Venezia & Roma!!

            The past couple of weeks have been really busy, but fun all the same.  My mom was here for a week, which was definitely one of my favorite times of my semester.  I have missed her and the rest of my family, but I don’t think I full realized how much until she was here.  It was wonderful having her here for numerous reasons.  Firstly, I think that sometimes I have become complacent with living in Siena, and its beauty and history are sometimes overlooked.  It was great to have some fresh eyes and perceptions because it renewed my enthusiasm and appreciation for the city that I have begun to call home.

            When she arrived, I took her to her hotel, and we went and got gelato with strawberries and warm nutella.  It was funny because my mom had never experienced nutella, and she LOVED it.  After getting some food, we headed on a walk around Siena to the Duomo, the park, and just around some of the beautiful areas that surround the city.  Overall I think she really enjoyed Siena and thought it was beautiful.  I was really glad that she got to spend some time here, since we also traveled a lot when she came. She arrived in Siena on a Saturday, and we left for Venice on Sunday.  

 

Off the Rialto Bridge

           

Venice was absolutely wonderful.  The city is so unique – I’ve never been anywhere like it.  I really loved the canals, and the entire city is just beautiful in a different sort of way.  After making it to our cute and centrally located hotel, we put our things away and went to St. Mark’s Square, which was absolutely beautiful.  With the Dodge Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica on it, it’s simply stunning, even in the rain. J  We explored that area for a while before going to a nice dinner and the opera, which was amazing.  Instead of seeing it in the big Fenice Theater, we went to a palace, where the performers were in the same room as we were.  In this sense, I mean that we were in the room of a palace; while it was big, it was nowhere close to the size of a theater, and the performers were right in front of us….I could have touched them. 

St. Mark's Square

 

Dungeons

 

Dodge Palace

            It was a completely different experience from anything I’ve ever done, and the voices were absolutely beautiful.  The name of the opera was La Traviata, and it was wonderful.  With each act, we got to move to a different room of the palace, which also made it more interesting, even though it was somewhat hard to understand because it was in Italian.  I did get bits and pieces though, which made it fun for me because I felt accomplished. J  There were only three performers, but it was fabulous, and the palace was gorgeous.  There were old paintings lining the walls, and all of the ceilings were fairly elaborate, which was really cool and added to the atmosphere.

Making of a Glass Horse

Murano

Island with the Cathedral

            The next day we spent time in the Dodge Palace – buy the tickets in the Corre Museum, and you get to skip the line.  The Palace was really interesting, and I got to learn about the Dodges plus all the various purposes for the rooms like meetings of the important decision makers and such.  It was fun, and I learned a lot as well.  Later in the day, we went on a boat tour to three of the islands surrounding Venice.  One island was Murano, which is known for blown glass, and while I don’t remember the names of the other two, one was famous for lace making, and the other had an extremely old cathedral and church on it.  Even though it rained, the boat tour was really cool, and I enjoyed the glass demonstration.  Well, that is with the exception of the man who worked there.  He kept following me around and telling me I had beautiful eyes, and he was persistent about where I got them until he saw my mom and figured it out. J  It was pretty funny, but the glass was absolutely beautiful.  They have everything imaginable in every size you could think of.

 

Lace Island

            After our boat tour, we were supposed to go on a sailboat tour of Venice with a guide, but it was too nasty outside to do that.  It was fairly cold, rainy, and very windy.  Instead, we settled to wander around and get lost in the city, which we did very effectively.  We ended up coming upon a restaurant that looked good, and we split some pasta and lobster, which turned out to be pretty tasty.  I was laughing at my mom because she ordered a tomato salad, thinking that it was going to be like an actual salad.  Her face when they brought only tomatoes in a bowl was hilarious.  She also asked for dressing, but Italians only have oil and vinegar usually, so the guy gave her a confused expression, which was quite funny. After dinner, we explored Venice at night, which was breathtaking.  All of the lights along the water are really pretty to look at, and we went up on the Rialto Bridge to look out for a while.  We also took the vaporetto (main boat line) back to our hotel, so we got to be on the water looking out at the lights, which was fun.

 

Fresh Seafood

            Overall, Venice was one of my favorite places I’ve been because it’s just so different.  There are no cars, only boats, and if you get up early in the morning, you can watch everyone wake up.  We went to the market fairly early both mornings and watched the shopkeepers open, and the fruit/vegetable vendors set out their produce.  We saw the fresh fish get put out, and there were arrays of octopus, clams, mussels, shrimp, lobster, etc. all along the streets.  It was really neat to see those of the actual city aside from the tourists.  Also, we got to see the trash guys picking up the trash in their contraptions with wheels, which was fun as opposed to a garbage truck.  Venice was really neat, and I loved having my mom there because she got to see the changes from when she went thirty years ago.

