Chapter 1 - Bergamo, Milan, Chapter 2 - Rome

Hola Todos,

Chapter 1 of my Semana Santa saga has arrived, so here goes. Two Thursdays ago, I hopped a flight to Milan(Orio al Serio) airport with my friend Ryan. The flight was cake. I was excited for all that lay ahead, and as it usually tends to be, when you're excited for something, the time seems to pass just that much quicker. After an hour bus ride from Bergamo to Milan (Yes, RyanAir enjoys having you fly to budget airports that happen to share the same airport name, but are in reality at least one hour away by bus). I finally reached destination number one when I arrived at Milan train station. It was a chilly, rainy evening, but that did little to dampen my spirits. Ryan met a Gtown friend of his at the station, and we said our goodbyes. I was going to Rome; he was going to stay in Milan for a couple nights before heading to Venice, where after we would meet in Florence. Anyway, I had severely underestimated the amount of time it would take me to arrive in Milan, so I had about 3 hours to burn. With a densely packed bag of clothes a backpack slung across my back, and the rain continuing to fall outside, I was in no condition to explore any new neighborhoods. The train station was my new barrio, and it was my intention to explore the area to its fullest. A couple nuggets from my extended stay there until my 10 o'clock train.

- the waiting area was a bit of a circus. Birds flying all over the room, the seating area was filled with what seemed to me multiple church pews, a loud drunk African man yelling in as many languages as he could speak, loud Italian men, also drinking, yelling at him to shut up

- I'd never paid for a bathroom in my life, but sure enough, I headed downstairs to the banos, and there was a 1 euro fee. When you got to go, you go.

Finally, it was time to board the train, and after the night passage of about 8 hours, I was in Rome.

Chapter 2

I arrived around 7:30 in the morning, and my first task involved finding my friend Nick at his hostel in the city. I had understood that he was actually staying in a hostel that was located on the same street as the one we were to stay in for the next couple days. I had understood that. What I realized after texting him "Afuera" (Outside), was that I had arrived at 13 Via Palermo. He then informed me that in fact, it was not 13 Via Palermo, but 13 Via Palestro. Ahh, a bit of a mix up on my part to start the trip, but I recovered and wandered the city a bit more before finding him. Our adventure began with us back tracking to our hostel (which I had mistakenly found on Palermo earlier jaja). We threw our stuff down, and began to attack the city like a shrimp on a plankton. I figure the best way to chronicle Rome is to break it down into a "best of" kinda deal.

- Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel - goes without saying, breathtaking, stunning, overwhelming, almost too much at times for me to focus on. Michelangelo's work is not only shockingly good, but it's also just but a piece of all the art that is present in that museum. There is a colossosal amount of artwork in that place( an incredible portion dedicated to scultures). The Last Judgement was obviously the highlight (the room was set up like a rectangular dining hall, only natural light entered, and the room was full of people with heads staring upwards)

- Absurd Meals (I am lucky to have found a traveler with a similiar mindset as me in regards to searching for restaurants.) It's about getting way off the beaten path, sometimes way way off. Like wandering for 45 minutes off the map south of Circus Maximus ala Matt George style, deep, deep into residential streets, before finding a gem. The test: do they speak good english? at this place...the answer was hell no. the food was unconsious and I ate the best caprese salad of my life. Same went for later on Saturday night. Dined on rigatoni with a lucious meat sauce in the neighborhood of Trastevre in the south of the city. Desert: chocolate mousse only gods should be allowed to eat. The creator: an older very very Italian woman working as the solo cook in this small establishment deep within the maze of streets in that area.

- Sunday we saw Saint Peter's Basilica, and I have to say that this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Nick and I climbed to very top of the dome, where we shot a video especially aimed at Matt, Blair, and Phil. It's attached to the blog. But, on a serious note, it was really special for me as a Catholic to make the pilgrimmage to the Basilica. It was a surreal experience being able to walk where so many holy individuals have.

- Finally, on our last meal, we decided to conserve money by finding a local grocery store to put together a potluck dinner. Our coup: a old, old man, running a tiny tiny food store right off a major piazza. Let me just say the man's movements were precise, and meant not to exert an overly large amount of energy. He was meticulous in his calculations of our bill, and as Nick put it "He became disenchanted with the cash register, and decided it best to do his math on the side of a paper bag to tally our purchases." We only ended up purchasing fruit from our friend, but we combined that with sundried tomato and mozzarrella cheese pizza and a silky succulent cannoli to form a pretty rediculous meal.

Well, that was more or less Rome. I hope I gave you all a window into my experience. I'll be back with more shortly.

Ciao bella,

B

Pics

1- Gladiator helmets near St.Pete's

2- Trevi Fountain

3- Pantheon

4- Hercules statue

5- Foro