a day in Florence

Today = Yesterday

Today was our full day of sightseeing in Florence, and I must say, this city is gorgeous. You truly cannot appreciate Renaissance art until you’re here, actually looking at the statues as you’re learning about the history. The day started off with our entire tour group taking a photograph at Michelangelo’s square, which overlooked Florence and had a replica of David. PREEEEEETTTTTTTTTY view!

Afterwards, we headed towards where we kinda were for dinner last night, and then took a tour of a leather factory. I ended up buying a leather travel journal, mainly cuz it looked classy and I wanna be cool. Haha. =P Had a bit of free time before our guided tour, so Chris and I walked around the streets, cameras in hand. We stopped by this little café to have our first cappuccinos in Italy, standing at the bar like most Italians. It was pretty good, after we added a LOT of sugar. Afterwards, we went to take pictures of the stuff we couldn’t photograph the night before, like statues and whatnot. We even saw a music video being made, and I think we were in one of the shots cuz we were right behind the group, taking pictures of statues. Woohoo! Still gotta find out which group it is, though.

Hahahaha, a LOT of us were laughing at this statue! "Love slave!"

Thank God our tour group doesn't look like this. (O_O)

Our guided tour was pretty cool; we heard the history about the Piazza della Signoria and the statues in it. Eventually we ended up in the Duomo, where there was this amazing fresco on the dome. It was hard taking pictures of it, since it was so high up…either it would be blurry because the flash would be off, or it would be dark because the flash was on. Yeesh. Our tour ended and we had about an hour and a half to kill before our reservations at the Galleria dell’ Accademia, where the original statue of David is. Bought postcards&stamps and had lunch. Checked out the gallery, which had a security checkpoint before entering. Ugh, I’m so sick of metal detectors and crap! Grrr! We went in with Denise and Matt, and the four of us walked around for a bit, admiring the dart before we came upon David. There was a sign that said cameras were forbidden, but of course, I had to take a picture. The problem was, there was some person who took a picture at the same time I did, and their flash went off the second my camera went off, making it hella obvious that I took a picture! Chris was like, “DUDE, what the heck?! Turn your flash off!” I was like, “Uhh…it WAS off!” Then this security guard lady came up to me and started talking to me in Italian, and I think she was telling me that photography wasn’t allowed. =P Oops. Oh well…at least they didn’t kick us out or make me delete the picture! We got through the rest of the gallery with no other troubles, and Chris and I separated from Denise and matt. I called my cousin, Danie, when we got out of the gallery. She’s here in Florence for a study abroad program, so we decided to meet up. We visited her at her apartment, which was very close to the Duomo, and hung out for a bit. She had to get ready for class, so Chris and I decided to go climb to the top of the Duomo…

Danie & me

CLIMBING TO THE TOP WAS CRAZY. 460+ steps to the top! And Chris was freaking out because he’s scared of heights, and I was freaking out because the stairway was this narrow, winding, stone prison that was like, a thousand years old. Hello, claustrophobia! (O_o) So we got bottom of the dome part, which was about halfway up…it was a better view of the fresco, and once again, Chris freaked out because he looked up and saw the part of the ceiling that was depicting Hell, and looked down and saw the church floor…so he didn’t know which was worse. Haha oh man…if I wasn’t so freaked out myself, I would have laughed at him. Haha just kidding. =) So we FINALLY made it up to the top, and the last few sets of stairs were seriously so steep that it was like climbing a ladder. The view made up for it, but the wind scared the crap out of us…and of course, Chris freaked out again and held on to the railing like no other. We got some fellow tour people to take our picture, and surprisingly, CHRIS LOOKS NORMAL! HAHAHAHA oh man. “I paid 6 Euros to experience paralyzing fear?!” HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA Why yes, yes you did. =P We spent a few minutes at the top, taking pictures of another breathtaking view of Florence. We went down, and this time *I* was freaking out for two reasons: 1) I’d rather go up than down, and 2) I was hypoglycemic from the climb up. NOT a good combo! Plus, I was getting super dizzy from going down the winding stairs. Gahhhh…ended up having to buy a Fanta when we got out. Oh yeah, and Chris freakin’ farted in a thousand-year-old church! ARRRRRRRRRRRG! “Hey, when you gotta fart, you gotta fart!” says the farter. “This is God’s way of punishing us for taking elevators ever since we got to Italy!” Yikes.

