Same song, different chorus

Now that my hockey rant is over and done with, it's on to Italy!

Last Friday evening, myself, Igor, and Heather got a lift with Hafid (the guy who runs Cafet Ango for my loyal readers) to Paris-Beauvais Airport. Now the airport may be called Paris-Beauvais, but don't let that fool you. It's not in Paris at all. It's in a city called Beauvais, and is a hub for a number of discount airlines that can't afford to use exclusively Charles de Gaulle or Orly. It is a tiny, peculiar airport, that reminded me strangely of an arena due to its shape, size, and structure. After going through virtually no customs, the three of us waited around for our RyanAir flight to Rome, but it was about half an hour late, so we were talking and the topic of bombs came up when I pointed out that one shouldn't use such words in an airport. I suggested saying pumpkin instead of dangerous words, so from there on, pumpkin replaced things like drugs, bombs, terrorists, suspicious, or pretty much anything else you wanted it to, and that became somewhat of a running gag for a while. So we finally boarded the plane and we were in for quite an adventure. It was raining out, and somehow, as we took off, some rain leaked into the plane, and it rained on us. There was rain on the motherf**king plane! Fortunately, that didn't last long. But then the intenses turbulence set in. It was turbulent for quite a while, but for a couple of seconds got really bad. However, despite all of this, we somehow made it to Rome Ciampino Airport safely, and grabbed a shuttle bus at about 12:30 AM to Termini train station, as our hostel was just up the street. We checked into our chill little resting spot for the night, then headed over to a nearby pizza shop for some gameplanning for the next day, before retiring for the night. Well, actually, helping Heather find the cell phone she thought she lost but really didn't, and then retiring for the night. It's ok Heather. We still love you.

Saturday morning we met up with Kelsey who had arrived in Rome a day earlier, but she unfortunately left soon after and also stole Heather from us as the two of them were staying elsewhere. But our twosome would become a threesome again, as Nick arrived shortly thereafter, and we were set to hit the sights. We started out by grabbing some genuine Italian pizza, and then it was on with the Repubblica gardens, then caught a metro to the Piazza del Popolo, which features a lovely fountain, and a small hill from the top of which you get a splendid view of the city and can also see some various former Medici rich grounds.

Since we could see it from the Piazza, we decided to next walk over to the Vatican, and entered (even though it's technically it's own country - the smallest in the world might I add - you don't have to go through any customs or anything) to get a view of the fountains, obelisk, and Basilica San Pietro (or Saint Peter's Basilica in English). Unfortunately, due to long lines, we didn't hang around to go in that day, but we did get our first taste of delicious Gelatto (Italian ice cream... sold to us by a guy who was either exceptionally high, or just really wanted to mess with us) on the way out.

Next on the list was the Castel Saint Angelo, and then a crossing of the Tevere River to end up at the Pantheon. Unfortunately again, the Pantheon was closed for evening religious services, so we couldn't go in.

But not to despair, as instead we walked up to the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, and it was quite something to see.

This was followed by a walk up the street to the grouns of the Palatino which are covered with old ruins and which lie right next to the big guy himself, the Colisseum, or Colosseo, if you prefer. We grabbed some shots of it as the sun was setting, meaning they came out to varying degrees.

After the Coliseum, it was off to meet Jenna and Alicia who were also in Rome for dinner. We opted to go to an American restaurant at the train station, where they brought us free nachos+salsa and peanuts before our meal, and then we enjoyed some chicken tenders and/or hamburgers. After dinner, us guys decided to go to a Pub Crawl we had heard about during the day. You see, while we were at THE VATICAN of all places, some guy came up to us after hearing us speak English, and introduced himself as Tak from Canada. He told us about this pub crawl he organizes nightly that meats at 9 pm at the Spanish Steps. For 20 euro, you get 1 hour of open bar, then a free shot at each subsequent bar, free cover into a club, and most importantly, a cool Pub Crawler t-shirt. So we went. And were 3 of 130 pub crawlers that evening, meaning a huge crowd. It was mostly made up of Americans, but there were a few people from all over. It was a great night, as we pretended to be French most of the evening seeing as... well... we do live in France now and all... and we had a lot of fun with it. We opted to walk home after that, and paused for about half an hour to just sit, chill, and talk outside the Coliseum, which was really something and was quite busy even at 3 am. We got to bed around 4 or 4:30, and then had to be super early the next morning because...

Sunday morning we caught an early train for Florence! Here's a little map for those of you not so great with Italian geography:

Anyway, so we arrived and made our way to our hostel, but on the way, passed by Il Duomo, which is a more than 700 year old massive Cathedral complex that is quite something to see from the outside.

We then arrived at the hostel and found our room so charming and quaint, that we decided it was picture-worthy. Its white wastles, paintings, and coloured comforters made for a pleasant place to stay, but we wouldn't stay long, as there were sights to see!

After grabbing some sandwhiches for lunch, we proceeded to the Palazzo Vecchio which is a large building with some amazing statues out front. There is a huge, prominent fountain depicting Neptune, and then marking the entrance is the most famous of the lot, Michaelangelo's David. Well not the original. The original used to be there, but a replica now stands in its place, while the original is located in a gallery.



