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Is it crazy to say that Pompeii might have been even higher on my bucket list than Rome was? Back in 2014 or 2015 I saw an art exhibit called Presence and Absence by an artist named Tom Price. It was a set of sculptures of people who were there, but also not. They looked so realistic it was almost alarming, but there were pieces of them missing. I was really struck by it. I found out the artist’s inspiration for this work were the people of Pompeii who died nearly 2000 years ago when Mt. Vesuvius erupted, but whose bodies were still preserved all those years later. I didn’t know a ton about Pompeii at the time, but I knew I had to make it there someday. And lucky for me, “someday” was only a few years later.
But really, that’s not even the best part of the ruins. I think that’s such a unique part of it that people sometimes overlook that the eruption preserved this whole city in a way nothing else could have, and nothing else did in any other part of the world. Even I overlooked it myself before my tour guide basically said “colosseum schmolosseum, this place is way more impressive.” I’m paraphrasing a bit, but I’m not paraphrasing when I tell you that this Italian man said “okie dokie artichokie” like it was going out of style.
We went in November, and our tour guide repeatedly said how great it was that we were visiting that time of year, because during the “busy season,” it’s incredibly crowded. One of the most popular sites in the town is the brothel, and he said during the busy season, the line just to get into this tiny building wraps through the streets. But we walked right in. Archeologists knew this building (and others like it) was a brothel not only by the penis arrows on the streets directing you to the building, but also by the pornographic “menu” painted on the walls. Very discreet.
I wanted to visit Pompeii to see the casts, but I didn’t realize until I got just how amazing this ancient city is. It far exceeded my expectations, and I’m so glad I took a day out of my Rome trip to see it.
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Mt. Vesuvius. What a name, right? It’s a mountain most people would recognize as the volcano that erupted and killed thousands of citizens of the ancient city of Pompeii. It was a horrible tragedy that is also the sole reason we have one of the best preserved cities from all of the ancient world available to see today. But I’m getting ahead of myself. My Italy trip was by no means a cross-country trip. We booked the trip to Rome with no plans of seeing any other cities… except Pompeii. We booked a day trip to Pompeii through a company called Viator, which I’d never heard of at the time, but based on my experience, I’d recommend it. It included a bus trip from Rome to Pompeii and back with our fellow tourists, a stop in Naples for pizza, a climb up Mt. Vesuvius and a tour through the ancient ruins of Pompeii. We managed to schedule our day trip for the last day they allow people to hike up Mt. Vesuvius for the season. After that the weather is too cold and unpredictable, especially at the top of a mountain. By the time we made it up a significant portion of the mountain on the bus (terrifying, by the way), we were told by the park rangers that it was too windy for us to hike it. I didn’t really understand how wind would make hiking unsafe, but they said we could drive to the beginning of the trail, get out, walk around, then drive back down. When we got off the bus, it was freezing. I mean really cold. We were all just in hoodies, and the wind was blowing so hard it felt like my ears were going to fall off. What a rip off! We came all this way risking our lives (or at least that’s how it felt) as our bus navigated tiny, winding roads on cliff sides of an active volcano that could erupt at any moment, so that we could climb up that stinking mountain! And now we couldn’t just because of a little (okay, maybe a lottle) wind?! We were all standing around shivering, looking at the parking lot while our guide talked to some of the rangers. Pretty soon he was telling us that they were allowing us up the mountain after all! The catch was we only had a half hour.
When we finally made it to the top, it was amazing. The view was spectacular, but we knew it would be, because it just kept getting better and better the higher up we hiked. What was just as incredible was looking into the volcano. You can see from a distance that the mountain is kind of missing it’s top. That’s because it literally blew it off in 79 A.D. when it erupted and buried the city of Pompeii.
When I visited St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on my first full day in Italy, I was convinced I would never set foot in a building more beautiful in my entire life. And my feet were bleeding. 
