{stepping off the plane in roma}
I left last Saturday morning for Rome with Olivia, where we joined forces with my LOVELY BU friends Jessica Webb(ica) and Steph Hue. First of all, it must be said that our hostel, called Alice in Wonderland, turned out to be the cutest bed and breakfast ever! Olivia and I shared a room, as did Jess and Steph, and there were only two other small rooms of guests. Carmen, the caretaker of the establishment, prepared an extensive European breakfast for us each morning, complete with cheese, pastries, yogurt, cereal and FRESH ITALIAN COFFEE. That's the life right there.
{the colosseum at night}
When we all finally got settled in our rooms on Saturday night, we headed into Rome on foot, past the Colosseum and down to the Trevi Fountain, where we found a wonderful Italian dinner at Il Chianti and the first of many, many gelatos.
{il quattro gelati}
{jumping pic at the colosseum, obv}
The next day, Sunday, was unbelievably gorgeous, and we headed out fairly early and started our day with a tour of the Colosseum. Entrance turned out to be free for ladies that day on account of Monday's national women's day in Italy. Score! We took lots of fabulous pictures and even ran into some guys from my Paris program. Colosseum was followed by lunch al fresco, where we discovered the joy of heavily baked artichoke on rustic bread as well as real Italian bruschetta and caprese salad. We spent the rest of the day bopping in and out of stores, checking out such historical monuments as the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps, where we saw some guys get chased down by the polizia and spotted a local celeb taking photos with Asian tourists.
{veuve clicquot and our drunk norwegian friend}
For dinner, we headed back to the Pantheon for what we thought would be a peaceful Roman dinner. Oh we were wrong. Of course we sat next to a table of drunk 30-something European men and were eventually joined by one of them, Ivan, a Norwegian, who consistently asked us if we were okay and then told us to "shut the fuck up!" It was actually the funniest meal I've ever had out, and was made all the better when Ivan ordered us three bottles of expensive Veuve Clicquot champagne. When we were finally able to shrug off Ivan and his friend and were quite tipsy, we paid our bill and ran into the closest gelateria for dessert and embarrassing dancing inside the shop.
{first drink as a 21-year-old!}
Afterwards, we hopped on the bus back to Alice and Wonderland and searched around our neighborhood for some Prosecco to pop at midnight for my 21st! Luckily, a local pizzeria was open and we able to get two bottles there. Great success! Midnight was celebrated with said Prosecco and a pastry from our breakfast table.
{birthday photo shoot!!}
Monday, my BIRTHDAYYYY, we again woke up relatively early, ate breakfast, and made our way into the city of Rome once more. Another perfect, warm, sunny day! After stopping for a photo shoot on the flowery lawn of the nearest church (complete with sexy model poses and jumping shots), we walked to San Pietro in Vincoli, a church with a huuuge statue of my man Moses. Afterwards, we got lost on the tiny, beautiful streets of Rome looking for Nike Dunks for Olivia. That mission was not very successful, but we did find the BEST vintage store along the way, where I bought amazing round, tortoise shell sunglasses and a navy chain-link strap purse. Olivia and Jess also left the store with some pretty great finds. Next, we headed to the Sinagoga which is located right along the river in the old Jewish neighborhood. Jess and I got a tour of the museum inside the synagogue while Olivia and Steph sat outside in the sun.
{view of rome from the top of saint peter's basilica}
When we finished, the four of us hopped on a bus to Vatican City where we grabbed some lunch and climbed to the top of Saint Peter's Basilica. There, we saw the most stunning view of Rome and took more fabulous pictures. The best part, though, had to be our trek back down from the dome. Climbing down all those stair took a long time, so we made the trip less painful by singing such classics as NSync, Backstreet Boys and Journey. The ladies walking in front of us were quite entertained, that's for sure.
{birthday tiramisu! the little orange candle holder is now on a string around
my wrist to remind me of my wonderful 21st birthday in roma!}
We then scrambled home to change into party dresses and get all prettied up for my birthday dinner. We found a great restaurant in Piazza Navona called Dolce Vita and were served by a gorgy older man waiter named Michaelo who LOVED us. The restaurant, it turns out, is named Dolce Vita after the old movie from which originates the word "paparazzi," as the film's director lives just next door to the restaurant. Cool, huh? We then went into Campo de Fiori to find some night life and could only find very American or very Italian bars. We spent significant time at a bar called Sloppy Sam's (obviously American) and stopped into another called Bloom, where we spied about half of BU and ran in the opposite direction. I prefer anonymity in Europe, frankly. We ended up settling in some rando, semishady bar for a last birthday drink before heading back to our beloved Alice.
