I went to Rome (and Pisa and Florence) and I cannot believe how much fun and amazing and exciting it was. I’m sorry if it makes you jealous cause even I’m jealous of me. However, I am sad to report that besides impressing countless people, my research proved mostly useless because we had guides and tours for the whole trip that I could not leave. Still had the god dang time of my life though.
Day One: I set my alarm for 5:50, as it normally takes me about twenty minutes to get out of bed and I was getting picked up at 6:40 (to be at Milan at 8:30, which is at max one hour away). But, rather than being my usual tired self, I freaking bounced out of bed at 5:50 sharp as I was so dang excited. So I did the only thing that made sense: facetimed Colby, as I had ‘unlimited time’ until I suddenly glanced at the clock and it was 6:25 and I had 15 minutes to get dressed, finish breakfast, finish packing, brush my teeth, etc. Needless to say I was a bit late.
However, we still made it to Milan forty minutes early! Woohoo! After waiting an ungodly amount of time on the sidewalk, the bus finally arrived and we were off on an extremely foggy ride to Pisa!! And I have to say I definitely underestimated Pisa. First of all, the main piazza doesn’t have only the tower; there’s also an amazing cathedral and baptistry, which I could have spent so much more time exploring. I just couldn’t tear myself away from the tower, which I actually got to climb! If you were wondering, you can definitely feel the tilt while walking up the stairs (which Siri and I climbed way too fast) and also while walking on top. But it is so. worth. it. The view was absolutely breathtaking and so much better than I thought it would be. I even got to facetime my parents (and part of croc floc!) and show them how beautiful it was. I 100% recommend it, if you ever find yourself in Pisa. It’s expensive but just freaking amazing.
After a surprisingly good time in Pisa, we got back on the bus (spent a whole lot of time on that dang bus) and drove to Florence (aka Firenze, in italiano). Spent a great first night there, eating extremely mediocre pasta and horrible bread and then sleeping in really freaking small cabins. BUT we were in Firenze and I was happy. The next morning was the first opportunity I had to use some of the research I had done, as our first stop was the Uffizi, which I had literally mapped out. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to leave the tour and so my afternoon of reading an entire textbook on the museum and then making a map with every single painting I wanted to see ended up being mostly for nothing. It did, however, leave me with the ability to throw around the names of painters nobody else new, such as Lippi and Giotto. I was probably… kind of obnoxious.
But once I saw the room with the Da Vinci’s, nothing else mattered. I wish I could tell you guys how amazing they were. There were three huge paintings in room; one on your left, one on the right, and one right in front of you. The ones on the right and left were amazing; in fact, in the one on your left, I felt like I could reach out and ripple the water in the painting. Da Vinci is considered a master for a reason. But the one in the center. It was amazing. It’s ‘Adoration of the Magi’, and it was actually unfinished – but that made it all the more insane. It literally made me tear up. I couldn’t close my mouth. I’m telling you, all I could do was stare at this painting. I wish every single person on earth had the privilege of looking at it. Each figure – all of them unfinished – somehow convey so much emotion and mastery and even just writing about it leaves me newly awestruck. It was amazing.
So there was still a whole other floor of the Uffizi, but the ‘Adoration of the Magi’ pretty much ruined every other painting I will ever see in my entire life, kind of like St. Peters ruined every other church I will ever see in my entire life. But the other paintings were still amazing – especially the little angel by Fiorentino and Caravaggio’s Medusa. The rest of Firenze was also pretty cool, except for the fact that the tour guide was actually quite boring and we didn’t enter the Duomo. Side note: I did spend about 10 minutes watching and re-watching the Endgame trailer, true to character.
But more on the Duomo of Firenze, which is the other inexplicable thing of this trip. I was walking with Suzie, kind of bored, on a street with nothing particularly beautiful for Italy, when all of a sudden I look to my left and there’s the duomo. Everyone gaped for a few seconds, cause it’s a beautiful building, but I of course could not control myself. My mouth was open for, I swear, five minutes and once again I started to cry. And then I started crying also like 10 minutes after we left cause I had been only one block away before during our free time and, like an oblivious idiot who hadn’t done hours of research on this city, was like ‘oh let’s turn left here!’ whereas had I walked for a hundred meters I would have seen one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen and, more importantly, would have had an hour to just stare at that building. If only.
I then bought some souvenirs for too much money (what’s new) and got on the bus. Once again I negated the time I’d spent on research and said, like a naïve little person, “at least it’s only one hour to Rome!”. If you hadn’t already guessed, it’s not one hour from Firenze to Rome. It’s three. But hey we made it just in time for dinner at the hotel!! And then free time, during which we couldn’t leave the hotel! It was super fun though, because as I have said before, exchange students are the coolest thing on this earth. I love them more than I love anything I saw on this trip. So it was still super fun. Also got to talk to Colby, who I called right before dinner because I just was so dang excited about the day and had to tell her about it. Colbs I love ya!
