For the second part of our trip, we left Pisa and went to Rome, where we found our hostel, and the next day we had breakfast, and went to Naples, for no other reason than to eat pizza. =)
Here is an example of a typical pastry they fed us in Rome as part of our hostel stay. It was a date puree filled crossiant. It was kind of weird. You felt it was a very grown up pastry, and yet there was icing sugar all over it. And there's a lot of icing sugar over everything baked in mid-to-nothern-Italy. The hostel itself was, uh, well, it was your typical 'what did I just get myself into' hostel, but the price was right, and the only thing that was stolen were my gym shorts. ANGER. But....whatever. It's alright. On towards Naples!
This was the train towards Naples, and should give you a general idea about how dirty italian trains could be. More importanly, it was foreshadowing to how dirty and broken down Naples would be.
This is a typical street in Naples. There are cars parked on both sides of the road, and cars are generally going both ways down a one way street, while mopeds speed by, and pedestrians take their lives into their own hands almost every minute just by walking on the sidewalk. I have never been to a noiser, dirtier, more compact place in my life. From the time we arrived to the time we left, there was never a moment of silence, only general cacaphony of sounds that didn't belong together, and of being busy. I nearly got killed, like, five times in Naples. I kept thinking about how I declined travel insurance, and what a bad idea that was. If you want to know where Italians get their bad reputation for driving, go to Naples.
That being said, the pizza was amazing! This is a typical Napalini pizza, and it was beautiful. You could buy pizza so cheap, and it was always tasty. It had the simple charm that the architecture seemed to possess. It was hearty without being too greasy, and filling. I never thought I'd ever taste pizza with so few ingredients that I liked so much, but there you are. Italians are really good at simple things.
This was the famous road where only nativity scenes are sold. Man, I gotta tell ya, Italians are
crazy for nativity scenes. But I liked them. Most of them were tasteful, and I probably would have bought a few if I thought they wouldn't break. =/
We then left Naples for Rome, a city that could be equally dirty and crazy, but also clean and beautiful. The train station area was nuts, but the general state of everything else was terrific.
Graham and I decided to go see the Colisseum at night. We really liked it, and I'm glad we chose to do that in the evening, and not during the day. It's a beautiful sight.
The Colisseum was definitely in my top 5 places to visit in Rome. The next day we decided to visit the Vatican!
Again, I loved the architecture in Italy.
Graham and I proceeded to do Rome in a day, and first was Vatican City, which was amazing! It was so clean, and I never saw so many nuns hawking cheap religious items! They nearly impoverished me!
The light in St. Peter's. Beautiful.
Graham trying to ward off the Roman Catholic vibes of evil. You shall submit, Graham! LOL.
The view from the top of St. Peter's. Yes, Graham and I climbed more stairs than probably the Eiffel Tower to get there. It was fun.
Me egging on God to strike me down with fire, brimstone, lightning, or maybe a plague of some kind.
(On a personal side note, I didn't get a lot of religous 'energy' from the Vatican, but perhaps there were other churches in Italy I could have visited which I would have enjoyed much better. It was very pretty, but there are a lot of places I would go instead, if I was going on a pilgrimage or something of the kind.)
This was my favourite thing that I saw in Rome, the Pantheon. I recommend you go see this, it's an absolutely stunning piece of art. Graham was more interested in trying to paparazzi the guys outside in regal Roman wear, horse-hair helmets and everything. Graham got a pretty good shot of these guys from behind (for free, since they were charging euros) so if Graham doesn't make it as a political scientist, he could always work for the National Enquirer. Find that cellulite, Graham!
The next day we visited Venice! Stay tuned! I will update as I can, between other things I would like posted!
