Rome II

1/31/15

Day 15 

This whole weekend was supposed to rain but today as we headed out at 7:20, it just seemed a little cloudy and sprinkled every now and then throughout the day, but it also had its sunny moments. We first stopped to snag our free breakfast of a pastry and espresso (it came with our hostel) and then headed off to make our appointments at the Vatican, which we'd so proactively booked online the night before. Apparently it's a really long walk so everyone just takes the bus but we're too dumb for that and didn't want to risk getting lost and missing it, so we took the scenic route. When we got to the entrance for the Vatican museums, our 4€ booking fee (1€ per person in our group of 4) skipped the entire line! Also FYI, you don't need your passport to enter Vatican City. Our hostel manager had told us about where to go and how to do it quickly and cheaply and this was one of his secret tricks.

We enjoyed as much of the museums as we had time for, and especially made time to see the Sistine Chapel. It was kind of surreal and I haven't really processed it yet. We saw one pair of older ladies that were struggling to walk down the stairs to go in and I couldn't help but wonder if they'd waited their whole lives for this moment. When people talk about things that matter, like in Good Will Hunting, it usually goes something like this: "Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there." And even though, in the moment, I could feel the significance of standing there in person and being able to touch the walls and notice the paint chips in various Caravaggio's, I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully appreciate the experience. 

Unfortunately, we finished up and then tried to continue through to St. Peter's Basilica but you could only get through with a tour. Otherwise, we'd have to wait in the line that had already snaked around to the other side of the pillars.

We hadn't seen anything else yet and my friends decided they didn't care, plus we were all dying of hunger. 

We wandered along the path our hostel owner had laid out for us, and first stopped by Castel Sant'Angelo, then wandered toward Piazza Navona.

It really sucks because the Trevi is apparently undergoing renovation and that alone was the reason I really felt the need to come back to Italy. Similarly, the Baptistery near the Duomo in Florence is also under renovation. But, I was surprised by how cool the Navona fountain was when I've never heard of it before.

The next stopping point on our journey was the Pantheon and although we caught it on a cloudy day so the light didn't stream in, it was still an awe-inspiring moment. My friend looked it up and found that it's the biggest concrete dome in the world. You feel tiny and useless standing inside it but the milling crowds of other tourists trying to check this off on their list remind you of the din of humanity and that you should watch out for pickpockets.

And then we, like all the other tourists, went on our merry way to the next attraction- which just so happened to be the Piazza del Populo. (I think at some point we drastically veered off the suggested path so this is probably a stupid order to explore the city in)

In the Piazza del Populo, a guy in a superman costume and some of his friends were blowing huge bubbles. It was a wide open circle framed by a few interesting buildings and a monument in the center.

I probably should have googled more to figure out why the thing with hieroglyphics was important but I was busy trying to accurately capture it with pictures to remember it by. I want to savor the moment later when I can adequately research it and understand what everything is. In the heat of the moment, I was with a bunch of ADD college kids who wanted to keep moving and who knows when I'll be back to take these pictures again. Priorities. 

Anyway, we then climbed up the stairs from the piazza and ended up on a balcony overlooking the city.

(Ti amo means I love you) 

It was nice because I was still a little salty over missing St. Peter's Basilica. It was a beautiful moment: the sun was out and I was just meeting a lot of the people in our group for the first time and I ended up really liking them.

We walked along the edge of the cliff and tried to find the Spanish steps. We did but only made it to the top of them before we got distracted on our hunt for the Museum and Crypt of Capuchins which we'd heard was supposed to be cool and not overrun with tourists. You can't take pictures but that makes sense because a picture couldn't capture the atmosphere. The only way to experience it is here in Rome in person. When we got underground, we were silent except for the occasional nervous whisper. The temperature dropped noticeably. It also had the smell of a basement and dust and history. The capuchins arranged the bones of their dead in strange, beautiful, intricate patterns. They are both meaningless (like the flowers on the ceiling) and cryptically significant (like the shoulder blades arranged to look like wings to show that time doesn't just pass, it flies). Each room has a plaque to explain its display and one of the quotes stood out: "What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be..." As we emerged, we couldn't help but discuss the experience and be slightly disturbed by the thought of someone taking the time to pick apart bodies to decorate with. But most of all, that quote lingered in my mind and haunted me for the rest of the day. The internet labeled it the "spookiest place in Rome" and I would have to agree. I bought postcards since I couldn't take pictures- here's what a few of the rooms looked like

