Pisa, Florence and Rome

I’m getting farther and farther behind so I decided to combine Pisa, Florence, and Rome into one post. 

From Switzerland, we drove to Florence, Italy. It was kind of a grouchy day for me. I was sick of being around people 24-7 and wanted some space. Which is impossible when you’re sharing a bus with 45 other people and there is so much road construction, you’re hours behind schedule. It didn’t ruin my day but I definitely had to work harder to enjoy my first day in Italy. 

Our first stop was at the Leaning Tower of Pisa! We only stayed there long enough to take the required pictures of holding it up and kicking it down but it was fun. I thought it was hilarious to watch hundreds of people lined up with basically the same pose. Other than the picture taking, there really isn’t a ton of things to do or see in Pisa so we got back on the bus and headed south. 

See my Growl? I'm so tough. Grrrrrr

Once we got to Florence, we met our Italian tour guide and went on a three hour walking tour. Our trip guide Kevin couldn’t show us around as he had in other cities because Italy is really strict on who it allows to do tours. Another Expat guide that we had met in Paris had recently been arrested in Rome for giving an explanation of a building. Yikes! You would think that this would stop people from asking Kevin questions about what we were seeing but it didn’t. Every time he would answer somebody he would do a quick look around. I would have just refused to answer but he’s nicer than I am. :)

Florence was gorgeous! Probably the prettiest city I saw in Italy. I’m not really an architect junky but this trip might change that. In particular, there was this Cathedral that blew my mind. It had so much detail and history that I would have loved to stare at it for an hour. It took over two hundred years to build it. The entire city was fascinating to me, everything had a story behind it. Not to mention, everywhere we walked there were statues of naked men. We saw The David by Michelangelo which was cool.

The Cathedral - Incredible! 

The David

Florence! 

After the tour there was a bit of drama from some of the members of our group which was irritating but we eventually made it to dinner. We were staying in a hostel but since we were guaranteed no more than two people per room for all of our accommodations it really just meant that most of us had three or four beds in our rooms. However, for me, the only person traveling alone, I got a five person room with a kitchenette, fridge, microwave, a large kitchen table, a desk/office area, a huge bathroom and a thirty foot balcony. The one group of three that wanted to sleep together got a two person room and had to share a bed. They also had one of the smallest room’s I’ve seen. I’m kind of glad I didn’t know of this until after we left because I would have traded and I would have missed trying out all of the beds!

The hostel gave everyone a free shot after dinner and had a dance club but most of us were so tired that we just took the shot and went back to our rooms. We were a severe disappointment to Kevin but I loved the chance of spending some time alone. I drank a glass of wine and played on Facebook. It was wonderful to be alone! 

It must of helped because the next day I was in a much better mood. We drove down to Rome and went on another walking tour with another guide. I think I loved hearing the history the most. I mean, sure, I read about the Roman Empire in school but it is a totally different thing to hear the stories standing in front of the Colosseum. It was so cool to be walking around a modern city and then turn a corner and find a two thousand year old ruin right next to the bank. Surreal.

The Pantheon

Does this really need a caption?

(Hey Dad, if you are reading this, I should warn you that the next paragraph might make you want to hit your head on the nearest wall. Sorry. ) 

Back at the hotel, our group more than made up for our early night in Florence. Somehow at dinner, the entire group ended up raising a toast to my . . . chest. I still haven’t figured out how exactly that happened. I was sitting at the table eating when a friend came over to talk to me. She was standing behind me and at one point she looked down. Suddenly she yelled out “OMG Brittany, look at you. Your boobs are gorgeous. Can I feel them? I started laughing and told her sure why not. Well then she wanted to take a picture holding them. It snowballed from there. I have no idea what it is about my chest that makes women want to take pictures with them but this was not the first time. (Ask me sometime about last Halloween and the girl that spent an hour chasing me around and climbing up on my lap.) I can not explain it. My friend then ran around showing everyone the picture and somehow the group decided to chant my name until I stood up and then they all raised their glasses to me and my boobs. People are crazy okay. 

