We hoped on the 5 am bus from Cork to Dublin on November 1st, beginning our trip to Italy. I could not have been more excited! My sophomore year of college I had wanted to participate in the 2 week, SIE, trip through Bryant to Italy and had not been accepted.. Instead of choosing another SIE program, I saved the money that I would have spent on that trip and promised myself that I would go to Italy when I was abroad in Europe and here I was keeping that promise. We took a flight from extremely sunny Dublin to rainy Pisa (switch it change it rearrange it) and arrived in the early afternoon. We fairly easily figured out the train to Florence with the help of a few Airport employees and a call to Brianna once we realized that we have NO IDEA what their address was in Florence or any clue how close they lived to the train station LOL. I suppose we thought we would just figure it out on the way. Since our phones only work with WIFI connection outside of Ireland we would have been in some trouble, except Brendan luckily has a pay-as-you-go phone that can be used all over Europe that allowed us to call DaRin for help. We did not go to see the leaning tower in Pisa because it was a fair distance from the airport and were eager to get to Florence and see our friends. We got on the almost 2 hour train ride to Florence and were greeted outside the station by smiling Brianna, oh what a SIGHTTT!!! (cue that song, you know the one)..Gosh, it had only been two weeks since Oktoberfest, but it was great to see her friendly face again. Big hugs were exchanged, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then she led us to their apartment. I was immediately mesmerized by Italy.. The architecture, romantic streets and quaint cafes looked exactly as I had imagined. Once at the apartment Delaney ran into my arms like a long lost lover and they showed us what they were working with. The apartment is very new and in great condition! There are two double rooms, so they are in one and then two other girls live in the other. They have a gorgeous view off their balcony that you can see the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella from and is level with dozens of classic italian roofs. Though roofs back home are nothing to admire, these are worth noting. They are burnt orange and remind me exactly of what I pictured Italy to look like from above. Little did I know, that this aerial view of Italy did not compare to the one I would be seeing the next morning. We caught up on what we had both done the last two weeks, us having gone to The Ring of Kerry and them Cinque Terre. Next, we met up with Alaina, Becca (also studying in Florence) and Lilly (visiting, studying in Barcelona) who are all fellow Bryant students that are studying abroad. They took us to a restaurant called Rubaconte for dinner which was delicious and dangeroussss. For 15 euro we got antipasto appetizers for the table, 3 different large bowls of pasta (my first Italian food experience!) and UNLIMITED wine. We took full advantage of this deal (they may never be able to return...) and celebrated Bryant taking on Italy with 11 bottles of wine. WHOOPS! While laughing, eating and drinking we planned our next day’s trip. We decided that we would go to Rome.. not an easy trip 20/40 minutes away, but a city 3 hours away that would involve us waking up VERY early, buying train tickets, getting on the correct trains and then finding any item of historical significance from the station. We decided that this was a GREAT plan and all promised to meet outside the station at 8..
We then went to a few of the girls’ favorite bars/clubs around Florence until the sun came up.
7 a.m. came WAY TOO QUICKLY, the thought of skipping Rome that day may have actually (embarrassingly) crossed my mind, but we got each other up and seized the day (after bagels, water and coffee and then more coffee)!! We missed the first and second train that we had planned to take the night before, but finally got onto the third and quicker (but more expensive) train which would get us to Rome in an hour and forty minutes. That ride was not much short of miserable, but ROME was at the end of the journey so I put a smile on my face and got ready to explore. Upon arrival we looked around, attempted to type known landmarks in our GPS’s and then all blindly agreed on a direction. Thanks to luck (our Irish luck most likely) we ended up at the Colosseum, yes.. we wandered and ended up at the Colosseum- I love when that happens! Walking up to the enormous ruins was unreal. We walked around the inside of the Colosseum for over an hour. Standing in silence at the enormous display surrounding us on all sides, listening to Becca read the history of the Colosseum from her touring Italy book and discussing what we thought different areas used to be used for. It’s an incredible experience to stand where so much history took place and gain a deeper understanding of the past. Once outside, we walked to the Arch of Constantino which is very close and again read up on the history of the monument. When walking around Rome, there were ruins everywhere that you walked and/or looked. I felt a bit ungrateful/unprepared for not knowing the meaning or names for most of the areas, however I did my best to ask around and simply appreciate how long the items had been there. Next, we grabbed lunch locally (where I got a delicious salad and no wine- still not feeling 100% since the night before and I had been promised life changing pizza for dinner). Following food we set out to find the Trevi Fountain.
We then went to a few of the girls’ favorite bars/clubs around Florence until the sun came up.
