You know when your life is absolutely unreal when you say “I
live in Spain but I vacation in Italy”. There’s something so incredibly absurd
about that statement that you chuckle at yourself. It’s one of those classic
moments you keep waiting for someone to wake you up from a dream, but the dream
just keeps going.
So I took a trip to Italy that consisted of 9.5 days, 5
cities, 5 American girls, 6 days of rain, 5 pizzas, 9 glasses of wine and 4
gelatos. What more could you ask for?! I had a week off work as it was Semana
Santa or Holy Week (for us English speakers). Semana Santa consists of religious
processions throughout the main areas and streets of the city. The holiday
takes places throughout Spain but Sevilla is well-known for having one of the
more elaborate Holy Week’s. I debated staying the week to not miss this unique
cultural experience but many locals told me if you’re a foreigner seeing one
night of processions was enough as they tend to be a bit repetitive. In fact
many people leave Sevilla to take a holiday while tourists flood their city.
Practically being a local myself, I decided Italy would be my destination of
choice. I was fortunate to visit Rome and Venice with my family when I was 14
and only have fond memories of our adventures and since then have wanted to
return. I was rather excited to leave
Spain. I was ready for a different language, some real pizza, fresh Tuscan air,
no teaching and new scenery. Perhaps this sounds a little ridiculous seeing how
my daily life is spent living in Spain, but I suppose any place you live after
awhile you need a break from. It allows you to feel refreshed and re appreciate
where you live. Our route would be Rome-Siena-Florence-Lucca-Pisa. Here’s how
it all went down!
Took this while flying to Rome!!!
Rome. Not many places like it. The Vatican. The Pope. The Coliseum.
The Roman Forum. Trevi Fountain. The Spanish Steps. Quaint neighborhoods.
Piazza Novana. The Pantheon. Sunshine. Having been 14 when I saw all of these
hot spots for the first time I was excited to see how my perspective of the
city would change from the viewpoint of such a mature 22 year old college
graduate J.
I immediately felt very overwhelmed in Rome. I can’t decide if it was part
culture shock and part the pure magnitude of the city or maybe both combined. We went to grab dinner when we first got to Rome. It was a rather embarrassing experience. We were all pointing at things trying to speak Italian somehow but only Spanish would come out. Made us realize how much our brains have been trained to resort to Spanish when you find yourself in a foreign land. Most
major European cities are full of history, Rome is no exception. It just does
it bigger and better with all the attractions I mentioned above. It’s crazy to
turn the corner and suddenly have an ancient, giant, dirty, limestone building
staring you in the face. For me more impressive and up to date is the Vatican
City. I remember seeing it all when I was younger but this time around it was
100x more interesting and meaningful. We
hired an authentic, long haired, greasy Italian tour guide named Tebario, to
take us through the Vatican. I have never met a man so passionate about his
city and his job. He would close his eyes half the time when explaining things
in is jumbled English. I felt like I was sitting front row at a theatrical
performance. He informed us 799 people live in Vatican City including 1 gardener, 1 Pope, 20 Swiss Guards, 50
Cardinals and more. The Vatican City is the last monarchy in the world. When
describing the Sistine Chapel I was reminded how back in the day, paintings
were media. It was a way to pass stories and messages along. That statement
really stuck out in my mind especially after seeing the Sistine Chapel and
thinking about how we communicate in today’s world. Makes me wonder if someday
there will be tourist attractions talking about Facebook, blogs, emails,
Twitter etc.
Our Vatican tour guide aka Batman and the girls!
The Coliseum!
Fortunate for us, we arrived in Rome just days after Pope
Francis was elected. By luck we spent Palm Sunday with the Pope in the Vatican,
along with 1000s of others and their palm leaves. Standing inside the Vatican
walls within a few hundred feet of the Pope was a very moving experience. I
have never been in one area and felt such a positive, excited and respectful
vibe from a diverse crowd. Most crowds I’ve been around are at athletic events
or concerts where there are always people being obnoxious or creating negative
energy against the opposing team. At one point, the Pope was driven around the
Vatican in a car to just to wave and say hello. The car would occasionally stop
as babies were being passed through the crowd so the Pope could kiss or bless
their child. I kept wondering what would happen if the crowd had passed a full
grown adult through the crowd to be kissed by the Pope. While taking in the
entire moment, I kept thinking it was somebody’s dream to be standing there
right then and how I had just happened to be so spoiled and lucky to be
traveling to Rome on “holiday” while teaching in Spain.
