The Past Few Days

Hello all. I finally have enough brain cells strung together to write a half-decent blog. Yay! It’s been a few days, so I’ll go by dates.

January 5, 2008

On Saturday, I went to the Borghese Gallery, which was completely and utterly breath-takingly amazing. After getting lost and freaking out about Nicole and Barb not showing up (they were a bit late) we got to go inside. And if there’s one thing I love, it’s classical mythology in art. So the whole gallery was amazing, but my favourite part far and away was the Bernini. If you walked into one of the rooms that had a Bernini, you could tell, because his sculptures absolutely owned the room. I mean, they look good in textbooks, yes, but in person, when it’s towering over you, and you can see it from every angle, it’s just astounding. Sorry for ranting so much, but, yes, Bernini is just that good.

Anyway, after we finished, we wandered around the park (Villa Borghese) for a few hours, and it was one of those experiences that you can look back on even after a few years, and just say, yes, that was an amazing, magical experience, and I wish it had never ended. It’s for moments like that that I want to live here forever. I mean, you never feel that way in Edmonton.

Next we trucked it over to Trevi Fountain, which was really beautiful, and graciously uncrowded, thanks to it being January. We met up with the rest of the gang there (I don’t think I’ve ever actually named the gang: Rochelle, Barb, Nicole, Lori, Jordan, Fi, Christine and Katrina). We took some amazing pictures, tossed some money in the fountain and made a wish and then we all went to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was also just completely wonderful. It’s so big, and to imagine that the dome used to be all covered in gold, it was just so beautiful and so great (I’m running out of adjectives here…). Then we walked to find lunch, but on the stipulation of not eating at a place with an English menu. So we walked, down past the Piazza Nuovolo? I think that’s what it’s called… anyway, then we walked down this really long street just full of tiny little antique and furniture shops, and finally ended up at this tiny little café, where we all squished in for lunch.

Meanwhile, it was pouring rain, so the entire time we had to fend off annoying umbrella vendors. I think after lunch we hiked to a metro stop and then just headed back to the apartment, and did a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the night. (It was pouring rain…).

January 6, 2008

So on Sunday, lucky little Nicole managed to wrangle tickets to go to Sunday mass at the Vatican. But none for me, so while she, Barb, Christine and Fidelia all got to see the Pope, I pretty much stayed at my hotel and then at like noon met up with the rest of the gang that didn’t get to join the Pope entourage. So we all hung out a bit, and then the Pope gang came back, and half the gang went shopping while Nicole, Barb, Fidelia and I all went to the Spanish Steps, back to Trevi Fountain (this time at night), the Pantheon (also at night) and the Vatican (once more, at night). Seeing the sights was really cool when they were all lit up and it was all dark out, only there were these annoying guys trying to sell us junky spiny toys. But we got lots of great pictures. We also did some window shopping on this street filled with designer stores and the word “saldi” plastered on every window. Oh, temptation. But we restisted. Anyway, after that, our gang met up with the rest of the gang at this cute little restraint called Cul de Sac, which had a monstrous amount of wine and the craziest menu I’ve ever seen. Some of the selections included tongue, escargot, cheeses of every variety, cured meats, pates, and like three pasta dishes. Good times.

January 7, 2008

Today was a bit easier. I packed in about half an hour, walked to Termini, sat in a café and talked to an Italian lady in broken Italian (but at least I knew what she was saying!) and then pretty much met up with the rest of the people going to Cortona, got on the bus, and came to Cortona (with one minor stop for gummy bears). I’ll wait until later to pass my judgement on the hostel. So that’s about it for now!

I’m sorry for the extreme length of this blog. They’ll be shorter in the future, I’m sure…