I'm still here!

Despite my lack of posting new pictures and comments while in lovely Italy I am writing a short post to give a super quick update!

First, WiFi at my apartment is awful, other than being able to use email and the viber app, my internet does not work. Hence the lack of posts since the beginning of this month! 

Second, I will be leaving to go back home the end of this week, so only two more really days to enjoy the city! I will definitely sight see more (and again) and get some posts to you all once back in the States with (good) WiFi.

Third, I love Rome and Italy still, and am sad to leave, but great adventures await back home (I hope!!).

So these are my super quick updates, but stay tuned this weekend for tons of pictures and tales of my time in Italy!

Ciao!
 

Tivoli e Pisa

 

The last two days I spent taking small day trips in Italy to two great places, Tivoli and Pisa. While both are tiny places to visit, they have great sights and that can be seen within a few hours. In Tivoli, which is just outside of Rome, there are amazing gardens that you can visit. I decided to take my mom to see the famous water gardens at Villa d'Este and the ruins at Hadrian's Villa, both major tourist attraction sights. I had previously visited both places while studying abroad last year and I had to go back to Tivoli! It is super relaxing and beautiful and a great get away from the hectic city. There are some other villas and places to visit in Tivoli, but seeing two amazing gardens in one day was enough for us. Today we decided to head up to Pisa, which is very close to Florence and we actually transferred trains in Florence too. I would suggest, if you want to see the leaning tower, to go straight from Florence if you will be visiting the David, kill two birds with one (marble) stone. Pisa is another major tourist attraction, but other than the built up commercial area leading you from the train station to the Field of Miracles where the Tower, Baptistery and Duomo are located, there isn't much else to do. Like Tivoli, only a couple hours are all you need. On this trip to Pisa we decided not to wait around to get into the tower, a limited amount of people can enter, and just take some photos, stare at the tower and pray it doesn't fall on us, and eat. After this, we headed on our way back to Rome. Not too exciting, but after seeing so many different Italian cities in the last week, we were not going to spend much time, or money, to do more tourist things. Overall, it was a pretty successful two days, and my mothers last two days in Europe as well. Starting tomorrow, I will be heading out to see Ostia and the dig sight, and my mother goes back to the good old USA. I am a little jealous she gets to go home, I miss my dog, but at the same time I have three more weeks to spend in Italy! More things to do and more sights to see, I am also thinking of heading up to Assisi and possibly to visit my friend in Madrid for a weekend, lets see what I can fit in!

 

 

Relaxing Day

 

Today was super relaxing, we started by doing some laundry, a must do in the Roman heat, and going to get groceries. After this we took a stroll to the Pantheon and St. Luigi Dei Francesi to see the Caravaggio paintings and then back to my apartment for dinner. We then decided that we needed gelato, and I say needed, so we went to my favorite Frigadarium and then walked back, passing Castel San Angelo and St Peters. Overall it was a relaxing day sprinkled with some sight seeing. Tomorrow we will be going to my favorite place in Italy, Tivoli! I cannot wait to get back and see the beautiful gardens, and take another hundred or so photos!

 

 

Firenze, Venezia e Murano

 

The last three days I spent in two amazing cities, Florence and Venice and also visited Murano where all that glass jewelry and figurines you see in Italy shops is made. It was sad to only be in these cities for a short amount of time, we really rushed through and didn't get to explore as much as I would like, but the chance to go back to Florence and finally see Venice was still amazing. I would definitely revisit each city again, and stay for at least three days each, but I had to get back to Rome to begin my internship next week, plus these places are EXPENSIVE. Both cities are huge tourist attractions, making you pay to walk into churches, well known or not. If you like to wander around and see as much as you can, which is what I do, it can become too expensive. Nevertheless, we managed to see some things in our short visit. In Florence we had to see the David and Uffizi Gallery as well as the Boboli Gardens in Palazzo Pitti. I would have liked to go into Santa Maria Dei Fiori, but most of it was covered in scaffolding and the lines were too great when we only had a day to spend in Florence. At the end of the day, before the leather market closed, I was able to lay down some more money to buy two, yes two, leather jackets. I believe I have maxed out on leather, having purchased two purses last year and two jackets this year. Of course I was looking at a pretty suede and leather backpack in Venice, but that's a different story!  After Florence, we arrived in Venice to spend about a day and a half in the city. Getting off the train we saw that in first class Conan was with his family for vacation too. He is super tall, but unfortunately we didn't get to see his crazy red hair since it was under a hat, bummer. In Venice we saw the major things, the Academia, Bridge of Sighs, Realto, San Marco Square etc. Again, we didn't go into San Marco because of lines, plus more scaffolding! The second day we made out way to Murano to see a couple more glass shops and a presentation of glass making. After this we wandered around Venice, taking hundreds of pictures, before having to get on a train back home, well back to Rome. These cities are simply beautiful, and I cannot wait to go back, but I would definitely spend more time in both to see as much as possible, and probably go in a low tourist month to beat the crowds.

 

 

After spending so little time away from Rome, we are planning to go to Pisa and then Tivoli this weekend to do more Italian sight seeing before my mother heads back to the US. I cannot believe that I am almost done with my trip too. I only will be working with the American Institute of Roman Culture for three weeks total in Rome due to scheduling. But still three weeks will be worth it on an archeological dig site! This internship will be much different than my desk and travel internship in London, but it will still allow me to understand more about historic preservation. I am still trying to get into contact with agencies, I tried in Florence and Venice, but those who are preserving these cities, and Rome too, are mainly American or English, therefore have offices in either the two countries. Well at least I am able to see Italy while I am here!