Italy: Rome, Florence, & Venice

During the month of summer term, I didn't take any classes and instead just hung out in Utrecht instead and also took two trips. The first was a weeklong solo trip to Italy!

The first stop was Rome! I loved Rome and thought it was incredible how there were ruins everywhere you went. So much history in one place, and I can't believe people live there and just walk by ancient artifacts on the way to work! It kind of reminded me a bit of Athens since it's the same idea there. I had fun the first day seeing the Vatican Museum (Sistine Chapel is here), the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain (unfortunately under renovation), Spanish Steps, the Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument, the Arch of Constantine, Trajan's Column, a church with the famous "Moses w/ Horns" in it, and much more!

Trajan's Column

Exciting selfie with the Arch of Constantine

Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument

It was suuuuuper hot and humid, so I was basically dying the whole day and took like a billion breaks, but I enjoyed it anyway. I had some gelato and had lots of fun!

I met this really nice girl from Mexico at my hostel, and we got along really well and talked for a long time. We then figured out we happened to have the exact itinerary for the next week, so we were very excited and planned to meet up in the other cities as well.

The next day, we left the hostel in the morning together to go to the Vatican once more to see St. Peter's Basilica and climb the dome (I was too late the day before). It was a very hot day again, and you have to cover up to get inside churches in Italy, so we were quite warm for the time that we pulled on our extra layers, but it was well worth it. We saw Michelangelo's Pieta inside the church, and the view from the dome was really nice.

St. Peter's Basilica...I'm in the Vatican!!!!!

View from the dome of the Basilica

We then split ways and went off to do our own sightseeing. I went to the Borghese Gallery and then to the Colosseum & the Roman Forum.

Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

I was exhausted and dying of heat after that, so I headed home around dinner time, and my friend Claudia was back as well. We took naps and then went out to find food. After making some instant noodles in the hostel (I somehow always eat instant noodles during my travels...cause it's cheap), we went out to grab a drink together. We walked for a long time, like an hour, from our hostel near the Termini Station all the way past the Pantheon and then further. But we found the nice spot we were looking for -- Campo de' Fiori! It was still very alive even though it was late at night, and we got some drinks and just enjoyed being on the square and being in that atmosphere. Some Italian guys got in a fight because one of them hit a tourist apparently, and then tons of those same guys just suddenly started crying...it was a very confusing but amusing scene.

On our way home after a fun night!

In the morning, I left really early to catch my train to Florence. The view from the train was beautiful. Florence was too! At first, I thought it was a bit overhyped when I got to the city, but after a day of exploring, I was convinced too that Florence is indeed an incredibly beautiful and enchanting city. I hung out there for two days with my unitmate Polly, who happened to be there at the same time as I was. I really enjoyed my time with her since we hadn't really actually gotten to spend that much time together in Utrecht. We saw and climbed the Duomo and the Campanile (sooo many steps for both of them...but the view was worth it in the end!), went inside the Baptistery of St. John and took pictures of the famous Ghiberti's Gates on its exterior wall, visited both the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia (with Michelangelo's David...it's HUGE and very impressive), took pictures with the Ponte Vecchio (the famous bridge with all these little shophouses on it), saw the Santa Croce Church (which has the tombs of many famous Italians inside, like Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli), and much more!

Duomo

View from the Campanile

Ponte Vecchio

We also tried some yummy pizza and pasta, and since it's cheaper to take away, we brought it to eat at this great little spot we found on this super expensive street (Via Tornabuoni).

Pizza!!!

We watched the sunset the second night, and it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. The sun was huge and round and orange, and it slowly set over the view of Florence with the Arno River and all the beautiful bridges passing over it. It was incredible!

Arno River

Polly and me

I also met another American girl in my hostel that night, and we took a night walk to the Piazzale Michelangelo on the other side of the river to see an amazing view of the entire city at night. It was beautiful, and we had a nice time together enjoying the view and listening to the music people were playing everywhere!

View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo

I took the train to Venice on my fifth day in Italy, and it was the only day it rained. It wasn't that bad though, but everyone started pulling on their ponchos, haha. It was still warm and humid though, so I stayed in my shorts and t-shirt and just pulled on my sweater to have a hood. Venice was so pretty. I kind of thought all those pictures I'd seen of it were really edited and filtered, but they're not. It really looks like that. The water is really blue-green, and the entire city looks fake. There are gondolas everywhere (super expensive...like more than 100 euros per ride), and the whole city is kind of like a maze.

Gondolas

It's made up of a few islands, and there's canals and bridges EVERYWHERE. The streets are really just alleys, so you can't see anything but the houses and shops on either side of you, and when you reach the end of the street, there may or may not be a bridge or connecting street. Even if there's a bridge, sometimes there's no road when you cross it and it's just a dead end. It's so weird. It's the only city in Europe that I haven't been able to figure out navigation-wise. Usually, after the first day, I kind of have a sense of direction and can mostly walk around without a map, but in Venice, I'd get lost even with a map. It's crazy.

One of many many canals in Venice

The only public transportation are boats (because the streets are way too narrow for any form of transportation besides walking)! I lived on Guidecca, the little island to the south of the main island, so I took boats a lot. I rode it through the main canal too, and it was a nice way to see the city. I saw the Accademia there as well and lots of other famous stuff -- Piazza San Marco (and I went inside the Basilica di San Marco with Claudia), Rialto Bridge, and tons of other churches. It's not a huge city, but it's really nice to just wander around and enjoy the beautiful sights all around.

Grand Canal

Piazza San Marco

Streets of Venice

The first night, I was really hungry after getting back to my hostel, but I was on a pretty small island so there wasn't much open anymore that late. So I went to this little restaurant next to my hostel that was owned by Chinese people, and they spoke to me in Chinese. I talked to them throughout my whole meal, and at the end, they wouldn't even let me pay. They were really nice, and I enjoyed my time with them! I was supposed to meet up with Claudia for lunch the next day at a certain time and place, but before that time even came, we ran into each other!

Claudia and me!

I also ran into two Canadian guys who I'd met at my hostel in Florence there, and then I saw them like 2 or 3 more times that day, haha. It's always weird when you see a familiar face in a foreign country that you don't plan to see, but it's pretty cool! It makes you feel that the world is much smaller than you think! Claudia and I walked around all day together and found this incredible cheap take away pasta place for lunch. They make their pasta completely fresh, and we loved it so much we went back for dinner.

We then went to this park on one side of the island near the water, and it was so weird because it felt like Seattle or something, and we didn't expect those kinds of trees and plants in a place like Venice. It was really nice, and it was cool that if you looked just past the trees, you could see the water and you'd realize that you really were in Venice. We had a really nice talk and then we left to get some gelato! Right when we decided to get some, this crazy wind and rain started but just lasted for a little bit. Pretty much it ended right when we finished our gelato. Cool. But we still enjoyed it. I love the pistachio flavor! After our fun together, it was time for me to go to the airport, so Claudia brought me to my boat station, and we said our goodbyes. It was so nice to meet her and get to know her, and I hope I'll see her again someday!

Rainbow as I left the city

My trip to Italy was everything and more than I'd hoped for, and I had an incredible experience just simply being in Italy and taking in everything, as well as meeting so many wonderful people in my hostels and outside them too. I hope I can go back one day to see more of this beautiful country!