To Drinking in Chianti

While in the research stage of our Europe trip, Ethan came up with the brilliant idea of taking a wine tour in the Italian countryside.  Obviously I was all in so we booked a tour of the Chianti Region.  This meant that we needed to go back to Florence where the tour departed from. We got back on the awful regional train from Sorrento to Naples and, again, I am just thankful that experience is over.  This ride was incredibly full due to commuters, yuck.  

Anyways, we finally got back to Florence via ItaloTreno so that was awesome! Since we had already been to Florence it was nice because we felt a little bit more comfortable finding our way to the B&B. We stayed in a really cute place that was run by an American and her daughter.  We checked in, changed, and left to grab lunch before the bus was scheduled to leave.  

Once we got on the bus it was a nice relief to be surrounded by Americans (even though some of them were annoying and their Minnesota accents/behavior made us all look bad).  It was about an hour to get to the countryside and the guide taught us a lot about Florentine history on the way out.  This was really nice to hear since we didn't get to go on a tour the week before.  

Our first stop was a church in a really small town.  It was beautiful and the views of the countryside were even more beautiful.  There was also a cave behind it from when it was originally constructed so people were excited to see that. 

Ethan and I enjoying the views from the Church

Breathtaking.

More Views

Next we piled back onto the bus and headed to the Castle we were going to tour.  The Castle was really cool because it was one of the few historical castles still occupied.  We got a tour of the living quarters and learned about the families that had occupied it. The current family operates an olive oil and wine production business.

The Castle!

I loved this well

Down in the cellar learning about the wine making process

Bottles on Bottles on Bottles

After taking the grand tour and learning all about olive oil and wine (if you need some tips on how to pick wholesome extra virgin olive oil, I have tons!), it was time for the tasting!

The grounds were beautiful!

An entrance sign

Our tasting plate, it was so good!

The tasting was wonderful and the wine was some of the best we had ever had! After we were finished it was time to go to the gift shop, where we naturally bought a bottle of Chianti wine.  Before we had to get back on the bus we had time to take a few pictures and walk the grounds.  It was so incredibly beautiful!

I loved it! 

We got back on the bus and went back to Florence.  Then Ethan and I walked around some of the major markets and saw tons of leather for sale.  We didn't end up getting anything because the guys weren't very willing to negotiate on price, oh well! Our bags were already bulging at the seams by this point anyways.  Then we had a lovely seafood dinner and went back to the B&B to get some rest.

The next morning, they offered a continental breakfast but since the apartment was too small to have a dining room, they brought breakfast in bed.  Winning.  The journey back to Florence was so worth it and the Chianti tour was probably one of my favorite days on the trip! 

For now,

Lindsay

To Slowing Down in Sorrento

After my family left us in Rome, Ethan and I wasted little time before taking on our next part of the journey.  We took the metro to the train station and got on the train to Naples.  I will keep my opinions about TrenItalia short and sweet because I am sure I am not the only one that thought they were dirty, cramped, and hard to navigate.  We finally found seats in a car and settled in prepared for a very long train ride (unfortunate side effect of trying to do Europe inexpensively is taking trains with multiple stops).  After a dramatic incident or two and a lesson in getting our tickets stamped, we made it.

Erin warned us that Naples was a little bit sketchy (other than the pizza) so we decided we wanted to go straight to the next train that took us to Sorrento.  Boy what an experience that train was.  This regional beauty is called the circumvesuviana (please don't ask me how to pronounce that because my attempts are poor) and takes passengers from Naples to Sorrento.  It is regional and filled with a lot of locals and takes you through a scenic route through the graffiti filled train stations south of Naples.  It also does not have luggage racks which can be a challenge for all of the tourists taking it to Sorrento.  I guess I will just have to say that it makes TrenItalia look luxurious but still... I guess I am just thankful I survived. 

Once we got through the last tunnel on the train, the scenery completely changed into a beautiful, tropical wonderland.  I instantly knew that if Sorrento was anything like that I would be okay.  We got off the train and began our hike to the hotel (had to save those Euros). We walked on one of the most popular streets in the town and it was lined with cute shops, patisseries, and a few grocery stores.  So far so good.  The stone sidewalks did get tricky to navigate my wheeled suitcase, not to mention all of the other tourists hanging around, so after a while I was feeling tired and ready to be there.  Once we started the hill and I had a chance to check out the view of the water, a huge weight was lifted.  IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL! We finally got to the top of the hill and to our hotel to check in.  Mission accomplished. 

