When in Rome...

Monday, April 28

We made it to Rome in the early afternoon and went to got check into our hostel. The hostel I booked for us in Rome ended up being really nice! We arrived in Rome earlier that we thought we would and after a quick look at a map we realized how close we were to the Trevi Fountain and a church I wanted to go see, so we set off into the city. We were in Rome soon after the Pope sainted some people and the city was insanely busy! There were thousands of people at the Trevi Fountain and it got Erin and I thinking - why is it so famous?! We read about it on Wikipedia and we still don't really know. The church I wanted to visit is called the Church of San Carlo of the Four Fountains. I learned about it in Art History classes and thought it was just so beautiful. It is one of the more overlooked churches because it is so small, but the architecture is unbelievable. I'm so glad I got to go!

Tuesday, April 29

We went to the Coliseum and the line was so long! You are told over and over how big it is, but man, it is HUGE! I just couldn't get over the fact that something so massive yet so intricate was built so many many years ago. We wandered in the Roman Forum next and ended up getting a little lost. We were so hungry and wanted to get out of the ruins! We headed towards the Pantheon and looked for food along the way and we ended up popping into the most amazing baguette place. We were so hungry and it just tasted perfect. We both got ham and cheese with truffle dressing. The place was a little hole in the wall and we had to point at the menu to order, but that's the best kind of place isn't it!
We made it to the Pantheon, and again, I was blown away by it's massive size. When you see pictures of these places in class, you really have a hard time getting an idea of the massive scale. We went to Piazza Navolo and got some gelato to enjoy while people watching before heading back towards the hostel.

Wednesday, April 30

We took the Metro across the river to check out the Vatican. We left the subway and started to follow the HUGE crowd of people. We couldn't figure out why there were so many people on a random Wednesday morning. Then we saw the pope. That's right. There he was. Riding on the car thing out in the open. I think we were about 10-15 feet away from him. Purely accidental, but pretty cool if you ask me. We then went to wait in line for the Vatican Museums. We really should have bought our tickets online. The line to get in was so long. Ugh. In the museum they had some really great contemporary and modern art pieces I didn't expect. They all had religious themes, but had a modern take. That was definitely my favorite part of the Vatican. We also saw the Sistine Chapel which was actually bigger than I thought it would be. I had been told it was smaller, and I guess if you compare it to the average sized church of the era, it was pretty small, but still, very large with really high ceilings. We went to go get in line to enter St. Peter's because I wanted to climb to the top of the dome. While waiting in line I mailed a postcard to my family from the Vatican post office. I thought that was pretty neat! The dome was great! A lot more people were climbing it than I thought there would be. After all the craziness at the Vatican, we went back towards our hostel and met up with Erin's friends Kat and Brandy from Northern Ireland. It was neat that we were in Rome at the same time! The dinner was very fun and lighthearted.

Thursday, May 1

We didn't have any real plans for today, so I started googling to see what I could find. We found this place called the Rome Cat Sanctuary. A few years back, some ladies converted some ruins (the temple where Brutus stabbed Julius Caesar) into a sanctuary for the stray cats of Rome. They started fixing them and treating them for any sicknesses they may have. Now the sanctuary is open to the public for people to come and play with the cats. Also, you can adopt the cats - actually bring one home, or virtually by donating a certain amount each month. And crazy enough, it was right across the street from the amazing baguette place! We went and grabbed some lunch then visited the cute little kitties.
On our walk to the cat sanctuary we saw some signs for the Rome Zoo and Erin hadn't been to a zoo since she was a toddler, so we found some wifi, located the Zoo and off we went! It was really neat to see all the animals. Zoos are still fun even in different countries. Much to Erin's delight we saw some giraffes. I really loved the baby goats. So cute!

Friday, May 2

Today was spent travelling back to Keele. Erin joined me and stayed for a week before heading back to Northern Ireland. All in all, Italy was great, but I definitely am so glad I studied abroad in England instead. The pasta and pizza and gelato were wonderful and I miss it so much. Italy really knows how to do it.

If you would like to see pictures from all my travels before they go online here, go check out my Facebook!

San Felice - A Small Beach Town in Italy

Friday, April 25

In the morning we took a train to Latina, the closest place to Sabaudia (where we thought our beach hotel was). I had found online that there was a bus that went from the train station to the town, but when we got to Latina, nobody spoke English and there were no busses to San Felice (the town next to Sabaudia where our hotel actually was). We ended up having to use our translator app to tell a taxi driver where we needed to go and took a very expensive ride through the Italian country side. It was painful to spend that much money on a taxi, but I am so glad we got where we needed to go safely.
After arriving at our hotel we walked along the beach and checked into our hotel. The staff upgraded us from a Park-view room to a Sea-view room. It was very nice of them. We also ended up with a balcony. We wandered around the town, got some gelato and pizza for dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

Saturday, April 26

We slept in a little then went to the beach. The water was too cold to swim, but the sun was warm and our hotel had lounge chairs out on the beach for the guests. It was amazing to be lazy and read my book. It seemed unreal that I was on vacation in Italy!

Sunday, April 27

It rained… We took that as an opportunity to lay in bed, watch programs and read our books all day. It sucked that we couldn't go to the beach, but hey, after a crazy week of travel, it was good to rest in a comfy bed. For dinner we went to the beach restaurant to get a pizza and while we were waiting for it we walked along the ocean because it had stopped raining. Then Erin dared me to run into the sea, and so I did it. The people who worked at the restaurant thought I was crazy, but hey, I never know when I’ll have the chance to go into the Mediterranean again!

