When in Rome...

Josh here. Ahhh...Rome. Today is the fourth of July and our last day in Rome. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and had booked a fairly cheap room for two nights in fabulous Roma. Our only stipulation was that it have air conditioning. After sweltering humidity in Venice and our lovely experience with an air-conditioned room in Florence, we decided on it almost immediately. We had a little trouble on our train out of Florence...we arrived in the station and hopped on the first train for Rome. We didn't notice however that we were hopping on a "slow" train. They have these trains that are highspeed, which cost extra, but will make the trip in 1 1/2 hours, or regular trains that make several stops and arrive in 2 1/2 hours or slow trains which make nearly every stop, stop in random spots to let other trains pass by, and in our case that break down in random spots and make the trip in over 4 hours. We also just so happened to be in a hurry, for the room we booked had to be claimed by 4 pm or they would give it away first come, first serve. Upon arriving (already late) in Rome, we also had to book our train out of Rome, as it was an overnight train and required reservations. The line was long and hot and slow and the employees were incredibly rude. When I finally made our reservation, the lady gave me the wrong ticket and shoo-ed me away quickly. I had to stand in line for another 30 minutes before I could ask her to correct it.

Hugely frustrated, Val and I took a second to recoop and we agreed to have a better day from that point forward. Up until this point, everywhere we have gone, despite uncooperative weather and every other trying situation, Val and I have walked everywhere, never resorting to taking expensive cabs. On this occassion, however, we caved in and took a cab to our hotel. Once there, we cranked up the A.C. had a little rest and hit the city. If one were so inclined to see the sights of Rome, one could spend a lifetime doing so. There is so much to see. The museums are breath-taking, there is a building on every corner, seemingly thousands of years old, and the residents of Rome zoom past them every minute of everyday in a hurry, never stopping to "smell the roses" or "...smell the thousand year old artifacts" in this case. Nonetheless, Val and I took that first night and walked down through the ancient sight of the Roman Forum, which comes to a head at the most famous sight in Rome; the Colosseum. It was late in the evening, so we didn't take the tours, but we talked with some other travellers and vowed to educate ourselves a little bit about the sights we'd just seen before leaving Rome. It was all very amazing, and while we were walking that night, we decided to take a detour on our way home and see the Pantheon. The Pantheon was amazing too, and we sat and had some pasta for dinner right in front of it. It is the best kept building from the time period and it's dome was considered the greatest feat in architecture from The Roman times.

Not all of our motives for visiting the Pantheon that night were from a love for historical architecture...the guidebook we have been using, pointed us to the way of the gelatto shop with the most flavors in the world. We had to do it. Val and I had some pretty crazy flavors, and I think I may have discovered the best flavor I've ever tasted. It's a very icy, refreshing pineapple strawberry, and I would swim in it if I could. I'm serious, I could eat that for every meal for the rest of my life and never grow tired of it...okay, maybe not, but while we were here, I had to come back for more. We made it back to our room, excited to feel the cool sting from the wave of air-conditioning when we opened our door.

