Siena

Day 5

Tuesday morning, Laura left for Ireland and Nick, Chase and I headed to the train station and bought tickets to Siena.

We had no idea what we would find in Siena. The town had been recommended to me to visit so we figured there was no harm in going. The only thing was, we didn't really think it through. First off, our train tickets were actually taking us to another town from which we took an hour long bus ride to Siena. I was really glad that was the case, the train went through a lot of tunnels whereas the bus took us on a path that allowed us to really see the tuscan countryside. Plus, it was a coach bus, not a dirty city bus.

Once we arrived in Siena, we had no clue where to go. We were dropped off at the train station so we hopped on the first public transport bus we saw. It took us about 10 minutes one direction, and then reached the end of it's line. While the driver took his break I asked him if his bus would take us to the city center. Meraculusly, between my complete lack of Italian and his of English, we communicated enough for me to understand that if we stayed on long enough, we would reach the city center. So we stayed on. Then we got antsy at the first sight of what might be considered the city center and got off. Turns out we were still a few stops away but that was alright. I asked an elderly English gentleman where to go and he was able to give us directions. 

 So we finally made our way to the part of Siena that you go there to see. On the way we got to walk through lots of streets that looked like this.

Along the way I spotted this neat library.

 Eventually we made it to the center. This is the plaza at the heart of the city. Once a year the edges are covered in dirt and there is a horse race! I wish we had been there then, it seems to be a big deal. In fact, part of one of the Daniel Craig, James Bond movies was filmed here while it was set up for a race.

The best sight to see though was the city's cathedral. It was beautiful on the outside, which was enough of a reason for us not to pay to go inside. We were feeling a bit poor at that point.

That evening we ate dinner in Siena and then hopped on a train to go the last hour and a half to Florence. When we arrived in Florence we were greeted by Hayes and John, two other Hendrix guys. Hayes has been to Florence four times know so after showing us to our hostel, he gave us a nighttime tour of the city, which is now my absolute favorite way to get introduced. The gelato we were eating on the tour didn't hurt either.

Rome

Day 4

On our last day in Rome we headed to the Vatican, planning on touring the Vatican Museum. We knew the line would be long so we first walked through St. Peter's Square. Unfortunately, my camera decided that this would be the perfect time to die so I only got these pictures.

 This is the line to get into St. Peter's basilica, something that we missed out on.

So after we walked around the square we joined the longest line I have ever waited in. Then we stood. And waited. For 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Once we were finally inside the museum we only had a couple hours until the building closed so Laura and I rushed through many wonderful exhibits, straight to the Sistine Chapel.  Once inside we found ourselves in even bigger mobs than the ones populating the rest of the museum. Of course the ceiling was unbelievable, but I was a little let down! Because so many people ignore the no photography rule, the ceiling is very dimly lit to help protect it from the light of camera flashes. I could easily make out the beautiful paintings, but I couldn't see it as well as I would have liked. 

After about ten minutes, Laura and I headed out to see what else the museum had to offer. 

Fun fact: if you look at every item in the Vatican museum for 15 seconds, it will take you 3 months to see everything.

I realized that I had missed several very notable frescos done by Raphael that were along the path to the Sistine Chapel. This happened because throughout the museum there are signs directing you towards the Chapel and you can either take a long route or you can follow the shortcut signs.  Laura and I had taken most of the shortcuts to make sure we could see the ceiling which meant we had shortcutted right past the Raphael rooms, so we hurried back through a bunch of exhibits we had already hurried past once before. We practically ran past halls full of enormous painted maps, historical papal objects, egyptian artifacts, lots of art, and who knows what else for a second time but man, it was worth it.  Raphael's School of Athens is awesome. Of course it looks just like the pictures of it, but like with all art, seeing the painting in person is a completely different experience than peering at a photograph of the work in some textbook.

After going back for Raphael, we found ourselves in the Sistine Chapel again. This time we found seats along the side and were able to relax and take in the ceiling for another 15 minutes or so before we were herded out by the guards trying to close up.

Overall, our last day in Rome was spent primarily waiting in a line, occasionally being spattered with rain, but I saw some of my favorite pieces and that made it all worth it.

The West Country

I have to admit, I'm pretty tired this evening so you will all have to rely on the pictures more than the words, but maybe that's better.

This past weekend started in Bath. The town is known for it's natural hot springs that the Romans discovered and turned into communal and religious pools.

 We got to have a tour of the town which started in front of this church. If you look closely, you can see that there are ladders on either side of the entrance with angels climbing up towards heaven.

