How sad to Leave Firenze

So, back to Firenze! How exciting!

On Feb. 27, our trip was halfway through, and I have to say I was amazed at how much we had already seen without even heading to Rome! After breakfast, we headed to Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Sadly, this was actually a bit of a disappointment (and I realize how stupid that sounds that really awesome buildings full of history somehow became "disappointments"). The Palazzo is still used by the government offices in Florence, so unforutnately, much of Palazzo is not available to the public. Because of this, it seemed like the Palazzo was actually smaller than it really is. The Mayor's office is actually the former apartment of Leo X, which is kind of cool.

After the Palazzo, we went to Chiesa di Santa Croce. The church was nice, of course, but the interesting thing about this one is the number of important people buried there, including Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo, and Machiavelli. Plus there are others that I can't even remember/didn't know. Unfortunately the church was under renovation, so we didn't even get to see the altar, but I suppose looking at the all the burials should suffice. In addition to the famous people buried along the sides of the chapel, there are loads of people who were buried under the floor, so as we walked through the church, we were basically stepping on all sorts of dead people.

We then headed to Ponte Vecchio for lunch and gelato at an excellent gelato place. After lunch we headed back towards the San Lorenzo area to enjoy il mercado (the market), which is world famous. I absolutely loved walking through the markets. As a sidenote, markets and street vendors in Italy aren't like those in the states. I don't think I've ever been to an open-air market in the states (flea markets, I guess, but those aren't really the same), and whenever I see a street vendor selling something, I'm usually 100% sure their items are bootlegged and definitely not legit. Markets here sell legitimate items at reasonable prices, although that doesn't mean you don't run into people selling bootlegged stuff, but the larger markets like San Lorenzo are fine. The vendors here like to try to entice you to buy their stuff, so I was constantly torn between wanting to look at the items on display and not wanting to appear too interested. One guy for instance caught me looking at this really cute white leather jacket and he asked me if I was sad because I hadn't bought anything yet. He kept talking to us even as we had passed his stand, trying to get his "friends" to come back and look. If I lived in Florence, I would definitely go to the market frequently to buy clothes, shoes, scarves, earrings, everything really. There is also a food portion in a large warehouse type building, but since we weren't in a position to cook, we didn't venture to check out the goods in there.

I did stop to buy a few things, and thankfully both vendors I chose were not pushy. One even said (in English) that he had wandered away from the booth because he wanted to give me time to pick out my items without appearing too pushy. I did buy some items, and I was tempted to buy more, but we only brought two backpacks and a duffel, and they were filling up quickly. One other interesting note - the vendor's carts are typically stored in these warehouse places, and our hotel was on the same road as many of the warehouses, so we saw them pack up and move out each night.

After the market, we sadly had to leave Florence for Roma. We rode another Eurostar, and again found our hotel with no problems. This was actually a hostel, and perhaps I should spend a few minutes explaining our "accommodations." I had never stayed in a hostel before, but there were 8 beds in one room, and the entire hostel (about 8 rooms maybe) shared four bathrooms. Two of the bathrooms didn't lock, and all the bathrooms were incredibly nasty. I'm not quite sure which option would have been dirtier: not taking a shower for four days, or taking a shower in their bathrooms. Thankfully all the people we stayed with were nice and trustworthy (although the maids did steal a chocolate bar of mine!). But I was very happy to return to my own room and (clean) bathroom here, and I highly doubt I will ever stay in another hostel. I should also mention that the hostel was on the wrong side of the tracks. Literally. That was slightly nerve-wracking, but we made it out alive.

All we did Wednesday in Rome was walk around a bit, buy a Roma Pass (a 20 euro card that allows free entry into two museums and free transportation), and eat dinner.

That wraps up Wednesday and our last day in Florence. I'll go ahead and move on to our first day in Rome, as I want to separate it from the rest of our Rome experiences.

