Emily vs. Italy: Round 4 (a burial of hatchets and an exchange of olive branches)

The times we had

oh, when the wind would blow with rain and snow

were not all bad

we put our feet just where they had, had to go

-- "Postcards from Italy", Beirut 

I've had some rough experiences while traveling in Italy. Hot take: I don't really like Italian cities that much. I don't know, maybe it's my contrarian streak coming out but during my visits there I found them somewhat overrated. It doesn't help that my former visit was composed entirely of staying in large Italian cities at the height of summer which were packed with tourists. So I probably came into this trip with a bias.

My exceptionally generous parents flew me to Italy to join them for one leg of their anniversary trip around Italy. I met them in Rome and together we traveled through Pisa to the smaller, quieter city of Lucca before arriving in Florence, from where I returned to Hungary and they continued on northward. It was a very happy reunion as it had been almost a year since I'd left for Kosovo. Between my mental health and my parents' physical health, I think we were all grateful for the chance to reunite and catch up for a little while. After landing in the airport like an hour away from Rome (ah, the joys of flying budget airlines!) and taking the airport shuttle into the city center my parents and I struggled for a couple hours to meet up as I fruitlessly searched for free wifi in Rome and our lines continually got crossed. Finally I headed to the neighborhood they were staying in and parked myself, taking the Mohammad/Mountain approach to things and eventually we found each other. On our first evening we walked to the Colosseum and got some food, and just generally relaxed and caught up.


This was a pretty good welcome, Italy. Thanks.

Attempting to take a selfie photo starring my mother's thumb.

The remains of the Forum.

On our first full day together in Italy we traveled a little bit outside Rome to visit Ostia Antica, a really fascinating ruin of the ancient harbor of Rome. It was established some time around the 4th century BC, and considering that it is truly amazing how well-preserved how many of the buildings, mosaics and statues are within the city.


The light-rail train we took from Rome to get to the modern suburb of Ostia Antica. It's like a 10 minute walk from the stop to get to the park wherein lies the ancient city and it's clearly marked once you exit the train station. Would recommend.

Looking down at the massive mosaic-covered floor of the baths, which people cannot walk on but which can be seen from this elevated platform.

Parents looking great, not at all annoyed with my taking stealth photos of them.

Remains of a temple.

Just getting to know the locals.

As you walk farther into the city you get to areas that are less regulated where you can just wander into and out of the remains of old buildings, discovering treasures like an almost completely intact mosaic or a field of dandelions where there was once a building. Here are my parents canoodling while enjoy a mosaic floor that had been left completely unguarded.

Things that struck me while visiting this place: it's incredibly well preserved (and according to my mother who has visited Pompeii, a lot more accessible and less crowded), the city was obviously very well thought out and organized in its heyday, and the cafe within the museum is not too bad. It's easy to get to from Rome and walking around helped me understand more about ancient Rome than I ever got from Art History 101.

I was especially impressed and fascinating with the remains of the marketplace and again, how well organized even its remains are.

After returning to Rome we did some of Rick Steves' (who my mother loves and who was basically the patron saint of this trip) Heart of Rome walk. This included:

The Pantheon (the front is in the picture at the top of this post, you can see my parents gawking on the right).

Fruitlessly attempting to capture the incredible height and interior.

Now THIS is a front door.

Trevi Fountain.

The wild mass of tourists around Trevi Fountain.

The Fontana della Barcaccia and the Spanish Steps. They're there, under all the tourists.

The Altare della Patria, also known as the Il Vittoriano, a monument built in honor of Victor Emmanuel. Also early evening traffic. (That light though.)

And then it was dinner time!

The next day we braced ourselves for the onslaught and headed to the Vatican. Thankfully my parents had pre-ordered tickets so although it was insanely crowded (to the point of being kind of claustrophobic) we at least didn't wait very long to get inside. What really struck me as interesting is just how much pagan art the Vatican has claimed for itself when it seems like it should rightfully belong to the country of Italy or perhaps even the region where it was discovered. I mean cool that it's all gathered in one place for us to see but doesn't the Catholic Church have enough wealth without holding onto things that are not Christian?

The hall of maps, definitely my favorite part.

  

Interesting globe depicting the constellations. 

Afterwards we attempted to get inside St. Peters Basilica but the line was, no joke, a mile long and required having pre-ordered tickets so we opted for looking at it appreciatively from afar (a recurring theme in our trip) and then going to eat some gelato instead.

Drinking some coffee and people watching in Piazza Navona.

This was supposed to be a cappuccino I think, and it was buried under whipped cream. I suffered through drinking it, somehow. 

