For the second half of my spring break I traveled throughout Italy... It wasn´t an easy journey coming back to Europe after being home for the short eight days, where I was able to meet my nephew Shane, visit with my family and a few friends, and enjoy all of that great food from mom´s enchiladas, grandma´s easter ham, and my favorite Mexican food, not to forget the countless Jamba Juice smooties.
My flight back was, well, horrible, not only because it was twelve hours, but because we almost crashed, and not just anywhere, but in the middle of Greenland. My seat was in the very last row, literally as far from first class as physically possible. I was sitting in my seat enjoying my new book, without my seatbelt on (yes I know, bad idea) when all of the sudden I am thrown from my seat, into the overhead locker (about 2 or 3 feet above my head) after being thrown back and forth watching people flying all over, out of their seats I was able to get ahold of my seat belt. All lights flashed off, the air conditioning stopped, but the "movement" did not. This went on for about 10 minutes, though it felt like forever. A few minutes later the pilot came to the rear of the plane to talk to the flight attendants, where he told them everything was okay, joking "that put this new plane to the test". Later the pilot explained that we experienced a rare type of turbulence, where there is no way to know it is coming. He explained that we had over 130 miles per hour winds pushing our plane directly at 90 degrees, pretty much we almost crashed.
Once I arrived in Italy I stayed in Milano for the night. On tuesday I met my friend Lindsay and traveled by train to Venice. It was a beautiful day, about 75 degrees and completely blue skys. I had problems finding my hostel (it took about 2 hours to find), once I arrived I discovered it was an apartment, with no staff. I had to wait for the owner to come and give me a key. There was no water pressure, ironic being that its a city built on water! Aside from this it was an amazing experience.
After Venice we headed off to Florence, which is now one of my favorite european cities... You cannot believe how beautiful this place is. Here I had some of the best food of my life! My hotel was amazing, with great staff. Lets not forget getting to see the David, and the world largest collection of Renaissance art, having apertivo overlooking Ponte Vecchio.
the cathedral is so big I wasnt able to fit it into the picture
Ponte Vacchino
From Florence we headed off to Pisa for a short time. It was the only thing to really see in Pisa, but it was one of those "have to see" things. It was worth it.
After Pisa we took our final train to Roma, where we spent no where near enough time, but we were able to see everything we wanted, from the Colusseum, Trevi Fountain, Vatican City, St. Peters, Spanish Steps, etc... Rome is the only place we had any problems. We missed our bus to the airport in the morning so we had to take a taxi. And lets just say that Roman taxi drivers arent exactly honest. I asked driver number one how much to the airport, he said 100 euros, I went to the next in line, asked him, he got out of his car asked driver number one, then responded 100 euros, then I ran up to another taxi further away, who was dropping someone off, 50 euros with him, but he told me that I had to go to the front of the line (driver number one). SO I went to him, told him that the other driver said 50. So we got in (having no other choice). He started to drive, without his meter on, I told him that it wasnt on, he told me it didnt work, I asked him if he thought it was a good idea to get it fixed. Then started to write down all his information, at this point he folded down the front seat and started glaring us down... We weren´t sure if we would ever make it to the airport. I am awaiting a response from the taxi company about my complaint on the driver.
inside St. Peters
Only a week and a half until Switzerland!