View from a random hole on the way to the top

After getting over shaky legs and insulin shock, we went back to the leather store where I bought my travel journal so I could get it embossed with my initials. Red leather looks really cool with gold leafing, fyi. =) Walked back to the bus, went back to the hotel, took a nap, and then met up with everyone again for dinner.

That was the best dinner EVER. We drove out about 45 minutes, up a hill, to this restaurant. There was another tour group there, but the atmosphere was such that it didn’t seem just like any old restaurant, but more like a banquet where everyone knew each other…there was a guy playing the piano, and he was totally hyping everyone up. Plus, the food was DELICIOUS! To make a long story short, food coma can be overcome by a shot of extremely strong alcohol made by bored monks (yes, I said MONKS) and a short of extremely strong Italian espresso. Holy crap, I was so hyper that my eyes were chinky! =P I have some stupid ass pictures of Chris and me looking like we’re running away from shadows, but those will probably never see the light of day. Muahahaha!

I love Florence. That is all. =)

en route to Florence

Happy birthday, Papa!

Today we moved from Rome to Florence, with a couple of stops along the way. Wake up call was at ungodly 6:30am, but for some reason, I woke up at 5:30 or so. Weird…that means my jetlag will be kicking in soon (yeah, my body clock is weird…I get jetlag a week later).

After breakfast, we headed out for about two hours before stopping at one of those truck stop things…reminded me of MWR tours in Japan. =) Bought water, candy, and whatnot…and went back on the road towards this medieval town called San Gimignano. Despite the fact that it was built during the Dark Ages (there was even a torture museum that Chris and I wanted to visit but didn’t have time for…boo), it was really peaceful and nice. Of course, now it has stuff like restaurants and souvenir shops, but it didn’t feel like a place where people would be tortured…unless you count those steep hills!

Drive Beer?! What the hey?!

Got back on the bus, this time heading for Castello il Palagio. We got a tour of the wine cellar, which used to be a prison when the castle was actually used as a residence. MAN, THOSE THINGS WERE HUGE! If those broke open, we would’ve drowned in wine! Speaking of wine, we even got to taste three of their wines…which of course led Chris and me to buy nearly 100 Euros worth of wine and olive oil in between us. Yummmm, olive oil!

The castle's small but impressive chapel

After the castle, we finally headed to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance. Upon arriving to our hotel (which actually has no internet access, BAH!), we had an hour to relax before our tour group met up for dinner. Dinner was nice; we went to this Italian place near the Uffuzi gallery. The chicken was a bit on the dry side, but other than that, it was decent. Our group did the whole “let’s walk in a giant crowd so the Italians can tell we’re tourists” thing and took a stroll after dinner. We went on this bridge that was built in the 1200s, which overlooked the Arno River. There was something about standing on that bridge, looking at the streetlights’ reflections on the river, that made me pinch myself and ask if I was really in Italy. It was so peaceful, and I loved how old and new buildings contrasted with each other yet looked like they belonged together.

Most of the group went to a pub after our little stroll, but we just walked around and explored the streets of Florence. You can’t get these kind of views in the States…you don’t get the awe that overwhelms you when you see a building that is too big to take in all at once, or a statue that is older than the Declaration of Independence. My pictures can’t do Italy’s beauty justice…I definitely wish you guys were all here with us, seeing and experiencing the same things we’re seeing and experiencing.

View from the hotel room

Despite the crazy (and I do mean CRAZY) drivers and traffic, the graffiti everywhere, the weird smells at random times…Italy really is a beautiful country. You guys know me, I love to observe people, and observing people in a different setting other than the US is great. I always wondered how it would be to live in a country where English isn’t the main language, or where we rely on public transportation to get around because it’s more convenient. What makes their lives here so different from our lives back in the States? What little things do they do that we don’t, and vice versa?

