Italy !!!

So I know I am extremely late updating this, but honestly I had no idea where to even start. But now I have a 4-day weekend to figure this out. Yay! I love long weekends.

I last left off the night before our Italy trip. So that Monday, I woke up around 6:30 to start getting ready. The night before, our senora made us bocadillas (Spanish sandwiches) and we made ourselves peanut butter sandwiches. I packed all my last-minute stuff (the sandwiches, my hair straightner, and some other random stuff). Kristin and I met Angie at the Correos at 8:15 to take a city bus to the bus station. We got on our 3 hour bus to Seville, and I was able to sleep. Then we ate lunch at a park near the bus stop. And took another bus to the airport. But we got to the airport at 3, and our flight didn’t leave until 7. Our flight was actually on time (which is amazing considering the last plane we took ended up being over 2 hours delayed. When Angie booked our tickets with RyanAir, she got us priority seating. Since RyanAir doesn’t have assigned seats, we got to pick wherever we wanted as soon as we got on the plane. And priority seating got us on the plane first. So we got right up front. The Italians on our flight were very entertaining. They sang when the plane took off and when it landed (ps we landed in Rome over half an hour early, so I officially love RyanAir). We took a bus that literally dropped us off right by the hostel. Our room had 6 beds, and the theme is orange and green (even the plants were orange and green).  It was close to 11 by that time, and we were all exhausted from traveling for the whole day.

On Tuesday, I woke up around 7. One thing I hate about the doors in Italy (really just the hostel doors though) is that they are hard to unlock. So I was locked in the hostel’s bathroom for about 10 minutes. The hostel gave us breakfast tickets at a café next door. We each got a cappuccino and a croissant. We were actually is Ciampino (which is like a suburb of Rome), so we had to take a train to Rome and the Metra to the Colosseum. The Colosseum was amazing! It was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip! It was so amazing to see it after hearing about it in school forever. Luckily, there was like nobody there so we didn’t have to wait in line for tickets and taking pictures were no problem.  We then were going to the Synagogue, but it was a little difficult finding it. But there were many nice people who helped us. It was beautiful, and I learned a lot. But I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. Then we went to the Pantheon. It wasn’t much of anything, kinda disappointing. The Trevi Fountain was next. I threw in 6 coins (one coin means a return to Rome, 2 is finding love, and 3 is getting married). So hopefully, I get all 3! We got lunch next at a restaurant right next to the Trevi. I got margherita pizza and chocolate gelato. Then we saw the Spanish Steps. The Steps weren’t that great, but when you kept climbing up higher, there was a pretty view. Sadly, it was only 2:15, and that’s all we had planned for the day. So we just randomly walked around Rome. We went to lots of plazas. Then we went back to the Trevi Fountain since we wanted to see it lit up. Then we went back to our hostel. We went to a nearby restaurant. I had ravioli and wine. Then we came back and slept.

The next morning I woke up feeling kinda sick. But after drinking a bottle of water, I felt a little better. We took the train and Metra again and arrived at Vatican City. All the buildings were pretty, but since I’m not Catholic, it didn’t mean much to me. We went to St. Peter’s Square, the Basilica, Vatican Grotto, Vatican Museum, and the Sistine Chapel. Then Angie wanted to go to the gift shop, and it was there that I realized both soles of my shoes were falling off. And my feet were killing me. So, it wasn’t easy walking around the rest of city. But we got to the main train station, and got out rail passes authorized, and hopped on our plane to Florence. The hostel was okay. In some ways it was nicer than the one in Rome and in some ways it was worse. We got dinner at a nearby café.

