Visiting Italy has been at the top of my bucket list for as long as I can remember, which I credit largely to my Mom. She’s had me dreaming of Rome and Venice since I was little, and Greece comes in at a close second thanks to the dozens of times we’ve watched Mamma Mia. All of this made this trip to Italy feel surreal, like a dream I didn’t want to wake up from. I don’t want to forget a single second of it.

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Day 1 (Wednesday, February 19th): Madrid to Naples

The trip started with an evening flight from Madrid to Naples. We took the metro to the airport and eagerly boarded our flight. By 10:30 pm, we were in Naples, Italy. At the Naples airport they don’t have gates like I’m used to in the U.S., so to get off of the plane you have to walk down stairs onto the concourse and board a shuttle to the airport building. My friends and I joked that we had our Meghan Markle moments walking down those stairs. Our Airbnb was unfortunately pretty far from the city, so it was an expensive taxi to get there from the airport in Naples. Although we were pretty disappointed about spending so much on the taxi, our driver was super nice and helped us to contact our host and check in so late at night. The Airbnb itself was an adorable cabin in the countryside of Naples, complete with some snacks and drinks from the host. After a long day of preparing to leave and then traveling, we all fell asleep quickly, which was good considering how busy our plans were for the next day.

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Day 2 (Thursday, February 20th): Naples to Pompeii, and later to Rome

We woke up early this morning to catch our train to Pompeii. Our Airbnb host was incredible and offered to give us a ride to the closest metro station which would get us to the train station we needed, and he did this at 7 am too. From there it was pretty easy to get to the train station, and a ticket was less than 3 euros. By 10:30 am we were in Pompeii and jumping on a bus to take us to Mount Vesuvius. After about a 30 minute drive, the bus dropped us off at the highest point cars are allowed on the mountain. From there, we hiked for about 30 minutes to the crater. The hike itself might not have been so bad if it wasn’t so windy. The cold weather combined with the strong winds made my ears hurt and my whole body freezing. Still, we all laughed as we walked blindly up the mountain trying to push our hair out of our faces as best as we could. When we did make it to the crater, we all agreed it was worth the hike. You can actually see smoke in the crater because the volcano is still active. Actually, experts expect it to erupt very soon. There was also an incredible view of the Amalfi coast from the side of the mountain. On our way back down we stopped at a small cafe and had some hot chocolate, which really helped to warm up my hands and keep me going for the rest of the hike down. Finally, we rode the bus back and it dropped us off right at the entrance to the ruins of Pompeii. We were all a little of bit of history nerds, so we were super excited to see the ruins. We spent a few hours roaming the streets of this ancient city and walking into any building that we could. It was crazy to see so much history in one place. The most chilling part was the actual human casts. They were on display in a small glass building towards the back of the ruins, making them pretty easy to miss. When we came across them we didn’t realize what they were at first. It seemed wrong to look at them at all, and it was extremely humbling to think about exactly how horrifying the history of this place was for the people who once lived there. Not long after that, we had seen all of the ruins and decided to head out for something to eat before our train back to Naples. We stopped at a small cafe and got our first taste of Italian pizza (10/10 by the way). Then it was time to head back to the train station to head back to Naples and then to Rome. We were unaware at the time that there were two train stations in Pompeii with the same name, and to our dismay we ended up at the wrong train station with no chance of making it to the other one in time. So, we decided to just buy another ticket at the station we were at and leave from there. The tickets were only €2.80, so it wasn’t too big of a deal. There was also a beautiful view of the sunset from here, so that was definitely a good thing about getting stuck at the wrong station. We thought we had it all figured it out, but then our train was 40 minutes late and we found ourselves unsure if we were going to make it for our train to Rome. After an hour and a half of stress, we had pretty much given up by the time we made it back to Naples and planned to just try and get on the next train. Somehow, when we got to Napoli Centrale our train was still at its platform and they hadn’t even started boarding almost 10 minutes after it was scheduled to leave. We ran to our car and boarded the train in a frenzy, I don’t think any of us could really believe we made it. A little over two hours later we were arriving at our Airbnb in Rome and getting ready for bed, still a little surprised we made it there at all. It was a crazy, long day, but a really good one.