Hanging out with Pope Francis on Plam Sunday. No big deal.
While the Vatican was the most influential part of our two
days in Rome, my other favorite places were the Trevi Fountain and the
neighborhood of Trastevere. There’s just something about fountains that I
really enjoy. Maybe it’s my inner fish or the rower in me that loves the water.
Trastevere is a quaint neighborhood that portrays a more typical image of
small, Italian streets. The area was filled with boutiques, bars, restaurants
and local people. We stopped for the best eggplant parmesan I’ve ever had. I
usually don’t like to blog about food as it typically is the least important
component of traveling, but after living in Spain where their food is very
bland and always fried, we were in heaven with the Italian flavors. Quite
frankly I think my taste buds were reborn.
Nieghborhood of Trastevere!
Throwing in a coin and making at wish at the Trevi Foutain!
Our next stop, about 4 hours North via train, was Siena.
Siena is a small, medieval style town in the region of Tuscany. This area is
known for their wine and the beautiful countryside. We stayed at a cultural
enriching bed and breakfast for our one night in the town. It was run by two
loud, semi-friendly Italian women. ( I actually heard them shout “mama mia!”) They
cooked us breakfast in the morning and while we tried not to over indulge in
the omelet, bread, meats and cheeses we were overwhelmed with them speaking
Italian at us. It was highly uncomfortable. They best you can do is nod and
smile. I didn’t take me long to fall in love with this medieval town. You can
walk around it in about 2 hours but its small town feel and beautiful
architecture that make it appealing to the senses. There was a parade happening
with drums, men dressed in colorful jester costumes waving flags marching
through the cobble stone streets. The local shop owner told us it was an annual
festival, vague but all I needed to know. The majority of our day was spent in
a village about one hour outside of Siena, called Montalcino. Our motive: a
free winery tour by Poggio Antico. Our winery guide was a half Italian, half
British man who was hilarious and made the process of wine making very
intriguing. The company produces 100,000 t0 120,000 bottles of wine per year
and exports them to places all over the world. The location of their vineyard,
at 450m above sea level and with a Southwest wind exposure to the sea, provides
them with ideal conditions for harvesting the perfect grapes for the finest red
wine. Every winery has their method of wine production but it takes about 5
years to make each bottle of wine. The wine will sit for four years in giant
oak barrels to absorb the oak flavor and then sit one more year in the bottle.
I even learned to type of cork for a wine bottle is very important as often the
wine will absorb flavor from the cork. A faulty cork can ruin a bottle of wine.
It was asked why wealthy wineries don’t build private climate controlled vineyards.
Our guide said wine making is a socialist activity. If it rains, it rains on
everyone. If there’s a dry season, it’s dry for everyone. I liked that. After
our tour purchased a variety of wine samples. I tried 3 different kinds and
realized I’ve never had real wine before. I can’t say that I’m a wine snob yet
and there’s no way I can afford to buy a 30 euro bottle of wine, but I might
have to think twice about buying the 1 euro bottles of red wine. Perhaps a 3
euro bottle of wine!?
At the winery in Montalcino!
The GIANT oak barrels where the wine sits for 4 years.
A real adult!
Wine tasting and our guide!
Town of Siena! Love the colors and green shudders.
Jumping for joy in the main plaza!
The festival!!!!
Our next stop was Florence (or Firenze in Italian). I knew
very little about Florence before our arrival but from our brief walk from the train
station to our hostel on the first night I could tell I would already like it.
Our first day was unfortunately filled with rain and cold, which tinted the
natural beauty of the city we saw the following days once the sun came out. It
was quickly noted that Florence is well known for their leather with the many
leather markets scattered throughout the city. My favorite scenic point was at
Piazza Michelangelo which overlooked the entire city. Along the river the
oldest bridge in Florence called Ponte Vecchio was the most dazzling. It was
the only bridge to survive WWII and is lined with jewelry shops. Why expensive jewelry
shops?! My guess is so people keep moving and so they don’t actually stop and
shop. That old bridge probably can’t handle too much weight at one time J. Across the river we
found the most recommended wood oven pizza restaurant in town called Gusta
Pizza. Having seen the long line the day before we made sure we were there the
following day well before opening time. Their menu is simple, cheap and short.
