Roma

I'll be a bit brutally honest in this first paragraph. This city was not my favorite. I actually didn't like it at all. It was dirty, overly packed with tourists, and teeming with panhandlers, con-artists, and pickpockets. I was very nervous about being in Rome and I think that hindered my experience. It was different for me because I'm a solo female traveler but at the same time, I just wasn't feeling it. Now that I have been perfectly honest about that, I can tell you the things I did enjoy about it. 

Also, I don't have as many pictures on this one because I didn't take my iphone out that much for fear of it being stolen.

I'm very fascinated with the Roman Empire. I've been listening to a podcast series on the History of Rome for about 4 months now. I'm only to about 350 AD, there are over 150 hours of what is basically one giant history lecture. It is very well laid out and interesting, it's by a guy named Mike Duncan and you should check it out if you're interested in this kind of thing at all. It was amazing to see the original ruins where the Romans went about their daily lives in the beating heart of the biggest empire in history. Every now and again I'd stop and focus on the ruins/city around me and then delete the people, the modern buildings, the trash cans, lamp posts, keep off the grass signs, etc. Then I'd build back up the Roman buildings and insert a bustling Roman public. It's difficult to picture such an amazing civilization by merely looking upon its aged ruins.

Side note, if anyone is traveling through Italy, I highly recommend the Steve Ricks' guidebook. He also has an app and some podcasts. The audio has information on planning for your trip or just about the country in general. Best of all, he has recorded audio guides to a lot of places in Italy. This includes museums and places like that AND self-guided walks through important parts of the cities. The book is great and all the other stuff was just awesome. 

Getting to the Vatican through all of the aggressive guys selling stuff, the randos milling about, people harassing me to by sketchy tickets, and pickpockets was by far the MOST STRESSFUL hour of my Italy experience. I saw someone getting pickpocketed but luckily they noticed. By the time I got to the door, I felt like crying. But in the end, it was definitely worth it. The Vatican museum was huge and extensive. I also couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that they had chiseled off all of the penises from the statues. Probably done a long time ago, but in case any of you were worried, my modesty remains intact. You could spend all day going through the thousands and thousands of paintings, sculptures, and priceless artifacts. You go through room upon room of beautifully painted ceilings and frescos. My favorite room was the map room, a long rectangle with huge maps of different Italian regions (Umbria, Corsica, Sicily, Puglia, etc.). They were all in Latin and absolutely gorgeous.

I also got to see the Sistine Chapel. It was very neat to see but smaller than I expected.

St. Peter's Basilica. In order for my words to press upon you their true gravity, let me explain something first. I am not a religious woman. Yet, I have a strong love of religious architecture. You might have guessed this by previous blog posts. Churches/Mosques/Synagogues/etc seek to pose difficult questions and capture illusive concepts with architecture. It is humbling and yet makes you feel grand at the same time. It reminds me of my favorite quote from Aristotle: "Be humble for you are made of earth, be noble for you are made of stars." While religious buildings must be practical in some aspects, their goal is to make you feel something. To question who you are and what that means. Am I everything in that I love or am I nothing but a ghost? Just another temporary weary soul to walk in and out of the magnificently carved doors and question my fleeting existence? 

Religious art also portrays two main concepts, in my opinion, and they are love and loss. Two intense emotions that seem tug us back and forth our entire lives. That's why you don't need to be religious to appreciate religious art and architecture. It is all just the human experience funneled into a form we can observe and contemplate. 

So, basically, I've been to a lot of religious buildings. And a LOT of cathedrals. 

And St. Peter's is by far the biggest, grandest, and most magnificent I've ever seen. For the second time that afternoon, I felt like crying, but for different reasons. The gold shimmering tiles create a phosphorescent air. The gargantuan carved marble statues emerge from the arches and somehow look weightless. The architecture uses a trick where it makes the statues at the top bigger than the ones at the bottom. It serves to try and make the space look smaller, but the whole thing is so extraordinarily massive it creates a disorienting illusion. St. Peter's is the biggest cathedral in the world (maybe second, a Cathedral in Africa claims to be bigger). 

Michaelangelo's Pietá

I could go on about this for a while, so I guess the main point is: go visit it. It's ethereal and incomprehensible and awe inspiring. 

The hostel in Rome was very comfy and personal. I liked it. If anyone is visiting any of these cities and needs hostel recommendations, just let me know. 

Okay, I've been debating when to talk about my fellow travelers and now seems like as good a time as any. My fellow travelers meaning random people I meet along my journey. I can't believe how many interesting people I've met from all over the world. Everyone is so ready to strike up a conversation and socialize. It's also so genuine. I want to know about them and they are interested to learn about me. I can't count how many times I was just going to go back to the hostel to read after a long day and then ended up taking to a new person in my dorm room for hours. 

