Thursday + {Day Thirty-One: Venice}

Today we took a day trip to the island of Murano which is known for its beautiful glass. We took a vaporetto to the island and walked around. It was a beautiful sunny day. It is coming to the end of the very nice weather here, so we definitely lucked out.

Gooligan told me a few days ago that I had to get a souvenir. I hadn't been planning on it, but I'm glad she insisted and also that we waited until Murano to buy one.

I got this beautiful blue glass dish with a tree on it. Buying art or knickknacks can be difficult when we're in transition because I have no idea what my future home will look like but that's just part of this stage of life.

Gooligan got her niece and another girl she knows these adorable glass heart necklaces. Then we stopped for lunch at another amazing seafood restaurant.

After lunch we got back on the vaporetto intending to go to another island but we accidentally got off on Venice. We wandered through the streets a little in search of gelato but what we found was even better!

Acqua Alta is this amazing bookstore where the books are stored in a gondola and bathtubs! The owner was so nice and told us to go in the back of the store and see the staircase made out books and also the "fire exit" which was just a door that opened onto the canal. Haha!

We picked out all these postcards from a box out front and then took them over to a small cafe where we drank some cappuccinos and tried some cicheti (tapas or appetizer like snacks) while we worked on filling out our postcards and uploading our photos.

The cafe filled up pretty (an early batch of happy hour seekers) and then emptied almost as quickly. After we were finished with our postcards, we walked over to Alfredo's (the pound of pasta in a box restaurant) to pick up dinner.

Then we took a vaporetto back to the bus terminal, caught our bus home, didn't get lost this time, and ate our delicious pasta on the patio extension from our hosts' kitchen. Then we got in bed and watched some television and fell asleep.

Right before we went to bed, though, our host informed us that on Friday the buses are going on a strike so if we wanted to go to Venice we had to catch the limited commuter transportation (which runs until eight a.m. and then again in the late afternoon/evening). We'd already planned to take the day easy, though, and explore our local area--Mestre--so this actually justified our decision.

Tuesday + {Day Twenty-Nine: Venice}

Miss your flight once and I swear to God, you'll be paranoid about missing your connections for the rest of your life. After a very restless night of sleep, I woke up at seven when my alarm went off to finish gathering our odds and ends up into our backpacks. I pried Gooligan out of bed around seven-thirty.

We left our house at eight, caught the bus to the train station, and then had a little breakfast while we waited for our train to be assigned a platform.

I fell asleep a lot on the train. It felt like every time I nodded off, someone--usually the ticket-checker--would come by and make a lot of noise and wake me up. But I caught a few zzzs by the time we made it to Venice.

Our first sight of the city was a watery one: the train goes over a bridge between the mainland and the island! After we arrived, Gooligan and I located the bag drop and checked in my backpack (all our clean clothes and toiletries, essentially). Our plan was to find a laundry where we could get our dirties washed while we explored some of the city.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the shop, it was closed. At least we think we found the shop. It's tough to tell sometimes because if a business has a metal sheet over it, and it doesn't have any signage anywhere else), you can't tell what the business is or what its hours are.

Since the laundry was closed, we had to lug our dirty clothes around all day. Not exactly great, but at least we're saving seven or so euro by not checking it, I guess.

For lunch we stopped at this amazing pasta place called Alfredo's. They're a rather unique pasta restaurant in Italy, since it was a hole-in-the-wall place where they only have about eight dishes and they serve them in Chinese take-out boxes. Each portion is a pound. The food was really great. They use all fresh ingredients and the cook inquired how we liked the food and talked to the four of us who were sitting at the minimal indoor seats. The other two were from Colorado and California. The shop also played popular American music which is a nice slice of home when you're almost a month removed from American radio.

After lunch, we sat in San Marco square for awhile. Both Gooligan and I really want to see Doge's Palace, but we decided to wait and do it another day when we're not weighed down by all our bags.

We basically spent all afternoon wandering around the city and window shopping. We took a small break at a hipster cafe with wifi. Gooligan listened to Harry Potter on the couch while I caught up on some homework and my blogging.

