The Italian Job: Part 2

Wow it took me quite a while for post number 2 but that's ok. For the second part of our journey in Italy, we ventured to Florence and Naples. So let's start with Florence shall we? So we get off the train and somehow find our way to the "hostel". You see, the thing is, we had no idea how to get into this place. We get there, we look around and we know that this is the right address. We press the little button on the intercom....and the cleaning lady lets us in. How do we know it's the cleaning lady? Because when we got inside and up the 2nd flight of stairs she was there and told us. And then we trudged our stuff and our butts up to the top floor (6 flights of stairs if you're wondering). The owner wasn't there and we needed to pay her....ok so where were you then? Anywho, this place is less of a hostel and more of an apartment with rooms...as opposed to an apartment without rooms.....but ya it was a nice change from the cabin we stayed in in Venice. We wandered around the first night, but the second day we did some museum hopping and visited the duomo (well more specifically the church but since I can't remember what it's called....). When we arrived back at the hostel that night at almost 11, who shows up? The owner. How lovely you decided to grace us with your presence. All snarkiness aside she was quite a lovely lady and apologized multiple times for not being there.

This statue is totally not creepy whatsoever

The next day we reveled in my new two favourite words: culture week. We went to the Galeria Accademia (probably didn't spell that right), which for those of you uncultured fools who don't know it, Michelangelo's famous sculpture "David" is housed there. So ya, it's kinda a big deal, and it was FREEEEEEEE!!! That's 9.50 euros in my pocket thank you very much. We saw a lovely Palace complete with creepy statues (see picture). After that we did something.....what did we do? Well I don't know cause I can't remember now....OHhhh I remember, we made a reservation at the Uffizi Gallery (also for the uncultured: a very large and very important art museum) which also had free tickets. AAAWHADUP Culture Week!  Oh my sweet lord I almost forgot to mention the epic goodness that is gelato. And not just any friggin gelato, oh no, it's gelato from Antica Gelateria Fiorentina. FOR THE GOOD OF YOURSELF AND HUMANITY GO THERE if you are ever in Florence. Do try the peanut butter and chocolate gelato--it's heaven in frozen cream form.

Next up: Naples. Oh Naples.....ya. So, ok, to be frank, we were forewarned about the level of sketch that is the Naples Train Station (or whatever it's called) but we were not warned about the city itself. Cars. Everywhere. I swear we ran the gauntlet everytime we crossed the streets--which you will have to do at some point or another every hour. The entire city is sketchy, dirty and just bleh. But our Hostel, the lovely and quirky Hostel of the Sun. All of the reviews were fantastic and we were like hey, why not stay with 4 strangers in a sketch city? So we did! And it was lovely. Very first thing that one of the owners did? As soon as he found out my name he would yell it every single time he saw me. No joke. We were in our room which had a balcony and on said balcony they hung laundry which meant he was coming in and out every couple of minutes with laundry and a hearty "BONAVENTURA!". But our first day there was the only time we saw him *tear*, he was rather amusing. But the rest of the staff was lovely. They were quite amused by me. One time we had come back from an adventure and we had to buzz ourselves into the building. I guess I didn't press the button hard enough cause after the third try and some harder button pushing the lady goes "Christina?!?! What are you doing? You've been standing there for 20 mins!" and she lets us in. Then she goes "I saw you standing there for like 3 days and I was laughing!" and I was glad I could amuse her but I couldn't help but think "WHY DIDN'T YOU OPEN THE DOOR THEN!?!??!" but I digress... whilst in Naples we also basked in the free-ness that is culture week. We got in free to the National Archeological Museum and to the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum--that's a solid 26 euros saved!! *insert girlish squeals here*

Mkay so now it's time to be serious. When we were in Pompeii and looking at the plaster casts, it was difficult to explain the feeling you get whilst looking at them. One in particular was heart-wrenching (see picture). That little bird bath you see beside it is where people throw coins (they aim for it, they miss quite a bit though) kinda like offerings or blessings. Each of the 4 plaster casts had a little basin with coins in it. I feel like this cast captures how it must have felt for the people of Pompeii--scared out of their minds and praying to the gods to save them.

So I didn't want to end my post off on a sad note, soooooooo here's a funny picture:

This is how you make love to the camera

The Italian Job: Part 1

Well hey there. I haven't posted in a while, but that's because I've been busy gearing up for a 2 week trip to Italy! Our program in Vichy allows us to have 2 weeks (2 WEEKS?!!!?? yes, i said 2) for Easter Break. Fantastic! So about a month or so ago my friends and I were trying to figure out just what the heck we were going to do for this break. Everyone else in the program seems to have had their trips planned since they got to France....maybe they knew something we didn't.....but anyways, I already knew I was going to Italy for Easter to see family. So my friend Julie and I (shout outs to Julie! even though you're sitting right beside me as I type this hahah!) decided that we would voyage through some Italian cities for our break.

First stop, Torino. It was lovely--I got to spend time with some family that I don't get to see very often and I got to have some home cooking. Gosh how I miss not having to cook. I'm so not taking mom's cooking for granted again. You can quote me. When Julie arrived in Torino, her and I visited the Egyptian Museum there--yes we said hey to the mummies. And then we were off to Venice, oh Venice....IT FREAKIN RAINED, the entire time. Only one day was it sunny, and then it was freezing that night. Did I mention we stayed at a campground in a cabin? No? Well I'm mentioning it now. It was a lovely campground, it really was, we liked it, but it's too cold to stay there at this time of year. But other then that Venice is awesome....and so is the gelato! Ya I'm going to be honest here and say that we pretty much had gelato every single day there. Right now we're in Florence. It's rainy too, but at least we're not at the sea where there's wind to freeze your land-lubbin' bones.....but I digress. Florence is pretty cool. I'm kinda irritated at the Uffizi though. Like frik bro, you know that you have terrible ques--you even tell people to book online to avoid said redonkulous ques, and yet you do nothing about it? Fer realsies?!?!? And it's Culture Week here in Italy and according to the Uffizi website tickets are free, but if you book online you pay for that. Mkay, cool beans.....where's my free ticket? I expect a free ticket when I'm told "free tickets", just saying.

Anywhos, I don't have pictures of Bella Italia to show to you guys at this moment as me, a.k.a. Dumb-dumb didn't bring the cord to connect her camera to her computer. So, mi scusi, you have to wait. Now, I'm not bragging, but I took some pretty rad photos. Don't be jealous though, some people are just gifted and some are not--me being the gifted one of course, in case you didn't get that.

One last point about Florence, at least for today, is the Shoe Museum. But not just any shoe museum, a Ferragamo shoe museum. "Holy Shitballs!"--yes I just heard you yell that. We just got back from there, sadly we were uninformed fools! We should have gone earlier and not an hour before closing time! There are soooooo many of his gorgeous shoes to oggle! There's documentaries and even a little movie theatre to watch some videos! I'm so sad that we had to leave....I want a Ferragamo!!!! :(

 http://www.museoferragamo.it/en/

Uhm, how fast can you guys ship these? Thanks Google Images!