So Rome and Assisi. Clare and I decided to go to Florence first, so we made our own arrangements to get down there by train. Our train left on Friday morning early, and went all the way until late in the evening. Due to a train from Innsbruck being late, we missed our original train from Padua to Florence and had to catch another one about an hour and a half later, so by the time we got off the train and made it to the hostel, Clare and I were bushed and we decided to just go to sleep and hit Florence in the morning.
The train ride there was absolutely gorgeous, though. The scenery as we were driving south through the mountains separating Austria and Italy was gorgeous. The train tracks ran up through the mountains and we saw some snow, then went down into the bottoms of valleys surrounded by tall green mountains. Everything looked a little like it was straight out of Lord of the Rings. At one point I saw a huge castle just sitting on top of a hill, surrounded by a bunch of other smaller buildings. It struck me in particular just because that hill was so steep and the castle looked a little like a bump on a log.
Florence was actually really beautiful! I pulled a map out to get us to the gallery where the statue of David is located, but unfortunately there was a huge line waiting to get in, and we had a limited amount of time in Florence before we needed to get to the train station to catch a ride to Rome, so we decided to skip it.
After that we basically took off in the general direction of a "less touristy area" which the lady at the hotel had suggested to us. I mean, it was less touristy as in I guess prices were cheaper? There were some cafes around there, but also there were rows and rows and rows of marketplace. This marketplace was basically just selling souvenirs of Florence, especially handcrafted Italian leather. I guess Florence is pretty well known for its leather, because not only were there zillions of stands dedicated to leather, but there were also large upscale shops selling leather handbags, gloves, jackets, etc. I already have a leather bag from Poland, so I decided not to indulge myself, but I did get a couple of souvenirs there.
The people who sell things both in Florence and Rome are super aggravating. I was talking to someone who said that they are mostly refugees from other countries, particularly Indian or African countries, who don't have any way to get into the country of Italy unless they purchase visas which last from 1, 2, 5, or 10 years, and you have to work your way up to making citizenship. Sometimes the process can take as long as 30 years.
So until they can become full citizens, they get whatever work they can, which basically involves them racing up to tourists and following them around like aggravating pigeons, chanting stuff like, "Selfy?? Selfy??" (selling sticks that have a bluetooth remote to make taking pictures of oneself easier), or "Very good price, you want?" "Ma'am, you want?" They remind me of those seagulls from Finding Nemo that just chant "Mine. Mine. Mine." I get really sick of them, even if the scarves they are selling are generally really pretty, so I refused to buy anything from them.
In Florence we also stopped at Santa Maria di Fiore, which is also just known as the Duomo. It has a campanile next to it (which is just a very large tower with a bell, but it is one of the most beautiful churches I think I have enjoyed. I really like how they decorated the outside more than the inside. The outside is super symmetrical and I like the colors they chose. Inside it's way less decorated and basically looks a little like a Romanesque hall church.
Here's part of the outside of the Duomo:
I haven't been able to get good enough wifi to upload most of my pictures because since we got back everyone has been on the servers doing the exact same thing, so another time I will have to come back and upload a bunch of pictures from my phone and camera and make a separate blog post.
We made it to Rome and Clare and I ended up finding our hotel without a problem. The first hotel we stayed at was super nice, but the Europeans seem to have this weird thing about having frosted glass doors for the bathrooms. I'm not sure what's up with that but it's kind of weird.
Our schedule for Rome was pretty intense. We had a lot of walking tours and visited all manner of churches, including the four patriarchal basilicas of Rome (St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul's Outside the Wall). We opened our time in Rome at St. Paul's Outside the Wall and just didn't ever seem to stop going from there.
During our free time, which wasn't much, Clare and I for the most time just went to sleep (since it was generally right after dinner). We were exhausted from being run up and down the metro lines to and from various places and walking all over. Rome has a lot of shopping opportunities as expected, so sometimes we took advantage of those.
One of the days (and when I get my schedule later I'll clarify which), we got to say the Angelus with the Pope. I was hanging out with Sudie and we couldn't find the rest of our group, so we just stuck together and got in the very front of the crowd. The Pope was standing on the balcony of one of his rooms so it was very hard to see anything but a tiny little dot that was his head. He gave us a short speech about the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall after the Angelus. There was an incredible amount of people there.
It was really awesome to get to go back to the Vatican and Rome in general. I know I had gone through the Roman Forum and through the Vatican already, but to see it again when I was older was really neat, and I took pictures, and I'll remember it better.
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| Clare + The Pantheon |
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| From the Roof of St. Peter's |
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| Inside St. Paul's Outside the Walls |
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| St. Paul's Outside the Wall |
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| Dome of St. Peter's |
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| Looking down from the dome onto St. Peter's where we had mass, right in front of the Holy Spirit window and St. Peter's chair. |
On a couple of occasions I ended up walking around on my own which I actually really enjoyed. Always during the daytime of course, so I felt really safe. With the huge amount of people there, I just wore my purse and dressed up a little better and then if I walked around looking like I knew what I was doing, a lot of people surprisingly just assumed I was Italian. I got really good at handling the metro system and at looking at a map to find out where I was.
