Italia!

I am sorry this post about Italy took me so long, school has been crazy and I've been a little under the weather.

So anyways Italy was AMAZING! So beautiful; seriously breathtaking. I highly doubt I can deservingly explain Italy’s beauty and charm in this post, but I will sure try.
For easy reading I will be breaking the post into the following sections (beware: it's gonna be long):

1. Florence/Pisa

2. Vespa...failure/Tuscany

3. Venice and its beauty

4. Venice and the flood

5. Bergamo/Milan



Section one: Pisa/Florence, November 29th-31st


Michelangelo over looking the city.

We arrived late Thursday night and found our fabulous hostel, Hostel Derby. It was a great location right by the train station and lots of main tourist attractions. The first thing we did once unpacked was eat pizza...duh! It was delicious. We then walked around just to get our bearing on where we would want to venture the next day. While on this little walk I found heaven on earth...Italian gelato!!! You haven't had ice cream until you have eaten Italian gelato, OMG anyone that has been to Italy I know agrees with me.

The next day we woke up bright and early to catch the train to Pisa (about 45 minutes away). We decided we couldn't be that close and not see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it was everything I expected...a leaning tower in Pisa! But the Cathedral and other attractions were also beautiful.

<---Yes I did this picture, don't judge!

After Pisa we went back to Florence and did a city tour on one of those open air buses. It was a great way to see the city quickly. I just wish we had more time!!

Saturday activities...see next section.

On Sunday we got up super early and toured the beautiful Florence Duomo (Cathedral) and hit up the local market.

The Duomo is so large it's impossible to capture its beauty in a single picture. But these two will give you a good idea.




Section two: Vespa...failure/Tuscany


<----don't let the picture fool you.

On Saturday we found this great excursion called "Vespa(scooter) in Tuscany." We were SO excited, to say the least. It was my roommate, another lady and me that went on the Vespa tour and another couple that went on the (11 mile) bike tour...crazy people! Well, all three of us girls had never ridden a Vespa before so that got our tour off to a great start. All three of us had a difficult time trying to do it, but I failed!! Apparently if you can't ride a bike you can't ride a Vespa, who would have guessed? I kind of got it down, but I didn't have the balance to go for long distances, down hills, up hills, around corners or through traffic...so I pretty much could go straight for about 20 feet. Ultimately it was decided I would be better as a passenger! Side Note: In case you haven't heard the story, the last time I tried to ride a bike (in Argentina non the less) I ran into a moving car.

At first I was kind of bummed about not being able to drive, but it totally worked out to my advantage. The other two girls were nervous and trying to not crash their vespas the entire time(the other girl did have a minor crash with a guard railing, it wasn't too ugly). While I just got to hold on and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Tuscany. And since I was the passenger with our tour guide "Andrea," I got an explanation of everything we drove by! It was AWESOME!

While we were there it was olive picking season, so we got to see them actually in the fields picking olives. It was great. Also, on our little Tuscany tour we stopped and toured Machiavelli's final house and for lunch our group stopped at a winery. The winery made wine and olive oil. The olive's were picked and processed within the last five or six days of us being there, so the olive oil was fresh and delicous!

<---View from the winery and our tour guides dog, Jack. Loved him!

That night for Halloween we went to one of the tourist bars (because it had Halloween decorations), it was a good time! But we ended up retiring early because we were exhausted and kind of sore from the Vespas.

Section three: Venice and its beauty, November 1st-3rd










The city of Venice is absolutely breath taking, when I think of Italy I think of the city of Venice. It's a small island like city, no streets and no cars. Just alleys for walking and little canals for boats and gondolas. The first day we were there it was beautiful, sunny and 70 degrees. We walked around San Marco square and had lunch along a small canal and dinner along the grand canal. It was perfect!

We woke up the next day to 40 degree weather and rain, lots and lots of rain. The weather put off our gondola ride, so we set our sites for Murano ("the glass island") and finding me a pair of Italian leather boots ;).

After a couple of stores I found the perfect pair of boots, they're SO amazing!
The next step was getting to Murano Island. We ended up taking the water bus to the island (about a 45 minute ride), the rain and rough water made it quite the journey. Murano is a small island famous for their glasswork. You can find absolutely any kind of glasswork there and it is handmade right there on the island. We spent most of our day going in and out of shops (mostly in because of the rain), browsing and looking at all of the wonderful art.

We were told we would be able to find factories that offered tours and glass blowing demonstrations. We weren't able to find any such thing, until we finally asked this one store if they knew where to go. She was really nice and just invited us back to their work area and we got a private demonstration, it was pure luck!

That evening we went back to our hostel and warmed up a bit, then set back out in the rain to attend an Opera. We were a little skeptical on what to expect, but it was beautiful. I was actually in tears at one point and I didn't even know what they were saying because it was in Italian. The Opera took place in an old palace and it was acted out in various rooms. There were about 20-25 people in attendance so you kind of felt like you were part of the performance. There were only two singers and a string quartet, but it was indescribably amazing!
We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance, but here's a couple of the palace. (The lighting was horrible so I had to use some funky camera settings.)







Section four: Venice and the flood

As we were leaving the Opera we encountered a small problem...


Luckily, the Opera people built us this little ramp to get out of the alley the palace was located on:




We then realized we still had to walk back to the hostel through many more alleys! I obviously wasn't about to ruin my brand new Italian leather boots...so the boots went in the purse, I rolled up my jeans and walked through about two feet of water barefoot!! It was an experience to say the least.
Side note: Now that I think about it, the whole bare feet and flood thing could be the reason I’ve been sick the last couple of days!?

The next morning it was still raining and still semi flooded, so we didn't get to go on our gondola ride :(. But, that just gives me one more reason to go back!

Section five: Bergamo/Milan

For our final stop we went to a little city outside of Milan called Bergamo. It was a cute little town located in the mountains. My roommate got sick once we arrived, so I set off alone. While waiting at the bus stop I met this fabulous lady from Quebec and we ended up having dinner and spending the rest of our day together! She's pretty much who I want to be when I am 60. She has lived everywhere; Germany, Paris, Spain, Switzerland, and London. It was amazing to just sit and listen to all of her stories. She also gave me many fabulous travel hints about all of the places she had visited.

Although Bergamo was beautiful, my new friend Helena made the end of my trip especially memorable!


<---Bergamo Town Square

Although this post is incredibly long I feel like I left so many things out! It was an amazing trip, so many great things happened in such a short amount of time! I can’t wait till I get to go back with more time.

As you can imagine I took HUNDREDS of pictures so tomorrow or Friday I will post a link to my photo album so you can enjoy those also.

Have a great week!