Spring break was a lot of fun. Let the pictures and stories begin:
I left my flat at 6am on Friday, February 15th and arrived in Rome around noon. I bought a cell phone when I first got into London just to use within my group. It's been really handy. But when I got to Rome, it wasn't working and I couldn't call the girls to meet up with them. I met some people in my hostel and we all went to the Colosseum together.
After the Colosseum, we headed to the Spanish Steps and got some gelatto. Mmm.
My phone started working later that night and I met up with the girls. The next day we went to the Vatican.
You aren't really allowed to take picture in the Sistine Chapel, but it's really pretty. So I did.
A nice view of St. Peters Cathedral and Vatican City.
The girls met some awesome Canadians that we hung out with for a few days. This is Rob and Hannah. We saw these bikes that look like they were blown up, so they pretended like it had just happened. Some people walked by and felt really bad for them. Hehe.
Rome is a decent size, but you can walk pretty much anywhere. This is the Pantheon.
And we walked to the Trevi Fountain.
We went for dinner and then headed over to the Colosseum for a nice view at night.
The next day, Sunday, we took a day trip to Pompei. That's the city that Mount Vesuvius, the volcano, exploded on. It has since been excavated and was really cool, but after a while all ruins start to look the same.
It looked really cool, but it was a very long and stressful day. There were issues with trains, directions, taxis...rough day.
They must not have very good dog control, because there were dogs running around all over Pompei and the city of Naples. We did finally get home, though, and were very glad.
On Monday, we took the train to Florence. I love Florence. It was the best place we went to all week and we got to spend 3 days there! This is me and a statue of a boar.
Il Duomo Cathedral at night. We spent the first day just walking around Florence and seeing what was there. It's a beautiful place. Quite small.
Tuesday. A view of the river from the Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge. Today Rob and Hannah, our Canadian friends we met in Rome, came to Florence for the day. We met up with them and hung out. In the morning we saw the Michaelangelo's original statue of David. Went to a museum, walked around some more, did some shopping at some outdoor markets.
The girls walking down the street. I've been working on taking cool pictures at night. I'm getting better.
Wednesday morning. This is a view from Piazza de Michaelangelo. It's a hill on one side of the Florence. I hiked up the hill and got a beautiful view of the city.
This is a view of Ponte Vecchio from further down the river.
Hmm, my pictures are out of order. I don't know why. We took a day trip to Pisa. Well, not really a day trip. We were in Pisa for about 2 hours: eat, take pictures of the Leaning Tower, buy souvenirs and grab a train back to Florence. Short trip, but very fun.
Rawr!!!
I love auto-timer.
That night was the first night we went out to an Irish pub down the street. It was really nice because most of the people spoke English and it felt much more like being back in London.
As I would walk around, I would just take pictures of cool alleyways and buildings. This one was cool.
Now Venice. We took a train from Florence to Venice on Thursday. A view from the water bus.
Still taking pictures of cool looking places. A gondolier at work.
In front of San Marco Cathedral. Beautiful place. Three guys approached Marika and asked her to take a picture of them. Then each of the took a picture WITH her individually. It was hilarious. I took a picture of one of them.
The grand canal from the famous Rialto Bridge.
San Marco at night.
Rialto at night. I took these pictures while I was wondering around looking for my hostel. It only took about an hour and a half to find it. The Rialto is one of the few bridges that connects the two sides over the grand canal down the center of Venice. I wandered around on the wrong side of it for a good hour. I finally asked for directions at a gelateria. She knew exactly what I was looking for, so I bought a gelato and headed off to my hostel.
The next day we found a pizza shop with the thickest pizza i'd ever seen. Tasty, too. That one piece was a whole meal.
"I dare you to go out and stand there." "Okay, take a picture."
In the San Marco Square area, there are more pigeons than I have ever seen in my life. I bought a bag of feed for one Euro. Poured some out in my hand and they were all over me. It was fun. Some guys actually approached me and took pictures with me while I had pigeons all over me.
The Bridge of Sighs. Which comes at a good time, because now I sigh that my trip is over. That night I hopped on a train back to Rome and then flew back to London.
I got back at 1am on Sunday, so the Tubes were all closed (they close around 12:30). I hadn't used the night bus system before and I had a bit of trouble with it. I FINALLY got back to my flat at 3am. It was a long night. But I made it. Italy was amazing and beautiful, but 10 days away was exhausting and I was very glad to be back in London.
Sorry it took so long everyone! It took a couple of hours to get this together, which is why I hadn't done it yet. Please leave a comment or just say hello.
Class trip to York on Monday through Wednesday, so there will be a blog about last weekend's trip to Scotland when I get back. Miss you guys! Be back in 5 weeks today!
