Pisa, Florence & Rome

I apologize in advance for the length of this post!  Also, sometimes, Google lets me edit the locations of the pictures, not always.
 

 Erin & Ryan had an eleven day fall break.  Tuesday, October 29, we left for Italy.  We flew from Düsseldorf to Pisa for the first leg of our trip.  We flew Ryanair, for about €65 (or $85).  CRAZY cheap!  No, there were no in-flight meals or snacks, and yes the inside of the plane was plastered with advertisements, but who cares?  It’s an hour and a half trip! 

In Pisa, we saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa (obviously).  I’m sure Pisa is a wonderful city, but we didn’t take the time to see it.  Straight to the Tower and back to the train station.  It really is leaning, like a lot! 

 

From Pisa, it was only a short and cheap train ride to Florence.  We had a beautiful apartment minutes from the train station.  After unpacking and regrouping, we headed out to see the sights.  First stop, Gelato.  Ryan ordered his in perfect German, the girl behind the counter had no idea what he was talking about, but the German tourists behind us thought he was hilarious!  It’s amazing how much German I feel like I know after knowing NO Italian. 

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is amazing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Cathedral).  Such details.  I also liked that it isn’t in a huge plaza that you can see for blocks and blocks.  It feels very personal.  Our first night was topped off by a delicious Italian dinner.  We arrived about 7 o’clock thinking that we were good.  Nope, all the employees were still finishing their dinners.  Only after we had our entire (like 1 ½ hour long) meal, did others people start showing up for their dinners. 

 

Wednesday morning, we arrived at the Accademia Gallery, which houses David, promptly at our pre-purchased time of 10 o’clock.  Unfortunately, I had bought the tickets for Thursday at 10 o’clock.  However, they did let me change the tickets.  Italy is very casual about these things.  The kids were not impressed with being dragged through an art museum.  But it was a small museum and well worth it to see the original David. 

 

Next up, climbing to the top of the Duomo.  Ryan LOVED climbing every thing he could.  He has been on a “being a man” kick and apparently climbing things is manly.  He also eats ‘man food”, mostly meat and bread.  In all it is a 463 step climb to the top, very manly.  The first section is a climb up a normal back and forth stair case.  The staircase takes you to the bottom of the interior dome.  From there you walk around the inside, protected by Plexiglas, to the other side of the dome, where you continue to climb.  This walk did not sit well with Mike who is deathly afraid of heights.  He really didn’t like later when I commented that I wished the Plexiglas wasn’t there because it is very hard to take pictures through!  The view from the top was well worth the climb. 

 

                                                             

Lunch was a restaurant that MJ found on trip advisor that had the best paninis in Florence.  It just a little tiny place, think “Soup Nazi”.  You choose your bread, your spread and your meat.  Yes, Ryan would consider this ‘man food”.  As you are waiting in line, the baker across the street is bringing the fresh baked bread through the front door.   Outside they had a help yourself wine section which you pay for on the honor system.   

           

 

After lunch we visited the Baptistry.  The Baptistry and the doors to it play a prominent role in Dan Brown’s recent thriller Inferno.  And I can see why Robert Langdon (wait I mean Dan Brown) spent so much time describing it.    Then we decided that we hadn’t had enough steps for the day, so we climbed to the top of the bell tower at sunset for some extra exercise. Another 414 steps. 

 

 

We decided to cut our Florence time short and head to Rome so that we could see my Grandmother, Uncle and Aunts, who were on a tour of Italy.  We grabbed a hotel room in the city and changed the date on our train tickets.  We traveld on the super high speed train from Florence to Rome.  260 km an hour and no stops in between.  Complete comfort with wifi and a nice table.  Very enjoyable way to travel and the high speed trains in Italy are significantly cheaper than the ones in Germany/France.  When we arrived at the hotel, we made the mistake of all of us going into the lobby.  Europe has a very serious policy against having more than 2 or 3 people in your room, even if they are kids that have no problem crasing on the floor or in bed with you.  You have never seen a more flustered person than the guy who was working the desk.  “How many people do you have!!”  Seriously there are only 4 of us and we literally spent like 13 hours in the hotel.  But, he made us buy a second hotel room for the night.  It was too late to cancel the room without still having to pay for it anyway.  Grrrrrr.  Needless to say, I don’t suggest the Holiday Inn Express in Rome to anyone.  Also, we will never all enter a hotel at the same time from here on out.  I don’t think it is unreasonable for a family of 4 to be able to stay in one room.  Stepping off my soap box now…

 

We met my Grandma, Bobby, Brenda & Kathi for dinner at a great Italian restaurant (is there any other kind?)  It was so nice to be able to talk to them and hear how their trip had been so far.  They also had some useful suggestions for Rome as they had been there all week. 

 

Friday morning we headed to our rental apartment (www.homeaway.com).  Again, a great place in a great location.  We walked out the front door of the building and were 2 blocks from the wall of Vatican City.  We headed to the Roman Forum for the day.  MJ was very excited for all of it and the kids enjoyed it too.  Especially The Coliseum.  While we were standing in line to buy our tickets, one of Erin’s classmates was 2 families behind us.  What are the chances? 