Thursday, my feet were still really hurting and I felt even sicker. We started off the day going the same café that we had dinner at the night before. Then we somehow went to the wrong museum (we were trying to get the David of Michelangelo statue). We got to the right museum, and the statue was amazing. There were so many details (veins, wrinkles, and dirt). Then we went to the duomo (another church). On our way to Ponte Veccio (the bridge), we looked at some shops (I really needed new shoes), but everything was too expensive. The bridge was really pretty. The view was amazing with the river and mountains. We went to a pharmacy, and I bought medicine and band aids. Luckily, they both helped, but the medicine made me really drowsy. Which was bad, since we were going to the Piazza Michelangelo (it’s like a 50 minute walk up this huge hill, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open). I wish I wasn’t knocked out, since the view was absolutely breathtaking. Then we walked back down and took our next train to Verona. It took 3 trains to get there. Our first stop was so quick that we needed to run to get on the train. And the second stop was confusing (we need to be at Terminal 3 west, and there was a 3 West, 3 East, and 3 Central. And no signs. We ran to that one too. We made it to Verona and ate McDonald;s at the train station. The hostel (actually a bed and breakfast) gave me no directions except for being near the Arena. So we asked so many people and no one heard of it or the street it was on. Luckily, one nice guy GPS’d it for us. And we found it. We were all so mad about it and were ready to rate it low. But the second we walked in, a dog greeted us. And the owner was very nice and funny (and Angie’s new hubbie). He told us all about Verona and where to go. And to buy Verona passes (so we could save money). We watched the Cosby Show and were excited since we knew Verona would be more relaxed and we could sleep in.

The first place we went to in Verona was the Arena. It’s like a mini Colosseum. It was really cool. They have concerts there. And of course, we had to write ADPi in the sand. Then we went to Juliet’s Tomb (p.s. Romeo and Juliet are real people [as are their families] but the story isn’t real [they were never in love and Romeo is actually from Vencienzo]). It wasn’t really what I imagined, but it was interesting to see. Then we went to the place I was most excited to see in Verona: Juliet’s house. After all, I loved Letters to Juliet and some scenes were filmed there. But it was definitely different than the movie. There was graffiti all over the walls and no one was putting their letters in the wall like the movie. But I saw the balcony right away. We went inside and went into lots of different rooms. The rooms were supposed to look like the older Romeo and Juliet movie (and I wish I watched it when my mom rented it from the library, then I would’ve appreciated it more). But it was still really cool. And there was a computer room to write letters (actually emails) and learn about Romeo and Juliet. We went to the gift store, and I bought gifts for my parents and Cory & Carli. We tried to find Romeo’s house, but we never found it. Maybe it’s because Romeo isn’t from Verona, therefore there wouldn’t be a house. But it was on the map. Honestly, none of cared too much about it though. Lastly, we went to the amphitheater/ museum. On the top, there was a balcony and we overlooked all of Verona. And we took pictures near the river (every city in Italy has pretty rivers). Then we went to the train station to get our tickets for the train to Venice for the next day. I was a little sick and didn’t feel like going out for dinner, so we got food from a grocery store (which was a good plan since it saved a lot of money). And we watched the end of Glee and Secret Life. Then House was on. And it was in English! And after House was 2 episodes of Grey’s. Also English!! I was so excited to watch Grey’s.

We woke up early Saturday to leave for the train station. Our train left at 9:15. When we arrived in Venice, it was cold and cloudy. The first thing we did was take a gondola ride. It was so cool and the water was so pretty. It’s weird, because nobody has cars in Venice (we legit saw police and ambulance gondolas). Then we went to the Rialto Bridge. It was really pretty. And San Marco Pier, it was huge and we were hungry and everything near the Pier was expensive. But we ran into three girls from ISU. So we stopped and talked with them for a while. Then we finally found a place for lunch. And the sun finally came out, so we got some gelato and stood on the bridge. The view was gorgeous (the sun hot the water at the right angle). Then we took a 5:27 train to Rome. We played MASH on the train. We got to our hostel (the same one from Monday and Tuesday) around 9:45. We went on the Internet to see our schedules (MW is one class from 1-2:30 and TR is 4 classes [8:30-1 and 4-5:30]).

Sunday we checked out of the hostel at 10, which we were not happy about, because we all planned on sleeping in until 11:30, since we didn’t have to get on a bus to the airport until 1. But we couldn’t, so we ended up walking randomly around Ciampino, before we went to the bus stop. It took us to the airport. And the line for check-in and security were super long, but we got through pretty quick. We got first row on the airplane, so we had lots of legroom. Kristin and I watched The Office and NCIS on her iPod. The flight took a little over 2 hours. We took a bus back to Granada (luckily we made the 8pm bus). And we took a taxi to our apartment. We got home around 11:15. I Skyped home for a while and unpacked. And I uploaded my pictures to Facebook, and got ready to start classes.

And that was my amazing trip to Italy. I loved every part of it!!! I hope I get another chance to go back. But if I don’t, I’m glad to have all of these memories. Thanks Mom and Dad for giving me this opportunity.