We spent Thursday (Feb. 28) in Vatican City. This was the day that "So far so good" left our vocabulary. Prior to our trip, we had been told to try and get a guided tour of the Vatican as absolutely nothing is labeled. This is sound advice for those of you planning to head to the Vatican one day. Nothing is labeled, and without some sort of guide(whether it be a person, a great book, an audioguide), you'll probably feel like you wasted your moeny. We tried to contact this particular guide that had been recommended, but he was unfortunately on vacation. He then recommended another guide who works with the same company, so we contacted the company. A quick sidenote here: Our experience with this company as you will soon see was not a good one, so I feel compelled to go ahead and tell you the name in the event any of you ever decide to come here and use them. The company is called Italy with Us. I would never recommend this company, but I should also note that our friends had an excellent group tour with one of their other guides. So maybe it's hit or miss with the guides, but I did want to give the name, as I feel it's completely fair. So back to the story:

We contacted Italy with Us and the lady that runs the office there was extremely nice and helpful. Via e-mail all week she had told us there would be a group tour Thursday morning, so we headed out to meet up with the tour. It turns out the company didn't actually have a group tour, but this woman had gone through the trouble of finding another company with a tour and reserving two spots for us. We waited for the tour in the cafe next door, but about 30 minutes later, we were informed that the tour had been cancelled. At this point it was about 10:30 a.m., and we were all the way out in Vatican City. We decided we had to go to the Vatican that day as we would have wasted a lot of time if we tried to regroup at that point. Italy with Us offered us a deal because they knew we were students. They offered a private tour at a discounted rate. While the private tour was still more than we had planned on paying, we decided it was worth it.

So we set off with our tour guide (I'm not going to publish her name, but if you ever decide to use this company, contact me and I'll tell you her name). She was very knowledgeable and nice, and a lot of the explanations she gave helped us make sense of some of the art we had seen in Florence and Venice. We walked through the Vatican Museums with her and stopped in the map corridor for her to explain the Sistine Chapel using pictures to show us things that we would eventually see in the Sistine Chapel. After she was through with the Chapel explanation, she looked at her watch and saw that we had been gone for 2 hours. She then said she knew we couldn't pay anymore, and she wouldn't expect us to, but that our 2 hours were up, so she'd have to leave. Prior to agreeing to the private tour, I had asked the woman in the front office what exactly a private tour included. I was told it included everything a group tour did (a group tour is usually 3 hours), which is the Vatican Museums, The Raphael Rooms, The Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica. Needless to say, our guide left us after we had only made it through the Vatican Museums. We were left on our own for the other three main things (although she had already explained the Sistine Chapel, thankfully). I should also note that we went at her pace and followed her to what she deemed to be the most important things. I would have understood her leaving if we had constantly been stopping her to ask questions, but I think in this situation, it was completely her disorganization that led to us not finishing everything with a guide.

At first we just kept moving, and neither of us said much, but as we kept walking through things, not understanding what we were looking at, we kept getting angrier. The Raphael rooms were interesting, but I didn't know what I was looking at (hence the need for the guide). Surprisingly, I was allowed to take pictures in there, though.

The Sistine Chapel was impressive, especially considering it only took 4 years to complete, and Michelangelo always considered himself more of a sculptor than a painter (and because of this, the figures in the chapel look very 3-D). Several years ago, they went through and cleaned/restored the ceiling, but they left some parts unclean so we could what it used to look like. Based on those portions, it's easy to see that prior to the cleaning, the ceiling was basically all black! I don't know why anyone would have paid to go in and see the chapel when you couldn't see anything. It was also interesting to know some of the inside jokes Michelangelo had painted. For instance, after one guy slightly insulted his Last Judgement on the wall, Michelangelo painted this guy's face on one of the guys going to hell, and wrapped around his body was a snake, biting his crotch. That Michelangelo, what a great sense of humor. He also initially painted the Last Judgement character naked, but the church went back and painted clothes on them after Michelangelo's death. It was finally explained to us (by our guide before she left us) how exactly they got all those figures painted up on the ceiling. No, Michelangelo did not paint laying on his back. There's this system, and the simplest way to explain it is a bit like connect-the-dots. They outline the figures on the ground, probably on a table or whatnot, and then put this paper outline up and fill in the rest of the painting on the ceiling. Michelangelo got so good that he did the last figure on the ceiling (Jonah and the "whale" - it looked more like a trout than a whale) freehand. Pretty impressive, huh? We couldn't look at the chapel too long, though, as our necks were about to break straight off from staring straight up so much.

