Bella Italia!

For our week-long break, I got to take an excursion across Italy! We started in Rome - we arrived late Wednesday night. Thursday, we did the best, most efficient "Rome-in-a-Day" I've ever seen (not to mention the only one...) In one day, we managed to see the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, the ancient Roman ruins, St. Peter's Cathedral, the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, and of course, the Coliseum. It was a full day, but it was beautiful and warm and perfect for walking all over Rome!
We started out at St. Peter's Cathedral (we were a bit confused and thought that Sistine Chapel was somewhere in there). It was neat to see a very Catholic Cathedral and to be able to tell the differences from all of the Protestant, Church of England cathedrals I have seen this semester. The artwork, the architecture and the way it was set up as a form of worship was very different but beautiful. Then we made our way to the Vatican (I was not aware that Vatican City is its own country!) and walked through seemingly hundreds of rooms to get to the Sistine Chapel. I have never ever seen such an ornately designed building in all my life. Every room we walked through was an incredibly detailed work of art - the walls, windows, door frames, ceilings and decorations were all intricately painted or carved with scenes from the Bible or just beautiful scenery and designs. Finally, we reached the Sistine Chapel and it was incredible. It's interesting to me that the most famous part of the Sistine Chapel is the painting of God and Adam reaching towards each other - this painting is no bigger than the rest, it's not even more emphasized than the other scenes (it took me a while to even find it in the midst of all the artwork on the ceiling).
After that, we walked through Rome, stopping at the Pantheon (lots of martyrs are buried inside), the Spanish steps (the boys thought it would be a good idea to race up the steps through hundreds of people - it was entertaining to say the least), the Trevi fountain (I want one of these in my backyard. How awesome would that be!!!), and finally the Roman ruins leading up to the Coliseum. The ruins were really incredible to see, just thinking about how many people walked in that very place back in the time of the apostles. We actually got to walk on an original ancient stone walkway where Peter and Paul supposedly walked, right next to the Coliseum. The Coliseum itself was incredible - it was SO huge! After reading the Mark of the Lion series (by Francine Rivers - go read it, it's amazing.) the Coliseum meant so much more to me - just thinking about what went on there thousands of years ago is really humbling. We also went back later that night so we could see it all lit up - it was even more beautiful!
The next morning we woke up to bright WARM sunshine! It was awesome to wear skirts and flipflops all week and be so comfortable! We didn't have much time Friday morning because we all had trains to catch, so we just enjoyed walking around various markets (my favorite way to find out about local culture) and just soaking up the sunshine! I even wore my sunglasses for probably the first time since last summer!
Kara, Daley and I caught our train to Florence while the boys went to Venice and Casey and Jessalyn went to Cinque Terre. We got to Florence and then had to take a bus to the little town where our hostel was - turns out, that was about an hour away, but it was a gorgeous bus ride! That was probably the best way to see all of Florence and the beautiful countryside around it! Our hostel was in a little town called Tavarnelle val di Pesa - right in the heart of Tuscany. It was a precious, very Italian little town. The restaurant we ate at (both nights) was a tiny family-owned and operated place where we could see into the kitchen where there were 2 grandmas switching off kitchen and baby duty, and the woman serving us was carrying the baby around on her hip. They didn't speak even a little bit of english, so it was quite an adventure ordering, but the food was fresh and delicious and definitely real home-cooked Italian! Saturday morning we woke up and went on a walk that Molly and Jill had discovered (we met them at the hostel for the 2 days we were there) and walked through the hills and valleys full of vineyards. I felt like I was in the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" - it was so picturesque! We had a little picnic lunch up on one of the hills as we were walking. Then we headed back down to the town to catch a bus into Florence, but it turns out the schedule we were given was only for weekdays and the Saturday bus didn't come for a long time. So, we took advantage of yet another beautiful sunny day and we took a nap on the benches in the little town square in Tavarnelle. Late in the afternoon (feeling good with our sunburned cheeks!) we finally made it into Florence and I got to do some good shopping in the open markets! I bought lots of nice leather things - my favorites are the journals - every color you can imagine! The leather smells so good! We didn't get to stay in Florence very long because the last bus was leaving, but we had a good few hours there (it was incredibly crowed, so I was fine with the short trip) and then we headed back to Tavarnelle for the night.
Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to catch a train to go to Cinque Terre...or so we thought. That is a huge long story in itself, so I'll have to save that for my next post. Be looking forward to the story of 8 college kids lost somewhere in Italy...we still haven't quite figured out where we were. To be continued...