 

            After Venice, we went to Florence for the day, exploring the city, crossing the Ponte Vecchio and shopping a lot at the market, which was fun.  Other than that we ate lunch at a cute little place and went into the Duomo for a bit.  Florence was fun, but we only spent a small amount of time there because I had papers due the next day, and we were leaving for Rome on Thursday.  While my mom was here, she really only spent two to three days in Siena, which was a good amount, but I think she could’ve spent longer.  After another day and a half in Siena, my mom met Piera, which was funny.  Neither of them really knew what to say, but I tried to roughly translate, which, well, you can imagine how that went.:)  It wasn’t bad though.  My mom thanked her for taking care of me, and Piera packed us a dinner for us to take with us to Rome, which was sweet.

 

Florence

 

Ponte Vecchio

            In Rome, we stayed in a beautiful hotel about 30 minutes out of the city because we wanted to be able to come back and relax.  The hotel was great because we got spoiled with mints on our pillows, slippers, and a really nice bathroom, which was great because I’m used to hostels.  We also had a wonderful view of the entire city of Rome because the hotel, which was basically a villa, looked off over everything.  It was gorgeous.  Anyway, we got into our hotel and pretty much fell right asleep after dinner because we had a busy day planned for Friday. 

 

Views from the Hotel

            We got up early the next morning and headed in on the train, deciding to do all the touristy things, starting with the Colosseum.  We ended up hooking on to this really good tour that consisted of two parts.  It was really cheap, and we got a tour of the Colosseum, as well as free time before moving on to Palatine Hill and the Forum.  The tour was cheap too, and I really felt like I got a lot out of it.  In the Colosseum though, our guide was telling us about a battle between like 100 lions and 20 elephants or something like that, which is INSANE.  I can’t imagine the bloodshed and crazy noises and sights that people got from that.  I don’t know if I’d be capable of watching it either.  Apparently, the Colosseum is not as gruesome as everyone thinks, but it was very interesting to learn about and see ruins.  It was really cool.  After the Colosseum, we went to Palatine Hill where we learned about the majestic palaces that once stood on the hill where the emperors made their residence, and we got to see the Forum from an “on top” view, which was good for our guide pointing out everything.

Colosseum

 

            We saw Augustus’s house in addition to that of his wife, as well as the Circus Maximus where they used to have chariot races.  We explored Palatine Hill for a little longer before actually descending into the Forum and seeing where Caesar was cremated, the Temple of the Vestal Virgins, the Senate House, and all the other important and once impressive buildings in the center of the old Roman world.  It was incredible to imagine what the Forum must have looked like with its towering marble structures and people everywhere.  I couldn’t believe that I was walking where past emperors, the people considered the most powerful on Earth at that time, walked.  It was so cool to actually see what I’ve always read and been taught about.

Free Picture with the Roman Guards

 

Forum

            After the Forum, we went to the Pantheon, which was cool, and we made a brief run by the Spanish Steps before heading back to our hotel in order to eat a nice dinner.  My mom tried boar, and I had trout stuffed pasta.  It wasn’t the best dinner we’ve ever had, but I had a main course of goose leg, and my mom tried the lamb.  After dinner, we went to bed completely stuffed from all the food we ate in order to get up for the next morning. 

Circus Maximus

Pantheon

            On Saturday we did the hop on, hop off bus tour, which was great because we got to see everything without making our feet tired.  After the bus tour, we did a guided tour of the Vatican, which was really interesting.  The Sistine Chapel was stunningly beautiful, and the museum had all kinds of incredibly old and interesting things.  Nero’s bathtub was in there, and it was made out of one of the most precious types of marble, one that is extinct today.  The bathtub is the largest item of that marble remaining, which is cool.  We saw all kinds of stuff like that in addition to the Raphael rooms, painted by none other than Raphael.  Those were all extremely interesting to view, and St. Peter’s was gorgeous as well.  There aren’t really words to describe it; you have to see it for yourself because it is so massive and impressive, especially when the sun’s rays are penetrating the glass on the windows, illuminating the altar.  It was beautiful.  The rest of the day was spent viewing the big piazzas like Piazza Navona and several others, eventually eating dinner at a Hosteria, surrounded by tap dancers, mimes, and all other types of entertainment.  After dinner, we stopped by the Trevi Fountain, which is gorgeous at night and a wonderful gelato place for death by chocolate, a supposed specialty. J  It was a good end to the day before taking a walk across Rome at night to see more of its beauty.

Bus Tour

Nero's Bathtub

Raphael Rooms

            I really enjoyed Rome a lot, but the tourists and amount of people there, made me glad that I was only there for a bit.  On Sunday, we went to a nicer area of Rome to a really cool flea market that had all kinds of stuff for really good prices.  It was fun wandering around as the men and women yelled out sales pitches every few seconds, trying to persuade you to look at their stand.  I wish I had had more time in Rome simply to be able to soak it in more, but I was exhausted at the end.  I was glad my mom was fresh and had the energy to drag us along.  All in all, I LOVED the time my mom was here, and the two cities were interesting, rich with beauty, history, and art, making them fascinating places to see.  I’m so glad I got to see these wonderful places and experience them with my mom. 

St. Peter's

Comments

[Angelo]

Your pictures are beautiful. Glad you love my country.