When In Rome

Monday, May 19

Today is mine and Rusty's third anniversary! How exciting that I got to wake up to Rusty saying things about the time we have spent together and the experiences we've had, and then spend our morning in Florence before leaving to spend the rest of the day in Rome! How romantic! I don't really know how this one will be topped. We walked past the Duomo one last time before heading toward the train station. On our way there we stopped at a shop and Rusty got a letter wallet. He really wanted a genuine Florentine leather wallet, and this was our last chance. (Sadly, once on the train he looked inside and saw a "Made in China" sticker... Oops. The good news is that Rusty bartered and got it for super cheap, maybe that should have been a sign). I still wasn't feeling very well so we stopped at another place and got some oranges for breakfast.

We got to the train station and got right on a train headed to Rome (that was obviously late) and found some seats. We got off at the Rome Termini Station and headed out into the city! My first impression was that there were large, wide streets with lots of traffic and honking. There were people everywhere and they were either hurrying or lost haha. It started to rain really lightly as we made our way to the apartment, but it was so fun to be seeing that city. Every building seemed to be magical and was beautiful.

America's contribution

We found the right street but could not for the life of us find the right address number. We walked back and forth on that street over and over again but couldn't find it. There was this really huge looking palace thing that seemed to be closest to the correct address, but there were security guards outside of it. Finally, in desperation, we went and asked if this was the right address. He said no and then promptly informed us that we needed to get off of the property immediately. So we asked some more people for help but nobody knew where that address was. Then we decided to go and get some lunch at the restaurant right next to the palace with the mean guards and try to email the host. In the end it worked out because 1: PIZZA and 2: We were right down the street from the apartment. The guy responded really quickly and we told him where we were so he sent his dad to come and get us. He took us back and it turns out we had walked past it and stood in front of it a million times. Bummer. Anyways, we went and dropped off our bags and met his wife as well. Neither of them spoke any English so it was fun to try to communicate with them. They are both really sweet.

Our original plan was to go to Campo de Fiori, a really cool outdoors farmers market that is famous in Rome. Because of getting lost we knew that it was closed down for the day but we decided to go anyway, in part because of the nearby bakery called Forno. I had heard that their pizza (especially their zucchini pizza) was delicious and so obviously I wanted to go there. When we got there they told me that they just cook until things sell out, and all of their pizza was gone. Partly because I felt embarrassed and partly because I was desperate to eat something from this bakery I just bought a loaf of ciabatta bread. It was huge, but also so, so tasty! And it ended up working out really well because we just kept it wrapped up in our backpack and then would take it out and eat it over the next couple of days as a snack. 

Some creepy guy statue

All of the tents were gone :(

We walked around for a while, and noticed that the traffic flows pretty easily here, especially considering the amount of cars. And you don't have to wait for the walk signal, you just step out and people in cars will stop. They don't even get mad or honk, they just seem to accept it. On our way to see a piazza we stumbled across the Pantheon. WHAT. NO BIG DEAL. It's so crazy because this is such an important thing yet it's tucked away in this tiny piazza that you can only get to by winding streets. You would never even know it was there! There were a lot of people there and we had planned on coming back the next day anyways so we moved on. But it's really big and incredible, and definitely not disappointing.

We continued on our way but were stopped again when we saw a big group of people looking at some ruins. A bonus of being in such touristy cities is that there are lots of people doing walking tours and you can follow the tour for just enough time that you hear some cool stuff but not long enough that they yell at you. :) They were looking at an old building from 1 AD on the Piazza del Pietra. There was a large opening that went straight down from ground level to the foundations of this old building, making it look like it was built underground. What really happened is that after major floods would bring in a lot of debris, they wouldn't clear it away but they would leave it. After a while the ground level had raised significantly so they would build on top of the old buildings instead of tearing down the foundations. Crazy! Thank you tour group :)

We made it to the Piazza Navona, which is mainly famous for Bernini's fountain, Four Rivers. But what I really loved about it was the atmosphere. Musicians were playing, tourists and locals were sitting and talking, and the scenery wasn't too bad either. Rome has the most fountains of any city in the world, and there were two really prominent ones in this piazza. The Four Rivers fountain is really cool because of what it symbolizes. There are four figures that each represent one of the four continents where the authority of the Pope had spread by symbolizing a major river there: the Nile (Africa), the Danube (Europe), Ganges (Asia), and Rio de la Plata (Americas). 

