Last Thursday, December 02, 2010.
Mackenzie, Maggy, Sarah, and I left at 2 p.m., skipped class (!), and quickly checked in. There were a ton of Alcalá students there too. It was fun. Fortunately, Jozzy, KB, Lauren, and Shelbe left early. Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, our flight was delayed one hour. And of course, we had major turbulence on the way there. I learned something of value tho: there's nothing to worry during turbulence unless you start to hear the luggage above shuffling around. :) We finally arrived in one of Rome's airports, Fiumicino. From there, Mack, Sarah, and I took the fast/expensive train right to Termini Train station.
Just our luck, it was raining when we got there. We narrowly escaped from all the creeps there late at night and checked into the Hostel Alessandro Palace just 5 minutes from the station, thank GOD. Since we were so hungry, we trotted down around the corner to Taverna Pretoriana and got some free bruschetta, bread, and water. In addition, we shared a plate of grilled veggies and pasta with sauce/mushrooms. Our waiter was super cute too. He was mesmerized by our non-existent Italian skills. It was 11 p.m., but we got 10% off b/c we were staying at Alessandro. That night, with full tummies, we slept like babies: Sarah in her room with cute boys, Mack and I in a female quad with two cute Asian girls.
The next morning, we met downstairs at 8:15 for a breakfast of coco crispies and bread. Yum? We booked it to the Vatican (!) for our 9 a.m. tix. We skipped the lines, rented some audio-guides, and started our own tour! We saw art from Publius (don't ask), Rafael, and of course, Michelangelo. The Egyptian collection was impressive too. And of course, the Sistine Chapel was magnificent. I'd wanted to go there since I was a little girl. So you wouldn't be surprised if I told you I teared up a bit when I first stepped in? Thought not.
Next, we skipped on over next door to St. Peter's Basilica. We were supposed to meet Maggy, but Rome's a huge city, didn't you know? We just missed her. Anywho, Mack, Sarah, and I went in, narrowly escaping with our lives from the mass invasion of pigeons, and admired the art, architecture, the pope tombs, and cute security guards.
After all that walking, we decided to get a treat: our first gelato! I got nutella. Best decision ever. Best introduction to Roman gelato. We then did some serious souvenir shopping. Once we had exhausted that mission, we set off the beaten path for some lunch. Tortellini in broth, rigatoni in cream sauce and sausage, and spinach (espinaca). We were in awe of the yummy food. To walk off the calories, we strolled along the river in the sunshine, bought some authentic Roman masks, took a cheesy carousel ride. We kept walking and walking til we arrived at Piazza del Popolo. It was beautiful, minus all the weirdos trying to sell us roses. We people watched for a while, then climbed a few stairs to look over the city, just in time for the sunset. Perfect timing!! I'm so glad we got there when we did. Postcard-worthy pix, for sure.
Since it was getting dark, we jumped back down, caught the metro over to Piazza della Repubblica. There we saw the lights. We were only a few minutes from our hostel there, so we went back and prepped before meeting the Butler group at the Fontana di Trevi. It was just amazing. I loved it. Minus all the weirdos trying to take our pix. Crazy people in this city. I've never said "NO" so much. There we met Shelbe, Jozzy, KB, Lauren, and Maggy for dinner. We wandered around until we found a place that met our needs. You can imagine that's kinda tough with 8 people--Americans, of all people. Mackenzie and I shared two plates of gnocchi in red sauce and pesto pasta, with an eggplant side dish. The white wine and the charming waiter also made for a good time.
Of course it started raining again after dinner. We decided to tough it out anyways. We walked around the Pantheon, since we were in the neighborhood. Amazing. Yet, smaller in person. :)
Then a bunch of us decided to get more gelato at this cheap, but tasty place. I got coconut and blackberry & cream. Such a good way to end the day. We started to make our way back to the train station, but there was commotion at the Trevi fountain. Apparently, a loco man climbed all the way to the top of the fountain, on top of the head of the main statue. There were rumors he may jump or just spray-paint. We stayed until the firemen (bomberos) coaxed him down. We didn't stick around to see what happened afterwards. We took the train from Barberini, toward Anagnina, off at Termini again. And once more, we had to be quiet with our roommates, whom we didn't meet until the next morning.