If I try to come up with a list, here are the countries my fellow travelers have hailed from: England, Ireland, Sweden, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, Australia, Russia, Canada, South Africa, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, and more than I can remember. And these are all people are got into genuine conversations with, not including the plethora of nationalities I encountered in my tour groups and things of that nature. 

Solo travel has been so relaxing and sometimes it does get a bit dull thinking in circles without a companion through the day. But interesting conversation was rarely in short supply. There are so many neat people out there. And I was surprised and pleased to find out how many people found me interesting as well. 

I've heard so many people say, I could never do what you're doing. While I appreciate the compliment (sometimes I can't tell if it is), I urge others to try it. It is so freeing to have such complete control over your own life. You'd be surprise by how many obligations you realize you have. These few weeks of having utter control have been so refreshing. 

That being said, I'm writing this belatedly and am thoroughly enjoying traveling in the company of others after three weeks solo. 

Anyway, I hate to be a bummer about Rome. I guess I felt less than welcome. I encountered quite a few rude people, and being a (sometimes overly) sensitive person, that's an easy turnoff. Plus, no one likes to feel unsafe. Constantly having to be on my guard was too exhausting. Still, I'm glad I went because there was so much to see and learn. 

Next and final Italian stop: Sorrento.

Siena

Florence and Siena are opposites. The history is, they used to be competing towns until Florence rose supreme and Siena was left to stew in their renaissance obscurity. Their loss is our gain. Siena may not have the museums and popularity of Florence, but it has all of the Tuscan charm Florence lacks. A small walled city, Siena is nearly an entire pedestrian zone. Except for some rowdy motorbikes, it was nice to be able to relax. 

Each hostel experience is different from the last. I've been in small hostels with only ten or fifteen beds and a very personable hostel owner. I've stayed at hostels that are so big, they might as well be a Double Tree. This is one of the times where the hostel was big and I was lucky enough to be in a room by myself. I really needed to the space to get organized for Rome. 

Siena was a bit more upscale than I expected. The Via del Banco, the main street that leads into the heart of Siena, the Del Campo, is a bustling street of expensive shops. Many are designer. I have also heard that it is a university town, but I saw mostly high schoolers. It's a nice place to hang out when the weather is nice, so many families and teens will take the bus in and spend the afternoon. I saw a few churches, a few museums, and walked around the whole city, but mostly, I relaxed, ate gelato, and read a book. It was sunny enough that I actually got sunburned! 

In my time in Tuscany, I also did a day trip out to Pisa and Lucca. I got up early and got to Pisa. Two things that surprised me about the leaning tower: how small it was and how cool it was. I've grown up seeing pictures of it all my life, I thought it wouldn't be that special. But it was so weird! It seems so unnatural. You could go in but I think the cool part is probably the outside so I didn't. 

Lucca was pretty cute. There was even less to do than in Siena but a quaint stop none the less. 

Siena was a place to enjoy the renaissance in a less intense city. I would definitely recommend spending at least a day in Siena if you are doing an extended trip through Italy. Some do Florence with a day trip to Siena but I would flip that. Make Siena your home base in Tuscany, and then do day trips to Pisa, Lucca, and Florence. All are short trains away.

Half of my journey from Siena to Rome was in a bus, so I got to enjoy the rolling Tuscan countryside. 

Time to trade the peaceful tuscany for the hectic and culture-drenched Rome!

Firenze

I'll start off by saying that I didn't really know what to expect in Florence. I've never actually felt inclined to visit, which even I find odd, but of course I went because it's Florence for goodness sake! I can't really explain why I wasn't excited and was almost... timid? at the thought of visiting. People can usually tell whether they are going to love a city before they go, which make sense because that's why they choose to go.

Florence men are nothing, if not fabulous. 

I was right and wrong. First of all, I'm big on museums and history. So, on that note, I was in heaven. The Accademia held the David by Michaelango, which turned out to be inexplicably amazing. The Uffizi Gallery is considered to be the greatest collection of Renaissance art anywhere. I got to see some works I've know about for most of my life. Plus, art clung to everything. From a random wall of an old building, to one of the amazing churches I've seen. The Renaissance was a time of amazing art and the birth science, and it all started in Florence.

David in all his nude glory. He has just/or is about to slay Goliath but he's super chill and not really worried about it.

The Birth of Venus, with the Greek goddess looking similarly chill but more modest.

Disclaimer: penis=art, vagina=YOU CANT PAINT/SCULPT THAT! BURN IN HELL, YOU GODLESS HEATHEN! 

