IS THIS THING ON???? probably not. Anyways I am FINALLY getting around to writing about my 10 day trip to Italy! It was absolutely magical!! My friends and I decided to book our trip with Weekend Student Adventures. WSA leads tours specifically for students, so they are all very reasonably priced and you get to meet other students from around Europe, primarily American study abroad students! Our tour guide was literally the nicest person ever and she didn't even feel like a tour guide, she just felt like a friend that knew literally everything about Italy.
Stop 1: Venice!
We arrived in Venice in the afternoon on a Friday. I don't know what I was expecting, but Venice literally does not have any cars or roads. like they really just wild out and walk everywhere and take boats. After we arrived we went to the grocery store and then went for a stroll to a restaurant where we had our first dinner. This was one of the best parts of having a tour guide. Rhianne our tour guide knew the best places to eat in Venice that weren't too expensive. After my first of many plates of pasta and glasses of wine, we went to a small bar to try a Spritzer. Spritzers were an orange drink that is famous in Venice.
The next day was our day to explore Venice. We were cursed with the awful weather but definitely tried to make the most of it. We did all the touristy stuff on this day and our gondola ride was cancelled due to the bad weather :(
Even though it was like 30 degrees and freezing rain, I was still out here eating gelato
After exploring Venice, we went to dinner at a Pasta to go place. My favorite part about italy is there pasta to go stands. ALSO in italy you can literally bring a huge plastic water bottle to the store and they fill it with wine. So we had some fresh pasta and wine back at the hostel.
Stop 2: Cinque a Terre
The next day we went from Venice to Cinque a Terre. Cinque a Terre is literally my favorite place in the world I think. It was absolutely beautiful and I'm so glad that I was able to see it. Cinque a Terre means "Five Towns" and there are five towns that make up Cinque a Terre (amazing) They are known for being a hiking destination, but due to landslides the trails were closed, but we were still able to see all of the towns by train!
We stayed at the town of Riomaggiore, which is famous for their pesto, so I had pesto pasta for dinner and it was amazing. To get to our hostel, we literally had to climb up a mountain (I'm really not being dramatic), but it was on top of a hill that overlooked all the city and it was right next to a lemon farm!
The next day we explored all 5 towns! Each town was so beautiful and I would love to come back when it's warmer and the hiking trails are opened!
After the first town, I made it my mission to get a gelato in each town. My master plan was quickly derailed when the 3rd town didn't have a gelato shop opened :(
Cinque Terre is famous for their Foccacia and IM LITERALLY STILL THINKING ABOUT THIS PESTO MOZZARELLA FOCCACIA. IT WAS GENUINELY THE BEST THING IVE EVER HAD TO EAT IN MY ENTIRE LIFE IM LITERALLY MAD.
Cinque Terre is also famous for their lemons! so obviously I had to try lemon gelato!
We ended the day sitting on the beach playing jeopardy on Katie's phone and then went back to the same restaurant we went the night before and ate more pesto.
Stop 3: Pisa!
On the way from Cinque a Terre to Florence, we stopped in Pisa to take our touristy pictures! We were only there for an hour and it was plenty of time. We also had a classic italian cuisine for lunch....Mcdonalds.
Stop 4: Florence!
We arrived in Florence later in the afternoon after visiting Pisa. We went to the Acadamia to see The David and then got gelato. My favorite part of this day was when we were looking at the David and my friend Kelsey looks at me and goes "is this the statue from spongebob?" and we both start dying of laughter. That night we went to a classy place and had dramatic cocktails and dinner!
The next day was our day to explore florence! We visited churches, and walked around.
My friends Lindsey and Gracie and I went to get heart shaped pizzas during our free time from a place called Gusta Pizza. Also Florence is basically just a city made up of American study abroad students and I learned this at Gusta Pizza when literally everyone in the store was an american study abroad student.
After the pizza we went for drinks on a rooftop at sunset.
And for dinner we has classic tuscan food! I had raviolli because apparently it was invented in florence.
ALSO I was at an italian leather market and saw a one direction tshirt and was like....well I need to buy that. I also got the sales person to lower the price from $15 to $10 so I can now say that I bartered for a one direction tshirt in florence.
Stop5: Roma!
Our final stop was Rome! We arrived in the evening and went to a church and then grabbed dinner. Rome is famous for their Cacio e Pepe and it is now my new favorite thing.
The next day we did the touristy stuff. We went to the Coliseum and ancient roman ruins.
NOW My favorite part of the trip! Our farewell dinner. Included in our program was our farewell dinner and it was a multi-course meal with bread, fried calamari, bruschetta, Caprese salad, chicken parm, gnocchi, dessert, and of course unlimited wine! It was literally the best thing evevr.
The next day was the tour of Vatican City. I think this was lowkey my least favorite part of the trip probably because I'm not catholic so I was just like.....alright,,,,but the floors were very pretty!
After our visit to the Vatican, we grabbed street Pasta!
We then saw the Trevi Fountain and I had my lizzie mcguire dreams.
And we ended the night with a classic neopolitain pizza!
I'm so glad I was able to explore so much of Italy in a short period of time! I definetly want to go back and I miss the food everyday.
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