so after i wrote last (which was march 14)...
17: dad's birthday
21: mom and griffin arrive (at 7 am!)
22: we headed for sorrento
23: easter
24: return to rome
27: mom and griff left for venice
i left for london
30: i returned from london
okay so i didn't go get them at the airport like i did with samm because 1. it was way too early 2. there were two of them and i gave them good directions. so i met them at termini station nice and early and took them to their hotel. luckily/unfortunately the hotel was right by st. peter's (mmm easter at the vatican). so we stole some breakfast from the hotel that we hadn't checked into yet and left our bags. we headed over to st. peter's square to check that out. we got some amazing gelato, checked into the hotel anddd sat around pretty much all day. it was not a waste of time because that's what we had planned to do! we went out to dinner and got ready for sorrento the next day.
we got a train to naples early in the afternoon. naples is a crazy, dirty, frightening place (and we were just in the train station!) we were going to walk around there a little, but we decided to head straight to sorrento. it took about 1.5 hours to get to naples and then another 1 to get to sorrento on this dirty little commuter train. we found our hotel relatively easily considering the fact it was right in the middle of town. we dropped our stuff off and headed out to look around. in summary, the sorrento experience consisted of lots of pizza, wine, small windy roads, a little rain, gorgeous views, and an overall veryy pleasant weekend. it was just a nice, relaxed city. in my opinion, the best place to go to escape the easter madness in rome. i am soo glad i got to go there with mom and griff. i think they had a lot of fun.
also! mom finally got to see positano in person! (you know, like from the movie under the tuscan sun). we weren't able to stay for too long because the shuttle bus going back to sorrento didn't run as long as we thought. the weather was a little dreary too. not to mention the fact that we had NO idea how to get to the center of town, if there was a center of town. the entire town is literally on the cliffs. i couldn't comprehend it. needless to say, we got some good pics with the ridiculous hillside homes and mom finally got to see the amalfi coast for real.
we headed back to naples on that same commuter train and then back to rome quickly so we could check into their apartment. i had recommended they get that so i could cook for them! it turned out to be a small place, but very well located right by piazza della repubblica (which has a metro stop). during their time in rome we went on a bus tour together (which was SO fun). i highly recommend those in any city. they got to see the colosseum while i was in class one day. i made them chicken parm with mozzarella and tomato, which was very good! i think they got to see a lot of rome and get a good feel for the city. we ate at the restaurant right next to my residence, which i hadn't done yet! it was really good!...so they got some touristy things, but also got to eat in small, real italian restaurants!
they left thursday morning while i was in class. they had a longgg train ride to venice, and i had a longgg day ahead of me ending in london. so i went to all my classes, packed and got back to school to catch a bus with my class to the airport. i went to london with my finance class as an excursion to see and have meetings with various professionals in the financial world.
we didn't get to london until probably 10 pm london time (an hour before rome). the passport control line was really long (i finally got a new stamp because i left the shengen countries...which is what my visa is for). then we took a 1.5 hour bus ride to our hotel! yikes. by the time i went to sleep, it was probably 2:30. we had to be up and out by 8:30!
getting up turned out to be okay. i straightened my hair, put on my "professional clothes" that mom had brought over with her, and i was even able to grab some breakfast! we all walked to paddington station, which was the closest tube stop to our hotel. how cool is that?! paddington! i heard them say "mind the gap", i got used to calling it "the underground", and i was fascinated to find out that some of the trains are actually tube-shaped..like circular!
sooo we started the day and ING with a financial advisor whom my professor had gone to grad school with. she is a very big deal at ING, making all their investment positions. her presentation was good. i feel i learned a good amount about ING. next, we went to the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) to meet with the American representative. that man was sooo boring that 2 people fell asleep! he spoke very quietly, and it was hard to stay focused. we finally got a lunch break after that. we headed over to bloomberg next. that place was amazing. very high-tech. working there would be ridiculous. there is so much technology at your fingertips. we got a tour of the whole place, and then we were shown how the bloomberg terminal works. you can do anything with that thing from looking up people in the system to tracking ships anywhere in the ocean! we headed to the american embassy next where we underwent an extensive security check, were shoved in a small room, and spoken to by a man who never really specified his job. i was so confused at why we were there/i was really tired/my feet were killing. we were finally released after that! we took a bus (red, doubledecker!!!) back to the hotel to change. we were supposed to meet our professor for dinner, but we couldn't find him at the metro stop. we ended up just finding an indian restaurant. ps, the exchange rate is 1pound to $2. yay okay so that was day 1 in london. i will post day 2 when i get back from todays excursions around rome.
No comments:
Post a Comment