After the cafe, we headed to our new place, stopping to pick up a couple of slices of pizza for dinner. The buses here do not have any announcements for what stop they are stopping at, and since it was dark by the time we made our way to our new place, we got utterly lost. Gooligan asked someone for directions, and he helped us the best he could, but he only spoke Italian, so we had to figure it out. Gooligan was brave enough to ask like five different people along the way, all of whom were very nice and helpful despite only speaking Italian. During part of our journey we had to walk through this poorly lit park. Slightly terrifying! But everyone we saw seemed to be nice--couples out for jogs or old men or ladies walking their dogs.

We eventually found our new place and our hosts are very nice. The bed is comfortable and I took a nice hot shower, which was great. At the last place we stayed at, this bug got inside at night and bit Gooligan and me each about twenty times, so we're kind of itchy, but at least we're clean and ready for bed!

Tomorrow is Gooligan's big day! If you haven't yet, you should send her some huge birthday wishes. It's exciting to be in such an amazing place for a celebration, but it is bittersweet to be removed from all your friends and family.

Friday + {Day Twenty-Five: Rome + Florence}

I woke up at midnight and realized that Gooligan still hadn’t gone to bed. I got up to investigate and she, Sarah, and Shannon were in the other room, desperately trying to call a taxi. Apparently not only was Shannon’s phone having difficulty connecting with Italian numbers, but whatever taxis they eventually did get ahold of simply didn’t have anyone free or working that early in the morning (they needed a taxi for 4:30).

Since our apartment was about five or six km from the main train station (where there are always a reliable number of taxis), we decided, worst case scenario, they’d walk and we’d walk with them. After all, Gooligan and I were leaving from Termini so it wasn’t out of our way—just really early—but we wanted to make sure they got their safely.

Shannon even enlisted extra help in finding a taxi, but to no avail. Not even the super expensive private car company they called could send someone at that time. Not sure if this is normal for Rome or what, but we all woke up and got ready to walk to the train station at two in the morning.

Before we left, Gooligan had a brilliant idea and looked online to see if there were any buses that ran that early (trams don’t start until 5:30). Eventually she found a night bus and we made it to the stop on time. (Not only are the night buses not really advertised, but their stops look a lot different than the bus stops we were used to seeing.) It was just a post with a tiny sign that said “stop” in Italian and had the acronym of the transit system on it.

But thankfully the bus did, in fact, stop when they saw us there and we rode it all the way to Termini where there were plenty of taxis waiting. Since we were really early, and since Termini station doesn’t open until 4:30), Shannon and Sarah waited with us for an hour. We really appreciated it since Rome is not exactly the cleanest or safest place.

But finally Termini opened and since Shannon and Sarah needed to catch a taxi at that time anyway, it worked out perfectly. We said our goodbyes and told them to email us periodically so we know they arrived safely.

Gooligan and I made our way into Termini station, where we found the only open coffee shop and ordered some pastries and hot chocolate. The guy behind the counter definitely gave me a latte instead of a hot chocolate, but after freezing outside, we were just happy it was warm.

After a quick pit stop, we found a warmer place to sit and Gooligan read some of the book we’re reading together out loud. While we were sitting there, so many people stared or verbally harassed us. This is one of the factors that made Rome probably our least favorite city on this whole trip: the aggressiveness of men. From our first horrible encounter on the train to Rome to our last day, the men here are simply reprehensible. Crowning jerk of the trip: the loudmouth we had to listen to blab about how stupid American study abroad girls are, especially when he dropped the c-word.

Gooligan and I have felt safe everywhere on this trip—even in Dublin, which is definitely a rougher city—but there are definitely certain cesspools of males in Europe.

Unless you are an art buff or an archeologist or a devout Catholic, frankly I have no idea why anyone would willingly come to this city. But at least it is behind us now: we are currently on the train zipping along to Florence.

Looking forward to ending this trip on a high note over the next few cities!

After we arrived in Florence, it was only around nine in the morning, and we couldn't check into our Airbnb until seven at night, so we dropped our bags at a manned bag desk at the train station. About five euro per bag for the first five hours, then seventy cents for every additional hour. In total it cost us fourteen euro to be bag-free in the city all day, which was a deal. We took our valuables with us, just in case, which meant our daypack was heavy enough to deal with as we took turns carrying it.

Our first stop was the Galleria dell'Accademia, the museum that houses Michaelangelo's David. Tickets were eleven euro each but completely worth it. I was blown away by the statue. There is, obviously, a lot of other amazing art in the museum--and a whole wing devoted to old instruments--but I didn't realize how big David was. We weren't allowed to take photographs but even if we had, I'm not sure the scope of the statue would be captured. My brain can't even wrap itself around how Michaelangelo sculpted something so much bigger than himself.

