Week with Chelsea

Chelsea left in May and took 2 ½ weeks touring India and Nepal. Last week she flew into Bologna to see Italy with me for a week. Now she is finishing up her week in England with one of her friends from school who is studying abroad there.

She landed at 6pm in Bologna on Tuesday, June 3, and I told her that I would take the train and meet her at the Bologna train station. I told her to take an easy bus that costs 6 euros that takes her from the airport to the train station in about 10 minutes. What I didn’t keep in mind however, was that she wouldn’t have any euros to pay for the bus. I got to the train station around 6:30 and was waiting by the bus stop for her. After about an hour of waiting, I decided to wander around the city nearby the station trying to keep an eye on the incoming buses from the airport. Finally, around 8, I was standing at a crosswalk across the street from the station and Chelsea came up from behind me! When she didn’t see me when she finally arrived she figured I’d be wandering around because it had taken her so long. She told me how she didn’t have any money to get her from the airport to the train station and her bank card wasn’t working to pull out money and the currency exchange people wouldn’t accept her Indian rupees… so after calling her bank she was able to pull out money and meet up with me. We wandered aimlessly around Bologna and got food and compared the different cultures and experiences we have had in these foreign countries and cities. We saw the oldest university in the world – University of Bologna (1088) and ate at a place called Bombo Crepe and shared two crepes: Nutella & strawberry and Nutella & banana. Delicious! Then we headed back to the train station and were on our way to Forli.

Chelsea’s first full day in Italy happened to be her birthday! I asked her if she wanted to go anywhere or see anything before I had practice on Wednesday night and she told me that she would rather sleep in. She had been so busy touring India and Nepal that she finally got to rest. So after sleeping in, we walked to a nearby park and brought my Italy travel book I bought from Barnes and Noble before I left. We sat on a bench and looked through the book and brainstormed where and what we wanted to do that week.

After practice I wanted to take Chelsea out for a nice birthday dinner. I literally googled “nearby restaurants” and found a place that looked good called Trattoria Petito that was within walking distance. It was located on a street that looked more like a neighborhood rather than a place for a restaurant but it was amazing. It had a nice outdoor setting with wooden tables surrounded by trees. The waiters and the couples sitting around us spoke English and were happy to help us with the menu. Before we ordered they brought us mini piadinas (little sandwiches with special bread that the town is known for). All of the food served at this restaurant is “typical” of the region. We ate meatballs on skewers, a tortellini type pasta filled with meat, and had steak and potatoes with veggies. For dessert I had mandarin sorbet and Chelsea had a yogurt parfait that had a birthday candle in it! It was a delicious and really cute little restaurant that I will definitely be returning to.

Chelsea’s last name is Barilli which is Italian. So we asked some of my teammates to say her last name and we got to hear how Barilli is really supposed to be pronounced. She also has a tattoo on her side that is a phrase in Italian. Naturally, we wanted to see if it actually said what she thought it said. We showed one of my roommates and although most of the words were correct, the first line was not worded correctly. She understood what it was trying to say but it wasn’t right. Don’t worry, my roommate wrote down how it should be worded in case Chelsea ever feels like correcting it…

On Thursday we wandered around Forli and Chelsea had her first espresso. We both realized that we kept wanting to call it an expresso with an “x” and had to correct ourselves every time we said it. I find it easier to just say it in Italian and call it a “caffe”. While I was at practice it wasn’t hard to keep herself busy. She worked out, took a nap, and talked to her parents.

Friday was our first day trip. We went to the nearby city Ravenna by train. I went here with my parents and loved the little mosaic town so I thought Chelsea would enjoy it too. We bought the same ticket I got with my parents that gets you into 5 of the churches/baptisteries/museums around the city. With my parents we only made it to 3 of them but Chelsea and I got all 5 checked off! Other than enjoying the beauty of Ravenna, here are some of the other highlights:

-I got a drink that resembled a root beer float… but with coffee!

-We watched a little festival going on in one of the squares with dancing.

-We had our first Italian kebab… which is like a piadina burrito filled with kebab meat/veggies

-We met a nice man from Nigeria who was happy to speak some English instead of Italian

-We walked into a random church we were passing by and felt unwelcome as an actual church service was going on.

Chelsea came to my games against Unione Fermana on Saturday night and watched us win both games!

Sunday we went to Florence! It was in the 90s all day and very hot! This is how we spent our day:

We saw the Santa Maria Novella Church.

Walked around the Duomo.

Climbed 414 steps up the tall Campanile tower next to the Duomo.

Went Wine Tasting in Chianti.

Chelsea and I are not wine lovers like many people we know. But since we were in Italy together, we decided we wanted to appreciate it more. We signed up for a wine tasting tour that left from Florence and took us to the city of Chianti which is in the Tuscany region and well known for their wine. We took a bus for a little less than an hour that winded up through vineyards and rolling hills. We were sitting at the back of the bus and I got car sick from the drove. I didn’t actually throw up but I had a headache and didn’t feel too good. But when the bus stopped and we got off, I immediately felt better. Chelsea talked to our tour guide and we got bumped up to “first class” and got to sit at the front of the bus the rest of the trip and I didn’t get sick anymore. We were both pleased with ourselves that we enjoyed the wine we tasted! We went inside this castle (that had a cool white peacock sitting in a tree outside of it) and tried 4 different wines (2 white and 2 red). We ate typical Tuscany food which consisted of greasy bread (that definitely lived up to its name) and salame and cheese. We liked the wine but didn’t like it so much to buy our own bottle. After the wine tasting in the castle we got back on the bus and went to the little town center of Chianti. The main shop in this center was a meat, cheese, and wine shop that had lots of wild boar body parts hanging everywhere with a very strong odor. But once we got past the smell and the wild boar, we payed 5 euros and got to taste some different wines from the machines in the store. It was a very fun experience and I am glad I know appreciate wine more!