Awww, it’s only the second day of our trip, and I’m already in love with this country. =)

full day in Rome

Ahhh, first full day in Rome. We started off waking up at the buttcrack of dawn, surprisingly well rested from the night before. Had breakfast, which was an Italian version of a continental breakfast…had much better stuff, such as biscotti, Nutella, cheese and meat, etc. Met up with Denise, who we met on the way to the hotel from the airport yesterday. We planned to walk around and explore, and it turned out her roommate Rebecca was there, so the four of us set out to invade Rome…

Our first stop was a tabacchi shop to buy bus cards, phone cards, and refill my SIM card. The clerk was pretty cool, cuz he could tell we were Americans (er, except Rebecca, who’s Australian) who didn’t speak a lick of Italian, so it was nice of him to try and understand us. We got by fine on that one, no major snags. =) Afterwards, we tried to take the bus to a metro station so we could go to the Colosseum, but we ended up getting off at some random stop and just walking around. We ended up at the Pantheon, which was BEAUTIFUL. It was awesome standing inside a building that’s 2000 years old.

Rebecca, me, and Chris

Not too far away from the Pantheon was the Trevi Fountain, where a bajillion people, native Italians and tourists, were around. For some odd reason, there were these vendors walking around selling squishy doll things and Eminem posters. Random, yes I know. =P Of course, it’s always advisable to ignore these vendors, so we were trying not to make eye contact with them, but geebus they’re persistent! Oh, so right next to the Trevi was some gooooood gelato! Son of a monkey’s uncle that was good. I got Nutella and After Eight. =) Mmm…for some reason I think we’re gonna be eating a lot of gelato here.

After throwing coins into the fountain to ensure our return to Rome, we headed over to the Spanish Steps. Nothing too entertaining there, except the world’s “largest and most lavish” (according to Rick Steves) McDonald’s. I have this thing where I have to go to a McDonald’s in every country I visit, for comparison reasons. This one was pretty similar to the ones we have in the States, except their diet Coke tastes better (haha, yeah shuddup, I’m diabetic). After lunch, Denise and Rebecca went to do some shopping, so Chris and I walked around some more, taking pictures and whatnot. We ended up in Piazza del Popolo, checking out the architecture and waiting for this one church to open. For some reason, it never opened, and we were sad. =(

There was this guy (or girl, who knows) dressed up as an Egyptian pharaoh, and if you put a coin in the jar in front of him, he would bow. So we were sitting there by a fountain, observing this “pharaoh”…

Chris: That’s kinda funny, a pharaoh bowing…people should be bowing to him! *pauses* But then again, Romans stole his obelisk, so maybe he’s just trying to make money so he can get it back. Yeahhhh that’s it…he’s trying to buy back his obelisk!

HAHAHA what a nerd!

Because the church never opened, we decided to just head back to the hotel so we could write postcards and relax before we had to meet with the rest of our tour group at 6. This is when the adventure began. We took the metro to the station near the hotel, and there was supposed to be a 10-minute walk from the station to the hotel. That 10-minute walk took us over 2 HOURS. Omg…somewhere we took a wrong turn, and all the maps we had cut off at a point north of where we were wandering around, so we had no clue where to go. Street after street, turn after turn, tabacchi store after tabacchi store…no hotel. We kept telling ourselves that we would eventually find it, that it shouldn’t be too far from where we were, but nooo…we finally called the hotel, told them what intersection we were at, and got directions. Ahhh we made it! =P It was nice though, walking through the streets of Rome without totally looking like tourists. But after 2 hours of not knowing where the heck you are, it got a bit scary.

