Study Abroad in Paris!: Spring Break: ITALY!

I'm such a procrastinator that even updating my blog reminds me of homework, hence why I haven't updated it in weeks. Sorry about that! Iceland decided to give me a break and stop ruining my life and actually let me get to italy!! Can you believe that?! How nice of them...I still think they suck but whatever. Italy was AMAZING! We flew into Venice late monday night and of course we got lost once we got there and ended up in the center, which was really cool so we took some pictures and got some gelato and eventually figured out where we were supposed to go. Our hostel was actually really cool, it was a campground 15 minutes from venice center and the three of us had our own little cabin with our own bathroom. Having your own bathroom and a very clean place to stay is VERY rare for 11 euros a night haha. We woke up early on tuesday to see as much of venice as we could since we were leaving for Rome early wednesday morning. We took the water taxi to Murano Island where they do the Venetian glass blowing. The water taxi was really fun even though it was a bit chilly but Murano Island was BEAUTIFUL! We got to see an actual demonstration and the guy made a horse in 5 minutes...it was crazy. I also had no idea that when glass is hot, it is orange until it cools, I thought that was interesting. Then we went to the showroom and the pieces they had there were insane! I took pictures even though we werent supposed to haha typical american. After that we went and had our first authentic italian meal, I had gnocci in a cheese sauce...SO GOOD! Then we made our way back to Venice and got Sangria (yeah we're idiots and drank all day...it'll play a sufficient role in the plot in a few minutes) and then we took a gondola ride. Venice is so serene, even though our gondoleer was some creepy guy named marco who kept trying to get Bays number. After that we just walked around Venice and went and saw San Marco Square which is a big shopping area on the coast with a huge cathedral and museums. For dinner we found this little seafood restaurant on the side of one of the main rivers and us four idiots who had drank all day racked up a 175 euro bill, guess that was our splurge of the week haha. But the food was AMAZING, I had a scampi risotto that had some sort of shrimp like creature in it, can't remember the name, and we split three bottles of wine. After that we just got gelato for dessert (yeah we ate it everyday) and headed back to the hostel to get ready for traveling to rome.

Water Taxi's!!

Murano Island (where venetian glass comes from)

glass blowing show! so cool!

i wanted it...but it was 450 euros...not exactly in my budget

GONDOLA RIDE!

beautiful.

San Marco Square

Military section of venice

View from our restaurant!

What we stayed in in Venice and Rome...may as well go camping

We got into rome at around 10 but didn't make it to our hostel until 4 pm because again we're idiots and we got lost. But in our defense rome IS veryyy confusing, it's so old and half of the streets aren't marked and we obviously weren't intelligent enough to get a map at the airport and we don't speak italian soooo we were pretty much screwed. The bus claimed to drop us off near the vatican, LIE...we walked in the direction of a building we THOUGHT was the vatican...turned out it was a bank. Stupid architecture. But we ended up just realizing defeat and got pizza for lunch. Then we got lucky and stumbled upon some americans with a map who pointed us in the right direction. Our hostel in Rome was pretty much exactly the same as our hostel in venice because it was a campground...the only difference is it was almost an hour bus ride away during rush hour (which seemed to be 24 hours in rome). So by the time we got back we just decided to shower and head BACK to rome for dinner. We got lost heading back to rome and ended up taking a cab to the vatican and we found a cute little italian restaurant right on the river that was cheap for dinner. I got homemade ravioli in a tomato cream sauce which was obviously amazing and then for dessert bay and I got tiramisu. The next day we woke up super early and circled everything we wanted to see in rome and set out to do it. Since we got lost the day before we had to squeeze everything we had planned on seeing in two days into one. Who knew you could see all of rome in one day?! We managed. We started at the vatican museum and saw the Sistine Chapel and then walked to Saint Peter's Square and saw the basilica. I thought it was cool to see where Angels and Demons was filmed. But we didn't get to see the Pope riding around the square in the Pope mobile which was a bummer. Then we decided to get lunch and we went to the original alfredo restaurant in rome where they mix the sauce right in front of you. Obviously I enjoyed it. Then we were off to the Spanish Steps which were BEAUTIFUL! We got gelato and took a few pictures on the steps and then headed to the Trevi Fountain where it is rumored that you will find true love if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain. Its been two weeks since I did that and I don't see any prince charmings anywhere...so I'm going to assume its a LIE. But the fountain was gorgeous so it makes up for it. After that we headed to the Pantheon which of course was under construction so it looked ugly from the outside but it was cool to see the inside. Since I'm such a Dan Brown fanatic, I think its cool to say I've been to the main places in both the books Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci Code (since that one took place in Paris). After the Pantheon we were finally on our way to the Colusseum, which words can't even describe. We were walking and all of a sudden we turned a corner and all you could see were Roman ruins lining both sides of the street and at the end was the Colusseum, which was weird to see with tons of cars and modern technology surrounding it. They charged you an arm and a leg to get in and since we weren't european union students we didn't qualify for the discount, even though we study in the EU...bull but whatever. It cost us 12 euros to see it but I'd say it was definitely well worth it. The structure was MASSIVE, I still can't believe I was there. Anyways, after that we were all exhausted and sunburnt so we headed home and got dinner.

Vatican City at night!

Inside the vatican museum

Sistine Chapel

Saint Peter's Square

Romeeee!

Original alfredo restaurant...yum

Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain

trying to find true love?

Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

Roman ruins

Colosseum

Inside the collosseum

amazing...

We had to be up an in a taxi on our way to the airport at 530 am in order to catch our flights to Palermo. I say flights because come to find out Steph and Bay somehow booked a separate flight than I told them but luckily they both left at about the same times. Sicily was like stepping back in time. They wash their clothes in bins outside of their houses and the women cook and clean all day and thats pretty much it. You could tell the city was definitely poor, but the food was amazing and SUPER cheap...an average dinner came to 15-20 euros including wine which was unheard of. We pretty much spent every day there at the famous Mondello beach which was just what I pictured the Mediterranean to look like. The water was a beautiful turquoise and the backdrop was just HUGE mountains. It was definitely unlike anything I've ever seen. I didn't want to leave and go back to Paris. The food there is so good, all of their seafood is obviously really fresh and I ended up living off of salmon pasta, although one night I did order an entire white fish because they claimed it was the specialty of Sicily. It was good, but I can't say I'd ever order it again since I spent most of my time spitting out bones...yucky. But it was an experience. When monday came around we were so depressed to head back to Paris since we heard it was 45 degrees and raining the entire time. Surprise surprise. But oh well...I've got to run to class but I'll update the pictures soon I swear. After class mom and gram and grampa will be waiting for me! I'm so excited I'm going to have zero concentration giving this stupid presentation in french on Yves Saint Laurent...ask me what I know about high fashion?! NOTHING! I'm a girl who'd rather be on a beach with a six pack then running around in some ridiculous outfit and 5 inch heels. Oh well. Thats life in Paris.