Bartering in Florence

Day 20 

We got up and walked to the train station to take the fast train to Florence for the day. The train was more like an airplane, where everyone already had assigned seats that you had to sit in. The train left at about 8:40, and we arrived in Florence at 10:00. The train went insanely fast, reaching 255 km/hr. We got to Florence and I went off with Shannon and Kylee. Shannon had already been to Florence when she was in high school, so she had somewhat of an idea of what there was to do in Florence and  how to navigate the market. Our game plan was to walk around the entire market and scope out what we wanted, and try and find what had better prices. The market was huge, selling mainly leather goods, spices, and souvenirs. We didn't end up finding the food markets there. I knew I at least wanted a purse and was interested in a leather jacket and some souvenirs for friends and family back home. Most of the workers in the market were men and when walking through I found we would get some "comments/complements" to try and persuade us to come and buy something from their shop.
I was warned that some of the leather there was actually from factories in Asia and not the greatest quality leather. I didn't know how to check, so as long as it felt like nice leather and smelled like leather it was good enough to me. After scoping out the markets we walked to a gelato store and got some Nutella crepes then went back into the market for some shopping. I ended up getting myself a few purses, bottle openers that had the Italian flag, gorgeous scarves, a leather belt, spices and a bag of pasta. I was pretty proud of myself because I actually bartered for the majority of my purchases. We walked to the Duomo and got some pictures, along with some snapshots of the fake David statue, then we went to go eat lunch at this restaurant outside near the carousel. We didn't have time (or for that matter I didn't exactly care to) go up on the Duomo, or see the real David - maybe on my next trip. I got plain pasta with tomato sauce and water for 10.00 euros. Everything in Florence was more expensive, as it was such a tourist destination. We took the train back to Rome for a quiet evening and started getting organized for our flight back to Canada. I really enjoyed Florence, a lot more than Rome. I think if I were to go back there, I would stay over in Florence.

View from the restaurant

Mediocre pasta

Picture of our hotel room that I mentioned in an earlier post. Note the peeling wallpaper and marks on the wall - gross!

Vatican City

Day 19

We got up and went to the hotel balcony for breakfast then walked to the subway and took the subway to go to the Vatican. The subway was packed and I was pushed right beside people and felt very claustrophobic. We walked to the Vatican and got to bypass the line to get in because we had a tour. If you ever go to the Vatican I recommend this as the line was huge! We all had to go through security and a metal detector, since Vatican City is its own country. Once we got in we met our tour guide and were given a headset piece so we could hear her talk through it as she can’t talk loudly in the Vatican museum. She explained the paintings in the Sistine Chapel (which was at the end of the tour) and explained that the tour would be 2 hours long! I wasn't exactly feeling a 2 hour tour. She took us through the first section, which was tapestries and stopped to explain some, then there were sculptures and painted ceilings and walls.

After a while it all looked the same and it felt like it was never ending! Shannon and two other girls left early as they were bored and hot. Then a few of us decided to leave too because we were so bored and wanted out. We left and went through the Sistine Chapel where I snuck 2 pictures, then left to get some pizza in a little food court section where the gift shops were.

We met up with the rest of the group and walked to St. Peter’s square to take pictures at the Basilica. I wanted to do some more shopping so we stopped in a few stores on our walk, my favourite being the makeup store Kiko.

During this time I kept losing and finding friends on our walk. I was really wishing that I had a working cellphone so I could communicate with everyone at this point.  After, we walked to the Spanish Steps and around the nice part of Rome where all the fancy stores are. I watched the Lizzie McGuire Movie (yes, I know that's embarrassing) before I left and as I was walking around Rome, I kept imagining the movie.

Busy Spanish Steps

The Altare della Patria - monument built in honour of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of unified Italy

Trevi fountain in the day time

After our trek around Rome we walked back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. The walk to dinner was quite sketchy, we passed by China Town and Little Italy. I really felt unsafe and did not want to be there. We got to the restaurant after quite a long walk. The inside of the restaurant was very nice, there were fake vines on the ceiling. First course was pasta with meat sauce which was decent. While we were waiting for our second course there was an older man who worked at the restaurant and he sang a few songs to us in Italian and then in English. Second course was veal, which I didn’t eat. Then we had some of crème brule for dessert.