In the A.M. we met Brittany Anderson (who coincidentally knows half the Alcalá students) and a cute Russian girl, our roommates. They're nicer looking in the daylight. We invited Brittany, who was traveling alone, to come meet us for dinner again at the Trevi fountain that night. She also invited the Russian girl...awk. She doesn't speak a lick of English. Oh well. I poured hot milk on my cereal. Thanks non-existent Italian skills, again. We left for Termini to buy tickets to Florence for the next day, and catch the next CitySightSeeing Tour Bus at 9:30. Meanwhile, we passed a very pregnant girl smoking outside. I thought that was curious. When in Rome, huh?
We started at the Colosseo and Arco di Costantino. It was amazing! My eyes welled up. Oh wow, I couldn't believe how big it was. Much more massive than I had expected. The weather was really cooperative too! The sun came out just as we reached the center. It made for some awesome pictures. Inside, we met Emily from Texas A&M. She was traveling alone, sow we invited her to tour with us through the Palatino and Foro Romano, and then to join us for dinner that night. It was going to be a party!
Just as it was about to rain, we left Emily, and Sarah, Mack, and I hopped on the hop-on-hop-off bus, the wrong bus (of course), off to Isola Tiberina. It was a cute little island. Kind of anti-climactic. :)
We stumbled upon Ristorante S. Anna, just near the Area Sacra ruins, where Caesar was killed. This restaurant was our favorite. Super cute and the waiters loved us. Not to mention the food was spectacular. The freshest noodles of my life! We had linguine with lemon sauce, spaghetti with mushrooms, fresh sauteed spinach, and for dessert, warm almond & apple tart , and pine-nut cream cake. The tart was stellar.
Again, to work off our carb load, we walked around the ruins, towards Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, a gorgeous white art museum. Just the stair entrance is breath-taking. Thankfully, we caught the next bus right there to tour the entire rest of the city. We literally went all around the city in one day! It was just absolutely freezing on the second level of the double-decker bus. Boy oh boy. Our feet were wet too. I swear, they froze cuz I tripped off of the bus at Termini. Ouch. The 5-minute walk to the hostel was so painful. And the worst part was that I needed to hurry--full bladder, you know me. Once back at Alessandro, we rested in our warm beds with warm, dry socks. Once again, we needed to prep for our dinner plans. We were going to meet Shelbe and KB at the Trevi again, with perhaps Emily, Brittany, and the Russian girl. Oh, and did I mention I invited my roomie from AXO Alison Baldea for dinner? She's studying in Rome for the semester, lucky gal. So naturally, we were expecting an entire posse waiting for us at the Trevi at 8:30.
Fortunately and unfortunately, only Shelbe, KB, and Alison found us. This way it was less awk and we could focus on Alison's adventures. She advised us to head towards the Pantheon again. Just off the main Piazza Novona, we found a small cute restaurant with several waiters who were quite fond of Mack. Twas hilarious. She just can't escape! This was my favorite meal of the weekend, esp cuz all the girls were together! I had spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, and spicy pepper. Imma remember this so I can make it for myself next semester! The others shared our first Italian pizza with spicy pepperoni. Alison advised us to get the Diavlo penne. It's like the devil cuz it's so rich and sinful. :) I also realized a small mozz/tomato salad goes a long way. I miss my ruffage in España.