I wasn't kidding about its beauty!

I cannot say enough good things about the hotel.  It was located just enough off of the beaten path so that it was quiet and serene and perfect.  The hotel was owned by a really cute Italian couple who took the time to get to know us; the husband even told Ethan about all of his travels to New Orleans and his memories of Bourbon and Canal in his super precious Italian accent.  After we got settled in we walked down to town to get some things to make for dinner (they had a kitchen we could use which was great!). 

View of the water from the roof of our hotel

same spot, I loved it!

After some gelato and a nice little walk, we came back with pasta, bread, salad, and wine! What more could anyone need? We cooked dinner and chatted with a family from Georgia that was also making dinner, it was so nice to see some Americans! The breakfast area had an accompanying balcony where were ate dinner before heading back up to our room.  The room was really big and had its own balcony with a table and chairs! We bought a citronella candle so we could enjoy the sunset and some wine to wind down and relax.  It was so great!

The next day we got up and were able to enjoy a beautiful continental breakfast, the wife made everything homemade! That area is known for its lemons and she made lemon jam and this wonderful lemon cake! Feeling full and happy we set out for Pompeii, which unfortunately meant another ride on the circumvesuviana.  Luckily this time it wasn't so bad.  We got off and made the short walk to Pompeii.  Ethan absolutely LOVED it.  We had a Rick Steves tour that we were able to use to learn a lot while we toured and Ethan supplemented the book with some of the facts he learned in class.  It was incredible how a city was able to be so well preserved, well except for the bodies-- I wasn't a big fan of seeing that. My two favorites were the baths and the brothel, both were immaculately intact.

Ethan loving his life at Pompeii

This famous statue was a decoration in the house of one of the wealthy residents, it was really neat!

After a long, hot day of walking at Pompeii we got back on the train back to Sorrento.  We did some more wandering around the town, tried some Lemoncello, and bought a few souvenirs before heading back to the hotel.  Then we made dinner and spent the rest of the night on our balcony, it was lovely.

View of Sorrento as the sun begins to go down

The next morning we got up and had another delicious breakfast thanks to our hosts.  Next, we headed back to the train station so we could catch the bus to Positano, a neighboring town on the Amalfi coast. There was a huge line of tourists waiting to catch the bus too, typical, but we finally got on and were able to get seats on the right hand side of the bus SCORE!  It was definitely a "white knuckling" experience because the bus took some really sharp, narrow turns but the views made it all worth it! After 45 minutes, the bus driver stopped in the middle of a street and told us it was time to get off.  The views were spectacular because we were at the top of Positano so we spent the morning walking the streets to get down to the beach.

View from the window of the bus

View of Positano as we were making our way in on the bus 

More Positano, I could not get enough

On our way down, the views were incredible

There were a ton of shops, restaurants, and tourists! It was great! We stopped in a deli and grabbed delicious proscuitto and mozzarella sandwiches before we got to the beach.  Then we decided to purchase our tickets for the water taxi back to Sorrento and spend the rest of the day at the beach. Neither of us were beach prepared which meant that we had to buy a beach towel and sunscreen, but hey they were just useful souvenirs right? Ethan braved swimming in his shorts and said had the time of his life.  I opted out of getting too far in the water but I was able to see the views of the town from the water and I was in awe.  

After narrowly escaping bad sunburns, it was time to get on the water taxi and head back.  This sounded like a good idea in theory but something happened and our ride turned into a 2.5 hour slow cruise instead of the 45 minute water taxi we had planned on.  We are still not sure what happened there.  Luckily the seasickness that we were both feeling was easily cured by a gelato once we got back to Sorrento.  Exhausted and ready for some air conditioning, we went back to the hotel so we could make dinner and relax.  We had an early train to catch the next morning.

Sorrento was easily my favorite place on the trip. Maybe it was because it was the first time we were finally able to slow down or because it catered so much to British and American tourists? I don't know but either way it was lovely and I cannot wait to go back.  If you plan on going, I would highly recommend staying where we did.  Ethan found it in the Rick Steves book and although it was a 1 Star, it had 5 Star service. 

One more picture, so beautiful!

For now,
Lindsay

To Running Around Rome

Rome was the last stop for my parents and aunt.  We took ItaloTreno to Rome from Florence and had another great experience.  Once we got to Rome we had a little bit of a challenge figuring out that we had to take the Metro from one train station to another so we could walk to the hotel.  At first we were a bit skeptical of Rome because there were some gypsies that were trying to take the tickets from the machine my dad was using to buy our train tickets (my aunt kept swatting them away, if I was not terrified at the moment I probably would have found it hilarious) and the Metro that pulled up was packed and decorated with graffiti.  My mom and I were as uncomfortable as could be.  When we got to the next station we walked about 30 minutes to our hotel because naturally we thought it looked closer than that on the map.  

Once we got to the hotel we breathed a sigh of relief because the hotel was really nice and the neighborhood was really quiet and cute.  My aunt and my room even had a beautiful balcony! Next, Ethan and I took the Metro (it was much better this time and actually the nicest public transit system we had encountered yet on the trip) to his hostel.  His hostel was awesome! It had its own cafe and a little garden where they had wine and appetizer nights scheduled.  It was run by an American couple and the guy at the front desk gave us a map, an idea for a really cool walking tour, and a recommendation for a great place to grab pizza for lunch.  

The pizza, soo good!

We stumbled upon this church, it was beautiful!

Next, we planned to meet my family at the Palatine Hill so we could explore the Colosseum and Forum.  Ethan and I went on the walking tour to get there and saw some really awesome sights, Rome is beautiful! 

View from our walk

My family beat us there and was able to get tickets to a narrated tour of the Hill so we rushed over and got on it.  The tour guide was really knowledgeable and I am so glad we took the tour because I don't think we would have gotten nearly the same appreciation for what we were seeing.  

Ethan exploring Palatine Hill

Remains

View of Rome from Palatine Hill

Really cool arc in between Palatine Hill and the Forum

After Palatine Hill, we walked over the the Roman Forum remains.  That was incredible.  There was a tour in Rick Steves' book so we were able to learn about the Forum as we explored.  It was really awesome that we saw the place were Julius Cesar was burned; there was a memorial that was really powerful.  

Remains in the Forum

Temple of Saturn, really cool story behind this one!

Ethan loving all of the history we found in the Forum

At this point we were all exhausted from the heat and amount of walking we were doing but we couldn't leave before seeing the Colosseum! We bought audio guides so we could learn about all of the crazy things that took place inside of the stadium, I was shocked at the number of gladiators and animals lost in the first few months of its opening.  My dad loved it and relived all of the gladiator-esque movies that he loves! 

Remains of the Colosseum from the outside

View of the inside from the first floor

The middle of the Colosseum, it was crazy to see all of the structures
and stalls under the floor that they used to house the animals

After the Colosseum, my family and I left Ethan to explore Rome and went back to the hotel to nap. Ethan had booked a night history tour for us that night and we wanted to be fresh so we could enjoy it! After resting up, we took the bus to the area the tour was meeting and found a place to grab dinner.  We met Ethan who had spent the last four hours wandering and loving Rome in front of a beautiful church and joined the tour.  The tour guide was really nice and taught us a ton of really cool facts about Rome.  The tour was almost three hours and it was practically a personal tour because two other Americans were the only others with us.  She took us to different squares and told us the stories of the different persecutions that had taken place and the significance of the statues in each.  We covered a ton of ground! My favorite learning was about the Madonnas that were spread throughout Rome.  She pointed out that on most corners and squares images of the Madonna were placed to influence people to do their best because "she was always watching".  Although thousands of them have been destroyed over the years, once she pointed them out, my family seemed to spot them everywhere.  

I loved how it seemed like everywhere you went in Rome you
stumbled upon incredible architecture, like this building!

Square Campo dei Fiori we visited.   The guide told us about all of the public executions that were historically done in this square.  This statue remembers a philosopher who was executed.  The square was full of people but I found this statue a little bit eerie.

A beautiful Madonna we saw on the corner of a square

After the tour we caught the bus back to the hotel so we could rest up for our big day at the Vatican. We had reservations for a tour that began at 8:30 so we got up and left super early.  Finding the tour was a little bit tricky, we did not realize how many people were already there or the large size of the Vatican.  After a lot of questions, a few circles, and some sprinting we finally found it! Although we also found out that the Italian President was visiting the Pope that day so our tour guide was unable to take us to the Basilica (and it would not open up to the public until late that afternoon) so we would spend a lot of our time in the museum.  That was disappointing but the museums were incredible so that made it a little bit better!

