Italy
After our conference in Thailand, a friend and I headed to Italy for a little R&R. We had made a list of things we wanted in a vacation and Italy matched them all, plus it was the cheapest flight we could find from Beijing. We were not the most responsible travelers, but we managed to have one of the best vacations ever. We cut it a little too close a few times on having somewhere to sleep at night or making it to the airport in time. Overall though we had a really smooth trip...traveling around Europe is way easier than traveling around Asia.
We arrived in Rome and had a day and a half there. This was not long enough (but thats all the time we could afford). We also got caught in the rain a few times which was actually wonderful since we both live in dry cities in China. One of the highlights was going to the Vatican. We hadn't actually planned to make it over there but I'm glad we did. We were there on a Sunday too so we actually were able to hear a little bit of Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. The biggest let down of the trip happened in Rome though- the Sistine Chapel wasn't open on the day we were there! Just gives me one more reason to go back to Italy some day.
We trained it up to Pisa next and got off the train having absolutely no plan. An internet cafe and cab ride later, we arrived at a decent B&B and thankfully they had an empty room. Pisa is a much more residential city than the other ones. The only thing it really had to offer was the Leaning Tower and the Cathedral. It was pretty surreal though to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then again, it was surreal to see everything we saw on this trip. I just remember reading about this tower in my Humanities class in college and I never imagined I'd be there. We definitely had the best weather in Pisa... the sky was perfectly blue and the grass was fabulously green and the Tower and Cathedral in Pisa are sparkling white. That made for a beautiful scene and some great pictures.
After that we took a train inland to Florence. Our first night in town we met up with a former teacher in Asia who is living there currently. It was great to catch up with her and get an insider's guide on what to do in the city (very helpful actually since neither of us knew anything about Florence). Per her advice, we spent the next couple days visiting a few famous museums, seeing the David by Michelangelo, attending a Latin Mass and wandering through the streets to visit old cathedrals. Florence definitely had the older, artsy feel to it but it wasn't my favorite. The best part was standing atop a hill that overlooks the city and seeing just how huge the Duomo is. It's awesome to look out over a city and have the highest structure be a cathedral.
We made it to Venice and had 2 1/2 days there. When we walked out of the train station it took us about 2 minutes to realize this was going to be our favorite place ever. It was the perfect time of year to be there too. We spent our first day ambling along the alleys and bridges that wind through the city. We took a gondola ride with a dreamy gondolier named Lorenzo. We had the best Italian food I've ever experienced in my life. Our second day we started out at the fish market which was wonderfully smelly. Reminded me of growing up near the ocean and all the trout we used to eat. We took a boat out to Burano Island which is a fisherman's island that is super colorful. Every building is a different color and most of them are really vibrant. We both took a million pictures there and probably could've stayed all day if we had time. That place felt like a movie set and it was strange thinking people actually live there. Our last morning we woke up and had breakfast brought to us in bed! AMAZING! (Seriously, Italy just kept getting better and better every day!). We wandered down to St. Mark's Square because we wanted to feed the birds there. What we didn't realize was that it would be a madhouse because it was the first day of the Venice Carnivale. We were so excited to be in the city at the beginning of the Carnivale because all of the masks for sale everywhere were so ornate. We had no idea though how many people we would see dressed up on that first day though. I am a little freaked out by people in costumes. It's one thing to have a costume party at Halloween...it's entirely different to just wear a costume any other time of the year. And I realize that Carnivale is all about the costumes... but still, freaks me out a bit. We roamed around looking for birds but there were too many people around and no birds. Eventually we found an area where it was a little more open and we whipped out all our crackers we had prepared for this occasion. I am also a little scared of birds...so I was doing this in order to conquer my fear a bit. When I was a kid, we lived near this place called Parrot Jungle. For some reason we would always take out of town visitors to this place. We have tons of pictures of everyone else with parrots all over their arms and shoulders and heads... and I'm either not in the pictures or I'm there without any birds on me. People tend to lower their inhibitions though when they are in foreign places... so I decided to play with the pigeons in St Mark's Square. I screamed a few times that they landed on me but eventually I grew a little more used to it. We drew quite the crowd...and even had someone taking a video of us feeding the birds. Thankfully, Asia has helped us become accustomed to people watching us. We had a pretty funny trip to the airport. We hadn't checked out flight time and we just showed up at the bus station and bought some tickets .. for a different bus than we thought we were buying them for. Didn't have enough time to get to the airport via that bus and therefore had to hop in a cab. We didn't have enough Euro left to pay for our cab though so we stopped at an ATM but it was broken...figures. Eventually we made it back to Beijing safely. And I made a list of all the things I have to do next time I'm in Italy so hopefully I'll be able to make it back someday.
