Rome April 5th-7th

Rome. What an awesome city.

Friday. We took a 6:20 am flight to Rome, getting there at around 8ish. Our first stop was to our friends’ apartment to drop our stuff off and take a little nap before starting the day. St. Peter’s Cathedral was incredible. It was so pretty inside. There were some preserved dead popes, which was kind of scary. After St. Peter’s, we went to the Trastevere neighborhood and went to Dar Poeta for lunch. I got pizza with eggplant and a nutella and ricotta calzone. This was the best pizza I have ever had and the best calzone I have ever had. It sounds like a really weird combination, but it was delicious. After lunch, we stopped for some iced cappucinos and then went to campo de fiore, a flea market with fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, sauces, and pastas. Piazza Navona was the next stop, where we walked around a little bit and we saw the Jewish synagogue. For dinner, we went to the famous Tony’s, where every abroad student takes all their friends to eat Chicken Parm and Penne a la Vodka. These were both unreal. After dinner, we had a chill night and went to a few different bars.

Saturday. We woke up kinda late and went straight for lunch. We went to Aristo Campo, a make your own panini place. I had a panini with eggplant, grilled chicken, zucchini, mozzarella, pesto, and sundried tomatoes. After getting some fuel in our body, we went to the Pantheon. It started to rain which was no fun, so we got stranded at the pantheon. I got mint and chocolate gelato while we waited for the rain to stop. We passed by Parliament and it finally stopped raining. The Trevi Fountain was gorgeous. We took some pictures, made wishes, and threw a few coins in. The Spanish Steps were the next stop. We walked to the top and stopped at the view point up there to relax for a little while and get some sun. We also passed by the Borgaise Gardens while we were up there. Giolatti was next for the best gelato ever. I had nutella, coffee, and dark chocolate. We went back to our friends’ apartment to get ready for dinner and the night out. Miraggio was the place for dinner. I had eggplant parm and it was the best I ever ate. Drunken Ship was our first stop for the night out. They played great music and it was pretty crowded. It closed on the early side, so we went to Scholars to watch the Final Four, but that also closed at the start of the game, so we just headed home.

Sunday. Forum and Colosseum Day. I could not believe that I had the opportunity to go to the Colosseum. We always learned and read about it in history class and it was finally my chance to go inside. It was breathtaking. The Forum was pretty incredible too. Although not as extravagant as it had once been, you could imagine all that happened there so long ago. As if one Tony’s trip was not enough, we went there for our last meal in Rome. I had the chicken parm the first time, so I decided to get the penne a la vodka. We laid out for about 2 hours and then it was time to head back to Barcelona.

Rome was absolutely incredible and I can’t wait to go back and visit.

Milan and Venice February 22nd-25th

I have never been to Italy and I had no idea what to expect besides incredible food. I never thought that the first time I would be in Italy that I would be going to Milan for fashion week. I always thought that I would be in Rome or Florence for my first time in Italy. We had a very early flight to Milan at 7am. We got into Milan at about 9 and took took a train to the center of Milan. We met up with out friend that is studying abroad in Milan and we walked to our hotel to drop our bags off.

The first sight we saw was the Dumo, the cathedral in Milan dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente. We took a ton of picutres of it on the outside, but the line was very long to get, so we did not get a chance to go inside. It was a gorgeous Gothic cathedral. After the Doumo, we went on a shopping spree to a bunch of different department stores in Milan. I bought a pair of combat boots, my friends got some button downs and going out shirts. After shopping, we built up quite an appetite and had pizza. This was my first experience of Italian pizza and it was incredible. I had a personal pizza with peppers, zuchinni, and eggplant. It was thincrust ith really fresh vegetables and light tomato sauce. Following lunch, we went for gelato. Our friend Kira said that this was her favorite gelato place in Milan so far. In the cones there, they put either white, milk, or dark choclate liquid inside the cone before they scoop the gelato into the cone. I had a cone with dark chocolate, dark chcolate gelato, and coffee gelato. This was the best gelato I ever had. After gelato, we walked around the city and there were screens all throughout the city with the shows live. There were also red carpets laid on the ground throughout the center of Milan. We also saw white tents where they were holding all of the shows. I wish we were able to get into one. After a long day of exploring, we went back to the hotel and took a nap and got ready for dinner. We went to a restuarant that served aperativos, which is similar to American happy hour, but is a time where friends meet up for drinks and some appetizers. THe restuarant we went to was called Maya and we paid 9 euros for 1 drink and a buffet of food. We ate lasagne, pesto pasta, chicken in a red sauce, little pieces of pizza, etc. It was incredible food and I had a passion fruit mojito. After dinner we went back to our firend Kiras apartment to meet up with ehr friends. We edned up going to a club called Limelight. It was a really cool club with great music and we each paid 10 euros for 3 drinks.

Saturday morning, we took a train from Milan to Venice. What a difference in the landscape of cities. I have never seen anything like Venice before. Literally, eveyrthing functions by water, meaning basically no cars on the road and taking boats everywhere. We took a water taxi to San Marco Square. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to our hotel. and dropped our bags off. We were pretty hungry after just coming off the train and went to a cafe in San Marco square and got calzones filled with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. They were delicious.

After this, we decided to go on a gondola, which is a boat ride that Venice is known for throughout the world. We got a bellini bottle and drank it on the gondola. We saw different sights such as city hall, Mozart´s house, Casanova´s house, and Marco Polo´s house. After the boat ride, we went on the Rialto bridge and did some shopping. I bought a Venetian mask. We went back to the hotel for a nap. After this, we went to Trattoria di Madonna, a restaurant in an alley way by the Rialto bride. I order spaghetti with manilla clams in a red sauce. These were the best clams I have ever had. We made it a semi-early night, but we were at dinner for 3 hours and just went to sleep.

 
Sunday. We visited the Jewish Quarter of Venice, learning that it was the oldest Jewish Quarter in Europe from our tour guide. We visited the fivr different synagogues within the Jewish Quarter (Spanish, German, Italian, Cantan, and Levantine). After the synagogues, we went into some of the Jewish shops lining the quarter and I bought a evil eye bracelet made of venetian glass. After a litle shopping, we ate at Gam Gam, a kosher restaurant in the Jewish Quarter. I got matzah ball soup, hummus with meat, and schnitzel (Jewish chicken cutlet). It tasted like I was back home for one of the Jewish holidays with my family. After lunch, we went to a Purim party and celebrated with a rabbi, his wife, their kids, and some of their family and friends. We headed  back towards San Marco Square and had round 2 of bellinis while sitting in the square. We went to the Basilica de San Marco. It was a beautiful church and had great views. A quick gelato fix of mint, dark chocolate and coffee before we went back to go pack. Before we left for the airport, we went to Trattoria al Rivetta. My friend and I shared mussels in a garlic sauce to start and then we both got gnocchi with crab in a tomato sauce. This was the best gnocchi I have ever had. Right after dinner, we went to the water taxi and took an hour and a half boat ride to the airport. We did not land in Barcelona until close to 1 am.

 

I had the most incredible time in both of these cities and I cannot wait to go back to visit.