Italy Part 5 - ROMA!!!

We spent four days in the eternal city, and I wish we had brought a pedometer to see how much we walked each day. Rome's subway system is pretty much a joke with only two lines, and I've never figured the bus system in any European city, so we walked every inch of central Rome. Nightly foot massages were required...

I was surprised how much I loved Rome. Some people had told me that, despite all the amazing things to see, they didn't like the city itself. I'd heard it was too chaotic, but compared to Naples it felt completely manageable. I mean, they had CROSSWALKS and stuff - what a concept! Walking everywhere was actually great because we got to see so many neighborhoods and little nooks of Rome - flower markets, cafes....

Here are some of the major sites we managed to see during our visit:

Castel Sant'Angelo - built as a tomb for a Roman emperor,
later served as a fortress for popes

Beautiful and tourist-filled Piazza Navona, with no less than 3 huge and
over-the-top Baroque fountains

Monument to Vitorio Emanuele II, the first king of unified Italy

Tossing our coins into Trevi Fountain! Throw it in with your right hand
over the left shoulder and you're guaranteed to return to Rome!

Trevi Fountain=tourist madhouse!

The Mouth of Truth - it used to be part of a Roman fountain. In the
Middle Ages it was considered a lie detector - it was believed that
your hand would be bitten off if you told a lie. Now a photo op for
tourists - for a small fee of 50 euro cents!

The Spanish Steps! Best people-watching that Rome
has to offer!

The Pantheon! Probably my favorite thing we saw in Rome

How does a place this amazing have free admission?!?

I kind of took a lot of photos of this place...

Most amazing thing happened while we were inside - it started to rain!
The Pantheon has a huge hole in the ceiling, so we got to watch the
water come pouring in!

Gladiator on his cell phone

The Colosseum, of course!

another view

inside the Colosseum

The floor is no longer there, providing a creepy view
down to the ancient catacombs where they would
store all the animals before showtime

View from the upper level

The ruins of Palatine Hill

Palatine Hill was kind of like a park... just a really awesome one full of
ancient stuff!

View of the Colosseum from the hill

View of the Roman Forum from the hill

We also spent a day in the Vatican City (technically a different country!). We arrived about an hour before the pope was scheduled to make a public appearance, so we figured we might as well delay our museum visits by a bit and wait around to see him.

St Peter's Square

Hey look, it's the pope!

And his flashy pope mobile!

The crowd of people waiting to see the pope

Swiss guard looking ridiculous! But he gave us directions
and was really nice

The Sistine Chapel! You're not allowed to take photos, but literally
EVERYONE was

Inside the massive St Peter's Basilica

It's HUGE!!!

Italy Part 4 - Naples and Pompei

Oh, Naples - seedy, dirty, chaotic, machista - let's just say the visit there was... interesting. We were nearly killed several times crossing the street, sometimes we couldn't walk on parts of the sidewalk because the piles of garbage were so large (apparently still suffering from the huge garbage strike), plus I'm fairly confident we saw some mafia members! We only spent about half a day in the actual city - more than enough time for me! 

The beauty of Naples

I think Naples must be the Vespa capital of Europe - there were motorcycles and scooters all over Italy, of course, but Naples just took it to a whole 'nother level. They can pile three people on those things! Vespa drivers are the most reckless drivers I've ever seen. Most of the intersections don't have crosswalks and the passing traffic is unrelenting, so you literally have to walk into all the traffic and hope you don't die - the cars stop for you, but the vespas just swerve around you. Locals have this insane jaywalking down to an art form, so we'd usually just wait for a confident local to start crossing and just follow them. Also, I don't think there are any traffic laws in the city. The lane markers didn't seem to mean a thing to the drivers, and on several occasions I saw people run red lights right in front of cops, who didn't seem to care at all. Not to mention all the speeding.

Beware, VESPA COMING! 

But all the insanity was completely worth it because, despite my lack of appreciation for the city itself (particularly the incessant catcalling and machismo), there are three AMAZING things that Naples has to offer - pizza, the world's coolest hostel, and metro service to the ancient city of Pompeii!!!

The pizza was literally the most amazing pizza I've ever tasted - no surprise considering Naples is the birthplace of pizza and boasts the best in Italy! We went to three of the best pizzerias in the city (as recommended by Rick Steves and our hostel) and were shocked by how affordable the pizzas were - like 4 or 6 euro for an entire pizza! At one of the restaurants we got to watch the chefs tossing the dough, and cooking the pizzas in the wood-burning oven!