That night, the hotel was throwing a Toga Party in the nightclub and we decided to go all out. We ran around collecting the sheets from our beds and pulling the leaves from trees. We tied ourselves into the sheets and off we went. We danced for hours. I was not the least bit surprised that almost every song was from the U.S. The first song I heard was the Call me Maybe song and then it went on to Rihanna and Beyonce and Niki Manaj. I am not going to be expanding my playlist on this trip. Though I did get super excited when they took a break from American music and played Don Omar’s Danzo Kuduro. I started bouncing around like I was on crack. The night was awesome. I think we took at least 300 pictures. After a couple hours we realized that we had to get up at 6am to go to the Vatican so we headed back to our bungalows but somehow we ended up pulling all these picnic benches together and breaking out the wine and cheese. I hadn’t really drank while we were dancing so I had a great time catching up with my group while watching them run around plastered. I almost wet my pants when I saw a sixty year old grandma invite a married guy half her age to her bed. He declined which was for the best since she didn’t remember anything the next day. That could have been awkward. We eventually stumbled to our beds only to wake up a few hours later to go to the head of the Catholic Church. We were a pretty sorry sight but the night was well worth it. 

We look pretty good for wearing bed sheets and stolen leaves!

We had yet another Italian guide for the Vatican and she was incredible. She didn’t just explain the when and how, she went into all of the scandals and drama too. I was amazed at how artistic every room was. Thousands and thousands of paintings, tapestries and frescos. It was overwhelmingly impressive. I would have loved to take pictures of the cistitine chapel but camera’s aren’t allowed. You aren’t even supposed to talk in there. Michelangelo may have hated painting but he was incredible at it. We then saw a few more important buildings and the Pope’s residence and then the tour was over. We were on our own to do what ever we wanted but everyone from the night before was so exhausted that we just wanted a nap. We found a pizza place and I got a veggie slice. Pizza here is weird. There wasn’t any cheese or sauce and there was every vegetable known to man. Peppers, potatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, zucchini, spinach and a hundred others that I can’t remember now. It was good but not what I think of when I want Pizza. 

Art in the Vatican

The ceiling. 

The Pope's room is two or three from the right on the top floor.

On our way back to the hotel, I almost got killed by a crazy Italian driver. We were retracing our steps back to the bus station but that meant we were walking around the Vatican. People were shoving, yelling and trying to sell us junk so we decided to head across the street to get away from the crowd. Well I saw on the corner that the little man was green so I started walking. What I didn’t know was that Italian drivers don’t slow at corners and they don’t stop for pedestrians. So half way across the street this car comes speeding around the corner and I’m left trying to figure which way to run. Every time I picked a direction another car would come and block me. I finally got across the damn street and all I hear is Damn Tourist! Gah. The bus driver later told me that if you try to be nice and stop for a pedestrian, another car will swerve around you and end up running them over. So if you’re ever in Italy just be aware that a walk sign doesn’t mean jack shit. Once I got to the hotel, I crashed and took a 7 hour nap. Whoops! I woke up at 8:30pm and I thought that I would be up all night but I still managed to go to bed at a reasonable time. I thought I was crazy but finally I realized that I had caught the bug that was going around the bus. UGH! The next two days are kind of a blur because of this. 

Conclusion:

I want to visit Florence again. Maybe spend a week there someday. I can not emphasis enough just how beautiful this city is. And compared to some of the other cities we saw in Italy, clean! However, I don’t see any reason to come back to Rome. Although I had a blast there, it was mostly because of the people I was with. Our group decided that we shouldn’t say we didn’t like a city but it is acceptable to say we didn’t enjoy a city. I didn’t enjoy Rome. Other than taking a picture in front of the Colosseum and actually seeing part of the history that I’ve heard so much about, Rome wasn’t that interesting. Even wandering around and getting lost wasn’t as enjoyable as it was in Paris and later Venice. The feel of the city was different. I did throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain so I may make it back to Rome someday but it would probably be because someone I am with wanted to go. I should have tossed two coins! The myth goes that if you toss one coin into the fountain, you will come back to Rome someday. But if you throw two you will have a fling with a Roman and if you throw three, you will marry a Roman. Hey Jesse, any chance that your ancestors came from Italy?

Throwing a coin in the Trevi Fountain