We then walked back to the Spanish steps to see them from the right angle- which was kind of underwhelming honestly. As far as I could tell, there were just way too many tourists in one tiny area, attracting the selfie stick and umbrella sellers for really no reason at all. 

It had been a long day of walking by the time we left the steps. I think we'd walked 15 miles and had been up since 7am and everyone had started complaining. It was time for a break. We stopped in Zara on the way to my friends' hotel though. I'd heard good things, but I'd never gone instead. Again, I don't really get it. Everything seemed too professional or something, but it's entirely possible that I was just too tired to care. As soon as we got inside the hotel, we all crashed from our adventures. 

It's annoying when you're traveling because food is expensive but you always seem to be hungry! We found the nearest place that looked good and pounced on our prey. Obviously, we didn't stop there though. Next, we went to investigate the nightlife in another part of the city. And even though I think I prefer Florence to Rome, it definitely has Florence beat in terms of what to do at night. In other areas though, I was less than impressed with Rome. Maybe this was because I'd built it up so much in my imagination from growing up with stories about it. But I definitely expected more history and less New York City. Most of the streets and sidewalks in Florence are barely one lane and made of cobblestone. I guess Rome had its fair share of cobblestones but the main roads and sidewalks are paved. They have multiple lanes and basically look like mini highways through the city center. This is understandable because Rome is a huge city and can't stay stuck in the past forever but it seems weird to have the juxtaposition of ancient and modern back to back like they've set it up. I expect to feel like I'm abroad when I'm abroad and what I love about Florence is how it has maintained its medieval charm, despite pressure to modernize, whereas I think Rome has reinvented itself as a 21st century city. 

As we wandered towards the bar, we saw the streets in Rome that were cute during the day come alive with bars and pleasantly drunk Italians at night. Even the architecture seemed more traditionally Rome-y on these back streets, lined with bars and restaurants and people chattering in Italian and generally enjoying themselves. This is what I had envisioned in Rome and the tourist trap during the day looked nothing like it. Most importantly, we ended the night with chocolate shots! Apparently this is a shot glass made of chocolate, filled with alcohol (we chose rum), and topped with whipped cream. I definitely ate mine wrong so it was disgusting while I ate it but it was amazing how the chocolate completely erased the aftertaste. 

It was a day well spent. Probably one of the best of my life, since I accomplished everything I set out to do (I'm usually way too ambitious)- and a lot of it was life goals, like seeing the Sistine Chapel and the Pantheon. The only negative was the sad realization that, despite all the value I place in them, sometimes pictures fail. A picture couldn't capture the details of the Sistine chapel (I tried- illegally).

It also couldn't fully explain the length of the gold hall right before it or the height of the dome of the Pantheon or give the feeling of standing on top of the world and looking down at the city and the tiny moving people. For some things, when space and smell and atmosphere matter, a picture is not enough. That's what validates travel in the 21st century. You could look up images of the Capuchin crypt and Sistine Chapel and you might see what it looks like but you won't know what it feels like to be there. You can't feel the space by looking at a 2 dimensional picture, even a panorama. 

Rome I

1/30/15

Day 14

In my class that was rescheduled for this morning, we took a field trip to a grocery store. Yes. You heard that right. It sounds dumb but it ended up being really useful because now we can go there and buy things (like $1 wine and solid deodorant!) that are hard to find and more expensive in the center city Conads. There were even clothing shops- in the grocery store! This seemed much more similar to your typical American shopping experience and it was nice to have a lot of options again. 