Most delicious pizza of my life!

Subpar English translation on one of the menus :)

Moving on to our hostel - greatest place ever! They had free internet, free breakfast, all the information you'd ever need about Naples, plus a giant common room for hanging out with other travelers! All the English speakers (representing England, Canada, Australia, and good 'ole US of A) sort of gravitated toward each other and hung out, sharing travel experiences, etc. It was a blast. Maybe the most interesting person we met was Kristian from Liverpool, who's literally traveled everywhere. I stole this photo of everyone from his Facebook:

The hostel gang

And, of course, Pompeii - the whole reason we went to Naples in the first place! The ancient Roman city was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD and buried under six meters of ash. The excavation, beginning in the 1700s after its accidental discovery, has created the perfect ghost town.

The abandoned streets of Pompeii, with Mt Vesuvius looming in the
distance

We literally spent all day exploring the ruins. Despite being a very touristy location, once we left the crowded forum area for the surrounding areas, it sort of felt like we had the place to ourselves. I had no idea the excavated area was so huge! The place just stretched on forever, providing lots of nooks to explore!

A temple in the forum

More of the forum - I'm really shocked we were able
to get a picture with no people in the background!

Narrow street lined with houses, the majority of which
you were allowed to enter!

An ancient fast food joint - the Pompeiians were
pretty wealthy and didn't like to cook inside their homes
in the sweltering heat of Southern Italy

Ancient bakery! Oven in the background with two flour grinders in
front

Inside one of the houses

Preserved frescos!

The majority of the artifacts (including plaster casts of the corpses) are in museums now, but they still had a relatively large collection inside the archaeological area.

vases, tables, a cart, and a victim

Over 1,000 casts have been made from the impressions of bodies in the
ash... creepy

Pompeii had lots of stray dogs hanging out - check out these two signs that were literally across the street from each other. Mixed messages, anyone?

Don't touch the dogs...

...take them home with you!

Italy Part 3 - Siena

Siena was a particularly special place to visit because my dad was the person who had recommended that we go! Back in the 70s when he was traveling around Europe, he made a stop in Siena and, despite the horrible weather during his entire stay, he fell in love with it. It was fortunately very sunny for the majority of our stay, until our last afternoon when it absolutely poured. Apparently it only rains in Siena when there's a Neidhardt in town!

Wearing the same backpack that my dad had brought
to Siena!

The tiny city did not disappoint. It reminded me so much of Salamanca - a small university town with a large central plaza! Just substitute Salamanca's sandstone buildings for the brick ones and you've got Siena!

The main plaza, Piazza del Campo, was a great spot to sit and people watch. The only major flaw with it was that there wasn't really any shade and the direct sunlight got pretty unbearable - under the Tuscan sun indeed! 

soooooo pretty

Chillin' in the square with my Italian scarf!

Siena's cathedral was among the most impressive buildings I've ever seen - the inside was so ornate it was bordering on ridiculous! Mosaic floors, zebra-striped columns, Sistine Chapel-esque ceilings...

wait for it...

kind of overwhelming... the photos don't do it justice!

amazing mosaics!

coolest ceiling ever

The main sights were relatively crowded with tourists, but once we got off the beaten track and wandered the adorable streets, we had the city to ourselves (and the locals, of course)!

We found some amazing views of the Tuscan countryside

While we cooked the majority of our meals in our hostel kitchen (yay for budget traveling!) we decided to splurge one night with dinner out! Delicious pasta, wine, tiramisu...

Local Tuscan wine!

Our waiter was very proud of how he decorated Meredith's dessert.
He was also super flirtatious - so stereotypically Italian!

Maybe the coolest thing we saw in Siena was this random art museum across from the cathedral (no photos allowed). The building used to be a Catholic hospital, and they still had the original frescos on the walls. Things got creepy, however, when we went downstairs to the dark catacombs of the hospital. Down there we saw secret meeting rooms (not sure what they used them for - the description was in Italian), an almost pitch-black chapel (creepiest place ever to pray for sick people!), and the bottom of the pit where they used to toss the corpses! It was such a strange museum!

Parting shot: Italian flags are EVERYWHERE in Italy!
Almost literally hanging from every window. I've never
seen anything like it!