For my spring break my friend Kelsey and I planned a trip to
both
Rome and
Florence for six days. LOTS of traveling,
sight seeing and eating but was a great vacation!
Background Information before I continue: there was a
scheduled strike throughout the entire country of
Spain, meaning that all buses,
taxis, trains, and planes would not be running. Now this was the same day that
my flight was suppose to leave. MAJOR BUMMER. But the company I bought my
ticket through put up a list of flights cancelled and mine wasn’t on it. So we
left on Wednesday to catch a bus to
Madrid
since we were flying out from there hoping for the best and that our flight
would still be scheduled to fly out on Thursday morning. Kelsey and I were
traveling with our friend Ben up to
Madrid
since he was trying to fly out to Malta Italy. When we arrived at the airport
we needed to get our boarding passes stamped before the desk closed.
Unfortunately the worker at the desk told us we couldn’t get our passes stamped
since our flight was leaving for the next day. AGAIN MAJOR BUMMER. We knew the
strike was going to be the next day so we decided to just camp out next to the
desk so that way as soon as it opened we could get our passes stamped and
hopefully continue on since we didn’t know how long it would take to get
through everything since not a lot of workers would be working. Trying to sleep
on cold, hard tile floor was not fun, but having company was super nice. I
ended up just staying awake hanging out with Ben and Kelsey. Around 4:00am, an
hour before the desk was supposed to open; a worker came to the desk. So we got
our passes stamped, went through security and headed to our gate. Both of our
flights were suppose to leave around 6:45, but there were no workers around. It
was dead silent, but we continued hoping that our flights weren’t cancelled.
6:30 rolled around, and finally two workers came running up and told us that
our flights were still scheduled and they’d try to get us through as soon as
possible. HOORAY! Kelsey and I’s flight ended up leaving an hour later, but
tired as ever, we made it through the strike, and excited for adventures, were
finally on our way to Italy.
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| Ben and I waiting in the airport. |
Even though all of this extra stuff
happened even before we ended up getting to Italy, it made me learn patience
and acceptance of things that life throws at you. Sometimes things aren’t
always going to go as planned, but instead of being bummed, sad or angry about
it all you can do is go with the flow and realize that in the end everything
will all turn out alright. There’s no need to worry, for “tomorrow will worry
about itself” (Matthew 6:34). After everything that happened before the trip
even began made Kelsey and I more excited for our trip to
Italy and ready
to take on whatever life had in store for us.
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| Kelsey and I |
We landed in
Rome
late morning and headed straight for food, since we hadn’t really eaten since
lunch the day before. We stopped at this quiet little restaurant on an off-side
street and quickly ordered. I had my first pasta in
Italy and it was SO delicious.
After lunch, we checked into our hotel and then headed out
for the rest of the day. Our first stop was the Colosseum, which was definitely
my favorite spot in
Rome.
Its massive size was very impressive. It blew me away how the Romans built
something so huge and the fact that it is STILL standing. It’s also crazy to
imagine how it would’ve been like without modern day
Rome around it, or when there was an event
happening with all the spectators. Chills.
Right across the street from the Colosseum is the Forum, a
plaza surrounded by the Roman ruins of important government buildings and
marketplaces. It was the center of Roman public life. Again, it’s so cool to
imagine how it would’ve looked like back in its prime and the amazement that
things are still standing after all this time.
After our Roman tour, Kelsey and I headed to the Trevi
Fountain. Yes, I did make a wish and tossed a coin in the fountain! We actually
returned to the Trevi at night to see it all with the lights, which I enjoyed.
Our last stop of the day was the Spanish Steps. When we
arrived it was packed! Apparently a very popular place to hang out with
friends. There were also many artists selling their work and street performers.
The second day in Rome Kelsey and I went to
Vatican City. Headquarters
of the Catholic Church and home of the infamous Sistine Chapel it was a full
morning walking around the city.
We spent our last night at a park overlooking the city with a picnic!
Kelsey and I got up the third day pretty early to catch a
high-speed train to
Florence.
Only took us an hour or so to get there. When we arrived we again checked into
our hotel to drop off our luggage and then began exploring. Our hotel was right
next to the leather market, so we wandered through looking at all the little
booths with the smell of leather clouding our sense of smell. I ended up buying
quite a few little things.
Next we headed to the Duomo,
Florence’s most highlighted attraction. Climbing
to the top was a bit interesting. The hallways were very narrow, small enough
where if two people needed to pass each other they needed to both turn sideways
and would still be smashed together as they went through. The steps were also
super steep in height and the staircase went almost vertically at a 90 degree
angle. Intense. But the views from the top were incredible. A mix of mountain,
river and city Kelsey and I spent a good chunk of time just taking pictures and
looking around.
After the Duomo, Kelsey and I continued our journey down to
the river where we crossed the Ponte Vecchio,
Florence’s second most highlighted
attraction. It’s a bridge that has stores built along with it and it’s packed
with high end jewelry stores.
We finished the night at Plaza Michelangelo which is up on a
hill overlooking the city from the opposite side of the river. Perfect.
The second day in Florence Kelsey and I hit up all the
attractions we didn’t see the day before including David, the Santa Croce
church where both Michelangelo and Galileo are buried, and Gusta Pizza
(Florence’s most known pizza restaurant).
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| Tomb of Galileo |
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| Tomb of Michelangelo |
All in all, Kelsey and I got to experience the two Italian
cities we wanted with time to spare. We were very tired upon returning home,
because we did a lot in six days! But it was a great surprise trip I got to go
on because I never thought I would ever be in
Italy!
It was also neat to go because my father has been to Florence in the past, and since he isn’t able to come to Spain to visit,
it’s nice that we can have something in common to talk about on my European
adventure.
Italy
was a great spring break trip and with planes, trains and automobiles I got to
visit it all!
