Roma and Fiesole
by Jennifer Dice on Jun.22, 2009, under Italy Trip
Well as you can all imagine, Roma is amazing. The ruins are just beautiful, which is kind of an ironic statement. We stayed in a great little hotel with a charming concierge, Franco, who was extremely helpful. My favorite part was definitely visiting the Vatican. Our tour guide was great and a crusader for common courtesy among all tour groups…this is a losing battle, but he tried anyway. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the scaffolding necessary to paint such amazing frescoes. It would be something that my brothers would love to climb, but that I would prefer to just look at! Trevi fountain and the city by night were also great stops along our two day journey. I can’t wait to come back with Troy. (*note…if anyone else is planning a trip to Rome, check out Rick Steve’s downloadable walking tours. Another American told us about these and I am going to try them out with a few museums in Florence)
Today after an intense practice session, my mom and I went to a small town called Fiesole. This town has some amazing views of Florence. For those of you who are sure that my travel/directional ability may be limited, I assure you that after today’s hike I am awarded some major bonus points. In Fiesole there are several paths that lead around the city. The paths are marked well until you get to the nature walk. At this point signage no longer exits and multiple paths are present in several places. Somehow we managed to make our way through just as a major storm rolled into the area. Whew! Now that was close, but well worth it. I am sure that the hike compared to the hills of the Morgan-Monroe State Park and we were completely out of breath in getting to the top…which was generally not the top. It kept going and going and going…up and up and up! However, I loved it.
Tomorrow we are headed to Lucca in the morning and then back for a lesson in the afternoon. We will also be hitting the Academia Gallery, which houses the David, before a dinner on the town. We have ate most of our dinners at home with Vincenzo. He is a great cook, gets mad when we aren’t in for dinner at 7:30 on the button. Tomorrow will be my mom’s last day here so we will be going all day and I will write again on Wednesday!