The renaissance was amazing, in my eyes. It seems to stand for everything I stand for. One, it promoted questioning previously solid concepts. I absolutely HATE being told to believe something without question. Or do something. I am a generally flexible person, willing to do things I don't like doing if people find it necessary. When I was younger, it probably would have looked like disobedience, but I legitimately wanted to know: why? The renaissance was all about understanding why things are the way they are, and in that, they realized not everything we thought we knew was true. I'm talking about the basics here: like how the body works. Two, it promoted innovation. Why change the way something has been done the same way for hundreds of years? Because you could be saving time, money, or energy, depending on what you are improving. Three, it promoted the arts. Today, studies show that those who participate in the arts (music or otherwise) get better grades, have higher IQs, get in less physical altercations, have better attention spans, and that's just the beginning. It is not seen as a frivolous waste of time anymore (to most, anyway). The renaissance was all about art. Four, knowledge became valuable. Schooling and education were important in a society leading civilization out of darkness and into a bright future. 

But of course, we all know what happened next. The Christian church came in, burned the books, spooked the public with threats of eternal damnation, and civilization was once again plunged into the darkness of ignorance and fear. 

There are two events that haunt historians and academics. A) the burning of books and art during the dark ages and B) the loss of the library of Alexandria. Where would we be if those things had never happened? Who knows!

But I got to spend three days in a place that scraped together all of their treasures from that period of enlightenment and displayed it for us to marvel at. 

The Duomo: I've seen a Duomo in every city so far and this has to be by far the coolest exterior.

They removed all of the art from the Duomo so it could be seen for the small fee of €10. It belongs in the Duomo, and without it, the inside was bland and basically was like unwrapping a beautiful Christmas present (note the photo above this one) and finding a few packing peanuts and some crumpled up tape. HOWEVER, they obviously could not find a way (though I'm sure they tried) of putting the dome painting in the museum, so only it remains. And it was incredible.

The inside of the Orsan Michelle church. One of my favorite churches I've ever been to. Yet, nearly empty.

The reason I didn't like it was because it didn't look "Tuscan." It was actually pretty unappealing when not in the museums. Pretty much all tourists, no locals. And I felt creeped on more than once. My reverence and day dreaming on my journey through history was constantly interrupted by the urine smell that many cities suffer from. 

All in all, A for museums, D+ for atmosphere. Luckily, this wasn't my only stop in Tuscany. There is also Siena, Pisa, and Lucca. Would I recommend visiting? You have to, it's Florence for goodness sake!

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre was great. If you imagine Italy on the coast, with the colored houses stacked on cliffs and nestled in valleys, you are probably picturing Cinque Terre. The salt water smell, the warming sun, nothing interrupting the peaceful quiet except for the crashing waves and the small town locals going about their daily business. Each Italian experience has been so different from the last. Milan was upscale, chic, and metropolitan. Venice was a rowdy city on the water. Cinque Terre was a quiet coastal stretch with nothing to do but hike and watch the sunset while eating gelato. 

View from my hostel

Watching the sunset on my first night

For those of you who know nothing about Cinque Terre, I'll set the scene. It translates to "5 lands." And is literally a stretch of five small towns along the coast: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. They are under the same mayor and have easy transport (a regional train) in between.

I was getting my laundry done in a place in town when I got all the dirt from the establishment owner. 

About 15 years ago, Cinque Terre was known to virtually no one and its economy existed of mostly fishing and some farming in the hills the towns are nestled in. Nowadays, in order to compete with market prices, most farms need government subsidies. With a solely agricultural focus, the town grew poorer until people just couldn't afford to live there. People either sold or rented out their houses and abandoned the fields. Then a new mayor came in with an idea to save Cinque Terre.

He put it on the map. In the colloquial sense, of course. He marketed the town and made it a tourist destination. Nowadays, Cinque Terre gets at least a mention (if not a chapter) in most guide books. As the tourists began to trickle in, business sprouted. That provided the money to fund the new agriculture programs created by the mayor. The residents were able to afford to move back and the fields went back to being productive. 

Then a new mayor came onto the scene. She hates tourists. And wants to return the town to its former quaint glory. Apparently, she's got quite a few cronies working the system from within and has the local newspaper in her pocket. So much drama for a small town, it would be funny if it weren't for the woman telling the story being so worried about losing her business if the corrupt mayor got her way. 

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the towns from a natives perspective. 

Though I only saw elderly people, there must be a secret stash of eligible bachelors because she wasn't the only woman I met who moved to Cinque Terre for a man. 

Because of the hills, Cinque Terre turned out to be one of the more exertive legs of my Italian journey. And the hiking. That was really incredible. It was strenuous and hot but well worth it. It provided breathtaking views. Plus, I met some nice girls on the train that morning and we joined up to hike. Meeting new people is by far one of my favorite parts of traveling.

Cinque Terre was a break from the craziness between Venice and Florence. This is definitely a stop everyone should make on their tour through Italy!

