Italy

Vacations are great, but there is something comforting about coming back to a familiar place.
My trip to Italy was fantastic and I saw so many different places that I have always wanted to see but I often find that traveling can be stressful especially when you don't speak the language.

Basically I traveled with my friend Liz who I worked with at Calvin in the Archaeology Lab. We traveled for 12 days and saw 3 cities. We arrived in Rome at the airport on December 30. The first hostel that we stayed at was located near the airport which is not near the city center. So, we stayed there one night and found a different place in the city to stay. This place was relatively nice and the location was great. It was within walking distance of most things, except St. Peter's. One thing that is nice about Italy and most European countries, is that their public transportation systems are phenomenal. Even the major trains that go from city to city run frequently and are reasonably priced. So, we spent 4 nights in Rome and had 3 full days to walk around and see things.
The first day we visited a few of the churches that we wanted to see. We saw Santa Maria Maggiore and San Carlo Quattro Fontane. These were both very beautiful churches. Then we walked around a little in the city just trying to find other things that we wanted to see. Rome is a great city and fairly easy to navigate. Even I was able to find my way around which is saying something.
The second day was very rainy and both of us were exhausted from the long day of traveling. We took it easy that day and found a supermarket nearby. The third day in Rome Liz's advisor from Durham who is from Italy originally, showed us around the city and brought us to the major Roman sites. Liz and I started at San Giovanni Laterano, which was a gorgeous church. Then, we went with Liz's advisor to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Palatine. That was all mostly the morning and early afternoon. Then, Liz and I decided to find some other places so we went to see Bernini's Four River's Fountain, the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. Overall that was our busiest day for sure.
The next day we headed off to Naples where we stayed for 2 nights. We went to Naples to see the National Archaeological Museum and also go to Pompeii. The museum was great and had tons of sculptures and paintings. The museum also had alot of frescoes from Pompeii and a room called the Cabinet of Secrets which was erotic frescoes also from Pompeii. Pompeii was absolutely amazing though. The site itself is huge and there are so many things to see. We spent most of the day there and we saw almost all of the site. There were quite a few frescoes still on the walls of plenty of the buildings and alot of them were in really good condition. I still find it amazing that this site was mostly covered in ash and volcanic materials. I can't imagine being an archaeologists and coming across this site.
After Naples we headed to Florence. I love this city. It's much less fast paced than Rome and it is very beautiful. We went to Santa Maria del Fiore also called the Duomo. This is a beautiful church and the dome is amazing. It is an 8 sided dome built of brick. Quite amazing. We also went to the Uffizi museum which has so many famous works of art. It was also huge and we didn't get to see everything that we wanted to see in it. We also went to the Museum of Santa Maria del Fiore. This museum held many of the famous works of art that were originally in the church. It also held plans of the dome and restoration work that had been done as well.
The last day few days that were in Italy were back in Rome. The first day we went to this church that had an undercroft that was built in the early 1600's by Friars. The Friars used the bones of past Friars and those from a Roman gravesite to decorate the undercroft. There were so many bones it was kind of creepy. But, it was amazing as well. It was unbelievable the designs they created from the bones. They were beautiful. The next day we went to St. Peter's Basillica and the Vatican Museums. St. Peter's was really beautiful and it was amazing to see. We spent a little over an hour going around the church. Then, we went over to the Vatican. This was absolutely huge. They have so many things in this museum that it was unbelievable. The best part, however, was the Sistine Chapel. This is really great. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside, so I don't have any photos, but there are so many different things to look at on the frescoes that you can sit in there for hours just staring at the ceiling. The chapel was packed with people. I am really happy that I got to see it.

Well, that's the gist of my trip and I can elaborate on anything if you want me to. I put all my photos up on flickr so here's the link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34201125@N05/
Well, I do have to say that it was weird to come back to York after my trip instead of going back home. It made my stay in York much more real as well. I think it really hit me that I was actually in York for a long time after coming back here. I don't know why this specific event triggered that but I think I actually have come to terms with the fact that I'm here for a while still and not just on a long vacation in England.
I miss you and love you all. E-mail me if you want to hear about specifics of my trip! My e-mail is lauren.devos@gmail.com.
Love,
Lauren