The Best of Two Worlds

Since our last post (I know its been too long), we have moved from Florence to Orvieto to Rome. The three nights in Orvieto were slow, but full of classic Italian countryside views and plenty of classic American laziness. We broke down and utilized the free WiFi at our hotel to download a few episodes of One Tree Hill (thanks to Melissa, Kristen and Emily for this addiction) and spent several of our stranded hours watching them. I say "stranded" because our abode was high atop "La Rocca" in Orvieto. It was an agritourismo, which is basically a working farm at which you can stay. They were a legitimate operation, harvesting grapes while we were there, we could smell the churning machinery grinding grapes into wine each morning on our way to breakfast. As this was the case, the only way to and from the town was an expensive taxi trip. So instead of burning through our bank account, we holed up in our apartment, opened the windows to a beautiful Tuscan-type vista and enjoyed some true R & R. Each meal we ate at the (all too) fancy restaurant, which served anything from rabbit in Michaels spaghetti, to pigeon-filled ravioli. I chose to not partake in either, vying for the safter risotto option (I neglected the included mystery fish).

The highlight of Orvieto was a half-day tour by Italian guide Giulio. He used his expertise of the area to help us discover two wineries and an incredible, quaint hilltop village, called Civita. It was a piece of Italy at its best and we loved every minute of it.

An hour train ride brought us to a city seemingly worlds away from peacful Umbria. Rome is big, busy and passionate (a slight contrast to our hotel which is small, shabby and sad). Last night we spent several hours observing the citys behavior around Trevi Fountain. We watched families gather, tourists from every corner of the world toss coins over their shoulder and even a local man, down on his luck, attempt to pull those tossed coins out of the fountain and into his pocket. It was the first time since beginning this trip 5 weeks ago that we sat down for such a period and people-watched.

Starting fresh this morning we wanted to hit some of the big name sites. We went straight to the Pantheon, an incredible display of ancient times preserved, followed by a trip to the Vatican City. My highlight, while the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters Basilica are close seconds, had to be the Vatican Post Office! We bought several stamps and even mailed a postcard to ourselves for posterity. The Chapel and Basilica were both incredible, more striking than we expected. Tonight, we will take a recommended walk through some of the best nighttime sites of Rome and have a dinner on Campo de Fiori.

After one more day in Rome, where we will get to see the rest of Ancient Rome, we will be off to Venice for three nights. Its pretty weird to see our Italy segment quickly coming to a close, just eight more nights!