Tourist life

American flag

As our journey finished in Rome, we were on our way to Gaeta, south side and seaside of Italy. Prices for trains are cheap. It all depends on timing. Prices for train tickets are fairly cheap. The train ride was about two hours.

As we arrived, it felt like we were in another country. Formia, Gaeta was so much different than Rome. Well, I guess it was because more rural and more naturalistic I would say. The view of Gaeta is incredible. It’s a perfect mixture of nature, sea and architecture. I feel like Gaeta stole my heart, because I fell in love with that small city that you could probably walk around in couple of hours.

Since it was south of Italy it was less crowded, and not too many tourists. However, when we went to the beach, it looked like half of the world’s population was there. There were a lot of people. Who would not want to enjoy the beautiful weather on the beach?

Water was crystal clear and warm. The funniest part about that beach was when I saw American flag… right beside Italian. It’s common sense why there was Italian flag, but I was wondering why American flag was hanging there. It was so random and I had to kill my curiosity. I asked a man who was picking up the garbage at the beach, because he looked very non Italian, as we spoke, I find out that he works for US Navy and that there’s a big ship in the sea. That’s why there was an American flag.

P.S That's an American ship in the picture

Gianicolo Hill

Since I was in Rome for a week, I had to visit all tourist sights, it was a must! One of my friends did a research about Gianicolo Hill, and we all decided that this must be viewed from early morning when sun starts rising. Gianicolo Hill is known as of one the tallest hills in Italy. We looked at some picture on Internet and we were so stunned and excited for the sunrise n Gianicolo Hill. We woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning, and jogged to the hill. When we got there, luckily it was still dark. Every 5-10 minutes I was taking pictures. The view was one of the most incredible views that my eyes ever witnessed. You can overlook most of the city from the top of the hill, which makes it a very breathtaking view, especially to see the city's dome and skyline from far. Also, you could see the mount Vesuvius! Isn’t it so incredible? I never saw anything so beautiful! The hill contains very historic sights such as San Pietro in Montorio that is a very unique design of Roman architectural history. There's also the fountain (Fontana dell'Acqua Paola) It is a monumental fountain that was made from marbles and located right beside San Pietro in Montorio church.  Spending almost 3 hours just looking at the beautiful sunrise was absolutely gorgeous! I tried to make a collage from the beginning of the sunrise and the end, but honestly if you see it with your own eyes it’s so much different and breathtaking! Gianicolo Hill is a must in Rome :)

August in Italy

Canadian summer is weird. It may be rainy, cloudy, hot or chilly. (#canadianproblems). No matter how humid it gets all the malls and shops are open. On the weekends most of them are open till 7pm. I went to Italy in the beginning of August and the weather was amazing! (And by amazing I mean it was real summer weather there that I was enjoying every second of it.) But I didn’t know that everything closes either early or shops are just closed. August for Italians is the month of the summer when they go to the seaside of Italy, that’s why most of the shops are closed, but tourist’s sights are open. Another reason some shops are closed is because of the hot humid weather. They even have a special name for it. Streets are pretty quiet, but everything get busier when people start coming out in the evening time, except tourists, who are out the entire day. My friends and I had to pull long missions to find a restaurant that was open where we could go and eat and enjoy our time together. But hey, it’s a part of their culture that I learned about Italy :)

When walking in Rome, we could find small water fountains with drinking water. Isn’t it so smart? Especially when your bottle of water finishes, you can easily go and refill it anywhere.  OR you can refresh yourself with cold water and get a really nice tan without trying hard.

P.S oh and by the way you should really try Italian ice cream (gelato)! The most delicious thing over there besides real Italian pizza of course.

Tourist problems in Italy - Tips

Rome, Italy is a lovely place to travel in summer time. The weather is amazing compared to unstable Canadian weather (where I live) when one day rains and another day it's humid.

All you need there is comfortable summer stylish pieces. Here's a TIP for ladies of course, do NOT ever take any kinds of heels with you!!! I learned it hard way. I grabbed few heels with me, because I thought I would need them at some point of the trip...But... I never wore them. Next time, I won't even bother taking heels with me. Unless you really cannot go a day without heels, then you might prefer taking wedges. The streets of Rome are old fashioned (you can see it in the picture),

which makes it impossible to wear any kinds of heels. I remember when I was wandering around with my best friend, we were wearing some kind of fancy shoes, and all we did is look down so we wouldn’t trip or fall, but of course we couldn’t avoid it…

Whoever traveled to Italy knows my pain and whoever is planning to travel in the future, keep that in mind! :)  It’s probably the major issue of travellers who are loving the architecture and trying so hard not to fall while walking around and being busy taking pictures.

Besides that, Rome is beautiful. I got very lucky to live 7 min away from the heart of Rome, Vatican City.

Since you’ll be a tourist, you may need to get used to seeing people coming up to you and telling you to buy flowers for your friends, or buy tickets to skip the lines (which are insanely long and tiring) to museums, buy a bottle of water because it’s very hot and stuff like that. That’s something I couldn’t get used to personally. My friends and I tried to escape those “sketchies” but at the same time we enjoyed the moment of being most valued tourists in Rome.