Saw Piazzale Signoria and the famous Michelangelo’s David statue.

Walked across Ponte Vecchio.

Got a great view of Florence and sunset up at Piazzale Michaelangelo.

We found a cheap hostel for 22 euros each to stay for the night that was a 5 minute walk from the train station in Florence. We had a good first impression because our room was dorm-style and even though we were sharing with 4 other girls, we had our own bunk beds and bathroom upstairs on the second level for a little more privacy. We got to the hostel late and had to catch a train in the morning so we were only there for a short period of time, but it was not a very fun short period of time. Chelsea took the top bunk and after laying down in the bottom bunk for only 5 minutes I didn’t feel good at all. It was very hot because we were up on the top floor and if there was air conditioning I definitely didn’t feel it. I felt like I was back on the winding bus to Chianti again and had to go outside and get some fresh air. Not sure if it was the heat, the wine, or something I ate, but after throwing up I finally felt better. When I went back into the room, the light was on and Chelsea was out of bed. She said she felt like she was being eaten alive by bugs and we could see all of these little black bugs flying around the top of the ceiling where Chelsea was sleeping. Needless to say, we both didn’t get much sleep that night but we survived.

We took a train from Florence to Rome on Monday morning and had scheduled a tour of the Vatican when we arrived. We had about 30 minutes from when our train arrived to take the metro a few stops and meet our tour group near the Vatican. We were able to find the metro no problem because there were many signs pointing to it at the train station. We wanted to get an all-day pass for 5 euros each so after our tour we could take the metro and see other sights like the Colloseum before we had to leave. To buy metro tickets from the ticket counter had an extremely long line that we didn’t have time for so we went to the machine to buy it. The smallest bill I had was a 50 which the machine wasn’t accepting and Chelsea’s card wasn’t working again. We were hungry anyway so decided to go get some food really quick and break my 50. When we came back, it wasn’t accepting the 20 we were putting in. Finally we decided that we would just buy a one way ticket because we had enough small euros for that. This metro has 2 lines- Red Line A and Blue Line B. The meeting time for the tour was getting closer so we quickly found the Red Line A we needed and hopped on the extremely crowded metro only to realize that we got on the Blue Line B. We got off the next stop and knew we were going to miss our tour. I had a contact number from a confirmation email so I called and they said it wasn’t a problem and when we get to the correct metro stop, to give them a call and someone would meet us there. We finally got smaller bills to pay for the metro ticket and got on the correct metro and easily made it to the Vatican stop. When we met up with a tour leader he told us that we had to pay and then we would be on our way. To make the reservation, Chelsea used her card so we assumed they would just charge the 100 euros to her card. Apparently they only took cash and we only had 80 euros on us. They said there was an ATM nearby so Chelsea tried to use her card which didn’t work again. She knew she would have to call her bank and get it situated but we didn’t have time for that. We explained what was going on and the company told us that they would give us a discount and we would only have to pay 80 euros as long as we didn’t say anything to the other tour members. We got to skip the entire line because we were with the tour and had to go through a metal detector because the Vatican is its own country. It was another very hot day and we began our tour through the Vatican Museum which was packed with tons of people to make it even more unpleasant. We wore headphones so our tour guide could talk to us about what we were seeing. These headphones are a great idea for big crowds… but they didn’t work very well. It wasn’t very clear and the sound went in and out and it was hard to understand our tour guide with her accent. We felt like we were walking through so fast and more concerned with making our ways around the ridiculous amount of people instead of learning about the museum. It was impressive and there was some cool artwork and statues but because we aren’t history buffs and didn’t know a lot about the Vatican to begin with… we didn’t feel like we got much out of the tour. After the Vatican Museum we went inside the Sistine Chapel which was a similar experience to the Museum and then we had some free time to wander around St. Peter’s Basilica. This was the part we enjoyed the most because it was less crowded and we could walk around at our own pace. This was the most impressive part of the Vatican because it is the largest Catholic Church in the world!

After the Vatican we took the metro to see the Colloseum. We walked around and ate a nice dinner with a view of the Colloseum. We were able to pay with a credit card and were mature and ordered some red wine. I ate pesto lasagna and Chelsea had spaghetti and after getting distracted in our conversation, we realized that we were probably going to miss our train. We were close to the station but we missed our train by a couple of minutes. Luckily there was another train leaving 45 minutes later so it wasn’t that big of a deal. When we got on our train, Chelsea realized that she had left her credit card at the restaurant. She had to call her bank and cancel the credit card but luckily had another one with her for the remainder of her trip.

I went with her to the Bologna airport the following morning and she was off to England. Besides a very hectic last day, we had a great time in Italy together!

GELATO TRACKER

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