Rome, Siena, and Pisa

I was lucky enough to have the first week of November off of school, so I decided to do an 11 day solo trip around Italy! Backpacking around Italy has been a dream of mine since I was in middle school, inspired by a mixture of Letters to Juliet, the Lizzie McGuire Movie, countless books, and my intense love of food. I never imagined I’d do it alone, but it turned out to be the trip of a lifetime! This post is going to be incredibly long in order to do each city justice, so I decided to split the trip into two parts. Below I break things down by city to make it easier to keep track of what I did where. Plus, this way you can skip the bits you’re not interested in :)

Rome:

My trip to Italy started in typical broke college student fashion. I took an overnight bus from Cork to Dublin and arrived at the airport at 4:30 am for my 6:25 am RyanAir flight to Rome. Everything went smoothly, and by 12:00 p.m. I had arrived by bus to Rome Termini Station in the center of Rome! I had chosen Sandy Hostel based on a blog I read about traveling to Rome on a budget, and it was the perfect choice! It was very reasonably priced and was only a 10-15 minute walk from the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps.

I started the afternoon by heading to the Vatican. I had been advised both TO buy a skip the line ticket and NOT to buy a skip the line ticket, and I ended up making the wrong choice by not booking in advance. I waited over two hours in line only for them to close the museum before I got in. Sadly the city is walled, so I didn’t even get to see it. At least I had some great gelato while I waited!

From there I decided to just start walking and explore a bit in the direction of the Trevi Fountain. I went into the trip thinking that, without a doubt, Rome would be my least favorite stop. I had heard that it was dirty, crowded, and would probably feel a lot like how I perceived Paris: Big, grubby, and New Yorkish. But in my opinion, Rome is so different. In fact, I think Rome is the first big city I’ve ever truly loved. Yes it’s big and touristy and you are well aware that you’re in one of the largest and most famous cities in the world, but you also just know you’re in Rome. The soft brown/yellow color of everything and the ancient ruins you stumble upon make it difficult to forget. Every few feet you pass some important and old looking monument that seems worthy of a photograph, and the narrow side streets, markets, and piazzas give the undeniable feel that you are 1) definitely in Italy and 2) in one of the oldest and most spectacular cities in the world. By the end of the day I had thrown coins in the Trevi Fountain, walked up the Spanish Steps, and tucked in a giant plate of pasta and Tiramisu.

I had signed up for an all day cooking class well in advance for my second day in Rome, which turned out to be a fabulous idea! The instructor began by bringing us to the market in the Campo de’ Fiori where we learned how to select the freshest ingredients for our meal. We visited vegetable stands, a cheese shop, and two different butchers that had meat just hanging from the ceiling! From there we walked about a half an hour back to the apartment where we would cook, passing through the Jewish Ghetto and onto Tiber Island, so called because the Tiber River splits around it, creating an island. We spent the day drinking Italian wines and making stuffed ravioli, fehttuchini, gnocchi, pesto, red sauce, veal, and chocolate lava cake all from scratch. Some quick tips I learned:

-Always add salt when cooking down onions and garlic, stewing tomatoes, etc. because salt makes food sweat and brings out that flavor.

-Artichokes are high in iron which makes them oxidize really quick and turn brown! Put them in a lemon water solution to stop this.

-Pasta can be made with just an egg and flour, and gnocchi is made with just potato flour (called something else in Italian though) and water.

-Cook lava cake only ten minutes to ensure a runny interior

-Pomegranate makes a surprisingly tasty and extremely colorful garnish for cheese pasta

+ many others!

After enjoying our fabulous creations, I booked it to the Colosseum hoping to make it in before closing. I did not, but at least this landmark wasn’t walled and I could see it! From there I walked around the ancient parts of Rome, viewing all the ruins and even passing by where Peter and Paul are said to have been imprisoned. That was the first time I was ever able to put a real-life location to a Biblical event, and just knowing I was walking in an area that they once did was incredibly moving to me and made the Bible tangible on a whole new level.

That evening I sat and read in the Piazza di Santa Maria in the neighborhood of Travestere for a few hours. Travestere is know for being a lively neighborhood with narrow streets and lots of culture, and it didn’t disappoint! As I was walking home, I stumbled upon an outdoor concert and ended up staying out an extra hour just to watch and be a part of the crowd.

P.S. I picked a lot of the places I stayed and things I ate from reading travel blogs, so I’m going to include info about the bets places at the bottom for each city, both so I can remember and for anyone else to use!

Quick Recap: Rome

Food: l’archetto-Pasta

Cooking class: Fabulous Day Cooking on Trip Advisor

Ombrerosse Cafe + Bistro: Bruchetta

Accommodation: Sandy Hostel

Siena:

The next morning I took an early bus to Siena and walked the mile or so into the historic part of the city to my Air BnB. I ended up choosing a lot of Air BnBs on this trip because the deals were better than the hostels (as recommended by a fellow traveler!), and the quality was far better. Also, a lot of the Air BnBs were actually run like hostels with all the rooms being rented out to budget travelers, rather than it being like a home-stay.

Siena is a medieval city and is kept looking strictly as it did hundreds upon hundreds of years ago. This means the city is surrounded in a huge walls and the streets are narrow, hilly, winding, stone, and absolutely amazing to explore. Entering this city seriously feels as though you’ve stepped centuries back in time. Siena sits right in the heart of Tuscany, and from any elevated vantage point you can see the incredible Tuscan hills stretching out all around you.