The other fountain, Fountain of Neptune

Four Rivers

After sitting here for a while we went to the Trevi Fountain. I was so surprised, but this is tucked away through winding alleys that open up to a piazza too. There are so many gems hidden in Rome! We followed tradition and threw a coin over our left shoulders with our right hands and made a wish to come back to Rome. We hope that it works :)

Making our wish!

I still wasn't feeling well so we found a little marketplace to buy some oranges. There was a ton of fresh pasta and bread, and LOTS of raw meat. Because of that there was a really bad smell in the back of the store. Gross. Another funny thing was that they had these little carts that looked like laundry baskets on wheels. At the checkout we saw some more of those chocolate Kinder bars that we got in Florence so of course Rusty bought a few of those. :) Then we went to our final destination for the night: The Spanish Steps. Honestly I don't know why these are significant other than the fact that it is a very popular place to sit and enjoy the city after doing the nightly promenade that is custom in Italy. So we sat there too and talked about our first night in Rome and our anniversary coming to a close. People watching is always rewarding in really busy places like this, but tonight was one of my favorites of the whole trip. There was a man there trying to sell roses but he was being extremely rude and obnoxious and getting really close to people trying to make them take a rose. Finally a lady had enough and stood up and just started yelling at him! I don't know what she was saying, but I'm pretty sure she let him have it. People started cheering for her and yelling at the man, which made me feel bad until he just walked a few more feet down the road and started doing it again to those people.

Our initial thoughts of Rome is that there are LOTS of people, tiny cars (the smart cars are parked sideways!) and that there are so many amazing, old buildings everywhere that we wish we had someone constantly walking with us telling us what things were. We are very excited to explore more tomorrow!

Tuesday, May 20

Another day in Rome! We started with a delicious breakfast in bed! I was so excited for this apartment because I heard such good things about the breakfast. A typical Italian (and European for that matter) breakfast is a lot smaller than an American breakfast. They would eat a cappuccino and maybe a small pastry, but the breakfast that the sweet host brought in had a lot of different food! There was a whole tray of coffee and cappuccinos and the lady was so sweet that we couldn't bear to tell her that we don't drink it so we just dumped it down the sink. She also brought us grapefruit juice, yogurt, little sugary croissants, and small things that were kind of like Twinkies. Oh, and Nutella. Those Italians love Nutella.

Rusty loved putting Nutella on them. Best. Day. Ever.

Our apartment in Rome was close enough that we could walk almost everywhere. It was so nice to walk because you didn't have to worry about making it to places on time but also because you got to get a great feel for the city and to see things you would miss if you just went straight to every destination. Also it's the only reason we didn't gain 50 pounds for our entire trip. Our first stop for today was the Colosseum!

When we got to the Colosseum the first views really are breathtaking. It's surreal to be somewhere so iconic and significant. It was Rusty's favorite spot on the trip, and definitely up there for me too.

The actual building on the Colosseum is really interesting. It was built on the site of Emperor Nero's palace. He was a hard, mean emperor and so the people decided to take the land that belonged to him and turn it into something that was good for the people. For part of the building they had to drain a lake, but even with that and its size it only took them ten years to complete which is pretty awesome. It is actually shaped like an elliptical, not a circle, and was built to have what was considered the golden proportion. The Colosseum was all about engineering instead of beauty, which is probably why we still get to enjoy it today. It was originally called Flavian's Amphitheater, but because of its colossal size it earned the nickname Colosseum. Inside the stadium, the emperor had his own box and so did the Vestal Virgins. Then was the seating for the nobles, and at the highest level was the seating for the poor people and women. The stairs were very step and slanted downward, and seemed to get worse at the top. I am surprised they didn't all die on those stairs! While we were there there was a lady with a big baby stroller that was really struggling. Rusty carried it up the stairs for her and I was scared he was going to fall because they are so sketchy. There are large gates that people would enter and exit through, and they estimate that the 50,000 fans could exit faster than they can from our stadiums today. Each person would have a "ticket" that told them what gate number to enter and their seat number written on a piece of broken pottery.

