Spring Break Part One: Italy

ok...so i've been lax and i'm sorry....but now it is time to detail my spring break as it has happened so far. This may be a long one, as i'll be attempting to tell you all everything that happened in Italy.

So i arrived at 1 am on Good Friday morning. First of all, the cab ride was insane. Should you at any time in your life wish to have a near death experience in a car, may i recommend taking a cab in Rome? It's a good plan really. I met up with Mads and was fortunate enough to get to stay with Mads, Claire and Caitlin. Anyway, so not much happened the first day. i saw the Parthenon, the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. Over the course of the first few days, i saw a number of cool sights, but the most important things were Holy Week festivities in which i took part. On Saturday night, i went to Santa Susanna in order to participate in the Easter Vigil there. While you all know that i'm not Catholic, this was easily one of the most moving and spiritual experiences of my life. It was just absolutely a beautiful service.

i also was fortunate enough to get to have a seat at the Pope's Easter mass. To be honest, i was somewhat disappointed. The service wasn't as emotionally connecting as the Easter Vigil had been. It was almost as if i was at a rock concert and the Pope was the headlining band. i was however, blessed by the Pope...something i will brag about for pretty much the rest of my life...i have to say, however, that Easter Sunday was probably one of the best days i had in Rome. It was just a fun time with the group.

Oh, also in Rome, i made it my goal to try every single gelato flavour i could find. i succeeded in my goal...except i didn't have hazelnut and that's really only cause i can't stand hazelnuts...therefore, i declare victory.

So then my friends left and my mom arrived. The first day we saw the Colosseum, Mussolini's Palace, the Forum and the Palatine. The saddest thing we noticed is just how dirty everything was. All around the Colosseum there was garbage and people had actually left graffiti on the walls of these ancient monuments. It was just depressing to see just how little people cared about these pieces of history. Maybe it's only because i'm a history dork, but these mean so much to me and i couldn't even conceive of wanting to defile them.

While we were in Rome, we also went to the Vatican, the Parthenon, the Piazza del Popolo, and some completely random castle, which i still don't know what it was but we accidentally happened upon it while trying to find the Vatican from our hotel. The line to get into Saint Peter's Basilica was ridiculously long, but moved so quickly that we were easily in within 15 minutes. It was most assuredly worth it. The views were spectacular and Michelangelo's Pieta was just breathtaking. Should you get the chance to go to there, i highly recommend it. The Vatican Museum was a little bit more disappointing, in that the line took 2 and 1/2 hours and the crowd was so thick that you were rushed past everything. Some of the most beautiful works of art which i would have loved to stop and study for a bit i was shoved past. i'm sure it's not always like that, but it was rather disappointing.

From Rome, we moved on to Siena. It was a bit of a pain in the butt trying to figure out how to get there, but it was worth it. The city (although they all maintain it's just a little town) was small and relatively easy to navigate. The most spectacular thing about Siena is the random gorgeous view you'll stumble across. Walking along a street, you can peer down an alleyway and be struck by the most beautiful sight of the hills in the distance or an old church.

One of the coolest things we did while we were in Siena was visit Saint Catherine's shrine. In the Saint Dominic Basilica in Siena, you can see Catherine's head and finger. It was a gorgeous church, with stunning pictures, but the head and the finger were easily the coolest things in there. It was easily one of the coolest things on the trip. In the Duomo in Siena, there are even more saints' relics. Should you find body parts as cool as my mom and i did, i recommend these two places.

We also visited the main Piazza in Siena, where the Palio is held twice every year. For those of you who have seen or read Under the Tuscan Sun, this is where the flag throwing thing takes place. The Palio is a bareback horse race. Really very cool.

Siena also had one of the two fantastic restaurants in which my mom and i ate. i can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but it was good. We started out with bruschetta with tomatoes and pecorino cheese. i have to say, pecorino is my new favourite cheese. It's made from sheep's milk and aged until it's crumbly like parmesan. You can also have fresh pecorino, but i didn't get the chance to try that while we were there. Next was the primo piatti. i had spaghetti with bolognese and my mom had spinach ravioli with a pumpkin sage stuffing. Both of them were absolutely fantastic. For the secondo piatti, both of us got steak in different forms. Excellent. All in all a wonderful meal.

Florence was also very beautiful. The Duomo there is breathtaking, and there is a very cool exhibit in its basement regarding the different levels on which it was built over various points in history. Some kind of building on that site dates back to pre-Roman times! We got to see David, which was simply fantastic. It is easily one of the most beautiful pieces of art work. The detail and precision was just astounding. The Uffizi gallery was also stunning. i got to see up close some of my favourite works of art every created. Botticelli's The Birth Of Venus has been my favourite painting since i first saw it and now i had the opportunity to stand a mere 5 feet in front of it. It was just such a personally fulfilling moment.

Our last day there was probably the coolest one. It was apparently the first day of the Tuscan New Year, so we were treated to stumbling upon parades of men dressed in tights twirling flags (and they're straight!), old men playing instruments while they were running and people dressed in colourful old time dress. So cool! We also went to the Pitti Piazza and saw the bridge on which there are a ton of jewelry shops. We had been prepared for the day to be rather boring and relaxing because it was a Sunday, but it turned out to be very cool!

Florence was also the home of the second restaurant that was fantastic. It's a restaurant called Baldovino, right near Santa Croce. For a primo piatti, i had spaghetti with bolognese again (i had it at every restaurant in order to gauge where each one fell on the scale...this one was tops) and my mom had a tuscan soup. For secondo piatti, my mom had chicken breast cooked with honey and cranberries and i had steak with pesto on top. We had vegetables and potatoes (which were phenomenal) on the side. Easily the best food i had in Italy. For dessert, we finished off with cheesecake. We weren't expecting it to be as good as New York style cheesecake because we'd been burned by cheesecake before in a restaurant in Italy, but this was also out of this world. Maybe not as good as New York, but definitely a perfect finish to the meal.

But overall, there were some disappointing things about this trip to Italy. Seeing David was one of the crowning moments of my life; a point when i got to see - first hand- something which has had so much significance in the world and is so highly regarded. But the people in the museum were rather saddening. Very few respected or even appreciated the fantastic work which went into making the sculpture. The same was true in the Uffizi gallery and the Vatican. These are places i have been wanting to visit since i was very little because they are such important centres of culture and yet the people around me couldn't care less. It was just another notch on their checklist. They didn't appreciate the amazingness around them and it just made me a bit sad.

The food also wasn't nearly as good as i had expected. Overall, i had some of the best food i've ever had, but also some of the worst. Maybe my expectations were too high, but it wasn't as amazing as i had previously thought.

And as much as i liked Italy, i don't think i'd want to go back there any time soon. It was just rather depressing over all being in the presence of sheer greatness and having the people around me not appreciate that fact at all. Maybe it was just being in cities, but it isn't something i'd repeat relatively soon.

Coming up next, the return to England.

kat