said that we have had gelato everyday so far and she said "but this is 'World Famous Gelato.'"  So needless to say we got some. 

We then headed to a small traditional restaurant in the Siena.  We tried some red wine, ate some bruschetta - one with diced tomatoes, another with mushrooms, the next with lard from a pig and finally chicken liver.  All of which were pretty good but none of them our favorite.  I had the grilled pork chops with mixed vegetables and Britt had the wild boar stew which was also delicious.  After lunch we headed back up the road to a small family owned and operated winery.

This is Christian, our tour guide

The husband and wife that own the winery were on vacation and found this place, bought it and restored it.  They made their life in Italy.  They only have a handful of people working for them and they put out thousands of bottles of wine every year.  One of the girls that worked for them showed us around and we tasted some of their wine, which was really good.  We bought a bottle of wine that we will save for a special occasion one day!  Once we were finished with the winery we headed to a small town in Chianti called Greve.  The town itself was actually built around a food market that is still very active today.  Every Saturday the locals have the market square slammed packed with people.  We visited one of the local butchers that deals with pork, wild boar, beef and cheese.

We were able to taste some wines and try some of the different cheeses they had to offer and we even tried some of the wild boar.  After a full day our driver dropped us off at our hotel and said goodbye.  His wife is due with their first born child any day.  Brittany is feeling a little better today - still stuffy but we are both very excited about hiking through Cinque Terre tomorrow.

This picture doesn't do this justice...the colors of Italy are amazing.  The lighting, the hundreds of year old buildings...Italy has such amazing character. 

Day 3: Our first day in Firenze

We finally arrived at Florence's termini (train terminal station) and got a taxi to take us to our hotel ("Hotel degli Orafi").  It is in view of the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge - which is covered in shops.  The name means "old bridge."  It is a beautiful sight.

Our room was also very nice.  Pretty big bathroom (compared to the bathroom at the Dona Palace in Venice).  They had a bottle of champagne waiting on us with a "Happy Honeymoon!" note.

We actually couldn't check in to our hotel until 2 p.m.  So we went to the Duomo and waited in line to climb to the top of the dome.  It was insane!!  It was almost 500 steps up!  The inside of the dome was very impressive.  I can't imagine how they painted the inside of the dome!  It was sooo high up.

The walls are completely flat and contoured.  Notice how they
painted the man's leg in the center of this picture. 
It looks like his leg is hanging over the edge.

We finally got to the top and it was completely breath-taking!  We took plenty of pictures and video then made our way back down.  I was soooo sick this day.  I had body aches and felt like complete crap.  But I sucked it up and put a smile on anyways!

This is the Chapel of the il Duomo (the dome is
behind this building)

We began walking back to the hotel and came across a bunch of replica sculptures found in this square near the Uffizi gallery.  We walked around and took in the amazing sculptures.  We were very impressed.  There was the replica of the Statue of David standing where the original stood for many years.  After taking some pictures we headed back to the hotel and checked in.

Notice where the spear pierced Jesus

This is the replica of the Statue of David (they do not allow
pictures taken of the original)

Next on our list was to go to the Galleria de Academia which is where the original Statue of David is located.  There were numerous original paintings by Michelangelo and other famous artists found in the gallery.  Without a doubt, the Statue of David stole the show.  It was absolutely gigantic!  Very impressive!  I just kept staring in awe at it just thinking back to my different art classes where I studied this figure and now I am seeing the real deal in person!  Spectacular.  We then made our way through the museum; I couldn't stop looking at the intense detail in each of the paintings.  The other sculptures there blew my mind.  It was amazing!

We headed out of the museum and bought some post cards then went and found some awesome gelati.  We sat outside the Duomo with its enourmous walls towering over us while we ate our gelati.

Strawberry (or fragola in Italian) was my favorite gelato

We took a slow walk back to the hotel and took a detour to the Ponte Vecchio.  On the other side of the bridge we ate dinner at a nice cafe.  They all seem to sell the same stuff...pizza, pasta, gelati, beer and wine.  We both got the calzone - which was a little different from what we were use to.

We came back to the hotel and used our free voucher for two drinks we received upon check-in.  We sat on the terrace of the fifth floor with views of the Duomo on one side of the river and Ponte Vecchio on the other side.



The dome in the center is the Duomo - we walked to the very very top of the dome





After enjoying a few drinks and the amazing view we went back to the room to enjoy our champagne.

Tomorrow morning we will be picked up to be taken on a private tour of Tuscany.  We are going to see if its possible to visit the Leaning Tower in Pisa.

Day 2: Our last day in Venezia

The next morning we tried to get up early at 7:30 a.m.....that didn't happen.  We slept with the large windows open and ended up waking up to church bells ringing from Saint Mark's Square.  It was absolutely amazing. We started our day at 9:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. back in NC).  We began our walk through the streets of Venice and ended up stopping at a store to buy a bikini for myself because we realized on the plane that we both forgot to pack bathing suits!  We continued to the Rialto Bridge which is the only stone-built bridge across the Grand Canal.  It was of course covered in shops/vendors....all selling the same thing.

Shops on the other side of the Rialto Bridge

Rialto Bridge

Our next stop wasn't planned but it was well worth it.  We went inside of a church we came across that seemed to be pretty bland from the outside...but when we stepped inside we were awe-struck. Cameras were not allowed...but I snuck our camcorder to record some of it.  The cathedral ceilings were spectacular.  There were original paintings and sculptures all over the place.  We signed our names in a book stating who we were and where we were from.

"Brittany Lawing & Nathan Lawing - North Carolina, United States" 

We continued walking through the town towards Gallarie de Academia.  We were going to go inside until we realized how much it cost.  So we got some lunch (pizza and beer) and just sat and chatted.  Every single place you go to eat here, the main (if not only) option for drinking is either beer or wine.  Some places it costs more for a Coke and water is served in a bottle (sparkling or still).  Not going to lie...I'm getting pretty tired of beer and wine.  But this is their culture.

We continued on and took pictures throughout the city.  We came across many produce stands, artists and performers.  There was also a lot of homeless people...  We walked through shops with signs that read "Prada," "Louis Vuitton," "Chanel"... It was pretty awesome!  We walked into Louis Vuitton and walked back out pretty quickly after we saw the prices!  I mean, I realized it was expensive...but holy crap!  haha.  We ended up making our way back to St. Mark's Square.  We wanted to go to the Basilica (which is a big church in SMS) because we had heard it was free.  But that's just to get in the sanctuary.  We found out after hiking a bunch of steps that the terrace that goes around the outside of the Basilica was charging like 5Euro a piece.  So we turned around.  We admired the sanctuary and then left.  We were both absolutely exhausted.  So we took like a four hour nap.  We then got up and got ready for dinner.  We used a voucher we received when checking-in for 15% off at the hotel's restaurant across the street.  We both got spaghetti and meatballs.  It was probably the best I ever had. 

After dinner we went to find a gondolier.  We found a guy by himself so we were able to make a good price with him.  It was very romantic and pretty much what I had imagined, but experiencing it for myself totally surpassed my expectations.  He showed us where Marco Polo, Mozart and Casanova had once lived.  We had to lean hard to the right whenever we went under bridges because the tide had come in and the water was pretty high.  He brought us around to the Grand Canal and back under the bridge of Sighs.  He told us that if we kissed while going under the bridge it would be good luck!  

On the gondola after an amazing tour of the canals

He dropped us back off near St. Mark's Square.  We decided to just sit and people-watch.  It was fun watching people try to make it across the flooded square.  Some would walk right through it how they would normally walk, some tip-toed, some stepped with their heels and some took their shoes completely off.  It was perfect weather that night too.  The moon was big (like a big pizza pie, lol)  and the breeze was only slight.

Truly beautiful this night...

 Oh! I forgot about earlier before dinner, when we were just walking through the city we stopped at this cafe/bar that seemed to be more mine and Nate's style.  There was a younger crowd outside the door.  The windows were large and open.  Nate and I grabbed a seat near the window so we could watch the different people walk buy.  I got the most amazing sangria I think I have ever had at this place.  Nate got an Italian beer...and I convinced him to get whats called a lemon chello.  I had heard it was sweet and tangy...turns out it was just plain horrible. 

We finally went back to the room and packed our stuff up and took showers.  We had a pretty special night that night.  The next morning we got up at 6:30 a.m. to wait on our transfer to pick us up.  It was a lady this time.  She had arranged for a water taxi to pick us up from the hotel.  It took us directly to the train station.  We got there early and she explained our tickets to us and how we find our train when it arrives.

We went to get a croissant and some water for breakfast while we waited for our train to arrive.  When it finally pulled up we dragged our bags to the very first cart..."first class."  They gave us some snacks and drinks on the ride.  We made a few stops before arriving to Florence.  Nate said the landscape reminded him of Iraq but greener.  We stopped at the train station in Bologna...which was cool.  We kept on after that and got to a point on the track where we kept going in and out of tunnels.  There were some Americans from Chicago in front of us that we talked to for a little bit. 

We finally arrived in Florence.