So next I was off to Italy, the land of my dreams, the place I am bound to take my mother when I have a "real job" and money at my disposal (with my teacher's salary that could be a while, mom but don't you worry!). My adventure into the Land of Pizza and Pasta started in with a quick 16 hour trip into Florence. We were supposed to stop in Pisa to take some leaning tower pictures on the way into Florence but because traffic was so bad coming from Switzerland on Good Friday we had to veto that photo op :( Fun fact: The residents of Pisa call the leaning tower just the tower because they say "duh, it's pretty obvious it's leaning, you don't need to tell us that!". Florence was too quick of a trip to do much more than eat some Italian gelato, take a couple quick pics of the fake statue of David in the main square (the real statue is inside a museum to protect it from the weather), and do a walking tour with a tour guide that incorporated the term "French Renaissance" (pronounced ren-A-sance) into every sentence. I would love to go back to the city at some point but the place I was really excited to go to was Rome and that is where we jetted (well drove, but jetted just sounds cooler) off to. *Word to the wise...drivers (especially bus drivers) are CRAZY in Italy so watch out...also rest stops have the BEST coffee you will get in the whole country and it's cheap so try it out!
The only downside to Rome was that our hotel happened to be slightly outside of the city and required us to take a bus and 2 subway rides to get to the city but it's Rome so it was totally worth it! Our first night in Rome our trip leader, Greg, took us on a 4 hour walking tour where we saw all the major sights like the Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum and so much more!
 |
| Spanish steps! |
 |
| Trevi Fountain |
 |
| Well I hope you know what this is... |
The greatest (well one of the greatest, I can't just pick one!) about Rome is that you can get gelato and pizza on one street and then walk one street over and see the place where THE Julius Caesar was killed. I mean, you can't do that in Champaign! The city is the perfect mix of modern and ancient history. The night ended at the Colosseum which was all lit up and our trip leader sitting us all down and telling us the history of Rome. While this was facinaiting for a history major like myself it was really made memorable by the gypsy man that kept interrupting. In Europe there are random gypsies everywhere and try to sell you things like umbrellas, roses and little knick-knacks. This particular man wanted to sell us roses and umbrellas and would not go away no matter how many times we told him no so he just decided to be a nice guy and hold up an umbrella for our trip leader so he wouldn't get wet and then just smile at us. After about 5 minutes of this game he asked where we were all from and as the majority were from Australia that's what we told him. He then proceeded to say "I love Australia. I go to Australia." and then walk away leaving us all confused but in stitches from laughing so hard.
 |
| Greg and his new gypsy friend |
The only damper on that day was the fact that when I woke up my ring wouldn't fit on my finger because apparently I had gotten bit by a bug at some point in the night. Also, the hotel situation was a bit tricky. Apparently Rae and I have the worst hotel luck ever because our room was literally the size of a closet and you had to walk sideways to get around the bed to the bathroom but it was Rome so who cares!
The next day was Sunday and not just any old Sunday, but Easter Sunday and while I'm not Catholic I (along with most of the group) decided to take advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity and go to Easter Mass in Vatican City. We got up pretty early because we wanted to get an early start to beat the masses that were expected to attend (200-300,000! dang, that's a lot of people!). We hopped on a bus that slowly started to fill with people until we really couldn't move. We hopped off at the Vatican Walls and filed into Vatican City. We started off pretty far back but then realized that we could actually get into the square with out tickets so up we moved, closer and closer to the podium that the Pope would eventually occupy! After standing/sitting by another railing that was SO closer to come chairs that we were longingly looking at because we still had 1.5 hours til Mass even started and who knew how long it would go for (2 hours and 5 minutes for anyone wondering) we decided to just run through the gate that we weren't sure if you needed tickets to get through or not and grab some seats. Somehow we pulled it off and were literally so close to the front. I got pictures of the Pope without barely zooming in on my camera, talk about an achievement! The Mass itself was long and kinda boring but I guess that's what happens when you don't speak Italian or Latin. After the Pope gave the blessing to the crowd in every language imaginable we darted off to find some food and a doctor. A doctor you ask? Well remember that little annoying bug bite I mentioned earlier? Well apparently I was attacked on my arm as well and it was swelling up, turning red/purple, and growing in size and we figured it should get checked out. There was talk of a visit to an Italian hospital but I really wanted none of that unless truly necessary. (Don't be alarmed, it ended up just being a mosquito bite and I still have all my fingers and arms but whatever they feed their mosquitoes, it needs to stop!)
 |
| Me outside the Vatican on Easter Sunday |
 |
| Just the Pope getting driven to his podium...no big deal |
 |
| The Pope blessing the crowd |
The rest of the day in Rome consisted of eating my first gnocchi (dang, that stuff is good), a tour of the Roman forum and the Colosseum and then Rae and I heading to her friend's flat (apartment) because we would be staying with him for the next 2 nights after the group we were on headed to their next city. For my last full day in Rome Rae and I met up with 2 boys from our trip that were also still in the city and bummed around the city for the day. We had some coffee at a nice outdoor cafe where the waiter hated us and kept talking about us in Italian to the rest of the wait-staff and then they would all stare at us. That night Rae's friend took us to this little Italian restaurant where I had some of the best lasagna and garlic bread (you could smell that one on my breath for a good 24 hours it was that good!) I have ever had. At one point I exclaimed "this restaurant is so cute, it's like we are actually in Italy" before realizing that yes, I was actually in Italy. Oops! The we headed off for what was promised to be the best gelato in Rome and it did not disappoint. A small cone was 3 massive scoops of gelato and I discovered that my beloved nutella is even better in it's frozen gelato form!
All in all my trip to Italy did not disappoint and I can't wait to return someday. I was a bit excited for it to end though because that meant that the real Queen Mum (Annette Burns for those of you that didn't get that one) would be arriving in England to visit her favorite daughter!!
