Rome and Florence

Noah and I arrived in Rome without incident. We made our way to the apartment of some people from UChicago who we were staying with and then went out for an excellent dinner at a family owned restaurant in the Trastavere followed by gelato and a long walk through the ambling streets of Rome.

The next morning began early as we made a concentrated effort to see the entirety of Rome. I began the day by spilling a cappuccino all ober the counter of a small italian cafe much to the confusion of the rest of the patrons. After escaping with the remnants of my cappuccino and a donut in hand we started off through the city. Our first stop was the Vatican City, which due to the masses of tourists seemed more like a Catholic Disneyland than a holy site. But bobbleheads of the Pope aside, it was a beautiful place.

After that we made our way across the city to the Spanish steps

There was a beautiful park behind the Spanish Steps that gave a wonderful view over all of Rome. 

After meandering around this park and managing to get somewhat lost we continued careening through the rest of Rome with stops at the Pantheon, Coliseum and other classic Roman sites. We made a pre-dinner foray to have this great café drink called a Mochella which was somewhere between a cappuccino, a hot chocolate, and dessert. For dinner we decided to make an adventure of it and went to two different excellent pizzerias. We split a pizza which had crust that was a cross between mazza and glory at the first establishment. At the next place (that we reached after getting lost in the Trastavere for a bit) I had a pizza that lacked any cheese but did have some great anchovies. The day ended as any good thing does, with gelato. Well we also ended up wandering through a strange part of north Rome looking for a hostel but that's besides the point. 

After a bullet train ride we arrived in Florence. Florence is medieval where Rome is ancient and it shows. The churches in Florence were beautiful. We went in both the Duomo and Santa Croce. The picture below is from the top of the dome of the Duomo which gave a fantastic view of the city even though it was raining a bit. Florence has wonderful street markets and possibly better yet are the streets themselves. After going through what I referred to as 'the gauntlet of samples,' where I procured an excellent tuscan salami that I ate through for the rest of the trip, we continued to wander florence. 

The two nights I was in Florence I spent them wandering the streets and drinking wine while talking with a friend. It was perfect. Florence at night is a wonderful thing and I don't think that many places do it as well. Chianti is the specialty wine of Florence and there it tastes just on the border of where the sharpness of the flavor could be bad if it was any thicker but instead it hovers next to excellence. 

However, the sunset in Florence isn't half bad either.

Weekending in Paris

I spent the past two weekends in Paris. It was beautiful. I was exceptionally happy. But most importantly it tasted amazing. I literally can't describe how delicious Paris was, but I digress.

The first weekend my friend Noah joined me as we headed off to stay with our two good friends Emily and Janet. However, as we waited for our bus to the airport to come things began to go wrong. First, the bus we had got tickets for didn't come. Then the next bus showed up 25 minutes later but the driver said he was doen for the day. Finally when a bus did show up it was 5:05 pm and our 7 p.m. flight wasn't looking so hopeful even after we negotiated our way on to the bus. This was because we were flying out of a cheap regional airport called Luton which is about an hour outside of London. But at this point that hour long drive was going to be at least an extra 30 minutes because of the rush hour traffic. When we did arrive at Luton it was 6:43. We had already been told by easyjet that we'd need to be at the airport at least 30 minutes before takeoff and that there were no other flights that night. After frantic phone calls we also realized that train and bus weren't really an option either. There was a moment where I resigned myself to staying in Britain for the weekend but then the Parisian on the bus with us told us that he was going to try and make the flight.

So we ran. We leaped from the bus and began sprinting through the terminal to security where an employee assured us that we could make this flight. After he waved us through to the front of the security line (which caused another older employee to heckle me the entire time) I made it to the other side of security with my shoes and my belt in my hands and my toothpaste confiscated by security. At this point I realized that Noah was already ahead of me and I had about 4 minutes till takeoff. So I started running. This time without the assistance of a belt or shoes. When I finally reached the gate the stewardess unhappily waved me through and I started down the stairs to the tarmac. At this point I would have liked to put my shoes on but a man then started yelling at me about holding the plane up. So I ran across the runway to the stairs leading up into the flight in my socks. When I entered the plane finally my feet were soaking wet. My shoes were in my hands. My pants were falling down because my belt was also in my hands. But I was grinning from ear to ear in sheer bliss at the fact that I had somehow miraculously just boarded this flight.

And then I arrived in Paris. And it was beautiful

We began by walking a lot and I think I took this on the edge of Luxembourg Gardens which I had wanted to visit because of what Hemingway wrote about them. 

Along our ambling we made it to the Louvre with its grand glass pyramids. The following weekend I went back to visit the Louvre and spend a few hours in the gallery. I also made it to the Musee D'Orsay, the Paris Dali Museum, and the Center Pompidou. While wandering around Saint Germaine de Prés on Sunday with my friend Emily we also stumbled upon a sign for the 'Museum of Everything' which turned out to be this strange and wonderful museum of mostly American folk art that was held in an empty apartment building. Below is a picture of people looking at the Mona Lisa which was possibly more interesting than the painting itself. All over the museum were signs leading to the Mona Lisa. This conveniently drew many of the other tourists away from the French paintings and sculpture I spent most of my time at. 

Below is the view down the street from Montmartre where the Dali museum was. I went there Saturday morning after meeting up for coffee and carrot cake with my good friend Ida who is studying in Paris. 

During my first weekend here I walked around Montmartre and went up to Sacré Couer (the church whose steeple is in this picture). From the front of the church I got a lovely view all over Paris (because Montmartre is the highest point in Paris). My friends are wandering around the foreground of this photo.

We also went to Pére Lachaise, which is a cemetery where a great collection of characters from history are buried such as Moliere, Peter Abelard, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, and Jim Morrison are buried. The cemetery was quite interesting and many of the graves were beautiful. The weather was also nice as the photo shows. 

Paris was fantastic in so many ways. The food I ate there was especially great. I had the best apple tart, pan au chocolat, baguettes, escargot, duck confit, macaroons and falafel sandwiches that I've ever had in my life. The apple tart at Poilane was especially great and . I cannot even quantify how good (and for the most part affordable) everything I ate was. 

I also really liked this statue that I found in the gardens outside the Louvre. I hope I return to Paris some day because it was so absolutely beautiful.