Jammy - Really Lucky

Since we got a whopping 5 days off from classes/interning, the gang and I decided to head to Italy and conquer Venice , Florence , and Rome in that short time. Impossible? Think again.

We woke up nice and early on Wednesday morning to catch our flight to Venice . On the plane, I woke up just in time to spot the Alps outside the window :)

We landed and navigated through a system of both land and waterbuses to get to our hostel. Venice is unlike any other city I’ve seen, because the buildings are so tall and the streets are all very narrow alleyways, making it virtually impossible to get an idea of which direction you’re headed or what lies more than a block away from you. Then you get a break from the claustrophobia and cross a bridge over a canal, and then it’s back into the maze! First on our agenda was the Piazza San Marco, which contains the majority of important city landmarks and is considered the center of the city. Upon reaching the square, we were greeted by a giant fruit-covered lion, and a whole lot of confetti – we had just missed Carnivale (a huge celebration ending with Mardi Gras) by one day. Great timing. It was still amazing to see the Basilica and Doge’s palace, and I personally couldn’t get enough of the canals and gondolas everywhere. In the afternoon, we snacked on our first Italian gelato, and browsed all the shops for their famous Murano glass pieces. Being the tourists that we are, we went on a gondola ride before a great authentic Italian dinner, and then bedtime. Oh, and thank you hostel for forgetting to tell us that the heat was broken. We barely noticed. Not.

Thursday morning, it was back on the waterbus to catch a train to Florence. It was drizzling, and we were glad to move onward on our Italian adventure. Our hostel in Florence more than made up for our Venetian one – we had a great room overlooking a courtyard, and free breakfast in the morning and pasta parties every night! After dropping off our things, we tracked down the Duomo, the giant dome on top of Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. It was absolutely amazing, but a few of us couldn’t escape comparing the Basilica to parts of Disneyworld … embarrassing. After exploring the inside of the cathedral, as well as learning a bit about the Battistero di San Giovanni (with beautiful golden doors) right next door, we set off on a mission to find Michelangelo’s statue of David. There was a little navigation confusion, and some waiting in line, but once we were inside this random gallery, all our efforts paid off. The statue is huge!! – Way bigger than I pictured it, and definitely worth seeing.

On our way back to the hostel, we walked through the San Lorenzo leather market. Reggie fell in love with a leather jacket that she talked down to a reasonable price, and the rest of us found leather treats in the market as well. That evening, we went out for “aperitivos” with Lauren’s friend, meaning we bought cocktails at a bar and got free reign on the various dishes they put out. Good news since we love eating. Afterwards, we enjoyed some wine as we walked along the River Arno, and then headed back to our awesome hostel for some shut-eye.

We were lucky enough to have all day Friday in Florence, without worrying about catching any trains or planes. Naturally, this was the day that it drizzled on and off all day. Also, Megan woke up feeling very sick, so we had to leave her in the hostel while we explored the city :( First we went to Ponte Vecchio, a bridge of shops with crazy expensive gold jewelry.

We then explored the palace where the Medici family lived, saw the Santa Croce church (where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried), and finally ended up back at the Duomo – this time to climb to the top of it. 463 steps and a questionable fear of heights later, we made it to the tippy top, and got to see the most incredible views of Florence . Despite the drizzly conditions, it was amazing to see all the landmarks from above, and the Tuscan hills in the background. We had one more fantastic dinner in Florence at the recommendation of the hostel staff, and went to sleep.

We took a train to Rome on Saturday morning. Both train rides we took were very comfortable and easy – a big part of what made our expedition to three cities in five days possible. Our Rome hostel was again very convenient and close to the train station and we spent only a few moments there before rushing to Vatican City before it closed. The Vatican City museum was very interesting and had tons of religious artwork, but all of us were anxiously rushing to get to the Sistine Chapel at the end of the tour. After a few confusing hallways covered floor-to-ceiling with paintings (that were not, in fact, the Sistine Chapel – Ally, put your camera away) we finally made it into the real deal! The chapel was absolutely incredible, and we stood staring upwards for the longest time. Thank god Reggie knew a ton of useful information about each of the ceiling panels, as well as the giant fresco on the back wall of the chapel. My favorite anecdote was that Michelangelo was not Catholic, and decided to stress this fact through a depiction of Noah, drunk, in a strikingly similar pose as Adam, in the “Spark of Creation” panel, just a few meters away on the ceiling. After the Sistine Chapel, we saw St. Peter’s Square and Cathedral, which I immediately recognized from Angels & Demons, the movie (at least it’s not a Disney reference). We left Vatican City just as it was closing, and I was so glad we made it to this country within a city.

Sunday was our last day in Italy , and also our most productive/touristy. Lauren decided that a hop-on/hop-off bus tour would be the most efficient way for us to see all of the sites we were interested in despite their big distances from one another. This was a great decision, and a relatively inexpensive way to take care of all of our transportation for the whole day. First we went to the Spanish steps, which I admit I hadn’t heard much about, but they were pretty impressive. To be honest, I was the most excited by the awesome, warm, sunny weather in Rome – I didn’t even wear a jacket WOOHOO that’s never an option in London ! Next we bussed on over to the Pantheon, Circus Maximus (where the Romans held chariot races), the Trevi Fountain, and the Colleseum. I think the Trevi fountain was my favorite, because we got to spend a lot of time there, throwing coins in and making wishes. We read somewhere that 3,000 euro are thrown into the fountain daily, and that throwing one coin in will ensure a trip back to Rome (GREAT!). There are a bunch of different stories about what will happen to your love life if you throw in two versus three coins… I’m glad we stuck with just one. Sunday night we had a few airport obstacles, but successfully got on our plane and safely back to London , all of us (including Megan) in one piece. Florence was probably my favorite city because it was so beautiful, but we heard that it’s overpopulated by students and it’s hard to find a real Italian person there (that made me glad to be in London – definitely no shortage of British people). After being in Venice for a day, I feel like I saw the most important parts of it, so Rome would be the city that I’d most like to go back to in Italy .

Last night we watched Angels & Demons in our building to spot all the scenes of Rome in the movie that we just visited. I just started my internship at NBC Universal yesterday, which I’ll blog about soon, but I know all of your eyeballs are probably exhausted at this point.

Love & miss everyone! Cheers!