Italy on Speed

Hey hey hey!

Long time, no post. The internet has not been working at the hotel since I got home from the break. Finally it is back up, but who knows for how long. So I thought I would fill everyone in since my last post after Barcelona.

Over the ten day holiday, I went to London and all over Italy. I traveled with three other girls: Jenna, my roommate, and Lauren. We had to fly to Italy, and to use the cheap airline you have to fly from Pau to one of the three other cities in Europe that it goes to from there. We picked London. Unfortunately, it was not that great. We didn't get there until about noon, and we had lunch right away which took about two hours. After that we went exploring, but I didn't see anything. We wanted to buy a bus tour that goes all around the city, but by the time we thought of that we realized the buses stopped running an hour later. But I walked around Picadilly Circus, which is like Times Square, and went into some of the little shops.

After London, we flew to Florence. Well, we flew into Pisa and took a bus to Florence, which was only an hour away. Florence was really, really cool. The food there was amazing, and we got to stay with Lauren's *a girl in my program who went with us* friend who was studying abroad at NYU there. Her friend's name was Rosie and she was so nice and guided us around everywhere and took us to the best places. It was awkward constantly getting harrassed to buy fake designer handbags or sunglasses or belts, though.

We stayed in Florence for two nights, and we didn't see a whole lot of monuments or things that Florence is famous for simply because the lines were so long. We walked around the markets and got gelatto and tuscan food.

After Florence, we took a train to Venice. We only stayed in Venice for one day, but we saw a lot of the city. We took a gondola ride around the canal and walked around Saint Marc's Square. We headed back to the hostel early to get up the next morning really early to take a train to Naples. By the way, the hostel situations in Italy were MUCH better than in Barcelona. The rooms were all private, just for the four of us, and clean and sanitary.

Now, our original plan had us staying in Naples, but we heard from Rosie that because of a terrible ongoing garbage strike, Naples might not be an ideal vacation spot. So we quickly reconfigured our plans. Instead, we went from Naples to Sorrento, and took a ferry from Sorrento to Capri the next morning. Capri was so beautiful. I've never seen such clear water, but the beaches are all rocks. We went on a two hour private boat ride around the island, and saw the Blue Grotto and other cool caves and stuff. After Capri, we were headed to Rome. But not before having some interesting stories. The first, my gelatto experience from Hell. Now, for those who have never ordered gelatto in Italy before, here is how it works: typically, you choose a size of cone or cup and fit as many flavors as you want in that size. By this time I had eaten gelatto every day of vacation, and it was the seventh day, so I was no rookie. So I am the first to order, and I point to a waffle cone and ask how much it is to get it. The man tells me Three Euro. So I tell the woman that I want the waffle cone, with three flavors. I choose my flavors and she hands me a monstroctiy of an ice cream cone. It was at least as big as my head. Instead of filling the cone with my three flavors to the edge, she piled about 12 scoops in it. I was so mad, I had to pay ten euro and the gelatto was so bad I ended up throwing most of it away anyways. I'm sure they just conned me out of my money, and I tried arguing, but to no avail.

The next story is about our run around trying to hike Mount Vesuvious. Now, we go to climb it on May 1st, a major holiday in Italy. Therefore, the Pompeii ruins are closed so the people who wanted to see those went to Mount Vesuvio instead. So it was PACKED. To make matters worse, due to the holiday, there was no guarantee that a bus would actually come to take us there and back. So we take a taxi, the driver tells us it will be 35 euro total. Halfway up the volcano, still in the taxi, the driver tells us that we can't get in because it is too crowded. So we have to turn around and go back, but he gives a discount on the price. We found out later that it was probably a complete scam because people we met had went to Vesuvio that day and said it was just fine to hike it. ARG! I hate being foreign where people can take advantage of you.

After the Vesivious disaster, we were headed for Rome. Agh. Talk about chaos. The lines for everything were SO long. The only things we got in to see was the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel. We walked by the Colesseum during the day and at night, but we didn't have time to see anything else. Not to mention no one was helping Jenna and I plan where to go and how to get there, and I was sick of everyone's complaining.

Finally we left Rome at midnight and got to Genova very early the next morning. We spent a few hours on a beach there, and then left to come back home to Pau.

So there you have it, Florence, Venice, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii, Rome, Genova. All in ten days. Phew, it was too complicated and if I had to do it over again, I would just stay in Capri. That's all for now, I love and miss you all!