When in Rome, with my mom!

First, I apologize for the delay. It has been a busy two weeks since my last post. Keep reading for a recap!

Another weekend in Rome started off with no agenda, but yet another undiscovered path. While in class, the previous Thursday, one of my Italian friends had told me about an orange garden that was on a hill and supposedly had “the best view of Rome”. Here, is where I found the most breathtaking view of Rome and a typical Italian couple doing what they do best….

The rest of the weekend I was busy preparing for my mom’s arrival on Thursday. On the day of her arrival, I picked her up from the airport and we began our daily gelato outing. After showing her around a small part of Rome, we got a good night’s rest for our following day’s travel to Venice.

Venice was beautiful with its endless winding canals and beautiful, handmade glass jewelry. We spent two days touring the city, visiting the countless shops and enjoying cappuccinos on a canal while people-watching for hours.

Our next stop was Florence. Although we only stayed one night, we were able to see the leather market, the Duomo, the city center market and Ponte Vecchio (one of Europe’s oldest stone bridges filled with jewelry shops). Here in Florence, I purchased my first leather bag while Mo enjoyed shopping for scarves.

Ponte Vecchio

Our final stop was Orvieto, a small town just outside the Tuscany region, yet still famous for their white wine. This town was perched on top of a cliff that was formed years ago by the eruptions of nearby volcanoes. Because Orvieto was a much smaller town hardly anyone spoke English. As well, the town practiced their siestas religiously. In Italy, a siesta is a short afternoon nap. As a result of siestas, in smaller Italian towns, most shops and restaurants close for the afternoon before opening up again in the evening. During this time we were able to walk through most of the town.

These are pictures of towns surrounding Orvieto

The following morning we returned to Rome and had a day of recovery and relaxation. On my mom’s final full day in Italy, I gave her a walking tour of Rome. I showed her our favorite market, had her try different jams and balsamic vinegars, showed her where I shop, where I eat, where I go to school and my favorite places in Rome. We finished by eating dinner at a restaurant that was known to have over 100 different types of pasta sauces. The following morning I dropped her safely off at security in the Fiumicino Airport where she quickly made friends with American high school chaperons touring Italy. I was so lucky and happy to have her visit. Not only was it a great break from school for me, but it was also almost exactly 40 years since the last time since my mom had been in Italy.

The rest of my break was filled with sun, homework and the Orto Botanical Gardens. With the temperatures in the mid 60’s and no one at home, I decided to visit one of the two botanical gardens in the heart of Rome (the other is part of the Coliseum um and Roman Forum and is also the oldest botanical garden in the world). Although hardly any of the flowers had sprouted, the garden was absolutely beautiful. It had amazing views of Rome and although it was in the city, I couldn’t hear a single car (a rarity in Rome). Here are some of the pictures:

Most recently, Sarah and I went for out for some drinks and decided to take a walk through Piazza Navona (where she previously played guitar and sang with a street vendor) and here is some of the street entertainment we found:

Unfortunately, the uploader for videos is not working. The following man had Barbie puppets that he attached to his hands and used his fingers for their legs. His hands danced to Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson. While the puppets were fun to watch, he was the real entertainment.

Marcel, who happens to look like...

Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka

The "Almost More Than" Day Trip

After the past two stressful weeks of school, I began my weekend by spending a day shopping with Sarah. While out, we decided we needed to continue our adventures and have a day trip on Friday. We decided on a little town north of Naples, Pozzouli. After our adventurous trip to Sweden, we decided that our short day trip should be laidback and agreed that we both wanted the afternoon to include shopping and lunch. Little did we know that this would be another adventure…

On Friday morning, Sarah and I awoke early and headed off to the train station to catch our train to Pozzouli. Because Pozzouli is a smaller town, we had to hop trains about halfway through our journey in a small coastal town, Formia. I wish I could tell you about Formia, but I was only there for two minutes. Once we arrived in Pozzouli, we grabbed a cappuccino and walked about the quaint town that was free of tourists and anyone that spoke English. Surprisingly, this was the first place I have been where the people did not speak any English. Contrary to what many would think, we really enjoyed this. We had finally found a town untouched by tourism and we were also able to practice our Italian.

The butcher liked us so much he let us get a picture behind the counter!

I touched that, NOT willingly.

After meandering the town of Pozzouli, we decided to take advice we had read online and look for a barge to take us to Ischia, an island nearby. Fortunately, we found a young bargeman that nicely showed us where to purchase tickets to board the barge. With an hour of time to burn before leaving for Ischia, we took our own tour of the private boat docks. Although these were private docks, the gate was unlocked and thus inviting the two of us in. While walking on the docks, Sarah saw many starfish and this is when her need for one began. With the help of the bargeman we met earlier and some very dirty, old, Italian fishermen, Sarah got two starfish to take with her.

Sarah and the helpful fishermen and bargeman

Stew looking out the barge window

The ride to Ischia was very exciting as neither of us had been on a barge. We enjoyed the journey with another cappuccino. The rest of the story will be told in a timeline, as the exact times were important because the LAST barge to leave the island that day was at 5:35pm.

Compliments of Sarah and her photography

2:30 pm - Arrived to Ischia and were excited to meet two couples from South Carolina (what a small world!). They recommended a restaurant called Emiddio’s.

2:45 pm – Arrived at Emiddio’s and had a great sea food lunch that included clams, mussels, squid, shrimp, eel and salmon. We also decided to have the house wine which was brought to us in a vast, beautiful pitcher. After finishing, we met Emiddio and were delighted to hear that we could purchase a pitcher like his from a store nearby.

Seafood

Emiddio 

4:20 pm – Feeling optimistic, adventurous and free of worries, we set out to find the pottery store Emiddio had mentioned.

4:45 pm – Arrived at the pottery store and purchased some souvenirs. We decided to head to the shore and walk on the beach back to our barge with our umbrellas (it had started to drizzle), two starfish (named Stew and Stella) and our new pottery.

5:00 pm – Found the shore and without knowing the geography or topography, decided walking the shoreline would be the quickest way back to the barge. Please remember we are carrying two large starfish, pottery, umbrellas, had wine at lunch and there is a large storm coming inland. But it only gets better…

5:15 pm – We are far enough into our walk that we can no longer turn around and are approaching what seems like rocks. This was about the time we realized what time it was and decided to speed up our walk…until we realized there was no more sand, but only boulders. This resulted in sprint climbing and jumping from boulder to boulder for about a half mile. This is also when it began to rain and the waves came crashing onto the rocks (thank God for rain boots!). Don’t worry; we were still having fun, even after Sarah lost her umbrella to the storm.

5:27 pm – This was when we got to the dockside and I saw our barge coming into shore to pick-up passengers. This is also when we realized the only way we were going to make it is if we ran.

5:34.48 – We made it just in time as the bargeman had his finger on the button to lift the bridge.

(for those who like visuals)

The rest of the night was filled with luck and new Italian acquaintances. We had only bought our train ticket TO Pozzouli and did not know what time the trains were leaving. Luckily, we arrived thirty minutes early and also timed the train transfer in Formia perfectly. Or so we thought. Before boarding our transfer at Formia, we asked multiple people if the train was going to Rome and were reaffirmed of this multiple times. It was not until we boarded that we learned the train was going to the wrong station in Rome. We arrived back to our apartment ten minutes before midnight and successfully ended our trip in one day.