My Italian Travels

**this is not proof read** it took long enough to write it. im too lazy too read it***
I have a lot to write and because I do I keep putting in off, and then of course I have even more to write. You know how that goes.

Rome wasn't built in a day...but i saw it in one.

Two Fridays ago my holiday began. I took an overnight train from Munich to Roma. I think I got a decent amount of sleep but the ticket people kept waking me up. I arrived in Rome around 8:00 and met up with Jessica, Nikki, and Rebecca who were already in Rome since Thursday. It's a little tricky to cram Rome into one day. I put my stuff at my hostel. I had to be at different one since I didn't plan to go to Rome till last minute. I never stayed at a hostel before, this was my first and only so far since we didn't stay in hostels the other nights. So I ended up seeing the Sistine chapel, the Colosseum and pantheon from the outside, and the Trevi fountain, the Vatican City, and the Spanish steps. There were way too many tourists in this town, I would never ever go there when its high season. I cant even imagine how you could move esp in the Vatican.

Assisi sure does love its Saint Francis.

Sunday morning we took the train to Assisi. The city is on a hill far from the train station. So we walked a lot to say the least. Once we were in Assisi we had to find our Bed and Breakfast. We didn't really know where we were going but we decided to take a narrow ally towards the center. We passed a hotel sign and Jessica said "I wish this was ours." and Nikki (who booked the place) said it was!!! We were pretty thankful since we were tired of walking. The city was really beautiful and gave us a wonderful view. That night we went to this restaurant that we chose because we could eat outside with a nice view so we were ok with spending a little more. But then it was too cold and I was allergic to something I ate I'm not sure what but that kinda sucked but I minus that it was a nice meal but a little expensive.

Pisa in the blink of an eye.

Nikki really wanted to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa so we made it a stop on our journeys. We had to catch a train (which we missed anyways) so we couldn't spend so long there. But we got our pictures. :)

The Beautiful Cinque Terre.

Probably one of the lesser known places we went. But that is a very relative term in Italy. I heard more English there than Italian. Well since you're probably not familiar with it...the Cinque Terre is 5 villages along the sea with hiking trails in between them. The first night we stayed in the second town then the next day in the fourth. Our first place we stayed had a gorgeous view of the sea. We ate a makeshift grocery store meal for supper and just had a really good time with each other. Not that we didn't the rest of the time, but that was probably our favourite. Then the second day we hiked and Nikki and I took a dip in the Liguarian Sea. It was a little chilly of course but I had to do it. My dad tells me that this region is a big Rick Steves place and his book was where Jessica got the idea to go there. The tourists there did seem like the Rick Steves type. haha!

On my Gondola.

Our last city to visit was Venice. Wednesday was spent a lot on the train and we arrived in Venice before 6. But Nikki had said that we would be at are Bed and Breakfast at 7 so we had to wait some time. We went out for supper after we had settled in the room. The next day in Venice was spent doing a lot of shopping. The city is famous for it's Murano glass and Carnival masks so every other store was just that. Of course we saw the famous Piazza San Marcos and took a gondola ride. That night we took the train to Bologna then an overnight one to Switzerland. And Italy was over :(

Italy Summary.

There is no question that Italy is a beautiful country with tons of history. Don't be jealous of me for going to Italy there were a million other Americans there that you can be jealous of instead. Everybody goes to Italy. I just don't like a the visitors. For example, at most restaurants there was a 2 euro cover charge per person in addition to a 12 percent service charge. In other countries you don't even have to tip! The extra charge feel like "you're a tourist and we can charge you these cuz we can do that to you because you're still gonna come here." That's my theory. But I don't want to undermine how much I really did enjoy my time there. The trip went really smoothly and I love the girls that I went with. It was awesome and we had the best weather.

My Vacation is still not finished.

Remember I only took the train to Switzerland. My first time there. I admired the snow topped mountains as our train passed through them in the morning. So did the Swiss girls next to me since they had been in Italy for the passed 3 months so I didn't feel that silly. We arrived in Listol around 9 then Rebecca, Jess, and took the bus to Jessica's. I think I want to be there for the next half so I was looking forward to the visit. Her kids there are so cute! Saturday us four girls went to Basel. We actually didn't see too much of it since we went in search for the place where you can stand in 3 countries at once. We never made it to that specific point but we did however walk through Germany to have coffee in France. It was cool to be in France and I could talk but it was a little difficult since German kept wanting to come out! We couldn't stay in Basel too long since Jessicas family made reservations at a small quaint farmhouse restaurant up on a mountain(actually by Swiss standards it was prob only a hill). But it was a really good meal. The specialty there was horse. Jessica had that, I tried it. Yes I ate horse. But I ordered schnitzel(so not too many horsies were killed). Then we had ice cream with Bailey's for dessert. Def. one of my favorite meals :) and they paid for it! Sunday I saw a bit of Listol and then I took the train home. I was ready to be home when I reached the house at 11:30.