Comforts of home

There is a moment after you move to a new place, a moment when you all of the sudden find that the new place actually feels like home. It's no longer a foreign place to you, but it finally feels just right, it finally becomes a place that you can miss when you're away from it. Florence has slowly started to feel this way to me. Sometimes it's just because of a long day at school, sometimes it's a weekend trip, but lately I've been finding that I actually have a desire to go back to my apartment at the end of the day. This weekend, I went to Rome with Sally and Alex to visit Shelby. We had a great time but somewhere in between seeing the Roman Forum and St. Peter's, I found myself missing Florence. Of course I still miss my actual home in Albuquerque more than I missed Florence, but while we were in Rome, I found myself wanting to return to Florence, and feeling less overwhelmed with my desire to return to Albuquerque. It was a different experience for me. Like I said, I've had days where I just can't wait to get home and be comfortable in my apartment but this was something completely different. A little perspective can go a long way in helping you to see the blessings that have been right in front of you all along. I found myself being incredibly thankful for the things that have become familiar in Florence, like knowing the street names of places I need to go, having a hot shower and having internet that works well. I don't think I would've been as thankful for those things without some perspective, in fact I probably have taken them all for granted since I got to Florence. It's really easy to get into a routine where you don't notice certain blessings that are right in front of you, in fact once you start to get familiar with a place, you only seem to notice the things that you are missing, the things you think should be different. Somewhere in between the time that we arrived in Florence and when we went to Rome, I lost that perspective of how lucky I am to be here and that nothing else really matters. It's different here, but that doesn't mean it's worse. It is such a blessing to be studying abroad and I have to keep that in perspective because without that perspective, I will easily be able to pick out a 100 different things that I think should be different than the way that they are.

Alright, with that out of the way, let me tell you about Roma! We started off our trip on Friday at 8:15AM. Our train was scheduled to leave at 9:13 but we wanted to get some breakfast along the way. We decided to go to McDonald's, which I know sounds like a complete outrage. But let me tell you that McDonald's is quite different here. The actual food doesn't taste much different but the McDonald's here have an entire pastry/coffee section. The pastries are pretty run of the mill, croissants with chocolate or cream in them or just plain. We each ordered what we thought was a plain croissant but ended up having cream in the middle, which was fine with us! We also got cappuccinos and I have to say, they are they prettiest I've had so far in Italy.

After our breakfast, we walked across the street to the train station. We bought our train tickets (which were €18 one way!) and headed to our train. We got situated and had our "tourist" moment of being really excited to be on our first train. 

Our train ride took almost 4 hours because we opted for the cheaper fair, but I honestly really enjoyed having a long train ride. We were able to see the entire country side-- most of which was still covered in snow. It was really nice to be able to enjoy the view, read my Kindle and just relax for a few hours. When we got to Rome, we met up with Shelby. Immediately, I noticed and remembered how different Rome is from Florence. It is a lot bigger and much more urban than Florence is, especially around the train station. We hoped onto a bus that took us towards Shelby's apartment. Along the way we were able to see many monuments and sites that we eventually walked back to to see more closely. When we got off the bus, we were starving. We decided that we wanted pizza for lunch but on the way we stopped so that Shelby could tell us about one of the specialties in Rome. It's called supplí and it's basically a ball of rice, sauce and mozzarella that is deep fried. I'm telling you, it's worth getting on a plane right now just to taste this amazing creation. We got two and shared them between the four of us. Then we headed to the pizza place and finally continued onto Shelby's apartment. Immediately I was able to notice how different her living situation is from ours. Her apartment is about the same size but is decorated much more modernly, with paintings and decór from Ikea. We got settled in for a few minutes and then headed out to see some sites. On our list of things that we saw was the Pantheon, the Four Rivers Fountain by Bernini in the Piaza Novonna, the Vittorio Emanuele monument- which the people in Rome refer to as God's Typewriter, the Roman Forum, and finally we caught a bus across the city to get the best gelato in town which we ate in St. Peter's square. We finished off the evening at dinner with some of friends from school who were on the school field trip. After dinner we all headed to the Trevi fountain to throw in our coins! The legend is that if you throw one coin in, you'll come back to Italy, if you throw in two, you'll come back to Rome, and if you throw in three you'll fall in love. I only threw in two this time:)