But after a day on my feet seeing some of the most beautiful art in the world, I found out the hard way that you need to be more picky about your footwear than I was. This is my advice to you: wear shoes that have already proven their loyalty to you. Wear the shoes that you’ve worn through hard work-days and active trips to theme parks. Wear the shoes that will never betray you, because they’ve formed to your feet over months of wear. Don’t wear the cute pink ones. On a cultural note, I was told that Europeans hardly ever wear tennis shoes, and that I’d probably see mostly boots and dress shoes on the streets of Rome in November. Well, I don’t know the last time that person had been to Rome, but they were straight up wrong, and I’m glad I didn’t listen to them. Some of the people I saw were even wearing some of the same shoes I had packed with me. Sneakers galore. I even saw a pair of high-top Stan Smiths that I’m still trying to find out where I can buy (if you know, please leave me comment). I did notice, though, that Rome is a pretty fashion-minded city when it comes to what its people are wearing. If you’re headed to Rome, pack stylish yet trusted sneakers.
Now, there’s no way for me to adequately describe to you the beauty of the Sistine Chapel (or St. Peter’s Basilica, which we saw next), but it really was just breathtaking. No photos were allowed, and that was strictly enforced by guards, and silence was expected. It was just a room packed with people staring up at the ceiling. What was overwhelming to me was that I was staring at masterpieces. Original masterpieces that I’d seen in text books and on the internet. And Michelangelo's “The Creation of Adam” was in the middle of it all. People frequently say that upon seeing the Mona Lisa, they expected it to be bigger. That’s how I felt about “The Creation of Adam.” This iconic piece of art was among its peers on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
 Like I said before, I assessed the Basilica as the most beautiful building I had ever set foot inside. And even as I sit here writing, having seen several more stunning churches in Rome, that still might be the case. I don’t know that any building will ever top it, but I’ll try my best to find out.
Our first meal in Rome was the evening we landed. We needed to go to the Vatican to pick up our Rome Turbopass (more on that in another post), and we were soon looking for something to eat. We were still in our plane clothes, so we didn’t want anything too fancy, but we were pretty much running blind on what was culturally normal, and what we should even be looking for, because we had spent all of four hours in Rome so far. When we finally settled on a place, we learned some valuable lessons for the rest of our time in Rome. When you’re leaving or entering the Vatican, it is typical to walk down a particular street, that enters the very front of the city, and has a perfect view of St. Peter’s Basilica. There are a few restaurants and shops along this street, and since our only other destination that evening was Castel Sant’Angelo, it made sense, geographically, to stop along here for food. Mistake #1: Don’t eat this close to a tourist attraction. I know it’s odd to think of an entire city-state and center of a religion as a tourist attraction, but if we’re being real, Vatican City is always full of tourists. So it only makes sense that you’d find tourist traps there. I don’t think it necessarily means that all restaurants close to a major tourist attraction are inauthentic (although this one seemed to be), but it definitely will cost more. This was our most expensive meal of the trip, and it wasn’t the best. Not even close. And since it was our first meal in Italy, I didn’t know what was normal or what should have raised our eyebrows. For example, the menu didn’t have prices listed on it. At the time, I didn’t think too much of it, but every place we ate for the rest of the trip had prices clearly marked on the menus. Mistake #2: Don’t eat at a place with a “town crier.” Again, for all we knew, it was totally normal in Italy for a waiter or host to bombard you on the street and tell you all about their great “spaghetti and meatballs.” This guy even pulled a chair out for us in the outdoor seating area when we stopped to look at the menu. I was starving, so his tactics worked on me, and we sat down to eat. Later on our trip, I noticed that these “town criers” are only found around restaurants near a major tourist attraction. Anywhere else where we would stop to look at their posted menu, no one bombarded us. If there was a hostess nearby, she might say “hello,” but she definitely didn’t try to persuade us to choose her restaurant. And our server’s pushy persona didn’t stop once we sat down. When we finished the meal and paid, he said “tip cash,” which would have been obvious, since he had already told us they don’t accept card, except that gratuity had already been figured into our bill. So he was essentially just saying it to make sure we tipped him even more. And then he stood there at our table until we did. If it hadn’t been the first meal of the trip, I might have said something, but I just felt too intimidated by not knowing anything about the city or the culture. None of the other places where we ate following that night had gratuity already figured into the bill, and none of our other servers said anything to us about tipping. It was similar to the culture here in