Viva Italia (again)

As most of you know, I went back to Italy this past weekend. Here's a little secret I'll let you in on: Before coming to Europe, I was more excited to see Italy than France. I can't really tell you why. France has Paris and the Riviera which is nice and all, but Italy has pizza and Rome and pasta and Italians and Verona and Gondolas and paintings and leaning towers and gelato and the Italian hospitality. 


Here is a hilarious clip of one of my favorite comedians, John Pinette, explaining his experiences in France and Italy: 

So yet again, I found myself off to Italy. And only after my flight took off did I realize I forgot my camera. Me: the picture-obsessed. I ended up buying a disposable camera when we arrived in Venice. When I was younger, before the digital-camera age, a camera with just 20 something pictures would suffice for months. I used up all of the film in one day, and that was while practicing restraint from taking pictures of every little thing I saw. I won't develop those pictures until I'm back in the States, so it will be a fun surprise for all!


We arrived in Venice on Thursday morning. We had to access our sleeping arrangements by boat, so we carried all of our stuff around with us for the whole day. We actually spent three whole days carrying literally everything we had on our backs, and I finally understood why they call it backpacking through Europe. I chose the words "sleeping arrangements" earlier because we didn't stay in a hostel in Venice. We instead chose camping, and I use this term loosely. The campsite was actually rather elegant - with its own restaurant, bar, shopping mart, and better showers and bathrooms than I've experienced at some hostels. By "camping," they really just mean we didn't have internet. The weather wasn't the best in Venice, but it was still beautiful. Venice is really a place like no other. Everything is by boat or bike and there are bridges and water just absolutely everywhere. There are all these beautiful purple flowers everywhere too, but it's still early and they weren't quite in bloom yet. And a Gondola ride was too expensive. So in conclusion, Venice in two cloudy days was worth it, but just not enough. 


The original plan was to hit up Venice, Florence and Verona, but there weren't cheap enough rooms in the latter two so we swapped them out for Milan. Again, the weather didn't shake off its slump and it was rather cloudy. It actually started to rain on us the first day so we had to go to our hostel in the early evening. But I will say I was impressed with Milan. It wasn't our first choice in Italy, and I honestly had no desire to even visit it at all, but it's worth spending a day or two. The giant cathedral there, Duomo, was enormous and, in my opinion, more magnificent than all of the churches in Rome. And right next door there is a big awesome shopping center featuring stores like Prada and Louis Vuitton and McDonalds. Guess which is the only one I would feel comfortable even walking in to?

Il Duomo, Milan, Italy (totally not my photo)

We also spent pretty much a whole day in the parks in Milan. We must have been there at just the right time because it was windy enough that when the wind would blow, all of these flower pedals from nearby trees would get carried in the wind and fly around everywhere. It was so romantic and playful at the same time. It rained water on day one, but on day two it rained flowers. 

In the end, I'd still like to visit Italy at least one more time to see Verona and Bologna, because I hear that they are both beautiful and less tourist-y. Doubt I'll make it back on my own, but that's why I now have Italian friends to visit ;)

I came home yesterday evening to study for a final I have tomorrow. And as we all can see, I'm doing a good job at procrastinating at that very thing. You can take the girl out of America and put her in a magical place on the other side of the world, but you can't the the procrastinator out of the girl. Or something like that.

Now I'm off to be a student. Thanks for reading about my adventures! 

[insert fun and reoccurring farewell line here]