7.08.2007 Trevi Fountain

We made our way to Quirinale. We didn’t know exactly what it was, but figured it was something dedicated to the Pope. It’s a nice plaza area with nice architecture, which is typical in Rome.

We went to the Trevi Fountain right afterwards, which is pretty huge and magnificent. We couldn’t take many pictures because the camera ran out of batteries, so we headed home for a quick shower and went to see Transformers at the theater.

We came back, cooked, drank, and lounged for the rest of the night. Actually Kyle got his nerd on by automating the process of adding captions to the bottom of our photos so that the captions are there when we print them out.

7.07.2007 The Colosseum and the Roman Forum

We walked toward the Colosseum, and stopped at various sites on the way. We saw the Santa Maria Maggiore cathedral, but Jenn could not get in because her shorts were too short. Kyle went in and took some pictures of the inside. Beautiful cathedral, but we have seen so many at this point.

We stopped by a sanctuary dedicated to Madonna next, which Jenn was allowed to go into because no one was enforcing dress code there.

We walked through Domus Aurea next, which is the ruins of some emperor’s palace. Interesting, but not nearly as impressive as what we saw later.

When we got to the Colosseum, we decided to take a tour because the tour guide promised that we could skip the line if we did. And on our walk there we saw various sites. The tour was pretty cool, but the Colosseum itself was much cooler than the tour. The tour was worth it because it was pretty cheap, we skipped the line, and we got a free tour of the Roman Forum.

The Roman Forum is a bunch of ruins that was buried under sewage and crap until farily recently in history. It took about 120 years to fully excavate it. We saw the temple of Romulus (founder of Rome) and other stuff. It was definitely interesting. We proceeded up the Palatine Hill after that to get a great view of the Roman Forum and see some other sites. It was odd that there was much more to see in the Roman Forum, but it was free while the Palatine cost money. The entrance fee was included with the Colosseum entrance fee, but it still seemed odd.

All in all, a good day. We cooked some amazing Mediterranean pesto pasta with shrimp. We went out again later that evening to see Triton’s fountain and the national museum. We tried to go out at night, but all the bars were more like cafes or restaurants.

7.06.2007 Arriving in Rome

We arrived in Rome late afternoon. Alex’s B&B is a decent place, and Alex is pretty nice and helpful. Of course the internet did not work, standard. However, unlike other places Alex got it fixed that night. There was no wireless as usual… is it that hard to buy a router?

We visited Repubblica square, and walked by some sites. Did not do much because it was late in the day and we were tired. The McDonald’s at the square had marble floors and was quite luxurious indeed.

7.05.2007 Last day in Certaldo

We spent the day slowly, started out cooking, and then watched The Incredibles. We then went for a bike ride into old town, but did not take the scenic route. The view was not as great, but it was a lot faster and easier. We had some delicious gelato in Old Town. We shared 2 scoops, I chose strawberry, and Kyle chose something he thought was probably chocolaty, but was in fact rum raisin, so it was like my 2 favorite ice cream flavors even though I do not even really like ice cream. HAHAHA.

We came home to cook dinner, and watched some EuroTrip with hostel mates since it seemed so appropriate.

We heard music from down the street for the second night in a row, and decided it would be fun to find the place and check it out. We followed the sound of Italian music until we came to an obscure bar, while the dog from the hostel followed close behind all the way there for some reason. I think he likes Kyle a lot. He’s got really thick, long, white fur, and he is grimy and sweaty from baking in the Tuscan sun all day. So he doesn’t get a lot of attention normally, but Kyle pets him all the time. We peeked inside, and it was a bunch of older couples waltzing. Neither of know how to waltz, and we thought better of going in. We did a little dance in the parking lot, called the dog back, and made our way home while people were dancing to “Fascination.”