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| I went back up to the Cupola on top of the Vatican and was so excited to see Rome. It's smaller than Vienna, but it's also much more packed full of history and art and old buildings. |
Everyone got really hyped up when the Pope appeared, and I just thought it was funny watching Catholic people basically fangirl over the Vicar of Christ. Honestly I just think it was cool to see him, but also he's just a man who was promoted to priest and then bishop and then archbishop, then cardinal, and now he's just one step up. So I'm not sure why everyone got so excited about seeing him.
After seeing him, we all sat down in our chairs and then the Pope gave a speech. This speech got repeated in at least six different languages, and so it took quite a long time. I will admit that most people fell asleep, after the general excitement of seeing the Pope and then having to sit through a bunch of talk we didn't understand.
Near the end of our time in Rome, I got really tired of walking around with tour groups. I guess after all the tours of churches and whatnot, it was just a bit much. I even told Father Matt at one point that I had ditched one of the tours and gone off on my own and he agreed that it might have been a better option.
At one point Clare and I found some quiet time to sit down at the Circus Maximus on the grass and just sit and watch the sun going down. It was really really peaceful and we talked and watched this boy with what I assume was his younger brother, playing down in the center of the grounds. They were super cute - I was startled to see a guy around our age playing so enthusiastically and with such involvement with a little kid.
While we were in Rome, we also ended up meeting with one of Clare's friends from a volleyball team she used to play with. His name was Ben. He met up with us and took us on a little private tour of our own through Rome at night, which kind of was funny because we got going on the wrong track a couple of times. Then another night he invited Clare over for dinner and I tagged along. It was kind of awkward because none of the other students who were at the dinner really seemed to care that we were there or acknowledge us with the exception of the people who were sitting directly across from us and therefore had to talk to us. However, I got to have Mexican food - they made fajitas, so that made it totally worth it.
Other things I noticed - when I was in Rome the first time, there were a ton of stray cats everywhere. Coming back, I didn't really see any stray cats at all. In fact, in one part of the city there was an actual cat sanctuary which turned out to be a bit of an old Roman ruin similar to the Roman Forum which had been walled off with plexiglass and turned into a little living spot for cats. While we were there Clare and I counted about a dozen of them just wandering around in there.
I got to climb to the top of St. Peter's Dome again, which was super fun. I hadn't meant to do it because I had already gone, but I figured I might as well go up again since some other people were going, and it was a twice-in-a-lifetime experience. I got a bunch of pictures up there but sort of was regretting my shoe choice there. The boots I had then have fur lining in them and are knee length, so they were making me super toasty on the way up. I managed to get a fairly cheap other pair of boots later in the week that are a little bit too large and are brand made for wider feet, so they are easier on me for walking around extensively.
The dinners at the Roman hotel were super good. Not quite as good as the dinners at the Agriturissimo we stayed at in Umbria last time, but they did have excellent service and they actually gave us seconds on the pasta course if they had extra.
Let me say though that I am getting super sick of bread. While we were on the Assisi part of the journey, I realized that the servers were giving gluten free options to people who had requested them. So I'm doing an experiment right now and trying to eat as little gluten as possible to see if it makes me feel less sluggish or has any noticeable effects on me. But they serve baskets and baskets of white bread and olive oil at every meal; they give it to you in between courses so that you don't get 'hungry' waiting in between.
I was actually really relieved to leave Rome and get on the bus to Assisi. After having some excellent gelato, seeing the Vatican again, and staring in wonder at St. Peter's yet again, I was ready to leave the grimy metros behind.
Assisi was absolutely beautiful. As we were driving up there the scenery was once again gorgeous. The weather was really nice at that time, and I was glad that it was getting a little chillier, because frankly Rome was way too warm and I had packed lots of warm clothes because they had told us that it would be raining most of our time in Rome and super cold.
Assisi itself is up on a hill, so the buses took us up there and we got split into a total of four hotels. Clare and I were rooming with two other girls, Ashley and Rosy, whom we got along with quite well. On our way to Assisi I discovered that I was getting sick (probably from the Roman metros). So I got my stuff set down and after that I did join the university for some of the stuff, but there was part of a day/evening where I missed a hike I really wanted to go on, because I think I might have been running a fever at the time and my head was absolutely clogged up and draining ridiculously.
I was pretty bummed about that, to be honest. There was this nice old Italian man named Francesco who has been working with Franciscan University for over twenty years, who also helps organize our pilgrimage to Rome/Assisi. He was the one who convinced the people who run St. Francis' tomb to allow our university to crowd 200 people into the tomb to say mass. He was super nice and sweet and full of interesting facts, and although he walks very slowly, he walked very slowly with me to a pharmacy and we bought some cold medicine. So that helped me the next day and I started getting better pretty rapidly after that.
A lot of the time however, I didn't join in with the university tours - I just didn't feel like going on walking tours, since I could go walking on my own and see the same things. Assisi is pretty small and it's very picturesque. I made a dog friend and a cat friend on my random wanderings and I managed to talk to several of the native Italians in their own language either asking for directions or just very very small talk in the little shops I visited.
After an exhausting trip I was honestly ready to go back to Gaming and end the semester. I'm still really ready to finish up with papers and finals and come home. Travel is great and I've seen a lot of wonderful places, but it's still not quite home.
In the evenings for the most part I went straight to bed, since our breakfasts the entire trip ranged from 5 to 7 AM. It rained for part of the time we were in Assisi.
We got to see the San Damiano cross, where St. Francis had his vision of Jesus. There were various other places that were relic sites - frankly, so many that I have lost track. There were locks of St. Clare's hair, old clothes of St. Francis, etc., etc.
I was sick so I didn't attend the mass in St. Francis' tomb, but I came down to the basilica later on my own. I was frankly glad I didn't have to try to stuff myself into the tiny space down there. It smelled seriously like body odor and was really warm. I think St. Francis would have understood, both between my running nose and my general tired-ness, and also the massive crush of people that was there.
Thanks to the cold medicine, I was feeling lots better on our final night in Assisi and I ended up going out with Leslie and Christina, a couple of friends, and meeting up with the May twins, their friend Steven (whose family I indirectly know through the Michels who I know through the Powers family), and a couple of the girls who tend to hang out with the boys a lot or just each other. Leslie and a couple of other girls have complained that the two girls are really exclusive and I kind of got that feeling, they kind of ignored me.
Anyway we headed up to a gelateria and spent some time there talking, and then after that we went back to one of the boys' rooms and I got to participate in their household's first Lord's Day in Assisi, which was cool because they're a Franciscan household. In a lot of households I can get kind of annoyed if the prayer intentions and thanksgiving parts take too long because there are a lot of people, but we only had six or seven so it wasn't that bad and it was actually really nice to participate in a little prayer thing like that where we reflected on the Gospel, etc.
Afterwards Leslie and Christina went to bed so it ended up being me and the boys who wanted to go up to the castle on top of Assisi hill. On our way down, a couple of the guys grabbed the two other girls and we all trekked up and saw the castle at night. It reminded me of when summertime when we drive up to the top of Badger or some of the mountains around it and look down at the city at night or stargaze. It was super peaceful and I really enjoyed it.
Overall I think I enjoyed Rome and Assisi but in different ways. My experience in Assisi was definitely dulled by the fact that I was sick for part of it, but I also liked the peaceful atmosphere, the small towns, and getting to talk to some of the friendly shopkeepers there. Though our hotel in Assisi wasn't nearly as high quality as the one in Rome, the ladies who were working there were really nice and accommodating and they told us that we were an excellent group to have because we were quiet and peaceful and very well-mannered. I also really liked the streets of Assisi better than those of Rome, just because they were quaint, clean, and there weren't people selling things to you. Not only that but in Assisi, you got the feel that there were people actually living there, and it wasn't all tourism. The view from the hill was also spectacular.
Rome I liked a lot because of the city atmosphere. There were so many people to watch there, and I think if I had had a home base to go from, I would have really enjoyed it a lot more, especially because I wouldn't have to go touring everywhere. People walk around in Rome like it's no big deal to just see the Roman Forum next to them or a huge basilica or a freaking cat sanctuary. There is such a huge variety of people there and languages and styles and interaction. You're basically surrounded by history and beautiful buildings, and I think if I became a Roman native I'd have a ton of fun interacting with the tourists there and giving directions.
So now that I'm back, I have a slew of work to catch up on and I really just want to come home because the idea of Christmas is fantastic. I'll miss the beautiful views of Europe, though. Almost nothing I've seen in the US is quite on the scale of the beauty of the civilizations that have developed around here. Plus, no one has the motivation or resources to build some of the architecture here, so these churches are the last we'll see of their kind unless we experience some kind of revival of religious enthusiasm and also architectural talent.
I'm kind of looking forward to coming back but I'm also worried that when I come back to main campus I won't be friends anymore with some of the same people I really want to be friends with here. I've been branching out a little more and getting to know some more people and now it really isn't unlikely to think of a lot of people saying hi to me as I walk along or randomly stopping to talk to me or whatever. It's really nice and I don't think it'll last, unless we all come back to Steubenville and collectively bemoan our unfortunate state.
I'm kind of sad that I will be coming back to main campus but at the same time I am holding onto a shred of hope that I can remain friends with some of these people. Leslie and I are thinking about working together to find a place to live together off campus for senior year, which would be awesome because Leslie is awesome.
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