Spring break, part 1

Come next Monday, we are released for four weeks to run wildly around the continent. Naturally, I've spent the last month organizing this trip in painful detail. Because that's how I deal with excitement. Ha. Anyways, here's the agenda:

• TUESDAY, MARCH 24: Fly into Milan. Spend the day checking out the Duomo, the Last Supper, and possibly the ruins of Constantine's palace (where he signed the Edict of Milan in 312). A friend from church recommended a life-changing calzone place, so I'll hunt that down too. Then, at night, we hop on the train to Rome.
• WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25: Vatican festivities. Our hostel is near the train station, so we'll walk past Keats' House/Spanish Steps and the Castel Sant'Angelo on our way to the Vatican in the morning. Once there, it'll be the standard St. Peter's, Museums, and Sistine Chapel till they close at 6. At night we'll take the train to the suburb of Ciampino where we'll stay the night, because it's close to the airport where we have an early flight in the morning.
• THURSDAY, MARCH 26: Day in Athens. Yup, a day. I found ridiculously cheap ($30) tickets which will allow us to arrive in the morning and leave at night. After talking to friends who were just there, it sounds like most of what there is to see is all near the Acropolis, so you don't need more than a day or two. Anyways, I'm guessing we'll have about 6-7 hours to see the Parthenon/Acropolis, Agora, and Mars Hill. Probably won't get to the museums, but that's ok.
• FRIDAY, MARCH 27: Roman ruins. We'll start outside the Domus Aurea and make our way around the southern ruins, from the Coliseum towards the Palatine Hill and Circus Maximus. Then we'll head to the Forum and have a picnic lunch there if that's allowed. Then it'll be Trajan's Markets, the Campo de Fiori, and Pantheon. At night, we'll toss our coins into the Trevi Fountain and get on a train to Naples.
• SATURDAY, MARCH 28: Pompeii. 30-min train to the slopes of Vesuvius, where we'll hike to the caldera. Then we'll get back on the train and go a little further south to the ruins of Pompeii, and revel in all the Roman nerdiness. Everything closes around 6, so we'll head back to Naples to explore and grab some authentic Neapolitan pizza.
• SUNDAY, MARCH 29: Train to Florence. I'm guessing we'll arrive around 11am, so we'll most likely miss church services, but I have some sermons on my ipod which will ease my guilt. Once we're there, we'll picnic in the Boboli Gardens, which have an amazing view of the city, and visit the Duomo. I'm a little nervous about crowds, as it's Palm Sunday and thus the beginning of Holy Week, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Other than the cathedral, I'm guessing we'll just wander around the city.
• MONDAY, MARCH 30: Hiking in Tuscany. After much research and breaking my habit of biannual Pinterest logins, I've decided to center our walking on Greve-in-Chianti, 50 minutes away from Florence by bus. About a mile from here is the village Montefioralle, where Amerigo Vespuci was born. I'm purposefully leaving the day wide open for whatever exploring we want to do. One thing for certain, we are not going to spend a day in the Chianti wine region without taking advantage of a bottle for a picnic lunch. Bethany & I plan on bringing our art stuff, so maybe we'll draw some of the countryside. Along the lines of art, we could also go north to Vinci to pay homage to Leonardo, but it all depends on time.
• TUESDAY, MARCH 31: Florence museums. Splitting the day between the Uffizzi Gallery (think basically every painting Boticelli ever did) and the Academy (David). Explore at night.
• WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1: Train to Venice. St. Mark's cathedral, canals, and a restaurant recommended by two different couples called "Pasta to Go." They make the pasta from scratch in front of you. Soooo excited. We're only going to spend a day here, though, because Venice is an incredibly expensive city and we don't want to dish out for a hotel. So we'll take a later train back to Milan for the night.
• THURSDAY, APRIL 2: Geneva. I'm still unsure about how I'll get us here, becuase we only have a France-Italy train pass and we'd have to pay a lot extra for a highspeed train to Switzerland. So my plan right now is to take slightly slower ones to one of the French towns about an hour away from Geneva and then transfer to a cheaper local train into the city. At that point, I'll we'll have the afternoon to see St. Pierre's Cathedral, the Reformation Wall, and walk around the old city and lakefront. The perverse side of me is so looking forward to dragging my Lutheran friends around the epicenter of Reformedom. I'VE BEEN PATIENT FOR THREE YEARS, I GET MY CALVINIST AFTERNOON. And then at night, we'll train hop our way to Paris.
• FRIDAY, APRIL 3 - SATURDAY, APRIL 4: Paris. Don't have a schedule and I don't think we'll make one. We just have a list of things we don't want to miss: Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Shakespeare & Co., sunset from Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, Latin Quarter, and possibly the Luxembourg Gardens. And of course, hit some cafes. And then we'll take the Chunnel back to London to make it to Cambridge in time for Easter services on Sunday.

Being broke college students, we're going to be staying in a bunch of hostels and eating out of grocery stores. We're also bringing only what we can fit inside a bag/backpack. That includes room for souvenirs. IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE THE HOBBIT!!! SO MUCH ADVENTURE!!!

So that's the first, and most insane, leg of our break-time European festivities. 11 days, 8 cities (plus Pompeii and the Tuscan villages). But before then, I have two papers to write, provisions to cook for the first few days, trains to reserve, and a bunch of documents/boarding passes/maps to print out. And there's a solar eclipse to gawk at on Friday morning. It's a busy week ahead of us.