 The town became the place for the rich to spend months at a time living away from London. Large complexes like this were built to encourage socializing and gossip. The building is actually in a crescent shape, it was really neat. 

We went inside the Baths themselves too. The water looks all murky because they don't filter the water to keep it as similar to how the Romans would have used them as possible.

Saturday morning we headed up into Dartmore. 

We first went on a walk along a back road with houses that looked organic like this one.

After our walk we headed out to the mores. They were beautiful. The epitome of English countryside.

Sunday we headed out to the town of Padstow. A quaint seaside village.

There were benches everywhere, all dedicated to someone's memory, for sitting and enjoying the views.

Claire and I walked along the water barefoot.

 I think I would be happy living in that development across the bay.

The English are very environmentally conscious.

 From Padstow we drove to Tintagel Castle, birthplace of King Arthur. Very little of the castle is left but it must have been amazing. It's set right on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic.

 The views were breathtaking.

We finished up our day by watching the sunset over the water.

This pretty much describes how I felt in that moment.

We headed back to London Monday morning in order to be back in time for a production of Hamlet but first we stopped in a little town called Bradford upon Avon. It was very picturesque but unfortunately at the time we were there, most of the stores were closed and it was very cold outside so we didn't stay long.

The weekend was wonderful. If anybody ever visits England, they must see the countryside. To me, it represents the country better than London does.

Sorry!

Hey there! Sorry I went missing this weekend. I forgot to let you know that my class was going on a weekend trip to Bath, Dartmore, and Bradford. 

I will share the events and pictures of that later this evening hopefully, if not then tomorrow for sure.

Here is a little taste of what's to come.

After I update you on this past weekend I will get back to Italy. 

Cheerio!

Rome

Day 3

 On our third day in Rome, we wandered around without an agenda. We were ready for a break from the constant action of the previous couple of days so we took long walks through little streets that looked like this.

At one point I found a piazza filled with stars. 

 We finally made our way to the Tiber River, which offered this beautiful view of St. Peter's Basilica.

Once across the river, we came upon the St. Angel Castle. We chose not to pay to go inside and give our bank accounts a break.

Instead, we continued to walk along the river on the bike and pedestrian path that's paved along it.

Eventually we found Tiber Island. We didn't know what was special about it at the time, other than it is the only island in the river, but having done a little research I discovered that the island has been associated with healing in the past. I can say that my feet felt better after sitting on the island for a while before continuing on.

Next we walked along the area in which chariot races used to be held. You can see the Forum in the background. 

And finally, we ended up at the Roman Baths. 

As a whole the baths were my favorite ruins. They weren't too big, yet extremely impressive. It was easy to imagine what they might have looked like in their prime.  I also liked that the place wasn't swarming with tourists, unlike the Forum and the Colosseum.  

After dinner we took a little tour of the monuments at night. My best memories of cities seem to come from walking around when everything is lit up, it's magical. 

For my male readers, I took this picture of a Lamborghini Gallardo.

The Trevi Fountain was especially beautiful all lit up.

We ended the evening by eating gelato in front of the fountain and then taking part in a very popular tradition. It is said that if you turn your back to the fountain and trow a coin in, you will return to Rome one day. I befriended and American couple in front of the fountain who were sweet enough to take a picture of Nick, Laura and I tossing in our coins, and Chase pretending to. I guess he doesn't really want to come back unlike the rest of us. 

Rome

Day 2

Our second day in Rome started in a park that was once part of the Medici Palace grounds. 

My breakfast greeted me like this.

We wandered around the park for a while, enjoying the break from the dirt and noise of the city.

We walked along paths that looked like this.

 There were fountains scattered throughout.

And we found a hollow tree!

 Now, here comes one of the best parts of my whole trip. I got into the museum you see above, the Galleria Borghese. 

We actually almost didn't make it in. We walked up to the ticket desk and were informed that you have to make reservations to come into the gallery and the next available reservation day was Tuesday, it was Saturday. We were shocked, we just thought this was some small museum in the park, nothing special. The guy at the desk was nice enough to tell us to come back in an hour and he would see what he could do, so we did. When we got back he let us in because of some canceled reservations and man, that was the best luck I've had in years.  

It turns out, inside the Galleria Borghese reside Bernini's three most famous sculptures, David, Apollo and Daphne, and the Rape of Persephone. Bernini has been my favorite sculpture ever since I started learning about art history. His pieces can take my breath away in pictures, you can just imagine how I felt when I saw the real things, espcially my absolute favorite sculpture, the Rape of Persephone. I could not take pictures inside the museum to share with you but if you google them, you will find images easily.  Not only did the gallery house some of Bernini's best works, the walls were lined with baroque paintings from such painters as Caravaggio.  I was in heaven. I would have been happy to stay in the gallery all day, but of course my friends are not quite as enamored with art as I am and so we moved on after a good hour and a half.