Something I didn't know is that there were other things that happened here in addition to the gladiator fights. The events would last all day long, with the gladiators just being the main attraction. There were underground hallways and chambers that would be covered up with boards and sand (giving us the term arena for stadium!!) and then transformed into lots of different ecosystems, just like in the Hunger Games. The Romans also bright back animals and slaves from all of their conquering around the world to use in the games. They had events that were animal vs animal that might have a dog fighting a porcupine or a hippo fighting a lion. Or it could be a human vs animal fight where slaves or POWs were attacked by tigers or bears. The part they really loved about this game was that there were 80 two doors with elevators leading up from the underground that would hoist the animals up. So the person never knew where the animal would show up. Sometimes they would even hold plays and make the characters that died in the story actually die in real life. There was so much death and blood in this stadium that they had to use perfume to cover the stench. It's awful. The gladiators had special schools where they would be trained on how to use only one specific weapon to make the fights more interesting. The gladiator were either poor, prisoners of war, or slaves that were made to fight. When one gladiator had the other down on the ground he would look to the emperor to see if he should kill him or let him live. Legend is that with just a thumbs up or down the emperor controlled their lives, and even sometimes let the crowd choose. If the gladiators did well in their fights they became Rome's biggest celebrities and gained wealth and fame and pretty much anything they wanted.

Sketchy stairs!

The Colosseum is still really well preserved, especially when you think about the fact that it was raided for materials so many times. There are big pock marks all over it from people taking iron, and the marble was taken and used for other buildings- including St. Peters. But it has continued to stand and is still am important part of the culture and society. Today all big parades and demonstrations end here at this square. As the saying goes "As long as the Colosseum stands, Rome will stand."

From the Colosseum you can see the Arch of Constantine. He was the ruler that made Christianity the national religion, and he made this arch that had reliefs of himself and other rulers. Unfortunately there was scaffolding all over it while we were there. Bummer. But it was still cool.

  

Then we went across the plaza to the Roman Forum. I hadn't really heard much about this until I started planning for this trip, but it was so cool! It was the main center for everything social and political in Rome.

We walked down the Via Sacra, which was the main street for the Roman Forum. Many of these are the same stones that were there when Caesar was walking here! It was so amazing to be walking here where there was so much history. 

To get into the Roman Forum you have to pass through the Arch of Titus. It was to celebrate Titus and the victory over Jerusalem. It shows on the underside depictions of them bringing  back their spoils and Titus being taken up to heaven on an eagle.

The next thing you see is Constantine's Basilica, which is huge! Only partial remains are there, but even that is really big. There are three arches along the sides, but what they believe was there was big arches from each side.

The Vestal Virgins were in charge of keeping the fire of Rome burning day and night. Rome was all about families, and the fire in the hearth symbolized a home and family, so this fire signified that Rome was a family. They also had to take a 30 year vow of chastity and if they broke it, or let the fire die, they were buried alive with only one candle. Awful. But, on the other hand, if they successfully completed their calling they were treated second only to the emperor.

And this was their house.

We saw Caesar's Temple, which was built where he died after he was betrayed. We also saw the Temple of Jupiter and the wall where the "Friends, countrymen, lend me your ears" speech was given. We went to the Senate House and ate some of our delicious bread that we kept in our backpack. There were poppies everywhere in the fields which was just beautiful.

Senate house

Temple of Jupiter

By this time we were hot, tired, and hungry. But we still hadn't visited Palatine Hill which was right next to the Forum. Neither of us really knew what we would find there, but in the end we knew that we couldn't miss it and decided to just head over and see what it was. We filled up our water bottles at some fountains before we made our way over. It didn't take very long but I'm really glad we did it! The first thing we saw was an old tunnel that was built in 1 AD. There were little carvings of cupid and mosaic tiles.

View of Palatine Hill from the Colosseum

Then we saw some old town huts and Augusts' house. There was a huge garden area, called a stadium that was right next to the house. And there was a view where you could see Circus Maximus, and from the other side you could see the Colosseum. 

Finally it was time for lunch! We found a pizza place that sold pizza by how much it weighed, not by the slice. That is the secret to the best Italian pizza. I've also found that the best pizzas here are rectangular and they eat turn by folding it in half like a sandwich. I don't know why that makes a difference, but it does. Then we started our walk over to the Borghese Gallery. It was a pretty long walk but we got to see another part of the city that was all residential and it was really cool. We thought that after seeing so many museums and galleries we would be bored and tired of it, but this was actually one of the coolest ones we visited! I found out on this trip that I really love sculptures, and this place was full of really amazing ones.

