Thanksgiving week; despite a slow start with two of the last Italian classes I'll have here and two cancelled classes, I've had a good week so far. As I mentioned in my last post (very recently added, so check it if you haven't), I went to Rome! It still feels great to say it -- I went to a city that everyone hears about with thousands of years of history, that I never would have expected to be able to visit. I'm still in awe.
Despite a lack of Thanksgiving celebration in Italy (it is kind of American by nature), our school gave us Wednesday through Friday off. As such, half our group decided to take a trip to Amsterdam. While I'm sure they are enjoying their time in whatever way they can while there, I decided not to join them. I hope to hear stories from their trip, but I wanted to have some fun on my own. I got back from Venice and planned a stay in Rome for a night. As the others were packing their bags I now had my own luggage to pack!
Wednesday morning called for an early start: in order to make the most of my time in Rome I suffered through a 5AM alarm clock to reach a 6:40 train. the 4-hour trip wasn't too bad; I spent half of it asleep and half of it reading and ended up in the train station before I knew it. Well, that's a lie, but it still wasn't bad.
My hostel was only a few streets from the train station, so I took a map to find my way. A very friendly British gentleman showed me the hostel and, though the hostel was closed for a few hours for cleaning, invited me to drop my bag for the day. I did this happily and went outside to get lost.
I've discovered over the past month or two that getting lost is the best way to visit a city. By doing so, one can discover the roads that get one somewhere or nowhere. one may have to circle a place a few times or backtrack upon reaching the outskirts of the city, but it ultimately makes you open your eyes and learn the city when you travel without a plan or map. It is in this way that I stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain; a famous tourist attraction, it is nonetheless an astounding sight and a relaxing fountain to sit beside. In keeping with legend, I threw money into the fountain over my shoulder, allegedly securing the fate that I will return to Rome again. I hope it comes true.
Wandering through the city without aim is astounding. without meaning to, I found the pantheon, the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument "Il Vittoriano" (colloquially referred to as the "wedding cake" because of its strange appearance), the Column of Marcus Aurelius, Piazza Navona, Chiesa del Gesu, many palaces, and the various buildings that now house museums, offices, and dwellings. Before long I found the main road to the Vatican City. I walked this way until I reached the Tiber. After admiring the bridge for a few minutes I continued on, walking down Mussolini's Via della Conciliazione into the city. Walking into another country has never been easier.
I walked around the obelisk and into line to go to St. Peter's Basilica. The church (as I'm sure you can expect, given my other descriptions) is amazing. Giant statues, brilliant frescoes, an ornate apse, an under-the-floor crypt slightly visible through various decorated grates, and of course the monuments and relics typical of these places greeted me inside. After exploring for a while, I decided to climb the dome. 551 steps brought me to the top, from where I could see (despite the crowds of people there with me) all of the city. It's a gorgeous sight.
Leaving the basilica I continued my aimless wandering. The weather had changed to rain, but I nonetheless continued to get lost with the intention of making the most of my time there. After getting back to Il Vittoriano I followed the Via dei Fori Imperiali to the Ancient Roman Forum ruins (which I saw from the outside, as they had already closed -- but it was still an amazing site) and the Colosseum. I also only saw this building from the outside for the fact that it had already closed, but the same opinion applies here. the ancient construction is breathtaking from beneath, and quite amazing even from a distance.
I continued my walking, going back to the Roman Forum and then up to the Pantheon, this time with the intention of going inside. The building from almost two thousand years ago still stands in excellent condition, displaying the perfectly designed dome with the oculus open to the sky. rain fell into the center of the building, where it escaped through a drain system. The building contains more decoration (as always) and the tombs of Raphael and Vittorio Emanuele II (the man who unified Italy in 1861, if you didn't know). The columns and fountain outside are quite a nice sight as well.
That night was quite fun. After returning to the hostel I shared the evening with the other guests, people who were visiting from Australia, Turkey, Poland, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil -- though I imagine there were more that I didn't meet. We enjoyed a fun night in town and a friendly, relaxed breakfast the next morning before I headed out to explore the piazzas.
My first destination on day two was Piazza del Popolo. Spacious and bright, the piazza contains an obelisk in the center (Romans loved the power suggested by other ancent cultures, Egyptian included) flanked by four small lion fountains and a palace to the North. I did not go this way, though, as my next stop was the Spanish Steps, where I would have been pick-pocketed had I not been watching my bag as a friendly man came up to me and wove me a bracelet, his friend watching from a distance and waiting for me to let my guard down. I avoided trouble, though, and went back down the steps and past the ship-shaped fountain at the bottom to Piazza Barberini and Bernini's Triton Fountain, the Quattro Fontane (which appears as four fountains at the corners of each building at an intersection), and the Piazza della Repubblica. This last piazza was marked by a brilliant fountain, the Fountain of the Naiads, that features a large spout of water coming from Glaucus in the center and four smaller spouts from naiads and horses around him. This is a brilliant fountin and one of my favorite surprise works from this trip.
I finished the trip with a visit to Santa Maria della Vittoria, a beautiful church that's one of the hidden gems of Rome, the front garden at Palazzo Barberini, and the Baths of Diocletian. I then returned to the train station to board my train back to Florence, wrote on the train, and returned to cook dinner.
With four of my friends here in Florence (two who hadn't gone anywhere and two who had just returned from Paris and London), we decided to cook our own Thanksgiving dinner. We made chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, dinner rolls, wine, and a chocolate chip cookie cake. It was a glorious feast and we were all quite full by the end of the evening, leading to a quiet night in. All in all, it's been a wonderful vacation thus far!
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