Or so the obviously super friendly man at the gelato store in Venice informed me yesterday when I tried to order then ask directions in Italian. He went on to explain that "you Americans" basically have no idea how to speak Italian and really just sound dumb and rude for trying and messing up so just say what you want, give me your euros, and get out (loosely translated of course). I mean, I'm clearly not ready for a job at the Italian embassy, but I dont think Professor Vairo would be totally disappointed by the way I've been getting around the last few days. By the way- his directions were awful and the gelato was average at best.
Now if you wonder how I'm such a pro at classifying amazing gelato, I should probably go back and fill you in on our whirlwind days in Rome, Venice and Florence (so far). Last I posted we had checked in to our hostel and explored the city, but after a night and a few much needed hours of sleep we were ready to go at it again. A stop for breakfast (pastries and cappuccino have basically become a food group) with a fun spanish speaking waiter was followed by the long and hot walk to see the sights of Rome. We ended up buying this "Roma Pass" that let us skip a bunch of lines and gave us free public transportation so we bypassed the hours long wait and went right in to the Colosseum! Its seriously breathtaking and theres no way to describe how cool it was to be there. With thousand and thousands of other people. Who, temporarily, got between my friends and me so I found myself standing, alone, along the inner wall of the top section. Awesome. A few (15? 20?) anxious minutes passed as I tried to find them but finally I picked a spot on the railing, turned on my camera and used the 36x optical zoom to zero in on Alex's bright pink shirt and the combination of Megan's 6 feet and Katie's 5. Thank goodness for technology! We were reunited and fished exploring then continued on to see the Roman Forum, Arch of Titus and various other ruins on Capitoline and Palentine Hills (that I' sure were all super important but honestly I doubt I could label with the correct names). We were all getting pretty hot and tired so we continued on the Pantheon and Piazza Navona to find a place to eat lunch. The Pantheon was amazing but SO crowded (basically the theme for this trip) then we headed over to this cute place called Cul-De-Sac for a quick lunch. Granted, nothing about meal time in Italy is quick. The food was so fresh and delicious so we took some time to rest before heading out again. We made our way to the Vatican and looked around there for a while, then (of course) got gelato. SO. GOOD. I'd been craving coffee flavored gelato for a few days so a mix of that and another chocolate flavor was the perfect way to wait for the bus back across the city.
We headed back to the hostel for some internet/rest time then ventured out for dinner. The plan was to find this restaurant both Alex and my books had recommended, but the lines were crazy long and we found another place nearby instead. Homemade foccacia bread, homemade pasta with seafood in an olive oil/tomato sauce, and a family from Pittsburgh sitting nearby made for a memorable birthday dinner, and we all left the table feeling happy (and actually kind of sick). We walked down the street a bit to find the hole in the wall lovingly known as "the Steelers Bar", recommended by many friends and a definite must on our list. It was really cool to walk in and see memorabilia supporting the Penguins, Steelers and every college in the tri-state area (except CMU- he blamed you, Alex Brant) and the owner Giovanni was fun too. We hung out there for a bit before heading off to the gelato place he recommended and we commented on earlier in the day, and of course, had another cone. This time dipped in chocolate. We were supposed to meet up with some other SAS guys at the Spanish Steps at 11 so we headed that way, but we hadn't accounted for the pain associated with the massive amounts of food we had consumed and were a little late. Hope they werent waiting for us? We did get to them eventually, finishing our full day of the best of Rome and grabbing a cab back to the Yellow.
To sum it up: Rome was perfect, I had an amazing birthday, and I love Italy.
Yesterday we got up early and headed to the train station for our trip to Venice. A few hours later as we neared the city we realized that theres two train stations in Venice and we accidentally bought tickets to the one farther from the tourist area. We figured we'd get off there and figure out how to get the local train to the other, but we werent quick enough making our decision (typical) and we missed the chance. Luckily they werent checking tickets when we arrived, so we quickly got off the train had headed into town. We didnt really know where our hostel was but we were all starving so we stopped for a quick lunch (and each forgot our promises of the night before and somehow ate another pizza. each.) before wandering around for a while. Venice is gorgeous and so amazing because it's buildings are completely surrounded by water, but its a pain to navigate for the same reason. Nothing is well marked and nobody seemed to know about the place we were staying. For good reason. When we got there it was just a huge wooden door with all these doorbells which made it all pretty intimidating. The hostel, called A Venice Museum, was pretty cool with marble floors, carved and painted ceilings and huge windows all along the back. It also had these tiny metal beds, a communal bathroom complete with a latrine, and a door to our dingy open room without locks. Awesome. It eneded up being fine but a little disconcerting at first- and very reminiscent of another birthday spent at a Nova Scotia campsite lovingly known as Sheeeetz Harbor... We walked around for a few hours, getting lost and found a number of times in the crazy Venician streets and seeing sights like St. Marks and the Bridge of Sighs. Another gelato break (insert rude guy here) and a shared water taxi with another group brought us back to the station. We needed to figure out how we would get to the first train station this morning but it ended up being only a matter of asking at the info counter and paying a euro. Finally something with a simple (and CHEAP) solution! We did some shopping on the way back to the hostel, changed and got washed uup then headed to this cute place nearby for a yummy and relaxing 3.5 hour dinner. We had a great time being off our feet and ended the night walking home to the hostel. (And our 2 random roommates that had since arrived... awkward...)
An uneventful night, smooth transition between the stations and a few hours later we were in Florence. We made our way to our new hostel and left our stuff while we went to eat. This cute little place just down the street ended up having great food and was run by this little Italian family that was super nice. While we were finding up a few other SAS kids actually wandered in so that was funny too. We left lunch and got a cab to this big open air market thats only open on Tuesdays, but were kind of disappointed and left without getting anything. We were also unbelievably lost and made our way to a nearby hotel where we called a cab. The driver was super nice and took us to a Piazza near the center of town, where we (big surprise) found an awesome gelato place and figured out what to do next. A nearby market fulfilled the bucket list item of buying Katie a genuine leather jacket (and I almost caved and got one for 150 euros myself before coming to my senses) and a short walk to the Uffizi Gallery and Ponte Vecchio finished up our afternoon.
We just took a quick nap in our AWESOME room (major upgrade from last night- Mom stop worrying that we're not safe) and are headed out soon to find a place to eat near the Duomo. Megan's cold has really set in and she's staying back to sleep (feel better Megs we miss you!!) but the rest of us will probably just eat, see the sights and head back. We have a train to the Cinque Terre (SO EXCITED) in the morning and are looking forward to spending two days there before heading back to the ship. And starting classes... ugh. Not thinking about that now though! Enjoying the rest of Italy is the the main goal right now :)
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