This will be a rather long post so bear with me here.
Well, I am currently back in Glasgow catching up on TV shows before my parents arrive tomorrow and I'm making myself sit down and write about the past two weeks before I forget all about them!
So my trip started off Monday the 29th of March, after a nice weekend of relaxing in my empty room and avoiding the disgusting Scottish spring weather. I flew out of Edinburgh to Milan, which was sufficiently stressful because even though Daylight Savings time was early Sunday morning, no one seemed to have changed their clocks. Fortunately I got to the airport in enough time (mostly because EasyJet was having an issue with their systems so my flight was delayed a bit anyway) and sat around watching the news about the metro bombings in Moscow whilst waiting to board.
Got to Milan finally in the late afternoon, had issues finding an ATM since of course EasyJet flies into the small terminal that had a total of one ATM that was, of course, broken. But eventually I had euros and a train ticket to the central station, found my hostel and then collapsed in bed.
The next morning I slept late then went and did a bit of exploring of Milan, with a camera that had no battery. That means I have no pictures, but honestly, there wasn't much anyway. Can't say I enjoyed the city all that much, but it was nice to finally have gone there. I will leave you with one photo of the cathedral, borrowed from somewhere on the internet, because it is quite an impressive building.
The next day I woke up, checked out of my hostel and headed to Genova. I really only chose to go there because I didn't want to spend 2 full days in Milan and I didn't want to be in Florence until Thursday so I had a day to spare, and Genova was (1) between the 2 cities and (2) somewhere I'd never been before. I'm quite glad I did go because it's a beautiful port city and the weather was very nice so I enjoyed exploring it! I stayed in a very cute bed and breakfast type place right by the port that was cheap and in a great location, and, best of all, had a bathtub!! Plus the woman was extremely nice and very excited when I could speak Italian with her, it was adorable.
Penguins at the aquarium in Genova, the largest in Europe.
And a turtle!
Genova's cathedral, a rather Tuscan looking one.
Fountain in downtown Genova.
On Thursday I sadly left my adorable room and got on a train to Pisa and then from there to lovely Firenze. It was very odd being back because it made me feel as though I'd never left! Thursday we all (we being me, Sam, Rosemary and Jackie) celebrated my 21st birthday (which was Friday) by having a wine tasting at Pino's, then dinner at a restaurant nearby, then went to have drinks with Gregorio and Jacopo. They ordered me 5 shots and add that to the wine at the tasting and at dinner and the cocktail I had at the bar and I was surprisingly not very drunk by the end of the night - impressive! The next day we hung out and relaxed, had an aperitivo and then dinner at Yellow Bar and then spent the night in the Piazza della Repubblica, listening to music and drinking wine before we went to have more drinks at Luna Rossa.
Rosemary, Pino, me and Jackie at the wine tasting on Thursday night.
The next morning Sam and Rosemary left to go to Rome, Jackie went back to Poland and I checked myself into a hostel in Florence to stay one last night - then I went shopping (of course) and had very yummy tortellini with panna & prosciutto for dinner.
Easter Sunday I headed over to Rome in the early afternoon then spent a few hours browsing the shops at Termini until Malin's flight got in. We then went to go check into our hostel and met up with Sam and Rosemary for a very yummy dinner in Trestevere. The next morning we went with them to the forum, and while Malin and Rosemary (it being both of their first times in Rome) explored the ruins, Sam and I sat on some old columns and people watched - very relaxing, even though the weather wasn't so nice and we were both sickly.
Sam, me and Malin near the ancient forum in Rome.
Then we headed over to the Colosseum (being able to skip the lines with our forum tickets, hurrah!) and wandered around there for a while.
Me being silly in the Colosseum.
After being accosted by gladiators (because one of them was Rosemary's dream) we grabbed lunch at this amazingly yummy pizza place near the Pantheon that I will have to be heading back to, then went and saw the Pantheon (closed for the first time I've ever seen!) and the Trevi fountain (Sam's favorite place in Rome). By this time I was feeling rather sickly so I headed back to the hostel in the rain while Malin went to see the Spanish steps and the Piazza del Popolo. We went to dinner at a restaurant near our hostel that was quite yummy and delicious then headed to bed.
Tuesday we met up again with Sam and Rosemary so that Malin and Rosemary could explore the Vatican museums while Sam and I sat around being sickly. We went to get tea first, and played cards while eating these super weird french fries that I wish I'd taken a photo of, then went to get lunch and then laid down in the sun in St. Peter's square because it was actually very nice and sunny. Not gonna lie, we almost fell asleep and probably looked like vagrant homeless people but we were so sick we didn't care. That night we had some crazy people in our hostel room, including one girl who, despite booking a bed in an 8 person dorm, didn't want to sleep on a top bunk and went and complained to management about it. She still didn't get one.
That was more or less all of our adventures in Rome, or at least the ones that are of any interest whatsoever. On Wednesday morning Malin and I woke up, packed all of our stuff and headed to Termini to buy tickets to Venice. We got on a Eurostar and despite my coughing attacks every half hour, enjoyed the trip.
Venice was, in one word - GORGEOUS. The sun was shining the entire time we were there, there were no clouds in the sky, the temperature was just right and the water was sparkling. It could not have been a better time to visit! I am now getting tired of typing so the rest of this will not be as detailed as I would like, but I am absolutely certain that once Malin returns from Eastern Europe she will post a lengthy description of our adventures in Venezia.
a typical Venetian canal.