Venezia

The layout of Venice is crazy. If you ever go, make sure you make your plans loose with plenty of time between activities because I got lost more than once. The entire island is covered in buildings crammed together with only alleyways in between them. Most, very small. None of them are straight lines and are broken up and then continued if you go down a different street for a bit. Not all alleys have their names visible and the maps only mark about a quarter of the names. Plus, I think it would be very beneficial to name the canals, which they don't do. My first day, I walked a distance of what would have only been 10 or 15 minutes casually walking... if I had any idea where I was going. I ended up walking in circles for an hour and a half. It was frustrating but not time wasted. Venice is a city best experienced in the streets rather than just going from museum to museum.

The view from up high- how did they even go about building them so close?!

So many beautiful masks in the shops!

For the things they lack helping you get around on foot, they make up for in the convenience of the Vaparettos (water buses). The have stops all around the island and up the grand canal. Plus, you can even take it out to the smaller islands. I've come at a great time of the year. There are enough tourists for everything to be open and running, but still in low season so it isn't overcrowded. The tourists don't overwhelm the locals so I still think I have gotten the authentic Venetian feel.

On the grand canal

 The feel is relaxed. People at Ohio State walk pretty fast (except for those annoying groups of people who hog the sidewalk at a glacial pace) and Londoners walk even faster. When I got off the train at Heathrow, I was nearly trampled. There was no way to stop and look at signs so I just let myself be rushed along. Advice for London: if you need to look at a map or stop to take a picture, PLEASE don't just stop where you are, find a spot to the side out of the flow of traffic.

In Venice, be prepared to be surrounded by a city of amblers. 

We've got nowhere to be because we're already here!!

So you know the phrase, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," well I think that's what makes Venice so unique. The buildings are peeling and dilapidated but obviously original old Venetian structures. It makes it feel real. It makes the history feel almost tangible. 

"Repainting your house is for suckers" -Venitians 

So far the Italian food experience has been just... delicious. I've been trying to get something new every time. I think that's a good strategy but one that will be difficult to follow (there are a lot of foreign fish dishes that I'm nervous about trying but when in Rome! (Well I guess not yet). Plus, the price difference. Some places you can get a decent size pizza or pasta dish for under €9 ($12), but add fish or something like that and you are looking at upwards of €15 ($20).

Sometimes, you have to go classic

Seriously the best lasagna I've ever had (second place going to the home cooked lasanga the girls and I made for family dinner night)

One of my favorite things I did was take the vaparetto out to the smaller islands of Murano and Burano. Both were very picturesque. Murano is known for its glass blowing and glass creations. Burano is known for making lace. There were a lot of beautiful things to buy, if only I had the money and the space in my backpack. 

I got in trouble taking this picture so ENJOY IT

On a real note, Venice is very expensive and I'm blowing through my money like nobody's business. Luckily, Cinque Terre is my next stop and my main planned activities include hikes and wandering. No expensive tourist traps or expensive museums!

That is quite a shock after London, the price of museums. Most museums in London are completely free! And the ones that aren't have a serious student discount. Not here. You drop €16 here and €12 there and next thing you know you're out of money! It's also easier to feel your money going down because most places (including hostels) only take cash. My new trick is to just keep walking until you find a place that doesn't make me cry from the prices. 

One of the most underrated places I went (and affordable) was the Frari Church. It's very old and was the church of the renaissance artist Titian. He was considered the most famous artist of his time (even more than Michaelangelo!). It was cool because it had painted artwork and sculptures in the church. And, they were designed for that church specifically so it all melds together rather than in a museum where art looks displaced from their natural habitat. 

Entrance to the church

🎶If I die young, bury me like Titian. Lay me down in a carved stone masterpiece.

My other favorite thing I saw was the San Marco Bascilica, what many would consider the main attraction of Venice. It was magnificent. It was a combination of influences of the east and west. I've seen a lot of western architecture lately (living in London and all) and the main aspect is the seriousness. Most churches/abbeys/bascilicas are solemn and dark (but not all). There is a heaviness to the air that empties you out. This may sound like a bad thing but it totally isn't. It makes the experience feel weighty and profound. I'm sure that is the desired affect and I like that kind of experience. Eastern art uses a lot more color and light. I saw plenty of that in Jerusalem. Arab art uses a lot of gold and colored tiles. Mosaics are very intricate. This gives you the feeling of being filled up.

So that's why San Marco was so cool. It had the gold tiles and color of eastern art while maintaining the heavy profoundness of western churches. 

Cool, right?

Overall, Venice felt like visiting a place I always knew I'd visit one someday. I'm so glad I opted for the third night because an in an out stop just won't do it justice. I think I'm leaving with an experience I'll always be happy to have had.

Next stop, Cinque Terre (chink-way tay-ray)