Friday, December 7, 2007

Rome, Florence, Cinque Terra

When I got on the train to Rome I met a few girls from the east coast. They were studying in Amsterdam for the semester. I was in a different couchette, but stayed in theirs for a while to play cards and exchange traveling stories. I didn't get to see them in the morning since get got off at Florence and I was still asleep.

In Rome I stayed at the Hostel Beautiful #2. It had great reviews online, but turned out to be a little over rated. I didn't stay there long I soon headed to see the sites. I first went to the Collosium. It was big, but not as big as I thought it would. I guess maybe because I was comparing it to the Auburn Collosium which holds almost 90,000 people. Also I thought that the entire thing was made out of stone, but a lot of it is made out of brick. When I was getting ready to leave two guys approached me and told me they were staying at the same hostel as me. One was from Poland and the other was from California. We stayed at the Collosium for a little bit long and then headed to see some other sights. Only about 300 yards from the Collosium there was a site of Ancient Roman buildings that were almost completely collapsed, but still very interesting. We then headed up to modern area and decided to get some lunch. We were looking for a traditional Italian place, but could not find a good one and ended up settling for a fast food pizza place. It was decent food, but not special. Later on we were walking around and ran in to the Trevi fountain that was incredible and one of my favorite sites on this trip. At teh base there is a giant pool that catches the water and above there are marble cliffs where the giant men and women are resting in front of a Roman building.

The next day the guy from California, a Canadian named Lisa, and me headed to the Sistine Chapel which had to be entered through the Vatican Museum. Lisa could not go in since she had ran out of time and had to catch her train. When we got in we had to go through many halls of artwork and Roman history before we got to the actual chapel. When we finally got there it was incredible, though I wish there was more light in it to show the beauty better. You could see all of the different stories from the Bible including the creation, resurrection, and the heavens. After this we headed back to the Trevi fountain to hang out. California wanted to sit near the fountain and journal I just chilled out and read from Lord of the Rings.

The food in Italy was not as good as I had expected it to be. I was expecting to have the best food that ever have. I am not sure that I got a good perspective of what Italian food really is though, since I was in the tourist area and never really ventured into true Italian culture. California, Lisa, and I did go to an Italian restaurant that was highly recommended and quite expensive, but even there we were still disappointed. I thought that I had better Italian food at Maggiano's.

The next day I was off to Florence. I stayed at a hostel called the Archi Rossi. It was a nice place expect seemed a little strict, every time you entered you had to show you had your room key. The first place I went to was the Statue of David. It was impressive much larger than I had expected. I never thought that I would be that interested in it, but the size, detail and life likeness were incredible. Later on back at the hostel I found a guy and a couple of girls from Australia. We ended up going to a bar that served a drink and buffett for only 9 euros. The next day I headed out for a walk and ran into a marathon, I ended up watching the top runners come in. It was a lot smaller than the ones like Chicago, Boston, or New York. I only stayed in Florence for a day and then headed to Cinque Terra.

I headed to Cinque Terra with a guy I had met in Florence from Colorado. On the way there we had a stop over at Pisa. We only had an hour before our next train left, so we made a quick trip to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We only had a few minutes there, since it was about 20 minutes away and almost missed our train because it took longer than expected to get back. We finally made it to Cinque Terra. I got the idea to go there from a friend from Portland. Cinque Terra is a series of 5 coastal villages that are strung along high trip covered coastal cliffs. There really isn't a good way to describe this place, it was really beautiful. The buildings were all colored pastels and you could see almost every one when you were near the water because the steep incline they are on. There wasn't much to do at this place but do hikes and watch the sunset. The morning of the next day I did a hike from the first village all the way down to the last one. This took about 4 hours, and consisted of winding trails along cliffs that overlooked the ocean. The best places were high on these mountains because you could look out along the ocean and see all of the villages, the ocean, small islands, and green mountains. Besides hiking we just would cook dinner and get some beer from the local store and hang out.

After Cinque Terra I headed back to Gimmelwald Switzerland to relax for a while before going back to the States.

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