Italy

Wow. So I have seven crazy days to write about.

Last Wednesday we left around lunch time, and caught a bus to the airport, and flew into Rome. We got in late, took a bus into the city and then walked to our hostel. It was very small, and only two bathrooms for almost 30 people, but not too bad.

We woke up on Thursday and walked to the Colosseum. We waited in line, and then got to walk around the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. We saw where Shakespeare placed Julius Caesar's death, (not the actual place though), and after we saw all of that, we went out to lunch. After a long lunch (the Italians like to eat slowly), we walked across town. We got the first of many gelato, saw the Trevi fountain, and I threw in two coins. You can find out what that means if you want to. After that we saw the Spanish steps, went to several piazza's, and eventually got dinner at a little pizzeria. We ate, and then went back to the hostel and played cards.

On Friday morning we got up and took the metro to Vatican City, where we went to the Vatican Museum and to St. Peter's Basilica. The Sistine Chapel was really cool, but a lot smaller than I thought that it would be. St. Peter's was really cool, and I didn't realize that St. Peter is buried there. After we saw that, we went to see the Pantheon, which was cool, and then went to relax at the Circus Maximus. After an hour or so there, we headed back to the hostel. I met my friend Catherine who's studying in Rome this semester while everyone else had dinner at the hostel. We got to walk around and get lost in Rome, catch up, and even enjoy some really good pizza, and then she left to catch the metro before it closed. I met back up with my group at the hostel, and we went and walked around the Colosseum at night, before heading back to sleep.

On Saturday we caught a morning train to Florence, and took a bus to our hostel. After settling in, we went and walked around the town. We went to see the famous Duomo, and I went to go see Michelangelo's David, which was incredible. We went to the market, and did some shopping before dinner. For dinner we went out to a little pasta shop, and then afterwards, we walked over to the hostel that two others from our group were staying at, and swam in their swimming pool before walking up to the roof to look at the city. Becky also hit her head, and probably had a concussion. So we headed home, stopping only for gelato on the way.

The next day we slept in, which was wonderful, and then me and Karissa went to Pisa for the afternoon. I also bought some Italian sunglasses along the way. We had a beautiful train ride through Tuscany, and walked through Pisa to get to the leaning tower, which really is leaning, it's kinda creepy. We spent a couple of hours there, and took lots and lots of pictures before heading back. On the way back to the train station, I had the best and cheapest gelato I think I had in Italy. It was so wonderful. So after going to the market in Florence, we met back up with the rest of the group and went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. After walking around a little more at night to see the town, we went back to the hostel to pack and get ready to leave in the morning.

Monday morning we got up, and walked to the train station, and took a train to Venice. The trip took longer than we thought, and we got there around 1. However, the buses had changed routes, and I found out that I can read a little bit of Italian. I let the group know what had changed, and we finally caught the right bus to our hotel, not hostel. It was outside the city, and still expensive, but everything inside the city was at least twice as expensive. Everything in Venice is expensive. We got checked in, and went to explore the town for a few hours. Venice is very confusing and we got lost several times, but we found our way eventually. We did some shopping, fed the pigeons in St. Marcos square, walked along the riverwalk, got ripped off at dinner by cover and service charges, saw the Bridge of Sighs, and most excitingly, got an evening gondola ride. It was amazing. Like everything else in Venice, expensive, but oh so amazing. After the gondola, we went back to St. Marcos square, which was flooding due to high tide. All around Venice there are raised platforms for people to walk on when it floods. Apparently Venice is sinking.

The next morning we left our bags at the hotel, as they were going to meet us in the city with our bags to take us to the airport later. So we went back to Venice, fed the pigeons again, walked around, did some more shopping, played cards in a restaurant for a while, visited a church, and slowly made our way to the place where our shuttle would meet us. Then the shuttle took us to the airport. However, our plane was 40 minutes delayed, and while they boarded both the front and back of the plane, they only let us out of the front, so we were the last ones off. Plus we didn't land at the terminal, so we had to take a train there, and there were only two people working immigration for 3 or 4 planes of people. All that combined, we missed our bus, and had to change our tickets to get back later. By making several connections and begging one bus driver, we made it back to Oxford around 5am. I got to sleep all morning, which was wonderful, but everyone else had class at 9.

Well, for the rest of Wednesday, I slept in, did some homework, went out and got some groceries and lunch, and generally relaxed. It was a lovely day.