We next went into the Palazzo and found large, astonishingly decorated rooms, from the Great Hall, to private offices. The Great Hall was particularly impressive as its walls and ceilings were covered with magnificent artwork. Another room featured a very primitive, large globe and the walls were covered with old maps of various countries of the world.

Next, we decided to actually go into Il Duomo, but that was just a quick stop, as well the outside was magnificent, its huge size made the inside look somewhat empty. And so quickly we crossed the river from there and made it up to the "Pitti Palazzo", which despite its misleading name, is not at all "petit." After paying full price to get in (in order to get student fare, you need to be a E.U. citizen and show your passport!!!!), we walked around for a good hour and a half or so, seeing just what it means to be rich. A majority of their pieces belonged to or were based on the Medici, and seeing the kinds of wealth they had with everything encrusted with jewels and diamonds and covered with gold was pretty unbelievable. There were also a couple of pieces devoted to our good old French hero Napoleon, and various other paintings and sculptures making for a nice visit.

After heading back across the Arno River, we made a short stop at our hostel before finding a nice little restaurant for dinner. Their "meals" included a meat dish, a pasta dish, and a salad or fries for only 12 euro, which is very reasonable. So I had some delicious lasagne and grilled chicken, and then we left to go see the Palazzo Vecchio by night, taking some more pictures, and picking up some gelatto on the way. We then simply took a leisurely stroll around town, and retired pretty early, as we were all kind of still tired from the night before.

Monday meant getting up early and hopping on a train once again, but this time the destination was Venice (you can refer again to the map I showed you above if you don't know where Venice is). Well, actually, our hotel was located in Mestre, which is a little further out of Venice than we were hoping for, but there is a bus directly there and it costs only 1 euro each way. Turns out our hostel in Mestre was actually a 3-star hotel, so it was definitely even more picture-worthy than the one in Florence:

And speaking of being picture-worthy, Venice wasn't bad either. The fact that the main "streets" are canals took some getting used to, and was kinda inconvenient/sometimes frustrating to get around by foot (you can't just turn anywhere you want), but it gives the city its charm. We walked around snapping photos of things we saw on the way, and it was an absolutely beautiful day, so we enjoyed being out by the Mediterranean and on the water.

Our only real planned stop of the day was the Piazza San Marco which is not only beautiful, but also really funny to see in person. You see, it's famous for drawing hundreds of pigeons that kinda sit around the square looking for food. The pigeons drew some entrepreneurs, who now sell bird seed to tourists, and it's easy to get pigeons to climb all over you for pictures by buying some (though we didn't do that).

By this point, it was getting late, we were tired, and Igor was feeling sick, so we chose to go back to Mestre kinda early. Additionally, another group of kids we were supposed to meet up with never was able to get ahold of us, so we chose to simply have dinner near our hotel. Or at least that was the plan. Unfortunately, Mestre is much like Rouen, and so finding something open at 9 PM is pretty difficult. Embarassingly enough, we settled on some Gelatto for supper. Well, at least the thing I ordered came with some bread-type stuff, making it like an ice cream sandwhich. So I guess that makes it nearly acceptable... Right?

The next morning was again an early one, as it meant a train back to Rome for the last stage of our whirlwing trip. That was a long ride, and when we got there, we checked into an orphanage-like hostel where we shared a room of 6 bunk beds with 9 other kids, had some delicious pizza for lunch, and then metro-ed it on over to the Vatican. This time around, we were able to go into Saint Peter's Basilica, and took some photos and such.

The Vatican Museum was closed, so we had to skip that, but we instead grabbed a metro and headed over to the Fonata di Trevi, which was huge and spectacular. There was a really big crowd in front of it, but we forced our way through to take some pictures and throw a couple of coins in it, which supposedly means you'll come back to Italy eventually (and that's something I'm definitely hoping for).



After the Fountain, we made it back to our hostel for a spaghetti and wine dinner that was actually included in the low price of 13 euro that we paid each to stay there. And it was actually really good, despite the fact that the three of us guys had to share out of one large bowl.

Since it was the last night of our trip, we opted to go on another pub crawl, though with the intention to end it kinda early. This other organized pub crawl met outside the Coliseum, and began with drinks facing the ruins themselves, which was pretty awesome. We then went to a couple of bars, and walked a short distance back to our hostel, where we were able to catch about 2 hours of sleep before getting up at 3:30 AM to make a 4:30 AM shuttle from the train station to the airport. We made it in time for our 7 AM flight back to Beauvais, and again had a scare, this time with the landing, when the plan bounced and kinda almost tipped over due to some strong winds. But again we escaped death (that must make about a dozen times I've done that this trip by my standards!), and caught a shuttle from Beauvais into Paris, then a metro in Paris to Gare Saint Lazare, then a train from Saint Lazare to the Rouen train station, and finally a bus from the station back up to our residence building.

And that's where we are now! Home sweet home in good ol Rouen. But Italy was absolutely incredible and I had an amazing time.

Now I have a couple more days of break to write a paper, clean up, do laundry, buy groceries, and prepare for my Marketing exam on Monday. So I shall be off for the night, and bid you adieu as a Frenchy once again.

Lots of love.

Dan