After dinner, we strolled through the beautifully-lit Piazza Novona market until Giolitti, the best gelato in the city. Congratulations! You did it! Gotta love Elf! But no really, it is, says Alison. It's cheap, you get three diff flavors and fresh whip cream on top! Tell me about it...I got crema, pistaccio, and canela (cream, pistachio, and cinnamon). Oh. So. Good. Oh. So. Bad. For. Me. KB and Shelbe peaced out for bed. The rest of us (Mack, Mags, Sarah, Alison, and I) went for a drink in the piazza to people watch. I had my first spritz and loved it. I even convinced the others to try it with me. Alison had an Irish coffee which was the smarter choice since it was super chilly. Again, on the way home, my bladder was going crazy. Typical. I ended the night warm in my bed, dreaming of gelato.
The next day, Sunday, Diciembre 5. Mack, Sarah, and I caught the 9:45 TrenItalia to Firenze (FLORENCE!). It was a speedy train, so we got there at 2 hours and 60 euros later. Not bad at all. Once there, we discovered the David museum was closed due to a strike. Europe really likes their huelgas. Poor people. Poor us! So since we didn't know what else to do with ourselves, we walked the whole day! In and out of shops, cathedrals, piazzas, cafes, and the like. We had a small panini for lunch, more like a rest for our stomachs and wallets. Then some awesome gelato off the plaza where we saw the fake David. Not as great as the original, but it'll do (pig). Get the reference I just did there?
If you're ever in Rome and you want legit gelato (try saying that 10X fast), def try the pistaccio. It's by far the best. We walked along the river with our gelato, and ran into a jewelry stand run by the nicest man. And commence one of Claire's blondest moments: he was selling metal twisty necklaces with names on them. I saw that there were only names like Marta, Natalia, Georgia, and Federica. I thought that was weird. Who would want those names. Sarah: "No Claire. They're Italian names. Gawwd." Little did I know that he makes you your own necklace with your own name on it in under 2 minutes. Of course I didn't read the sign. That would have been too smart. I got lip from Mack and Sarah the rest of the trip about that little incident. Hmmph. I'm used to it. I've got tough skin. :)
In the main piazza, with the most beautiful cathedral I've ever seen, we admired the xmas tree, the flor de lies, boar statues and puppets, and morano glass jewelry. We stumbled upon many markets, but the best one was almost all Italian leather. That's where I found the best Firenze wallet for me. My first real long, legit, Italian leather wallet. Yes, Mack. I said "first". It's magenta. It'll go with my new coat. Stay tuned until December so ya'll can see me in it. To rest our feet, we had an early dinner at a privately owned little trattoria. We were the only customers. The girls had spicy spaghetti with red sauce. I had my first (!) eggplant parmesan. We shared a cheese/pear/honey platter and a prosciutto salad. For dessert, we had warm apple pie with mascarpone, tarta bella nonna (like the pine-nut cream cake), and homemade tiramisu. And to chase? Cappuccinos for all!
We crawled back to the train station, practically on all fours, carrying our souvenirs. We had a 4 hour train ride back home to look forward. Why not? It cost so much less to take the long train. The three of us chilled in our Harry-Potter-esque cubby on the train, chatting, show-and-telling our buys, blogging, and laughing a ton! The time flew. Once back at the hostel, we spoke a bit with Brittany. I later met our new roomie, Elena, also from Spain, studying Italian for a week. I spoke Spanish for 30 minutes! More than I had in a long time. She was impressed with my skills. So I slept soundly and with a big ego. Perfect slumber.
Monday was an interesting day, to say the least. We woke up at 7:45 to eat and find Sarah's missing New Balance shoes. Somehow they had gone missing the day before. Sadly, we had to come back later in the day to check. We metro'd to the Spagna steps and walk down the magnificent mile that is Via Condotti. Of course, we bought nada cuz poor college girls can't afford to even step into Gucci, Marco Polo, Armani, or Versace. Dios Mio. Once again, it started to rain. And since we couldn't seek shelter here, we walked towards Novona again. We stopped in Julia Robert's favorite pisctaccio bakery for a quick try of a pistaccio biscotti. Then off to Giolitti's again for round-2 of gelato. I got a small this time. I couldn't take it.