So there are plenty of Gelato stands, but there are also Fresh Fruit stands too.

How crazy that this floor has been sitting here for like 1000 years, just

sitting out in the elements letting everyone walk over it!

Ryan drinking from one of Rome's fresh water fountains. 

We had dinner at the Peroni brewery and stopped by Trevi Fountain to toss in a coin or two.  The Trevi Fountain is very cool at night and a popular destination. 

 

Saturday morning, I headed out early to stand in line for the Vatican Museum.  Not a good plan.  After 45 minutes of barely moving 20 meters (see we are picking up the metric system), Mike and the kids met up with me and we changed our plans and headed into St. Peter’s Basilica.  Erin & Ryan were fascinated with the idea that Vatican City is another country and we just walked under an arch and we were there.  Words cannot describe the scale of the church.  The main altar (only used when the Pop says mass), has a 7 story canopy over the top of it.  We have become somewhat Church experts after Florence Dome, Cologne Dome, Notre Dame, St. Pat’s in NYC but you might be able to fit all 4 of them in St. Peter’s. The statues are all very lifelike in their expressions and poses, very different than your typical Catholic Church.   Mass is held several times a day, and while we were walking around we saw that some security guards were letting people go up to mass in the front center area(yes probably like 5 or 6 masses go on at once).  Apparently they were only allowing people who looked catholic enough (not Asians?) up to the front for mass and told everyone that this mass was in Italian.  But we figured why not it’s a good way to take in the church without being surrounded by tour groups and we got to walk by the main alter where St. Peter’s grave is under.(they moved in around 1950 to put it directly under the altar).  Of course in the middle of mass Ryan had to go to the bathroom (why should St. Peter’s be any different than Holy Child?) and I took him.  We were not able to get back in but Mike and Erin stayed and got their communion from one of the Cardinals participating in the mass. 

 

We headed back to our apartment just in time to meet up with our Harrisburg/CD/Holy Name friend Damian Dyckman.  His ship was in port in Italy and he was spending a few days taking in the sights of Rome also.  He has some great stories and unbelievable pictures!

 

Of course, it was Saturday, and that means Penn State football.  So when in Rome…find your nearest Penn State/Steeler Bar and head there quickly!  (You were wondering when I was going to get around to using “when in Rome”, weren’t you?)  It was actually a pretty cool place (even if it was filled with Penn State students and fans).  If you are looking for a new career, Penn State’s Architecture program requires you to spend one semester of your Senior year in Rome, not too shabby!  Mike had somehow knew this or that PSU had a campus and googled and found this bar in a great section of town.  We found it and it really did feel like a Pittsburgh bar on the Southside.  (https://www.facebook.com/botticellapub)  Terrible towels everywhere and the bartender was wearing a shirt that said ‘everyone loves Pittsburgh’.  Also Mike was happy to find they had a great selection of craft brew.   Mike even had what some people say is the #1 Beer in the world(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westvleteren_Brewery).  The game was good if you cared(I did not) and PSU won in overtime.  They had the game projected on a big TV and Ryan was leading ‘We Are’ chants to the crowd as we were leaving.  Then you walk out and you are on the streets of Rome.  Very Surreal. 

 

 

 

 

Be sure to watch this video of Ryan!  http://youtu.be/axqf6Grp8ZU

 

Sunday morning we first reserved our tickets for Monday for the Vatican Museum.  Then we headed to St. Peter’s Square to wait for Pope Francis to appear in his apartment window for The Angelus. It was crowded, but we had a good place to stand.  I was most amazed by when he came to the window, everyone cheered and yelled his name, then as soon as he started speaking, everyone was silent…immediately.

 

 

In the late afternoon we headed back to the Roman Forum.  That night we found a swanky gelato shop.  They had 6 different flavors of chocolate.  One was called “Kentucky”.  It was a mixture of chocolate and tobacco.  Yes, I just said that.  Ryan had it.  Erin stuck to her rotation of Strawberry, Lemon and Straticella. 

 

 

After that we went to Irish Pub (we seem to find those everywhere too)   Mike struck up a conversation with two guys from Britain, who were happy to listen to his explanation of college football vs. the NFL.  I will admit, one of the guys was from Liverpool, and we couldn’t understand of word of what he said.  It was remarkable. 

Of course, when we woke up Monday morning for the Vatican Museum, there wasn’t a line in sight.  Oh well, better safe than sorry.  The Vatican Museum is also simply humongous.  Other than me spilling my Diet Coke inside of my purse, we had a nice time there.  The Sistine Chapel is beautiful, but there are hundreds of people in there at a time.  (I think I would like some time alone in there, maybe to lay on the floor and look at the ceiling.  How can I get that arranged?)  Luckily it is air conditioned. 

 

Monday night we flew back to Düsseldorf.  There is something very wrong about getting on a plane at 72 degrees and sunny and getting off at 42 degrees and raining.  Apparently Fall snuck into Germany while I wasn’t monitoring the situation. 

Ryan was super excited to fly RyanAir by the way...