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Day 3 (Friday, February 21st): Rome

For our first day in Rome, we decided to take it slow and rest after such a long day in Pompeii. After sleeping a little later than the day before, we headed towards the Vatican City. We started at St. Peter’s Square, taking in the view from the center. St. Peter’s Basilica was huge, and it was crazy to see it in person. After spending some time roaming the square and taking everything in, we decided to head to the Vatican Museums. There was stunning artwork throughout the museum, but we were all anxiously awaiting the moment we would reach the Sistine Chapel. When we finally did, we stood in awe and tried to take in as much of it as we could. There is so much artwork and such great detail it would be almost impossible to take it all in, but we did our best. When it was time to start filing out, we left the chapel reluctantly and wandered through the rest of the museums. (Edit: we talked to our Art History professor in class and found out that we actually happened to visit the Sistine Chapel during the one week in 500 years that Raphael’s tapestries have been on display there. We saw the tapestries but did not realize that they were not normally on display there. So, we got really lucky on this one. There’s more information about why they were on display and some photos here: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/photos-after-500-years-raphaels-tapestries-return-to-the-sistine-chapel) Afterwards, we all decided it was time to get our first taste of gelato. We found a gelato place close to the museums and stopped to have some before walking back towards Rome. We walked across the Tiber River right as the sun was setting and grabbed a bus back towards the center of the city. To finish off the day, we got dinner at an incredible restaurant called Rifugio Romano. It was here that I got my first taste of limoncello, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed it. This also happened to be the restaurant that four members of Scotland’s professional rugby team were eating at. We saw them leaving the restaurant and realized that they were playing in a championship game against Rome the next day (update: they won 17-0). After dinner we headed back to the Airbnb to get some rest.

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Day 4 (Saturday, February 22nd): Rome

Saturday was our busiest and longest day in Rome. We decided to make this our day to hit all of the major attractions, so after waking up early and packing some snacks for the day we started with the Colosseum. After a quick bus ride we were standing right outside of this impressive building. It was hard to believe that such an iconic building was right in front of me. We walked up some steps to get a better view of it and take it all in. As we stood there I thought about all the times I dreamt of how I would go to Italy someday, and suddenly someday was today. Life really is crazy, and I sure am lucky. We spent a little while here before heading to the Roman forum, which wasn’t too far. On the way there, we also saw the Triumphal arch of Rome. We decided not to go in because the lines were long and it was pretty expensive, but we could see the columns from outside. Straight from here we headed to the Pantheon, which was surprisingly free to enter. The architecture and artwork here reminded me of the classic Roman architecture I had always pictured, which makes sense considering this building is a symbol of Rome. After the Pantheon, we grabbed some gelato on our walk to the Trevi Fountain. I think out of everything we saw this day, the fountain was my favorite. It was absolutely stunning, and the water was the brightest blue I had ever seen. Not to mention, I was finally able to live out my Lizzie McGuire dreams and toss a coin into the fountain. We spent a while here, just taking it all in and doing some people watching before heading to see the Spanish Steps. This was the last thing we had planned to see for the day, and by this time we were pretty tired. It was late in the day so we decided to grab dinner. This time I got a delicious pesto pasta that lived up to all of my lofty expectations for Italian pasta. Once again, I had a tiny bit of limoncello to end the meal and we headed back to the Airbnb. To end the night, we had some wine and watched a movie before falling asleep after a super tiring but incredible day.

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Day 5 (Sunday, February 23rd): Rome, and later to Madrid

I started this day a little dreary because I knew that it was our last in Rome. We didn’t have much planned besides just enjoying what time we had left before our train to Naples in the afternoon. In the morning we stopped at a cafe and grabbed a pastry for breakfast before heading to Villa Borghese, a beautiful park in the city. We spent a few hours roaming the park, coming across a few performers and a small lake during our walk. Eventually we decided to go to a gelato place that was highly recommended to us, partly because it was recommended and partly because we really just wanted one more before we had to leave. This place was up close to the Pantheon, so we took a bus there and walked past on our way. There also turned out to be a festival going on in this part of the city, so the streets were super busy. After eating our gelato, we walked back to find a bus station that wasn’t closed for the festivities and took a bus back towards the train station. At the train station and airport we noticed tons of people wearing masks. We found out pretty quickly that the incidence of coronavirus had spiked in Italy during our stay there. For now, it seems to be focused mainly in the north though. (Edit: as of February 25th, Italy now has the highest incidence of coronavirus outside of Asia and around 100,000 people in quarantine, literally 2 days after I left). Finally, we took our train back to Naples and rushed to the airport to catch our flight back to Madrid. By 10 pm we were back in Madrid and taking the metro home, dreading studying for midterms this week.

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Italy was everything I hoped it would be. The weather, the people, the food, the architecture: all of it was absolutely incredible. I guarantee that I will be back, somehow someday I will. Thanks for inspiring me to dream of Italy, Mom. Those dreams made it even better.