The next morning, we awoke to the sounds of the caws of seagulls outside our window. We got ready early and made our way to see the world's smallest country and home of 'Il Papa' (The Pope), VATICAN CITY. Now, I'd like to let you in on something, before I explain my excitement for our Vatican visit. Since I've played soccer, we've always played a game at practice called "World Cup" where teams of two fight to eliminate each other for the last spot and the title of World Cup Champion all while screaming the name of their country. When you play, you pick a country and you are 'that country's national team' in the competition. Josh Illig and I always used to be Vatican City, as it is the smallest country in the world. I have told people that if they would let me, I would move to Vatican City myself and take a team of bishops and priests to the world's most watched sporting event, the World Cup and so it's for that reason that I feel uniquely tied to Vatican city. Anyway, we got there early and after seeing the Forum and the Colosseum the night before without knowing anything about them, we decided to rent these little headset things that educated you about what you were seeing as you walked along. Very informative. Very cool. We took an informative tour of St. Peter's Basilica, and it was so elaborate. Lots of sacred relics and such line the expanse of the overly ornate church. The way its set up is like several corners that look like churches in and of themselves set up in an even bigger more elaborate church. It really is awesome. You just stand there and look for hours and you're still just as amazed when you leave as when you first walked in the door. Val and I next proceeded to hunt for the entrance to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. It's kind of humorous; when you approach the Vatican, there is a huge plaza designed by some amazing artist, with giant sculptures and it welcomes you right into St. Peter's. However, what most people come for, and what is much harder to find is through a much smaller entrance around the back somewhere. We found our way in and spent several hours browsing Egyptian museums, Etruscan Museums, museums housing tons of Raphael's work, a room of ancient maps, tapestries and all kinds of incredible works of art; all before arriving in the Sistine Chapel. It was incredible: not how I had imagined it, but incredible. It made you take a step back from the brilliant artistic side of it to realize that what Michaelangelo and the other artists had accomplished was astoundingly difficult and too spectacular to capture in words. How the heck do you paint that sort of perfect perspective and that sort of brilliant work of art when you're that high in the air? I can't understand painting it and understanding what it will look like from way below. That is beyond me. Anyway, it was incredible. It was cool to think about God in the mix of it. The story he wanted to tell through it and everything. What an experience. After the Vatican, we found a gellato stand that was supposed to be the best in the city. It was good, but questionably the best in the city. We then retired from the intense heat to our freezing room, took a nap and woke up to go and explore for our last evening in Roma.

That evening for dinner, we stopped at a grocery store and grabbed some rolls of bread, a bit of cheese and some fresh fruit and planned to picnic by some old Roman ruins. I also grabbed a "mystery drink" while we were at the store. It's a sort of custom of mine to grab random things to eat or drink that I've never seen before or that I can't read or even guess what it may be made out of or made to taste like. Usually, it leads to a pleasant surprise and a "cultural experience", but this drink was not having any of that. It tasted like eating something rotten and on fire. Uggghhhh...I can't explain how disturbing the nature of the aftertaste was. Gross. Oh well, better luck next time. We ate our picnic by the Roman Forum and read a little bit about the history behind the sight and some of its ruined buildings before heading north to see the Spanish steps. It was just like I had imagined: a long set of stairs built to honor someone at some time...1700's maybe...I can't remember. It was a long day. We made sure to stop by that one gelatto place on our way back to our room, as we knew it would be our last evening in Roma. One of my favorite moments happened that night. I had been looking for a Vatican country patch (these patches are everywhere: many people collect them from every country they visit) but I couldn't find one anywhere. That night, though, while walking down a back street, I had almost given up hope when Val spied one. We walked around a small souvenier shop for 15 minutes and as we were stepping out the door, she saw it. I was overjoyed. Even though the shop worker, like literally every shopkeeper we met, tried to up the price(which was clearly stamped right on it), we told him that we would pay only the price marked. What a perfect end to a perfect day. When we woke up this morning, we packed up our heavy bags again, checked out of our room, had another delicious breakfast of croissants, fruit and cappuccino as we made our way toward the train station. We tried to buy bus/metro tickets, and the man working the little newsstand again up-ed the price of an all day metro ticket. We didn't care though, and we paid it. Once on the bus, we noticed that he sold us the one way one EURO tickets for 8 EURO. I must confess, we were a little pissed, as that is the way we've been treated while here, but we talked about it and came to the conclusion that it's just how they live and that's that. Take it or leave it. So, we used the internet, saw a really cool fountain that I read about recently, and now we're hopping on an overnight train for Paris. We are staying at some friends-of-a-friend's house, and they are going away for the weekend. We can't wait to see Paris and we'll update you soon. Love and miss you all. Remember, we are still updating all of the pictures for you to see on: http://www.stockworldtour.shutterfly.com/

Talk to you soon. Oh, and when in Rome...I've been saying that as much as possible.