It’s a fascination, I know…

7.04.2007 Independence Day Wine Tasting

We rented a car this day and went wine tasting with two other girls from the hostel. We went to 4 different vineyards, beginning with one called Melini. The Tuscan countryside is beautiful, and we stopped to take pictures at a sunflower field. This would be a place we could easily stay at for months. There were vineyards and olive groves everywhere we looked. We ended up buying a lot of wine today because the vineyards would charge 4 euro for a wine tasting, but it was free with a purchase of a bottle. Every place had a bottle for at least 4 Euro, so it was not worth it NOT to buy wine.

Melini’s had 11 different wines, all of which we tasted. We probably were only supposed to choose a few, but the woman let us try them all. The region actually makes some good white wines too even though that is not what it is known for.

Although there are a ton of vineyards along the countryside, there aren’t really signs for all of them, and there were a few we stumbled upon by accident. One of these was Il Cerreto, which had a gorgeous view and a bed and breakfast. They said they did “tastings,” but basically the guy opened an entire bottle for us, and the first pours he gave us emptied out half the bottle. When we asked if we should try some of the other wines, he said “oh, you want more?” and emptied out the rest of the bottle in our glasses, so we ended up buying it and 4 other bottles of Chianti Classico on top of that. He tried to give us the first bottle for free, but the owner was a party pooper. After Il Cerreto, we stopped by another tasting room that wasn’t as impressionable and bought some unique tasting chardonnay.

The last place we went to was amazing again. Some president on Wall Street had just purchased 2,800 Euro worth of wine, and the guy there was probably in particularly good spirits. We tried tons of wine again and had free food. There were expensive hams, bruschetta, and some really fantastic jams, which we tried to buy, but they were not for sale because the guy had gotten them at some obscure store elsewhere L. Some family came through, ate a tray of food (basically their dinner), and left without buying anything.

We came back, moved out of the hostel and into the villa next door, cooked some pasta, then joined other hostel mates for some drinks. We toasted with other Americans for the 4^th of July, and noted that most of us do not know all the words to the national anthem.

7.02.2007 Old Town Certaldo and Siena

We took bikes on the scenic route to Old Town Certaldo, which is up on a big hill and kind of looks like a giant castle from afar. It seems like it should be a tourist attraction, but in fact there are businesses and residences. The route there was great, with nice views of vineyards and the Tuscan countryside.

We got lost on our way to the grocery store, but eventually got home and cooked some really good pasta.

We left for Siena in the afternoon with some friends from the hostel, for a semi-annual bareback horserace event. Representatives from each of the 12 regions of Siena compete in a lawless race where almost anything goes. It took them about 20 minutes to even start the race because the competitors kept fighting each other for the inside lane. They false started twice, and had to start over.

Two riders fell off their horses, but apparently the horse can win without the jockey. One guy seemed like he got trampled, but looked okay when he got up. The entire arena was insane. It was completely packed and equally lawless. There was absolutely no organization, no bathrooms, no entrances or exits, just mobs of people in an enclosed area. It took me an hour to go to the bathroom because it was impossible to fight through the crowd, and Kyle peed in a wine bottle in the middle of the crowd. Fortunately, nobody seemed to notice.

When I was trying to get back into the arena from the bathroom, some idiot grabbed my ass. I turned around and glared at the three guys behind me and asked who did it. Of course, none of them answered, so I slapped the guiltiest looking one. It turned out to be the wrong guy, but I yelled at all of them, and then they tried to make peace and offer me a beer. I refused and glared and disappeared into the crowd.

Citizens of the winning township rejoiced and embraced each other in glee when the race was over.

By the time the event was over, the trains had stopped, so we had no choice but to partake in the street festivities. The winning township provided free kegs of wine in the streets and served wine to everyone standing around, including 10-year-old children. The winning township had a little parade of drummers and flag wavers marching through the streets the entire night. We did some bar hopping, and eventually took the 5am train back home in the morning.

7.01.2007 Certaldo (Near Florence)

We arrived in Certaldo around 1:00. We went swimming and laid out in the backyard of the hostel. Our place is really cool. It has a really big backyard with hammocks, benches, roses, and a pool. It used to be a monastery and a vineyard a long time ago.

We rode bikes into town and had dinner at a place called Delfino’s that had amazing pasta.