Spring Break in Italy!

ROME:
Our first stop on break was Rome or "Roma" as the Italians say. It was so neat to see all the historical sights, but the city itself was less than desirable; it was very dirty. We saw the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Palatino, and the Roman Forum on day one. It was incredible to be at the Colosseum; it's something I never thought I'd get to do! It was large and old and that pretty much sums it up, but it was interesting nonetheless. Day two in Rome we saw Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica, and the Museum of the Vatican which housed the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo. The Sistine was amazing! They kept it pretty dark in there because the light damages the paint, but you could still see it. It was also pretty cool to see the Basilica and the Vatican as well.

FLORENCE:
In my opinion, "Firenze" was much better than Rome. It had less historical meaning, but it was cleaner and more shopper-friendly (sorry mom and dad...but don't worry, I got you both something!). On the first day, Jake and I went up in the Duomo which is the church there. To climb to the top and walk outside around the dome took 463 steps up! The stairs were narrow and all concrete, but once we were to the top, the view of Florence was well worth it!
We took a day trip by bus to Greve in Chianti, which is a small town in the hills of Italy. We did some wine tasting at a wine museum, but you had to pay for it. The average taste was roughly .80 to 1.20 per taste, but it was a neat experience. We also went to another wine place, Enoteca, with FREE tastes! We only tried like 5 kinds, but we all bought a bottle. The town was so adorable, it was like something from an old movie.
Florence had another perk: our HOTEL! That's right, no hostel for us this time, we got to stay in a hotel! It was situated close to the river and every time we walked downtown, we walked along the river. It was so nice to have clean towels every day (considering I use mine in London for weeks before washing it...haha! It's too expensive to do laundry!) and free breakfast! We actually took advantage of the free breakfast, to say the least. We stuffed ourselves while we were there and made sandwiches and stole bread for later in the day so we didn't have to buy lunch. I never want to see a croissant, ham, cheese, or yogurt ever again!

PISA:
On our way from Florence to Venice we stopped at Pisa and saw the leaning tower. That was another place I never thought I'd get to see in my life. It was stunning being there, but I expected it to be a little bit taller. We took a ton of pictures, partly because it was cool but also because that's the only thing to see in Pisa, so we tried to get our money's worth.

VENICE:
Venice was actually my favorite place. Most of the buildings were very old, but it had a certain charm about it. Everything was pretty slow-paced and it seemed to be the most romantic of the cities, which was good for Jake and I! We rode down the canals on the "water bus," it was the cheapest way to get around. There are no cars in Venice, so we did a lot of walking as well. There were a lot of shops selling glass works because one of the Venetian islands, Murano, makes and exports world-famous glass. Jake and I actually went to Murano one day and saw some glass blowing. The two places we went had men making horses out of glass, which was amazing. They made them so fast, probably because the glass cools fast.
One afternoon, we bought some pigeon food and fed them; it was more like us getting bombarded by them! They were flying around everywhere and they'd even land on your head! If you had food in your hands, you could count on at least 8 of them being on you, on your shoulders, on your head, on your arms and flying around you! There must have been 300 of them in the square. We had a lady take some pictures of us, it was hilarious!
Jake and I took a gondola ride too! That was my favorite part of the whole trip! It was extremely expensive though! (60 euros for 30 minutes, but you have to do it...it's VENICE!) The gondoliers are so talented, it's hard to navigate through the narrow canals on such a long skinny boat. Ours didn't sing to us, that costs extra. Maybe one day I'll have enough for the gondoliers to sing! It's actually an inherited profession, you can't operate a gondola unless you have a license handed down from a family member. We got to see Mozart's home and the place where Shakespeare's "Othello" was set. It was a great experience!

Overall, I really liked Italy and had enough Pizza to last a lifetime! Plus, it was great to see Jake after 2 months! Now I can't wait to see the family in Paris...only 2 weeks!