Firenze and Roma

Florence is a fancy-looking city. It's beautiful, known for art, and considerably warmer than the 3 previous Italian cities we visited, so you know, I was happy. Mainly, we just walked around and took in the views, such as:

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Palazzo Vecchio

Lots of naked statues, lots of nude fighting. I know they were going for the whole human-body-beauty thing but every time I see naked people battling I think "it would be so impractical to be fighting naked and without armor." I know, I know, the point wasn't to be realistic. The statues are truly amazing to look at.

We didn't have much time here and we opted to take a day trip to Lucca on one of our 3 days. Joel and I are suckers for small towns, and Lucca did not disappoint. While most people online were underwhelmed by Lucca we enjoyed the fact that there isn't much to see. Small towns make us slow down, stroll, and take our time. Walking the old city walls that are tree-lined was just really fulfilling.

This is how we happened upon the best gelato I have ever had in my life. The gelato was just on the next level, blowing other gelatos out of the water. The lady that worked there happily told us that all the gelato was made in house, clearly, this is the secret ingredient.

We also climbed up to the top of this stunning tree topped tower:

I have lots of out-take photos with Joel's face, fingers, and hands because Joel thinks it's hilarious to photo bomb me, see below:

...And now, onward to Rome...some theme music to get you in the mood (this song played in both of our heads for our entire week in Rome)



Rome was pretty wowzers. Thank you, Emily Spiegel, for the great Rome recommendations including the best pizza we had in Italy. What we loved about Rome is that it's this bustling city with amazing sites but 5 minutes from where the locals live, it's not all just tourists or vendors like some cities. Of course, the touristic sites are overrun with tourists, even in December (I can't even fathom what madness ensues in summer time). We took way too many photos at the Coliseum and the Forum and learned more about how violent humans are. Really though, they would let lions, rhinos, elephants, bears, etc. loose with some gladiators to entertain. I think that were I a Roman back then I would not have attended since I cannot bear to watch UFC fighting either.

San Paolo fuori le Mura a.k.a. Saint Paul's Outside the Walls

This cathedral has photos of each Pope and some believe that when space runs out, the end times are here...they're almost out of space!

Rome has a little bit of everything: neighborhoods with character, street art, lots of ancient things, river view. I'll let the pictures speak for me.

Garbatella neighborhood

Garbatella neighborhood

Tiber River

Tiber through the trees

The Smallest Country- Vatican City

In case you ever want to visit somewhere more crowded than the Louvre, go visit the Vatican the day before a Catholic holiday. We got to check out the world's smallest country after waiting almost 2 hours in line to get in. Lesson learned, buy the tickets online. The Vatican is pretty much a cathedral along with a few museums (of Louvre quality). One of my favorite parts, sadly, not pictured, was a signed Argentinian soccer jersey from all the men's national team. Pretty funny to see Messi sign a jersey for the Pope. Below see Vatican decadence:

not actually in the Vatican, but just around the corner from it

And so our visit to Italy comes to an end. Some parting thoughts...
-I enjoyed speaking Spanish while the other person spoke Italian and we understood each other. (However, Joel read that this is considered rude.)
- Pizza is cheap everywhere and WAY better quality than the cheap pizza in the U.S., but I'm happy to report that California holds its own when it comes to good pizza.
-I should have eaten more gelato.
-Fresh pasta, yummmmmm
-If I had to live in Europe, Rome would be one of my top picks.
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more Rome & Vatican pictures

My Bologna has a first name it's U-N-D-E-R-R-A-T-E-D

We saw a ton of fascinating things in Bologna - a city that I was very much taken with (so it's going to be an extra long post). It's a very old college town, one of the oldest in the world in fact. Its college -the University of Bologna- dates back to around 1088, which is the oldest continuously operating university in the world. So Bologna is an amazing mix of beautiful historic buildings and young vibrant culture. And let me tell you this college has a ton of very old, very amazing and very bizarre things that we got to check out. Here's one example of an ordinary university hallway that is filled with hundreds of human skulls (this picture only shows one side of one part of the long hallway, but both sides are much longer than this picture conveys):

Another amazing example comes from their collection of anatomical wax models, which the University of Bologna pioneered the use of as medical teaching tools in the 18th century. There were artists dedicated to creating these wax models of body parts on which students could better understand human anatomy, practice procedures, and medical anomalies. Many of these wax models consist of wax applied to real human bones.

Museum of Palazzo Poggi

Museum of Palazzo Poggi

Museum of Palazzo Poggi

Museum of the Anatomy Institute

Museum of the Anatomy Institute

Museum of the Anatomy Institute

And everyone's favorite, the albino mullet:

Museum of the Anatomy Institute

We can take a break from the gruesome for a moment and see some sights of the beautiful city. Here are the Two Towers, which are also known as the Kissing Towers since they lean towards each other.

You can climb up to the top of the tall one (Asinelli Tower), which we did and got some great views of the city:

And here's part of the stairway up:

Bologna used to have several canals, but with the automobile most were built over or covered up, but there are still a few that you can discover. This one is the most famous and can be viewed through a window from the street:

And here's the same canal the next day, all dried up:

Bologna is also famous for its porticos, many of which were built to create extra housing for its growing student population. They attached these covered walkways to the front of buildings and and them were wide enough for a horse and cart to fit through, and then built that student housing above it. Now they are beautiful covered sidewalks.

And here is Bologna's famous (and surprisingly erotic) statue of Neptune:

We also saw a fair amount of amazing churches. The Basilica of Santo Stefano consists of seven different churches in one - the oldest church was built in the the 8th century and the other six were attached over the next several centuries.

But the most amazing experience came on our last day. One of the things I wanted to see most in Bologna was the 500 year old mummified relic of a nun turned saint, Saint Catherine. Her mummified remains sit upright on a golden throne and in full nun garb behind a closed door in a Bologna church. We tried to go one day but the hours we read online were incorrect and the viewing of the saint was closed. So on our last day we woke up early to visit this mummified nun before we caught our bus out of town. You enter the church and then to the left there is a locked door with a doorbell. You ring the doorbell and a nun hidden from view has to buzz you into the room with Saint Catherine. So we ring the bell, get let in and there are 7 or 8 old Italian woman glaring at us, but there she was: the mummified Saint Catherine! I can't explain it, but holy holy! What a sight! JJ didn't feel this, but for me it was one of the most memorable things I've seen. For being 500 years old, dead, buried, and then dug out of the ground Saint Catherine was looking pretty good. So good that we were skeptical that it was actually legit, but the internet tells us that it is! Supposedly her mummified skin was turned black by the centuries of candle, which is said to make her extra holy and certainly adds to her grace and aura. I wanted to take a picture so bad, but didn't dare. It would have been a shitty thing to do with all of those woman glaring/praying, but lucky there are plenty of pictures online:

[from jakyl32]

[from Debra Kolkka]

The room was small and full of people that are actually praying, so we spend a few minutes admiring the Saint, the room, and its relics and then go to leave. But the door is locked. We are trapped. We turn back into the room where one of the women whispers something in Italian to me, which I didn't catch any of, but like an idiot I nod and then just stand there waiting for something to happen. The thought that us two sinners are being punished crosses my mind a few times until we glimmer some hope of escaping when one of the glaring/praying women gets up to leave. More Italian is spoken, which neither of us catch any of (usually we [ie Janet] can catch some of it because it's so similar to Spanish). We stand in anticipation, looking towards Saint Catherine for help. Eventually the woman bangs on the window and a few minutes later a nun buzzes her out and we quickly follow.

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Bologna pics on our flick