Maggy was MIA. We decided to call up Alison. I wanted to see her one last time. She had just gotten out of class. We took her to Ristorante S. Annas to show her our love for their fresh noodles. I loved it just as much. I got the pesto pasta. What? It's my favorite condiment! It was a fun girl time. We talked the whole way through our meals. And I'm pretty sure the entire restaurant heard our conversations. We americans are pretty loud when we get excited! It was really hard to say goodbye to Alison. But I know I'll see her again soon. Mack, Sarah, and I trekked back to Termini via metro. We mastered the system in 3 days. Sadly, they still didn't find her shoes. I feel so bad. They were new and expensive too. Poor girl. But we got free wi-fi after hassling the receptionists.
We left for the fast train back to the airport at 4. We got there nice and early. However, we found out at 6:15, just as check-in was about to open, that our flight to Madrid had been CANCELLED! Can you believe it! Not even delayed a bit, or even a day. CANCELLED! Mass chaos ensued. 4 different languages were being thrown at this poor EasyJet fella. It was definitely a clusterf**k of people, or so said Sarah. She coined that term this weekend. I think it fits well. Did I mention I stepped in gum? It was like Rome really didn't want me to leave. I was literally stuck to the airport floor!
We found Maggy and some other Alcalá students stranded there too: Amber Cabrera, Karon Oros, and Jean Rettig. We basically stayed at the airport, with the cranky employees, until 8, when they took us to the nearest hotel for the night. I wasn't about to pay 200-800 euros for another flight! I repeat: college kid. So after all the running around, we found a room, paid 16.50 for wifi so we could amend our flights (for WEDNESDAY, 2 days later), dined at their huge dinner buffet (so many veggies!), contacted our families and professors (we'd be missing classes the next day, oh well), and called it a night. That is after found cockroaches in our rooms and complained a bit more. We slept like babies, although the thought of cockroaches haunted our dreams.
The next day, Tuesday, we just chilled in the lobby of the hotel for the most part, with our luggage, trying to get EasyJet to book another free room for the next night. We even had to send two girls all the way back to the airport to get their attention. At breakfast, we snuck lunch. Thankfully. I only had 15 euros in cash on me! To pass the time, Maggy taught me Euchre. Fun game!
Finally, we received news we had a new hotel to stay at. We shuttled back to the airport only to catch another shuttle to the Rome Airport (Fiumicino) Marriot Courtyard Hotel. It felt like home! All the xmas decorations helped too. Thankfully, Amber got out on Tuesday. Karen and Jean roomed together, I was with Maggy, Mack roomed with Sarah. It worked out perfectly. We hard-core chilled all day. We needed some quiet time, for sure. At dinner, we had beef and potatoes, and of course pasta. A simple dinner. Just what we needed. Then we were fast to sleep, since thankfully, Maggy didn't let me nap during the day.
On Wednesday, we awoke early for a spectacular breakfast. We caught the first shuttle we could back to the airport at 8:20 to catch our 10:10 flight to Madrid. We were all crossing our fingers we'd actually make it out! Everything went smoothly, except for the cranky stewardess who wouldn't let Maggy carry on her bag. Such a luggage fiasco! Typical. Also, our gate changed. We had to walk so much more. I had to squeeze my sweater in Maggy's bag and my purse in Karen's bag and a loaf of bread in my own in order to actually get on the plane. EasyJet scares me. Never flying with them again.
Luckily, we got caught in the air traffic above Madrid after a 2 hour long flight. Really, lucky. We circled for 30 more minutes. Once on the ground, we taxi'd for another 30 minutes. Once at the gate, our stairs were missing. So we waited another 30 minutes to actually exit the plane, take a shuttle to the terminal across the tarmac. JOY JOY! We were all so fed up! I peace'd out and took the first bus home. I couldn't stand to be traveling anymore.
I'm so happy to be home now! Thank goodness I'm safe and stress-free. Of course I'm sad it was my last trip, but I'm also looking forward to dominating finals and finally coming back to the states.
This is Clara, signing off. Over and out. Paz and love.
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