The next day we headed bright and early (like two-espresso early) for the train station, for our time in Rome had ended and it was time for us to move on. First we headed to Pisa for some afternoon sightseeing before continuing to our destination for the next couple days, Lucca.

After a peaceful and relaxing train ride, walking through the old town of Pisa. 

The mythical leaning tower, from every angle.

I feel like when you look at the based with people standing normally (aka vertically) next to it you can really see how crazy this building actually looks in person.

My mom had also really been looking forward to exploring the cathedral here but we were again thwarted and instead opted for loafing on the lawn, admiring from a distance for a while.

Then we hopped back on the train towards Lucca. Our dinners out in Rome and had been excessive and glorious in the best possible way but by the time we reached Lucca we were pretty tired so we bumbled around our neighborhood for a while looking for a local supermarket and when nothing in there looked particularly interesting I opted for Pizzeria Strapizzami, which was down the street from our apartment. This ended up being a great choice because it was a little mom and pop operation and their pizza was ridiculously good.

I also enjoyed their astrology/pizza themed takeaway box.

The beautiful Italian artichokes, apparently in season while we were visiting.

The next day my dad needed some more rest so my mom and I took the bikes our Airbnb host had left us out for a ride along the wall of Renaissance-era Lucca. This was hands down my actual favorite thing I did on the entire trip and it legitimately went a long way in redeeming Italy for me. It was peaceful, beautiful, interesting and fun. 10/10 would recommend.

More excellent selfies.

Later we walked over to the old part of town to explore a bit and later eat dinner. I saw a delicatessen named after me (basically) so pretty much I was sold on Lucca.

Walking around, looking at churches. This one, specifically, is the Lucca Cathedral or the Cathedral of Saint Martin.

Some kind of pre-Easter procession. My mom knew what was going on due to her Catholic upbringing, whereas I was like, hey! a parade!

The next day (Easter) we moved on to Florence. We spent the morning standing outside the Florence Cathedral or Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower waiting for the Scoppio del carro, literally, the "exploding of the cart". It was definitely impressive and although the crowd was oppressive and I had a few moments of anxiety I would say it was worth the experience of seeing... Once. Never again would I put myself through that though.

The calm before the insanity.

Here you can see the cart being rolled in and prepared to be lit the fuck up.

My favorite fellow crowd-goer (besides my parents, I guess), a very sweet dog named Tigre. Do I think his owners were idiots for bringing their down to such an insanely packed event? Yes. Was he well behaved the entire time? Hell yes. Was I grateful he was there to suffer with me? A thousand times yes.

Then the pyrotechnics began! Daytime fireworks are... not that impressive. But the sheer spectacle of this whole thing was still cool, especially when you consider how long they have been doing it for.

After a few minutes of fireworks...

Afterwards we spent about 20 minutes trying to get out of the cathedral area (along with everyone else) and after finally escaping we walked over to the Palazzo Vecchio (again, along with everyone else).

(I'm too lazy to flip this.)

We wandered around to look at the first courtyard, which was free! and also very beautiful. 

Took a quick detour inside the Dante Aligheri museum, allegedly his home in Florence. A lot of it was pretty hokey and a lot more about the local history (which, granted, was a very important part of his writing but not necessarily as fascinating for me as the man himself).

Very helpful infographic.

Then we decided on visiting only one more museum after the Dante house (I strongly advocated for no more than one, I'm a philistine I know) so we settled on the Bargello. It was a good choice because the building was basically a castle which is always fun, as was some of the stuff inside.

This guy gets it.

Skeletal cows, pooping. On a plate. That you eat off of? Cool.

The view from the cow-poop-plate room, over the roofs of Florence.

After we wandered some more, including exploring a market full of artisan food stalls where someone was selling some craft beer (yes of course I bought some, and no it did not survive my first week back in Hungary).

Finally we ate some dinner (which included truffle and olive oil pizza which I cannot recommend highly enough) and did one more loop of wandering before heading back to our apartment, and the next day I flew out of an airport that uses RyanAir... about an hour outside of Florence. Of course!

It was a great trip, though, much better than my last attempt to tourist my way through Italy and a lot less adversarial. I found myself really enjoying the country (especially the food) and I'm sure most of that has to do with being able to enjoy it with my parents. (Hi guys, I know you're probably reading this. Although I wonder, did you get all the way to the end of the blog post? If you did, email me the words "tripe sandwich". I'll have probably forgotten that I added this in here and be incredibly confused, it'll be great fun for all of us! Thanks again for taking me with you! You guys are the best!)