Some of our favorite statues were:

~Bernini's David- The ability to capture that much movement in a piece was astounding, as well as his fierce determination. This David ranks right up there with Michelangelo's for me (not a huge fan of Donatello's). In fact, I believe it surpasses it. It is beautiful.
~Bernini's Rape of Persephone. This was so life-like we couldn't believe it. The muscles, imprints of fingers on her leg, the swirling cloak... All of it just looked so real. This statue was based on the myth that Hades kidnapped Persephone and took her to the underworld with him. It had the effect of making me feel like I was actually watching that story take place. Truly amazing.
~Venus Victrix by Canova- Honestly this statue didn't really speak to me or entrance me like the other ones did, but one aspect of it was just so fascinating. She is laying on a cushion and it looks so real! The indents from her body, the lines around the buttons from being sewed on, the different thicknesses from her laying on it... It was one of the first pieces I saw today and it was a great way to start the tour.
~Apollo and Daphne by Bernini. I think this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I was so enthralled I could stare at it all day long, and actually I did stay there while Rusty moved on and then had to come back and get me- twice. It is so delicate, I can't believe it's even possible to do that with stone, or have it last this long. The leaves were so thin they were almost transparent. The whole statue twirled from the bottom to the top- it was so graceful.
~Truth by Bernini. Yes, I realize that the majority of the pieces that I was in love with were by Bernini. Apparently I have a new favorite artist! I did like this statue, but the story behind it was really interesting. Bernini intended for the statue to be Truth Unveiled by Time, and the figure of the woman holding the sun in her hand and resting her foot on the earth is Truth. He never got around to finishing the sculpture and adding in the figure that would represent Time. Similar to Michelangelo's figures in the Medici chapel, I love seeing ideas personified by sculptures.

There were also some extraordinary paintings in the gallery.
~ Diana and Her Nymphs.
~The Last Supper by Bassano. This depicts the scene of when Christ tells his disciples that one of them will betray him. I loved this painting because it seems more realistic than DaVinci's version, although that is beautiful too. They look like real men with bare feet that have been working hard and are surprised by this announcement from the Savior.
~The Deposition by Raphael.

After we we finished inside the gallery we went outside and sat by some fountains on a bench in the shade. Then we walked through a beautiful park on our way back into the heart of the city. We passed by the Column of Marcus Aurelius, which is like Trajan's Column and tells a sorry that spirals up the column.

We got to the Pantheon and this time we got to go inside and look around. It has been in continuous use for 2,000 years! It started out as a Pagan church that changed into a Christian Church when Christianity became the religion of Rome. It's famous for its unusual shape and the hole in the center of the dome that is the only source of light for the building. Some really important kings are buried there and you can see their tombs. The huge columns in front of the Pantheon were all shipped from Egypt, and came in one piece! That means that those giant columns had to be transported on a ship WHOLE. That's a big deal, and would be difficult even today. It's so impressive that they did that then.

For dinner we got pizza, again! Continuing with what we had learned about pizza, we found a place where they didn't speak any English and sold pizza according to the weight. Delicious! You'd think after all of this pizza we'd get sick of it... You'd think. We ended the night by going back to the Trevi Fountain. We wanted to see it again and it was close to the Pantheon so we headed over. This time we noticed that there were these funny water fountains that were kind of like drinking fountains when you step on it. I saw an Italian man get a drink from it and I was kind of thirsty, but mostly I just wanted to look legit. So I tried to get a drink but just ended up spraying myself and the poor soul sitting in front of me. Oops. 

Wednesday, May 21

Today we woke up and had breakfast in bed again! It was very similar to what we had yesterday. We talked with the hosts about the best way to get to airport tomorrow but because they don't speak any English and we don't speak Italian we used Google translate. It was so funny to hear silence as Rusty typed and then head either one of them suddenly burst out and answer and then start typing in silence again haha. This lady was incredibly nice and kept typing in nice things about us too. I loved her and wanted to take her with us on the rest of our trip. She suggested that we take a taxi and said she would call and set it all up.

