After an intense week of studying for my finals here in Sweden, I was finally headed for much needed week get away. I’ve spent the last week studying 10-12 hours a day or writing one of the four essay I have due for another class. To say I was stressed is an understatement but I have finally gotten everything done and I’m ready for the next adventure.
March 20th: When in Rome
For the past two months Tyler and I had been planning our week long adventures in Italy and finally I was on a flight to Rome! Our plan was Rome to Naples to Florence in seven days. After one hellish 36 hour day of travel for Tyler and only a 2 hour flight for me, we were finally together again and ready to eat our hearts out with pizza and pasta and explore these beautiful cities. We were lucky enough to have an amazing restaurant right across the street from our hotel, so we were quick to get stuffed on pizza and pasta. We spent the rest of the night with a couple (or five) scoops of gelato and soaking in the beauty of a night in Rome.
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| First dinner in Rome |
For our first day in Rome we had planned to do a tour of the Vatican, but we didn’t read the fine print. We were both so excited for the beautiful weather in Rome, but shorts were a bad choice (cough cough, Tyler). No knees and no shoulders can be showing while there which we learned quickly from the tour guides shouting at us by the Vatican. So slight set back, but we just switched our days and still got to see the best of Rome.
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| The Colosseum |
We spent about 3 hours wondering the Roman Forum, trying to pick oranges from the garden, and just truly getting lost. I can’t even begin to explain how big this place is. Three hours later and I still don’t think we saw every thing.
After a solid 5 hours of walking through the Colosseum and the Roman Forum our growling stomach were starting to draw attention so next stop, PASTA! We didn’t know what we were ordering because the menu was completely in Italian so we just pointed to something and said “that”. It turned out better than we expected.
We continued our day full of sight seeing at the top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument and then of course the Trevi Fountain to make a wish.
March 22nd: Vatican round two
So we tried our tour again at The Vatican, now with knees covered, and it was amazing. The history and the beauty built into every room, in every building is just breath taking. At points its overwhelming to try to wrap your head around the epic history of this church but its truly amazing. Sadly we didn’t get to meet the pope, but I found some pretty great graffiti in the subway to make up for it.
Next stop was lunch by the Pantheon, gelato at the Spanish Steps (which were under construction☹️), golf carting around a garden with beautiful views of Rome every way you looked, and seeing the Saint John Lateran Basilica.
Basically every meal we ate looked like these pizzas; spilt down the middle so we could get the best of both worlds.
*side note* our on-going joke for the next three nights started with our last meal in Rome. I ended up with a “full animal” in my plate for the next three dinners I ate.
March 23-24: That pizza tho & the windy city
Going to eat at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele is reason enough to make the trip down south to Naples and I’m so glad we did. If you’ve read Eat, Pray, Love, she describes how she is having a relationship with her pizza and I felt the same way. The deliciousness of this pizza was worth standing in the rain for 30 minutes before we could get seated. There were only two options, margarita and neapolitan. We ordered one of each and could barley take a picture of it before we had our knifes in it. You could just taste how fresh all of the ingredients were. Best meal of my life hands down.
Here we had pizza with a view and cool lemon slush drink to greet us after that uphill walk. Capri is known for its lemons and Lemonchello so some type of lemon drink was a must. We wandered into the expensive brand stores in the town center and took the smallest bus I’ve ever been on down to the shoreline again. From here we climbed on the rocks that jutted out into the ocean and enjoyed the view of Faraglioni and the bright blue waters surrounding us.
March 25th-26th: Wine & Cheese & Meat, REPEAT
Our last stop was the beautiful city of Florence. Our first order of business the moment we got into the city was to go to this famous sandwich shop called “All’antico Vinaio”. It has two store fronts facing each other and a line down the street for both. If you’ve seen the episode of Seinfled with the soup nazi, this is comparable. You need to know what you want or you just say “make me something good” (pictured below with the fake Statue of David).
We spent our day wondering in and out of the stores throughout Florence and stopping when the gelato was just screaming for us to eat it. We didn’t go into the giant chapel in the center of the city (cuz line) but we did go into the beautiful Medici chapel. We ended up going back to the restaurant side of the sandwich shop for the most amazing charcuterie plate EVER. I just couldn’t get over beautiful and delicious the meat was.
We had an epic last meal at Trattoria Omero. It was at the top of a hill with a beautiful look out of Florence. We indulged our selves in all four courses; cheese plate, pasta, meats, and obviously dessert. All washed down with, of course, a Chianti Classico wine.
Safe to say Tyler and I will definitely be back in Italy one day. One week was not nearly enough for us to take in everything but I feel so lucky that we got to spend our spring break exploring this beautiful country.
Italy will forever have a {pizza} my heart
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Read more from Anna at https://annatakessweden.wordpress.com/
Read more about the U of A exchange program with Jönköping University's School of Business at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/exchange/wcobjibs
Read more from Anna at https://annatakessweden.wordpress.com/
Read more about the U of A exchange program with Jönköping University's School of Business at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/exchange/wcobjibs