the U.S. in that regard -- it’s just implied that a tip is expected for adequate service. Mistake #3: Restaurants serving spaghetti and meatballs are not authentic. It’s not even an Italian dish. We even found out that putting meatballs in spaghetti is borderline offensive to Italian chefs. The dish was invented in Brooklyn in the twentieth century, and isn’t served at any authentic Italian restaurant. Meatballs are a thing in Italy, and Spaghetti is a thing, but not together. Mistake #4: The good places don’t even open until at least 7 p.m. We knew going into this trip that it’s not the culture in Italy, and a lot of places in Europe, to eat as early as Americans sometimes do. It’s not normal for me to eat at 5:30, even here in the States, but when it starts to get dark around that time (we were visiting in November), it feels like it’s time to wind the night down and head back to the hotel. And since our hotel was nowhere near city center and about a 10-15 minute walk to the nearest Metro stop, it felt like when we were in for the night, that should be the end of the night. Even after we had learned from our mistakes at this tourist restaurant outside the Vatican, we still found ourselves searching for food earlier than we should have on other nights. Just take my word for it and wait for the places that don’t open until late. They’re so much better. From the mistakes I made that first night in Rome, I learned that eating should be a destination of its own. Of course I knew going into this trip that I wanted to eat at the restaurants and experience the authentic cuisine, but I didn’t put the advance thought into it that I did with the sights we saw during the day. The best meal I had was at a restaurant that came recommended by someone we met in Rome. So, don’t do what I did and try to find a place for dinner at the end of the day when you’re tired and hungry. Make a plan in advance, and try to get some recommendations from people who know the city well. Here are a few places I recommend:
When I first saw the Lizzie McGuire Movie at the impressionable age of eight years old, I witnessed a near perfect work of cinema. Travel, adventure, finding your famous doppelgänger… and all with your best friend at your side. I wanted to experience something like that someday. Now, overlooking a few major flaws in that film (e.g. a 14-year-old girl taking off with a 40-looking 17-year-old in a foreign country was not a great move), I finally did it! I went to Rome. And of course I couldn’t help but notice when I saw all the landmarks that appeared in the movie. This is where Lizzie did a cartwheel! That’s where Lizzie met Paulo! Over there is where Lizzie’s feet started bleeding from blisters! Okay, maybe that last one was just me… 
Anyway, I decided to look it up. As it turns out, when you toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain, the wish is already predetermined. The first coin means you’ll return to Rome; the second coin means you’ll have a love affair; the third coin means you’ll get married. A love affair sounds a bit dramatic for my taste, so I tossed one coin. I also visited what Paulo refers to as one of the most expensive shopping districts in the world. Did I set foot in a single store? No. Did I climb to the top of the Spanish Steps and do a bit of voguing where Lizzie did her famous (in my mind) cartwheel after her makeover scene? Of course.
I also want to talk for a second about Lizzie’s hotel experience. She went to Rome on a class trip for her eighth grade graduation. So, suspending my disbelief enough to overlook the fact that her family and her school building itself didn’t seem to be in the type of socio-economic class to send their 14-year-olds off to Italy, what’s with the luxury hotel they stayed in? Seriously, the thing was beautiful. Two queen size beds in a room to sleep only two girls, the room was huge, and it was covered on stunning decor. And with all of that, the manager of the hotel (who seemed to be the only person ever working the front desk) didn’t speak English? That was nothing like my experience. I didn’t pay for a fancy hotel, so my expectations weren’t too high, and the overall experience at the place we stayed, Hotel Osimar, was sufficient. Twin beds, a tiny room, a perfectly clean bathroom, and an entire staff that spoke at least some English. And usually they were fluent. In fact, that’s something we noticed all across Rome. Obviously, when you work in hospitality, knowing such a prominent language as English seems likely, but pretty much the entire city of Rome is full of tourists all the time, so it seemed like most people spoke English. We only went to one place our entire stay where no one did, and that’s out of the hotel, tourist attractions, stores and restaurants. The scene where Gordo walks up to two random strangers because he sees Lizzie on the cover of an Italian magazine and he asks if they speak English and they do, fluently, seems way more realistic than the manager of a fancy hotel speaking barely any English at all.
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About the blog.I started this blog in 2017 with the goal of seeing all the U.S. National Parks and writing about them. But as I kept writing and posting, I realized there's so much more I want to document in my life. So, the blog grew into something much broader and even more special to my heart. Archives.
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