The next morning we woke up early and headed back to St. Peter's square. When we got there, there were crowds of people which is unusual for this time of year. When we got into the square there were large tv's and they were showing some sort of ceremony. We had heard that a cardinal was being inaugurated at some point during the weekend and we assumed this was the ceremony. It was really cool being able to see all of the people watching the Pope inaugurate the cardinal. After watching for a few minutes, Sally and Alex headed to the Vatican and Shelby and I headed to Villa Borghese which is a gigantic park in Rome. We found a cool place to take some pictures for my photography class and just walked around. We ate lunch at an oddly fancy place in the middle of the park and then headed back to meet Alex and Sally. We all got another helping of gelato from the best place in Rome and split up again. Shelby had some errands to run so she went home while Alex, Sally, and I headed to the Colosseum. We ended up waiting for a very long time for our bus (the theme of the weekend when Shelby wasn't around) and we got off on a stop right outside of the Colosseum. We took some photos then walked around a bit and then finally headed home. I went out with Shelby later to get food from the grocery store to make dinner. She made us all (including Kristen, Kim and Jeanne) paella which is a Spanish rice dish which includes veggies, chicken, sausage and rice all cooked in white wine. It is actually typically made with seafood but this variation was just as delicious! 

On our final day in Rome, Sally and Alex went back to St. Peter's to go to the Basilica which was closed the day before for the inauguration. It turns out that it was also closed on Sunday because of the service. But while they were off doing their own thing, Shelby and I headed to the industrial district in Rome. Most places in Rome have a very antique feel because of all of the ancient buildings, ruins and monuments but this district had a more urban feel. We headed to a Steve McCurry exhibit that was being held in the old meat packing district. The exhibit was in an old warehouse that was used in the meat packing industry. It had a really interesting feel to it and the exhibit was fantastic. We took some more photos for my photography project and finally headed back to Shelby's apartment. We had supplí one last time before Sally, Alex and I headed back to Florence. 

This is actually where the story gets the most interesting... We had given ourselves about an hour and a half to get from Shelby's apartment to the train station. We stopped on the way to get a cappuccino and then waited for our bus... for a long, long time. After about 30 minutes of waiting for it, it finally arrived. The bus was incredibly packed with people who unfortunately were all going to the train station as well. When we arrived at the station, it was 3:05 and our train was at 3:13. All at once we started sprinting to the ticket station. We bought our tickets together to save time and then continued sprinting to our track. Turns out our train was at the furthest track away, and was actually not even in line with the main tracks but further back away from the main part of the station. We continued running not really even knowing where our train would be until we finally found the track and the train had already departed. We sat down for a minute trying to catch our breath and then headed back to the ticket station. As we were walking, I had my light bulb moment. In Italy, you have to validate your train ticket when it is one without a seat assignment. This is because you are able to use the ticket from the time you buy it until a month later. The validation lets the conductor know that you are using it for the specific day that you are using it for. Without validating the ticket, you can get a nasty fine. In my light bulb moment, I looked at Sally and Alex and I realized that we would never have thought to validate our tickets. We knew that we had to but because we were so short on time, we never would've thought in those moments to do that. I truly think that it was a God moment that we missed our train and therefore missed out on paying a hefty fine. 

We finally arrived back in Florence around 10:30 and we were all completely exhausted. I still don't know if my body has caught up from this past weekend. We are going to Paris this Thursday and I can't wait! I cannot believe how fast spring break is coming up and I can't wait to spend it with Steven! As much as I want to see him though, I also want time to stop right here. I know that the end of my semester abroad is quickly approaching and I am really wanting to savor every moment of it! I knew it would fly by and with the weather heating up, the days really are slipping through my fingers. I only have two more days in Florence this week and four next week before I get to see Steven and 2/3 of my semester abroad will be over. I can't believe it! 

I'll update y'all next weekend about Paris...I am so excited! Au revoir!