Italy!
If you don’t have me on Facebook, the biggest
differences that seemed abnormal in Italy were the following: church bells, mutual respect, PDA, skin, ALL THE WHITE
PEOPLE! I’m not trying to be rude about it, it’s just things I am no longer used to. It was quite impressive to see all the changes from one culture to the next and comparing them to one another but, in essence, they were all very similar. I still had a lot of fun exploring and doing all the touristy things I did, but I also missed the feel of not moving around and just staying in one place to experience everything-not just the first impressions. I would say that would be my biggest regret of the trip but it’s not important enough to take away from the fun I had.
On our first day in Rome, we flew in and
checked in to our apartment-which was conveniently about 100 meters from the
Coliseum. We then went and explored the Forum, Palentine Hill, Capitoline Hill,
Pantheon, and the Coliseum. It was a lot of history to take in, especially with
Kate who is a history geek, but I had my own things to geek about throughout
the trip. The first day was mostly getting a majority of the touristy sites out
of the way in order to avoid crowds (It was a Friday) and so we wouldn’t fall
asleep too early in the day. I did enjoy a lot of these spots because they were
much older and it felt like you entered a different world because they were so
big and totally engulfed you. I felt like I was in ancient Roman times and I
was seeing differences in our culture and theirs, especially in the
architecture (one of my geek sides). And then we would get ambushed by tourists
and then I wanted to leave. Such is Europe.
When we were in the Pantheon, we happened to
time it perfectly. We had about 30 minutes where we were roaming around and
then they made an announcement that everyone needed to get out unless they were
attending mass. Kate and I decided to stay and, except for being very tired and
hungry, enjoyed it (at least I did). It was a Catholic mass said in Italian so
I didn’t understand about half of what was going on or being said because it
was so different than ours, but it was very interesting. Afterward, we went in
search of a place my cousin said was very good nearby. Eventually we stumbled
upon it and found a pizzeria that explored various tastes and styles of pizza
(talking about the toppings). I had a potato pizza and a buffalo cheese pizza.
We both agreed it was awesome, but after what we did the next week in Italy, we
both realized it was very good but not the best (Sorry Colleen).
The next morning, we got to sleep in a little
because we had a food tour that didn’t start until 10am. We went to an older
part of Rome that was actually the first part to exist because of the placement
of the Tiber River. It first started out as a port and grew because of the
markets and the location. This part of authentic Rome is called Testaccio. We
had a 4 hour trip of taste-testing breakfast, lunch, and snacks. We joined up
with quite a few Americans also on the tour as well as a family from Germany to
visit generations-old and owned delis, cafes, markets and mini restaurants. We
stopped at 12 food places and then 2 random stops to show a little history in
the area. One of the random stops was to a cemetery that holds the final
resting place of a lot of famous people-the first of which we saw were John
Keats, Joseph Savern and Percy Shelly (English geek in me came out). Kate and I
both agree that this food tour was our favorite part of the trip both because
of the experience, the food and the social aspect. Every person on the tour was
very delightful and we became a small family by the end of the trip.
After our food tour, we decided to do a few
other touristy things-the Trevvi Fountain, Spanish steps and the Chiesa del
Gesu. The Trevvi Fountain and Spanish steps were, of course, filled with people
because it was so nice out and they’re extremely famous. We were both in
agreement that we should just get in and get out for the most part. We forced
ourselves into the crowd, took our pictures, and then left as fast as we could.
We didn’t really stick around for a lecture or anything, not even a history
note! The Spanish Steps were actually closed for construction for some reason
and we didn’t bother to get close to them, we just stood back and let people do
their thing. 
We did happen to see a Shelly and Keats museum right next to the
Spanish Steps though, ironically. It was totally unplanned for and we had no
idea it was there but we went in anyways. I, of course, enjoyed it a lot
because it’s such a huge part of my education-the people anyways. The museum
was basically the apartment where John Keats and Joseph Savern lived-and Keats
died-when they were there a century ago but it also told the story of Percy
Shelley because he was best friends with Keats. Anyways, after that we went to
Chiesa del Gesu, a church that has a 3D ceiling. They actually have a mirror on
the ground so you can look up at the ceiling easier without hurting your neck.
This was a really cool place to visit as well, but we didn’t stay or study any
sort of history for it so it was just a cool factor of the day. After that we
went to dinner before wandering around for a couple hours. We ended up getting
slightly lost but quickly found our way back while also visiting a bunch of
piazzas and open air markets. We even walked down a street, found a tiny
church, and met a Catholic brother in Rome that was from Iowa!
On the third day we took a day trip to Mount
Vesuvius and Pompeii. It was 14 hours altogether. We had to travel to the far
side of Naples and our group traveled to Mount Vesuvius first. We had an hour
and a half to climb half the volcano; it was hell. The first part of it seemed
like it was going straight up in small sections-which made it feel like it was
taking forever-and it wasn’t ideal for hiking at all because it was very easy
to slide down the rocks you just finished climbing. The second part of it started
going less steep and more just like a hill so it was a lot easier to do. Kate
and I never made it to the furthest point (there were 3 checkpoints, we made it
a little bit past the 2nd one), so, because of timing, we had to
turn back around and head back down. We were about 
10 minutes late to the bus
but we weren’t even the last ones so we didn’t feel as bad. After that we had
lunch close to Pompeii and then we had a short tour of it. The guide was kind
of funny because he was British and kept making jokes about their lives
compared to ours. We didn’t get to see too much of Pompeii because there was so
much to do in such a small amount of time but what we did see was pretty cool.
Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to its expectations but, like I said, I did
only see a few parts of the ruins.
The last full day in Rome, we went to the
Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica and Castel D’Angelo. To begin with, we travelled
to St. Peter’s and roamed around for 30 or so minutes until our time came to go
get our tickets to climb the dome. We decided to pay for the elevator ride up
(extra 2 euro) so we wouldn’t have to climb all 554 stairs, instead we went up
323 stairs-but it still took forever and you can get really claustrophobic when
in the “hallway” because it’s extremely skinny and even starts curving with the
dome. Eventually we made it to the top after much struggle (apparently we were
not nearly in shape for this adventure like we thought we might be) but we got
to enjoy the view for about 45 minutes before we had to go back down to make it
for our appointment in the Vatican Museums. We had previously gotten the tickets online for a certain time so we were able to skip a long line and go
straight 
in, although it was very crowded. We were exploring the museums for a good
3 hours or so-they had a ton of things from armory to religious artifacts to
pottery. We also had lunch there before resting for a few minutes then heading
back to St. Peter’s. There was a lot of stuff we didn’t see and Kate wanted to
listen to her audio guide of St. Peter’s. We were there for another hour or so
before we decided we were finished and should go to Castel D’Angelo down the
street. Castel D’Angelo started off as a mausoleum for the Roman Emperor
Hadrian and his family before it was turned into a fortress for popes.
The 5th day of the trip, Kate and I
travelled to Cinque Terre-specifically the small town of Manarola. We spent
most of the morning and early afternoon travelling on a high speed train so we
would make it to Manarola by early afternoon. This one-day stop was just to
relax and enjoy the view. It is a small fishing town on the coast but it is
also gaining popularity and becoming a tourist town. Luckily, though, there was
only a hundred or so extra people in town so it wasn’t too full. We had an
early dinner and planned the last minute details of Florence before going to
bed. The next morning, we only had a couple hours before the train left for
Florence so I laid out on the beach for a little bit while Kate read and then
we had an early lunch before grabbing our things and leaving. That day, we
arrived earlier in Florence than expected so we started wandering around. We
only planned to look at one or two places but everything there is much closer
and it’s a smaller city. We ended up finding almost everything we would go to
later on in the week and went into a few unplanned places as well. For the most
part, everything we wanted to see was close to one another so if you wanted to
do one thing, you paid for everything. However, we didn’t know that before and
didn’t want to buy tickets for multiple places since we didn’t plan on going in
all of them. It was also a little cool because I found out that an Irish pub
across the street was called Finnegan’s, which is my brother-in-law’s last name.
So we went in for a drink at the end of the night.
The 7th and final full day in Italy
we started off with a food tour in the morning by recommendation from our tour
guide in Rome. This one was still in the beginning stages of the tours so we
actually got a huge discount because it was a pilot. It wasn’t quite as fun as
the one in Rome since Kate and I were the only people in the trip but it wasn’t
as long or as interesting (food wasn’t much different) but I did try a few odd
things like the stomach lining of a cow’s 4th stomach. That was
actually good…well, it was prepared well. I probably won’t eat that anywhere
else haha. After that we went to the Duomo where we walked around and learned a
tiny bit about the history of it-it has the largest brick dome ever
constructed, it is one of the largest churches in Italy and used to be the
biggest one. After a quick tour through, we went to the Academia Gallery where
Michelangelo’s David statue is. That was about the only thing worth it in the
entire gallery. Everything else was either a replica of the real thing or were
a lot of paintings/sculptures by much lesser important artists so they were
cool to see but didn’t have much for a history.
The last day in Florence was a half-day. In the
early morning, I went to check out an auditorium down the road from where we
were staying just to see if there was anything cool there. Originally, I had
wanted to go to an auditorium/stage where opera basically started and one of
the oldest opera houses in the world but you needed a private tour reserved
which I didn’t know. Anyways, this auditorium wasn’t actually an auditorium. It
used to be a convent but then it was turned into a military base and then back
into a convent before being deserted and eventually, a sort of gallery and
museum but without the popularity. This was just a quick stop before Kate and I
went to the Uffizi Gallery where we saw a lot of the famous paintings in Italy
from the Renaissance era (Botticelli, Michelangelo,
Leonardo da Vinci for example) that were a part of the
Medici family’s collection. There was a lot to see but we didn’t have the time
or will to go through nearly as many exhibitions so we stuck to the important
ones and then left. This was the day we sadly had to come back to Bahrain.
First we travelled by train from Florence to the Rome airport we flew into
because it was also where our return flight was and then we flew from Rome to
Doha to Manama. We got in around 2am and my roommate came to pick us up. I
spent all day yesterday doing almost nothing. Now here I am, back at school,
wishing I had at least one more day to recoup before teaching. But oh well, I’m
making it work. Anyways, that’s really all I’ve got time for and this post is
already really long, so I’ll catch up with you guys later. Ciao! 
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