Elena, Lauren, and I arrived in Florence, Italy around 6:45 AM by an overnight train. As usual, we had no map and only a vague sense of how to get to our hostel, but we made it in one piece and then went out to explore the city. The girls did some research on the city, but I had never heard of the Duomo, Michelangelo's statue of David, or the beautiful bridge over the river that went through the city and the only I-talian I knew was from Inglourious Basterds. But the Florence Duomo is easily one of the best cathedrals that I've seen in Europe - gigantic, colorful, and extremely ornate. Every time we walked past it over the next few days, I was just enthralled by it. We hiked to the top of the dome and got a 360 panorama of the city and the surrounding hills.
On our way to lunch, we ran into Kasey Givens coming back from class, then grabbed lunch with her at a restaurant overlooking the river and bridge. That pretty much marked the start of a string of some of the best food Europe has to offer. I had grilled zuchinni with meat on top and vegetables. I don't even remember what we did between then and dinner - all I can think about is how good dinner was. We met back up with Kasey and her friends Beth and Catherine (Katherine? Kathryn? Cathryn?), both of whom I knew from Texas. We went to an Italian place that serves it's food family style: bread with cold cuts and other Italian stuff I don't know the name for, followed by three kinds of pasta I don't know the name for. The girls seemed to know all the names, but I was too busy stuffing my face full of the complex carbohydrate goodness.
The next day, Lauren and Elena took a day trip to Cinque Terre (I'm there now, actually) and I opted to stay in Florence and eat American blueberry pancakes with Kasey. Again, I don't remember much between then and dinner, but for dinner we met up with the same crew and went to a Mexican food place. This was my first time to try Mexican food outside of Texas, but I think every table of patrons in the restaurant had at least one person from Texas. Everyone was there for a fix, and my fix was enchiladas verdes.
For our last full day in Florence, we went to Trattoria Mario's - a very small, very famous restaurant that is very well hidden. We sat at a table of 4 - the three of us and a guy from Taiwan who was by himself. The waiter called out, "3 for James... and just one, Joseph!" There were plenty of awkward glances shared around the table, but when the food came we were all pretty absorbed in it. Lauren and I shared a huge steak, and all three of us picked apart the large chunk of steak that our Taiwanese friend had left behind... and a bread roll that was left on the table behind me... whatever. We washed it down with way too much gelato, then headed on a train for Pisa. Pisa delivered exactly what I went there for - weird tourists. We all had a great time making fun of everyone around us.
Our next stop was Rome, where we did a whirlwind of tours and sightseeing: the Pantheon, Piazza Navora, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basilica, and every random thing along the way. There is some truly staggering history, artifacts, and wealth in such a small area. One thing that really caught my attention was the history of Imperial Porphyry - a deep purple, igneous rock that has only been discovered in once place on Earth: Gebel Abu Dokhan, Egypt. It was used to make statues, sarcophogi, and other sculptures for only the elite, from Rome to Byzantium. I was fascinated by the idea of a seemingly random, one-of-a-kind rock reserved for imperial use. And what's even better, they say that the Vatican Library is home to 80% of the world's Imperial Porpyry. It combined two of my favorite things: rocks and exclusivity.
So we went to the Vatican the next day to check it all out. We were on a time crunch, which kind of made it stressful, but there is some truly awesome stuff inside that place... some truly expensive stuff too. I had no clue what to expect from the Sistine Chapel, but I was kind of let down, and the guards in the chapel were total jerks to everyone. But St. Peter's Basilica was everything I had heard it was (everything I had heard came from Bart Frederick). We walked around, then scooted to Piazza Navona to grab dinner with Shelby Comito.
After dinner, we dropped Shelby off at her host family's place and went to see the Trevi Fountain. We sat there for a long time, threw coins at people, made fun of more people, and just talked about the last two weeks. It was their last night in Europe, so we sat there and enjoyed each other for a bit before saying goodbye. I'm so thankful I got to travel with those two - I laughed more in the last two weeks than I had in a long time and it was good to have real, deep conversation with people I already knew. It was good, great, and fun, but it also woke me up to a fact I had already known - being with friends is good, but it's not it, it won't fill me or make me happy forever. I thank God that He decided to remind me of that here instead going home with all these expectations of those around me, only to have my world crumble around me soon after. That's exactly what happened when I went back to Austin after spending 3 months in Wyoming, 3 years ago and also something that Henri Nouwen mentioned in that book that I quoted over 4 months ago in this blog.
