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So we started our 2 week journey in Italy at 3:30 in the morning to catch an 8:30 flight to Rome at the Lyon airport. We arrived promptly at 10:30 and made our way to our hostel to drop off our bags, so we could check out Rome without carrying our luggage. Rome is amazing, however, it was very hot too! The temperature during the day was intense and made our sightseeing seem more like a crawl across the desert, which made the sights even more rewarding. The first day we managed to pack in the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Trevi Fountain, and some gelato of course. We were lucky to have excellent roommates in our hostel, 2 Slovakian girls and 2 Aussies. Our second day in Rome we decided to go do the Vatican City and St. Peter’s. It’s hard to imagine this place is a separate country when it is so tiny. The church is amazing in it’s attempt to glorify God in a materialistic way. Everything within the church is masterfully done to inspire a sense of awe. The Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel were quite amazing too. The museum houses the books, maps, and artworks that the Vatican has collected throughout its existence. However, the main attraction here is the Sistine Chapel, which is amazing to gaze at if you are lucky enough to get a seat in the very crowded chapel. After our busy morning and afternoon we sat in the park and reflected on our day. Rome is intense and is better in small doses, so the next day we went to the National Museum of Rome and 5 different churches around the city. That night we prepared for our departure to Cinque Terre, which is a coastal area consisting of 5 villages connected by a common trail. No cars and motor scooter’s in this place! We stayed at a hostel in Manarola, a very beautiful village situated on a cliff side facing the Mediterranean. We spent three nights there and enjoyed not running around trying to “see” everything. We went swimming and hiking and I managed to get stung by a jellyfish during one of our little dips in the sea. Although I was stung by a jellyfish I still loved Cinque Terre and I think it is an amazing wonder of the world.

The next place we set off to was Venice, which sounds pretty easy right…? You just hop on a train and you are there. Wrong! It took us 5 trains and a bus to get there, no thanks to Trenitalia who complicates things with their indecipherable schedules and last minute platform changes. Oh well, what an adventure just getting there. Hallelujah, we made it. Once again, very hot, but one of the most incredible creations of man. Mainly built up around tourism these days, Venice still has some of its old world charm with no cars or motor scooters and fashionable residents arriving in fashionable boats. It was a fantastic place just to stroll until you were completely lost and then find your way back to familiar ground. We stayed there for the night and made our way to Florence the next morning on a direct train with air conditioning. Beautiful…..

Florence is quite the opposite of Venice in the sense of its geographical situation in the middle of the country and traffic congested streets. The funny thing about Florence is everything revolves around the Duomo. There is a lot of shopping to be had and wonderful museums, but take me back to the coast, please. Maybe I didn’t appreciate Florence as much as I could have had it not been unbearably hot and crowded. However, I usually judge the quality of the place by the things that are free and let me tell you nothing in Florence is free. But the people were genuinely kind (especially at the hospital!), so we had fun anyway. 

Our next stop was Assisi. A medieval stone village built on top of a hill frequented by Saint Francis of Assisi. This is truly a beautiful place and is preserved quite well under its UNESCO world heritage status. Like Venice it is a place to stroll around, especially at night. All of the buildings are of the same stone and gives the impression of an authentic medieval town. We ventured around Assisi for 2 days, hiked to several monasteries and convents, and relaxed each evening in the hostel courtyard, which was surrounded by olive groves. The hostel was wonderful, and we met some great people there. One night we ended up hanging out in the common room playing YAMS, a French version of YAHTZEE, with 2 people from Paris and an Italian. We communicate in a mish-mash of French, Spanish, English, and broken Italian. Good times! We eventually ran into our Parisian buddies in Rome on our last night in Italy (always funny to see someone you know in a foreign country!).

The next day we were off to Sorrento, back to the coast! It took 2 trains, a ferry, and long walk to get to our destination, but we made it. We arrived in Naples and cringed at the grittiness we were witnessing. If you ever imagined a place fueled by corruption, unemployment, the mafia, and overpopulation, Naples is the place, only in real life. Seriously, one-third of Naples is unemployed and it really does have a mafia. However, it is an experience to behold, so take a minute to look… and then get out of town! We took a ferry to Sorrento because it sounded fun and it was. We arrived in the beautiful cliff-side town with the paparazzi in full swing as soon as we stepped off our yacht. Oh wait, that was a day dream. Actually, we walked for an hour trying to find our hostel, which was actually in the next town over. Oh well, beautiful walk through a beautiful place. Finally, we arrived and got our beds and went to the beach. I napped and Stacey swam. One of our bunk mates talked us into doing the Capri cruise instead of seeing Pompeii and I do say that I am glad we took her advice. We had an amazing day cruising around Capri and went swimming in all of the different grottoes scattered around the island. We even swam into the Blue Grotto, which was amazing. It was an intense day as some people were stung by jellyfish and others scraped up by the rocks, but we were all smiling at the end of trip. Thank you Alvina, Francesco, and Rocco!

The next day we ventured back to Rome to stay for the evening. We felt like we knew the city by then and just pointed on the map and went about our evening. A picnic by the Pantheon, some gelato, and a beautiful sunset. A glorious last day in Italy, a mysterious and beautiful country. The next day we flew back home to Franec, and are now preparing to visit the States for 2 weeks. Can’t wait to see everyone!

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