Rome

We arrived in Rome and it started snowing very hard, the first snowfall seen in the city in over 30 years!  In line with the earlier stops on our trip, we continued to be very cold in Rome.  We arrived by train from Florence much later than we expected as our train was 3 hours delayed due to the snow storm.  Our cab ride to our hotel (Westin Excelsior) was very hairy as the driver had never driven in snow before and the roads were beginning to ice up.  We were thankful to make it to our hotel which was just across the street from a very large and beautiful US Embassy on the Via Veneto in a beautiful section of town up on a hill.  Just down the street was another Hard Rock Café… we indulged again for some friendly American food rather than figure out where to go on our first night in this new city.

First Impressions:

·       Snowing everywhere when we arrived

·       Rome is much busier than other cities, cab drivers less likely to speak English

·       Food is not as good as Florence and Venice

·       Best mixture of modern and ancient, a dramatic ancient site around every corner

·       Lots more tourists to contend with

Day 1

We had originally intended to hit the Coliseum on our first day in Rome but with all the snowfall the site was closed as they didn’t want to use salt or shovels to clear snow that might damage the site.  Just a short walk from our hotel was the Spanish Steps so we started our day there.  The steps stand in front of the Spanish Embassy and are surrounded at the base by street after street of local merchants and luxury boutiques.  They didn’t clear any of the ice off of the steps either but for some reason they were open.  We made a slippery and scary descent down the steps where we took some photos and enjoyed the shops below.  We continued on a walk down to the Trevi Fountain which was absolutely breathtaking.  We threw in our coins so that we might be able to have good fortune and return to Rome again one day and headed on to the ancient Pantheon church.  On part of our walk, Matthew slipped and stepped in an icy puddle.  By day’s end he had a fever so we called it a day relatively early and enjoyed some homemade pasta at our hotel from room service before a warm bath and bed.

Day 2

On our second day in Rome we started early at the Vatican.  We wanted to see the famed Sistine Chapel which required that we first walk through the Vatican Museum.  It was unbelievable how incredibly long the Vatican Museum was… we were not super interested in the exhibits and just walked as fast as we could navigate crowds for about 30 minutes before we reached the entrance to the Sistine Chapel.  The chapel was very dramatic with its painted ceiling depicting the creation of Adam by Michelangelo.  After the chapel we made our way to St. Peter’s Cathedral.  The cathedral was overwhelmingly massive and is also Rome’s tallest building.  We even climbed up hundreds of steps through very narrow corridors up to the very top and enjoyed the beautiful views.  After spending most of the day touring Vatican sites we headed to the Piazza Navona where we grabbed dinner and enjoyed all the local artists with paintings for sale around the beautiful four rivers fountain.

Day 3

We started our third day in Rome by visiting the Papal Archbasilical San Giovanni cathedral which was built before St. Peters.  This was another beautiful and massive church with statues dedicated to each of Christ’s original 12 apostles.  Across the street are housed the Scala Sancta, a set of wooden steps that it is said that Christ walked upon before he was crucified.  The steps are a huge attraction for Catholics who climb the stair case on their knees offering prayers on each step.  It was interesting to see the steps but we opted not to climb up them on our knees.  From here we walked over to the Coliseum.  The Coliseum was still closed given the snow and ice but we enjoyed the building and the surrounding Roman ruins as best we could from the outside.  The building is incredibly majestic and beautiful.  We look forward to coming back one day and hopefully being able to go inside.  In the afternoon we toured the Borghese gallery near our hotel.  This is an old mansion that is filled with beautiful sculptures and paintings in the Borghese gardens which were just next to our hotel.  It was Valentine’s Day, so the stroll through this beautiful gallery and gardens were a fun and romantic way to draw our Italian holiday to a close.  We then had dinner at a small family owned restaurant that had been in the same family for 3 generations.  They specialized in homemade pasta dishes made with black truffles.  The food was delicious and we ended our trip with a romantic walk past all of our favorite sites again at night (Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain). 

We absolutely loved our time in Italy and would do it all again even in the freezing February cold – though hopefully next time we can go when it is warmer.

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Tuscany

The Tuscany tour is another must do and great way to end the time in Florence!  Let me begin by saying it snowed that morning in Tuscany so you can somewhat imagine how cold it was. You can’t fully understand unless you were there right? We started the day by driving to the city of Sienna.  Sienna was beautiful.  It is up on top of a hill and has nothing but small narrow roads that are mostly for pedestrians only.  We saw the world’s oldest bank, the central square where they hold the Palio horse raises twice annually and walked through the AMAZING cathedral they had in the city.  Sienna has historically been one of the wealthiest cities in Tuscany given its location on a central Italian trading road.  The riches really showed through in the cathedral with all its gold and paintings.

After Sienna we went and had lunch on a real Tuscan farm.  We ate homemade pasta, bread w/ homemade olive oils and sat by as the group tasted lots of wines. =)  We bought some pasta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and even some pastries to take home with us and then continued on to San Gimignano.   Sam Gimignano was beautiful but almost totally deserted given the cold temperatures.  The town is filled with tall stone towers that were occupied by families in the middle ages.  They lived at the top of towers for protection as the towers allowed for them to cast things down on intruders before they could enter.  The city from a distance looks like a mini-Manhattan with all the tall buildings. 

We ended the day in Pisa where we toured the Field of Miracles and climbed to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa.  It was a tough climb up the lopsided tower, 300 plus stairs, especially after all the good Italian food.  Don’t worry, we made it to the top and the climb was totally worth it. The view was amazing! I didn’t realize how big Pisa was until I was able to overlook the entire city. And yes, we took those cheesy tourist picture with the leaning tower. We couldn’t resist. Please don’t judge.

At the end of the day we went back to Florence and had a final dinner back at our favorite spot Il Profeta before packing up to head down to Rome.