Towards the end of the study abroad program in April, I had over a week off for Easter break, as they call it here in Europe. It was a ten day break so I had decided to spend the entire break in Italy! I went along with three other friends from South Korea, who I had met during my time here in Madrid. It was a well planned trip and was a lot of fun as this wasmy first time in Italy. We hit the major spots of Italy – Rome, Naples, Capri, Florence, Milan, Lake Como, Venice.
We had spent two days in Rome. The first day, after checking into our hotel, we walked to Trevi Fountain and threw some coins into the fountain. We decided to eat gelato every single day of our Italy trip, so of course we had to get gelato! Walking the streets of Rome was one of my favourite things because it was so lively with street music, pop up shops, book stalls, art and architecture everywhere. We walked to the Pantheon, but unfortunately we could not get inside since we did not reserve tickets earlier. After exploring the Piazzas of Rome and all the famous neighborhoods, we had to try the famous pasta restaurant called ‘Osteria Da Fortunata’. Before travelling to any place I like to watch some vlogs or tiktoks and look at recommendations for places.
That is how I came to know about this restaurant and it did not disappoint even though we waited around 45 minutes to get seated. After enjoying one of the best pasta in Rome, we walked around the river and St. Angelo Bridge to watch the sunset. It was such a beautiful evening with a dramatic sunset.
The second day in Rome, we visited the Colosseum. We read that on Sundays, entry into the colosseum is free, but little did we know, we had to wait in line for over two hours to get a ticket. Determined to see the colosseum when in Rome, we waited and finally got the tickets. We had a pocket guide and learned about the history of the place. We also climbed up Palatine Hill to see some more ruins from the Roman empire. My favorite part of being in Rome was also trying out the different pastries and mainly, tiramisu! In the evening, I also had the opportunity to make homemade pasta. I learnt how to make gnocchi and fettuccine from an Italian and it was such a fun experience. That concluded our two days in Rome and I would love to go back to Rome again some day.
The next morning, we took a short train ride to Naples (Napoli). Naples is a small city so we spent a day exploring its tiny yet lively streets, and Naples being the birthplace of Pizza Napolitana, we had to try the pizza there. We ended up getting pizzas from Pizzeria Da Michele, which is the pizzeria that was featured in the movie ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, and had very high ratings. The pizzas were delicious! We had also tried fried pizzas at Sorbillo which is also famous in Naples, and spent the rest of our day walking around the streets.
From Napoli, Capri is a short ferry ride. So we took a day trip the next day to Capri and it was so beautiful. It is a tiny island with picturesque scenery and clear blue waters. As soon as we reached Capri, we took a bus from the port to Ana Capri, and from there we took a chair lift up to the highest viewpoint of the island, called Monte Solaro, and we got to see some scenic views of the island. The island was very easy to navigate as there were buses running along the major parts of the island. We then headed to the main area of the island and had an amazing lunch by the ocean. We had some ravioli that was famous in Capri. We then checked out a famous park called Gardens of Augustus which also had many viewpoints from where we could see rock formations and the ocean. Capri has many beautiful beaches, and as it was off-season, the beaches were not crowded. So we strolled along the beach, watched the sunset and took a ferry back to Naples and ended our day to continue with the rest of the Italy trip.
You must be logged in to post a comment.