April 16 - April 17: Italy (Rome)

Last stop: Rome


We stayed at the best B&B/hostel/hotel out of all the places we stayed at over the course of the trip (it's dizzying to even think about how many beds I slept in over 3 weeks). We stayed at a lovely B&B close to train station. The B&B owner was so helpful! She gave us maps and circled where all the attractions are and special tips -- like where the best nightview is and what each section of the city is like. She even highlighted the best places to get gelato! She was so nice and passionate about Rome and making our short stay as worth it as possible. If anyone's going to Rome, please stay at her B&B. Ask me for her deets. I'm being serious.

Anyway, even though we got into Rome in the mid-afternoon, we still accomplished a lot, thanks to the B&B owner's tips. We went to the Coliseum (Coloseo). I gotta say, when I saw it I felt the same way I did when I saw the Great Wall of China up close. Yea, sure it's a pretty damn famous wonder of the world, but it's just a wall or just a ruined arena. Nope. Way more than that. To see something so old and rich in history up close -- I marvel at how it has survived the test of time and still stands today.

We didn't splurge to go in, unfortunately. I would've liked to but we were pressed for time (the line to get in was, not surprisingly, quite long). But all this just means is I'll have to return to Rome again!


Nearby, the Roman Forum (Forum Romanum)


Hopped on the subway and journeyed to the Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi). Beautiful! Though difficult to get a great shot :(


A surprising thing about Rome is how small it is. It's a big name city, so I thought it was going to be huge and sprawling like Paris and Berlin were. However, it really isn't -- it's probably the same size as Amsterdam, no more than a couple square miles. Thus even though we were only in Rome for two nights, we managed to see everything notable on our side of the Tiber river (the eastern side) that afternoon and evening.

From the Trevi Fountain we walked towards the Pantheon. Here's a trippy looking church, from this angle at least. Architecture in Rome, as one would expect, is quite detailed and intricate. A contrast from Florence where even the nice buildings look like paper models.


The Pantheon! The best preserved historical site, probably.




The ceiling of the Pantheon.


A short walk away, the Spanish Steps (Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti)! Here's what it looks like from the steps... yes lots of tourists...



Jess and I were dressed like twins again. :o) We're in front of Trinità dei Monti which is the church at the top of the Spanish Steps.



Once we got to the top of the Spanish Steps, we walked towards Villa Borghese and came across a view overlooking Piazza del Popolo.

Oh yea, warning stickers on Italy's metros are pretty graphic and needlessly scary.


Following day, we hit up the Vatican City (Stato della Città del Vaticano), on the other side of the Tiber River. We saw a shop selling Duff beer! We jumped at the opportunity hehe. La Birra dei Simpson! (I tried Duff later that evening. It's a fairly pale beer so I enjoyed it. Not too bitter.)


We got into the Vatican. Here's where I saw lots of cool things that I don't remember the names of. Though here, I never got the name of the sculpture. It rotated too. It reminded me of Ayn Rand for some reason...



We walked through the Vatican museums, a collection of statues and equally impressive painted ceilings, before reaching the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina).




The Sistine Chapel ceiling! Photography of any sort was forbidden, but I got this shot before the security dude gave me the evil eye. It was a lucky shot; I managed to get the Creation of Adam. Can you spot it?


Onwards in the Vatican City. Here's St. Peter's Square (Piazza San Pietro).


The Swiss guards. They don't let people get photographed with them. Boo.


St. Peter's Basilica (Basilica Sancti Petri). Definitely the most epic church I've ever been in. check out the light coming in!


La Pietà is in St. Peter's Basilica.


Jess's birthday was the next day, so that evening we celebrated Jess's birthday the way she wanted to celebrate it. Jess wanted to do some gambling, optimally in a casino. But there weren't any casinos in Rome so we went to a cafe which had a couple machines (not unusual in Europe). Jess tried her luck but to no avail, though to be fair, the rules were in Italian and the object of the game wasn't obvious either. We saw an Italian man storm off in frustration from another machine so we didn't feel as bad.

