I know you all have been waiting with baited breath for our next blog entry, and I apologize for making you wait so long! For the last five days, I keep promising Sarah that I will write an entry as soon as we get back to Liz's apartment, and then by the time we actually get home, I'm too tired to do anything but collapse into bed. But as the title of this entry suggests, we have been to Venice, Florence and Rome all in the last week.
Venice was beautiful, and exactly what you imagine when you close your eyes and picture the perfect Venetian stereotype. It was also quite a bit cleaner and prettier than I remember it being seven years ago. We wandered around and got lost among all the canals and and alleys. We also popped inside Saint Mark's Basilica, which Sarah particularly enjoyed, being the art history student that she once was. We also walked to the top of the Basilica and appreciated the amazing views from the top. The highlight might have been sitting on the sidewalk, next to the Grand Canal, eating gelato and gossiping. We headed back to Bologna that night, and tried to get to bed early in preparation to our day trip to Florence the next day.
Florence was also lots of fun. Liz and I sent Sarah off the the Ufizi to enjoy more art, while we went on a hike to find this park Liz had read about that overlooks Florence. After trekking uphill quite a ways, we located the park, only to find out that if cost money to enter. Being the cheap graduate students we are, we declined to pay, and trekked all the way back down the hill back into Florence. We then retrieved Sarah and found a nice little place for lunch and wine. We walked to the Duomo and did a lap around it - truly an amazing building - we indulged in a little shopping, and then headed back to Bologna to prepare for our trip to Rome!
We arrived in Rome with some complications, mainly Sarah getting sick and nearly vomiting on the very crowded and sweaty bus. Luckily for everyone, she abstained until reaching the hostel...well maybe not lucky for her. Since we had very limited time in Rome, I deserted Liz and Sarah at the hostel and dashed off to go see the Shelley-Keats house, a museum neither of them had any interest in seeing. In short, it is a little, four room museum next to the Spanish Steps where John Keats died. They had lots of strange little artifacts from various Romantic poets, including a Carnival mask Byron once wore, a small urn containing the cremated remains of Percy Bysshe Shelley's jaw bone, a letter from Mary Shelley to a friend after her husband's death, Keats' death mask and so on...in short only things a literature student would find interesting, and not a little creepy. I met Liz after and we enjoyed a couple large beers with her friend Andrew, where we people watched, sitting in the grass in the shade of the Coliseum. Back at the hostel we picked up Sarah to grab some food.
The next day Sarah was still a little sick, so Liz and I walked around in the morning and looked at some Roman ruins. We walked on the track where they used to hold chariot races, and looked from afar at Palantine Hill, where Romulus killed Remus back in the day. In the afternoon we met Sarah and went to the Vatican, where we had a pretty amazing tour of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. The power and wealth of the Catholic church is somewhat awe-inspiring. We also walked by Pope John Paul's tomb under the Basilica, and got a far-off view of St. Peter's tomb as well. Sarah got a glimpse of her future husband (sorry Jesse), the Swiss guards who protect the Vatican. These Swiss soldiers serve a three year term at the Vatican; they are required to speak five major European languages, and trained in the martial arts, must be single, and no joke, must be esthetically pleasing in a uniform. After they've served their term, they also have the option for the Pope to officiate at their wedding.
After the Vatican we three ladies searched all over Rome, hopping on and off various metro stops, to find a movie theater that was playing Sex in the City 2 in English. We finally found one, and indulged in popcorn, beer, and gummy candies as we watched a thoroughly American movie. To be fair, I think there were only three or four Italians in the entire theater; the rest were Americans getting their fix, just like us.
We decided to stay an extra day in Rome, since Sarah had been sick and didn't get to see everything she wanted. Unfortunately none of us had packed enough clothes or supplies for the extra day, and we were pretty ungroomed and gross by the end of the trip. Before we headed back to Bologna though, we squeezed in the Coliseum and the Pantheon. From what I learned, it seems Russel Crowe and Gladiator did a fairly good job of portraying the Coliseum accurately. Yes, they had lions and pumas and such that they fought against humans, and the emperor would often decide the fate of Gladiators during games, according to the crowds' desire. The Pantheon was also enjoyable. If was once a pagan temple that was converted into a Catholic place of worship in 600 AD. The poured concrete dome ceiling is something to behold.
After stopping by the Trevi Fountain and tossing a coin over our shoulders, we headed to the train station to go home.
Lots o' Love
Katie
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