La Famiglia in Italia

 

Hello Blog People,

    One of the highlights of the last semester was my family coming to visit me while I was studying abroad. The fact that they were going to come and see the life I was living there was such good motivation and kept me going in January and February. Those are usually pretty hard and being away from my family is always difficult, but knowing that they would come brought me a lot of comfort. Their general plan was to fly into Rome and visit me in Florence. After a few days, we all traveled to Switzerland for my spring break and then we stay in a small town where my mom has some friends.

    On March 21 my family landed in Rome. I was so so so so so so excited to see them. I took a train from Florence down to Rome. The first problem was that my parents didn’t have cell service so we set up a place to meet up when I got there. I knew where I was going because earlier that month I had been to Rome and the Rome train station, but they did not. So when I arrived, my family was not there. I started to freak out because I did not know where they were for about half an hour, but thank you God we were able to get in contact and I found them in the train station. Giving my family a hug after a couple months was so relieving. And it was so weird to see them in Italy. It was really just a state of the world’s colliding. I went back with them to their Airbnb and we just kind of rested for that day. We went out to get gelato for the first time in the evening and it was very fun to try to use my Italian, and to see them try a treat that I enjoyed for so many months.

    We decided to do some night exploring that first night and we made it to the Colosseum at night. Obviously, we couldn’t go inside but it was lit up beautifully and my siblings and family were amazed at how grand it was. It was just so fun to be in that setting with my family. 
    

    The next day was a very busy day in Rome. We went to St. Peter Basilica early in the morning because I didn’t go when I was in Rome with the school and I really wanted to see it. It was something that my family could do with me. We went inside and it was stunning, absolutely stunning. The ceilings were covered in gold and it was huge. We saw the famous statue of Mother Mary holding Jesus's body. That was cool to see in person. And we saw the bones of Peter in the middle of the church.  My family hadn’t been in a big cathedral or basilica like that before, so it was fun to just see their faces as they looked at everything. After we went to the bottom area with the caskets of the popes that had served. Some had their own carvings on top of their caskets. It was interesting to see the burial area underneath Saint Peter's.

    

   After seeing the Basilica, we had tickets to go to the Vatican Museum. Obviously my family had to see the Sistine Chapel. I was able to show them all the cool things that I had seen because I still remembered my favorite parts and we walked through the whole space. Again, we couldn’t skip right to the Sistine Chapel, so we had to walk around and see everything. I did show the Egyptian exhibit and that was really nice. About halfway through morale started to drop. Everybody was tired and hungry. The museum was really really long, Abby was overwhelmed with the amount of people and we just wanted to get out of there, but we had not seen the chapel. And I didn’t help anything because I remembered that the School of Athens painting was in one of the rooms and I wanted to see that too. Thankfully, that was near The Sistine. We got inside the chapel and it was amazing and so beautiful. After our exploring in Vatican City, we headed back to the Airbnb and we rested for a little while. My family was still fighting the jet lag and I could always use a break. That night we went to a very delicious restaurant where I had a really nice salad and my family ate some Italian pasta and we just had a very good time.

    The next day was Saturday, and we were able to just take a slow morning. I woke up a little bit earlier and spent time in my Bible. I also learned how to use the Moka pot and had a really fun time making coffee for me and my dad. We walked around in the afternoon and saw some iconic places in Rome. We went to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore (beautiful!). After, we went to the Trevi fountain.  I hate how many people try to scam people in Rome, especially at the Trevi. Then we went and looked at the outside of the Pantheon because we did not get tickets. It was cool just to show them a super old building in the heart of Rome. After that, we hiked all the way up the Spanish steps and went inside the church that was at the top. We ate dinner at a nearby restaurant that had very friendly staff (the food was just ok). There was also a nearby theater that was showing Jesus Christ Superstar (kinda weird). Part of the show took place outside on the street, so I watched a guy in an Elvis-looking angel costume run out with a camera guy, sing a few lines, and run back into the theater. There was more hype than necessary for the whole thing, but it was kind of cool. After dinner and a day of walking, we went back to the Airbnb. It was a good and very busy day.
    

    The next day (Sunday), I returned to Florence, I still had school on Monday and had to make sure I could get back in time. But the next day, my family took the train up from Rome and came to Florence. One of their first stops was the Airbnb, which was a few tram stops away from Villa. Then they came straight to Villa and I got to show them where I go to school/live. They had seen a lot of the places over the months because I FaceTime them, but it was weird to show them in person. I showed them the school building and the cafeteria, walked them up the hill, gave them a grand tour of the dorm, and introduced them to some of my friends. We went into Florence for the afternoon and I got to show them the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, and we walked all the way to Piazza Michelangelo for sunset. We made our way back toward the Vecchio Palace and ate at a restaurant close to Santa Maria Novela. I got delicious gnocchi and Luke finally got a big pizza, which he did end up finishing. The final event for the night was stopping at a photo booth where I got a cute picture with my sister, and then we headed back to their Airbnb for the night.

