A love letter to Rome

All week I looked forward to Rome. This was my fourth trip here. Indeed, I know, I am a spoiled brat. Rome is certainly one of my favorite cities in the entire world. There is just no where like it. No where. 

One day, we went to meet up with a few other friends in the London program doing the opposite of our trip (from Naples to Cinque Terre) to explore the creepy corriders of the Vatican, the impressive wonders of the Sistene Chapel and the extravagant St. Peter's Basilica. I left the Vatican with more questions than I had answers, and wishing I had endless hours to be able to read a biography on Michaelangelo, books on religious history and to brush up on my Roman/Biblical history. This is why traveling never gets old, even revisiting places. Every time you go something new strikes you, you learn something you didn't know and you're captivated by something different. 

Our second day in Rome, I had the opportunity to go to school with one of my coworkers from Madrid, Melania. Many of you will remember how much I love this woman- she is like a sister to me. Walking into her new school in Rome, I was transported to the "Profe" that I was in 2011-2012. She had asked me to give a presentation on American culture, and of course I said yes.
         It was so much fun to be asked so many questions about American culture. They were so curious about so many things. Melania said I was like a circus animal to them! A few of my favorites:

How is the American prom?

What do you think of the White House and Michelle and Barak Obama?

What about the MBA?

What is the Superbowl like?

Which city in the US is the most fashionable?

Do you know OneDirection?

Have you been to Naples? 

What is the pasta like in the US? This was a question from a professor, and when I answered that we had boxes of pasta that we boiled on the stove, he was sincerely horrified. Melania had to talk to him for several straight minutes in Italian to calm him down. Then she told me, "He is worried about you. And what you are eating. That you are not eating well enough." 

Italy is a beautiful yet broken country. Although it's tourism is alive, many Italians are struggling. In many of the cities, chaos rules. In other sleepy towns, the lifestyle is slow and low key. As Melania kept repeating, one thing Italians can do is cook. And boy can they cook. 

I'm in Love with Cities I've never been to and People I've Never Met

Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre has been high on my travel bucket list for quite some time now. I've been wanting to go since 2008, and the desire has only grown stronger as several friends have visited and showed off their photos. When my friend and classmate, Scott, first approached me about a trip to Italy for our travel break, I said I was interested but I wanted three things: to go to Cinque Terre, to see Melania (a coworker I know from Madrid, but is from Naples) and to go to Pompeii/Naples. He agreed it sounded wonderful, and this trip was born.
The Cinque Terre did not disappoint.

Meaning "5 lands," Cinque Terre is actually 5 little hill towns that sit along the ocean's coast nestled in between ocean rocks, vineyards and steep cliffs. I knew that Scott wanted to do the hike between the towns, but it wasn't until about ten minutes into the first hike that I realized what a great error I had made in agreeing to do such a ridiculous thing. We got to our little house that we rented right on the sea in Manarola (town #2 from the South) and took the boat to the most Northern town- Monterosso. The view from the boat shows just how far apart the towns are, and just how incredible it is that houses sit on the rocky unstable land overlooking the sea. This was my first indication that hiking between the towns would almost kill me. 

But I was so enchanted with this place and knew I had to see it in the most intimate way possible - step by step. Admittedly, I wouldn't have done it any other way. The hikes were tough- straight up the mountain, hundreds and hundreds of steps straight up then straight down, a footpath just inches wide, and lots of rocks/sticks/mud etc to contribute to the complications of the hike.

Vineyards galore. 

Vernazza 

Vernazza

Vernazza

Sunsetting on our second hike 

Corniglia with the ocean meeting the horizon just before sunset

Corniglia floating on vineyards

Gelato for the second time in one day, yes please.

Just a few inches of pathway. What a beautiful chunk of the world. 

Manarola, the town where we stayed on game day. 

the most southern town, Riomaggiore. 

Alas, the calorie-burning was well worth it. I have beautiful photos of this place.
And now, I will know when I get on the stair stepper at the gym and give up at 30 staircases, that I am actually capable of much, much more like 356 sets of stairs.
I think this could be a brilliant marketing strategy for Treadmill and exercise equipment everywhere - TOURIST setting. Where you walk all over beautiful cities without even realizing that your feet are screaming until you get home and collapse into your hard twin-sized, overly starched sheet. 

special.

I spent ten glorious day traveling the winding back streets, wandering through vineyards and eating a diet strictly of espresso, carbohydrates and gelato. The order was this: London to Venice (1 night) - La Spezia (1 night) - Cinque Terre (we stayed in town #2 Manarola two nights) - Florence (2 nights) - Rome (2 nights) - Naples (2 nights). Youll have to spot these places on the map to get the right idea of how much of the country our ground covered. It was an amazing trip, but I'm going to tell you about it a bit out of order.

When the plane touched down in Venice, I felt some unease about revisiting the cities where I spent the hardest summer of my life. As most of you know, my mom died in summer of 2008. I had been studying in Florence for about six weeks when she decided she wanted me to come home. I packed my bags and was on the next flight. Those hours spent in limbo between Florence and Atlanta, were some of the toughest hours of my life. The weeks leading up to that, I had managed to craft an ideal escape route- in a beautiful city, surrounded by many distractions. I did many stupid things that summer but I also visited some great cities in Northern Italy. It was in Venice when I learned the cancer spread to her brain. It was in Florence that I lived the most immature and youthful days, and so in many ways I feel I left that innocence in that city when I boarded the plane to come home.

Although the entire city of Venice itself is a huge tourist destination, there ain't a whole lot to do there other than marvel at its canals and brightly painted buildings. Our hotel was just by the Realto bridge, so after a night stroll we woke up to hit St. Mark's Square before beginning our journey across the country. Venice has this ability to blow your mind. When you see those sticks in the ground they call parking spots, the ambulance boats, a boat with UPS on it... you realize, these canals really are highways and this place is real. Venice is shrinking in terms of its population, but the tourism there is more alive than ever.

We spent one full day in Florence and two nights. I finally entered the famous Duomo (which I inexcusably walked by every day that summer without ever going inside). We found the bar I frequented with my friends, and talked at length about how in the summers the streets flood with American students. Standing in line to see Michaelangelo's David, I refreshed myself on 1 Sam 17. I am amazed at Michaelangelo's works and his outstanding talent. We walked across the jewelry stores on Ponte Veccio and hiked the 30 minutes up to the Piazza del Michaelangelo to enjoy a sweeping view of the city. One of the nights, we sat next to a wonderful British pair of friends, who became our best friends, and we spent the entire night telling stories and talking about everything and nothing at the same time. I always say I travel to meet cool people, and this was one of the best encounters.

Florence will always have a special place in my heart and it was a delight to be circling its duomo again, and sipping on its table's finest house Chianti.