After the Sistine Chapel, our guide had told us to go through the right exit door, which would lead straight to the Basilica. But there was a sign in front of this door that said "Authorized Tour groups only," and at this point, our guide had left us, so we didn't think we'd count as an authorized tour. So we exited using the door the public uses, which means we had to walk all the around the Vatican to get to Saint Peter's, and by the time we arrived, there was a massive line to get into the basilica. Paying for a tour also usually means you get to the front of the lines, so at this point we were absolutely furious. We headed to get some lunch and cool off (although I don't think either one of us did). And then we called the company to see what they could do to get us to the front of the basilica line. The main woman said she'd meet us in the square, so we headed back, but, naturally, when we returned, the line was much shorter. To be honest, we should have asked for a refund, but this woman was so nice and had gone through so much trouble for us, that we found it hard to complain. I think she was under the impression that our only problem was that we were going to have to wait in line (and since the line was short once we returned, she probably thought we were pitching a fit over nothing). I tried to nicely say that while the guide was nice, she unfortunately left us, but I don't think we were understood.

Anyways, we still felt completely ripped off and angry as we waited in the line for the basilica (since the line was only going to take about 5 minutes, we just hopped in line). While we were waiting for this office lady to meet us in the square, I should also note this young couple got engaged right by us. It was really cute, except we were quite ticked at the time, so it didn't seem nearly as cute as it was.

We entered the basilica, and I have to say this was the most impressive church we saw! The thing is huge and gorgeous (although I don't think I truly appreciated it as I was still steaming about being ripped off). The church is literally built on the grave of Saint Peter (or the alleged grave). I think it's weird to hear him called Saint Peter, although I realize that's the Catholic thing to do. To me, he's always been just Peter. Or maybe the Apostle Peter. But there's a huge altar right over him. I guess they took it literally when Jesus called Peter the rock on which he would build his church (I really don't remember the exact phrasing, and I've probably interpreted in all wrong, which will be a great disappointment to Dad, but literally, they've built the church ON Peter. Kinda funny, actually). There was also a statue inside the basilica, and everyone rubbed its foot. I should have looked this one up before I went in (then again, I thought I'd have a guide with me . . .yes, I'm still bitter, one week later). I didn't rub the foot because I didn't know what it meant. (Em, you'll have to fill me in all the Catholic rituals when I get home). We pretty much walked around the chapel and enjoyed all the nifty things inside. As a side note, we did get to see the funny-dressed Swiss guards outside what I think leads to the Pope's apartment. No, I didn't see the Pope. Or the Popemobile.

We did, however, check out the tombs of the old popes. There were several nuns praying outside Pope John Paul II's tomb. I have to say it was moving to walk by his grave, knowing that he touched a lot of people. He also seems to have a scored a pretty sweet spot down in the tombs as he had a whole nook just for him, whereas many of the popes were lined up along the walls. There was also the tomb of Peter, and that was really cool too see. Although, I'm not sure if it's a tomb, so much as maybe a monument for him? I don't know if his bones are further in the ground as I realize after cruficying someone upside down you probably don't put them in a nice marble coffin.

One other note: Saint Peter's Square looks smaller in real life than it does on TV. I don't know why I always thought it was so big, but it didn't feel that big when were there.

We were exhausted at this point, so went back to the hostel and relaxed before finding a cheap dinner. The guy there spoke to us in Italian, and was quite excited that we were trying the language. By dinnertime we still felt completely ripped off, but at the same time, we realized that we had smooth sailing up until this point, and something was bound to happen. Our experience with the company and the guide was that thing. I suppose this is just another reason to come back! I have to do it again - the right way! Interestingly enough, there is an American student here at school with us this week who lives in Rome. He works in tourism and actually knows our tour guide (though a friend, not through his job), and he said our experience sounded like something she would do. He also told us that what happened was wrong, and shouldn't have happened, and it was her fault that she had planned poorly and didn't make it through everything with us. I guess we just happened to get the wrong person!

Anyways, I wanted to put that day in between the wonderful Florence stories from Wednesday, and the incredible stories I have from Friday and Saturday. I'll detail the rest of Rome tomorrow. Also, please excuse all my typing errors as the more I type, the more mistakes I make, and these computers don't let me spell check! Sorry! A domani!