Anyway, after the Galleria, we stopped for lunch right next to the Duomo (we didn't go in, though, because we wanted to save something for another day). Then we got gelato (some of Gooligan's favorite so far!) and hiked over to the river, the old medieval bridge Ponte Vecchio, and up through Piazzale Michaelangelo, a square that has a fantastic view of Florence.

Gooligan and I sat on a stone wall for awhile and read each other parts of the book we're reading together, then made our way back to the train station with a stop at a grocery store for some snacks for the next few days.

After we picked up our bags, we caught the bus to our Airbnb. Since we were still early, we sat around in San Marco square for awhile killing time, ate a slice of awful pizza, and then made our way over to the bus.

Check-in went smoothly; we're staying in a detached room from our host family. The room is beautiful, there is a great mix of privacy but also someone around to ask for help/advice. The only slightly inconvenient thing is that the bathroom is up in the main house and you have to go up these stairs and through the kitchen, so at night or during meal times it's a little awkward, but they're been great so far!

Plus the bed is perfect. Almost too perfect. Prying myself out of it to do anything over the next three days will be an ultimate test of my willpower. Just kidding. But boy am I looking forward to sleeping!

Tuesday + {Day Twenty-Two: Rome}

At the place we're staying, the bed we're sleeping on is a weird fold-out couch that is essentially a plank of wood with a mattress that was maybe two inches thick. Certainly not the best sleep, but halfway through the night we started sleeping sideways in the bed and that made it bearable (but only just). Definitely the worst bed of the trip so far.

 

We got off to a slow start today. For Shannon and Sarah, Rome is the last stop on their trip (minus a brief layover in Paris). Not sure if it was the end of the trip fatigue, homesickness, or the fact that none of us are particularly excited about Rome, but we were dragging physically and emotionally.

Still, we managed to scrape ourselves together enough to get some food. While a lot of the food is delicious in Italy, the simple fact is so much of it is similar that, soon enough, it doesn’t matter if it’s the best pizza you’ve ever had… you’d give anything for a second-rate practically-anything-except-pizza meal.

After running around the city for way too long trying to figure out how the public transportation works, we finally made it to this really great pizza restaurant. The man who served us was wonderful and the pizzas were these half-unbaked one-person servings and after you pick out which one you want they pop it into the oven and it comes out warm and freshly baked.

The restaurant didn’t have any chairs/tables, though, so the four of us headed out to the street around the corner to eat. After we enjoyed our literal street food, we headed next to the Trevi Fountain. It was gorgeous, but packed with people. We threw in the obligatory coin according to the legend (if you toss a coin in, you’ll come back to Rome), but after our experiences in Rome, I’m not sure if any of us are particularly eager for that wish to come true.

After the fountain, we headed over to Valentino’s, this amazing gelato place. Run by Valentino and his wife, the place was bustling. He doesn’t hesitate to change your flavors if he thinks you will enjoy something more and no matter what you order, he suggests the order in which he thinks you should eat it. I got dark chocolate (since I read a review that that was one of his specialties), coffee, and coconut. He said I should eat first the coffee, then the coconut, then the dark chocolate. I couldn’t finish the gelato, but only because the dark chocolate was so rich. 

After gelato, we headed over to the Spanish Steps and sat awhile. Then we headed home, once again navigating the treacherous metro system. Every other city we have visited has had a relatively great, easy-to-use metro system. But Rome has a weird smattering of trams, buses, the metro (the underground/subway system), and night buses. The trams and the metro were always packed. Not just sort of full, either, but bodies wedged in so tightly that you couldn’t even move your hands if you wanted to. And every time you think the metro or the tram or whatever you’re on is full, anywhere between one and three more people squeeze on at every stop.

By the time we got home, we were too exhausted to go back out, so we decided to eat in again. This time Gooligan somehow whipped up fajita-like burritos; she uses the leftover bell pepper, steak, tortillas, and beans—this single tiny can she found crammed amongst all the pasta sauces and packaged noodles. I'm not entirely sure how she managed to cook in the closet-kitchen, but it was perfecto like her cooking always is! Even cooked in our tiny cabinet-kitchen it was one of the best meals of this trip.