7 a.m. came WAY TOO QUICKLY, the thought of skipping Rome that day may have actually (embarrassingly) crossed my mind, but we got each other up and seized the day (after bagels, water and coffee and then more coffee)!! We missed the first and second train that we had planned to take the night before, but finally got onto the third and quicker (but more expensive) train which would get us to Rome in an hour and forty minutes. That ride was not much short of miserable, but ROME was at the end of the journey so I put a smile on my face and got ready to explore. Upon arrival we looked around, attempted to type known landmarks in our GPS’s and then all blindly agreed on a direction. Thanks to luck (our Irish luck most likely) we ended up at the Colosseum, yes.. we wandered and ended up at the Colosseum- I love when that happens! Walking up to the enormous ruins was unreal. We walked around the inside of the Colosseum for over an hour. Standing in silence at the enormous display surrounding us on all sides, listening to Becca read the history of the Colosseum from her touring Italy book and discussing what we thought different areas used to be used for. It’s an incredible experience to stand where so much history took place and gain a deeper understanding of the past. Once outside, we walked to the Arch of Constantino which is very close and again read up on the history of the monument. When walking around Rome, there were ruins everywhere that you walked and/or looked. I felt a bit ungrateful/unprepared for not knowing the meaning or names for most of the areas, however I did my best to ask around and simply appreciate how long the items had been there. Next, we grabbed lunch locally (where I got a delicious salad and no wine- still not feeling 100% since the night before and I had been promised life changing pizza for dinner). Following food we set out to find the Trevi Fountain.
I had spent all morning trying to think of my wish.. Most of my wishes either felt too selfish or not personal enough. How can I wish for my family's health when there are people dying of disease every day? How can I wish for me to find true happiness when there are children without food to eat? I knew that this wish was not going to decide the fate of the world.. but it suddenly felt like a lot of pressure. If I could change one thing about my own life what would it be? Or if I could change one thing about the world, what would it be? WOW, those questions carry a lot of weight and I could not get myself to answer either. I rolled this wish over in my head for hours, struggling to decide what I really, really wanted. I found out that I would be promised to return to Italy if I threw the coin so I could thankfully take one wish off my list of possibilities, but that still left so many good ones! The worst part? I couldn’t even ask anyone’s opinion, which I had been doing A LOT recently regarding many aspects of my life, because of course if I said it out loud then it wouldn’t come true.. and heaven forbid if I got a damn good wish I wasn’t going to risk ruining it LOL. But that’s when it hit me. I didn't actually need anyone else’s opinion on what mattered to me. No one knows how I feel in my heart or stomach or head. They don’t know what deep down is most important to me. They may be trying to help me make a decision that is what they believe to be best for me, which I truly appreciate.. but it also allows me to blame them if I make the wrong choice. I needed to make that decision (and many others) for myself. To really dig down and think about what I believed to be most important, so I did.
I finally got it just as we walked up to the fountain.. well what resembled the fountain. It was under construction! In fact, when our GPS went off and said we had reached it I turned to the man next to me and asked where the fountain was, he smiled and pointed at the yards of metal scaffolding and fencing directly in front of us. What a disappointment :( So we found comfort for our sadness at a nearby authentic bakery, where Sarah and I split a homemade Cannoli! SO MUCH YUM! We then walked back to the fountain, with new spirits, and all took out coins. We found a grate in the ground near the fencing and all closed our eyes, dropped the coins and made our wishes.. with hope that the water tunnel may connect to those of the fountain below ground. We continues to aimlessly explore Rome for a few more hours and take photos of countless ruins in which we knew no names, but were still breathtaking and extremely interesting to admire. In these couple hours we lost Lily for a solid 40 minutes, well misplaced her.. we got caught up in admiring and left for a new location while talking to each other and forgot to fully gather the crew. No worries though! Less than a mile away we realized that she had not joined our new spot and then two of us ran back to search and rescue. She was a good child and stayed in the same spot, so they found here fairly quickly. Though she was left alone in a strange country for almost she remained cool, calm and collected as only Lily could do in this situation.. LOL. She then informed us that she had figured out to plan to get back on the train and return to Florence on her own if we hadn't come soon enough, HA HA HA thank god she didn't do that!
We went into a closeby church before calling it a day, which was simply stunning. Through the day I kept tossing around in my head which I thought was more beautiful, the natural landscapes of Ireland or the man made artistic architecture in Italy. Sarah reminded me that I did not actually have to choose, which is good because I truly can't. Both left me speechless and in awe. The intricate details and attention to detail given to all aspects of every single building, especially the churches, in Italy was unbelievable.
We went into a closeby church before calling it a day, which was simply stunning. Through the day I kept tossing around in my head which I thought was more beautiful, the natural landscapes of Ireland or the man made artistic architecture in Italy. Sarah reminded me that I did not actually have to choose, which is good because I truly can't. Both left me speechless and in awe. The intricate details and attention to detail given to all aspects of every single building, especially the churches, in Italy was unbelievable.
I could write pages about the pizza that we ate that night. Not exaggerating at all. Cue ALLLL OF MEEEE, LOVES ALLLL OF YOUUUU. I am telling you that it was, as promised, life changing. I will never look at another pizza the same. No other pizza will ever make me feel the way that did. It was an experience, one that I will never forget. Becca and I split two personal pizzas, one Margherita with added Spinach and the second was similar but with spicy salami (DO NOT knock it until you try it.. tasted like pepperoni’s sexier brother). We sat in almost complete silence, besides odd noises of joy every few minutes and the clank of wine glasses being lifted so that they could join the parties in our mouths.
No comments:
Post a Comment