For an overview, my spring break was absolutely amazing. Everything was fantastic from start to finish. I fell in love with yet another country in Europe which further solidifies the fact that I do not want to go home to America (except to see all of your lovely shining faces of course, but if I had it my way, you would all just come here instead!) The food was incredible, the gelato was out of this world, and the wine was magnificent! I don't know that I'll ever be able to enjoy an Italian restaurant again without comparing it to the meals I had in Italy! I also tried a number of new things, so I know you all are super proud of me.
Ok for starters, we left Friday morning to head to London Gatwick to fly to Verona! Alex, Chelsea and I grabbed a tube which took us to Victoria station and then we hopped on the Gatwick Express. At the airport, we met up with Michael, Ben, Jenna and Chris and a few other Ithakids. We grabbed a quick bite and then finally boarded the plane! The flight went by pretty quick, especially since I sat in between Chelsea and Michael and was reading the Hunger Games. I was nervous that the flight would be a repeat of the flight in Kazakhstan when there were no assigned seats, but it was all good! We flew over the Swiss Alps which was breathtaking. I didn't know that we would be able to have such an amazing view. It made me wanna jump out of the plane and ski right on down them.
We landed in Verona after about 2 hours and change. We got excited just seeing all the signs in Italian. Since Verona is a very small city, I didn't realize how difficult it would be just to get a taxi to take us to the right place. Since we were only there until our train left, we went with Jenna, Ben and Chris to their hostel. It took us a while to find, and once we finally did, it turns out that the woman had double booked their room! We then set off to find the other hostel that she had set them up at. After a while, we found it! We dropped our bags off, grabbed some cookies and set off to see Juliet's balcony and the Arena.
We tried to get some food, but apparently there is an unspoken rule that all restaurants close from about 3 until dinner time. We decided to head the the balcony and if we saw any food, we'd jump on it! The balcony was really cool. Yes, it was extremely touristy, but the place is covered in couple's names and locks that say "So and So & So an So 4eva" and whatnot. We climbed the gate that all of the locks were on as well as took a picture with the statue groping Juliet's breast... We're unsure as to why everyone was doing it, but since there were keychains and magnets of it in the gift shop.. we figured we better do it as well.
After violating Juliet, we found a restaurant that was open and had our first meal in Italy! I chose to go for the gnocchi in a four cheese sauce and a glass of white wine. It was delicious! We sat outside and just kept saying how we couldn't believe we were in Italy!
We then headed back to the hostel and checked out the Arena real quick. Chelsea and I grabbed our bags and headed to Venice. By the time we arrived in Venice, it was dark out. Seeing the city for the first time with all of the lights shining on the water was beautiful. We had absolutely no idea how to get to the hostel, so we gave Alex a call. She gave us directions so we hopped on a boat and took a nice stroll down the grand canal. After we got off at our stop, Michael gave us step by step directions until we arrived.
Our hostel was awesome! It was more like an apartment. There were 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a joint living room/ kitchen. Michael, Chelsea and I shared one room while Alex and Brett took the other, Pat decided to take the pull out couch. Chels and I had a relatively early night since we had to be up the next morning for our tour.
We woke up and headed out around 9:30 even though our tour didn't start until 11. We were terrified of navigating Venice so we decided to give ourselves more than enough time so we could get lost/ get coffee/ explore a bit. It took us no time at all to find San Marco's square. There were signs and even graffiti guiding us in the right direction. The square is beautiful. It's right on the grand canal, and there are tons of vendors and restaurants along it. We looked at some of the souvenir stands and then decided to grab some coffee/ hot chocolate. The weather was so wonderful and we were so happy to be in the sunshine and in Venice!
We then headed to the entrance of the royal gardens to meet our tour. While we were waiting, Chelsea and I were chatting when all of a sudden, the Asian guys who were sitting across from us, came over and asked for a picture. Chelsea and I happily said yes, but when we went to reach for the camera, we realized they wanted a picture WITH us, not of them. They took turns. A little creepy, but then they said Ciao and walked away. Maybe they thought we were Italian? Who knows, but Chelsea an I laughed about it for the remainder of the day.
The tour was about 2 hours long. And we walked all over Venice. One woman even got some lovely Pigeon droppings right on her head. We were terrified the rest of the day that it would happen to us. We learned about the square, St. Mark's Basilica, Marco Polo, Casanova, the bridge of sighs (which connects the courthouse to the jail. It's called the bridge of sighs because the prisoners would sigh as they crossed over!), the Rialto bridge and more. The day was perfect so taking in the city on such a glorious day made it that much better. After the walking tour, we had part 2 which was a boat tour. We got to see Venice from the Canal. We heard about a number of the same things, but it was cool to see it all from another perspective.
After our tour, we met up with Ben, Jenna and Chris and did some souvenir shopping! We then grabbed some dinner at one of the restaurants along the water. I opted for some pasta and a nice glass of white wine. Once again, delicious and not super expensive either.
After dinner we headed towards the iconic venician gondola rides! We were so excited to FINALLY do it. Ever since I learned about the city of Venice, I have wanted to go on a gondola ride! We went on a 40 minute ride and it BLEW by. We literally were silent the entire time just relaxing and taking in the serenity of the city. There are no cars, or sirens or anything. It's just people and boats. Truly an experience that I will not soon forget.
After the gondola, we decided to get some gelato! Incredibly delicious. I went for the vanilla with chocolate shavings that i can't quite pronounce, (sorry to all you Italians out there!)
We then decided to grab some wine and relax at our hostel so we wouldn't get lost. Welp, we got lost. It took us almost 2 hours to go the 5 minutes that we needed to navigate. We had a map that we just couldn't follow and asked so many people. Everyone was so incredibly kind and willing to try and help, even with the language barrier. Finally, we found it and played drinking games, listened to music and chatted for the next few hours. There were even some more wine runs included in there. It's safe to say we became friends with the woman at the gelateria/ wine shop. We had a blast.
Ben, Jenna and Chris headed back to their hostel and Chelsea and I headed off to sleep because our train left pretty early the next morning and we had a boat ride in between the hostel and the train station. When we woke up, we showered, got ready and realized that where we had been the night before was literally a few minutes from our hostel. Chelsea grabbed a cappuccino in a dixie cup (the Venetian way for take away cappuccino) and we jumped on the boat and headed for the train!
It was definitely going to be hard to beat Venice. The city is incredible and everywhere I looked, I just wanted to take a picture, but I don't know that the pictures do it justice. It is a place that I don't think I can visit just once.
These people were all over the square tryna get you to take a pic with them!
I chased after this kid to snap this shot for Lilo, CJ and Lex!
lost in Venice! Jenna gettin a bit snippy with Ben haha!
our animals for thumper, or the animal game! ( Chelsea, myself, Jenna, ben and Chris)
when you said drink, drank, drunk, it was chins on the table!
More to come! Look out for Rome, Florence and our tour of Tuscany!
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