Florence, Italy

Hello all... it's Val. We are just leaving Florence, Italy and we stopped in an internet cafe to write to all of our loyal readers about what went on in this history filled city. We began our Florence experience by getting off a VERY hot and sweaty train and walking to our hotel. We were thrilled to find out that our hotel had AIR CONDITIONING! It is so hot in Italy! We left the AC on and our backpacks in our room and decided to make our way to the Galleria Dell'Accademia. This is where the famous David sculpture that Michelangelo created is housed. We were told that there would be about an hour and a half wait on the street outside. We lined up with happy faces and watched the street vendors try to get people to buy their items. We met some nice people from the Boston area who were on a field trip with a high school. As we chatted the police zoomed down the street and the street vendors all ran like lightning. (Street vending is illegal!) It was great entertainment! Then, after only a twenty minute wait, we were inside! We saw a three figure statue that we both enjoyed in the first room. Then we made our way around the corner and we were blown away at the statue of David. (Josh got goose bumps!) He, David, was bigger than we both imagined, and more detailed. It was magnificent. We walked around the rest of the museum and saw some casts of other sculptures and some paintings. We also saw a jewel detailed crown from a queen. Then we decided to film a little bit of us at the museum and then we went for dinner. We stopped at this little restaurant that was very Italian. It was delicious. I even tried something new and I liked it. (I know some of you are really surprised by this! Haha!) Then we called it a night, and watched the EURO Cup finals. (We were rooting for Germany and unfortunately they lost to Spain.)
The next day was Monday and most museums are closed on Mondays so we slept in! It felt really good. We went to the grocery store and got some items to make sandwiches. We found this internet cafe and did some emailing and updating. We decided not to eat out that night, because Josh found this vending machine that served hot pasta, and he HAD to try it. And surprisingly, it was good, so good that Josh got seconds. We watched some funny Italian TV station for a little while and then planned out the next day's agenda.
On Tuesday we began by getting up early and making our way to a museum that used to be a home for the Pitti Family. (A prominent family in Italian history.) Again we were told to expect an hour to two hour wait. And we got to walk right in, no line. We walked around their famous gardens, which I am sorry to say Josh and I weren't too excited about. Then we went through the porcelain and costume museums within the house. Our legs were tired, so we decided to find a place to eat lunch. We picked a small little restaurant and had some pizza. Then we made our way to another museum, this one had a long line. We waited in line for an hour and a half. We met a guy from California, and another from North Carolina. The wait was worth it. This museum housed famous paintings, sculptures, and drawings by people like Michelangelo. It was amazing. The pictures are soon to come on our picture website... http://www.stockworldtour.shutterfly.com/. So check it out, add comments! After the museum, we ate dinner at a little restaurant a few blocks away from the museum. As we are eating, we felt like locals, because we saw one of the guys we meet from the states in line at the museum. It was kind of funny! Then Josh and I walked back to the place we were staying. We made reservations at a hotel for our nights in Rome.
The next day (today) we got up and checked out by 10:00 am. We headed back to he train station. We got on the internet, and here I am typing. Well, that's all for now.

VENICE City on the Sea

Joshua here again. We just left Venice. What a crazy place. Let me take a minuite to catch you up from last time.

We left Switzerland on a Swiss train. Swiss trains are clean, the people are pleasant, they are usually comfortable and air-conditioned, and most of all, they are ALWAYS promptly on time. We crossed the Swiss/Italian border and got off in Milan. Milan is a city that is all about fashion and the luxurious cutting edge, trendy lifestyle. Not much in the way for budget travellers. Val and I spent as little time as possible there! Ha. No, we took a subway and saw the Duomo, which is breathtakingly beautiful and some of the other old sights in Milan were very pretty. However, we got lost, it was VERY hot, and to get to every sight, you had to (almost literally) fight off the hordes of souvenier pushers. One was screaming "F--- Off" at me as loud as he could until we just walked quickly away. That was a great lesson to learn this early in our Italian voyages, and enough of a dterent in the hot sun to get us out of Milan.

