Italia [motherland]

Here I am back in the gorgeous Italia. I'm probably biased because it takes me back to my roots, but life just doesn't get any better than when in Italy. There is so much history, incredible art, delicious food, rustic colors, amazing photo opportunities...and hot Italian men :)

Pisa, Italy
Last year, I didn't go to Pisa, so of course I was excited to take the infamous Leaning Tower of Pisa picture!!! Its pretty funny to watch everyone trying to get the perfect picture of someone holding up the Leaning Tower. Its not as easy as it seems, it takes several tries! There were tons of vendors, with inflated prices! Stuff was not cheap in Pisa. And it was all the same, and the vendors seemed more shady. We didn't have much time in Pisa, but I guess the twins and I thought we had more time. Its always a fear that you might get left in a place if you don't get on the coach in time. And we were told to leave at a certain time because a train comes and it takes forever to cross. So our tour manager wanted us to leave before a certain time so we wouldn't get caught in that mess. Well, we finally asked someone for the time, and realize we were late! We were supposed to already be at the bus! I dont know how we lost track of time, but we did. And the bus was a good 15 or so minute walk away! So we RAN! Thank god one of the twins knew where we were going, cause I was not paying attention at all on the walk over. So here we are, running in flip flops out of breath trying to get to the bus. Then we see the train tracks blocked by those things, but the train was a ways away still, so we just went underneath them. Who knows how long we would have been on the other side if we waited for the train to pass. And we continued to run back to the bus, where everyone stared at us, haha. We were 5 minutes away from being left in Pisa! You know how expensive that taxi would have been to Florence? I dont even want to know. That would have sucked! Note to self: set a freakin timer when its stressed to be back at a certain time!

Florence, Italy
I couldn't wait to get to Florence for...you guessed it...the shopping! Don't get me wrong, the Renaissance capital of the world is delightful because of its history and art, but at the same time...its got some yummy shopping! Mostly because its like swap-meet style, with your big stores as well. Florence is the place to get a lot of good souvenirs and gifts. Last year I bought my mom this really pretty scarf, and then the style became super popular this year, and now I wish I would have bought myself some. I did buy a really cute thin leather bracelet painted red. Lots of silk and leather products in Florence. And it was funny to see guys quickly gather all their fake purses and painting when the cops were near.


Venice, Italy
On the way to Venice, the coach stopped at a designer outlet shopping mall. It started to rain! It was beautiful weather the entire trip, then all of a sudden it started to rain when we were at an outside mall of course! The rain continued as we made it to Venice. When we got to the Contiki Village, the rain had stopped. But something told me to grab my umbrella just in case. I would rather hold onto it, then be soaked. Good thing too, because when we got off the boat to St. Mark's square, the rain was hitting hard! In hindsight, it was one of the funnest times in Europe. Everyone was running for shelter from the rain that was coming in sideways. Luckily, I had my handy dandy [sturdy] umbrella, and ran with it shielding my face. Despite the rain, I was never cold being in shorts and a tank. Some people bought cheap ponchos and umbrellas for 5 euros that apparently broke after 2 minutes.

After running in the rain in Venice

Once the rain cleared, I went off with the twins and we just walked and walked all over. We ended up on an island across St. Mark's square without even realizing how far we had gone. I couldn't help but take a million pictures. I absolutely LOVE the colors of the villas, apartments, and buildings, with the greenery as perfect accents. The water is slowly rising (NO, Venice is NOT sinking, haha), so you can see old stairs corroding away under water (giving the illusion that Venice is sinking). Venice is so beautiful, yet the whole gondola ride is so cliche to me, and thats because they treat it like a ride at Disneyland. Im sure I mentioned that in my blog from last year. But riding a gondola in the channels of Venice at least once if you get the chance is a must. Just don't expect a romantic ride with singing. Its more like a tatted up guy on his cell phone, lol.

Venice, Italy

Day 6:
So the night before in Florence kind of put a damper on Venice. It was just bad circumstances all around. I didn't feel so hot from the night before (my bad), it was the hottest place traveled thus far, and it felt like the most crowded. I learned in Florence that Gelato is the best cure when not feeling well! Priority in Venice - find nearest Gelato place as quick as possible! Turns out..no matter how gross I felt, the beauty of Venice is too powerful for a bad experience.

To get the heart of Venice, we needed to take a short boat ride. It was pretty amazing to ride along the water surrounding such a unique city. It's sad to hear that Venice will not last forever since the water is rising. They give it another 200 years. We reach land and walk over to St. Mark's Square. Although it was hot, it was crowded with tourists, and it had a little construction going on...St. Mark's was by far the most extravagant piece of architecture I saw on the entire trip. The detail and coloring was brilliant! And there were pigeons everywhere!

Venice had some fantastic little shops. The Venician glass was everywhere and made the city sparkle. I hit up an internet cafe with Bethany and Ally and it was pretty hot in there but it felt good to sit down. For a few hours we just wondered around the square going in and out of the shops.

Later on we met with the group for a "romantic" gondola ride. (Left: Jenna poppin' some bubbly). It was cool to check "take a gondola ride in Italy" off my list of things to do around the world; however it was a lot different than I hoped. It's not really like the movies where you go to some random gondola guy and he sings to you. Instead, you go to a doc-like place and get on one and the guy doesn't sing to you...he talks to his friends. I guess you can't blame Venice for turning the gondola rides into a tourist attraction, but unless you got the extra cash lying around, a romantic gondola ride from some random backstreet might be a little too expensive for my taste. But it is still a clique-must to experience.

Although hot and crowded, Venice turned out to be rather beautiful and of course it was the most unique city we visited. Looking back, I really wish I would have taken a picture with the pigeons! There wasn't much going on near our hotel that night, so we got a night to go to bed early and rest. Well...some of the people went to bed early, others (like myself) stayed up and enjoyed a crazy game of Hot Seat!

Lets Recap

Yay! Finally back home. Not that its as exciting as traveling Europe of course, but it is rather refreshing. I now have unlimited internet (no Euros needed) so its time to update the world on the craziness that happened in Europe! The places traveled were (along with some commentary):

Paris, France (novice and entertaining!)
Lucerne, Switzerland (laid-back yet randomly crazy)
Florence, Italy (um...karaoke, anyone?)
Venice, Italy (hot and ugggh, yet very unique)
Tyrol/Hopfgarten, Austria (my faaaaavorite...so adventurous/crazy!)
Munich, Germany (kind of depressing, modern, and lots of beer!)
Prague, Czech Republic (insane, place of lost/stolen/broken items)

Disclaimer: Some things that happened during these past two weeks are probably best kept off of the www. Hopefully I will keep the posts G-rated, better than MTV-style.

Ciao Bella!

Pretty much my signature shot.