My friend and I left early so we could get make our busses/planes/trains. It was really inefficient. My apartment/school are at one end of town and the train station is at the exact opposite end. We left school to catch the tram at the train station. Then, we had to go back home to finish packing and grab our bags. Then, we had to go back to the train station to leave. I had the second half of my Hawaiian pizza from last night (still not sure if it's rude to ask to box food and take it home??) for breakfast/lunch, and ran out the door. I successfully bought and validated my ticket to Roma Termini and thankfully, the second train adventure was much less confusing than the first. I might actually have figured it out! But I don't completely trust myself yet... 

Our train ride was almost 4 hours long but somehow it was still fun. I think it snowed for the first time in 4 years.

The only stressful part was going through a bunch of tunnels and our ears would pop. Once, we passed another train in the tunnel and the windows shook and there was a loud, high pitched noise, and we all reacted to the pain in our eardrums. And it was weird that if you go to the bathroom, it goes straight into the tracks... Obviously I had to attempt this, just for the bucket list!

But finally, we arrived! We found our hostel and walked in, starving but excited to be there. The first words out of the manager's mouth were, "Passports, please" and all of us looked at each other in a panic. Nowhere had anything mentioned passports. My friend who booked the hostel had called ahead and asked and was told that no, we would not need our passports to stay there. WRONG. I have no idea why we're not either back in Florence or sleeping on the floor of one of our friends of a friend, but somehow I'm writing this from a very warm, very cozy bed in Rome. The towel warmer even works! (Unlike my apartment in Florence) This cool map is hanging in a common area- I'm just a little confused as to why Pittsburgh got a shoutout but Florence got snubbed... When I say I go to school in Pittsburgh people look confused but when I say I'm studying abroad in Florence, I'm pretty sure the whole world knows what I'm saying. 

In our search for food, we couldn't resist sight seeing a little. I'm not 100% on what some of this stuff actually is but it's really frickin cool! 

Church that feels like I stepped onto the set of the Da Vinci Code

Foro di Nerva: surprisingly this wasn't the coolest part, but it did photograph the best. The rest of it looked like it belonged to a video game- it was that cool. 

This needs no caption. 

Pre-Travel

1/29/15

Day 13

I slept in and made it to my only class of the day (my 9am was pushed back to Friday) at 1:30. It was a good day. 

Florence does not have spearmint tea. I've tried a bunch of different places and finally gave up. I settled for a green tea/peppermint blend.

It's ok but my $6 Walmart spearmint was better. It's hard to find specific things because the distribution among stores is different. Like my facewash hunt was impossible and I don't know where to look for non roll-on deodorant or normal folders. Yelp is not that helpful when looking for spearmint tea or a tea strainer specifically and Google usually just returns Amazon results or something. 

Since it was my roommates birthday, we went out for dinner. We got wine and, for the second time now, I got Hawaiian and I have to say I actually think Domino's does it better. That may be a travesty.

Before we left, we mentioned that it was her birthday and they gave us free shots. Then we went to her favorite bar, Bamboo, where we got more free shots and ordered drinks. It ended a lot better than you might imagine: right after she officially turned 21, we soberly walked ourselves back to the home base. I sat down on my bed because I was tired and immediately fell asleep, coat on and all (except I did bother to take my Docs off)... we all had important things planned. I had class and then was leaving for Rome, and they were jetting off to Paris and Brussels. I don't think I ever introduced my roommates- or my apartment or my school or anything. Oh well I'll start here! I've known Alex since elementary school even though we kind of lost touch in high school and college. She and I share a room, while Katie and Julianna are down the hall. It was Katie's birthday and she's going to celebrate in Paris. Alex is going to Brussels with our group of travel buddies and I would've too but I realized I didn't care enough and wanted to go to Rome instead!

Sono stanca

1/28/15

Day 12

Today I had a class that "ends at 6:20" but I got home at like 7:10... And I live 3 minutes from school. 

