Italy

- August 27, 2013

We saved enough money to go on another vacation, this was the first time we didn't have any tours scheduled, in our Easter Break in Holland we had Carmen and Joost and in the Czech Rep we had the free & paid SANDEMANs tour. in the end it turned out okay since we bought the Hop On Hop Off 36 hrs tickets in Rome, Venice was walkable and we rode on a vaporetto, and Florence was also a very walkable city and the maps were very detailed.

This post is going to be heavy on the pictures and light on the descriptions. If you want to know anything more about a specific picture, please ask!

Day 1. Rome

We flew via RyanAir from Bremen to Pisa. once we arrived, we ate chinese food for lunch and then took a train to Rome [we took a slow ass train so we arrived at 6 pm] We walked to the hostel and went to a supermarket to buy our dinner. Then we took a short walk and reached Vatican City. took some nice pictures of it, and some blurry ones since it was night time.

Day 2. Rome

On our first FULL day we decided to buy a two day pass on the Hop on - Hop off buses, like i'd previously mentioned, counts as a tour right? :) Once aboard we stayed on and decided our first stop would be the Colosseum.

The Colosseum was amazing, its inauguration was in 800 AC, not that long ago. We spent half the day there, by the time we got out it was time for lunch and Avi was tired since she had been walking the whole time.

So we got back on the bus and got off at Vatican city, walked to our hotel, picking up lunch on our way and then getting the stroller to keep walking, this time to visit the "Piazza del Popolo."

don't you love it when the person taking the picture takes it of the floor in front of you than the top of the building?

Day 3. Rome

We decided today we would other famous landmarks in Rome, our first stop was Fontana di Trevi, It was nothing like what I had imagined. Rumor has it that if you throw a coin into the fountain you will return to Rome one day! Stand with your back to the fountain, and throw the coin over your left shoulder.

we visited palatine palace,

When we got on the bus again we heard an announcement of tickets to enter vatican city and sistine chapel for a reasonable price. We couldn't pass up the offer and bought the tickets.

Vatican Museum

Day 4. Venice

We hadn't booked the train tickets in advance so when we went to go buy them we were lucky there was a promotion, we ended up paying 2x1.

When we arrived in Venice, we then had to take a bus to reach our camping site. So we did and we got off at what was supposed to be our stop [example: the stops there are called "Stazione, Stazione I, Stazione II"] and arrived at the campsite but had to wait because it was lunch break for the receptionist, and there was nobody there to check us in.

I had packed us something to prepare for lunch, I took advantage of the fact that we were just there and we ate. When they re opened we went to check in but they couldn't find our reservation, I got a little nervous, but I just showed the lady my phone and she read it. It turns out we were at the wrong camping site, we ended up having to walk a long while (bus was not an option since they weren't frequent enough and our ticket had already expired).

We arrived at a gas station and asked a taxi driver for directions (to make sure we were headed the right way) He told us it was just up ahead, we walked and finally made it.

After checking in we took a bus to Venice and toured arounds this beautiful city.

Day 5. Mestre then took off to Florence.

Our morning was practically wasted, after checking out we went straight to the train station but had to wait around 3 hrs for it to be time to board. It wasn't enough time to go to Venice and walk around or take a Vaporetto (we still had our valid tickets) what a shame! We just walked around Mestre, sat at a park and found something to eat and stayed there for a long time until it was almost time to board the train.

When we arrived in Florence we took a bus to go to our hotel.. we missed our bus stop so we got off at the next one which wasn't far from the Hotel itself, just walk a little more than planned, no biggie, right? Wrong. When we started walking we noticed that the sidewalk disappeared, there was only dirt/grass, so we had to be extra careful; we had our daughter and a stroller to worry about and she had to go walking since we had to carry the stroller. It was super dangerous, the streets were two laned so when no car was coming we would run on the street, and then move away from it when they were close again. we continued like that for a while until finally we made it to the next available sidewalk and walked from there. We checked in later than expected, and the receptionist was no help since she didn't speak anything but Italian. We went to eat dinner and stayed at the Hotel.. we ate delicious pasta & pizza and didn't finish it, the ~~stupid~~ people didn't understand english and didn't give us the leftovers "to go" they just threw them away.

Day 6. Florence.

We woke up semi early and took off to the city center, I was sick since we decided to sleep with the A/C on. We bought breakfast at a supermarket and ate on the steps outside of the main station. After that we walked around, I have to say, Florence is my second favorite city (after Prague), I enjoyed it a little more than Rome, the architecture is really beautiful and the Duomo di Firenze is breathtaking.