Naples and Pompeii

On Saturday we took another high speed train to Naples! We had a private tour of the city as well as of Pompeii. Our guide's name is Elisa, and she was really nice! I would recommend a tour of any sort, because unlike with Florence, I didn't have any idea of where to start in Naples.

Elisa took us to the historical center of Naples. It is quaint, with its narrow cobbled streets and tall, tall buildings. A lot of the architecture looks like what you'd find in Paris, and that's because parts of the city where demolished after a cholera epidemic. It was rebuilt in the current European style of the day. There are so many shops and street vendors and places to eat! Clothing here is relatively inexpensive; I found a sweater for €15.

The first place we stopped at was a little food shop called Decumano, 31 Via San Biagio dei Librai, Napoli. 

They have homemade potato chips! I am never eating an American potato chip again!! 

If you face this shop and walk to your right, you'll find a lovely soap shop! There was an array of colors and scents to choose from: cinnamon, lemon, orange, lavender and fruit!

The shop is called Margherita, address 35 Via San Biagio dei Librai, Napoli. It's literally a few meters away from Decumano. 

The lemon soap is in the shape of a lemon!! And the scent is really strong. But strong in a good way.

Each bar is €2.80, but if you buy in threes  they are €2 each!

This shop is the oldest pastry shop in Naples. Everyone else beat me to the goodies so I didn't try anything. It's located in Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, and the piazza is really small so you shouldn't have a problem finding it.

This was our last stop in the historical center. It is supposedly the best place for chocolate. But what do I know? I had the gelato, and my parents bought chocolate.

The address is 61 Via Benedetto Croce, Napoli. 

Travel Tip

In Naples, just walk! No metro, taxi, bus etc. Everything is so small and close together and the streets are so crowded, walking is the fastest way to get around. In Rome, use the metro and walk. In Florence, walk. If you must use a car, get a taxi. Don't drive yourself. I promise you it will be the most bewildering experience of your life.

We made our way to the city center to meet a bus that would take us to Pompeii. On the way there, we saw A LEGIT CASTLE.

It was built by a French royal family in the 1200's, and the arch was added later by other people. 

 It takes about 30 minutes to get to Pompeii, and Pompeii is huge! Mount Vesuvius is an active dormant volcano and it is overdue for another explosion! Did you know that it wasn't Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii!? It was Moubt Suma, the volcano next to it that people mistook for a mountain!!

Fun fact: the people of Pompeii were really short! This was due to lead poisoning, because their water came out of lead pipes!! I guess that's not really fun though, so I guess it's a sad fact. 

Traffic was so terrible that we walked to the train station. If you think that city traffic is bad, Italy is at least 3x worse! 

That's all for now friends!

Love, marissa

Exploring Rome: Last Day in Italy

On our last day, we revisited some spots so that we could go…shopping! I'm just going to touch on the things I haven't mentioned earlier. 

So, about a 10-15 minute walk from the Coliseum is the cathedral of San Giovanni, or Saint John's Cathedral. Behind it is a small outdoor market, and it's one of my favorites because one if the vendors is...a kitchen supply vendor! It specializes in silicon: chocolate and baking molds!! I didn't buy any, and even though I'm disappointed, I'm glad I didn't because packing my suitcase was a struggle.

There was also a lot of jewelry for sale! And I found the minions!! 

MINIONS:

They also had a stand selling ceramics and another stand selling products made out of olive tree wood. I bought a mortar and pestle for 5€.

After that Auntie Ros and I went back to the hotel because I had already been to the other spots mom, Syd and Small Man were going to. 

We found Chinese food for dinner, so if any of you need proof that you can find my people's food in Italy, here it is.

Also, a good restaurant for Italian food is La Pantera Rosa, address 84 Piazzale del Vernao, Roma. 

All the other places that we ate at gave you very small portions, but here…think Cheesecake Factory sized everything! Also, they are so friendly and nice. They also remember you when you go back!