With red sweaty faces, we headed back to the train station and hopped on our first real Italian train for Venice. On the train, we almost immediately had the PLEASURE of experiencing all of the negative Italian stereotypes that we've heard so much about. The train was like a sauna, and ridiculously over sold, so there were a lot of people standing, many of them screaming at each other arguing over seats. The majority of Italians are very dramatic, as they talk a lot with their hands and flamboyantly put that Italian twang on the end of every word. Spaghetti isn't "spaghetti", it's SpaGHHHETTI". Anyway, it was a hysterical first experience of Italian culture and what a difference we noticed between the SwissGermans and the Italians!

We pulled into Venice, and the train station is right on the edge of the island. For those of you unfamiliar with Venice, it is a city built on 150 tiny islands, just off the Italian coastline. There are no cars allowed on the actual island, as all of the roads are for foot traffic or are streets of water... or they are bridges over those waterways. We were staying outside the city, off of the island in a small camp ground, so that first night we arrived in the city and proceeded to tour around on foot with our backpacks on.

Venice is an incredibly elaborate maze of tiny alleyways, and even weilding a map, even the most savvy explorer would find it difficult to navigate. Venice, however, is the only city I've ever been to where it is okay to be a tourist. I would say 75% of the people you meet are tourists. Therefore, everywhere you go, people are staring up at the street signs (if you can find one) and holding a twisted mess of a map in their hands. It's such a fun time. You almost try to get lost when you're there so you can find new things, and since you're on an island, you know you won't get REALLY lost. We trudged around getting lost that first night and being wow-ed with the whole concept of a city on water. We caught the last bus out of town to our campground and the complex was pleasant with a grocery store, restaurant and swimming pool right there on the woodsy, three acre, "youth-focused" campground. The bad news turned out to be that our cute little "bungalow-style" room turned out to be a sauna; an 8 foot by 6 foot shell with two squeaky twin beds and a window the size of a small book. We tried to leave the door open, as it was cooler outside than inside, but we quickly realized the mosquito infestation was more than we could bear. It was so hot we sweated all night and woke up feeling more tired than when we went to bed. Luckily, we caught the first bus into town and had a great morning mazing through the city, enjoying it this time without our heavy packs.

We went back to the campground at noon, when it's hottest on the island and had the pool pretty much to ourselves. They also had a little dirt soccer field on the grounds, so I rented an old flat volleyball for 5 EUROS and had a kick around. That evening, we returned to the city, this time without our cameras and without our packs...and oops, without our map. We decided it would be fun to get lost and see where we ended up. (Val interjects) "That night we made our way close to the water and walked for a long distance. As we were walking down the streets in Venice, we kept thinking that we saw people that we knew... then as we are walking over this bridge, I see this girl that looks like a girl I know. As the girl came closer I realized it was someone from the USA, from PA, from Ebensburg, from Holy Name school, and from cheerleading... It is Colette Natcher. What a small world. We stood and talked for a few minutes. It was crazy that we saw her." That night we found some great little plazas to sit and eat and have cappuccinos, met some other travellers, and discovered the truth about something you'll hear everyone say who returns from Italy, "YOU HAVE TO EAT AS MUCH GELATTO AS YOU CAN!!!!"

While Val and I were in Milan, we had our first taste of gelatto, and it must have been an average stand, because it tasted like ice cream and it was expensive. It was good and hit the spot on a hot humid summer's day, but it wasn't like we had hoped. When we were in Venice, though, the second stand we visited had the most amazing icy, refreshing pineapple flavor that put us over the edge. It was incredible and we had it three more times over the next day and a half. We spoiled many - a - dinner with good gelatto. Anyway, another cold shower and another night spent in our sweat box of a room and the next morning we checked out of the campground, had one last kick around with the socer ball, and we were headed for the train station, again heavy laiden with our packs under the sweltering summer sun. We said a loving fairwell to Venice and hopped on a train for Florence. I'll let Val fill you in on what took place in Florence. Remember to check out our photos which are constantly being updated on http://www.stockworldtour.shutterfly.com/