Easter Holiday Part 4: ITALY!!!

After the French Riviera we headed for our first stop in Italy…Venice!  This was one of my top places I wanted to go to, so I was really excited.  On the way there we stopped in Verona, which was a very pretty little city.  This is where Romeo and Juliet was set, and Juliet’s balcony is located there.  There is a statue of Juliet there, and allegedly if you rub her boob it brings you good luck in love, so naturally all of us did it.  We had delicious spaghetti Bolognese for dinner and rested up for exploring the city the next day.  Our first thing we did was a walking tour with a guide named Anna.  She was great and I was very thankful for having a guide, because if you have ever been to Venice you know it is full of canal, back alleys and extremely confusing roads.  Once we finished our tour we were supposed to go to a glass blowing demonstration because that is what Venice is famous for, but Ellen and I somehow lost the group and missed it.  We went to go get an AMAZING traditional Italian lunch instead and explored everything Venice had to offer.  It was such an extraordinary city and I loved wandering around its crazy streets.  A little later we found the group and went on a gondola ride.  It was so cool!  Seeing the city from the water was awesome and it was one of the highlights of the trip for me J

After Venice we went further south towards Florence.  The traffic on the way there was absolutely INSANE!  We were literally stopped in the same exact stop for 3 hours, which stunk but we kept ourselves entertained by playing games.  Eventually we got out of traffic and stopped at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it was awesome!!!  Of course we took a million corny pictures of us trying to hold it up, which was a lot of fun.  Once we got to Florence we had delicious lasagna and garlic bread for dinner, and then got ready to go out.  We went to a karaoke bar called The Red Garter.  I had never really done karaoke before, but the atmosphere in the bar was soooo much fun, so with a bit of liquid encouragement me and 3 of the other girls in the group jumped on stage and belted out Bohemian Rhapsody.  I had a blast that night and now am a huge fan of karaoke.

The next day we went on a walking tour of Florence and then a leather making demonstration.  What glass is to Venice leather is to Florence, so we learned all about how it was made and how to spot fake leather.  After that a bunch of us went to get lunch, and I had the most amazing pizza EVER!  We explored the city more and then went to see the statue of David.  IT WAS AMAZING!!! I snuck a picture even though we weren’t allowed because it was so awesome.  Next we grabbed gelato and shopped some more, then went back to the campsite and got ready for our authentic Tuscan dinner which was delicious!  Then we went to a place called Space Electronic Disco, which was really cool but there were like 15 year old boys there!  I don’t know how they got in, but it was kind of creepy dancing around all of these Italian kids so we didn’t stay too long.

The next day was the longest day EVER, but very worth it.  We got up extremely early so we could head towards Rome.  It wasn’t a long drive, but since it was the day before Easter Jen did not want to risk hitting traffic.  We actually made really good time, so we started the day by going on a tour of St. Peter’s basilica and the Vatican museums.  It was PACKED in Vatican City due to Easter so it was kind of stressful trying to keep up with everybody and stay together.  After these tours everyone was exhausted, but we still had more to do that day.  We took a walking tour of the city and saw all of the amazing sites, and although we were so tired by the end of the day I was so excited to see the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon , Coliseum and much more.