Long story short, my history class took a field trip to San Miniato, which is the church on the hill right next to Piazzale Michelangiolo. We took the #13 bus up and it was great. But as my professor finished the tour, she told us she was walking down and we could come if we wanted or take the bus back down. Um what kind of question is that? It's cold and dark and I'm hungry. Meanwhile, it was 6:35 so we were already 15 minutes late getting out of class. Normally, if a class ends at 6:20, I'm home by 6:23. Today it turned out that the #12 wasn't coming for a long time so we started walking. We headed towards the Duomo since that was the only source of direction we had. I didn't get home until about 7:10- almost an hour after I should have. Unhappy. But this view made it a little bit better! 

When I finally was back in my freezing apartment, I heard something echoing up from the courtyard. That's not unusual because our apartment is made entirely of tile and masonry and has nothing to muffle the sound. But today, someone was learning to play the trumpet. Painful doesn't do it justice. As the sound bounced up to my open window, it's volume increased. A piano joined in. Someone was singing in the stairwell. A tv was on full blast in our neighbors and of course we could hear every word. But here's the thing: when we were preparing to come here, we got warned over and over that the wifi wasn't going to work as well, that the walls in old Italian buildings were too thick for the signal. (Even though this didn't end up being the case) I don't know how the "thick walls" can successfully block wifi yet conveniently the "thin walls" let all the sound through...

I also realized today that the reason I'm so cold here, (besides only having heat for 8 hours a day in the apartment) even though it's nowhere near as cold as Pittsburgh, is because I just wear sweatpants and layers of ugly wool sweaters at home. Apparently sweatpants are really really warm. Now when I get out of bed and try to look like a human, I know that I'm signing on for a day of being cold- even with my down coat zipped all the way up. I miss not caring if I make new friends because I already have enough that still talk to me even if I'm wearing a sweat groutfit. 

A lot of people talk about Pino's and I thought maybe it just got too much hype. But no! I can personally confirm that the deliciousness of Pino's is not just an urban legend- it really is as good as people say. The bad news is that after such a good lunch, I didn't feel like reverting to my usual chicken nuggets or tortellini for dinner (I have been surviving on those since they are the only two things I like and know how to make) so I ate a lot of Nutella. I'm almost to that bottom of the massive jar I just bought. Once it's gone, I am going to have to battle myself not to buy another. I've decided I need to commit more to homework and less to Nutella. Sorry but I'm breaking up with you because you make me break out :( 

This makes me sound like a brat to admit, but if we're being honest here, I came less for the study and more for the abroad. You could say I was disappointed when, because of a weird schedule this year, all my professors assigned the missing day of class to a random weekend. On top of that, there are certain activities with our program that they made mandatory and would count as unexcused absences if we didn't go. But we got a little bit of good news today that they aren't requiring the extra programs anymore which means I now have a few more weekends of travel!!!

Museums: The David!

1/27/15

Day 11

Last night ended really late bc we were worried about my really drunk roommate being out so we tried to go looking for her at 2am. That meant that this morning I woke up at 8:54 for my 9am. The 9am part is actually my first problem but I'm usually capable of at least getting myself into the classroom to get my attendance points and then just sleeping there. I somehow managed to get to class by 9:03, but not before the lock got temporarily stuck and locked me in again! 

A little while ago, I was nervous about my 100€ bill so I hid it. Then I thought I might need it so I stuck it in my wallet; took it out when I got home; put it on the desk; rehid it; thought maybe it wasn't safe enough so I moved it. After a while, I knew I'd seen it recently but forgot exactly where it was. By the time I was seriously concerned I'd lost it, I'd hid it too well to find it. Well I found it today! I'd tell you where it was but it was such a good spot I might reuse it...

My friend and I decided to go see the David in between classes. I've been here over a week and have a free pass to the Galleria dell'Accademia and haven't been yet! It was different than I'd imagined, but somehow still so unbelievable. It felt almost cinematic, walking towards this iconic statue, vaguely aware of tourists taking selfies between me and him. I paused and then the moment was over.