We came here twice, before we found the Chinese food, and the rice and scampi cream is delicious! I recommend it highly, but I also advise you to share!! Trust me on this.

The first night we came, our waiter (who was super cool, by the way) gave us these little fried disks (pictured above) that are made of pumpkin flour! Inside is cheese and vegetables and they are so so good.

That concludes winter break!! I might write a short post about our London blitz.
Bye for now!
love, marissa

Florence

On Friday we went to Florence!! I'm writing this now because I was too tired to do anything when we returned to Rome. 

We took a high speed train (up to 300 km/hr!) to Florence on TrenItalia. It was really convenient because a major train station, Roma Termini, also connects you to the metro. We hopped on the metro, got off at Termini, and walked to the platform for the high speed trains. It took about one and a half hours to get to Florence.

Florence is really charming. In Rome, things look more modernized as you get farther away from Old Rome, but Florence has consistency. Small, narrow cobbled streets and old architecture all the way! 

We went to the Gallerie dell'Accademia first, and naturally we got lost on the way there. Luckily we made it there on time for our ticket reservation!
Travel Tip
You can book tickets with specific time slots for the museums! We did this for the Gallerie dell'Accademia and the Galleria degli Uffizi. You can also buy tickets when you get there, but the line is so, so long. If you buy tickets in advance, you can basically skip the line. Kids under 18 are free, but make sure you have a passport or other official proof of identification!!
Accademia: http://www.accademia.org/buy-tickets/
Uffizi: http://www.uffizi.org/buy-tickets/

The reason I dragged everyone to these museums was Michelangelo's David (Accademia) and Botticelli's Birth of Venus (Uffizi). I also unexpectedly ran into Bronzino's (Renaissance) Deposition of Christ, Raphael's (Renaissance master, held up in the ranks with Michelangelo, Titian and Leonardo) Madonna and Child and Permagianino's Madonna and Child (he painted in the Mannerist style, at the end of the high Renaissance). This was really awesome because I learned about all of these works in Art History last year!!!!! I almost missed some of the works because I didn't realize that the Uffizi gallery had artwork on the first floor! But on our way to exit we had to walk through all these rooms, and voila!

So after the Accademia, whose main attraction was Michelangelo's David, we walked literally down the street and smack into Il Duomo! 

The dome was designed in the early Florentine Renaissance by Filippo Brunelleschi. He had lost out on the competition to design the doors of the Florence baptistery (which is right across from the Florence Cathedral) and ended up working on the dome instead. He studied a lot of classical (Roman/Greek) architecture like the Pantheon to create the dome. It really is magnificent, and the façade of the cathedral is something to marvel at as well. I felt so small compared to everything but it made it so breathtaking.

At Il Duomo, we met my grandfather's friend for lunch. She took us to this huge indoor food market, where you can find all types of food. 

Syd and I shared a Margherita pizza. The market is called Mercato Central, and it is behind the Church of San Lorenzo. Make sure you have Euros, as not all of the vendors take credit cards!

We went to the Uffizi gallery after lunch, and besides seeing the artworks I described above, the view is also amazing! 

You can see Ponte Vecchio from the second story of the gallery. Ponte Vecchio is the oldest bridge in Florence, I believe, as well as the only one to survive World War II. The rest were destroyed. Also, don't shop on the bridge! Everything is really overpriced. The best thing is to get a photo of it! The Uffizi gallery is the perfect place to do that!

Florence is famous for its leather goods, so naturally, I had to go look around! I learned that leather is just anything that is an animal skin. Cow, buffalo, rabbit...I even saw a python bag. In Helen's words, it was grody. For those of you who have not had the privilege of a Helen vocabulary session, it's a cross between "gross" and "disgusting" and is my word of choice to describe python bags. No offense to python-bag lovers. We can still be friends. The shop I went to is called Sabani, the address is Piazza San Lorenzo, 13/r-50123, Firenze, Italy. It has a leather workshop in the back if the store! 

I'm writing about Naples next!
Love, marissa