PISA, il Bio Parco, e Pompeii (3 weekends of fun)

Pisa with Carolyn was fantastic! While most of our friends went to the super expensive Firenze, Carolyn and I went to Pisa to see the famous leaning tower. We didn't expect to see much that would interest us, but we were pleasantly surprised to discover that Pisa actually has quite a bit to do, and we didn't have time to do it all!

We took the train from Stazione Termini on a Friday morning and we arrived in Pisa four hours later. The train ride was beautiful. We were going along the Coast the entire time, and when we couldn't see the Ocean we were going through cute little towns with donkeys and such. We brought some tasty snacks along and got a lot of reading done (of course, none of it was for school).

When we arrived in Pisa we decided to walk to our hostel so we could see the town and save a few bucks. There was a lot of great shopping on the main street, and since it was a Friday and raining a little there was hardly anyone outside. Of course, a lot of the stores were closed too because it was nap time for the Italians.

We got to our hostel without much trouble. Our room wasn't anything special (although, the hostel owner came by later and told us they had put us in the wrong room and we needed to switch - no big deal). You don't expect much for 22 euro a night.

Once we were settled into our room we went out to the Piazza dei Miracoli to go up to the top of the tower. We got up no problem! There was no line, and only about 10 other people in the tower.

Climbing up to the top of the tower was well worth the entire trip. You can actually feel yourself leaning over when you're going up the narrow staircase!

There are 294 steps to the top of the tower and each one is more is more fun than the last.

The next day we went back to the piazza to go into the cemetery and baptistery - and of course do some quality shopping. According to Carolyn, the cemetery would be the best place to be in the event of a zombie attack!

Coming back, Carolyn and I got majorly lost. We were wandering around downtown for about 2 hours, but we eventually found our way to a taxi stand and we got home relatively quickly.


After such an eventful weekend we decided to stay in Rome for our next weekend (we also had class on Friday since we had had the Papal audience that Wednesday). A bunch of us went to the zoo (bio parco) and met up with a guy one of our friends had met (he's an American studying architecture). The zoo was a lot of fun because it was cold and rainy so there was no one there. We also got there fairly late so it was feeding time!



This weekend the plan was for Alana and I to fly to Dublin on Friday morning, spend two nights at a hostel in downtown Dublin, see the sights, and then fly back to Rome Sunday night. It would have been so perfect - if only it hadn't snowed! Did you know that it hasn't snowed in Rome since 1985? If I was a doofus and I hadn't just watched Rachel Maddow interview Bill Nye the Science Guy about this very issue I would say that Global Warming didn't exists, but I'm not and I did, so I won't. But really?! It hasn't snowed here since 1985 and it decides to snow on the one day that we need to get out of here! So, because snow is a novelty in Rome, all RyanAir flights were canceled of out of Ciampino airport, and yes, that included our flight. After finding out that we wouldn't be making it to Dublin after all, we had to wait in line for 6.5 hours to get a refund for our tickets, and thankfully we did get that refund.

Saturday we managed to tag along on the school organized trip to Pompeii, and we had a great time. Professor Nicholson led the tour of the site. Pompeii, which is situated right below Mt. Vesuvius was destroyed in 79 A.D. when the volcano erupted and covered the town in magma and ash. There were minor tremors prior to the eruption, warning the people that something worse was coming. Many people were able to escape, but many chose not to leave or couldn't get out in time. The last time Mt. Vesuvius erupted was in 1944 - hundreds of homes were destroyed, and dozens of people were killed. The volcano is expected erupt again, and the next time it happens everything within 15 km of the volcano will be destroyed.

On our way back from Pompeii we hit a bit of traffic - no big deal. Our giant tour bus was trying to merge onto the freeway, but this being Italy, no one wanted to let us in. Finally, we've squeezed our way into a lane and we're waiting for the car in front of us to move, but now the guy behind us is inching his way forward. Wait just one minute, buster! It's our turn! So, we're about to ram this guy off the road when I look out the window and I see that he has stuffed animals in the rear window - I miss you, dad!