When in Rome…and other Italian cities…

The AISE 8^th grade students took an 8 day trip to Italy from May 1^st to 8^th. It was AMAZING! I really liked this trip a lot. It was fun and I got to see a lot of neat monuments as well as the Vatican Museum and the famous School of Athens painting, which we learned about in class. That (surprisingly) made it even cooler to see. Here’s a basic idea of how we were all over the place: The first day we traveled to Rome on a 3-hour plane trip, then went 3 more hours by bus to Florence. On the third day, we took another 3-hour bus ride back to Rome. After that, on the sixth day, we took yet another one hundred and eighty minutes trip to Naples, where we traveled further to the scenic island of Capri.

Early on the last day, we took another ten thousand eight hundred seconds to get back to Rome, on a plane, and by sunset we were back home. I’ll also talk all about the hotels, food, monuments, and any other noteworthy experiences I shared with my peers. Of course, this is a brief description of our travels. Now for all the interesting details!

The first night we arrived at our hotel in Florence, and because of maintenance issues, we were forced to room in groups of three instead of two. I didn’t have to, as my new roommate and I were the odd ones out. About this hotel in Florence…I hated it! It was awful on its own with no AC, dusty wooden floors, itchy bed covers, white tile floors outside the room, slow elevators, cramped rooms, not free WI-Fi, and more, but in comparison to the other hotels? It was an abandoned hospital! I have decided not to include the name, but choose to nickname it for now as ‘Felta Dlorence’. In this hotel, the food was halfway decent, but little did we know of what was to come! We had pasta, chicken, and potatoes, and it would not be the last time we’d see it! On night three, we went to our hotel in Rome. Put simply, it was the best hotel I have ever stayed at. EVER! The rooms were huge, the beds were big and soft, the elevators came quick and were efficient, the breakfast and dinner room was spacious, there was free WI-Fi, and so much more that was wonderful. If anything, Capannelle would be the reason I’d come back to Italy! The last hotel we stayed at…wasn’t the best. We stayed at the ‘Ioliday Hinn’ In Naples. There was Wi-Fi and the beds were nice. There was even a very comfortable AC and nice, clean bathrooms. I’d have to say that the biggest problem was the elevators. Say you were on floor five. You call the elevator from -2. The elevator goes up – passes five – up to ten. You call it again. It comes down – passes five again – and goes to three. It was like the elevator hated you or something! It was absolutely ridiculous! The ‘Ioliday Hinn’ was the last hotel we stayed at. My rankings: #1 – Capannelle, #2 – Ioliday Hinn, #3 – Felta Dlorence. I leave you with that.

The next thing I would like to reflect upon was the food, and honestly there isn’t much I can work with! For the majority of the nights, we had pasta for an appetizer, then chicken and some form of potatoes as a main course, and it we made it far enough to dessert, we had Tiramisu or fruit salad. I didn’t mind the pasta or fruits so much, but the constant chicken and potatoes, chicken and French fries, chicken and potato wedges! Ugggh! It was (eventually) disgusting! How do the Italians stay so thin with so many carbs in their diets? No vegetables either! *Sigh* I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that’s not all they eat. Which might actually be true! One night, the teachers took us out for bowling and we had this foreign food, which our mouths hadn’t had the pleasure of tasting for days: pizza. It was a wonderful change from the usual routine…I’m so sick of it I’m not even going to name the three food types…chicken, potatoes, pasta K DARN IT! I said them. Anyway, I want to talk about what we had for dinner on one of the nights in Naples. Turkey meatballs – they were really good! They were probably the best type of protein I had the pleasure of tasting the whole trip! They were like really big beef meatballs, but with more saucy flavor. The final nice dinner I want to talk about was the last dinner we had in Italy. Apparently, it was suppose to be pork chops. Yes, pork chops! Thank you, Italians, for attempting to serve us one of the only proteins we aren’t allowed to eat! Before the pork got to the students, the teachers sent it back and the chefs prepared a whole new meal for us: salmon. I love seafood – Especially salmon. It was a wonderful change of diet! On that night, a miracle happened – they brought us a small salad! That was probably one of the best meals I had on the whole trip!

Now, for something more people can relate to: Italy’s monuments! There was a lot to see in Italy, like the Vatican, the Tower of Pisa, and the Amphitheatre! One of the things we saw was the Spanish Steps, and I must say: Are there enough flowers there? I think you might be able to fit some more…nowhere. This was the biggest collection of bright flowers that weren’t in a garden I’ve ever seen! But, after a long day, walking up them is not something I’d recommend. Believe me, I know – I’ve been forced to do it to get to the bus, which by the way, we had to wait at least ten minutes for. We also saw the St. Peters Basilica. It was really pretty. There was a big skylight or something that let sparkling sunlight flood the room. I didn’t mind that it was a little dusty in there because it just made the sunlight coming through the roof even prettier! JJJ! The Vatican was another thing we visited. It was really hot with no ACs! We as a group elbowed our way through large groups of tourists in order to see the different art pieces in each room. Like I said before, we even got to go to see the School of Athens! It was so lifelike! How could someone have the skill to pain it? And there was so much meaning behind it (trust me on this), it was just really neat to see in real life. We went to the Sistine Chapel after that, where there was the most annoying loudspeaker message EVER: ‘Shhhhhhhhhhh! (louder than everyone in the supposed-to-be-silent Chapel) Silencio! Please remain silent! No photos!’ It played every five minutes! That place was cooler for some reason – maybe because everyone wasn’t talking and blasting a combo of hot air and bad breath into the room. Ew. Anyway, we went to the huge Amphitheater, too. In it were many gladiator battles and people vs animal fights for entertainment. Not now, mind you, hundreds of years ago. Currently, a huge chunk of it is destroyed, leaving it looking like a broken football stadium. I learned that day that it was built with no cement whatsoever! Isn’t that cool? I left my favorite monument for last: The Leaning Tower of Pisa. It’s leaning because it was built on uneven ground. Naturally, everyone took optical illusion pictures of holding up the leaning tower. I put up my hand to make it look like it was lying in the palm of my hand. It’s such a neat thing to see! You can’t help but wonder how it hasn’t fallen over yet – but I’m pretty sure it will…given time.

I loved seeing all the monuments and stuff, but I really loved shopping! Don’t judge I just did. I wasn’t the only one either. I loved buying souvenirs, like mini Towers of Pisa, Capri magnets, umbrellas with all the famous cities, fans with the same theme and a whole lot more! Other than that, I’d have to say my favorite place in all of Italy to visit was Capri! It was beautiful. Four students, including me, took an hour long boat tour around the island where we saw statues, birds, mountains, houses, goats, etc.

I even found a cat-themed shop! And a cat! Both very adorable and admired by a cat-person like myself. You could literally take a picture anywhere and it would come out amazing. I couldn’t see a downside to this place…other than the fact that I got bored after a few hours…

Overall, this trip was amazing, and if I could recommend it to a friend, I would (but bring your own vegetables!). Out of 10, I give it an 8.5, for purposes you may see above. I really liked this trip, and other than the things I mentioned before, the one thing I didn’t really like was that I was away from home for too long. Other than that, it was perfect! I want to go to Italy again, for sure! But next time, with my family. That would be the perfect trip J!