We had a very bright an early wake up call in Belgium for our 6:45 flight to Italy to start our adventure south. Excited to be heading towards the sun, we dressed in shorts and t-shirts despite seeing 4am on the clock. Well, we were in for quite the shock when we landed in Venice to extreme down-pouring rain, thunder and lightning storms!! We could hardly believe our eyes and hid out in a cafe before realizing that the storm wasn't going to pass anytime soon, and ventured out into it. To make matters worse, our checkin time wasn't for 5 hours... Ultimately we decided it was time to throw all concern out the window and channel our true Vancouverite spirit and explore despite the weather! It ended up being a great time, despite our sopping wet feet and clothing. For the next couple days that we spent in Venice we did as everyone should and just let ourselves get lost in the beautiful city, explore the multitude of picturesque canals, and of course experience our first bits of Italian cuisine!
Travelling to Florence next was probably the worst transit experience I've had so far. After booking our tickets online, we were told to print off the ones for the first half of our journey at the station. After arriving we soon found out the machines weren't able to do this and we needed to talk to the ticket counter, but the problem was.. They were on strike! We ended up only having one option which was to repurchase our tickets at the machine (which didn't sit too well with my tight budget mindset). We soon found out that matters were about to get worse because it wasn't just the ticket counter that was on strike but the whole train company!! Would've been nice if they put signs up or gave us some sort of notice, especially since we just repurchased our tickets, but apparently common courtesy towards customers isn't a thing!! Frustrated and out of other options, and needing to meet our AirBnB host at a certain time in Florence, we ended up purchasing a THIRD set of tickets (with a new company) to get there on time. We were not pleased... I'm still waiting to hear back from my refund request!
Once we actually made it to the city we had a great time exploring! Our host was great and lent us her bikes to use to get in and out of the city which was actually a great little bike ride through the town (with no hills thank goodness!). We ended up finding a great tour kiosk with a guy who was more than willing to give us a few deals. We took a great walking tour of the city of Florence as well as two full day excursions, one to Pisa and the other to Cinque Terre. In our day trip to Pisa we made sure to take the classic holding up the tower photo, and we definitely weren't the only ones! (I'll post it in the photos). The next day tour was to the beautiful islands of Cinque Terre with all sorts of colourful houses built on the side of the cliffs.
After this it was time for our final stop of Italy.. Rome! It was a great city to visit and it was so cool to see all the ancient buildings and architecture. We made our necessary trips to the Vatican/Sistine chapel, Colosseum, and Roman Forums which were all amazing. The only downside was that there was a lot of construction going on in the city, namely the Trevi Fountain which was being completely redone!! So disappointing! By this time we were getting a little tired of the hustle and bustle of the city and figured that two days would've been plenty and we didn't need the extra one. You can only get stuck behind a giant tour group so often before you start to lose your mind! Brandon was also getting pretty sick of Italian food at this point... I guess a week straight of pizzas and pasta for a burger guy can be a bit of an overload!! One thing that neither of us tired of however was the gelato! We followed the unwritten rules that are put in place for all visitors to Italy almost religiously... 2 scoops a day! It didn't help that there was a delicious fresh made daily place around the corner from our hostel. We ultimately had to ask ourselves... Is it bad when the gelato employees start to recognize you in a city you're only in for 3 nights!? Oh well I guess that's what vacations are for!! (I suppose this doesn't have the same affect when you're vacation is 3 1/2 months long!!)
Well that is all for now.. Time to hit the beaches and do some island hopping in Greece!
Love,
Sara