Italy was absolutely spectacular and a place Kaitlyn and I had both anticipated visiting on this trip! One reason being the history and another the food; both seem to be talked of often! Plus, there is a very romantic feeling that seems to go along with the thought of Italy, thus we were excited to experience it for ourselves.
Our trip began in Naples. It was easy and cheap to fly into from Athens and the city of Pompeii was only an hour commute, which was a must see on our list. Naples is a large city known for its creation of pizza. Our flight arrived in the morning, so of course, after settling in, we headed to the old city for lunch to try a famous restaurant named Saborro Pizzeria. (In case you were wondering, the pizza in Laos was still better…much better) After lunch we visited the cathedral and relaxed a little in the afternoon.
We slept decently well that night (always something to be grateful for) and headed to Pompeii the next morning. Kaitlyn has always wanted to visit Pompeii; she remembers reading a National Geographic article about Pompeii and being intrigued as a child, so this was a very interesting visit for her. Upon a arriving, we both were amazed. We have visited many ruined cities, temples and building on this trip, but Pompeii is something totally unique. It is a HUGE city, with the buildings only missing roofs. The streets, walls, floors, temples, arenas, homes, gates, fountains, shops etc. are so well preserved and vastly spread out it takes your breath away. We also were able to see the cast of 12 people who had died in the eruption. It was very sad and moving. There is one figure in particular who is sitting against a wall with their knees drawn up to their chest and covering their mouth with both hands. We couldn’t even imagine the terror they must have felt as a cloud of toxic gas, ash and heat ascended upon them and suffocated them.
The next day we traveled to Rome. We took our first distance train in Europe, and so far the Italian trains have been the nicest! Even the super-budget tickets that we bought included a table and plug-in for each seat. Handy when you’re constantly struggling to charge all of your electronics. ;) We stopped for lunch on the way to our AirBnB and discovered some really good chicken burgers at a restaurant owned by an Indian family; even better than Chic-Fil-A! There is only so much pasta and pizza a person can eat before they need something a little different but still cheap, so chicken burgers it was. Our AirBnB turned out slightly different then we had expected. It was an apartment that had three rooms that were all rented out and a shared bathroom. We met Leah, a nursing student and fellow believer from Arizona. It is encouraging to meet other Christians while traveling; sometimes all the drinking and swearing at hostels gets a little discouraging. We rested for a bit that afternoon (in case you’re wondering, resting usually means napping) and went for dinner with Leah. Our meal was average, but we decided to buy a bottle of wine at a different restaurant to enjoy while getting to know our new friend…needless to say, the wine and conversation was amazing!
The next day we went to a baptist church, met and then did some sight seeing. Kaitlyn had mapped out a route that allowed us to walk to all of the main sites and then take the metro back to our AirBnB. We saw the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Colosseum and Roman Forum. Leah spent the day with us as well, which was a lot of fun!
The next day we spent the majority of our time at Saint Peter’s Basilica. In the morning we went on the Scavi tour, which is a tour that goes underneath the basilica to a roman cemetery, the heart of the basilica and, supposedly, the tomb of the apostle Peter. (Like in Israel, we visited with the knowledge that it may or may not be the actual tomb, but it was very interesting none the less.) The history of how the basilica was built is incredibly interesting and the tour well worth the time and money. One note, if you are interested in going on a tour like the Scavi tour (or something else), sign up early online; spots are limited and the system is very specific in their requirements. We climbed the basilica dome and were able to explore the church while avoiding the insanely long line. ;) Inside the the church is the Pieta, a sculpture of Mary holding the crucified body of Jesus. It is the only work of art that Michelangelo ever signed. After our day at the basilica, we met Leah for a last dinner before she headed to Athens. We celebrated with some amazing gelato and a final bottle of wine. We greatly enjoyed getting to know her, and hope to visit her in Arizona someday!
Our final day in Rome we went to the Vatican. It’s much larger than I (or Kaitlyn) expected, and we spent a solid 4 hours in the museum. The Sistine Chapel was definitely the highlight, and Kaitlyn enjoyed all the different art, particularly some 16th century tapestries. Dinner that night was our best one in Rome. I had a ravioli dish and Kaitlyn had gnocchi. We shared an excellent bottle of wine with great food, accompanied with a sweet conversation and a whole lot of romance. :)
We headed to Florence the next morning. On the way to the train station, we witnessed a pick pocketing failure…two Italian girls boarded the bus and went right to the back where a group of American travelers were sitting. A few minutes later, the bus erupted in yelling (both Italian and English), sitting in the front of the bus, we were unaware of what was transpiring until the girls got off the bus and things quieted down. The group started talking and we heard them say things like, “I’ve never had that happen before” “she had to go into by bag and find my wallet” and “talk about super stealth” etc. Thankfully most Italian people don’t care for pick pockets and were there to recognize what was happening and start to make a scene in order to prevent the pick pocketing from being a success. The American girl was lucky enough to recover her wallet, but learned a lesson of awareness that day. From our previous travels and things we have read, Kaitlyn and I try to be very careful with our belongings; never setting them on the floor, leaving them unlocked, setting things on the edge of tables, etc. We also listen very carefully to our gut; if we have a bad feeling about a situation or person we leave as quickly as possible. This was the day of interesting situations…Once we arrived in Florence we ran into another questionable situation. We were exiting the train station and a man approached us while saying, “Hey, english? English?” while trying to step close to me and touching my arm. I put my hands up in front of the backpack (I carry a front facing backpack) and Kaitlyn turned around immediately and started yelling “No! No!” After Kaitlyn started getting loud he quickly walked away. Before this trip we researched how to avoid thieves, and one of the suggestions is to make a scene and refuse to speak to them. Most thieves don’t like attention.
Back to Florence! We checked into our AirBnB and quickly realized it was not quite what we had expected. “Janky” is the term Kaitlyn likes to use, and I tend to agree with her. Sockets falling out of walls, cracked walls and flooring, dismal wifi, a rather disgusting bathroom, a bed from the 1800s, and some really strange wall art accompanied by the lingering smell of wet laundry greeted us. Sometimes, cheap is not always best. We also realized we had roommates. Thankfully, the three Canadians across from our room were awesome, and we had a lot of fun chatting with them. Having cheap accommodation that smelled like socks also convinced us we needed some gelato, so off we went for some exploring and a tasty treat.
Day nine in Italy Kaitlyn had booked us a wine tour. We took a bus into the hills of Tuscany and visited two wineries, one family owned and one that was a bit larger. At each stop we had several glasses of wine and sampled breads, cheeses, olive oils, sausages and balsamic vinegars. It was fun! Wine in Italy is always good, sometimes cheaper than water, and we’re pretty sure we drank more in two weeks then we usually do in a year. ;) We had a late dinner that night, which proved to be unwise, because I got a nasty bout of food poisoning. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say it was a feverish and miserable night. I also don’t think I’ll be eating Carbonara anytime soon.
Because I was sick that night, we took the next day pretty easy. We slept in, relaxed, worked on blogging and finally walked around late afternoon before going to a market for dinner. The market is special because it run by chefs who are teaching; because of that, all of the food is extremely good and much more affordable than it would be in a restaurant. We had a simple pizza and some potato soup since my stomach was still queasy (I know…Pizza on a queasy stomach…but hey, when in Italy pretty sure there are 2 remedies for sickness…pizza and wine), but thankfully it all sat decently well.
The next day we had a train taking us to...Venice! This post is getting a little lengthy and we still have six days of Italy to tell you about though, so you'll have to wait for part 2 of this blog.
Lots of love,
N + K
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