Friday, June 24, 2011

Day Fourteen; Rome, Spagna, Trevi

    Well after our wild adventure yesterday, we decide on a more thoroughly mapped out rout. We wanted to see the Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps and a few other notable places along the way. We began our journey at Campo dei Popolo.


The square here is spacious and houses some of Rome's most persistent sellers of absolute junk.


This guy came up and gave my mom three flowers and said gift for you just take it just, take it. It's a gift a gift for you! And mom wouldn't take any of it, but then the guy went to Dad and said the same thing so Dad took it. Well the guy then said give me something, and my Dad gave him a Euro, well that wasn't good enough so the guy took back two of his flowers. Crazy. Anyway after being tourists in the square we left for the large, shop crowded street headed towards the Spanish steps.


Well the Spanish steps are steps. HAhah they're actually really cool, but my favorite part about them is that people just get some lunch and chill out by the steps. I think Louisville needs some large steps where everyone can chill at.com After climbing the Spanish steps we went inside the church which was just spectacular.


There are so many beggars in Rome. It seems that every street corner is home to one or two. And yet every street corner is home to a church or cathedral as well. It makes me wonder what the church in Rome is doing. It seems as though it's being overlooked. Just a thought. And I don't mean that in the annoying Glen Beck sort of way either. After the Spanish steps we wanted to see the Trevi fountain but not without getting some lunch first next to the Triton fountain. I had a smoked salmon sandwich, which was really good. After lunch we had to go find the Trevi fountain and we did. The Trevi fountain is huge, and lives up to its hype. Although it is extremely crowded (always) it's definitely worth a visit. You can actually drink the water from it too! Which of course I did because I'm on Vacation, in Rome.


Gelato is always needed after lunch and dinner and so we got some from the Gelateria next to the Trevi fountain, which was really good. The Gelato is almost never disappointing in Italy. It's the only constant, I think, in Rome other than the Coliseum. After the Trevi fountain we need to get to across the Tiber River to meet up with our hosts for dinner. Which was good. I think I had Ravioli. And afterwards some great Gelato was required. After that we headed home and rested for the rest of the night Shoot a lot more happened today than that but you're tired and I'm tired and it'll be a big mess lets just leave it at that.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Sorry

I am terribly sorry that my posts have failed to enter your lives as of late. The internet I am stuck with is the absolute worse. So Ill have to wait til im better accomidated. goodbye

Day Twelve, Roma (Vatican City)

Let me start out by saying that these have been type close to daily but internet limitations have left me stuck :\ sorry.
    Am I seriously here? This place that has been home to some of the most powerful men the world has ever known, and of course The Pope! Well yes! Of course I’m here! Where else would I be but Rome? This place is magnificent! There is absolutely no way that you could ever become bored in this city absolutely no way! It seems like every corner offers a little bit of history, a little bit of coffee, and definitely pizza. There is pizza everywhere. Anyway today we didn’t do much of that today we went to The Vatican. Yes THE Vatican, the smallest country in the world. You’ve heard of it right? It’s where that man the umm what’s his name um… oh yeah the Pope lives. Hahaha well today we decided to pay him a visit. Unfortunately one of our group members is feeling a little under the weather.  Ok I feel like this is going to be a mess so let me just start out plain and simple with the facts of the matter. Today we were dropped off in front of the entrance to the Vatican Museum.
  
Vatican Museum Entrance


We walked up the steps to see that the line was huge absolutely the longest line ever! Easily this line would have taken us three hours to get through. “Luckily” there are guided tours that can get you in, in like 15 minutes, and they’re guided so yay! Well dad didn’t bring enough cash with him to pay for our tour, so  the man who coaxed us over to himself to inform us of the tours was kind enough to take us to the place where we could pay with a card. I have to comment on this guy, as nice as he was to take us to the tour office, he was a real sleaze ball. I asked him “What do you like most about Rome” Expecting him to say like oh the nightlife or oh the history, since he was a tour guy or something. No, his favorite part about Rome was the abundance of loose women. And he prattles on and on about this and apparently I’m not giving him enough consent  for what he’s doing so he keeps going on and on worse and worse and I’m like, when will this end and finally it does after about 7 minutes of terrible conversation we arrived at the tour office and thankfully parted paths.  We got our tickets and met our “comical guide” (is it required when applying for a tour guide position to be incredibly cheesy? I think it is). Our guide was rather old and he kept asking us at every stop “You understand what I’m saying?” And I’m no I don’t understand why you  are still doing this when you obviously should be considering which retirement home is right for you right now instead of leading this tour. I kid, he was a nice enough guy and he gave a good tour.  The Vatican is holding on to some serious stuff, it seems like most of the important things in the world are kept under their watchful eye. 






