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.