November, 2023
Last October, I unfortunately got laid off from my tech job. However, what better way to celebrate a new life chapter than by going to Italy with my sister! In actuality, we had planned this trip to Italy before I became unemployed, and we figured we might as well continue anyways. My sister and I figured it was time to take a trip together again. The last time we did so was when she visited me in Mokpo South Korea in 2012, so we were long overdue. Given our Italian heritage and that my sister lived in Italy for a few years, we figure Rome and Florence would be a great place to visit.
We had planned for a short, approximately one week trip. When I went to book my plane ticket, I had actually purchased the wrong day! Fortunately, I ended up flying on this ticket three days before my intended date. All this meant was that I would have to explore some of Rome without my sister. Given that my sister used to live in Rome, I figure I could visit some of the major tourist sites, like the Colosseum, Forum, and Vatican on my own. Then, when my sister arrived, we would visit the places that she missed. The plan for the trip went like this: I flew to Rome via Dublin with a long layover in Dublin so that I could walk around the city. I would spend 2.5 days on my own in Dublin and Rome, then my sister would arrive and we would visit Rome with one day in Florence over 3.5 days together. I would then return home and my sister would enjoy Rome for her final two days. Overall, this plan worked out perfectly and we both had quite an enjoyable time.
Dublin, Ireland
My first stop was a long layover in Dublin, Ireland. I had never been to Ireland, so this trip allowed me to add one more country to my ‘Countries Visited’ list. Looking back, I probably should have planned this long layover better. My flight arrived at around 4:30 AM on a Sunday morning and I took a bus into the city. What I did not account for was that this is Ireland, and there would be a lot of post-partiers still out at 5:00 AM from their Saturday night out. I had the intention of walking around the city in the early morning hours to get some night-time photos. However, once I got to the city, I felt like it wouldn’t have been a good idea wondering around, given that I was exhausted, a bit cold, and carrying my backpack with all of my tech out in public around early morning revelers. After getting a couple of night photo clicks, I found a 24 hour McDonald’s, and I just stayed there until first light while having a lovely discussion with the McDonald’s security guard.
Once daylight came around, things began to move more smoothly. Although I was still tired and a bit cold, at least I felt ok to start my walking tour of Dublin. I started at Temple Bar by walking through the streets. Then I made my way to Dublin Castle, followed by Trinity College Dublin and ending up at St. Stephen’s Green. Unfortunately, St. Stephen’s Green was closed at that time, so all I could do was walk around the perimeter. I had begun to get quite tired from walking, so I made my way down Grafton Street and Fleet Street, then back to Temple Bar area. Here, I grabbed a quick breakfast with some tea and rested for a bit before taking the bus back to the airport for my flight to Rome.
Rome, Italy
Similarly to my trip to Dublin, my arrival in Rome could have been planned better. I booked an AirBnB (view the room here) for my first two nights. The AirBnB host was wonderful and very understanding. Since I arrived in Rome late at night, she advised me on which train ticket to buy from the airport. However, somehow I ended up on the wrong train, probably due to rushing, and had to repurchase my ticket. The metro line to my AirBnB had just closed about 5 minutes before I arrived at the train station. This left me facing a long taxi line, arriving at the AirBnB much later than expected, with a rolling suitcase that had a broken wheel due to mishandling by the airline, and all my devices’ batteries dying with limited WiFi or data service. While waiting in line for the taxi, I managed to write down the AirBnB address and taken a picture with my camera, so I could show the taxi driver the location. Eventually, I made it safely to the AirBnB. After getting some sleep, the rest of the trip went much more smoothly starting the next day. However, that broken suitcase still greatly frustrates me. I bought it on my trip to Taiwan in 2012, and it had gained many miles across many countries. When I returned home, I found it hard to throw away, but alas, I could not repair it :/.
Day 2 consisted of a walking tour of Rome. After getting a goodnight’s sleep, I took the metro to the Colosseum and the Forum. Even being off-season, tourists still flooded this area. Since I did not really want to wait in lines to go inside either of these sites (and I had done so when I was a child), I decided to walk around the perimeter and get some nice pictures. I found a couple of wonderful viewpoints for both the Colosseum and the Forum with beautiful, slightly cloudy weather! Couldn’t complain on such a beautiful day. Of course, being in Italy, I bought some coconut gelato and a small shop near the Forum for my first gelato of the trip. The goal of course would be to have a gelato a day :). After returning back to the metro station, I noticed a giant green space on the map. As a person who loves parks, I figure I should go visit it. Later on, I found out that this park, Villa Borghese, is one my sister loves to visit as well. I found a place that sold arancina (Sicilian spelling) and I made my way into the park to enjoy my lunch overlooking Piazza del Popolo. I figure a park is the perfect place to take a nap and I was due for a bit of rest. So I found a nice comfy area for a short nap in the shade. At this point, I was ready to head back to my AirBnB for another rest before dinner. Once night came around, I decided to visit St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City to take some night pictures of the St. Peter’s Basilica all lit up and to avoid the crowds a bit. I found a restaurant that served pizza. The pizza was acceptable, not the best. However, given that I ate dinner in a highly touristy area, I would not expect much better. Oh, I also found a lovely little market that sold spices in these cute ceramic containers. I bought a couple for me, and later went back with my sister where we both bought more.