Rigatoni

When In Rome

Day 18

We left Sulmona early and took a bus to Rome. It didn’t take very long to get to Rome, probably about 2 hours. The streets in Rome were very narrow, and cars were parked everywhere. The bus couldn’t fit without blocking the entire street, so we had to get out down the street from our hotel and drag all of our luggage all the way to the hotel from where the bus stopped. We were all pretty annoyed. I was really struggling with my luggage, and it kept falling and the people passing by would just watch me and not offer to help. I feel this wouldn't have been the case in Canada. The streets were very uneven and had lots of holes in the bricks which made it even more difficult. We got to our hotel and had to drag our luggage up 2 sets of stairs. Then we found out we couldn’t check into our rooms until 2:30, so we had a few hours to kill. We left all of our luggage in a locked up room, and Kylee, Shannon, Justin and I all knew we wanted to go to the Colosseum since we had so much time. We were joined by three others, luckily one girl was really great with directions. On the way we stopped at a little ‘fast food’ store and we got sandwiches and I got a pizza that they wrapped up to look like a sandwich and we ate it on the way to the Colosseum.

We got there and took some pictures in the front, there was a long line, but we decided it was worth the wait. To our surprise the line went by really quick, probably 10 minutes and we bought our ticket and went in. It was beautiful! It wasn’t the nicest day, which was good because there was a breeze.

We took lots of pictures and ended up happy that we didn’t get a tour guide as it would have been pointless.

We didn’t stay too long because we saw everything and walked up to a higher level. Once we were done we went back to the hotel and were quite disgusted. The room was hot, luckily we had air conditioning and turned it on. The bathroom smelled horrible and reeked of sulfur. The air conditioner looked like it had never been cleaned. The wall where Shannon slept had black all over it and the wallpaper was peeling, and there was mold on the wall near the window. We later found out that another room where girls on our trip stayed had bugs in their beds. Shannon, Kylee and I met back with Justin and we walked around and tried to do some shopping before we had to meet back again for dinner at 7:30. Rome was really dirty, with lots of garbage on the streets, it smelled like pig manure. There were so many men trying to sell everyone junk (scarves, cell phone cases, etc.) and were obnoxious and would get in your face and say rude comments to try and get you to buy their stuff. I genuinely felt unsafe in Rome. We didn’t find many good stores, and came back to change for dinner. We all met in the lobby and left the hotel for dinner. No one could find the  She had no idea where she was going and it took us a long time to get to the restaurant even though it was only a few blocks away from the hotel. The first course was lasagna, then there was a gross looking chicken dish with a weird sauce that I passed on.

We walked back to the hotel as a big group and went in a few souvenir stores. A small group of us walked to the Trevi fountain after dinner to get pictures at night time. I am glad we did because we got some nice pictures! So far, I was not the biggest fan of Rome.

Arrivederci

Day 17

I had to teach at 8:30 today, so we got up early for breakfast. We were allowed to pick from the better side of the hotel restaurant today, usually we are only allowed to pick from a certain side of the hotel. We taught grade four for two blocks, Melissa came to watch our first block and we taught the favourite things lesson and then went outside to play some games. Once the period was over, the kids all gave us hugs and were really sad we were leaving. Next we had grade three for two periods, and taught them weather and seasons. It was nice because we got a chance to talk to the teacher but also very bittersweet. Kylee and I walked to the bakery behind the school and got cannolis and crème puffs that were super delicious, then walked to the market for the last time and got flowers for our teacher. 

Once we got back to the hotel we had to sort out and organize the gift bags for teachers. We got ready for the ceremony and Kylee, Justin, Angela and I took a cab to the Primaria school where the ceremony was. We set up the room with Canada balloons, flags and other decorations. The principal said a speech thanking us for all of our work, and a few other people from the middle school and private school said a speech. Then Maria called us up by groups for our certificates and they also gave us a book and a beautifully packaged box of confetti. We then presented all our teachers with a certificate and their gifts (a Canada bag with a bunch of Canadian stuff inside.) 

After everyone received their certificates, we made a slideshow of some of the pictures we have taken of us with students. Then we presented our song/dance to everyone. Although I forgot the lyrics to most of the songs, it was great and everyone loved it! Then there were snacks (tons of canollis) and drinks to follow. Shannon, Kylee and I walked back to the hotel to change for our dinner, which was a surprise four-course meal for our final meal. First was brushetta with fresh mozzarella cheese on soft foccocia bread. Then we had a cream pasta with basil and ground beef and our main course was green beans with chicken and cheese. After they took away our last course, they came and brought us all champagne (actually so good and tasted like apples) and gave us bags of confetti and then our dessert, which was like a chocolate chip cheesecake. It was kind of emotional knowing that this was our last night in Sulmona. As much as I wanted to leave to go to Rome, I knew I would miss all the kids, and the hotel and Sulmona. 

A group of us decided to go out for some drinks as it was our last night. We went to one bar first and we got an Italian shot, which was layered to look like the Italian flag. There weren’t very many people at the bar, and there were two girls singing karaoke in Italian so we decided to leave and go to the other bar where the other girls were.  There were a lot more people at this bar, and there was karaoke still in Italian but it was much better at this place. We got them to put on Barbie girl and we all sang along to it, and a few other English songs. Overall a very fun last night in Sulmona!!