This has gotta be the good life :): Italia!

Ciao! I hope everyone reading this is doing well :) I just got back from an amazing trip to Italy! I mainly traveled with Patrick, but we were with a few other people from our group as well. Here is more about the trip :)

Our flight to Venice was scheduled at 6 in the morning. Since the tubes close around midnight, we had to take two different buses in order to get to the London Stansted airport, which is about 40 miles from where I live. In order for us to arrive at the airport on time, we had to leave my house at 12:45am. I luckily was able to sleep from 7:30pm to 11pm. By the time we got through security and were ready to board the plane, we were absolutely exhausted. Sam and Teresa were on the same flight as us so we were able to entertain each other and try to stay awake! After an hour and a half flight, we were in Venice! From there, we had to take a bus to get to where we were staying. Here is where it gets interesting. Once we got off the bus, we knew the general direction and address of our hotel, but that was it. Patrick and I started walking and figured we should ask for some help. We went into a nearby hotel and figured someone there would be able to speak English and asked them for directions to our hotel. We weren't too far away and were able to find it after a few wrong turns :) The hotel was very nice but small, which was fine. After settling in, Patrick and I got a map from reception and had to figure out the bus system in order to get into the actual city of Venice. Hands down one of the most stressful situations of my life! Their bus system is so much different than London's. You are supposed to buy a ticket from a nearby tobacco shop, but we couldn't find any that were open in the middle of the day. It is also very difficult to ask anyone for help since we can't speak Italian and most of them couldn't understand English very well. At the bus stop, we FINALLY heard some American girls speaking English and asked them if they knew what to do. They told us we could just pay the driver when we got on, so we decided to just try that instead. Patrick and I got on the bus with the 2 American girls and one of them attempted to pay the driver and he just shooed us away as we moved down into the bus aisles. We weren't sure if we were supposed to wait and pay once we got off or if there was a machine on the bus to pay so we waited until we got to Venice and the driver didn't say anything so we just got off! We later figured out that people do this all the time. It was nice to save some money, even though I was terrified we would get in trouble the entire time!

Venice is a beautiful city. I could not believe how pretty the scenery was! Colorful buildings and houses line the edges of the water, and gondolas and speed boats are constantly everywhere. There isn't a ton to do, so it was probably a good thing we only had two full days there. The first day, Patrick and I walked around for hours after getting barely any sleep the night before. We went to Piazza San Marco, which is a huge public square. We also saw the Rialto Bridge. I had really wanted to do a gondola ride, but they wanted 120 euro, which is about 155 US dollars for a 30 minute ride. They wouldn't budge on the price so we decided not to do it. I was bummed but we definitely made the right choice. After dinner of lasagna and spaghetti on the water, we crashed at our hotel and slept for 13 hours!

During our 2nd day in Venice, we met up with 3 of our friends from our group, Sam, Kyle, and Teresa. We decided to take a boat to 3 islands off the coast of Venice: Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Each island specialized in something different; Murano is known for its glass, Burano for its lace, and the oldest church in Venice is on the island of Torcello. We had a great day exploring the islands and learning more about each place. I had some wonderful spaghetti for dinner that night and gelato for dessert of course :) Speaking of gelato, I made it my goal to get it every day I was in Italy and definitely accomplished that goal :)

