Its finals time which means one thing: I am slowly but surely losing my mind. Thus, taking a break to continue the adventure about my wonderful European Romp seemed like the perfect distraction. After Amsterdam we flew to Venice. While each place that we went to was my favorite for different reasons, Venice was definitely the most beautiful city that we went to! It was similar to Amsterdam in that there were canals everywhere...however unlike Amsterdam there were only canals...no cars or busses or other forms of motorized transportation! If people needed to get across the city there were boat taxis or boat busses! I have never seen anything like it! The entire city was an absolute dream and even better than I imagined! We stayed in this adorable bed and breakfast that Joe Mantenega visited when he was in Venice (I was super excited about this!) Venice was also a nice change of pace from London and Amsterdam because we weren't constantly on the move trying to do a bunch of touristy things, but rather we spent our time just walking and taking in the beauty of the city. We did take a gondola tour which we got for a discounted price. While the tour was a little shorter than we had hoped it was a neat way to see the city and there would be people in other gondolas singing and playing music which was wonderful! We also discovered our obsession with gelato...we literally got gelato twice a day...everyday...it was amazing! It was also in Venice that Mitchell discovered his distaste for cuddlefish. Our first night we went to a restaurant and Mitchell decided to be adventurous and order something that he didn't know what it was. The problem was what came out was pasta in a black sauce with fish that had tentacles. Allie and I both thought that it tasted good...unfortunately it was a little too much for Mitchell so for the rest of our trip we made sure not to order anything that could potentially be cuddlefish!
Our last night in Venice we actually stayed in Lido, a small island just off the coast of Venice. We spent the afternoon exploring the beach area. It wasn't a sand beach, but rather a rock beach so we had fun climbing all over the rocks and watching the waves crash in. While there wasn't a whole lot to do in Lido the owner of our hostel was really nice and over breakfast the next morning gave us a brief history of both Venice and Lido as well as a quick lesson in Italian history! However, probably my favorite story from Lido only Iowa people will appreciate. We went out to dinner and we all got pizza and I was extremely excited because mine was honestly the best pizza I had ever had. It had mozzarella cheese, fresh parmesan cheese and corn!! It was so delicious but my companions could not get over the fact that I ordered corn on my pizza...they just don't understand...they aren't from Iowa :D
After Venice we took a train to Florence. We were all pretty sad to leave Venice because it was such a fairytale, but Florence was also fun! It was extremely different from Venice because it had more of the big city feel. Sam and I decided that it would be a good idea to try to get to an area on a hill in the distance to get a good view of the city. At first we thought we were golden because we found a staircase that led to a huge hill...unfortunately for us that hill never seemed to stop. We walked forever and along both sides of the road were huge walls so you literally couldn't see anything. We were about ready to turn around and head back but Sam talked me into walking 5 more minutes just because we had already invested so much time into climbing this hill. Of course just after we had decided this we turn a corner and we found the view we were looking for! Looking down at the city we couldn't believe how far we had walked.
The next day Sam and I decided just to wander around Florence and see what we could find! We found a beautiful park that had a pond in the middle where we could sit and watch the birds and soak up the sun! We then tried to see a this huge old fort that was near the park...unfortunately for us when we tried to go in there was a big sign that said that it wasn't a tourist attraction. I am still not quite sure what that means because it looked like an extremely large but extremely old fort. In the afternoon we decided to climb this huge tower that was apart of the Duomo (a massive Cathedral in the center of the city) The tower had 414 to get to the top! Those of you who know me best know that I am quite claustrophobic and this stairway to get to the top was a teeny-tiny passage way...so it was quite the struggle for me! Thankfully there were four places on the way up that were open areas so you could stop and look out and snap a few photos before continuing on the journey up! But once we finally made it to the top we got an absolutely gorgeous view of the city!
My favorite day of the trip was this last day in Florence. Sam and I took a day trip to Tuscany! Our guide Nicola was a very entertaining guide who was full of fun stories! Before we went to Tuscany he took us to Piazzale Michelangilo, which was this gorgeous Plaza overlooking the city that had this huge staircase and people could just sit and read, eat lunch, drink wine, relax, or whatever struck their fancy! It was the perfect way to start such a great day! Nicola took us to a farm in Tuscany that had dozens of horses! He passed us along to the man who would be taking us on our tour and Nicola and the the other two people on the trip Andrea and Matt (a very nice couple from Canada) went for a vespa tour around Tuscany. It was honestly an absolute dream, Sam and I got to horseback ride through the Tuscan country side! I don't know if I have ever seen a scenery so beautiful and so peaceful! Part of the ride was through the vineyards that were apart of the farm and our guide told me a little bit about the vineyards as well as the wine that the farm produces! My horse and I got along great! I was nervous because we didn't really get any instruction before hand about horse riding but my horse was so smart! Sam's on the other hand was....hungry! It was absolutely hilarious, it seemed like every five minutes his horse felt the need to stop for a snack! When we got back to the farm the vespa people hadn't gotten back yet so while we were waiting our guide brought us wine that was made from the grapes in the vineyard that we had just rode through! It was absolutely amazing! When Nicola, Andrea, and Matt came back the five of us went to a castle for lunch! The lunch was absolutely amazing! For the first course we had a meat/cheese/bread plate and then two kinds of pasta and panacotta for dessert! It was amazing! And if the day couldn't get any better after lunch we went to a wine tasting! It was so neat to be able to drink wine that was made right there in Tuscany. During the wine tasting we all tried a shot of Grappa, a particularly strong kind of alcohol....it burned all the way down. The wine tasting ended our day and I was so sad to leave! Tuscany was a fairytale that I never wanted to leave and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!
What a perfect place to end for now! The finale of the trip still to come!
Cheers!
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