Florence and Rome with Family

Sunday November 8th

Heading to Florence!!!

I’m not sure how we did it, but someone we managed to get 8 people in a 7 seater van, along with about 10 suitcases and 3 bookbags…. The door on the back of the van had to be tied shut to fit it all in, some things sat on our laps and Tim even sat on a suitcases as his seat since we were one seat short! We must have looked like the Grizzwalds on National Lampoons European Vacation!!! The drive was pretty uneventful, except for the few circles we made around the loop right outside the Florence airport where we had to drop off our rental car, their signs for rental car drop off are pretty non existent and we ended up asking at a gas station and the Hertz man just happened to walk in at the same time! After dropping off the van, we took a bus to the Florence train station and then it was just a short 10 minute walk to our hotels, dragging all our luggage through the rain and puddles! The weather was pretty rainy the rest of the day, we did some shopping at the large market in Florence, visited the Basilica there- I saw the tomb of Brunelleschi – he designed the dome for the top of the church, and had a great dinner in Piazza Repubblica in an enclosed area with heaters. I had a great dish- it was penne pasta with a cream sauce, peppers and zucchini- at least that is what the menu had said, it turned out that the peppers were actually peppercorns and added a great zest with a little spice to the entire dish! We finished our dinner with cappuccino and a hot chocolate for me then headed to Piazza del Signoria to see the fake statue of David, the original by Michelangelo and headed back to do some skyping on the internet and goods night sleep.

Monday November 9th

Our second day in Florence we headed across the Ponte Vecchio (oldest surviving bridge crossing the river out of the histories area of Florence) and onward to Micheangelo park. A few of us climbed to the top of the park for a great view of the entire city, seeing the size of the city showed us how little we had touched of the big city, but it was time now for us to move on to Rome! We walked back to the hotel, getting another view of the fake David in day light along the way and then made our way back to the train station, luggage in hand again. We took the 3:13 train to Rome, we arrived around 6:30ish, made our way to our hotel with only a few wrong turns and had dinner at a great restaurant right across the street for out hotel! Pizza, pasta, lasagna, wine and cappuccino- what more could we ask for after a long day of traveling. After dinner Mom, Dad, Tim and I took the 15minute walk to the Trevi fountain, had some gelato and some great picture opportunity’s since it was a weekday and off season it was not nearly as crowded as when my study abroad group visited Rome.

Tuesday November 10th

Today we headed out to the Vatican museum, I had already been here by I was very excited to share some of the great artwork inside with my family! We saw early works of paintings and sculptures and we able to see later works by the same and newer artists and see the great changes and advancements art had made. After the museum we saw St Peters Basilica- I thought it was very interested that the roped off areas we could not enter were completely different from that of when my study abroad group visited St Peters Basilica… We walked out through the Piazza and down towards Castello San Angelo to see a great view of all of Rome at sunset. On our way to dinner that night we walked to Piaaza Nouva or Novano (???) and saw the Four Rivers Fountain by Bernini. After dinner we continued are walking and site-seeing to the Pantheon and the Trevi fountain again! Who knows how many miles we walked in all- the museuam alone could have been 2 or 3!

Wednesday November 11th

Today we visited the Coliseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We took the metro to get to the Coliseum as we had yesterday to get to the Vatican, however today we were riding a different line. We all looked at the map and the direction the trains were running and made our way to the right platform, where there was a train sitting with the doors open. Now normally the metro trains do not leave the doors open for long and the stops have to quick on and off. Well this one did not see to be leaving quite as fast so we all made a quick decision to hop on…On, On, On we said. We moved so fast! As soon as we were on the train the arrow pointing to the direction the train would be going and the stops it would make seemed to be the opposite way we wanted to go… very quickly we all said off, off, off…. Now we wondered what to do, I asked the security/police guy and he said yes that was the train we needed… We decided the doors were going to close at any second now and so we waited for the next train. The next train was very fully and we all almost didn’t make it on, the doors started closing and I scared a few of us by pushing the doors back open to get Mom and Elaine on the train- it sure was a lot of excite for just the beginning of our day!!! After our site-seeing we had a schedule time at the Borghese museum and had yet another bit of excitement trying to figure out which bus to get on the get us there!!! The museum was having a special exhibit of Caravaggio’s and Bacon’s artwork- comparing the two side by side, artists from several centuries apart but yet they both had deep emotional struggles and internal conflict. Also in the museum are some wonderful sculptures by Bernini, which I could stare at day after day! After the museum we finished our visit in Rome with a walked to the Spanish Steps and a walked inside the Pantheon, where Raphaels tomb is. We ended up at the Trevi fountain one more time on our way home because somehow it always ended up on our path!