After checking into my Air BnB, I headed out to grab lunch at a restaurant called Taverna di Cecco that I had read about in yet another travel blog. It was a super small place, and I was seated at a table with an Italian couple who were on a day trip from Florence to visit friends. The wife spoke English and told me I had picked a very quality restaurant, explaining the types of olive oil and the soup that the water brought out for me as a “welcome gift.” I ordered the same dish that her husband did, and while I’m not sure what it was, it included gnocchi and was possibly my best meal of the trip!

After lunch I headed straight for the Piazza del Campo, which is the heart of Siena. A fun fact I learned on a free audio walking tour: Siena is unique for a medieval Italian City in that it is centered around its City Hall (so its secular government) rather than its Duomo or church. The City Hall in Siena is still used for government today, but it also has a museum and a tall tower that you can climb for an expansive view of the city and surrounding countryside. The tower is 400 narrow steps with no room to pass or stop, and the view was worth every one of them! None of the pictures below do it any justice whatsoever.

At the top I met a couple around my parents’ age from Canada who instantly took to me because I looked like their granddaughter, and we started chatting. It turned out they owned a home in a small town not far from Siena, and they actually got out pen and paper and wrote down their address for me, inviting me to drop in and stay at any point during my travel. Unfortunately I was bus-bound and wasn’t able to make it out of Siena, but I was so encouraged by their hospitality.

I followed up the tower by going for a run around the city, which turned out to be a great way to cover a lot of ground sight-seeing while working off the loads of pasta I’d been consuming! I then sat and read in the Piazza until I got hungry enough to go for Pizza. Siena was my favorite stop for many reasons, but I think a big one is that I always had the Piazza del Campo to use as a home base. I loved reading in the sun where I could hear the chatter and bustle of everyone in the surrounding restaurants, and it gave me a place to sit that was always well lit and safe. I said it on Instagram and it’s true: Siena feels like it was made for the solo traveler.

I began the next day by grabbing local pastries from a bakery called Nannis (another travel blog find- Siena is famous for some local baked goods that go back centuries). I spent most of the afternoon just walking around and trying to take everything in. Siena provides more than enough entertainment just by existing because there are so many side streets to explore. I switched off locations where I read my book, ate a winning combination of gelato and vegetables for lunch, and just sort of drifted about. Although, I did make sure to stop and see the famous Duomo. Another fun fact: the Duomo in Siena is super impressive, but it's actually unfinished due the to Bubonic Plague that wiped out a huge portion of Siena. The Sienese took this as a sign from God of their pride and stopped working on their plans to expand their grand church.

I finished the day day by eating at a restaurant called Antica Trattoria Papei, which is actually where my Air BnB host worked as a waiter. He made the meal so special, bringing me free wine, bruschetta, and desert wine with biscotti for dipping. He also let me go half and half with my order so that I could try the famous Sienese pasta, pici (think thick, hand-cut spaghetti), with two different sauces. The email took a whole two hours in true Italian fashion!

Quick Recap: Siena

Food: Taverna di Cecco-Gnnochi

Te Ke Voi-Pizza

Nanni-Baked Goods

Antica Trattoria Papei-Pici Pasta

La Vecchia Latteria-The best Gelato

Accommodation: Air BnB

Activity: Rick Steve’s Audio Europe App, Free Audio Walking Tour of the city (another pro-travel tip from a friend of mine!)

Pisa:

Unfortunately, my time in Siena had to end, and the next morning it was on to Pisa! I arrived in the morning and walked straight to the Leaning Tower. It really is an impressive structure, and I had seen it so many times in photos that at first it felt strange to see it in person. Of course, I had to ask a ton of strangers to help me take the ridiculous holding up the tower photos, and I ended up meeting a couple of other travelers who invited me to get lunch with them later that afternoon. After taking my turn to climb the tower and grabbing some amazing gelato (the best I had on the trip!), I met them at a cafe. It turned out they were part of a club for solo travelers that plans group trips, and they had just met that morning. Marj was from the UK and Gabriel was Italian but from Germany, and I spent a couple of hours chatting with them over meet and cheese- a much needed break from listening to my own thoughts or reading my book! I then took a lap around the city via the ancient wall. You can walk around the whole perimeter of the city on the actual wall, and its the coolest feeling!

I spent the rest of the evening window shopping, drinking the thickest hot chocolate of my life, and eating Beefsteak Florentine before running back to my hostel in the pouring rain!

The next morning was only a half day in Pisa because I had to catch the bus to Florence, so I spent most of it reading in a coffee shop because it was raining and I was dragging around all my stuff. This was my only experience with Italian espresso, and it really was amazing! Unfortunately I had an aggressively flirtatious waiter (which actually became a theme for the rest of the trip), and I felt pretty uncomfortable and ended up opting to walk around in the rain a bit longer. I realize that's a little bit a part of the culture in Italy, but asking to kiss you and take the bus with you to Florence is not. Luckily I finished my time in Pisa by getting a super yummy Calzone that made up for my troubles!

Quick Recap: Pisa

Food: La Bottega del Gelato-Gelato

Osteria La Toscana-Beefsteak Florentine and roasted potatoes

Pizzeria de Mura-Calzone

Stay tuned for the second half, which will cover Florence and Venice!

Cheers!

Summer