Originally we were planning to go to a classy Italian restaurant (because, you know, when in Rome right?). However we spotted a Korean restaurant near the B&B on our way back from the Vatican so we decided to go there instead, not wanting to put forth the effort to make reservations at the swanky Italian place. Most of us were craving Asian food, especially Jess. We drank a bottle of Est! Est!! Est!!! wine (recommended by my Italian phrase book), which we had purchased from a supermarket earlier. It didn't go well with Korean food.

Then we went to the supermarket and bought a kilo of gelato and a bottle of coke for making ice cream gelato soda. We sang and pigged out on the melty gelato. We couldn't finish it haha. Then we decided to follow the B&B owner's suggestion and check out the best nightview in Rome...


We hung out on a bridge over the Tiber river, chilling out, maxing and relaxing. And taking group pictures, though it was difficult with the lighting and all.

Rome was quite delightful. Needless to say, by the time we got there (the final destination!) we were really tired and at times, unmotivated to do much. But it was impossible to resist Rome and what it had to offer.

April 13 - April 15: Italy (Milan, Venice, Florence)

Reluctantly, we left Nice on the afternoon of April 12 and pulled into Milan later that evening. We passed by Monte Carlo and mournfully caught glimpses of it...

So we stayed at a somewhat unfortunate hotel named America Hotel, but the owner did not speak very good English. He also had an attitude. Meh.

The following morning, in no rush to wake up or anything, we did some sightseeing. I wasn't expecting to have a blast in Milan since it's just a bunch of really expensive designer clothing stores with not much else. But hey, when in Rome Milan, though this does not mean I actually bought anything. Though I probably got a tan. Ugh.

Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano). Not much to remark except we saw a bust in the square in front of it -- some cops came in and arrested one of many guys for selling imitation goods, complete with pinning the guy down on the pavement and such. The other guys escaped. Ehhhh....


Ray-Ban headquarters overlooking the Cathedral square? Yea this place was ridiculous but it gets better...


Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the most swank shopping arcade I've ever been in. Didn't even bother window shopping -- it would've been too painful to look at the prices but mostly irrelevant since I'm not crazy about designer clothing.


Came across an intersection in the shopping arcade. On one corner, we have Louis Vuitton...

Another corner we have Prada...

Finally we have... McDonalds?! Though to be fair, it looked pretty pimpshit too. I wonder if the burger patties are finely stitched and made from real Italian leather. I somehow doubt it though.

Leaving the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, we come across a small piazza with a statue of Leonardo da Vinci! #nerdout

Jess and I continued to walk around Milan while the guys went back to the hostel to take care of some business. Here's me in front of the Armani megastore, just to rub it in my designer-obsessed cousin. Though the store wasn't open because it was Easter Monday. Oh well.


Jess and I would come to realize that most of the designer boutiques were closed, except for the "discount" outlet store (stuff was still above our price range. I think shoes were going for a "heavily reduced" price of €200. eff that.). The "affordable" clothing stores were open though, like H&M and Zara.

By late afternoon, we were out of things to do in Milan so we just ate gelatos. Then we hopped on a tram for shits and giggles (with valid tram tickets. Thank god we bought them because there was a spot check and a guy got pulled pulled off the tram.). We did come across a landmark that was on the postcards we bought so we hopped off the tram...

Sforza Castle (Castello Sforzesco). Formerly a castle, today it's a set of small history and art museums.


After this we decided it was time for dinner. We each ate pizza or pasta, since we're in Italy and all that. After we finished, we thought the wait staff would give us our bill but this was not the case. We sat around for about 20 minutes then we realized we were supposed to be socializing. Kept forgetting that, as Americans who inhale our meals and rush off to the next thing. So we sat around a bit and talked about movies and books. We also continued the game that Dan and John had been playing since Paris -- asking everyone a personal question, anywhere from "What's your favorite Sufjan Stevens song?" to "Who was your first kiss?". Sitting around after dinner and socializing ended up being a lot of fun.

The next morning we headed to Venice! It was absolutely beautiful!


I was sitting across from an American tourist family on the train to Venice. They had a Venice tour book so I borrowed it from them for the ride to read up on stuff to do. Venice isn't in great shape. The native population size is decreasing and the average age of its residents has been increasing. Oh yea there are occasional floods and stuff too.

