Thursday, November 17, 2011

Europe-Part Tre

Italy

Cities Visited: Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii

Get ready for the most shocking news you'll hear. Florence was our least favorite place that we visited. It was humid, VERY crowded and we actually weren't all that impressed with the sights. I will admit we are not big art people so that may have had to do with it. But I was surprised at the lack of information at the Uffizi. The Ponte Vecchio was cool looking and we had some very yummy gelato. But overall, I don’t think we'll ever go back.







Rome, on the other hand, was our overall favorite city. That probably has to do with the fact that we timed everything just right that we saw practically everything we wanted to and didn’t hit ANY lines! The sights included: the coliseum, forum, Victor Emmanuel Monument, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Pizza, Campo di Fiori, walking along the Tiber, Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. We loved everything!










Naples was dirty. The cab drivers right outside the cruise terminal were rude and someone tried to pick pock Sean. Needless to say, we did not enjoy Naples. But I did have some really good pizza for only one and half euro. We spent our day at Pompeii which was life-fulfilling, literally.

In the 6th grade I learned about Pompeii and how archaeologists were able to excavate and find out how people from the 1st century AD lived. I found it fascinating that someone could look at old stuff and be able to reconstruct the past. In the 6th grade I decided I was going to study Archaeology in school. And I did. So going to Pompeii, going to the place where it piqued my interest just seemed like coming full circle.

The train that took you out to Pompeii was a little ghetto. There was trash and graffiti in the cars. Definitely the worst looking public transportation that we took during our entire trip. Even some of the stops were so heavily tagged that you couldn’t even read the sign to know what stop it was. However, Pompeii was so much fun. It really was what I expected. You could just walk anywhere and tour almost anything. Thankfully I had my friend Rick Steves on my iPod so I listened to one of his podcasts that tours Pompeii. I really loved seeing the little bars on every other corner. Rick Steve’s calls them the ancient Fast Food joints.









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