We moved on to the next room. I have to be honest, I guess the whole David thing was exciting because how many times have I seen pictures of him and now there he was, just feet away from me. But what came as more of a surprise was the next room. I had no idea that there was another cool thing to see there until I started up the ramp and saw bust after bust lined up on shelves on the walls.

I'm not sure why, maybe because of this picture that's currently my lock screen, but I recently developed a pretty serious love for sculpture, and especially busts.

This room was heaven. I think I took 5x as long here than in front of the David. I could not stop taking pictures of the endless art. 

Eventually, we made it out of the sculpture room. After that, the rumors were true: there was nothing else too exciting to see, so we left. 

I started planning this weekend in Rome with my other friend and I think we were successful in keeping the cost as low as possible= excitement! Supposedly, the Trevi Fountain is under construction through the summer though so I sadly will not be seeing it this trip. I've been told there are a lot of other places to visit in Rome and plan on seeing things like the Colosseum instead. And now I'll be able to justify coming back!

Before I decided to follow through with our Rome plans, I found another tiny little town with a population of 4-8 people. It's just about impossible to get to, but that has benefits in terms of how many other tourists I'll have to battle to walk down the street. And the pictures will make the 4 hour multiple layover bus ride worth it. Hopefully I'll be able to fit that into the schedule somewhere... (There's too much that I want to see and not enough time!)

I'd read somewhere that there was a meeting on Tuesday nights for a language exchange and of course that caught my interest. My friend and I walked to the bar where it was held and awkwardly made our way straight to the alcohol because we didn't know how anything worked. Luckily, the organizer sensed our confusion and came over to explain it to us. We sat down at the nearest table and quickly started talking with a goofy group of foreigners, including one from Belgium, one from Germany, and another American. FYI: There are more Americans in this town than there are Starbucks in New York City. Before we even knew their names, I stabbed my fork into a piece of pasta and accidentally flipped the whole plate into their laps. I'm not really sure what they thought about me after that but by the time we left, we were Facebook friends. Because our shared language was English, we exchanged more culture than language, but I'll take that as a win. 

The Good and the Bad

1/26/15

Day 10

The travel is starting. This weekend, no one will be in our apartment and we've been booking all our adventures for the rest of the semester. I think this weekend I'll be in Rome, next weekend in Venice, and then after a week of finals, in Spain and Morocco for Spring break! 

I have unfortunately discovered what I would consider to be my greatest weakness: I am really, really bad at real life. Like I tried to make tortellini for dinner and had to consult my roommate on whether to put the pasta in before or after the water starts to boil. (I did successfully end up putting this into my stomach though)

But more importantly, I am entirely incapable of doing anything remotely related to planning, scheduling, and booking travel arrangements. It just drains me of all my energy and I get really tired and grumpy. I don't understand how people can travel Europe alone! 

In other news, I tried to go the Galleria dell'Accademia today and turns out it's closed on Mondays which (not surprisingly) also happens to be my day I have time to go. But it was ok because we went to the library instead (the Biblioteca delle Oblate) and it was a million times more fun than it sounds. Apparently it used to be a convent and so the layout and architecture are aesthetically pleasing. But the real reason (besides studying of course) to visit the Biblioteca delle Oblate is for the view.

From the second floor, you can access an open outdoor area where many Italians were working, despite the cold weather, against the backdrop of the Duomo. Needless to say, it was kind of impressive, from a tourist's point of view. 

I also went grocery shopping (I have to go a lot more here because there aren't preservatives in the food and it goes bad faster) and was super psyched to find that chicken nuggets were 50% off. Well, I'm American. So I bought 3 packs of them. :) 

And then ended with my roommate drinking an entire bottle of wine (because she promised she'd be back to refill her bottle tomorrow) and then performing NSYNC for us. 

I did absolutely nothing today. It was fun.

