Buon Giorno! We made it to Italy and survived our first week despite a near heart attack upon discovering the exorbitant prices! We stayed at a campsite 25 minutes outside of Rome because it was the only affordable option, and it was actually very nice. But it's really not the right way to do Rome because we ended up spending one long exhausting day wandering around the city to see the sites. Actually, we were only planning on seeing the Vatican that day, which was fascinating, but because of the way the meandering streets seem to lead you from one monument to the next we accidentally saw them all. All except for St. Peter's, because the line was at least 2 miles long! Rome is fascinating but exhausting: it's monumentality is unparalleled. It is filled with the most gorgeous enormous sculptures, beautiful architecture and just complete decadence everywhere you turn. But because of this it is packed to the gills with tourists and we found it impossible to be in. I guess that's why the say Rome wasn't built in a day. I think we will have to give it another chance later in life! So we headed for Florence, where we found more beautiful architecture, art, gelato, and most importantly: football tickets for this weekend! One of Jon's main priorities, so we are really excited. The unfortunate thing about the excellence of Florence's art collections is that apparently you need reservations for the museums weeks in advance. We are traveling without a guidebook at this point, so were unaware of this and consequently weren't able to see the Academy or the Uffizi Gallery. We hope to later this week, otherwise it will be a reason to come back someday! But we did see the Duomo, which was very interesting. The weather has been beyond perfect: 75 and sunny every single day!
Photos:
I. Piazza Navona, one of our favorites in Rome.
II. "I am Spartacus!"
III. Gelato: an enduring love affair
IV. Trevi Fountain with the masses
V. Duomo ceiling in Florence
VI. Florence!
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