We headed back towards the center of Rome and made our way down the Spanish Steps, they were a bit crowded to say the least. 

Finally, after a pit stop for lunch, we made our way to the Colosseum.  It is not as tall as I imagined it would be, but I'll share this picture with you so that you're not all as disillusioned as I am now. When we arrived at the Colosseum all we had to do was find the entrance since we already had tickets but Chase decided that it would be a good idea to take a picture with the guys outside dressed up as Roman soldiers. Now, Chase had been warning us since before we even arrived in Italy to avoid these guys at all costs because they're pick pockets and ex convicts, so it was a little frustrating that he decided to tempt fate.  He and Nick gave Laura their wallets so that they couldn't be pick pocketed and had me take their picture. Now, of course these guys are there to make money so when Chase refused to pay them they were not afraid to come after us. I tried to walk away but one of the soldiers, a really big guy, followed me, yelling about paying them for their services. Finally, Chase pretended to delete the pictures from his camera to get the guys away from us and we made our way inside. So the moral is, don't go near the fake Roman soldiers.

On the way in, Laura pointed out something cool to me. If you look closely, you can see the numbers above the archways directing spectators on which entrance to use.

Inside the Colosseum is pretty amazing. Imagine the whole place covered in white marble; that is how it was when the stadium was in use. 

The floor is now gone so that we can see down into where the animals and gladiators were held underneath.  There really isn't too much to say about the Colosseum. It is simply something that you have to experience. Lets just say that is is very big and very historical feeling.

After we left the Colosseum, we tried to track down a church but ended up in this little park instead.  We did find it later but Nick and I chose to opt out of the tour in order to save money so I have no pictures of it to share.  

After a rather disappointing dinner, we got some gelato and I snapped this quick picture of the Colosseum lit up with red light as it is every night. 

Rome

It is finally time for me to write about my fall break. In short, I LOVE ITALY!!! But that is not very descriptive. Because I have so much to share, I've decided to tell the story in pieces. I will share one day of my trip each day. This way, I don't get burned out writing about it and you guys get bored and stop reading about it. So, here I go...

Day 1

On our first day in Rome, we (meaning myself and friends, Nick, Chase, and Laura) decided to wander around the city and see some of the main tourist attractions without any sort of agenda. 

We started at the Trevi Fountain, a fountain unlike any other in the world I believe. It is enormous and beautiful.  Of course this means that a zillion tourists constantly surround it, but they are there for a reason. Just look for yourself.

Some wandering from the fountain lead us, next, to the Pantheon. From the outside you would never suspect that it was a building to take note of, in fact, I had no idea it was the Pantheon! The real beauty of the building is found inside. There are many important historical figures entombed within the Pantheon but I was most excited to see Raphael.  

The Pantheon ceiling. 

Next we made our way down the main street in Rome, ending with the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II.  The palace, as I refer to it, although I'm not sure if that's correct or if I made it up, is extraordinary.  The whole building is made of white marble with beautiful pictures carved into it and statues scattered throughout. Inside, we found a museum about the building but I was more interested in the structure itself. 

Continuing on our tour of the city, we came upon some ruins, not so surprising considering Rome is full of them, but these were more special than the others. These ruins marked the spot where Caesar was assassinated.

Strangely, the ruins are now home to dozens of stray cats. They seem to flock to the spot.

After stumbling upon the ruins, we headed to the Piazza Navona to see Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, or Fountain of the Four Rivers. The Piazza was packed with tourists and vendors selling all sorts of touristy merchandise of course but that's what you get when you go to a big city. I still can't believe the precision that Bernini sculpted this fountain with, it was amazing!

By the time we found the Fountain of the Four Rivers, we were starving, so we located a small sandwich shop just off the Piazza Navona that was recommended to us. After a delicious lunch of salami and olive sandwiches we continued our wandering back towards the city center, and the Forum. 

The Forum consists of an enormous area of ruins left by the ancient Romans. We wandered around the area for three hours and did not see everything it had to offer.  You can find a complete list of the structures that are left here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Forum

The day was wonderful. We had beautiful, warm weather. The restaurants we ate ate were delicious, and we got to see so much of the city.

We ended our day with this view of the Colosseum and gelato.

Enough said.