London Tours, British Museums and the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

I was back with Pat and Martin at last! Pat was working so Martin wanted to take me to London for the day were we were had a bus tour of London, sailed down the River Thames and went to see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Everything was amazing!

Although it was raining off and on all day it was still fantastic and made me fall in love with London. I learned so many interesting facts about London including that Sweeney Todd was an actual rumor in London, the great fire (seems like all major cities had big fires) and I saw some of the places Jack the Ripper actually murdered his victims (I later went on a walking tour of Jack the Ripper, I highly recommend it!). Martin also showed me the BBC and the news network he used to work for.

After eating dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, (no I am not snotty and still enjoy Italian food outside of Italy…) it got extremely cold and rainy and we were supposed to go to Sweeny Todd. Thankfully, we went to a restaurant directly across from the theatre and stayed in there until we were able to be seated a mire 5 weeks away from the stage! I bought a Sweeny Todd pretty program and the official London CD. Shows on the West End are completely different than those on Broadway. On Broadway, the theatre decorates to fit the show that is currently being performed in (such as “Wicked” and “Phantom of the Opera”) where on the West End, they are simply theatre spaces. And they don’t have to announce where the exits are and that you should turn off of your phones! The British are so smart!

Me at Sweeney Todd

If you don’t already know the show, go watch it! It is a dark story built off of an actual London legend about a successful barber banished from England on false acquisitions because a powerful man wanted the barbers wife for himself. However, he manages to return to London under a different name. Upon his arrival he discovers that his wife has died and his daughter has fallen under the care of the powerful man who banished him. He plots his revenge with Mrs. Lovett, the owner of a meat pie shop who is clearly in love with Sweeney Todd. He soon receives the title of 'Demon Barber of Fleet Street' I won’t spoil the ending for you so go watch it!

The show was SPECTACULAR with Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) and Michael Ball. They both performed out of character and there was not a trace of previous characters in the production (aka Umbridge did not show up when cooking meat pies). Signs of true actors!  After the show, it was pouring so we hopped in an official London black cab back to the train station and headed home.

Olympic Medals 

The next day we went to the British Museum (a free museum by the way) which houses all sorts of cool artifacts that are Egyptian to Greek to Roman British history. There was defiantly a feeling of information overload and I could have gone back for more. The British Museum also has the Rosetta Stone! I know it is very important for developing writing and society, it wasn’t that impressive looking. It took us all day to go through the museum and unfortunately, I had to pack in preparation for leaving them for my study abroad the next day.

Rosetta Stone

Florence

I have not been the best at keeping this up this summer and I am truly sorry. I have had a busy and fun 2 months!

After Rome came Florence!

We took the train to Florence and it was a bit of a crazy bit. We found a train that went to Florence and a lady even directed us there (although we should have known better because we had to give her money after she took us to the wrong train). Thankfully, we figured out 20 minutes before our train was supposed to depart that we were on the wrong one, hopped off and were off for the right one.

Overlooking Florence

The train took about 3 hours and the hostel was a lot easier to find this time. We stayed at Hotel Marcella and it was a lot easier to find that the hostel in Rome BUT it was up 6 flights of stairs. The old man who owns the place was a huge sweetheart but he did not speak English. He did however, have a bottle opener when we mistakenly bought a bottle of wine without having the nice people in the store to open it.

So we went off on a journey through Florence. It was very nice and picturesque and very relaxing compared to Rome and I liked it a lot better than Rome. We went to El Dumo and took a CitySightSeeing in Florence. They took my nice pretty ticket from Rome for a small discount for Florence.

El Dumo

While we were in Florence, Pisa was so close we couldn't resist taking a half day trip over on the bus. Even though Pisa is extremely famous for the leaning tower, there really wasn't much to the town so after an hour or two we hopped back on the bus to Florence.

Pisa

The last day we were there, we decided to visit the art galleries that housed Michelangelo’s David and the Gallery Uffizzi which had the Birth of Venus and a lot of other famous works that I remember learning about in high school . It took forever to get into the two places though! I am really glad we left the galleries until the last day because we needed the entire day to wait in line. To wait for Michelangelo we stood in line for about an hour. I really didn’t like Michelangelo’s David as much as I thought I would. I thought his hands were so disproportionate from the rest of his body, but then again that is just me.

The Gallery Uffizzi was a pain in the bottom. Because we didn’t book our tickets beforehand, we stood in line to get tickets for 5 hours but it was worth it! I’m pretty sure we spent as much time in the Gallery as we did waiting in line and we were exhausted that night. And we made friends with a lovely American family. They were on their fourth time to Italy as a family, the father worked in NYC while the rest of the family lived in Alabama.

We headed off early the next day and made our way back to England.

Rome

Roma. A city of love, destruction, ruins and churches.


My friend Becky and I had 4 wonderful days in Rome where we visited the Colosseum, The Vatican (well I did...), went on a quest for Bernini's David, saw the Forma Roma, where Julius Caesar was murdered, and so much more.

Rome

Our first day was a journey to find the bed and breakfast, Ottimista - Furio Camillio and after a frustrating hour and the nicest Italian in Rome, we found it. It was in a somewhat sketchy area but the man who owned it was incredibly nice and told us how to get to different areas and what to watch out for!


From there we wandered around Rome with a map and tried to find the Trevi Fountain. Must to our delight and dismay we ended up at the Vatican (which we were not properly dressed for). We eventually found it after a few hours and had gelato to celebrate.

Me at the Trevi Fountain with Gelato 

The next day we traveled back to the Vatican. A strict country inside of Rome, where the Pope resides. In order to gain entrance, you must have your shoulders and knees covered (guys and gals!) due to it being a Holy Place. While we were bother wearing tights and cardigans, Becky's tights were deemed too see through and was denied entrance so she waited outside while I popped my head in and it was beautiful! I saw Michelangelo's Pieta and so many more works. We then left for the Vatican Museums (which she could get into) and saw the Sistine Chapel along with other famous works of art. We were also told that Bernini did not do a David... We then took CitySightSeeing Bus around Rome. It was a nice break to get off of our feet and have a nice breeze on us. It was fairly cheap too! 15 euros for 2 bus lines that took us all over and we had the ability to get on and off to see sights!

Colosseum!

Day 3 led us to the Colosseum, Constantine's Arch, the Forma Roma and Palatine Hill. All beautiful giant ruins. We didn't grab a tour or a guide and we made out pretty well. The only problem was this day was excruciatingly hot and we were unfortunate to have run into the Roman Troops! The Roman Troops were just people dressed up like Romans near the Colosseum. We thought they were there from the Colosseum  but after we got our picture they asked for money and reluctantly we gave them some.

Our final day led us to the Pantheon and it was gorgeous (and free)! Becky swooned over the building more than I did but I still loved it. This is also were Raphael has his tomb. We then decided to search for Bernini's David. This took us from the Colosseum (bottom of Rome) to the tiny upper corner of it (I would say a good 2-3 mile walk...). after being told that the museum he was supposed to be in did not exist, we found it!The Galleria Borghese. Excited as I was, I went up to get my ticket with a credit card, the guy shook his head, "okay, cash" I thought and went to get my cash out. Then he pointed to a sign. Sold out until June 12. We were going to be in Florence that day. I'm sorry but how does a MUSEUM sell out of TICKETS!? I was so angry but I didn't let it ruin my trip.

Me at the Pantheon

I loved visiting Rome. Living there would not be my style though. First off, I can't speak Italian which was strike one on my part. Thankfully enough people did speak English or at least a little bit of it.


What to take away:
Pigeons suck
Galleries are jerks
Directions and signs don't matter
Vespas will run you over
Learn Italian