The tour book described Venice as a "floating museum" because the people there are overwhelmingly tourists just walking around admiring the streets and canals of Venice as if they were works of art. Walking around the narrow storybook-esque and mazelike streets (hairier than old London, so hairy that we splurged to get a map even though the whole place was like less than 1 square mile). Lots of pigeons here, and lots of unwitting tourists feeding them. Sigh.


Even the floating museum had a McDonald's, tucked away like the embarrassing half-brother with 3 arms and named "Hamburger."


The obligatory gondolas-in-canal shot:


I love how the colors of the buildings are reflected in the water. This is the Grand Canal (Canal Grande), the the largest canal and one that circles Venice.


We had pizza again for dinner. Excellent! I had a slice of mushroom + sausage (the thin crust one in in the second row that's still whole) and spinach+tomato+feta(?) (the deep dish one in the lower left). Definitely better than the pizza in the US but anyone could've guessed that.


After dinner we walked around Venice at night.


Carnival of Venice (Carnevale di Venezia) is a big holiday. It's essentially a giant masquerade party. There were lots of places selling beautifully detailed masks, legit and of the souvenir variety. It would've been awesome to be in Venice for it, but sadly it takes place from around 2 weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends on Mardi Gras.


A really awesome chess set!


We were only in Venice for one night, regrettably. I would've liked to stay there at least another night because the surrounding islands look like a lot of fun too, like San Giorgio Maggiore (the island in the background of the first Venice photo). Alas, next time!

The next day, we headed to Florence. I did a book report-ish project involving Italy back in 6th grade and one of the two cities I chose to research in depth was Florence. All I remember about Florence was the Old Bridge (Ponte Vecchio).

And here it is, in the flesh...


Ponte Vecchio is unique in that, as you can see, there are houses and shops on it. Most of the shops were made-to-take-advantage-of-tourists jewelry shops though. There was an open space on the bridge (center of the bridge) for people to admire the Arno river and for street musicians to perform.

Michaelangelo's David is in a museum in Florence so we decided to wander around in that general direction. After getting off the Ponte Vecchio, we walked through Uffizi and into Piazza della Signoria, a large square filled with giant statues, including a replica of David!


Also in this square is The Fountain of Neptune. I was expecting a more spectacular display of spewing water.


The Florence Cathedral (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore). It's got a cardboard model look to it, and I also wasn't used to seeing patterns painted onto a church.


First sighting of Duff beer in a bar near the Florence Cathedral. It was €5 per bottle so we passed, for the time being. The bartender told us it's a Belgian beer. Intriguing...


Florence is in the Tuscany region of Italy. Buildings are simple and follow a boxy format with minimal frills. They are also warmly colored -- light coral and pale yellow were common colors. And when the setting sun hits them, they look really homely and traditional.


We eventually got to the Accademia museum, the one that houses Michaelangelo's David, but after one glance at the line and the admission fee, we decided to pass and that the replica we saw earlier was good enough. By this point in the trip, we were pretty jaded, museum-wise. Also, pretty tired.

So we went back the way we came. Here's the Uffizi courtyard again with the Arno river in the background.


There are statues in the courtyard of the Uffizi. Here's Macchiavelli. Even the statue depicts him as a weasel.


Amerigo Vespucci. Without him, America might be named something different.


The author of the Pinocchio story is from Florence so there were Pinocchio souvenirs on sale. Here's the inside of "the original Pinocchio store." The shop lady yelled at me for taking a picture, though, since it was forbidden.


We wandered a bit and took a break at the Pitti Palace (Palazzo Pitti). Unfortunately it was closed. I really wanted to go in and take a look at the Boboli Gardens. This was also the palace where the Medici family lived, a name that I vaguely remember from learning about the Renaissance in middle school. This is the facade of the palace -- looks very flat and ordinary, along the same lines as the Florence Cathedral. Things really are simple in Florence.


Afterwards we grabbed dinner in a restaurant serving made-for-tourists food, then we tried searching for Duff beer at a more reasonable price but to no avail. We headed back to Ponte Vecchio to chill.


To our delight there was a really talented street musician who did a great cover of Eagle-Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight." Chilling on the Ponte Vecchio was like chilling in a coffee shop, but outdoors and with a beautiful river to admire.


Ciao, Firenze!