Monday, April 28

The hotel staff was super nice and when they went on their morning newspaper run, they also bought our bus tickets to Rome for that day. That meant we got to sleep in a little bit longer before having to leave. The bus ride was… Interesting. The bus had seen much better days and the Italian roads are full of potholes making it a very bumpy ride. We made it to Rome though and took the Metro to the station closest to our hostel.

Venezia

Wednesday, April 23

We woke up at 1am. Yes. 1am. We had to check out of the hostel, catch a city bus to the coach station, a coach to the airport and then a plane to Venice. After lots of travel and lots of naps in weird places, we were in Venice by 9:30. Then we had to take another bus to Mestre, the city next to Venice we were staying in. We walked to our Hotel and it turned out to be really nice! If you are going to Venice anytime soon, stay in Hotel Guidi. The staff speak English and its only a 10 minute bus ride to the center of Venice.

After finding food, we took a nap during Siesta time – pretty much everything in Venice closes from 1 – 3:30 so the workers can go home, eat and rest. I don’t know what in the world America is thinking, but I wouldn’t complain a bit if I was told to go home and nap!

We went into Venice in the afternoon and just wandered around exploring. It was so warm compared to England. The sun combined with 70 degree weather made me put on a skirt and a tshirt. It was a very welcome change. I really do prefer the warm weather.

 

We found strawberries, kiwi and paninis for dinner and it was such a good decision. The fruit here is so fresh and so sweet. We called it an early night and watched Eat, Pray, Love while eating dinner.

Thursday, April 24

The hotel had breakfast for us and that was a nice change. We had some pastries and yogurt before heading off for the day. We walked all the way across the city to San Marco Piazza so I could climb the Clock Tower. (After climbing St. Paul’s and Arthurs’ Seat, I have decided I want to climb as many things as I can on my travels!) When we got there we found out you can only take the elevator up. I was pretty disappointed, but I’m sure Erin was cheering on the inside. The view from the top was amazing. You could see the whole city! We happened to be up there when noon hit so we got to see the bells in action! It was really neat.

We went in search of Calzones once we made it to the bottom. That calzone was so good. Erin and I both agreed that we will never be able to eat an American Calzone again. We took a WaterBus back up the Grand Canal. As was the rest of the city, it was extremely beautiful. We got some more Strawberries, then went back to Mestre to rest.

Then we went out into Mestre to get pizza for dinner and to see how far away the train station was because we needed to go there the next morning to go south.

So far, Italy has been great. More people speak English than you would think, and it’s amazing how much you can understand from context clues. Currently it is Friday the 25^th and I am sitting on our train to Sabaudia. I am so glad we have almost a week left because I don’t want to leave just yet! (And I don’t want to have to go back to school to work on essays)

The Making of Harry Potter

Tuesday, April 22

The studios where the Harry Potter movies were filmed is right on the outskirts of London. And since all the movies have been made and they needed a reason to make even more money, they opened the studios so people could come and tour them. I must say, I was over the moon excited to see it all. It was such an AMAZING experience. Harry Potter has been such a huge part of my life and being able to see all the behind the scenes information was so interesting. We got to walk on sets, see the actual costumes and learn about how they did some of the special effects. So much thought and detail went into the making of the movies. The amount of people working behind the scenes was unreal. Going to the studios certainly is one of my highlights of Europe so far.

After the tour we went back into London and went to London Bridge and Tower Bridge to take pictures and find somewhere to eat. We ended up eating at a Japanese place called Wagamama before heading back to the hostel to pack up and get some rest before we started our journey to Venice.

Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath

Monday, April 21

Erin and I had bought tickets for a tour of Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath so we could see multiple places and not have to worry about transport to these places. Stonehenge is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

Our Coach bus was double decker! I had never seen something like that before. It was a very nice bus. Our tour guide, Nigel, told us facts about London on our way out and I found that really interesting. When we made it to Windsor Castle (built 900+ years ago), he told us that somebody once asked him why they built the castle so close to Heathrow Airport…

We got an audio guide for Windsor and I found that really interesting. My favourite part was seeing the very intricate dollhouse they had on display. I finally saw some the British Soldiers in the red coats! But I didn’t see the Queen. Darn.

Stonehenge was amazing. I was so excited to see it. It intrigues me to no end. I want to know why it’s there and how in the world it got there!!! 

We ate lunch in a pub in a small village between Stonehenge and Bath. I had fish and chips and it was very good. I feel like almost all the food I have here in Europe is good. Ha.

Bath was a cute town, but Erin and I couldn’t figure out why it was a part of our tour because we didn’t get entry to the Roman Baths and since it was 5:00 when we arrived, the majorty of the shops were closing. We did find one crafts/antiques shop we could go into and I found something amazing! A piece of green Wedgewood pottery. I have always loved Wedgewood, the fact that Keele is so close to the Wedgewood factory makes me love it even more. It is really rare in the states so when you do find some, it costs the earth. I was very happy to see that this dish was a reasonable price!

All in all, the tour was nice, we got to see quite a bit in one day, however, as Erin said – it felt like a big field trip. I think that if there had been more college aged people on the trip we would have had a bit more fun.