After we got that set up we set out for our last day in Rome, and we still had a lot to do! It would be a busy day. We rode the metro into Vatican City. It was really tight and squishy and there were definitely too many people. I didn't have to hold onto anything when it stopped or started because all of the people were holding me up. With their bodies. It was like we were sardines in a can. We got there and walked to the Vatican Museum, and luckily I had bought tickets and reservations ahead of time so we were able to walk past a HUGE line and get right in. Wonderful! Definitely the way to go. The museum here was interesting. There were a lot of really old Egyptian pieces that were cool to look at, and a few more statues as well. The rooms in the building itself were designed and partly painted by Raphael, and they were very beautiful. There were long hallways with really ornate ceilings, and one hallway was full of hanging tapestries. Part of the museum opens up to some outdoor courtyards with statues, and I saw one that I learned about in my humanities class a few years before. I was really excited because this one had always interested me. It's called Laocoön, and depicts a man and his two sons being attacked by serpents. There are a variety of different stories as to why this happened because this character dates back to ancient Greece, but they all involve the gods becoming angry with him for some reason and sending sea serpents to kill him and his sons as punishment. The last section of the museum is modern art that neither Rusty nor I really care for so we hurried through that pretty quickly.

Then it was time to see the Sistine Chapel! You go in and there is seating all around the edges of the room. Pictures are not allowed and there are guards in there to monitor that. They just yell at people every few minutes but it didn't do anything because people kept sneaking them anyways. It definitely was a different atmosphere than other chapel I've been in. It was a lot smaller than we thought it would be but very surreal to finally see it, especially the God and Adam scene. There are nine panels starting at one end of the ceiling going to the other side showing the Creation through Noah. The paintings were beautiful and full of details. The ceiling was restored and the bright colors that they found surprised everyone and made some historians rethink their ideas about Michelangelo and his style. There was a small square on the ceiling showing the dark colors before the restoration and it was incredibly different. Painting a fresco, you use fresh plaster and then paint while it is drying so you have to be quick. He could only do a little each day and if he messed up they had to pull it off and redo it the next day so he really only had one shot. Contrary to popular belief, he didn't paint it laying down but standing up bending over backwards. They say that it was so moving to the Pope that he knelt down and prayed for forgiveness when he saw this painting.

We left the chapel and started walking toward St. Peter's Basilica. There are huge walls guarding Vatican City and it has its own post office, radio station, and even a mini train. When we got there the gates were all locked and shut because the Pope was giving an address, but we thought it would be finished at 12 so we just waited. We walked down the street a little ways to get some pizza for lunch but so many people were waiting to get into the basilica that everywhere was so crowded! So we got the pizza and then headed back to the main square to wait. There are statues all around the front of St. Peters, and the layout was designed by Bernini. We listened to music and waited for the basilica to open when all of a sudden we heard people cheering. We looked up and saw the Pope!! We saw the Pope in Vatican City! That's pretty cool. Pope Francis is my BFF.

Then they opened up the doors for St. Peter's but there were so many people! There weren't even any lines, it was just a big mass of people making their way toward the doors. It was awful; people were pushing and grabbing, especially the old people which is the most annoying because you can't do anything back. Finally I did yell "No!" at this one lady because she kept shoving me over to get ahead. Eventually we got in, and it actually didn't take as long as we thought it would. St Peter's was really awe inspiring. The whole church is six acres, the dome is two football fields tall, and the main altar canopy is six stories tall. There are quotes from Jesus to Peter written on the inside of the dome and the letters are seven feet high! It was so big that there were markers inside of where other famous chapels would have ended if they were placed inside, including St. Paul's that we saw in London! It is built where they believe that Peter was crucified. Bernini designed the altar canopy and it was really ornate. There is a state of Peter and his right big toe is actually worn down by people kissing and rubbing it. By far my favorite part was the Pieta by Michelangelo. It was peaceful, somber, and tranquil. It makes you feel sorrowful and peaceful at the same time. I couldn't even think of anything to say; I could stare at it all day. Geesh, me and statues! On our way out we saw the Swiss Guard in their traditional uniforms! Rusty and I wanted to know if they were like the Buckingham Palace guards that have to ignore you so we tried to talk to him. He ignored us.... But he might have just hated us. Hard to tell.