1/25/15

Day 9

Today was my first down day and it was a long time coming. It felt great to sleep in. I miss the feeling of waking up and having nothing to do, even if the "things to do" are really exciting, once in a lifetime events. I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and then promptly returned. I just sat in my warm bed and relaxed at the thought of staying there all day. I finally got up when I was hungry (I had some chicken nuggets I was happy to have found at the 'Nad) and located my roommates in the kitchen, also busy doing nothing. Living here was starting to feel normal and not like some kind of extended vacation. I showered and washed my face with my recent purchase of facewash. My roommate from last semester wanted to work on our Italian homework so we met up on the Ponte Santa Trinita (Saint Trinity Bridge). The walk there was peaceful and perfectly timed because the sun was setting.

We went to a small cafe or something and they specialized in wine and I kind of wanted it (for once) so I figured why not. It was really good. And then we did homework. 

I have no idea why after that we went to his apartment but we did and I have no idea why we then left again to get pizza but we did. His roommate came. Although I wasn't hungry yet, I saw a sign for tiramisu on the menu while they were eating. I got it. Then I went home and had chicken nuggets and Nutella on cookies. My eating habits need an intervention. 

Reality

1/24/15

Day 8

After a fun but exhausting day in Bologna, we had a program event early Saturday morning. We were hiking in Fiesole in Montececeri park and had to be there by 10am. That's misleading though because getting there meant first waking up, getting ready, eating, walking to the bus stop, and taking a bus for like half an hour. So I actually had to wake up closer to 8. I don't do 8. Unfortunately all my classes are at 9am too so after making it an entire semester without ever seeing 8:00am on a clock, I'm now getting used to it. By "used to it" what I actually mean is I still go to bed at the normal 2 or 3am and just lose a lot of sleep. After a week of maintaining that schedule and learning a new town/language/schedule, I was pretty tired. The hike was a lot harder than I was counting on. But I might have been biased because I've also been sleeping on a cot and my muscles kind of ache. Anyway, the view was nice at the top so I got to take pictures! 

I ate lunch before I went because I knew I'd be hungry after hiking and didn't want to pay for 15€ pizza. Well- I was hungry anyway. Everyone was eating around me and the hike used up all my energy. Turns out a personal pizza, if I got the cheapest one, was only 5€- so I got it. I honestly didn't want it but this place was supposed to be really good. It was decent. Then, the bill came. 

When people say "the tip is included" what they actually mean is "the optional money that you pay is already included; the fee that you have to pay to sit down and get served is not." In this case, the I want to sit down fee was 2€. Let me put this in perspective: the pizza was 5€. The "tip" (even though no one calls it that) was 2€. That's a 40% "tip". Also I didn't want pizza but the hike was a lot longer and my willpower a lot weaker than I expected. Ok. I can handle that situation. But here, separate checks don't exist. When you eat at a table of people, even in this case when you don't know them (they were on our program but we'd never met them before), you still just get one bill. Which means hopefully you have lots of small bills. Good thing we all only had 50's and 20's. We asked them to break our big bills and they were completely out of change. When everyone finally figured out how to pay their part of the bill (and most of us overpaid by a few cents), we still came up 2€ short. Rather than stand in the entrance arguing about why the bill was so high, I threw in the extra 2 and left. I came in expecting to not pay anything, then I was anticipating 5€, and then somehow left 9€ short. Ugh. I swore to myself I won't be eating out again. 

I got back on the bus home in a bad mood. We saw a nun. It was weird because I don't think I've ever seen a nun in real life and definitely not on a city bus. I took a picture. 

We stopped by my friends house and found the rest of our friends/roommates booking spring break, so we sat down and didn't end up leaving until night time. I learned that booking travel arrangements is my idea of hell. Especially because I booked last and got more expensive tickets and then the site wouldn't even accept my debit card. My mood was even worse than leaving Fiesole. At least I will definitely be going to Venice, Spain, and Morocco!!!