After seeing the goods we went into the Sistine Chapel, which is beyond words. You need to be alone in there for an hour to take it all in. No pictures were allowed, and neither was talking. But I did both just for you my adoring fans! 



After the Chapel we went to Saint Peter’s Basilica and if you think that the sanctuary at South East is large, well you’ve never seen this. This thing is massive and you would need a couple of days to explore it and fully grasp it and its significance.





  I could spend all day in there, but I don’t have the time! Rome has so much to offer and I have so little time to accept her on all of them. So we left the Basilica and went to the exhibit on the late Pope John Paul II, which was really interesting and really well put together. ( The music in the background was really dramatic so you felt  good no matter what it was like.)   After all that we left the country of Vatican City and re-entered the country of Italy.




We headed down and walked around the area surrounding the Vatican. We had just crossed the bridge over to the Campo de’ Fiori to grab some lunch. We stopped at an outdoor restrain and had a “snack” lunch. I had Gnochi (which is pronounce No-Key) in a tomato sauce, which was quite good. The rest had Ravioli. We began to head back over the bridge to explore more of the Vatican area but we were missing one useless item, Dad’s pocket knife which was taken at the Vatican. Go figure. *Sigh* so we had to walk back up to the Vatican to retrieve it. Ha that’s not happening so instead I, my mother, and sister toured around a little more in the surrounding area.  With dad’s knife reclaimed it was time to find our way back home using the very irritating bus system. Ugh it took us a while but we made it back home. But not without seeing the Pope being rushed back into the Vatican via 20 cars.  When we arrived we only had to wailt a few minute before some delicious pizza came to us. This is not Pizza Hut or Dominoes and God forbid this is not little Caesars (although it sounds appropriate)  this is ligit Italian pizza. The box says is all. No Pizza no Party. Well we had a large selection to choose from and it was all delicious. Amen? Anyway I’m out of energy to type so until tomorrow!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Day Eleven; Pesaro to Gubbio to Rome

Last day in Pesaro, it feels like I've hardly been here one! Ah everything here was amazing! The food, the wine, the people, the layout of the land, and of course the beach! It's perfection, Pesaro: Undiscovered Gem of Italy. Definitely planning my return to this amazing city,  but then again everywhere I've been has a definite return trip in the making. Like a really good movie. The title would probably be Europe II; Ryan Returns.Anyway after painstakingly saying our good-byes to our much loved host went to meet up with Cristiano and Simona for breakfast. Ok i never knew this but you can ONLY have Cappuccino in the morning with breakfast. NEVER at night can you have a cappuccino. Ok now that that's out of the way, we had a Delicious cappuccino with some very fine bread. But all great things must come to an end and ours came at 10. We left, hit the road and drove through the countryside. Now I thought the countryside on the way to Pesaro was beautiful, but it was nothing compared to this.
Ehh pictures

On the way to Rome

Niceties of the road












On the way to Rome we stopped by this really cool little town called Gubbio. It was basically a town that had evolved around some monasteries in the area. We had lunch there and got a little trinket. Not much drama occurred sadly. Well except for the ambulance that sped down the road, but that's not my drama. Here's the town.






After eating and looking we again embarked on our grand journey to The Eternal City, which also had incredible views. Driving in Italy is crazy! have i said that before? Maybe but it's insanity like the rules aren't really rules more like suggestions. Crazy.







This stuff is amazing, Like you get tea and nutella and crackers all in one box! It's great it's my absolute favorite.