I have never (and I mean never) had a better pizza. The perfect thin crust, the
most flavorful tomato sauce, fresh roma tomatoes, freshly sliced mozzarella and
arugula. Needless to say I wasn’t hungry until the next day. One of my favorite
moments came at a point in the day when we were all tired and getting a bit
grouchy. We just wanted to sit and not have to pay for a coffee. Thank goodness
we heard a music coming from Piazza Repubblica (Republic Square). We sat and
listened to a band of three men play the perfect feel good tunes. There was an
older British man dressed in a suit tapping his foot and listening along. I’m not
sure if it was the music itself or the way the man was responding to the music
that attracted the surrounding crowd. At the end of each song he would clap
with the biggest smile on his face and shout “bravo bravo!!” It was watching
that man, who was clearly on top of the world by a very simple thing, which made
me snap out of being grouchy and appreciate these small things in life. The
other impressive landmark of Florence is the Duomo (meaning Dome in Italian). I
have never seen a church so large nor elaborately decorated on the outside. My
favorite was it had light green and light pink marble textures on the exterior.
Florence is known to have “secret bakeries”. These bakeries are hard at work
while the city sleeps, preparing for the next day’s pastry fill. It is said if
you are able to quietly find these random bakeries among the dark side streets
of Florence you will be well satisfied with the largest, tastiest, cheapest
pastry your taste buds won’t even know how to handle it. Unfortunately we were
never awake at 3am to go on such an adventure. Next time I suppose!
Ponte Vecchio with Chelsi!!!
Making friends local restaurant owners! The nicest couple.
The Duomo!
Happy Birthday Shanda!
Florence!!
Listening to the band and watching the British man!
Our last 2.5 days of the Italian adventure were spent in two smaller towns, Lucca and Pisa. Lucca is a quaint, medieval city entirely surrounded by a star-shaped stone wall and mote. I’m not really sure why we had even decided to go there as after about 2 hours of essentially walking in a giant circle you’re like ok let’s get pizza and get outta here. I’m being semi sarcastic but it was half true. The town did have some unique cites including an old circular plaza with all yellow buildings with green shudders as well as many towers, one which has trees growing on top of it. With the small towns come the lack of English speaking individuals, yet authentic homemade Italian pastas, breads and sauces and street markets.
Typical view of Lucca street!
The circular plaza..hard to tell its circular, but trust me.
Pisa would be our last stop (tear drops). We had a break in the rain at the most perfect moment upon on our arrival to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, enough to even have a pretty sunset. I wasn’t really expecting too much besides an overrated tourist trap of a tower that was simply tilted to its side. And while that was 100% exactly what it was, I was in awe! I’m still trying to figure out why. Perhaps because it was very clean, it was leaning more than I thought it would be, it was bigger than expected and it made everything else look like it was leaning. What a tower! Google taught me the tower leans because of a very simple and boring answer. It was built on unstable soil. Will it ever fall over completely? I would say with the amount of pictures that are taken on a daily basis by tourist who are “holding” up the tower that it will continue to defy gravity and continue to attract people to Pisa.
After many seconds of holding up that tower, one can only need to replenish those energy sources with pizza in Pisa. Duh. My final pizza would and could not just be anything ordinary with the typical tomato sauce, healthy vegetables or healthy ish meats but Pizza Patata. Yep, pizza with FRENCH FRIES on it and a hot dog type meat. In case you don’t know french fries are my favorite food and pizza is up there on the list too. So you can only imagine my salivary glands while patiently waiting this “not even in America”type pizza.
Speechless.
One last thing. Cultural differences/similarities between Spain and Italy. Both cultures are very loud and proud. The Italians seem to be much nicer to foreigners. They speak much better English. Both cultures enjoy their food and family time. Italy has a siesta too!!! But from 1 to 3pm not 2 to 5/6pm. Italian men are better looking than Spanish men. I found Italians a bit less stubborn than the Spanish. Yep, so that’s what I got.
Ciao!
Oh yes, and I made it back for the last night of Semana Santa. Here are some pics:
Wasn't sure what to think. Kinda cool. Kinda scary.
There are about 10 men carrying this float for hours at a time. Only stopping every few times ro rest.