We were out of food so we stopped by the 'Nad (My roommate is trying to make that happen- the local supermarket is actually called Conad) and good news: I decided to man up and just buy the only thing that resembled face wash in all of Italy, even though it was over 6€. I tried it out and- worth it. I also decided to give up on eating less sugar while I'm here (I lasted a whole week on my quest- yay) and bought the biggest jar of Nutella they had. This is my roommates fault for eating Nutella and cookies every night and making it look so good. To make myself feel better about the sugar coma I was about to enjoy, I also had some tortellini before making a huge dent in  my .90€ bag of "Frollini" (shortbread). 

Bologna

1/23/15 

Day 7

We woke up after a roommate fiasco and went to a mandatory meeting for our program which turned out to be really cool. Studying abroad is a lot like freshman year (everyone wants to make friends and no one knows where anything is yet) and this was no exception. The meeting was about how to get involved and I wanted to do everything. I really want to sit in on a class at the local university. I think it would be really cool to experience the format of a university class here. Also, there is a program where we can help teach English in a school and again, it would be fun to see what school is like here and observe the culture. I'd probably even learn a lot from listening to the kids speak Italian. Plus I love languages and education. The downside is that it's a once a week commitment and right now I have no class on Fridays so I can travel... If I got placed in a Friday class I'd cry. 

At the end of the meeting, I tried this weirdly delicious chocolate bar with crackers on it out of the vending machine.

I will definitely be getting fatter now that I have discovered its existence. After this, my friend asked me if I wanted to go to Bologna. Within like 2 hours, we were at the train station. 

Today we were actually traveling for the first time this semester! Luckily, our Italian friend came and helped us navigate the complexities of transportation in a foreign language. I learned a lot about trains but I probably couldn't handle the transfer on my own yet. 

When we got there, we were starving. Since Bologna is apparently the birthplace of ragu or something I don't normally eat, we obviously had to get it. And I actually liked it- so I guess that's saying something!

After that, we just wandered around the city and found ourselves in a couple different churches that were ridiculous. I could try to explain but I don't think I can. Instead: 

It sucks that I took all these pictures of amazing places and don't remember their names. Even worse, I turned on airplane mode to conserve my phone battery and I didn't know this, but that disables location services when you take a picture. I can't even look up where I took them. It might be just me, but it's so exciting to look at a map of photos you've taken and the places you've been to to take them. Thank god for Instagram at least because I've been trying to upload one picture from every different location. I can't wait for May, after our world travels, when hopefully my map of Europe is full of pins!

In our wanderings, we caught sight of a gelato shop and gravitated towards the sugar. We learned that all the places that pile up the brightly colored heaps intentionally to attract tourists aren't selling the best gelato. Instead of being enticed by the endless gelato rainbows, you walk away and look for "real" gelato. We tested out this advice and I can personally confirm. The place we went wasn't nearly as showy as the places near the tourism centers of Florence but it was the best gelato I've had yet by far. 

We wandered a little bit more and saw these two huge towers which you can climb if you don't get there 1 minute after the last appointment :( because of this, I might go back to Bologna- just to take pictures from the top of the tower... 

It was different and exciting to see a town that didn't specialize in tourism, but because of this, we didn't really have anything else to do (except get drinks) until our train left at 8:40.

I realized we're really lucky to be in Florence which always has something to do. There's so much to explore in this city- I've been here over a week and still haven't accomplished even a fraction of the things on my to do list. I haven't climbed the duomo, I haven't been to any museums (to see the David), I haven't seen the palaces or gone to the markets. Anyway, in Bologna, my friends wanted to go out for wine and even though i didn't completely train myself to acquire the taste over break- although I tried, I went along with it. The 5€ wine bought us a relaxing environment to hang out in and talk while we stayed warm so it was worth it. We left a little bit before our train so we wouldn't miss it and then relaxed on the way home. It's rare that I get a chance to sit and do nothing so the break was much appreciated.