    On the 26th, it was rainy. I had normal classes, so I did not see my family a lot. While I was in class, they decided to go downtown and see the inside of the Duomo. If you visit Florence, you can buy tickets to see different parts of the Duomo, like the bell tower and baptistry. Or you can buy a package that allows you to climb a bunch of stairs and go near the top of the dome. Your other option is to stand in the free line and just go into the main cathedral part. That’s what my family decided to do. They stood in the wind and rain for a while and went inside. They reported to me later that the inside was kind of boring, and the outside is more beautiful. This wasn’t the first time hearing the inside was less impressive. But it’s just one of the things you have to do when you are in Florence. 

    That night I brought my roommates, Patty and Fabi, Patty’s boyfriend Josue, and my friend Jesa to hang out with my family. We all went out to get gelato and then headed back to the fam’s Air BnB. We didn’t expect to stay there long, but we just kept talking and ended up being there for a few hours. I just remember there was so much laughing in the room. My family LOVED my friends, and my friends loved my family. Jesa said she had never felt funnier in her life. It was a good night. I love combining my worlds of people and introducing important people in my life to one another. And it was important for me to have my parents and roommates meet because they had seen each other and talked to each other already. It seemed necessary to do it in person too. 

    I had class the next day too, but only in the morning. The day was rainy again, so the family stayed at the Airbnb and didn’t do much. Once I was done with lunch and classes, we did go on a little adventure. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I was sick the day the school took us to Pisa. The only reason I was ok with skipping was because I knew that my family would be going, so I would get the chance to see the Leaning Tower with them. We took the train to Pisa, walked from the station to the tower, and after a bit walked back. That’s the overview. 

    But for more details, I actually really liked the tower. The sky that day was particularly beautiful and accented the white of the tower really well. It looks like it’s leaning more than I had expected. I appreciated how symmetrical the tower was, and the stone they used to make it was beautiful. The tower is in the courtyard of a cathedral, and that was also beautiful. And yeah, it was busy, but it could have been a lot more crowded. Each of the family members took their pictures with the tower. I think one of my favorite pictures of Dane is from this day. It was a nice trip. But there wasn’t much else to do in Pisa, so we walked back to the station and headed back to Florence. On the way back to the Airbnb we stopped at the Social Hub so I could show them the rooftop bar. At night, it has a lovely view of the Duomo. I think my family understood why I loved it after they saw it, because before they were not enthusiastic about taking ANOTHER stop. But I loved showing my family another place I love in Florence 

    The next day, March 28th, it was time to leave for our Spring Break trip. This whole trip to Europe was my family’s trip, but for me, this was the trip. We woke up, had our bags packed and ready to go, and got on a train to Milan. We splurged on these tickets and took the fast train up which was super cool. Sometimes it’s hard to even imagine how fast you are going on those trains. 

    We were headed to Milan because my mom really wanted to see the Milan Duomo. She had loved the pictures that were taken when I was there and this was the one thing that she wanted to go to. So we got tickets all timed out and made our way to the Duomo. When we got there, there was a MASSIVE line across the courtyard for the entrance. We thought there must be a separate line for the people who bought tickets ahead of time because you have to sign up for a time slot. Nope! We were told to go to the back of the line. So we waited, in the cold and drizzling rain, to go inside. It was frustrating, and we waited about 45 minutes. But we finally made it inside. Then we had to find another door to go up onto the roof. One of the coolest things to do in the Milan Duomo is to climb up (what seems like a million repetitive) stairs (in a little circular stairwell) and go on the roof of the Duomo, walk around, and get a good view of all of Milan. It does require an extra ticket, and this was something I didn’t get to do with the school. The views were amazing from the top and it was super fun to do another special thing with my family. We spent some time on the top, then tried to go inside the Duomo. But they didn’t really let us go back in and see the whole part. Thankfully we got to walk around a bit before we went to the roof. After that, we went to the central shopping center right near the Duomo and saw all the luxury stores. We didn’t walk in any, because we had a bit of a tight schedule and no one was going to be spending any money there. It was neat to see it again. Our final task in Milan was to go to a restaurant about 30 minutes away called Oak Berry Açaí. I had been to an Oak Berry in Nice and Barcelona, but the only one in Italy was in Milan. I made my family walk the whole way just so I could get it one last time. (Thanks fam!) It was so delicious and for me, it was worth the trip. After that, we walked back to the station and got on a train for Bern, Switzerland. We stayed the night at a super cute Airbnb in Bern for the night and got our rest before our adventure the next day. 

    Friday was our Switzerland day and it involved A LOT of trains. We got breakfast at the train station in Bern the next morning and then hopped on a train to Spiez. From there, we got on a train to Lauterbrunnen, and from the station we got on a bus that took us to our location for the day. Or rather, our starting point. We made it to a little town called Stechelberg, where we got to the beginning of a series of cable cars that were taking us to the top of a mountain. On the top, there was a restaurant where you could look over the mountain ranges (and it's where part of a James Bond movie was filmed). We took two cable cars up, but after our third, we were told that the weather was too bad and we couldn’t go all the way to the top. It was really disappointing, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it. We were still welcome to stay in the town we had made it to, so that’s what we did. That town was called Mürren. 

