I say '2012' because I plan on going back--as soon as possible.
We flew from Salt Lake to Chicago, where our flight to New York was delayed-therefore making us miss our connection in New York to Rome. That said, we made the decision to stay in Chicago for the night and take the flight from Chicago to Paris- and then on from Paris to Rome the next day.
I love Chicago, and considering that Delta paid for our hotel, transportation, and meals it was a free night in Chi-town.
Before we knew it, we were on our way to Paris in FIRST CLASS (thank you Delta for messing our flights up so we could fly first class to Paris). We landed in Paris at about 6am, just as the sun was rising. I have never been to Paris before so I had my eyes peeled for the Eiffel Tower. The sun was rising, there was a fog covering the ground and then there it was-peeking through the fog. It was beautiful and even though we didn't visit Paris, I was very happy to see the Eiffel Tower the way I did.
We were in Paris for about 45 minutes and then got on our plane to Roma-we were very excited to finally arrive at our destination.
As soon as our plane landed, we rode the train to the city. It was so surreal to realize that we were in Italy. The countryside is beautiful and it was very green. We arrived at TERMINI (the main train/bus station in Roma) and bought a map from the Tabachi (tobacco shop-where they sell maps, magazines, everything). Our hotel was only a few blocks from TERMINI so we hit the pavement, or should I say cobblestone? The cobblestone streets are so old and it is amazing they are still in use and such good condition. Rolling our suitcases along the cobblestone started out sort of annoying but it just added to the experience.
We arrived at The Hotel Des Artistes and got settled. It was our favorite hotel. We were on the 5th floor and had a great view of the street we were on-that may sound funny but the streets are so vibrant and full of life that we would come home at night and just open the window to look out.
In Rome we were able to go to Vatican City, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain...pretty much all of the touristy places. It was beyond amazing. I would love to post ALL of the pictures we took but it would take way to long for them to upload-so here are some of Rome.
From Rome, we got on a train and rode to Florence. Our hotel was a little further away from the train station in Florence but do not think for one second that we didn't walk the cobblestone streets to our hotel. Our hotel in Florence was on the 4th floor, didn't have an elevator, and the stairs were about 4 inches wide (maybe a little exaggeration :)) so by the time we got to the top, I was breathing hard-apparently I am out of shape. The first stop we made in Florence, after a quick nap in our hotel, was at a yummy gelato shop. In Italy they make sugary, crunch, mini waffles that they put in the gelato & we loved them!
In Florence we visited Il Duomo, which is similar to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, where we climbed the 500+ steps up the copula to get to the top of the dome of the church (we did this in both cities). The views were spectacular.
We also walked across the Arno River by way of the Ponte Vecchio (the oldest bridge in Italy-built in the 1400s-if I remember correctly). The bridge was probably my favorite part of Florence. It used to house all of the shops similar to a farmers market where all of the locals would sell their goods there. Now it is, as everywhere else is, mainly touristy shops. We also had some yummy food here and happened to stop at the Pizza Restaurant where the cast of the Jersey Shore worked when they were in Florence (yes, we are a little obsessed but the pizza was GREAT!).
After Florence, we rode a train to Venice, our last stop, and the most whimsicle city we went to. It is an island and all of the streets are canals. There are no cars so we were lucky enough to travel via boat everywhere. It was beautiful and even though the water is filthy, it is very greenish blue and pretty. The colors of the buildings were very vibrant in Venice which is why I liked Venice so much. It was just as I imagined it. We found the best pizza we had in Italy here (in a little locals-only square that we stumbled upon), and I also found the best gelato I had in Italy here (in the same square). Before we arrived in Italy, we read everywhere that we needed to 'get lost in Venice' and this is exactly what we did-which led us to find the locals-only square and the best food of our trip. We also took a tour down the Grand Canal, went to the Realto Bridge and found some fun shops to browse through.
Most of the time we spent in Venice was spent wandering and people watching. For some reason, Italians LOVE pigeons. I hate them. This meant, I had a serious problem in Venice. There is a famous square called San Marcos square (you will see the picture below). There are always people everywhere in the square, except for late at night, and with the people come the pigeons. One afternoon we were walking in the square and a group of people were standing in a circle. Thinking something excited/cool was going on, we walked up to see what was going on. We were disgusted. People were feeding hundreds of pigeons and the pigeons were literally standing all over people's bodies eating the food. People were letting this happen to their little kids. I didn't have time to take a picture, considering that I was running away to save myself from the pigeons. That was my one really gross experience with Italy.
We had a fabulous time and are looking forward to go back!
Ciao,
ty & cam
