We don’t normally take family vacations abroad, but this one was well worth the travels.
Florence
It was so fun being able to experience some cities with my entire family. We stayed in Florence for 1 week, and wished it could have been longer. Florence itself is a very bustling city with narrow walkways and tall, colorful buildings. We saw the Duomo cathedral, visited local markets, viewed the statue of David, and found Galileo’s middle finger in a museum (that was my sister’s idea). It was pretty hot during our stay and the downtown streets were extremely crowded , which never helps the mood for sightseeing, but we definitely enjoyed Florence’s beautiful architecture and delicious food.
ITALIAN FOOD
I finally got to eat real Italian cuisine! And now for the review: The pizza is definitely better in Italy. You can tell the sauce is homemade and there is wayyy less grease. I am definitely a fan of Italian lasagna, which literally melted in my mouth, but honestly I like the way American pasta is cooked better than the Italian method. It’s slightly more chewy in Italy, but the sauce again is definitely homemade and slightly sweeter and not as dense as American Prego. While in Florence, I tried lasagna, spaghetti, and penne pastas. I never came across an American alfredo cheese sauce, their alfredo is more buttery, however they do have a cream sauce that is amazing, especially on seafood pasta. Of course, I had to try the garlic bread and it tastes very different. They make it with pure olive oil and garlic rather than butter, so it is definitely less salty than the American Texas Toast.
And, like true tourists, we had gelato every day of the trip, and it really is worth it. However, I had been given two ways to tell real gelato from the fake stuff. First, if it is piled high and fluffy in the display case, that means it’s been whipped and doesn’t melt as easily which probably means it’s not true gelato and you get less for your money. Second, if the colors are bright and unnatural such as blue or neon green, that obviously means they have been dyed and do not contain natural ingredients. I don’t know how much of a difference it makes, but I can say that all the places we tried followed these rules and were fantastic.
Overall, I was extremely happy with Italian cuisine, and I’m glad it differs from America so I can experience different ways of preparing the same dish. Although by the end of the trip, I was intensely craving a salad 🙂
Verona
Our second day of the trip, my sister, Anna, and I took a day trip to Verona. We are both Shakespeare lovers, so of course we had to see the city of Romeo and Juliet. It was kind of weird visiting places that didn’t actually exist such as Juliet’s tower, but it was fun to imagine we were in the story. Verona is a beautiful city, and I personally liked it more than Florence. We visited (and got lost in) a castle, tried delicious Nutella strawberries at a market, bought masquerade masks at said market (because Romeo and Juliet met at a masquerade ball), took a train ride around the city, went up in Juliet’s tower and visited the riverbank. I don’t know why I was so obsessed with the river that runs through Verona, but I could not get enough of it. There’s even a bridge (that took us a while to get to because we were lost in the castle) that you can walk on that overlooks the river and Verona. There are also steps so you can actually climb to the top of the bridge walls and the view is extraordinary. Verona is definitely a place I want to return to.
When in Rome…
We decided to do Rome in one day, and although I do not recommend, it actually worked out nicely. The Colosseum has always been what I pictured when thinking of Rome, but I never imagined how impactful it would be to actually go inside it. Being in a place built almost 2,000 years ago is crazy enough, but the Colosseum was a place where so much history and death happened. The gladiator games were unlike anything we have today, and while the topic is extremely intriguing, it’s also very disturbing, especially when you look down from the stands and see the cells that slaves and animals were kept in before their fights. I did not realize this, but the floor of the Colosseum has been removed so when you look down, you see a maze and can vividly picture the prisoners sitting inside the minuscule cells, mere feet below the arena where they would most likely die. Ok, yes, that part is depressing, but the building itself was beautiful and held so much innovation that we still use today. They had an impressive pulley system to transport slaves and animals and their arena design is still used as a model for most stadiums today. It was mind-blowing to think that they designed such a place so long ago and that we can still visit the remains.
My other mind blown moment happened at St. Peter’s Basilica. I honestly didn’t know anything about it, but turns out it is the largest church in the world. It is absolutely massive and every inch is decorated, not just for aesthetics, but to somehow tell the story of Jesus. There are cases that hold the bodies of previous popes, encased in gold, which was a little unnerving to see, but in the very center of the church, there is a huge display of four pillars with a winding stair case that descends to the level below, where Peter, the disciple it buried. This might be the most surreal moment I have ever experienced. Honestly, it took a minute for me to put two and two together, but once I realized that Peter, Jesus’ best friend, was literally underneath my feet, I couldn’t think about anything else. It’s one thing to read the stories and learn about the people, but when you are physically there, knowing that the person is in the same space with an entire monument built for them, it becomes a whole new version of reality.
As for the rest of Rome, we saw the Trevi fountain, had some pasta and gelato, and called it a day. We didn’t see a ton, but honestly, the things we saw had so much history that I don’t think we could have handled much more.
Overall
We did so much in Italy that it will take a moment to process all of it, but the food and the history of literally everything were the top two things I took away. The locals were also very nice to us, going to extreme lengths to make us feel welcome.
At the end of the trip, my mom, dad, and sister went home, so now it’s just me, which is a little scary, but I keep telling myself, if Kevin from Home Alone can survive in a country by himself, so can I.