Well blah blah blah we drove in the car and finally came to our host's home, which is also very large, especially for European standards. We relaxed here for a while and then headed down to downtown Rome for Pizza, which was good. Rome is indescribable it's incredible, it's way bigger than you ever imagined and instantly when you hit the city you know that the saying is true that "A life time in Rome is not enough time.
host home









After a little exploration we headed back home and well the end.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Day Ten Pesaro (The Feast)

Breakfast, yum yum done ok next! We went to the beach again, but this time for a little longer. We were going to go on Cristiano’s sail boat but weather forbade us from doing so, even though it was really windy. So we headed to the beach, as i said before. We sat there for a while, and I mean a while. We really enjoyed the clear water today and the rocks that surround the beach which we found out are perfect for jumping off of. I have never jumped into the ocean or sea,  nor have I ever jumped into the ocean from the edge of a rock from the middle of the ocean.
I like this picture i thought it was good so wnjoy it because i do


 Well we were feeling a little burned and so headed on back to Cristiano’s for one more fantastic lunch. We finished and had what Cristiano claimed to be the best Cappuccino ever, his own specialty. I can’t say for sure if it was but it was pretty darn good. We left around 4 in order to go home and change before evening Mass. Vespers to Vespers! But I had a little down time and so I used the opportunity to get a few souvenirs. I came back home and we went to Cristiano’s to go to Mass. We were invited so that we could meet Cristiano’s Priest and friend Mario who was very lively haha well I think that since today was our last night here Cristiano’s mom had the whole family over and we had a large Italian feast, which also had a lot of Cin Cin! haha well the food amazing the family awesome and the environment unimaginably amazing. I am sad to see Pesaro go, but more than happy at the prospects of Rome!
For Jennifer: Our meal today is what I would consider traditional Italian, but I could very well be wrong! Our primi was maltotagliati (which means badly cut) pasta with a delicious sauce of tomatoes and cheese and Orange, strange but it made the dish. Followed by secundo which was a bread crumb encrusted baked vegetables, zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes, onion and chicken. Extremely well done by Cristiano's mother who worked all day on it. We had gelato for dessert and a chocolate torte. We also had a shot of Grappa, which was better than cherry water that's for sure. And a glass of local red and white wine, both being very haha. Lunch was also amazing with fresh chicken slow cooked in a pot with white wine olives olive oil, tomatoes, and rosemary and thyme.

Day Nine; Pesaro (Cin Cin...Cin...Cin, Cin!!!)

                Another fantastic breakfast! Is it bad that I’m beginning to expect it? I feel like it is, but right now I don’t care. I DEMAND DELICIOUS BREAKFAST! Ha well today we got moving a little earlier and decided that we must see Pesaro. And we did. We took a little tour in the downtown area, which is filled with modern shops everywhere but it feels wrong because everything around is so very old.



We passed by an old building and really it wasn’t too remarkable but Rossini was born there and so it was something special. Just touring the house and being inside of it was neat because I really never heard of the guy, only his music, which I really like and so do a lot of you. It’s really weird to think that someone so famous and well known was literally birthed in that house. Increadible.

After the Rossini house we took a few steps to the oldest church in Pesaro, which was finished in the 13th century. Underneath of that church is a church that is actually 5 centuries older that that one which si amazing. The church has glass tiles on the floor so you can look down at it. It’s also a very beautiful church.







But of course in Europe fantastic isn’t fantastic enough for us so we toured in the downtown area some more until we came to the market place that Cristiano’s wife Simona frequents. It’s awesome it’s just like a farmers market, only a lot nicer and better (because everything is better in Europe I’m quickly finding)



After our tour we headed over to Cristiano’s for a “quick” lunch. I’m really not sure what qualifies as quick here in Italy because everything that was supposed to be quick has really been more like 3 hours. But I can’t complain because the food is great and the company is even better. We finished and headed home to go to our default plan of beach going. The beach was a lot colder today and the people a lot scarcer.

 Now before dinner Cristiano wanted to take us to this place that was supposed to have a fantastic view. Fantastic view? Does this look fantastic to you?










Fantastic isn’t able to describe the pure majesty of the sight, it’s awe-inspiring and just unbeatable. And this time I mean the view is unbeatable. We drove up the road we were on a little more to reach this very old walled in city. This city is really cool to me not only because it also possess the majestic view of the sea but it is also a location named by Dante in one of his poems. He says that when you sin against someone you are thrown from the top of this city into the ocean, which is quite the fall.




We had delicious pizza in a quaint café that overlooks the beauty and headed on back, but not before stroller drama hah. Well not much to say other than last night my mom accidentally locked Cristiano’s mom out of the house and it was 2:30am before anyone heard her banging and knocking at the door, she said she was there for 20 minutes! Poor thing! Anyway, ciao ciao!