We chilled for about 45 minutes before it was time for us to meet our tour group for dinner. Our tour manager, Franco, seems pretty cool…always joking around and stuff. Dinner was gooood…their pasta here is different from what we’re used to in the States; here, it’s basically pasta with olive oil and a few spices, instead of smothered with sauce, and their salad had just the right amount of dressing. Mmmm yummy!

So yes…day one of Italy has been completed. We’re off to Florence tomorrow, and supposedly our hotel there has internet, so I’ll post this from there! Ciao!

Ciao Roma!

We finally made it to Rome! :D

So this trip is, so far, the craziest I’ve ever been on. Our day started off with Thacker picking us up from my house and driving us to LAX. Thanks again, Thacker! =) Checked our bags in, which were a pound or two over the Contiki limit (meaning we gotta take our pea coats out, haha)…went through security check…then finally boarded the plane. Yay for sleep deprived travelers! The flight from LAX to NYC wasn’t too bad, hit a few instances of turbulence now and then, but nothing too major.

Arriving at JFK five minutes early was nothing, since it took nearly 20 to get off the plane. Our itinerary said we had about 40 minutes from the time of landing to the time of our flight from JFK to London Heathrow, so we had to seriously haul ass from one terminal to another. At one point I freaked out because Chris took off with my purse, thinking that would give me one less thing to worry about, but that ended up scaring the hell out of me…gah! We got to the gate at final call, thankful that we actually made it…and then it turns out that there was a fatty delay! Haha oh man…gotta love international travel. Flight to London was pretty good; National Treasure was one of the in-flight movies, and Chris got excited because they served chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner, haha! =P Then, as we’re approaching London, the pilot tells us there’s gonna be a delay because of heavy air traffic, so we circled for what seemed to be FOREVER. Of course, this threw off everyone’s connecting schedules, so we were all booked on other airlines and whatnot. Originally, we were supposed to fly British Airways on the leg from London to Rome, then we found out that I would be flying BA and Chris would be flying Alitalia…boooo there goes the excitement! But upon re-checking in, we were both actually ended up on Alitalia…which scared us because we read some bad reviews. =\

We had a few hours to kill in London, so we got food and wandered around for a bit, looking for phone cards to call home. Ditched the phone card idea because rates were ridiculous! Finally settled on emailing people and blogging (although I couldn’t log in to my xanga because apparently it had “inappropriate content”…like what, I said the British keyboard sucks?!)…and mailing postcards to our parents. Oh funny thing about buying stuff at the little shop…I usually read Cosmo or other girly magazines, but the nerd in me came out when I saw the front cover for The Economist…because it reminded me of my Econ169 class! HAHA oh geez…I got sad because that was one of the best classes I’d ever taken at UCI. *tear*

Our flight was supposed to be at 12:15, then delayed to 12:55, then to 12:35, then finally 1pm. Went to the gate as soon as we found out what it was, boarded the plane, and sat there for about an hour and a half. 1pm take off time, my arse! We didn’t end up in the air until 2pm! It’s okay though, we made it to Rome! It was like landing in the Philippines when we landed in Rome…people started clapping! =P We deplaned and took a shuttle bus to the terminal, claimed our bags (and for some odd reason, mine was warped), and waited for the Contiki driver to pick us up. We met another person on the tour named Denise, but we’re all probably gonna hang out tomorrow when the tour starts since we’re all pooped.

All in all, this day (or two) was nuts. The risk of our bags getting lost was so high: two connecting flights, delays, being rerouted to a completely different airline…but yanno, that’s the fun in international travel (and travel in general). You never know what’s gonna happen, and through it all, you just have to manage to keep your cool and not freak out. Although I was a bit cranky from lack of sleep. =P

So now…I’m very tired. After being in planes and airports for literally 24 hours, my body is exhausted…it’s not even the fact that I’m sleepy, but my body is has literally been running without rest for nearly 48 hours. I feel like Jack Bauer! =P It’s crazy hearing Italian all around us and actually somewhat understanding it. Yaaaaaay!

Oh, and if you guys wanna call, my cell number here is 011-39-339-25-9072 (when calling from the States). Ciao! =)