We left the hotel the next day at 8 (no wonder I was sick after this trip!) and headed to our walking tour of Rome, which began with Piazza del Popolo and moved forward, including the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Piazza di Spagna (fun fact: that church is called Trinita, which is my name in Italian), a 2,000 year old Roman temple, a church with a lot of Caravaggio’s, and (my favorite) Piazza Navona and Sant Agnese, which is the church with St. Agnes’ skull, multiple relics, and the piazza where she was actually martyred. It was really, really special to be able to see that church, which was also one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in Italy. Heather, Mila, and I went in the church during our free time for lunch, after which we also went in the Pantheon and had carbonara for lunch. And then I spent too much on souvenirs what is new.
That afternoon I officially went to my fifth country – Vatican City what is up!!! We took pictures in the architectural feat that is the piazza, and then, after waiting in a decently long line, went in St. Peter’s. I can’t explain to you how amazing it was. I truly cannot. This I can say: that the next church I went into, Vencoli Church also of St. Peter, there was only one thought in my head: this isn’t a church. And keep in mind, this is a church in Rome that actually also had a Michaelangelo. St. Peter’s was so great and so awesome that I legitimately could not comprehend it when I went. I’m already insanely excited for the next time I get to go, because I’ll get to truly appreciate how amazing it is.
I then accidentally spent five minutes too much time shopping with Heather and we kind of got yelled at but that did not matter because next on the list was a four-course dinner!! I sat with the best people and we literally laughed every single moment of that night, except when we were stuffing our faces with pasta. It was seriously one of the most fun meals I have had. We then went back to the hotel, full of tiramisu but not of chicken cause the stuff they served us was kinda… nasty. However, I danced off all the cacio e pepe that night in the hotel pool! Seriously. Exchange students are the most fun. I don’t even care how dumb the stuff we do sounds, it’s just so much fun cause we do it together!
The next day was probably my favorite of the whole trip. We once again left at 8 and drove immediately to the Colosseum, where Siri and I totally freaking geeked out because it was the dang COLOSSEUM. Our tour guide that day was for sure the best, and I legitimately learned so much interesting stuff. The next stop was the Foro Romano, which was literally like 100 meters away and truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and will ever see. There is so much history in this one valley. Caesar’s body was there; Marc Antony spoke there; Christians tried to erase paganism by changing temples into churches; Roman soldiers marched through the same paths I walked. I loved every second of it and I tried to soak up every single thing to see (and as a result was almost always at the back of the group because I just could not ever tear myself away from anything). We finished the tour after walking past the ruins of what used to be Roman homes, excavated but still about 15 feet beneath the street, all leading up to the Vittorio Emanuele monument.
The next hour and a half was one of the best of my life and not only because I finally got to use the freaking research I had done. Heather and I didn’t go eat lunch at a restaurant; instead, the tour guide gave us instructions to the Vencoli church (where St. Peter’s shackles, the bodies of the 7 Maccabee brothers, and Michaelangelo’s Goliath are held) and so we got to walk past the University of Rome, over a lock bridge, and through tiny streets of Rome. It was more amazing than it sounds. The church, as I have already said, should have been impressive; however, I had seen St. Peter’s just they day before. After, we didn’t really have a plan, but ended up discovering that we could go partly down into the Roman ruins of people’s homes we had walked by earlier, and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life to be that close to homes that old. We then walked through the busiest piazza in Rome, used a bathroom that weirdly was only lit by blacklights, ran through the streets holding panini (rip my sunglasses, which fell and broke), and ended up at the Vittorio Emanuele monument with approximately 12 minutes to get up and down. I don’t think I’ve ever been so full of adrenaline in my whole life. We climbed up the stairs, insanely and slightly embarrassingly out of breath, and were rewarded with one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen. Thank god for the security guard who recommended we go around the corner, because the view only got even better – we could see the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Foro Romano; everything. It was amazing. I also started crying again cause it was so beautiful. But all of a sudden we literally had 2 minutes to go back down all the stairs, and so we freaking booted it and made it to the meeting place only one minute late.
Thankfully we were not in trouble (again) because some other girls (@ lola, dani, neve, michelle, mila etc) thought we were meeting at 1:30, not 1. I was, like, real scared for them. But they made it! And then, at approximately at 1:30, we left Rome for Milan. If you’re wondering, google maps says this is about 5.5 hours. But, ok, we’re a bus and there’s traffic; let’s add an hour for that. We’d get to Milan about 7:30; in reality, we didn’t get to Cadorna until 9. And this was not a normal bus ride; oh no. I happened to get approximately 8 plus nosebleeds. Sorry to Willy, the innocent dude who I happened to sit next to, and Siri, who had to constantly feed me Kleenexes and mini nose tampons made from gauze. She’s the best. However much blood I lost on that dang bus, the ride was actually really fun and full of singing and screaming and laughing.
It seriously makes my heart hurt right now writing about saying bye to everyone (those pictured below plus so many more). They’re the best. And I cannot believe how lucky I am that I get to spend another whole four days with them in Puglia and then an ENTIRE TWO WEEKS at Eurotour. It will literally be the time of my life so far, just like these past four days in (I still can’t believe I’m so lucky to be able to say I’ve been to all these places) Pisa, Florence, and Rome.
In the end, there’s only one thing I can say about this trip, and my friend Amy already said it perfectly in her Instagram caption. I’m gonna paraphrase her, because it is exactly how I feel: I saw some of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in my whole life. But what made them meaningful was the people I saw them with. I’m already so dang sad that I have to leave them, just like I’m already missing this beautiful, old, amazing country.