we arrived in venice. and you would think that when arriving to a new country you would have to go through customs and get a stamp in your passport right? well, apparently italy doesnt do customs. according to my passport, i was never there. nope. great security, italy. we took a bus to the island and found our hostel no problem. venice was beautiful, and so interesting. there were few main streets with shops and a few small markets, but mostly 5ft wide alleyways between old old buildings filled with more shops and apartments above. we had our first authentic italian dinner (bread, appetizer, first plate, second plate, salad, dessert, wine) at 'trattoria le campane' then onto the first of so so many gelato stops where i had lime and limoncello. i still do not understand how all italian people are not gigantic. we ventured into the night, failing to find san marco, but succeeding in finding the rialto bridge, which had the most gorgeous view of the grand canal at night. after a few hours out, we made our way back for a good nights sleep.
sunday, october 24.
pizza for breakfast? heck yes. only in italy? nope. better in italy? yep. we started out the day after that with a gondola ride of course and the most precious gondolier who had surprisingly great english for having grown up and lived in venice his whole life. the ride was about an hour of going in and out of little canals seeing cute houses, the rialto bridge again from the water, and a bunch of other cool-looking buildings and important things. gelato stop #2 after that, but i went for the tiramisu this time. walked around the island some more, got another gift, and we finally found san marco. along with the doge palace next to it. turns out we were one turn away from finding it the night before, but we didn't stay long, it wasn't that exciting. we had lunch in one of the several piazzas within the island at 'ristorant s stefano' where i had gnochetti alla s stefano, one of the restaurant's specialty dishes, and it was oh so special, i looooved it. onward we walked, got a few more gifts, stopped for delicious little fruit tarts, and went back to the area around san marco where jess became our official bird lady. this is where you can stand with your arm out and pigeons will land. if you buy seed, however, dozens of pigeons will flock to you, the seed will be gone in a matter of seconds, but the birds will still be flying and landing on and around you. it was hilarious, and just a little gross. we made the trek home after that cause it started raining a little harder and our feet freaking hurt. tagliatelle alfredo for dinner at 'ristorante ai scalzi' and gelato spagnoli for dessert. later we tried to find a group doing a bridge crawl, but that never happened, so we went out for a drink and got a late night pizza to bring back to our room.
monday, october 25
woke up early for breakfast danishes and to catch our 2hour train to florence. we walked to our hostel and dropped off our luggage because our room wouldnt be ready until later in the day. we planned out our day to see everything we wanted to, beginning with food. lunch was penne pomodoro e formaggio at 'birrificio artigianala mostodolce' and who walks by but my flatmate chris and steph. chatted with them for a bit then finished lunch and headed to the san lorenzo market, known for its leather goods. i splurged. i got myself a real leather jacket! its so nice im very excited, and no buyers remorse is a good sign. jess also got leather gloves. we continued to il duomo, but decided against climbing the 463 stairs to the top. our feet had been through enough already with plenty more walking to come. we walked through piazza della repubblica and a carousel with what looked like jesus painted on it. another gelato stop, i had hazelnut, and the boar's head market where tara made her leather purchase, a bright pink purse. jess rubbed the boar's nose for good luck (we're not really sure that it means good luck, but hey why not). then we found neptune's fountain and piazza della signoria, an outside statue gallery, which were both next to the galleria dell'accademia, where the david is. funny story - everything in florence is closed on mondays. why? no one knows. but so we couldn't go into the accademia or the uffizi galleries. instead, we took funny pictures with the david replica outside. good enough for me. we then found ponte vecchio bridge and walked by where people 'lock their love' on cables by the river - adorable. ponte vecchio was stunning, im so glad the weather cleared up when we got there.
after that we trekked up to the highest point in the city, piazzale michelangelo. at first we were on the other side of the mountain at giuseppe poggi, which had the most amazing fairytale view of the city - probably my favorite view of the whole break. i would definitely travel back to florence just for this if and when i ever get the chance. we walked to meet chris and steph as the sun went down and the view became an amazing nightscene. bussed back to the hostel to finally check in and then went out for dinner. emily, brian, and keith saw us on our way and happened to be staying in the same hostel, more small world encounters. we went to nuti antica pizzeria-ristorante where i had florentine steak yummm then met up with another friend taylor for drinks. chilled with emily, brian, and keith back at the hostel for a bit before bedtime.
tuesday, october 26
mcdonalds for breakfast in the train station then an hour and a half ride to rome. our hostel was a short walk away above a little cafe shop near piazza dell'esquilino. we saw another friend brittany from cuse on our way. the metro was useful in rome, we got a daypass and headed first to the vatican. we had a quick lunch, margherita pizza, then tara went into vatican city and the museum while jess, ellie, and i wandered around the entrance for a while then got more gelato because we didn't want to wait in line. we hopped back on the metro to circus maximus, the constantine arch, the colosseum (ellie went in), the acropolis, and other old things. jess and i decided we could see everything and appreciate it from afar rather than paying to see the rocks close up. all four of us met back at the hostel then took the metro to the spanish steps, which were really cool lit up at night. we found a bar crawl that included a tshirt so of course we were in! i think that was my favorite part of rome. dont get me wrong, it was really interesting to think about how old the city was and how people lived back then and everything so im glad i went. im no history buff though, so it just wasn't my cup of tea overall. i dont really need to go back.
wednesday, october 27
travel day. rough, early morning, but the guy from the hostel was so sweet and gave us juice and glazed croissants on our way out. we took a train to the airport, saw a few guys from the bar crawl the night before (luckily they didn't see us still in our tshirts haha). and we were off to greece. ciao, italy!
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