{secret bakery spies, we come prepared with trench coats}
The next day we took our time getting to Florence, settling on an afternoon train. When we got to Florence, the four of us went to dinner with Jess's friend Rachel, who is studying in Florence, and then to a hipster, American lounge called Angie's, followed by late-night dessert from one of Florence's "secret bakeries," who illegally sell chocolate and cream pastries in the middle of the night to drunk youngsters.
{view of florence}
The next two days in Florence were a bit of a blur of rain, cold, and lots of walking. Olivia and I were pretty much on our own in Florence, as Jess and Steph were staying the rest of the week with Rachel and were taking their time to do everything, whereas O and I had to cram everything into two days. We did two morning walking tours provided by our hostel, Hostel Archi Rossi, explored the Uffizi Gallery and the Accedemia, window shopped at jewelry stores on Ponte Vecchio, took a tour of the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum and ate more gelato. Olivia and I also took the time to shop at Florence's array of designer boutiques and bought ourselves little designer goodies (don't forget, it was just my birthday!!). O got a little carnation pink patent leather cardholder keychain with a matching patent bow on it from Miu Miu. I saw a fat multi-colored neon braided rope bracelet in the Furla window and knew that it had to be mine...and mine it became! It was way to fabulous to turn down and I had yet to buy myself a birthday present.
{ferragamo!}
Our Florence excursion ended with a night of food, drink and talking about food and drink with my friend Tess Gittleman, a friend from BU and cooking student this semester in Florence, who met us for a free wine tasting in the basement of a food and wine shop by the Duomo. She then took us to her favorite gourmet Italian food store, where I bought some delectable groceries for myself and some gifts for my mom. We then convinced Tess to drop a few unnecessary Euros and join us for dinner at what ended up being our best meal in Italy at a little family-run restaurant called Osteria da Ganino. If you're ever in Florence, GO TO THIS RESTAURANT! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We started our meal with fried artichoke hearts and traditional white beans in olive oil. I really wanted to try the fried zucchini flowers as well, but we can't get carried away now. Dinner was homemade flat, fat, long noodles (was it Tagliatelle or Papardelle?). Mine was covered in the most amazing butter sage sauce and tons of fresh parmesan, while Olivia's was mixed with mushrooms and truffles. Tess, ever the adventurous eater, had a plate of fresh tripe. She said it was excellent, but I can't really comment on that. As usual, dinner was followed by gelato, the best we'd had in Florence, at a gelateria also recommended to us by Tess. YUMYUMYUMMM!
{ciao venezia!}
Friday morning, Olivia and I left Florence for our honeymoon weekend in Venice, where we stayed the night in a deluxe room at the gorgeous Hotel Santa Marina. Friday evening was quite chilly, but, as usual, that didn't stop us. We took a gondola ride, walked around San Marco Square and along the water, stopped at Harry's Bar, the place famous for creating the bellini, to try the famed beverage and gorge ourselves on the free olives, found the best gelato in Venice (a place called Suso) and went out for our last dinner in Italy. We spent the rest of our night in bed, drinking Prosecco and watching French television.
{pretty view of a canal}
Yesterday morning, we woke up early to catch the hotel's free buffet breakfast and went on a tour of the Murano glass factory, which was also included with our stay at the Hotel Santa Marina. Very cool experience! And the island of Murano is adorable!! We then took a watertaxi to the neighborhood surrounding the old Jewish ghetto--the first Jewish ghetto!--which was by far, my favorite neighborhood in Italy. It located, like the rest of Venice, along the canals, with old, crumbling buildings, an amazing produce market where I picked up fresh sun-dried tomatoes, Kosher restaurants, lots of people, and, of course, the ghetto. It was Shabbat and we spotted lots of Jews walking around in the sun and enjoying Shabbat lunch all together. Had I been in proper Shabbat attire, I might have popped in to join them. But we settled on trying Kosher cookies from a local bakery instead. After a lunch of fresh pizza along the canal, we walked back towards our hotel, stopping at our favorite gelateria along the way for our last ice cream, and ended the trip by falling asleep on the couches of our hotel before running to the watertaxi that took us to Marco Polo airport.
I'd say that was a pretty solid recap of my Italian vacation. The best vacation I've had yet, as it truly felt like a vacation and not a scramble to see an entire place in a day and a half. Very relaxed. Very delicious. Full of jokes, laughs, and LOTS of great pictures! Be sure to check out the pics on Facebook, which will be posted by the four members of Il Quattro Gelati (aka Jess, Steph, Olivia and moi).
In other news, I start my internship at Women's Wear tomorrow!! Getting quite anxious about it all!!! Updates on that to come.
Also, my friend Rebecca Freilich is in town visiting Emily and me for the week, so I'm off to see her in a few!! The adventures never end!
Paix, Amour et Néon,
Marisa
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