Spring Break Trip to Italy!

• Manderson14's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Venice

Trip Start Jan 04, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Apr 25, 2010 Next
Entry

  Venice, Veneto, Italy
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

**CAUTION! This is a slightly longer blog!**

Dublin Business School was out of class last week so some friends and I decided to take an 8-day vacation to Italy!

Venice: We took an early flight out of Dublin (7:20AM) so that we could enjoy as much of the day in Venice as we could.  We dropped our bags off at Hotel Airone and walked the streets of Venice.  We got lost more than we found our way, but we were able to find a few cute souvenir shops and of course, gelato.  Since we were all very tired, we got an early dinner and went back to the hotel to sleep.  The following day we woke up and went to buy a 12 hour waterbus pass but couldn't because the ticket booth workers were on strike!  They didn’t know how to tell us in English so they held up a sign with it all explained in English.  Apparently it happens fairly often.  Since we couldn’t buy the waterbus pass, we decided to walk to St. Mark’s Basilica instead.  It was such a beautiful church- Europe truly has the most beautiful churches in the world.  It is so hard to believe that such detailed and ornate work was done so long ago.  After walking through the Basilica, we headed over to Doge’s Palace, which was the residence of the Doge of Venice.  The place was HUGE and in the great room, there was the largest painted canvas in the world.  When we were exiting Doge’s Palace, we instantly noticed how the entire square had flooded!  Apparently this happens often (Cara warned me and told me to bring rain boots!) and the city deals with all of the water by having people step onto makeshift sidewalks that are about 2 feet off the ground.  So basically you’re walking on top of tables to get from one side of the square to the other.  It was crazy!  They also didn’t have many of these tables so there was a ton of people trying to walk along them, going in both directions.  It was complete chaos but I loved it!  We finally made it through the square to meet our friends at a restaurant for lunch.  It was so funny because the restaurant had flooded to, and the water level rose as we ate our pizza.  Luckily the restaurant provided us with makeshift boots (blue plastic bags) to go over our shoes so that we could get around Venice without being completely soaked!  Once lunch was done and our "booties" were tapped on, we walked over to the oldest glass blowing factory in Venice.  We were able to get a tour of the facility and it was really interesting to see how glass blowing works.  After the tour, we headed back to our hotel, grabbed dinner, and packed up to leave the next morning for Bologna!

Bologna: We caught a 10:50 train out of Venice and headed for the smaller city of Bologna.  The train ride was a great way to see the countryside of Italy, and although we took all slow trains on our trip, we were able to see so much of the country.  After a couple hours on the train, we arrived in Bologna.  Although it was raining (like it did 6 out of the 8 days of our trip) we were excited to be in a new city.  After checking into the hotel, we took a bus to the city center were we got a fantastic pizza lunch followed by mint chocolate chip gelato (Kelli, you would have been IN HEAVEN).  Next we climbed a tower that overlooks the city and took some pretty neat pictures.  We then walked around the city and since we had a bus pass, hopped on the bus to get back to the hotel.  Unfortunately, bus drivers in Italy are not very patient and as we were getting of the bus, the doors closed!  All of my friends had made it off except me, and I was alone!  However, I knew to get off at the next stop and just waited there until my friends found me (which was only about 5 minutes).  And don’t worry mom, I had my mace with me the entire time.  Once the entire group was back together, we walked back to the hotel and got ready for our dinner. We decided to get dressed up for dinner and it was such a fun night.  The restaurant that we ate up was a true Italian restaurant that treated us like family.  They brought out an endless supply of bread (which I took full advantage of) and the pasta I got was to die for.  I don’t know what it was called because I just asked the waiter to bring out whatever pasta dish was his favorite.  After dinner we went out dancing and then headed back to the hotel for the night.  The next morning we made our way to the station and caught the next train to Florence.  After an hour and a half ride, we arrived in Florence!

Florence: I think Florence was my favorite city of the trip.  It was absolutely beautiful- even the most basic of buildings was breathtaking.  When we got off the train, we walked to our hotel, Hotel San Giovanni.  However, we were not able to check in right away because the front desk is closed from 1-4PM every day.  At first we thought that this was kind of strange, but once we figured out that it was a family run business, we understood that they needed a few hours everyday to run errands.  We weren’t expecting much from the hotel, as we only paid 20 euros each per night.  But once the owner walked us to our room, we were astonished.  Our room looked directly at the Duomo!  It was a million dollar view and if any of you ever travel to Florence, let me know and I will give you all of the hotel details!

Florence is the greatest city for shopping.  There was a market that sold pashminas, leather, jewelry, and any other trinket you can think of.  It was all fairly priced too!  I bought a dress and a few other souvenirs.  Since Cara made me a guide to Italy, we followed it religiously and tried to do most things she recommended.  One of the main things she wanted me to do was to visit Pino, the owner of a small restaurant.  Cara told me exactly what to order, and all of my friends and I got “the best” sandwich.  Let me tell you, it was so good that we ended up going back for dinner!

While in Florence, we walked through the Duomo, visited the Academia where Michelangelo’s David is and just enjoyed how beautiful of a city we were in.  On the morning we left, I grabbed a waffle to go and we walked to the train station.  We barely made the train (we had to run to the platform and we were lucky that everyone made it on the train before it started moving!).   After a long 4-hour train ride from Florence, we finally arrived in Rome!

Rome: What a beautiful city Rome is!  We spent 3 nights here, at Hotel Nardizzi Americana.  Rick Steves recommended it so naturally I had to stay here!  Once we checked in at the hotel, we went and looked for a place to have dinner.  We eventually found a restaurant that served mushroom tortellini and I was happy as a clam.  After a lovely dinner we walked over to the Trevi Fountain and each threw a coin into the fountain.  It is said that anyone who does this will return to Rome again- I sure hope that’s true!  On the way home we got gelato and then headed to the hotel to get a good nights sleep.  The next morning we enjoyed our continental breakfast of coco puffs, croissants, and coffee.  I took some packets of cookies and put them in my purse to have later in the day because I knew that I would get hungry.  After breakfast we were off to the Vatican!  I didn’t know this before our trip that day, but the Vatican City is its own state and has its own representatives.  There are walls around the city, and inside there are about 900 residents.  We got a tour guide (if you visit the Vatican City, a guide is a must) and we are so glad we did.  If we hadn’t, we would have had no idea what we were looking at and what all of the art meant.  We saw the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.  It was amazing!  We were hoping to see the Pope because it was a Wednesday and he always leads a prayer on Wednesdays, but unfortunately he wasn’t feeling well.  That night we had a fantastic dinner at one of the best restaurants I have ever been to.  We were clearly the only tourists that were there and everyone else knew the owners of the restaurant.  The service and food were incredible and it was so good that we decided to make a reservation for the following night there.  After dinner we went to a bar and had a few drinks.   There were actually a lot of people from the states there, and several from Massachusetts!  We then headed back to the hotel and woke up next morning, ready to take on the Coliseum.  It was such an incredible experience.  Once again we decided to get a tour guide, which was a good choice because he had some really interesting information about the gladiators that used to fight there.  We then visited the Roman Ruins and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day.  By then it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for our last dinner in Italy.  We all got dressed up to celebrate the great time we had during the week and enjoyed another delicious dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant.  The next morning we got up early and took the Leonardo Express train to the airport.  It was goodbye Rome and hello Dublin!

Venice hotels Slideshow Share

Previous Entry Next Entry