Tour de...Italia!

As per usual my week went by very fast. Since I left Naples on Wednesday I visited Rome, Tuscany and Venice – all very beautiful!

I bought a Eurail pass which allows me to get on and off most trains in Europe. It is definitely a great thing to have and it is saving me money but it is very confusing. Without getting too in depth, so far I have gotten scolded by a conductor for not validating my ticket, yelled at by an older Italian woman for putting my feet up on the seats and had the delight of sitting next to some creepy Italian who just stared at me for the entire three hour train ride. Let’s hope for better luck in my next country – Austria!

Rome was such a magical place! I arrived in mid-afternoon and made it to the Coliseum just in time to see the sunset.

I had met a French girl on my train and we explored the city together for the rest of the night. Rome is quite touristy but still manages to maintain its charm and culture. Seeing the Roman ruins at nighttime was amazing. I could have stared at the Fontana Di Trevi or sat in front of the Pantheon for hours.

I am encountering a small problem on my travels. When you see pictures of cities and places that you want to visit, you immediately create an image of what you expect the entire place to look like. For example, in my head I pictured Ireland to be like what it probably looked like 100 years ago – rolling green hills, horses & buggy, no cars, no telephone poles and dirt roads. Although some of this still exists, it’s not realistic to think like this. Obviously there are cars and telephone poles! Despite having my reality check in Ireland, I still created this romantic image of Italy. I was actually surprised and upset when I saw hotdog stands and tourist gift shops next to the Coliseum! All I thought to myself was, “Those aren’t supposed to be there! This is Roma!” After getting over my unjustified disappointment, I mentioned to my new French friend, “Do you wonder what this place would have looked like when Julius Caesar was in power?” By the confused look on her face, I’m pretty sure she didn’t really care what the place looked like 2,000 years ago. After that short conversation I decided to keep to myself and picture what it did look like centuries ago =)

I took a day trip to Cortona, which is part of Tuscany about two hours north of Rome. This is where the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun” was filmed. It was very quiet because most tourists visit during the summertime. I was totally okay with this. I sat in the café, wrote in my travel journal and sipped on a café latte. Take note that a regular “latte” is just warm milk - no coffee! Seriously, who drinks just warm milk?! I wandered around a bit and sat on a stone wall that overlooked the mountains for most of the day.

I left for Venice first thing on Friday morning. Considering Venice is a small city I figured I could do it all in one day and be on to my next destination on Saturday morning. Of course I chose the rainiest day of my trip so far to see this beautiful city. I showed up at the hostel but the owner had to relocate me because there were plumbing problems. After getting settled I set out in the rain with my broken umbrella. I had read in my guidebook of a “restaurant” that offered homemade prosciutto sandwiches for €1 and glasses of wine for €0.60. It was on the other side of town but I figured I would camp out there for the day and enjoy the locals while sipping on some wine. I got lost a few times and by the time I arrived I was soaked. To my surprise this was not a restaurant, it was basically a to-go sandwich shop with no seating. I turned around and headed back in the direction of my hostel in hopes of finding a traditional Italian restaurant. I walked by one that looked decent, walked in and grabbed a seat. The waiter asked “Are you alone?” He looked at me like I had 10 heads when I said “Yup, just me.” I guess I should have expected this kind of response considering I was in one of the most romantic cities in the world! After being seated, Jay-Z started blaring on the radio. The menu consisted of burgers and pizza. Was I in Venice or Applebee’s?! After my quick American dinner I headed back to my hostel for a hot shower and was greeted by my roommate – an American girl from Oregon! We spent the rest of the night getting lost in the city, drinking mulled wine and eating gelato. I suppose Venice wasn’t a complete failure after all ;)

I have three trains to catch today as I make my way to Salzburg, Austria. Happy Saturday!