Italy

"People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home." ~Dogobert D. Runes

I probably should have written this ages ago (a week), but alas...I didn't. I have been busy gallivanting through Italy. Eating pizza and pasta. Devouring gelato several times daily. And seeing some of the worlds oldest sights. 

I have so much to share that no doubt this will be a long post, but I will try to reduce it to just a few paragraphs. We have been in Italy for two weeks and are now on our night train across the border to Spain for our final two weeks. We had a wonderful time in Italy, but are both ready to move on and are eager for Spain! We should arrive in Pamplona, Spain (for running of the bulls!!) after about 29 hours of train travel...fingers crossed.

Where to begin. 

After changing around our schedule, we finally arrived to Florence on Tuesday the 26th of June. We were still a team of three then as Lauren was still traveling with us for another week. I am so grateful for her visit...it helped us break up the trip and gave Chris and I a break from each other for a bit. 

We arrived into Florence and checked into our apartment on Tuesday evening. That's right, we stayed in an apartment. And since then we have been splurging on apartments. Apartments with no AC and that require us to climb mountains, but they are better than 20 person dorm rooms for sure. 

Ok, back to the travels. 

Florence. 

I remembered so little of Italy from when I was there 12 years ago so it was fun to explore it all over again. We spent most of our time walking around and shopping instead of visiting all the museums. We admired the Duomo (the most beautiful building in the world in my opinion), we listened to street performers in Piazza Della Signoria, we ate our fair share of creamy gelato, and we shopped through the leather markets. Our apartment was in such a great location. We were right behind the Mercato Centrale and 5 minutes from Piazza Santa Maria Novella. We took advantage of the market and picked up some picnic food before making our way across Ponte Vecchio. We escaped the scorching heat with a picnic in the shade then toured through the Pitti Palace. After seeing other palaces and castles through Europe the Pitti Palace didn't seem too wonderful; the view of Florence from the gardens was pretty nice though! The highlight of Florence was Michelangelo's David (the Duomo is a close second).  He is so stunning and a truly remarkable work of art. The detailing is what I found most surprising. And the fact that it was all one single piece of marble. And that Michelangelo finished the piece at just 30 years old. Amazing! It's a must see for sure. We spent our nights watching futbol (surprise surprise). It was getting really exciting though because the finals were approaching and Italy was still in the race!

Rome. 

Wow...so much to see and so much to tell. We hit Rome running and wore ourselves out. I blame the heat for our exhaustion (not the fact that we have walked miles and miles everyday for 2 months). There was no place to escape the heat though and our apartment didn't provide any reprieve. As with every other city we spent our time exploring, walking through the streets, and soaking in all the beauty and history. Chris had to take care of some business one morning so Lauren and I took the opportunity to walk around. We visited the Colosseum and the tomb of the unknown soldier at Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II. We wished at Fontana di Trevi and breezed through the Pantheon. The day didn't stop there! We walked around Piazza Novona and enjoyed lunch on the square then finally met Chris across the river. We all toured the Vactican museum and the Sistine Chapel that afternoon. Stunning! It was amazing to witness such beautiful works of art in such a historical place. The pope wasn't around, but we hear that we missed his speech in St Peter's Square just the next day. Bummer! We visited the Basilica of St. Peter too! What a long day. Sunday was the Euro championship game so we laid low during the day just to watch Italy lose to Spain 4-0. It was a sad night in Italy for sure. Good things did happen for us though! We met up with a friend of mine from SF (Alex) and spent the night catching up, watching the game, and taking a night walk through the city. All of Italy is so much more beautiful at night! All the old, dirty buildings look so raw during the day, but at night they glow in the street lights and look so much more glamorous!

Cinque Terre. 

Lauren made her way back to the US of A on Monday morning while Chris and I headed to the coast. We spent the next four days with some new friends in one of the most breathtaking, beautiful, picturesque places in the world. Seriously! If you've been to or seen pictures of Cinque Terre I don't see how you could disagree with me. 

Cinque Terre literally means 5 lands. There are 5 villages built up into the mountains right on the water. One could hike the trails between the villages or take the train. We took the train for free with our Eurail and abused our right. We spent four full days village hoping, soaking up the sun on the beaches,and meeting new American friends (all Texans)!! I considered this week our vacation from the holiday. Ha. It's exhausting walking all day, finding your way around a new city/country/language every few days, and trying to see all the "must see" sights.  I miss Cinque Terre already! 

Venice.

Our final stop in Italy. Thank goodness. Don't get me wrong, we both loved Italy, but italian food can get pretty monotonous and Italians can be extremely loud, overbearing, and rude. We are looking forward to the laid back environment in Spain for sure!

Venice was lovely though. It's just like the videos you see of it. Instead of streets there are canals and instead of cars there are boats. Kind of crazy, but really beautiful. There weren't any big landmarks or destinations that we wanted to see so we spent two days slowly wandering around. Alot of time was spent getting lost in the alleys, shopping along the Rialto Bridge, having wine while watching the sunset over the city, and lounging by the pool at our campsite. Venice is a really small place and easy to walk everywhere, but it's such a maze. Everywhere you turn there is another alley, bridge, or canal. Maps really don't help either. We found it was best to wander around and attempt to find the Grand Canal in order to find our way. From there we would start wandering again and just get lost again, but getting lost in Venice isn't so bad! 

It's hard to believe that we've only got two weeks left in Europe. Looking back to England and Belgium seems so long ago but only because of everything we've seen and everywhere we've been since. I am going to miss the freedom of traveling but am looking forward to driving my car, eating Chick-fil-a, and seeing my English speaking friends and family! 

Ciao Bella! 

Love Life

please forgive the errors and grammatical mistakes as i wrote this at the end of our 29 hour travel day