    

    We walked around the mainstream and looked in the little shops. It was touristy because the town itself is a ski town. For some reason, I had the deep deep desire to go down a run just once. JUST ONCE! I just wanted to ski down the mountain one time. Have I skied in the last 5 years? No. No, I have not. And did I have any sort of gear at ALL to be doing this? No. No, I did not. But I still wanted to. And my parents said no. They thought I was actually crazy. I tried really hard to get them to let me, but it didn’t work. We did get to take a smaller cable car to the top of a ski hill. So we didn’t get to go all the way up the mountains, but we did get higher than Mürren. It was windy and cold and snowy (obviously), but it was really fun. We then took the cable car down again and walked around the town. Then we looked for lunch. A lot of the restaurants were pretty expensive (cause duh, tourist town) and didn’t seem to have many options for us. So we decided to scavenge around a grocery store and just get some stuff there. This actually turned out to be a pretty good meal. We sat down on the sidewalk after we did our shopping and ate our lunch. I think that was actually pretty fun. After lunch, we took some pictures and then headed back down the mountain in the original cable cars. 

    At the bottom of the mountain, the views were just stunning. And since we had been at the top, it made them seem even bigger. There was a path and a nearby waterfall around the bus station. We took a little walk, and then Abby, Dad, and I made our way toward the waterfall. It didn’t look like it was that far away or that hard to get to. I was wrong. It turned out to be a bit farther and a lot steeper than I realized. But we felt very victorious when we made it to the falls. Then we had to slowly make our way back down so we didn’t fall on spiky leaves or rocks. That was another fun adventure. We got back on the bus and retraced our steps for the day. We made it back to Bern in the evening and hung out at the Airbnb. Then we packed up and headed out the next morning. 

    This next day was one of our longest travel days. Again, we got breakfast at the station. And then we boarded a train from Bern to Milan. From Milan, we made it back to Florence, and from Florence, we took a smaller, slow train to a little town in Umbria called Spello.  

    Now Spello seems like a weird destination, but I promise it’s not. My mom has a friend from PT school who was a bit older than everyone else in the class. His name is Lee and his wife's name is Mallory. He graduated and ended up teaching at the school for many years. Recently he and his wife retired and they moved to Spello. They had been visiting Italy and Spello specifically for years and years. So they finally moved there and are making their lives there, learning Italian and picking up hobbies. Mallory even has her Italian driver’s license (which is insane because that test is in technical Italian!). Anyway, we made it to the Spello station and Lee and Mallory picked us up. Mallory drove our bags to their house and Lee walked us through the town. We made it to their house, ate some delicious supper, and caught up for a little bit. 

    I have had the pleasure of seeing little Italian towns throughout my time in Italy, like Assisi, which was about 15 minutes away from Spello. We spent a couple of days there, including Easter, which was super interesting. The whole setup of Spello was pretty classic. There’s a main stretch of the central road, but after you go past the churches and city center it gets really quiet. And since it is a small town, everyone knows everyone and will say hi to you and talk to you on the street. We walked along an ancient Roman aqueduct that was on the outside of the city and met a nice couple from Ireland with their dogs. Oh, I forgot to mention that Lee and Mallory have the CUTEST little Pomeranians, one bright orange and one black one. They were little yappers, but they were SO CUTE! I loved them. Anyway, we were given a little tour of the town and were able to rest after some busy travel days. The only complaint that I had was that the sky was super smoggy. At the time, there had been a dust storm in the Sahara desert and the dust had made its way through the air to Italy. When you tried to look out over the hills, it was smoggy, grey, and gross. But my family not knowing any different, loved it. 

    As I said, the main day we spent in Spello was Easter. And Italy, being primarily Catholic, has its traditions that they do for Easter. Spello especially had a tradition. Throughout the town there were stations set up with art pieces, telling the story of the death of Christ. Then on Easter, the priests and other clergymen and a bunch of people walk through the town, carrying a cross/altar-type thing and praying/chanting as they go. There’s a band, and the people just walk through. We watched as they went past Lee and Mallory’s house, and then we joined them for a little bit as they continued on their journey. It was super interesting to see how a little town like Spello celebrates such a big holiday, especially since it was in a way that was completely different from anything I had ever seen. That evening we went to Lee and Mallory’s favorite pizza place and got a delicious pizza. Then we went and got gelato at the local geleteria. 

    The next day it was time to pack up and leave. The time with the family in Italy had come to an end. I was really sad, both to leave the cute town and to say goodbye to my family. We walked back to the station and I got on my train to head back to Florence. I left before them, so I got to wave goodbye and cry on the train by myself. It was sad, but I knew I would see them in a few months, and I was (and still am) SO grateful that they got to come and see my life in Italy, and get to see parts of Europe that I just love. I’m grateful that they had the opportunity to visit me and that my siblings got to leave the country before I ever did. It was a very nice trip. 
    

    My family finished up their trip by taking the train to Rome. They spent one more night in Rome, then got on their flights the next day and flew back over the Atlantic. I know that they made tons of memories, and I’m so grateful I got to see them. It made the remaining time in Italy a lot easier to bear. 

Thanks for my endless rambling about my family's time in Italy. Until next time! 

    Ciao,

        Ellie