We had some extra time and would pass it on our way to the next stop, so we went back to Campo dei Fiori. This time we got there before it closed :) The first stop was to go back to Forno and try to get the zucchini pizza. BEST NEWS EVER. THEY HAD IT. Also I think that was the best pizza I had while we were in Italy, or it definitely ranked up high. We wandered through the market and looked at the tents with all of the colorful produce when we happened upon an old man doing a demonstration with this vegetable grater/chopper. It could spiral cut all of your veggies and chop them with cool designs, and Rusty was enthralled and asked if he could have it. So we bought it. Who knows if it will really work or if we will even get home with it after we travel on three different airplanes... But he wanted it so badly!

We walked along the river to go and do the Bocca della Verita, which might not be the most popular tourist destination in Rome but my favorite movie is Roman Holiday and ever since seeing it I have wanted to come here. The river was beautiful and we saw a lot of extremely old bridges. We got lost for a little while (shocking) but eventually found our way there. It is right outside a small church and when we got there we got in a long line. After a minute I started to notice something interesting... They were ALL Asians! That is the closest I've ever been to visiting an Asian country. :) We got our turn and a man stood to the side and gave you a few minutes to take a picture and then made you move on. It was very quick, but we did it! I was so excited to finally put my hand in there. The legend is that if you put your hand in the mouth and tell a lie that it will bite your hand off! Check another thing off of my bucket list.

After going through the little church we made our way back to the heart of the city. Along the way we saw all kinds of ruins and pieces of columns just along the street! These people drive and walk past these pieces every day without paying much attention. They are just left by the side of the road! On our way to the Piazza Venezia we passed by Trajan's Column, which tells the story of another victory in war. It was really impressive though, and just next to some ruins of old buildings. When we got to the piazza we saw a huge, beautiful building with flags and a sculpture in the middle. We had passed by it before and thought it was really cool but didn't know what it was. Then we came back to the apartment and showered because it was such a hot day and just relaxed for a little while.

After our little break we went back out for our last night in Rome, and our last night in Italy. We wandered around the streets and found a place for dinner where we could eat out on the street. A street musician came and played and then a rose person came, but he was a lot less pushy and left us alone after we said no. For dinner we had bruschetta and lasagna. It was pretty tasty, but I didn't love the ragu sauce so much. After dinner we walked the streets a little bit more and then ended up back at our apartment. We saw a gelateria right next to our apartment and decided to give it a try! After all, the pizza we had that was next to our apartment was super delicious! When we walked in there were two Italians running the store that looked to be our age. Because there was nobody else in there we started talking to them. We asked them how to say certain flavors in Italian and they asked us to translate those into English. As we were taking to them we learned that they were brother and sister and they were from Sicily. They used their mom's recipes for the gelato and made it fresh every day. They asked if we were American and then immediately asked if we were from New York City. When we told them we were from Washington they said they knew that was the capitol, so we explained that it was a different place. They knew that L.A. was on the opposite side from New York so that worked. Then they asked us to describe Italy to them by its cities... And we did not do that great but we all laughed and they helped us out. It was really cool to get to chat with them!

Column of Marcus Aurelius

Thursday, May 22

This morning we woke up at 6 to get a taxi to go to the airport to fly to Greece! Rome was absolutely amazing and we are going to miss it . There is so much to see and do, and even just being in this city is romantic and wonderful. We got our taxi (Rusty's first one ever!) and it is definitely the easiest way to travel, as well as the most expensive. The taxi driver was really nice and worked really fast! It was really cool to get to drive through Rome one last time on our way out, and I loved seeing the city while it was sleepy. As we drove out of the main city on our way to the airport we got to see the landscape and a better picture of the landscape all around Rome, and it is beautiful too! Italy just is magical. We got to the airport and stood in a really long line to check in. We were nervous about being late to catch the flight (even though we were on time and everything) and people kept cutting! A man came over to the line and just walked right pay everyone too the front. Then other people stated doing that too. Is it Italians? Or just people visiting in Italy? Either way they can't figure out a line and it's driving us nuts! They even cut in the bathroom too! Eventually we got to our gate and we were early. We had some time to walk around a little bit and I was shocked to see stores like Gucci and Ferrari inside the airport! At the gate they told us that we might have to check our bags because there was not enough room on the flight. We only had two bags and I really didn't want to check them because we would lose time at the other airport and we really couldn't afford for them to get lost. When we got on the place they said we didn't have to check our bags! We said goodbye to the wonderful country of Italy and got excited to explore Greece!