And now I'm back on my own again, just kinda tooling around and reading the books that Elena and Lauren brought me from the USofA. Today I bought an American flag, just in case I couldn't find one near the Fourth of July. There will be no doubt what country I'm from on that day.
The Duomo
Same tower, from the top of the Duomo
On our way to lunch, we ran into Kasey Givens coming back from class, then grabbed lunch with her at a restaurant overlooking the river and bridge. That pretty much marked the start of a string of some of the best food Europe has to offer. I had grilled zuchinni with meat on top and vegetables. I don't even remember what we did between then and dinner - all I can think about is how good dinner was. We met back up with Kasey and her friends Beth and Catherine (Katherine? Kathryn? Cathryn?), both of whom I knew from Texas. We went to an Italian place that serves it's food family style: bread with cold cuts and other Italian stuff I don't know the name for, followed by three kinds of pasta I don't know the name for. The girls seemed to know all the names, but I was too busy stuffing my face full of the complex carbohydrate goodness.
Some bridge
The Duomo Quatro
The next day, Lauren and Elena took a day trip to Cinque Terre (I'm there now, actually) and I opted to stay in Florence and eat American blueberry pancakes with Kasey. Again, I don't remember much between then and dinner, but for dinner we met up with the same crew and went to a Mexican food place. This was my first time to try Mexican food outside of Texas, but I think every table of patrons in the restaurant had at least one person from Texas. Everyone was there for a fix, and my fix was enchiladas verdes.
For our last full day in Florence, we went to Trattoria Mario's - a very small, very famous restaurant that is very well hidden. We sat at a table of 4 - the three of us and a guy from Taiwan who was by himself. The waiter called out, "3 for James... and just one, Joseph!" There were plenty of awkward glances shared around the table, but when the food came we were all pretty absorbed in it. Lauren and I shared a huge steak, and all three of us picked apart the large chunk of steak that our Taiwanese friend had left behind... and a bread roll that was left on the table behind me... whatever. We washed it down with way too much gelato, then headed on a train for Pisa. Pisa delivered exactly what I went there for - weird tourists. We all had a great time making fun of everyone around us.
Just-One Joseph mid bite
Pisa
Pisssaaaaa
I wish I had taken a picture of someone else doing this
Our next stop was Rome, where we did a whirlwind of tours and sightseeing: the Pantheon, Piazza Navora, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basilica, and every random thing along the way. There is some truly staggering history, artifacts, and wealth in such a small area. One thing that really caught my attention was the history of Imperial Porphyry - a deep purple, igneous rock that has only been discovered in once place on Earth: Gebel Abu Dokhan, Egypt. It was used to make statues, sarcophogi, and other sculptures for only the elite, from Rome to Byzantium. I was fascinated by the idea of a seemingly random, one-of-a-kind rock reserved for imperial use. And what's even better, they say that the Vatican Library is home to 80% of the world's Imperial Porpyry. It combined two of my favorite things: rocks and exclusivity.
Palatine Hill
So we went to the Vatican the next day to check it all out. We were on a time crunch, which kind of made it stressful, but there is some truly awesome stuff inside that place... some truly expensive stuff too. I had no clue what to expect from the Sistine Chapel, but I was kind of let down, and the guards in the chapel were total jerks to everyone. But St. Peter's Basilica was everything I had heard it was (everything I had heard came from Bart Frederick). We walked around, then scooted to Piazza Navona to grab dinner with Shelby Comito.
The Basilica and the Light of God
St. Peters from the outside
After dinner, we dropped Shelby off at her host family's place and went to see the Trevi Fountain. We sat there for a long time, threw coins at people, made fun of more people, and just talked about the last two weeks. It was their last night in Europe, so we sat there and enjoyed each other for a bit before saying goodbye. I'm so thankful I got to travel with those two - I laughed more in the last two weeks than I had in a long time and it was good to have real, deep conversation with people I already knew. It was good, great, and fun, but it also woke me up to a fact I had already known - being with friends is good, but it's not it, it won't fill me or make me happy forever. I thank God that He decided to remind me of that here instead going home with all these expectations of those around me, only to have my world crumble around me soon after. That's exactly what happened when I went back to Austin after spending 3 months in Wyoming, 3 years ago and also something that Henri Nouwen mentioned in that book that I quoted over 4 months ago in this blog.
Trevi Fountain
Just two priests eating gelato at the Trevi... what a cliche
SO FUN
And now I'm back on my own again, just kinda tooling around and reading the books that Elena and Lauren brought me from the USofA. Today I bought an American flag, just in case I couldn't find one near the Fourth of July. There will be no doubt what country I'm from on that day.
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