Italy Day 3

Italy Day Three
May 21 - Sight Seeing in Rome

We wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day. After 2 days of travelling it has been nothing but dissapointments and bad news so we're looking for something to get this vacation going in the right direction. This is nothing that a little Michelangelo can't cure. We take the Metro to the Vatican City. If you were approaching the Vatican Museum (which holds some amazing paintings, of which the crown jewel is the ceiling of the Sisteen Chapel) entrance on that day you probably would have heard me say things like "Man, this is awesome, there's usually a line around the corner to get in the museum!!" and "Wow! I guess you can beat the tour groups by getting here before 9:00".
We reach the door and a nice gentleman in uniform informs us the museum is closed...it's Ascension Thursday and they'll be closed all day...OF COURSE it's ascension Thursday, why didn't I think of that? Excluding Sundays, the museum is closed 13 days a year and lucky for us we hit one of them right on the nose. We are leaving for Florence tonight so it's obvious we're going to have to catch this during our next trip to Italy (5 years from now, maybe??)

We get lunch at a great pizzeria and finish our stay in Rome cruising around the Forum and Colliseum. Shantel does not have walking shoes, since they were in her bag that is still lost, and I carry her half of the afternoon after she develops some blisters. On a side note, I HIGHLY reccomend taking the tour given by the study abroad students. We wish we had a longer stay in Rome, but we've got big plans, and it's time to head to the train station.

We get on the train and arrive in Florence around 7:00 pm. We go to a great Trattoria by 8:00 and Shantel has her favorite meal of the entire trip. Pasta Fagioli...it's so good in fact that she doesn't mind so much when it's coming back up around 8:30. Poor Shanny Poo was having a bout with pregancy, and it kicked her ass this time, making her vomit in the bathroom. My appetite remains undeterred so I wolf down a portion of Lasagna for first and roasted baby pig for second. Nice!

A funny thing happens when we get the bill. It comes to 37 euro, I give our waitress 40 euro and wait for the change...and wait, and wait, and wait. I finally make a point to check the bill, the waitress notices this and sheepishly brings me the change. For those of you that do not know, there is absolutely no tipping in Italy, it's always included in your bill. It was an obvious attempt by our waitress to "keep the change"...which in all honesty I wouldn't have minded except that it was a pretty big insult to assume I didn't know any better. Especially after the waitress asked earlier how it was that my italian was so good and I explained the whole Vicenza thing.

End of day 3, Shanny's bag has still not arrived.

Italy Day 2

Italy Day Two

May 20th - Arrival in Rome

Due to the delay out of Philly, we miss our flight from Venice to Rome...no big deal though, this happens all the time. Alitalia re-books us on a later flight. Unfortuately they failed to rebook all of our luggage, which means Shantel is SOL as they try to track down her bag.
After about 30 hours of travel we finally reach the hotel around 6:00 PM. We're exhausted but head out on the town to check out the Spanish Steps and get some dinner. The Steps are cool and we grab dinner at a nearby Restaurant. As we walk in we were discussing the misfortunes already accumulated on our trip: So far we've lost one piece of baggage, 1/2 day of sight seeing in Rome, and Shantel is getting a migraine...... I end the conversation saying "Well things can only go up from here". On cue, Shantel hands me her camera after trying to take a picture of our first restaurant in Italy...the batteries are dead, and the charger doesn't work with European outlets.

The guide book said this restaurant was decent...and while the food is actually o.k. the atmosphere is definately not. ALL tourists and the waiter trys to offer me a salad buffet. A salad buffet?? This may not be a big deal to most of you, but I lived in Italy for 18+ years and had never even heard of a salad buffet up to that point. Anyway, unlike most Italians, our waiter seems a little upset when he quickly realizes we speak impeccable Italian and aren't really tourists. It was pretty confusing at the time, more on this later.

The day uneventfully winds down from there, we head back to the hotel, catch a nap and wake back up around 11 for a stroll around the city, some more food, and talk to some american architectural students who have spent 6 days in a convent and are looking to make up for lost time.

End of day two, Shanny's bag has still not arrived.

Italy Day 1

Italy Day One
May 19th - Air Travel
Our first flight departs from Tampa headed for Philadelphia around 2:00 P.M. After a delay in Philly and a tidy 12 hours later we arrive in Venice. The fun is about to begin, which brings us to day 2.
We've got all our bags.