After all that walking, I decided to approach Day 3 as a resting day while I waited for my sister to arrive. After checking out of the AirBnB, day 3 wasn’t so restful of a day, given that I was still dealing with a broken suitcase on cobbled stones in rainy weather. However, it is what it is. The morning really consisted of walking around the shops near the Vatican, stopping at a couple of restaurants for some brunch or drink and WiFi, and waiting out the rain near the next AirBnB until my sister arrived. Luckily, the rain had somewhat stopped by the time my sister arrived and then we could go see more sights. We stopped at a nearby shop to get some fresh-squeezed orange juice and another arancino. We spent the late afternoon and evening with another small walking tour, going from Prati to Piazza del Popolo across the Tiber River, followed by the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and then the Pantheon. We made our way back across the Tiber River to view the Vatican from a distance near Trastevere and ate dinner at Carlo Menta. My sister highly recommended this restaurant for its delicious food and affordability. The pizza I ordered at Carlo Menta was much better than the night before. By this point, we were ready to make our way back to the AirBnB for a good night’s sleep.
The next day took us to see less commonly visited tourists spots. We started our day by eating breakfast at SciaScia Caffe, cafe that has been around since 1919. We did some sporadic shopping for snacks, pasta, coffee, and those cute spice jars. Over the trip, I also got a nice pair of Italian leather shoes for approximately $40 and a really comfy sweater. Our first sight-see stop was Villa of the Priory of Malta. The cool thing about this site is when peeking through the keyhole, you can see St. Peter’s Basilica perfectly aligned with the rows of trees! In this area, we took in additional landscape views of Rome, making our way through the Jewish Quarter and back to the Pantheon. Although not with us on this trip, E recommended that my sister and I check out a sandwich restaurant called, All’Antico Vinaio. After waiting in a winding line (it went quick), I enjoyed a pancetta, gorgonzola and honey sandwich at the steps in front of the Pantheon. After lunch, we decided to take a nap again before we catch the sunset over Rome from Villa Borghese viewpoint. We rounded out the evening with additional shopping, eating snacks of gelato and roasted chestnuts, and finishing off with dinner back in our AirBnB.
Florence, Italy
We found ourselves doing a day-trip to Florence to meet with my sister’s friends on Day 5. We took the morning train to Florence and started the day with a walking tour. We began by visiting the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, wandered various side streets of Florence, and eventually found our way to stroll along the Arno River. Since my sister isn’t as familiar with Florence as she is with Rome, we did get a little turned around at one point, but it was fine—we eventually found our way. While wandering the streets in the morning, we came across a shop selling fried polenta and fried stuffed olives, which of course, was completely delicious. For lunch, we ate at Zeb, worthy of its Bib Gourmand status. To pass the time while waiting to meet my sister’s friends, we walked up to Piazzale Michelangelo for an incredible view of Florence.
Afterward, we headed back to the train station to meet up with my sister’s friends. We spent a lovely evening at a cafe, enjoying coffee, delicious hot chocolate (extremely thick and rich), and some delicious cookies. I also grabbed my daily gelato—cream and salted caramel. It seemed like my sister had a wonderful chat in Italian with her friends, while I did enjoy the passive listening of an unfamiliar language, which is one of my favorite travel activities. After saying our goodbyes to my sister’s friends, we returned to Rome for a late dinner at il Mercato Centrale Roma in Roma Termini. We savored lamb skewers with a nice Italian wine and then called it a night.
Returning to Rome, Italy
Now we made it to our final day and pondered what we wanted to do. While we did quite a bit on this day too, we took it much more easily than the previous days. We followed advice from a family friend and visited the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. This church was pretty cool. Built over Roman public baths, Michelangelo designed the church. Afterwards, we took a short walk over to The National Roman Museum. My sister, in particular, wanted to visit this museum. The museum gave a great overview of the Roman Empire, with a bunch of statues of former emperors. We returned to Roma Termini for lunch at il Mercato Centrale Roma where we enjoyed roasted artichokes, an artichoke sandwich and a delicious pistachio cannolo. All the artichokes brought out great nostalgia memories as we both recalled growing up eating them at home for family dinners. My sister had the idea to end the day by taking a cooking class! Our class, hosted by Eat and Walk Italy, taught us how to make fettuccini and tiramisu. Afterwards, i enjoyed my own own cacio e pepe fettuccini and tiramisu with a glass of Italian wine. I think this was the only day I did not actually get any gelato, since the tiramisu filled me up quite a bit. However, I did grab once last gelato the next day at the airport before I flew.
Overall, this trip proved to be quite restful, despite the limited planning that both my sister and I did. We saw all the sights we wanted to see and we got to enjoy our time together. It became a pretty memorable trip. Unfortunately, due to life events, I think it may be awhile before I will have more travels to post. Lots of exciting stuff going on that aren’t travel related. However, I hope to post again in the future!
Until next time,
ã……_ã……