Suffice it to say that we enjoyed ourselves. Malin had found a wonderful little hostel that was right next to a fantastic little square with an equally fantastic restaurant that we ate at both nights, and nearby was a little bakery that we enjoyed chocolate croissants from both mornings we were there! We had a lot of fun wandering around the streets and canals of the city and getting somewhat lost sometimes (when in doubt, always ask the mailman!) and never stopped window shopping. I knew that Venice was a bunch of islands but I never realized just how many until we had to cross a new canal every other minute! We saw the touristy things like the Rialto bridge and market and St. Mark's and the Doge's palace on Wednesday afternoon.
il Ponte Rialto
view of the Grand Canal from the Ponte Rialto
Malin and I on the Ponte Rialto
St. Mark's cathedral complete with the requisite ugly scaffolding
the beautiful colored street lamps - one of Malin and I's favorite things about Venice!
gondolas waiting for customers
sun starting to set over the Grand Canal
Thursday morning we went first to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (after buying me a beautiful Carnevale mask as a birthday present). I absolutely adored her collection and summarily bought 10 postcards to hang on my walls. Plus, it doesn't hurt that her house is beautiful. I wish I was a Guggenheim so I had all that money. And art. It was weird being there since they just recently rejected me for a summer internship, but when I saw all the interns selling tickets and running coat check, I was much less sad about that!
Statue on the porch of the Peggy Guggenheim collection. As if you weren't already envious of the location, look at that blue water behind it!
me at the Collection
After that we took the (stupidly expensive) vaporetto up the Grand Canal just for the experience, then walked to the dock where we could catch another vaporetto over to the island of Murano, which is famous for its glass making. We walked around there for a bit, enjoying the relative emptiness and the always fantastic weather, and checked out the church of San Donato, which is famous for its floor. It was fantastic - a mix of Byzantine mosaics with geometric designs done in Venetian glass for a very cool effect. We weren't allowed to take photos but this'll give some idea of what the glass part of the floor looked like:
After Murano we headed back to the island of Venice... tried to get back without buying a new ticket for the vaporetto but then we fortunately heard a man returning to his family in the front of the boat saying that they had started checking tickets in the back, so Malin and I jumped off at the next stop, the small island of Certosa. There, we hung out on the floating dock and watching a man fish for a while until the next vaporetto came and we could buy a ticket. It was actually a rather nice place to wait, seeing as we could enjoy the bobbing of the dock and the sun and just sit in the quiet. When we got back to Venice we found the Bridge of Sighs, which unfortunately had scaffolding all around it covered with huge ads with Julianne Moore's face so that only part of the bridge was visible. Then we went back to St. Mark's so that we could go inside, seeing as we'd gotten there too late for that the afternoon before. I had had no idea that there were so many Byzantine mosaics inside - the church is literally covered in gold:
After exploring the church we got granitas and relaxed by the water again (our favorite pastime). I took this fantastic picture of Malin dozing while she wasn't paying attention.
Then a nice Spanish couple took a photo for us - only after I took a couple of minutes to figure out how to ask them in Spanish and not in Italian haha. Wow my Spanish has suffered lately
That was pretty much Venice for us... we woke up early the next morning, packed and headed to our bakery (me carrying a billion things because I had shopped too much the day before), where we met some nice old people from Utah who were unhappy with the fact that a caffe in Italy is an espresso. Then we braved the alleys of Venice one last time to find the bus station, where I caught a bus to Marco Polo and Malin headed off to spend hours at Treviso before her flight later that night.
Me posing with the mask I bought.
Getting home was quite an adventure. I'd been worried about my flights because I chose to travel with British Airways as it was the cheapest and easiest option for getting out of Venice but fortunately those strikes did not affect me. What did were the ground workers strikes that were going on that day only at Marco Polo airport. Fortunately British Airways, instead of canceling my flight, rerouted it through the Verona airport and herded us all onto a bus for the hour/hour and a half drive over there. I eventually returned home only to realize this morning that I was missing my passport, which has provided a whole slew of issues to deal with today.
On the bright side, I seem to have brought the Venetian weather back with me because today was gorgeous here in Glasgow and it is supposed to stay that way for a bit. Good since my parents will be getting in for a visit tomorrow morning. More adventures will be blogged about in two weeks after my tour of Scotland!
Ciao ciao,
Katherine
Penguins at the aquarium in Genova, the largest in Europe.
And a turtle!
Genova's cathedral, a rather Tuscan looking one.
Fountain in downtown Genova.
Rosemary, Pino, me and Jackie at the wine tasting on Thursday night.
Sam, me and Malin near the ancient forum in Rome.
Me being silly in the Colosseum.
a typical Venetian canal.
il Ponte Rialto
view of the Grand Canal from the Ponte Rialto
Malin and I on the Ponte Rialto
St. Mark's cathedral complete with the requisite ugly scaffolding
the beautiful colored street lamps - one of Malin and I's favorite things about Venice!
gondolas waiting for customers
sun starting to set over the Grand Canal
Statue on the porch of the Peggy Guggenheim collection. As if you weren't already envious of the location, look at that blue water behind it!
me at the Collection
Me posing with the mask I bought.
view on the River Clyde
the Cloisters at Glasgow Uni
the back of the University... or the front, depending on which way you see it.
We spent the rest of the day shopping and then went out for dinner again.
me, Malin and a fellow Hoya at Oxford, Ross.