I’m not going to lie I’ve been terrible at updating this blog 1) because I think I’m bad at writing blogs but 2) I’ve just been having such a great time and am constantly busy!
I’ve been traveling all throughout Italy, especially during Easter break. Took another day trip to Como Lago to visit the quaint little town of Dervio. It was the most beautiful site of the Alps you could possibly imagine.
Then began the best spring break trip ever! While many people from our program decided to travel to various cities in Europe, my friends, Kat and Linda, and I decided to take a tour of southern Italy!
It began with a very restless night in Bergamo airport to catch a 6:30 AM flight to Palermo. But it was all worth it. Palermo was a great city (minus all the trash that was just EVERYWHERE)! We saw the Teatro Massimo, where the famous final scenes from the Godfather Part III took place. We then sat seaside and admired the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea until dinner time. The Duomo of Palermo was all very beautiful! (Not as grand was Milan’s but they can’t all be that extravagant). It had a really nice gated piazza that we later had dinner in (which consisted of the first of many Kebabs of the trip). And of course, since we were in Sicily we had to partake in some wine drinking. We ventured out of our hostel and found a places that served really good euro wine!
Our next stop was Siracusa. We took a bus from Palermo to Siracusa and it was the most gorgeous scenery you could ever imagine. Rolling green hills with small farms and tiny villages. 3 hours later we landed in a Siracusa which was the best seaside city you can imagine! It was also Palm Sunday so everyone was out and about strolling the Piazza del Duomo and the Lungomare Ortigia. This small city was anything but boring! And our hostel was great! The next morning we went to the Archeological Park and saw all the great ruins that both the Romans and the Greeks left. The Ear Cave is by far the best place to get a great echo!
We then took a 90 minute bus ride to Catania, which was a surprise to all of us. We’d been told that it was such a great city with so much to do! Unless we did something wrong, those people are sorely mistaken. We made the best of our surroundings, however! There was a giant cheesy tour bus that cost 5 euro that took us all around the city. It killed most of the day and we got a break from the crazy amounts of walking we’d been doing. The also happened to stay at the hostel that was apparently quite famous in the city: Agora Hostel. They had a great dinner and drink deal that we couldn’t pass up…and 3 Long Beaches later we found ourselves fast asleep ready to wake up and go to Naples.
Now Naples is an…interesting city. It’s very crowded and not the prettiest of places. Our hostel was right next to the San Giovanni metro stop (luckily) and so we took that to the historical section of the city. The entire place is just covered in graffiti, which isn’t quite different from Milan other than the fact that it was just ugly scribbles and not works of art. However, we strolled the city and went to the various sights that we could manage to stumble upon (and weren’t closed). The next day we decided to sleep in and take it easy since our only plan was to take the ferry to Capri and relax on the beach. Alas, we missed the ferry that would take us to the island for 20 euros and decided to just relax by the port and have picnic by the castle. The next day, however, we went to Pompeii!! And wow was that a great trip! I couldn’t believe how HUGE the ruins were! It was essentially the entire city but with the top half chopped off. I couldn’t believe how well preserved everything was! But of course my camera died within 10 minutes of being inside. Oh well.
The next morning we took a train to Rome and I think I must have died when we arrived. It is the most beautiful city I have ever been to! I truly would love to live there! I couldn’t believe how well the city incorporated all the ancient ruins with the modern structures of today! With that said, I didn’t expect the Colosseum to be right next to a major road and a metro stop. But alas, it was a grand site to see! Unfortunately, the day we went it was closed because the Pope was passing through but we still got some great shots of the outside! The next day we literally went throughout ALL of Rome. We started at Vatican City and spent most of the day there getting the most amazing pictures of the vast collections of treasures that this holy city has. We even got to take snapshots of Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel! It was absolutely stunning! We then made our way to Piazza del Popolo, the Spanish Steps, Villa de Medici, Piazza della Repubblica, Santa Maria Maggiore, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and of course, the Trevi Fountain! I can’t even begin to describe how breathtaking all these places were but I am definitely heading back there for another trip!!
This trip has definitely been the best I’ve ever taken!