September 19th:
After waking up at the bright and early hour of 5:00am, I had a quick breakfast in the hotel lobby. After, we all loaded the bus, drove to the airport, went through security...I’m sure you know the drill by now. :D I ended up sitting in an aisle seat by an old couple. I ate the breakfast that they provided (since the hotel breakfast was only a croissant and water) and slept most of the way to Rome. After we landed, we drove to our hotel, checked half of the group in (my room wasn’t ready this time), and went out for lunch. I went out with my friends Nyika, Faith, Sasha, Kayla, and Rose. I had a pasta dish with broccoli--it wasn’t the best meal ever, but the dish was pretty good. After lunch, I ended up making a quick purchase at a stand on the street near our hotel. When we got back to the hotel after lunch, the entire group went on a tour of the Colosseum, and a walking tour of the city (a lot of the old city especially). When we got to Trevi fountain, my friend Leah and I finally had our Lizzie McGuire moment. :) I threw in three coins and made one wish on each (two smaller wishes on the two smallest coins that I threw in with Leah, and a big wish on the big coin that I threw in by myself). At Trevi fountain, we all started to feel a few sprinkles...when we were on our way to the Spanish Steps, it was downpouring! I don’t think I saw such a heavy rain all summer! By the time we had run to the metro, we were all soaking wet! It was quite an experience, let me tell you! Normally, I certainly wouldn’t have minded it. However, I had my new camera with me, so I didn’t enjoy it as much (all I could think about was keeping it dry!). After we made our way to the metro station, we went back to the hotel. After we had all situated and changed, a big group of us went out to dinner. After trying to find a place to go to, we ended up going back to the restaurant that my group had gone to earlier. Even though I wasn’t too pleased with my meal earlier in the day, I ended up getting the best lasagna I’ve ever had. It was so delicious, and a real Italian meal if you ask me! So I was happy. :) After dinner, we went back to the hotel. I just went back to my room, had some downtime, and went to bed. It was a veryyyy long, but good, day. :)
September 20th:
After I woke up, I went back to one of the stands on the street to buy a cheap pair of leggings because this was the day that we went to the Vatican (and I wanted to make sure I’d be able to get into St. Peters!). I wore a classy black and grey dress that went down to my knees, however, we were told that our knees should be covered, so I bought the leggings and put them in my purse to be on the safe side. After I bought them, our group made our way to the metro where we hopped on the train and traveled to the Vatican. When we got there, we got in a LONG line..while we were in line, I decided to go and grab a pastry and water since I didn’t have time for breakfast. The street vender asked me if I was Italian because he said I looked Italian, so that was kind of cool! :) After I had bought my breakfast, I noticed our group walking in my direction (I was near the entrance to the museum); since we had reserved tickets, we got to bypass the standing in line! I didn’t have time to finish my breakfast (we weren’t allowed to bring food inside), so I stuck it inside my purse (don’t worry, the security guard knew..ha). We went inside, went through security, and then met our tour guide. We had a tour of the Vatican museum, and our tour guide explained a lot behind the art and history of certain things (like the Sistine Chapel). She presented a lot of information to us using a little contraption for a while, and then after her information session, we toured through the rest of the museum. She left us right before we got to the Sistine Chapel, and we were told that we were free for the rest of the day. So, after she was done, my friends and I entered into the Chapel. There are no words for that place. Seriously. I cannot believe that the entire thing was hand-painted. I wanted to take a picture SO bad. Even though no photos were allowed, and there were guards watching people and telling them “no pictures!,” I know I could have easily gotten a good shot. I felt bad though, and I didn’t want to break the rules, so I didn’t. :( I bought a couple of postcards with scenes from the chapel, along with a couple of other things, at a little souvenir shop after looking at the chapel for about ten minutes. After the gift shop, we went to the Basilica. I didn’t end up needing to put on my leggings, but my friend Faith hurried me inside saying that she saw some of the guards kind of eyeing me..whew! I would have been fine either way though. The Basilica was AWESOME. It was really cool being in such an amazing and powerful place. I’m not Catholic, but it was definitely a wonderful experience and an amazing place to see. After seeing the Basilica, some of my friends and I took the metro and went back to central Rome where we ate lunch and did a little more shopping and sight-seeing. We made a brief stop at the Spanish Steps since we weren’t able to go the day before due to the rain. I bought some neat street art at the top of the steps too! :) We went back to the Pantheon too, and finally back to the Colosseum as well. It was very beautiful at night, and I got a few pics that I’m very pleased with. After the Colosseum, before turning in for the night, Leah, Faith, and I went out for some dessert. We had a good time enjoying each others company! After that, I called it a night.
September 21st:
This was, quite honestly, an uneventful day for the most part. The majority of the day consisted of a loooong bus ride from Rome to Florence. The Italian country-side is gorgeous; I would love to go back again someday and drive all throughout Italy! Sadly, I was pretty tired though, and for those of you who know me, I fall asleep pretty easily in moving vehicles...therefore, I slept for most of the commute. On the way to Florence, we stopped at Pisa for a couple of hours. In Pisa, we all took turns taking the typical “pushing-the-tower-over” pictures, and a couple of group shots as well (my tower-pushing pics didn’t turn out that great, but that’s okay!). After our photo op, a few of us went to grab something to eat. I spent a little time looking at all of the little touristy stands and did a little souvenir shopping as well. After that, we all met on the bus and continued on our way to Florence. In my opinion, we spent the perfect amount of time in Pisa; it is definitely day-trip worthy, but I wouldn’t spend longer than a day in the city. It was really cool seeing the leaning tower though! :) When we arrived in Florence, a bunch of us just went out to dinner and then came back to the hotel for the night, and made some plans for the next day.
September 22nd:
On this day, the only thing that we had scheduled as a group was a trip to the Uffizi (which, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the building, is an art gallery). After waking up in the morning and eating breakfast, our group walked from our hotel to the Uffizi. Here, we met up with a wonderful tour guide who took us to see the main works of art in the gallery (including The Birth of Venus, Primavera, The Annunciation, and the Doni Tondo). It was very interesting, and actually one of my favorite tours--I just kept thinking about how so many of the people I used to hear about in my classes actually painted the things that I had seen, and that they had once been in their possession. It just was a little mind-boggling. :) After our visit to the Uffizi, my friends Sasha, Leah, Maggie, and I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then walked around a little bit to kill time before...we signed up for a bike tour of the city! After signing up, we had a little time to kill before the tour was actually supposed to start, so we explored Florence a little more and stopped outside Il Duomo for a while. It is a magnificent cathedral from the outside; I can only imagine what it looked on the inside (we didn’t have time to go see the inside). After our exploring, we made our way back to the bike tour office where we got free hats and loaded up our bikes. Our tour guide grew up in the states (though she had been living in Italy for the past 10 years), and she was very nice! She took us around all of Florence, showing us the major sites and giving us a background on the history of each place. I snapped some tours while on my bike, which I consider to be quite a feat! :D Our tour guide also took us to the best gelateria in Florence and treated us to a dish; I got dark chocolate and a mixed-berry flavor. She was right; it was the best gelateria in Florence. After our lovely bike tour, us girls did a little shopping (though, I actually didn’t get a single thing!). We didn’t shop for long though because we had to get ready for...the opera! A bunch of us decided that we wanted to go to the opera the night before, so we ended up scoring some tickets to a little recital where three people (a pianist and two opera singers) performed arias. I actually ended up LOVING it! Seriously, I normally would say that I hate opera, but I decided to go for the experience, and it was SO good! :) The best part is, 100% of the ticket sales went to benefit a thing called AMALA, a charity project for children in South India. You could buy champagne during the reception as well to help support AMALA; I didn’t buy any, but I still donated a couple of Euro because I thought that the idea to help out this charity project was so great! Not much else happened after the opera; a bunch of the group stayed out longer, but I only stayed with them for about 20 minutes. After, I went back to the hotel and just turned in for the night because it was a very long, very wonderful day, and I was pooped! :)
September 23rd:
After waking up and having breakfast, our group departed Florence and made our way to Venice. When we arrived in Venice, we checked into our hotel (again, my room wasn’t ready) and ate a quick lunch from McDonald’s. Most of you know that I don’t really eat much fast-food in the U.S., nonetheless, McDonald’s, but I have gotta tell you, it was pretty good. After lunch, Kayla and I got our room, so we checked in quick. Not too long after, our group drove to a port where we boarded a Vaporetto, a boat of sorts that took us to the canal-y part of Venice. We all broke off into smaller groups to explore the city. Almost right away, we found an amazing little glass gallery, and I’m still kicking myself for not buying anything...I wanted to see if I could find any other galleries that day, but I never did (and I couldn’t find my way back to the first one!). I guess I’ll just have to go back again someday to get some authentic Venetian glass! :) After finding the gallery, I decided to break off from my group and explore the city for myself. I absolutely love traveling with people, but I just wanted to see the city on my own terms for once (and I’m very happy I did). I explored the little side streets and eventually made my way to the Grand Canal (I found out later that I was the only one to do so! Everyone sure missed out!). Here, I stood on the famous Rialto Bridge (one of four bridges that cross the canal, as well as the oldest); I was able to find a nice couple to take my picture for me to remember my time there (don’t worry, I got lots of other shots too!). After, I decided to find a gelato stand and copy Kayla (in Rome, she went off on her own, grabbed some gelato, and just sat and ate it at Trevi Fountain...she said it was one of her favorite things that she did in Rome). So, I grabbed myself a cone and then made my way back to the canal where I just sat there and enjoyed watching life go by. It truly was magnificent. :) After that, I slowly made my way back to our meeting point. On the way, I met a nice older couple from Texas (they stopped me to ask me if I would take their picture). I took there picture, we conversed a little, and then after wishing me luck with everything this semester, we parted ways. I made my way back to where everyone needed to meet right as it was starting to get dark--perfect timing. :) Not too long after, we all hopped back on the Vaporetto and made our way back to the mainland. When we got back to the hotel, I skyped with my family for a while, and then turned in for the night because I needed to get some rest before we departed for our last and final country...ESPAÑA!
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