I have some pictures from each city that I posted on facebook so here is a link to all of those albums..
We arrived in Rome and had a day and a half there. This was not long enough (but thats all the time we could afford). We also got caught in the rain a few times which was actually wonderful since we both live in dry cities in China. One of the highlights was going to the Vatican. We hadn't actually planned to make it over there but I'm glad we did. We were there on a Sunday too so we actually were able to hear a little bit of Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. The biggest let down of the trip happened in Rome though- the Sistine Chapel wasn't open on the day we were there! Just gives me one more reason to go back to Italy some day.
We trained it up to Pisa next and got off the train having absolutely no plan. An internet cafe and cab ride later, we arrived at a decent B&B and thankfully they had an empty room. Pisa is a much more residential city than the other ones. The only thing it really had to offer was the Leaning Tower and the Cathedral. It was pretty surreal though to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then again, it was surreal to see everything we saw on this trip. I just remember reading about this tower in my Humanities class in college and I never imagined I'd be there. We definitely had the best weather in Pisa... the sky was perfectly blue and the grass was fabulously green and the Tower and Cathedral in Pisa are sparkling white. That made for a beautiful scene and some great pictures.
After that we took a train inland to Florence. Our first night in town we met up with a former teacher in Asia who is living there currently. It was great to catch up with her and get an insider's guide on what to do in the city (very helpful actually since neither of us knew anything about Florence). Per her advice, we spent the next couple days visiting a few famous museums, seeing the David by Michelangelo, attending a Latin Mass and wandering through the streets to visit old cathedrals. Florence definitely had the older, artsy feel to it but it wasn't my favorite. The best part was standing atop a hill that overlooks the city and seeing just how huge the Duomo is. It's awesome to look out over a city and have the highest structure be a cathedral.
We made it to Venice and had 2 1/2 days there. When we walked out of the train station it took us about 2 minutes to realize this was going to be our favorite place ever. It was the perfect time of year to be there too. We spent our first day ambling along the alleys and bridges that wind through the city. We took a gondola ride with a dreamy gondolier named Lorenzo. We had the best Italian food I've ever experienced in my life. Our second day we started out at the fish market which was wonderfully smelly. Reminded me of growing up near the ocean and all the trout we used to eat. We took a boat out to Burano Island which is a fisherman's island that is super colorful. Every building is a different color and most of them are really vibrant. We both took a million pictures there and probably could've stayed all day if we had time. That place felt like a movie set and it was strange thinking people actually live there. Our last morning we woke up and had breakfast brought to us in bed! AMAZING! (Seriously, Italy just kept getting better and better every day!). We wandered down to St. Mark's Square because we wanted to feed the birds there. What we didn't realize was that it would be a madhouse because it was the first day of the Venice Carnivale. We were so excited to be in the city at the beginning of the Carnivale because all of the masks for sale everywhere were so ornate. We had no idea though how many people we would see dressed up on that first day though. I am a little freaked out by people in costumes. It's one thing to have a costume party at Halloween...it's entirely different to just wear a costume any other time of the year. And I realize that Carnivale is all about the costumes... but still, freaks me out a bit. We roamed around looking for birds but there were too many people around and no birds. Eventually we found an area where it was a little more open and we whipped out all our crackers we had prepared for this occasion. I am also a little scared of birds...so I was doing this in order to conquer my fear a bit. When I was a kid, we lived near this place called Parrot Jungle. For some reason we would always take out of town visitors to this place. We have tons of pictures of everyone else with parrots all over their arms and shoulders and heads... and I'm either not in the pictures or I'm there without any birds on me. People tend to lower their inhibitions though when they are in foreign places... so I decided to play with the pigeons in St Mark's Square. I screamed a few times that they landed on me but eventually I grew a little more used to it. We drew quite the crowd...and even had someone taking a video of us feeding the birds. Thankfully, Asia has helped us become accustomed to people watching us. We had a pretty funny trip to the airport. We hadn't checked out flight time and we just showed up at the bus station and bought some tickets .. for a different bus than we thought we were buying them for. Didn't have enough time to get to the airport via that bus and therefore had to hop in a cab. We didn't have enough Euro left to pay for our cab though so we stopped at an ATM but it was broken...figures. Eventually we made it back to Beijing safely. And I made a list of all the things I have to do next time I'm in Italy so hopefully I'll be able to make it back someday.
I have some pictures from each city that I posted on facebook so here is a link to all of those albums..
Rome
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059140&id=141301949&l=dc099
Pisa
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059302&id=141301949&l=7102c
Florence
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059305&id=141301949&l=0ea15
Venice
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060025&id=141301949&l=e683e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060036&id=141301949&l=2289e
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