ROME
We arrived in Rome on Thursday afternoon and made our way over to the cute little apartment we had rented for the next three days near the Trevi Fountain, only ends up that our cute little apartment turned into a huge place with lots of marble near the American Embassy (no complaints here). We spent the afternoon walking around our place before grabbing dinner at a packed restaurant near by. WE celebrated the start of our vacation with some gellato and headed towards the Trevi Fountain, as the crowds are much more bearable at night.
The next morning we woke bright and early to go grocery shopping for the next few days and then made our way to the Colosseum. We toured the ancient arena with a cute little old tour guide who loved telling detailed and intense stories about the days of the Roman Empire. We took our time wandering around the ruins, and I reenacted a picture from the last time I was there. Then we made our way to Palatine Hill and the Roman forum, our tour guide here was absolutely PHENOMENAL. As it was my first time on this site I loved getting the full history and background of each building and the things you wouldn't pick up on if you had walked through on your own. (side note: leave it to me to embarrass myself in front of the only English speaking guys in the Forum, I was definitely on top of my game). Anyways, after visiting the three major ruins we grabbed lunch and proceeded on to the Pantheon. We walked around and guided ourselves through the building. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and poking our heads into shops before heading home to make dinner,
The following day I spent solely with my best friend Kerry, as we decided against visiting the Vatican as we had both visited within the last five years. So we took the day to explore and wander. We started off the day by trying to find a shrine to Saint Theresa only o find it was closed, from there we made our way to the Plaza de Republica. After wandering the side streets a bit we made way to the Spanish Steps, what no one tells you is that the Spanish Steps are right next to the designer fashion district, so after taking in the steps, the artist and the people, we wandered and window shopped throughout these streets for a while. Continuing from there we made way to the Trevi Fountain during the day to have our Lizzie McGuire moment, making a wish together with small change (except Kerry forgot to wish). We grabbed sandwiches from a small shop to go and made our way towards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This is a beautiful monument right near the heart of the city, neither of us really knew a lot about it or the inside so we wandered along finding one of the most beautiful views of the Roman skyline as well as walking into a very ornate church. Finally we found ourselves in a museum, we thought it was a history museum but ends up it really is just a large hallway about every single revolution (in Italian), not our best find. We then took time to stop at a cafe neat the Colosseum for cappuccinos and canolis before slowly making our way back towards the apartment stopping in markets and checking out street artists along the way.
That night at dinner we blacked out, literally no power in the apartment so we ate by candlelight and sang at the top of our lungs like normal people do.
MILAN
I headed off to Milan on Sunday morning by myself, my friends were making their way to Florence which I didn't need to visit again and Milan had always been on my list. I spent my first day just wandering the streets and main squares, taking in sights such as the Duomo Cathedral, Vittorio Emanuelle II Gallery, the Scala Opera House, and stumbled onto the Sforza Castle. Sforza Castle is home to Sempione Park, which ended up being one of my favorite places abroad and the last thing I expected in Milan. This massive park was packed with people having picnics, playing sports, laying out, there were basketball courts, soccer fields, and even contains some major sites such as the Arch of Peace. It was here that I stumbled upon a large drum circle in an outdoor amphitheater, a drum circle that I got dragged into. So I spent my Sunday afternoon in Milan in a red dress and blazer sitting in a stone amphitheater playing the drums with a bunch of people speaking Italian, not what I had in mind but definitely one of the coolest things I've done.
The next day I spent the morning pretending to be part of Designers Week in Milan and visited various art galleries and exhibits, including a long walk through the Brera Art Gallery which was different than most exhibits and somewhat of a disappointment, but Milan isn't known for it's art. Milan is known for it's fashion, so I spent the afternoon wandering MonteNapoleone and the Golden district, the ultimate designer shopping area. MonteNapoleone is famous for being one of if not the most elite shopping streets in the world with shops from anyone who is anybody having a store front, there are men in suits lining the streets to open the doors and security guards to yell at all the tourist taking pictures (knock offs are all to common in Milan, and the true shoppers don't particularly care for the photography). So I walked this streets and it's impressive side streets gawking at window displays and dreaming away.
Tuesday was the day I was most excited for, that is because this was the day I had the first true plans. I spent my morning at the Duomo Cathedral in the heart of the city. The exterior is striking and recognizable in an instant, I would say it is the perfect mix of College Church on SLU's campus and Hogwarts. The cathedral itself was pretty but I cared more for the crypts underneath and the smaller chapels. Though what I really loved was the stairs to the top, I was expecting to walk up bell tower and receive striking views like the other Church's before, but in Milan you climb up to the roof and then walk around at you leisure. The entire slanted roof of this Cathedral is open to explore, it was a really cool experience. That afternoon I took a tour of the major art piece of Milan. We started at the museum of Ancient art where we saw Leonardo DaVinci's room of boards, he painted the ceiling to look like trees and incorporated the family crest perfectly. They are currently restoring the piece and removed the boards from the wall and have found some of DaVinci's sketches that have been hidden for years. We continued on to a Madonna that had been believed to have been painted by DaVinci, only to later discover it was actually painted by one of his most talented apprentices. The final piece we saw in the museum was Michelangelo's final pieta. The piece he had been working on at his death, you can see his work in progress and how he changed from his original piece. It was a really neat piece to see and a different look at a master mind's process. The final and most anticipated piece we saw was at the Santa Maria delle Grazie Church, and it was DaVinci's Last Supper. Being able to see this piece in person and up close was a really cool experience, you only get fifteen minutes to look at it but you also are in the room with next to no other people. It is such an interesting and different take on this scene, looking at every one's reasons after Jesus has said that one of them will betray him, The piece is massive yet faded and damaged, but still has so much dimension and emotion in it. It is my favorite piece that I have seen in person.
VENICE, MURANO, BURANO, TORCELLO
Wednesday morning I took the train to Venice to meet back up with my friends. We spent our time in Venice doing what you are supposed to do in Venice, we got lost and we wandered. We walked across various bridges and down alleys until we had eventually found Saint Mark's Square as well as the Realto Bridge. We went u pinto the clock tower of Saint Marks that day and took in the beautiful but very breezy views. The next day we met up with some friends from SLU for a gondola ride in the morning, taking in the sights and getting a mini tour from our man (not really sure what you call the rower guy). That afternoon we took a boat tour to the Islands near by. We started in Murano, a small island famous for it's glass blowing. We were able to see a demonstration of both a vase and an animal being made from scratch before having a little bit of time to walk around and poke our heads into shops. We then made our way to Torcello, which has a reputation for it's architecture an lace. There wasn't too much to do in Torcello but they did have a really good bridge for photo ops... The final island we visited was Burano, and this was the island I was most excited about. It is famous for it's lace but also for it's vibrant colors that are government regulated, each house is a bright hue that supposedly is visible to the fisherman back in the day. Burano is all over pinterest and buzzfeed articles lately. So we went to a lace demonstration in a creepy place with lots of dolls that I basically ran out of before walking the streets and admiring the pretty colors, as well as stopping in the various bakeries along the way as Burano is famous for a specific type of cookie. We thought they must be good at all cookies then and each bought a chocolate chip cookie, it was all lies,they were not cookies they were bread. We slowly moved past that incident before boarding the boat back to Venice and hopping on the night train to Bologna.
PALMA DE MALLORCA
Getting to Mallorca was quiet the ordeal, a sixteen hour ordeal to be exact. We left our hostel at eight o'clock and grabbed dinner along the way to the train station. We arrived to the train station between ten and eleven and settled in for our train to arrive, it's departure was right after midnight so it should be there around eleven thirty, or not. The train was delayed and didn't arrive until around twelve twenty, did I mention this was an open air station with lost of cool wind and stone floors. We finally settled in to the train and set our alarms to make sure we woke for the stop in Bologna and didn't sleep all the way to Rome. Luckily we did and took at taxi around two forty in the morning to the Bologna airport. We found a nice little corner by the check in desk and settled until they opened between our and five am. Once we go through security and had real seats for the first time in a while we got ready for our flight which we had to take a bus to for boarding. Once we were finally all set we flew to Mallorca no problems arriving bright and early at eight am and hopped on our thirty minute shuttle to the resort, which was a two and a half hour shuttle to the resort that left a half an hour after we landed. SO lets just say I am officially Amazing Race ready.
Once we finally made it to our gorgeous all inclusive resort we each grabbed a mimosa checked out our rooms and laid out by the pool until lunch time. After gorging ourselves on the buffet we checked out the beach which was beautiful but a little chilly. We spent the next three days relaxing and taking in the sun, as well as taking full advantage of the all you can eat and drink. Saturday night we took in one of my favorite guilty pleasures, cover bands and cruise ship esque shows, this was a great one filled with eighties covers and some killer costumes. Mallorca was a great end to our spring break and the relaxing beach vacation we needed.
