La Grotta del Turco or Montagna Spaccata

When I was visiting Gaeta for a week, I always wondered if this small city had any historical mysteries. As I did my research I found out about Grotta del Turco or “Montagna Spaccata” as Italians call it. It’s a mountain split in half located right beside the church.

My best friend and I were at the beach and we decided to ask people around where it was located. When we asked a man who worked at the beach, he had no idea what we were talking about. I tried to explain somehow in English since I do not speak Italian and their English isn’t perfect. Few minutes later, his friend jumped into the conversation and surprisingly said: “Si, si! Montagna Spaccata!” He showed us where it was. And guess what? It was right beside our beach!!! We found out about it two days before we had to leave. Even though it was really hot, we got some gelatos and started our little trip. As we got there, we saw a very pretty church. We had to pay €1 each to get to the Grotta del Turco. Luckily, few guys who were walking ahead paid for us. How nice of them though! :)

As we entered the gates, we had to go down the stairs. I counted about 276 steps… I think. When we got there, the view was amazingly beautiful! I took couple of pictures of course, but photos are different than reality. There were a lot of people, you could totally see the sea and people on the shipping just swimming by. It was a very precious view. I definitely recommend this to anyone who ever visits Gaeta. Hands down you’ll love the view!!!

There is also a photo of how la Grotta del Turco looks from the seaside. 

P.S walking back upstairs was a good workout too!

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 :)

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.