Our tour was almost four hours and we spent the first 2 walking around the Museum and learning a great deal about the Popes and art there.  I am especially proud of myself because there were SO MANY PEOPLE everywhere and with frequent deep breaths I was able to get myself through the tough crowds.  The art we saw was incredible, there were rooms upon rooms of beautiful works (similar to Versailles only not nearly as gaudy).   I think I have over a hundred pictures from this tour but I'll only post a few on here... you're welcome.

View of the beautiful Vatican grounds

The ceiling of one of the halls, it looks 3-D but it is just a
painting technique, incredible!

Another ceiling, I loved all of the details

There was a room with nothing but Italian map paintings, one of my favorites.

Another incredible ceiling

School of Athens, this was incredible to see! 

After we walked through the museum, they gave us a quick break before we went to the Sistine Chapel.  I have mixed feelings on the Chapel.  First of all, it was absolutely incredible.  Seeing all of Michelangelo's works and the intricate detail in all of the paintings gave me goosebumps.  However, due to the Pope's special guest and the heightened security that brought, the Chapel was jam packed full of people.  Guests were asked to stay silent and not take pictures to preserve the art and of course people were both talking and taking pictures.  Thus, the guards were yelling at people to be quiet and I felt like that kind of ruined the experience.  Also, there were so many people that it was impossible to move, talk about my worst nightmare.  I basically went in, found a spot where I could sit for a minute and look at the ceiling, then impatiently pushed my way through the crowd to the group.  There was also one exit that all of the people had to jam through and that was incredibly stressful. Once you got through that door there was a long, narrow hallway that people were herded through and the next 10 or so rooms were incredibly crowded. It was pretty much awful. Although I am glad that I got to see the Sistine Chapel, I would like to go back when there are not quite so many people there so I can enjoy it without worrying about heading off a panic attack.  

The exit of the Vatican museum

Once we got through that, I was pretty much ready to go.  There were people everywhere and we kind of rushed through the rest of the Vatican so we could get out to see St. Peter's Square. The good thing about it being closed was that we got to take pictures of the Basilica and the Square without anyone in it! It was beautiful!  

If only I wasn't squinting this pic would be quite nice!

My panorama of the square!

After the tour was over we were once again quite tired.  We went back for a nap so we could finish seeing Rome that evening.  We started off at the Spanish Steps and were planning on taking another Rick Steves walking tour to see the rest of the sights! I must admit that I was a little bit disappointed with the Spanish Steps because there was just a bunch of people sitting on them so we couldn't really see them. 

Spanish Steps with tons of people

This fountain was in front of the Spanish Steps and was really cool!

Next we walked down to the Trevi Fountain, the sight Annie wanted to see most! There were a ton of people there but it was incredibly beautiful! 

Annie loving it!

The Trevi fountain was a part of a beautiful building!

After the fountain we walked through a lot of the squares that we saw during our night tour so we could see them during the day.  We stopped at one of the most famous gelato shops that was crazy busy but delicious! They were famous for putting a big scoop of whipped cream on top of the gelato... YUM!

I got raspberry and mango, delicious!

Next, we stumbled into Piazza Navona which housed the "Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi" or the Fountain of the Four Rivers. It was beautiful and so detailed! 

The church behind the Fountain was also beautiful!

After that we walked to the Pantheon.  I did not expect it to be nearly as cool as it was! The dome was really awesome and finding the tomb of Raphael was definitely the highlight of the experience!

Finally, we walked to Rome's City Hall because we kept passing the building and it was beautiful! We also walked around the back and were able to see another really great view of the Roman Forum.

City Hall

View of Rome from our hike to the top of City Hall

After all of that walking we decided to head home since my family had a long day of traveling ahead of them. I absolutely loved Rome! The food was incredible, the vibe was awesome, and I could not get enough of its history! We only spent a short time in the city and saw a tiny bit of its offerings but I cannot wait to go back!

The next morning my family left early for the airport.  I was a little bit sad but I was so glad that I was able to share the first two weeks of my European adventure with them.  Everything was so different and new that I don't know how I would have survived without them.  I am so grateful that they gave me the opportunity to see so much of the world.

For now,
Lindsay