The next morning, the five of us took a taxi to the airport for our flight to Rome. Surprisingly, it was cheaper and faster to fly to Rome instead of take the train. The flight was only about 45 minutes and we took a bus from the airport to the train station that was near our hotel. This part also got very interesting. We arrived in Rome at about 12:30pm and were supposed to check in at 2pm. At our previous hotel, we were able to check in early so we figured we would maybe be able to do the same here. Well, we figured wrong. After finally finding our hotel (it was in an apartment building on the 3rd floor), we tried to buzz them so they would let us in and nobody answered. We didn't have anything to do for an hour and a half so we sat in a nearby park THE ENTIRE TIME. Looking back on it now it is hilarious, but we were miserable for that hour and a half! It was so warm outside and we had no way to change our clothes into shorts and t-shirts. Finally at 2, we walked back and buzzed in and someone answered. We walked up to the 3rd floor and the maid let us in and said "15 minutes". Slightly confused, we sat until she was done cleaning. Unlike most hotels, there was no reception area or lobby. This had a living room type area, a kitchen, and 4 bedrooms. That was it. It was also called "Mr. Frills" so we had no idea what we were in for. The place itself was brand new and very nice. The first thing the maid said to us was "I don't really speak English." That was a great start. Her English was very broken and she would switch into Italian most of the time while explaining to us how the hotel worked and where to go. Luckily, Italian is very similar to Spanish so I was able to understand most of the things she said. Once we paid and had our room key, we were very relieved. We changed into more weather appropriate clothes (the weather was sunny and high 70's the entire time!!) and ventured off to the Coliseum, which was a 15 minute walk from our hotel. We had a map of the city that showed all the major monuments, which we definitely wore out by the end of our trip. Patrick and I did a tour of the inside of the Coliseum, and we both really enjoyed it! It was so crazy that the Coliseum was just right in the middle of restaurants and hotels. We had dinner at a place nearby and met up with Sam, Kyle, and Teresa later that night. Once again, we were completely exhausted after everything that happened that day!

On our 2nd day in Rome, we started by walking to the Trevi Fountain. It is so unbelievable to see these sights in person that you have only seen in movies and TV shows before. Plenty of pictures were taken! Once again we met up with Sam, Teresa and Kyle for the entire day. After the Trevi Fountain, we went to the Spanish steps and Spagna, a very high-end fashion district with stores like Armani, Prada, Gucci, and Burberry just to name a few. The 5 of us had a great time wandering the streets of Rome, but I can definitely say that my feet have never hurt so bad. The cobblestone streets are cool but tough on the feet after hours of walking on them :) We also saw the Pantheon and had dinner nearby. After getting some gelato, we wanted to go back to the Trevi Fountain to see it at night. Of course, being the clumsy person that I am, I tripped on the cobblestone street and hurt my toe pretty badly. It was difficult for me to walk so we stopped for a bit. This definitely drew a crowd around me wondering what had happened. An Italian man told us to ice my toe with gelato, which we all found to be hilarious! Patrick and Kyle got me some ice packs and I iced my foot while we sat by the Trevi Fountain. It was a terrible ending to a wonderful day.

On day 3 we went on a self-guided tour of the Vatican and got to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica. The tour focused heavily on the artwork that the Vatican has collected over the years, which was so interesting and beautiful to see. We also got to see the Sistine Chapel, and were able to sneak a few pictures of the ceiling :) They had guards everywhere yelling "NO PHOTO" at anyone they saw trying to get a picture. I thought everything we saw that day was amazing. Later that day, the 5 of us wandered by the river and did some shopping and met up with two other girls for dinner, Rochelle and Erin, from our trip that had arrived in Rome that day. It's so cool getting to experience all of these new places with the new friends I have made on the trip.

Some other interesting things about Italy:
1. You can't get free water in the restaurants, which is really annoying.
2. Don't mix up sparkling water with still water. Tastes terrible.
3. Some of the restaurants have a service charge and a cover charge, which we found out the hard way. They charge you for just sitting in the restaurant!
4. Everyone smokes and a lot of people smelled really bad. The air in London seemed so fresh compared to Italy. I can't wait for clean Minnesota air!!
5. The street vendors were an interesting sight! They lined almost every street and wanted you to buy their crap, like fake designer purses with the brand name glued on or random nicknacks.
6. The restaurant workers were very pushy, every time you would walk by a restaurant they would say "Table for 5?" or "Want to see the menu?" Nope, just walking here.
7. Like I previously said, the cobblestone streets are killer on your feet.
8. Gelato is amazing and comes in pretty much any flavor imaginable :) My favorites were Nutella and Creme Caramel. I had it 6 times in 5 days. Definitely not addicted to it or anything....
9. It was unbelievable how the old historical buildings were right in the middle of stores, restaurants, and hotels.
10. Overall, we had an amazing time and have so many funny stories to tell when we come home :)

Here are some pictures from the trip! I miss everyone back home so much, but I am very much enjoying my time traveling around the world. Love you all :)