We spent two days in Venice, about three days in Florence and two days in Rome. While there was a lot to see in Rome, we found ourselves doing a lot of relaxing in Venice and Florence. From hanging out at various parks and by the beautiful rivers in those cities, to staying at dinner for longer than we usually would... it was nice to just chill. But, nonetheless, by our last day in Italy, we were all so exhausted. I think 4 months of traveling has caught up to us. It will definitely be sad to leave London, but I am in need of my bed, my family, my dog and home-cooked meals. This reminds me, I have to send my mom a menu of all the home-cooked dinners I want. cough cough Mama!
Anyway, Italia trip 2011... first stop: Venice, Venezia
We arrived in Italy last Thursday morning, after flying over the Swiss Alps (sooo beautiful) and after an hour bus ride, we finally pulled up to Venice.
Wow.
Venice is just like you see in the pictures... so it was insane to believe we were actually there, in a city with no streets, just canals and gondolas, light/cloudy turquoise water, bridges, beautiful buildings... Venice was another place I had to stop and be like, whoa, this place is real. Needless to say, we all fell in love with Venezia.
Now, instead of doing the whole hostel thing, we went out on a limb and tried CouchSurfing, a company that sets up travelers with apartment/couch owners in various cities around the world. Back in February I found a young guy named Giovanni on CouchSurfing who said he could host us 4 girls come April 7... we kept in touch, and while we were a little nervous.. Alex had a great CouchSurfing experience in Paris, so we were feeling good about Venice. Turns out, Giovanni and his roommate Alessandro were GREAT. They welcomed us in their home, gave us a key so we could come and go, showed us around Venice and pointed us in the direction of the most amazing gelato. What more could we ask for? Oh, and Giovanni is a Boston Celtics fan.. so obviously he was the perfect host.
We did a lot of exploring in Venice, but surprisingly, didn't get as lost as we thought we would! With four of us, at least one of us could remember what church or bench or cafe we passed when, and how to get from the guys' apartment to Piazza San Marco (main square in Venice).
view from the guys' apartment...
Food: not as great as we were hoping for. The gelato was top of the line (I'm going to admit we got gelato at least once a day that week in Italy... but usually, we had it twice a day. Sorry not sorry!)
Weather: BEAUTIFUL. sunny and warm all week... I acquired a bad sunburn by the end of the week, but up until then it was so nice to have some Italian sun and warmth. Not to mention how awesome it was to only pack dresses and shorts and sandals :)
Culture and people: So charming and nice! The ladies loved when Alex used her Italian with them, and I just couldn't get enough of how "intimate" everyone was with each other, how friends and couples truly act like they enjoy each other's company. The first night, we went to the San Margherita piazza with Ale to meet his friends and hang out for awhile. All the college kids seemed to be there, so it was pretty hopping... not what you would expect of Venice, right? We met a girl named Julia (who speaks 6 languages... say what?!?! Europeans are too cool) and her boyfriend. They referred to each other as Amore.. :: cue the melting :: we all thought it was super adorable.
Sights we saw: St. Mark's, the Campanile (the real one is a little bit different than the one I've seen at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas), Grand Canal, Bridge of Sighs (although it was covered by an ugly Toyota ad), Rialto bridge
Some highlights of our time in Venice include our traghetti ride, which we thought would be a a nice little journey down a canal but instead ended up just bringing us 2 seconds to the other side of the canal. Ah well, 60 euros for a gondola ride wasn't happening. Then there was Alex's pigeon experience, Day 1: feeding and having one sit on her arm, Day 2: being pooped on. Maybe she spoke too soon when she said she was the Pigeon Whisperer! Andddd Gelato. yum yum yum yum. I tried strawberry first, which is really surprising seeing as I'm a chocolate girl, 100% of the time usually. But, the strawberry won me over.. at least for the day. From there on out it was chocolate gelato. We lived the gelato dream for a week.
Overall, Venice was simply magical. We couldn't stop taking photos of canals and gondolas and buildings and people and more canals and more gondolas in canals and gondolas beside canals and gondolas near canals. But even though we never put our cameras away, my photos are all so different... every corner of Venice is unique. Picturesque. And so so so beautiful. I will definitely be back to Venice in the future.
Venice is just like you see in the pictures... so it was insane to believe we were actually there, in a city with no streets, just canals and gondolas, light/cloudy turquoise water, bridges, beautiful buildings... Venice was another place I had to stop and be like, whoa, this place is real. Needless to say, we all fell in love with Venezia.
Now, instead of doing the whole hostel thing, we went out on a limb and tried CouchSurfing, a company that sets up travelers with apartment/couch owners in various cities around the world. Back in February I found a young guy named Giovanni on CouchSurfing who said he could host us 4 girls come April 7... we kept in touch, and while we were a little nervous.. Alex had a great CouchSurfing experience in Paris, so we were feeling good about Venice. Turns out, Giovanni and his roommate Alessandro were GREAT. They welcomed us in their home, gave us a key so we could come and go, showed us around Venice and pointed us in the direction of the most amazing gelato. What more could we ask for? Oh, and Giovanni is a Boston Celtics fan.. so obviously he was the perfect host.
We did a lot of exploring in Venice, but surprisingly, didn't get as lost as we thought we would! With four of us, at least one of us could remember what church or bench or cafe we passed when, and how to get from the guys' apartment to Piazza San Marco (main square in Venice).
view from the guys' apartment...
Food: not as great as we were hoping for. The gelato was top of the line (I'm going to admit we got gelato at least once a day that week in Italy... but usually, we had it twice a day. Sorry not sorry!)
Weather: BEAUTIFUL. sunny and warm all week... I acquired a bad sunburn by the end of the week, but up until then it was so nice to have some Italian sun and warmth. Not to mention how awesome it was to only pack dresses and shorts and sandals :)
Culture and people: So charming and nice! The ladies loved when Alex used her Italian with them, and I just couldn't get enough of how "intimate" everyone was with each other, how friends and couples truly act like they enjoy each other's company. The first night, we went to the San Margherita piazza with Ale to meet his friends and hang out for awhile. All the college kids seemed to be there, so it was pretty hopping... not what you would expect of Venice, right? We met a girl named Julia (who speaks 6 languages... say what?!?! Europeans are too cool) and her boyfriend. They referred to each other as Amore.. :: cue the melting :: we all thought it was super adorable.
Sights we saw: St. Mark's, the Campanile (the real one is a little bit different than the one I've seen at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas), Grand Canal, Bridge of Sighs (although it was covered by an ugly Toyota ad), Rialto bridge
Some highlights of our time in Venice include our traghetti ride, which we thought would be a a nice little journey down a canal but instead ended up just bringing us 2 seconds to the other side of the canal. Ah well, 60 euros for a gondola ride wasn't happening. Then there was Alex's pigeon experience, Day 1: feeding and having one sit on her arm, Day 2: being pooped on. Maybe she spoke too soon when she said she was the Pigeon Whisperer! Andddd Gelato. yum yum yum yum. I tried strawberry first, which is really surprising seeing as I'm a chocolate girl, 100% of the time usually. But, the strawberry won me over.. at least for the day. From there on out it was chocolate gelato. We lived the gelato dream for a week.
Overall, Venice was simply magical. We couldn't stop taking photos of canals and gondolas and buildings and people and more canals and more gondolas in canals and gondolas beside canals and gondolas near canals. But even though we never put our cameras away, my photos are all so different... every corner of Venice is unique. Picturesque. And so so so beautiful. I will definitely be back to Venice in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment